Boopie's new buddy

Below is Frederica's new "buddy" Demitasse.  Freddie doesn't yet play with Demi much, because Demi keeps to the master bedroom mostly.  Mr. Bits plays with her, though, so Freddie can't resist much longer.

New buddies

Frederica has a new best buddy, which she hasn't met yet.  We adopted a very small, year-old one-eyed cat today.  She stole our hearts and is very affectionate.  She doesn't have a name yet and I don't have any photos, yet, but will post her name and some photos when I do.  Freddie will undoubtedly be the first of our feline family to meet the newbie.  :-D

Cow Parade project

I've been in the midst of cow projects for Austin's upcoming Cow Parade.  Freddie likes to lounge around under the cows.  It's a wonder she hasn't gotten paint or glue on her fur!

Visitors

Freddie's "cousins" are visiting this weekend: Astro & Pearl, two standard poodles.  SO, Freddie and her fellow felines are keeping a low profile.  Topaz ventured down the stairs a few minutes ago and set off the canine alarm system.  I'm guessing none of the other cats will attempt the same.  :-)

Lazy days of summer

This is how Freddie is spending her summer... napping.... changing position and doing more napping.  I'm SO jealous!

Long time to blog post...

Frederica is doing great.  She has a little too much interest in exploring the back yard and we have to watch her like a hawk, but she'll at least head back in the house when she's reprimanded.  Below are photos of Freddie snuggling with Molly's Sing-a-ma-jig thing.

April 21 trip to the Vet

Freddie weighed in at 13.5 pounds.  The vet detected a very soft heart murmur, so we had blood work done.  Freddie has no symptoms of anything and all of her bloodwork turned out just fine, so we'll just have to keep an eye on Freddie.

Weigh In

I finally remembered to weigh Frederica this morning: 13.5 pounds!  I'm working from home today and grabbed a photo of Freddie and Link stalking a squirrel.  Link wasn't happy about sharing such a tight space with Freddie, but this spot had the best view.

Recent photos of Frederica

Below are a few fairly recent photos of Frederica lounging in the living room (a.k.a. the piano room).  In the first photo, she's reclining in one of her favorite chairs right beside a front window that looks out onto the porch.

In the photo below, Freddie is cooling her belly on the marble tile in the entryway.  She can see most of what's going on in the house from this vantage point.

Another favorite spot is by the window near the piano.  There's lots of room for her to sit and get a good look out the window.  Molly very thoughtfully put a blanket there for Freddie to sit on.

Happy 1st Birthday, Frederica Chopin!!

Freddie is a year old today! Her nose is a bit dirty in the photos below because she slipped outside yesterday and spent some quality time in the back yard.  She started her birthday with her morning nummies with Vinnie.

Happy New Year!

Long time no posting!  I have photos and maybe a video to upload and will hopefully do so very soon!  In the mean time, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The Sketchbook Project 2011 - update

It's been a while since I posted anything.  Life has been too FULL for blogging.  Below are a couple of bad scans of the sketchbook pages on which Freddie makes an appearance. 

Since my last post, the weather has gotten cooler and Frederica has gone NUTS!  In the morning after she's eaten, she races around the house and tries (sometimes successfully) to get Cupcake riled up & running around, too.  We have to watch the back door carefully after the dogs come in from doing their business outside - Freddie has slipped out a couple of times to explore the smells in the backyard.  She never ventures very far from the door and always comes immediately back inside with minimal provocation, but it's just a matter of time before she gets more adventurous.  She must not be the only Maine Coon going crazy with the weather.  There are signs up in our neighborhood for a missing Maine Coon who looks a lot like Frederica - same coloring, but younger.

Link is warming up to Frederica.  The two of them have been playing a bit here and there.  Unfortunately, one morning this past weekend they decided to play on the kitchen table and Link knocked Brianna's bottle of black nail polish on the floor.  I was NOT happy to clean up nail polish off of the tile before I'd even had my coffee!

Freddie desperately needs a bath and I'm hoping she'll have one this coming weekend.  We've been trying to brush & snip out all of the mats she's developed on her stomach near her legs before giving her a bath, lest the mats get worse.  Maybe if I get inspired, the bath will happen before the weekend!

Bath time and an adventure

Frederica had a bath on Sunday.  I've had to spend a lot of time since then brushing mattes out of her fur.  It's been a while since I gave her a detailed once-over, so there are still areas that need to be dealt with.

Link climbed into the crate again while Freddie was being bathed.  Turning on the hair dryer (again) worked like a charm.  She bolted and I could put Freddie in for drying.

Yesterday, the weather changed and the animals went a little crazy.  I think we're all relieved to have some cooler weather, but the animals race around the house and hang out near the open, screened windows.  After the dogs came in from the back yard, the door hadn't shut the whole way.  As I approached the door to close it, I saw Frederica standing in the backyard near the old kid-sized picnic table.  She seemed a little spooked, so I calmly walked out and scooped her up.  I've been extra careful about closely the back door tightly since then.  Frederica may look like a full-grown cat, but she's really an immature, inexperienced kitten... who's NOT ALLOWED to go outside.

After this morning's adventure, I started thinking about what Christmas will be like... we'll have to tie the tree in place and not put any breakable ornaments on it!

Photos by Molly

I talked with Molly last night about the compositional rule of 3 and let her use my camera to take some photos of Freddie.  Below are her photos.  She shot 6 or so photos and ended up with 2 perfect pictures... not too bad for someone her age!

I weighed Freddie this morning and I think she's around 12.5 pounds.  It looks like she's grown but apparently her frame has grown and she hasn't gained weight.  She's still the BEST CAT EVER!!

Bath day again!

Frederica had a bath this morning.  I've stayed on top of brushing her so her fur has stayed reasonably clean, however she smelled like kitty spit.  It's been 3 weeks, so it was past time.  Molly helped me bathe Freddie, as usual.  Christine was doing other things, so Dean filled in as photographer.

Molly blew a bubble with the shampoo bottle (above.)  :-)

Below is Freddie engaging in her favorite post-bath activity... cleaning herself.  I even got some video with the new camera.

Fluffy tail

I got a nice shot of Freddie this weekend.  Her tail is so fluffy that it looks like it's as thick as her body.

Freddie on high

Frederica is enjoying the new kitty tower.  It provides her access to the  new kitty napping spot on top of the entertainment center.  It also provides a new perch on top of the bookshelves adjacent to the entertainment center.

Freddie doesn't have to jump from the perch to the entertainment center (or vice versa).  She's big enough to step across.

Apparently the feathers easily come off the dangling toys.  At the moment, one of the toys has completely fallen off.  The other is looking a little bald.