Today we sadly had to say our goodbyes to Mio. He was the best cat you could ever ask for. He loved us all and was buddies with all the other cats too. He’d been sick for about two years now and gotten thinner and thinner and today his body had just had enough and we needed to let go. Ezzy stayed by his side most of the day today and he gave us lots of purrs of appreciation for loving and petting. We also gave him one more trip upstairs to inspect the newly redone floors and I hope they met his approval.

As always he was surrounded by his best buds. The other cats seemed to know he needed more cuddles lately and were around a lot.

And even through last month he was tolerating Ewan being his loving buddy.

Mio came to us not yet born of a homeless cat who was severely pregnant. (Once she tried to jump into a window, but her belly was so big with all the kittens that she couldn’t possibly balance on the narrow sill and fell off.) We named her Penelope. She eventually gave birth to 9 kittens, 8 of whom survived. Mio loved cuddling up with us and eventually we decided we had to keep him while letting the others all go out to be adopted. He moved right into our bed with us, depositing himself directly in the middle of the pillows between Jordi and I. He’s been so very tolerant of the other cats, and of the kids learning how to be nice to cats as they’ve grown. We will miss him so much.

If your brother is sitting next to your mom, but you want to be sitting next to mom. Sit on your brother.

We’ve had a few very busy weeks IRL in these parts. Jordi ended his previous job and started a new one, after taking a week off inbetween to do things like build the bunk beds and other house hold chores. Then our computer got infected with a virus, and has  some motherboard trouble. But that was while Jordi was gone for 11 days starting his new job in sunny California. Yep, me, three kids, four cats, and 11 days no husband. We made it through, my parents joined us a few days, and with fantastic luck no one got sick. We’ve now finally got the computer on the mend, almost fixed up, although that motherboard issue could take us down anytime again.

Close readers may have a good guess of where Jordi now works!

The last thing I need to do is get my monitor calibrated again, because right now the ‘correct’ pictures make everyone look like they have a bad spray tan.

Today we had to sadly say goodbye to Kaya. She along with her sister Ezzy were the first babies Jordi and I had. I found them on petfinder over Christmas just before Jordi was moving to Boston and we were getting our first apartment together in Cambridge. They were already two years old and not fixed yet, and were not used to using a litter box. We went to visit the cats at the shelter straight from picking him up at the airport for his approval. Then we got the cats two days later once we finally got into our new place and had a mattress to sleep on! It took us a while to tell the difference between the two tiny lightweight cats. They seemed so similar, and they are, although now I can spot the differences a mile away. Thankfully they adjusted well, and we learned who was who so we didn’t have to keep the collars on anymore since they were indoor cats. They both gained weight and thrived. Kaya came to us with a broken tail, sliced ear and a funky colored eye, signs of some tough times before. She was decidedly a daddy’s girl. Throughout the years she’s been faithfully with us, loving the move to our bigger current space.

Kaya

After the kids were born though, and Fred and George arrived and got huge, Kaya was not pleased living with us anymore. She was half the size of the big boys, and very sensitive. So when they chased her, she ran and screamed. Can’t really explain ‘just ignore the bullies’ to a cat. So then while Kaya had the run of the house during the day, she stayed in the bathroom at night so have some peace and rest. Once my parents cats had all died, they offered to take Kaya and we accepted. Kaya has lived at their house now for a few years very happily, monitoring their daily showering, reminding them to feed her and to go to bed. They’ve taken good care of our grumpy girl, who will literally bite (or swat) the hand that feeds her if you put it in front of her face the wrong way. Just make sure to use the other hand so you don’t put it in front of her mouth.

In the end, she’s always had a bad stomach of sorts for a long time now although we’re not sure quite why. Test results pointed to GI cancer but beyond trying some treatment that failed, there was no need to put her through more testing for just more bad news. We were glad to get to give her a peaceful cuddling goodbye in her own home. She will be missed.

Ewan was there first.

Ezzy only let me take a few pictures before she relocated. Can’t be caught being too cute with the baby, we might think she likes him.

Now that the leaves are gone, and the sun is low, but not too low yet, the cats are having daily fights in the living room. What over? the sun spot on the rug. It moves but man is it coveted. They fight several times each morning over who gets the one on the rug. Even though it’s big enough for two generally, and there are other spots, just on the hard wood floor.

No one wins, because they fight by kicking each other in the face while grabbing their opponents bellies, or biting their necks. That isn’t cool and we stop it and they run away.

The two of them are regulars on the couch at night now, literally spooning and kissing each other.

They were both disappointed there was no salad for lunch. No, I’m not kidding.

Look closely for the hint that George is totally down with this. We’ve caught Celia sleeping on top of George at night before too.