A Day in the Life....

We have some rather spoiled kittens around here, and I haven't done a good job of blogging about their lives.  I have always loved cats, and typically had more than one.  With all the relocating that I was doing I have not had cats since I moved to Missouri, but we decided it was timed to remedy that and picked out two this summer.  Around here, there are tons of unwanted cats, and stopping at two was really difficult for me.  However, I decided that I wanted calicoes, which was harder that I thought it would be.  Scarlett was found at the local Humane Society and we quickly took her home.  Then I continued looking and was unable to find another calico before I got impatient.  Onyx was adopted from a family a few miles down the road from us.  They had six kids two cats, a dog and a litter of kittens in this tiny house.  You could tell Onyx had been handled a lot and the mom said that he enjoyed it.  He became cat number two, and Mark told me that was enough (for now).  Mark has had a problem with mice eating his AC hoses in his car, so we were hopeful that these two would keep the mice problem under control in the garage.  I am allergic to cats, and neither one of us were crazy about the idea of a litter box, so they became outdoor cats.  I wasn't sure how they would handle the cold weather and got pretty anal about making sure they had warm places to stay when it was cold, but I've learned that they don't seem to mind the cold nearly as much as I thought.  Scarlett is a pretty typical cat, she's friendly, but can be shy and loves to hunt.  Onyx is...well...he's Onyx.  I have accused the resident gene therapist of inserting dog genes into this cat, because he is just plain strange for a cat.  He gets into  EVERYTHING and has been locked in our cars more than once.  He follows us around anytime that we are outside and we have learned that he has to be locked up before we take walks or he will follow us all over the property.  But he also manages to be at the door the instant we open it to see which way we are headed and to make sure he doesn't miss anything.  He has provided a lot of entertainment for us and we are never quite sure what he will do next!  I enjoy taking pictures of them on their various day to day activities.

Scarlett is a looker...she's beautiful and keeps getting bigger by the day!  She's harder to catch with the camera because she doesn't hang around the house as much, but this is a picture of her taken recently.

One day our resident geese came up pretty close to the house and Scarlett decided to check them out.  The geese decided they didn't want to be friends and headed back to the pond.

And then there's Onyx...hanging around on the porch

He loves to hang around the bird feeder in the eternal search for birds.  Most of the time the birds stay away, but we have seen him catch a cardinal.  We've decided the bird feeder needs to be higher!

Since he wasn't getting any action at this feeder, he's checking out the one on the next side of the house to see if he might have any luck down there.

Onyx also loves to climb trees, and he feels particularly proud when he gets to the top.  Of course, this tree is only about six feet tall, but...whatever.  He's happy!

This is a bed we created for the cats this fall.  We intended to come up with something better, but they have been pretty happy with things, so we've left it alone for the winter.  They will stay here until it gets down in the teens, then they'll head to the garage.

This is their deep freeze hang out.  There is actually a smaller dog crate inside of the larger one, with blankets in between as well as a dog bed inside.  They stay toasty!  

Just a few more....

Like I said, he's always entertaining!