More Brothers

The children and I lost our cat OGMO a while back, Yeti had died not to long after that. Tommy was a bit before them and Christie before him. All four cats were around the same age and it was very hard to lose all of them within a relatively short period of time. We love cats, but it took me, especially me, a while to be ready to get another cat.

Oh Great Maned One, OGMO, King of the Yard

Yeti

Kai had been asking for a cat for about six months and finally I relented. I will admit that finding a mouse in the house significantly accelerated my recovery process.  The kids and I went back to the the Dumb Friends League^* and interviewed a bunch of cats.  There were two cats we really liked, both were tabby boys a little younger than a year.  The woman who was helping us looked up both their histories and it turned out they were brought in together and they're from the same litter.  DFL's two for one cats offer sealed the deal.  One boy was named Seike, the other Wilber.  We renamed Wilber "Hyde".



Although Hyde is much more introverted and shy, he eats like a pig.  Hyde's hobby is eating.  "Wilber" is probably the more appropriate name but "Hyde and Seike" is so much more fun to say.  When the cats were accidentally fed twice, I removed the food bowl from under Hyde's nose.  He jumped down from the dog-resistant feeding counter, made a bee line for Woofie's food and started chowing down.  Cheerios pouring into a bowl is apparently also a cat food call for Hyde.  He doesn't like catnip, soft food or being picked up.  Nonetheless, he is very affectionate and demands attention with head bumps and climbing up a person's leg.

 Seike is much smaller and svelte.  He is almost overwhelmingly affectionate and very easy going.  He doesn't mind Jasmine picking him up.  This is remarkable in that when Jasmine picks up a cat, the head ends up hanging down, the tail end is up, and the belly exposed to the world.

From left to right, Hyde and Seike

One of Seike's hobbies is trying to put his nose up into the human nostril.  I don't know why.  It's really weird when he catches you off guard and succeeds.  His other hobby is catching mice.  My dad told me not to count on feline help with the little rodents, but Seike's obsessed by catching mice and much more successful than the live traps.  Sadly for the mice, he doesn't always respect the "live trap" part of the mouse removal campaign.  I've stopped minding so much.  After he's done here, I think I'll hire him out to my other neighbors who also gained new lodgers during the winter cold snap.

Our sometimes resident fox.  It dens on the top tier of our backyard.

I've set up a "cat run" in the backyard so the cats can safely bask in the sun.  Small pets need to be protected from our local coyotes and foxes not to mention cars and dogs.  I find cat and small dog sized bones all along walks that follow the fences separating houses from the local open space.  Seike reminded me I still needed to finish affixing the canvas roof.


Woofie loves the cats, but is still trying to figure out how to play with them.  The cats are still deciding whether to torture, run from her or play with her.

Seike reminded me I still needed to finish affixing the canvas roof.

* From Dictionary.com, the second definition of the adjective dumb: lacking the power of speech (often offensive when applied to humans): a dumb animal. I've met so many people who think the DFL is contemptuous of animals.