Tag: pets

Photography Challenge Day 173: International Cat Day (Short Post)

Aug

2019

So since today is International Cat Day–it is only fitting that the winners of today’s photography challenge are the cats.

Pyewicket wasn’t too happy with the closeup……..

So we have three cats (all adopted from the local humane society). The eldest cat (by about a year and a half or so) is Pyewicket, our calico cat.

Then we have our “breakfast duo”: Waffles and Pancakes.

We got Waffles and Pancakes within a few days of each other–Waffles was adopted first, and then I saw Pancakes picture on the site, and fell in love. It had been almost a decade since I had lost my first cat, Bigfoot (who was also a black cat–though he had more white on him than Panny does). Pancakes is my little cuddle bug at night, and in the morning. She loves to sit on my lap–and does a good job of reminding me when I spend to much time on the computer.

Waffles–sleeping on top of the cat condo

Not the best picture of Waffles, our Russian blue cat–but lately she has decided that the top of the cat condo is her spot to sleep (though that is where my cat usually likes to relax). This is our little troublemaker–she doesn’t like change (and lets you know), and isn’t above possibly starting things with the puppies.

I know find it funny that we’re in a “age reversal” with the animals–when we got the cats, we had several dogs, but they’re were all in their adult years. Now we got a puppy (and my brother got one last year), the cats are in their adult years and are acting like it. I swear if they could talk it would probably be nothing but “get off my lawn”, “turn the music down” and “in my day” from the cats to the pups.

I have realized that when I move–I will need to bring in a kitten (after a few months) so that Pancakes has company, and then after say another six months or so maybe get a puppy and hopefully that will all turn out nicely.

Happy International Cat Day!!! Do your cats and dogs get along all the time?

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Photography Challenge Day 108: Pyewicket (short post)

Jun

2019

I’ve realized looking through photographs to share on my daily challenge, that most have been from my weekly walks at Boomer Lake. So I’ve decided to switch it up and go a different route–sharing a picture of one of the cats in the house.

Someone decided to give the smaller “condo” a try

So we had to replace one cat condo about two years ago (it’s amazing the damage that five cats over a course of 14 years can do to one). The one we have now doesn’t stretch all the way to the ceiling like the old one, but it has an additional cat condo on it. The funny thing is–none of the cats usually go in there. When they do–they look like Pye–wondering why something so small was purchased for them.

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Caturday: Photography Challenge day 13

Mar

2019

So today’s photo is a slightly throw back to earlier this week and the cats, since it is #caturday after all.

So Pye has rediscovered a enjoyment of boxes (be they intact or the remains of one). This is the remains of a box that we were using as a fire starter during one of the many cold snaps that we’ve had–but once it got to a point where the cats could “hid”–they took over the box.

Pye in particular has marked the box as hers–she will sit in the corner of it in mornings, or the evenings (or basically any time that she wants). The other cats will sniff the box, but they usually won’t sit “in” it, like Pye does.

But it is nice to see that all three of them have their own little personality quirks–Pye is boxes, Waffles likes sticks and leaves that the dog brings in from the outdoors, and Pancakes likes hair ties and the crinkly plastic that wraps around things (she can beat them up for hours).

What quirky things do your cats play with?

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Caturday: Photography Challenge Day 6

Feb

2019

Someone enjoys being on my lap on the weekends.

So in honor of caturdays (or Saturdays for those without cats), I decided I’d share another picture of one the cats of the house.

Pancakes always seems to know when I’m working on my laptop, and I’d say about eighty percent of the time she will try to push my laptop off my lap. Luckily I work on a daybed, so the computer would be landing on something soft. I’ve also learned how to twist to the side, perch the laptop off to the side and type that way. But she is my cuddly little miniature panther.

She also has a habit of burrowing under covers during the day to sleep in the dark and stay warm at the same time–it’s actually quite cute to watch her decide which bed, then which end of the bed and then she will stretch, and climb under the covers and either curl up or stretch out to snooze away the day. She’s starting to gain the nickname of “lumpy” as well as panther, panny, pansy, and pan-pan to name a few.

What are some of the nicknames you have for your pets?

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Chewi attempting to sleep: Photography Challenge day 10

Apr

2018

Today’s photograph is brought to you by the eldest dog in the house: Chewi. When I was getting ready to leave this morning, I noticed that she was stretched out on the couch in the living room, and I couldn’t resist getting a picture of her. Though she had just opened her eyes I think to try to figure out if I was still in the house or if I’d left for work already.

Chewi is aging gracefully–most people have a hard time when I tell them her age. When we were out in Boston, people thought she was only maybe three or four (she was eight when we moved out there and ten when we moved back). At the end of next month (May) she will be turning sixteen. She is starting to slow down a little, and having other issues as well (needing soft food mixed in with the dry food, treats in smaller pieces [mainly if its cheese that she doesn’t usually chew]), but other than that she is still the same goofy dog that has made life interesting over the past almost sixteen years.

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Photography Challenge Day 53: Waffles

Feb

2018

Well since today was a day off of work due to the winter weather we’ve been having the past few days, I decided to sleep in. Though I was awoken by a certain Russian Blue cat jumping on the bed and deciding that I was a good mattress that only needed a little bit of kneading. Luckily my phone was within reach, and I managed to grab a picture–though she didn’t like the fact that I had to have the flash on to be able to get her picture.

Waffles didn’t like the flash of the camera this morning

Waffles is starting to get a little more cuddly with me these days–she is starting to take after Pyewicket and wanting to be picked up and carried around (only for awhile though), and she still comes up to me on the dining room table and demands her rubs and scritches. Though I think this morning was more of her trying to tell me to get up and go fill the bird feeders so that they could have their bird television back. I do have to admit that I also enjoy watching the birds–though those little gold finches can be quite ruthless when they want to get to the seed and there are other finches on the little ledges.

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The cats…….Day seventeen of the photography challenge

Jan

2018

Today’s photographs are brought to you by the crazy cat trio of the house: Waffles, Pancakes, and Pyewicket.

It is extremely difficult to get all three cats in the same picture (and when they do cooperate by sleeping on the same bed, the lighting is too poor for picture taking)–I think it may have happened once, and if I can find the picture I’ll post that one as a throwback to when they were all sleeping and ignoring each other.

The top picture features Pancakes (aka Panther, aka Pansy, aka Pan-Pan) and Pyewicket (aka Pye, aka Pye-Pye, aka Pi**-Pot [for her temperament at times). These two were both sleeping on my parents bed, though Pancakes had grabbed Pye’s position. Usually when Pancakes is sleeping on their bed, its curled up under the covers and all you see is a lump. So it was a little unusual to see Pancakes sleeping on top of the covers instead of under them (See Monday’s photography entry).

Waffles watching the antics in the kitchen

This beautiful Russian Blue cat is Waffles (aka Awful-Waffles, aka the Blue Blob [for how she hugs the ground and moves when there are thunderstorms]). She was watching the dogs in the kitchen from the edge of the dining room table. I know that there are a lot of people who don’t like animals on the furniture, but we truthfully don’t care unless we’re eating–then they of course aren’t allowed on the table (though Pancakes does try to lay in my lap as I’m eating–bad habit from Boston).

Waffles will jump on the table in the evenings after I’m done feeding the dogs and demand (by head butting) her scritches around the head and back. She will occasionally demand to be picked up and carried around on my shoulder (but that is more of Pye’s habit); whereas Pancakes will wait until I’m sitting (or working on the computer) before she jumps into my lap and makes herself comfortable.

Do your cats have any strange habits?

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Day nine photography challenge–the cats: Pancake and Pyewicket

Jan

2018

Today’s post is brought to you by the posing of Pancakes and Pyewicket. I’m thinking that Pancakes wanted in to eat since we place their food bowls in the inner cubby of the tallest part of the cat condo–and Pyewicket was just being bratty by sitting there after she ate staring down at me. It was almost like she was daring me to take their picture. These two (plus our Russian blue–Waffles) are a bit picky in their eating habits. We have two small dishes that are filled with dry food and placed in two different corners of the condo. They will absolutely start harassing me if one of the dishes gets almost empty–doesn’t matter if the other one is totally filled or not. If that orange tinted dish isn’t topped off, they act like we’re starving them to death. So I’m sure that was what Pye was trying to convince me–that the orange dish is almost empty, and therefore no one would be able to eat tonight.

Their other favorite activity is to run up and down the halls as fast as they can, and as often as they can usually in the evenings or the mornings when I’m just getting up and have to make sure that I don’t trip over my cat in the dark hallway.

Does anyone else have an absolute cuddler in their cat? Pancake will crawl onto my lap usually whenever she wants–one sure way to get her on my lap is to be working on my laptop, and then I’ll have to shift her to my shoulder like she is a infant that needs to get burped, then she’ll curl backwards around me to where I’m almost resting my chin on her as she purrs over my shoulder (also makes it really difficult to try to drink a warm mug of decaf tea at night as well).

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Day four of photo challenge

Jan

2018

I’m thinking that for awhile most of the pictures for this photo challenge are going to be either of the family pets (we do have seven–four dogs and three cats), birds in the yard (since we have numerous feeders), or throw-back photos that I already have on my computer. Right now its really cold out (though not as cold as the northeast is right now), and if I can find an excuse not to go out in the winter weather–I will find one and I’ll use it no matter how lame of an excuse it is.

Today’s installment for the photo challenge is an closeup of our collie mix’s nose. I’d been playing with my phone one morning and she came to see what I was doing, and I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to see what type of close-up picture she’d allow. Well you can see her nose, and if you look really close–you can even see an eyeball through the fur.

I like taking pictures of the animals, mainly because each picture is showing a little different aspect of their unique personalities, even if the pictures are taken within minutes of each other. Boozer is our youngest dog, and one of the most stubborn ones we’ve had as well–she is sweet, though she gets into trouble daily acting like she is the top dog, when in fact she is at the bottom of the dog pecking order.

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Day two of photography challenge

Jan

2018

While I didn’t manage to actually be able to take a picture today–one it was too cold outside to do any type of outdoor photography, and while there are few things inside at work I could have taken a picture of–the times I walked passed them I usually had my hands full or I forgot that I wanted to take the photos.

So day two of the challenge is a picture of another one of our pets–this time my dog Chewi (named because 1–she chewed on everything as a puppy, and 2–as a puppy she was a little ball of fuzz and looked slightly like Chewbecca from Star Wars [and yes I know that that Chewi was male and mine is female]). She always likes to curl up where she can keep an eye on where everyone is–though yesterday morning, she just wanted to catch a few extra zzzs.

She is a little over fifteen, and just starting to slow down a little–I’d always joke that she only had two speeds–Mach 1 and warp. She actually bent a metal stake one year on vacation when she lunged after a rabbit while tied out in a relative’s side yard. So now whenever the weather warms up enough for a walk around the neighborhood lake, I have to remember that we can no longer do the entire route, like we could even a year or two ago–in dog years she is 100 (give or take, since she is a mix), and finally realizing that point.

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