This is one of Percival’s favourite spots from which to look out at the wide world. He sometimes sits, sometimes stands. He knows he’s not allowed on the counter or the stove-top, so he jumps straight up. Now and then, he slips, and falls straight down.
Today
was a laborious one. I spent much of it, rather more than I had anticipated,
re-covering the taller sitting room cat-tree. This is one of the chores I
wanted to do on my holidays; though it didn’t take all day, it occupied a large
portion of it, and was not something I wanted to waste half a weekend on, when
a weekend is all I have off. So it was done today.
I used sisal rope to cover the bare patches that various beasts have scratched on the tree, tearing away the carpeting that originally covered the central post. A difficulty I had long pondered was what to do about the spaces I couldn’t cover just by winding the rope around the post. Some bare patches are opposite a platform’s support, which connects the platform to the post diagonally, and rope would not wind well around such a slope.
I decided instead to loop the rope like a long piece of ribbon candy over the bare spots, nailing it on the perpendicular surfaces of the post on either side of the surface that was being covered. This seemed to suffice. The nails I used are u-shaped, intended to fix strands such as barbed wire to wooden poles.
What surprised me was the amount of rope required. I had two spools, each of fifty feet of rope, and bought a third this morning before the task was commenced. I used almost all of the three. There is nearly a hundred and fifty feet of rope on that tree! Still, $40 of sisal is a decent price compared to buying a new tree, and as this one is my custom-made seven-footer, I feel it’s a bargain. I have two more trees to rope, but those need much less work than the big one, and their bare spots will be repaired in the easier manner of simply wrapping the rope around a post.
Now, I just have to get the cats to stop scratching the corners of my chairs and use the newly renovated tree…
I won’t publish continual updates on Astrid’s kittens, since they aren’t in my care, but since I was part of their mother’s capture, I thought I would share certain milestones with readers. Today, the little ones’ eyes started to open.
Their eyes aren’t visible here, but you can see that the grey tabby may be showing a hint of being more adventurous than the others (or he may simply be lost), while the two who are definitely girls (they’re tortoiseshells) are sticking close together, for now. The blur is Astrid. She was in her blanket-bottomed box watching her offspring, then decided that they were too far away from mum, and came out to check on them.
Everyone is doing as we had hoped.
Little is going on that is of note in the Cosy Apartment. I did have to switch Neville’s anti-biotic, as the initial medicine was causing him to throw up. The second kind is in pill-form, which is more of a bother for me to give him, but probably no less of an ordeal for him. Otherwise, he is doing well.
Today, it is a lazy Saturday. The sky is moving big, thick clouds about; it may thunder tonight, which won’t bother me, as it usually brings rain, which is always needed at this time of year. The weather is warm, but not hot.
Inside, the cats are experiencing the ‘lazy’ part of Saturday to the fullest extent. They are spending the day sleeping, in typical fashion. Neville prefers the heights, even if the bedding is thin.
The newest-comer, Dabney, at least takes advantage of soft carpeting on his roost.
But not Percival. With his propensity for simply rolling off surfaces, this may not be the safest of perches…
And Imogen wants to be left alone.
I think Renn may be the only completely sensible one in the lot.
Progress is being made here in the Cosy Apartment, and beyond.
Firstly, I think that Neville is feeling better. He has received two doses of his anti-biotic so far. He also received a dose of pain-killer but that, combined with the other drug, did not react on him well, so I have discontinued the pain medicine. I don’t think the Nevsky is in discomfort, anyway. He is eating and behaving normally.
Dabney continues his integration. Though he spends much time behind a corner bookcase – his safe-zone – he also comes out. In the first, rather indistinct, photograph, you can see a bit of him in the library, behind Minuet’s cat-tree, while Renn snoozes on the couch and Percival lies on a bookcase to the left. Until today, Dabs growled at the sight of Perce, even at the sound of him, sight unseen, so this is a big step forward.
I later watched a movie in the library (one of the benefits of a long holiday is the leisure to watch more than one film a week, and seeing one on a cloudy – or better yet, rainy – afternoon, is enjoyable). Both the newcomer and the newer-comer were elsewhere. I was prepared for the screeching sounds of threats, if not battle, but I heard none. Unless one or the other of them had adopted commando techniques and killed silently – and that wouldn’t have been Percival – they were both still alive somewhere. I checked on them and found both in the sitting room, quiet and behaving civilised.
And Astrid and her family are doing well. There is nothing out of the ordinary to report, which is the way we like to report on newborns and their mum. This is a picture from yesterday when the babies were dry and fumbling about.
Finally, here are my other two, so they don’t feel left out. Both of them are doing well, too.
