Moxy Extends Himself

Moxy is willing to extend himself for his admirers…

And from the other direction, too.

The Book and His Cover

This is how Moxy looks much of the time. His heavily-lidded, half-closed eyes and the turn of his head make him look dismissive, sardonic. He can take some good pictures, but he usually may be seen like this when in repose. His look is deceptive.

Actually, the Mixer deserves his nickname. He tries his best to interact with others, both humans and feline. He is gentle and timid, and, for the most part, others respond to that. He made friends with both Xandria and Valkyrie, shows Imogen that he’s no threat, treats Neville with respect and is even slowly winning over Brazil. I would not be surprised if Sable grew to like him. Indigo’s response is still under consideration.

Moxy takes easy-going to the next level; he prefers the quiet life. A sudden move or loud noise will send him scurrying for cover. Conflict, except for that simulated in a good play session, is something he avoids.

When thinking of adopting a cat, remember that looks may indeed be deceiving, and if he appears to be judging you, it may be no more than that - an appearance - and that your own judgement may be premature. Some books, after all, have misleading covers.

Twelfth Day Visitor

It’s the Twelfth Day of Christmas and, in the tradition of the Season, someone came to visit. Well, this is from a couple of mornings ago, but I suspect he is still around the neighbourhood. There are a couple of local cats whom I have seen. I observe them very rarely, though I find signs of them - signs like this - so I suspect they are indoor/outdoor cats, who have warm places to go when it is cold outside.

In any case, this one apparently decided, for some reason, to use the driveway of the Cosy Cabin for his litterbox, and the newly fallen snow for his litter. Why there, I don’t know. He perhaps didn’t wish to sully the path he usually walks.

In any case, there are cats in the vicinity. I keep my eyes open for any resembling lost cats whose owners are advertising for them, but this one seems to have the confidence to walk down an open street and across front lawns: a cat who has a family and a home - and whose idea of welcoming a new neighbour at Christmastime is truly feline.

An Inadvertent Deception

Last night I was feeling particularly tired (strange, since I had an extra day off in the middle of the week), so I lie down on the bed for an hour, at about eight o’clock. Despite a light being left on, Sable evidently thought it was my bed-time, and came out from under the bed - where she lives much of the time - to see what was new. She does that each night; when I wake about midnight or one a.m., I see her in the cat-room on a tree under the window. When I rose from my rest an hour later, there she was.

This posed a dilemma for my semi-feral cat, and me. I had not fed her a snack yet, preferring to wait until after my rest. I usually push a bowl under the bed and she eats her food there. Now, of course, she was out in the open. She is still too timid to tolerate my close proximity; when I approached with food, she made as if to run and hide. If I left the food far enough away not to frighten her, one of the other beasts was certain to eat it. She had to go without her snack last night.

Fortunately, there was hard-food available, and Sabe ate quite a bit of that. She must have been confused as to what was going on: the human had interjected an extra day or something, and her schedule was discombobulated. I will take that into account if I rest in the early evening again. Things are back on schedule today, but it’s a reminder of how life can be confusing, even for the smartest outsider brought indoors.

Indigo In Her Chair

This is Indigo in her chair.

I’ve explained how Indie doesn’t leave the bedroom much. In fact, she stays pretty much in one corner, though she emerges when it is meal-time and expects to be fed sometimes in the corridor. The rest of the day and night, she spends in the bedroom, often in her chair.

I didn’t have room for a chair in the apartment’s bedroom. I like the idea of a comfortable armchair in the bedroom, somewhere to sit while changing socks, or somewhere to read just before bed. But Indigo has taken over the chair. She has limited her world rather severely, so I don’t feel that I can evict her when we both want to use the chair. I do sit there now and then and put her on my lap. Then, we both use the chair, and she purrs. But when she is finished, and drops to the floor, I don’t feel that I can continue using the chair. So I leave, and Indie jumps up and lies on it.

This is Indigo in her chair.

No Dot For Valkyrie

Welcome to 2025 in the Cosy Cabin. The new year started off well: last night I at last had enough sleep. I went to bed at eleven o’clock and slept for the rest of the year…

The cats began with breakfast and play. It was Valkyrie contributing most of the latter. Within a few minutes, she had knocked three of the stockings off the bookcase, toppled the two little tree-ornaments next to the radio, opened both the CD player and the cassette player compartments in the radio and lost four fuzzy mice in rapid succession under the oven.

What Valk cannot do, however, is see the red dot. I have noticed that some cats see it but have no interest in it, while it simply doesn’t seem to register in the vision of others. I have tried to involve her with the dot, but for her, it is just not there.

This leads to some amusement, since she is attracted by action and noise caused by other felines. Brazil, who will chase the red dot with vigour, will be pursuing it about the sitting room. Valkyrie will pause in fighting the string-toy and bounce over to where Brazil is causing a ruckus. Once there, though, she is puzzled as to what is going on. She cannot understand what Shimmer is doing; he must appear to her to be running in circles for no reason.

She certainly has enough to do with other toys - a couple of days ago, she spent half an hour playing with a piece of cardboard torn from the back of a toothbrush package - but the red dot is not a part of her schedule.

Anno Domini

It’s been quite a year for me. I moved from where I had lived for almost a decade; my apartment was to be renovated and, if I had elected to stay in the building, I would have had to pay much more in rent than I had been. Fortunately, I was offered a small and comfortable house at a rate that is more than reasonable. I feel more secure in terms of my cats here: no more hiding them or passing them out to acquaintances when the landlord wants to inspect or repair something. It was a most fortunate turn of events.

Nonetheless, it was a worrisome time until the move, and the move itself was a great bother, to which anyone who has ever moved homes can testify. But it was achieved; the cats, despite each of them knowing no other home while they had been with me, making the adjustment probably better than I had. The Cosy Cabin has proved to be a snug refuge, rather like the sanitarium in Idylland, and has proved invigorating to many of the cats, and homey to them all.

Five of the cats I had been fostering were adopted this year. It was a slow year for adoptions in the rescue-group over all; that, and my new circumstances allowing for more cats, has led to rather an abundance of the beasts in the Cabin. But they are all getting along - or at least getting along better than they had. This may have something to do with enough space for each to have his own spot if need be, though I am grateful that more than a couple have chosen to be friends with one another. (I noted specifically on the last day of 2023, that Brazil had not yet really joined the group. That has changed, and not only has he become pals with several of the foster-cats, he is less shy, and less troublesome toward certain others.)

Therefore, while 2024 could have been improved - the lottery win that will solve so many problems remains elusive - it could certainly have been worse, and in regards to my situation, I am pleased and thankful at how it is ending. I hope the next year turns out to be everything that readers want it to be, and even more.