2019 update from the cats

Whew, what a year it has been! Sebastian turned 19 years old and is doing great despite a diagnosis of kidney disease last year. He is guzzling water out of a new plug-in fountain recommended by the veterinarian, and takes lots of naps. He still likes to go in the yard on his leash. The German veterinarian admired Sebastian for doing great in his old age!

Sidney missed Jeff so much during the deployment, and she is happy that he's home. She is the only cat who sits in Jeff's lap while he is working on the computer at his desk. Sidney supervises the birds and squirrels in our yards, as they chirp, build nests, and carry around peanuts and walnuts from somewhere else in the neighborhood.

Ida spent very little time hiding during the deployment, spending most of her days on top of the bed. She is getting used to Jeff being back. Ida follows her routine faithfully: waking us up in the morning to be petted, breakfast, nap, and petting again at night before bed time. She doesn’t go outside like the other 2 cats, but knows what’s going on by watching out the windows.

All 3 cats have loved their regular cat-sitter, whose mom drives her over every day while we are traveling. We recently went to Israel and the cat-sitter was on the same trip, so the cats got to know another cat-sitter from the Chapel service.

The cats visit the basement briefly but don’t hang out there as much. Sidney likes the windows, with great views of the front and back yards. Our permanent cats were glad to hear that our almost-4th-cat is living the high life at the home of friends where we used to live. They were exhausted from being mad at him before we moved, and say that 3 cats is enough!

Update from the cats!

We are pleased to share our cat portraits with you! That’s right, a nice lady came to our house and took a million photos of us! Imagine that. Well, some of us enjoyed it more than others.

I, Sidney, was clearly the star of the show. Check out my portrait in the back yard. Nobody can leap like me. Things are sad otherwise. I miss Papa since he went on this deployment thing. I holler at the birds and squirrels through the windows until I go hoarse and can’t meow anymore. They should listen to the boss (me).

I, Ida, like to look out the large windows. It’s pretty cool how the photographer got me at my very best, when I felt safe and smart. I’m the only happy one about the deployment, because I get to rule the roost all day and all night. I don’t hang out in the basement anymore. My favorite cat toys keep me happy, along with long naps in the sunshine.

I, Sebastian, am still strutting my stuff at the age of 18. I like our new drinking fountain that we got because I have kidney disease. I’m guzzling water all day long. I like going into the back yard on a leash and having a nice rest on the grass. I also think our new cat-sitter is very nice. Believe it or not, I’m getting braver.

Now we are settling in for the winter, which started early (October!) Thank goodness this white stuff melted!

The 4th cat?

Last October, our cats shared their latest goings-on. That post included a photo of an outdoor cat who was hanging out on our back porch. 

He’s still here, and is hanging out quite a bit, much to the great annoyance of our cats (members of the “permanent party”). He is quite chatty, greeting us loudly in the morning, and yodeling some hellos in the evening. Here he is in March, along with the green crate from our weekly farm share.

What to do with a stray cat who makes googly-eyes through the glass door? One person here says, “feed him, he’s obviously hungry. Oh, and give him a bowl of water, too.” Another person here says, “three cats is enough!” The cats say, “get outta here!”

Your comments are welcome!

Update from the cats in Germany

Things are going well for us in our village. We have a nice balcony to hang out on, with views across the meadow and our neighbor’s garden. It is Sidney’s favorite place for hours on end.

We love to go out into the yard on our leashes, where we eat some grass, take a nap (Sebastian), and chase butterflies. There may have even been a tiny hummingbird that was too fast to catch.

We like the wide bathtub edge, and of course we love suitcases. We don’t care if you are tired of seeing cat in suitcase photos, because we hop inside every time they get hauled out (entirely too often for the hauling, not the hopping). Apparently, there is another trip in the works, to some place called Vienna. Sheesh!

The cool thing about the “live” photos on the iphone is that they can show how tough I am (Ida, the cat). Some stray cat asked to come inside, and I hit the glass door really hard with my paw. I don’t care if he looked pathetic, all talking and asking nicely. I chased him away, which you can see, if the live feature goes through on the blog post.

Observations by the cats about life in our corner of Germany

We have beautiful church bells that ring in our town every morning at 6:30am. We used to think they were an alarm clock when we got here, so we would ask for breakfast then. Now the real alarm clock goes off way before 6:30 so we’ve already eaten by the time the church bells ring, and  we are settling down for our morning naps.

We think this is where the bells are ringing from

There is a nice small balcony that we are allowed to go out on, and we stay safe without jumping down. The balcony door lets cooler air into the upstairs, since many if not most German homes don’t have air conditioning. We already miss our Framingham a/c.

Why are people so excited about Polish pottery? If you want some, let us know, we have connections.

Our yard is nice, except there is no fence to let us roam free- we have to have a person at the other end of our leashes. We look out on a big cherry tree, and the neighbors 2 houses down have more cherry trees, so apparently there is cherry pie in the future. One neighbor’s dog likes to play in the meadow behind the house and say hi to us by barking loudly (but the dog only barks when he sees us). There are also 3 quiet chickens in a fenced-in yard across the meadow and lots of chirpy birds all over.

During our 2 stays in temporary quarters, Ida shared her cat bed with us (didn't before, and hasn't since!)

We have people offering left and right to cat-sit for us. So far, we have been fine with a 2-night weekend away with extra food and water, but eventually we’ll need help with the litter box when we’re alone for more than 2 nights. It looks like a high-school student from the Chapel will take care of us the first time, but we’ve got neighbors lined up down the street ready to worship….er, feed us.

In Temporary Quarters, we'd get scared and hide under the bedspread, but we don't do that anymore.

So far, we are sticking with our favorite American cat food and litter, but we do like German treats and some kinds of canned cat food. We are relieved that our favorite dry food and wet food is for sale at the Air Force base. We also think that the tap water in our town tastes delicious, along with the grass in the yard.

WHY didn't she share this seafood bisque with us? WHY?

Most German houses have exterior roll-down slatted shutters. When we first arrived at the end of March, the shutters were rolled down in the evening when it got dark out and we needed inside lights to be turned on. Now, it stays light out so late that the shades upstairs get rolled down so that it’s dark enough inside to go to sleep!