Sammie in a shoe box

I had some new shoes for work, which came in a lovely box for the cats to play in. Sammie took charge of it straight away. It’s just the right size for her.

Sammie’s birthday

I’ve just found a couple more photos from Sammie’s birthday celebrations so thought I’d share.

She seemed to like her cards.

 

The cat pen

I thought it was about time that I showed you what we built in the garden so the cats can get some fresh air. We looked around for ages to find a reasonable sized cat enclosure but the only ones suitable were way too much money and were pretty basic.

We knew what we wanted so I started roughing it out on a pad and came up with a design that would be sturdy enough without costing too much. We made it all ourselves which took a few days, spread over a couple of weeks, and it may be ever so slightly wonky, but it does the job.

It’s 4m long by 2m wide and has a slabbed base. That looks a bit mismatched as we used whatever slabs we had lying about in the garden.

We wanted somewhere that the cats could go to shelter from the sun (if we got any) and hide in if they wanted to have a nap. We found a rabbit hutch on Amazon that looked ok so installed that. They like sitting on top of it so they can see what I’m doing.

At the other end we’ve put some wooden staging that was in the shed. They enjoy sitting on that too as like most cats, they like being high up. Frodo likes to do acrobatics on the bars beneath the top of it.

We also made a climbing frame for them out of logs from a tree that we had cut down. It’s bolted together and has thick string wrapped round in places to give extra grip when climbing and for scratching. I’ve also hung some balls from the staging and climbing frame.

Sammie is a bit of a climber and she’s explored every inch of the pen. She does get a bit nervous if there are children making a lot of noise in the nearby gardens so we try to only take her out if it’s fairly quiet. We only take them out if one of us is working in the garden, or if I’m doing a lot of cooking and can keep my eye on them from the kitchen.

I don’t suppose we’ll get much more use out of it this year, but hopefully we’ll get a drier summer next year and we can all get outside more.

Together again

The cats have been sharing one of the beds again.

I’m not sure that looks quite comfy but they seemed happy enough. Stephen saw what happened this time. Sammie was asleep in there, minding her own business, when Frodo decided he’d like to share it with her. He just climbed in on top of her and wiggled round until he was in.

I’m not sure what Sammie thought of that, but she stood for it so she can’t have been that bothered. Either that or she was too sleepy to move.

Both cats seem over Frodo’s overnight trip to the vets now. Frodo seems to be feeling much better too with less sneezing. One of the tests came back showing a bacteria that may be causing the problem so he’s having to take two different antibiotics to try to clear it. He’s even more lively and mischievous than he was before so we’re hoping that the drugs are working.

 

Cat scan

Frodo had to have an overnight stay at the vet last week. He’s been sneezing and snuffling a bit so has had various tests to find the problem. Our own vet took x-rays of his skull and chest when he went in to be snipped ‘n’ chipped and found nothing. He hasn’t had a temperature and a swab found no bacteria that shouldn’t be there. He’s lively and affectionate and has a good appetite.

Our vet was great and took the time to show us the x-rays on the screen, and explained what we were seeing. It was fascinating.

So, next step was to refer him to a specialist and luckily there’s a very good one not far from here. They had him in for the day, and as he had a biopsy, which bled a little, they kept him overnight to keep an eye on him. They did a CT scan, which didn’t show anything abnormal, and have done a few different tests that we’re waiting for results on.

We’re really hoping there’s something there that can be treated as it must be miserable having cold symptoms all the time. If we can’t treat it though, at least we’ll know we did everything we could to find the cause.

At the referral vet, it was a bit like being in an episode of Super Vet, which we love watching. It was also very expensive so hooray for pet insurance.

Frodo was a bit clingy when he got home and came to sit by me, getting as close as he could without actually being on my lap. He managed to wrap himself around my arm so I was immobilised for a few hours.

It’s a bit tricky taking a photo of a cat when he’s got your arm trapped. Luckily Stephen was in and took a couple for me.

He must have had a vet smell about him for a few days as Sammie was quite scared of him. She really doesn’t like the vet so we think that was why she was hissing and growling at him. From a distance – she wouldn’t get too close and was very wary if he was in the same room.

She’s ok again now. They’re chasing each other round the bedroom at the moment, so I’m having to hang on to the laptop as they keep using the bed as a shortcut. They do seem to get a burst of energy just as I go to bed. Little monkeys 🙂

 

Photos of the day

 

Togetherness

We came home one day and found the pair of them, cuddled up together in one of the beds on the new cat tree.

It was a definite Awww moment.

Look how big Frodo is compared to Sammie and he’s half her age. He’s going to be a lovely size when he’s finished growing.

I’m so glad they love their new tree so much.

No sewing for me

I was planning on doing some sewing in my craft room and made the mistake of leaving some fabric out while I went to do something else. When I came back, this is what I found.

I didn’t have the heart to disturb them, although they did wake up when I started taking photos.

They soon settled back down once I left them to it. I did the sewing once they’d finished napping…

Together

We lost the cats the other day. We were downstairs but they’d abandoned us and gone for a nap upstairs. When we found them, not only were they both asleep, but they were cuddled up to each other.

Of course, by the time that I’d grabbed a camera, they were wide awake and wondering what we were doing standing there, watching them. Before we disturbed them though, Sammie had her head on Frodo, using him as a cushion.

They’re definitely getting along now. They play together, and now they sometimes nap together. There’s still some jealousy, mostly from Sammie, but there’s a lot less than there was when we first brought Frodo home.

Birthday girl

As I may have mentioned before, it was Sammie’s first birthday on Thursday. She had a lovely day, starting with a big cuddle after her breakfast. Then it was time for her birthday cards. I’d bought her one, and another one arrived from Jackie and Fliss.

She had a special birthday lunch. She usually has Whiskers or occasionally a treat of some Gourmet, but today she had a tin of white tuna with shrimp. With one of her favourite chewy sticks stuck in it. I’m pretty sure she’d prefer that to a candle 😉

She was very keen to get her paws on it while I was preparing it, but she seemed a bit bemused about how to eat it once it was down.

We took it off her for a moment and mashed it up while she sat and waited.

She really enjoyed it, and left a few crumbs for Frodo, who had his lunch upstairs so Sammie could enjoy her treat undisturbed.

Next we made a ball pit for them to play in. I’d seen the balls in Asda and thought the cats might like them. We used one of the boxes that the cat tree came in.

The cats were a bit dubious about it, and we’ve since taken most of the balls back out to see if they prefer that.

They love chasing the balls round the house, so I can see that we’re going to be finding them everywhere now. They’re easier to find than the little ones though and can’t squeeze under the sofas so at least we won’t be finding them all hiding under there.

Frodo is a budding footballer and will chase a ball round for ages. He seems to really like these balls as they’re very soft and light. Good job really, as we do have rather a lot of them.