Sunday mornings

This is what Sunday mornings look like at our house. Sleeping in and cuddles.

This pairing caught me by surprise. Katie has warmed up to Mojo over the years, but it's still a relative novelty to see them cuddling/sharing the same space.

Katie's balled up and covering her face (no pictures please!) and Mojo's got his belly up and tail draped over him. He's just positioned himself in a silly way. Matt's sleeping in (because Ozzy wakes me up at 7 a.m. for food.)

And possibly you can see all the pets in the photo. See if you can find a bit of Ozzy in the edge of the photo or a cat reflected in the mirror.

Cuddle Fest

I don't know if all the pets just wanted the same corner of the bed or they were trying to keep each other warm. But even cuddling, Gunnar still looks a tad like the evil emperor he is.

(And clearly Katie wanted no part of this.)

Changing the sheets

The cats always like to help me change the sheets.

1. They never really want to get off the bed. And one of them is always on the bed.

Here Ozzy gets rolled up in the sheets as I try to change them. He didn't want to budge.

2. If I ever get the sheets off the bed, they are on the mattress cover, on the new sheets, just completely in the way. Here's Ozzy clawing at the new sheet as I try to smooth it down.

And Gunnar comes to join in the fun. Let's sit on the new sheets. We don't need no stinkin' blankets.

And that's how we change sheets at this house. Slowly. With much protest. 

Before and After

When we took Ozzy in, he had short sporty fur and weighed a little under 10 pounds. The vet warned us that he was nowhere near growing and was going to be a BIG cat. 

This is what he looked like last summer—a normal sized cat.

This is Ozzy now. He's probably gained 10 pounds in fur. He's a massive cat. He weighs a ton (more than my 15 pound kettle bell, though they are different shapes). I practically throw my back out when I pick him up. And look at that fur. He's quite fluffy now. I guess that's his winter coat? Either way, he's officially a fat cat now. We're worried he's kitty obese. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying being spoiled: regular meal times (eating the other cats' food), sleeping in soft beds, finding the best spot to lounge in etc. The other cats are far more active than him. He just sleeps in one soft spot. So if anyone knows a kitty personal trainer, we might be in the market. 

Update: After I wrote this, Ozzy sprinted a few laps around the house and jumped loudly on a lot of furniture. Apparently, he CAN be an active cat when his mama calls him out. 

The Boss

 This is the boss. Ozzy. He sees you when you're looking at cat pictures at work. He says get back to work and bring him some food. And tell him why this chair keeps spinning around.

He does not like to get his hands dirty.

Ozzy had fun while I was home for a few days while the university was closed. The cats watched me work at home and thought it was supremely boring. 

Bully cat

I am being bullied by a cat. This morning, I slept in past my usually 7:30 a.m. on the weekends and at 7:45 a.m. my famished, starving-to-death obese cat Ozzy demanded I get up and feed him breakfast. (How dare I keep him waiting!?)  He did this by sitting on my chest (he weights 15+ pounds) and kneading my sweatshirt with his super sharp claws until I got up.

I did get up and feed the cat breakfast. I just wasn't happy about it.

#nothappy, #feedmenow, #mornings, #bully, #bullycat

Guard duty

Gunnar has tasked himself with keeping my sweaters safe. He really likes these shelves. He likes to sit on my sweaters and watch me work on my computer.

He also likes to jump on top of these shelves and keep an eye out from this angle. It always makes me nervous. One night, I was on the phone with my sister and he hopped in one of those shopping bags and started to shift his weight forward. I ran and got the shopping bag down before he fell. Crazy cat.

10 things about Ozzy

Ozzy's been living with us for over six months now, so I thought we'd describe our fuzzy cat.

Before.

After

10 things we know about Ozzy

1. He is not the skinny short-haired cat we first took in. Get a few good meals in him and he's practically Paul Bunyon size. He's a large cat (15+ pounds).
2. He has long hair. (I've never actually had a long haired cat before.)
3. He's a talker. And he has a static-y, marbled sounding meow. Like nothing I've ever heard before. (Part of the reason for the name Ozzy, is that like the Prince of Darkness, he doesn't talk quite right.)
4. He likes to sprawl out on his kitty chaise. It's his favorite. 
5.  He likes to eat. He takes down every meal like he's Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut. It's a race to put as kibble in his belly as soon as possible.
6. He's part hobbit. He likes second, third and fourth breakfast. 
7. He has a faun butt. If you look at Ozzy from behind, it's like he's wearing furry pants. He reminds me of Mr. Tumnus. 
8. He's besties with Gunnar. They wrestle and play a lot. They groom each other daily. Currently, they are napping together. 
9. He likes to drink out of Mojo's tall water bowl. (Mojo likes the cat water bowl on the ground so it works out.) 
10.  He has static in his fur. Poor guy. I pet him and we both get shocked! 

Bonus: Sometimes Ozzy asks for cuddles and at night will come sleep on my chest or on my legs. (Human = heating pad.)

Brotherly love

Gunnar and Ozzy are best good buddies. Truly, I didn't know how much Gunnar wanted a brother, but he really did. And since we got Ozzy, they've been inseparable.

And they have this cute routine, where every night one of them, Gunnar likely, will be sleeping on the bed. The other one will hop up on the bed and start grooming the other. The licking turns into a friendly-ish wrestling match until one of them tumbles off the bed, King of the Mountain style. These tumbles will usually happen several times. And eventually they'll just get tired of wrestling and just nap cuddled up together, but with a paw on the other cat—claiming them, holding them down? I'm not sure. It looks like a hug, but I feel like there's a dash of kitty domination thrown in there somewhere.

So that's our boys.

Mojo's arthritis treatment

Mojo has been diagnosed with arthritis for about two years now. The vet called us the other day and said that he's trying out laser therapy for dog arthritis. Did we want to try a session? For free?

For free! Why yes, we did. 

So Matt took Mojo to the vet for the training day on the laser machine. And this is what Mojo looked like in the car on the way to to vet. He loves the vet!

Happy, happy, happy. I love going to the vet.

The laser therapy involves putting a red laser the size of a fat highlighter on Mojo's joints and leaving it there for a few minutes. His blood cells are supposed to absorb the red light and it's supposed to help with circulation.

The vet tech showed me, and it just feels slightly warm.

That's Mojo getting the treatment. We had to wear glasses when we were in the room. I tried to give Mojo a pair, but he said he was fully accessorized. 

Mojo liked the treatment. 

This is what the laser looks like. Just a red light.

And after that first free visit, the therapy isn't as expensive as I feared. So we're going to try a few sessions and see if it helps with Mojo's pain. He still holds his paws gingerly, like he's afraid of getting hurt. Let's hope it helps.