Friday Flashback: Belly Floof

This picture is from August 2010, and it still cracks me up. I love those splayed back paws!

Cat Pillow Collection

A couple of years ago, my mom gave me this pillow:

..which coincidentally matches the kitties' Laurel Birch catnip quilts.  Little did I know, this was the beginning of a collection.

Here is a pillow my mom gave me for my birthday this year:

This past weekend, Geoff's daughter gave me a belated birthday present, which was a cat pillow she made herself:

How cute is that? 

Melly likes it too.

Cooling Temperature and Tempers

When the temperatures are warmer, Scarlett and Melly's already tense relationship gets even tenser.  Scarlett wants nothing to do with Melly, and growls if she gets within a few feet.  Fortunately, the weather is finally starting to cool off, and Scarlett is becoming more tolerant of Melly.  

I took this picture (very stealthily, over my shoulder and with the camera zoomed way in)  a couple of days ago:

Scarlett gave Melly dirty looks the whole time she was laying there, but there weren't any growls for almost half an hour!  

Yesterday evening, Scarlett was snuggled up between Geoff and me on the couch, and Melly came up behind her and very gently laid her head on Scarlett's hip.  I braced myself for the flying fur and flailing claws, but they never came: Scarlett tolerated Melly's presence for fifteen whole minutes!

And then, later in the evening, Melly was in bed under the covers, and Scarlett jumped on the bed and lay down almost right on top of her.  I'm not sure if Scarlett knew Melly was there or if she just thought there was a gently vibrating heating pad under the blanket, but either way, it was adorable.

New Catnip Quilt

At the auction for Ms. Stella a little while back, I got another catnip quilt for Scarlett and Melly. They were not very good at sharing the one I got at an earlier auction, so I thought they'd appreciate a second one.  It arrived yesterday and was an instant hit!

Melly Plays

Changing the sheets is very dangerous business with Melly around.

 

Saturday PhotoHunt: Chocolate

I have a whole label dedicated to chocolate, and it took a while to narrow it down to one photo to post for today.

And then I realized that I have no photos of these brownies.  Dagnabit. (Note to self: next time, take a picture prior to scarfing down the brownies.)

So, I give you this instead:

This is a bacon chocolate cupcake that I made last year for Geoff's birthday (recipe here).  These cupcakes were delicious.  A lot of people are skeptical of the bacon/chocolate flavor combo, but it's not nearly as weird as it seems.  The bacon isn't overwhelming, and the salt brings out the taste of the chocolate.  It's sort of like eating m&ms and movie popcorn together.

Scarlett and her Blue Blanket

Scarlett spends quite a bit of time on her blanket on the dresser, which is one of the main reasons this blog features so many pictures of Melly. There are only so many ways I can [attempt to] make a snoozing Scarlett look interesting!

This picture is from a few days ago:

This one is from September 2010:

I didn't realize how flat the blue blanket had gotten until I looked at these pictures side by side. Just goes to show much time Scarlett has spent napping on it.

Melly Helps

Here is Melly, assisting in the folding of t-shirts. 

It was exhausting work.

Melly's New Bed

As you may recall, Melly loves to "help" with laundry, generally by laying all over it.  Her favorite spot is the ironing board, which I use as a drying rack. Melly used to like to sprawl across all the damp socks, but if there was nothing on the board, she would lay on the metal mesh and do her best to look pitifully uncomfortable. Finally, I gave in and made her a little bed of folded fleece and a t-shirt.  

Here she is enjoying her new bed while supervising the drying clothes that are hanging from the ironing board:

Melly and the New Neighbor

An interesting thing happened over the weekend.  We had a visit from a new outdoor cat (for some reason, there are a lot of new ones this year), and this one was a female who looked like she might have recently been pregnant.  She wasn't aggressive at all, but just wanted to stare through the window at Scarlett and Melly.

Now for the really strange part: Scarlett couldn't possibly have cared less that the cat was there, and it was Melly who was irked!

Melly Poses

"I'm looking off into the distance and pretending like you're not there so you can get a 'candid' shot."

[10 rejected photos later]

"This posing business is so hard. I have to take a breather."

"And we're back."

"I call this the 'lion pose.' 

Rawr."

"Scarlett! You photobombed my lion picture! 

How rude."

Saturday PhotoHunt: Can

Caren asked the other day what was in the Mr Chewy box, and here is the answer:

Canned food!

I was going to try and get Melly to pose with some cans, but she was otherwise occupied, so I brought them to her instead.

These are outtakes from my impromptu photo shoot. Doesn't Melly look deranged in the second one? It cracks me up every time I look at it.

Scarlett sounds off

"Do you see that fuzzball behind me? 

Do you see how she's stealing my spotlight? 

She eats all the crunchy food, 

and she snags the good napping spots, 

and she takes up far too much of my human's attention. 

That overgrown ball of fluff is a Pain In My Rear."

Melly the Style Critic

Lately, Melly has taken it upon herself to keep an eye on me while I do my hair and makeup in the mornings.   Reaching her perch above the toilet involves several tricky jumps but the job of monitoring my morning ablutions is so important that Melly doesn't mind.  

I took these pictures with my phone yesterday.  Here, Melly is second-guessing my choice of eyeliner:

"Are you sure you want that one? 

I think you really ought to go for the kohl pencil."

After I disregarded her advice, she spent the rest of my prep time like this:

"You're doing it wrong."

Where was Scarlett during all this?  She was sitting on the shelf next to the sink, pointedly ignoring Melly.  Scarlett, you see, has not managed to get up onto the shelf above the toilet, and I think she was a bit jealous.

Melly and the Most Excellent Box

A shipment from Mr Chewy came recently, and after I opened the box, the cats decided it was not to be unpacked.  It was perfect for sitting, and the packing paper was eminently shreddable.  Here is Melly, protecting her precious box and its contents:

"MINE."

Regal Melly

Geoff informed me yesterday that Melly did not approve of my discussing her belly flub in such a public forum,* so to make it up to her, I am posting two pictures that are very flattering.

*How he knew this, I am not sure.  Apparently they have secret chats.

Melly Snoozes

I love the giant rabbity back paws.  

Also, I feel compelled to point out that Melly isn't nearly as big as she looks.  For some reason, she has a lot of loose skin around her middle--that and her floof make her appear rather rotund.  She's actually fairly thin!

Happy Weekend!

Scarlett doesn't look excited about the weekend, for some reason. Observe the Swishy Tail of Blurriness:

Ah, that's better.

Melly being Melly

I went to take a photo of Melly napping adorably on the back of the couch, but she woke up and I got these pictures instead:

She is such a ham.

Thursday in the Garden

These pictures were taken at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens.  There were a lot of beautiful flowers and plants there, like these cactus flowers:

I thought this one was particularly interesting: it's a ginger flower! Ginger (root) is one of my favorite flavors, but I'd never seen the plant before, let alone the flower.

I don't know what these two are, but aren't they cool?

I know it's wrong...

...and I know I'm creating a monster by doing this, but I can't help it.  The result is that Melly is quite a biter, but she's just so dang cute.

Just hanging around the house

My usual blogging method involves taking a lot of pictures every time the cats do something adorable, which is fairly frequently and which usually leaves me with some extra pictures hanging around in case I fall behind on posts.  Before my trip, I ran out of pictures completely and haven't had time to build up another store of them.  For this post, which I am typing on Monday evening, I went and found the cats and snapped a few quick shots.  So, if you were wondering (and I'm guessing you were... probably not) what Scarlett and Melly were doing at 6:00 p.m. on Monday night, here's your answer!

That green sock by Scarlett is one that she used to use for the Sock Game--until I washed it.  Someone hurked up a hairball right on the sock so it needed the washing, but now Scarlett isn't the least bit interested in it.

Back! (Again)

I've been out of town the last nine days visiting family and friends on the East coast, but I'm back now and can hopefully get back to the usual posting/visiting schedule for the rest of the summer.  I do have a bit of catching up to do, though, so in the meantime, here's a picture of Toby:

Toby is my friend's cat, and he is a cutie.  He reminds me a lot of my late kitty, Comet--similar markings and temperament.  

And here is my aunt's dog, Emma, hanging out with me on the deck.  

I always miss Scarlett and Melly when I travel, but having other animals around makes it a lot easier!

Friday Flashback: Interaction

These are two of the earliest pictures of Scarlett and Melly interacting.  I love Scarlett's expression in this one:

And Melly's little ears poking down from the cat tree in this one: