Rub my belly and ...

.... I'll show you my foot. Actually I might try to shove the foot in your face if you rub my belly or not.
This picture was taken just now during one of my stretching exercises. I can't help it if Mom gets in my way. You remember she only gives me a quarter of the desk. You have to admit however that I have cute toes.

I also got some good news. Although Esme won't get off her meds, she got rid of the cone and she's her old lovable self again. Ok, she could fight a little harder when she's getting her mouth stuffed with pills, but all in all it's my little sister again. Her ear is almost healed up, she even let me clean it for her today and we didn't fight afterwards. Instead she got into a quarrel between Meffi and Greebo. I wish you could seen her, her tail was as bushy as that of a fox. Quite amazing.
Thank you for all the good thoughts, it seems they helped!

Ok, gotta go. I need a nap. All that hard work I have to do here, you  know ...

The evil eye

In this case - two evil eyes saying "I'll get you for this when you least expect it."

I know I had promised not to show Esme with her cone on, but this look was too good to keep it from you. Unfortunately a visit to the vet's has shown that the problem is bigger than just a scratched ear. I won't go into details, but I can tell Mom is nervous.

She was even more nervous, however, when Esme gobbled down the three pills she has to take by herself, twice already! We are still waiting for the Earth to break apart and I don't know what will happen if Esme does it again today. Mom keeps telling her "that she's the best little girl in the whole wide world". Do we others feel neglected? A bit maybe, but since Esme can only take so much of the mother chicken hovering over her, she hides under the desk if necessary and that's when we get our well-deserved snuggle and play times.

Not that we let Mom get away with it anyway. The last few days I developed a special program called "Ribs, Bladder, Thighs". It's not an exercise program unless you count the balancing part it takes sometimes when Mom starts yelling "Ouch, ouch, that hurts, why do you have to put your little paws there??" and wriggling around a lot to get me off her, hehe.

Greebo prefers to lie on her chest and neck, drape his tail over her face and shove a bunch of hair from his back between her lips. At least he doesn't lie on her face, she'd be gone within seconds.

Meffi likes to dance in her hair. I know it sounds strange. Mom has looong hair, you know, even longer than a Persian or a Maine Coone, and when it's spread over her pillow, Meffi dances around on it. Of course she uses her claws, does whammies and pulls the hair. It's a class act, none of us ever managed to do it as perfect as she does. It's most effective right before Mom wants to go to sleep.

You see you don't have to worry about us. Good thoughts for the Lady of the Cone are greatly appreciated, though.

How not to be seen

Mom is a big Monty Python fan. She keeps throwing quotes out there and I had to watch the complete series and the movies more than once (ask me how funny I thought it was when she taped the documentary on TV and messed up forgetting the last episode, the only one which was NOT repeated).

I'll show Monty Py how really not to be seen and not getting blown up, either.
Mom got a surprise after putting laundry from the washer into the dryer and then turning around to the basket with the clean black t-shirts and almost hit me because she hadn't noticed me (just like in this moment when I showed her how not to be heard when occupying the other chair, hehe, made her jump).

I got inspired by all that washing business, however. Not that I need a shower or a washing machine for it.

By the way, this is the gift Esme gave her when she got the cone put on, but now she seems to have forgiven them. I actually saw her held by human arms and heard her purr. They broke my little sister :-( I think I'll need to talk her and revive the kitty witch!

Shame on the humans

Look at this picture of Esme ... the big, round baby eyes of a kitty who trusts her humans. Who thinks her humans won't do her wrong. Who is not afraid of humans betraying her. A kitty who was to be disappointed in the most cruel way you can imagine.

I promised not to show a picture of how Esme is looking now, her eyes deadened from the knowledge of betrayal, all joy and will for live lost, merely a shadow of herself - all of that due to the Cone of Shame.
Of course Mom keeps telling Esme it's for her own best and if she had stopped scratching the wound above her eye, there wouldn't be a need for that ... that thing, but neither of us really believes it.
Did you know that local - very local, actually limited to this out - history tells us that this is the first Cone of Shame EVER to be used here? In twenty years of cats (and other critters!) around?
I'm sorry for my little sister. She doesn't deserve that. Neither does she deserve being stared at. Shame on you as well, Greebo and Meffi. At least I had the decency to retreat to one of my favorite resting spots and pretend I didn't notice.
Uh-oh. Now they are coming and they are holding that herbal cream again!!

Have you missed us?

I'm sorry. Things have been very busy around here. Esme led a life on the run because she wanted to avoid the spot above her eye to be treated with some kind of herbal cream. Meffi changed favorite spots and started trying out life as a troll under the bridge (or a cat under the stairs), hidden behind a Steiff tiger and a sheep. Greebo not only had to be aware of every noise indicating that someone entered the kitchen, but also had to check out the best ways to snuggle up to human legs in bed.
I had to supervise all of that and in addition the humans of course. Sometimes it was so tiring I had to sleep three or four hours in one session!! That's hard work, I tell you.

Mom and Dad were not quite as busy even if they tried to convince us of the opposite. Do you think however they would have managed to take some pictures of what goes on here? The camera was used for all kinds of things, but not for the purpose it was made for - to take photos of the masters.
Today I put my feet down, all four of them. I had a long talk with Mom while walking around on some of her more tender body parts and made clear to her that things can simply NOT go on this way or there will be consequences. I know that "firing" is not a nice word, but it clearly shook her up.
See for yourself.

This is Mom's vintage cabinet with the roll front. She keeps all her office stuff in there, envelopes, stamps and stuff like that. If you look very closely however, you'll see something purple in the upper right corner. Exactly - kitty snacks. I'm almost a little embarrassed to say that whenever she opens this cabinet, all three of us come running ... Esme, Greebo and me (Meffi stays downstairs playing the troll). And if she leaves it open for a while because she needs more than one thing, there's always one of us waiting ...

"I can see it. Now if she turns away for just a few seconds, the loot will be mine."

"Moooom, you pushed me! See how weak I am? I know something that would help. It's up there!"

"What do you mean, I had already enough?? I'll have to think about that."

"Hey, Mom ... thanks for giving me just one more kibble. I promise I won't tell the others. Ssshhh."

I got Mom back to the camera, now I need to work on teach Greebo how not to be such a little suck-up!!