Time runs by, that's not new. Not that us cats care. We live in the here and now, as in "Come HERE and look what I've got" or "I want food NOW".
Mom is a bit jealous of that ability, just as much of our ways to relax without feeling the slightest bit of guilt. Just now she took a look at Esme sleeping on a chair and Buster sleeping underneath the same chair and heaved one of her sighs ... and took a picture.
That's not the picture I want to show you, however. When downloading the pictures from the camera to the infamous "ATempCats" folder that holds everything that still needs to be cropped etc., she found a picture of Buster having an intimate little talk with one of the wooden cats and it reminded her of something.
Almost exactly nine years are between these pictures of Merlin and Buster. The wooden cat is still there to tell the tale. If it could talk, that is.