The tiger(s) and the panther

Right at this moment a tiger girl is sleeping under Dad's desk. It's amazing, suddenly Meffi is hanging out up here all the time. Of course that means Esme lost one of her favorite sleeping spots, but she prefers the bed much more these days anyway.
It also means I get growled at a lot more often, but that's a side effect I gladly accept if it means my goddess is near me. I keep staring at her because I still can't believe it.

Last night she refreshed her acquaintance with her big friend, Mr. Big Tiger.

I'll tell you something. Panthers shouldn't interfere when tigers have a chat. Can you tell by Meffi's look?

"Maybe the laser eyes do the trick. Don't mess with me, Esme, or you'll regret it."

My sister doesn't give up that easily. It's a family trait. We call it perseverance, Mom calls it annoying.
No one tries to mess with Meffi for long, though. Usually she is the one with a tail fluffed up to look bigger than her whole tiny body, roaring like a fiend from the underworld, chasing us.
Esme gave in. Naturally.

(Mom says that Meffi wasn't growling, but biting Mr. Big Tiger's whiskers She also told me that she is tired of us molesting the poor guy and that she can't understand why we are all so obsessed with those whiskers. Well, she's only human, poor creature. How could she understand?)

Occupied

Sorry, friends, if you thought you had still a chance to make a reservation for the exclusive luxury box on top of the wardrobe of Mulder's Mom, I have to disappoint you.

The view is excellent from up there, it's quiet and if the window is open, you feel the breeze coming in. 4 stars. If there was a snack bar up there, it would hit the 5 stars easily. Hint, hint, Ms Box Hotel Owner!!

At the moment it seems as if there have been reservations made for at least the next few hours. I hope they can find at least a small time slot for me after that, I'd love to try it out next!

Little sister

I'll never get over how innocent Esme can look if she wants to. I mean would you think she can be a really tough nut when we have one of our sibling fights? Look at that baby look from her big eyes.
Maybe it has to do with where she's sitting in this picture. (It was a lucky shot and therefore not high quality, sorry. Mom happened to carry her cam because she was on the way to take some pictures.)
Where else can a little girl sit in a bath tub that comfortable?
If you wonder, it's the upstairs bath. Esme likes to sit there when Mom is doing laundry and she doesn't want her to get a cold butt. Are we spoilt like some people say or is it just that we deserve the very best? Take an educated guess what I think.

We also deserve this great box that we take turns in using, by the way ;-)

Watchcat

She says I'm driving her nuts. I say she's nuts already.
The discussion is about cabinets and drawers. I'm responsible for guarding this place from intruders. They are everywhere, we all know that. So I have to do a regular round and have a good look in all cabinets, closed rooms, drawers. It's not my fault they are not open for inspection all the time. It's not my fault that they are even locked.
And still she won't open the drawers for me. She says there's nothing interesting in there, but she says that about the cabinets as well.

Let's see about that right this moment.

Memories

Yesterday we had a blood bath here. No worries, everyone is ok. It was an accident. During a little fight Meffi's ear was punctured. Mom has her experiences with that from when she took blood from Merlin's ear to check his blood sugar. That was a blood bath as well sometimes.
Only she didn't know this time it was the ear because Meffi shook her head all over the place which means there were spots of blood everywhere (including the wallpaper and the Steiff lamb's leg, oops).
Meffi got some of the infamous herbal cream put on her ear and things were ok again.

This inspired Mom to pull up some of the old pictures to show us how much friendlier we used to be with each other. It's true, those cuddly times have gone. Not that we don't snuggle anymore, but not as long as we used to. She still thinks it was Merlin's good influence and she's probably right.
Wanna see what she's talking about?

Merlin, Greebo and me - are we adorable or what?

Merlin and  Greebo

Merlin cleaning me

Esme and me - much younger then (can you believe we'll be 7 this year??)

Greebo and me

Gandalf and Greebo

And of course the lovebirds Merlin and Meffi

This was before Esme and I came along (a long time ago, just look at that video cassette on the floor!) when Mom had her first incredibly expensive and pretty lousy digital camera

Of course there are more pictures, but you know how it is when old people tell their stories "When I was young, I had to walk to school in 4 feet of snow, barefoot, 15 miles only on a piece of bread for the whole day" ... we just walked off and let her ramble ;-)

Say Hi to Buster and the rats

You might know that our humans are members of the tiny local zoo. That means we have guests sometimes. Some stay here for winter, some stay for good.
Like Buster.
Buster is way cool. Mom is absolutely in love with him. She has seen quite a few bunnies in her time, I mean she must be like 85 years old or so after all. They also bottle-raised some and she gets all mushy when she's telling us about it. As if it were our fault that we moved in here as perfectly independent highly developed feline masters.
Back to Buster (whose gender was finally confirmed yesterday although he was not happy about being turned over to show off his private bits). Isn't he a good looking dude?

"Maybe I can pretend to be a cat. The color already matches the one on the bag."

Can you tell we are pals? Actually we have been from the very beginning. I'm not used to a bunny being THAT relaxed around me. I wonder if he was a cat in a former life.
By the way, that is just one of Dad's working gloves I dragged down, not someone Buster and I killed off together.

Up there I told you to say Hi to the rats as well? Confused? Yup, I should have been a bit more precise. These are our winter guests, the Fat Sand Rats. No, really, they are called like that, I'm not being mean.
They look like our gerbils, only bigger.
I'd really like to be friends with them as well (there are more than just those two), but for some strange reason I'm not allowed to mingle. Those dudes are cool, too. When Mom opened the cage to take a quick pic, she had to shut it just as quickly because one of them was ready to jump out. It was a close thing! I swear I hear them going Nyanyanya when they wave at me from their balcony.
Spring is back it seems, so they will move out soon. I wonder if they'll be back next winter. I'll welcome them with open arms!

Simple pleasures

I built myself a fort from bubble wrap ... and will not let anyone else in. Just because I can. HA!