Having it all…

Both cats and birds…

Several weeks ago now, my younger son and I went to the local animal shelter and after two hours of petting

them all (the people there said that most of them wouldn’t let us – we were the exception that proved the rule as they all followed us around making the decision very difficult), of weighing the pros and cons, we finally chose two sisters (wonder if we were influenced by the fact that originally we had had two sisters?).

It is lovely to have cats back in the house (remind me of that when I complain about changing kitty litter twice, if not more, times a day!). At first I had to keep them in the basement with their food and water and kitty litter and they were very skittish.  Now they have settled in and have access to all the house except the two attic rooms as both sons are allergic and need a place without cat hairs.

They each have their own personality: Cléa is the bossy one, the one most likely to come running at any noise (hey it might be food you know – never mind that the dry cat-food bowl is always full. She also thinks that basically she is a human baby, crawling into my lap and turning over to be cradled. Babette is shyer and puts up with Cléa’s cleaning her, pushing her off my lap, grabbing the biggest bowl of food and the like. But when Babette can have my lap she likes to curl up head tucked into my elbow or sprawl out over my lap with her head draped over my arm (typing can be a challenge).

Cléa

Babette

One of Babette's favorite positions

In the two years where we had no cats I had put up a bird feeder and this summer in preparation for cats had no longer filled it.  However, as it turns out, these cats were raised in an apartment so I re-positioned the bird feeder in front of my office window and am enjoying the rare privilege of having both (Cléa kind of wonders when she sees them flittering out the window, but Babette takes it in her stride).

Full house

Sometimes the birds are joined by the resident squirrel as well: work is never boring.

King of the bird feeder

Shelling and dropping - the pigeons appreciate the crumbs

 The photos of birds and squirrels were taken through the window so the quality is not of the best, but one gets the idea.