The cats enjoyed dust baths in the driveway all summer long. They flop and roll and stand up covered with dust, really pleased with themselves. The fall rains have arrived now, and the amber lawn of late summer has returned to emerald green again.
dust bath time
Miss Nimbus seemed to be outgrowing her collar, so I treated her to a new baby girl pink one. It is missing this morning, I will have to search outdoors for it. This morning’s preliminary stroll netted me wet shoes and nothing more.
With the cooler weather, bead making season is winding down too.
Mo loves visiting the greenhouse
Mr Mo often comes out to help me tend the vegetables in the greenhouse. There are some carrots, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, beans and peas. Lemon verbena, dill, strawberries and cosmos complete the crew.
Mo follows me out there, flops on the cool concrete and enjoys the heat of the hothouse. Seattle has had a cool summer, so much more comfortable than the rest of the country, so the warmer greenhouse has pleased the plants. The radishes however, were too hot and had to go outside.
Chilling with the lettuce and cosmos
…
Meanwhile, Miss Nimbus is locked indoors, wishing she could come out and play. There she is looking out the kitchen window.
Not until dark! As soon as she hears me shut the blinds she starts begging to be let out. Maybe when she is older she will lose interest in hunting birds.
I see birdies, please let me out!
Mo with buddy Heath
Mr Mo has his stuffed animal pal named Heath. They are pretty cute together. This week I was given a new toy for Miss Nims, a sweet little handmade wool mouse. This special mouse was from The Snow Leopard Trust. Handcrafted items are made in Central Asia, home to the Snow Leopard, and sold to support their global conservation efforts.
It must have had an interesting scent, as Miss Nims curled back her lips to enjoy the aroma. This grimace is called the flehmen response. She then chased it all around the kitchen.
Nims has a mouse by the tail
The upstairs of my 1933 vintage house is a half story, so the side walls are half height knee walls. I have sliding panels there to allow access to the great storage area back in the eaves. This dusty and mysterious part of the house must be a library of old scents, memories of a half century of resident cats. They really enjoy being let back in there to explore. Mo always dips his normally curled-over-the-back tail so it won’t hit the fabric. Miss Nims looks so astonished, click for a larger view.
Instead of being let outdoors, they get to go exploring in the attic. Miss Nims is only allowed out after dark. With the longer daylight hours, now it will be 9:00. Sorry little girl, but I saw you chasing that hummingbird at 8:30 so you have to wait even longer tonight. She did capture and kill her first rat, I was sure to praise her for that.
The elephant batik on the wall has been donated for a quilting project, more on that to follow.
the portal opens
Mo vanishes but for tail
It has been a long winter, and a few of the cats around here are getting a little plump. Mo is getting positively portly! At 12 pounds, for his small frame, he is a couple pounds overweight, which for a human would be the equivalent of 20 pounds.
happy cats hanging out
Of course it is their owner who has been too willing to comply with their requests for more food who is to blame. Mr Mo specializes in the ankle dance; Miss Nimbus is the one who is very loud and vocal. But when she also stands up on her hind feet and waves a front paw in the air, alas the cuteness is too hard to resist.
I saw a story on Sunday Morning about people who walk their cats like dogs. Could this be the way to encourage Mo to lose a little weight, and a way to have Miss Nimbus be outdoors without hunting birds?
One cat was shown wearing a cloth harness called the Kitty Holster, this looks much harder to wriggle out of, it makes me wonder if they come in white? Time to go feed said cats.
Big handsome gray cat
This giant gray cat stops by from time to time, another regular in the neighborhood. He is as big as a raccoon, and the same color, so it would be quite hard to tell them apart in the dark.
My cats like to watch the action from the window, and I call them over if I spot a cat or squirrel they would like to see. No deer in the backyard here, but moles and raccoons are around, and the odd possum.
It is possible that this visitor is a Maine Coon cat, the oldest native cat breed in America. Wikipedia has a nice article about the history and origins of the breed. I will have to observe closely to see if those big paws have the polydactyl extra toes the breed sometimes exhibits.
Nims bravely enters the tub
Miss Nimbus had one bath, months ago, when her white coat was really dirty. She did not take kindly to this warm water dousing, and has been hesitant to even enter the bathroom, and especially not the dreaded bathtub!
Mo hops in the tub often to check out the dripping tap and get some really fresh water. I was thinking it would be handy if she were aware of this extra water source, and wanted to quell her fear of the bathroom, so I decided to try bribing her with food.
They both adore Hills Tartar Diet food, which I originally got for Mo’s dental health. I tried leaving a couple pellets of this treat in the bottom of the tub for Nims. At first she was very interested but would not go near it while I was in the bathroom. Later I checked and it was gone. Soon she was putting her paws up on the edge of the tub and watching me put out treats, licking her lips, then she was brave enough to jump in the tub – but immediately jumped out with the food in her mouth to eat it in the safety of the doorway. Pretty funny. Finally she was relaxed enough to eat what she found right there in the tub.
Here they are having a tussle in the kitchen. They will play fight and chase each other around the house. I hope they are playing more than fighting, sometimes I break them up when it starts sounding too mean.
Nimbus and Mo play fight
Mr Mo came home with me just before Christmas, December 18th, 2004.
Mo as a kitten. He was a feisty little guy, unafraid of the bigger cats where he grew up.
He had a grayish body with faint tiger stripes, and darker black “points” or extremities; his tail, legs, and head. His sister Stella was more flashy, with the polka dot tummy and bolder tabby stripes, but Mo was the kitten for me.
getting into mischief
Here is another shot that shows how silver his coat appeared. Before long he got his longer black outer coat in and the gray undercoat was hidden. Now if he is out in strong sunlight you can sometimes still see the hidden tabby stripes. He has a stripe of longer fur along his back and tail, and of course on his head as his mini-mohawk. On the rare occasions when he is alarmed and puts his hair up you can see this. Reminds me of a fish raising it’s dorsal fin so it appears too big to swallow.
I was re-painting the living room shortly after he arrived, and he delighted in tunneling under the clear plastic drop cloths, and playing fetch; chasing small balls, returning them to me to be thrown again.
He has been a great buddy, very affectionate and entertaining, that’s my Mo.
Hello Mo fans!
snow camouflage
We had a nice dusting of snow for Thanksgiving, so pretty watching it fall and transform the landscape. This was likely the first time Miss Nimbus had seen snow, and I saw her shaking her paws. With her white coat it turned her into the camouflage kitty.
After a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with family, I was home on the sofa watching TV with a furry fake leopard throw blanket on my lap. Mo came by to purr and be petted on the lap. Soon it was the turn for Nims, who was being extra affectionate. After walking along the back of the sofa purring and rubbing up against my head, she settled in for some lap time herself. Hah, Mr Mo, who is now on the floor, gets jealous and stands up on his back legs to swat her twice, trying to shoo her away. I made him desist, but he came back a little later, noting my now reclining pose, he took the shoulder spot, and there I was, with a blanket and two cats keeping me toasty. A festival of felines, a pile of purrieness. Snow always makes me thankful to be warm.
snow falling softly
Hello Mo fans!
Movember is here! No it’s not a typo, Mo is saluting Movember Australia, a group that promotes November as a month for awareness of men’s cancer issues, similar to October being Breast Cancer Awareness month. Mo is Australian slang for a moustache, and to support the cause men grow a mo for the month, or if they normally wear one they shave it and regrow it that month. It makes for many a conversation starter on an important topic.
Please pass this on, and grow a mo if you can! Check out their website for info on becoming a Mo Bro or Mo Sista, and look for Mo Merchandise too.
Now my little Mo is named for the natural Mohawk hairdo he sports, but he still supports the Mo Bros. He also has extra long hair all along the length of his spine, only visible if truly alarmed.
Mo's tiny Mohawk hairdo
the mo report | mary | 
October 17, 2011 2:16 pm | 
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