Apparently Cat 1 cloned herself and we got two tabbies now? Sort of a matched set? Yeah, we got two of them now. That’s Cat 1 on the right and Cat 2 on the left. Or is it Cat 1 on the left and Cat 2 on the right? Both tabby, both large economy sized kitties and I’ve already resigned myself to constantly confusing which one is which.
Cat 2 is a sort of refugee. She was a shelter kitty who was adopted into a home where a pre-existing cat decided she hated her and beat the crap out of her every chance she had. Not a good situation. So we agreed to try taking her in and see how Cat 1 would handle having another kitty in the house. As you can see, Cat 1 has no problem with having a new roommate at all. The two of them have been together about 4 days now and are getting along just fine. They aren’t exactly cuddle buddies but there’s been no hissing or spitting or growling or fighting. In fact no drama at all.
And considering this is Cat 2’s fourth home in about 3 months she’s adjusting remarkably well. She spent about the first hour here under the sofa, then decided that was boring and went and sat under the bed for a while, and the next morning she was acting like she’s lived here all her life. She’s not a lap cat like Cat 1 is, but she’s become downright affectionate towards me.
We were nervous about how Cat 1 would handle an intruder but aside from eyeing her with suspicion for the first day or two there hasn’t been any problem at all. In fact I think the two of them colluded in a 4 AM raid on the butter dish this morning. I woke with a start upon hearing a loud crashing noise and rushed out to find the two of them sitting under the dining room table and pretending they had no idea how MrsGF’s favorite ceramic covered butter dish ended up in many pieces on the floor. They would have had to get a rather heavy, covered, ceramic dish, with a quarter pound of butter in it, lifted up over the top of a one inch thick cutting board, shoved about three feet along a counter and then onto the floor, and I don’t think either one of then could have done it by themselves so I think both of then were in on it.
So, it’s spring! Yeah, sure it is. Temperature was down around 28 degrees last night. Sigh… Good thing we haven’t got anything planted out in the gardens yet. We do have flowers, though. A few of the more daring plants have been putting on a show.
It’s wonderful to be seeing color out in the gardens again.
Let’s see, what else?
Oh, I mentioned before that we were going to be getting the roof on the house and garage replaced sometime this year. We had the contractor out here Monday morning to measure everything up, give us a quote, and now we have that scheduled for sometime in late May or early June. Estimated cost for that is going to be around $13,000. That’s actually a bit less than I had anticipated so I’m pleased with that.
Once the roof is replaced I can start thinking about putting up a permanent solar array on the south facing garage roof. Hopefully I’ll be able to finally get enough solar panels up there to adequately feed the solar power system so we can fully utilize it at last. Going to have to see what the budget can handle. Might have to wait a while for our household budget to be able to deal with about 5 KW of solar panels.
grouchyfarmer 
It is a wonderful thing to have some sweet little fur babies running around the place….our flowers are beginning to grow too and getting the flower beds cleaned and ready to go is a pain but the results are well worth the effort….We had a new roof put on a couple of years ago and it cost $8,000 and we are crossing our fingers to hope that it lasts for another couple of years. Nothing that has to be done to a home these days is inexpensive that is for sure.
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Yeah, everything with houses these days is expensive. About 10 years ago we put a new bathroom in upstairs. That cost us $10K. Now just ten years later it would cost almost double that. Sigh…
The cats are great. I’ve always loved cats going back to when I was a little kid growing up on the farm. My wife and I have always had at least one cat in the house going back to the mid 1980s, so being without one when our last kitty passed away felt very strange. The house seemed empty. I’m at the kitchen table with the Macbook as I write this at about 10:30 PM and one of them is sitting on the kitchen chair next to me snoozing and the other is up in bed with my wife. I think she’s dreaming about something because every once in a while she makes a little blrrting sort of noise and her legs twitch.
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My last Cat, a common street cat named Joey loved me more than anything in the world…He would just wait for me to get home from work so he could jump into my arms….
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Charlie is like that. She’s right outside the bedroom door every morning waiting for me to get up, and when we’re gone for a few hours as well. Mercy, the new one, is still a bit nervous, which is entirely understandable, but she’s starting to get more affectionate as well. She’s started to engage with me and my wife more and more every day. Sure they get into mischief now and then, we need to deal with litter boxes and food and vet bills, but it’s worth it. To me a house without a cat or a dog just doesn’t feel right.
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I know the feeling…Pets do enrich one’s life immeasurably
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That was a wonderful thing you did for Cat 2…..good to hear that there is no drama……the colors are marvelous….I love Spring but sadly it becomes Summer way too soon. We had a metal roof installed about 30 years ago and it went through Katrina without losing a screw….the money was well spent. chuq
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Things just worked out perfect for everyone with the two cats. Charlie, Cat 1, adjusted beautifully to her new home. She’s one of those cats who just loves everyone. She’s very calm and relaxed. Nothing seems to bother her. She loves contact with people. Anyone who comes here better like cats because as soon as they sit down they are going to have her on their laps. Cat 2, Mercy, is still skittish, nervous, which is entirely understandable considering what happened to her in her last home. Still she’s adjusting well, is becoming more calm, is engaging with me and my wife more and more every day.She and Charlie are still a bit wary of each other but that’s working out well too.
We thought about putting on a metal roof but finally decided it wasn’t worth the extra cost here. It’s very rare for us to have winds more than 50 mph except of we have a tornado, and a metal roof isn’t going to survive that either. Realistically speaking a new shingle roof is almost certainly going to out live us.
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Sounds like the cats are becoming more and more cool with each other…..the personalities will start showing up.
That is what I like about the metal roof if all goes well it will outlast me and my kids…..chuq
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Bookend cats! Cool.
Only thing we have really blooming right now is the honeysuckle in the forsythia. I’ve done my best to eradicate the insipid honeysuckle from the almond bush and the lilac. Forsythia is next.
But damn! That’s tough work! What you can see of honeysuckle, is one thing, what you can’t easily see is the huge networked root system. It’s nearly the same amount as what you can see growing in your bush.
This is new to me, also had some blackberries growing out of the almond bush, I got as much of that as I could get out of there too. But it started growing again just outside the bush. I got a shovel to dig it out, as thorns can get you through gloves, I discovered that the blackberries also have an underground root system similar to the honeysuckle.
Son of a…
I swear I’m this close, to renting a backhoe and taking the bushes out!
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some of that stuff is just nasty to try to get rid of! We’ve been working on trying to get rid of buckthorn in one of our front gardens for years now. Just when we think we finally have it eliminated we start seeing new shoots coming up.
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Never run into buckthorn. I’ll trade you some honeysuckle and blackberries 😉
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No thanks! Well I wouldn’t mind having a nice blackberry patch but I know what you mean. When they turn up where you don’t want them they’re almost impossible to get rid of
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