felines

We added two new felines to our home in the past few weeks, sisters named Smudge and Ariel. They used to be Mike's cats until he moved from his previous relationship. Their caretaker is planning to be in Hawaii for the better part of a year and didn't have another place for them to go. So, it has been an interesting adjustment to be a 3 cat household now. Harper knows that he really wants to be friends with them, but his mere presence is often met with hisses, growls and swats, mostly from Smudge.

We were were sitting in the living room the other night. Harper was fascinated by this long-legged spider wandering around and proceeded to "chase" it. Ariel and Smudge thought that looked like an interesting game. Ariel watched it under the love seat for a bit. But, when it got near Smudge, she looked a little scared of it and backed away. We found it pretty amusing.

Harper is a "neglected" cat at times. We have been talking about making him a cat perch/scratching post since we moved to Port Angeles. But that certainly hasn't happened. Mike brought up the perches belonging to Ariel and Smudge. Soon after bringing the perches into the house, Harper jumped onto it. "Hey, this is pretty cool. Why don't I have one??"

I'm not used to aloof cats since both Ari and Harper were/are very affectionate cats who want/ed to be on me all of the time. Smudge, however, is her own cat. She does not come when called or even acknowledge that you are speaking to her. If she wants to be petted she will let you know. She has this black spot on the tip of her nose which prompted her name and makes her look like a little imp.

Ariel is a large cat. She weighs the same as Harper but Harper has a frame for his weight. When she gets scared, her eyes are huge, these big green saucers. And her fur is very soft, feels like a rabbit. She has this plaintive cry when she is hungry and won't stop until she is fed ...