Kira's Gotcha Day!

 8 years ago, Joe and I brought home Kira to join our family!  I found an ad for her on craigslist, and we drove about an hour to get her.  I'm so glad we found her!  She's basically the perfect cat.  Her biggest strike against her is that she's been slowly destroying our couch, chair, carpet, etc.  But like I regularly remind Joe, that's okay, because we love her.  😅😇

During the day, Kira loves to sleep in my lap while I work or in the hammock in the window nearby.  When I go to bed, she's pretty quick to curl up right next to me.  In the morning and evenings, she's typically off by herself as those times are when Arien is wanting my attention.  She's been such a good big sister to Arien, although just like any sisters, they definitely get into their little fights.  😂

I made this cute party hat to celebrate, but Kira didn't really want to wear it.  She was being quite uncooperative until I bribed her with treats.  Doesn't she look so cute?!? 😍  I love Kira so much, and I hope we have at least 8 more years with her.  ❤

Cats and Mourning Doves

 I think the cats are over this cold weather.  They want spring to be here so they have more birds, squirrels, and chipmunks to watch.  For now, they are stuck with these Mourning Doves who are chilling on our patio.

Ready to Pounce

Arien was stalking Kira and I was able to grab this fun little series where you can see her eye dilating as she contemplated pouncing.  Kira was not amused, but ultimately Arien changed her mind and didn't even pounce.  So Kira got lucky.  😅

 

Kira and her nemesis

 I finally had my camera out again to take pictures of the hamsters, and Kira was awake so she became one of my subjects.  She's so pretty and fluffy!  She was hanging out by the patio door because the chipmunks were running around providing lots of entertainment for her.  They seem to taunt her.  Truthfully, they taunt me too when I see them climbing to the bird feeder over and over again, despite my attempts to scare them off.  They are such cute little stinkers!

I caught this one in the act.  😒😅

Cats!

I got the camera out for the hamsters, and decided to see what I could get of these two.  Neither of them seemed too interested in posing more for me.  Haha!

Kira Playing

 Kira is absolutely obsessed with the little puff balls you can buy for crafts or whatever.  We had a small pink one that came in a pack of cat toys that she utterly adored.  She would get so crazy playing with it that we worried she'd lose it.  So we decided we wanted to buy her more.  Joe found a pack of 50 on Amazon that had all the colors of the rainbow, including pink.  They aren't exactly the same as her original favorite pink one, but she loves them all.  They mostly stay in our basement and every few weeks, I get a yard stick and get them all out from under the couches where they've collected out of her reach.  Kira gets so excited to have them all available again.  She goes crazy downstairs and brings many of them upstairs.  Every couple of days I gather the ones I see upstairs and throw them back down the stairs.  Eventually they all seem to disappear again and the cycle repeats with me clearing them all out from under the couches.  

We did lose the OG pink one for over a year.  This past summer, I was determined to find it, so over a few weeks, I searched the house.  I had kinda given up when I ended up cleaning under the shelves that the hamster cages sit on and found it!  She was thrilled to have her OG pink ball again.

Sunbathers

 I'm grateful for the sun, especially on these cold days.  I had to capture my beautiful cats who were also enjoying the sun.  I love how Kira practically glows.  😁

Donut Cat!

 A couple of months ago I noticed that Arien had a sore on her tummy.  I thought that her and Kira had gotten into a rough fight, and maybe Kira bit her hard enough to break the skin some.  I took a picture and decided to keep an eye on it.  Over the next few weeks I'd notice she'd be licking that spot a lot and I'd take a look at it and take another picture.  Eventually I realized that she still had the spot and it had been 2 months since I first became aware of it.  So she went to the vet.  The vet felt that it was actually an allergic reaction to something in her environment changing.  I avoid changing things, especially with the cats, but I also don't have control over the companies I purchase things from making changes without me knowing.  So anyways, I have zero idea what caused this, but in order for it to heal, she needed to quit grooming it.  Thus I bought the donut of shame.  The first picture is quite literally Arien's immediate react to it.  But as you scroll through, you may notice that she doesn't look mad in the later pictures.  In fact, Arien almost seemed to like the donut.  We noticed she was so calm and chill.  Not only did she not hide in the basement while it rained, but she sat in the window to watch the rain.  We consider making her wear the donut for the rest of her life, but that's not actually feasible.  Haha!  Plus, Kira was initially terrified of it and therefore of Arien.  And while Kira got over her fear of Arien in the donut, they were no longer playing together.  So we enjoyed the calm and chillness of Arien in the donut and looked into buying her a sweatshirt to wear instead as a long-term solution to when we need Arien to chill or not be afraid.