Cat update.

Sentinel was in the way as I stripped the sheets for washing, so I constructed a tent for him.  He enjoyed it.

Antares says hello too.  He's taking a break from his heated pad, which is where he spends all his time.

Cat report

Someone gave us a pomegranate in a pot and I put it on the back porch to see if it would live.  One day when I had the catio up, I watered it and Sentinel ran--actually lept off the bed and ran--to drink the water out of the dirty lid that is catching the excess water.  Because I want him to drink more water, I tried filling a baking dish with water and putting in it one of the pots I keep potting soil in.  He was not at all fooled and didn't drink any of this water.

Antares still loves his heated mat.  Even in the middle of the summer.

Recovering the new chair.

I stopped at an estate sale and fell for this chair.  After paying my $32.50, I went home, got the car and then convinced the chair and the car that they did want to come together so the chair could have a new home.  Sentinel is a fan of the new chair, though he wants it to face the other way so he can look out the window.

Sentinel continues to model the damage to the cushion.  The clever estate sale people flipped the cushion the other way so I couldn't see how bad this was.  Which is fine, I had to change the color anyway.

Antares also wanted to model.

I bought a twin sheet at Fred Meyer and used part of it to cover the bottom cushion.  Then I used the rest to drape around the back.  The whole thing came together in 15 minutes and will probably be fine until years go by and I get around to doing something official.

I bought a second sheet to drape over the official sheet, so I can easily wash away all the cat hair.  

Snoozing on the Catio.

Ignore the detritus that has accumulated on the catio. Focus instead on how cute the cats look sleeping in the sun.

And how cute they look when they wake up because I took their picture.

And then there were none! Curtains: the finale

The shade was in a not-done state for many days because I needed to purchase the correct screws that actually wanted to go into the door, instead of weakly grasping at the edges of the hole.  Then, even after I obtained said screws, I put off doing this project.  But today is the day for finishing.  So the shade has been properly reinstalled.

Here you can see the newly installed shade cord, and the leather ties.  I used a button from an old, adored jacket as a stopper.

The shade in its raised position.

Oh yes, I installed a cleat too.  That also took no time at all.

Antares watched the whole operation carefully.

Sentinel just slept.

Before I could hang the curtains, I needed to patch the holes from where I installed the curtain rod incorrectly.  I purchased some cool stuff that sprays texture on your walls.  Here I test it on a different part of the wall where the texture rubbed away.  It was trickier than I thought it would be.  I needed the "fine" setting (not medium as I guessed from the picture) and it didn't really go on in the way I thought it would.  There were a couple of re-dos.

Here it is covering the holes.  I waited for it to dry and then painted over it.

And then I could finally install the curtains.

And they are a little short.  They don't quite cover the entire window when closed.  Which is why one should just make one's own curtains.  I'll probably get a roller shade.  I love roller shades.  But I will leave the curtains up.

Here they are in the open position.

I used this book a lot when eliminating all the blinds from the house.  It has a variety of window treatments you can utilize, the instructions are clear and I think I bought this for about $2.00.

Seven and a half years after we started, we can now consider the project of replacing all blinds complete.  Hooray!

Cats love the swimsuit.

I bought a new swimsuit, so I gave this one to the cats.  They love to beat up on it.  Antares is particularly vicious.

I can't decide if it's the smell of chlorine, or possibly me that makes this such an attractive item.

It also might be the texture of the suit, or the many nooks and crannies there are to nose into.

Sentinel is a fan too.  He's just less destructive.

A quick-to-build and inexpensive Catio!

After touring various Catios last fall, I spent many months mentally constructing a catio for my cats.  Said catio will have access from the kitchen window and let the cats have the run of the north side of the house.  Said catio will also cost a hefty amount and need a concentrated time of work to build it.  I'm not sure if said catio will appear in the cats' lifespan, but I did have an epiphany recently and can construct a catio for now.

I bought a roll of wire fencing, four of those double ended hook thingies (I don't know what they are called, but you will see them later) and got out my wire snips, drill, drill bits and eye hooks leftover from another project.

My epiphany had to do with the fact that the back porch is already enclosed on three sides.  So I only needed to find something to close off the other side.  It had to be movable, because I need access to the back yard, but also secure enough so the cats couldn't get through it.

Enter the fence.  I had to buy 50 feet, but I can probably sell on Craigslist the 38 feet I didn't use on. Also, FYI, when you unsnip the wire holding the roll of fence in place, get ready to jump back because there is a dramatic and somewhat scary unspooling.  In this picture, if you squint, you can see that I have attached eyehooks to the house, clipped the clippy things to the eyehooks and have clipped the other end of the clippy things to the fence.

Here are the clippy things I'm speaking of.  V-necked shirts make good holders of said clippy thingies.

And here the fence has been stretched across and attached to two more clippy thingies which are attached to eyehooks.

I'm not really sure about the amount of give in the middle, but we shall see what happens.

Here are the cats investigating their catio.  Predictably, they went right to the fence and worked long and hard at getting out in the yard.  I told them that the concrete was as outside as they were going to get for now.

The project took me only an hour and cost about $20.00.  It's pretty easy to put up and  roll away, once I figured out I should mark which junctions of fence the clippy things were best clipped to.  I just used some twist ties to mark said junctions.

I've taken to leaving the left side clipped, and rolling up the fence and leaving it in the corner of the porch.  I use the lower right clippy thing to keep it rolled.  But if I want it off the porch entirely, it's also easy to unclip everything and set the roll in a corner of the yard.

Two weeks later, Sentinel is working pretty hard to push the middle of the fence enough to get under it so he can get to the yard.  We shall see what happens there.

Cats and Sun

The morning sun comes in through the back window and the cats chase it (via napping) from the bedroom door to the back door.  

Cats in the morning

They eat and then they often sit in this exact position and stare at me while I eat.  Sentinel sits on top of the chair, Antares underneath.

More squirrel action

I put two more sunflower heads out for the squirrels.  It took them more than a week to discover them.  Which made the incredibly lazy naturalist in me to wonder if they have trouble finding food that is out of season, because they found the freshly harvested sunflower heads in about an hour.  But three weeks later, maybe their little squirrel noses are sniffing for something else?

At any rate, this fellow was happy to eat everything up.  And Antares did his best to melt that glass so he could eat the squirrel.  But he failed.

New for the cats

These cardboard things cost $10.00 a piece.  I found that to be a reasonable price.
 

They come with everything needed for assembly, namely binder clips.
 

Here they are, assembled.
 

Closeup of the binder clips.
 

Collage of the cat investigations (fueled by treats)
 

A shot of real life

You know how Facebook and blogs are all cheery-cheery with a side note of things-are-great?  Here's a dispatch from the front:  The house is a freaking mess.

Dishes: not done in days. Dishwasher: full of clean dishes that need to be emptied.
 

The living room has spent a week still set up in Game Night mode.  Plus, it's been joined by Matt's old twin-sized bed that needs to go elsewhere.
 

The dining area is hosting the living room furniture and the games are all still out from the Game Night.
 

Laundry is overflowing in the laundry room.
 

My laundry has not been folded.
 

And my desk is a mess. Not to mention that those cords being vomited from the computer are totally bringing me down and have been for months.

Luckily, there are two cute cats to perk up the picture.  And it's the weekend, so things can be put back in order.