Friday, April 26, 2013

Getting ready for winter

I can always tell what season it is by looking at where Lucky & Phoebe choose to sleep. This is Abby's old striped bed with the lambswool pillow. I'd put it under the back stairs during the summer thinking that the girls might like to sleep on it there as it was Abby's favourite spot. Neither of them went near it all summer. On the last hot day, just before Easter, I washed the cover & brought the bed inside next to Phoebe's scratching pole & she walked straight in, turned around three times & flopped down on it. She's hardly moved since - during the day, at least.

Lucky has only one favourite sleeping spot, apart from my lap, & that's under her blanket on the couch. Or so I thought!

I bought this lovely undyed Shetland wool blanket from here & put it on my bed. The girls both investigated this new object in their own way. Phoebe jumped straight up & fell asleep almost immediately.

Lucky poked & prodded, checking for monsters that might be lurking underneath this new, strangely smelling object. Once she had declared it safe, she also decided that nowhere could be cosier on chilly evenings. So, every night for the last week, this is what I've discovered when I've gone to bed (even though when I started my bedtime routine - brush teeth, get glass of water - Lucky was asleep on my chair having reluctantly moved from my lap). Doesn't leave much room for my legs... but then, whose comfort is more important?

18 comments:

  1. They look very cosy and content :0)

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    1. They are happy cats although I wish Lucky was a little calmer. She's going through a stage of not sleeping at night which is driving me crazy! Phoebe sleeps all through the night no matter what. she's purring on my lap at the moment.

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  2. My cat Jamie does much the same, but it is a 50/50 chance whether it is my legs that get crushed or DH's. The cat doesn't mind who he inconveniences :-)

    We are heading towards summer here in Scotland and spring has been a long time coming this year. Nevertheless daffodils are now beginning to bloom and Jamie has rediscovered the outside world. To see him enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures is a joy to behold. Now if I could just find a way to stop the fighter jets from RAF Lossiemouth screaming overhead at what seems like tree height and scaring Jamie silly, life would be perfect......

    JB

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    1. It's lovely when they can get out & about without being too hot or too cold, isn't it? The autumn days here are lovely, just warm enough after cool, crisp mornings. I'm used to sleeping at odd angles now...

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  3. It always takes me a moment to remember about our reversed seasons (or had I not read your blog in six months? :)) But today I talked with an Austalian exchange student who was bemoaning the fact that she was going home to winter just as we're seeing our late-arriving signs of spring. (Poor thing - when she came in January I think she went from a heatwave to a freezing cold spell during her plane trip.) I like winter, though...hope yours is a nice cozy one!

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    1. I love winter so I'm looking forward to shorter days & cosy afternoons reading & drinking tea. Hopefully your student lives somewhere mild & not somewhere much colder like Tasmania. Although nowhere here gets the snow & freezing temperatures of Europe & the US - away from the Alps that is.

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  4. Replies
    1. They are contented & when they're happy, I'm happy!

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  5. I remember those days well with our Labrador retrievers! Always my legs that got crunched. Dad just pushed them off the bed:)

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    1. Luckily the girls aren't nearly as heavy as a couple of Labs would be!

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  6. Ah yes...our cats go through the same adjustments to the important introduction of a new blanket, a new season. Only at opposite times of the year, of course!

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    1. My girls now have so many beds to choose from that I'm starting to think I should take a few of the neglected ones to the shelter where I adopted them so other cats can enjoy them. There's really only a couple of places they prefer & it's usually chairs or the bed.

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  7. Ours are spending a lot of time in a glassed in bit of the house that still gets quite warm in winter. I sometimes think cats run on solar power.

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    1. Isn't it lovely to see them curled up in a patch of sunlight - or right next to the heater depending on the season? They always know the most comfortable place to sleep.

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  8. Just a minute before I clicked on your blog, I looked down at my cat Turtle and watched her happily licking and playing with a catnip chili pepper, a favorite toy of hers and her mother Nikita's. Then I got up to look out the window and she jumped up on the dining room chair, where I'd been sitting to read and write. There is not enough room on this chair for me and the 15 pound cat who's trying to sit behind me. You can guess who will have to move, right? If they're happy, I'm happy.

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    1. As long as we know who's in charge, we're all happy then, Joan?!

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  9. Oh how lovely. Thank you for sharing the pictures of them. We had a lambs wool bed for one of our cats, the sort that hung on a radiator. They both loved it and the son would always try and turf his mother out of it. In the end it had to go for fear of them pulling the radiator off the wall. Mum made the cover into something else for them.

    Thank you for jogging my memory.

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    1. It's funny how they have one favourite spot for a while & then they move on, isn't it? Well, Phoebe moves on, Lucky's pretty loyal to her favourite blanket.

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