Six fluffy months

I was going to start this post by apologising that I'm writing about Sophie again, or by pointing out that if I had kids I'd probably post far more photos than this so really this is not so bad, or perhaps with a self-deprecating comment about being a Crazy Cat Lady... these things are probably true, but you know what? I just love my cat and I'm not going to apologise for it. I love her company; I love waking up in the morning and having cuddle time with a sleepy cat; I love laughing at her clumsiness as she falls off her scratching post; I love coming home to a little pocket rocket who shows her excitement at my arrival by running the IndyCat 5000 around the dining room and up and down the hallway... and I love taking photos of her.

So... today Sophie is six months old and in honour of her half-birthday I offer the following photographic timeline. I've posted many of these before so feel free to let your eyes glaze over.

This photo was taken by her breeder when she (Sophie) was 7 weeks old.

This is Sophie on her first day here (nearly 10 weeks) stretched out on the arm of the chair. She's actually lying on a handtowel there, not a towel. She's way too big to do that now!

I have come to learn that Sophie is an extremely curious cat who will come running towards any open door (front door... toilet... Tupperware cupboard... whatever), will climb in anywhere she can fit and will stick her face in everything.

Today, at six months, she's a lot bigger...

...but every bit as curious.

Yeah... I'm a Crazy Cat Lady, but I'm okay with it. :)
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A barrel... with legs

Yep, sorry, a little more Crazy-Cat-Ladyness. I can't help myself. Sophie is just about to turn 6 months old and wow, she has grown in the last four months. She weighed 900g when I brought her home at 10 weeks and she's now heading towards 3kg. (No, I'm not completely obsessed - I had to weigh her to work out which worming treatment to give her.) She is typical of the breed in that she is short and very stocky, just like a little barrel with legs. The great thing about those short legs is that she is still waaaaay too small to jump on the kitchen bench. Graceful, skinny cats could do it with barely any effort, even cats much younger, but Boofhead Sophie just jumps and jumps and barely makes it halfway up the cupboard door. As you can tell I'm just devastated about that...

And to prove that she doesn't sleep ALL the time... She's not really that dark but it was night time with dim lighting in my bathroom. And I have no idea what that little nod is at the 00.42 mark. It looks like she was waiting for a cue from offstage.

Should I be offended?

Should I be offended when my cat feels the need to clean herself for twenty minutes after I pat her?

The decisions to be made when you're a cat.  Sleep all afternoon?

Or spend some time playing with all your toys?

And then there's the pic below.  I can't work out whether Sophie has a toilet fetish or she's just a huge nosy parker. Every time I turn on the light/exhaust fan in the toilet she comes running from wherever she happens to be and sticks her face in the loo. I often have to push her away in order to sit down and even then she meows at me, pats at me with her paws and tries to get me to move. I have to say this occasionally puts me off my game...

As soon as I stand up she sticks her head back in the bowl, then looks up at the button, waiting for me to press it so she can watch it flush. It's like her own personal Better Homes and Gardens water feature.

No... my cat's not weird. Really.

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Crazy Cat Lady

Cats can be expensive. Savvy businesses have twigged to the fact that cat owners tend to spend more than dog owners on accessories for their cats. Part of this is because more and more cats are being kept indoors 100% of the time, which is the responsible thing to do but it means that cat owners need to provide ways for their cat to exercise and play indoors. Dog owners, on the other hand, can take their dog out and play ball in the park. The need to exercise an indoor cat means that cat owners are usually willing to buy large and elaborate cat trees so their cat can climb and scratch. Cats also like to look out the window and sleep up high so cat trees are perfect for that.

Realising the need for large cat trees, and realising that pet owners in general are suckers for their pet's happiness, the cat tree/accessory industry is huge and stupidly expensive. There is one particular company, which I won't name, that makes a very distinctive type of cat tree. These trees are very sturdy (like, 50kg) and cats apparently love them... but the smallest ones, which are about the size of a footstool, are roughly $300. The tallest and most elaborate is $980. I'm willing to spend $980 to stop my cat dying but there's no way I'm spending nearly one thousand dollars so that Sophie has somewhere comfy to sleep. Like she'd know the difference anyway... the other day I found her asleep draped across the rungs of a dining chair in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.

Sophie is an indoor-only cat, so I recognise the need for some sort of cat tree/scratching post. It will keep her entertained and exercised and, hopefully, will stop her scratching my furniture and climbing the curtains. Well, that's how it's supposed to work. She does have a small scratching post with a couple of levels that I bought from the Reject Shop, and she loves it, but it's not very sturdy and there's no way she'll be able to use it when she's full grown. British Shorthairs tend to be stocky and heavy... like a little barrel with legs. So I've been looking online and in stores and have been horrified at the prices of some things I've seen. Not only that, most cat trees are tall and narrow so a heavy cat would knock it over in no time. I was starting to despair until I stumbled across the website for Lunic Pet Accessories. Yes, I'm shamelessly plugging them because they were fantastic. Their website said they'll design a cat tree/scratching post to your requirements so I emailled them and gave a very vague description of what I wanted. They came back with a few designs, we tweaked them, and this was the end result:





















It's 130cm tall, 80cm long and 50cm wide. The whole thing (including being delivered and assembled) cost me $170, which is about $100 cheaper than anything else I saw of a comparable size, and about $200 less than anything I saw of a comparable size plus quality and sturdiness.

I'm very happy with it and Sophie loves it... but I admit there was a moment where I thought, "Hmmm... I'm buying a piece of personally designed, hand-crafted furniture for my cat."

Yeah.... I think I'll pop off now. I have to go pick up my membership card for the Crazy Cat Lady Society.