My sewing buddy

I have plenty of space in my sewing room when it is clean. I have an "L" shaped desk that I sew on. I have a 10 foot office table on the other side so that I have a "U" shaped work area. So, normally, I have plenty of room. Then I get into sewing a project and my space shrinks to a couple of feet. Usually, the area around the sewing machine is clear for me to work. Well, not this day and even my sewing buddy, Lathandar, decided to squeeze in. 

So I decided that he must feel neglected and I gave him attention. He stayed in that spot while I petted him and gave him treats for nearly 20 minutes. Then he, like most cats, decided that he wanted a different spot to lay on. So he moved just enough so I could once again get to my fabrics. Of course, as I sewed, the fabric began to cover him as he had moved behind the sewing machine, but he didn't seem to mind. 

My husband said that he wished that I would give him the same kind of attention that I do the pets. Well, if he crawled up onto my desk and looked all precious and adorable, I probably would. Instead, I walk into the room to give him a tea and he is playing some gory video game. Who wants to stick around to see that? Yuck. 

Mischievous Cats

This is Lathandar. He is one of the two black cats that we have. This is a younger photo. His black fur shines so much that it appears gray or silver in the camera flash. He is now older and his fur is getting a red-brown tinge to it. He is still beautiful, just getting older. This photo was taken after he had rolled in some catnip and you can see it in his fur. Lathandar is the cat that guards the house. He prowls around the house making sure everything is fine. Then he sits up on a high perch to watch over everything.

This is Vex. This is a photo of when he was much younger as well. His black fur reflects silver in the camera flash just like his brother's fur did. Vex often has a grumpy look on his face. Yet, he is the cuddly cat. He loves being babied and pampered. He quite expects it. He is also a thief and will take things that don't belong to him. I have not found his secret stash, yet. I hope to recover my favorite make up brush when I do. It was so plush and soft. I had to take it from him several times. He figured out how to open the cabinet where my cosmetics were stored and took it away, never to be seen again. 

I wanted to share a story of Lathandar and Vex when they were under a year old. We used to have our bedroom in the basement. Then we moved it upstairs. The cats shared our room in the basement. After we moved upstairs, we left the basement door open for them to play and roam. 

My husband and I had many things in the basement including some toys for the nieces and nephew. One of the toys was a stuffed dog. It was as big as the cats back then, maybe bigger.

We woke up one morning to see the stuffed dog sitting perfectly positioned in our bedroom door so that he was looking in on us. He wasn't tipped over and wasn't angled strangely. It made me jump a little to see it there.

We didn't think of those scary movies where dolls come to life. Our thoughts were, "How did the cats get that big stuffed dog up here and how did they position it so nicely in the doorway?" 

My husband took the stuffed toy back down stairs, but it found its way upstairs again. So we finally decided the cats must want it badly so we let them keep it upstairs and play with it until it fell apart. 

Cats certainly can be mischievous little things. It is part of their charm. 

Cats and hair mats

This is Lathandar. He loves to help me sew. Unfortunately, he tends to want to be in the center of things, as you can see. What you cannot see in the photo is that there is a nice comfortable cat bed a couple of inches to the back and right. Yet, he chooses to lay right on top of my work. Got to love them. Who else would show such devotion to get right in the middle of one's work space? 

The poor thing is going through a bad hair phase right now as is his brother, Vex. Both black cats are getting hair mats. I clip them giving them little bald patches. I need to up my combing of their fur. 

Cats and hairballs

This is Vex watching over our niece as she slept. The pets are quite attentive to the children guests that we have and are very protective. 

We have always managed to have medium to long hair cats, not that we try to do so. It is just a coincidence. Well, any cat can have hairballs. I can't say if our cats have more than normal. I haven't really searched for any information on that.

Last night, it turned out that Vex didn't feel well. He jumped onto the headboard and began to cough up a fur ball. (Sorry for being so indelicate.) It was a slow moving day for me and he was right above my head. I tried to move and my husband tried to catch what the cat was offering. (How is that for true love?)

Unfortunately, some did get in my hair...and on the bed, the pillow, and the headboard. We cleaned it and washed up. Yuck. We held Vex to make sure he was okay. He seemed upset or maybe he just didn't feel good yet. 

We have had company over when one of the black cats have come up to us to offer a fur ball. Our guests ask if it upsets us that they come to us and do it. 

Honestly, it doesn't bother me. Psychologically, we have developed a relationship with the black cats that they know they can come to us when they need comfort. We cannot take the credit alone. They are secure enough that they feel safe reaching out to us at such times.

Before she found us, our youngest cat, Mystique, was badly treated. She will hide if anything frightens or upsets her. We try to make her feel safe, but she learned early on that humans are not the nicest creatures on the planet. So for her, she doesn't feel comfortable reaching out to us.

In the future, when something like a hairball incident occurs with your fur babies and they wish for you to share in the experience (such as leaving it in a shoe or where you will step on it) think of it as they feel comfortable enough to let you know that they were not feeling the best. It won't make clean up any funner, but at least it might keep your stress level lower.