Willow & Nahum's gotcha day!

Yikes! I almost missed celebrating Willow's and Nahum's gotcha day! Four years of gotchadom, can you believe it?!?!

They were rescued together and are still the best of friends.

I'm so thankful Willow and Nahum are in my life - they are such delightful cats!

duty never sleeps

Outside cat comes inside then insists on looking outside. Go figure!

On the mornings when I take Oliver inside for some inside time, he gets up in the window and looks out over his yard. If he sees something he doesn't like he growls a mean and nasty growl. I suppose he's always on-duty.

Milo finds a home!

I got word this morning that sweet Milo has found his forever human!! He was adopted with Luigi, the white and black playful kitten! I'm thrilled that he was adopted with a kitten his age so he'll always have a kitty buddy!!

Milo and Luigi playing together

remembering Max

Four years ago today I said goodbye to my amazing Max after his long battle with kidney failure. It feels like he's been gone 25 years, but the calendar tells me it's only been four. Fourwhitepaws is an ongoing tribute to Max and the many gifts he blessed me with.

Max usually slept upside-down

Even with five cats in the house now, Max's presence is dearly missed. He took a significant chunk of my heart with him when he died, the pain of his absence remains vivid while the joy of his soul also forever resides in my heart. Entering into the plentiful memories brings many tears, a testament to the bond that forever connects us.

When I'm loving on one of my cats or engaging in TNR work, I often think of Max and my heart fills with gratitude. Prior to Max I was a staunch dog person with little respect for cats. I always dreamed of getting a dog but before that happened, Max entered my life and quickly opened my heart to the amazingness of cats. There's no going back, no way, no how.

Max loved to roll in the dirt and gravel when I took him for walks in the yard. 

I love you my dear Max, and I miss you immensely. I eagerly await the day to be reunited with you in heaven.

Hershey on nip

I always love hearing about sweet Hershey! I just received this update from Mike:

I hope you are enjoying the warmer weather. Hershey loves sitting in the window and looking for birds with the long, sunny days.

I bought him a fresh catnip plant and gave him a leaf tonight, and he got pretty loopy. He spent a long time just lying upside down on the floor. Here are a few pictures.

photo courtesy of Mike

photo courtesy of Mike

Oh my! Look at that fluffy tummy, just asking for loves!

sleeping challenges

Went to bed at 10pm, suddenly awoke around 1:45am with last night's dinner rolling around in my gut. I'm squished up and teetering on the edge of the queen sized bed, not because of my roiling gut but because a number of cats are occupying my foot space. There's only one thing to do...

Lets consider the options.

1. Try to fall back to sleep with no room to move and with only enough sheet to cover half of me while the cats stretch out and enjoy most of the bed.
2. Attempt to steal some of Laura's side of the bed.
3. Do what Nahum does and love on the cat who's in the space I want until they move from the love-overload.
4. Get up and adore how cute the sleeping cats are.
5. Relocate the cats.

What would you do?

This is a fairly regular event in my life (the cats taking my bed space, not the roiling gut!), so, I get lots of experience with this situation. Oddly enough, relocating the cats is not an option that ever enters my mind. Here's what I do:

I get up and delight in how cute the sleeping cats are! There is something so heart warming about watching cats sleep, and this night was a special treat. Willow was snuggling with Theo by using his back as her pillow! You can see in this second picture how much Theo really stretches out and owns the bed!

The typical formation consist of Willow in my foot space and Theo stretched along my side. Every time I wake and check out their cutes, Willow's purring away. I swear, that girl leaves her purr motor running all the time! 

blogging buddy

Catching up on cat blogs...

with my pal Nahum.

Nahum is turning into quite the lap cat, which, of course, I adore!