Snow-paw-calypse

Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. Whatever you call it, it's what we seem to be experiencing the past few days here in Oregon, thanks to that crazy polar vortex. Those who live in colder areas of the States will laugh at us West Coasters, but we are not used to it here and we are not prepared for it. Usually when it snows we get maybe 1 or 3 inches, and it's gone the next day, not 1.5 feet. Snow plow? What's that?

Some people here hate the snow, but I love it. It's a novelty to have it in my own yard and not have to drive to a mountain to get it. Sure, it can be inconvenient at times, but I say enjoy it while it lasts, and take extra measures to be safe.

If you look carefully at the picture above, there are people all over that hill in the distance. They have been merrily sledding down the hill every day. It's been delightful to watch.

Mika and Mochi have loved watching the snow fall the past few days and Mika has repeatedly asked us to take her out in it.  She loves the snow, even if she doesn't last too long in it before her kitty toes are frozen and she's ready to warm up.

Mochi, on the other hand, is not quite as keen on the snow. She thinks it is fascinating, but does not appreciate it falling on her head or being wet or having it be deeper than her legs. She'd rather admire it from the window.

That being said, she cannot stand to be left out, so she will brave it for a short while just so she's not missing out. While it looks like she's chest deep in snow, she's actually standing in our footprints. Neither girls wanted to dive into the untouched depths.

Mochi's had enough "fun" and makes a bounding dash for the safety of the house. She'll spend the rest of the afternoon curled up cozily in her heated pet bed (rough life).

Mika only lasts a few minutes more and she's ready to call it a day as well - partly because she's cold, and partly because she can't stand her sister crying about being alone in the house. They are somewhat codependent. 

That oddly shaped lump is my car. We haven't really seen it for a couple of days now and that is fine by me.

Mika and Mochi Turn THREE!

Mika and Mochi turned three years old this month (August 8th)! We always try to spoil them a little extra on their birthday, so I picked up a couple new mice for them from Petco. One of the mice was remote controlled and they went wild for it, watching with anticipation as it sped across the floor and then pouncing it and flinging it about.

They were pretty keen on the normal mice as well.

After some mouse playing we took the girls to the park. Honestly, I think Mika enjoys the car ride as much if not more than the park. She looooves the car.

At one point a very large (and very well behaved) dog passed by. That always adds some excitement to an outing. It usually involves some frizzing, body flattening, and wide staring eyes.

The sky was gorgeous that evening, so I couldn't help but snag some shots of it.

 Of course no park outing is complete without some stick playing. Even Mochi got into it.

While usually I walk Mika and Matt walks Mochi, sometimes we switch cats part way through an outing. Today was one such outing.

In the end, a good time was had by all. Happy birthday, spotty kitty girls! <3

Feathery Goodness

I picked up a new toy for Mochi while at Petco today. She loves just about anything with feathers.

I think she likes it.

Gaining New Heights

Mika and Mochi's first play tower (as seen here) was getting rather unstable and wobbly lately, so we'd been thinking about finding an alternative. Mochi loves to run straight up trees when we go outside, and we really wanted to get something that would let her do that inside the house unencumbered by landing shelves.

This is what we came up with:

Essentially we picked up some plywood, a 4x4 post, and a few brackets and screws. The top shelf and sisal rope was salvaged from their old tower. Here's a simple explanatory drawing for those who are interested:

With how heavy the 4x4 is, I wouldn't trust this thing to stand on it's own, but with the wall supporting it (it's screwed into studs), it's perfectly stable. We would have liked to use something lighter and rounder like a cardboard cement form, but this was the right size, inexpensive, and gets the job done. It is a bit difficult to get the sisal tight on it - my hands were hurting the next day or two afterward.

Mika took to it instantly. She's always the braver of the two. In fact, we had to lock the girls out of the living room while we assembled it because she kept flinging herself at it wanting to climb it. Please pardon the poor lighting in these pictures. It's a weirdly lit corner of our house.

Mochi came around fairly quickly with a bit of encouragement.

Now they practically fight for who gets to sit on top and they love running up and down when chasing each other. Their favorite dismount is an upside down tension method where they walk face downward with their paws on the tower and their backs pressed firmly against the wall. Sometimes Mochi climbs partway up just so she can stand upside down awhile.

Leaping from the top shelf onto the back of the couch is another popular dismount method.

Eventually we intend to add shelves to the walls so they have multiple places to sit without hindering their climbing space, but we haven't quite gotten to that yet.

The piles of pillows in the shots below are because Mochi is a klutz and we were vaguely concerned about her getting hurt if she fell while figuring out climbing/dismounting methods. We weren't wrong about her taking a few tumbles, so I'm glad I put them there.

They've gotten pretty pro at it now though.

Having a Ball

So I'm about a month late (oops) posting about the girls' Christmas present, but here it is now! We got them a Smartcat Peek-A-Prize and they took to it right away. They like games that make them think or take extra effort, so it seemed like the right kind of toy for them.

Can you tell they loved it?

Matt also got me a bokeh set and I had fun messing around with it while the tree was up. Will have to find more opportunities to use it.