Adventure playground – progress

We’re still landscaping the new cat enclosure and it’s taking a long time. We’ve had to remove the top layer of soil to make room for the hardcore that needs to go underneath the artificial grass. That’s pretty much done now but it still needs a bit of levelling.

We’ve had plenty of help from the cats though. They love it if one of us is outside with them especially if there’s a wheelbarrow involved.

Rosie has definitely got over being nervous about going outside. She runs up and down the ladders as much as the other two. Frodo loves to lounge on the shelves and keep an eye on what’s going on.

Sammie loves it up high too.

The shelves make a great spot to watch the birds and squirrels from as we’ve got bird feeders outside the pen.

We have had a bit of a problem with dirty cats as both Rosie and Frodo think it’s great fun to roll on the ground and Rosie has been digging for worms which she then plays with.

We’ve started to get a few grasses, ready to plant once the artificial grass is down. I’ve got them on the patio for ease of watering and the cats love to get in between them. I can’t wait until we’ve got them growing all over the garden so they can hide in them.

The enclosure was definitely worth getting. The cats love being outside and we’re happy knowing they’re safe.

Hopefully it’ll be landscaped soon it looks a bit nicer than it does at the moment.

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Rosie & Frodo

I love this photo of the two of them on their cat tower.

Happy Birthday Sammie

Sammie is two years old today and as is tradition, is being spoilt rotten.

We had a small tower in the bedroom, but it was a cheap and cheerful thing from Lidl and just wore out. The cats got a lot of use from it though so it wasn’t by any means a waste of money.

We’ve replaced it with this, and called it Sammie’s present due to the timing.

It sits nicely in the cats’ corner upstairs. It’s a Diogenes scratching barrel XL and it came from Zooplus. There was a different one that looked good but the reviews were better for this one as the two lower dens are connected for more fun. It seems very sturdy and so far, Sammie seems to be enjoying it.

She’s got a bag of Dreamies that came with one of those balls that they have to play with to get the treats out. That was a present from Pets at Home. I love that they give your pets a gift for their birthdays. Sammie loves her Dreamies so she’ll really appreciate that.

She’ll get a special birthday dinner later of a Sheba dome and I gave her a tin of tuna with shrimp for her breakfast. She really enjoyed that.

She’s such a sleek, agile cat now that it’s hard to picture her as a kitten. She was so tiny and fragile compared to how she is now, although she still looks tiny compared to Frodo.

Here’s a wee gallery of some of her pics over the past two years.

3 months old

Playing in her new tunnel

Helping with the groceries

Such a pretty face

Almost four months old

Double trouble

Still loving that tunnel

Five months old

Little munchkin

Eight months old

Ten months old

Almost one year old

Tired out

Two years old

 

Off to work

Frodo loves to sit on Stephen’s work bag. I’m not sure if it’s because he doesn’t want him to go to work or if he wants to go with him for a wee adventure.

Rosie the explorer

Rosie is allowed downstairs now, apart from her mealtimes, and after being a bit nervous to start with, she’s really gained in confidence and has explored every nook and cranny.

She has the small rollerball toy upstairs, which she loves, and she has great fun with the larger one we have downstairs.

In the photo above she has her paw on a small toy, which she was tossing around and she also played with the two silver balls, putting them inside the roller circuit. I love that I caught her with her tongue out!

We have three tunnels plus a Hop-in cube which are all connected. She loves the Hop-in and sometimes has a little nap in there after playing in it for a while.

I love this photo that I got of her coming out of it.

She was meowing, hence the open mouth. We think she was calling to Frodo to come and play some more, but he was tired out and sleeping on the back of the sofa. They’re getting on brilliantly now and seem to be very relaxed with each other. They play together and even snooze together sometimes.

Rosie also loves the long tunnel and likes to nap just inside it.

We’re still only letting her downstairs when we’re there to supervise as Sammie still isn’t completely happy, but I’m sure it won’t be long before Sammie accepts her. She’s definitely getting a bit more chilled around her now.

Friends

Frodo loves to lie on the back of my sofa, on a large folded quilt. A couple of days ago, Rosie went exploring and found him. This is what happened next.

Not the best video as I was in a hurry to catch them and didn’t have time to mute the TV, or get a bit closer. Still, you get the idea 🙂

Now all we need is for Sammie to make friends too.

Settling in

Rosie is settling in nicely now. She was a bit nervous on Sunday but that’s only to be expected after taking her away from her family and putting her in a new room with only strangers for company. She was quite happy to have cuddles even then though, and purred loudly if you stroked her.

We’ve kept her in the one room upstairs so far, although she did venture out onto the landing for a few minutes this morning. Now that she’s found her feet in that room, we’ll gradually introduce her to the rest of the house.

She’s met Frodo but not Sammie so far. Frodo is so easy-going that we thought we’d let them meet first. Frodo was a perfect gentleman. He really wanted to make friends but Rosie wasn’t so sure. She did the little sideways dance with her fur up and her ears back. Frodo was a bit intimidated by her, even though she’s a fraction of her size, but he did try to approach her, very slowly. They did touch noses a couple of times but then Rosie would back off again. We’ll get there though.

I’ve taken quite a few photos, but it’s tricky as she doesn’t keep still that often. These are some of the best ones so far.

She’s living in the bedroom at the moment so has been sleeping with me. On the first day she was quite happy to lie on the bed next to me after having a little cuddle.

She was looking for places to hide when we left or entered the room though so I put the igloo on the chair next to the bed so she could take refuge in there if she needed to. She seemed to like it.

By Monday she was happy to snuggle up with me and go to sleep.

We bought several kitten toys from Pets at home, one of which is a short stick with a feathery thing on the end. She loves it and will happily chase it and pounce on it for ages. It’s very hard to get a pic of her doing that though as she’s constantly in motion, but this one isn’t too blurry.

This morning, after playing for a while, she decided she needed a nap and curled up next to me while I was reading. She kept one paw on my arm, maybe to make sure that I didn’t get up and leave her 🙂

She’s a little darling, full of life and gaining in confidence by the hour, and we love her to bits. I’m so glad we decided to add to our family.

Frodo’s favourite perch

My usual seat is on one of the two-seater sofas that we have in the living room. On the back of it is a large double quilt, folded up and ready to be pulled off if I need it. Frodo has claimed it for himself and loves to lie on it when I’m on the sofa too. He rarely comes on my lap now but does like to sit by me.

Rosie came to join our family yesterday. She’s a bit nervous still so I haven’t taken many photos. I’ll be making up for that as soon as she’s found her feet a bit more so brace yourself 😉

Rosie

We’ll be popping over to Tamworth at the weekend and will be bringing Rosie home with us. I’m so excited and can’t wait to see her again. We’re all ready for her and have everything she’ll need. I’ve cleared the bottom shelves of one of the bookcases to make space for some of her stuff.

Frodo and Sammie helped.

We’ve bought some of the food that Rosie is used to and have also bought her a few new toys. I know we have plenty of toys for the kitties, but I thought she should have some of her own. Also, I can’t resist buying stuff when we go to Pets at Home.

Sammie was very impressed by the stash and offered to keep an eye on it.

Since the photos were taken, an extra shelf was cleared for toys and treats.

I also wanted to make her a quilt as I did one for the other two cats, but I’ve had a few problems with that, so decided to crochet her a blanket for now and do the quilt later. I thought the blanket would be nice for her to snuggle into on the way home.

I loved doing the Waffle stitch for one of the squares in the CAL, and thought it’d make a lovely snuggly blanket. I had some soft chunky yarn in my stash that was perfect.

Frodo was quite interested in it while I was taking a photo, but then he’s fascinated by anything that I do and loves to help.

This is a close up of the waffle stitch so you can see how lovely and textured it is, which makes it really squishy.

I’m sure there’ll be more photos once Rosie is here. Many more photos…