Trying to See Some New Things without Hiking Too Far

Here are the Bow Falls.  Easy to get to and pretty when the sun is setting.

Who needs cat toys when you have boxes

Molly is still small enough to fit in a box, turn around and poke her ever so very cute face out.  Right now she is wandering, yellow spring in mouth, chasing things about.  Cat nip resulted in excessive wrestling, so I might avoid it from here on in.

Sunset on the Bow

I figured a few mountain pictures were called for as we watch the Women's road bike race and cheer on the  Canadians - one of which has some connection to Canmore, loose as it may be.

All flaked out

When she is sleepy you can almost count on Molly doing something cute.  Here she is flaked out on the bed.

Basket Play

Our cats have decided that tag and wrestling are 2 of their favourite games.  I'm not sure what game this is - but its kind of cute.

Watching out the window

Lots of birds out there...?

Kitty Peace Achieved

Its been quite a few days since we've heard any hissing and spitting, but we've finally got the two of them snuggling and grooming each other.  I think Zoe has decided that Molly is a good source of extra food.  We are trying really hard to supervise their eating.  But Molly tends to eat a bit and then wander and Zoe does the vaccuum cleaner on anything left in her bowl unless I can scoop it and hide it in the cupboard.

Right now they are still snuggled on the chair with their heads on each others feet.  

I haven't posted in a few days, but more because I haven't been on my computer.  I have a nice selection of cute cat pictures to post.  

Truce

Relative peace has been approached in our household.  We got nose to nose a couple of times with only some minor growling and some curious checking each other over with a human sitting in between.  Only a few instances of hissing today and one well earned swat when the little one accidently leaped on the big one while chasing a spring.

Currently, they are sleeping in my computer chair and the second chair that I moved to when the first was occupied, so I find myself sitting on the sofa to avoid waking sleeping kitties. They are maybe 10 feet apart and seem greatly at peace, well asleep anyways.  Zoe has generally been herself all day, relatively affectionate and playful and actually tolerated being held for almost 2 minutes and Molly has been a ball of spring chasing cosmic energy bounding tirelessly from one end of the world to the other until nap time.  Here's hoping for the beginning of a great feline friendship.

Cuddles with Zoe

Zoe seems to be in a much better mood this morning, although we decided to give the two cats a break from each other since the morning started with a hissfest.  She hopped up and snuggled with us on the couch and slept on my feet last night.  She also was really playful again this morning and she hasn't been so much the past few days.  Molly is, of course, doing fine being the adaptable and loveable lass tht she is.  She spent quite a few hours this morning snuggling away too.  The internet reassured me that introductions can take a bit of time and I found a few more ideas to try.  We have 2 really awesome cats and I really hope that they can come to love each other as much as we are taken with them.

Little Miss Wash My Paws

This is one time that you'll see Miss Molly acting ladylike.  It is far more likely to see her tearing around the house like a madwomen (or kitten) or shamelessly flopping on top of the warmest nearby human.  I have a video of this, but I'm still having a hard time finding the videos on my camera and downloading them.  I'm getting old, inept or both.

Day 4 of socailizing our cats we've had them out and about with each other, and while the growling and hissing continues, its lessened and they are generally tolerating each other.  Molly so desparately wants to be friends though. Unfortunately, this results in her occasionally running right up to Zoe and getting hissed at.  I have to give her credit for being persistant.  It is hard to imagine how Molly hasn't melted Zoe's heart, but I am a mere sappy human not a cat.  Scott says give them another day or two.  Zoe has been affectionate, but is resisting Molly's charms for now.  Even I can see that she's weakening though, especailly when Molly is doing something unusually silly, like chasing her tail or wresting with the chair legs.

There have been a few big things happening in the news.  In Baker, a terrible fire has destroyed the main BLCS compound.  Its a huge disaster any where, but it will not likely have a good effect on life for folks in Baker.  Not only are they are huge source of jobs, it is a huge source of local services like managing buildings, construction, vehicle rentals and deliveries.  The good news is no one was hurt, but its going to be a tough thing to rebuild in the north.

The other is a mudslide just west of Banff which has closed the highway in both directions, although it sounds like east bound traffic is moving again.

Molly Discovers the Stratching Post

This is an awesome scratching post - the feathers are a total cat attractor.  This is Molly half way out, she escaped earlier when I tried to get a picture of her sitting on top of it.  Today, Molly played and played and played with a little green spring until she lost it and its cousins under various pieces of furniture and appliences.

Day 2 of the introduction and the cats seems to be tolerating each other with minimal hissing and spitting.  Zoe is chilled out on my desk chair and Molly is napping on a kitchen chair.  Who knew that getting cats would mean that we need more chairs.  It was cute.  Molly mimicked whatever Zoe was doing from a good distance - they played at the same time, groomed at the same time and are now napping.  Molly has been enjoying having the length of the appartment to run, run, run and run some more.  When she can't find a toy to chase, she's chased her own tail.  She went winging into the water dish earlier and then got back up and went on playing.  Zoe has been relatively quiet, but seems more herself.  She curled up behind me on the chair earlier.  I think we are getting closer to friends... but we have a ways to go.

Molly Chilling out Watching the Game with Dad

I think that might mjust be record setting cute, although I think Zoe is trying to one up her by sleeping with her paws curled up under her chin.

Sleepy Zoe ignores Silly Kitten for the time being

Zoe is snoozing away on my desk.  I'm hoping that means I make her feel safe, althouth Molly is at best a half-Zoe in size.  Molly, fearless little wisp, is sound asleep on the couch watching football belly up, paws stretched out above her head, probably purring away.

Zoe looking somewhat less than impressed with the wee interloper

Not my best picture of Zoe... she's left the table and is now chilling out of my desk with me watching me type and I'm sure telepathically sending me messages to add to this blog.  She's snuggled up on my laptop case.  Wait... better picture of Zoe coming.  Apparently, she isn't all that interested in watching football either.

Zoe and Molly meet

So, the big day of introduction has arrived and aside from a little hissing and spitting and one well aimed swat from Zoe.  There has been no major incidents.  Zoe is perched up on the table pretending to ignore the kitten and the kitten after considerable exploration of the rest of the appartment is flaked out on the coffee table - belly up.  Molly is a bit fearless, but is giving Zoe her space and Zoe while clearly not yet in love with the kitten, is not being unfriendly.  I think things are going to be okay.  We'll split them up again tonight, but supervise some visiting tomorrow.  Hopefully, by the end of the week they'll have warmed up to each other.  Zoe seems to have stopped hissing and spitting. We figure this is a good sign and her body language seems more relaxed.

We have a spray bottle, emergency glass of water, oven mitts and a broom ready in case we need to intervene.  Its been interesting Cat-o-vision, but we are both sighing a bit of relieve that there have been no all out cat fights.  We are really hoping that they end up buddies.

Rocket Molly!

Here you can get an idea of how fast Molly moves when she is playing.  Zoe seems to be more herself and there hasn't been any hissing for the last few hours.  Hopefully in a few days we'll have 2 happy cats who start becoming life long partners.

Molly nearing nap time

Here is Cinni-Molly actually sitting still and looking at the camera.  You can see that the bottoms of all of her paws are sooty black and that her belly is very cinnominny.

This mornings misadventures included a leap right into the toilet, although fortunately I was able to scoop her up before all of her went in and then rinse her front paws under that tap.  She then went on to use her water dish to continue washing them.  Very very cute little bit of fur this one.  Although, I can see that we'll need to keep the lids down on the toilets until she gets a bit bigger.

We tried the trick of feeding them on opposite sides of the the door.  No hissing from Zoe - so I think that is a good sign.  Gonna give them a few more days (and a nail clipping) before introducing them.  This has definitely felt like intro to parent hood with the getting woken up at 5:30 am and worrying about sibling rivalry.

Molly is a slow motion moment

We figure she is about half the size of Zoe.  She has ticked black and grey stripes on her back and a cinnomin belly and paws.  Her eyes are a lovely shade of brown, just about the colour of cinnomin.  Thus her name - cinni-Molly

Kitten in Perpetual Motion

I'm learning quickly that getting a good picture of Molly is going to be challanging because she moves too fast.  She is just as adaptable as we thought she'd be and has settled nicely here.  Zoe is still not sure about the interloper so we are keeping them seperate and introducing them slowly, but we really hope they are going to be best friends.

She loves to play and leap and run and express her love with her little kitten daggers. (She needs a nail clipping before we introduce them for sure.)  She is sweet as sweet can be and will start purring if you so much as look at her.

I'll do my best to get some more shots and post the best of what I have so far.

Welcome Home Cinni-Molly

As Scott and I busily read up on the internet on the many views of the magic of introducing new cats to each other, we are pleased so far at their reactions to each other (through the door).  Molly seems to be a genuinely adaptable kitten and quickly took to her toys and let us hold her.  Zoe is also enjoying her new toys. (Yeah... I totally bought Martha Stewart toys) and they seem interested in each other and there are no signs of hostility.  Frankly,  Zoe seems to miss feline companionship and seems to often be looking for another cat and Molly just came from a home with 2 other cats.

We promise to have better lit pictures soon.  Molly is going to be lots of fun.  We can tell already.

Zoe, Mouser-extrodinaire

Zoe got 3 new mice and she does this cute thing where she carries them around.  Barring disaster, we should be picking up Molly tomorrow and then its time to see if they get along - well, after slowly introducing them.  We think we've done a good job of matching personalities.  I'll have to try and get a picture of Zoe carrying mice around.  We are off to pick up a bunch of odds and ends and probably more cat toys - really - can you have too many :D

Up-Side-Down Proto-Zoe

I haven't got a show of her really all but standing on her head.  But she was sure having fun.  Its definitely time to sleep, not write, but I thought I'd throw up a quick show.

It was a great weekend with by brother and his wife and awesome kids.  We swam, chatted, napped (at least I did), ate yummy cookies, played lego and watched lots of clouds hide some of the best northern lights yet.

Sleepy Kitty has a favourite chair

Zoe is looking pretty comfortable crashed out on the chair.

Whew!! That was a lot of playing!!

It is fun to watch her play as she takes cover under chairs and behind plants waiting to pounce the ball or feather toy.    She often uses the scratching post as cover.  Today she was using the scratching post to pin the feather too from behind.  She's even shown a little bit of lap potential.  She likes to sit behind me on the chair.  She did a pretty good job grooming the feather toy after she caught it.  She will also go up on the table and pick out the feather toy and carry it to you in her mouth, just in case you didn't get the fact that she really likes it.

Disc-Golf Course

Panmountain Views

Ahead you can see the Ship's Prow, Lawrence Grassi and Ha Ling Peaks.