Chara really wants to be a daddy.

He makes a nest and adds to it almost daily. When I destroy it by changing the water twice a week, he rebuilds it usually the same evening. I am almost tempted to buy him a pretty lady, but breeding fish and raising babies requires more time and work than I want to deal with right now. For now, I like just having him around.

Sometimes, we catch Whitlow watching Chara and then suddenly bolt away hiding in the bathroom. He’s done it with the chinchees too, generally staying at a careful distance when he watches Gina or Marco. He’s more scared of Gina than Marco. To him, food comes out of a can or bag. Whitlow doesn’t seem to understand that he could essentially make dinner out of the fish and rats.

My betta, Attila, died. He’d always been kinda’ droopy looking since I got him. At first I thought it was the water, but I did the same changes for him and Chara and he still always seemed off. He’d lay around more, stop swimming and lay on his side. And when I let them see each other, Chara would immediately display his fins and Attila would only swim away.

I’ll miss having you around Attila. You were a really handsome fish.

Marco and Gina are still as playful as ever. I think Marco answers to Raisin now because I frequently ask, “Do you want a RAAYYYZIN?” He immediately jumps up, mouth up, ready to receive his treats. Anytime I just call, “Marco!” He ignores me. What can I say, they have me trained pretty well.

I know these are the initial weeks of getting a cat and maybe eventually the novelty will wear off, but I have this furball on the brain all the time these days! When I’m at work, I bring up his pictures every so often to give him a mental belly rub. When I talk to coworkers, I randomly bring him up to people, and I can barely contain the gushing! I miss the fluffy kitty when I’m at work.

The first night with him was a little sad. He’d been to our place a few times before so at first, he thought it was just a visit. We showed him where his litter box was and after an hour or so he let us know he was ready to go home by looking at us and standing patiently towards the door. As the evening wore on, he started to meow, which turned into yowling. All night long. At times, he’d go to the door and paw on it. When we distracted him with food, he’d take a few bites, then check the door, then take a few more bites. We knew he must be homesick. But after about a day he seemed better. He stopped yowling and pawing the door and instead came to us for a pet, ear scratch, or belly rub.

In about a week, he was perfectly at home and I was surprised at how quickly he let us into his life.

The thing about Himalayans is they require a lot of grooming. Their long hairs can easily get matted and no matter how much I brush Whitlow, he still gets tufts of matted hair. I try to brush him at least once a day for as long as he’ll allow, which can be hit or miss, I’ll admit. Mostly it’s for me because I don’t like dealing with cat yak from hairballs. GROSS!! Our neighbor demonstrated how to pull off the mats without hurting him, but so far I’ve stuck to cutting off the mats because I can’t bring myself to pull his hair. So the other night, we found some matted patches on his hind legs and I started cutting his hairs and I think I must’ve pulled on a mat because he let out a whimpery mew and hopped away. I gave him his treat which he eagerly walked back for but then he wouldn’t come near me. In fact, after eating his treat, even when I just wanted to pet him, he shrank away under the dining chair. His fort. I felt so bad, but decided to leave him alone for a bit. Well not 30 minutes later, he’d come out of hiding and was lying there keeping me company in front of the tv again, so I walked over to pet him and he rolled over for a nice belly rub.

He’d forgiven me so quickly and was all ready for pets and snuggles again. What a forgiving old guy.

Third to napping and eating, this seems to be Whitlow’s favorite pastime. We often see him sitting quietly in front of his brothers, Chara and Attila, watching them swim about. Sometimes, he goes under the glass coffee table to get a view of them from below. He tries to paw them from the front and below.

Sometimes I’ll sit with him to watch these two flaring at each other. They are fun to watch.

It never gets old.

We adopted our neighbor’s cat, Whitlow. He was having a hard time adjusting to their new puppy, so we decided to let him move in with us to see if he might be happier in a puppy-free environment. It took about a week for him to get used to his new surroundings, with his first night being the roughest, he meowed and yowled all night long. Poor little fellow. After about three nights though, he got used to being here, and now it’s as if he’s been here forever.
He was born in August 2003 so he’s turning 9 this year, which in people years, makes him about 50.

He loves watching Chara and Attila swim around.

Sometimes, he’ll paw the tank, trying to touch them. What coincidence that I got them, since they’ve become Whitlow’s television. He likes to watch me feed them and he’ll hang out with me when I’m changing their water too.

Despite his permanent grumpyface,

he is very affectionate and a bit of a cuddlebug. He’ll follow me around the kitchen when I’m cooking. Sit with us when we’re on the couch doing that paw kneading thing he does when he’s in an extra good mood. He follows us around the house when we’re getting ready in the mornings and he’ll flop over to let us know he wants a belly rub. Sometimes when he’s had a particularly eventful evening he’ll be chatty in the mornings, meowing to us about his adventures. When we come home from work, he’ll pop his head out as we open the door to greet us hello.

I never thought I was much of a cat person, but it’s safe to say, I couldn’t ask for a better cat and we feel lucky to have this old guy as our roommate.