Bed and breakfast

When we go on vacation, it seems Meow Meow does too.

At the beginning of this year, one of Dieter's colleagues at work, who also has a cat, found out that we usually boarded Meow Meow with a local facility whenever we had to be out of town. He offered to take her instead when we visited family back in May as he had plenty of room for her -- and he loved her so much that she's been his to spoil at every travel opportunity we've had since then.

We are thankful to have someone who dotes on Meow Meow (and his own cat) so much. She gets the run of his house and more human companionship than a boarding facility can provide. Meow Meow even gets along with the resident feline, Shanti, a beautiful male who shares his food and indoor territory quite graciously. (He spends a good part of the day outdoors too while Meow Meow does not.)

During our trip to spend Thanksgiving with Dieter's family, the host of the Hotel Shanti, as Shanti's dad likes to refer to this arrangement, has sent us updates on Meow Meow, which he was happy to let us post. Here are some video stills from a lazy morning on the couch:




Shanti's obviously the kitty in the foreground. Most recently, we've heard the cats have been touching noses when they meet, which we had not seen Meow Meow ever try with Lily. Perhaps a male foster should be our next guest chez Kittitas?

A very belated Halloween update

You know that window between the last trick-or-treater ringing your doorbell and a great big turkey suddenly taking up residence in your refrigerator? Yes, I have no idea why it vanishes so quickly every year, but I think it has something to do with the appearance of Christmas decorations in every retail store I've walked into in the last two and half weeks. Somebody hand me a noisemaker; it's practically New Year's.

We feted Halloween with Dieter's Aunt Chris, who came to visit for an extended weekend filled with ghoulish activities. Meow Meow enjoyed most of it, even with the extra bustle of small children alternately screaming in terror when Dieter opened the door (he painted his face quite scarily) and clamoring for candy.

When we weren't loading up the neighbors' kids with sugar, we were carving produce with vigor. Oh yes -- we don't just do pumpkins around here. Dieter decided to break out the power tools and do coconuts.


Inspired by some crafts we saw in Hawaii, Dieter adorned his scraped-out coconut with feathers and seashells. I thought the end result was properly creepy:


But Meow Meow was unfazed.


Note, however, that she preferred to sit in Aunt Chris's lap while she was working on her pumpkin with a knife rather than risk joining Dieter and his noisier drill ...

New habits

It's always interesting to see what Meow Meow learns from interacting with visitors, human or feline. From Lily, she definitely learned to look before leaping onto the couch, for fear of surprising her mid-snooze. Lily was always quick to shoo Meow Meow back to the floor with hiss and paw.

Lately, Meow Meow's taken to exploring some of Lily's old nap spots, one of which is the nook between the couch and end table. I wouldn't have thought to look for Meow Meow there -- in the past, she'd seemed to prefer the back of the couch, where she could keep an eye on both the living room and kitchen -- but the sun-path leading to this haven was what gave her away.

We're back!

But our little gray tabby is not. When I contacted the SHS to arrange a pick-up date last week after our return, we learned that Lily was no longer at the shelter -- though she hadn't been adopted either.

I've been waiting to get the full story on Lily and finally got word yesterday. So, sorry for the long silence. Here's the news.

While we were away, the SHS had the opportunity to work with N.O.A.H., another local animal rescue. Lily was chosen to be transferred to this organization's care in hopes that the facility's "cat colony" -- a more homelike environment that allows kitties to socialize or keep to themselves as they prefer -- would be beneficial to her while also providing her exposure to a different set of potential adopters. In our home, she was happy but getting no local visitors, despite our postering efforts. She wasn't having luck at the shelter either.

I think the move makes sense if it will increase Lily's chances at finding a permanent home. We hope she's settling in at N.O.A.H. From the new picture of her on their website, it looks like she's quite cozy.

So that's the story, or at least everything we know. We'll be holding off on giving Lily's suite to another foster for the remainder of the year, but Meow Meow is happy to provide blog material while she's the sole feline chez Kittitas. (I have quite the backlog of pictures too since I was trying to keep the focus primarily on Lily while she was staying here.)

Before Meow Meow gets this space back, though, here is a send-off portrait I managed to snap while Lily was enjoying some sun on our living room floor over the summer.


Best of luck to you, little lady.

More from the sun bath

We can tell Lily is most relaxed when she stretches her long legs in front of her as she basks in the rays from our living room windows. It hasn't been easy to capture a good shot of her in this position since she heads for shadier spots when we get too close with the camera, but here are a few. (Maybe she figured I was trying out her technique by wriggling on my stomach inch by inch to get near enough to put her in focus?)

The top view, before I got parallel to the floor:


As you can see, Lily's heat-seeking senses seem to be concentrated in her front paws, which she takes turns sunning. First, the right ...



And then the left ...

Lily says hi

I managed to get a paw shot while she was taking a sun bath.

Back to the shelter

But only temporarily.

We'll be out of town for a few weeks, so Lily will board at the SHS until we return. We're hoping she'll get lots of potential adopter attention while we're gone and, with luck, find her very own home with ever-available laps.

With Lily, we'll be taking her little fortress that we'd set up earlier in the year, when she was still intimidated by the sheer size of her kitty suite. Needless to say, she's discovered the nap-worthiness of other nooks and crannies around the house, so it's time to offer this security hideaway to another pet in need.

Before it goes, though, here are some shots from Lily's first weeks with her own personal sundeck. I'd say she definitely likes haute cuisine, no?





P.S. We have a few posts saved up for our absence, so stay tuned! There will be Lily pictures aplenty even while all of us are away.