A Muffin a Day

Muffin and the Mattress Topper

2010-01-18T11:18:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine recently came over for a visit. While she was here, I offered her a down-alternative mattress topper that I had purchased to use in a camper--we sold that camper without ever using it and I did not need the topper for our bed or the new camper. She decided to take it to use in her RV. I hauled it out of the closet and put it on a chair by the door so we would remember it when she was ready to leave.

Needless to say, it took Muffin about 5 minutes to discover the wonderful softness of it and settle himself right in!

Muffin's Two-Year Anniversary!

2009-11-26T16:59:00.002-05:00

It was two years ago today that we went in search of a kitten and came home with Muffin. He continues to be a pure joy, our Bob One. We had muffins for breakfast again this year in honor of this grand anniversary.

Earlier today it occurred to me that I should add a post to this blog to commemorate this special day. I had various things to do but kept my eye on Muffin, waiting for the right photo opportunity. In late afternoon I lay down on the bed to rest for a few moments. Muffin came in the room, and the next thing I knew, I had my photo for his blog.

This is one of his favorite things to do, a favorite place to hang out. He is a cat, after all.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Muffin and the Pet Steps

2009-04-12T13:55:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago we obtained some free pet steps. I think they were handmade. We put them on the screen porch to make it easier for Muffin to see outside, and to give him a place to sleep right by one of the screens.

A few minutes ago he and Wilson, his bob brother, were both in propped-up position watching the yard.

Speaking of Wilson, he has grown into quite a large, handsome boy! But still as loving as always. I saw him in Bed One the other day enjoying the sunshine.

As predicted, updates to this blog are becoming ever fewer and farther between, but that doesn't mean Muffin is any less fun or perfect!

Muffin and the Box

2009-01-26T15:10:00.002-05:00

Cats just love to get in boxes! This box was on the table and Muffin wanted to sit in it. It didn't seem to matter that he was far too big for the box.

---

Muffin is doing great! He still loves playing with Wilson (Bob Two) and the puppy, Roxie. He has become quite affectionate toward us since his Day at the Vet (as we call it); often we nearly trip over him as he winds back and forth around our legs. He is also becoming a regular lap cat.

There is a board on top of the puppy's pen (she doesn't spend much time in it lately), and we keep a large comforter on the top of one of the chairs to keep her from jumping to it (and then jumping off--she seems to have a fair amount of mountain goat in her). When we are using the chair, we toss the comforter on top of the pen. The cats look forward to this event. From left to right, this is April, Booboo, and Muffin.

Muffin still spends a lot of time lying flat on his stomach with his legs straight out behind him, "back pads" showing. When he is sitting, he has a peculiar position he always takes, which is less than flattering given his increasing girth (they are all on a diet right now). He sits with his front feet positioned outside of and almost next to his back feet. It looks odd, and he does it all the time.

He's such a cool cat!

Muffin and the One-Year Anniversary

2008-11-27T11:17:00.002-05:00

It was a year ago today, on Thanksgiving 2007, that we went out looking for a kitten, any kitten, and returned with Muffin, our beloved first bobtail. As you know if you follow this blog, we enjoy him so much! In honor of his arrival, we have begun a new tradition here. We have added muffins (blueberry) to the breakfast menu for every Thanksgiving. Seems appropriate!

And of course I need to add a post on this most auspicious day, Muffin-wise.

It's been cold here at night and we were concerned about our large and very old dog, who usually sleeps in a den-like structure we built for him on the screen porch. It's covered and insulated and normally just fine, but not when the temps are going into the 20's. So we decided to set up a temporary bed for him in the living room one night. I pulled out a fluffy down comforter and put it on the floor for him. As you can imagine, it was not vacant for long. Both bobs had to investigate.

Muffin made himself particularly comfortable.

It's hard to believe that a year and a day ago we did not know our Muffles. He is sitting on the desk next to the monitor as I type this, looking his perfect self.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Muffin and the New Puppy

2008-10-28T21:12:00.002-04:00

It's been over a month since the last Muffin update! Not that he has been idle in any way--but he's up to his same tricks already described and pictured here! Still loves water and splashes away in it every day. He still loves going on the screen porch to chase lizards, though with our recent cold weather I'm afraid that has been curtailed a bit. We are in the process of switching the cats to a better food and he either prefers the new food or prefers the old food--for whichever reason, he digs all of the food out of the self-feeder, which is presently a mix of both old and new, and creates a giant pile of dry food on the dresser on which the feeder sits. As a result, the food has been moved to a large casserole dish for the time being. He has so far not dug it out of there to create a food mound.

I recently spent a week in North Carolina and during that time, my husband thought it would be fun to have both bobs in the bedroom at night. So now we often have them both in there, since that is a hard habit to break!

But on to the puppy! On my way home from NC I picked up the miniature dachshund puppy I had purchased on my way north (no point in taking it with me, I was going to be gone all day gadding about with the camera). We named her Roxie. She was raised with cats and so she immediately wanted to play with them. We knew that given the bobs' playfulness and their love of the game of chase, eventually this would work out well. Muffin went into "kill the puppy" mode when Roxie first arrived, and for 6 hours stalked her--growling, singing, and spitting at her. But he watched her play with toys and you could just see him rethinking the potential. Wilson spent 24 hours in fear and trembling of the puppy, hiding in a spare room and refusing to emerge. He then went through the Kill The Puppy phase, and then also seemed to sense the potential.

Now we have bobs tearing around the house with a very, very small mini doxie in hot pursuit! Even Daphne is joining in. The other day I saw Wilson in one of the beds we put down for Roxie, with Roxie's head resting on his back. And tonight we had Muffin and Roxie sleeping together in that bed (the item with them is an empty paper towel roll, one of Roxie's favorite toys...):

---

They seem to like her, and they give her lots of exercise!

Muffin and the Big Event

2008-09-14T12:56:00.002-04:00

Well, Muffin is nearly a year old now and he is maturing into a fine example of male cattitude. A little too fine, given that he is an inside cat with only spayed females, an old neutered male, and an immature male cat for company. With his raging hormones, he had become Muffin the Molester, and so it was time for the inevitable trip to the vet for a change in status.

We made the appointment on Monday and he went in on Friday. We requested that we be able to bring him home the same day; he has that somewhat feral background and does not like the confinement of a cage or carrier and we wanted him as little stressed as possible.

We took him in at 9:00 and at 10:15 the vet called to say he was out of surgery and that it went fine, and we could get him between 3 and 5:00.

He was groggy, a bit pungent from having peed in the "diaper" they put on male cats post-surgery, but seemed glad to see us. When we let him out of the carrier in the living room, he immediately went to the self-feeder and had his first meal of the day. He staggered around for a bit and then settled down in a cube, burying his head in the side as if trying to block out the whole experience.

Today he is back to normal. We are very relieved that he still lies stretched out fully on his stomach, back foot pads up. He's played with the other cats and seems to be his old self again (well, except for missing a few parts). We are very relieved that this is over, and I know that he will be better off and happier.

He and Wilson (Bob Two) are still best buddies and play constantly, though they are very different in temperament. Wilson is growing very fast and weighs what I call a cat ton (this is a "ton" measured in cat weights, not the people version of a ton). That is to say, he is remarkably heavy for his lithe body. A real lover, though.

Thanks for stopping by to check on Muffin! These posts are getting fewer and further apart all the time, but when important things happen to Muffin, I'll be telling you about them!

Muffin and the Old Cat

2008-07-04T17:42:00.002-04:00

I was walking through the house the other day and I came to Muffin and Booboo, our old guy, sleeping together. Yipes! Stripes!

Muffin is doing great. He remains affectionate and is still the cutest kitty I have ever seen!

Things have changed a bit around here since he and Wilson arrived. We used to be able to leave meat out on the kitchen counter to defrost and know that it would not be bothered by any of the cats. Not with these bobs here! They get into everything.

Muffin still loves going out on the screen porch and will stay there for hours, just propped up watching the front yard. Interestingly, he will dart out the front door any time it is opened in his rush to get to the porch, and yet (knock wood) shows no inclination to dart out the screen door that leads to the great outdoors. Wilson is not interested in the screen porch at all.

Muffin and the Video Camera

2008-06-19T17:58:00.002-04:00

So there I was this morning, peacefully watching a movie on DVD and having some coffee when the two bobs come in and start playing. How could I not grab the little video camera?

Muffin and the Best Place For Running Water

2008-06-12T12:17:00.002-04:00

Muffin has discovered a great place to sleep to be sure to be present in the event that running water becomes available!

---

This morning he and Bob Two, Wilson, had quite a wild time tearing around the house. They settled on this box that was positioned to be taken out to the trash. Muffin took a bath break but Wilson clearly wasn't quite finished playing.

---

As I write this, they are still hard at it. Muffin is doing his caroming-off-the-furniture trick, during which he runs sideways across the side of a chair, defying gravity. Our Pom, Cissy, is in that chair, but he has come and gone before she can even get a bark out. Wilson is opting to simply jump clear over her. You really ought to see this show. (This house is way too small for these two bobs when they get going!)

Muffin and the Bobtail Kitten

2008-05-22T13:29:00.006-04:00

As mentioned earlier, we took pity on Daphne when Muffin's energy level rose and she didn't seem to appreciate or enjoy being rudely awakened from a nap for a wild play session. Clearly Muffin needed a friend a little more his speed.

Enter Wilson.

We so love the look of a bobtail that we waited till one came available from a (semi)-nearby shelter. This is kitten time at the shelters--they must have had at least 25 kittens in their entry area--but only two bobtails. When we took this one out of the cage so I could get a good look at him, he immediately started running around in an orange and white playing blur. Ok, that'll do!

It took a while, and the introduction process was delayed by both Muffin and Wilson getting sick, as described in a previous post. So we were back to square one when they recovered. Wilson went back to being a play monster, Muffin went back to wanting to play with Daphne.

Finally, two days ago, after Muffin had been watching Wilson play day after day from afar, he moved in to closer proximity. This was a start.

---

---

It was nice to have him not spitting at Wilson (except when Wilson would sneak up to him at the water bowl....he didn't like that...). But today they finally became play pals! In fact, as I write this, the chasing and playing has been going on for literally hours. Just as with Daphne and kitten Muffin, when Muffin would run as fast as he could during chases and Daphne would just lope along behind him since she was so much bigger, now we see Muffin at a slow jog behind the running-full-out Wilson. And there's not much contact playing--Muffin is just too much bigger right now. Earlier this morning Wilson was in a cube when Muffin walked by. Wilson came leaping out of the cube to ambush him. I swear Muffin looked at him and said "Oh, please. I invented that move." They are having a good time today.

I like this next photo because it somewhat shows Wilson's face. We've never had a cat with a face like this. He looks extremely earnest all the time. (Given that he also has 6 toes on his front feet, making him a "Hemingway polydactyl," it would have been logical to simply name him Earnest. But I just couldn't go with that name.)

So that's Muffin's new friend, and I think he likes him. My husband says Daphne joined in on some play this morning. She probably still wants to play, just not so roughly. Needless to say, April does not like the new kitten, although she seems more resigned to his presence than she was to Muffin's at this point. She mostly just ignores him. Booboo is his usual cool self about it.

Muffin and the Mug o' Water

2008-05-18T12:59:00.002-04:00

I finished breakfast yesterday morning and washed my coffee mug. I then put water in it to use to take vitamins, etc. I set it on the counter while I took the bottle out of the cupboard. When I reached for the mug, it was being used....

Muffin is in fine fettle these days!

Muffin and the Big Scare

2008-05-15T22:47:00.009-04:00

UPDATE 5/16 --Just want to add a note at the top here to give a progress report to those who have already read this post (rather than creating a new post). Our Muffin Man is doing great and is 100% back to normal! And the kitten is back to being an eating machine again and revving up for play a little more every hour (not surprising given how much food he is consuming to make up for lost time). So far no sign of the illness at all in any of the other cats (Daphne has gone back to normal behavior, she may have just picked up on all the stress in the house). I'm leaving the post in place about what happened here, but it seems to be over with now.

----------------------------------

Whew. We have not had a good week. Muffin got very sick. He did not eat for days, and yet threw up constantly (needless to say, not productively). He was listless. He had severe diarrhea. It was a horrible time. I cannot imagine this house without Muffin. He's only eight months old but he has become the light of the house, an unending source of smiles for us, and he has captured the greatest portion of our hearts. He's amazing.

And he was sick.

It seems that some sort of cat-specific intestinal bacteria has moved into our house. We don't know the source. If it were our water (from a well), we and the dogs would have some effects. As you know, our cats are all inside cats, so it is not some toxic influence from outside.

I had some news to tell you when things settled down, but then Muffin got sick and all that got put on hold. We felt sympathy for Daphne, who, while wonderfully game, seemed to grow a tad tired of Muffin's kitten energy. So we got him a friend. Er, that is, we brought in a kitten with the plan that it would be Muffin's friend. And then The Sickness hit. Muffin was too sick to care about the kitten. And now Muffin is rallying and getting back to his perfect self....and the kitten is sick. He went to the vet today and the vet is confident that he will come through this ok after it runs its course. Muffin, of course, in true cat fashion, spits and growls at the kitten when it gets near him (first time we have seen him in this mode....kind of sad, but inevitable and I have no doubt it will pass. He is used to being the baby!).

So we are in flux here right now, but Muffin is almost back to 100%. He tried to share in my husband's breakfast cereal this morning, he almost jumped in the shower with me this afternoon. He's eating his regular food from the self-feeder. He gets lovey-dovey with us again. I can't even express my relief and joy at having him back.

I'm worried about the kitten. He is extremely small and slight and after seeing how this ravaged Muffin, I am still, despite the vet's assurances, concerned about him.

But thinking optimistically, when Muffin and the new kitten resolve his differences (and they will--new kitten, prior to getting sick, was a play monster!), I will post photos of them. Meanwhile, it appears that Daphne is affected by the sickness--this morning she refused food for the first time. We will have to get her, April, and elderly Booboo through this. We are constantly changing the water in the bowls and scooping the litterbox after each use to minimize contact with this bacteria as much as possible, but since we don't know what this is or exactly how it is spreading, we can't cover all bases. I hope we come out of it with the same number of cats as we have now. This is our ongoing and worrisome concern right now.

But Muffin is okay! We were frantic with worry about him. I'll keep you posted on the others and hopefully will have some photos of Muffin with his new "friend" soon.

Muffin and the Fountain

2008-04-23T17:48:00.002-04:00

When I was driving home today from running errands, I was thinking about Muffin and his water thing (for new readers, he loves drinking water wherever he can find it). And then I remembered that several years ago I had a few decorative fountains going in the house--I love the sound of a fountain and they are quite simple to make. I had two problems with those fountains--first, the cats kept drinking out of them so I was refilling often, and also deposits from our well water ended up on whatever decorative elements I had in the fountain (glass stones, sea shells, what-have-you). It was easy enough to keep refilling with fresh water, but eventually I had to remove everything and thoroughly wash all the stones or shells.

Well, that would not be a problem if I made a fountain with basically no decorative elements, and having the cat drinking out of it would be the point. So when I got home I found an old bowl, one of the pumps (the kind used in aquariums), and a few large stones to weigh down the cord and pump in the bowl. Muffin had his head in the thing during the entire construction period, of course.

And then I set it on the dresser near the self-feeder and plugged it in (very safely and out of his reach, of course).

He first batted his paw at the plume of water coming out of the pump, then licked the water off his paw.

And then he just drank from it like a regular drinking fountain.

He was there a long time. I guess he likes it! (We'll just keep a bottle of water in there for refilling when necessary.)

Muffin and the View

2008-04-21T14:06:00.003-04:00

Muffin has two positions that never fail to make us smile--the first is his ongoing habit of lying flat out on his stomach with his back legs straight out behind him (pictured earlier in this blog). We call that "back pads," since when he does it you can see every one of the pads on his back feet, which is not that usual when cats are lying down. We call the other position "propped up." He has two things he likes to do on the screen porch: either his gymnastics on the 3-tier "cat tree" we have out there, or perching on top of the doghouse watching the front yard (as mentioned before, he is an inside-only cat). (Actually he has three things--the third being splashing in the water dish out there...) I took this picture of him a few minutes ago in propped up position:

He's still doing great and still has quite a thing about water. I can only assume he was deprived of water until he came to us. For a while we could keep him out of our water glasses (during meals or other times) by covering them with a lid from a plastic tub. He soon learned how to nudge the lid off with his nose. I keep a glass of water by the bed, normally covered with a lid. I never remember to move the glass out of his reach and so first thing every morning when I emerge from the bedroom, he runs in and uncovers the glass and drinks as much water as he can reach (I discover this later when I go back in and see the lid on the table by the glass...). As for the water bowls in the house (including the "bowl" in the bathroom), he seems to enjoy splashing around in them as much as drinking from them--we often hear splashing sounds and know that Muffin is playing in water again. He also continues to have a problem with closed doors--he does not like a closed door and must be on the other side. Of course, as soon as you open the door and then close it behind him, he wants to be on the other side again. He just does not like to be restricted!

He still plays with his cubes as much as ever, as well as the turbo toy.

Daphne had a cold (with a fever) last week and he harassed her horribly, perhaps not understanding why his play buddy wouldn't play. She is on antibiotics and feeling better now, though I am sure she would prefer a little more time left alone...

Muffin and the Best Friend

2008-03-25T08:51:00.002-04:00

Someone recently emailed me to ask if Muffin was okay, since it's been so long since the last post. Muffin is fine! He is wonderful, in fact. But he's fairly grown up now (he and Daphne are the same height when they stand side-by-side) and so this chronicle of our kitten "as he grows up" is winding down a bit (although there will always be posts, just not nearly as often as there used to be).

Muffin is a very special cat to us; he's not like any cat we have ever had before. Perhaps it's the bobtail in him, or just his own personality. He remains a constant source of joy and entertainment and is a bright light in this house. He has changed April from Crabby Appleton to a cat who enjoys a good romp now and then. He can even get our very elderly Booboo to play for short periods. But the best thing to see is how happy he seems to have made Daphne. Here she was, a young cat, stuck in the middle of a really old cat and a cranky cat, with no feline friends. And then Muffin came into her world and opened it wide up. They really seem to like each other. (In fact, Muffin occasionally attempts to take that affection to a whole new level, which gets him nowhere since Daphne was spayed long ago...) (Muffin will undergo a similar modification in a few months...)

I took this a few days ago as they slept near the computer:

And this one a few minutes ago, while they nap in Bed One:

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this and enjoying getting to know Muffin! I'll continue to post photos and updates periodically.

Muffin and the Other Striped Cat

2008-02-19T16:03:00.002-05:00

You haven't seen a lot of photos with Muffin and Booboo in here. Booboo is a very old cat who spends most of his time sleeping either on the back of a recliner or in Bed One.

It's taken a few months, but Muffin has even brought his light to Booboo (who in his time was Mr. Playful, a veritable dervish in the fall when breezes would blow the leaves around and the air would have that new crispness that signals the end of summer. Of course this was back when we let our cats go outside. This was before Booboo was bitten by a poisonous snake and given basically no chance to survive by the vet....but that's a story left for a Booboo blog, which doesn't actually exist right now). We have been delighted to see Booboo join in the play with a plastic straw (oh yes, we are still giving Muffin straws, and they keep disappearing), and last week while I was at the computer and my husband was in the kitchen there was the sound of thundering cat paws running by, which is not that unusual. My husband said "That was three cats." I just kind of nodded--of course, Daphne and Muffin, with April joining in. He said "Two of them were striped." What? So now Booboo is actually running through the house in play?! This is what often happens when you bring a kitten to an old cat or a puppy to an aging dog--it doesn't always work this way but sometimes they breathe new life into the older guys.

Here's Booboo waiting for play time with Muffin, who is of course in his usual lying-down position.

Here's Booboo showing how similar the stripes on the backs of their heads are.

This afternoon we opened the screen porch to the cats again. Muffin found a place to settle next to his new buddy.

I went out a few minutes later to take another photo and found them napping.

Muffin has simply brought a wonderful presence to everyone in the house.

Muffin and the Screen Porch

2008-02-17T16:19:00.003-05:00

As an inside cat, Muffin mostly has to content himself with watching the outside world from a window sill. But when the weather gets warm, we open the front door, which leads to the screen porch, which is screened on three sides and has a bird feeder hanging from the roof just outside one of the screens. Lizards often get into the screen porch, since the door to the outside is usually left propped open to allow our old dog to get to his house on the porch.

Muffin really likes his screen porch time! He stays out for hours, and when we finally bring him in, he tries to figure out how to open the front door to get back out.

Muffin and the Three Cubes, Part II

2008-02-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

Muffin continues to own the stand-alone red cube--he now can make it actually leap across a space about a foot and a half long. In fact, all of his jumping about from within it and onto the top of it when Daphne is in it has weakened it to the point that we often come out in the morning and find a flattened cube on the floor. We will soon be switching it out with one of the attached blue ones.

We left the red one as a single cube because it was our impression that Muffin would not be able to move the three connected blue cubes. Evidently we were wrong. While he does not move them across the floor, he did manage to turn the whole set on end!

He is getting to be a big kitten! He continues to have a complete fascination for water in all forms and wherever he can find it. The sound of splashing, from the large water bowl we keep for the pets or from other bowls that have water in them (you know the ones), can often be heard in this house. If we have water with a meal we have to keep the water glass covered or Muffin will help himself from it. Really likes water!

Muffin and the Ice Cube

2008-02-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

I frequently enjoy some sort of fermented grain beverage over ice in the evening while I wait for dinner to finish cooking. One time I was obtaining ice cubes (a misnomer, they are actually ice "crescents") from the dispenser in the freezer door. Muffin was in the vicinity. A crescent ricocheted off the glass and fell to the floor, skidding a bit when it hit. This of course caught Muffin's attention. He had great fun with the ice crescent, batting it around the linoleum (again a misnomer, I think it's actually "vinyl flooring") like a hockey puck. Well, until the new toy more or less disappeared on him.

This occurrence, well over a month ago, started a tradition. Now, every evening when I get ice, Muffin comes zooming in from wherever he was, whatever he was doing, to get his own ice crescent. I take one out of the glass and send it scooting across the floor for him, and he takes it from there.

It's gotten to the point where, if he is napping when I need more ice, I will very quietly get the ice from the actual bin, making as little noise as possible so as not to wake him. Muffin considers play to be much more of a priority than sleep!

Muffin and the Play Breaks

2008-01-25T13:18:00.000-05:00

After an hour or so of running around with Daphne, April, or his new play pal, Rufus (the Staffie), Muffin likes to take short breaks to regroup. When he first lay on the floor taking a break in this new position, I rushed to get the camera--never saw him lie like this, might not see it again.

---

Well, that is, until a couple of days later, in another room.

This morning he spent about an hour playing with a plastic straw (if we ever have a reason to move the oven, we will find quite a collection of plastic straws under it--that's where they all seem to end up and I can't reach them, either). When it was time for a break, he struck what has become his signature pose on the floor:

As you can see from the title of this blog (or the subtitle), these are photos of Muffin as he grows up. He's growing fast. He still plays with all the toys pictured in these posts (this morning a red cube rolled across the living room and attacked our beagle as she was walking by), which, along with the other pets, keep him busy. I always have the camera handy but new photos may become fewer and farther between here.

He is a very special kitty; very loving and affectionate when he is not hard at play or sound asleep. When he is not resting on the floor, legs akimbo, he likes the back of the loveseat and is forming quite a little round depression in the top of the back cushion. We are looking forward to warmer weather when we can let the cats be on the screen porch--just when he thinks he has everything figured out, here comes a whole new world of chameleon lizards to catch, birds flying by, and all the smells of the outdoors (from a safe place).

Muffin and the Three Cubes

2008-01-21T12:22:00.000-05:00

You may recall from an earlier post how much fun Muffin had with the play cube that we got for him, and that I went out later and bought three more, which we linked together.

All the cats like the three cubes as much as the single one (which still gets a lot of play!). They like to run through the three that are linked together, or sometimes just hang out in them (because of the hole arrangement, they can go in one side and come out the other). Or use them as a base for play with other toys...

In and out of the cubes.

He's gotten very smart with them. If he sees April or Daphne enter from one end, he sneaks over to the other side and either waits for them to emerge, or goes in after them. Of course, they are getting wise to this and occasionally turn the tables on him...

He has also begun jumping in and out of the three cubes through the holes in the top, which can be a surprise to any cat in that particular cube...

Muffin is still rolling around the room inside the single red one, which still makes us laugh out loud.

Muffin and the Plastic Straw

2008-01-18T11:51:00.000-05:00

One day I took out a plastic drinking straw (white with a red stripe on it) from the cupboard, tied a knot in the middle, and tossed it to Muffin.

He played with it for well over 30 minutes.

(Yes, he's standing up there with it in the photo above! Hard to see the perspective...)

---

---

---

And eventually all this playing and leaping about with the straw caught Daphne's attention.

Since then he has had three straws; one ended up under the refrigerator, not sure where the other two are. Another advantage to the straws is that Muffin is presently teething, and chewing on the ends of the straws seems to help (you can see the chewed ends in a couple of the photos). Apparently chewing on coardboard box flaps also helps--they all have tooth marks all over them!

Muffin and the Blog

2008-01-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

You know I have this wooden cover for the keyboard so that Muffin doesn't crash the system or do something I don't know how to undo to it. He has come to depend on my putting this platform up, and we have "loving time" every evening after dinner while I (normally) play some computer card game.

One night he came up while I was doing a little tweaking to his blog and settled himself in. Muffin in front of Muffin.

Muffin and the Leaf

2008-01-15T12:24:00.000-05:00

Muffin has a lot of store-bought toys that he really enjoys. And of course he loves the paper shopping bags and shipping boxes and foil balls.

The other day a small brown live-oak leaf found its way to the living room floor from outside, and Muffin had a great time playing with it for quite a while.

(Arrow indicates leaf.)

After a pounce on top of it (presumably to prevent it from getting away):

And of course much rolling around, perhaps to lure the leaf to pounce on him.

(Hey, it works with Daphne!)

Muffin and the Cube

2008-01-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

We were in Walmart getting some stuff yesterday and of course I wandered over to the cat toys. They had these play cubes that I had seen at Petsmart and Petco. Just under $4 apiece, and I'm always looking for toys for Muffin, so we got one.

It's always nice to get a toy for a cat and have the cat like it. Muffin and the cube had me laughing so hard this morning that I had tears streaming from my eyes. To say this was a hit is an understatement. And today I made another trip (25 miles one way) to get three more. But I get ahead of myself.

This is a very lightweight and seemingly unsubstantial toy. A 15" square cube that is made basically like my bug tent that I take camping--you toss it and it opens itself and will stay open. There are large holes on 3 sides. Cubes can be joined together to make larger play areas.

Here is Muffin entering the cube,

and sitting in it.

Here's the thing about the cube. It behaves similarly to those plastic balls you get for hamsters so they can run around the house safely and contained. The sides of the cube are so thin that the cat inside the cube can see shapes immediately outside the cube (and of course can see out through the holes). Muffin discovered very early on that he could actually move across the floor without getting out of the cube, just by running forward. So this morning we had a large red cube rolling around all over the living room floor and at one point into the kitchen.

The laughing came when Rufus, the dog pictured in the previous post, came in from the yard this morning. He walks into the living room. Muffin, inside the cube, spots him. And suddenly this large cube is rolling rapidly toward Rufus. The way he just stood there dumbfounded while this apparent piece of furniture became animated and moved toward him (none of the chairs had ever done that; neither had the couch) was amusing enough, but then Muffin, inside the cube, reached Rufus, pounced halfway out of one of the cube holes, swatted Rufus on the head a couple of times with his paws, and then retreated back into the cube and quickly rolled away. I know, you probably had to be here, but it really was extremely amusing. Rufus just stood there, as if wondering "What just happened?" My hooting with laughter didn't help.

Muffin found it first and he stayed in it a very long time. When he got out, April immediately got into it. And then Muffin came back and got into it with her, which she allowed for a short time (more baby steps). Most of the time she sat outside it when he was in it, waiting for her turn.

Daphne is always wary of anything new and sits back and observes it for a while before investigating up close. Early this afternoon she joined Muffin for a nap in it. I don't think she likes the cube very much, though.

We decided to get three more cubes to join together at right angles and leave the one cube sitting alone since I don't think Muffin can move the linked cubes like he can the single one. (When my husband came in from outside earlier today, he told me that he had been attacked by a cube in the living room.) Muffin has been napping and has not yet discovered the addition of more cubes to his playground; I'll add photos of those later. They were out of red ones (there were 2 more red ones yesterday...perhaps someone else was doing the same thing) so the three together are blue.

The cube has the appeal of a paper bag or a box as far as being a place to sleep; three sides don't have holes, so there is a coziness to the inside. Muffin slept for hours inside the red one after his play session. Since they are lightweight and a bit flimsy, his weight lets him sleep wherever he wants, which this afternoon was at the lengthwise intersection of two sides, so the cube was actually sitting on its edge with him sound asleep in it.

(It's not that the photo is crooked!)

I haven't laughed that hard for a long time, and even later, just thinking about the incident with Rufus, I got the giggles again. Several reviews for this toy (I read a lot of reviews for any toy I get--not that they are any help with whether a cat will like a toy or not (who knows?) but to be sure there aren't any inherent dangers I need to know about) mentioned the cats rolling the cubes around but I hadn't realized they meant from inside them. It's also amusing when one of the holes is facing up and the cat pokes its head out like a jack-in-the-box.

Muffin sure had fun this morning.

Muffin and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier

2008-01-11T17:54:00.000-05:00

The cats here all adore Rufus, our 5-year-old Staffie. I suspect that this is because with his extremely thin and short coat, he is like a walking furnace. In return, while Rufus seems to enjoy having his head bathed (a regular function for Booboo and April) (speaking of April, she is just plain foolish over Rufus), for the most part he doesn't seem to so much like or dislike the cats as be utterly oblivious of them. That may also be part of his appeal; cats just can't stand being ignored (why else do they always go to the one person in the room who is not a cat person? Because that person is paying them the least attention...).

It was only a matter of time until Muffin discovered the heat source that is Rufus.

Muffin and the Newest Toy

2008-01-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

We got another new toy for Muffin (aka Muffin Man, or Muffles during cuddling)! This one is called the Peek-a-Prize Toy Box. It's a sturdily-made box with lots of holes in it, through which they reach to try to extract various small toys. While Muffin didn't spend as much time with it as he did with the circular mouse toy, he was interested and has gone back to it many times since we bought it, which is usually a sign of a successful toy.

---

---

When it arrived in the mail I opened the shipping carton and removed the toy from its box within the carton, and put the carton with its disposable contents behind a chair in the living room to be taken outside. After his first session with the toy, Muffin found the box and napped in amongst the packing paper.

Much to our incredulous surprise, there has been some new activity here at Casa Muffin. Our cat April, the staid, dignified Crabby Appleton of the bunch, has been spotted on more than one occasion running back and forth through the house playing chase with Muffin. When he tries for some paws-on tussling she gives him several hard thwacks on the head and will have none of it, but perhaps over time she will relent on that as well. Baby steps.

Muffin and the Kitchen Sink

2008-01-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

Muffin really enjoys the kitchen sink. He will come running from wherever he is when he hears the water running. Since he is still too small to jump straight up on the kitchen counter (this could be a problem for a long time due to an injury he got before we found him), he has to follow a somewhat circuitous route to get to the sink. The kitchen chair, the kitchen table, Bed One, the window sill, over the top of the water cooler to the top of the microwave, then down to the counter and over to the sink. He zooms across this route quickly. He likes to watch the water hit the sink. He doesn't seem to understand that when he puts his head over where it is hitting the sink, the stream of water then hits the top of his head. As a result, our Muffin is often wet, which doesn't seem to faze him at all.

We are very pleased that he has cut back considerably on his habit of leaping into the freezer every time we open the door. We were starting to get a tad compulsive about going back to recheck that he was not in there every time we would get anything out of it. He rarely pays any attention to the freezer now that he has discovered the sink. (But we still keep an eye on him when we open the freezer door...)

Muffin and the Catnap

2008-01-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

I was recently watching some evening TV in my favorite jays with Muffin sleeping next to me. I looked down and noticed that the sleeping kitten went well with the PJ theme.

Muffin and the Fireplace

2008-01-03T10:49:00.000-05:00

One chilly evening while our Christmas tree was still up, we had a fire in the fireplace, the first one since Muffin came to live here. He was of course extremely curious about the whole preparing/lighting process (it's a real fireplace, not one that lights at the flick of a switch and puts out no warmth), and once it was going, discovered that the end table by a nearby chair is the perfect place to nap since it gets very toasty there.

This has, unfortunately, always been April's spot when the fireplace is in use...

Muffin and The New Water Source

2008-01-01T17:58:00.000-05:00

I hope this isn't too indelicate for any of my gentle readers.

Muffin, a smart and inquisitive kitten, is always investigating. He recently discovered a new source of water.

---

Muffin and the Other Cat Bed

2007-12-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

It took him awhile but Muffin finally discovered Bed Two. If I were a cat in this house, this would be my bed of choice.

It has high sides to curl up against and is attached to the sill of a window that is frequently open, allowing soft breezes to waft across it. It is also conveniently located above and a few feet from the self-feeder. Muffin spent a lot of time in it recently.

It's only a matter of time until Daphne sees him there and remembers that oh yeah, there's another bed here, and joins him.

Muffin and the New Toy

2007-12-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

While we were at Petsmart recently buying cat food (we seem to be needing significantly more lately than we used to....wonder why?), I strolled into the toy aisle. They had a toy that was similar to the two circular ones we have that the cats like so well, but with a new twist. Instead of having a ball that goes around and around, it has a small mouse, which is attached via a wire to the center. This makes it completely silent, and also enables the mouse to move even faster than the balls in the others. So we bought one.

April (aka Crabby Appleton when it comes to the other cats; she loves the dogs) was the first to come upon it. April is not a playful cat, though she tries sometimes. She had no idea what the toy was and after she tapped the mouse, it swung rapidly around its arc and bumped into the back of her paw, startling her and causing her to leap about a foot in the air. She stayed with it, though. Eventually Muffin wandered over.

---

---

---

He played with the toy for a solid hour, eventually with enough fervor to physically move it around the room.

---

This toy is now a permanent addition to the collection on the living room floor.

Muffin and the Lovebird

2007-12-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

We have a lovebird (named Betty) (her mate is no longer with us) who mostly hangs out at the end of the kitchen in her cage. Sometimes when we pick Muffin up we take him over to see Betty, who needs as many distractions as she can get. Sometimes Muffin goes to visit on his own, but he has to observe from afar.

(Betty is in the lower right corner of her cage, looking back at him.)

Muffin and the Little Box

2007-12-22T10:37:00.000-05:00

Lately everything that comes into the house is examined in terms of either being a danger to Muffin or a new toy for Muffin. I received a Christmas gift in the mail that came in a somewhat long narrow box, so we opened both ends and added it to the Muffin Playground.

He liked it; cats often like tight spaces.

---

Muffin is now eating adult food only, since he fills up at the self-feeder so often he is never hungry for his special kitten food. He's not the tidiest of eaters at the feeder, so cleanup of the area is now required on a regular basis. And it is being refilled with great frequency. And Muffin is growing at an impressive rate! He has quite a solid little body for such a young kitten. The improved diet has also made him very fuzzy and soft.

Muffin and the Computer Part II

2007-12-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

I was going to append this to the post that precedes this from the same day but I know that I often don't go back to posts once I have read them so I am adding this as a new post. The previous post describes how much Muffin likes sleeping on the computer keyboard and how we had to devise a makeshift cover for it.

Just now I was playing a little computer card game (Spite and Malice, it turns out) and Muffin came over for some petting and to nap. I put the cover on, since I only need the mouse to play the game. Muffin was extremly intrigued by following the mouse cursor and the movement of the cards on the screen. We keep the camera right here on the table so I leaned back a tad in my chair and took this one:

He was having fun. And by the way, I won that game.

Muffin and the Computer

2007-12-21T17:44:00.000-05:00

I use a notebook computer, which is set up on the dining room table (the better to keep an eye on Muffin). The keyboard gets warm when it has been running for several hours. Muffin likes to climb up on the keyboard when I am not looking and walk around on it for a while before stretching out. The Windows operating system was not set up for the commands generated by a kitten's four paws pressing random keys. I have come back to find him on the keyboard and the system shut down. One time I found him there and the entire desktop was ghosted and all of my Yahoo widgets were running at once. One time I was working in Photoshop and when I came back Muffin was sitting on top of the keyboard and the entire Photoshop screen had an appearance I had never seen before--it took a fair amount of research in my books to figure out what he had done and restore it to my preferred appearance.

And so we hastily put together a small platform to lay over the keyboard when I leave the computer temporarily. This works very well when I remember to put it there. Muffin seems to like it better than the somewhat tilted keyboard (the computer is on a stand to enhance air circulation below it to prevent overheating).

(When April used to do this same thing as a kitten, I found some software that actually deactivates the keyboard when two keys are pressed simultaneously, which is often the case when cats walk on it. I decided not to go that route this time, though.)

Muffin and the Big Tube

2007-12-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

My husband brought home this huge cardboard tube from work one day. Kind of like a really really big version of the tube inside a roll of paper towels. We cut it in half and thought Muffin might like it so it was added to the kitten playground that used to be our living room. It took him a while to figure it out, but now he is our agility cat, dashing in one end and out the other. Needless to say, this leads to play time with his buddy Daphne.

---

----

Of course all that tube play is tiring. Muffin has discovered how comfy our bed is, and on this day found a nice little spot in a blanket fresh from the dryer.

Muffin and the Christmas Tree Boughs

2007-12-17T18:20:00.000-05:00

We put our (real; outrageously expensive) Christmas tree up. But first we dragged it into the living room and cut off the bottom boughs so it would fit in our ancient tree stand. We tossed them aside for the moment.

Muffin was immediately interested.

There was much leaping on top of them, pushing them this way and that, sliding into them from across the room. He really enjoyed them.

And then, being Muffin, he wore himself out and fell asleep half covered by the boughs.

Muffin and the Art of the Nap

2007-12-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

When Muffin plays, he plays hard. He and Daphne thunder back and forth chasing each other from room to room; there are wild high leaps onto the paper bags and so much rolling around inside them that the bags occasionally end up standing on end, as if they are ready for groceries. Sometimes he works himself into such a frenzy of play that Daph backs off and just watches (probably wondering if he has flipped out entirely). And then when he wears himself out, he sleeps as hard as he plays. When he is out, he is really out.

---

---

Bed One (the cat bed above) is a favorite spot, but not the only one. Lately he has been enjoying the curved back of a dining room chair.

As I write this, nap time is over and he and Daphne are just getting started...

Muffin and the Self-Feeder

2007-12-15T11:29:00.000-05:00

Muffin is so smart that it was only a matter of time before he discovered the self-feeder that is sitting on a dresser in an extra bedroom here for the other cats.

This means he is eating food for adult cats, so while we have eliminated his lunchtime snack, he does still get his kitten food in the morning and evening. He's become such a presence here and seems so confident and at ease that we have to keep reminding ourselves that he's just a kitten. We haven't even had him a month and yet it's hard to remember not having him here!

Muffin and the Coat

2007-12-14T18:03:00.000-05:00

Early every morning my husband goes out with the dogs and does a few things outside. When he comes back in, he hangs his coat (during this time of year when our mornings are chilly) on the back of a dining room chair. Pretty much without fail Daphne has been tugging it down to the floor--she seems to never tire of this and was doing it long before Muffin arrived.

But now Muffin is enjoying the coat as well, and the other morning decided to curl up in one of the inner pockets.

Later that day Muffin and our oldest cat, Booboo, shared some laptime with my husband. Booboo does not look completely thrilled with this arrangement but of course Muffin is sacked out after a busy day of playing, not really caring how Booboo feels. (This is taken looking over hubby's shoulder.)

Muffin and the Foil Ball

2007-12-09T18:18:00.000-05:00

In addition to an empty paper grocery bag, a small ball made of ordinary aluminum foil makes what we have found to be a very popular kitten/cat toy. It rolls unevenly across wood or vinyl flooring and makes a lot of noise. Daphne has a bit of an "oh, not another foil ball" attitude about them but Muffin still prefers them to the store-bought plastic balls with small bells in them.

-------

Eventually even a little foil ball can wear a kitten out.

He seems to be growing at a remarkable rate, and is still the cutest kitten I have ever seen. He got up on the cat bed (see previous post) by himself yesterday. I'm not sure if Daphne, who was in it at the time, thought this was a good thing or not...

Muffin and the Cat Bed

2007-12-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

We have two of those fleece cat beds that you put on windowsills (designated around here as Bed One and Bed Two; we are nothing if not pragmatic), one in the dining room area and one in the extra bedroom (next to the dresser on which sits the cat self-feeder, which Muffin has yet to discover). I recently noticed Muffin eyeing his buddy Daphne lying in Bed One at the dining area window. While he probably would not have jumped up to the bed on his own, not knowing how sturdy it was, I knew that once up there, he could easily jump down off it. So I boosted him up there.

Daphne was happy to have company and immediately started bathing him. Muffin, however, either wanted to play or simply wanted to annoy her enough so that he could have the bed to himself, so he went into Playful Kitty Mode, which disrupted her nap, and of course she vacated the bed. And he promptly fell asleep and stayed in the bed all night.

-------

------

He hasn't tried to get back into it by himself yet, but I'm sure he will soon--it's a short hop up from the table.

Snack Time

2007-12-05T13:32:00.000-05:00

Muffin gets kitten food for breakfast and dinner and a snack of crunchies at lunch time. He is not yet aware that on a dresser top in the room in which he gets fed is a plastic feeder that keeps cat crunchies available 24/7. Since that food is for adult cats, we are hoping it will be a while before he follows one of the other cats up to it (he could get up there now if he wanted to). I can just hear him when he discovers it: "What?? Has this been here all along???"

In the meantime, he gets fed at regular intervals.

Oh yes, that is a Wedgwood bowl in the "Napoleon Ivy" pattern. Of course.

Muffin, Daphne, and The Box

2007-12-03T21:21:00.000-05:00

I thought I would put down a box for Muffin to play in, given that paper bags tend to flatten so soon (nonetheless he is still enjoying the original one). Daphne loves boxes so it didn't take long for her to show up, though at first he had it to himself. To leap in and out of.

And then Daphne came to investigate what was going on.

----

And then the tide turned.

They have continued to have fun with the box, which has now joined the other toys on the living room floor.

Tomorrow Muffin goes to the vet to get his first vaccinations. I doubt he will enjoy it.

Muffin and Daphne

2007-12-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

We had a feeling that Daphne would be the cat in this house that would really glom onto Muffin as a playmate. She is the youngest, and the one who just loves to knock things off of surfaces and then bat them around ("If it's not a cat toy, it will be" is her motto).

And Muffin needs a playmate so this is working out well.

Muffin is often on his back during play time...

None of them have bathed him yet. The problem with Daphne is that as the baby, she has always been the bathee and never quite learned to reciprocate. She's about 6 years old and we have never once seen her bathing either of the other cats. But playing is more important than a bath right now.

He comes running to greet us whenever we walk in the door from having been gone. It's so cute and sweet.

Medium-tech Toys

2007-11-30T21:42:00.000-05:00

And then there's this toy, which our adult cat Daphne loved as a kitten--and still plays with--and that Muffin is also having a great time with.

He chases the little ball 'round and 'round until he is too tired to chase any more and he falls asleep!

Today he and Booboo were playing--which only leaves one cat, April, who is not interested in playing with him. Ah well, two out of three ain't bad.

Low-tech Toys

2007-11-29T13:34:00.000-05:00

Sure, chasing a flashlight beam is fun; so is watching an aquarium DVD on a TV screen. But really, when it comes to kitten toys, you just can't beat the old paper bag.

We're making progres with the other cats. Muffin and Daphne actually had real play time this morning, complete with chasing each other back and forth and some paw-to-paw play combat.

November 27, 2007

2007-11-27T18:21:00.001-05:00

Muffin is responding very well to the improved nutrition and the flea treatment he had yesterday--he's getting more active and running a little farther at a stretch (he looks a little sleepy in that photo, that was after some play time). You can see his wonky left front foot in the photo that he got as a result of an injury that occurred before we got him. Today he and Daphne came another step closer to playing together, I think in a couple of days she will get over her hesitation (he is, after all, the first cat that has joined the family since her arrival)--you can tell she really wants to play.

Muffin can now jump onto a dining room chair by himself. Very soon he will be able to jump from the chair to the windowsill, which I'm sure he will like.

He has some strange compulsion about getting into the refrigerator every time we open the door, so we are very vigilant about watching for him as we take stuff out and put it away. I read on some website that American bobtails are escape artists...maybe he thinks that door leads somewhere...

November 26, 2007

2007-11-26T12:11:00.000-05:00

Muffin loves the same toy that our Daphne loved. I'm not sure who came up with this simple concept for a kitten toy but they sure do love it. Small ball rolls around in a small circle with access openings for the cat to bat at it. When I took this out for Muffin and dusted it off and set it on the living room floor, Daphne soon found it and played with it with as much vigor as she showed as a kitten. Maybe seeing Muffin playing with it will help facilitate their getting along.

---

So far the dogs are all fine with the kitten, oldest cat Booboo accepts him and has come close to bathing him, Daphne is working on it, and April, our haughty cat who would like nothing more than to be the only cat in the house, and who has never liked either of the others, really doesn't like Muffin. I don't expect this to change but I hope she will come to grips with it somehow. The main problem is that April was my lap cat for evening TV-watching and now sometimes she jumps up to settle as usual and finds the spot taken by Muffin. She's not real happy right now.

Meanwhile, Muffin had an Advantage flea treatment today and seems to be fine. Those are always tricky for young ones, though he does seem to be clearly over 8 weeks of age. And we have got to get rid of these fleas before they make him anemic (if he isn't already).

He's wonderful.

Introducing Muffin

2007-11-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

We got a new kitty! I've been looking for a long time and finally found him. He's perfect and just what I was looking for. So I thought I would document his growth from kitten to cat on a blog.

While the name of this blog would seem to indicate that I will be posting daily, in fact that's probably not going to happen, but I will be updating on a regular basis as he grows. Right now our dogs and one of our three cats are all fine with him, whereas one cat is iffy on him and the other actively dislikes him (as we knew would happen). I hope that things settle down a bit as that one gets used to him being here. Unfortunately, she was my lap cat and I fear she feels betrayed when she sees him sleeping on my lap in her place. I try to give her extra attention, but she is so stand-offish that the only time we really share is when she is in my lap in the evening, which is of course not happening now since most of the time Muffin is there. So stay tuned for how that all works out.

Meanwhile, here is Muffin, an hour after arriving here, sleeping on the chair next to my husband--

--pretty laid back kitten! He's wonderful. More about him and his origin in later posts.