The Pet Update

There's always movement at our house. If not Shane, it's the pets.

Everyone's healthy. The cats all like to watch all the baby birds through the windows. The kittens (especially Tsuki) are thrilled whenever bugs sneak in through an open door so that they can hunt them down.  

Carrie moved the cat tree to the living room to "keep things fresh." Shane moved the scratching pad from the floor to a perch as the piece de resistance. 

Sometimes Shane gets the bug to create. One of his favorite things to create are cat houses.

Things aren't perfect, though. Aria's still peeing outside the litter box. 

Cat pee is terrible.

I've worried she'd pee in one of Shane's creations, but she seems to prefer the couch. It feels like there's an "accident" once every week or two. Carrie's figured out how to wash the pillows and has a mint scented spray to eliminate odors, but it's not flawless. 

Our wash room smells like pee whenever I walk through it, too. I've searched behind the washers and haven't found any puddles. The litter pot's presence, Shane spilling the pee pad onto the floor (not once, but twice) and the one accident on the shoes has probably tainted the room for life.

We've talked about whether or not Aria could go back to being a barn cat. Carrie let her out on the porch one day just to observe.

We haven't switched her, though. Bringing a cat into the barn from being feral feels like giving them a leg up. Kicking a cat out of the house to the barn to live by herself when we have falcons, eagles, and coyotes feels like washing our hands of it. I've asked about a vet check-up, but Carrie doesn't want to pay when she's sure it's behavioral and not medical.

It was cheaper to buy more litter boxes and put them everywhere.

The new pots all have diggable litter to try and entice Aria all the more.

At least everyone gets along.

 

Loki's got an unhealthy addiction to cat rear ends. He smacks his lips after a good cleaning.

I've caught him with his nose in our shoes, too. I don't know what that implies about how my feet smell compared to cat butt.

But I've got hilarious video proof that everyone gets along: Tsuki, the huntress, picks a bug out of Loki's fur that she's stalking.

Gross stuff aside, Loki is probably the smartest dog I've ever owned. For example, Carrie taught him a new trick while we were at the beach (in lieu of her normal rearranging).

Loki's generalized the trick, too. When we dropped Shane off at camp and left Loki with Grandma and Grandpa, we brought the pen. Carrie gave the command and Loki ran in.