Aby-a-Day – 10 November: “I haven’t taken my Christmas lights down. They look so nice on the pumpkin” (Silly Saturday)

In Sweden, Winter time starts a week before Daylight Savings ends in the States. Additionally, not having a late November holiday like Thanksgiving to mark the beginning of the “Holiday season,” Swedes tend to start thinking about Jul lights as soon as it starts getting dark early.

To that end, Björn found some pretty coloured ball lights on sale last month.

Izaak was born on 26 January, and so has never seen Christmas lights before…

…And he was fascinated by them.

Just mesmerised.

It was so cute the way he played with them.

Alfred, of course, has celebrated one Christmas already, but he was curious about the lights, too.

Somehow, he managed to get sort of entangled in them.

Only Freddy…

Aby-a-Day – 3 November: Look out for that treeeeeee! (Silly Swedish Saturday)

The other day we took the kittens out again before it gets too cold. Lorelai ran as fast as she could to her beloved trees.

She always looks so funny…she runs so fast and so hard, with every ounce of strength she can muster.

And the way she attacks those trees…

…she’s just a little bit crazed, really.

But I will say this for our little Rory…

…She throws herself all into whatever it is she’s trying to do.

No matter how tall the tree, Rory’s gonna climb it!

Aby-a-Day – 27 October: Treetop Battle (Silly Saturday)

Lorelai and Izaak love the top of the cat tree.

There’s something about the danger of being so high that they can’t resist.

Which of course means they feel the need to fight up there.

Treetop fights are pretty funny.

I mean, what are they fighting for? To knock the other one out of the tree? One is in the house, sure…but the other one is at the top.

So what’s the actual conflict?

I have no idea…but it’s a lot of fun to watch them work it out.

Aby-a-Day – 20 October: A right way and a wrong way to do things (Silly Saturday)

Sometimes cats are so funny.

Clearly, Izaak thought that this was the best way to cuddle with Alfred. It doesn’t look either cuddly or comfortable for either party…but neither of them seemed to mind.

They worked out the comfort thing eventually, though.

Lorelai and Zak never have that problem. I guess it’s a size thing.

Aby-a-Day – 13 October: “They call me baby driver, once upon a set of wheels…” (Silly Saturday)

These photos are from May, when we first got Lorelai.

She was pretty adorable riding in Jacoby’s big yellow stroller.

First we have her ridesharing with Alfred.

He was so much bigger than she was, back then.

She was really adorable in the stroller with Freddy.

But a couple of weeks later, Rory was in the stroller with Angel.

That time, she was really working the cute. Look at her chill!

Aby-a-Day – 1 September: You’re why we can’t have nice things (Silly Saturday)

Alfred is an evil genius, an avid hunter…and a klutz. Not a good combination.

This is Freddy in the laundry room. Once upon a time, we stored bags of dry cat food on the shelves of a tall shelf just out of frame, the top of which you can see Freddy speculatively eying.

Now all the bags have been chewed through, re-bagged, and stuffed into sealed, plastic bins.

Not that he never stops trying to get at them. “There was food there before, there will be again” is his motto.

I mean, look at him sizing up the shelving! We have had to put a latch on the door because if it’s not shut properly he can shoulder it open.

Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the house…

…I think he’s chasing flying insects. I have no idea. All I know is things from the top of the bookcases and the liquor cabinet are ending up on the floor. Sometimes they’re repairable things. Sometimes…like the Hagen-Renaker 1950’s California ceramic Siamese cat “Seated Sookie” last night…not so much.

But the most worrisome habit he’s recently picked up is…he has cracked the mystery of the catio netting! He has discovered a loose spot on one side of the netting that he can get through – no one else has discovered it, yet, thank goodness – but we are back to having to keep the balcony locked up the way it was before we had any netting at all until we can work out a way to fix the loophole.

Sometimes, I wish Abys weren’t quite so smart.

(Edit: As I was writing this post, despite our best efforts, Freddy actually got out through the balcony AGAIN! Third time today!)

Aby-a-Day – 4 August: No allen wrench required (Silly Swedish Saturday)

Back in April, I posted about Malt, a Japanese Singapura who loves to drag his favourite toy all over the house.

It seems Izaak and Malt have something in common.

Zak absolutely LOVES IKEA mice and rats.

LOVES them.

He also loves to carry them around.

We are always finding them in our bed.

Apparently, this is the best place to play with them.

It’s tempting to call his mousies his “friends,” but he doesn’t see them that way. When he picks them up, he tends to go for the backs of their necks. And then he shakes them. So…probably not friends.

Whatever they are, he loves to carry them around the house.

What’s funny is, we had a load of mice and one rat that lay around the house for over a year, because nobody ever played with them. The best they could hope for was to end up helping to bury the food bowls when Alfred was done eating. So now, whenever we go to IKEA, we of course have to get Zak some new mousies.

The last time we went, we got one of each colour mice, plus a black and a grey rat. And a lion, because why not?

Zak immediately decided he liked the big grey rat the best.

He picked it right up and carried it off.

He had a bit of a struggle with it on the balcony floor…

…and then he carried it into the living room.

His ultimate goal was this little tent we have set up in the living room.

There was a little bit of distraction involving a brown mouse from an earlier IKEA trip.

But in the end, Zak got his rat into his tent.