Since moving to Sweden and becoming the eldest female in the house, Angel has become very comfortable and secure in the house.
She has several favourite spots, and one of them is the IKEA cat bed at the end of the sofa.
She loves to sit there whilst I am doing things on my computer.
However, when she yawns…
…she shows off the fact that she only has one tooth in her head!
When we go outside with the cats, I do try to get Angel to come outside, too. But the last time we went out, Angel was happily ensconced on one of the chairs on the balcony. So, I let her be.
That didn’t stop her from joining us in her own way.
What was really adorable, though, was that Dashiell noticed her sitting on the railing watching us.
He was like, “Hey! Angel!”
Not sure if Angel is Juliet, Rapunzel, or Roxanne in this scenario.
Dash was the only cat who really noticed her. Alfred only saw her because he wanted to know what Dash was so interested in.
“Wait! No! Angel, come back!”
Seven years ago this Christmas, I found Bruce the Spruce, the plush Christmas tree who dances and sings Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. We didn’t put up all our decorations last year, but we bought a new tree this year, and we brought up about half our decorations from the basement.
Bruce was one of the decorations. I don’t think Lorelai had seen him before.
I don’t think Izaak had seen him before, either.
Given his plushie obsession, Zak was fairly fascinated.
Or frightened. Could be either.
Nah…I’m going with fascinated.
Don’t stick your tongue out at Bruce, Izaak!
Last December, we went to a “mini-show” at our nearby pet store, DjurMagazinet, similar to the one we went to in 2018.
One fun thing about these “pet store” shows is, there is no judging, and a lot more downtime. So we get to explore the store.
Including the cat trees.
But Izaak wasn’t the only one exploring the cat trees. If you recall, we met a lovely sorrel Somali named Tootsie at the last show we went to at DjurMagazinet.
Both Tootsie and Zak were (literally) all over the cat trees at the show.
It was fun to watch Tootsie and Zak interact.
They both live with other cats and (used to, anyway) go to cat shows often, so they were quite civil with each other.
They mostly explored the trees individually, but near each other.
Zak really liked how high he could get.
He also really liked the hanging puffball toys, while Tootsie explored the cubbyhole.
Zak then moved to one of the hammocks, and from there seemed to notice Tootsie.
He came down to say hello.
I think they could be friends!
Facebook has been reminding me a lot about Alfred and Logan lately. This one came up today.
Look at little Logan, sleeping peacefully on the IKEA cat bed.
Suddenly, a wild Freddy appears!
Freddy uses licking.
It’s super effective!
Although, to his credit, Logan did get a pretty good chomp in on Freddy’s ear.
I also made a little video of the encounter; click on the image to watch it on Flickr.
Yesterday, we drove back to Överum to collect Lorelai from her sleepover with Io. When we got there, everyone was outside; Rory in her car cage and Io on his leash.
Look at how handome Io is in the sunshine!
We aren’t sure if they actually mated during the past week
As soon as we got there, we put her harness and leash on so she could say farewell to her beau.
They weren’t unfriendly towards each other…
…But Rory wasn’t all googly-eyes over Io, either.
Rory was super happy to see us again. I wonder if she thought we’d left her and gone forever?
Rory was VERY happy to go for a little walk around Karin’s yard.
Rory said her goodbyes to Io and we were back on the road. If Rory hasn’t gotten pregnant from this visit, we’ll make the trip again in a few weeks. I hope she is knocked up, though; we didn’t get home til after 10pm, which is why this is another two-day post!
On the way back, we stopped at Björn’s brother Örjan’s house.
Looks like someone really missed her daddy!
When we got home, we brought Rory into the apartment still in her car carrier. Izaak and Alfred were the first to greet her. I think Zak missed her!
After her evening chicken neck, Rory was acting like she hadn’t been away for a week. We just need to wait and see if anything developed between her and Io.
I guess the LivePhoto function on my iPhone got switched on again, because all the photos I took of Rory’s journey were also saved as LivePhotos. I compiled them into one video, so take a look at what just might be the origin story of Rory’s kittens.
The other day when we were outside, we ran into our friend Markis.
Izaak and Lorelai came trotting up to say hello.
Rory got bored and ran off, but Zak…Zak took an interest in Markis.
And, unusually for him, Markis was actually interested in Zak, too.
Usually Markis just nopes out when he runs into the LunaTicks.
Or…maybe it’s just Zak Markis likes. Rory came back…and Markis decided he’d had enough.
“See ya!”
“But…but…Markis? I thought we were friends?”
The other day when we went outside, we happened to run into our friend and upstairs neighbour, Markis.
Lorelai ran up to meet him first.
Markis was not impressed.
He insisted on social distancing himself and backed away.
So of course Izaak felt the need to come barrelling up behind her…
…and straight past her, right up into Markis’ face.
Zak may have come up on Markis a little too quickly; there was a tiny little scuffle.
“SOCIAL DISTANCING! DUDE!”
Rory came to back Zak up, just in case.
It wasn’t necessary.
Markis decided to turn and run into the tall grass to get away from them. Rory could. Not. Resist. “Ooooh, big fluffy cat is running into the grass! Cool!!”
She lost sight of him momentarily…
…but then Markis made the mistake of raising his tail.
And Rory literally flew after him.
That’s the only word for it: flew.
We’ve trained Alfred, Lorelai and Izaak to come along with us when we take out the garbage and recyclables.
And they know, when we let them out when we’re carrying bags, that we’re not just “going outside,” but we’re going out to the bins. These three all know how to walk home from the bus stop from vet visits, and the bins are just next to the bus stop.
They love it…and they do know the difference. Dashiell hasn’t had enough practice outside to do this…and Angel is happier at home.
Rory so loves to run free outside. I say she is the very embodiment of joy when she runs.
Sometimes, she even climbs trees!
Here’s the video I made on the way back (note the Swedish social distancing).
It seems like an odd pairing, but when we go outside, Izaak and Angel pair up together.
It’s actually pretty adorable, because they generally weigh almost exactly the same, around 3.4kg (7.5lbs), which makes them roughly the same size. Alfred and Dashiell are the big boys, and Lorelai is our tiny little girl.
You can see how much bigger Dash is compared to the two of them.
But look how cute this is! They’re almost holding tails!
Here’s a video of the two of them. It’s accidentally slow motion, but you can see how they make a sweet, if strange, couple.
In both New England and Sweden, a pleasant sunny day is like a special gift, not to be squandered. One must go out and enjoy the good weather while it lasts…because, in both places, wait five minutes and it’ll change.
Take today, for example. It was raining so hard that it woke me up. Anyone who knows me, knows what a difficult thing that is to do.
But a couple of weeks ago? It was gorgeous outside, and we absolutely needed to get outside and enjoy it.
And oh, how Lorelai and Izaak enjoyed it.
The way they interact outside is so different from the way they interact inside. They are best buds, the two who grew up together, the cat show team, the “kittens.”
They play chase games in the house, but it’s taken to a whole other level when they’re outside. They are pretty evenly matched: Zak is older and heavier, but Rory is faster and sneakier.
I know we don’t have a subway to ride, or a city to explore, but we can run around free outside…and that’s a fun option to have.
This afternoon, the cutest little scene unfolded on the sofa next to me.
Izaak came to join Lorelai on the Ikea cat bed where she was alternating between napping and birdwatching.
And Zak started to groom Rory.
It was so adorable and sweet.
At one point, Rory seemed to be a little over Zak grooming her.
But then she succumbed to the ministrations of Zak’s tongue.
It really was a touching, lovely moment…
…until, suddenly, it wasn’t.
Lorelai has never met an enemy. She likes dogs, people, and other cats.
She’s always happy to encounter our upstairs neighbour, Markis.
Markis, as you can see in this video, isn’t really interested in playing with her.
Later on, she tried again.
This time, Markis started to run away from her instead of holding his ground again.
Oh, well…
…At least Rory got a game of chase out of the deal.
I needed to fix a couple of things on my bicycle, so I let Lorelai and Izaak come outside with me whilst I was working.
In Sweden, however much it may seem like New England, we haven’t really got a spring. We go from winter to full-blown summer. And so it is this year. We went from freezing cold to OMG where are my shorts and sandals!? Björn says that Sweden is in the BiPolar Zone.
The kids who live in our apartment complex love our cats and love to play with them.
Usually, it’s the girls who go nuts over the kittens running around outside.
But today, it was the boys. One of them told me his friend had a cat with kittens, and he got to hold them when they were one week old. Later, he told me he was going to get one of those kittens.
We had told them that Zak will fetch his mousies and bring them back, so they wanted to see that. Of course, outside, Zak had zero interest in playing with IKEA toys.
The boys didn’t listen to us, and tried Zak’s favourite toy on Rory. It was, I think, disappointment.
But watching them play and interact with the kittens was adorable.
The boys went between romping with Rory and Zak like they would with puppies (and which Rory and Zak were totallly down with)…
…to the sweetest one-on-one play you have ever seen.
It really warmed my heart, watching boys running around playing with cats.
I hope we are fostering our next generation of cat daddies.
Continuing from yesterday’s post…after the kittens run down the hill in front of our building, they run back up to the hill to the back of our apartment.
Lorelai hurries to cat up to Izaak…
…who is already under our balcony, with Alfred above on the ledge.
I know, Freddy, but you can’t be trusted off leash, and we have an actual chore to get done.
Oh! Look who it is! Angel’s come to join us!
In the past few months, she’s actually been not only friendly with the younger cats, but she’s actually started to play chasing games with them!
As you may recall, the kittens really love the sandy area around the swingset.
Especially Rory.
She loves to dig holes in it, roll in it, play with it…she just loves sand.
Zak tries digging a hole…but he doesn’t really see the appeal in it that Rory does.
Oops! Time for a bit of chase!
Finally we get to our destination: the garbage bin.
Or, well…we went to the garbage bin to take out the trash…the kittens just ran around the adjacent lawn like mad things.
Rory, as always, especially. She really loves to run free outside.
Today is just a normal Monday Chez Hellqvist…Angel sleeping in her favourite brown bed…
Unlike Logan, Izaak doesn’t share this bed with her. Oh, he tries to get in there with her…but where Logan ignored her when she hissed at him and got in anyway, Zak walks away and naps elsewhere.
Next we have Jacoby in the manly pink kitty bed. Which looks even more pink in this shot.
This film and lens tones the pink down quite a bit…but doesn’t really help.
Next shot is just plain black and white..and, nope. Doesn’t look any more manly without the pink. Must be the fluffy, not the colour.
Next we have Alfred.
I made Golonka (Polish beer-braised pork hocks) tonight, and Freddy always loves to chew on the bones.
Chomp, chomp…
He’s growling at Lorelai in this photo. He doesn’t like to share…
…no matter how big the bone is!
“Okay, Rory…NOW you can have it. I’m finished with it.”
Rory, meanwhile, has moved on and is playing in our bedroom.
Never fear! Zak the SuperSinga is here!
Never mind that that bone is bigger than his head!
Alfred is a very protective big brother. And free whatever reason, he has decided that Markis from upstairs was a threat to Lorelai.
Of course, Markis was just outside minding his own business…
…but when he heard Freddy growling he decided to let discretion be the better part of valour.
He tried to hide amongst the bicycles, but Freddy followed him…
…growling…
…with his tail puffed and his hackles raised! When Jacoby and Markis meet, they just sniff each other and Markis will hiss and growl. I am not sure what Freddy sees that Jake doesn’t.
This toddler, though. He kept wanting to pet the kitties. The snarling, growling, hissing, clearly angry and preoccupied kitties. I tried to get him to move away, but I don’t think he understands English or Swedish yet, and his mother was right there (you can see her in the background), so I thought her maternal instincts would kick in.
…NOPE. So of course the kid gets too close, Markis hisses and lunges, kid sit-falls onto his bum and starts crying and only then does she intervene. He wasn’t hurt, but he could have been.
After that, Markis was done. He trotted off across the grass.
Freddy kept an eye on him for a while.
Finally, he decided that Markis was far enough away and relaxed.
A little later, however, Markis moved to the base of one of our trees.
Freddy did not like this at all and started stalking Makis again even as Markis moved out into the field.
Freddy kept walking towards Markis until he was what Freddy felt was a safe distance away.
Poor Markis! All he wanted was to enjoy the sun and grass and maybe catch a mouse. It’s a good thing Freddy doesn’t go outside without a human on a leash!
Before I moved to Sweden, Björn had an old, beat-up, second-hand cat tree for Pyret. It was one of the first things Angel discovered when we let her out of the carrier. When my things arrived from the States, my big floor-to-ceiling tree was among them, and it was installed in the corner where the old tree had occupied. The old tree was moved to the balcony, which was scheduled to be glassed in for the cats to enjoy.
Angel was quick to claim it out there, too. But it was a little short, and I wanted the cats to be able to sit up high on the balcony, too, so I ordered this new cat tree by Dogman, a Swedish pet supply company. But when I assembled the new tree, it seemed a little sad without the cubby section, especially since it was Angel’s favourite part, and it was still perfectly good…so I got an idea.
I combined them! I took the non-worn parts of the old tree (which was probably also a Dogman tree) – the cubby, the platform and the ladder, and put them together with the new tree and created…the FrankenTree! It worked surprisingly well, and the colours combined well, too.
Angel loved it.
Logan and Alfred came along and loved it, too…and of course so does Lorelai.
(Despite the silly tongue…)
Angel didn’t really mind sharing the tree with Logan and Freddy, but what does Angel think about sharing her tree with another girl?
These Millennial kittens these days…no sense of boundaries.
Angel is not above defending her territory. Although, to be honest, I don’t think Rory even noticed that Angel took a swipe at her.
“Damn kids, get off of my tree!”
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