Smokey watched the snow

I sit on things 7

A backpack on the floor makes a fine resting place. 

Smokey loves me

Smokey gave me the best Christmas present. He sat in my lap. Okay, so not exactly because, damn, he is a big cat, but he didn't just two paw me like he does with the other one. He had the entire upper half of his body stretched over my lap. Not only that, he wanted me to give him some love and purred when I did.

Then he bit me. Dude had had enough. He stayed in my lap, though, and proceeded to groom himself.

Hope everyone got Christmas presents as sweet as I did!

Full of hope

...hope to catch a bird, that is. 

With the roses

When the weather was much warmer.

Momma's boy

I recently bragged about Smokey's recent exploits to a friend and learned something cool. She told me that Smokey's familiarity with tree climbing likely came from time spent with his mom, an outdoors cat. Although a family took him in as a kitten, his mom and brother, who remained a stray with mom, would stop by the house to take Smokey out.

Sometimes I feel bad because we separated him from his mom and brother. When Smokey got lost when we first adopted him, we wondered if he had gone in search of them. On the other hand, if we hadn't adopted him, he would have been left outside a stray and he clearly loves having a home. He gets to eat regularly and sleep comfortably. During his time "out in the wild" he even tried to slip into people's garages and lure children with his cuteness in hopes of getting them to let him into their homes (He reportedly rolled around on the ground and let them rub his belly. He hates it when we rub his belly. Hm.).

On another note, I'm debating whether to keep trimming Smokey's claws. We don't like him scratching up our couch but I don't want to remove one of his means of survival either since he goes outdoors quite a bit.

Honeymoon

We left Smokey at home for over a week, with a sitter visiting once a day to feed him. Smokey loved us so much when we came home. The cuddle monster that he'd been when he first came to us returned. In addition to lots of face and body rubs, body curls, and paw plants, he went as far as to sit in a lap! We wondered how long it would last.

See, the main problem is that I work at home. So Smokey is baffled that I don't feed him when he is hungry. You are here. I am hungry. Why can't you feed me? The other problem is we suffocate him with love...

A week. Smokey lasted a week before he began casting disdainful looks at us again. Until the next time we leave him at home?

Secret hiding place

Or not so secret. He usually doesn't go into this space unless we are in the room. And then when we are sleeping. In order to get to the window, he must climb over us and cause a racket as he pulls his fat body over the bed frame. So then we are not sleeping anymore and we know where he is.

Smoosh again

Behind the screen

"My face is too handsome. I must hide it."

Are you going to feed me?

If I'm working at home, Smokey spends most the afternoon staring at me until I feed him.

Sniff

Our teenage cat son

Sometimes we think that having Smokey gives us a small window into what it would be like to have a teenager in the house:

Smokey is always looking for something to eat. And he can eat a lot when given the chance.

When guests come by, he stalks into the bedroom to get away from us.

He wants to exert independence by going out on his own.

He rolls his eyes at our expressions of affection.

He sleeps all day.

And to hit the nail on the head, we just found out that Smokey seems to have developed cat acne on his chin.