Summer SOTK

State of the Kitties Report

by Tanner (head house-cat)

Not much has happened since the last State of the Kitties Report, but I will report anyway. Well, actually something has. Arlo became famous. But more about that later.

As for the other kitties, Olivia has decided to be an outdoor cat now that the weather is good. When it gets cold, she will come back in. A feral cat who usually stays down the road comes for breakfast at our place. I see him on the deck some mornings. The folks down the road told Mommy his name is Tony the Tiger. George and Jim-Bob hate him, so I do too. After he eats on the deck, he goes to where the barn-cats are fed and eats their left-overs. I don't think he does much cat work around here anymore.

Camilla, who is real, real old has not died yet. Mommy thought she wouldn't make it through the summer, but Camilla is still here. She sleeps most of the time. And then she eats. She goes out once a day, so maybe she still does a little cat-work. She doesn't like me or my kitty Arlo.

George and Jim-Bob do most of the outside cat-work near the house. Chloe goes out when they do, but she does her own thing—like climbing onto the roof and cavorting all over it.

I slipped out one day last week to see if I could find some cat-work to do, but Mommy found me.  I tried real hard to hide in the nandinas, but she started playing with Jim-Bob and I came out to see what was so great about the stick he was chasing. I was careful to stay just out of Mommy's reach, but when she started giving Jim-Bob some cat treats, I couldn't resist Temptation—she had the flavor of Temptation Cat Treats that I really like. That's when she grabbed me. I'm not sorry I went out, and I would do it again if I get the chance. But don't tell Mommy.

Jim-Bob has got used to Arlo and sometimes lets him sleep on the desk beside him. Arlo is still wary of George, though.

Arlo has got real big. It is hard for me to manage him, but I do my best. He can out-wrassle me now. and he doesn't want to mind me. I still wash him, though. Here are some pictures of us wherein I eitdher wash him or we take a nap together:

Sometimes we look out the window and see what is happening on the front porch. WE have separate cat beds, but sometimes we want to use the same one:

You can see from those pictures that Arlo grew a little bigger than I expected him to. But he is still my kitty. However, he got famous a few weeks ago, when literary agent Janet Reid took a vacation and put pictures of cats and dogs on her blog. This is what her blog post about Arlo looked like:

It was about Arlo being an artist, but I think he just makes a mess. Lots of people saw it and commented on it, so Arlo thinks he is the cat's meow now. (I interviewed him about his art here: http://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2016/04/arlo-artist.html. More of his art is here: http://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2016/05/arlos-art.html.)

Well, I am getting tired of writing this report and think I will quit now. It is almost nap-time.

P.S. Don't forget to buy Mommy's book. (She made me say this even though it doesn't have anything to do with my "State of the Kitties" report, but she does pay me in cat treats.)

https://www.amazon.com/Them-That-Go-Becky-Mushko/dp/1523750251

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