Upside down Rolo

Rolo in the waste paper box

Rolo spent much of yesterday evening in the waste paper box. It’s one of his favourite places to curl up.

I went to take a peep at him during the evening and found that he had uncurled and was lying on his back with his hind legs in the air and his head curved around the end of the box. He looked totally ecstatic and must have been completely relaxed. As an inside cat, he doesn’t have to worry about predators or other marauders, after all.

I put the super wide angle lens on my camera, got up really close and trusted the image stabilisation function built into the camera to ensure that I got some usable pictures. Rolo did open his eyes during my activities, but I like seeing his eyes open, so I didn’t mind at all.

He stretched one front paw up in the air, but that picture just showed a blur where his paw was. However, he then rested his paw along the side of the box and that looked pretty good, so I’ve included it below.

Rolo in the waste paper box

Monty on the stairs again

Monty on the stairs

Monty really enjoys sitting on the stairs just ready to pounce on any interesting toys which might happen to be nearby – or even Rolo, if he dares to come near!

Monty is generally the dominant cat: I was watching this evening and Rolo was sitting on a chair which Monty likes to use. Monty went and sat by Rolo and gradually crowded him until Rolo got the message and jumped off.

Sometimes Rolo displaces Monty from a feed bowl, but I think it’s only when Monty has decided that it’s time to walk away anyway. If Monty really wants to eat, he can hold his own; and right from the time when he was quite a small kitten, he could make himself amazingly large at the dry food bowl! How a bowl whose diameter was much the same as Monty’s length could be totally dominated by one little black kitten I do not know, but Monty could manage it!

Monty and the yellow balls

Monty sitting on the stairs with his yellow ball in his mouth

Monty’s favourite toy is a very squishy yellow ball. There are a number of these scattered around the house, and I hope Monty knows where they are, because I don’t! They were the ammunition from a child’s toy which was donated to the charity shop where Stephen works. Alas, the toy was broken, so the shop couldn’t sell it, but Stephen brought the ammunition home and it’s been a huge hit with Monty in particular, although Rolo will have a play with it, too.

If I ever find out what the toy is that these balls came from, I think I’d better buy a half dozen of it, in order to keep Monty in a supply of these yellow balls. Some of the ones he plays with are getting very pock-marked indeed.

He carries a ball around in his mouth, and I believe that he actually sinks his canine teeth into it. He can carry a ball all the way up the stairs and then drop it so that it goes plop-plop-plop all the way back down again, followed by Monty – and sometimes Rolo as well!

Monty with his yellow ball between his paws

Monty also bats the ball around on the floor in the way that many cats do; and can be seen in the picture above with a ball between his paws.

He’s got it in his mouth again in the next picture. Sometimes he puts his head to the floor to pick the ball up; other times he picks it up with the claws of one paw and carries it up to his mouth! I’ve also seen him lie on the floor and pick a ball up between both paws and convey it to his mouth.

This is one clever cat we’ve got here!

Monty with his yellow ball in his mouth

Staring down the stairs

Rolo looking wild on the stairs

The stairs feature heavily in playtime for Rolo and Monty. They chase up and down them; and they also settle on them ready to spring at each other.

The picture above shows Rolo sitting along a step with his tail hanging down over the riser below. I think he may be contemplating whether to turn into a wild pussycat for a while. The dark blue is a dressing gown belt which the cats have commandeered. They are quite good at moving things around!

Monty with his Monty-look

The first of these two Monty pictures captures Monty’s Monty-ness. He’s had this expression at times ever since he was a little kitten and it gets to you every time.

This was Monty at 2 months of age wearing exactly the same expression!

However, Monty can also wear a very playful expression, as he is doing below. This picture was also taken with Monty perched on a step, and if I were you, I wouldn’t put a hand too close to him while he’s wearing that expression, as he’s probably a very dangerous little pussycat!

Monty on the stairs - and probably not safe to touch

Monty is becoming a long pussycat

Monty against the background of a lilac valance sheet

Here are two pictures of Monty in the bedroom. Monty is usually alert or playful or both at once, and I think the picture above has captured that. The background is a lilac valance sheet.

Below, I’ve included Monty stretched out at the foot of the bed. As you can see, he’s becoming a long pussycat. He still looks smaller than Rolo, although the vet’s scales tend to give the lie to this: his black colour is probably what makes him appear smaller.

Monty is a solid little pussycat with a velvety coat. He doesn’t seem to have an ounce of flab on him anywhere, but is a little muscle machine, unlike his brother Rolo, who is a little softer, although I wouldn’t say he’s flabby.

I had to do some work in PhotoShop on the picture below, as it suffered from “green-eye”. This is the cat equivalent of human “red-eye”, as cats’ eyes reflect a different colour than ours do.

There probably won’t be many more bedroom pictures of the cats, as Rolo has blotted his copybook and is now excluded from the bedroom unless under strict supervision; and you can’t exclude Rolo without also excluding Monty, even though he appears to be trustworthy in there.

Monty on the bedroom floor

Rolo is getting more grown-up every day

Rolo on the back bedroom windowsill

Rolo is becoming a very handsome ginger cat. Here he is, aged nearly 7 months, on the back bedroom windowsill, where he enjoys sitting on a wooden box and looking out at the birds.

I used my new flashgun to take these pictures and it is so powerful that it looks dark beyond the net curtain, but this wasn’t actually the case. I need more practice at using it: it’s got so many options on it that I’m quite confused!

Rolo on the back bedroom windowsill