Post 354: Sox’s new toy

This is a lazy day post because I have several things to take care of outside the house today.

The boys have their semi-monthly day at the “cat spa”, where they’ll be washed, trimmed, and turned into pretty boys for a short time before their normal cat activities muss up the froufrou their groomers work so hard to do. Yes, they will look like normal cats minutes after I bring them home!

I talk with my financial advisor a bit later this morning. I’m doing OK in this matter, so don’t have to fight my cats for food yet. 😉

Then, I’ll spend the afternoon at the military museum.

What I have to give you today, though, is a photo of my boys’ cat-cousin Sox (my Seattle sister’s boy) with his cat lounger and a new favorite toy, a toilet paper tube cut on the ends to… well, you can see it in the photo! Sox is one handsome boy, eh?!

Cat-cousin Sox stalks the toilet paper tube critter…

He’s a tuxedo cat, something you can’t tell in the photo, and is a particularly beautiful example of that type of cat. I don’t say that because he’s my cat-nephew. It’s just the truth! Hey, here’s a second photo of Sox:

Cat-cousin Sox, a real fox!

I especially like his white whiskers!

cat lounger update

The other day, I told you about a gift I purchased for my Seattle cat-nephew, Sox the tuxedo cat, and predicted it would become one of his favorite things, much as this item became for my boys, Andy and Dougy the Persian cats.

“Sox must wait…! Awwww!

My Seattle sister sent me an e-mail to let me know Sox’ gift cat lounger arrived on the 26th. She writes:

The cat lounger came today while we were picking up K. [her next to youngest grandchild] at camp. Luckily, C. [her oldest grandchild] was still home and put it inside. Sox went to it right away and cleaned himself on it. I think I will have to put it away until B. [her youngest grandchild, who is still a little guy] goes home though as he will think it is for him to climb on. B. was sleeping when I unpacked it, so hasn’t seen it yet.

Cat-cousin Sox, a real fox!

Cat-cousin Sox if he doesn’t get his lounger soon!

I mean, I’ve dealt with cat tantrums before, and it can get ugly!

I hope my Seattle sister has some nice catnip handy just in case my cat-cousin Sox gets impatient!

cat lounger

I found a little extra money in my budget this week, then discovered that the cat lounger that both Andy and Dougy love to spend time on is on sale for…the same amount of money I found in my budget!

The extra money could’ve been set aside for a rainy day, I guess, but I have one small annuity that each month pumps rainy day funds into a savings and loan account I rarely touch. That account, by all accounts, is a nice little chunk since I haven’t touched it in some time. “Out of sight, out of mind”, eh?! It will cover a fine storm some day. Maybe not a 500 year storm, though a 100 year rainy day is safely covered.

Cat-nephew Sox, a cool cat! You met him earlier, but he’s so handsome, I decided to post his photo again.

Since we’re hitting the clichés hard and fast today, I note that while I am reasonably fiscally sound, I am known to “spend money like a drunken sailor”. Sometimes!

This week was one of those “sometimes” occasions.

I thought and thought. What do I need? Nada, pretty much. One of the benefits of retirement is material needs diminish, spending goes down, and you don’t even work at it. This is the guy who occasionally “spends like a drunken sailor”, so when I say “trust me”, I suspect you needn’t hear “cross my heart and hope to die” as further verification of my veracity.

I gave you a bit of a hint, above: Sox, my Seattle sister’s very handsome tuxedo cat, I decided, needs a cat lounger like his cat-cousins out in Nebraska. I mean, Nebraska’s a cool place, her cats are cool. (“Cool cats”- catch that clichéd expression?!) But Seattle cats? Come on! On a coolness scale, even I concede Seattle is cooler than where I live.

Surely Seattle cats rank in the top 10 American cats for coolness. Yet, there is an emptiness in Sox’s world, a void that needs filled. A neighborhood Starbucks won’t suffice, man: Sox needs a cat lounger to compete with the coolest of all Seattle tuxedo cats, Henri, le chat noir et blanc! (I think I got the French reasonably close… for someone who never studied it.)

So, I ordered the cat lounger for my cat-nephew! That “mad money” is in amazon’s hands, and they notified me today it is on the way to Seattle. It will change your life, cat-nephew Sox. Guaranteed!