Score: New Cat Beds - Zero; Box They Came In - Two - Wed., July 19, 2017

Fur kids can be quite entertaining or downright frustrating. Our cats haven't had their own blog for quite some time and they have been pretty cute of late. 

As most of you know, we are getting ready to move from our 5th wheel into a single-wide, manufactured home. In preparation, we have made some small purchases. The only place we have to store them is in our 5th wheel until we get keys to our new place.

As we know, cats love boxes, so it's time to share some cute cat pics. I bought some new sandals, put the empty box on top of three other boxes. Bowie got in the box and spun around and around and around until he fit perfectly. "If it fits, I sits sleeps."

I caught Bowie in a Bass box!

"This box is mine!"

So comfy

Sunnie would never fit in this box!

Kitty wedgie

 So, where did Sunnie go? He likes the top of the recliner.

Lots of room to spread out

Ahh, this is the life!

Last time he got weighed, he was 20 lbs.

That was last Thursday. Here's what we did today.

I put together two new cat bed/scratching posts. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do it because there were no instructions in or on the box. When they were done and set up, here's what happened...

Cat beds: 0

Box cat beds came in: 2

They were on or in this box for 30 minutes

But cat moms are tricksy, yes they are. A bunch of catnip spray and cat beds get used and loved!

Sunnie fits perfectly

Bowie was still a skeptic and taking the long way around the cat beds. I sprayed on more catnip spray and rubbed it in and fluffed it up. He decided the cat bed was A-OK.

Bowie enjoying the new cat bed

Yes, this will be just fine.

In other news of the day, our 5er was filthy with black streaks and ugly edges on the roof. We had Carlos and two employees from Alamo RV Wash do a thorough exterior clean and wax job. This will make the rig stay nicer in storage, and will look good when we go on our trip to Washington, D.C. in September/October. 

Anything out of the ordinary makes cats rather curious and getting the RV washed and waxed made them sit up and take notice.

Watching the rig get waxed and the window washed

In the photo above, the cats are sitting on top of some large boxes currently waiting to be moved into our manufeactured home. (We don't have keys yet!)

The windows are so clean it looks like we don't have windows. Extra wax was put on for protection so the next time they come to wash it, it makes their job easier. Wow! Here are a couple of photos.

Carlos finishing polishing

Rigamarole is clean!

For a 2003 5th wheel, she cleans up real nice. Thank you to Alamo RV Wash crew for a great job.

News of our manufactured home...

1. Today, the AC was supposed to be installed. We were told they would be here this afternoon. As of 5:30 p.m., nothing. No AC unit. 
2. The deck build-out was supposed to happen today as well, but we did a change order. That means we need a new quote, and to be re-scheduled.

Hopefully, they will still do the interior trim out on Friday and we will get our keys, but it would be nice to have AC before we start moving things in.

At least we have our 5th wheel to live in with two AC units. It's nice and cool here!

All for today. I have two more days of blogs from our 20-day Volksmarching trip to complete: Garden of the Gods and Trinidad, Colorado on one day, and Capulin Volcano and Amarillo, Texas on the other.

I'll be back!

Perched - Tues., July 9

Perched at the dining room window in the RV park, I witness all types of bird activity.

A few weeks ago, a golden-fronted woodpecker was assaulting our neighbor's window. (In the first photo, the bird is NOT pecking at the cable, I had an awkward photo angle.)

Golden-fronted woodpecker looking at itself in the window.

"Oh, hello, what bird are you?"

Golden-fronted woodpecker still examining the window.

Last week, the boat-tailed grackles were fluffing. (From Wikipedia: Fluffing = "In breeding season, males tip their heads back and fluff up feathers to display and keep other males away. This same behavior is used as a defensive posture to attempt to intimidate predators.") In the last of the three grackle photos below, look for the fanned out tail feathers and the pulled back wings. That grackle means business!

"Hey, you're invading my turf!"

"You better leave now."

"No, I think YOU should leave! Now!"

Today a golden-fronted woodpecker took a bath atop our neighbor's 5th wheel slide out. First it had to make sure the coast was clear.

"Am I safe?"

One wet bird - call it a wet-headed woodpecker.

Still checking the perimeter for intruders.

Wet bird flies into nearby tree.

Then there's the rusty blackbird. This is the first time I've seen this bird. The blackbird was drinking from the roof drain rail on the 5th wheel next door.

Rusty blackbird.

Rusty blackbird.

Rusty blackbird drinking water.

There is a new hummingbird feeder next door to us; the hummingbirds are already fighting over it. I have not been able to capture the hummingbirds in flight. The feeder is partially behind a tree, so it's not easy to catch the hummers at the feeder either. We will have to put up our hummingbird feeder outside our back window. Then the cats and I will be entertained by these fast feathered beauties.

While I'm on the subject of entertaining cats, I found the best cat toy to date at Walmart. It's called SmartyKat® Hot Pursuit™. The cost was $19.99 plus tax.* The toy takes three AA batteries (not included) to run the stick with a "mouse tail" around and around under the cover.

For over a week, this toy has kept two cats very absorbed in catching and killing the moving "tail" sticking out from under the cover. I haven't had to put the attachment with feathers on yet because they're already having so much fun. (And no, I don't make any money off of these things.) See photos below. Happy, entertained cats = happy kitty momma.

Bowie always defers to Sunnie. Sunnie gets to play first. Once Sunnie is out of the picture, Bowie goes to town. He is such a busy, intelligent cat. He has to figure out every way he can possibly play with something.

In the photo below, note Bowie's feigned disinterest while Sunnie plays.

Sunnie attacking from the cat cave (box).

Bowie's turn.

You can't see it in the following photo, but Bowie has the cover in his mouth and is dragging the toy across the floor. He loves doing that.

Here you can see the little red "tail".

Conked out after playing with the toy. Notice the evil eye from Bowie.

*While sitting in the vet's waiting room last week, Animal Planet had ads for this toy. If you called then, it was $19.99, plus you got an extra one free. "But wait! There's more" ... the lady sitting next to me and I laughed because it sounded so much like the Ginzu knife ads that used to be on TV, so I missed what else came with it. I didn't write down the phone number or website to order it, but when I saw it at Walmart, well let's just say, in advertising terms, it triggered TOMA (top of mind awareness).

I'm so happy I bought it. You can see the result in the conked out kitties above. Too cute.

Travel Bug out.

CariCATures - Sat., July 6

Thursday I didn't have to work (obvious if you read my Fun Fourth blog). I worked Friday and Saturday this week. Saturday was the first time I worked the RV park office by myself. The park managers stopped by a couple of times to make sure everything was okay. (It was.)

Other than working, Friday and Saturday were pretty mellow for me.  Bob worked four hours on the 4th, all day on the 5th, and five hours today. Crazy man, I tell ya. But it doesn't hurt the finances. Thank you, Bob, for all the work you do.

He also went to Costco today to pick up food for our RV park potluck tonight. We took a veggie tray and a Key Lime pie. (The Key Lime pie was a winner. By the time our part of the line made it through the food selections, the pie was half gone; and it was all gone by the end of dinner.)

Being that this blog is so short, I have a few cariCATure photos of our kitties, Sunnie and Bowie.

Bowie zonked out.

He sleeps in weird positions!

King of the House of Card(board)s.

In the photo above, you can see Sunnie's tail hanging out from inside the top box. Any time a new box comes in the house, the cats investigate.

"I haz conkered da boxes."

Travel Bug out.

What is Going On, Anyway? -- Sun., Sep. 30

Two other bloggers have fallen, both on Friday, exactly one week after I fell. You can read about them here: Mushroom Accident and Your Life Can Change in an Instant. I also received a note from one of Bob's running friends in Hawaii who fell and injured her face three months ago and is still not healed. She had two front teeth cave in and has had multiple surgeries, but she's still having trouble eating. Oh no!

Is it something in the air? A full moon? 

Is this a trend? Is it our age? I hope not. Be careful out there everyone!!

I let Bob know I wasn't yet up for a car ride today. Tomorrow we're driving four hours round-trip for my follow-up in Corpus Christi. That will be road trip enough for me at this point. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS for the doctor. I'll post an update as soon as I can.
 
Hi Jeannie and Eldy of Where's Eldo? So happy to see you on board. [Note: I have been following Jeannie's blogs for a while and thoroughly enjoy all the things they see and do. You may want to hop on over and check them out, if you haven't already.]

Also welcome to Joe and Betty of Joe and Betty's Adventures, fellow Oregonians, who we do not yet know. Thanks for joining us on our full-time RV adventure. Maybe we'll meet when we're in Oregon in October or December.

It's Sunday evening...time for "60 Minutes" and a new season of our favorite show, "Amazing Race."

Did anyone see the season-opener for "Last Resort"? Wow! That hour-show was like a movie. Can't wait to see where they take it. (And it was filmed in Hawaii!)

It's time for more fur-kid photos, so tune out now if you're not interested.

Bowie totally relaxed in the recliner next to mine.

Sunnie snoozin' on the floor between the two recliners.

This looks like a good book. I'll get right on it!

And that, folks, is life in our "house" today. Take care out there wherever you are!

Travel Bug out.

Soothing Sunday -- Sep. 16

Soothing sounds of susurrant rain patter on our 5th wheel roof. We love being close to nature so that we can easily hear the succulent, sloppy sounds of such a wet weather day. Earlier, the sound was more insistent, knocking on our roof, insisting it wanted to come in but couldn't. 

What a great way to spend a Sunday: lulled into complacency without a care; sitting inside with all our curtains open, watching the rain fall, and the birds frolic in the instant puddles and small lakes that have sprung up in the park.

View from our dining room.

A few sites didn't fare too well. 4:00 p.m., still raining!

Won't be renting this site today!

Another Holiday Rambler Presidential in the park. Glad we're not in that site!

Our site is nice and dry.

It's not often that we sleep in until 11:00 a.m. or read in bed. We "accomplished" those as well. Oh, and Bob is watching the Seahawks vs. Cowboys game. He's happy I'm his only audience here in the heart of Texas so he can root for the Seahawks. Ha ha.

Our space is cozy, water-tight and has an almost 360-degree view. We aren't lacking much. And we have each other, too. Life is grand. As Bob says, "It's a good day to hunker down beside the fire." (Well, if we had a fireplace, anyway.)

Temperatures have taken a nose-dive from last week's 95-100 degree days. It's 3:20 p.m. and the temperature is 67 degrees. Our air conditioner is getting a well-deserved rest and our refrigerator is performing marvelously well. I had to turn the refrigerator down a couple of degrees.

Add in the picture of perfect relaxation, our cats, and it's a wonder we're awake at all.

Sunnie sleeping next to me while I blog.

Bowie on his catnip cat scratcher.

Oh, and those peacock feathers we bought yesterday...cats gone wild. As soon as the feathers "walked" in the door in my hand, the cats went nuts. Good thing I bought two feathers, one for each cat. You'd have thought a flock of birds had flown in. I had one feather in each hand and one cat was hunting each feather. Bob had to take a feather and play with one cat. We had them running, leaping, flipping, chasing, panting. Bowie grabbed one in his mouth and ran into the bathroom with it. Next thing I knew, the "eye" was chewed off the length of the feather. 

This is fun. Let's do it again!

He was jumping all over the feather, doing flips. Sunnie, too, was having a field day with his feather. It's obvious to me we have to buy a lot more peacock feathers!

Another activity our cats find fascinating is chewing on cardboard boxes. I swear they are part beaver, especially Bowie, who digs into cardboard and chews off chunks. Whatever it takes to keep them occupied. It's hard enough that they're cooped up in 300+ square feet of space. 

On days when they really need to get their wa-was out, they chase each other back and forth for 15 minutes at top cat speed, from the back of the living room to the mirrors on the bedroom closet. At those times, they sound like a herd of horses at the Kentucky Derby...must be because of all the empty space under the 5er.

Welcome to our newest subscriber, Colleen, of Traveling with the Longdogs. Thank you for stopping by and introducing yourself.

Travel Bug out.