Hey Pia, whacha doing today? We see your fur cowlick is making an appearance.
Mom, are you speaking some new language again? I have no idea what you said other than asking what I’m doing, and then some gobbly goop words.
Just wondering what you’re doing today? (Pia has developed a cowlick of sorts on her back fur. She denies it’s there so we let her believe what she wants.)
If you must know, I’m inspecting fingerprints all over this boo-fay. Please tell me someone’s going to clean it this decade. There seems to be a lot of cleaning someone needs to do around here.
Well, for starters, I’d inspect their feathers. And help straighten them. Birds are incredibly messy, I’ve heard. I think they just need some guidance and organizational training. I’d make a good trainer, being I’m so neat, clean, and with everything perfectly in place . . . Mom, what’s so funny? Why are you laughing?
From all of us here at Colehaus Cats, we wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2024! Whatever’s going on around your house, we thank you for visiting us, for reading our words, enjoying our photos, and leaving comments. We hope what we’re doing works for you and that your visit here puts a smile on your face. As always, we’re open to suggestions to help make this a better place to visit.
Many THANK YOUs go to our Friends of Colehaus who thought of us recently and over the past year and helped us during tough spots. Your generosity will never be forgotten, nor will your thoughts, prayers, comforting words, and supportive and sometimes, hilarious comments. Thank you.
Our start to 2023 began with less-than-helpful January kitties and a vet visit for Quint. If anyone tells you cats are great at rolling up strings of Christmas lights, do everyone a favor by correcting this person. Tell them it’s not cats, but llamas who are masters at holiday un-decorating. Why, personally, we expect every strand of lights Mom hung out there to be taken down, bagged, and tagged for next year in no time at all by our local llama de-lighting crew.
Quint did good on his vet visit, we heard a first meow from new outside visitor Murray who turned out to live around the corner and is a boy named Mr. G., Tessa lost a couple of teeth at a dental visit, and due to a big wind storm, we removed a huge, leaning arborvitae tree from our backyard. Mom mourned its loss but cheered over more flower bed space. Typical gardener at heart. Excited about digging in the dirt in January.
February 2023 started with visiting ants, kissable belly spots, and soft Tooth Fairy toys for Tessa to clasp, chew, and nap with, and ended with lots of outside visitors, help and gifts from Friends of Colehaus, and a snowy goodbye to a short month.
In March, we came through with photo proof of late February’s record snowfall and boy, did that stuff last a long time! But, it wasn’t long before winter sun puddles returned and outside visitors came back for kibble and treats. The Colehaus Cats napped the chilly month away, when not digging through toy baskets and changing up sleeping spots while Mom was outside, determined to whip the garden into shape in a single day. Not the smartest move, she says now (but we all know she’ll do the same again this year).
An overworked Mom, a handful of toys, cooperative kitties, and a camera. Yep, April brought the return of Things on Cats, an attempt to reason with cats and ants, and lots of time observing Quint and angel Olivia snuggling. We had blooper photos, lots of flowers, a proper introduction to visitor Colby and others, and Pia, who, at long last, caved to switching to canned food, and had her long overdue vet visit that went wonderfully well.
While it was hard for the cats not to be grumpy early in May, Mom and Dad were tickled pink over the last house repairs finished up from the shower leak way back in 2022. They were even more thrilled when elusive visitor Murray came up to Mom for sniffs. Elsewhere, there were soft meows from Tessa no less, more Things on Cats, opportunities found, spring flowers bursting everywhere, and we celebrated what a perfect cat angel Olivia was.
June brought Tessa’s usual grumpy self, outside visitor Murray finally accepted petting and a much needed brushing, Pia peed, boxes were approved, and angel Olivia had her first of several vet visits. Pia “may” have regretted being mean to her only brother Quint, to which Quint “may” have held a grunge. Lastly, Viola discovered unattended cherries. Woe to those cherries.
We discovered in June our email wasn’t getting to intended parties and what did get through, seemed hit or miss. Months later, we were notified some email clients no longer support email coming from Comcast, our email provider. We’re STILL trying to find a workaround that won’t cause as much pain as leaving Comcast will, and Mom is still fairly livid over this, despite all cats insisting she chill and let it go.
Early July is usually noisy around here with fireworks going on and on every day for weeks. And expecting that, we took a week off from blogging. Silly us. We barely heard a single boom or bang outside of July 4th. We figure either those fireworks-crazy people finally moved from our area, or all our neighbors have been replaced with space aliens.
July also brought raccoon babies a-visitin’. These three were from mama Skinny who taught them where the fountain playground is and sometimes, leftover visitor kibble can be found. Inside, the Colehaus Cats enjoyed hot summer naps, rifling through a toy basket, and not having to lift a finger to help Mom do yard work.
“Why” was the word for August. Olivia had more test results that showed nothing, there were cat accusations and general grumpiness, garden flowers and lots of visitors, and we finally found Murray’s parents who live very close.
Surprising us all over the summer, September brought new canned-food-lover Pia’s usually thick and rough fur growing in soft and luxurious and without a heavy undercoat. No late summer haircut needed for her this year and she was very happy over that.
Despite hot September temperatures, Quint stuck to his normal fort-making, fort-napping routine. We had mysteries, outside visitors, a Friday flashback with angel Olivia, and a troublesome Tuxie. The Colehaus Cats settled into Autumn, Mom wrapped up her multiple to-do lists, we replaced our 23 year old failing heater, and our summer flowers gave a big final push of beauty.
October ushered in snuggle weather with Quint (Hint: It’s ALWAYS snuggle weather for Quint), past fosters near and far The Niblets celebrated their ten year birthdays, and we checked in with Olivia who agreed with Mom that cheese is LIFE! Note to Tessa: there’s nothing innocent about murder mittens. Olivia declared she needed a cat lawyer and high-and-mighty counter bananas proved to need supervision. There were outside visitors, a cheese discussion, and just in time for Halloween, Viola completed her annual inspection of our home security trebuchet. Like you do.
Under supervision in November, we finally wrapped up the year and a half long shower leak fiasco by painting the cured drywall and repainting our living room ceiling and walls. An outside peeper made Tessa throw a fit, our confusion over the point of Daylight Saving Time continued, and Autumn weather finally caught up to our garden outside. We conducted an all-important nose freckle check and since there were no volunteers for our Christmas e-Card photo shoot, Pia and Quint were “volun-told” their cooperation would be expected.
December began with mourning the loss of sweet Olivia who had been struggling to keep her weight up most of the year. A quiet stillness settled over Colehaus. Winter sun, comforting words, acts of kindness, and e-card bloopers, past and present, helped heal our hearts and got us moving forward again.
Kitties waited to see if Santa Paws would bring them something this year and the waiting seemed to never end. Isn’t anticipation supposed to be part of the holiday? Tell that to cats. When Christmas day finally arrived, all were rewarded with vintage, long-marinated Yeow-w-w toys and a new cardboard scratcher. And despite what Tessa says, we thought she looked appropriately festive wearing lights. Thank you, sweetie.
Throughout the year, there were naps and snuggles, hissy fits and victories. We had setbacks and worked to find all the silver linings. You were there the whole way, visiting us, reading our posts, leaving comments when you could. We can’t begin to thank you all for making us feel welcome in this cat blogging world.
We’re looking forward to what 2024 will bring and wish you a new year filled with joy, happiness, and excitement. And most of all, peace and love. Happy New Year!
Thank you for visiting. Thank you for reading us.
The folks of Colehaus Cats, with Tessa, Pia Bean, Quint, and Viola Niblet.
Merry Christmas! We hope your day is filled with excitement, love, togetherness, and joy. And no one has put lights on your head.
Christmas Day for the Colehaus Cats means a cardboard scratchy surprise and time spent with both Mom and Dad who, miraculously, have this day off together. This is a very rare event because their work schedules are opposite of one another. The good thing about that is the cats have someone here with them every day.
Over coffee and homemade biscotti, we’ll open Christmas cards received by mail. This might seem like a small thing, a nothing-burger. Not here. It’s always been a big deal in our house, that friends would think of us to send holiday greetings, something we continue to be forever grateful for.
“Squirrel-Away-Things” Mom brought out Yeow-w-w toys the cats received years ago and that had been “marinating” in that Yeow-w-w goodness all this time. Later, after the outside visitors get an extra helping of kibble in their feeding stations, the Colehaus Cats will get turkey and cheese sandwich bits which are always a hit. Dad will make his famous cheese spread while watching Christmas movies we’ve missed thus far. And, undoubtedly, Mom will already be planning for the change of Christmas house decor to a fresh, cleaner, minimal-clutter winter scheme. Think Scandi decorating with a helping of cats.
From us and the Colehaus Cats family, we wish you all a wonderful day and a wonderful week. Thank you for your holiday wishes of happiness. And thank you for visiting us today! We’ll be back next Monday, New Year’s Day with a 2023 year in review and a welcome to 2024. Have a good and safe New Year’s eve!
