Tag: Antares

Older Cats

As other writers have observed, welcoming a pet into your life gives you companionship and also regular reminders about the life span. My two cats, ages sixteen and twelve, have both entered the elderly stage. And it’s the younger one who isn’t doing very well with this phase of life.

While Sentinel has been aging more or less gracefully (he’s taken prednisone for years to help with his vomiting) Antares has catapulted himself into some sort of herpes thing that has left him sickly and sad and in need of a lot of expensive medication. Plus, he has to start medication for his thyroid.

Having sick cats isn’t fun. Hopefully these medications will have him feeling better soon.

Antares has taken to the catio

While Sentinel has not cottoned to the cat door, Antares has figured out that he can be an outdoor kitty by just pushing through it.

While he doesn’t spend a ton of time on the catio, he does go out every night, and there are even times during the day when I will find him keeping an eye on the front sidewalk.

He might spend more time there when it gets warmer outside.

Side note. The concrete turns green like that every winter. We could spray it off, but why bother? It goes away when things warm up.

New Spot for Cats

Ikea advertised this cat cave insert for their standard bookcase and soon after I learned about it, I bought one.

This brings the hideyholes the cats have to three: this, plus a tent I bought from Ikea years ago, plus a plush sided tent that Matt’s mom gave me because her cat wasn’t interested.

Reporting from the future I can say that Sentinel uses the plush sided tent multiple times per day, they both go into the Ikea tent when they need to blow off steam, and they almost never use this hideaway.

Catio Finished

I took some time over the Thanksgiving weekend to add shelves to the catio.

And now we can call that project done!

Except not, because the shelves aren’t wide enough for the cats to sit comfortably on. So I might get some boards and add them to the top. Or I might not, because the don’t seem to like to climb when out on the catio.

Cats in windowsill

Sentinel and Antares have lived together for nearly a decade now, and I’m still not sure if they like each other.  They don’t hate each other, as their skirmishes are few and far between. And they will often curl together to sleep for some period of time before one of the gets bored and wanders off, or gets annoyed and pushy. 

This picture came about because Sentinel was sleeping in the windowsill and Antares got in his face. Is this a picture of Sentinel holding his ground in the face of Antares pushiness? Or are they happy to be sharing the same space?