Zoe loves food, and he loves to lie down on the towel where we feed the dogs, but he doesn’t really love dog food. So we were a little surprised at seeing him use Lucy’s bowl for a pillow.

Zoe on Lucy’s Lucy-sized bowl

When we looked a little while later, he had moved over to Zeke’s bowl.

Zoe on Zeke’s Zeke-sized bowl

Silly cat.

Zoe is my original kitty, but I have to admit that he’s not a very friendly cat. In fact, he gets downright mean sometimes. That’s why I don’t understand why Smokey wants to be friends. But he does.

Best buds?

Smokey does this kind of thing a lot. He’s not the only one, but he tries harder than the others.

Oh, Zoe and Smokey say, “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Note: We’ll post the final story of the great snowstorm tomorrow. Here’s a hint though: everything turns out OK for us.

Smokey, or Smokey Joseph as I sometimes call him, has long hair that needs serious brushing. He’s pretty good about letting me brush him, but he had some tangles that were a little more than I wanted to deal with. So we took him down to the vet for a good grooming.

He’s a big old cat, but his meow is a tiny, pitiful little mew, like a kitten. It’s almost embarrassing to listen to him in the crate. He’s very laid back at home, but he was kind of scared at the vet. The groomer was matter of fact.

She didn’t fool around. Smokey took it all pretty well. He seemed to enjoy most of it, but when she started on his under side, he was not as happy. I don’t know whether he blamed us, but he sure looked like he wanted our help.

Help?

He was glad to get home.

Smokey loves a bowl of milk in the morning. Mark usually saves a little from his bowl of cereal. Sometimes Smokey gets a little impatient, though, and climbs up to check on his progress.

Chloe has seemed a little skittish lately. We don’t know why. She will sleep happily at the foot of our bed, but once she’s up, she acts like someone is out to get her. She sneaks around in the living room and tries to hide.

Here she is pretending to be a potted plant.