Zoe’s little pink tongue

Zoe shows his tongue a lot when he sleeps. Does that mean his tongue is too big? Did he go through the line twice when they gave out tongues? Or is he always just giving everyone a raspberry?

I inherited a chair from my parents and we put it in our bedroom. It has become a popular place for napping.

Zoe in the chair

But Zoe is not the only one to like it.

Lucy in the chair – no diamonds

They do not share the chair.

We get the cats summer cuts when the weather starts getting warm. Here are Smokey and Zoe before their cuts.

Smokey and Zoe, all hairy

Here’s Zoe after.

Zoe, crewcut

And here’s Smokey after his cut.

Smokey, with cut and lion mane and tail

You can’t really see the mane unless you look from above.

Big-headed Smokey

Poor Smokey has been sneaking around in a crouch since he got back from the groomer. It was a traumatic experience for him.

Zoe has a pot belly you can see when his fur is cut, and so does Smokey. You can’t see Smokey’s in these pictures. That’s a concession to his self esteem. We think he’s embarrassed to be seen without his regular coat.

Sylvester also got a cut, but we don’t have a good before and after for him. He’s staying outside more now, so it’s hard to get him to pose.

Our first little stray cat Chloe has come with us on our evening dog walks for a long time. Sylvester has been running along with us for a while, too. He’s always entertaining. And now Zoe has started walking with us. This is a fairly typical scene for cats on a walk.

Cats on a walk

Zoe is kind of out of shape. He’s the only one of the cats that pants.

Zoe panting

You can hear him. It’s kind of funny in a way, and kind of sad, too. We think he might be training for race walking, because his gait is pretty funny. Mark says he’s doing a steam engine impression — choo-choo-choo. At least he’s trying. He seems to have a better disposition now. He’s on arthritis medication and something for his kitty IBS (lots of throwing up and diarrhea in the not-too-distant past; he feels better and so do we). He’s also on some expensive glaucoma medication, but we don’t think he actually feels any better because of it.

Once back at the house, it takes him a while to recover.

This floor is cool

Eyedroppin’

Zoe has been surprisingly cooperative when I give him his glaucoma eyedrops. The vet says glaucoma could lead eventually to blindness if not treated, and we think we can already tell that he is not seeing very well. We are not sure what to do, since the drops are not cheap, and it’s hard to give him just a single drop per eye twice a day.

Mark here: Leah doesn’t like to manhandle (cathandle?) Zoe, and that’s pretty much what it takes to get the drops into his eyes. I’m surprised at how well he takes this, though.