July 5 - for catlovers (others may enjoy too)

Anticipation is what Bud seems be saying. He thinks every hour of the day should be "feed me" time. He can't sit still when it comes to preparing his food. He will try to coax me to speed up the process and points the way to the pantry where the can food is stored, then bats at me to hurry up.

Sofie meanwhile acts totally interested and at the beginning just gave her offering a few cursory licks and then ceded her leftovers to Bud. I felt sorry for Sofie and might as well just don't bother to give her any food. I tried different tacks, ranging from giving her smaller portions to feeding her at separate times. Did not work and Bud would be ready to nose in. For the past three days another ruse worked. I feed Bud at his regular place and Sofie in the hallway with door closed. She has taken to that maneuver and has licked her dish clean each time. I guess they had worked out a solution whereby Sofie gave access to Bud to the wet food and vice versa as I observed Bud ceded access to the dry food to Sofie at a later time.

Sofie seems to be saying "I am coming with you, I am packed"! Sofie is always ready for another game and follows me to whatever activity I am involved in. For example, she just crowds me now while I am trying to write this blog and purrs contently. You should have seen her while a performed a few maintenance items, especially the plumbing repairs. She was all over each item and batted it around. Each tool had to be investigated. She loves to snuggle as well.

Bud on the other hand loves to play as well; but on his own terms. He is the definitely the king of this house.

Oh, did I forget to tell you they love to play. I think they feel Lori hired me to entertain them continuously, especially right after dinner. We have invented a host of different games, .i.e leaving paper shopping bags on the floor and flicking little balls into them. You should see them dive after those toys. Or you just have to built them a fort from dialysis solution cartons as you can see below.

It has been a joy to these delightful cats. They are inquisitive, playful and entertaining. Lori has done a great job of providing me with the supplies and her kitty litter device simply rocks. It makes this job so much easier. First she has trained her cat to enter that tub filled Tidy Cats Scoop Away kitty litter.

Then you scoop it into this technological marvel called a Litter Locker.

You just scoop, deposit and turn the wheel and everything is contained in that blue plastic bag. I just pray that the colored dotted will not appear signaling that the unit is full and a replacement has to be installed. Miss Lori gave me a few cursory instructions and left me the detailed manufacturer information on the dreaded subject, but this is a task I would rather leave to Lori. If it comes to the colored line appearing, I will just do it the old fashioned way and scoop it in a plastic bag manually. I was encouraged to read that the unit holds a capacity in two weeks terms. Lori will be gone 10 days, so pray for me.

Needless to say I feel I have the much better bargain here. I am staying in a grand apartment, in a grand neighborhood and surrounded by loving animals in Bud, Sofie and Rennie! Would you trade with me?

Finally, why do cars love to smell our shoes? I can barely get my tennis shoes or sandals off my feet and then both cars are over them as if the scent is the latest product from the house of Dior. Dogs don't do that, except to shred them to bits and pieces. People don't do that, except to say "ugh, would you mind and take them outside"! So what is up cats?

At Ikarus restaurant for my 4th of July dinner. I just had the taste for some Greek food and the sign said it was authentic prepared food from Ikaria. Some of you will remember Ikarus flying with wings made out of wax too close to the sun and crashing down on the island of Ikaria out according to Greek mythology. I had a little problem deciding between Spanokopita and fresh baked traditional Mousaka. I decided tradition and it had started to become chilly. After all what tastes good in Paris on a chilly evening? French onion soup, right? What tastes good in Austin when a "northwest blue" takes the warmth out of you? A great bowl of chili, right. Same with Mousaka for me. This was the perfect meal and Rennie kept sniffing the air when the hot bowl was being served. For desert, I chose a concoction called Galakaboureko over Baklava and I was not disappointed. Not quite as sweet and the filo being filled with custard and finished off with a lemon syrup. I finished every bit, but was still wide awake at 3. Of course, there were other reasons mainly that fireworks still went off after 2 am in the neighborhood.

Hillary I also got a glimpse of a biker zipping by in a chartreuse shirt emblazoned with "Keep Austin Weird"!