Reyes in the Snow

Gwendolyn: “You woke me up to tell me about some dumb celebration in the cold and snow?”

The first year we celebrated Reyes in Madrid, Spain it snowed. Not common for Madrid, and apparently Madrid got a lot of snow today. We stood outside in the cold and snow and watched a parade where the three Reyes Magos rode into town on Camels. Then we ate Spanish Chocolate. We have continued the tradition of eating Spanish Chocolate for Epiphany ever since. Today we celebrated outside in the cold and snow with a space heater, chimenea, fire pit, and a camp stove all burning to keep us warm. Since January 6th was on Wednesday, we waited until tonight, January 9th, to celebrate. However, instead of having our normal party with friends and neighbors coming to join in, we had family only. This was the first Reyes in the last 20 years that we didn’t invite everyone to partake in Spanish Chocolate.

The fires.

Silver napping.

Enjoying the heat when the temperature was 35ºF outside.

Spunk napping.

The end of the party before I turned the torches and lantern out.

Glenda: “You are dumb enough to be outside in the cold. I’m staying in my cozy cubby.”

Kittens, Cranes, Kitties, Crows

Gwendolyn  gargoyling

Glenda and Gwendolyn have full run of the house, catio, and deck now. Teagan had cast them as flying monkeys in a kitty fantasy, and she was right. The kittens are like a couple of flying monkeys. They have become very difficult to photograph because they won’t hold still if they are out of the dark kitten caves they have made for themselves in the laundry room. The big kitties have finally accepted the kittens and everyone is getting along reasonably well. The big kitties have become much more playful under the influence of the kittens. Of course, the big cats are also teaching the kittens many of their bad habits.

Cranes coming in for landing with crows in the background.

Marble

Gwendolyn

We’re just dropping in the see what condition all the conditions are in.

Spunk in the fuzzy hammock I replaced the last burlap hammock with.

The murder of Crows continues.

“You didn’t include me in the title?” Nope! You’re the intermission.

Cranes cavorting

Glenda in the dark.

Cranes at sunset

Gwendolyn: “What cream?”

Glenda

Gwendolyn: “La Llorona? What were you saying about La Llorona drowning kittens?” Children. She drowns children.

Glenda: “Kittens are children too!”

Twelve Hours

6:00 am. Venus rising in the dark at dawn.

Glenda looking cool on top of an armario at noon.

Sasha napping at noon in the new hammock that replaced one of the worn-out burlap hammocks.

6:00 pm Saturn and Jupiter closing in on each other.

A closer view of Saturn and Jupiter at 6:00 pm. The lights coming off at an angle from Jupiter might be a few of its 79 moons.

Putting in a Kitty Wonderland

Gwendolyn: “Wow! Is this kitty wonderland really for me?”

I have been wanting to put kitty hammocks on the opposite wall from the current two kitty hammocks. However, the problem I was facing was what to put on the opposite wall for the kitties to climb to get to the hammocks. When the kittens, Glenda and Gwendolyn, figure out how to get out into the rest of the house there are going to be a lot of issues with only two hammocks.

Another problem is the kittens are always climbing the walls to get in high places. I am planning on putting shelves near the ceiling for them to play on, but I had the same problem of what to put in the room they could climb to get onto the shelves instead of climbing the walls.

While looking for ideas online, I finally decided that a kitty play structure would do the trick. We found a play structure with the best features, dimensions, and height that looked like it would do the trick and I ordered two of them: one for the big kitties in the dance room and one for the kittens in the bedroom.

The play structures were delivered Thursday, so I spend much of the day between other chores and projects putting together kitty play structures. The kittens have really taken to their play structure. Gwendolyn really loves it. The big kitties helped me put theirs together, and four of them got on it before I could move it to the corner and secure it to the floor and wall. Since then, the big kitties have been lounging on and off on the play structure. I ordered hammocks, so next week I’ll be installing new hammocks.

All the parts. Silver beating up on a toilet paper roll. That’s a story for another post.

The instructions had me assemble the cat houses first.

Sasha helping out.

Spunk checking out Sasha checking out a cat house.

Marble went straight for a higher platform and started playing with her tail on it.

Spunk

Silver & Spunk

Marble, Silver, Spunk, and Sasha

Loki

Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn

The Kittens on the structure in its place in the bedroom. It replaced my nightstand.

Gwendolyn and Glenda

The big kitties’ play structure in its corner of the dance room.

Sasha is satisfied.

The Blog Must Go On

Gwendolyn: “If you stop blogging everyone will miss seeing me grow up into a beautiful kitty!”

After a major pussy riot by all felines in the household, and a sound pussy whipping by said felines and other females in the household, I am being forced to withdraw all threats of not blogging.

Glenda: “And everyone would miss my cuteness!”

“How could you stop sharing THIS with the world?”

“People would miss out on all my great poses and being a Hellcat!”

“Don’t Eeeven think about it buster!”

“Meh!”

“Oh, brother! Dude!”

“AAahhh! What about all my girlfriends? AAaahh! What about all my admirers? AAaahh! What about all the modeling and acting I do for your blog? AAaahh! I’ll whack your pee pee if you quit blogging. AAaahhh! I’m going to whack it just for you thinking about not blogging and leaving me out in the cold!”

“I think I’ll give you a paw sandwich!”

“How about if I give you sad eyes?”

“You’re making me go all corny and flaky just thinking about it!”

“The thought of not being blogged!”

“I simply can’t bear the thought of it!”

“How can you Eeeven think about denying all those lovely women who adore me this beautiful face?”