Cats, cats, cats

Carrie has a new hobby, which borders on an obsession. She LOVES to play with water in the kitchen sink. If I run water for any length of time, she appears instantly. Half the time we enter the kitchen, we find her already sitting in the sink, staring intently at the faucet. Our faucet does not leak at all, yet somehow she apparently believes that if she stares hard enough, long enough, the water will appear.

I am very stingy with water and hate to waste it (I even save and reuse "gray" water), but I find myself giving in and turning on a light drip for her. She's so cute and determined! Once she sees that the water is coming out, she plays with it for a minute or two, and then gets serious. She turns her back on the water and sits for a minute--sometimes several minutes. She doesn't like the water to know she cares. Then after she's pretty sure the water isn't expecting anything, she whirls around for the surprise attack

I try to be kind of slick about turning it on, because I don't really want her to figure out that she could turn in on herself.

Yesterday I put together a new cat climber. I've been looking for something narrow to fit in that spot that would allow easier access to the outdoor cat enclosure without blocking the doorway. My friend Julie had just put hers together when we were there last week, and it looked like the perfect solution. I will be getting another one to go inside the outdoor cat enclosure (but will have to wait for a couple of weeks, when I will have the money). It will be perfect out there, though we will have to screw it to the wood, as I don't want it on the door

Tica discovered it right away and loves to hang out on the top shelf. I wanted to test it's load-bearing capacity, so tonight I threw a catnip party. The chubby twins (they are huge, and I would guess they are 18-20 pounds, though I haven't weighed them) were both on it at one time, rolling around, while Tica was on the top rolling around. It held up with no problems whatsoever.