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Welcome to the album page for all of the pictures we took of the cats during 2020!

It's a sunny afternoon, just a few days after we brought Bob and Cole back from Florida, and I've come upstairs to find three of the cats nestled on the bed.

Bob, Cole, and Lucky

Bob and Cole/TD>

I've mentioned before how the cats all seem to be attracted to clothes from the dryer?

This afternoon, when I got my exercise clothes out of the dryer, I thought I'd see what happened if I put a few pieces on each of the chairs in the study.

I did not take long at all, particularly since a couple of felines were already in the room, for cats to settle in on top of them. I am not sure where Cole was, but Bob, Lucky, and Zack took immediate advantage of my not needing to put the clothes on right away.

I suppose it's all about the smells for cats; the clothes, while dry, haven't been washed in a bit (although they will spread out on them even if they have been).

February 16: The Gang's All Here

Cats sleeping on clothes has been a running theme in the pet pictures for the last few years; Lucky was the first adherent, but all the cats are attracted to one degree or another.

Usually, I can count on at least one cat to be off by himself- usually Cole (in the guest room) or Zack (on the cat tower downstairs). But today, as you can see in the picture at left, all four cats are in very close proximity on the bed in the master bedroom. (If you don't think you see four cats, I suggest you count the eyes and divide by two!) Actually, when they are lying close to each other, Lucky and Cole can merge into what looks like a single cat because of their coat colors.

This confluence of cats was so unusual that I took quite a few pictures, so here are a few more of the four cats in different poses:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

February 27: Anywhere's Good for a Cat Nap

Of all the cats, Lucky (and Zack) are the ones who always want to be closest to the action (unless, of course, the aforementioned clothes are available elsewhere in the house).

When we are both in the study, Lucky has three places he stays. He has a spot underneath one of the chairs. He can be in one of the chairs with paws akimbo over both arms of the chair, or he can be stretched out on the desktop to the left of the computer screen. As you can see, he is zonked out in that third location in this picture.

It doesn't seem to matter what, if anything, is on the desktop when he decides to utilize it. If he can't just lay on top of it (and he has enough fur that I doubt he feels much of what he is laying on), he tends to push it out of the way. In any event, the picture at left is one of Lucky's common poses.

March 28: Three Out of Four Ain't Bad

We are back from Florida, of course, and have transitioned quickly to sheltering in place. Just a day after we returned, I surveyed the pantry and did as much as I could to make sure it was full, and so we are set for the duration. I also had a box of N-95 contractor masks, so we are set there as well.

Sheltering in place is a lot easier with the cats in residence- particularly when Fred isn't here. Today, for example, he has Zack with him at his house, so I am left with Cole, Bob, and Lucky. This afternoon, they are all asleep together on the bed- not a typical experience. So I took this opportunity to take a couple of pictures.

The picture at left reminded me of the beginning sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the Earth, Moon, and Sun are all lined up with each other.

The really odd thing about these pictures was that there were no clothes from the dryer to attract the cats! 

May 18: Lucky and Bob

This afternoon, Lucky and Bob had homesteaded my recumbent bike clothes just taken from the dryer (as one or more of the cats always do). They looked particularly photogenic, and so I took a couple of very similar photos:

May 28: Zack and Bob

A week later, it was a different pairing of cats that caught my eye- Bob and Zack. This doesn't usually happen, as Zack seems to want to play more often than the other cats.

Bob and Zack

But this afternoon, both cats seemed to be in "down" mode at the same time and, in an event that also doesn't happen very often, decided to occupy the same chair.

When I first spied the two of them napping together, they were both totally on the chair cushion, but when I returned with my phone Zack had relaxed even more, and his right front paw had slipped out from under his body and now hung down towards the floor. This made him look even more relaxed than he had earlier.

Sometimes, when Zack is atop the cat tower, both his front paws will be hanging down either side of the tower, and that is always pretty amusing.

May 29: Zack and I at Night

So one of the common situations around my house occurs whenever I sit down in a chair in the study; if Zack is around, he will get up from wherever he is and come over and get in the chair with me. Usually, he sits on the chair arm and just keeps me company, but if I entice him he will snuggle down beside me. This does sometimes make it hard for me to drink something, eat something, or even read a book, but that's what happens. And he will stay there until I get up. It's endearing, but he does get in the way sometimes.

June 6: Lucky in the Study

Today, here are a couple of random pictures of Lucky in the study with me while I am doing something on one of the computers:

Lucky is so big and has so much fur that no matter where he lays down, it doesn't much matter what he is laying on- he has plenty of padding to make almost anywhere comfortable. There is usually lots of stuff on the desktop, but that doesn't bother him.

I just thought this was an interesting picture, as it looks as if Lucky wants to do some exercises but is frustrated because he can't figure out how he can pick up the dumbbell.

June 29: Classic Poses

Today, a couple of pictures from morning and afternoon.

It's mid-morning in the picture at left, and Bob, Lucky, and Zack have just had their morning meal and have come to keep me company in the study. Bob is in "his spot"right by the doorframe- half in the room and half out. He is in this exact spot very frequently. Lucky and Zack are just flopped down on the floor in the room behind me. This picture reminded me of the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey when all the heavenly bodies are right in line with each other.

The picture at right was taken later in the day, and there was no particular reason for taking it, save for the fact that it shows Zack in one of his common sleeping positions. He reminds me of a diver in tuck position in mid-dive.

This picture was also interesting for the fact that while you might think cats would find a comfy chair or bed to sleep on, Zack is perfectly happy anywhere- such as where he is now, at my feet, on the floor, up against the bookcase.

August 14: On the Tower

I mentioned earlier that Zack often slept on top of the cat tower, but that he didn't necessarily curl up all the time (which there is room for him to do) but he would just stretch out and dangle his front paws over the edge of the tower platform. He has figured out that if the dangles both paws down over one side of the tower, he has to be far enough over the edge so that there is nothing to support his chest and head. His solution is to angle himself so he is pointed to a corner. That way, his paws can still dangle down, but there is the corner of the platform to support his neck and head so he can sleep.

Asleep

Awake

October 11: On the Exercise Bike

When we take Bob (and Cole) to Florida, one of Bob's favorite places to sleep is on the seat of the recumbent bicycle that I have down there. The reason is pretty clear; cats are scent-oriented animals, and since I sit on that towel that covers the cushion for an hour every day, if anything smells like me it's that towel. The cats do the same thing with our clothes when we toss them on the bed- here and at home. And in the first picture, Bob appears to have a paw over his eyes to help block out the light.

November 16: The Trouble With Tribbles

With four cats, it sometimes seems as if we are living in the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", in which the Enterprise takes aboard a single furry animal called a tribble. Unbeknownst to the crew, they are incredibly prolific (they are actually born pregnant), and soon the ship is littered with them. When the cats are lying all about, that's what they remind me of. But it is always a pleasure to pick 'em up and pet them.

Tribbles?

You got to know when to hold 'em.

December 5: Naptime

Zack was with me downstairs, but everyone else was with Fred. If you can't spot Cole in the first picture, you will certainly be able to locate him in the second:

December 12-25: December Cats

Well, we are reaching the closing of the year, and in the latter half of December, before we left for Florida after Christmas, we took numerous pictures of the four felines.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

We took quite a few pictures of the cats on Christmas Day, but you'll find those on the album page for our Christmas in Dallas. But throughout the month, we took other pictures of our feline friends in various locations doing various things (mostly sleeping) and a number of those are worth including here.

To make it easy for you to have a look at the best of these pictures, I've created a slideshow for them, and that slideshow is at left.

To have a look at the pictures in the slideshow, just click on the image at left. The slideshow will open up in a new window. To move through the pictures, just click on one of the little arrows in the lower corners of each picture. You can track your progress through the pictures by referring to the index numbers in the upper left corner of each image.

If you like small animals, I think you'll find our four felines to be fairly photogenic!

Well, that's all the pictures we have of our housemates for this year. You can use the link below to return to the index page for 2020.

Return to the Index for 2020