There are always conflicting feelings of coming home from a vacation. To wake in the morning listening to the waves crash on the beach, or the purrs of your felines piled all around? Maybe one day I can have both…….

We are home though, and everyone survived (me included…lol).

The house wasn’t destroyed, no one got sick, everyone ate, litter boxes were used, all was well.

It always makes me laugh when the cats react to our homecoming versus the dogs. Dogs exhibit pure undeniable joy at homecomings. Tails going, leaps, whines, mauling you with kisses, there is no denying their happiness. Cats, they have to over think the process…..big surprise.

Bayou actually acts more like a dog then anyone else. Once he realizes it is us and not his ‘pet sitter’ who walked in the door, he rushes over, starts his meowing routine, and follows us around like a puppy dog for the next few hours.

Dexter, when he comes out of his cage he runs and checks all the food bowls around the house first (his priorities are quite obvious). Then he tentatively checks us out to make sure we are not bogey men, and then he finally decides that he wants some head rubs after a few minutes.

I don’t like that he has to stay in a cage while we are gone, but it sure is nice to come home from a vacation to a house that doesn’t smell like a litter box. Always a plus, and better then going to a kennel.

When he wasn’t getting head rubs, he was mauling his two favorite toys………….at the same time.

Cosmo is the eternal Princess. When we come home there are no two ways about it, the Princess is pi**ed. She grumbles at us, she grumbles at the other cats, and she dashes off to stew on the injustice for a couple hours in a far away room. She will return eventually, and the gremlin will have been replaced with a beast who just wants to cuddle on your lap everywhere you go. The princess just needs some space now and again.

When I arrived I was most concerned to see how Asia handled her first ‘vacation’ home alone. At first she wanted to know who were these strange people coming in with lots of luggage. Then she woke up, realized it was us, and rather then get pets and loves like Bayou, she expressed her happiness by zooming around the house like a wild banshee. She was puffy, meowing, and so excited she didn’t know what to do. She would run up to me, meow, and zoom off again. Most adorable, and I am glad she was no worse for wear.

Everyone piled in the bed with us that night, purring and getting as close as they could. Well, except Cosmo, who decided her grudge against the other felines in the house should last at least 24 hours, so she slept on the far corner with dad instead of mom.

All is well at the Pet Meadow, now we just need to figure out how to move the whole lot to a beachside villa!

Off to clean sand out of every crevice of my camera equipment.

While I am missing the Pet Meadow crew at home dearly, our vacation is going great, and I will be sad to leave soon.

In the meantime, we have a guest visiting us today.

There are a couple resident cats roaming the villas we are staying at for vacation, in particular, there is a black gal who is VERY friendly and comes by to say hi every morning. She doesn’t appear to have a name, so I think we will call her Sophie.

Sophie prefers lizards and birds from the looks of it, but she also enjoys a bit of ham lunch meat just as well. She is a bit worn around the edges, with battle scars and a lean muscular physique. There have been a couple late night yowls that would imply some major border wars take place here too.

Sophie is not technically allowed inside the villas, but she seems to really enjoy the rugs, and I did not feel like denying her that fun.

Sophie has a packed schedule though, and she usually moves on after a short period. There are visitors to greet, birds to monitor, and territory boundaries to check. Life as an island cat is a busy one.

Well, Pet Meadow Crew’s mom here. I am currently on vacation in the tropics (oh the abuse), but as is such, I am drawn to my PC and photos and my furbabies. Its been a very long 24 hours with a redeye flight out and no sleep in over 36 hours, but I just cannot help myself. Photos of the felines make me happy.

Asia has a different hair coat then Bayou. Its sleek and smooth and glittery like his, but it has a longer hair shaft that well, frankly gets bedhead quite often. Especially if Bayou spends some time working her over in the clean factor (as seen above).

I love all my crew, but leaving the bengals seems harder then I am ever prepared for. Cosmo and Dexter have been with me for a long time, they do okay with vacations, and I know how they will react when I return home. There is some comfort in knowing they always get through vacations no matter what.

Bayou has been okay with vacations, usually extremely hyper the first couple days home, as if he has slept the entire time I was gone.

Asia on the other hand, she has never even experienced me being gone for one night. She is sometimes very independent, but most often, she would rather be where I am. Not to a point of anxiety, just by preference.

The one sense of security I have when I leave though, is that Bayou will take care of her. He was cleaning her on the head as I was trying to tell her bye yesterday, and all I could do was smile and pat him on the head. He will take care of her.

Thank you Bayou.

Asia is kicking it back here, just enjoying the moment and warming her toesies. I kept waiting for the butler to show up with a glass of warm milk before bed….oh wait….that’s me!

Unseen in the video are the really dirty looks from Dexter because she got to the ‘new incredible awesome bed that will likely be forgotten in a week’ first last night. Apparently he didn’t call shotgun in time.

Direct link to video

“You can’tz see me!!!”

(Bayou is a crafty and sneaky beastie….lol)

In our house, the cats have several ways of getting what they want.

The bengals pretty much go for the most aggressive approach, which is either just take it, climb up to it, open whatever is concealing it (cabinet, box, ect), and so on.

Dexter meows for whatever he wants…..incessantly.

Cosmo is the most subtle of the crew. She usually incorporates the ’stare’ technique, later followed by the ‘creeping’ technique. For example, if she wants in your lap, she will stare you down until you clear books/laptop/newspaper out of the way so she can move in. If you ignore her, she will slowly creep closer, until a paw is touching your lap, then two, and so on.

In the office we have one PRIME bed on the desk that everyone covets. There are lots of beds in the room, but this is the one closest to ‘mum’ and in a corner. Normally she will stare me down when someone is in ‘her’ bed, ordering me to clear it out so the princess can sleep.

The other day, she took matters into her own hands, trying to convince Bayou to move out of the bed. He wasn’t buying it.

Eventually she gave up and laid half in and half out of the bed in what looked to be a quite uncomfortable position.

Link to video

“Mum got us a new bed to put by da fire.

Do you think it brings out my eye color?

Mum said she almost bought the purple one….BAH. None of us have purple accessories! That would have been silly!”

Things have been a little quiet here as of late at Pet Meadow, and I do apologize. Seems that I have been super busy, even while not heading into a ‘job’ every day. Crazy how busy one can stay. To top it off, we are heading off on a trip in about 12 days, which I am super excited for and dreading all the same.

I do not have children, but leaving behind my four cats for vacations always breaks my heart. Dexter and Cosmo do not do very well when we leave, so I have to use large cat cages for them while we are gone (huge 6 foot tall cages, but cages all the same). It would be similar to boarding at a kennel, but far better to at least be at home and likely with twice the space.

I hate to do that to them, but Dexter always has ‘potty’ issues when we leave for an extended period, and Cosmo refuses to eat unless she is by herself in the cage. By using the cage everyone stays healthy, and the house stays fairly undamaged (keeping in mind there are two bored bengals still roaming about for a week). Sigh. So I am prepping for that departure.

Enough whining from me, they will be fine, bored, but fine in the end!

I am using a new computer (which means this post took triple the time….learning Mac vs PC shortcuts and such). I was cleaning out some memory cards and came across photos of Cosmo and Asia back before Asia was spayed. They were too cute to just store in a drive somewhere.

“ahhhhhh, such love”

“hugz!”

“bickering erupts….as cats seem to have a habit of doing”

“I know Mo, no good deed goes unpunished”

Camera clean out time!!!

“Sun Squint”

Those miscellaneous photos have built up again….so here is a week or two in review……

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“Three Amigos!”

The Three Amigos at their best (did anyone else just have a Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase hip thrust flashback? That will be in my head all day….grrrr).

When I cook, the crew gets rewards for hanging out in their ’spot’. Asia of course is still in training….she knows the chairs are ‘good’, but as for her assigned spot…she still thinks she owns the whole joint.

(Cosmo is the damsel in distress around the corner….she prefers to stay out of the hubbub)

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Continuing with the Mexican theme….look….we have a tasty 4 cheese blend!! Mmmmmm

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Coffee Bean Toes!!!

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Ahhhh…more fire bonding.

Oh look, see those ears back on ‘drama boy’ there (aka Dexter)? Yea, Asia is TOUCHING HIM….OMG!!!!

What I couldn’t catch on film was the hiss that immediately followed, along with Asia jumping back with the ‘what the heck did I do’ perplexed look.

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We cannot leave Cosmo out now……

Belly Stretch!

Sniff….hrmmm….what are you eating for dessert? Do I smell leftover ice cream??

So to follow up the ‘grown up’ set of photos of Asia a couple days ago, I thought something a bit more reflective of her personality was in order.

Whenever Asia plays with anything, she somehow always ends up with her bum in the air. I have learned this by the countless photos I try and edit where her bum is flying by as the prominent figure.

She starts attacking whatever it might be, her scratching post, the ball under the furniture, the invisible ghosts in the couch cushions…..whatever the target may be…..

Poke, poke……

Roll……

Bum Up!

Bite, bite….

Roll…..

and blurry bum in the air.

Maybe she really is a crocodile.