Generally Gypsy

Last night I had three stripy cats on me on the sofa, I had to escape from underneath them [I really had to, it was becoming imperative to visit the human litter box] and they stayed put... so I crossed my legs and grabbed the camera. There are wide angle effects, and Worrals still is the smallest, Gypsy is now [just] bigger than her...

brothers united in a single passion

Gypsy's favourite occupation

Gypsy so keen to reach Rebel's food he has wriggled under Rosie

Gran ha newz shoez, I haz new box, I wins

By popular request, Gypsy dangling on the wood box

Mackie is ruthlessly followed and kissed by Gypsy

the top of the computer is another prime piece of real estate for bird watching

I is sure there is a spider up there... and I isn't letting anyone else up to look

Onyx deigned to play for the camera.  Note destruction of files knocked off shelf by Gypsy behind ...

another one of Gypsy, secure on the wood box this time, superheated and smug

This is where it's happening in the evening; Gypsy on the woodbox/inglenook seat, Worrals on the stool and you can't see Saffron and Dora in uneasy truce in front of the stool 

I is in charge of the fire

Top o' the world, ma

... the ceilings are 8' high, and there's Mackie, right up at the top.  I can never resist a film quote for a caption but I wish to make it plain that in no way does Mackie resemble Jimmy Cagney's character in 'White Heat'. He has more sense than any human.

Gratuitous photos of cats

... missing only Onyx, who refuses to leave HIS chair in my bedroom which is too dark to get any photos, and demanding that as he won't sleep in a heated room he needs a permanent hot water bottle. 

Maybe the title of this should be the Rosie Show as she's managed to get herself into almost every shot... 

Dora didn't manage to get into quite so many this time, which is unlike Dora!  She has been having a few more adventures than chasing burglars, having got shut in the coal house - AGAIN, and me only realising because the newspapers I'd put down for coal dust infested feet to tramp on were slowly disappearing under the coalhouse door.  I'm not sure what she was trying to do, maybe she was attempting to pull in some of the light she could see through the bottom crack of the door!  No wonder Worrals had to wash her so vigorously.
Mackie is such a big slug, he's happy sleeping winter away between meals, and never letting me catch him to photograph if he's playing with a ball or any other toy. 
Rosie is loved by everyone!  They will all curl up with her, and when she tried to squirm underneath Mackie for warmth he sat on her firmly and washed her. 
And promptly got off when I went for my camera, of course. 
Saffron has been sleeping in my new sweater and taking charge of the washing stool in front of the fire.  She and Dora have designated it the washing stool.  Gypsy prefers the cushion on the woodbox, which he manages to make slide off.  The other day he slid right off the cushion, landed on the floor in front of the fire, shook himself, plainly puzzled that this wasn't where he remembered going to sleep, and went right back to sleep again.  He's a lovely companion for Dora, as they play Jukitsu together; she's missed Pixie and her wrestling, but Gypsy can throw a fine uwate-nage when he puts his mind to it.

This is the squirrel-hating window.  There's the roof of a bay window below it where birds and squirrels come...

we wuvs Auntie Michelle

the top of mum's TV is a sought after vantage point.  Gypsy is wondering how he managed to be up here alone when he surprised Mackie trying to share with Saffron

His head is somewhere in the folds of the duvet, purring ecstatically; first time he let me do his tummy.

mm yes, that's nice

let me stretch for you to do my chin

hey, sis, enough already!

Saffron appreciates a good fire.

another prime location

this was when I failed to get Mackie sitting on Rosie to wash her...

Thanking God the cats weren't harmed when we were burgled

The burglars took out a recently-replaced window put in due to storm damage.  And left the door open... Dora got out into the night, but she was she only one and she was very pleased to be brought in as she could jump DOWN from the window, but not UP to it...
Here are some gratuitous cat pictures because our dear furries are all good.

Four furries; Dora is behind Gypsy - who turns out to be a boy - and look how big he's getting!  this is one of the feeding stations and nobody ever feeds them, they are all locked in a room for DAYS at a time [3/4 of an hour] while mummy and daddy have the fuzz and SOCO doing Interesting Things They Could Have Helped With.

Worrals is keeping an eye on the fire, she, Rosie and Gypsy may be found curled up in front of it in any combination of warm and happy bodies.  Gypsy has however largely taken on Biff's mantle of staring fixedly at an unlit fire, or one that needs making up, willing the heat-beast to greater fervour.  He's there right now.

Rosie would like you to see her Bikini.  It doesn't show much because she's waving her arms about but she has a tiny triangular panty-shaped white patch and two tiny white spots under her arms...

Rebel has beautiful golden eyes.  She wanted you to admire them

Gypsy, taking charge of the fireguard and the cushion on the woodbox

Mackie STILL owns the box, but he lets Gypsy in sometimes...

And now we are eight...

....because Gypsy, who was going to be number 7, has now arrived with us, her poor paw entirely healed by clever Dr Osman.  We pledged to take her after we lost Pixie because Gypsy had an enlarged paw from wire around it too.

she wasn't too sure about sharing the bathroom with a tortoise... Toddles woke up in a bout of warmer weather and was trying to escape from his box, so I put him in the bath for a week or so....
She did find the green bird/fish toy...

I wish I had been able to photograph her playing ball with Saffron once Toddles was back in his box, but I was sitting on the loo and had no camera...

she has found her way downstairs and here she is having made friends with Rebel, who looks HUGE next to her! 

Onyx meanwhile has been on my lap sleeping [the 5 hour stint was a little painful]; he is coming to love and trust us.Here he is with Worrals and Saffron.  Saffron is plainly exhausted after playing tennis in the bath with Gypsy.

Rosie meanwhile has settled in as though she always lived here.  I swear Pixie talks through her sometimes.  She and Dora can share the easy chair by the range.  I don't think there can be many more loving little girls than Rosie, I think she must have been someone's much loved pet once.  We still wait to see if she has a season and so will need neutering but my guess is that she has been neutered.  I only hope someone in Romania isn't mourning a loss with no closure, if the incident that damaged her eye drove her from home and left her lost and in need of the wonderful care Cristina Cristescu gave her. 

Worrals, little mother of all the world, says that caring for new girls is exhausting.  Here she is in my duvet with only her head showing...

And last, but definitely not least, Mackie.
It was Dora who first discovered the box my new secondhand laptop came in, but Mackie shoulderbarged his way in, and declared it was His Box And Look, It Says Fragile With Care On It.