Grant County, Oregon, 4 days after the vernal equinox

A very Jeevesy morning

Just your average morning

Jeeves has a box.

It's a great vantage point for the Toby Floor Show...

...which is also the Toby Couch Show.

Daisy wants to watch, too.

As Toby pursues the jingle ball into remote areas by the bookcases,

Daisy and Jeeves curl up for a nap.

Yes, Jeeves is that big.

Across the room, Arwen observes from above.

Another winter sunrise

I love the moment when the sun hits the tops of the mountains.

Middle of the range, showing clearly

that these are fault-block mountains

Strawberry just as the sun hit 

the veil of cloud she

often wears on her shoulder

 Dixie Butte and assorted hills

All taken from our yard, with the neighbors' houses cropped out.

Toby is six months old!

We believe he was less than 24 hours old when we found him on July 15th.

These are today's pictures:

He's developing quite the mane!

Today, at last, I was finally able to catch him

carrying his jingle ball around the room.

Up on the couch, over to the windowsill...

Down to the floor again...

It's been a long road from that tiny kitten

with a fresh umbilical cord

to this gorgeous, healthy, 7.4-pound cat.

It's all been worth it.

Jeeves ventures out

After a month of living in the small bathroom, Jeeves started asking to go out into the house.

Today he discovered the couch. How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree?

He is a dog in a cat suit. He loves belly rubs. When I tried to take my hand away after this picture, he grabbed it in his forepaws and pulled it back to his belly. I have never met a cat who tolerated belly rubs well, let alone demanded them.

Jeeves's ears: good and bad news.

Jeeves went to the vet today.

If you are squeamish, or eating, or both, skip the next para.

His right ear is improving. His left ear is worse, as we suspected--the eardrum is ruptured and the ear canal is, as the vet put it after a look through the otoscope, “a lake of goo.” It’s a combo bacterial and yeast infection.

He is back on his first, injectable antibiotic because it looks like that one may have helped the most. He was on it for his abscess, but his ear did improve during that time, so he has it plus another week on ear drops (both antibiotic and antifungal included in the drops, plus a steroid). Then he will have two more weeks of the injectable and another vet appointment after that because there is still one last antibiotic we can try if this doesn’t work.

Things look pretty bad in his ears, but we have reduced the general stress on his body--he is no longer outdoors, parasite-ridden, or sporting big abscesses. We just have to hope that good food, warmth, and love will help the antibiotics fight off the infection in his ears.

He was a complete sweetie in the appointment. Took his shots and coped with having his ears messed about, not a murmur of complaint (though his tail was expressive). Only growled when I put him back in his carrier. Never unsheathed a claw. He is a prince among cats.