Cat Sleep Over.

Mr. Nivose says: In April Magus's friend Slayer came over for a few weeks. Slayer's owner was in Europe and we took care of Slayer for the time. Slayer is a large black cat with a thick coat. She is absolutely beautiful, and kind of a brat. For her visit she was more or less good most of the time.
Sleepover is sniffing time:

To see more pictures from the sleep over, click here.

Slayer and Magus do not get along perfectly well. But they get on ok. They lived together previously and knew each other. Sometimes they play, some times they argue, mostly they stay out of each other's way. Although, Magus is more interested in staying out of Slayer's way than Slayer is at staying out of Magus's way. And Slayer would sometimes abuse this tendency to get good seats, bed, etc.

It was nice having another cat around. Though, mostly, like most cats, they didn't do very much. Slayer did spend some time in just about all the beds we've made for Magus around the house. And to prevent any arguments they each got as much food as they wanted the whole time.

We also brought them some crickets. one each, in a glass jar. It is really one of their favorite toys. There are some pictures of them figuring out how to work the jars, and then of Magus helping Slayer with hers after Magus's had been eaten.

-Mr. Nivose



Mrs. Nivose says: During Slayer's visit in April, Peter and I brought two crickets home from the zoo as a treat for the cats. Years ago I brought some grasshoppers home from work for Magus to play with and found out that she absolutely loves that game! So, we thought some crickets might be just as fun. We gave each cat a jar with a cricket inside. Magus investigated hers right away, reaching her paw around the jar and then inside. Slayer wasn't as excited, but looked at the cricket in her jar and sat down next to it and eventually started pawing at the bug. It wasn't long before Magus pulled her cricket out of its jar, caught it and ate it. Listening to her crunch down on bugs makes me shiver, because it's kind of gross. After eating her own cricket, Magus asked Slayer if she was going to eat hers. Slayer said she wasn't going to eat it, but did want to see it out of the jar. The cats pulled the cricket out of the jar and chased it around the living room for a while before Magus couldn't resist the treat any more and ate it.



Magus and Slayer get along surprisingly well. The visiting cat always feels a little out of place and hisses at the hostess kitty for a few days, but eventually they calm down and start sleeping in the same room. Sometimes they play together, running up and down the hallway or wrestling. Magus always seems a little sad when her visits with Slayer come to an end, so we either need to arrange more visits with Slayer, get another kitty, or both.

-Mrs. Nivose

Spoiled Kitty

Mr. Nivose says: Our cat Magus is quite spoiled. In addition to the two cat beds she moved in with, I've made her two cardboard box houses, a shelf near the window, a bed near that and we often make up our bed for her during the day. Furthermore, she'll use our bed whether it's made or not, steal our comfy chairs and spread out on the new couch.
Magus on the bed:

She doesn't usually like to be covered up, but sometimes she covers herself.

Click here to see more pictures of Magus

She likes a wide variety of human foods. Cheeses and butter. Mayonnaise, beans, olives, chips!, meats. We know this because of her on going taste tests.

She also likes kitty treats.

This month we've started taking her out on a leash. She wants very much to go outside, but when we take her all she does is sit around and eat grass. Exploring seems to come second.

Included in the pictures are two from a time when a neighborhood cat came up to the outside of our window. Magus was not impressed.

-Mr. Nivose



Mrs. Nivose says: One day while I was at work, Peter made a couple beds for Magus and placed them near the heaters. He makes new beds for her from time to time. Of the beds Peter has made for her, she probably spends the most time on the one next to the window, soaking up afternoon sun. She likes her cave a lot, too. We put the bed Heidi made under a cabinet and hung a towel over the opening so Magus could have a hiding place. She has to share it with cans of black olives though.

When Magus and I moved into Megan and Slayer's house, it wasn't long before Magus took over Slayer's bed on the living room chair. Magus liked the bed so much that Megan let her keep it and sent it along with us when we moved to Fort Collins. Here's Magus sleeping in Slayer's bed in our hallway.

I don't know why the bed ended up in the hallway. Right now it's in the living room next to one of Peter's bikes. Magus still sleeps in it frequently, but doesn't spend as much time in it now as she does on our bed or the rocking chair.

Magus likes taco chips A LOT, and comes running whenever she hears a bag crinkle, even if the bag doesn't hold chips. One night Peter and I made nachos for dinner and I made a special nacho for Magus. I topped a few chip fragments with half an olive and some cheddar- some of her other favorite foods. She wasn't as excited about the nacho as I thought she would be though. She sniffed it several times, nibbled at it a little, but mostly ignored it. I was a little miffed that she turned her nose up at her special nacho.


-Mrs. Nivose