When I sat down Thursday morning to assess the cat photos I’ve taken the week, I was definitely short.

So I grabbed the cammera and a fast 50mm lens, and went hunting for additional poses. Luckily, I found Bessie up in one of her favorite spots, up on the top shelf in our pantry/storeroom where she can see out a window while feeling safe from being picked on by Kinikini (yes, he still chases her from time to time, but not as frequently as before). This turned out to be my favorite cat portrait of the week!

But you may not agree, and that’s okay.

The Amazon box and the scratch lounge both retain their appeal. I had to flip over the cardboard insert after I realized the top had been thoroughly ripped up. And last week’s infusion of new packing paper in the Amazon box has been carefully processed and reducted to bedding once again.

And I know I’ve mentioned that Kiko, like Kinikini, is kind of a biter. She tries to nip me when she’s happy, when she’s soliciting more interaction, when we’re in a full-on petting session. Oh, one other thing. She drools. When she’s happy. And it’s kind of a morning routine. We come back from our walk over to the beach for the sunrise. I’m usually a little sweaty. I get a cup of coffee, sit down at the dining table, and check my email. Kiko comes careening onto the table, usually (but not always) manages to avoid knocking anything over or off the table, and then squeezes down so that she’s in my lap, wedged between the table and my body. Once I start the appropriate petting, she starts drooling. She always faces to the right, and I can feel the drops of drool that hit my leg and drip down to the floor, and I can see the wet spot on my shorts where other drool ends up. I’ve learned to take evasive action when these moments of ecstacy lead to attempts at biting. It’s not always successful, and I have the wounds to prove it. But soon she decides that sitting on a window sill and watching for birds or geckos has become a higher priority.

So it goes in Kahala. Please proceed to the cats!

The Amazon box that has been turned into a cat nest has remained popular for another week, as you’ll see in the photos. Kali and Kiko still take turns digging around in the shredded paper and then taking long naps in the box. Bessie is sometimes interested in watching, but Kinikini has remained pretty aloof from the action.

And now we have a new addition, a different kind of packing paper that arrived in the box with Meda’s new iPhone 17 Air. I’ll wait until Kiko vacates the box and then add a bit of this new paper to the mix. Kali is very adept at ripping up the sheets of brown packing paper, and I imagine she’ll enjoy tearing this stuff up as well!

You can see that Kinikini has been enjoying having people around after his week of isolation while we were gone. He refuses to admit that familiar cat sitters have a right to see him, and goes into a very effective hiding routine whenever they are here and we’re off traveling. But he makes up for lost time when we return, demanding extra petting and attention until he finally feels affirmed.

We got home last night from our week in Seattle.

Unfortunately, it left no time for this week’s Feline Friday.

So I just grabbed a camera and am posting the first four photos, one of each of the cats. It’s more of a place holder than the real deal.

I know, it’s a poor substitute for a “real” feline friday. I’ll do better next week!

Yup. We’re in Seattle for the second time in two years (after a long absence), reconnecting with a number of friends from both high school (in Honolulu) and college (across the state at Whitman College in Walla Walla). The cats are home with a trusted cat sitter, who sends a few photos every day, and I have to admit being a cat voyeur via my home cat-cam network at other times of the day.

But luckily the cats all cooperated and made themselves available for photos before we left Honolulu.

And so here they are, more or less on schedule. Feline Friday has arrived!

An aside. I thought that this Feline Friday post had been all packaged and ready to post automatically first thing early Friday, and was disappointed to see that hadn’t happened. But it didn’t take long this morning to get the job done.