We realized there are many things to be thankful for.

Here are a few things that we’re thankful for.

We are no longer renters worrying about what our landlord will say if they discover we have four cats.

Kali and Kiko share the Amazon nesting box without getting territorial. Translation: This box doesn’t get peed in.

The Science Diet TD, a dry cat food that promises to promote dental health for our cats’ remaining teeth, has been well received. They all seem to like it. It reminds me that we’ve been through this before after several cats lost teeth in a round of dental exams. I eventually took them off the TD because Kinikini was gaining weight, or so I thought. Our vet, Ann Sakamoto, reminded me last week that this problem can be dealt with by portion control. Fair point. Although we’ve had at least one cat that seemed to survive the loss of all his teeth, we’re trying to avoid a recurrence.

We’re thankful that our middle-aged cats are in relatively good health, for the selfish reason that it makes it less stressful for us to travel.

Although Kinikini is FIV positive, he has not had any health issues related to FIV. We keep a close eye on him, since he could be susceptible to dangerous infections, but so far all has been well.

And we are thankful that nearly four years after we brought home The-Cat-Now-Known-As-Bessie, she’s not picked on so much by her housemates, and the harrassment isn’t as serious as it was earlier. It’s all relative, and things are relatively much better.

I could go on, but it’s time for the cats to make their weekly appearance.

What do you know! They’re here again. The cats, that is. Our cats. You know, the spoiled ones that used to live outdoors in a cat colony on the other side of Honolulu, always hoping someone would feed them, but now are suddenly very picky about the variety of canned cat foods that I serve them. I think it’s just a power play on their part. Generally, it works. They are in control.

So they have learned to share. Kali and Kiko share the Amazon box, which continues to maintain its alure. Kiko is the only one that sleeps on the Scratch Lounge, but she lets all the other cats stop by for a bit of scratching throughout the day. And although Bessie is the main occupant of the top shelf in our pantry/storeroom with the view out the window, Kinikini switches places with her for part of each day. While he’s up there, Bessie gets to sleep on “his” chair in the living room. And they all rotate through the afteroon sun spots at this time of year. I would like to say they share them, but there’s often more physical intimidation involved in claiming the best spots. Somehow, at the end of the day, it all works out.

So come on in and check out the cats!