There are two cardboard boxes in our living room that are both heavily used by the cats. Well, by certain of the cats.

There’s the Scratch Lounge, which packs multiple cardboard honeycomb slabs into a box that serves as a place for cats to scratch as well as a place for Kiko to pour herself into for those extended cat naps. I’ve seen all the cats do their claws on it, although Kiko is seen there most often.

Then there’s the Amazon delivery box with its nest of torn-up brown paper. Kali is in charge of ripping up the paper and creating a perfect cat nest, and she then occupies it for hours at a time. Kiko watches carefully until Kali leaves the box, and that’s when Kiko run over, hops in, and expands to fill the space. I don’t think that I’ve seen Kinikini and Bessie ever go into the box, although they can often be found carefully observing its occupant.

Let’s see. We had another unfortunate incident Tuesday evening. Meda went out into the garage to grab something from our spillover kitchen storage, and Kinikini ran out into the garage when Meda opened the door to come back into the kitchen. He usually is ready to come back inside within about 3 minutes, but when Meda looked out and called, he stayed out of sight. And, after that, he was forgotten. It wasn’t until early Wednesday morning as I was getting the cats’ breakfasts ready that I noticed he was absent, about the same time that Meda heard a cat crying in the garage, remembered the forgotten cat, and let poor Kinikini back into the house. He was happy to see his breakfast, made a quick stop in one of the litter boxes, and then turned to use for lots of attention and reassurance before reassuming his role as the Alpha Male of the house.

We felt bad. But it’s not the first time he spent the night out there, and the experience is unlikely to seriously deter his future garage explorations.

And now, on to the cats!! I included a series of twofers this week, with cats in different combinations. Lots of good photos this week.

Be sure not to miss the close up of Ms. Kili where you can see a drop of drool just poised to drop from the left side of her mouth (the right when looking at the photo). The tip of her tongue gets into the picture as well.

The Box.

It has continued to be the center of feline activity for yet another week.

It’s hard to overemphasize the cat’s attraction to it.

It rivals the Scratch Lounge as the most popular thing in the house. I realize that previously Kiko could usually be found napping on the lounge. This week, she’s moved her naps to the box. That’s a huge change.

Speaking of the Scratch Lounge, it has really been taking a beating. It may be time for me to bring the new replacement in from the garage. Also time for a round of trimming of the sharp claws. Never a pleasant experience for cats or people!

But its Friday.

Enjoy the cats.

The silly Amazon box has remained in play all week, but Kali has had to share it with Kiko.

Kali still does the serious work. This week I threw in another bunch of brown paper that Amazon uses in their boxes, and Kali immediately went to work ripping it up into smaller pieces until it was apparently considered satisfactory to roll around or sleep in.

Apart from that, it was a normal week. Food that gets gobbled up one day is hated two days later and left for the ants. I’ve given up trying to understand it.

Oh, there has been one dramatic change in cat behavior.

For at least a couple of years, Kinikini would lurk by the door from the garage into the house, and would regularly sneak out into the garage when anyone opened the door. Usually just want to do patrol the garage and then, after just a few minutes, would be ready to come back inside when I called him. But sometimes he would want more time out there. And that meant that every once in a while, we would forget to let him back into the house. For a long time, it didn’t seem to have any effect on his desire to tour the garage, but then something must have happened. We don’t know what. But he’s stopped hanging out by the door, and hasn’t made any attempt to visit the garage since at least the middle of July. It’s a big enough change in his behavior that I figured I should report it.

Otherwise he seems fine, although I’m still keeping a close eye on him just in case. Changes in behavior are always red flags.

In any case, I hope that you enjoy the Feline Friday gallery!