Sarah's "New" H & J

Our darling daughter, Sarah, has been in the hospital for a few days. Long story. Short version, she needs a repeat procedure involving one of the bile ducts. Lots of pain put her in the hospital on Friday night. Procedure was done on Monday. She's recuperating now. Hopefully will be home soon and recovering. Usually takes two weeks of really laying low, then at least another couple months before you feel decent again.

But that's not what this story is about. This story is about Henry and Jackson, who've visited this blog before. See here. If you glance to the side of this page, you'll see the oil paintings we commissioned of our two cats, Mr. Hamilton and Miss Ellie. Recently we asked the artist, Nance DeClue, to do a portrait of Sarah's cats. It didn't get done in time for Christmas. But as things sometimes happen, it did get done in time to be presented to a groggy-on-pain-meds woman who was missing her cats and quite sick of being in the hospital. It was perfect timing and we couldn't have pulled this off as well if we'd planned it.

You can see her reaction here. She had no idea what we were going to pull out of that box. The oil painting has several more months to "cure" before it can be framed.

Thank, you, Nance, for all your talent and effort! You made Sarah very happy and brightend her gloomy day!

Here's a nice article about Nance.

Miss Ellie and the Green-Eyed Monster

It's the next day. I catch Miss Ellie staking her claim to HER spot, for heaven's sake. I think she looks a bit sad here or is it mad?

Because if you look at the next photo, which happened right after I took the picture of Miss Ellie on HER blanket, she stalked over to confront Hamilton, who was stretched out on Warren's lap and legs.

Now, if you ask me, Miss Ellie looks decidedly JEALOUS here. Because Warren is her person, Hamilton is Marcia's cat, for heaven's sake. What is he doing on HER person? And if you look closely at Hamilton, he's really egging her on with his smug, proprietary attitude. I can read it all over his face. He's rubbing it in.

I guess this is entertainment in the cat world. They are having quite the time, engaged in this friendly scuffle over who belongs to whom and what belongs to whom. We try not to interfere too much. It's too fun to watch, and they say animals need stimulation. It's not like we take these two cats out on a walk around the neighborhood, like Sarah's Dan does with Henry!

Meet H & J

Meet H and J:

Henry and Jackson are my daughter's spectacular cats. Case in point: See how much fun they have with this toy.

This is my favorite photo of Jackson:



This is my favorite photo of Henry:



Or maybe this one is:



These guys have been buddies of Sarah's for several years now. They came to live with Sarah while she was still in college. So at least 8 or 9 years, I think. They're good buds. Loyal through and through. Right now, they are still adjusting to sharing Sarah with her new husband.



Henry LOVES Dan. They go on walks in the yard and Henry never strays too far from Dan.

So far Jackson is still skittish. I keep reminding Dan that when Jackson lived with us for a while it took several months until Jackson would warm up to us. Just give him some time. Eventually, he'll come down out of "The Stacks" and be friends.



I got to loving them quite completely when they lived with us. Still miss them. Hamilton misses Jackson A LOT. they used to play together, wrestling and running all over the house. Now Hammy tries to interest Miss Ellie is playing rough-and-tumble, but--you guessed it--she won't have anything to do with this kind of play!