When my friends complain that they are stressed out by the news, I have a simple solution:   quit watching the news and watch cat videos instead.  As I do not want to link videos (after all I didn’t create them) to my site I offer instead some cute pictures of my friend’s cats.

The young tom is quite probably a Maine Coon cat.  He has a long lanky body, especially hairy toes, and a long fuzzy tail, all of which are characteristic of the breed.   The yellow female comes from the local animal shelter, so her parentage is unknown.  But she has lovely stripes in her fur and on her skin, so she is possibly part tiger.

As tiny kitties they enjoyed sharing a basket when they got tired of romping through the house, chasing each other and imaginary foes.

When they got bigger it was a matter of one kitty to a basket.

But that was okay, as there is always a box handy.

Boxes are great places to rest in, and one can always bite and fight the box.

And boxes are perfect places for napping.

 

It is hard work being a kitten.

But they do grow up so fast, here he is today, ready  and alert, looking to pounce.

And he keeps getting longer and lankier, just like the breed standard.

She was rather standoffish today, not sure if I was a friend or enemy, so her she is keeping a wary eye on me.   And I noticed that as she has gotten older her tail has gotten more and more fluffy, so perhaps I am quite wrong about her parentage.  Based on her tail, she is possibly part squirrel.