Today the baby turns 8! Simon brings so much joy to all our lives. He is our Chief Cuddler and is very loving to everyone. He snuggles and plays with both Jude and Jolene.
As the youngest, Simon rarely appears for coworker shifts. Usually, if he is in the office, that means it is getting close to mealtime or quitting time. His internal clock also tells him when work is over, and it turns to family time for cuddles.
Simon tends to be the indicator for when it is time to turn the heat on in the fall. Simon sleeps with me every single night. He is always right next to me, on top of the covers. When Simon is under the covers, it is time to turn on the heat! I made the mistake of turning the heat off this spring when we still had some 40F nights, and he indicated his displeasure by burrowing under the covers with me. I did turn the heat back on.
Simon rides well in the car and is perfectly behaved at his vet visits. Everyone that meets him loves him. Of the three, Simon is the shyest. He always hides under the kitchen sink if anyone comes in the house. However, the staff at the vet office always comment on how sweet and loving he is, once he comes out of his shell.
We are all kept young by Simon’s playful antics. He plays equally with both Jolene and Jude. They take turns chasing each other through the house and wrestling. Simon’s favorite toys are small toy mice, that are often found under the refrigerator. Every week I use a yard stick to fish out all the cat toys he has gotten under appliances.
Simon also loves catnip bananas and can often be found “calling his friends” on the nana phone. He is an avid bird watcher and loves doing his Hedgewatch out the kitchen window.
He embodies pure sweetness, kindness, and love. Whenever I get down about what is going on in the world, all I must do is look at Simon to see a beautiful soul.
We are so blessed to have Simon in our home. A phrase I often say is “Simon is a good baby.” It is true. Simon is the sweetest young man. Happy 8th Birthday, Simon!
Today is Jude’s 12th birthday. It is also his Gotcha Day. Jude has officially been with me for a decade now. Every single day he truly lives up to his name by taking a sad song and making it better. Jude brings so much joy to our home.
Jude is my lead coworker. He knows when I am working and typically sleeps in the cat bed next to me. The past few months he has even started to sit in my lap. Jude has been having health issues since the fall and has been sitting in my lap since he became unwell.
The vet office has not yet been able to pinpoint a cause for his issues. He was having trouble eating and stopped eating. I changed his food, which has helped. He has had dental care at the vet office. He is scheduled for another procedure later this month to see if that will help him. To be honest, I kind of think that Jude is older than we all think and that he is showing signs of advancing age.
Jude is the man of the house. He is definitely in-charge. That is, unless something involves Jolene. Jude treats Jolene much the same as he treated Kitty the last few years he was alive. Kitty and Jude were together for 3 years before Kitty passed away from cancer. Jude treated Kitty with respect. He cuddled him, groomed him, and would play with him. Somehow, Jude seemed to know when Kitty had enough playing and would stop.
Jude is quite similar with Jolene. He plays with Jolene, but you can tell when he does that he thinks twice about it. He will play with her a little bit and then stop. Basically if Jolene does something “back” to Jude, he will stop and run away.
Jude plays more with Simon. Sometimes, I worry that he plays too rough with Simon. However, there are plenty of times I find Jude and Simon cuddling together and grooming each other. The play is two-sided. Simon does batt back at Jude.
Jude was an only child for 7 months after Kitty passed away. I had not been ready to adopt again, but Jude was acting like he was lonely and needed another friend. I remember when I adopted Simon to be Jude’s friend. I kept Simon separate at first to do the slow introduction I always do with a new cat. However, Simon had only been home for a day when they were already playing “paws” under the door. Jude accepted Simon quite readily into the household.
I worry about Jude’s health issues. We never know how long we have on this earth. I am so privileged to have had this decade with Jude. He has completely taken a sad song and made it better. I am hoping that Jude is with me for many more years. Of course, he is getting all the vet care he needs. But you never know how things are going to go.
Based on his attitude, Jude is a fighter. He is not letting his increasing age get him down. He is still very much in charge of our home. As he ages, Jude has become even more loving with me and with his siblings. He has come a long way from the scared cat that was rescued from a hoarding situation that had 30+ cats crammed into a tiny trailer. Jude is now confident, loved and loving.
I am so grateful to have Jude in my life. Happy Birthday, Jude. I love you.
Happy Gotcha Day, Simon! Simon has been with me for 6 years. He is 7.5 years old. I purposefully waited until November 1 to bring Simon home, despite being approved to adopt him the last week of October. Halloween is a very dangerous time for cats, as evil people often torture them. I decided to bring Simon home on November 1 so that he was safe in the shelter on Halloween. (Many pets go missing on Halloween.)
Simon is the baby of the family and our Chief Cuddler. Everyone loves Simon. Simon sleeps with me every single night, right next to my pillow. Simon is very gentle and shy. He is afraid of fireworks and loud noises. He is a homebody and has never expressed any interest in going outside or leaving the house.
He hides in the cupboard under the kitchen sink when he gets scared. While he is terrified of the upright vacuum cleaner, he tolerates the robot vacuum. Simon no longer hides when the robot vacuum is working.
Simon plays with both Jolene and Jude. He tends to play more with Jolene. They chase each other up and down the stairs and wrestle on the floor. Simon cuddles with both Jude and Jolene, which is why he is Chief Cuddler.
Being the baby of the family, Simon does not think he needs to perform coworker duties. Simon very rarely makes appearances in the office as coworker. Typically, when Simon appears in the office, it’s because it is close to a mealtime. At mealtimes, Simon sits and waits patiently for his food to be dished (as opposed to his siblings who prance about).
Simon loves playing red dot and with small toy mice. He often picks up the toy mice and flings them through the air. He enjoys watching birds play in the bushes outside the window.
Simon brings so much joy to all our lives. I am so glad he is part of our family. Simon is so sweet, gentle, and loving. We love you, Simon. Happy Gotcha Day!
Happy 9th Birthday, Jolene! Today, the Queen of our household and our lead Hedgewatch’er turns 9. Jolene is so loved. She brings life and love into our home.
Jolene was 5 years old when she was adopted, after having watched all her kittens be adopted. Jolene has a genetic disorder that affects her mouth and only has four teeth. She gives so much love. I can’t believe she waited in the shelter for so long watching her kittens be adopted first.
Please remember when adopting that the moms, the older cats, and the cats with special needs all need loving homes too. They have so much love to give. They give as much love and joy as a kitten.
While Jolene is much smaller than Simon and Jude, she is the queen of our household. She keeps both boys in line. Simon is younger, but bigger than Jolene. She still treats him like a kitten sometimes. The only thing she does not do is carry him around (he is too big for that!), but she certainly tries. Jude is very respectful of Jolene. He knows she is in charge. He does play wih her, but Jude does not play as rough with Jolene as Simon does.
You can tell sometimes by the look on his face that Jude thinks twice before instigating a play session with Jolene. He allows her to be in charge. Simon would be evenly matched with Jolene except that he is a few pounds bigger than her. She gives as good as she gets, though! Simon and Jolene often chase each other up and down the stairs.
Jolene follows me everywhere and must always supervise me. She is frequently in the same room as me. If she is not in the same room, she knows where I am. She does get upset when I leave the house. I often come home to her favorite stuffies laying near the door. She piles them all there for me for when I return.
Jolene loves her stuffies and transports them all over the house. She has a toy box full of different stuffies. You never know which one she is going to take out or where she will take it. Her favorite stuffies are carrot and ghost bear. Carrot and ghost bear move every single day, even if the other stuffies do not.
Jolene sleeps with me every night and I often wake up to find she has put her stuffies in bed with us. She loves both her brothers and can often be found playing, cuddling, or grooming them.
Out of all three cats, Jolene is the one who most loves to bird watch and to Hedgewatch. She takes every opportunity she can to supervise bird flight patterns. She loves when the windows are open so she can both see and hear the birds. She judges the squirrels that steal the bird seed out of the feeders and keeps an eye on all the outside cats and neighbors.
Jolene will be the first to let you know if something is going on! She is well in tune with the entire neighborhood. She will see an outside cat out the window and knows which window to run to next to track their progress across the yard.
Jolene knows her name and she answers to it. I have never seen a cat answer to their name as well as she does. She is more like a dog. She will always come when you call her. Unlike most cats, she does not ignore her name. If she hears it, she comes to see what is going on or what you need.
She is the perfect daughter. Jolene is the first girl cat I have ever had. I could not have asked for a more loving child. I am so glad she picked me out at the shelter years ago (I had gone to adopt a dog!).
Jolene brings so much love and light and life to our home. She loves everyone she meets. She is the friendliest cat. Jolene is very well behaved at the vet office and takes her medication when mixed in with a treat without fuss. She is the most amazing cat. She is my heart, the love of my life, and my hero.
Happy 9th Birthday, Jolene!
Please take time to look at and adopt the older cats, the moms, and those with special needs. Jolene was all of those when I adopted this mama at 5 years old with a genetic disorder. I could not have asked for a more perfect daughter. She is truly an angel from Heaven.
Happy Birthday, Simon! Today the baby turns 7. Simon is the youngest of the three cats. He is the middle child in order of adoption, but is the youngest in chronological age. Simon was adopted at age 1 1/2 and has been with Jude and I for 5 1/2 years.
Simon is the most shy of the three cats. He hides if anyone comes to the house to visit. He is terrified of vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and thunderstorms (basically all loud noises). Simon will hide in a kitchen cupboard or in my office upstairs when he is scared.
Simon is our Chief Cuddler and the glue that holds our family together. Everyone loves Simon. He is often found cuddling with Jolene and Jude. Simon also has his moments where he enjoys his alone time. He can be found on the cat tree or in his favorite chair near the bedroom window.
He sleeps with me every night, right in the bed. Simon sleeps in the space right next to the pillow. Sometimes he does like to be under the covers as well. He is the one that wakes me up every morning to feed everyone breakfast.
Simon’s favorite toys are small toy mice and catnip bananas. He can often be found on his “nana phone” talking to all his Twitter friends. Simon is the king of random zoomies. He will make a noise and then take off to some other location within the house. He loves sun puddles and rolling around holding and licking his own tail.
He can often be found playing with Jolene. They chase each other up and down the stairs. He also enjoys wrestling matches with his sister. Simon plays with Jude as well. They like to play hide and seek over / under the Kuranda bed. Sometimes Jude plays too rough with Simon and they need to be separated, but at the end of the day, they cuddle and groom each other.
Simon was adopted as a companion for Jude. When Kitty passed away, I had told Jude he was going to be an only child. That lasted for about 7 months. I was playing with Jude frequently, but he wanted to play non-stop and seemed to really need a companion. Enter Simon.
With Simon, I started to do the slow introduction process I have always done with the cats to ensure a smooth transition and lasting bonds. However, Simon and Jude had another agenda. They both worked together from different sides of the door to meet long before I had wanted them to. Simon had only been with us for a few days when they wanted to meet each other. They have been deeply bonded from the first week Simon arrived.
Simon is the sweetest, gentlest cat and so loving. We are so privileged to have him as a family member. He brings us such love and joy every single day.
Even though he is turning 7, Simon will always be my baby. He is the youngest. Jolene was adopted after Simon, but she is older. After these three pass away, I will not adopt again. I will be a foster mom instead. So Simon is my baby because he is the youngest of the cats I will ever adopt.
We cannot imagine what life would be like without Simon. You often hear of bonded duos. Bonded trios are rare. I truly think that Jude, Simon and Jolene are a bonded trio. They all get along so well. Simon is the glue that holds us all together. He is completely full of love, more than any other cat I have ever known.
Happy 11th Birthday, Jude! Valentine’s Day 2023 is Jude’s 11th birthday. It is also his Gotcha Day. He has been with me for 9 years. Jude was adopted at age 2. He had been taken by the Humane Society from a hoarding situation that had over 30 cats crammed into a tiny trailer.
Jude was very shy in the shelter. He did not want to come out of his cage. The shelter workers said he got along with all of the other cats and played gently with them, keeping his claws in. Jude was the perfect companion for Kitty, who was 15 when Jude entered our home. Kitty was heartbroken over the loss of his lifelong companion, Kip. When Jude arrived, he truly did take a sad song and make it better.
Jude played gently with Kitty and was with him through his final years and battle with cancer. When Kitty passed away, I told Jude he was going to be an only child. That lasted about 7 months before Jude started driving me nuts and obviously needed a feline companion.
Jude is now the eldest brother to younger siblings Simon and Jolene. Jude took to Simon right away. They are best friends and often cuddle and groom each other. Jude is the same. With Jolene. Sometimes, I think Jude plays rough with Simon. However, it could just be the contrast with how gentle he was with Kitty.
The funny thing is, Jude treats Jolene much the same as he treated Kitty. Jude will play with Jolene, but very gently, and not for long. Jolene often chases Jude. He does nothing to retaliate. You can tell Jolene is in charge.
This is in contrast to when Simon and Jolene play together. They both give and take quite equally.
As Jude is celebrating 9 years with me, he has now officially been living in the house longer than we were in the apartment. This house is truly his furever home. You can tell he is much happier in the house than he was in the apartment. I do not think he was unhappy in the apartment. He just seems happier in the house.
In the house, there is more room to run and play. Jude plays more in the house. He is comfortable here. He often rolls around on the floor, which is his indication he wants attention, pets, and play.
All three cats have now officially lived in this house longer than they have lived any place else in their lives. This is home for them. Personally, I will have to be in this house another decade before it surpasses the time I lived in the apartment.
For the cats, this is home. It’s the home they have known. This is where we will be living for the rest of our lives.
I did not intend to adopt Jude on Valentine’s Day. We had a snowstorm that year and the schools all closed. The roads were bad, but not that bad. Since I unexpectedly had the day off, I decided to go meet Jude early. I had been planning on meeting him the following week. I honestly did not know if he would be the right cat to be a companion for Kitty or if we would get along or not. As soon as I met him, I knew he was the right one.
He refused to come out of his cage, but he was fine with me opening the cage, petting him, and interacting with him. Jude has so much love to give.
In the past 9 years, he has come so far. He has gone from sitting next to me on the couch to actually sitting on my lap at times. He does love pets and play, but definitely on his own terms. He hates to be picked up.
Jude is very loving with his siblings and is the perfect older brother. Jude will always be my Valentine. I am so glad I took a chance on this shy cat that everyone else had overlooked. He has the sweetest personality, if you have the patience to work with him and allow him to come out on his own terms.
Jude loves being on the bed during the day when I am no longer in it. Sometimes he does sleep in the bed with me at night, but always near my feet. That’s ok. It’s on his terms. I love it when all three cats are in the bed with me at night.
Jude loves laying on the couch with me when reading or watching the DVD player. Since being in the house, he is much more playful. He enjoys his toys and his cactus scratching posts.
This house is the furever home for all three cats now. We will be here until they have all passed. Jude seems to love the space in the house much more than the apartment. There is also lots of entertainment outside the windows with birds, squirrels and neighbors.
Happy Birthday, Jude. Happy Gotcha Day, Jude. We are in our furever home. Thank you so much for taking a sad song and making it better.
For 20 years I would make the trip 3.5 hours north to the Adirondacks (ADK) for my annual Labor Day weekend camping trip. That camping trip was my vacation every year. It was the only 3-day in a row stretch I ever had off.
While in the ADK, I would rest, relax and reflect on the past year. I would do a journal entry to document everything that happened in the past year. I was in college working on my degrees and working 3 jobs trying to make ends meet. Life was moving at a fast pace. I was making progress. I used the time to celebrate my wins and focus on what I could do better.
For me, Labor Day weekend each year was my New Years. It was the time to reset. It was right before, or at the beginning of, the fall semester.
The last trip I made to the ADK was in 2019. Somehow, there was this feeling inside me like I knew it would be my last visit there.
Then the pandemic hit.
Instead of celebrating wins, change, and goals, I’m back to trying to survive. Yes, I did have some big wins this past year. My novella is published. I now have 25 medals. I only have to earn one more medal to achieve my goal of 26 medals.
The biggest win is the fact that I am still alive in the middle of a global pandemic and that the cats and I are still together.
I’m not sure if I will survive another 10-14 years that I need to outlive the cats. There is so much death right now. I am not privileged enough to think I will escape death. After all, I am on the government euthanasia list. The death clinic called me daily for 7 weeks straight in the fall of 2021 trying to schedule my euthanasia appointment.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to access healthcare in this pandemic. How do you live for another 10-14 years without access to healthcare?
My one goal in life is to outlive the cats so I can take care of them and keep them together. For the first time in my life, I have a goal that I am not sure I can achieve. As the covid situation becomes increasingly dire in this country, I just don’t see myself living for another decade.
I have decided that I will no longer do a Year in Review for New Year’s. There is no reason to document or reflect on things that went well or things I can improve. I have one goal. That goal is to survive. As long as I survive to live another year, that is the only thing I have to celebrate.
All my hopes and dreams mean nothing without the cats. I cannot achieve anything without my health. Since the health of the entire human race is in peril right now, my only goal is survival.
If I can outlive the cats, then I will dream. I will leave the country. But right now, as long as I can survive another year and take care of my cats, that is all I need for a New Year’s goal.
So here is to the New Year. I survived 2022. May I survive 2023 as well.
The last Christmas I spent living “at home” with family was as a teenager in the 90s. Out of all of the horrible Christmases of my childhood, the last Christmas was one of the most traumatic. It was the year of the Blue Christmas.
That holiday season, my mother’s married boyfriend had broken up with her. She dated this married man for about a decade. He would vacillate between telling her he was going to divorce his wife and breaking up with her. When they finally broke up for good after a decade of this, he divorced his wife within 6 months and married someone else (not my mother).
This particular Christmas was about year three or maybe year four of their relationship, and he had broken it off with her right before the holidays. My mother proclaimed that year was a Blue Christmas.
The Christmas tree was blue. While not-green Christmas trees may be popular now, they weren’t in the 90s. Somehow, my mother found a blue Christmas tree. The lights were all blue. The garland was blue. Every single ornament on the tree was blue. Every Christmas decoration my mother put out that year was blue, including the fake snow.
She took empty boxes, wrapped them in (guess what?) blue wrapping paper and put them under the tree. She said that the empty boxes were presents that year. Maybe they were a reflection of how she was feeling.
Elvis’ Blue Christmas played on repeat in the house for a straight month. There were no other Christmas songs played. The radio was not allowed to be on. The only music playing was Elvis’ Blue Christmas on repeat for an entire month. I’m not exaggerating. She actually did this.
To this day, every time I hear Blue Christmas, I feel nauseous. I have to turn it off. I cannot bear to hear that song ever again, no matter who is singing it.
I recently heard a Norah Jones Christmas song on the radio and was thinking I would like to buy her Christmas CD. When I looked up her Christmas CD, I saw that Blue Christmas was on the album. I will not purchase the album. I refuse to own a single CD containing the Blue Christmas song, no matter who is singing it.
To this day, I refuse to have anything blue at Christmas. I do not want blue lights. I do not want blue ornaments. I do not want any blue Christmas decorations.
There is one exception.
I have this bluebird of happiness on my Christmas tree. It was made by the (now retired) receptionist at our veterinarian office. It is the only blue thing I will have for Christmas. It is the bluebird of HAPPINESS. As Catherine O’Hara says in Home Alone, Christmas is the Season of Perpetual Hope. The bluebird of happiness is the only blue thing I allow at Christmas.
There will be no blue Christmases in my household as an adult. We choose happiness.
Merry Christmas. May it be happy and full of love.
Happy 8th Birthday, Jolene! The queen of our castle brings so much life and love to all of our lives. We are so fortunate that she chose me to adopt her. She had no way of knowing that Jude and Simon awaited her at home.
Jolene was 5 years old when she was found dumped in the parking lot of the animal shelter with a box of her kittens. She was quite literally dumped – when shelter staff arrived for the day, they found her trying to put kittens back into the box that had bounced out when the box was presumably thrown from a vehicle.
Jolene nursed her kittens and raised them well. One by one, Jolene watched her kittens be adopted. Everyone wants a kitten. They are fluffy and cute. Jolene was in the shelter for 5 long months before I came in. I wasn’t even looking for another cat. I had been looking for a cat friendly dog.
I had been visiting the animal shelter for about a year in search of a cat friendly dog that I thought would work well with Jude and Simon. I even had a name picked out – Benny. It was going to be Benny and the cats. Each time I visited the dogs, I would also visit the cats to socialize them.
One particular day, I walked into the cat room to socialize them when I noticed a tiny orange cat in a lower cage in the corner aggressively pawing the glass. That cat wanted attention. To be honest, I tried to ignore the tiny orange cat for two reasons. First, I am heartbroken over the passing of Kip in 2013, who was orange. I had been avoiding orange cats because they reminded me of Kip. Second, this orange cat was tiny. I thought the tiny cat was a kitten. I was purposefully trying to socialize and pay attention to the shy cats and the older cats who tend to be overlooked more at shelters.
Well, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. That tiny orange cat in the corner was persistent. I walked over to see what all the fuss was about. Much to my surprise, the tiny orange cat was not a kitten at all, but a 5 year old mother whose kittens had all been adopted. I was surprised to see an orange female.
I took Jolene (known in the shelter as Mamba for how good a mother she was to her kittens), out of the cage. She hugged me immediately and would not let go. I took her to the front desk and they were surprised to see me out of the cat room with her. That is how tightly she was holding onto me. We were given a private room for some socialization and together time. I put her down – much to her protest. She did not want to be down. She wanted to sit in my lap. She just wanted to be with me. She wanted to be held. She wanted to be loved.
Jolene picked me out. I never planned on a third cat. After raising 4 boys – Kitty (OTRB), Kip (OTRB0, Jude, and Simon, I never expected a girl. Here was Jolene. Jolene has my girl baby name.
Jolene had some health problems. Specifically a genetic disorder that effects her teeth and some issues with her ears. She had three surgeries before I brought her home. Due to the surgeries, her introduction to the boys was much slower than we normally do. We favor the slow introduction for new cats to the home to set them up for success for the best, loving relationship possible. We typically spend several weeks working on the slow introduction process.
With Jolene, it took several months to introduce her to the boys due to her surgeries. I wanted to be sure she was fully recovered before introducing her. I didn’t want the boys to play too rough with her or for the introductions to go poorly and for it to effect her recovery. We took the introductions very slowly.
I’m glad we did. The boys both love Jolene and are very gentle with her. Jolene is truly the heart of our household. She brings so much life and joy to all of us. Jolene is exactly what we needed to complete our family. We didn’t even know it until she arrived.
Jolene is our head bird watcher and loves chattering away at the chickadees. She is with me constantly. She knows her name and comes when called. She is constantly bringing me her babies – stuffies that look like small kittens. She makes a noise when she is “transporting” her stuffies to my location. If I leave the house, I come home to a stuffie near the door. When I wake up in the morning, I find she has put her “babies” in bed with me.
Jolene is loved by both Jude and Simon. Jude and Simon can play rather rough with each other at times. However, they are both gentle when interacting with Jolene. They play and chase her, but do not tend to be as rough with Jolene as the boys are with each other.
While Simon is bigger than Jolene, he is younger. Sometimes it seems like Jolene tries to mother Simon. The way Jude interacts with Jolene reminds me of how Jude was with Kitty when Kitty had cancer. Jude will play with Jolene, but not rough, and leaves her alone when she has had enough. Jude is loving but respectful of Jolene. Jude may be the man of the house, but Jolene is truly the Queen of the castle.
I’m so glad I took a chance on the “orange kitten” who turned out to be an older mom. Jolene brings so much love and joy to all of us. She truly picked me out that day at the shelter. Yes, it’s possible she just wanted attention. Maybe she would have pawed and acted all freaked out to anyone who had walked into the room that day. Yet I can’t get over the way she hugged me when I took her out and would not let go.
I am so blessed to have Jolene in my life. The boys and I both love her. At age 5, Jolene was the oldest cat at adoption for me. I am so glad I did not overlook this older mom who has so much love for us.
The next time you are in the shelter looking to adopt, please take time to consider the older ones, the shy ones, the mothers. Everyone wants a kitten. They all have so much love to give. I’m so glad this older mom picked me out to be her forever home.
Happy 8th Birthday, Jolene. We love you so much.
Please remember that until August 30, you can use our code JSJR10 at happyandpolly.com to save 10% off your purchase. For every purchase using our discount code, 5% will be donated to our local rescue to help other cats just like Jolene.
Simon wearing his rose scarf made for us by our friend Petunia.
Happy 6th Birthday, Simon! Simon is the baby of the family age-wise. He is the “middle child” when it comes to adoption order and length of time with our family.
Simon has the sweetest disposition. He bonded quickly with Jude after adoption. He keeps me entertained with his antics. Simon plays frequently with Jolene. Simon is known as our Chief Cuddler. Everyone loves Simon. He is the glue that holds our family together.
All three cats are very well bonded. However, Jolene and Jude are both extremely bonded with Simon. Jude and Jolene have a bond as well. However, I do not think the bond Jude and Jolene has is as strong as the bond that Jude has with Simon nor as strong as the bond Jolene has with Simon.
Simon is terrified of thunderstorms and vacuum cleaners. He is the only cat I have ever had that is completely scared of thunderstorms. He is a very brave hunter when it comes to bugs in the house. He is gentle, even pointing at and playing with ladybugs as opposed to squishing them.
A phrase frequently heard in our home is “Simon is a good baby.” Even when Simon is being “naughty,” he is adorable. Simon likes to steal marshmallows. He does not eat them. He carries them off and plays with them. Whenever I have marshmallows in the house, I have to be sure to hide them in the microwave so that Simon does not take off with them.
Of the three cats, Simon is the quietest. He does not often meow or make any noises. It is always a surprise when he does make noise. On the few times Simon has vomited (it happened with a change in food in the pandemic), he cries / yowls right before vomiting. Typically, a noise from Simon means something is wrong. Jude and Jolene meow and talk all the time when they want food or want to play. Simon only meows when there is something wrong.
Simon waits patiently for his breakfast and dinner, as opposed to Jude and Jolene who run around prancing and begging. Simon is truly very sweet. He is tolerant about being dressed in bandanas and scarves.
Simon loves sleeping under the covers with me. I am so blessed that he sleeps with me every night. Simon is also typically the first to wake me up in the morning to feed them all breakfast.
He enjoys his banana phone toys and the cat tents. Simon is truly an indoor cat. He loves watching outside. However, when offered the opportunity for outside time in the dog cage, he makes it clear he wants nothing to do with being outside. He loves being indoors where he is safe.
Jude, Jolene and I all love Simon and are so glad he is part of our family. He is such a precious soul. Simon was quick to welcome Jolene to the family when we adopted her, and was gentle in his interactions with her after her surgeries.
As the baby of the family, Simon is rarely in the office as a coworker for the work from home. I’m sure as the youngest, he doesn’t think he needs to “work!” Simon is definitely a loveable homebody who enjoys peace and quiet and time on the human bed.
We are so blessed to have Simon as part of our family. He is definitely the baby, as he is the youngest and these three are the last cats I will have. Happy 6th Birthday, Simon. We love you.
rewindliveslow 