cats again

i was out at 7:15 this morning for an 8 am cat care shift . . leaving myself time to stop by the cafe to say hi to chanda and pick up a tumeric latte.

they had opened at 7 and were quite busy.

it's nice early in the morning as the cats have just eaten and are more active than in the afternoon.

i could have let ridley snoop around in the cabinet longer, but instead closed the door on him and he did not like that.

he's very sensitive and a little skittish (he was annoyed at stringbean, another cat in the next room who was bouncing around by the door).

they all like to get some treats . . 

nala maintains her queenly status by not allowing darla or ridley to step up onto her perch.

dear ridley is a bit of a curmudgeon.

tuxedo cat caza did not make an appearance this morning and stayed hidden in his favorite cubby hole.

morgan has been spending the week with sweet jasper.

cat care shift

sweet darla . . 

and dear nala who likes to play volleyball with me . . i bop the cat toy to her and she bops it back . . though i'm always the one to run and pick it up when it goes astray. nala simply stays put on her orange perch.

walking home along west broadway . .

veggies, cat care and a picnic

the greens at the satuarday morning market these days are phenomenal - sunflower, radish and pea sprouts, arugula, escarole, kale, thai basil, regular basil, red butter lettuce, zucchini, green beans, fresh garlic, frisee, broccoli rabe, radicchio . . etc!

the pet adoption center finally had a mentor session open for cat care training this afternoon. i attended along with three other new volunteers. (i've been checking the calendar for months hoping sessions would open up.)

the cat areas get swept and mopped, the litter gets scooped, fresh water is put out and the cats get a lot of attention and play time. above is nine year old nala who is finally napping after batting several toys around with me. i'd bop a crinkly red toy or a grey mouse toy to her while she lounged on her orange cushion, and she would bop them back to me. she was very sweet. there were three other cats in the same space with her, but they were so well hidden! i was surprised at how well they hid themselves for a nap.

afterwards, i met greg and we walked downtown for a dance performance in battery park city .  .

we stopped first for treats for me at duane park patisserie (tea and a small quiche and a prune danish) and at shake shack for treats for greg . . 

and also at barnes and noble for a particular football statistic magazine he likes to peruse (his alma mater is florida state).

here we are at the willows where the dance performance was supposed to be . .

but i only see a bunch of pigeons . . 

it turned out that i was mistaken with the day . . the dance performance will be tomorrow . . sunday. it was a long walk we had, but . . oh well! we ended up riding the citibikes back home which worked out well as i needed to make two salads for a picnic we had this evening with neighbors in the courtyard.

it's funny how the picnic came about. dawn said to karen one day, all the new people are always having dinners in the courtyard! and then karen said, we should be having dinners out there too!!

and so we (many of the old timers - we're talking about people who have been living here for 20 to 40 years!) finally did . . and we plan to have another again at the end of august or the beginning of september as this one was so much fun.