Buds

A few weeks ago we made the decision to make one of our cats an outside pet. It was a tough decision, but after a few days he really started to do well out there. It was hard to figure out what to do, Tiger had recently become more aggressive with Caleb and I felt like it was a full time job to make sure Caleb wasn't getting scratched or bitten. That was our main reason for the change. He has always been horrible about chewing on plastic, but it was something we just dealt with. No plastic baggies could be out on the counter, plastic shopping bags had to be immediately dealt with, no balloons with streamers... all things that we could deal with, but it's been so nice not to have to check things all the time the past few weeks.  He explores and is doing things he never would have done inside... like jumping to high places and really seems to be happy with the change.

On the lower part of the roof (over our bedroom) in the middle of the night

Considering going to the higher part (Jonathan talked him down)

Laying on the tiles above the fireplace (one of his favorite places)

Besides worrying about how Tiger would do outside, we worried about how Orion would do staying inside without his brother. We could have put both outside, but had several reasons not to. First, it didn't seem fair to change things for Orion when he isn't a behavior problem. And second, Jonathan and Caleb are both extremely attached to Orion (he's more like another toddler than a cat). How silly I was to worry, Orion seems to be more at peace since Tiger isn't around to attack him during naps! One things I didn't expect from all of this was the relationship that would develop between Orion and Caleb. A few times a day, I'll hear Caleb start giggling from wherever he's playing. When I go check, Orion is rubbing against him over and over again. This is usually the beginning of both of them chasing each other back and forth across the living room. Orion gets exercise and Caleb loves the attention!

Yesterday, while they were playing, Orion decided he needed a break. His faithful friend took a break and patiently waited for him to be ready to play again.

Waiting to play until Orion finished getting a snack