Category Archives: Calvin and Cherry

The front door Basket is back in action…

Short version: It looks like (at least) Calvin has come to appreciate the basket by the front door.

Hal version (with pictures):

Come this Labor Day weekend, we will be in this house for 12 years.  From just about the day we moved in until Pandora passed away, we’ve had a basket by the front door… and the basket often had a cat in it who was busy watching the front yard activity through the windows.  When we left the house and later returned home, more often than not there was a Maine Coon waiting for us.  Except during the most difficult times of their illnesses, Pan and Dee would wait in their basket each morning as I went out to pick up the paper; when I came back through the door, there would often be a shin-rub waiting for me.  Likewise, when Joanne came home from work each evening, there would be Pan or Dee, making sure she made it home.  If they weren’t awake, they were curled up in the basket… always with a set of fuzzy Maine Coon ears pointing out of the basket.

But with Pan’s passing, the basket was an empty reminder… sometimes painful and sometimes heart-warming, as we were reminded of Dee and Pan.  With the arrival of Cherry and Calvin, we eventually we moved the basket to the sunroom where they could bask in the sunshine coming in through the skylights… until today.

When I returned from lunch today, Cal was extremely vocal and wanted to play so we brought out some toys and played “bird” – hopefully I’ll get a chance to film him leaping through the air catching “bird” and post it here.  After he tired, I headed out to the front room and opened the door for some fresh air and sunshine… whereupon he threw himself on the ground, making a sort of whoopee cushion noise just like Dee used to do when she wanted attention and to be petted.  After I crawled down to the floor and massaged his shoulders and back like Joanne does, he stretched out in front of the door and began to groom himself and fall asleep.

Recognizing an opportunity, I retrieved the basket from the sunroom and placed it in front of the windows where it has been for ~12 years.  In a flash, Cal climbed in and… here you go:

Doesn’t the world seem like a better place now?