"Itch Tracy"

That's Itchy in our office, at the old flat. Back then, she used to sit on the huge working desk we had. Now the big desk is gone, but she's happy to sit/lay on the spare bed we have instead.

She spends a lot of time in the office, as her favourite place is wherever my husband is, she's a real daddy's girl. He works from home and the girls are his loyal companion all day long, particularly Itchy. They spend much more time together than they do with me, which explains her preference a little bit, and I do wonder sometimes if that is his preference too - she doesn't nag as much as I do! :) . Although neither her nor Scratchy are lap cats, Itchy will quite happily sit on his lap when she feels like it, but only for brief moments.

This photo of her makes me think of of Dick Tracy, or any of those private detectives in standard photos, standing under a lamp post in a dark alley. That's my "Itch Tracy" - very observant indeed.

In the garden

Scratchy "sunbathing" in the shadow of our trees

Neither Itchy nor Scratchy are outdoor cats. The have always been indoor cats and I was more than happy to keep them like that, as any overconcerned mum would be. When we first got them, we lived in a flat near a very busy road and there was no way I would even consider to try and let them out, but ever since we moved to our new home, with a nice and very secluded back garden, their daddy thought we should give it a try.

I still didn't think they should be let out unsupervised, but we got to an agreement that seems to suit everybody, including the cats: we get them on leads, very long ones, and we let them wander in the back garden on sunny days while we're there. At first I thought that if we did that, they would end up pestering us to go out all the time, but they never did. They are only interested in being outside if we are there too. They just want to be where we are.

And for that, I love them even more.

Togetherness

This used to be one of their favourite spots in our old flat - sitting on the microwave, watching the movement of our street from the kitchen window. Although they like to be within sight, they don't usually like to be that near to each other. This was a rare moment and we were lucky enough to be around with a camera to register when it happened!

This is Scratchy

Scratchy is our lovely ginger (here sitting on one of her naughty places, our printer). She is a very sensitive little soul and suffers from a skin allergy since birth. When we first adopted her it was really bad, but now that she has the treatment and care she needs, it's manageable.

Sometimes she still gets very itchy and her tongue is really coarse, so, as she repeatedly licks the itchy spots, she removes the fur and the skin of them very quickly - hence the collar "lampshade style" she wears in this photo.

She's in and out of that collar very frequently, but against all odds (particularly when it comes to cats), she's extremely easy going about her hardship. She doesn't mind having to wear it (probably got used to it by now) and doesn't mind taking her medication when the allergy breaks.

This is Itchy

This is Itchy, my intelligent looking tortoise shell. She is actually quite a smart cat, and sometimes, when she has the black part of her eyes wide open like in this photo, we think she resembles an owl. Her nick name when she has this look is "Itch the professor".

First

This blog is a place to share some of the (endless) photos of our cats - two lovely young ladies named Itchy and Scratchy. They found their final and definitive home two years ago, when my husband and I went to a cat shelter looking for two kittens to join us in our new home. They were just about two years old back then, and as soon as our gaze met theirs, the kittens idea was immediately dropped - we had been chosen by them instead.

We adopted them after a sucession of unsuccessful re-homings (and all we could ask ourselves was "who wouldn't want to keep them???"). They are of no specific breed (although we guess they might have some persian blood, hence their thick fur coats), sisters from the same litter, and have never been apart - yet they have very distinctive personalities. You'll get to know them better as we go. And you most certainly will fall for them too.