Rosa

We have two cats - Rosa and Alley. They are littermates and when together behave exactly like sisters. The equally love on and fight with each other. But other than that they have nothing in common.

Alley is a skinny, wiry, expressive and will only accept human attention on her terms but when she wants love you had better give it up or risk her climbing your leg. Inside Alley loves to play with the 'cat toys'. We spend lots of time watching her throw and catch the toy mouse. But when she is outside she is only somewhat interested in hunting real mice.

Rosa is fat, lazy, cuddly and always wants human attention - any human whether she knows you or not. Rosa is also the most uncoordinated animal I've ever seen. One evening, while I was washing my face in the bathroom, she decided to jump up on the counter to better receive petting from me. She jump and missed, hitting the edge of the counter just below her front legs. She landed and looked sincerely embarrassed. She skulked off shame at her lack of cat skills. She pulls this kind failed jump all the time when she is inside or on the back deck.

Contrary to everything I just said about Rosa, she is the hunter outside. She stalks and catches moles, voles and mice. She tries to catch birds, but her lack of coordination keeps them safe for the most part. Here is what happened when Rosa decided to sneak up on the birds in their nest ...

Robins like to build nests in the rafters of the pole barn. This year there are no active nests, only left overs from last year. But Rosa doesn't know that. So she climbed a post and walked the rafters, hunting. Discouraged at the lack of babies, she couldn't figure out how to get down. She decided, unwisely to jump onto the chicken coop roof. After that she looked a lot like a cat trying to ice skate on a steep incline. The following pictures do a better job then my explanation of the fail. I only wish I had video.