This is Bela. Bela loves his stuffed animals. We call them his “babies” though each one is Mr. _______. So Mr. Teddy Bear is Bela’s favorite. And he’s also fond of Mr. Horsie and Mr. Frog. Last weekend we added TWO new babies to the mix: Mr. Sheep and Mr. Duckie!

When Bela gets a new baby he first rubs his face against the baby very aggressively. Then he pushes the baby around on the floor for a little while. Here he is rubbing Mr. Sheep while Mr. Duckie waits his turn.

After the baby is appropriately rubbed up, Bela then carries the baby around (though he usually does this out of our sight/our camera’s sight so this is a very rare shot of Bela walking his baby around the house). In the middle of the night he can often by heard “caterwauling”–or yelling–at his babies. I do not know what he thinks they’ve done but he’s very strict with them!

Finally he lets the new baby rest at his feet and keeps an eye out that his brothers do not get too friendly with the new toy before he’s had a chance to really make it his own!

At least once a week Dale sets about grooming our long-haired kitty, Monty! First Dale grabs Monty and pets and soothes him, being sure to rub his belly and ears!

Once Monty is good and relaxed the brushing starts–and then the scissors come out! Poor little guy. He gets really bad clumps of hair under his tiny pits (that would only get worse if Dale didn’t work them out). Dale tries to brush them out first and if one is really bad, he’ll grab the scissor and cut through the fur (very, very carefully and slowly) to break up the knot.

Little Monty is pretty used to this routine so he actually just lies there as Dale sets the scissors aside or switches back and forth from brush to hand to scissors. It’s really too cute.

Finally, Monty is all neat and pretty! Brushed out and fluffed up and free of knots of hair on his tummy. And he hangs out with his big brother, Sidney (who doesn’t need much but enjoys getting his hair brushed; he also enjoys playing with the stuffed babies but not as much as Bela).