It’s now been officially a month since Boogins is gone, and we are adjusting to our new situation at home. Squee is getting more attention than ever before. He loves being able to eat some kibble now and then in addition to canned food, and we especially enjoy the automatic feeder that drops a serving of kibble at 4:30 in the morning, so he doesn’t have to bother us at the crack of dawn, saying “Hey! Get up! Feed me! I’m hungry!”
We’re letting Squee sleep on the bed now, and he’s pretty good about staying down by the feet, rather than trying to get right up by your face, on your pillow. Boogins would try to do that, and as much as I loved him, I didn’t want to sleep with a big pile of purring cat fur in my face. But Squee feels nice and warm down by the feet.
I’ve gotten Squee to sit with me a few times. Usually, I have to start out by pretending that I’m reading, so he feels compelled to interrupt what I’m doing. (Cats are fabulous at demanding all your attention 
when you’re otherwise engaged.) Once he gets settled, he’ll sleep a little while, and I even hear a bit of purring, but not very loud like a motor (like Boogs)—just a soft rumbling of air.
We’ve also set up a couple of “beds” for Squee in the two front rooms, where we spend a lot of our time. Now, we could have gone to the pet store and spent anywhere from $20 to “$50 each for an official “cat bed,” but instead 
I grabbed some old boxes from work and laid blankets in the bottom, and he thinks this is the best seat in the house.
The biggest change for Squee, though, has definitely been that he gets a lot more playtime now. As big fans of the Jackson Galaxy show, My Cat From Hell, we learned how important it is for cats to “hunt…capture…kill…eat…groom…and sleep”—in that order. We have a couple of toys Squee really enjoys “hunting,” particularly “The Fish” and “The Bird.” These are toys that dangle from a string on a stick, and you can bop that around and drag them on the floor in front of him, and he’ll jump and pounce and catch them over and over again.
A new element of play we’ve recently added is the reintroduction of “The Cubes.” These are big, lightweight, cat-sized cubes with holes so he can walk through, and best of all, HIDE INSIDE. One of Squee’s 
idiosyncrycies is that he’s a “burrower.” He loves to be hidden under things, and you’ll often find him slinking behind curtains or tryng to dig his way under a blanket. So he thinks “hiding” in the cube is “the cat’s meow”!
One more thing I’ll mention: hummingbird season is over, but I’ve set up a couple of wildbird feeders in the backyard, and now we’re pulling up the blind on the back door so he can look out and hopefully see the birds feeding there. I notice the bird food is disappearing, so I know they’re out there feeding during the day—just not sure yet if Squee has figured out how to enjoy his “Reality TV for Cats.”
We’ll be home now for Winter Break for the next week and a half, so we’ll have more time to spend with Squee, and see if he looks out the window at the birds, and more time to play with The Fish and The Bird and The Cubes. And hopefully some nice times of just sitting together with an unattended book, watching a contented cat softly purring as he sleeps in my arms.
