Whiskery weeks

Last Saturday was Midsummer, for people living in Northern Europe probably the second or third most celebrated holiday after Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Our country is one of those that come to a standstill by Midsummer Eve when people have left the cities and towns rushing to spend the festival in the countryside.

Last year we were at home just the two of us (I told about that here). As any celebration feels more festive when you have company, this time we were lucky to have visitors. Half of them were the hairy and whiskery sort.

My daughter spent the long Midsummer weekend with us with her two Maine Coon cats. In fact, the beauties already arrived to entertain us a couple of weeks earlier when she travelled to visit a friend.

Tidy Tiger is such a pushy fellow. He simply can’t help poking his nose into every imaginable spot. And you certainly won’t miss and can’t ignore the moment he needs to be cuddled.

Sheena, on the other hand, is a ladylike princess, both very timid and extremely curious. That is a combination hard to balance sometimes, especially as her need for tenderness seems to outrun even that of her pal. Females are just built that way I guess.

Both the Maine Coons are the best of friends with our Jack, their country cousin. Still their stay is nothing but business as usual for him. 

To complete the whiskery weeks, my sister and brother-in-law visited with their daughter’s German Spitz (Mittelspitz).

A bit shorter trail might have been enough for me.

By the way, now that we are about to turn into hikers we took the three to the Nuuksio National Park for a very nice Midsummer afternoon picnic walk. (My post on our first visit to Nuuksio here.)

The Spitz is not exactly friendly with cats. The in-house Maine Coons were suspicious enough to stay out of the way upstairs if the dog was around but Jack wasn’t bothered much even though the Spitz tried to chase him whenever he got sight of the cat in the garden.

When you know the tricks there’s no need to panic. Watching out and reacting – with the speed of light if need be – is perfectly sufficient. Few things in life are as solid as the independence and self-confidence of a thoroughbred domestic cat, my idol.

Finally, the visitors are gone and I'm having the place all to myself again.