Steven Helmer Publications

I always feel bad when I wake Stormcloud up and move her so I can sit down. Then I remember she is getting free room and board in exchange for keeping mice and other unwanted intruders out of the house. And yet here she is, sleeping on the job. __________________________________________________________________________ Here is a story I wrote about a cat we used to have:  Apollo Gets Adopted (A Short Story)

Stormcloud has been at her station early this morning, guarding our house from the birds and, more importantly, squirrels that dare to visit the patio table bird feeder.  She's doing a great job. Not a single one of them has gotten in the house yet. ____________________________________________________________________ Here are some other cat photos: Just a Cat Photo Just Some Random Cat Photos Pizza Box Cat I Don't Know About that Cat

  They must have been cold. I don't normally see Echo and Stormcloud on our bed at the same time and almost never that close together. It didn't last long. Soon after I took the photo, they were both awake and looking to eat. ________________________________________________________________ Here are some other cat photos: I Think Our Cat May Be in Need of Rehab Who Needs a TV When You Have a Window Just Some Random Cat Photos King of the Cat Tree

My name is Apollo. And, as you can probably tell from the picture below, I'm a cat. I've never done anything special, like rescue someone from a fire, save someone from drowning or protected my house from burglars. Instead, I'm just an ordinary house cat living with a family in Wisconsin. My average day consists of sleeping, eating and occasionally playing with one of my toys. My favorite activity is crawling into my mother's lap each night when she sits down to watch a movie on TV. However, while I consider myself an ordinary cat, I also know I'm a lucky cat. This is because, nearly 16 years ago, things weren't like this at all. When I was younger, I didn't have a family. I was a stray. And, ultimately, I ended up living in an animal shelter in Pennsylvania. Life in the shelter wasn't horrible. The people there were good people, and they took good care of me. It just wasn't the same as having a family of my own and I was lonely. The worst part was I...

Our 2 1/2-year-old rescue cat, Mouse, passed away unexpectedly Saturday evening. We aren't sure what happened. He had been acting a bit "off" for a few weeks. He stopped using his litter box and seemed to spend a lot of his time hiding from us. But, when we took him to the vet three weeks ago, he was perfectly healthy (other than having a few fleas) and, when he came out of hiding at night, he didn't act sick. He wasn't losing weight, would still eat his food and drink water and would let us pet him and play with him. Friday evening, he was growling a bit and seemed somewhat lethargic. But, Saturday morning, he seemed perfectly fine again. Then, suddenly, Saturday evening, I heard him making a strange noise from under our recliner and, by the time my wife and I were able to get him out from under it, he was gone. We were all devastated by this loss, especially my youngest daughter, who would carry him around the house like a rag doll and would have him ha...

I know I shouldn't encourage him to sleep on the kitchen table. But, it's one of the few times when he will behave for several hours straight and, for the most part, isn't hurting anyone or anything. Of course, the second my daughter sits down at that table to have breakfast, he'll manage to slowly creep over by her plate and glass of milk.

Unlike his brother, Echo (or, as I affectionately call him, Satan), Mouse is one of the most well-behaved cats I have ever had. He doesn't get into too much trouble, lets us sleep at night and has some quirky habits that make me wonder if maybe he's secretly a dog or was one in a past life. For one, this cat loves to be brushed. Yes, I'm certain there are cats out there that are the same way. But, I've had a lot of cats in my life and this is the first one I can say that about. He'll even stare at his brush until I pick it up and roll over on his back so I can get his belly. In addition to that, he'll follow our youngest daughter around the house like a puppy and, in the mornings, will sit outside her door waiting for her to get up. This morning, I was playing with him using one of his cat toys (a cheap one consisting of a piece of cork on the end of a wire that he loves). He managed to pull it out of my hand and had it on the other side of the living r...

Ever since my wife and daughters first brought Echo home a couple years ago, it has been like having another kid in the house. This includes the 2 a.m. feedings I thought were finally over. The past couple of months, however, things have been a bit different. He still likes to wake us up (with as much noise as possible). But, he hasn't been hungry. At first, we had no idea why he was doing it. He wouldn't touch the food we gave him, he wouldn't play if we tried to play with him and he didn't want to get in our bed or go in either of the girls' rooms. My wife finally figured it out a couple weeks ago. After I tried, unsuccessfully, to get him to settle down, she got up with him, carried him into the living room and rocked with him on the couch (holding him like a baby and rubbing his belly) for about 10 minutes. After that, he played with his brother, Mouse , a few minutes then crawled into our bed and went to sleep. This has now become a thing with him...

The photo is a little blurry (probably because my eyes were at the time too) but here's a photo of Echo as he was lounging around in the kitchen this morning after a long night of pestering us and keeping us awake. And, I'm sure he's wondering why my wife and I were a bit grumpy this morning as a result.

Mouse is usually our good cat but, last night he (along with his brother, Echo ) was being kind of a pest. And, this morning, he decided he wanted to be up on the counter, something he normally never does. I think it might be because our daughter, Summer, spent the night at a friend's house last night. He seems to have some separation issues when she's not around.

I'm not sure what startled our cat, Echo , last night. All I know is, I had just sat down on the couch and he came flying through the room, leaped onto the arm rest and, while he was doing that, landed back-claws-first into my arm. It took a while to stop the bleeding last night.

Today is Summer's dance recital so we'll be getting ready to head out the door before too long. But, I wanted to try out the memory card reader on my new laptop so I took a couple bird feeder photos this morning. I also took a photo of Mouse as he watched from the back of the couch.

Echo is having one of those days where he seems to be going out of his way to press the wrong buttons. In addition to waking me up 10 minutes before I needed to get out of bed, he has been standing outside my daughter's room making a ruckus. And, I'm not talking just standing there meowing or scraping at her door. He's rattling her door as loud as he possibly can and it can be heard throughout the house. He's being stubborn about it too. I want her to sleep a little longer (she already has to be up before 6), so I don't want to let him in there since I know he will just pester her.  But, I  have chased him away a half dozen times and counting. He'll hide for a minute or two then will sneak back down the hall and start over. I'm starting to regret not getting a dog.

It's not the best photo (he kept moving) but this is Mouse this morning as he sat patiently outside Summer's room, waiting for her to get out of bed. He does this most mornings and follows her around the house (when she's not carrying him like a rag doll), like a little puppy, until she goes to school.

Just a couple pictures of the overly energetic Mouse and Echo after they crashed (at different points yesterday) on the couch. Echo Mouse

The cats' new climbing tree has stairs. But, Mouse doesn't like taking the easy way and insists on climbing up the side of it. Climbing, however, isn't as easy as it was when he was just a kitten and pulling up that extra weight last night seemed to take a lot out of him. Shortly after making it to the top of the cat tree, he ended up flopping down for a nap and was out for about an hour.

OK, he seemed a little less than thrilled when I took his photo this morning. But, I think it was only because I was distracting him from watching the birds outside.

Our little mouse turns 1 year old today. It's almost hard to believe that, along with it being hard to believe how much he has grown since we first adopted him back in June.

They sure are cute when they are sleeping like this. But, I can't help but wonder if they will be up all night now.

Just a photo of Echo as he stood watch from one of the top platforms of the cats' cat tree.