The chat room has a festive fall feel for today’s Caturday open thread. However, that garland will probably get knocked to the floor within a week.

Gray cat portrait by cafe counter, by jjes84, licensed under CC BY 4.0

For today’s open thread, reader Georgiana Y. shares a big breakthrough moment with her cat Stormy:

Well it only took three years but my Stormy finally snuggled with me of her own accord! Don’t misunderstand, I can pick her up and she never struggles but you can feel she doesn’t really like it. What she does love for some reason is sitting at my feet while I pet her head and scratch the bridge of her nose. It’s the first time that she jumped on my lap by herself to cuddled, I’m a happy cat mama!

It’s time for a little Caturday housekeeping, as reader Tara O. brings out the dreaded vacuum cleaner — and her cat Jacques has a most un-catlike reaction:

I decided to do a little deep cleaning as in vacuuming my bed. I now have proof that Jacques is completely deaf because he came onto the mattress and was not distressed in the least even thought the vacuum was running full blast.