Cowardly Lions!

When the trick-or-treaters start to come, only the "babies" hang with the human. Later on, however, everybody shows up for the treat! (FancyFeast, of course...)

With flash... 

Without flash... 

Little window-watcher... 

Looks down at the last minute...! 

On the one hand, this is sweet and good; on the other - look what they do to the couch...! 

SleepyFace - Is he cute, or what...? 

Speechless

AreToo frequently helps himself to "toys" from the sink: comb, tweezers, contact case, etc. So the human has become quite careful about what she leaves out there. Imagine her surprise this morning when she finds the stopper gone! This is - literally - no small thing, and before he disappeared it he had to winkle it out of the drain... And, no question, it would have been yucky! AreToooooooooooooo...! How could you??? And AreToo comes back with his usual big-eyed response, What?????

AreToo To The Rescue

Once again AreToo sneaks into the vestibule; this time he bites his way into a bag of Friskies, and... the human relents. She tops off the bowls with the "junk food" crunchies, and cats and kittens rejoice!

Passive Aggressive Payback

Petunnia is on the back of the couch, and the human is petting her, trying to convince her to move so the couch can be "made." Petunnia isn't having it, and when Cyrano tries to join the conversation, she isn't having him , either. Hardly disturbing her langorous pose, she just... s t r e t c h e s! Those long white front legs go out and out, those big paws flex, bigger and bigger, and Cyrrie's eyes get bigger and bigger, too, until he does a funny little back hop. But then she goes too far - a final flex of paw hooks a claw into the couch, and it catches. The human has to rescue Petunnia. Cyrrie may or may not have been laughing, but the human certainly was!

Paws... 

Fun with blankies... 

Soft...! 

AreToo's Fault

AreToo is a little would-be hunter. When the human left half a bag of crunchies unattended for a moment, whose little butt did she find sticking out of the top? And when she left an unopened bag of crunchies in the vestibule for storage, who snuck in and helped himself? chewing a hole right into the exact middle of the bag! So of course it had to be transferred to the tupperware crunchies container, to be everybody's crunchies until it's used up... The problem? It's the health food crunchies! Cats and kittens bemoan their fate, but the human just says, Blame AreToo...

Cloud and Angel and the much kittened fig tree... 

Not Sweet And Good

Cyrrie: First stalking PetunniaPetunnia, then cornering his sister and making her so mad that the human had to intervene...
AreToo: Who got so wild attacking the blankies as the human tried to make the couch, that the human held him for a time out (he chomped her, too, gently but quite mischievously).
Angel: Who insisted on getting into the wires under the desk in the computer room, and getting into the wires, and getting into the wires...
All this in one morning, too! Thank goodness for sleepyfaces Banshee, Lucy and Buddy!!

Kittens Experience... Television!

This is not a television watching household. But since I was listening to the baseball game as I drove home from work, I thought what the heck, might as well see how it ends. Angel and AreToo and even Cyrrie are mesmerized... (But of course they won't let me take their pictures.)

Rescue Operation

Early this morning Cloud climbed into the pie-safe from the side and started to disappear behind a row of books. The human looked away, then looked back, only to see Cloud's little legs searching for purchase as she tried to back out. So of course the human rescued her, and Cloud was... not grateful. She was so not grateful she chirped, and the human, concerned that she might happen to someone, carried her around to find a space empty of cats and kittens (not an easy thing to do anymore).

Stalked! 

Little Cloud is watching something, but something else is watching her...! 

Moonlighting!

In the current Drs Foster & Smith Just for Cats catalog, on p. 28, there is a little grey and white cat - solid grey with white socks, white tummy, throat, chin and blaze.This little cat also has golden brown eyes, and two freckles, one on each side of its little pink nose...

It's a burden being cute... 

Impediment to remaking the bed... 

Where the snapdragons were safe(r) - AreToo is the one standng in the moss roses... 

Disappointing Score For Kittenist

Friday night, or early Saturday morning, someone with dirty paws uprooted the snapdragons. The human had to vacuum before she could go to work! In her haste, she left the half-empty (maybe AreToo saw it as half-full?) pot on the dining room table. Of course when she got home the pot was completely empty and on the floor, albeit in one piece. You messed up there, babe - a kittening "9" at best!!

They Were Only Temps

Last night the human had a porch plant - a large pot packed with snapdragons - resting temporarily on the dining room table. This morning there was a pot, half emptied of dirt. There was dirt on the table cloth, dirt on the floor, and snapdragons in the kitchen and living room. And then there was AreToo, with dirt on his paws and a sprig of snapdragon speared on one claw, saying, Who, me? IAGTTC!

Doubly sweet and good... 

Sneezies

OK, the human has been sneezing frequently for the last 2 days. Cats and kittens are appalled. What, says the human! You guys sneeze!! Yes, but we don't go around saying "No sneezing"... (Talk about hypocrisy.)

Helpful AreToo

Everyone else was snoozing, but AreToo was hanging with the human, helpful as always. He helped her top up the crunchies bowls and add water to the fountain. He helped her clean the kitty litter. And then he "helped" her roller the cat and kitten hair off her black dress. (Someone was missing the point, but I'm not sure who...)

Snoozy Angel/angel... 

Feather Equity

How to give little Cloud a romp, when her little brothers are rowdy and bigger than she is? Trick the guys - they are still very naive and trickable - slam the bathroom door shut, and romp Cloud - and Cyrrie - and even Banshee, last night - to their hearts' contents. Then release the rascals and do it all over again... (I wonder how many times this will work?)

Finally, A Lamp Update

After much searching, the human found a new lamp. The seemingly indestructible flowers-lamp is back in the living room, and in the bedroom is a new lamp - dark presumably indestructible wrought iron with a nicely shaped white shade... When it was unpackaged, assembled and plugged in, well, there was lots of help from cats and kittens. ($13.00, on sale, from Target.) (And the living room is livable again!)

Due to kitchen crowding, Buddy and Lucy get to eat their crunchies in the living room (eating out of the new bowls, too)... 

Snoozy Cyrrie... 

Snoozy babies... 

Same idea as a trail of bread crumbs... 

Catnip time... 

Toonya helps her human get back to blogging... 

AKA SweetyFace

Little wild kitten SpittyFace, 19 and a 1/2 years of cuteness, bossiness, love and being loved...

Define Comfort

When the human comes home from work, she does not let her hair down - instead, she puts it up! But not when her barretts get disappeared! Come on, guys - you have other toys...

Sound Effects

Yesterday was so beautiful that I fell asleep with the window open, and "woke up" - after hitting the snooze alarm 3 or 4 times - to the sound of birdsong - not the raucus dawn chorus of summer, but pretty suprising for October, and very nice... A little while later there was a brief thunderstorm - only about 5 minutes, but with near continuous blasts, crashes and explosions of the kind that feel as if the house is shaking, whether it is or not. (Cats and kittens are equally indifferent to birds and storm but quite interested in my donut.)

A Changing Approach To Cat Counting

It used to be, I counted cats at least twice daily - going and coming, and I was fairly rigid about the technique -- everybody accounted for upon leaving, and everybody eye-balled and petted upon coming home. Home-coming is pretty much unchanged, but now that there are so many of them, well, leaving is more complicated. I realize I have developed an alternative methodology, sort of cataloging (excuse the pun) each encounter, so that by the time I leave I know I've seen everybody at least once throughout the morning (usually the morning, anyway). So, who's in bed with me when I wake up? Who shows up in the bathroom, kitchen, computer room? Who's on the couch and/or the dining room table? And I keep an eagle eye out for anyone who's missing until they put in an appearance. By the time I leave, they're on record, regardless of what dimension they've disappeared into in the meantime...

My Cyrrie

In the middle of the night, something large plopped up against the human, and right away she knew who - the incredibly soft short fur combined with the enthusiastic licking and nibbling of finger tips...

Uncharacteristically demure...