Water Woe

When the human is at the bathroom sink, it is not unusual for AreToo to be there, too. If she is washing out stockings, his little paws are paddling about in the water with her. If she's putting in contact lenses, he's trying to make off with the contact case - or - at the very least - with the cap from a bottle of solution. Now he has a new trick: if he can get in under her arms, he takes a quick lick of soapy water! Ugh! Yuck!! And then the human stops him before he can lick again... He's done this three times now, leaving her like, Will it make him sick? Is his little metabolism craving some strange element?? Oh, Aretoo - I wish you could either talk... or listen! (No! No!)

ANGEL!

The human and Angel got up together this morning - the human on the right side of the bed, Angel apparently...not. While the human drank coffee, listened to the news and read, Angel did... none of those civilized things. Instead he alternated between stalking the amaryllis, Cloud and Petunnia, and no amount of saying No or clapping discouraged him. It went on forever, with Cloud and Petunnia absolutely furious. (The amaryllis had no comment.)

Spooky!

Noses

Disappointment

Our human usually does not eat breakfast, and, with the exception of Angel, we do not try to drink her coffee. But if she's going to have actual food in the morning, shouldn't it be something we all can share? Like cereal? (We could drink the milk.) Or nice buttered toast or a muffin?? Instead - alas - she's eating... fruit!

Love Hurts

So, you're sitting on the couch, one leg under you and one hanging over the side, reading the paper. Very very gradually you become aware of a softness (incredibly soft), a light presence (incredibly light) and a warmth: looking over the edge, you see a Cloudling, perched on your foot, and as she looks up at you your foot begins to buzz to her purrs. It's as sweet as anything until - as she buzzes more and more, she hugs you tighter and tighter - with all her tiny, needle sharp claws...!

What A Weird Little Droid

This morning the human took her shower, dropped another wet towell on the toilet lid, and went off to drink a cup of coffee. When she returned to the bathroom, there was AreToo, curled up on the towell, sound asleep. Weird, but adorable! However, by the time the human got the camera, he was awake again, and not nearly as cute...

Sun-dappled kitten...

Archaeology

When the human needed boots, she got down on her hands and knees and excavated the floor of the bedroom closet. Recovered were one each of unmatching slippers; three pair of attractive but uncomfortable shoes; fancy running shoes which haven't been worn in years; a robe which had slipped off its hanger and lay invisible at the very back, and more than 3 dozen cat toys - including several species of toy mice previously unknown to science...

More Bathroom Sharing

The human is trying to get ready for work. Cloud is in the bathtub spilling water while Petunnia looks on from the edge. There is a damp towel dropped on the lid of the toilet, and there AreToo has arranged himself in serene splendor, a little emperor with folded paws. Angel is on the bathmat, or, rather, sprawlled out across the human's feet which are more or less on the bathmat. And then in comes Cyrano... Really! How many cats and kittens can possibly fit into one quite small bathroom?

The Sheer Injustice

Cloud is sitting on the human's lap, being petted, purring, etc. Then Angel pops up on the couch, and Cloud, disgusted, perforce jumps down. Angel jumps down, too, then flops down, just out of smacking range. So Cloud bides her time, washing, then finally goes over to the end table where Cyrrie is watching all of this, and, of course, smacks him instead...

Don't Think Of An Elephant

This morning Banshee had an appointment to get her asthma shot, so from the time she got up the human had to carefully keep her thoughts away from things like doctor/carrying case/car, etc. It worked out pretty well: although Banshee was clearly suspicious, when the time came the human was able to nab her...

Alliteration Needed

So, the human comes home, and it's like, Hi, Buddy the Brilliant; Hi, Banshee the Beautiful (or vice versa); and, Hi, Princess Petunnia, the Perfect and Precious; Hi, Lucy the Lovely... Then it all breaks down. Maybe a generational thing? But somehow, Hi, Cloud the... Cloudy just doesn't work. Nor does Angel the Angelic, nor Cyrrie the Serious. And when it comes to AreToo, there's just nothing. Hmmm, how about, Hi, Kittens the Collectively Cute?

Breakfast

Coffee and a slice of Christmas pound cake, shared with - who else - little Cyrrie, who's like, Oh, joy! It is food! It is...!

Sharing A Bathroom With Kittens

I.

The first time the human came home to a roll of toilet paper turned into confetti it was funny. (Mostly.) (Sort of.) The second time it was more, Oh, dear, not again...! The third time it was, through gritted teeth, IAGTTC! So now we have a tea towell thwart device wrapped tightly around the toilet paper, and Angel just betrayed himself when he popped up on the toilet lid and confronted the thwart...

II.

The human is putting on makeup when little Cloud comes in to pee. That takes her maybe 30 seconds. What follows is a long dramatic cover up process - scuff-scuff here, scuff-scuff there, scuff-scuff the wall, reach outside the box to scuff-scuff the floor, then start over. It takes - well - it seems to take forever - and when she's finally finished, there's the little damp spot of kitty litter, entirely untouched...

Sweet And Sleepy

Silver And Gold

Big Oops!

It's very cold, and this morning the human drenched her dry, chapped hands in her new, fragrent, Christmas present body lotion - and now nobody wants to be petted...!

Untitled

The human was groo - was trying to groom Lucy - cut out mats, comb her, etc., at least as much as you can ever groom Lucy the wiggle-wort. Making it worse was the fact that we had an audience - both kittens were with us on the table and utterly fascinated. As first one kitten then another leaned in for a better look, Lucy would swat (or swat at) and the kitten would lean back for a bit. Finally she'd had it, and there was this very low almost VLF sound: Lucy was growling! Both kittens fell away bonelessly over the edges of of the table - the human was reminded of seals diving, and she listened for the splash...

Feel Guilty

Says the human, Feel very guilty, as she catches AreToo halfway up the lace curtains in the bedroom. Sunny little AreToo bounces down onto the bed. Feel what? he says, brightly, that "g" word/concept clearly not included in his emotional vocabulary...

They Notice Things

When I put out the old weaving from Mexico, both Cyrrie and AreToo went right to the dragon to investigate...

Has she forgiven Angel yet?

A picture of our wall...

Swirly and sleepy...

Vanity?

There are 4 mirrors in the bedroom - one over each dresser, and one over the headboard of the bed. Over the last few days the human has had the opportunity to watch Angel peering intently into all of them. Is it just that he's a pretty boy (which, of course, he is), or does he see something through that silvered glass that we don't...?

Another Strange Mess

On the floor in the bedroom it looks like catnip - a largish pile of slightly damp catnip. The human quickly imagines some toy ripped apart after long and soggy chomping, but in the end it turns out they'd got hold of a used green tea bag... Another mystery solved, and relatively ungruesome this time!

Bummer

Being sick is no way to spend a long weekend, but cat and kitten caregivers came through for their human. There was no agitating for FancyFeast, almost no begging to go up stairs (only Cyrie, only twice) and they guys took turns on the bed with only 2 unfortunate incidents: Angel chased Lucy off the bed (the human was too weak to go after her to apologize) and Cyrrie tried but failed to chase off Petunnia (the human did not go after him)...

Territorial Dispute

The human is reading, and Cyrrie and Angel are hanging with her on the couch... The phone rings, and the human goes off to find it. When she returns, Angel has occupied her spot. Sweetheart, she says: I need that spot, because of the light! I'm reading, and you're sleeping... Angel seems to agree - he actually moves a whole inch or so! Not good enough, love, sorry!!

Is Angel Seeing The Light?

Petunnia Pretty Eyes

Temporary Ecological Niche Quickly Colonized

Angel Goes Too Far

Banshee is sitting with the human, quietly purring and being petted; Angel - the great prankster - is sprawlled out nearby. All of a sudden he pounces on Banshee! Triggering an asthma attack!! The human sends him flying while she tries to calm Banshee down. Later on Angel says, It really is a good thing I'm cute...! (Banshee disagrees.)

Diary Of A Little Bird Watcher

Cloud is at the living room window, the one on the side of the house where the mock orange and the japonica grow all intertwined. She is utterly rapt, looking up into the labyrinth of bare branches. Very carefully the human comes up behind her, and there he is, a male cardinal, magnificantly scarlet, and there she is, too! The female! All soft and subtle and hard to see until you know she's there... They are very beautiful, and the human says, Thank you, little watcher!

Their New Nicknames

Sweetypants and Smartypie...

Initiative

It was nice yesterday, so the human let the guys play up in the attic again. They were up and down in various combinations, but at one point when the little, er, younger boys were all up, the human got out the feather wand and gave Cloud a romp. When Cloud was all tuckered out, the feathers got left unattended on the floor. Then Angel came downstairs - quick as anything he chomped the feather part and dragged the wand all the way up the attic stairs, clicketty, clicketty, clicketty...

Profiling

The human hears bad language and runs, only to find at least 5 cats and kittens scattering in all directions - but one of those kittens is Angel, and therefore she has a suspect...!

Too Sweet For Words

In the middle of the night, the human wanders into the living room, and there, on the couch, sound asleep, are Cyrrie and AreToo, all cuddled up, with Cyrrie's head on AreToo's tummy...

New Way Of Posting Pictures

Paper Tigers

Last night when I came home the toilet paper was bitten through about a third of the way - not unrolled, like previous generations of kittens had done - but bitten into confetti and scattered about the bathroom... Tonight, they had found some glittery tissue paper and scattered it up and down the hallway....

More Angel Antics This Morning

Senior cats and kittens agree - the only thing worse than adding Angel and Aretoo our household would have been adding Angel or AreToo...

Still Living Up To His Name

First it was Buddy, snoozing happily on the couch until Angel dropped down on top of him and rolled him off, Saying Fun/wrestle/play with me...! Usually sweet Buddy said something else entirely, and was duly rescued by the human. Next it was - or would have been - Cyrrie, but the human caught Angel in mid-leap. Finally he did something to Petunnia - the human came running to find 'Toonya on the bed - absolutely furious - looking down on Angel who was clearly comtemplating a replay of whatever... All this mischief in less than an hour!

TGIGHT

(Thank God I got her tonight...)

Dratitude!

Petunnia was towelled, but the first attempt at drops was blinked away. As the human tried again, Cyrrie showed up - Is it food?? - 'Toonya spazzed out, and the human had to leave for work...

More Retro Blogging

Sweet?

When the guys were all upstairs, the human found Cloud and AreToo nose-to-nose at the top of the stairs and wondered what was up - well: it was a semi-big black winged waspy looking thing moving in slow motion... (Goes without saying: The human's auto-reaction was to vacuum it up!)

Good??

When the human finally decided that the rugs were dry enough, cats and kittens began to trickle downstairs... Eventually, when all but Petunnia and Buddy had put in an appearance, the human got worried. Going upstairs, she found the two of them side by side in front of the quartz heaters, clearly not needing/intending to go anywhere else for a while....

Out-Out-Smarted

The human, anticipating Petunnia napping on the bed, left a towell there on purpose... Petunnia, anticipating being medicated, went to sleep right on top of the towell. But! There's more than one towell in this household, and, at least for tonight, We got her!

Some Thoughts On Time And Space

Time:

Somehow or other, Cloud and Cyrano are a whole year older than I have been thinking - I keep telling people, oh, they're around a year and a half, but if they were born in May of 2004, then clearly they are older. This is just not right!

Space, Or Perhaps Size...

Little Angel, runt of the litter, noticibly outgrew AreToo in both size and weight. Now, however, little AreToo has a fat little tummy, while Angel remains sleek and slim... (It's a very cute fat little tummy!)