Photo Extra: Emily's Last Year

The single most important event at our kitten farm this past year was the passing of her Emilyness. But we have our memories of her, and of course photographs such as her relaxing on the bed during her final springtime with us.



Rest well, our elder kitten.

Slipping away

Both boys lost a little weight in our absence, no doubt because the Happy Tails folks followed our food instructions precisely and weren't around to shower them with kitty treats. We have upped their rations a little bit. Whitey came in at 13 lbs 7 oz, Billy at 13 lbs 9.5 oz. Both are down about an ounce since last time.

Photo Friday: Special Guest Appearance

Just because Billy isn't the official resident Spider-cat doesn't mean he can't go vertical. Hence the ease of snapping this on one of his irregular visits to my office bookshelf.

Photo Friday: Electric Kitty Warmer

When taking photos on the cats on the stereo, we did of course get several showing its true purpose.

Like watching grass grow

No weight change from last week. Billy comes in at 13 lbs 10.5 oz, Whitey at 13 lbs 8.5 oz. In this case, boring is good.

Whitey finds a caterpillar

We've written about Billy's maniacal pursuit of the Fuzzy Caterpillar before, but lately Whitey has been hunting a caterpillar of his own. It's grey with black rings, sort of like a big wooly bear, and it twitches back and forth in a very intriguing way.

It's also attached to our SpiderCat's rear end.

That's right, Whitey is reverting to his kittenhood, and has been chasing his own tail with wild abandon. (Maybe it's time to check the catnip stash?) Mostly this is funny, but when he does it on the narrow top of Drew's seven foot office bookshelf, it can be a little unnerving.

RAID!

Just after I woke up this morning I heard the area defense weapon's warning siren sound downstairs.

Either we have a defective SSSCAT, or someone was on the dining room table when they shouldn't have been. You decide.

Over the Counter and Through the Woods

We have a new weapon to join the depth charge launcher. This one is more automated, and is currently assigned to the kitchen counter as an area defense weapon.

It's SSSCAT, which is basically a motion detector activated Hiss of Doom; it also includes a warning siren which sounds just before the mist goes off.

You can see a video of it in action from their web site as well. Please note the mist did not blow the cat off the counter. Rather, that's just one very surprised cat jumping under its own power.

The cats must be quite shocked for the kitchen to be guarded when Katherine is working up stairs; I have a fresh report from the kitten farm that our new gizmo has gone off twice in the past half hour.

They may be down right depressed when they find out the counter is guarded even when we're off visiting grandma's house.

And yes, we do love our boys; the thought of them getting injured if they got near our hot stove is what drove this latest purchase.

Photo Friday: (Almost) Ready for Our Close Up, Mr. DeMille

As previously noted, the boys have used my stereo for going to the high shelf in my office since they were cattens. Now they stop on it more often, sometimes for long enough that we can take a picture. But being neat felines, they want to look good for the camera.



Knowing how little Whitey likes his brother power washing him, it's lucky we didn't get Cat Fu right on the Kitty Warmer.

A side note: The stereo is not as small as the boys make it appear. It's actually 17 inches wide; those boys are that big.

Weight Watch

Both boys remain stable at about the right weight. Billy comes in at 13 lbs 10.5 oz, Whitey at 13 lbs 8.5 oz, both unchanged from the last weigh-in. Since Whitey's frame is slightly smaller, this means Whitey is actually a little tubbier than Billy now.

Dawn Patrol: Paging the Valet

The boys have figured out that I'm the only one standing between them and world domination. Or standing between them and dinner, which ever is more important to them.

They drove me whacko last night begging for dinner early, and then Billy did an official pre-dawn meow this morning. I was up an hour early because of him.

I think Katherine gets 100% of valet duty for a day or two once she arrives. I need the break.

Where's Mom?

As I was packing up to leave for work today, I heard a sad mew out in the hall.

Whitey, the owner of the mew, padded into my office, wrapped himself around my legs, and gave me three more soft multi-syllable chirps.

I don't speak domestic tiger well, but I took his chatter as a query from a somewhat lonely kitten asking where his daytime human was. Her office has been empty for days now. Not much I could say to him in return, but I did pass the message along.

She can console him in person tomorrow evening.

I was Doing Fine ...

I was doing fine until the wet cat food can slipped out of my hand and our completely undisciplined cats wanted to wrap themselves around my legs while I tried to clean it up.

And the Hiss of Doom (used for crowd control) was broken after someone with four paws knocked it off the counter last week.

(Note: DO NOT try to salvage broken cat tools in the future.)

No cats were injured this morning. One got wet.

Who are These Guys?

No Kitty Warmer for me last night. Instead, the boys curled up head to head on Katherine's side of the bed just below her pillow. No doubt they are keeping her side warm for her return.

There was early morning Cat Fu, but not too early and not too loud.

They are so well behaved, it scares me. (But I like it.)

The Inmates are Running ...

Katherine is doing her conference thing on the left coast, and that leaves the boys in charge.

Well behaved boys, I might add. I went to bed early for them (they generally are up until Katherine retires). While there was one series of mournful meows, and a shake can was knocked down from the linen closet door knob, the night was pretty quiet and no early wake up calls were issued.

In Katherine's absence I did get used as a kitten wamer by Billy, but since he was gentle and flexible about moving when I wanted to roll over, we both slept reasonably well.

Photo Friday: Shower Attendant

Whitey loves almost any window. He'll even jump the tub to get up into the bathroom window if we leave the outer shower curtain open.



Once in a while he'll even try with the outer curtain closed, which makes me nervous in case he brings it down around him -- he would not be able to claw out of that heavy plastic.

(And no, we don't have the window wide open in December; that picture is from early August after we first noticed he likes that window.)

Tubbo no more

He's still a Mighty Hunter, and he's still Catzilla, but it's time to quit calling Billy Tubbo. He's more or less stable at 13 lbs 10.5 oz, which is about right. His brother gained a few ounces since the last weigh-in, and comes in at 13 lbs 8.5 oz.

Sad Word for an Old Friend

We received word Sunday that our friend's canine companion Samantha was put to sleep on Sunday.

Her arthritis had gotten to the point that she couldn't walk without falling, and stairs were impossible.

Here's hoping Samantha has warm fields to run pain-free in and happy companions to play with at the Great Puppy Farm in the Sky.