He ain't heavy, he's (still) my brother

Continuing the birthday theme, this was Billy and Whitey at about five months old, in July, 2004.

Billy and Whitey Kitten Snuggles

And this was taken this evening. Same futon (new cover), supersized snuggles. Please note that the boys did not shrink. It just looks like they did because I had to step back further to make them fit in the frame.

Billy and Whitey Catzilla Snuggles

(Tech note: The top photo was taken with a Toshiba PDR-3310 digital point and shoot camera. The bottom was taken with my Moto X phone. Both are straight out of the camera, with no post-processing.)

Ten Years After

Billy & Whitey Watching a Laser Dot the Night They Arrived in 2004

It was on this day in 2004 that a litter of kittens were born that included the brothers which we would adopt (along with the elderstatescat Emily) just under four months later on June 14th, 2004.

Ten years later, our Catzilla brothers are still the anchor of our little kitten farm.

Make no mistake, they are getting older.   Whitey still seeks out the highest vantage point in the room, but he is if anything more sedate than ever. Billy is still a mighty hunter of cat toys, but while he may chase up six foot towers as many as eight or nine times during play time, he may take a break after as little as two or three.  As a catten, eight towers would have just been warming up.

Of course, Billy & Whitey still scoff at the concept that anywhere in the house is truly off limits to them -- if anything, Ssscat laden kitchen counters are more fun than cat towers (especially to Billy).

May we still be shooing our senior princes off the counters ten years from now.

Temporary Menu Change

Penwiper went into the vet at the end of January for his annual check-up and shots, and was given a clean bill of health.   However, late last week he seemed to lose some of his appetite, possibly an after-effect from the shots.  So it was off to vet again on Friday.  No issues were found, but to encourage him to eat we did pickup canned food to spice up his kibble.

The new menu started Friday evening.  Knowing Billy would raid Penwiper's dish if he didn't get some, we gave some to all the feline overlords with the usual results:

• Oscar announced that there no way he was eating this "contaminated" kibble.   We had to serve him a clean dish of dry food, and pass his original dish to Billy.
• Billy thought it was Catmas.  He woofed it down before his kibble.
• Whitey was on board with the holiday treat idea too.
• Penwiper wasn't quite sure, and used it as a tasty side dish.   In particular, he licked it every so often (as he does cheese we when we give that to him), and finally ate it when his kibble was gone.

Oscar wanting only his dry kibble actually makes it easier.   He's fed first, and serving him "boring" dry food means Billy doesn't raid it while waiting for his own meal.

After a meal or two, Penwiper has gotten to where the wet food is a real part of the meal, and has eaten it more promptly.   He has required patience by the valet, but has finished sooner or later.   Sometimes this requires letting hop him on a dining room chair next to a valet and putting his half-finished meal by him, but he's a social kitten -- what's wrong with wanting company?

We'll never forget What-his-name

We actually owe a bunch of posts, some of which we may backdate.   But for now ...

+Erika Rice Scherpelz just posted a picture of Kage (The Grey Mouser) and his housemate Jasper curling up together on the local self-heating cat cushion (i.e. her).

Kage really does remind me of a more reserved version of Penwiper, especially with their long fur and sociability around favorite humans.

Photo Friday: You're Why We Can't Have Nice Things

One of the odder places our Spider-Cat has ascended to is the right speaker shelf in +Katherine's office.   As you can see, "relaxing" on it requires climbing from the bookshelf to the right onto the speaker and then squeezing over the speaker to huddle in the free area:

Whitey On the Speaker Shelf Last Fall(click for larger)

Well, it used to.   Back in December, Whitey had a never quite explained accident, where he and the speaker both came off the shelf.   Being a Spider-cat, he extended Cat Ki and landed well out from the wall.   Cat Physics at work and all that.  The speaker, being attached to a wire which was stapled to the wall, also obeyed the laws of physics:  It dropped until it ran out of slack, and then was pulled to wall by the wire:

Speaker Repositioned After It Dented the Wall Below It
(click for larger)

That's not dirt on the wall.  If you click on the picture to see the details better, you'll see that speaker physics caused the speaker turned pendulum to take two divots out of the wall.

At least Whitely and the speaker itself both are okay.

The speaker is permanently moved to the left, so that if Whitey wants that shelf again, he can get on it without pushing the speaker around.

R - E - S - P - E - C - T at the Spa

Oscar and Whitey got their spa day for their teeth and nails on Wednesday.  However, they didn't consider it that.

Reliable reports had Whitey asking for his lawyer all the time he was awake.

However, Oscar made Whitey look happy.   He was sufficiently fractious (their words) they could not sedate him normally, and instead gave him an injection in the rear flank.   This made him recover more slowly, to the point that we were advised when calling to check on them that he may need to kept in a safe room over night.   So +Katherine Derbyshire prepped the downstairs lavatory (she wanted the larger more familiar library, I wanted the smaller safer bathroom), and off we went to check on them in person and hopefully rescue them from the clutches of the vet.

I think Oscar would say evil <expletive> vet.   Oscar's motor skills were iffy, but his lungs were just fine -- upon our arrival in the back treatment room, he gave a hiss worthy of a cat twice his size.    He was in the wrong (larger) carrier, but we decided to let him stay and stuff the larger Whitey into the smaller carrier for the ride home.   Our vet was vaguely disappointed by our decision ... at least he said that he would pay good money to see us transfer Oscar between carriers.

Yea, right.  We didn't need the money, and we are not that stupid.   We know to respect an annoyed cat's personal space.   (Her Emilyness taught us well, many years ago ...)

Whitey, who wasn't in the second carrier yet, went in fine.   He did continue to meow for his lawyer, of course.

We got home, locked up Oscar in his safe room, let Whitey out wobble around, and got everyone an early snack.  Neither cat who went to the spa ate much then or at dinner time, which was no surprise.

Oscar got released on parole at 9 PM, and was wobbly but in moderately good spirits as soon as he was free.  He did want to cuddle, but he also was hissing with the least provocation.

Both boys recovered their appetites the following day.

Saving the best for last ... the blood work for each of them was fine.

Take Three: Oscar at the Vet

A week after the Catzilla brothers went to the vet, it was Oscar's turn.  I took him personally.

He's healthy, has lost a half pound (which vet liked), strongly objected to having his temperature taken (we skipped it again this year), and like Whitey needs his teeth cleaned.

Since Oscar doesn't always handle shots well and, like all the boys, is a strictly indoor cat, we skipped the feline leukemia shot.

We'll bring Whitey and Oscar in together for a spa day.   Oscar will get a basic blood work done while sedated then to make up not taking his temperature.