Finding My Way...

I loves me kitties!

Yes, the grammar there is atrocious, but Tini gets the joke, and since this week is all about Tini the title is for her.

A little over a year ago we brought home two little kittens.  When they were rescued, apparently they were "all hiss and spit" so the shelter named them and the rest of their brothers and sisters after snakes.  We adopted Lyre and Garter, to be renamed Jack and Macy.  Jack Black is dark brown with black stripes and Macy Gray is gray with dark gray stripes.

I can't believe how small Jack was when we brought him home.  He is feisty, and trouble.  He climbs on the counters no matter how many times I chase him down.  He won't sit for petting from DH or I, but lets Emily pick him up and carry him like a rag doll.  If she just holds her hand down at her side he jumps up and rubs against her hand.  He is her bud.  And for that, I let the counter stuff slide sometimes...

Here's my Macy-girl, sometime affectionately referred to as "Ho-bag."  She loves to be petted, and does all the classic kitty moves like planting herself in the middle of the newspaper you are reading, or climbing into your lap and planting herself on the laptop keyboard, etc.  She is way skittish around Em, and favors DH, often lolling onto her back for belly skritches.  Hence the nickname.

They turned one on July 1st, and we've had them a year as of October 1st.  They've grown quite a bit, but they are still fun to have around.  Though I think they both have a future as "kitty muscle" for the kitty mob, as they have tried twice to wipe out the betta fish, Ripley.  Over the summer they pushed his tank off the dresser, dumping him gasping onto the floor, and a few weeks ago they got the lid off of his tank and I found water splashed all over the counter.  Thank goodness for plants to hide under or Ripley would have been sleeping with the fishes...hmmm...that expression doesn't work so well with fish, does it?

Anyways, here are more recent pictures of my furballs, and though I don't have (or want) a mug or other paraphenalia that says, "I loves me kitties" I certainly do love 'em.

Did I mention Jack has a thing for shoes?  Don't walk across the room in untied shoes unless you want him skittering across the linoleum behind you attacking the laces.  Any new shoes in the house warrant an investigation.  Yes, he is using my sneaker as a pillow in this photo.  Weird cat.

Emily got a digital camera for her birthday in June and spent the entire summer taking photos of the cats.  Never came close to filling that 2gb card, but did her darndest.  She actually got a few good shots of the cats.  Bound to happen out of the 300 she took!  Macy's earning her nickname in this one.  Ho-bag.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats - Video

This is for Barry, Thad, and all my favorite geeks!

Kitty Cat Update

Jack and Macy are settling in nicely.  They have been home for a month, and I think we have a decent routine established.  They spent the first week or so in the third bedroom, their "safe room" to keep them from being overwhlemed by the new place.  They were trying to escape by day 5 or 6, so they were then invited to explore the main floor of the house.  They have had free run of the living room, dining room and kitchen since then.  Last week we started letting them explore our bedrooms when we are around up there.  There's just too much trouble a kitten could get into though for them to have full access.  It may be months before I let them into the basement near my scrapbooking stuff.

This is Jack, perched on the back of my sofa looking out the window...except at the moment of this photo he's looking at me trying to figure out what the weird flashing light is.  Pardon the freaky green eyes, I haven't mastered kitty photos yet.  Jack is the less trusting of the two, and doesn't sit still often.  He is a piglet, and horks all of his food, then finishes Macy's if she doesn't eat it all.  He is a maniac with the laser pointer, and will run into walls and furniture if I'm not careful.

This is Macy.  She is my sweet lovebug.  Her fur is silky soft, and she has a marvelous purr.  She likes to play and chase the feather on a stick, and she shows mild interest in the laser pointer.  She meets me at the sofa each day I come home from teaching and climbs into my lap for a petting.  She can be fierce when she's wrestling with Jack, and I worry she's really hurting him.  Makes me think of that line from Marie in The Aristocats, "Ladies do not start fights...but they can finish them!"

We successfully moved their litter this weekend from the "safe room" to it's permanent location this weekend, and it went without a hitch.  Their trip to the vet was good too, so all is well in kittenland!