Happy Easter and Happy Birthday, Oja!

Oja:  Welcome to my Easter/Birthday party.  We have plenty of food, nip and toys to go around.

 These are our Easter toys.  Mom rolled the bunny in catnip and there are treats in the eggs.

Mom is also throwing a huge nip party.  Austin and Rocio have already started.  We have tiny Spring moths to chase.  They have been drowning in our water bowls.  We aren't telling whether they had any help.  There are lots more toys than what you see, including wand toys that Mom will wave around for us.  For the cat who like to go outside and the woofies, there is grass to roll around in and gopher holes to sniff.  Mom filled up the bird feeders and water, so cat TV should be pretty good.  There is lots of cat food, both canned and dry, plus roast beef, ham and turkey.  Lots of fresh water is on hand, along with niptinis and meowgaritas.  When you get tired there are beds and sofas and chairs all over the place.  I am three years old today and I want to party!

Fuzzy Friday

 Karen Jo:  I was going to dedicate Fridays to Femme Friday with just Oja and not the boys, but she hasn't done anything noteworthy since yesterday.

Oja:  How would you know?  You were gone most of the day.

Karen Jo:  That's true.  I had a doctor's appointment, my allergy shots, shopping for a new handle for the screen door, putting the handle on, taking the handle off and exchanging it for one that worked, putting the new new handle on and picking up my prescriptions.  So let's just say that I didn't see you doing anything blogworthy, OK?

Oja:  Oh, all right.  But I better get next Friday.

Karen Jo:  I thought it might be fun to post the pictures that I took that didn't turn out as planned.  Spyro loves to shake his head as I push the button.

 I wanted to record Emma's ascent to the top of  Spyro's tower (a bunch of storage boxes piled on an end table), but she was in a hurry to get down after she saw me.  She didn't want me to know how high she can get now.

 This one was due to my shaky hands.  Hopefully there will be less of this.  I bought a new camera.  It's bigger and heavier, but it is a big step up from the little point and shoots that I have been using up until now.  It also has an anti-shake setting, which I will be using all the time.  In case you can't tell, this is Austin.

:Rocio has been taking camera-avoidance lessons from Spyro.

Mostly Tabby Thursday

 Spyro: Mom has been really busy today and didn't take new pictures of us, so here are some she hadn't used yet.  This is a chair in the living room with a cat cozy on it.  Mostly we run down the hall and jump in this chair, then on the end table, then on the couch when we are playing THoE.  We have completely cleared off the end table three times now and I think Mom is going to leave it cleared from now on.

Karen Jo:  That's right.  It's silly to keep putting the stuff back on the table just to have it all knocked off again in the next round of THoE.  I even saw Oja playing the other day.

Oja:  It wasn't entirely my idea.  Austin started chasing me and I ran.  I didn't even hiss at him.  Since I lost weight, I can get up to places where I have never been before.  Mom saw me up on Spyro's tower the other day and the cat sitter told her that I had jumped up on the counter.  I haven't done that in front of Mom, though.  I didn't want her to know that I could do it.  I didn't know the cat sitter would tattle on me.

Karen Jo:  I was out of town last weekend, so my friend came over to feed and water the kitties.  She said she put the food down and Rocio was eating Oja's food, Spyro was eating Rocio's food and Oja was up on the counter eating Spyro's food.  Only Austin was eating his own food.  I am not going to worry about Oja jumping up on the counter to eat Spyro's food.  It's self-correcting.  If she eats too much and gains, she won't be able to make the jump any more.  I could always move the boxes she uses to help her up to make it a bigger jump.

 Austin:  Both of us boycats love the ham-micks, especially this one.  You should have seen all the fun we had when Mom changed the cat litter the other day.  Spyro, Rocio and I were all watching as she poured in the fresh litter.  Spyro jumped in as soon as she was finished and started digging like crazy.  Finally he was satisfied and made his deposit.  Then he looked straight at me as he dug and dug to bury it.

Spyro:  That's because you don't bury.  You just scratch the sides of the box.  I am trying to teach you the right way to do it, but you just don't get it.

Austin:  I jumped in right after you to do my business, then you jumped back in and buried it for me.  Why should I bury when you will do it?

Rocio:  I jumped in after Austin and made my deposit and buried it, too.

Rocio:  Spyro is a good teacher.  He taught us the best way to jump up on his tower and how to drink out of Mom's glass.  Oja and I are getting really good at sleeping together on and beside Mom.  Oja hasn't hissed at me in days.  She still makes little growly noises once in a while, especially when Austin wants to play with her.

Austin:  I love to play chase and rasslin'.  Spyro is always up for it, but Oja goes all growly on me.

Karen Jo:  Give her time.  I am sure that she will come around when she is ready.

It's Official!

The Boys:  It's official!  We have been adopted.  Now we can stay here together for the rest of our lives!
We are so happy!

Austin:  As you can see, we are making ourselves very much at home.  I love sleeping up here in the sunshine.  It feels so good on my furs.

Rocio:  I love sleeping on the big bed.  It's especially nice when Mom is here with me, but I like it anytime.  It's the only place Oja is actually nice to me.  I tried to climb in a chair with her and she gave me the big hissy.

Karen Jo:  There isn't as much room in a chair as there is on the big bed.  She might have felt crowded.

Rocio:  But she curls up with Spyro in a chair and I curl up with Spyro in a chair.

Karen Jo:  Spyro likes to curl up with another kitty a lot more than Oja does.  Also Oja has known Spyro for a lot longer than she has known you.  I think the time will come when Oja will curl up with you on a chair.  She already does it on the big bed.

Rocio:  That only happens when you are here, too.  When it's just the two of us, she stays apart from me.

Oja:    bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb]'/';.....

Karen Jo:  Oja just added that herself.  I think she just gave you a raspberry with a juicy ending.  I think she will get friendlier with both of you in her own time.  It took her months to get so friendly with Spyro.

Karen Jo:  I have decided not to rename the blog after all.  I will try to make a new header to include The Boys, though.  I don't know when.  I am not very adept at graphics.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Rocio:  All the time Mom was taking our dictation yesterday about our plots, she was hatching one of her own.

Austin:  She was planning to catch us poor kitties asleep and plonk the St. Patrick's Day hat on us.

Both:  And she actually did it!  Argh!

Spyro:  Oja and I put up too much of a fight.  We are older and know better than to snooze too deeply the day before St. Patrick's Day.

Oja:  Not that we were here last St. Patrick's Day, but Herman warned us about it.  You can see how Mom caught him his first time here over on Kitty Limericks.

All:  Have a safe and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Caturday

Spyro:  Mom was supposed to blog about our plots for the KittIDES of March, but she disappeared in the morning and didn't come home again until nearly bedtime.

Karen Jo:  Sorry about that.  My friend asked me if I wanted to go out for a few hours and interesting things kept happening and it got later and later.  You can tell about your plots now, as there isn't much else to talk about today.

Spyro:  OK!  I always plot about how to get outside.  I don't want to run away; I just want to go to the back yard and roll in the dirt and eat grass, but Mom doesn't want me to go when I want to go, so I dream up ways of getting past her in the doorway.  I'm getting pretty good at it, too.  I got out today and Mom let me stay for a while.

Karen Jo:  The weather was warm enough for a change and I was right there watching your every move, so I let you enjoy yourself for a while.

 Oja:  This is the other chair in the computer room. I can stretch and scratch on it.  I would say I was plotting on ways to get rid of the boycats, but nobody would believe me any more.

Karen Jo:  Not since you were seen sleeping right next to Austin and grooming Rocio.  Not at the same time, but still . . .

Oja:  My main plot now is how to get more food.  Spyro and Rocio keep eating my crunchies.  Every day I jump up on the boxes next to the counter and measure with my body to see if I can jump up on the counter yet.  One of these days I will.  Then I will eat Spyro's crunchies.

Karen Jo:  I'm surprised that you don't just go into the boys' room and eat their crunchies.

Oja:  How do you know that I don't?  I don't sleep beside you all night, do I?

 Austin:  I plot on how to get all the wet food for myself.  When it is meal time, I run to our room, so I will be the first one to get the food.  Silly Rocio thinks he can get more food by trying to eat it as Mom puts it into our dishes in the kitchen, but she still brings it back here.  By the time the second dish is ready, I have eaten most of the first one and when Mom brings in the second dish and Rocio, I am waiting to make him share.  When Mom lets us out of our room after Oja finishes her meal, I run into the kitchen to see if she or Spyro left any food in their dishes and polish them clean with my tongue.

Rocio:  Austin isn't the only kitty who loves these knitted things.  I plot on how to get lots of treats.  I know how to earn them by scratching on the posts and scratchers, but I also am adept at stealing them from the other kitties.  When Mom is holding out a treat in her hand to another kitty, I dash in and grab it.

Wednesday Frolics

 Spyro:  I moved while Mom was taking today's picture, so here is a slightly older one of me in Mom's desk chair.  See her desk behind me will all the mail piled up on it?  That was what Mom had waiting for her when her ribs started feeling better.  It doesn't look like that now.

Karen Jo:  I have a new schedule while my ribs finish healing.  I get up fairly early in the morning, feed the kitties, get dressed, check my email, read and put out the snail mail, clean up the kitchen, water and scoop the kitties, pick up the old kitty toys and put out different ones and do one housecleaning job.  If I have time left over before dinner, I blog and visit.  After dinner, I lie down and watch TV or read until time to feed the kitties, then do more of the same until bedtime.  This way I spend 12-13 hours in bed, resting my ribs.  If I have to go out during the day grocery shopping or visiting with friends, it plays havoc with my blogging time.  I don't always stick to the schedule, either, like tonight.  I went over to a friend's house during blogging time, so I am blogging during TV time.  There is nothing on that I want to watch, anyway, and just sitting up doesn't seem to put any strain on my ribs.

 Oja:  This is my new favorite chair.  It's Mom's computer desk chair.  I love it, but I get in trouble if I stretch or scratch on it.  I don't know why.  Mom doesn't care about any of the other chairs.

Karen Jo:  I care about my computer desk chair because it is brand new.  You kitties have two scratching posts, three cardboard scratchers and all the rest of the furniture in the house to scratch on.

 Austin:  I am eating my Hill's Science Diet.  When we came as foster kitties this bag of food came with us.  I am the only kitty who likes it, though, and as soon as we are officially adopted it will disappear.  I don't know what I will eat then.

Karen Jo:  You will have your choice of Now! senior weight management food, Now! kitten food or Go! adult food, which I will buy when I have to stop using the Hill's.  If I don't see you chowing down on any of those, I will get you some more Hill's, but the Now! and Go! are better for you.

Rocio:  Oja likes me!  Oja likes me!

Oja:  Do not!

Rocio: Do, too!  Last night when Mom was lying on the bed watching TV, Oja got all comfy lying next to her.  When I was sure that Oja was too comfy to want to move, I jumped up on Mom's thighs, with my head on her tummy, just within petting range.  Oja didn't even twitch.  After a little while, I crept up a little farther on Mom and put my head on her chest.  Mom has such nice pillows on her chest.  Not a peep out of Oja, though now we are lying side by side, only inches from each other.  Then I slowly slid my backside over toward Oja, so that my side was almost touching Oja's head.  She began grooming me and didn't growl at all.  She likes me!

Oja:  I was not grooming you; I was only tasting your fur.  I didn't do it much at all, anyway.  And I growled at you this afternoon.

Rocio:  You should have been growling at Spyro.  He was the one on the vanity above you, getting ready to pounce.

Spyro:  I was not either going to pounce.

Oja:  I saw him and got out of the way before he could, anyway.

Karen Jo:  Life is never dull around here.  Oja is getting more and more tolerant of both boycats.  She reached out a paw and touched Austin's side today as they were passing each other in the hall.  At first I thought she was going to whap him, but she only touched him.  I just wish the boys' adoption papers would get here.

Mostly Mancat Monday

 Spyro:  I am inspecting the trash basket in the computer room.

Karen Jo:  That trash basket is a cat magnet.  It only holds some plastic and cardboard containers that some cables came in but fascinates all the boycats.  I put it upright and put the stuff back in and five minutes later (or less) some cat has dumped it over again.

Oja: I am on one of the living room couches giving the boycats the stink eye so they will leave me alone.  There are lots of nice fleece blankies on this couch and it is one of my favorite places.

Karen Jo:  You pretend to dislike the boycats more than you really do.  This morning I woke up with you beside me, as usual and Rocio jumped up on my tummy.  Also as usual he started to slowly slide off toward you.  You didn't make a fuss.  In fact you started to groom him a little when he got within tongue reach.

Oja:  I growled at  him, too.

Karen Jo:  That was very interesting.  You would groom him a couple of licks, then make a very small growl, then groom him some more, back and forth.  I think you are beginning to like Rocio.

Oja:  Never!

 Austin:  I am in the compter room, watching out the door.  Oja and Spyro just ran out and I am waiting to see if they run by again.  Oja is doing a lot more running and jumping these days.  Last night I saw her measuring the height of the kitchen counter.  Pretty soon Mom is going to have to move the boxes near the counter, or Oja is going to be able to get up there and eat Spyro's food.

Rocio:  I am resting up after the spat Oja and I had.  Mom opened the closet door to get her clothes out this morning and left it open.  Oja went in there to explore and I tried to follow her.  You should have heard all the noise she made!  First she growled, then she yowled, then she yelled.  I backed off after the yell.  Oja can really yell loud and it's scary.

Nippy Sunday

Spyro: This actually happened last Sunday, but Mom didn't get around to posting about it.  Mom decided that it was time we had a nip party.  First she got out a little fuzzy ball that had been in the nip container for a few weeks and put it on the paper you see me on.  Rocio ran right up and grabbed it.  Then Mom put a generous pinch on nip on the paper and Rocio decided to roll in it.  I just lay beside the paper and watched, sure that my time would come. Sure enough, Rocio wandered off a little ways.  You can just see him in the background.  Then it was my turn.  I licked it and rolled in it and had a great time.

Rocio:  Mom serves up some great nip.  After Spyro crashed (you can just see his feet) I came back for a little more.  Then I just started staring off into space out the window.  Mom checked and there weren't any birds to watch; at least not that she could see.  Shortly after this I got the munchies and went off to chow down on Oja's crunchies.

Spryo:  I do love my nip, but it makes me sleepy.  All in all, we two had a great Sunday.  Lazy bones Oja and Austin napped through the whole nip party.

Caturday

 Oja: The vet visit went fine.  I was just weighed and got my chest felt.  I lost two pounds since December 1st!  I am down to 11.7 pounds.  The vet lady said that I should weigh 9-10 pounds, so I only have one more pound to go, then no more diet for me.  Mom decided not to stay in bed all day today after all, so we should be able to do some visiting, which we haven't been doing for such a long time.

Karen Jo:  Mom is getting thoroughly sick of bed.  I went to bed right after supper last night and got restless almost immediately.  I made myself stay there, though and got lots of rest for my ribs.  The news from my doctor was worse than I was expecting.  I fractured four, maybe five, ribs but there was only a tiny bit of displacement, so no treatment other than bed rest was necessary.  I get to have them x-rayed again in a couple of weeks.  I am going to try staying up and using the computer, but no housework and see how I do. If I start aching, it's back to bed.

Oja:  I wouldn't care if you went back to bed right now.  I love cuddling with you.

 Spyro:  Mom's been taking more pictures of us than she used to, so she will be using whatever one she likes for the post.  This is over a month old, when we had sunshine.  I scared the heck out of Oja this morning.  Since Oja has lost weight, she has been going places she didn't used to go.  I have gotten used to having the area around the computer desk pretty much to myself.  I darted behind the desk and Oja gave me the "rip your ears off" yell.  I didn't even know she was back there; she never has been before.  I came tearing out from under the desk at top speed.

Oja:  Sorry about the yell.  It's a dead end back there and I had no place to go if you decided that you wanted a rumble.  I hate feeling trapped by another cat.

 Austin: I just love all this knitted stuff.  It is sooo comfy.

Rocio:  When I say that I check out ALL the napping places, I mean it.  I don't quite fit here, but I just had to try it.

Karen Jo:  I have seen other kitties sit in that little box, but you are the very first one to nap there.  All the kitties have been having a great time.  Oja hardly hisses at any cat now.  All three boys rassle with each other and Oja rassles with Spyro.  Austin tried to start a rasslin' match with Oja this morning, but she growled at him and he backed off.  When I put Oja in her PTU, all the other kitties acted very concerned.  Rocio pulled at the bars to get her out; Spyro purred at her and Austin tried to make a game of it by playing footsie between the bars.  Oja didn't like that last move at all.  I think Rocio licked Oja's head last night, but Oja trotted away from him so quickly that I couldn't be sure.

Spyro:  I really like the computer room.  I jump up and help Mom with the computer all the time.

Karen Jo: I have discovered one tiny drawback to having a nice big computer desk with room for everything: there is also room for kitties.  My old arrangement was so crowded that only Oja could fit in my lap and there was no room on the desk at all.  Now there is room for any of the kitties to walk all around the desk and get between me and the monitor and walk on the keyboard.  I don't mind, really.  It's kind of cool to watch Spyro watch the cards when I play card games.  Oja has more room to be lap kitty while I compute and Rocio has room to be a lap kitty, too.

Femme Friday

Oja:  I get the blog all to myself today.  Mom has spent much too much time going on about those boycats, anyway.  I am up on the platform getting some sun in a photo from late last month.  We didn't get any sun to speak of today.  I am still sleeping next to Mom as much as I can, but she isn't spending nearly enough time in bed for my liking.

Karen Jo:  For my ribs' liking, either, apparently.  When I got to feeling almost normal again, I started trying to catch up on the housework, a little at a time, then more and more until I overdid it.  Now I am getting the sharp pain again that had gone away.  I am spending tomorrow in bed again and maybe Sunday, too.  I have to get better again, because I have a three day conference coming up in a couple of weeks.

Oja:  The more time you spend in bed, the better I like it.  You could start by staying in bed right through my vet appointment tomorrow.

Karen Jo:  You don't get out of going to the vet that easily.  Herman's foster Mom is taking us in the morning.  It won't be bad.  You need to get weighed to see if you have lost any weight and we have to discuss what to do if you haven't.  You shouldn't need to get any embarrassing procedures done, though maybe a little feeling around your tummy.

Oja:  I don't mind you feeling and petting my tummy, but I don't want anyone else doing it.  You really are going to keep those boycats, aren't you?

Karen Jo:  Yes, I am.  I filled out their adoption papers and send them in with the check for their adoption fees.  I haven't heard back yet, so they aren't officially my forever cats yet, but it is just a matter of time.

Oja:  Rats!  I was hoping we would eventually get rid of them.

Karen Jo:  Oh, come off it.  I have seen you napping nearly together with Austin and only a foot away from Rocio.

Oja:  But they steal my food.

Karen Jo:  You are getting enough from somewhere.  You are still quite the pudgy kitty.

Oja:  It looks good on me.  I look regal.

Karen Jo:  That you do.