Brody Improves

 Brody:  Thank all of you for all the purrs and everything.  They are helping.  I am resting up from my trip to the vet today.  My temperature is normal; my weight is up from 7.75 to 7.8; best of all, the fluid in my chest is going away.  I still have to take all my meds and the Amoxidrops are back.  Yuck!

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Brody, but the meds are helping you and the Amoxidrops are back because you are more vulnerable to bacterial infection now.

 Spyro:  It's a gray and rainy day.  Just right for a nap on top of the tower.  I love it up here.

 Oja:  Mom caught me nomming down on the dry food.  Orijen Six Fishes is delicious.

 Rocio:  Shall I scratch for treats, or just eat the dry food that is already out?  Treats are better, so I'll scratch.

 Bambino:  Again with the camera?  I'm with Spyro.  This is a great day for napping.

 Horus:  I just love this pillow.  I nap here lots.  I thought about spraying the dresser this morning, but changed my mind and used the litter box.  I'm a good boy, I am.

 Julius:  See all the dry cat food scattered all over the floor?  Some cat comes tearing down the hall at top speed and crashes right into the bowls.  I'm not saying any names, but she's black.

Cissy:  I wouldn't be tearing down the hall at top speed if some other kitty weren't chasing me.

Julius:  Don't look at me.  It must have been Rocio, Horus or Oja.  You made the mess, though.

Cissy:  Hmmpf!  This is my new hidey-nappy place.  I found this cushion just lying around and dragged it under the chair.  It's pretty safe here, especially when Mom is sitting in the chair.

Finally Posting Again

 Karen Jo:  I really apologize for not blogging for so long.  My only excuse is that I had no idea what I was taking on when I adopted two 8-month old kittens when I already had an 8-month old kitten in the house.  You know what happens when you do that? Chaos!  Within four days of adopting Brody and Cissy I had a kitten gang four strong terrorizing the house.  Brody, Cissy and Julius hit it right off and they invited Bambino (who still thinks like a kitten) in within a day.  There has been THoE around here like never before and some of it ends in CRASH!  There have been many mountain climbing expeditions and they often end in CRASH, too.  Nothing is getting broken, just falling down.  I have coffee table books that won't stay on the coffee table.  I have paperbacks that won't stay on the shelves.  Sometimes the cat food cans rain down from the counter.  When I opened the screen door to go outside, I was getting rushed by 5 kitties:  Spyro, Horus, Oja, Brody and Cissy.  Now I have to clear the kitchen of kitties and close the kitchen door before I can leave the house.

Spyro:  That was so cool.  There was no way Mom could stop 5 of us from escaping.  Mom always grabbed the kittens first, then Oja or Horus and me last, because I always go to the same place in the yard and stay there.  Sometimes when she would catch the last kitty before me, I would walk in with her.  Now none of us can get out,  unless we manage to hide in the kitchen long enough for Mom to open the door.

 Oja:  I never thought getting two more kittens in the house would be good for me, but it has been.  When they first moved in, I did my usual thing and moved into the computer room and seldom left it.  The kittens would come in to visit and they never really bothered me.  Cissy and I would hiss at each other, but that was it, so I got used to them.  I started coming out to the living room again and watching those kittens play made me more lively.  I am playing more, both with toys and with Spyro.  I started escaping the house, which I had never done before.  I started jumping up on things where I had never been before.  I'm up on the spy tower, where Mom has seen me only once before.  I have been up on top of the file cabinet in up in the bathroom sink.  I even run occasionally.

 Bambino:  It has been so exciting around here.  Brody and I rassle every morning before breakfast and whenever else we feel like it.  I play THoE with Spyro, Brody, Cissy, Julian and Rocio.  Man, do we make a racket!  Nothing is safe from us.  We even knock the phone off the kitchen counter.

 Horus:  I don't like all the changes around here.  It's all those kittens' fault; I know it.  I bully them to make them stop whatever it is that they're doing to change things, but they keep right on doing it.  Now Bambino ambushes me from behind and boxes with me to stop my bullying.  Even Oja has started hissing at me sometimes.  I'm the grumpy cat of the house now.

 Rocio and Julius:  Cissy and Brody have only strengthened the bond between us.  We rassle with each other and groom each other and nap together.  Of course Julius play with the kittens and Rocio plays with Bambino and Spyro, but we sure do like hanging out together.

 Brody:  There is so much to do around here! Mountainous bookshelves to climb, closets to explore and climb up the clothes and knock stuff off the shelves.  Kitties to play with, except that mean Horus.  I have a scratch on my nose and he has one on his whisker-hump and Mom is wondering if they happened at the same time.  Oja has stopped hissing at me.

Cissy:  I like to do all the things that Brody does, except rassle with Bambino.  I rassle with Brody only, but I think the time is coming soon when I will rassle Julius.  I still hiss at Oja sometimes, but she never hisses back any more.  Horus is mean.  He backs me up against a wall and stalks me and I hiss and snarl at him until he backs off or Mom makes him stop.  I don't like him at all.

Togetherness

 Spyro: Mom thinks we have been talking too much lately about which cats whap which cats, so here are some pictures of us being together.  Oja and I are having a mutual grooming session.  These seldom end in rasslin' matches any more for some reason.

Bambino:  Here I am with Jose, who wouldn't hold still for me to lick his ear.  This one ended up in a game of THoE with me chasing Jose.  Oh, and it turns out that I am NOT the smallest cat in the house any more.  I grew and now I am taller than Oja, but she still weighs more.  That's because Oja is . . .

Oja:  Watch it, Bambino!

Bambino:  The floofiest cat in the house.  Her fur is just a little bit longer than ours.

Oja:  You just missed a date with my whapping paw.

Jose:  Speaking of whapping, I got Rocio good a few times yesterday.  He was on the kitchen table and I was in the chair underneath the table and I would reach up and get him.  It was fun.  The infamous whapper gets whapped.

Rocio:  It wasn't fair.  I couldn't see you to whap you back.

Karen Jo:  We are supposed to be talking about togetherness today.

Bambino:  Oja and I get up on the big bed together at bedtime.  We don't get too close together, but we both get to be next to Mom.  It's too hot to stay snuggled up to Mom for long, though.

Rocio:  Spyro and I lie in the same ham-mick together sometimes, but it's too hot to do that except in the middle of the night now.

Jose:  Spyro and I get together to rush the screen door when Mom opens it.  I got out twice today while Mom was holding Spyro back.

Karen Jo:  That kind of togetherness I could do without.  Luckily you don't go far, just around the yard and you don't fight me when I pick you up to bring you back inside.  Don't make me have to start closing you up on the safe room every time I need to go outside for a little while.

Jose:  I don't like the sound of that.

Spyro:  It's no fun.  Mom does it to me whenever she decides to take all the trash out at the same time, which means she is in and out several times.

Meet Bambino

 Bambino:  It's about time my lazy Mom got around to letting me introduce myself.  I've been here since April   7th.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Bambino.  I was greatly affected by Austin's running off to the Bridge.  Then I got involved with my income taxes and that along with the return of winter really got my spirits down.  I'm OK now and will start blogging more again.

Bambino:  I love this nifty cushion.  See all those papers?  I pushed them all off on the floor the other day.  I'm good at pushing things off.

Karen Jo:  I've noticed.  The last three mornings I have been awakened by loud crashes.

Bambino:  It gets your attention and I get hungry in the mornings.  I guess I should tell you how I got here.  Several months ago a nice lady found me as a tiny kitten wandering around on a busy street in Santa Fe.  She took me home and took care of me, but when she discovered that I was FeLV+ she had to keep me in a playpen most of the time to keep me from infecting the cat who was already there and started looking for a new home for me.  She was a volunteer for Felines & Friends, who rescued Austin and Rocio.  There were plans made to pair me with Rocio, but then Austin came along and they were perfect together, so I had to wait.  When Mom first brought me home and put me down in the living room in the carrier, no cat hissed at me, not even Oja.  Things soon changed.

I noticed right away that Rocio and Spyro were both bigger than I was and Oja was stockier and stronger, so I decided that it was best to stay in the safe room for a few days.  Monday, I stuck my head out of my room and promptly got hissed at by Rocio, so I scurried back into hiding.

Karen Jo:  I was surprised that Rocio hissed at you.  He had never hissed at any cat before.  I think he was still missing Austin a whole lot.

Bambino:  Monday evening, I crept out into the hall in slink mode and Oja growled at me, so I ran back into my room again.  Tuesday morning and afternoon, I ventured out just a little, but when running back to my room when I got hissed or growled at.  By Tuesday night, I had figured out that these bigger cats were all talk and no action, so I came out and stayed out.  I spent part of Tuesday night on Mom's bed, until Oja got hissed off that I thought I could sleep ON Mom instead of beside her.

Bambino:  It was only a few more days before I made friends with Rocio.  He saw all the fun I was having with Spyro and decided that I was OK after all.  Here we are playing with Da Bird together.  Spyro, Rocio and I all play chase and rassle together, though not all three at once.  Well, not rasslin' anyway.  By the amount of stuff that gets knocked off of tables Mom strongly suspects that all three of us play THoE at once.  Oja isn't always hissy with me any more and I try to stay out of her way.

Karen Jo:  Bambino may not be the Sultan of Swat, but he is the Prince of Pounce.  He loves pouncing Spyro and Rocio.  From some yowls I have heard, he may have even pounced Oja.  I know that Rocio has been teasing Oja by jumping up the foot or side of the bed and taking a swat at her, then running away.  As a side note, I filed my application to adopt Bambino yesterday.  There is just a little more paperwork to do and he will be an official member of the family.

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.