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.

Braver and Braver

 Spyro:  Mom is being just a little bit mean with her picture taking today.  She was gone most of the day and was hours late  in giving us our fresh water and dry food.  So, of course we were hungry.  We get the same boring dry food everyday, but Julius got a brand new bag of something we never had before, so we are checking it out.  It smells delicious.

Rocio:  Nom, nom, nom.

 Horus:  I want to try the new food, too, but the new scratcher has fresh catnip on it, so I'm torn.

Rocio:  Nom, nom, nom.

 Horus:  This catnip smells wonderful.

Bambio:  I wanna get some nip, too.

 Oja:  Silly mancats.  All the really good food is in the kitchen and it's mine. Hahaha!

Julius:  Where is everycat?  I'm in the living room all alone.  I am getting braver about the Lady. I let her get a little closer to me to take my picture.  Last night she was giving out treats and I actually sniffed her fingers.  You know what happened next?  She petted me and I liked it.  Spyro scratched for treats before breakfast and I let her pet me again.  This afternoon I wouldn't let her pet me, but I walked up and sniffed her shoe.  I ran when she reached down for me, though.  No way am I letting her pick me up.  I'm not sure those mancats know what they are talking about when they tell me Oja is harmless.  I walked toward her down the hall this morning and she not only hissed at me, she charged me.  I ran like the wind and she couldn't catch me.

Bambino:  She didn't hurt you or even try to smack you, did she?

Julius:  No, she just charged.  That was scary enough.

Bambino:  I still say she won't hurt you.  She's all noise and bluff.

Julius:  We'll see.  Thanks for playing with me in this net thing.  That was fun.

Bambino:  That's a playpen.  My foster Mom kept me in one when I was littler than you.  I like rasslin', too.

Julius:  No one can keep me in it.  I can jump in and out all by myself.

Settling In

 Spyro:  Today was a fun day.  Most of us were avoiding the camera in one way or another.  I was lounging under the coffee table in the living room and made Mom lie down on the floor to take my picture.  Making Mom get down on the floor is always amusing, especially watching her get up again.  Julius has turned out to be quite a little buddy.  He's already playing chase and snuggling with us mancats.

 Oja:  I don't think he's so great.  I spend a lot of time in this chair in the kitchen, where he can't sneak up on me.  I have gotten mostly over my snit and have stopped hissing and growling at the mancats.  I still hiss at Julius, though, especially when he shows an interest in my food.

 Rocio:  I was missing Austin today.  That blue collar was his and I dug it out of the drawer where Mom was keeping it, so she let me have it.  I have mostly ignored it for months, but I got it today and carried it around with me most of the day.  I guess it's having another orange cat in the house that made me think of him.

 Bambino:  I turned my face away just as Mom took my picture.  I have been having bunches of fun with Julius.  He chased me down the hall this afternoon and snuggled with me this evening just before dinner.  We even groomed each other a little.

 Horus:  I jumped just as Mom took my picture.  I like the new little dude.  He chased me down the hall, too.  We snuggled together on the couch for a little while this afternoon.

Karen Jo:  I am so happy to see Julius napping out in the open with another cat.  I think it means he is less afraid of me.  Until this afternoon, he always napped in a hidey-hole.

Julius:  I ducked my head just as the Lady took my picture.  This is as close as I will let her get to me before I run.  The other boys say I am being silly; the Lady is my Mom now and will always take care of me.  I think I trust her a little bit more now, but I won't let her touch me.  She gave me some more of those really tasty crunchies, which the others tell me are called treats.  I even figured out how to get her to give me some.  I just scratch on one of the cardboard things and I get treats.  Awesome!  I wanna eat in the kitchen with the big kitties, but that mean gray one with the curly tail hisses at me.

Rocio:  That's Oja.  Don't mind her.  She won't hurt you.  She just doesn't like newcomers.  I've been here for a year and she still hisses at me sometimes.

Bambino:  That's right.  She's harmless, just noisy and grumpy.  It was months before I managed to make friends with her.  Just remember not to pounce her and you will be fine.

Julius:  That's easy.  I don't pounce anycat.  I just half-pounce when I want to play.  Does Oja play?

Bambino:  Not much and only with Spyro and Horus and me.

Julius:  That's too bad.  I love to play.

Back Again

Karen Jo:  We are still here, though we haven't blogged in months.  It turns out that the funk I talked about earlier was really full blown depression, though it was just apathy rather than feeling down and bad.  I was still getting up in the morning and going through my days, but nothing seemed worth doing any more.  I told my doctor about it and now I am on medication for it and feel much better.  It's a cold and frosty day today.  If you look closely, you can see the hoar frost coating every tiny twig of the Virginia creeper.  It's three o'clock in the afternoon and the temperature is up to 23 degrees F.  It seemed like a good day to just sit and blog for a while.

Spyro:  It's about time you helped us blog again.  I got my new harness in late October.  I let Mom put in on me and I wore it for a little while, but it was too cold for me to go out in it.  Maybe tomorrow I can show you the picture Mom took of me wearing it, though it's pretty blurry.  I decided to jump down just as Mom snapped the photo.  If you are wondering what's so interesting in the carpet, Mom gave me some treats in her hand and I'm scouting around for crumbs.

 Oja:  You can hardly see me, but I'm being a good girl and lying down on the computer desk, so Mom can see the monitor.  I have been a really good girl lately.  I have begun tolerating Rocio more and I actually made friends with Bambino.  I actually let him touch me and I even played with him for a few seconds.

Karen Jo:  I found that amazing.  You came to love Herman, but you wouldn't play with him.  Spyro is the only cat you would play with at all until lately.

Oja:  Herman was too big to play rasslin' with and chase isn't exactly my favorite game.  Bambino is just a tiny bit taller and longer than I am, so we are a good match for rasslin'.

 Rocio:  It's nice and toasty warm under here.  There's a heat vent just behind me and the jackets hanging down help trap the heat.  I'm the only cat who isn't friends with every other cat.  Oja tricked me.  I would tag her for chase and she wouldn't hiss at me, but she wouldn't chase me, either.  I thought things were fine between us, so I pounced her.  She screamed like a banshee and brought all the other cats running to see what was the matter.  Honest, I just wanted to play.  Now she's back to hissing at me.  Horus is being mean to me, too, but when I yell, the other kitties run away.  It's not fair.

Horus:  Here I am begging to be let outside.  I don't care how cold it is; I want out!   When I hear Oja yell, I think Rocio is being mean to her.  I feel very protective of Oja.  Once I could see Rocio getting ready to pounce Oja, who had her back to him.  Rocio couldn't see me watching.  When I saw the wiggle butt, I pounced him, hard.  He squealed and ran away.  Serves him right.  He hisses at me every time he sees me up higher than he is.  He's afraid of me and that's as it should be.

Bambino:  I love it in the playpen.  When I was a tiny kitten, my foster Mom kept me in one to keep me away from the other cats in the house, because of my FeLV.  Now I can jump in and out when I like.  I just wish all the kitties could be friends.  I am friends with all the other kitties now.  I give Oja gentle head butts and rub up against her and she purrs.  I can even pounce her and she actually played with me for a few seconds.  I don't get why Oja and Horus don't like Rocio.  I get along with him just fine.  We have become nap buddies and we play together all the time.

Catching Up

 Bambino:  It's about freakin' time you helped us blog again!  You do this to me and put it up at the Tabby Cat Club for all the world to see and don't even mention my very first birthday.  How could you forget my birthday?!?

Karen Jo:  I am very sorry, Bambino.  I didn't forget your birthday, I just didn't feel like blogging.  I haven't felt like doing much of anything lately.  I'm not depressed or sick or anything serious, just kind of in a funk.  I'll jerk myself out of it and blog more, I promise.

Bambino:  I think you owe me a big birthday bash.

Karen Jo:  What would you like?

Bambino:  I want to have a luau over at the Tabby Cat Club.  It's awesome over there right now.

Karen Jo:  That's a good idea.  We will do it tomorrow, exactly one month after your birthday.

 Horus:  You changed my name and didn't even tell anyone about it.  You mentioned it in passing once, but you didn't really tell my friends about it.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Horus.  You see, Jose is such a bland name for such a wonderful cat.  In this photo you can finally see his Egyptian eyes.  Horus starts with the same sound as Jose and Horus' glyph is an eye, so I changed his name to Horus.

 Oja:  You have been hauling us all off to the vet and you didn't tell our friends about that.  Oh, and here's a photo for all of you who think I spend all my time in the computer chair.

Karen Jo:  There's not much to tell, really.  I have taken in Spyro, Oja and Rocio for checkups and Spyro and Oja got rabies boosters.  There is a new rabies serum now that is safe for FeLV+ kitties.  All of them are in perfect health.  Oja has neither lost nor gained weight, but I think she has traded some fat for muscle.  I am seeing her up high in spots she has never been before, like up in the high windows in on top of the file cabinet.

 Rocio:  Mom thought I was getting pudgy, but I am just right in the weight department.  My eyes and teeth are perfect, too.  I have mostly stopped annoying Oja.  It's not really all that much fun.  I make Oja hiss and Mom comes and makes me stop.  Playing with Spyro and Bambino is lots more fun.  Horus makes me hiss sometimes and Mom doesn't come running then.

Karen Jo:  You are lots bigger than Oja, but Horus is only a tiny bit bigger than you, so there's a big difference.  You can run away from Horus or smack him back a lot easier than Oja can with you.

Spyro:  I am kept busy inspecting new things coming into the house.  You should see the baby bean cage in the middle of the living room.

Karen Jo:  I am helping out a friend by babysitting a few times a week.  You kitties actually get more attention when she's here.

Spyro:  I don't particularly like the attention she wants to give me: pat, pat, pat.  She pats a little hard.

Karen Jo:  I am trying to teach her to be gentle.  She's only one.

Horus:  I love it when she starts waving Da Bird around, though she is rather wild with it.

Bambino:  I love her cage.  I can get in it when she's crawling around and I'm safe from her.  When she's in it, we are all safe from her attentions.

Horus:  She's not so bad.  She pets as well as pats.  I like her.

Mousebreath Interview

Spyro:  We are all very excited because our interview with the Funny Farm Cats is up on Mousebreath today.  How cool is that?

Oja:  And you did most of the talking.

Spyro:  I have been here the longest, so that makes me spokescat.

Rocio:  I hope that most readers believe that I was named after a fish, because the other part is downright embarrassing.

Oja:  HAHAHA!

Rocio:  What are you laughing at, opera singer?

Oja: Raspberries to you.

Bambino:  I like my part.  I shoved Spyro's kibble bowl off the counter just last night.

Jose:  Too bad my excellent jumping abilities didn't surface until after the interview.  I was the first cat to get up on the curtain valence in the living room, which is the highest place in the whole house.

Bambino:  I got up there, too.

Jose:  But I was first.  You didn't jump up there until you saw me do it.

Karen Jo:  I expect that Spyro will jump up there soon, too, but Jose gets the claim of being the first to be the highest.  Rocio and Oja are getting along better.  He did make her yowl yesterday in the computer room, so I plugged the Feliway in there.  He was starting it up again this morning, but left in a hurry when I dropped to all fours behind him.  A whole lot of you want to see a video of me being MomCat, but I don't know how I could arrange it.  There is no one else here to take the video.  Maybe I could find something I could rest the camera on, then perform for the camera.  We'll see.

Almost Back to Normal

 Spyro:  Mom waited until nap time to take our pictures.  That's the only time we are still.

Oja:  It's nice to feel safe enough to nap wherever I want again.  I still hiss at them a little and try to smack them with my paw if they get too close.

Karen Jo:  Oja is back to moving around the house to all her usual places again.  She was in bed with me when I woke up this morning for the first time since the Boys moved in.  I think she might want to get to know the Boys, but she has a strange way of doing it.  She will sneak up on one of them from behind and sniff the very tip end of his tail very carefully, then hiss.  The situation is looking a lot better though.  Oja has become a lap cat and will sit in my lap while I  sit on the couch and read.  I found out last night that Hissy Boy is also a lap cat.  I was checking out all three computers to make sure they were working and playing games that I hadn't played in a long time when Hissy Boy jumped up in my lap and made himself right at home.  I'm taking a lazy day today and was reading on the couch with Oja in my lap.  Hissy Boy jumped up on the couch and slowly approached until he and Oja were only two inches apart from being nose to nose.  Oja didn't hiss until he turned and moved like he was going to get in my lap, too.  Hissy Boy jumped down, walked around to my other side, jumped up on the couch and cuddled up next to my  thigh.  Oja didn't mind that.  When I look my nap pictures today, all four cats were in the living room, sleeping peacefully.

Oja:  Spyro and I had a grooming session in my bed this morning for the first time since the Boycats moved in.  I feel like playing again.  Mom got out Da Bird and Kragonfly and Spyro and the Boys were really playing.  I came running up and grabbed Da Bird right out of the air.  That surprised those Boys!

Karen Jo:  It surprised and delighted me, too.  Oja played with Da Bird for quite some time, while the Boys played with Kragonfly and Spyro watched.  Then Cool Dude came flying through the air and grabbed Da Bird.  Oja hissed at him and walked over to her ham-mick and got in.  She wasn't through playing, though.  I flipped Kragonfly over to her while the Boys played with Da Bird and she really got into it.  She lay on her back and grabbed at Kragonfly with her paws, caught it and chewed on it, then let it go for more.

Oja:  I also played with my jingle-ball and the TurboTrack.  The only thing that's really wrong now is that every other cat wants to eat my food.  I don't have to compete with the Boys for my Stinky Goodness any more, thank goodness, but Spyro will wolf his down and try to help me eat mine.  Mom usually chases him off.  Then Spyro and both Boys want to help me eat my dry food.  Spyro won't eat his dry food, only mine.

Karen Jo:  That's why I have started taking some kibble from his bowl and putting it in yours.  I have no way of stopping any of them from eating your dry food, because anywhere you can go, they can go.  Maybe you should go sample their kibble.

Oja:  Maybe.  I haven't been in my old room since the Boys took it over.

Busy Day

 Spyro:  Mom found my at a quiet moment and took a pretty good picture of me.  We didn't blog yesterday, because Mom really was busy.

Oja:  I am back to napping in my bed.  It used to be Herman's, but now it is mine, all mine.

Spyro:  Wait a minute!  I use it sometimes, too.

Oja:  Not nearly as much as I do.  Anyway, yesterday a strange man came to the house and he and Mom were in and out of the house and here and there in the house, doing all kinds of stuff.

Karen Jo:  My brother came by and brought me a brand new office chair for my study.  He put it together and he drilled a hole in the wall, so we could put the ground wire and telephone wire through from my bedroom to the study.  By the time he left, my study was all ready to have all the computers moved in and set up.  I did some of it yesterday and finished up today.  My study really is my study now and I am so happy.

Boys:  We missed our playtime yesterday and today and we want our real names and pictures up.

Karen Jo:  I'm sorry.  I was too busy and too tired for playtime, but you will get your fun time tomorrow for sure.  I still don't have permission to blog about you.  If I don't hear soon, I will ask again.

Boys:  We are all settled in now.  We play chase with Spyro all over the house and Hissy Boy slept with Mom last night.  Neither of us hisses at Oja any more, even though she still hisses at us.

Karen Jo:  Sometimes she has a reason.  You ate her dinner last night.

Boys:  Spyro showed us where it was and helped us eat it.

Karen Jo:  That's why I gave Oja Spyro's supper.  You ate her breakfast this morning, too.

Boys:  She gives us the big hissy, then walks away from her bowl.  Of course we ate it.

Karen Jo:  You aren't getting her supper tonight.  I'm closing you up in your room after I give you your supper and not letting you out again until Oja has eaten hers.

Boys:  Bummer.  We don't like being closed up in one room.

Karen Jo:  You won't be in there long.

Oja:  Yay!  I get to eat my food uninterrupted by stinky boycats.  It's about time you figured out how to work it.

Settling In

Spyro: About every other Sunday, Mom gets out the 'nip and today was 'nip day.  Now I don't know which toy to play with next.

Oja:  Silly boys!  I stayed up here on the couch and watched them all get silly.  It's not that I don't like 'nip, but no way was I getting down there among those crazy boys to get some.

Karen Jo:  I'll remember that for next time and bring you some of your own on the couch or your chair.

Spyro:  Today has been a really fun day.  Mom has been staying up after feeding us breakfast and playing with us.

Karen Jo:  When I was working I was a night owl  because my hours were 2-10:30 PM.  Kitty playtime was   in the morning between the time I got dressed and the time I ate, then again after I got home.  Since I retired, I was keeping the same hours, only kitty playtime moved to dusk, as they were more active then.  The first morning after the boys moved in, I went back to bed after breakfast and I heard noise:  THoE, toys getting knocked around and hissing.  That last one got me up and I have been staying up after breakfast ever since.  I never knew how active kitties were early in the morning.

Spyro:  The boys and I had lots of fun.  We are all friends now, mostly.  We played chase and pounce and rasslin' and the boys had some games I had never seen before.

Karen Jo:  The boys showed Spyro how to play box wars and cube wars and under-the-sofa wars.  Spyro has been very polite about playing with the boys.  He never joins in unless he has been invited.  He will run from Cool Dude to start THoE, but he won't pounce first. Spyro has decided that jumping in the box is an invitation to play box wars, though.  I also wondered just how long he would last watching under-the-sofa wars before he couldn't resist joining in.  It turned out to be about 15 minutes.  Cool Dude saw some movement under the sofa (which has cloth flaps hanging down almost to the floor, so you can't see much) and charged under to get Hissy Boy (he thought).  He came charging right out again when he found Spyro under there instead.

Spyro:  After all that, Mom decided that it was time for different toys and she got out the kitty with the catnip shorts and put new catnip in it and she got one of the fuzzy balls out of the catnip jar.  Party time!

Karen Jo:  First I gave Hissy Boy the catnip covered fuzzy ball and he picked it up in his claw and shook catnip all over the place. Spyro pounced right on the loose catnip.  Cool Dude was looking a bit left out, so I gave him the kitty with the newly-filled catnip shorts.  Things got a bit wild and crazy.  Oja started making a sound like the beginning of a growl whenever they got really rambunctious.  I got out Da Bird to see what they would make of that.

Boys:  We like Da Bird!  We like it a lot.

Karen Jo:  Cool Dude was leaping way up in the air and catching Da Bird every time.  Hissy Boy was looking left out, so I grabbed the Kragonfly with the other hand.

Spyro:  I got tired just watching them, so I got in Herman's ham-mick.  Mom flipped the Kragonfly my way a few times, so I could play, too.

Karen Jo:  I waved the wand toys around until my arms got really tired, then I put them away, much to the disappointment of the boys.  They dragged Da Bird out again, but soon lost interest in it when it didn't fly.  Oja had gotten a bit agitated, so I sat down next to her on the couch and started petting her.

Oja:  It was high time I got some attention.  Mom gave me all her attention until that dang dryer buzzer went off.

Karen Jo:  I had started the laundry before I got involved in kitty playtime.  I went back to Oja after I took care of the laundry.  I had been getting a little concerned about Oja, as she didn't seem to be settling down very much.  In fact, Hissy Boy got too close and she ramped up to a full open-mouth hiss and a "One step nearer and I'll rip your face off" snarl.  Hissy Boy was too startled to hiss back.  I do think things are getting better, though.  Just before afternoon nap time, Oja jumped off the couch and made a tour of the house.  She checked out her favorite hidey-hole, but didn't go in.

Oja:  Those stinky boycats ruined it.  They had been in there and stank it all up.

Karen Jo:  Oja hissed softly at any boycat who looked at her, but mostly she just walked around, checking things out.  This made me feel better, because she had been staying up in her chair and on the couch in the living room, except to eat and use the litter box.  I think she is beginning to believe that the new boys won't hurt her.  It may be Tuesday before I can show you pictures of the Boycats and use their real names.  I forgot that Monday is a holiday.

Unhappy Oja

 Spyro:  Mom thinks she will probably get permission to blog about the boycats on Monday, so for now I'm gonna call them Cool Dude and Hissy Boy.  Mom wanted to get a picture of me inspecting some of my handiwork in furniture redecorating, but Cool Dude did something to get my attention.  Wait a minute!  That's not all my handiwork.  Oja did at least half of it.

Karen Jo:  I know, but you started it.  Oja may not have helped if it hadn't been already worked on.

Spyro:  Hmmphf.  Cool Dude and I are almost friends now.  We play chase and hide-and-seek and smack-from-ambush.  Mom got out the cat-sized cardboard box and it makes a great fort for attack and defense.  Hissy Boy has stopped hissing at me altogether.  We gave each other a nose kiss this morning just after I woke Mom up for breakfast.  We also played attack the fort together, taking turns being in the fort.  I am going to love having these boycats around.

Oja:  Phooey!  I don't like having them around at all.  They sniff at my food bowls and use our litter boxes.  Why don't they use their own litter box?

Karen Jo:  I think they like your litter better.  They have this strange stuff in little pellets.

Oja:  Grump.  I guess I can't do anything about it.  Hissy Boy has stopped hissing at me until I hiss or growl at him first.  I am getting a little better about it all.  I will let them walk all around my chair or the couch and I won't hiss at them until they look at me.  I am on the couch because I just had a really nice session of Mom Time.  I love Mom Time.  I let one of those stinky boys get within inches of me before I hissed at him while Mom was petting me.  Mom thinks I am feeling more secure because I went to take my afternoon nap in the cat bed on the floor.

Karen Jo:  It is the first time you have spent any time on the floor since the boys arrived.  You are off your food a little bit.

Oja:  You are putting poison in it.

Karen Jo:  That's not poison, it's L-Lysine.  The boys are on it and your vet recommended it.  Remember that paste I used to put on your paw every day?

Oja:  And I sent flying everywhere, including the walls and drapes?  Yeah, I remember.

Karen Jo:  I'm putting it on your food now.  I figure it won't be long before every cat is into every other cat's food, so I want all the food to have the L-Lysine in it.  That way the boys will get their dose, no matter whose food they eat and it's good for  you, too.

Oja:  I guess I'll get used to it.

Spyro:  I don't much like it either, but I get too hungry to worry about it.  Speaking of which, isn't it past time that you gave us our dry food ration?  I'm starving.

Karen Jo:  You are right.  I'll finish posting this and get right to it.

Back to Blogging

 We are really enjoying our ham-micks.  We get in them to nap almost every day.

 Spyro:  I think it's funny that I often take Herman's ham-mick and Herman takes the one that Mom got for me.

Oja:  This picture is to show just how well we are all getting along.  That's me and Spyro eating out of the same dish in my room.  A few weeks ago I would have whapped him a good one if he had tried to share my food.

Karen Jo:  We haven't posted in like forever, so what would all of you like to say about what you have been doing?

I miss being next to Mom when she goes to bed.  Oja usually beats me to it.  The other night, I was first.  Oja jumped up on the bed after I had gotten all settled in and Mom expected a showdown.  It never happened.  Oja did what I usually do:  looked over the situation and decided to snuggle down somewhere else.  Mom often wakes up in the morning to find all three of us in bed with her.  I still rassle Spyro sometimes, but mostly he and Oja rassle.  Yesterday I saw Spyro having so much fun with the nip nanner that I rassled him for it.  I got it for a little while, then Spyro started the rasslin' again and we both forgot about the nanner.

Spyro:  I love rasslin' with Oja.  She is nearer my size, being only one pound lighter now and Mom thinks she might have even grown a little bit since we got her.  I don't see how, as she is two years old, but she does seem a little bigger and not just around the tummy.  It's funny.  I'm the cat who eats the most, but I'm the only one who hasn't gained weight.  I think it's because I run and jump up on stuff more.  I have given up on jumping in the laundry basket when it's on top of the dryer now.  I did it a while ago and it fell off the dryer with me in it.  I haven't been up there since.  I am still the top escape artist.  I have stopped being afraid of Mom's foot.  She used to be able to stop me from slipping out screen door when she opens it by putting her foot in front of me.  I know full well that she isn't going to kick me, so I just jump right over it and head for the back yard.  Mom is still amazed at how close she can get to closing the door and I still fit through.  She has to put her hand on my head and keep it there until she has the door almost shut and sometimes I still get through when she has to let go to get her hand out.  When she is going to carry something outside, she shuts the kitchen door as far as it will go, then opens the screen door.  I can get the kitchen door open, but it takes me longer to do that than she needs to get out the door.  I love going out in my harness and leash, but I haven't been getting to do that nearly as much as I want to.

Karen Jo:  I rigged the kitchen door so that it can't shut completely.  That's so the wind won't blow it shut and latch it so you can't get in or out.  You haven't been able to go out in your harness as much because the days have been crazy hot and it has been raining in the early evening.  YAY!  It can be pouring down rain and you will still be by the screen door begging to go out.

Oja:  It is so much nicer now that we all get along.  I rassle and groom Spyro and he rassles and grooms me back.  I groom Herman sometimes, but he doesn't groom me back.  Once Mom even saw him push me away with his back paw while I was grooming him.  Mom hasn't ever seen me rassle Herman.

Karen Jo:  I recently read an article on Cat Wisdom 101 on cat behavior that said that grooming another cat indicates that the groomer accepts the groomee as a member of his/her group.  I think that maybe now Oja is more accepting of Herman than he is of her, even though I have seen them eating side by side.  I guess that would mean that Oja and Spyro see only one group of three cats and Herman sees two groups with himself and Spyro as one group and Oja by herself.  If so, I bet it is because she beats him to his accustomed spot next to me in bed.  They have never fought over the "best" spot or even contested the other one when they find him/her already there.  It's just a feeling I get from Herman.  I also haven't seen any of the dominating behavior from Herman toward Oja that I saw him do toward Emma.  I think Oja has more confidence in herself than Emma had and won't put up with it.  I saw  Spyro chase Oja into the bathroom one day and Oja jumped in the tub to escape him.  When she had enough of being in the tub, she just jumped out right over Spyro.  Emma would have been cowering in front of the tub and yelling for help.

Oja:  I don't see what the boys like about going outside.  I have absolutely no interest in going out.  I look out the window and that is enough for me.  I still haven't tried out the ham-micks, but I discovered that Herman has a great bed by the wall in the living room.  I am getting quite a collection of toys in my room.  I pick out the ones I like from the living room and bring them back, or play with them in the hall.  I don't play with them in the living room.  Sometimes Spyro comes in and we play with my toys together.  I love the TurboScratcher in my room and play with it every day.  Mom hopes that some day I will discover the big TurboTrack in the living room and play with that, too.

Karen Jo:  I don't know why Oja won't play with toys in the living room.  Maybe she still doesn't feel completely at home there.  She mostly naps in her room or in my room, though I have seen all three of them in the living room napping with Emma in Herman's bed and the boys in their ham-micks.  Ayla, Iza and Marley gave us an award ages ago.  This post has gotten so long that I will save it for tomorrow.

Togetherness Report

 Having two ham-micks led to our each having one, which was great.  Somehow that led to this:

 Spyro:  If I hadn't heard Mom turn on the camera and lifted my head, you would have seen me using Herman for a pillow.

Karen Jo:  I see this as a great advertisement for the sturdiness of Forty Paws' ham-micks.  This one is holding almost 27 pounds of cat.

Oja:  I still don't see what the big deal is.  I prefer to sleep on chairs or up on my windowsill or in a hidely-hole.

Mom got a new swivel chair and put it in the living room.  It's great for napping.  All of us have tried it out.

Karen Jo:  That one is for when I get my office set up in the forbidden room.  I have the desk and chair now.   All I need is the get up and go to get it organized and cleaned up.

Get up and go?  That's a laugh.  All Mom has been doing lately is lying around, watching TV.

Karen Jo:  The Olympics are on and it has been twenty years since I could really just sit or lie down and watch them.  My lying around so much has left you kitties to your own devices and what have you done?

We all made friends with each other.  Spyro and I both let Oja lick us, though Spyro is apt to turn it into a game of chase or rasslin'.

Spyro:  It's great.  I have two rasslin' partners now and one partner for chase games.

Oja:  I think it's OK.  Neither one of the boys has licked me, though.  I hang around next to Herman sometimes and I play with Spyro.  Mom is surprised that Herman and I don't fight over the bed.

Karen Jo:  Yes, I am.  Oja has taken Herman's old spot next to my chest at night and Herman doesn't seem to care.  When I am lying on the bed in the evening, watching TV, Herman will come up sometimes and claim his old spot.  That makes both of us very happy.  Last evening, we were together like that and Oja jumped up on the bed.  I thought that there would be a fight, but there wasn't.  Oja looked things over, then decided she would rather have the computer chair.  When Oja is next to me and Herman jumps up on the bed, he claims a spot near my feet.  Sometimes Spyro jumps up on the bed too, but he never stays long.  Spyro just isn't a bed cat, at least not in warm weather.  I imagine that they will all pile on when it gets cold.

Togetherness

 The sunshine was bright today.  I was hanging out in the living room, away from the other two.  When Oja first came out of her room, Spyro and I got closer to each other.  We would sit together and nap together, but not touching. Today something remarkable happened:

Spyro:  Oja let me come hang out with her in her room.  She's not so bad.  She hasn't growled at any cat today at all.  She stopped hissing at us a couple of days ago.

Karen Jo:  I don't know how long they were together like this, but I snapped the picture just in time.  Not more than a minute later, Spyro came back into the living room to see what Herman was doing.

Oja:  Spyro's not so bad.  I don't hiss any more at all and I have almost stopped growling.  I even let Herman get close to me, but I ran away when he tried to sniff my tail.  Nose-sniffing is fine, but I draw the line at tail-sniffing, at least for now.

Spyro:  I came back into the living room because I was afraid Herman would be lonely.  A couple of hours after these pictures were taken, Herman and I curled up together on the couch, using each other for pillows.

Karen Jo:  You would wait until there wasn't enough light to get a decent picture.  This is the first time that I have seen Herman and Spyro snuggling.

Spyro:  I had to do something.  You wouldn't take me outside.

Karen Jo:  I apologize.  I was expecting a very important phone call.  I even delayed my dinner until it came. I told you that I would take you out as soon as I ate, but when I finished you and Herman were snoozing so peacefully together that I didn't have the heart to wake you up to go outside.

Karen Jo:  I have a message for all of you who have my e-mail address.  My ISP had two domain names and decided to drop one.  My e-mail used the one that got dropped.  That's why I couldn't get my e-mail.  The domain name changed from vla.com to losalamos.com.  If you forget, I am still getting mail addressed to vla.com, but I don't know for how much longer.

Things Are Getting Better

 I have spending a lot of time up off the floor since Oja came out of her room.  She doesn't hassle me when I am up here or on the couch or on a chair.  Mom finally has a good excuse for not blogging.

Karen Jo:  That's right.  My computer developed a persistent hard-drive glitch right after I finished blogging and visiting the last time.  I have been very busy setting up the new computer and installing software and downloading stuff.  I can do almost anything now, but use my e-mail.  I have spent hours trying this and that, but nothing works.  My ISP rejects my sign-in every time.

Oja has stolen my spot on the bed next to Mom.  I fought with Emma over that, but I am not fighting with Oja about it, at least not yet.  I have been able to sleep on Mom's feet while Oja has my spot.

Karen Jo:  Oja usually seems content to stay up by my chest while you and Spyro sleep at my feet.  Every once in a while, she snarls and charges, though.

Do you know how I got some attention from Mom yesterday?  I got up in her lap and demanded that she pet me.  I stayed for about 20 minutes.

Karen Jo:  I was amazed.  You have never done anything more than walk across my lap to get from the computer chair to the bed before.

 Spyro:  I think Oja and I may eventually become friends.  She will stay in the same room with me without getting snarly about it.  Mean Mom won't take my outside any more.  I wanna go outside!

Karen Jo:  I am sorry Spyro, but I have been really busy trying to get my new computer set up. Besides that, it has been raining almost every evening.  I would have taken you out tonight after supper, but it was pouring down rain.

Spyro: Bah!

Oja:  This is Mom's computer chair.  It has become my favorite nap spot since I came out of my room.  If I don't want to be disturbed, I still go to my room and get up on the high bookshelf or go into my hidey-hole.  I am getting used to the mancats.  I don't hiss at them any more.  I only snarl at them if I think they are crowding me.

Karen Jo:  Right.  You smacked Herman for walking under the computer chair.

Oja:  He got too close to me.  I don't tolerate Herman as well as I tolerate Spyro.  The other day I let Spyro into my room to play with my toys.

Karen Jo:  I tried to get a picture of the both of you playing with your toys in your room, but you chased him out just as I got back with the camera.

Oja:  He got too close to me.  I found out that the Turbo Track is fun to play with.

Karen Jo:  I suspected that you were playing with it, because the ball was in a different position in the track every time I came into your room, but the other day I actually saw you bat the ball around the track.

Oja:  Mom doesn't get mad at me for eating the food in the kitchen any more.

Karen Jo:  That's because Spyro does go into your room and eat your food.  I probably won't do much visiting tonight.  There are still things to be installed on the new computer.  I will try to get back to regular blogging and visiting very soon

Thursday Twosome

Mom likes this picture for two reasons:  it shows how we have learned to eat together and you can clearly see the size difference between me and Emma.  Mom hasn't blogged for nearly a week.

Karen Jo:  There has been a lot going on in my life lately and I just have been to tired to blog.

Emma:  There has been a lot going on in our lives, too.

Karen Jo:  Yes, there has.  Herman jumped you last Saturday.

Emma:  He was mean to me.  I was just getting petted and he grabbed me with his forepaws and threatened to bite my head when you finished.

Karen Jo:  Herman was always the one who got petted in the bathroom before you came.  He just got a little jealous.  When are you finally going to stop hissing at Herman?

Emma:  When I get good and ready.  I hardly ever do it any more, just when he gets too close to me and I don't feel like dealing with him.

Karen Jo:  He knows that I will pet him while I am talking on the phone.  You weren't close enough for me to pet and he wanted to get close to me and you hissed at him.  He backed off and I couldn't pet either one of you.

At least she didn't jump me last night in bed.

Karen Jo:  That was all good.  I figured out how to pet both of you at the same time.  It was all going very well until you decided to leave.

I suddenly discovered that her rump was touching my rump. That disturbed me and I left.

Karen Jo:  You like sniffing her behind, so why would it touching you upset you?

I don't know, but it did.

Emma:  I sniffed Herman's behind, too.

Karen Jo:  Yes, both of you seem to get a kick out of sniffing each other's tails.  At least it doesn't lead to hissing any more.

Emma:  I am learning how to play with toys.  The other night, Mom was rolling a ball to Herman and he was batting it back.  I sat and watched.  They played like that for a while, then Herman stopped playing.  Mom rolled the ball to me and I batted it back a few times.  It was fun.  Yesterday I smelled something good in one of the toy boxes.  I dug and dug and found it and dragged it out.  I sniffed it and bit it and clawed it and kicked it.  Then I ran around the house like my tail was on fire.

Karen Jo:  You discovered Herman's nip syringe.  It is stuffed with really good nip.  I will leave it out for you until you get tired of it.  I am so glad that you are discovering the fun of cat toys.

Emma:  When can I go out in the stroller again?

Karen Jo:  Some day when I am off and the wind isn't blowing so hard.

May I go, too?

Karen Jo:  Yes, Herman, but not at the same time.  The stroller isn't big enough for both of you at once.