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.

Who's the Alpha?

Karen Jo:  Here is Angel Herman, as he looked exactly a year ago.  His lion cut was growing out, but he wasn't in full floof yet.  I have been thinking about him a lot lately and he fits right into the subject of this post.  I thought I understood about alpha cats, but I don't think I really do.  Do all groups of cats have an alpha?  I never had this many cats before and I don't think I really know which one is the alpha in my house.  I read up on feral cat colonies and how the alpha cat is almost always the oldest healthy female.  That would be Oja in this house, but I don't really think she is the alpha.  Things were simpler when Herman was here.  He was the alpha cat from the minute he figured out that he was staying with me.  With no other cats to boss around, he bossed me around.  He woke me up for breakfast, told me where he wanted his food bowls and water bowl, let me know that the litter I was using was unacceptable and that I better change it fast, told me when it was playtime and scolded me from the bed if he thought I was staying up too late on the computer.  Emma, Spyro and Oja all acknowledged him as the head cat without any fuss.  Well, Emma fussed, but that was because she was terrified of him.  After Herman ran off to the Rainbow Bridge, Spyro and Oja basically treated each other as equals, though Spyro would eat Oja's dry food.  I felt sorry for Oja because she was on her diet and I moved Spyro's food station to up on the counter, so she couldn't eat his food.  At bedtime if all of Oja's dry food was gone, but Spyro's wasn't, I would put Spyro's food at Oja's food station.  The diet worked anyway and Oja lost two pounds.  Then came the parade of new kitties.

 Spyro is friends with all the other cats.  He is the only one that I have seen grooming each of the other four.  Here he is hanging out with Rocio.  By the way, Rocio's hissy fit was just that. Everything is totally back to normal today.  Rocio and Bambino were having a big rasslin' match and Rocio gave Bambino a soft hiss.  I think he was daring Bambino to pounce him again.  Bambino took him up on it and the match continued.  They were having a great time together.  Rocio is friends with Spyro and Bambino.  I have seen him grooming both of them.  He used to tease Oja and chase her off her favorite chair in the computer room, but he doesn't do that any more.  Maybe it's because Horus is teasing Rocio now.

 Oja is only friends with Spyro and Horus.  She wont let Rocio or Bambino get close enough to her for any mutual grooming.

 Bambino wants to be friends with all the other cats, but Oja won't let him be friends with her.  I have never seen Bambino groom another cat, though I have seen Rocio and Spyro grooming him.

Horus is the newest addition.  He is friends with Spyro, Oja and Bambino.  He has been a bit mean to Rocio and I have never seen the two of them rasslin'.  This could be because Horus is the kitty least likely to be seen in a rassin' match.  I have seen him rassle Spyro and Bambino, but he would rather play THoE any day.

So who is the alpha cat here?  I can rule out Bamino and Rocio immediately because I have seen them defer to the older cats.  Herman commanded the respect of the other cats and no cat messed with him.  That lets Oja out, as Rocio was certainly messing with her.  On the other hand, maybe Rocio stopped messing with her because she convinced him that she was the boss.  Horus defers to Oja and Spyro, though not to Bambino or Rocio.  Neither Spyro nor Oja defer to any of the others.  I did see one thing that makes me think that Spyro may be the alpha.  Spyro was eating Oja's dry food and Oja whapped him one between the ears.  Spyro looked at her and went on eating, so she whapped him again.  He still went on eating, so she whapped him a third time.  When that didn't make him leave, Oja went off to find another food bowl.

Who do you think is the alpha or is there one?  I am just curious.  It won't change anything around here, I would just like to know.

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.