Cissy's Vet Visit

Cissy: Mom made me go to the vet today, just because she found a little diarrhea on the kitchen floor.

Karen Jo: Any time I see something amiss with one of my FeLV+ kitties they go to the vet.  I'm really glad that  you are using your new litter box.

Cissy:  It's in the kitchen.  It's just my size and it's full of pretty crystals.  What's not to like?

Karen Jo: It turns out that you probably have stress-induced colitis.  It should go away in a few days.  To help it go away I'm spraying the calming spray on the seats of the chairs near your special spot.

Spyro: All these kitty politics give me a headache.  I'm just going to hang around on the smaller cat tree.

Oja:  And I suppose you are trying to blame me for Cissy's colitis?

Karen Jo:  You are the one giving her the most problems.  The vet surmised that you see her as a threat to your stature as Alpha cat.

Oja:  It's about time someone figured out that I am the Alpha around here.  How could that pint-sized house panther be a threat to me?

Karen Jo:  I figured it out that day you beat up Horus.  If she's no threat, will you please let her be?  She's terrified of you.

Oja:  She should be.  So should all the kitties in the house.

Rocio:  Ho-hum, politics again.  Think I'll take a nap.  It's been quite a while since I scared Cissy.

Karen Jo:  I would be really happy if you never did it again.

Bambino:  While Spyro is napping on top of the smaller cat tree, I grabbed the top of the tall cat tree.  I stay out of the politics around here.

Horus:  I am lying next to Cissy's new litter box.  Mom was clever.  She bought one that 's uncomfortably small for us bigger cats, including Oja.

Karen Jo:  I have a question.  Cissy's got diarrhea, so who left the pile on the blue rug by the door?

Horus:  Um, I don't know.  Maybe Cissy doesn't have diarrhea all the time.

Karen Jo:  It was an awfully big pile for Cissy.

Horus:  You don't take me out often enough.  I want out on my leash and harness every day.

Julius:  Know what?  Tabitha is really fun to play with.  She even knows how to rassle!

Brody: I am holding my own.  I don't seem any better or worse today.  Mom is always taking a picture of my shaved spots.

Karen Jo:  You always lie with your shaved spots up, so I don't have a choice if I take a picture of you lying down.

Tabitha:  I am finally brave enough to lie down without hiding first.  Mom got a decent photo of me at last.  She had to take it from a distance or I start moving all around again.  You can click on the photo to biggify it.  I don't think Oja likes me, either.  She hisses at me whenever she sees me.

Karen Jo:  Don't worry, Tabitha.  Oja does that to all new cats for at least two weeks.

Happy Birthday, Brody and Cissy!

 Brody: Man, it sure is hard to get out Mom to blog.  She was supposed to do this this morning.  It's our first birthday today and do you know what Mom gave us?

 Cissy: A trip to the vet!

Karen Jo: It wasn't that bad.  You just got looked over, weighed and had your temperature taken.

Brody: That's the bad part.

 Karen Jo: I also got you this.

Brody and Cissy:  We love that.  Now for our party.  We birthday kits--Julius, Brody and Cissy have taken over the living room for our Rock'n'Roll party.  We have the stereo turned up and Mom filled the dining room table with goodies for us.  There's a turkey on one end and a ham on the other end and in the middle is a whole grilled salmon.  We are serving meowgaritas now that we are old enough to drink them.  We also have meow-tais and nip Russians.  We can play endless games of THoE up and down the hall and play King of the Mountain on our new tower.  There are gazillions of toys lying around and Mom has promised to work Da Bird until her arms give out.

 Spyro: Horus and I have taken over the gas grill for our outside party.  We are cooking up hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks and salmon filets.  We have a picnic cooler full of niptinis and we filled up a big metal tub with ice and nip beer.  There is grass to run around in and it's pretty long on the side of the house.  The gophers have come out since the rainy season has started, so there are lots of mounds to sniff.

 Horus:  We can poop and pee out here, too.  In fact, Mom said it would be great if we pooped in the gopher holes.  Maybe we'll have a contest to see who can drop the biggest, stinkiest load in a gopher hole.  We can play in the front yard, too, but Mom says to stay out of the street or be sent home.  I should also tell you that there is a friendly min-pin who lives next door.  He will come right up to you and sniff.  Feel free to eat as much grass as you like.

 Oja: I am having my quiet, dignified party in the safe room.  I am serving cat mint tea and sushi and tuna and salmon tea sandwiches.  There are no rowdy boys allowed and I mean it! Gentleman cats may come in and join my party.  I am playing waltzes and there is a little room to dance.

 Rocio:  I will be moving back and forth between the outside mancat party and the birthday kits party.  I am staying far away from Oja's party.  She would hiss if I stuck my nose inside the safe room.

 Bambino:  I will also be moving back and forth between the outside and inside parties.  I may even visit Oja because now that I am two, I can act dignified when I want to, which is seldom, but her noms sound good.

Julius:  I will be at the Birthday Kits party.  I wanna start up a game of THoE right now.  Come one, come all and lets party!

Update from Julius: Mom says that since she was so late getting the notice up yesterday that we can party all day today (Friday), too.  There is plenty of food and drink and we are rested up and ready to go!

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.

100% Again

Bambino:  Good news, everyone!  I'm 100% well again!  The Prince of Pounce is back!  Unfortunately, I pounced Oja and it had been so long since I pounced her that she hissed at me.

Karen Jo:  Oja wasn't very happy about it, but I was.  I got an email from Dropcam requesting a post and to send them a link to the post.  I did one for them, but now I got another request for a post with a link in it.  So here it is.  They were interested in my cats' quirks.

Bambino:  I demand petting at 0-dark-thirty after Mom gets back from the big white litter box.  I taste every food bowl until I find one I like.  After I am done eating, I dig at the place mat, trying to bury any leftovers.  I give Oja gentle head butts and rub up against her.  I am the only cat she allows to do this.

Spyro:  I love getting way up high.  I also get up on the valence above the curtains in the living room and I get up on top of doors.  I try to get outside when Mom opens the door.  When Mom sits at the kitchen table and tries to read the newspaper, I sit on the paper and demand to be petted.  While she is petting me, I snuggle my head into her armpit, then bite her.  You should hear her yell!

Oja: This is the first picture Mom ever took of me I have a short curly tail.  When I am happy, I curl it up like a chow dog.

Rocio:  Or a pig.

Oja:  ::WHAP!::  I am also the grumpy cat of the family.  It takes me weeks or months . . .

Rocio: Or years . . .

Oja: to make friends with another cat.  I did make an exception in Julius' case and accepted him right away.

Rocio:  I am the only cat who likes to sleep like this.  I like to tease Oja and make her yell, which is probably why she never made friends with me.

Horus:  Like Spyro, I like to get up high.  Here I am up on top of the filing cabinet.  I also get up on top of the valence in the living room and up on top of doors.  I also like to try to escape when Mom opens the door.  Sometimes Spyro and I work together.  One of us distracts Mom and the other one runs out.  As she makes a grab for the escaping cat, the other one runs out.  We only want to go out and scratch our backs on the concrete and chew on the grass, but Mom always walks around behind us until she can grab us and take us back inside.  I like to threaten Rocio and make him yell.  Oja is my friend and I don't like the way Rocio makes her yell.
                                      
Julius:  I am the newest one here.  I have only been living here for a couple of weeks.  My quirk is that I'm afraid of the Lady.  This is as close as I will let her get to me, unless she is giving out treats.  Then I will get close enough to her for her to touch me.  I even let her pet me a little until the treats run out.  Then I run away again.

Thursday in the Garden

 Karen Jo:  Sorry I haven't blogged in so long.  First there was getting out of my funk, then I got a sinus infection, which is almost cleared up, then I went to a three day conference and came back with a badly upset tummy, which I am still recovering from.  We are not joining the Feline Gardeners, as I seldom have anything in the garden worth photographing.  After the gophers took over, I just let the garden go wild.  Above the lace vines are in full bloom, much to the delight of the bees.

 We got more rain this year than last and I had a bumper crop of weeds, but this one has pretty flowers.

 It was also a bumper year for toadstools.  I had some bigger ones, but didn't get out to photograph them.

 The phlox are past their prime, but still pretty.

 Spyro:  I have reclaimed my title as the kitty who can climb/jump the highest.  I don't really like it up here, but I had to do it at least once.  It did get a little embarrassing.  I couldn't get down again.  I walked to the other side of the drapes and Mom climbed up and go me down.

 Oja:  I still spend most of my time in the computer room, but I am coming out more now.  I made friends with Horus and now I don't feel so outnumbered by icky mancats.  I have two friends now and that makes me feel better about roaming around the house.

 Rocio:  Another reason Oja feels safer about roaming around the house is that I have stopped annoying her.  For some reason, I now get hissy with Horus and Bambino sometimes when they want to play with me.  I took a serious claws-out swipe at Horus the other day and Mom broke it up.  He had me cornered under the computer desk and I didn't like it.

Karen Jo:  I have no idea what brought this on.  Rocio was always ready to play with any cat who wanted to.  He hasn't hissed at Bambino since a week after Bambino moved in, until just the last few days.  He isn't acting like he doesn't feel good.  He is eating and drinking and running around and playing with toys.  He is going to the vet in about a week and a half for his rabies booster, so I'll ask her about it.

 Bambino:  I wish I knew why Rocio got all hissy with me the last time I pounced him.  I just wanted to play.  Luckily Spyro will still play with me and Horus will play chase with me.  It's fly season and I am having no end of fun chasing them.

Horus:  I escaped today and met the woofie from next door.  She is a minpin and I am bigger than she is.  We sniffed each other over without any hissing or barking.  Then Mom caught up with me and I had to go back inside.  See my tiger paw?

After the Ball Is Over

 Oja:  I want to thank everycat for coming to my soiree yesterday evening and night.  Almost everything went perfectly.  I did wonder why so many of my guests, especially the gentleman cats went out to the patio for a breath of fresh air and came back smiling.  We did have the windows closed, as the evening got rather chilly, so maybe it got a little hot and stuffy in the living room.  The gopher hunting must have gone really well, because I saw Bambino going all crazy pants in the back yard.  I'm really glad I sent his silly self outside during my dignified party, because he doesn't even know how to act dignified.  The only fly in the ointment was my Mom.  Halfway through the evening, just after she got all the trays refilled with canapes and sushi, she said she needed to sit down for a minute.  She sat down in the easy chair by the window and promptly fell asleep.  I was so embarrassed.  At least she didn't snore.  I nearly had to go out to the patio for some fresh air myself at that point, but Jose and I had to get busy passing the trays of snacks around.

Spyro and Rocio:  Whew!

Oja:  What was that?

Spyro:  Nothing Oja.

Oja:  I didn't see you or Rocio all evening.  What were you up to?

Rocio:  We were outside, keeping an eye on Bambino and the younger kitties.

 Spyro:  Psst, Rocio, is Oja out of earshot?

Rocio:  I think so.  We got away with it, didn't we?

Spyro:  We sure did. High five, bro!

 Rocio:  Spyro and I really enjoyed putting one over on Oja.  She still hisses and growls and yowls at me.

Karen Jo:  She wouldn't if you didn't keep smacking her with your paw.

Rocio:  She insists on sitting in the chair I want.

Karen Jo:  This house is full of chairs.  I think you just enjoy annoying Oja.

Rocio:  That could very well be the case.

 Bambino:  I sure had fun in the back yard last night.  Spyro and Rocio let me have just a little niptini.  I'm not that much underage.  I will be a mancat next month, I think.  The younger kitties and I played chase and sniffed the gopher holes and chased moths, though there weren't many of those.

Karen Jo:  That's because I don't have any flowers for them.  One or two of the peony buds opened, but the rest of them turned brown.  I don't know if it was lack of water (probably) or some bugs got them.

Jose:  I enjoyed the soiree very much.  I had never been to a dignified party before.  Oja and I danced together, then we danced with the other guests.  That is until the Mom fell asleep and we had to take over her duties of seeing that everyone got canapes, sushi, shrimp and catmint tea.

Karen Jo:  I apologize.  Throwing two parties in three days tired me out.

Karen Jo:  Now I want to bring up another subject.  Last summer, Spyro loved going outside in his harness and leash.  I think I spoiled it for him this year.  We had a warm day in April and I put his harness on him, but it had been a long time and I forgot how it went.  I got it on him wrong, took him outside and something spooked him.  He pulled strongly on the harness and got out of it and ran to the back door to be let back inside, then hid.  In late April, I tried it again, getting the harness on him right, this time.  Again something spooked him and he jerked the leash right out of my hand.  I opened the door for him and he ran, still wearing the harness and dragging the leash and hid.  I thought he was under the bed and that I would take his harness off of him when he calmed down enough to come out.  I heard a big meow from him and when I went to investigate, I found him in the hall without his harness.  He had gone into Oja's hideyhole, where there isn't much room, gotten the leash caught and managed to wiggle out of the harness.  I tried taking him out on his leash twice more, once in  May and once again today and he lets me put the harness on him, but as soon as he gets outside, he wants right back inside again.  Have I ruined his enjoyment of his harness and leash forever?

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!

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.