Closer and Closer

 Spyro:  You see that green fish I am sort of lying on?  It's stuffed with silvervine and I just got a bit high on it and now I'm rolling around and playing with anything I can reach.  Mom gets these fish from Nip and Bones and they are wonderful.

 Oja:  I have stopped hiding from Julius.  I've decided that he isn't a little orange monster after all.  He mostly leaves me alone, but I still hiss at him if he gets within two feet of me.  I love hanging out on top of this scratcher.  The top is curved and fits my body perfectly.  I even scratch on it for treats sometimes.

 Rocio:  Mom took a terrible picture of me.  I show up better on the photo of Julius she posted at the Tabby Cat Club.  I am having fun with Julius, but Oja got all hissy with me again today.  I wasn't doing anything to her, honest.  Horus has stopped hissing at me, though.

 Bambino:  I am thinking about scratching for treats on our new scratcher.  Mom got it for us just before Julius arrived and it's really fun.  We tore our last inclined scratcher all to bits.  Julius and I rassled a little bit more today.

 I'm napping to catch my breath again.  Julius and I rassled this morning, then the blurp showed up.  She's been coming over more frequently.  I must say that she's more fun now.  She has gotten the hang of using the wand toy and I love it.  She is also pretty generous about giving out treats, which the other kitties really enjoy.  Even Julius came out once, but she scared him.

Julius:  See how close I let the Lady come to me with the clicky box?  I turned my head just as it clicked, so I'm a little blurry.  I have been having an exciting time.  Yesterday afternoon I actually pounced Spyro's head and we rassled until he ran away.  At night the other kitties tend to disappear and last night I decided to find out where they were going.  I walked down the hall and at the end I saw a room with a big stripy thing in it and there were Spyro, Rocio and Bambino.  I jumped up and there was the Lady, too.  That scared me a little, so I just stayed at the very end and watched for a while, then left.  I jumped up again this morning because Spyro and Bambino were there and the Lady was still there, too, so I stayed at the very end again, then left.

Karen Jo:  My bedroom is at the end of the hall and I have a striped bedspread.  I was glad that Julius jumped up on the bed.  Maybe he will get braver about getting close to me as he sees the other cats lying beside and on top of me.  I petted Julius a little today.

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.

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.

New Ham-mick

 Spyro:  The ham-mick that Mom won in the auction arrived!  I helped Mom put it together, then I got first dibs on being in it.  If you look closely, you can see that I have catnip all over my fur.  Forty Paws is generous in packing catnip with their ham-micks.

Karen Jo:  The main reason that Spyro got first dibs is that he was on it most of the time I spent putting it together.  He loves it.

 I got to test it next.  It's great.  I love it, too.

Oja:  I don't see why the boys got so excited about the new ham-mick.  I sniffed it, then decided to use the scratcher.

Spyro:  That's because you have never been in one.  Mom has been taking us outside again.  I got to go out for a long time yesterday.  I have gotten used to my harness and don't slink along on my belly anymore.  I even run with it on, making Mom run, too, just to keep up.

Going outside is great, but Mom made me come in early.

Karen Jo:  That's because there were two cars parked in the carport and on the driveway.  You were far too interested in going under them.  With the roads being torn up around here, I often have cars parked in front of my house.  I gave my neighbor permission to park in my carport and the other car just showed up.  I can't blame them.  Parking spots in this neighborhood are at a premium.

Oja:  I found out that the boys have some pretty cool toys.  See that box with the holes in it in front of me?  It has toys in it that I can fish out.  Some of them are so cool that I carry them to my room to play with them. I have gotten used to the mancat stink on everything and now I don't mind it.

Karen Jo:  There has been no hissing or growling for a couple of days.  Spyro and Oja play THoE together, taking turns chasing each other up and down the hall.  Herman and Spyro are closer friends than ever.  I am really glad that Spyro came here to live before Oja did.  I think he is the glue that will hold our little family together.

Femme Friday

 Hi, it's me, Emma, with my very own post.  Mom's allergies have been giving her fits lately and that's why we haven't been blogging.  She did go out Tuesday and get a new scratcher.  She set it up in the living room, then came and got me before she put the nip on it.  I enjoyed the nip, but didn't scratch on it.  Herman also enjoyed the nip and he didn't scratch on it, either.  In the photo, we are both just chilling and enjoying the nip.  Mom figured that we were well contented and went off to do whatever it is she does.  About three minutes later, she came hurrying back.

Karen Jo:  I heard a loud RAWNR and came to see what was the matter.  Herman was sitting halfway between the scratcher and the easy chair, facing the chair and looking as innocent as he could,  and Emma was underneath the easy chair trying to look as if she was just relaxing.  I don't know what happened, but Herman had been playing peek-a-paw with Emma.  He was hiding behind part of the scratcher and reaching his paw around the corner toward Emma.  However, the only other time I heard a sound like that it came from Emma as she pounced Herman.  Whatever it was, it has blown over and they are still both interested in the new scratcher.  Herman has scratched on it, but not Emma.  She is just interested in the nip.

The nip is the best part of it.

Karen Jo:  Speaking of nip, who did this?

Um, Herman?

Karen Jo:  I don't think so.  Herman played with that syringe toy for a year and nothing like that ever happened.  You are the one who has been playing with it lately.

It just smelled so good.  We had quite a nip party today.  Mom left the nip on the carpet and emptied the rest of it on the new scratcher.  She brought me a new nip pillow today when she went out.  I bit it and bit it, but nothing happened.

Karen Jo:  It is made out of heavy duty canvas.  You soon lost interest in it and Herman used it to take a nap on.  Both of you were nipped out most of the day.  It makes Herman sleepy, but you were tearing around the house like your tail was on fire.  You really went for Da Bird, too.

Da Bird is lots of fun.  I am really glad that I figured out what cat toys are for.  I got lots of petting this morning before Mom got up.  Herman and I have a deal.  He gets Mom when she goes to bed and I get her in the morning.  I worried Mom yesterday.  I hid between the bed and the bookshelves on the wall from right after she got up until she went to work.  I didn't even come out for lunch.  I just wanted some quiet time.

Karen Jo:  You did have me worried.  I was afraid that you were in pain or something was wrong.  When I got home from work, you were acting normally again, though.

Today was furmination day and I got furminated for the first time.  At least Mom tried to furminate me.  I was more interested in grabbing her hand and bunny kicking her.

Karen Jo:  I got some furminating done on you.  You tolerate the brush better.  You are doing some Spring shedding, but nothing like what Herman is doing.  Of course, his fur is a lot thicker than yours.

I'm excited.  I got invited to join The Tuxedo Gang and Mom said that I could.  I will be seeing you there soon.