So, whirlyball was a lot of fun. As mentioned in my last post my nephew was in town for a week and one of the things we did was play whirlyball. Seems to me we were a lot more violent than what we were for work. I broke my thumb nail. It actually split down the middle and tore back from the side. I kept playing with it until we got home and I was able to clip it. But at least this time I didn't get a bruise on my inner thigh. There were several injuries spread around the group. My nephew got his hand all chewed up. Wayne kept pushing the racket into Dean's side while Dean was trying to get the ball. Dean kept trying to push the racket away and got his hand all chewed up for the effort.
HDT ended up not playing because he had a headache and the only people that offered to give up their car were me and Wayne. He didn't want to take me away from playing because he wanted to play
with me. And Wayne is the dad of Dean (the nephew in town) and the one that planned the whole thing so it wouldn't be right to make him leave. But he had a lot of fun watching and he did help out when the cars would get stuck near him (he'd go over and give a shove) or the ball ended up where no one could get it.
Then later that week on Saturday we all got together at mom's house for some good food and good company for several hours. Then several of us headed over to my house for the UFC fights. Good times.
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We've made two new additions to the household. We debated for awhile, even decided that we weren't going to do it. Then we both caved. So now besides Banderling (always known as Cry Baby throughout the years here), his brother Pogo (always knows as Pretty Boy throughout the years) and Poydras we have Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuc and Peregrin "Pippin" Took. For those who don't know they're two hobbits from The Lord of the Rings who were always getting into trouble.
Merry is the dark brown (so dark looks black) kitty and Pippin is the striped one, they're brothers. There is a third brother but he'll either be staying with HDT's mom or going with his sister. Don't think that's been decided as of yet. The third is a silver tabby, looks a lot like their momma.
Bander and Pogo have accepted them already. Didn't take long and only a little bit of hissing and swatting of heads took place. Although sometimes they get a little over zealous with the playing with Bander and he has to take them down a notch.
This picture was right before Pip started in on Bander. He at first was just smelling and licking on him, giving him love. But then he decided he wanted to play and started biting Bander's ear so Bander reached up, pushed Pip's head down and gave a love bite to the neck. Stopped the little pipsqueek in his tracks.
They haven't tried playing much with Pogo yet, at least not that I've seen. But the little bit they've done has been met with about the same reaction. Paw of doom with a well placed bite. Mostly they just try to lie down next to him.
They were like this for a long time. Pretty much until Pippin jumped up on Merry to have a play fighting session.
When we first brought them home we put them in Poydras' kennel so the residents could have access to them but no fighting could happen. Poydras had already met them over at HDT's grandma's house where they've been since before they were born. So we knew there wouldn't be anything to worry about with him. In fact he's quite scared by them. They come up where he is and he tries to get away, whining the whole way usually.
When the two older cats came up to them in the kennel the kittens would reach out trying to touch them. But there was very little hissing, more curiosity than anything on all their parts. So the next day we let them out and all was well. We put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs to keep them in the basement and also to allow Bander and Pogo a place to escape if they needed it.
After just a couple days Pippin had already climbed over it. I was at work and HDT had let them out of the kennel when he got up (they were put back in there at night) and they were having a good time in the basement. But then HDT went upstairs to get some food and next thing he sees when he turns around is Pippin coming into the kitchen.
At first he only climbed over when one or both of us would go upstairs but then after a day or so he started to do it all the time. We decided that once Merry followed suit and went over we'd take the gate down. Took a few days but he finally did it. I was sitting on the stair right in front of the gate trying to prevent Pip from going over. Bander was on the other side of it up a stair and they both were fascinated by him.
Next thing I know as I'm trying to keep Pip from going up the steps I hear to my right the gate move. I look and it's Merry climbing up. By the time I got my camera up on the iphone he was already over it which chased Bander away. But I got this shot, you can see that he's actually dark brown here.
He got up a couple steps and then sat there all "Hmmm, what did I just do?" By the time I took the picture, got the gate down and took a step towards him he was all "Freeeeedommmm" and took off up to the top after Bander.
So we got them collars with bells so we'd know where they are. That worked for a couple days until they learned how to get them off, they're breakaways. Yesterday they both got them off and so far we've only found one of them. Ah well.
And Sunday night HDT decided to let them loose overnight as well. When he came to bed at 3:30am he decided to let them run free rather than put them in the kennel. While he was up they hadn't come into the room at all, or if they did I was so out of it they didn't wake me up. But when he came up he of course woke me up then they proceeded to keep me awake playing on the bed jingling away. Took about 15-20 minutes until they finally settled down, on my pillows no less. Merry curled up in the crook of my arm and Pippin lied on top of the back pillow leaning up against the headboard.
Soooo cute they are.
Media quote of the day: From The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
You're taller. - Merry
Who? - Pippin
You! - Merry
Than what? - Pippin
Than *me*! -Merry
I've always been taller than you. - Pippin
Pippin, everyone knows *I'm* the tall one. *You're* the short one. - Merry:
Please, Merry. You're what, three-foot-six? At the most? Whereas me, I'm pushing three-seven, three-eight. - Pippin
Three-foot-eight? You did something. - Merry
Now in our kitty world this is actually true. Pippin is bigger than Merry. Merry was the runt of the litter. There's about 6oz difference between the two. Pip is just over 4lbs as of yesterday. It's time to get them to the vet for neutering. Soon, very soon.
