Snuggle time

So, since the kittens were fixed there does seem to be some calming down happening.  Oh, they're still getting into things they shouldn't but that's as much our fault as theirs for leaving things where they can get to them.  Meaning food of course.  But the good thing is I haven't seen or woken up to either of them chasing Pogo and being aggressive towards him.  So that's a good thing.  It's what finally made us get off our asses and get them taken care of.  It was stressing Pogo out to where he'd hiss at them when they just walked in his general direction. 

Although they'd chase him during the day and sometimes in the middle of the night they'd still all end up on my pillow at some point basically pushing me off it.  And since the neutering the snuggling as gotten even better. 

This happened the other night.

Look how much Pippin covers Pogo.  And Pip is not a light cat, in fact he weighs 12.3 pounds.  Where as Pogo is probably only around 8 or 9.  Haven't weighed him in awhile but the kittens were just weighed at the vets.  Pip is 12.3 and Merry is 10 even.  And Pogo definitely doesn't weigh as much Merry does.  Size wise they're about the same but Merry is a very solid 10 pounds.  Pogo isn't.

They don't ever seem to snuggle with Pogo any other time but when it comes to my sleep time they're all over each other trying to get the best spot on the pillows.

Media quote of the day:  Monty Python's The Holy Grail

I fart in your general direction - John Cleese (can't recall which character said it though)

Finally neutered

So, yesterday the kittens went to the vet to FINALLY get neutered.  HDT dropped them off a little after 8am.  They had told him last week when they went in for their initial checkup and shots, when he made yesterday's appointment, that he needs to drop them off between 8 and 8:30 and then he could pick them up late afternoon, close to 5. 

So he drops them off then goes and does some errands.  Just a couple hours later he gets a phone call from the vet and for those first few initial seconds between seeing their number on the screen and having the person talk to him he got really scared.  We had a cat, Alanis, that passed away after being taken in for a tooth pulling.  We came in to pick her up but she wasn't quite ready yet.  She was only just coming out of the anesthesia.  They said that it would probably be at least an hour before she'd be ready.  They asked us if we'd like to see her, we did so we did.  She was awake but barely, we each gave her some love and told her we'd be back in a little while.  We had plans to see a movie and were gonna do that but then decided not to because that'd be longer than the hour they were saying so we went home.  Good thing we did, pretty much right after we walked in the door they called to say she passed away.  Very very sad.  I'm glad we were able to see her and give her some love before it happened though.  So anyway, at that moment he couldn't remember if it was for that or for fixing, he thought fixing though.  So yeah, for about 10 seconds he was really worried that he was getting a call to say one or both passed away.  Because it just seemed too soon for them to be calling.

But luckily that's all it was.  They were doing just fine and he could come by and pick them up any time.  So he got there shortly after the call.  In between doing his other errands he was home and said they pretty much were just sleeping the whole time, when they would get up they moved slowly.  Which is what I observed when I got home.  Normally they're sitting at the back door when I walk in at 5:30 ready for their dinner.  Yesterday only Merry and Pogo were there.  And I was there for a good two minutes before Pippin showed up.  Coming slowly up the stairs from the basement. 

After eating they kind of wondered around a little bit while I made dinner and HDT unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.  But nothing like normal that's for sure.  I picked Pippin up a couple times and he just sort of laid in my arms blinking slowly.  Too cute really.

When we settled on the couch to eat dinner and watch tv Merry jumped up and settled down next to my legs on my blanket.  After awhile Pippin showed up and nestled in with him.  And that's where they stayed for the rest of the night.  Even through me getting up a couple times.  They just sort of looked up at me when I disturbed them with these sad eyes.  But once I came back they did the slow blink at me and then went back to sleep.

When I went to bed they came up and settled on my pillow with Pogo as usual. I'm lucky if I get just enough of the pillow for my head. I can't even think about moving because if I do at least one of them, usually Merry, will slide right in where my head was because he's usually leaning on me. Love those little monsters.

Media quote of the day:  Shrek 2

I say we take the sword and neuter him right here! Give him the Bob Barker treatment! - Donkey - he's saying it to Shrek about Puss-n-Boots.  Heh

Merry is being not so Merry lately

So the latest....

We were going to be total geeks and see The Hobbit at 12:00 this am.  I even bought tickets for the 12:02 showing since the 12:01 was already sold out Wednesday when I went online.  I had told HDT that we shouldn't be going because I had to work the next day and our company end of year party (so called because one of our employees is a Jehovah's Witness and she couldn't attend if we called it a Christmas party) is tonight.  And then he ended up having two appointments today, one as early as 10:30am.  The movie is just under three hours long.

So yesterday around 5:00 he gets a call from his mom saying she thinks his grandma is about to pass.  She has labored breathing, she hadn't eaten anything all day and she was pretty much comatose all day.  His mom is watching her granddaughter so HDT left work right away to go pick her up because she doesn't need to be there for that.  By the time he got there she was sleeping peacefully and was breathing just fine.  He was able to wake her up and drink some water with some thickener in it.  Then she went back to sleep. He still took K though and told him mom to call if things got worse again.

Then we met up at his dad's house to celebrate his stepmom's birthday.  His sister was there with her two kids so K was excited to spend some time with them until they left. 

While there he starts to get really sleepy and says to me that maybe we shouldn't go to the movie after all.  He's tired, been up since 5 a.m. By the time we drop off K and then get home it'll be after 9:00 and then we have the things to do today.  Yeah, that's why I said we shouldn't go in the first place dude. 

So yeah, he called to find out what we can do about getting a refund.  Unless we went up to the theatre to state we wouldn't be able to make it we couldn't get a refund (which I also told him).  But we could use it as credit towards another showing of the same movie or another.  So we'll probably make it up there some time this weekend.  At least that's the plan.

And so far today he hasn't gotten a call from his mom about grandma so she must be doing ok today.  Fingers crossed. 
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Merry is being a terror towards Pogo way too much.  Twice that we know of he's chased Pogo up the stairs and around the living room.  In there Pogo gets away and runs into the bedroom closet to hide.  The first time it happened it was at 3 a.m. earlier this week.  He had a tuft of white fur in his mouth and we saw the spot that it was taken from on Pogo.  So we quickly clipped nails that we had been neglecting and gave Pogo lots of love to calm him down.

Then the other day he does it again around 5:30 p.m.  I'm sitting in the kitchen waiting for my mom to come pick me up to do some shopping.  It's nice and quiet, I'm playing Song Pop on the iphone and next thing I know I'm hearing hissing and spitting and running up the stairs.  Pogo goes flying past me with Merry close on his heals.  And as they're running around the coffee table Pogo gets ahead of Merry and makes it into the bedroom closet before Merry knows what happened. 

I pick Merry up by the scruff and sternly give him a talking to.  Then I go find Pogo and give him love and comfort. 

Who knows how many times he's done this when we haven't been home.  He and his brother really need to get neutered.  Because of different reasons we haven't been able to get it done.  But HDT is planning on taking them in for the initial exam next Wednesday and then from there he'll make their appointment.  So hopefully within the next two weeks it'll be done.

Damn kittens.

Media quote:

None right now, don't feel like researching.

Gandolf is gone, I'm sad

So we did actually take back the silver/grey kitty, took him back early last week. We did debate for several days on whether we'd keep him or not but in the end we took him back to my MIL.  She says she won't keep him either, that he'll go to the no kill shelter, which I then told HDT that if that's the case we should take him back. Don't think he'll agree to that though. But there's always the possibility she'll keep him.  She's getting pretty attached to him. 

My SIL still hasn't picked up the momma kitty yet, at least as far as I know.  As of last Friday she hadn't anyway.  She was given until yesterday to come pick her up.  I wonder if that happened.  I don't know what the outcome will be if she hasn't.

This is him nursing.  Ridiculous.  He's almost as big as she is.

When we first brought him over I told HDT that there will be hissing going on before they're ok with each other.  He didn't really think that would happen.  Told him it definitely would.  We had him for about 3 weeks, just long enough for the memory of each other to start to fade.  Also, even if she did remember him right away she'll let him know there won't be any nursing going on.  Ha!  So yeah, when we first brought him and I set him down near her she arched her back, fluffed her tail and hissed.  For the next 15-20 minutes she would hiss at him when he'd get too near.  But at the same time she was very curious.  As he started to roam around the house she'd follow him.  Within 30-40 minutes the hissing had stopped unless he came up on her without her realizing it.  But by the time we left, just over an hour later, they were already starting to chase each other around having fun.

The next day we went back, can't remember why now, but there they were all curled up together in the bed.  At some point he woke up and started to nurse.  There's no way she had any milk left, not after being fixed and not nursing for 3 weeks.  But she let him do it so he would.  Silly momma.

I don't think the brothers even realized he was gone.  They're still running around having fun with each other without a care in the world.  And getting big.  I keep telling them to quit growing but they're not listening to me.  And I just realized I haven't taken any pictures of them since before their brother was taken back.  I'll have to do that.

Poydras is finally getting better with 'em.  He's actually even tried playing with Pippin.  He'd hop around Pip and lower down in the front with his butt up in the air wagging his little stump of a tail.  But then as soon as Pip would actually reach for his muzzle he'd go under the couch and then whine/whimper.  As soon as Pip would back off he'd come back out and start all over again.  It was too funny.  I kept trying to get a video of it but every time I'd start the video he'd go under the couch.  Oh well.

And they've taken to Pogo.  Although they have no issues with Bander, nor he with them, they seem to like Pogo more.  At least for the sleeping together part.  Pogo likes to sleep on a corner of our bed and quite often I'll find a kitten or two (and three before) sleeping very near him if not right up against him.  Gandolf really liked to sleep with him there.  While Merry and Pippin will sleep up on my pillow with me, Gandolf would be at the foot of the bed with Pogo.  But yeah, when I'm not there they're sleeping with Pogo quite a bit. 

And Pogo is finally playing with them.  Seems to be more with Merry than Pippin, at least that I've seen anyway.  There are times that it seems Pogo is really biting down hard on Merry's back but he doesn't cry out at all so I guess it can't be that bad.  And he comes back for more so....

I haven't seen Bander playing, but then he was never a real big player anyway.  Once he and Pogo grew out of the kitten stage he pretty much quit playing unless it was chasing a laser or jumping up for a feather toy.

So that's the update since the last entry.  Nothing much has gone on really, pretty dull lives we lead. 

Kitty Sitters

So, we got the 3rd brother.  But only for a week or so.  At least that's what's supposed to happen anyway.

Their momma got fixed and her front paws were declawed.  Which per HDT's sister's apartment manager's rules needed to be done before she could have her.  Now we shall see if she actually does take her or leaves her with their mom.  Anyway.

So while she's recovering we took the last kitten so she wouldn't be tempted to run, jump and play with him or let him try to nurse still.

At first he and the brothers didn't seem to remember each other, although there wasn't any hissing going on between them.  But now they're all running around playing and sleeping together.

The sliver/grey one is like a muted version of Pippin. 

Unfortunately I can't rotate the picture.  But I still thought it cute enough to include anyway.  This was shortly after the top picture was taken.  One of them moved and they all just rearranged themselves into this pile.

We have of course fallen in love with him as well.  So if things don't work out the way they're supposed to we probably will be keeping him. 

If that happens, HDT is lobbying to change their names to the Three Muskateers' names as I had mentioned would be good if we had taken all three the night we were trying to come up with names for just the two.  But we can't decide which one should get which name. 

But it's all a moot point if we don't keep him anyway.

Media quote of the day: The Three Musketeers (1993)

Champagne? - Porthos
We're in the middle of a chase, Porthos. - Athos
You're right - something red. - Porthos

As morning hues of sun swept fire caress your passion face. Alone with thee in pure desire, to worship your untold grace. My soul would cry in silent prayer, for hours spent apart. Your essence warms the evening air, as I dance into your heart. - Aramis

New family members

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.