It was a weird weekend. I was in a foul mood, and Lin still wasn’t feeling 100% better. That always leads to grumpy humans in this household. I rode around with Lin to a few of his work sites on Saturday, and we stopped and got a belt for the vacuum cleaner. How very exciting. Of course, we also spent a lot of time with the kittens. Sunday we laid around doing little more than watching TV and playing with kittens until evening when we ran over to Petsmart to get some toys for the little hellions. We ended up getting one of those long plastic wands with the interchangeable feather/yarn/raffia bobbles you can attach to it and a small package of catnip toys. Then we came home, ate pizza, watched stupid movies and played with the kittens. The toys were a huge success. Still, Sunday was grey and rainy, so it was just kind of a blah day.

This morning started wonderfully though, as far as the kittens are concerned. Up until yesterday, I’d just been putting out a bunch of dry cat food every morning (in two bowls, they don’t like sharing). Yesterday I started just putting out a serving of their daily portion, so we can get on some sort of feeding schedule. With two of them, I can’t really just leave food out all the time, because I can’t tell who is eating how much. Anyway, I anticipated when they might be hungry all day Sunday, so they never really had a chance to let me know they were hungry. This morning was another matter. I’d slept on the couch unintentionally, and at about 5:30 am, I woke up needing to have a glass of water. I gently picked up Black and moved her off my lap and onto the couch. She stretched and woke up, and then she started purring like a race car, mewing pathetically, licking my face, chewing my hair, and in general giving me a full dose of “See how cute I am? I’m so very cute! Please feed me!” Naturally, this woke up her brother, and he started doing the same things. First off, it was so cute, it made me laugh out loud. Secondly, I now know they think of me as The Momma and provider of all that is good for tummies. I also know they will have no qualms letting me know they are hungry too. It was just really adorable, and boy can Black purr loud!

The only other thing I can report about the still nameless kittens is they are both hellions in their own unique little ways. Grey gets himself entirely too worked up while playing (anytime he’s awake, in other words), and then he becomes a tasmanian devil of destruction shredding anything that stands in his way … his sister, their toys, our hands and feet, the couch, everything and anything. And if you don’t let him do what he wants to do and go where he wants to go, he throws enormous temper tantrums. Also, he’s completely fearless about climbing and jumping. I expect by the end of this week, he will be found at least once on top of one of our large paintings. He’s a bit of a problem child. Black, on the other hand, gives off the appearance of being a sweet, lazy, lap cat, totally uninterested in anything but getting petted and loved on. Don’t let it fool you. As soon as we look away (to deal with her brother usually), she is off finding new tiny places to squeeze herself into. This has led to more than a few thirty minute periods of time spent looking frantically for the little black kitten. I’m going to have to clean behind the couch today or tomorrow, because she’s already figured out how to get back there. She has, in fact, figured out how to get just about everywhere in the main house, and when Lin left the bedroom door open for a whole two minutes this morning, she was already in there and almost lost among the boxes. Of course, when we pull her out of wherever it is she isn’t supposed to be, she instantly becomes the most adorable kitten on the planet … the picture of innocence … a purring bundle of furry love. Her brother could use some lessons in this kitten skill. He’s cute and adorable, but when we catch him getting into something, instead of playing on that, he throws a fit, which leads to a time-out in the big box. That seems to be working somewhat, but he’s got a way to go before I’d call him the most adorable kitten on the planet.

All the same, we love them. We each got the cat we wanted. Lin wanted an active cat that loved to play, and I wanted a lap cat that loves to be groomed. All we have to do is gently eradicate some of their worse behavior issues. The next 6 months ought to be FUN!

I’ve been alternately playing The Bard’s Tale and catching up on the housework (and dealing with kittens). As soon as I post this, I am going to go try to pull the couch out and clean the dust away back there and remove all the kitten-proofing we had set up to keep them out that area. None of it has worked. Black has found a way over, under, around, or through it all, and when she can’t do it herself, I swear she shows her brother, and then he takes care of it for her. No sense bothering with it anymore. I’m surprised they haven’t broken into the den yet, because I tell you … they most certainly could if they thought about it for a second or two. I expect they will put their little kitty heads together and defeat my attempts to block access to that room later this week as well. Good thing they are so cute and bring us so much joy, because they are really more than a handful to deal with.

Ugh. I’m off to move furniture and clean behind the couch and shelves. I don’t really feel like doing that today, but it has to be done. They are probably working on getting behind the couch right now. It’s too damn quiet in the living room, and that means they are up to something again.