The Girls Are Back in Town

Sachi is looking lovely playing "Me and my shadow."


Kitsu, as usual, is the responsible one, keeping sharp eyes on everything.


I am a lucky human to be under the supervision of such superior cats.

Snoozy Sister Cats

The Most Beautiful Girls in the World

Cat Girls that is.

Kitsu the Savage Jungle Kitteh


Sachi on Cement

P.S. That milkweed post was officially for July 1, this one is officially for July 2. Just so you know I'm trying to be regular about this...

Tell Me Again Why I Have Cats

The girls caught something this evening. What, I don't know, but something, I do know for sure. They brought it into the house and it got away in the basement. It's currently behind the bookshelves.

I don't know that I have the wherewithal to go after it there.

It's five bookcases lined up against one wall. Four of them are glass front antique bookcases stacked two up, the other I made in college out of 1x6's and "Korner Klips".

Sachi, being more energetic and optimistic than I, went excavating in the homemade bookcase and pitched all of the books from the lower shelf onto the floor. Now she and Kitsu are engaged in trying to shove themselves into the crack between the back of the adjacent bookcase and the wall to capture their prey. My view is of scattered books and fluffy butts with tails quivering at the alert.

I am not going to try to get whatever it is out from behind there. The double-stacked bookcases are taller than I am. I would have to remove all of the books, carefully unstack the glass fronted top sections and put them someplace, then move the bottom sections.

And, of course, the minute I got far enough along to move the bottom bookcases, the critter would make a break for it. The cats would be leaping, pouncing and swatting, knocking over lord knows what, and the critter would end up under the sofa bed.

Where none of us can get at it.

My only hope is that it ventures out and one of the girls nails it before the Engineer gets back from his current globe trotting expedition. That way we can keep it confidential. If it dies back there and starts stinking, the three of us are in big trouble.

Sigh.

I love my cats but sometimes...

The Most Beautiful Girls in the World

Not that I'm biased or anything, but who could resist these big blue eyes?

Sunset Sachi

Pretty Kitties

Messin' with the Photoshop filters. I think Sachi came out much better than Kitsu. (The blue eyes and silky fur make her shine.)

Random Observations

What Not To Have For a Late Dinner:

A bowl of tomato soup and bruschetta left over from last week.

I got home about 9:30 last night after a meeting. The Engineer is out of town, so I turned on the news as I poked around the kitchen for some food. A commercial for grilled cheese and tomato soup came on. Ooh, tomato soup! I always have a couple of cans of Campbell's in the cupboard. Tomato and cream of mushroom are the only canned soups I keep on hand.

A grilled cheese was more than I wanted, but when I looked into the fridge, there was that one slice of bruschetta.

I make it with Le Brea grain bread and those lovely roasted tomatoes in olive oil and spices one can get on the olive bar at the local grocery store. Toast the bread, top it with tomatoes and sprinkle with parmigiana then put under the broiler until the cheese shreds start hopping. Yum! Reheats well in the microwave.

I had that and some cran-apple juice for desert (continuing the red theme) and a sour stomach all night.

Acoustics

The meeting last night was at Diva's Coffee and Cupcakes. It's a great spot to have a meeting as long as it's after 5:00 so you can park in the slots generally reserved for nearby businesses - otherwise, prepare for a hike. The building has been, in the eight+ years I've lived in this neck o' the woods, a flower store & greenhouse, an import gift store, a Chinese restaurant, an Italian restaurant, empty for a really long time and, now, Diva's. The part of the building that was originally the greenhouse looks like nothing so much as a gigantic, overturned plastic cup.

(image from Google Streetview)

I'd never been in the greenhouse part before last night. The acoustics were very interesting. My group was on the street side of the dome. There was a group of guys on the back side. I could hear their conversation better than I could hear ours. It sounded like they were sitting immediately behind me - made me jump the first time. Their group was making activity plans just like our group was. I was glad I wasn't with them, however, Golden Corral just isn't my idea of a class restaurant to go to for a group dinner.

Half an Ounce of Sense

I surely hope the cat is declawed, or this guy is going to be neutered before the shower is over.
(Yes, I'm addicted to ICanHasCheezburger.com.)

Seasonal Weather

April 15th and, once again, it's snowing. Those big fat flakes that look like the snow decided to have a party on the way down.
I'm leaving Friday on a five day photo expedition to the red rock country of southern Utah. This could make it interesting...

The Most Beautiful Blue-eyed Babe In the World
How's that for ending on an up note? (Please note, lovely cat is not out stalking birdies in the snow, she's snuggled up in warm, dry house. Smart kitty.)

Monday's Kitteh Report

Took the girls back to the vet this morning for follow ups. Also took a lovely bag o' poo to be investigated as they hadn't produced any while incarcerated.

They've both lost weight, but both had high normal temperatures. They are eating and behaving almost normally again, but still have five days of antibiotics to go.

During normal times, Sachi is the more demonstrative cat, but in times of stress, Kitsu becomes VelcroKitty. She's the more sensitive girl. She's sitting between the keyboard and my chest as I type this, demanding kisses and hugs.

Let's hope the PooReport sheds some light on just what caused the KittyContagion.

Purple Leg Cats

Purple Leg Kitsu

Purple Leg (in your face) Sachi

The Kitteh Report

The vet we use is closed on Sunday, so the girls had the choice of going to the Emergency Animal Hospital or coming home under close supervision...

NO CONTEST!

The girls are home with matching purple bandages on their legs from their IV's.

They look so much better. They are actually interacting with the world around them instead of squinting their eyes closed and hoping it will go away.

We have a week's worth of two kinds of meds each to administer and they're supposed to go back in Monday to get their temperatures checked and a general look over.

Still absolutely no idea what caused this -- worry, worry, worry.

But the main thing is that Kitsu and Sachi are home and hopefully on the mend.

They would like to say thank you (Meow, wow!") to all of you who have wished them well and healthy.

Sick Kitties

When I woke up this morning, Sachi was displaying the same symptoms that Kitsu has. She is now at the cat hospital too.

I want my girls healthy and home!

Ain't That the Way It Always Works...

Yesterday Sachi went in to the vet for her annual physical -- tune the tail, rotate the legs, check the tuna levels. She was pronounced perfect.

Today when I woke up, it was quickly apparent that Kitsu was one sick kitty.

In to the vet she went. They don't know for sure what's wrong with her, but she was given subcutaneous fluids for dehydration, antibiotics for her fever, pain meds for her pains and antihistamines to reduce inflammation. The vet said to call if Kitsu isn't feeling substantially better by tomorrow.

Poor baby. I hope all those drugs to the trick - and quick.

Mine!

Cats are funny critters. Whenever anything new comes into their sphere, they must claim it as their own by sitting on it. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be new...

I simply moved this chair from its usual position and forgot to replace it.

Claimed!

Murder and Mayhem - Kitteh Style

It hadz da nip inz it. I hadda do it.

Kittly Byproducts

Today I cleaned the kitchen cat tree. It's one of the girls' favorite hang outs, they love to wrestle on it.

And kick clumps of fur off each other.

Kitsu wants to know if all this is hers.

No, part of it is from Sachi too. The orange, taupe and cream color fur blend to make a bland beige.

I'm thinking about starting to save it. When I get a bushel basket full in a couple of months, I will wash it, pick the detritus from it, card it, spin it and knit it into another cat. Which will, of course, shed more hair, so that I can knit yet another cat in an even shorter time.

Who says perpetual motion isn't possible.

The Meanest Humie In the World

What's a humie, you might wonder. I'm a humie, the meanest humie in the world.

The cats figure if I can call them kitties, they can call me humie.

Why am I the meanest in the world?

Sachi got stuck in a cage and made the annual trip to the vet today: tune the tail, rotate the legs, check the tuna level and, indignity of indignities, take the temperature. Also got a distemper shot, but after that temperature taking all the rest was trifling.

Look at that face - is it any wonder I feel guilty stricken?

Katydidn't

Cats are bloody little predators, or, at the very least, like to believe they are.

I walked out to get the mail this afternoon and saw immediately that Sachi was tormenting something.

It was a big, fat katydid. She'd already bitten off most of his antennae. The fragile parts are always the first to go.

Didn't look like he had long to live in any case. I think there was something growing in his abdomen and with winter just around the corner...

Glad I'm not a bug.

Particularly glad I'm not a bug looking up at a cat.

Connected By Kittehs and Toilets

One of the nicest things about being a blogger is making blogging friends. Kate of High Altitude Gardening instigated my blogging. We'd been friends for several years before the rise of the blogs.

Then I met Cicada, who now goes by her real name Jess, the Bioephemera art and science blogger. I love her artwork and her sense of humor. Her blog can really make me think. She is one smart lady.

Now Kate and I have made e-friends with Iron Needles, who gardens and knits -- and spins and hikes and reads some of my favorite books and has similar views about politics. Today I visited her blog and saw a picture of her cat drinking from the dog's favorite water supply. It's always a shock when one catches the cat in such a position. Cats are supposed to be much too fastidious to drink from toilets. That's the dog's job.

The picture did, however, bring brightly to my mind memories of Brianna and her training of the Engineer.

Brianna came home with me from the pound as an orphan feral kitten. She was frightened of almost everything, especially shoes, but accepted me as her Mommy almost immediately. Perhaps the fact that I was barefoot most of the time helped. The Engineer is also a barefoot person when in the house, so he soon gained her trust and love as well.
Brianna quickly decided upon our sleeping arrangements; she demanded her own pillow laid longwise at the head of the bed between her two humans. If the bed was not made properly, she would pester me until I fixed it to her satisfaction.

She was a kitty who was fascinated by water from the get-go, She loved any flowing faucet, she supervised me in the shower and would hop on in after the water was turned off and the glass doors opened. She had a water fountain drinking dish. When she grew a little bigger and developed into a better jumper, she discovered toilets. They were such lovely large reservoirs of water. I didn't appreciate how much she liked toilets until the day I walked into my bathroom and her little head popped up over the rim. Yes, she was perched inside of the bowl, playing in the water.

That was the day my toilet lid closed forever (unless, of course, the toilet was being put to its intended use.)

The Engineer is a male who, like most males, has a Y-chromosomal aversion to shutting a toilet lid.

Often, during the night, when Bri decided she needed a little exercise, she would play in the Engineer's toilet. When she was done, she would come running back into the bedroom. leap up on the bed on the Engineer's side, and lovingly pat his face on her way back to her own pillow.

This tended to wake him up. So he would wake me up, "The cat got my face wet!"

I would laugh at him and tell him I was glad she'd wiped her paws on him before she got to me.

The Engineer would tell me to make her stop getting him wet.

I told him many, many times that if he shut the lid, he would no longer get his face painted with toilet water in the night.

It took about three months before he internalized that, but his toilet lid remains shut when not in use to this day.

I guess even PhD's can eventually learn new things.

Cats Carouse

We are leaving before dawn Tuesday morning for a week at the cabin. This, of course, guarantees that I will be grumpy. I do not do mornings.

The cats are not happy that we are leaving them to fend for themselves for a week. True, Brandi is a very nice kitty sitter, she knows how to fill a food dish, but it just isn't the same as having the regular slaves around.

Kitsu staged a farewell hooh-hah for us.

There was a plastic grocery bag filled with cans and small boxes to recycle sitting on the floor next the back door. Usually the cats totally ignore such things, but tonight, Kitsu decided to investigate. I was in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies for the cabin when I heard her rustling the bag.

"Kitsu, leave that alone!"

She must have jerked her head when it was stuck through one of the handles and suddenly realized that it had her around the neck.

Kitsu bolted from the kitchen like a fuzzy orange meteor, the bag bouncing against her ribs and legs, clattering and clanking. I took off after her calling, "Kitsu! Come here baby, I'll save you!"

Sachi heard the excitement and came bounding into the dining room to see what was going on as Kitsu sprinted into the living room, shedding cans and boxes in her wake. The rapidly emptying bag flapped like an angry ghost at Kitsu's flank, the remaining beer can thwacking against the walls and floor. Sachi leaped and twirled in joy as we chased Kitsu through the house.

With a loud crash, the final beer can came free of the bag and Kitsu teleported. That's the only explanation. She simply disappeared into thin air.

Sachi continued to bounce off the walls, a wild look of ecstasy on her face.

"Kitsu, Kitsu, where are you?" I called, visions of my cat strangled by a plastic sack dancing in my head.

"Did she come down here," I asked the Engineer, who was in his basement office.

"Huh?"

He hadn't heard any of the ruckus. I think the man is deaf in addition to having the sensitivity of a brick.

We both looked through the house without success until, finally, Kitsu appeared for a moment to glare at us and flip us the tail. There was no bag around her neck. That we found under the old spool bed.

I think, perhaps, Kitsu will no longer be sorry to see us go...

P.S. Back in a week.