Extreme Supervision

The Boy and I were gone over Christmas. We left Kitten Thunder alone, with kittensitter Lori keeping them full and happy, for three days. It. Was. Traumatizing.

We’ve been back since Wednesday, but I am under heavy supervision to make sure I don’t try to go away again.

Lucky for me, my parents gave me brand new work shoes – perfect for my job of trekking from one Facebook page to another.

Oliver is using his own strategy to keep me home. It’s called “hold The Girl down on the sofa and shush her whenever she suggests she should get up.” The short name for the strategy is Super Snuggle.

Also, Oliver is not impressed with my fuzzy feet. He has four of his own.

 

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It’s an LOL Christmas

After days of sitting in the car and sitting around with the family, eating things that are only eaten at Christmas, I am putting my workout as a priority over this blog tonight. Oliver thinks we should be laying on the couch.

So basically, nobody’s happy.

BUT!!! It is Thunder Thursday so I present you with my favorite Christmas flavored LOLs from this year, courtesy of the Cheezburger purveyor.

 

We have also added the pins to the Pinterest board, if your fancy would be tickled by such things.

Merry Christmas, Tubbo

The other day I was at a local coffee shop and the girl there gave me some expired muffins to take home for the neighborhood squirrels. I asked Kitten Thunder where we should put them.

Out the front window, said Oliver.

Out the front door, said Obi.

And so we did.

Tubbo watched from the tree.

It didn’t take him long to come down and try out the blueberry muffin.

Obi and I were thrilled to see him enjoy the Christmas treat. Soon after, though, he decided to take the muffin home with him. He carried an entire muffin up the side of the house.

Then he came back for the other one.

Someone needs to re-explain the term “taking the bait.”

***

Merry Christmas from around Wyoming!

 

Danger on the Horizon

The farmer has been concerned about his livestock. Every once in a while he walks out of his house to find his cattle wiped out. Ten head of cows, left to rot on their sides in the yard.

The pigs have also been victims of this strange phenomenon.

Fed up, the farmer grabbed his rifle and stood guard. He left one dead cow at the corner of the house to attract whatever was attacking the livestock. Finally, a lion came by. A tiny fellow, this lion sniffed at the fallen cow.

Furtive.

Feeling that the mystery was solved, the farmer raised his rifle to dispatch the threat.

Little did he know, the real threat hunkered on the horizon…

Super Cave

Wyoming finally got some real and true snow this week – about seven inches of snow overnight here in Cheyenne. It inspires…snuggling. It inspires…creative reasons to not go outside to work meetings. But I did go to those meetings and left Oliver alone under the quilt on the couch.

When he got up to go upstairs for his afternoon nap, the quilt slid partially off the couch and created the best phenomenon EVER.

SUPER CAVE.

The fairly rigid quilt met the edge of the sheet cave and Obi was able to run from one to the other quickly. This meant that he could watch for someone unsuspecting to come his way from the quilt and then attack from the sheet cave. This is so much easier than sitting still and focusing from inside the sheet cave, using sound and feel to decide when to attack.

In case you aren’t familiar with the cave attacks: Obi sits in wait by the couch and when someone comes by, “unsuspecting,” he lunges through the sheet and gets their feet. If it is me, he gets a belly attack through the sheet. If it is The Boy, he gets a head pat. If it is Oliver, a Thunder follows.

Oliver is very good about being “unsuspecting.” He’ll walk by several times if that is what it takes to get attacked. He’ll even go over on command if he doesn’t realize that Obi is waiting and we ask him to: “Oli, go be unsuspecting for your brother.”

Today, Oli was unsuspecting over and over and over and there was much in the way of Thunders. Then, suddenly, I realized the Thunder had stopped. I found the brothers upstairs, napping in a pile of fluffy on the bed.

Just as I suspected.

***

It’s Thunder Thursday! Today, a call for photos. Leader Otis, from the Cult of Otis, is calling for photos of your cats enjoying boxes this gift giving season. You know, those boxes that used to hold presents for your cats. Presents they’ll forsake for the cardboard box in which it came.

If you have a picture for them to share on Box Day, send your contribution by 3 p.m. on Christmas.

***

Late breaking addition! DUDE! The Aluminium Foiled My Plans has posted a blog! Baby pictures – ALL THREE TINY TOTS – and their first tree.

What’s in the Box?

Obi and I have been eagerly eyeing the box on the dining room table for several days. The Boy, I’m assuming more oblivious than malicious, has not opened it. And he has left it sitting there. Taunting us. For. Days.

DAYS.

Suddenly I was a kid again, painfully awaiting the time when I would be allowed to open the box. My Christmas present.

Mine. And Obi’s.

Finally, today, The Boy told me that I could open the box. Obi immediately took his portion of the present.

 

And I took mine. Down to the courthouse. Where The Boy and I got married today.

 

Oliver says he’ll take The Boy’s last name, but I am NOT to hyphenate it when he is in so much trouble that I use his full name.

Obi just wants to make sure he gets to keep his box.

Resolved: The Girl ought to spend more time at home

This weekend I volunteered to judge a speech meet for one of the local high schools. As a former Lincoln-Douglas debater, I have a skill that is much coveted by the current debaters. There is nothing quite as horrifying as a judge, however well meaning, who is unfamiliar with the event.

And so I go.

I left the house at 2 p.m. Friday and got home just before 10. Then I started Saturday out right, in Oliver’s opinion, by getting up and feeding him at 5:30 in the morning (shudder). Then things went terribly wrong for the grey kitten.

I did not go back to bed.

I did not lay on the couch and watch movies with him all morning.

Instead, I got dressed and returned to the speech meet. I didn’t return until it was time for The Boy and I to go out to dinner. When we returned, I went directly to my office to finish Tidbits for the week.

When I finally got to the couch it was almost bedtime and Oliver offered his own resolution: that we should sleep in on Sunday and spend all morning snuggling.

I stood in firm affirmation of this resolution.

My grey kitten and I did sleep in. Then we stayed in bed and he let me rub his foot like a lucky rabbit’s foot while I finished my book. Obi joined us for a nap. It was midafternoon before we left the bedroom.

And it was wonderful.
  

A Christmas Miracle, A Christmas Disaster

Oliver and Obi are as cute as ever this week, but since it is Thunder Thursday and I have two fantastic guest stories, Kitten Thunder is taking a break today. First, guest kittehs!

These kittens belong to a teacher that works at my mom’s school. She says it is their first Christmas.

Possibly their last.

Get ready…

Get set…

Go!

I’m an ornament!

Almost done…

Now we’re done.

Mom seems mad.

***

And for the dog lovers out there: the tale of ZuZu. On Facebook this week, a friend of a friend of a friend posted about a dog who was missing up in the mountains. She’d been out with her puppy-sister and owners and suddenly disappeared. They searched and searched but were forced to leave the mountain without their fuzzy.

The post was shared by hundreds of strangers, including me. I kept checking, hoping. But three days in a Wyoming mountain in December? Her only hope was if someone had picked her up and taken her to a town.

Or so I thought. ZuZu was found yesterday in the same spot she’d disappeared – cold, hungry and tired. But okay.

Get your tissues and give this a read.

Kitten Christmas

Christmas is the holiday that keeps on giving for Kitten Thunder. Since Oliver has decided to sit on my lap in the middle of my workout, let me take the opportunity to share some photos.

The tree came in. Obi liked it just fine next to his chair.

We moved it to the front of the room. Obi wants to know where that cold air return came from.

Last week I was still going outside without a jacket. No more. Winter has arrived and the quilt came out of the bag. The kittehs had no idea it would be better this way.

Way better.

Thunder in the Night

Last night I was struck by how very different it sounds when Oliver comes to bed compared to Obi. Here’s a sampling of sound from the two kittehs. If you are new here, I will tell you that the grey kitten has dainty white paws and weighs 14 pounds. The brown kitten is 10 pounds and supported by large feet.

Oliver comes to bed:
Pit pat pit pat pit pat creak.

Silence. Oli has put his weight on the noisy step and given away his position. He waits to be attacked by a brother. Hearing now movement from above, he continues.

Pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat.

Oliver arrives at the coffee mug: gulp gulp slurp gulp gulp gulp gulp slurp. A sneeze – caused by inhaling water – follows.

Pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat.

“Mowr?” Oliver calls from the reading nook (here would be a good place to note that the coffee mug is in the bedroom, so the grey kitten has walked away from me to call me). I make a kissy noise.

Pitpatpitpatpitpatpitpatpitpat.

“Mowr?” Oliver calls from beside the bed, less than a foot from my face. I pat the bed beside me.

Pitpatpitatpitpatpitatpitpatpitpatpitpat.

Silence.

“Mowr?” Oliver calls from downstairs. “Mowr?”

Pit pat pit pat pit pat creak.

Silence.

Pit pat pit pat.

“Mowr? Momowr? Mrowr?” Kissy noise from The Girl.

Pitpatitpatpitpatpitpatpitpatpitpatpitpat.

“Mowr?” From beside the bed. I pat the bed in front of me and Oliver jumps up and crawls under the covers. He purrs, stomps and headbutts me in the joy of finally finding me. After a couple minutes of telling him to lay down, I wrap my arms around him and pull him off his feet. After a few moment of washing the lotion off my hands, he puts his head down and begins to snore softly.

It’s a good thing he’s cute. And now…

Obi comes to bed:

Silence.

Practically silent sound of a tongue lowering into the water of the coffee cup.

Silence.

Slight creak of a bed spring as the brown kitten jumps onto the bed.

“Hi Baby,” from me as Obi plunks down on my feet.

The end.