Technical Difficulties

Ironically, the blog I wrote Thursday about my IT department had technical issues and didn’t load. It took me a while to catch onto that fact, since four people liked the blank page.

Now I know I’m working to hard to make you all happy.

Then, on Friday, I started putting THIS post together. Just as I went to post it, my Windows 10 upgrade started. Started by shutting down my computer without giving me the opportunity to save anything I’d been working on.

I’ll work on recreating Thursday’s actual post, but in the meantime, here’s some videos that I’ve come across lately about cats. Many of these have come to my Facebook page. Evidently, if all you talk about on Facebook is cats and beer, people will think of you first when they see cool cat things. I’m still waiting for beer to show up at my house.

And now, on with the show.

First, what do our cats do when we’re not home? Kudos to Rocco and Lelo who were at least willing to wear a camera for half an hour. I’m pretty sure Oliver would just lay down and die if he had to wear a collar, let alone a camera. I don’t know how accurate this is – when you get far enough in you see that the GoPro has a flashing red dot. A FLASHING REDDOT ON THE OTHER CAT. So this is basically feline laser tag.

Second, yes, we are totally doing this this week. And yes, I will record it for you.

And third, this explains why cat people talk to their pets.

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That’s a Wrap

Why we still have a “roll” of wrapping paper on the floor in the basement hallway, which we walk on every time we go into the workshop:

If you scroll through this really quickly, it’s almost animated!

The Switch

Hello. Have we told you about the box?

I poked this head sized hidey hole in it so I can see my brother coming…

And hide.

TADAAAAAA! I leap from the box!

Did someone see a brother come through here?

Hello. Have we told you about the box?

Best box ever.

Alpha Brat

Oliver is the Alpha cat in our house. He’s pretty relaxed about enforcing his role. He shares laps and boxes. He lets his brother win as many thunders as not.

But food? Oliver is ALPHA.

Lest there be any doubt, Oliver will eat things he doesn’t like just to make sure everyone knows he can eat before Obi. Like cheese.

Today, Obi was about to enjoy some nice grated cheese in the breakfast nook. Oliver came rushing in and shouldered his brother out of the way.

The brown kitten looked at me sadly.

I grabbed another pinch of cheese and put it on the other plate. Oliver rushed toward it.

The brown kitten looked at me sadly.

I swooped Oliver up into my arms and kissed his face. He tried to push away – must eat the cheese. “You’re Alpha cat,” I said. “Not Alpha brat.”

As I left the kitchen with Oliver, I glanced back at the breakfast nook.

The brown kitten looked up at me, happy. With a mouthful of cheese.

Fort Folly

Not fooled by the nice weather that allowed me to drink a beer, barefooted, on the porch yesterday, I’ve been worrying about removing Obi’s cave from the end of the couch. You see, in the winter we think the cave is a blanket that should keep us warm.

Since he has started having his belly rubs on the quilt, rather than the rug, it is in serious need of a trip through the washing machine.

To ease the transition, I removed the cave at lunch time. Kitten Thunder and I then built a new fort.

This went over very well. It took a minute for Oliver to realize that he can’t walk ON the fort. We’ll see how long he remembers that. But once I put him inside, he was good.

Obi was a little reluctant to share the fort. The cave was a one cat deal. Oliver didn’t even like to be in the cave. But the fort is bigger and they learned to adapt – it has two boxes and at least a dozen toys in it, after all.

Then The Boy came home. Two kittehs met him at the door and then ran to the fort. “See what we built!”

But then there was a problem: where was the quilt for Obi’s belly rub?

Obi ran inside the fort and we heard him plunk to the floor. But The Boy is too big for the fort. At least that’s what he says…it’s not like he tried to get in or anything. The Boy is funny like that. Especially when he’s wearing work clothes.

So we’ll see what happens tonight. Will Obi go back to the rug? Will he collapse the fort so he can have his belly rubbed in the preferred location, two feet closer to the window? Stay tuned for updates.

***

In other news, Friskies has a genius business plan that involves schmucks like me liking and sharing their videos for free. Kitten Thunder loves Friskies! In fact, it’s the only brand Oliver will eat – he refused from kittendom to eat the expensive brand that shall go unnamed. They should totally be the next spokescats.

Meanwhile, these are hilarious.

Home Improvement with The Boy, Part 2

In addition to putting in a door to the spare room, The Boy decided to take the wall behind our washing machine and dryer down as well. Obi and I went down for inspection. Neither of them approved of what they saw.

For one thing, they found some serious wasted space behind the wall. Once things are put in more efficiently, the new “hallway” will be about six inches wider.

After a cursory look behind the wall, Obi decided he would need some tools. He didn’t find what he needed in The Boy’s supply.

Obi did not approve.

He decided to show off his acrobat skills, but high-wire walking along plumbing, mystery cross-supports on oddly spliced verticals, and electrical piping.

The electrical is bad. Really bad. Bad enough that The Boy would rather pay a professional than hassle with the mess himself. That’s saying something.

We pretended like we didn’t know Obi was looking for a way into the walls or ceiling.

But we did know. So Obi and I went upstairs and the door in the kitchen shut behind us until The Boy was done working.

Obi did not approve.

He also didn’t approve of the wet paper towel I ran over him and around his feet to get the spider webs and dust off.

Cat in a Box

This is not just a pile of boxes.

It is a secret fortress.

If you lean in close, you’ll see something.

If you come very close, and peek in the hole…

WHAMMO! You’ll get punched in the eye!

Stay away from the fortress.

***

Dr. Tiffany is coming to see Obi tomorrow for his annual check up. As usual, I expect him to play with her and snuggle and not ever realize that she has given him shots or anything unpleasant.

Monday, when I emailed her for the appointment, I mentioned that Oliver’s allergies are acting up and that he is almost out of drugs. She says he’s right on schedule… because I said the same thing last year on April 5.

So at least he’s consistent.

I’m sure there will be a story to tell after the appointment.

Home Improvement with The Boy

Our basement is strangely configured. The spare room, where I get ready in the morning and where the grandpeople stay, is as far away from the stairs as you can get in walking distance – but actually only a couple feet away. So, this weekend, The Boy started the process of putting a door in our laundry room.

He started by taking down a wall. Behind it? He found another wall.

And behind that? He found another wall.

In all of these home improvement situations, there is – of course – help from Kitten Thunder. The Boy finds this funny. And annoying. But luckily for him, this particular project included power tools from very close to the beginning. And, when the power tools are involved, Kitten Thunder chooses to protect me instead of helping The Boy.

Protect me. Yeah.

And, when the power tools stopped, three of us went down to help with inspection.

Obi was shocked to see the shoddy work done on this wall. The vertical studs were well beyond the 16 inches they should be placed.

When there was just a window, he did not approve of the complete lack of sill.

Upon further inspection, he decided it was doable but not particularly comfortable.

The spare room is dusty. I’m really glad The Boy took me down to look at the second wall so I knew to quickly move all my clean laundry that was on the spare room bed.

While Oliver is not usually the most adventurous of our kittens, he was willing to try out the window.

He helped The Boy measure the space for a door. I took this picture and headed upstairs. I called Oliver. I told him to come with me. He didn’t, until The Boy started using a saw. Then he casually walked across the laundry room. Once he got to the floor and into the hallway, he allowed his panic to take over and raced, frantically, up the stairs.

The Boy, on my request, cut a second window at the floor level before calling it quits for the day. I didn’t want kittens attempting to thunder through a poorly supported window in the drywall, five feet off the ground.

Thunder on, kittehs. Thunder on.

 

Oh, Bi

We had this crazy thought that we brought the parsley in to eat it. Evidently, we were wrong. We brought it in for the brown kitten to stand in.  He does this at least once a day.

While I was watering the parsley, I decided to start my potato planters. They are already sprouting so I jabbed them with a fork and set them in a plate of water. Then I noticed Obi looking at the ceiling.

So excited.

The shimmering water reflection on the ceiling is now his favorite part of the day.

Yesterday, I was late for an appointment because the clock in the living room was an hour slow. I don’t know why that clock slows down instead of stopping, but it does. So today I changed the batteries.

Which drew attention to the clock. Obi noticed it for the first time ever.

At least for the first time since the last time I changed the battery.

Basket Cases

Since Zensai, my bearded dragon, died and his tank no longer took space in the living room, I have wanted to put the bookcase that is the dining room in the living room with the coffee table it matches. And I wanted to replace it with a full-wall set of shelves.

And I’ve been thinking. And planning. And getting frustrated.

But not doing.

Today, on a whim, I went into a store to look for supplies to build the shelves. And there, already built, were shelves almost exactly like what I wanted. On clearance! With baskets! A quick trip to the lumber store and some stain is all I need for my dream shelves.

I drive a compact car. But, thanks to the genius minds of Subaru, I can fit almost everything I need in it. Six boards that are seven feet long? Tomorrow’s trip to the lumberyard will be a piece of cake. However, my confidence was proven faulty this afternoon when the large shelf wouldn’t go into my car; it was half an inch too big to squeeze past the light in the trunk.

Drat.

So…I don’t have pictures of my completed shelves since I had to wait until my friend Sarah, and her SUV, met me for dinner.

While we were waiting, Kitten Thunder inspected the baskets.

They approve.