Plaaaay

I’m a good cat owner. I don’t think anyone would debate that. One of the things I’ve done really well is provide napping spots in every room of the house. It puts a lot of pressure on the cats to use them all so I feel appreciated.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone napping in the house on the condo. So long, in fact, that I wouldn’t have seen Oliver if Obi hadn’t been so desperate to play.

After about half an hour of thumping on every side of the condo, Obi gave up and went to watch OutTV.

Poor brown kitten.

***
Yesterday was Oliver’s 12th birthday!
Yesterday was Obi’s 6th birthday!

Happy birthday, Kitten Thunder!

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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!

Nothing to See Here

I left the house today. Kitten Thunder didn’t approve.

***
The other evening, Obi and I were looking for millers through the front screen door. A beige cat appeared on our front sidewalk.

I looked down at Obi. He was interested in the other cat but not really concerned.

The cat moved down our walk toward the sidewalk. Then we heard the approach of a brother.

Uh oh.

Before I could react, Obi spun away from the door and walked nonchalantly toward his brother. He tackled Oliver and licked his face.

Nothing interesting outside. Nothing at all.

And the beige kitten disappeared down the sidewalk, out of sight by the time Oliver shook off his brother and got to the door.

Obi and I made eye contact. Close call.

Four Alarm Furor

Oliver is like a fun house mirror; he reflects what he sees only bigger or distorted. If I love him, he loves me more. If I cry, he MOURNS. If I yell at him for being bad, he hates me for ruining his life. If I take a nap, he becomes comatose. And if you yell at his Girl, he will END you.

Thus, day three of Operation: Calm the %$&# Down.

Soon after I wrote my early morning post on Sunday, Oliver and Obi fought again. They got a time out. They fought again. They got a time out. They fought again. They got a time out.

It was confusing because they cried at the door for each other the moment they were separated. When they were reunited, they’d bathe each other. They even thundered once. Then, in an instant, the anger and hatred returned.

Watching closely, I figured out the pattern. Obi flinched and hissed if Oliver approached him head on. One hiss is all it takes for Oliver to go full on fighty.

And so began a 48 hour brother detox program. Why? The particular movement that makes Obi hiss is a stress trigger. I read that most stress triggers can be forgotten, or recovered from, in 48 hours. Easy enough.

But the one big problem with Operation: Calm the $%&# Down is… We had to close a door.

Kitten Thunder can not handle a closed door.

I’ve got a pheromone ball plugged in and gave them calming treats, but the trauma of a closed door is real. By Monday at noon is gotten prescription happy pills (we’re not to Prozac, yet). They still sit at the door and yowl for an hour at a time, but they are stopping for a nap. The first day, they probably only got four hours of sleep in ten minute stretches. Not healthy for cats. By the time Oliver and I went to bed, in the basement, on Sunday night, he barely staggered into my arms before passing out. He still got up several times in the night to lament the closed door and lost brother.

They cry about the door. They cry for each other.

So today, the 48 very long hours was up and I was hopeful.

They met. They licked. They ate treats together. They wrestled. They ate more treats when The Girl thought they might be getting a little too rough. But there was no fighting. Once in a while Obi would cower, but he kept his hiss to himself.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then Oliver walked up to Obi in just a way. The brown kitten hit the floor and hissed. Oliver turned his ears back. I shook the treat bag in his face and happily chirped “who wants more snackums?”

Nope. I caught up to the brawl in The Boy’s office, where he was eating lunch. He grabbed a grey kitten and went to the living room. I held a nasty tempered brown kitten in my lap (his reflection is more measured, but he’ll give what he gets as well). The Boy let Oliver go and the grey kitten came right back in for another round.

Operation: Calm the $%&# Down continues with another day of separation. Maybe some short visits. I saw progress today.

In the meantime, our spare room bed is REALLY comfortable.

ALARM Clock

It’s very early in the morning on Sunday. We were planning on getting up early anyway, but didn’t quite have the luxury of sleeping until my alarm goes off… In half an hour.

Why? Because someone had a nightmare.

At least I assume that’s what happened. All The Boy and I witnessed was a huge series of crashes and cat screams from under the bed. I did at least think to put on my glasses before reaching under the bed to break it up. I ended up, luckily, with Oliver.

Things calmed down fairly quickly, but, not knowing what caused the fight, I didn’t want to take peace for granted. Oliver and I went into The Boy’s office and shut the door. From SHU (I watched Orange is the New Black last night) I asked the warden to make breakfast. He slid it under the door.

As soon as he was done eating, Obi went to the door and reached under for his brother. Obviously, there was nothing personal between the two of them. This brings me to the nightmare theory.

When all the excitement was over, The Boy went back to bed. And so did Obi. And so did Oli.

Me? I’m watching TV and writing my blog post. Because screaming cats? Way more affective than coffee.

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.

Rule Change

So I’m typing away at tonight’s blog, at I look up at the TV. It has a tail. A big, fluffy, Main Coon type tail. “Obi,” I say, “get out from behind the TV.”

The tail disappears. No cat here.

But then the TV grows ears. And a paw inches up toward the antennae hanging on the wall.

“OBI. GET DOWN.”

The ears and paw disappear. No cat here.

Oliver arrives from the other room and cries. Obviously, if someone is in trouble, it is him. He’s not aware of doing anything wrong, but he is always the one who gets yelled at.

The paw goes up toward the antennae again. I stand up. It’s a clear indicator that I mean business. Oliver cowers under the coffee table and whines.

“Oh. BEE.” The tail reappears. Followed by two feet up on the books next to the TV. Followed by the rest of a brown kitten. I have to clap my hands and take a step forward to get him to jump down from the mantle.

For the record, Obi is allowed on the mantle but he’s never gotten behind the TV before. He’s up there now, looking out the window. And glancing over to make sure that he’s not in trouble. Obviously he has crossed a line somewhere and needs to figure out where it was.

Oliver is snuggled hard into my side.

He’s not in trouble either, right Girl?

Seeing Red

Hello purrsons, Obi here. I wanted to tell you about a meaningful experience I had the other day. It started like any other evening. The Boy was on my chair and The Girl was on the couch. They were eating food that didn’t have tuna or cheese in it, even though they asked me what they should have and I told them. I don’t know why they ask me. They never listen.

Anyway.

I was bored. The Boy had rubbed my belly when he got home, but that was over. The Girl is home all day. That’s boring. Not that I wanted her to leave – whenever she leaves I have to spend a bunch of time retraining her to sit on the couch. She needs to sit on the couch. That’s where I can supervise her AND watch the good OutTV channels. Wrens in Bushes is going to start up again soon.

Anyway.

I was bored. Then The Girl called upon the Reddot. The Reddot is a rare visitor to our house, but I love it. It runs faster than Oliver. And it climbs walls. And it doesn’t tell on me if I leap from across the room and pounce on it’s back. Oliver is such a whiney butt. That’s what my purrsons call him. I agree. Though the whining doesn’t come from his butt.

Anyway.

I chased the Reddot around the living room for half an hour. A couple of times it got away from me, but whenever I gave up looking for it it came back to find me and ask for more chase. Once the Reddot and I were both tired, I stretched out on the floor to rest.

The Reddot climbed up on my paw. I was very still so it wouldn’t be scared away. I thought, maybe, it would stay and be my pet. Then we could play whenever we wanted. Oliver even likes the Reddot. It runs around him really fast and he chases it in tight circles until he falls down. Oli would like a pet Reddot. But, I thought, I would make him share equal – he would not be Alpha Reddot owner.

Anyway.

I was really still. I was so still that I dozed off. When I woke up, Reddot was gone. I guess what they say is true: “If you love something, set it free. If it is still there after you nap, it is yours. If it isn’t, be really nice to The Girl.”

Anyway.

The Girl asked if she could treat you to some memes about Reddot. I told her if it would get her to stop kissing my ears, she can do whatever she wants. I’m going to see if The Boy is doing any manstuff.

 This one isn’t about Reddot, but it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Please note: I put the URL for all of these memes in the code but something went wrong and it isn’t showing up. Faced with the choice of not posting them, I am choosing to post them with only the attributes that are visible. My apologies to the creators of this work. You made me LOL.

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.

Sunday Slow Day

When I got up this morning, Obi was bored. BORED. Boooored. I followed him to the belly rubbing rug and gitchy gitchied his belly for a few minutes. Then I rebuilt his cave and arranged the quilt as an annex to the cave.

Then I tossed a bunch of toys that have been sitting on his OutTV watching trunk since Christmas to him. He’s been playing exclusively with Flat Mousie for a while. He forgot about Funky Chicken! He forgot about Laser Mousie! He forgot about Cloth Mousie!

When he was surrounded by toys, I grabbed the phone to take a picture. He promptly got up and his in the cave.

But then Oliver came along. He has no problem having his picture taken.

But the cave monster took issue with his brother playing with HIS toys.

This is a picture of Oli and Obi. After a couple minutes of inter blanket warfare, Oliver left to see if there were snackums in the kitchen.

Obi decided that guarding his toys was more important than guarding himself from the paparazzi.