American Kitten Warrior

Hello, I am The Girl and I am an American Ninja Warrior addict.

Kitten Thunder, though, is not impressed. They face these challenges every day…

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Good evening and welcome to the latest episode of American Kitten Warrior. I’m Girl Thunder and I’m here with my cohost, Boy Thunder. Tonight we’ll see Stage Thursday of the competition with our two competitors, Oliver Pi and Obi Wan Kittenobi.

First up, Obi takes on the Spider Wall. Look at his form as he chases the spider up this near vertical surface. Clearly his training is paying off tonight – it doesn’t look like he’s struggling at all with this obstacle.

Meanwhile, Oliver is on the cat shelf taking on the Sleeper Challenge. Honestly this is one of the hardest obstacles on the course but seems like it should be really easy. But sleeping through an entire afternoon is harder than it looks.

Back to Obi Wan who has moved on to the Half Wall. He jumps up easily but WHOA! He almost lost his balance there and that is a long way down. I’m sure he’s breathing a sigh of relief. He looks to the crowd to see if anyone noticed his bauble – sorry pal, we were all watching.

Now over to Oliver who is attempting the Full Body Stretcher. Each contestant gets three tries at this obstacle. Form is very important here. A lot of contestants underestimate how important it is the stretch from one group of muscles to the next adjacent group of muscles. If you go in with haphazard stretching, there is NO WAY to continue the stretch through your eyebrows and up into your ears. Oliver is a pro at this one, though, and he handles a stretch that goes all the way from his back toes, through his body and utilizes every muscle in his face. Well done.

Yes, impressive work, there.

Obi has moved on to the Supervision Stage. There are two different approaches to take with this challenge – some competitors go with a direct, in-your-face approach that resembles a full snuggle while others choose a more subtle I’m-just-over-here-napping approach. We’ll see what Obi does here…wow! In a surprise move, Obi Wan has climbed into my lap and is supervising well within my reach. This is not the method I would have expected to see from him tonight.

Both Oliver and Obi have reached the final obstacle, the Kitty Cruncher, at the same time. Will they be able to get through the challenge working in tandem? This. Is. Impressive. Both kittens are eating crunchies at the same time, alternating mouthfuls and chewing in a perfectly synchronized manner. Honestly, it looks like they’ve been doing this their whole lives.

AND THEY ARE THROUGH! Both competitors have made it through tonight’s obstacles and are on to the next round. Tune it tomorrow as we enter Stage Friday of AMERICAN KITTEN WARRIOR!

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And now, some science. Kitteh style.

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This is my 400th blog post! Thank you for coming along.

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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.