Disco Kitten

Last year during the family Christmas shopping trip, I bought myself a pretty teal shirt covered in clear sequins. It seemed to be a perfect amount of festive and I was really excited about it.

Then I wore it.

Before noon it had rubbed sore spots on my arms. By the end of the work day I couldn’t wait to take it off. I’m pretty sure I did take it off the second the door closed behind me.

This shirt has been in my closet for a year. It has survived several rounds of culling because it is so pretty, even though looking at it made me sad because I was never going to wear it again.

But then! This week I realized that I could protect my arms and cover the more offending sequins if I wear a cardigan over the shirt. And so I did. Plenty of sparkle, no road rash.

And there’s an extra, unanticipated benefit.

Three solid hours of sparkle reflection entertainment for the brown kitten. By the time the sun stopped coming in my office window and the light show was over, Obi was ready for a nap.

His brother was happy to oblige.

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Conundrum

When I last posted, we were wondering what poor Obi would do about belly rubs now that the quilt is off the floor. At lunch time he had tried to talk The Boy into going into the fort with him.

That didn’t happen.

So what did the brown kitten do for his after work belly rub? Did he…

A) Do a belly flop onto the fort to collapse the whole thing?

B) Decide to get his belly rub on the quilt, now wadded up in a pile on the couch?

C) Decide that a piece of brown packing paper on the other side of the room was the proper place for belly rubbing.

D) Try really hard to find belly rubs on the basement carpet satisfying.

The answer is…E) all of the above.

Tuesday was a horrible night for Obi as he tried desperately to get a decent belly rub. None of these options worked for him. Two days later there is still no solution.

To make matters worse, he REALLY likes the fort. He plays in it all day.

Life is so hard for an abused brown kitten.

I suggested, while The Boy and Obi were trying to complete a morning belly rub today, that maybe he should just get his belly rubbed right there on the rug where it used to happen. Obi glared at me and walked away.

The Boy pointed out that Obi has never liked this rug. It was the old rug that was the belly rubbing rug.

Oh.

Poor abused brown kitten. The Boy giveth and The Girl taketh away.

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.

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.

Battle: Ear Wax

As I have mentioned before, Oliver has allergies. Allergies that do gross things to my handsome grey kitten like give him goopy eyes, chin zits and icky ears. If the symptoms don’t bother him I usually don’t put him through a veterinary visit. But after cleaning his ears on Monday? His ears were bothering him. I called in my favorite people at Cottonwood Veterinary Clinic.

Obi and I met Tiffany and Laura at the door, because that’s what we do. They came in and set up while we small talked. What they didn’t notice, while unpacking and rubbing Obi’s belly, was Oliver coming in, checking them out, then going upstairs with hopes that they were there to see Obi. So I had to go upstairs to fetch the grey kitten.

Still holding Oli, I presented his ears to the doctor. She was appropriately concerned by the caverns of black crusty mess. And a little bit suspicious that it might be ear mites. I agreed with her that it certainly LOOKED like ear mites. But Oliver is an indoor cat. And he and Obi lay ear to ear all the time but Obi’s ears are clear. And, until Monday, there was no itching or head shaking. I hadn’t ruled it out, but ear mites seemed so unlikely.

And then the ear cleaning began.

There was hissing and screaming and growling. There was not enough cotton ready. It. Was. Gross.

During the whole process, I held Obi. Obi cried. He was very concerned about what they were doing to his brother. When I wasn’t holding him, he would run up and try to help free the brother. 

Finally, it was over. 

Oliver stomped off. Then he came back, ears pressed down to show they were broken, and fixed Tiffany with a mighty glare. He left again with a flick of his tail. “I think he just flipped me off!” she said. Then she played with Obi for a minute. The brown kitten forgave everyone as soon as the growling and hissing stopped.

After a quick trip to look at gunk under a microscope, the ears are officially full of bacteria, NOT bugs. After nine hours I was forgiven, even though Oli’s ears were still bright red inside. Poor kitten. And after I poured medicine in his ears this morning, Oliver was perfectly okay with me leaving town for a while.

***

I am in Rock Springs right now for business. Cousin Spade is standing in for my usual IT team.

Here he is, looking for some more accessories for my laptop. Or the notebook that I need but left on the coffee table in Cheyenne.

***

So! As you may know, Kitten Thunder has a Zazzle store. Our top seller is our Meowy Christmas ornament. Personally, I would buy the 2-sided ornament that says Meowy Christmas and a Happy Mew Year, but whatever. My point is this: if one option is good, many options is better! Instead of just Cousin Spade, who is super handsome, I would like to offer many faces on this ornament. A Meowy Christmas ornament with a calico. One with a grey tabby. An orange tabby. Long hair, short hair, no hair! If you have a gorgeous feline that would like to be featured on an ornament, please send me a photo of your furry friend at angelharp64@hotmail.com.

 

Snow Go

Obi is waiting for someone to be unsuspecting. Oddly, no one is falling into his clever trap.

I didn’t blog last night because The Boy and I have a party to go to in Jackson tonight and I needed to get all my work for today done last night. Then this happened.

Technically, we could still get to Jackson for the party. But an eight hour drive through slushy pick – which hit the entire state – for a four hour party with total strangers? It just didn’t seem worth it at 6 a.m. Especially with the Grand Teton and Yellowstone being closed; the original plan was to stay two nights and visit our parks.

So instead, this happened.

Oliver thinks we should declare a snow day. I told him we will absolutely work from the couch all day but we will, in fact, do some work. He has left me, alone on the couch, in protest.

***

Not cat related, but worth telling:

Since I crawled back into bed after feeding the cats and checking road conditions, I had time for a bonus dream. I often have dreams about stepping in to help local newsman Bob Geha anchor the news. I’m usually excellent at this. Not today.

First, we didn’t have chairs or a desk so we were sitting on the floor.

Second, instead of doing a short summary and tossing it to the meteorologist, I gave the entire weather report. Poorly.

Then, at the first commercial break I realized I’d just gotten out of the shower and had a towel on my head. I took that off, tousled my hair and started looking for clothes. I found a Christmas sweater. This turned out to be appropriated because – before I could find pants – they introduced me to a small dog in Christmas clothes that was my next segment. I had time to meet Jerry the dog and learned how to make her smile at the camera before we went back on air.

Then the segment started…and I realized I didn’t know why we were talking about Jerry? Was this for an event? A charity? So I started describing this tiny dog. As a mix of a toy poodle and…a malamute.

This, luckily, is where I woke up. Right before a segment with a large Indian family (I’m reading a book about Bengal). I’m hoping that no one in my dreams recorded this episode; it will totally ruin my chances for dream substituting for future newscasts.

Six Pack of Fun

I was at Big Lots looking for a specific piece of furniture for a client – sometimes my work takes me in interesting directions. No luck on the furniture, but I did buy some Trendy Tops – the best invention ever for those of us with long torsos. And I bought something else.

Obi’s tweeter bird died last night. The Boy was tossing the bird for the brown kitten while we were waiting for dinner to be ready. Halfway through the play, the bird stopped chirping.

A non-chirping bird is hardly any fun at all.

For this reason, and because Obi only has hundreds of toys – and because they were only a dollar – I bought Kitten Thunder a six pack of chickens. Actually, only three are chickens. The other three are eggs.

Obi approves.

Stupid Rules

Obi has had it with his people. He is offering himself up to anyone willing to serve him without inventing a bunch of stupid rules that ruin his life.

It started last night when the brown kitten tossed his tuna in the hallway. He came by the chair to get some ear kisses from The Girl, kneaded The Boy on the couch, and went over to the loveseat to nap. Then he started coughing and gagging.

The Boy said: “Don’t toss your tuna on the furniture!”

This afternoon, I planted bulbs in the garden and brought our basil and parsley inside. I also bought some Venus flytraps to eat whatever else came inside with the pots.

The Boy and I were discussing how long it would take for the kittehs to start chewing on the plants. We have big plants so it won’t matter at all that they do – I’d already checked to make sure they were safe. Obi arrived. He jumped on the table and immediately climbed into the parsley pot.

The Girl said: “You can’t lay in the pots!”

Ten minutes later, I was cleaning the main floor bathroom. Obi came along and jumped to the back of the toilet. He used the toilet seat, covered in cleanser, as a step. “NoNoNo!” I said. I asked The Boy, who had dry hands, to remove the brown kitten.

The Boy muttered something to Obi about not needing his help to scrub toilets.

The Girl said: “No kitten paws in the chemicals.”

These are all new rules. Obi finds them ridiculous.

Is he right or is he right?

***

Last week, I took care of The Three.

Gabe was watching from the front window when I grabbed the paper. He turned his head to watch for me to go around back. I tapped on the glass to get his attention. He gave me a very definite, “stop messing around and get me my breakfast” look.

Jenny and I played with her pink ribbon. Shortly after this, she grabbed it and ran to the living room where I draped it over Gabe and they played together.

Gus wanted nothing to do with the playing. Just watching was thirsty work.

Lookie Here

I am not photogenic. I have a chin in real life that disappears in photos. I am so pale, my skin is actually translucent – but not in that pretty way that they describe in books. And I am awesomely talented when it comes to making a stupid face or closing one eye just as the shutter clicks.

So when the Cheyenne Animal Shelter signed with Val Rothwell Photography to do our board pictures, I felt really bad for her. As I feel bad for any photographer who has to try to make me look presentable. And then we added Obi.

Val is a trooper.

Before you continue, I want you to go and look at the photos on Val Rothwell Photography. I want you to see the adorable dogs. The cute babies. The beautiful families. She captured them all.

So this is not her fault.

Will Obi look at the camera for me? For Val?

Nope.

Nuh uh.

No way.

Not gonna happen.

NopeNopeNope.

Fine. What? The Girl looks stupid?

By the way, MY eyes were open in all of these until THIS one.

I’m outta here.

This is not okay.

Ta daaaaaaa!

Despite our very best efforts, Val DID manage to get a shot about which I’m not completely mortified. Sure, Obi is in a headlock and I’m wearing a shirt for which I should lose my degree in public relations (seriously, photog101 says that pattern is a no no), but we’re looking toward the camera. Ish.

I’d tell you that you should take all your cats to Val for a portrait, but I heard her confide that every time she donates a pet portrait session to a Cheyenne Animal Shelter fundraiser she prays for a dog owner. So do that. Take your dog.

Your cat isn’t interested anyway.

Bestest. Day. EVAH.

It is raining in Cheyenne. It has been raining since Monday. They now say it will continue to rain through Saturday. In my opinion, this is far better than the ridiculous high temperatures we’ve been having. My only concern is that the people of Cheyenne are solar powered; they can not maintain their high level of friendliness when we go this long without sun.

But my solar powered ness helped lead to yesterday: the bestest. Day. Evah.

First, the blanket is back on the bed and Oliver was still tucked in under my chin, purring away, when the breakfast bell went off. He stretched and waited almost patiently while The Boy and I whined about getting up when we were oh so cozy.

While feeding the kittehs, I realized I had a migraine. I found the couch, and a fuzzy blanket. I opened the window to let the cool air in. Oliver joined me a few minutes later.

And there we stayed.

And stayed.

And stayed.

And stayed.

Obi aura snuggled for a little while, but he was also having a good day. Because there was OutTV with Smell-o-Vision. And whatever was going on outside the dining room window?

The bestest program EVAH.