Reenfortress

I’m a big believer in shopping locally, but that doesn’t always translate into buying locally. Like when I can save $120 for a nonprofit client by avoiding Office Depot’s crazy markup.

Or when the regional metalworking store estimates the equipment I need to TRY a new technique will cost me $70 and I can find it online for less than half that – this, I suspect, was a communications/inventory issue and I will continue to check with them first.

Or when I can’t find a pair of high waisted, tight exercise pants in town at all. Until I found one ugly pair, finally, for about a mortgage payment ON CLEARANCE.

Anyway, The Boy and I have gotten some packages lately. And Kitteh Thunder has added on to the fortress.

And, since the weather is nicer today, I added to the cave.

But when The Girl giveth, she must also taketh away. While refreshing the tissue paper and packing paper I discovered some peed on paper.

No, Obi doesn’t know why his brother confused the watch tower with the water closet.

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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.

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.

A Bed Monster and His Boy

What’s better than being a bed monster? Having the Boy be there when you turn.

But The Boy broke the biggest rule of Bed Monster: no peeking.

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.

Battle: Fortress

I was cleaning the house today and ruthlessly tossing out parts of kitty playland; I removed several shopping bags, some tissue paper, and flattened boxes. Then I rebuilt the fortress in our entry way that consists of one large piece of paper and two boxes. I crumpled some tissue paper and tossed it in the box.

Oliver promptly climbed into the box and shoved the tissue out.

Obi arrived and pushed the paper ceiling down. Oliver ran from the fortress and there was a flurry of furry. A furry flurry.

Obi returned to stomp the paper down some more.

He tried out the inside of the fortress as Oliver returned.

But if it wasn’t going to cause a thunder, Obi didn’t really want to be in the box.

Oli reclaimed the box as Obi came to see what I was doing, laying flat on the floor in the living room.

Oliver made himself comfortable on the inside of the fortress. Obi found his spot on the outside.

I was inspired, after seeing the floor at this angle, to sweep.

And all was right with the world.

Oh Brudder

I’ve mentioned that we have a new morning routine. That includes Oliver leaving our post-breakfast snuggle to take a bath in the recliner. Then The Boy comes by and covers him with the blanket. At first he was tucking the grey kitten in. Lately, though, he’s been carefully draping the blanket over both arms of the recliner, making a nice big cave.

 

Oliver can stay in this cave for hours. Unless his brother wants to thunder.

This morning, Obi came tearing across the living room and jumped onto the “flat surface” of the blanket. He didn’t know Oli was under there, he swears. The blanket started to move and Oliver’s head popped up between the blanket and the back of the recliner. He climbed out of his cave.

Obi jumped down and ran a couple feet. He looked back.

Oliver resettled himself on top of the blanket and went back to sleep. Somehow, the blanket remained held up, slightly, by the arms so the grey kitten enjoyed a hammock. For a while. Then the brown kitten returned. Obi climbed into the cave and poked his brother from below.

Then he jumped down and ran a couple feet. He looked back.

Oliver was not chasing him.

Obi came and sat with me, sighing. After he’d maxed out mom time – about five minutes later – he went back to the recliner and tried again. Climb. Poke. Jump. Run. Look. It didn’t work so he went to get a snack. And tried again. Climb. Poke. Jump. Run. Look.

Nope.

The brown kitten tried all day to get his brother to thunder. As far as I know, it never happened. Eventually all the effort wore him out. He stretched out on the loveseat for a nap and I draped the big quilt over the whole seat, kitten and all, to make a nice big cave.

And Oliver has hopped up on top for a nap.

 

MeOwlympics

I got to kitteh-sit Gabe and Jenni this weekend. After watching some of the Olympics on television, Jenni was inspired to do some sporting of her own. First she tried team laying – her partner wasn’t very good, though, so she decided to try another event.

Gabe did an excellent job in individual laying.

 

Being a more active kitten, Jenni decided that ribbon dancing was a better event for her.

This is one of those events where artistry is judged as heavily as the skills required in each round. Note Jenni’s emoting. So much emoting. Obviously, this girl took home the gold.

When I got home, after a quick trip to the grocery store, Oliver was ready to show his own prowess in tandem laying. Note how he maintains his focus while I use him as a table to put gamepieces in my Albertsons’ Monopoly passport. Masterful. It’s a good thing Jenni moved on to other events.

 

We’re all winners here.

How to Build a Cave – Part…um…2013

Step 1 – Realize that you took down the cave in preparation for a party in June. Decide that autumn is cave weather.

Step 2 – Choose a location.

Step 3 – Pull out the cave material. Note that it is pre-haired from last season.

Step 4 – Enlist help. Attempt to take picture of help. Sigh and move on to step 5.

Step 5 – Anchor bottom of cave under the OutTV perch.

Sneak picture of helper while he inspects your work, the look innocent when he suspects your actions.

Step 6 – Tuck top of cave into the arm of the couch.

Step 7 – Take pictures as the helper goes through the punch list.

Laser Focus

The Boy and I went to dinner last night at a new local restaurant. I had this:

It is a pulled pork sandwich with macaroni and cheese, on sour dough bread, dipped in fry bread and, well, fried. And that next to it? Mashed potatoes drowning in four cups of butter.

After dinner I needed to walk for a while.

We decided to go to the pet store across the street to get a rug for the litter box. Just as I was thinking we should check out the toy aisle, The Boy said we would not get any mice for Obi. At first I thought he was psychic. Then I thought he knows me well. Then I realized he was talking about live mice, at which we had been looking a few minutes before.

So I veered into the toy aisle.

Obi has plenty of toys and the only one he plays with at the moment is flat mousie. That, and light reflected off our phones and onto the wall. I suggested we get a laser.

The Boy said he doesn’t need a laser, he has a phone and the sun.

I pointed out that the sun goes away. The Boy shrugged and walked off.

I pointed out, to myself, that the laser toys were on clearance for $4. Sold! Who can argue with such salesmanship?

The laser is much better than a reflection from a phone.

It goes up.

It goes down.

It goes all around.

Much to my disappointment, Obi will not attack The Boy when the red dot tries to make that happen. But he is laser focused for ten minutes at a time and I can wear him out while sitting on the couch.

Four dollars well spent.