Teach Me, Obi Wan

Every time I make the bed in my office, it gets unmade. A brown kitten burrows and shoves and digs until the sheets are piled in the middle. It is mostly annoying.

But this? This is impressive.

Obi wrapped himself up in the blankets; this is what we called a burrito baby when I was a kid.

Oh, wise Obi Wan Kittenobi, tell me the ways of The Force…

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Doodle Thunder

I’ve been out of town at a conference since Saturday. I’m sad to say The Boy reports that Kitten Thunder was less than inspired to do blog-worthy things while I was gone. It goes back to the age old question: If a kitten is cute in the living room but his blogger isn’t there to write about it, does anyone squee?

I made the mistake yesterday of talking to The Boy about his new car when I walked in the door. After five minutes I heard a “ME!” just before Oliver tried to climb me. Yes, Oli, you are the most important man in my life. Absolutely.

So, around Tuesday – judging by the doodles – I really started to miss the boys:

And cows. Evidently I missed cows. And pigs. But mostly cats.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for paying for that art degree.

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It’s Thunder Thursday! Rather than find a friend with a new cat for introduction, I’m shamelessly plugging my Pinterest board. I warn you, bloggy friends, that you should not take entering the Pinterest world lightly. Once you start it is really hard to stop.

It is kind of like the first year of professional Facebooking, when I thought in posts. Composed posts in the car. Carried bar napkins of posts in my purse…just kidding, I don’t carry a purse!

So the Pinterest board made special for Kitten Thunder is this one. The others are my other interests – I do have them, you know. I’m NOT a crazy cat lady. I don’t know if it helps my cause or hurts it that you’ll find out about my Dr. Who and Star Wars obsessions…

On the boards? You’ll see the thinks that make me ooh, or ahh, or giggle. Like this:

What’s in a name?

Today was quite the day. It started with being run off the interstate on my way to work, about which I will only say that my Saturn once again saved the day and that I hate GM for making it so I will never have a car as good as this one ever again. I realize Saturn lovers weren’t making them any money, what with our fanatic attachment to our cars, but come on! And go ahead, send me another email about how the Chevy Malibu is perfect for me. I’m thinking about a phrase, GM, and it rhymes with Malibu…but I don’t cuss on this blog.

I mean, I don’t cuss. At all. Hi Mom; hi Dad; hi Grandma!

At lunch time we made dioramas with peeps for a contest amongst friends. I maintained that this was the only good use of peeps. Then I felt bad for condemning a food I have not eaten for well over 15 years. So I had one. Now I feel bad for considering them food. Really. I feel bad. Peppermint tea and ramen noodles for dinner type bad.

ANYWAY! Cats! We’re here to talk about cats! This is the first day Obi came to live with us. And the first time he used The Force to keep his brother from beating him up. Look at that masterful Obi-esque paw wave.

"You do not want to thwap me on the head..."

Cat owners have numerous names for their fuzzies and Kitten Thunder is no exception. I thought I’d let you in on the roll call and the reasons being the names.

Oliver – Well, this was not my most creative choice ever. He’s an orphan. He was little and pathetic. But I defend myself by saying that Oliver! is my favorite musical of all time. I used to sing “I’d do anything,” poorly I am sure, to Oliver all the time.

Bunny – Oli has big eyes, big feet and huge ears. And a cute little pink nose. He also happens to have fur that is as soft as a bunny’s. We noticed lately that if he left tracks in the snow they would be quite similar to a rabbit’s because he walks with his front feet in a line and his back feet slightly off set.

Handsome Grey Man – Well, he’s grey. And male. And a pretty good looking cat. He is also my Brown-eyed Boy. I do not sing the related song to him…mostly because I don’t know any of the words. But I think it at him.

Pi – Pi is Oli’s middle name because when he was little everyone said he was such a sweety pie…and a cutey pie. So I started calling him Kitten Pie. I dropped the “e” because my whole family has this thing against extraneous letters.

Obi Wan Kittenobi – So I know this will come as a shock to you, but I am a huge Star Wars fan. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret. And I am so shamed about this. The name Obi actually came from the week before I adopted him but after I’d decided we needed a second cat. It stands for…Oliver’s Brother. It wasn’t until I got him home and couldn’t stop calling him Obi Wan that he got the rest of his name.

Tail – When Obi is walking he holds his tail up straight. You can see it, much like a shark fin, when he walks past a bed or couch. “Hello, Tail,” we say. And, like that shark, if it disappears you know he’s about to jump up.

Belly – When Tail lays down and demands attention, he becomes Belly. We’re a creative bunch in this household.

Cricket – We don’t use this one much but, since Poco was Bear and Oli is Bunny, I thought he needed an animal name. As I’ve mentioned before we hold his previous owner in a highly negative light for calling him Tiger. So…Cricket. Obi has many meows and one of them is a high pitched, short chirp. Another is a trill.

Handsome Brown Boy – Male. Brown. Good looking. Hey, I’m creative for a living and for charity, sometimes I just have to give that half of my brain a rest and state the obvious.

It’s Thunder Thursday! THURSday ThursDAY THURSDAY! And Cousin Puck thinks it’s time for Smackdown.

“I crush my competition in the cage match.”

Puck is a handsome puddle of a cat. No really, when he sits he kind of puddles. He just kind of oozes out from the sides. Part of his size has to do, probably, with him being the kind of cat that lays down to drink water. But he’s on a strict diet so don’t blame my brother and his family – they’ve done all they can do. He looks good as a puddle, anyway.

 

In spite of his size, Puck is actually active when he wants to be. He plays with the kids. He terrorizes the dog. His favorite thing to do is sit on the top step of the stairs into the basement so the dog can’t get into the family room without walking past. She’s very pathetic, crying in the laundry room because a cat 1/3 her size is picking on her.

 

Here’s my second confession of the night: for a good two years I thought that someone in their family liked Shakespeare and named Puck after…well, Puck. Sad. Have I mentioned that my brother is the coach for, and my nephew plays on, the Riverton River Rats hockey team?

Mad Jedi Skills and the Banana Chair

As I said in my last post, the grandpeople came for a visit this weekend to see my nephew play in the state hockey tournament (congrats on your 4th place win, River Rats!). They brought the banana chair that my brother and I used to sit in to play video games with them. As soon as it was set down in the living room it was good fun for the cats and great for cat watching.

First of all, this chair smells like several cats Kitten Thunder has never met: Gracie, Stoney, Spade and possibly even Stasha. It’s also possible that it smells like Poco from way back when – it was one of her favorite places to sleep when we lived at the grandpeople’s house. It is FULL of interesting smell.

And…it rocks. Oliver spent most of the time he was smelling the chair putting his front paw on it. Then it would rock forward and smack him in the face. Then he’d take his paw off and it would rock back and hit the wall. Rinse and repeat this scenario a thousand more times. Then Obi took his turn.

Obi Wan Kittenobi did the face smacking wall smacking face smacking wall smacking routine for a couple minutes. Then he got on the chair and put his weight on the back of the chair, riding it as it swung back to hit the wall. Then he’d sit back and ride it as it rocked forward.

Then, in an unexpected move of Jedi might, Obi put the chair in its place. He strolled, very casually, about four feet from the chair. Then he twisted back, flew into the air, and landed a flying drop kick right to the center of the chair back. As the chair impacted the wall, Obi propelled himself from the chair and landed – in a surprisingly graceful way – in the same spot from which he’d taken off.

That’ll show that chair.

Ten minutes later he was laying in the chair taking a nap. Really, you just have to show the furniture who is boss. I’d show you a picture of the cute kitten sleeping in the cozy chair, but Obi Wan also used The Force to feel the camera coming and got up. Jedi jerk.

To entice him back – we have a blog to put out here, you know – I turned the banana chair into a chair cave. And we all know how hard it is for a Jedi to resist going into the cave. He can really get that chair a-rocking when it is also a cave.

"Come to the dark side, we have tuna."

Oliver will come around to the banana chair. At the moment he’s using it to guard his hiding spot behind the recliner. While his brother is distracted by the rocking brought on by a move to the left, Oli is escaping to the right.

Besides, Oli already stole the most comfortable napping spot in the house from Obi.

"Who needs The Force when you have a fuzzy blanket?"