The price of admission

I’m 99% certain Stevie was removed from her mother too early. Since we first got her, she’s suckled and kneaded the cat beds, the little blankets we have tossed around for the kitties to sleep on, the bathmat—you name it, she’s probably suckled and kneaded it.

She’s about seven months old now, has gotten to 9.3 pounds (!) but hasn’t outgrown that suckling. In fact, it’s gotten more destructive probably because she’s bigger and stronger. 

So far, she’s chewed/suckled holes in our new bedspread (which is now covered by a blanket), the blanket covering our new bedspread, a pillow sham that matches the bedspread (yes, also new), one of Kent’s running socks (Icebreakers, they weren’t cheap), and sock of mine, a merino wool one from Feetures. Scroll down to see pictures of all the damage.

She’s also obsessed with shoelaces and destroyed a lace on my brand-new running shoes. Plus, she’s chewed the ends off a couple of ties in hoodies we own.

That doesn’t include the damage both girls have done with their sharp murder mittens. We’ve replaced the sheers in our dining room and hung the new set so that they cover about 2/3 of the window; they’ve used my old crappy office chair as a climbing post; they practice shredding on the leather bench at the end of our bed; they also started shredding our fairly new yellow upholstered chair in the living room. They’ve done all of this despite the bazillion toys we have around, the two cat trees with sisal rug fibers for awesome clawing, the cardboard lounger which is perfect for shredding, etc. etc. etc.

Last Friday, we took them to the vet to get Soft Paws put on. But after consulting with them, we’re going to get their nails trimmed at the vet’s every month. Turns out those Soft Paws don't last very long (like one to four weeks) and require the kittens being under anesthesia to put them on. The vet tech I talked to strongly urged us to do regular nail trims; she can get a much closer trim than we can, and the kittens can be mad at her and not us. I can trim Stevie's nails, no worries, but Annie (now 8 pounds) absolutely loses her mind and wails in such a heartbreaking manner, which also upsets Eddie. So we'll let the vet do it. 

I hope it helps. It’s also a good thing they’re cute kittens with big purrs. 

Here's the damage: you can see I've knotted my severed shoelace together, just hope it doesn't come undone on a run. I'd probably trip and fall.

Example of how she's bitten the blanket that's covering the bedspread (which is chewed, not neatly severed like this). Her teeth are as good as scissors, aren't they?

Here's the chewed pillow sham. Jerk.

She went to town on my poor sock. Not shown is Kent's running sock, which suffered less damage but still had a giant hole chewed through the sole.

Fortunately this chair is basically trash already, but still! 

And so much for having our gorgeous yellow armchair. Instead we have three bathmats and a cat cubby. Welcome to my world.