Double feature

The first video is a montage of how the kitties reacted to their new, ultra swanky lounger from Kerry and Brad. We sprinkled cat nip on it because at first they were pretty wary of it.





And you can think of this second video almost as an outtake, or perhaps just more proof that Eddie can be a bit of a bully.

A kitty rumble

First, merry Christmas from all of us to you. I hope you are spending today with those you love.

Second, Eddie and Wally aren't so good at the whole brotherly love thing. Even though they're litter mates, they sometimes fight like . . . uh cats and dogs.

Here they are yesterday, on Christmas Eve:



Told you  Eddie gets piggy with the cat perch.

He's not fat, he's . . . fat

Another cat in a box picture:

And just for context and so you can truly see that no, no he doesn't fit in this box at all:

That box is missing part of the side, the part where you see Eddie's body coming out. Kent cut that bit out to put over the power strip he uses for his desk computer and light because Wally has figured out how to turn off the power.

You may think I'm exaggerating that cat's intelligence, but I'm not. He gets bored and will first try to get our attention by pawing at the front of Kent's CPU. If that doesn't work or he doesn't like the results (he's usually looking for a specific toy and we don't always get it right), he's been walking to the back of the CPU where the power strip is on the floor and then turning the power off. Well as you might imagine, that gets him attention right away . . . although I'm pretty sure it's not the kind of attention he's looking for.


And here are a couple of pictures that show how Eddie will try to force Wally off the top perch by way of his size:

The top perch is the smaller of the two perches -- you can see the second perch under Eddie but he doesn't want the bigger, lower perch. He wants the top perch.

Wally looks pretty squished, doesn't he?

Utterly random

First, a cat in a box:

And second, my hair's been long enough to braid for a while although I just got around to having Kent take a picture:

Sadness

Is losing the last 1/8 cup measuring cup from my set of Foley cups.

You may remember I wrote about the search for Foley cups. Since they are out of business, finding those measuring cups was not easy. And now we've lost both of the 1/8 cups. The handle on one cup just flat fell off, and this one didn't survive a close encounter with the disposal.

Alas, poor measuring cup!

Pigs on parade

When we were in Smithfield a couple of weeks ago, we saw some of the pigs that make up their Porcine Parade. Gotta say I was tickled by the piggies and it reminded me of the cows in Kansas City (Kansas City participated in the cow parade in 2001).

So enjoy and maybe throw in an oink or two.

Christmas decorations

If you celebrate Christmas, do you decorate your house? Put up a tree? Maybe use different plates?

I’ve written about this before, I know. But for someone who usually decorates, I haven’t done much in the last six years.

• In 2007, we’d put our house up for sale so no decorations were allowed.
• We spent our first Christmas in Boston in 2008, and did manage to find a ceramic tree that ended up getting knocked off the table and breaking. That’s cats for you.
• 2009 was a challenge all the way around because we’d recently flooded and were living in a temporary place while our home underwent extensive renovations. Kent convinced me we should spend money we didn't really have to get a little tree made of Christmas decorations. 
• In 2010, we went to Oklahoma for Christmas, I was traveling pretty much 100% and didn’t see any point to put up things only the cats would see and probably destroy. And apparently I was so swamped, I didn’t even write a blog post about Christmas that year, except my not-very-subtle hint to Kent about Despicable Me.
• Last year, Kent surprised me with a tiny live tree which had little colored lights and teeny tiny decorations. That was pretty cool. We put up other decorations too but couldn’t hang our ornaments on the tiny tree (it was about 18 inches tall).
• This year, we figured we wouldn’t put up the tree we bought after Christmas last year.* We’re moving in the middle of January and thought we’d save ourselves the hassle. We also feared  that Wally and Eddie would either eat the tree (remember, Wally loves plastic) or knock it over or both.

But after the events of last week in Connecticut and China, I realized I really truly did want to celebrate almost as a way of defying such evil events. I asked around about cat deterrents, found the recommended product and sprayed the snot out of the lower third of the tree. We strategically hung decorations no lower than about 18 inches off the floor and used soft ornaments at the lower levels. So far, Eddie’s tried to eat a branch just once, and both have stayed out of it.  

And now we have a place to put our presents. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

*Yes, I like live trees too, but I'm also aware of my own limitations. I remember to give the cats fresh water every day but they are quite vocal in their reminders. Trees don't really have that ability.