We Love Weekends!

Don’t we all love weekends? I love them more now. It seems each weekend by Sunday the kids have changed, grown or in some way are different (in a better way) then Friday night. Some weekends in previous weeks, it felt like we had whole different kitties.

Two weekends ago was no different. This time they started talking. Most information sites will tell you that Pixie Bob’s don’t meow. We’ve found that to be true. They make noises but not meows. Oliver when he gets very playful, he also gets very possessive and will growl. If we pick them up and they don’t want to be picked up, they will make a noise.  But not a meow. At times the noises they make sounds a bit like dolphins or seals something like that. Yesterday it changed. They decided that since their "parent humans" vocalize they would.

It started Friday night, they didn’t like the all dry food given to them that morning. I was mixing dry and wet food and they started ‘chirping’ not just once but they kept doing so until I put the bowls down. Each feeding they got louder and started to meow. It wasn’t until I was cooking and Oliver walked into the kitchen and announced himself with a kitten soft meow. That kind of scared me. He got the attention he was looking for.

This morning Sadie was standing in front of the decorative pillows and started meowing at them. When I called her name she came running to me and flopped at my feet. In all honestly, I really miss hearing a cat meow. Our last cat would ‘talk’ to you when you got home. It was like she was telling you about her day. She didn’t talk all the time but it was nice to hear her. It’s now nice to hear the ‘kids’.

At this point I think the kids have learned that if they vocalize they will get attention and get it very quickly.

The Things Kittens Like....

It’s fun each day to see what they kids are going to do.

Sit down and start writing the blog, there is ‘turnup’!  Oliver comes and sits beside you and at times to even try typing. Sadie is not a lap cat, but she does want to know where you are and what you are doing.

This weekend we vacuumed.  Sadie found a new place to hide. A wine box in the office. I coaxed her out but our quiet time was sweet. She would come out of the box and head bump me then walk back into the box.

Oliver is a toy hoarder. We will be playing with one toy with his favorite mouse in his mouth. We now have 8 of those mice with 2 we still haven’t given him. He likes the bell inside of the mouse.  The kitties are very hard on these mice and when they tear a hole big enough I have to pull the bell out.  You know, kids and a choking hazard.

Sadie has a strange quirk. She likes to lick the Sticky Paws tape that we have on a few furniture pieces. I LOVE this stuff!. It’s double sided, surgical grade tape. Anything she takes a liking to for scratching gets Sticky pawed. Sadie likes the tape, she licks it. She tries to bite and rip it off.

They both like sitting at the patio screen door. The birds seem to be a little bit of entertainment but are not something that is super interesting. Same thing with the baby bunny that was on the patio.

Sadie likes boxes, Oliver not so much. They both can do without paper grocery bags.

Oliver likes to get on the bathroom counter when I am getting ready in the morning putting my make up on. We have turned on the faucet to see if he’ll drink from it. Not yet, but he does think its a toy to be bounced on. Yes, he sees the water and jumps to the sink.

What is super cute, they both know how to use the mirror. Oliver likes the bathroom mirror and Sadie will use the larger floor mirror by the front door. She can act like she is ignoring us, but watch every thing we are going.

Oliver loves looking out the window. He will jump up to the window ledge and just watch what is going outside of his castle. Sadie on the other hand could careless. The fact that Oliver can jump from the floor to the window sill has me worried. The window sill is only a few inches less then the counter top. When they start counter top surfing, we’ve entered a whole new world.
 

Each week is a new revelation. It could be the typical antics of kittens as they grow.  Yet, there are some very unique characteristics that is unique from other kittens and cats that we have had in the past.  Whatever it may be, we are having great fun watching these two grow up!

Houston, We’re going to need a bigger boat!!

Alright, wrong quote. But I think the phrase works.

Sadie has always been bigger then Oliver. As the months go past, she is growing by leaps and bounds.

We have had issues with kitty harness. Sadie is to big for the small dog harness and it’s to thick for Oliver. Thankfully we can donate the harness and lead. Tim really wanted to get the kids a mesh harness, which is what we did today.

Oliver’s mesh harness is blue checkered.  Very manly compared to the pink harness we had originally gotten for Sadie.

Sadie’s harnes, well, was pink. Was? Yes, WAS! The size on the tag said it fit 10-12 in necks. Maybe cat tags are like women’s clothing sizes. One manufacturer you wear a 10 another an 8, still another 12 and not kidding another one 6. I wrestled Sadie into her harness. She didn’t like it at all. We didn’t have a problem when I put her into the dog harness so this behavior was odd. Checking the size of the harness I noticed the neck was snug. SNUG! A 6-month old kitten doesn’t fit in a cat harness. We are so in trouble! “Little” Sadie Lady isn’t so little.

We don't have a scale in the house so I can’t say just how much the kids weight. But if a cat harness is snug at 6-months, this is going to be an interesting journey with how they are growing.

Sorry blog followers, no pictures in today's blog.  

April Fool’s Day, Mom!!

In full disclosure, this hijinks didn’t happen on April 1 (the kids 6-months old and can’t read a calendar), but we are going with April Fool joke.

Oliver has his favorite mouse. We actually have 6 of the same mouse, but we tied a string to the tail of the mouse to drag it along the floor. He carries this mouse and string around the house. Some time it gets stuck on Sadie as she walks away. This morning it got caught on Tim’s shoe.

He’s played with it under the dining room table and wrapped the string around the chair with no string left.

Last week, I tried to pull my chair out to sit down for dinner. I couldn’t! Seems the kids tied my chair to table leg! Don’t believe me? The check out the pic above!

Two Month Anniversary!

March 24^th was the second month anniversary of bringing the kids home. Who can remember all the issues we had with Sadie? Well the scars on my wrist will remind me, of how far we have come.

 

As the rest of the country had snow, rain or low temperatures, Seattle had nearly 60 degree sunny weather. Taking advantage of the weather we put Oliver in Sadie’s harness and leash. Why Sadie’s?

Thinking Oliver, being a male, would be larger I purchased him a small dog harness. Plus, a small dog harness is easier to put on then a cat harness. Really, whoever thought a design where you had to put something over your cats head was a great idea? Sadie has outpaced Oliver in the height, weight and girth categories. I did try to put Oliver in the harness but it was so thick it was hard for him to walk.

Putting him in Sadie’s harness was tough getting it over his head but when it was on he was fine walking around.  We took him out to the patio. He was scared but he also was adventurous. He started exploring the grass, the fence and the plants.

In the meantime, Sadie came to the patio door. She watched Oliver and was making her little noises, like ‘HEY WHAT ABOUT ME!”. I went in and got Oliver’s harness. I had tried it on her before, with a horrible outcome. I knew this time to loosen it up. She let me put it on her and when I open the door she just stood at the door. We picked her up and carried her to the grass. She didn’t care for that.

She did come back to me and I put her on my lap and she was happy as all that to sit on my lap and watch Oliver explore. As Olive explored more, Sadie became more confident. Seeing that nothing bad happened to Oliver she felt it was safe enough to explore the paved area of the patio.

We’ve taken them out since them, but Sadie is growing so fast, the small dog harness is almost to small! There is a winery north of Seattle that has a car show over Memorial Day that we are looking to taking Oliver and maybe Sadie up there for a picnic. Hopefully we can work with them enough that they will be comfortable being outside on a lead in a strange place with lots of people. If they don’t, that is fine we will still harness them and have them sit with us on the patio. Hey, they don’t call Seattle the emerald city for nothing. Summer here is amazing and most dinners are taken on the patio.

 

  

We so much enjoy watching the kids grow up, expand, explore and show their personalities. Sadie is a little love bug. Not as adventurous as Oliver but she is owns the house. Oliver knows for sure the world is here just to play with him. We’ve nicknamed him TURNUP, why? Start petting Sadie, sit down with a book, he all of the sudden “turns up” out of nowhere. 

Sadie is nicknamed, FLOP. You have no idea when or where that she is going to lay down. It is one movement, almost like her legs gave out. She will flop down right in front of you to pet her or dare is say, pick her up?  Perhaps near enough a toy suggesting that she wants to play. At night she’ll walk up to my neck and flop over so I can pet her. We are so happy to have these kids and were happy to have both of them (maybe a little less happy when I clean the 3 litter boxes, everyday!).  Who would think that so much comes out of such little bodies.

And they are just shy of 6-months and they can get some major air time!  They love playing and with all the exercise they get, those muscles are getting stronger and stronger.

What was that? It was a U.F.O.!!!

Yes, we are now believers of U.F.O.'s.  Seriously!  They do exist!! And I have proof!! This Unidentified FURRY Objects that we have in the house are so fast and quick that it is hard to identify who it is!!

The human family will be doing our thing; eating, reading or some computing.  Sometimes we are laying there in bed.  Then we hear a distant tinkling of a bell and a flash of fur passing us. This little ball of fur is being chased by another.  These U.F.O.'s seem to travel in two's.  But we have no idea if it is Oliver or Sadie leading the way.

Oh, sometimes they will appear without warning and flash by.  One may see for a split second a long or short tail.  If that is the case, then we can identify who it is. 

I say that they travel in two's because sometimes, the short tail U.F.O. is being chased by a long tail U.F.O..  Then in the opposite direction in a matter of seconds, it is the short tail chasing the long tail.

I will have to say too that sitting there on the couch watching TV, there is such a noise that we can hear through the floor and coming downstairs.  How can such a little kitten make so much noise?  You would expect a larger animal and not a little 5lb furry creature.  Let alone 2 of them running about!

The early mornings are sometimes play time.  And Oliver the last few days has taken up playing with his mouse in bed!  Yes, he not only will carry it around in his mouth during play period during the day time.  But has now jumped up onto the bed with it and proceed to play with it on our legs.

I joked with my wife when we were contemplating getting these guys how we would tell them apart.  Especially at night.  We certainly need to see the tail of whom ever it is to know who it is we should address.

Oh, and it is "shower" time for them in the middle of the night.  Sometime between 12 midnight and 3, they will proceed to wash each other.  This typically turns into biting and pawing and then play.  But they also will wash themselves.  I kid you not, this morning, Oliver washed himself for a good 35-minutes.  He even licked my finger and nudged to wash his face and ears.  Feeling used!

Ah, and they are beginning to shed.  Past Sunday I put on a freshly dry cleaned suit for Sunday worship.  There were 3 or 4 tiny hairs.  This morning on my hat, I found about 8 hairs.  On my hat!  Our last cat we had, it was amazing where her hair would turn up but was not that much.  We now have 2 kitties that are starting to place their fur all over.  We may need to buy extra sticky rollers.

It really is nice to see the kids becoming more and more used to there forever home.  I recall that it was tough with Sadie not wanting to show herself and hiding under our bed.  And now she is out and about, always playing with either Oliver or a rolled up piece of paper.  Sadie has such a precious face.  Oliver has an inquisitive face to him and it fits him as he is always getting into things.