Mother's Day 2!

It's our second mothers day with our furry babies! And although they can't exactly make us a card for the occasion, they are very good at being cute, so we're calling that our gift. :-)

They still don't really cooperate about looking at the camera at the same time, but whatever. I got one shot of them both looking!

Birthday kitties!!

The babies are 2 years old today!!

They celebrated by playing with the bird toy, getting extra treats, and chasing a bug around the living room for half an hour (that was a team effort on their part!).

I couldn't get them to pose for a picture together, so here's the best I could do.

One-year homecoming anniversary!!

At this very moment one year ago we brought our babies into our apartment, opened their cat-carriers, and watched as they crept around the various rooms looking cautiously, meowed to each other in a chirpy conversation... and then hid under the green chair for two days.

Since then, they've completely taken over the apartment and our lives with their squeaky, hungry, playful little ways. One year ago we never could have imagined how much we would love them or how their sweet little faces would charm just about anything out of us.

And now we can even attempt an arms-length family portrait, which we might not have tried even a few months ago!!!  Simon and River, our sharp-clawed little darlings, we love you!!

Slurp!

 What's going on?! Why you holding meeeeeee???

ONE YEAR!!

It's official! Today we have known our babies for exactly one year!

365 days ago they picked us, curled up in our laps, and said "take us home! We're adorable and we will meow you awake and demand treats and make you laugh with pouncing games and get the crazies at 9:47 pm every night!!"

Well, they didn't actually say all of that, but we now know that's what they were thinking. It's still about a month before the anniversary of us actually bringing them home, but it's still fun to think back on this wonderful day.

Now here they are today, lounging about like they own the place (and they totally do).

Here's to Simon and River, our beautiful little cats and the year of love, laughter and joy they've brought into our lives!!

October updates

It's been quite a while since my last round of updates! I just added a metric ton of pictures, the posts are all back-dated through September and begin on August 21. If you want to be sure you didn't miss anything, start back at the Bug-hunting and Late August cuteness posts. Almost everything since then (most of September and all of October) is new today.

Let's see, funny stories... River's newest way of waking me up for breakfast, after she's tried meowing and pawing at me, is to take a small chunk of my hair in her teeth and pull!!! I can only imagine how ridiculous it must look. We haven't been coordinated enough to get it on video yet, but I really want to see it!!  It doesn't hurt, it's just funny. Hungry kitties really will do anything!

Simon has taken to peeing on my clothes if I leave them all over the bedroom floor for too long (but only if I've also forgotten to scoop the cat box for a couple days). I suppose it's good motivation not to do either of those things!

The cats now really enjoy playing "catch" when they get in their crazy moods of racing around the house; I'll sit in the living room and toss a ball or toy down the hallway, and they'll scamper like mad to chase after it.  When they've rolled around and "killed" that toy, they'll wander back into the living room and I'll throw another one.  This can last quite a while, since between the two sets of grandparents and us hippie mommies, the cats have a LOT of toys!! I'm working on editing the video of them playing this game.

Speaking of toys, I was fishing around under the fridge yesterday to get a toy they had kicked under there, and I found the other earphone from when this happened in May. That explains why we only saw wires on the X-rays and not the earpiece itself! Whew. Apparently Simon is not as doofy as we thought he was. :-)

(TMI warning!) Also health-related, we did the 6-month follow-up test on Simon's fecal sample, and he has no signs of intestinal parasites or giardia! This is excellent news. They only found the antibodies last time, so it's good to have checked back again to confirm.

Thursday we will have had the babies 9 months, which is about the length of time they were at King Street Cats! Lots of milestones and happies. :-)

Six months!

As of July 11 (never mind that I'm posting this almost a week late...) we have had the babies for six months!! That's a third of their lives!  Wow...

They make us so happy! They come curl up beside us while we're studying or working on the computers.  They snuggle under the covers with us and wake us up promptly for breakfast...

Six months of cute and we still can't get enough!!

Mothers day

In honor of our first Mothers Day as cat-mommies, we present the first-ever family portrait with all four of us!

(Looks about right, doesn't it?!)

However, we did manage to catch their attention with treats, and got them to do this synchronized stand to earn their goodies:

They always have to stand and balance for their treats; we figure it works off some of the calories they're eating.  :-)  There will be upcoming video of them standing for their treats.

We also got a couple paired pictures for the occasion:

(Can't you tell they love being held?!  We're working on them...)

Happy Mothers Day to all moms!

Four months!

We've had the babies for four months today!! What do they say to that?

Slurp...

Bird toy (100th post)

For those who are keeping track, this is my ceremonial 100th post!! 

On this occasion, I present a montage of the cats playing with their current favorite toy; the "dead bird simulator cat toy" (homage to The Engineer's Guide to Cats at about 3:51) that I made for them with a dowel, string, some craft feathers, and duct tape.

They really are very agile, and River is VERY impressive in using her hands to catch the string, often with just one very precisely-placed claw!

Three months!

As of today, we've had the babies for three months!!  It's incredible.  I can't imagine our lives without their affection and goofy antics.

Related to that, I can probably throw away my alarm clock at this point, because clearly the cats are going to wake me up with yowling, scratching, and walking on my face every morning for the rest of their lives.

Change of birthday

When we got Simon and River, everyone at King Street Cats said that the cats were pretty little when they were brought in (March of 2011).  Some of the vet paperwork listed a birthdate of April 15, 2010, which didn't make any sense (why would the gentleman who found them keep them for almost a year before bringing them to the shelter?).  But one of the health summary sheets said January 25, 2011, which sounded much more feasible.

Yesterday we brought the babies in to the vet for their yearly exam and shots, as well as a check-up from the respiratory thing they had two weeks ago (hence the antibiotics).  They're both a healthy weight, and everything looks good.  River was very well-behaved, she resisted a little but allowed the vet to give her two shots while Sarah held her. 

Simon, on the other hand, was a fighter.  We got the first shot in his hind leg, but for the one in his front shoulder he was having none of it.  As Sarah tried to hold him still, he looked up at her with these big eyes that said, "I thought you would protect me from such things!!"  Then he proceeded to hiss and slash claws at the vet, so he had to be taken into the back room where a couple people could hold him.  He takes after Sarah in his attitude toward needles!

The vet estimated that they're probably a little over a year old now, which means that the January 25 birthday is probably the closest to right.  January 25 just happens to be the day we celebrated having them for 2 weeks, so I don't feel so guilty that they got cheated out of a birthday party.  So that is now their birthday!! Yearly celebrations will follow.  :-)

Two months!!

Today we've had the babies exactly two months!!  It's amazing to think back on how shy and cautious they were at the beginning... now they're meowing me awake every morning, dragging their toys everywhere, and greeting us with floomps and purrs whenever we come home.  :-)

Both cats are feeling and looking good since they started on the antibiotics.  We got some pill-pocket treats from Petco, and they have been a GODSEND.  Now the cats just eat up their pills with no trouble!  It sure beats trying to wrap them into cat-burritos and shove the pills down their throats...

It is still nearly impossible to get a decent picture with both of their faces showing.  But here are my most recent attempts:

Snoof?

Oh, were we supposed to look at the camera?

You're holding TREATS! Give us the TREEEEEATS!!!!!!

Oh, floomp it all...

Watching the cars go by...

One month!!

We've had the babies for one month today!!!  We come home to their furry faces and wake up to their little voices.  We play with them and pet them and feed them and brush them and scratch them and call them ridiculous nicknames and take way too many pictures of them.  We cannot imagine our lives without them, and we love them so much it's beyond words!! 

They still are growing more friendly and snuggly every day.  Just this morning River was curled up in the crook of Sarah's arm while they were both sleeping; when Sarah got up to get dressed, River was meowing pathetically and pawing at her arm as though to say, "no, don't go, we were so comfy!"  She really is a snugglebug.

(Here they are wondering why I am holding the string toy and that weird thing that flashes...)