Fling-ama-String

Yesterday the Fling-ama-String we ordered got here, so I set it up and turned it on for the kitties.

They loved it!  They got self-conscious when I was filming, but they were fixated on this thing for hours.

Here's a montage of them playing with it:

Simon snoofing the camera

Here's a short clip of some cuteness from the last few days.  Some explanation of the first part: we had just gotten back from Trader Joe's with a recycled-cardboard kitty scratching surface and organic catnip (we are SUCH hippie mommies!!!).  Simon was enjoying said scratching surface, but he got shy when I pulled out the camera.  Ah well...

Bathtub kitties...

So as of this past Sunday, January 29, the cats had found their new favorite spot in the apartment to explore... the bathtub!!  Never would have predicted that one!!

Simon goes in there and chirps, so I think he likes the acoustics of the tile.  I finally got them on film playing around the shower the other night...

A couple days ago I had taken a shower, and Simon jumped into the bathtub and then bounced back out and yowled at us as though to say, "hey, it's WET!  You can't make this thing WET, it's my playground!!!"  Poor wet kitty...

Breakfast time!

This morning I managed to have the presence of mind to grab the camera as I was walking to feed the kitties their breakfast.  They always sing a lot at this time of the morning, so I captured a bit of their chirping and meowing.  Sometimes they manage some nice harmonies!

More floompencuteness

Gah, what a face!! Such a sweet boy...

Floomp!

Sarah just sent me this adorable picture of Simon all happily floomped with her on the futon. Oh, the cute!!!

Chillin'

I never would have guessed that they would like sitting on the chairs where they go under the kitchen table, but it makes a nice little cave!!

Treats and cuteness

Since I'm clearly spending tonight clearing out my camera and phone of recent pictures/videos, here is a montage of clips from the last three days.  It starts on the 2-week anniversary of bringing them home, which was the first night River jumped up on the bed and stayed with us!

"Helping"

Just now Simon decided to "help" Sarah with her laptop (apparently he enjoys the musical backbeats of Eve but does not care for Rihanna).

Simon's high-altitude adventure

This morning, while Sarah and I were watching last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Simon jumped up on the hutch where we keep the DVDs.  He considered the shelves and how to get up to the top, then got his claws into the right side and climbed up!  He got himself around to the right outside (so as to avoid the framed pictures) holding onto the top surface with his claws.  I thought he was going to fall off (right into the garbage can), but he made it up to the top.  I really wish I had gotten the climbing part on video, but I'm not fast enough.

He sniffed around and checked things out...

...then he figured out that he wasn't sure how to get down!

Eventually he realized he could jump off to the right side to get past the pictures.  I was impressed!  Not sure if he'll do it again, but I figured that at some point they would find that spot for climbing.

Various pictures of cuteness

The cats have been particularly adorable the last few days.  Here's a selection of snapshots:

According to these pictures, Simon does little other than groom himself.  All day.

Double love

We even got both of them up on the bed for a while (peacefully, nonetheless!!)

River on the bed

River celebrated two weeks by jumping up on the bed, rolling around and staying for lots of love and snuggles!!!! Happy happy!!!

Two weeks!

As of tonight, we've had the babies for two weeks!! In that time, they have definitely grown comfortable with us, the house, and the routine.

They walk around with their tails up, no more cautious slinking around like the first few days. They still sometimes startle when we stand up quickly or walk past them, but even that is growing less frequent.

What a fabulous two weeks it has been! We love being mommies. :-)

(Tonight they went double-decker on the kitchen chairs, so cute!)

Playing and getting brushed

We got a slicker brush a few days ago, and the kittehs love it!  I think it's like a really good scratch (and it gets all the fur that would otherwise shed!).

Here's a little montage of the babies playing and enjoying a good brushing tonight (please excuse the sounds of the State of the Union aftermath blaring in the background...).

Uninterested

This is how much the cats care about the State of the Union address...

Nicknames

As with most creatures in my life, Simon and River have inspired many ridiculous nicknames. Both Sarah and I have called them by various cutsie names more often than their real ones, which may be part of why they don't yet consistently respond to them (then again, it may also be because they're cats).

Thus far, Simon's nicknames have been SimonPants, SimonCat, Little Man, Little Prince, Man-of-the-House, Floompenboy, and Fatso (only Sarah calls him that!).

River's nicknames are Riverlet, Little River, RiverBaby, Little Girl, Sweet Baby, and Little One.

First snow

Yesterday we got our first real snow.  Earlier today the kitties were looking out the window at the white, glittery world.

It only took 12 days

This is the heated kitty bed that Sarah's lovely parents gave us. It has been plugged in and warm since the night we brought Simon and River home. I made a custom fleece cover (washable) for the heating pad. They have never gone near it.

I have put treats in the bed. I have pointed it out to them. I have even moved it several times to see if they don't like the location. Nothing.

Today I put it under this end table because they seem to prefer cave-like spaces. They didn't notice. Then, a few minutes ago, I sprayed it with catnip oil.

Next thing we know, River is checking it out, and she climbs in for a moment. Then Simon moves her over, crawls in, curls up, and gets completely blissed out. He has been making this dreamy face ever since!

Here is a short set of snippets of the cats sniffing and discovering the heated bed... sorry it's so dark!

River remains skeptical

River comes up alongside the bed, and she has even jumped onto the stool I put at the foot of the mattress so they can climb up easily. But the most she does is look at us for a moment, then jump back down. I am wondering if it is because Simon is already up here with us.

River and Simon seem to have a pecking order, and as the male Simon is the alpha. He eats first, and she waits until he is done. If we are playing with or patting him, she waits by the side of the room and doesn't approach. She looks at us with those soul-piercing eyes as though she thinks we like him better.

She has always been a little more skittish than he is, at least since they have been home with us. He doesn't appear to enforce this pecking order, she simply defers to him. And they both have been more timid and easily startled since the two days of construction (the second being Friday morning, with no advance notice, so we had to herd them into the bedroom again).

I have to keep reminding myself to be patient. Humans don't adjust to new surroundings overnight, and we can't expect cats to either. They are getting used to a new place, with big changes in the routine just within the past week. Then there's the fact that we've started trying to teach them not to jump on hard surfaces (counter, table, etc.) which has involved some mild scolding. Tonight we got some smell-deterrent spray that hopefully will make the counters and table seem unappealing. We continue to reward friendliness with a few treats and lots of playing.

Patience, patience.

Simon joins us

Simon has started regularly joining us on the bed. Tonight he figured out that there is a well between our legs that is cozy to curl up in.

And wow, there's even a picture with ME in it!!  Yay for PhotoBooth... and yay for snuggly Simon.  :-)

Snoozing kitty

Simon curled up with Sarah and zonked out with his chin resting on her leg. Happy kitty!!

Hungry?

I woke up this morning to find the bagels knocked onto the floor and the package chewed through. They must not like "everything" bagels very much, because they didn't eat a lot. I gave them some Laxitone to counteract the carbs, but they should be okay.

I guess we need to be feeding them more?? (Or maybe that's just what they want us to think!!)

Dinner time

The kitties told us it was time for dinner!  There's some chirping, it's mostly Simon's voice (we think it's actually higher than River's!).

River likes our kitchen chairs

River was lounging and rolling herself around on the chairs tonight. She loves perching on them and watching the world go by from beneath the table.

Playing and chasing

Tonight we moved the furniture back to normal and played with the babies.  They love the laser pointer, and they seem to like the rope-on-a-stick toy that I made too (Simon likes to carry it around in his mouth, but I never catch it on video!).

Here's a montage of them playing tonight:

Little news notes

The babies seem to have forgiven us for locking them in the bedroom with loud noises going on yesterday. They've been out with us most of today (we’re working off their jiggling bellies with lots of laser-pointer chasing).
 
We can't ignore that River tends to floomp too, so she now gets a second middle name (Floompen) like her brother. 

They both have been talking more recently, and their voices are fairly similar (both in the soprano range!). We’re trying to teach them to meow on command with treats, but you know how cats are. At least now they come running and chirping when they hear me open a can of food.
 
They are just such wonderful cats!! They are so friendly and playful and sweet. We love them more and more every day. :-)

Motherly guilt

This morning we had just fed the cats breakfast when the construction workers showed up.  Of course, both cats dove under the living room chair to hide.  We had to catch them and carry them (wriggling and resisting) into the back bedroom so they will be safe while the workers are here.  River slipped past us while I was bringing in the litter box, and we had to scoop her back into the bedroom again.

Oh, the guilt!!  It was painful for us, just knowing how confused the babies already are with the furniture moved all around.  Thus far they have been hiding in the closet, though they have emerged a couple times to get patted briefly.  I really hope this doesn't set us back a month in terms of the kitties getting comfortable here with us.  We were doing so well...

And all of this is to cover up the friggin' sprinkler pipes.  I don't care if they're bright orange, I would rather have them showing than keep putting the cats (and us!) through this circus.  There will be two more stages of work after this, which probably won't happen on consecutive days (or even weeks, if memory serves).  Grrrrrrrrr...

Furniture rearrangements

The maintenance staff for our apartment complex is doing work on the sprinklers, so we had to move all furniture away from the walls in the living room.  "All furniture" meant five bookshelves, a big cabinet and hutch, and a metric ton of DVDs.  We moved everything against the kitchen table, which normally stands in the middle.

The cats thought this new central obstacle, surrounded by open space, made an amazing racetrack.  They were tearing around it sporadically throughout this evening, though never enough that I could catch it on video!!  Maybe tomorrow... after they recover from the loud hammering and sawing and other fearsome noises they'll hear while the workers are doing their thing...

First game with the laser pointer!

Tonight we brought out the laser pointer toy from Auntie Erin, and boy did they think it was fun!!  I think they kept after it for a solid half-hour of running and pouncing.  So cute!! 

 
Tonight while watching Rachel Maddow (because we plan to indoctrinate our babies with truth and its goddess) Simon crawled across our two laps and fell asleep very contentedly.  River was snoozing on the window cushion but stopped over for some love and lots of purrs.  We feel like a real family  :-)

Middle names

Simon's full name, as we have decided, is Simon G. Floompen Edson-Lindblom (the G stands for Garfunkel).  "Floompen" is our made-up word for his tendency to flop over on his side (as pictured below) whenever he is tired of sitting up, which seems to be most of the time.

River's full name is River Sings Edson-Lindblom, in reference to the Enya song "The River Sings."  It is also because she likes to chirp and talk and sing to us!!

Purrrrrr...

I would say Simon is getting very comfortable here!

Window seat

River has finally discovered the custom window cushion I made for them. She is queen of the window now.

Tonight they've both been hanging out with us instead of hiding. Progress is happening!!

Bedtime is... 6:00?

Simon is saying, "I've had a long day of napping, I'm tired. Goodnight."

Venturing Out During the Day

I caught Simon mid-slurp as he was grooming himself.  Look at that little pink tongue!!

Simon discovers that laps are warm

This evening Simon came out from under the ottoman and jumped up onto Sarah's lap while she was wearing her Slanket.  Yes, Simon, laps are warmer than being on the floor under furniture by yourself.

They're getting more and more friendly each night!  We're beginning to think they're almost exclusively nocturnal; they hide during the day and then venture out for love once the sun is down...

Chilling on Day 3

They've found a new favorite hiding spot: under the green upholstered chair.  I think they like the surge-protector because it's warm (and no, they haven't tried to chew it!).

I'm glad they've chosen a place where we can easily check on them and scratch their heads from time to time.  :-)

Day 2 At Home

The second day we had more luck getting them out of hiding, mostly by lying on the floor so we could scratch their heads even while they were under the futon or behind the armchair!  In the evening they got much braver and actually spent a good deal of time roaming around the living room getting some love.

They're slowly getting more comfortable with the place and with us.  We love our babies!!!

First Day at Home

The day after we got back from the holidays, we went to pick up our babies!  On January 11, 2012, we picked up Simon and River at King Street Cats and brought them home.

Here's a video of their first few minutes out of the carriers, cautiously exploring the apartment:

As they walked around looking and sniffing, River (who is very talkative) kept making little brips to her brother, as though to ask, "what do you think?"

Eventually they found hiding places, probably to wait and see if any other cats were going to appear.  Simon hid under the futon, which was good because we could easily see him to check on him.  River disappeared into the bedroom, and for a while we couldn't figure out where she had gone.

Later that day I was putting clothes away in my closet, and I noticed my black boots where in an odd place.  Then I realized that the boots had eyes... River had been silently watching everything in her mysterious, beautiful black kitty way all along.

They continued to mostly hide that evening, since we brought them home around 8:00 at night.  When we woke up the next morning, Simon had found his sister and they were both curled up together in the closet.  At least they used the litter box overnight; one perk of getting a non-kitten, they already know what to do.  They hadn't eaten anything yet, but that's to be expected when adjusting to a new place.

The Initial Visits

We heard about King Street Cats on NPR; they are a no-cage, no-kill cat orphanage.  That sounded good to us, so on December 4, 2011 we drove down to find a kitty.  Originally we were going to get just one, since our apartment isn't all that big.

We stepped into the cat room and sat down to see who came over to sniff us.  After a little while, this little black cat with incredible blue eyes crawled into my (Shauna's) lap and started purring.  As I scratched her head, the volunteers exclaimed that she had never gotten into a visitor's lap before!  20 minutes later, with her still purring and rolling around in my lap, we decided she had chosen us.

The paperwork was filled out and we were all set, but the little black cat wasn't quite so interested in Sarah.  We were a little concerned about having a cat that only liked one of us.  Sarah was sitting on the floor thinking about it, when this elegant tuxedo boy crawled into HER lap and proceeded to melt into a purring kitty puddle while she scratched his head.

The volunteers told us that he had never done that either!  As the minutes rolled by, Sarah kept making the face that said "we were only getting one!"  Then the volunteers told us that this tuxedo was the brother of the little black cat.  Well, that was that.  We were taking both of them!

We were going to be gone for about 3 weeks for the holidays, so we would bring the kitties home in January when we returned.  During the rest of December we went back twice to visit our babies before the holidays.  This was our visit a week after meeting them, December 10, 2011:

And here was our second visit, another week later, on December 17, 2011:

We spent all of the holidays thinking about the babies and getting excited about bringing them home!

We're shameless saps

It's true, we've been squealing with delight ever since Simon and River picked us at King Street Cats on December 4, 2011.  It was such a long wait through the holidays until we could bring them home!

And now I've decided to chronicle their lives on this e-catbook, a baby book of sorts for our furry babies.  I'm an absolute sap, I readily admit it.

This format seems more practical than a paper catbook, because we can include videos of the cats and we can share the stories with our friends and family across many time zones!

So brace yourselves, a multitude of videos, photos, and stories of cat cuteness are coming!!