March photos

Photos of the darlings from March 2013.... never mind that I'm posting these on the last day of April! Sigh.

This first one was actually really funny: I took out my cassette tape player (YES I still have one of those!) and it was rewinding so I set it on the floor. The cats were FASCINATED by this new-smelling thing that made strange noises. They sniffed at it and were utterly overcome with curiosity for a full 15 minutes.

 

Then they did a moment of sniff-kiss, which was really really adorable.

River decided to be a bridge between my legs and the arm of the sofa.

 Here's River burrowed down in her favorite blanket. I just love those eyes!

This is what we call "River through the canyon," when she lays down in the valley between our two bodies as we're going to sleep. I caught her mid-slurp in this picture taken over my shoulder!

More nighttime snuggles. River does this to get her nightly ear-rubs from Sarah. Oh, how she loves ear-rub time before bed!!

 She also sticks around in this position until the morning rather frequently.

Watching the birdies out the window.... I love her profile, she's such a pretty cat.

Simon's just chilling on my lap. Purrrrrrr...

I know I take a lot of lap-kitty pictures, but he does this so often and it's so cute!! He likes the jeans because then he can hang on, especially when he's half floomped off the edge of my legs... (ouch...)

"Watching" Rachel Maddow.... zzzzzzzz....

No really, I'm awake... congressional budget office.... yes, I'm following this story.... zzzzzzzz....

 Shaaaaaaare your food with meeeeeee??? I'm so cuuuuuuuuuute...

 Lap man!!

Laptop? I'm what SHOULD be on top of your lap!!

Hi. Why are you tweeting pictures of me? Oh right, everyone in the #maddow twitterverse all have cats too and they all share pictures. How cute. I'm so beautiful.... (lots of twitter people agreed that he's a beautiful boy!!)

Who you lookin' at? 

 It's a snow day in March, and Simon just don't care. It's all cool, dude.

Haaaaaaaaappy snow day lap-cat...

Home on my day off, surrounded by furry lovies. There's my pretty girl.

There's my boy snuggled up with me.

 Attempted self-portrait with both kitties. Their faces show that they think I'm nuts.

Simon thinks pictures are silly and repositions himself for a nap.

Kitty stories

Let's see, what new developments have happened since my last substantial update...

I took the babies in for their annual vet checkup last week. They're both perfectly healthy! Good weight, clean teeth, shiny coats, and reasonable temperament for being at their least-favorite place. They are remarkably quiet in the car, there is no howling or kitty-opera (as Sarah's family's cats always did, getting louder and higher in pitch with each scale they meowed!).

The one thing I asked the vet about was River's tendency to scarf down her food too fast and then toss it back up 10 minutes later (this was happening maybe once every other week, but that's a lot for an 8-pound cat). Normally I feed them side-by-side in the kitchen. Simon eats faster than she does, so he finishes his food and then butts in and steals the rest of hers. To counteract this, she was trying to gobble up her food too fast and then it wasn't staying down. The vet suggested feeding them separately so she doesn't feel the need to gobble. We started doing this, feeding them in separate parts of the kitchen. I sit and watch them with the spray bottle of water in my hand. The moment Simon finishes his food and starts to walk over to his sister, he gets squirted. Two days of that and he now looks at me and then walks away, doesn't even try to go for his sister. He learns! Of course, if I'm not sitting right there he knows he can get away with it, so for now I still need to babysit them while they eat. But it's been great, she hasn't thrown up since we started this new routine. Yay!

Other news items.... the cats have started being very sweetie and cuddly in the morning to wake me up for breakfast. I guess they've learned that I respond much more readily to rubbing, purring, and floomping next to me than I do to scratches, howling, and hair-pulling. They learn fast! Well, anything that results in them getting food or treats, that is.

Speaking of treats, they're getting more and more consistent with saying "mama" on command. I have some video that I need to splice together to show how they've gotten better over time. Of course, they won't do it when I have the camera rolling!

In general they're both continuously getting more lovey and lap-happy. Simon loves the glider rocking chair and is pretty consistently in my lap whenever I'm sitting in it. River loves the blanket on the back of Sarah's study chair and is also known to curl up ON Sarah when she's napping (like right now, for instance...). They always greet us at the door with brips that we can hear outside as we fumble with our keys, and they floomp on the floor for head scratches and ear rubs when we come inside. The cuteness continues!

We keep hearing about more wonderful cats from King Street Cats who have found their forever homes. Recently, several long-time resident cats who were there when we picked up Simon and River (almost 18 months ago!) finally got adopted, and we've been so excited to hear about it! There have also been more cute adoption updates from KSC "alumni" in their forever homes, which has inspired me to keep updating this blog for all the amazing volunteers who kept our babies safe and happy until we were able to come and find them. Thank you to everyone at KSC!!! We love you!!

Recent photos from April

And once again I am behind on posting photos of the babies. We're still taking lots of photos! I'm just too busy loving my job to update the catbook regularly.

Ah well. Cuteness shall now commence.