Litter Box Furniture

Right now we have the litterbox in the cabinet under the stove, which fits it perfectly and hides it nicely, but we plan on moving soon, and our next apartment may not be so accomodating. With that in mind, I found this really attractive:



Much prettier than the average covered litterbox.

Someone at work, meanwhile, is really excited about the Litter Box Robot, a spacy, self-scooping litter box. It looks like one of those underwater explorer helmets to me, and I would think it would drive the kitties crazy, but here it is.

Chaos!

DH & I went away to Comic-Con this weekend. We left a friend in charge of feeding the kitties, but I was still a little worried because of this ridiculous heat wave we are having -- it was 112 degrees in Encino on Saturday! When I got home, the boys were fine, but they had wreaked havoc on the trash can and also spilled some dried roses that I had kept for years and shredded them all over the rug. Nothing too valuable, but it was very messy. They must have been bored.

A picture of us at the con... the cats loved my costume. All that soft fabric, plus tassles to chase'n'chew while I walked:

Poop Analysis

After two weeks of having these kittens in my house, I'm pretty well acquainted with their poop. They are very good and always go in the litter box, but of course it does have to be scooped all the time, so I am now ridiculously familiar with the proper shape and consistency of it. Which is why I was a little disturbed to find some diarrhea in there.

The kitten rescue people said that it was probably because of their shot, and it seems to have gone away, but it was kind of weird. I didn't even know which kitten had the problem, but it was pretty obvious that something was wrong. I think I'm more familiar with their poop than any other, um, poop. It's just weird. OK, sorry, I talked about poop too much. Look at the kitten pictures!

Bedtime

The kittens and I disagree on what 11pm is. I think it is bed time. They think it is race around and chew stuff and wrestle time. They are interested in the bed now, though, so they have to weigh their options carefully.

Random kitty pics

Unlike Hamlet, Rama is totally acclimated to the TV. He came by for scritches while I was sitting on the foambag, watching Rescue Me. He agrees that Tommy is crazy, but does not think that Tommy should be with Sheila; we disagree on that point.


Meanwhile, Hamlet is busy discovering new hiding places. He is much less shy than he used to be, so yesterday he boldly crouched in the shoe rack, where he is only half hidden.


Why do his eyes photograph like this? Rama always gets red eye, which I can easily remove with iPhoto, but Hamlet's eyes turn blue and green. If someone knows the scientific reason here, please let me know.

Waaahhh.....

Have been a little behind on the blog - ugh to 58 hour weeks. I don't want to work, I want to play with kitties!

We took Hamlet & Rama to get their last shots on Sunday. They were not very pleased about being stuffed in a cat carrier and schlepped in a car; they both cried and cried. Rama had never spoken before, but he was very loud and tearful and made me so sad.

However, neither of them seemed to mind the shot itself at all. In fact, after they got the shot, they were perfectly happy and stopped crying... as if they were like, "Oh, is this all this was about? I thought you were going to do something really bad to us."

Playtime

Rama made a break for it yesterday when I came home... luckily it is a gated apartment building, so he didn't get very far. He's very curious about the outdoors now, though, so he's made his first attempt at using the cat tree, to look out the window.

They are really into toys at this age, and really like anything with feathers, tails, and with bells. They also really like backpacks, paper bags, receipts, shoes, socks, and blankets. Hopefully there's enough to distract them so they give up any further plans of escape...

By any other name

Having trouble settling on names for the kittens. We really want fresh, original (pretentious) names that say something about the cats, and about us. I have mentioned on many occasions that I used to have a cat with one eye, and I wanted to name him Polyphemus, but I was talked out of it; I have always regretted that.

Have almost certainly picked Hamlet for the tiger, since he talks a lot, and he thinks about everything for a long time before he does it. A little less sure about the siamese, but I am leaning towards Rama because it is easy to say. We kind of gave up on "matching" names because these cats just don't match.

Here are the names that have been under consideration...

For the tiger:

• Hamlet - after, you know, Hamlet
  
• Schmendrick - the wizard from Last Unicorn
  
• Montecore - the tiger that mauled Roy
  

For the siamese:

• Rama - a hero of Hindu epic poetry, and also a Siamese king
  
• Oolong - he kind of looks like he was dipped in tea
  
• Radagast - the brown wizard from LOTR
  
• Freud - because he seems kind of schizo
  
• Orpheus - in search of a greek name
  
• Bacchus - god of wine and good times; also the god of cats
  
• Petruchio - to go with Hamlet, this was the only Shakespeare character that matched
  
• Mercutio - or this one
  
• Snowball - probably not
  

It is really weird having these cats and not knowing what to call them...

Pictures from Petfinder.com

Here are pictures of our 2 cats, taken by Kitten Rescue. They are still up on Petfinder.com today, proving the website is not always up-to-date.

The gray tiger Maine Coon (who is, obviously, half Siamese):





The lilac point Siamese (who is half Maine Coon?):

Baby Boys

DH and I recently got married, and I decided that one of the first things we would do as a couple would be to get a cat. When I was staying with my parents before the wedding, their sweet dog Caesar kept me company when I was alone at night. I realized I really missed having a pet.

I love dogs, but there is no way we could keep a dog at our apartment with our schedules, so we decided to get a cat. After talking with a friend from the Craigslist boards who works with animal rescue, we decided to adopt a cat from Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles.

We went to PetCo, where Kitten Rescue holds adoptions every Saturday, and I fell in love with a lilac point Siamese boy kitten who was thirteen weeks old and very affectionate. Their foster mom said that she would not give us just one, that her kittens needed to be with at least one friend, so we adopted his brother also, a gray tiger Maine Coon.

These kittens could not be more different, but they are twins. Their mother was a feral Siamese beauty, and they were born in the back seat of an abandoned Jaguar. They are very well socialized, though, and while the tiger is very shy, they seem to be getting along pretty well in our apartment.

I'm really looking forward to raising these kittens. I know it sounds silly, but I think it will be good for DH and I as a couple to get used to taking care of living things other than ourselves.