The Honeymoon Is Over (But They're Still Fun)

Well, the kittens are settling in, which means they aren't on their best behavior anymore. It's okay; they haven't permanently damaged anything except possibly one of their own toys.

Let's see. One day I came home from work to find my lamp in the bedroom on the floor instead of the desk. It's an LED bulb, and it didn't even break or turn off. Luckily it was an LED bulb because I don't think an incandescent running that close to the carpet would have been a good idea, but LEDs run cool and thus, no harm done.

***

Today was the day of toys in things. Apricot's food dish had Thimble's fetching toy in it. I gave the toy back to Thimble, and since it had been resting against the fatty food, he thought it tasted delicious. Now it's all soggy from him nom-ing on it, and he still wants me to toss it so he can play fetch with it. This calls for a delicate two-finger grip!

And the water fountain had one of the tiny rattle mice floating half-water-logged in it. The top was dry but the bottom half was soaked. I have it sitting in my dish-drainer in the sink, and hopefully it will dry out so they can play with it again. If not, oh well, I have more rattle mice and they aren't expensive.

***

Thimble, as of this moment, is curled up next to me on the settee, studiously ignoring the temptation of the computer. Colby, who hadn't learned over at the desk to avoid the computer keys like Thimble, is being a pain trying to catch the computer mouse (the one on the screen) and stepping on the keyboard. He gave up a lot easier than Thimble, though. I don't even have the squirt bottle with me; I just kept moving his paws off the keys, and he's gone to the end of my legs to curl up on my ankles.

Apricot is wandering around somewhere. He isn't really a "next to" cat. He just likes to be in the same room, or within hearing distance of you.

***

On Tuesday morning I discovered that I had a full revolt on my hands when it came to food. All that night they had eaten none of their kitten kibble, instead waiting until morning when they could run into the bedroom and eat Apricot's food out of his dish, much to his bafflement.

So I switched everybody over to Apricot's food and returned the barely touched bag of kitten kibble. It's still more fun to eat out of Apricot's food bowl, but at least I can persuade them to eat out of their own dishes sometimes.

***

Yesterday I took a shower when I got home and washed my hair. Normally kittens would want to be in the bathroom with me, but I won't let the door open with the heater on, and they don't have enough time to determine the heater is no threat before they come in. So I had all three cats locked out of the bathroom.

When I came out, this was the scene that met my eyes:

That's Thimble's butt at the top of the picture

That little thing on the floor is Thimble's fetching toy. He brought it and put it at the bathroom door so I would find it when I came out. He had been sitting next to it, patiently waiting, but his patience ran out shortly before I emerged, and the photo I got was of the toy and of Thimble leaving to go pounce on Colby. I thought the toy was very sweet of him!

***

Today during supper they discovered (although they may have played in it before and I just didn't see them) the clear box. This was supposed to be a litter box, but it turned out too small and I didn't want to use it in the spot I'd chosen anyway, so I turned it upside down in the hopes that it might become a play toy.

Colby's on top

As you can see, it worked admirably. They both got in it at first, and then Colby got out and jumped on top, and then they played footsie through the clear lexan. Colby is sitting on a pair of my sweatpants that I put there so they could see the box did have a top.

***

After supper I have been luring the kittens into the pink room with a blue ribbon and then tossing them treats, shutting the door, and going to play with Apricot by ourselves. He'd never get a word in edgewise with them around.

Well, this was the idea anyway. Yesterday I got into the pink room, stopped, turned around, and saw I had lured two cats into the room all right. Thimble and Apricot. Not exactly the idea. But it was workable, since Colby found himself all alone in the living room and came thundering in, "wait for me, wait for me!" and I was able to separate kittens into pink room and Apricot into hallway.

But Apricot has expressed a desire to play with the ribbon, so we played with that for a while. Today when I did the luring and turned around (you see, I walk from the living room into the pink room without looking to see who is following me. It's part of the game) there were all three cats! 

After having separated them on their respective sides of the door, which is remarkably easy to do, considering this separation does not involve me touching any of them, I took Apricot back down the hall (using the ribbon as a lure) and into the living room to play. 

I thought I should take a video of Apricot and the Ribbon. You can see that playing with Apricot requires patience. He does a lot of stalking and planning before he ambushes. It's one of the reasons he and the kittens still struggle with matching their play styles.

***

Now in this video you will see what looks like Colby picking on Apricot. Don't be fooled. Apricot started the whole thing by walking up to Colby and reaching out a pouncing paw. Colby fell over and things progressed from there. 

Colby wasn't pushed when he fell over. It's part of the game as far as I can tell. I've seen Thimble throw himself into a somersault and land on his back so Colby can then run and jump and bellyflop on top of him. And prior to the bellyflop, nobody had touched Thimble to push him into the voluntary flip!

In the video I especially like how Apricot comes back after running out of camera frame. It's almost immediate. I worry that they will push him around, because he doesn't really stand up for himself very well. But they seem to be giving him the respect he won't take by force, and so things are going well.

(Oh, and I apologize for the video quality. I have no idea why the focus disappeared and then reappeared, or what that finger shaped shadow is. It wasn't my finger, I guarantee you!)

***

The other day Apricot was sitting on the floor next to my chair while I ate supper. This is a thing he does. I am apparently supposed to let him sniff a bit of my food, and then he sits and keeps me company. He doesn't want to eat the bit of food. He just wants to see what I'm having. If he was a person he'd like those Instagram feeds of people's dinners! (Well, if they were Smell-O-Vision, I suppose.)

***

So this is how things have been going this week. I mostly sit on the settee, watch the cats, play on my phone, and play fetch whenever Thimble gets a hankering. 

And clean up after people. One morning I was getting ready to leave for work in the kitchen, and the kittens came in. Along with them came a rather disgusting smell. Poor Colby always gets blamed for these smells since, well, he's the clumsier of the two and also the one whose washing attempts are less strenuous. (It's because Thimble washes him so he figures why bother.)

I picked up Colby and up-dumped him, but he had nothing in evidence. So I scooped up Thimble and discovered not only some matted fur, but he had apparently stepped in poo goo and got it between the toes of his back paws. 

Sigh. I put him in the kitchen sink and gave him a foot bath, much to the dismay of all parties involved. I don't suppose having his first experience on the counter be an unpleasant one is a bad thing, however, since I would prefer they stay off the counters.

I'd prefer they stay off the table but I decided I'd settle for staying away from my part of the table when I'm eating. Oddly enough, for the past three nights, this has translated to nobody on the table at all while I'm eating. Hey, I'm not going to argue with them, but I certainly didn't do anything other than push them back when they crossed the invisible line to "my part." And now they aren't on the table at all when I'm eating. (Happy face.)

Happy face too soon; the next time I ate supper after I wrote that, I had a very persistent Thimble on the table. I won the battle--he never did get closer than an arm's length. But it made eating a bit challenging.