New Human!

My sister came to visit two weeks ago. She comes to visit us about every 6 months now, and the last time she was here, the kittens were alive but still too tiny to leave their mommy, so they weren't here. Just Apricot.

Apricot spent most of that visit watching her every move from the safety and vantage point of his cubbyhole in the living room cat tree. This visit he spent most of the time she was in the house hiding under the sofa.

I was puzzled by this, but as the visit went on (she came on a Wednesday and left the next Saturday, so half a week) I came to realize that he just couldn't keep track of two rambunctious kittens and a human at the same time. (Remember, he doesn't think I count as "human.") While he loves his younger brothers, they are bigger than he is now, and they don't really give fair warning (which to Apricot would mean half an hour to think about it) before initiating a mighty battle.

In the evenings, sometimes we would go in and sit on the sofa he was hiding under in order to (hopefully) get him used to her voice, at least. This had an unintended consequence. Thimble would go underneath (how on earth he still fits I have no idea ... perhaps kittens have access to a fourth physical dimension) and pester Apricot until my sister and I would see an orange furry streak across the room as Apricot left for un-pestering hiding spaces.

Poor guy. But don't feel too sorry for him. He still managed to gain weight between that Thursday and the following Sunday. Usually when I have a visitor or two, the ones that stay for half an hour to an hour and play with the kittens, Apricot doesn't gain weight during the time period that spans their visit. The trauma of hiding from humans puts him off his food, apparently. Since he gained weight while my sister was here, he was obviously hiding mostly from habit.

The kittens responded very predictably to her visit. Thimble inspected her thoroughly when she arrived, and then at an undetectable signal from him, when he determined her to be "okay", Colby came forward and started interacting with her.

Thimble helped us make the guest bed up. (I'm a terrible hostess. I wait till my guest arrives before putting sheets on the bed. It's because three of the four sides of the bed are extremely hard to get to, and it's so much easier with two people who both have opposable thumbs.)

Sophia, my sister, said the kittens were a hoot and left her in stitches with their antics. Apparently, their attention span is hilarious. (I guess I don't notice because quite honestly, mine is shorter than theirs.) She says that they would find her absolutely fascinating ... for about half a minute, and then something else would catch their attention and off they'd go.

She also does stretches and exercises that make the human body go in ways I don't normally make my body do (or can't, in a lot of cases) and they found that absolutely fascinating as well. For about half a minute.

When she left, they were a little disappointed, I think. You see, with two humans in the house, they had someone else to be fascinated by once they got bored with the first one. So they could sort of ping-pong back and forth between us. With only one ... well, toys don't move on their own and I'm apparently very boring (given that I have very little energy once I survive the work day and come home, that's not surprising).

I wonder what they will think of her when she comes back in the fall. I wonder what she will think of them. They were bigger than Apricot in physical size but only Thimble weighs more than Apricot, and they weren't that much bigger. They're also obviously teenager type kittens with all legs and ears and a big head each.

They have plumy tails but not as much as they're going to get, I don't think. And they have some more growing to do, in height and length as well as weight.

First day here: Thimble naps next to my sister

Colby's keeping an eye on supper
The shelf is next to the table.

Sophia has a square cooler that is softsided. Thimble decided to sit on it. He does things like this.

Well, being empty, as she had put her cold stuff into my fridge, the cooler slowly subsided under his weight. Sophia was giggling as she watched Thimble slowly sink down toward the floor, riding the cooler with much determination. He finally gave up just before he collapsed it completely and got off.

The cooler, being made to be squished and rebound, slowly pushed itself back up to its square shape. Thimble watched from the floor in astonishment. So did Colby, having come over during the whole initial thing.

I am, of course, on the wrong side of the table
to get any really good photos of this.