In Search of Sleep, or The New Carrier

So, Thimble is still being a pain when I wake up in the middle of the night. Looking at it from his perspective, it makes sense. After all, he doesn't sleep for eight hours straight. Even if he gave me a longer sleep allowance for my larger size, (as he is sleeping longer at a time now that he is bigger), it still makes sense, to him, for me to wake up after about four to six hours.

Unfortunately, without at least eight hours of sleep a night, I don't do so well. I'd like to keep my job, for one thing, and I can't do that if I'm so sleepy I can't pay attention at work. (I'm a chemist. I work with chemicals and glassware and data. It's important not to drop or inadvertantly combine these things, you know?)

Well, Ginger had recommended putting him in the carrier at night whenever I woke up and he behaved in such a way as to keep me from getting back to sleep. One thing he'd do is "dig" in the covers. I am still not sure if he was trying to get underneath them, or if he was trying to bury a toy. It might have been both. Sometimes I wake up and roll over onto my back, and have this momentary puzzlement of "why do I have a huge knot in the middle of my back?" before I realize what it must be and reach underneath to pull out whichever toy they brought to bed that night.

Thimble carrying an old feather toy.

I am not used to cats who walk around with toys in their mouths, carrying the toy to where they want to play with it this time. And sometimes Colby brings a toy to bed so we can play with it in the morning, but more about that development later.

My original carrier is a soft-sided one, and after one night in that, Thimble had chewed his way almost through the mesh of the front door. So I asked Ginger what carrier she used, since I figured she'd have decided on a nice sturdy one that accommodated Maine Coon size, and I'd need a new carrier once they reached full size anyway. (I was tossing Thimble in the nursery room by himself and closing the door, but I wanted something to make him sleep the night through as well, not just have fun with the cat trees and the windows.)

Colby tries out the carrier the day I put it together.

When I got it, I was really surprised at how flimsy it seemed. It was hard to put together, but once I had it together, the whole was much sturdier than the parts. Apparently it's like an arch, where the keystone makes the structure be supportive, but if it's not all together, it just falls apart. The carrier is also nicely balanced so that the clear plastic door is heavier than the rest of it combined, which means when you've got a cat in it, the carrier doesn't tilt forward or backward. Kind of cool. (It's not going to be balanced well enough for a Maine Coon's final weight, but at a normal adult cat weight, which is what they are now, it works quite perfectly.)

Apricot makes sure Thimble is still okay
after Thimble voluntarily climbed into the carrier.

Colby and Thimble were instantly thrilled with it, and their enthusiasm got Apricot to like it too. In fact, the first night when I put the carrier in my room with the front door open, so as not to have to maneuver the door in the middle of the night twice ... Something made me check inside before I stuffed Thimble into it.

Colby was sleeping in it! So Thimble got put in the nursery without the carrier that night.

Okay, technically speaking that was the second night. The first night I put it in my room with the top open, and discovered I have to wake up too much to close the top. I managed it, and Thimble-in-carrier went into the nursery room with the door shut, but I tried leaving the front door of it open the second night and that's when Colby decided he wanted to sleep in the little "den" I'd provided.

I'm going to have to get a second carrier.

At one point, early on, before the carrier came, I had been getting up and letting Thimble out and then going back to bed for my half-hour wake up play-with-my-phone time. Thimble managed, one morning, to shut the door to the nursery again, only this time with himself and Apricot inside. Apricot did not appreciate being shut in one (relatively small) room with a very enthusiastic playful Thimble. He was shook up when I let them out, (a half hour later), and he was still shook up at the end of the day when I got home. This, too, was part of the reason I decided to get the carrier and use that approach. That way if I accidentally shut the two of them in the nursery together, at least Thimble would be locked in the carrier.

(Note from the future: Apricot made very sure he never was in a position to get shut in the room with Thimble in the middle of the night again!)

Well, things have settled into a pattern. I put the carrier in the open closet in my bedroom with the carrier door shut. I wake up in the middle of the night. Thimble refuses to settle down. I gather him up and put him in the carrier (after opening the door, of course), close the carrier door being careful to scoop his tail inside with him, and then put the carrier in the nursery room and shut that door, too.

(If I leave the carrier out in my bedroom, Colby sits on top of it and taunts Thimble. He did this with the soft-sided carrier and it subsided under his weight, squishing Thimble as well as taunting him. I haven't given him a chance to do it with the hard-sided new carrier.)

Then I go back to bed and back to sleep, and when I wake up in the morning to my alarm clock brightening the room, I have Colby in bed with me. Colby and I then spend a half hour together with no other cats, just the two of us. Colby quite likes this.

Cuddling Colby 

Sometimes he cuddles up with me, and sometimes he brings a toy to play with, and sometimes he brings a toy for me to play fetch with. This is how I learned, to my astonishment, that Colby knows how to play fetch very well thank you. He just won't do it with Thimble around.

I like spending time with Colby, too. He's so reticent that it's hard to spend time with him when the others are demanding I pay attention to them first. I don't really mind putting Thimble in the carrier in the middle of the night. It doesn't wake me up any more than going to the bathroom does, and I'm used to doing that and going back to sleep.

Thus I'm not sure I even want Thimble to learn how to sleep through the night with me.

Thimble's Really Cool Trick

I have been teaching Thimble to leap to my shoulder on command. This was in anticipation of his gaining enough weight and size that I might be unable to lift him without his help. Colby was guesstimated, when young, to reach 20 pounds; Thimble was guesstimated at 25-30 lbs. I can lift a 20 pound cat. I didn't know about Thimble. (At 6 months those guesstimates were altered to be Colby, 16-18 pounds; Thimble, 18-20 pounds. So they'll both be lift-able for me ... but it's still fun to have Thimble leap to my shoulder!)

I started when he was too little to have the strength to leap from the ground to my shoulder on purpose, because I want him to always hit a middle height surface before he hits my shoulder in order to bleed off some of the force of the leap.

He's had this trick down to a fine art for a while, but since I'm in the trick, it's impossible to video it myself. (There's equipment that will let you do so, but I don't have any of it.) So I had to wait until my sister came to visit in order to have someone video it. The one above was in the morning, after we came back from my early morning walk. 

Thimble loves to do this. He doesn't require any reward save that of being able to leap up to my shoulder. In fact, teaching him to do it was quite easy and only took a few tries. Teaching him to do it only on command was more difficult and he still forgets sometimes, especially during those times when he knows I'm going to tell him he can come up soon and he's too impatient to wait.

During those times I simply don't catch him and he dribbles down my front and lands on the ground rather puzzled as to why it didn't work. He'll give me a "huh?" look and I say, "I didn't tell you you could." (I don't continue the sentence, which would more fully be "could come up" because those two words at the end are part of the command structure for inviting him up, and that would just be confusing.)

The signal for him to do the trick is three-fold. I say "come up" or "you can come up now" and/or "do you want a ride?"; I lean forward slightly, and I tap my shoulder. If we're in a new spot and he's not sure where to jump up to, I pat the surface as well (the desk, bathroom counter, etc). It works amazingly well. I'm surprised he's gotten the "pat the surface" concept--that seems to be more complicated to me.

In the bottom video I had come home from work. This is one of his predictable times to be up. But, in order to get Sophia set up with my phone (no, I don't have a dedicated video camera ... why would I?) and all that, I had delayed his expected routine. 

Normally, like the cat he is, he prefers to be coaxed a little. "Are you sure you want me to be up?" "Really, really sure?" However, this time, he was waiting in the kitchen cat tree by the window, ready and waiting to launch himself across the room and up onto my shoulder. My step-back in the video is not from his weight hitting my shoulder--he doesn't weigh that much yet. No, this was because I was a little surprised at the speed he achieved, and I also found it hilariously funny that he was that eager. I try not to laugh at them when they aren't doing something deliberately to make me laugh, but I couldn't quite bite back a laugh for this one.

The Puzzle Box

I got the kittens (and Apricot if he wants it) a puzzle box. This is a wooden box with holes in it, and you put toys inside the box, or treats (haven't done this yet) and the cats have to fish the toys out.

This was a big hit with both kittens.

As usual, Colby is my model.

His foot just fits.

Although I have Colby in the pictures, it's actually Thimble who likes the box the best. This was a surprise to me because usually Colby's my puzzler cat.

Colby has great fun sitting on the box with his paws down in it, like the picture above, without actually hunting for anything. Colby also has great fun fishing toys out of the box.

But I saw Thimble take a favored toy over to the box, drop it in deliberately, and then fish it back out again. That's taking the puzzle box to a new level! (And of course, I wasn't randomly filming, so I don't have any evidence.)

The video is the first time they've seen the puzzle box. The two solid sponge balls come with the box. They are easily extracted, and serve as a teaching toy. I've put more challenging toys in since (some of them have stayed ...)

The thing is, the balls are light and bat around quite easily, and so the balls have become favorite toys too, of all three cats. So favorite are these toys that one has completely vanished and the other only sporadically shows up. I've ordered more. Apricot loves them, and anything to get my chubby cat to move is helpful.

One of the balls showed up the other day after my bath, so once I had wiped down the tub and it had gotten two very interested kittens in it (they like the faucet drip), I tossed the ball in, as well. This was a big hit. They discovered they could bat it around and it would roll up the sides and then back to them. I left them playing with it in the tub while I made myself supper.

When I went back in, Colby was still in the tub, fascinated by the drip, and Thimble was outside the tub, apparently playing with the shower curtain (also outside the tub in order to dry better). He knows he's not supposed to play with the curtain, but just like the nest of wires behind my computer desk, he's discovered that if he takes a toy there, he can protest that he wasn't playing with the forbidden thing, just the toy.

Thus I knew to lift up the shower curtain and check, and sure enough, there was the ball. Thimble had managed to get it in his mouth for long enough to get it out of the tub.

I haven't seen it yet today ... the ball, I mean. I'm sure it will show up, but the two of them have been chomping on cardboard in the kitchen while I write this. (Puncturing the cardboard boxes that will eventually be recycled is an allowed, and encouraged, activity. They've got to do something to alleviate the teething pain.)

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.

Well, That Was Unexpected

This morning Apricot hid under the headboard for an hour or so. I didn't go for my walk right away, so I was around for all this. But he was relaxed and stretched out, and while Thimble and Colby knew he was there, they left him alone, for about an hour. And then they went in and got him.

Not "got" him, they just went in and let him know they wanted to play and would he join them, and he came out and did so.

This playtime was rather ... amazing to me. First, Colby comes by Apricot at a half-run and reaches out a paw to touch Apricot on the shoulder. He had to nearly tip himself over sideways because Apricot's a few inches taller than he is right now, but he made actual contact.

Apricot didn't even flinch.

And then, a little later, Apricot's studies of the Rowdy Boys paid off. He pounced Colby. Apricot actually jumped on Colby and they went rolling over and over together, having fun. Neither cat said anything vocally, which means it wasn't a fight. It lasted only a little time, maybe fifteen seconds before they broke apart, and I swear they were both grinning.

When the Rowdy Boys do this, they become a single mass of black and white and brown kitty fur, with extra legs and tails and heads. When Apricot pounced Colby, and they rolled over and over, Colby's black and white would vanish completely beneath the red tabby colors of Apricot, and then re-emerge, nothing daunted.

I guess I was wrong when I said Apricot didn't want to play as physically as they did. He just needed to figure out the rules and study them for a while, figure out what got a "stop that" squeak from one of them to the other, before he decided to try to participate.

Perhaps he and Colby will become good buddies. They can commiserate over Thimble being bossy!

***

Thimble decided later in the day to play fetch with me. He'd bring me a toy, and I would toss it, and he'd tear after it and grab it and bring it back. It's a special toy that Ginger gave me, and she said it was custom made and she'd get me the info. I can believe it, about the custom make. I've never seen another toy like it. It ends up looking like a brown furry nothing, but it starts out with stovepipe cleaner legs with no head or tail.

Thimble's problem with fetch is that Colby often swipes the toy, and then Thimble is left with nothing to bring back. I told him he could bring another toy, but that's the kind he learned to fetch with and I suppose nothing else will do.

Then also, once Thimble dropped it so it went into the tiny space between my rear end and the back of the settee. I made the mistake of reaching for it behind my back, in order to not put my hand down in the space of Thimble's paws and toy. The fingers emerging from behind my back were so very interesting that ever after that, when he brought the toy back he'd deliberately drop it there in the hopes that I'd do it again. (Um, no, I realized that was a bad idea the second after I did it.)

I managed to get video of it, but you will have to excuse the shakiness; it's very hard to take a video while you're also part of the playtime!

Colby is so silly when he falls asleep. Thimble often is a bit more dignified, but today I managed to get a picture of both of them looking silly!

Thimble is not only sleeping with
his mouth open, but he's leaning
on my arm as well. Completely asleep.

However, today Apricot stole the show with the whole playing full-body play-fight with Colby. Unfortunately that happened so fast I didn't register "I should take a video of this" before it was over. Sigh.

Also, something I forgot to mention in my week's impressions post. They're hot. I'm always cold, but when the two of them fall asleep on me, I suddenly start regretting the layers of clothing I'm wearing. I had forgotten how hot kitten body temperature runs!

Things Just Keep Getting Better

So I took this picture and immediately posted it to Instagram and Facebook (I don't normally do both) simply because it was so incredibly unbelievable.

Colby, Apricot, Thimble, from left to right.

Apricot was there first. Colby climbed up and asked permission before settling down. Apricot didn't actually understand that's what he meant and growled just a little bit, and Colby instantly hunkered down, like "I was just asking!" But when Apricot didn't do anything else, Colby curled up and started his power nap.

Thimble saw this and climbed up too. He seemed a bit nervous, but climbed onto the perch he's on without actually asking permission or even looking at Apricot. My little orange cat just watched him. After a while Thimble, who had been steadfastly looking out the window, finally settled in for a nap. And Apricot put his own head down, turning half on his side which is a comfort thing for him (it indicates he's okay with the situation) and went to sleep.

I called my mom just because I had to talk to someone, anyone, before I exploded! (And I picked her because if I had to talk to someone, she's the one I'd want to be talking to.) While I talked to her, the three of them stayed napping for about 15-20 minutes before the kittens woke up and came down to play.

That was good enough, but it gets better. 

Around noon, Apricot came down. He was walking tall but he started doing strange things. Kind of ... I thought at first he was scared of them again. But I finally figured it out.

He was playing. His version of play involves a lot of ambush (thus the hiding around a corner and peering at the kittens, making me think he was scared) and a lot of pretense (thus the occasional collapse onto the floor and wash or scratch a scratching post, as if he had no other idea in the world). 

Thimble, still a bit nervous of overstepping his bounds, didn't really engage, but Colby finally figured out what he was doing and tried to join in.

The kittens' idea of playtime involves a lot of head tackling, and neither Apricot nor Colby knew how to get their play styles to come together in the middle. Apricot really didn't want physical contact, and Colby wasn't sure how to play without it. But they tried. The highlight for me was when Colby chased Apricot down the hall into the pink room, and then (before I could panic), Apricot chased Colby back through the hall into the living room. Mutual exchange. 

I was just incredulous, my jaw pretty much hanging on the floor. I tried to get video or pictures, but since most of what they were doing was long-distance, I didn't get anything that really showed it. I mean, what are you going to think, a picture of Apricot hunched behind the desk? It looks like he's scared, except for the fact that he was jumping out at Colby half the time and the other half the time Colby was coming around the corner too fast and startling him.

And it gets better.

Later, in broad daylight, some idiots who hadn't shot off all their fireworks last night decided to do so. In the middle of the day, let me repeat. Huh? Why spend money for fireworks and then use them in sunlight? This scared Apricot into the Ops Deck again.

But after a while, with the kittens sacked out asleep on my lap, he decided to join us. He came down of his own accord and over to me where he jumped into his hammock next to the settee, curled up, and slept.

All three of them, within five feet of each other. 

After supper, our new tradition is that I lure the kittens into the pink room with a ribbon dangling behind me, toss them a few treats each, and shut them in. Then I go play with Apricot with the feather toy, because there is no way they'd wait their turn. Earlier I was playing with them with a toy on the floor and Apricot actually indicated that he wanted to join, but since every time I dragged the toy in his direction it was followed closely by two bouncy kitties, he decided against the concept.

So not only did we play with the feathers tonight, but I got that same toy out and let him pounce on it a few times. He seemed appreciative. When he seemed done, I asked if he wanted me to let them out. He raced past me into the bedroom, giving me a bit of a turn as it was so similar to what he'd done this morning in hiding.

But no, he just wanted a chance to have some supper without being bothered. I waited until he finished, and then let them out. They're always very bouncy and enthusiastic after the pink room wait, and I swear Apricot and I gave each other identical looks of, "they may be nice but they're exhausting to be around!"

Let's hope the night's sleep doesn't regress anyone's behaviors!

Apricot Descends From On High

My wary, scared, used-to-be-feral cat has initiated contact, of his own accord.

At 10:30 this morning (or thereabouts) both kittens suddenly stopped playing with their individual toys and froze, vision oriented on something behind me. The only time they did this before was when Apricot came out of the kitchen and accidentally encountered Thimble.

Could it be? Had he really emerged from his Observation Deck?

This morning, before I let the kits out, he'd come into the bedroom and had his breakfast when I called "Apricot, I'm up," which is the usual procedure and one he hadn't done since the kittens arrived.

But he'd stuck himself in his Observation Deck right after that, with kind of a wince and a grimace--okay, let them out. So I'd let them out before I went for my walk, which meant everybody was together unsupervised for an hour. There were no signs of disaster when I came back, but no signs of progress, either.

I turned around, hoping ... I don't know what, really. And there was Apricot, on the floor, coming around the edge of the living room entrance. His shoulders were humped as if against a blow, not the "cat-puff" attitude, and his eyes were hugely dilated. He was looking at the kittens, both frozen in place and staring at him, but he was also looking at me.

I'd begun praising him the minute I saw he was down on the same level as they, and of his own accord. He wasn't surprised this time; he'd known where they were. He seemed to glance over to his hammock, so I held my hand over it, palm down and cupped, the symbol for come pet yourself / come on over.

And warily, he did. He jumped into the hammock and lay down.

Well, this didn't last long, because Thimble never knows when to leave well enough alone. The minute Apricot lay down, Thimble came over, making slow headwinds against the low rumbling growl coming from Apricot. Thimble pretended he had no designs on Apricot but was instead fascinated with the fuzzy ball hanging off the bottom of the hammock. See, I'm just playing with this! I'm a kitten. I play, it's what I do.

Apricot wasn't buying it, and when Thimble wouldn't back off, Apricot did instead. During this retreat he encountered Colby, who for the most part was letting Thimble do all the hard work. Colby, unlike Thimble (who has yet to utter a sound in Apricot's direction) growled back at Apricot. Then again, I've also heard Colby growl while having a toy in his mouth; no one trying to take said toy, just walking around holding the toy and growling. Apricot cowered back, not appreciating being growled at, and I said frowny things at Colby and encouraging things at Apricot, turning my head and using names to make sure they understood who I approved of growling and who I didn't.

I don't know if Colby got the point or not, because this is when Apricot decided to retreat back to the cat tree with the Observation Deck. He didn't go into the Observation Deck, though; he went all the way to the top post, his Thinking Post, instead.

Again, Thimble won't leave well enough alone and goes after him. He climbed up on the cat tree, going from level to level up the tree. Apricot's growl got louder the higher he got. I told Apricot that if Thimble tried to get close enough to swat, he (Apricot) had my full permission to bop him (Thimble) on the head.

Apricot stares down disapprovingly at Thimble

Thimble never tried to put paws on Apricot's perch, nor did he even rise up on his back legs and do "prayer cat" to get higher. He did, however, go all the way to the second highest perches, and there he stayed, pretending to be fascinated with the tree outside the window. Thimble waited, looking out the window, until Apricot gave up and stopped growling at him.

Thimble is pretending he has no designs
on Apricot. None whatsoever. 

At some point in here the two of them were looking at each other and they were both cat-blinking friendship signals, which may have been what motivated Thimble to try again ...

Thimble tried to approach again, one more time, and this time got hissed at quite indignantly. I think Apricot was saying, "look, you, I've told you time and time again to back off, when are you going to get the idea?!" Thimble crouched down and made himself flat and small on the perch when he got hissed at.

The hiss stopped, and Thimble popped back up like a jack-in-the-box toy. Apricot just watched him. And Thimble decided that, yes, he really had pushed things as far as they were going to go right now, and he made his way down off the cat tree, leaving Apricot in possession of it.

Colby, through all this, lay in a coil in the middle of the living room floor, watching.

So I could feel the tension (and in fact, said something like, "that was wonderful guys but let's not do it again for a little while till we can all calm down") and Thimble, to relieve his tension, went over and body pounced Colby, and the two of them had a rousing game of Head Tackle and Who's On Top.

Apricot actually put his head down and currently is looking from here like he's resting!

Wow. I didn't really expect anything like this for another day or so. I'm so glad I did all that research on Way of Cats' blog so I could tell what was going on between them. And it's funny how Colby is once again following Thimble's lead on everything.

The First Full Day of Three Cats

Since I slept half of Sunday, that doesn't really count as a full day.

This morning, after my walk, Apricot put himself into the Observation Deck and showed no signs of leaving.

Scared eyes.

Well, okay then. Since he seemed to expect it, I let the kittens out. This time I just let them walk down the hall on their own, and didn't use the CarGo at all. Thimble doesn't like it and it doesn't seem to help Apricot any to have them in there.

Thimble and Colby aren't quite sure what to make of the fountain. They seem to get the concept that it's to drink out of, but they aren't sure how. Colby got a wet chin trying.

They played. And played. And played. For hours. I was beginning to think Apricot had a good point. Just watching them was exhausting. Sure, and it was fun too, watching them tumble over toys and things. But wearing, nonetheless. (Still glad I have two and they aren't looking to me for playtime!)

I had a cheap toy from Pippin's childhood hooked into the bottom area of the cat tree Apricot was in. This toy is a simple wire with cardboard twists at both ends. The fun comes when you pounce on one end, then the other end moves. I've never seen two cats play with it, but that was even more fun to watch.

Well, it was fun once I got it off the cat tree, and onto another one that Apricot wasn't occupying, but I realized this too late and Apricot skedaddled for the kitchen and the safety of the green tunnel cat tree. I'm getting the feeling that Apricot has put two and two together and realized that the kittens have a tendency to stay wherever I am.

This is true. I like to have my cats hang out near me ... I just want all three, not two out of the three.

But I got the wire with its tantalizing cardboard twists onto the other cat tree, and this provided long minutes of entertainment.

See the brown thingy on Thimble's paw?
That's one of the ends.

This picture was taken after 2.5 hours of play, and Colby was tired. Thimble had tired out long before and rested, so he was ready to go again when Colby tired out for the first time. I notice that Colby seems to have more play-stamina than Thimble. 

Finally, around 11:30 they wore out at the same time, and decided my lap was the place to crash. I'll say this for kittens; they may play non-stop but when they do stop, they're down for the count.

My legs are propped up on the
facing chair, and I have
kittens all the way to my ankles.

Colby, dear little thing, sleeps in the oddest positions ... 

He is fast asleep.
Those are Thimble's back feet by his head.

Well, then they woke up, and nothing would do but that mutual grooming should commence. But as for moving off my lap--whyever should they bother?

The mutual grooming was hilarious to watch. Both of them washed each other. Both of them objected to being washed by the other. Thimble got less objections from Colby than the other way around. 

This is Thimble getting minor objections from Colby.

This one below, is Colby getting major objections from Thimble.

The washing session deteriorated into a full on fight.

I let them fight on my lap. But I did think about it. Did I want them doing this as full grown cats? Well, the thing of it is, I don't think they'll fight like this as full grown cats. Plus, when they get that big, they won't be able to stay on my lap to fight. And all I have to do is get up and walk off. It's not like they're using claws (that I could feel, anyway) and the biting is restricted to each other. 

Apparently Thimble's ears are tasty.

But Ginger said to make sure Apricot was sleeping when the kittens slept, and he wasn't (I checked and he was still all wide-eyed. I'd kind of used kitten presence to get him back into the living room earlier ... I'd feel guilty, but I know myself that anxiety only gets worse the more you hide from it). So I put the kittens away around two, I guess.

Apricot has come down and been friendly to me, although still a bit skittish. He's slept, and groomed. I don't think he's eaten yet, and I don't know about the water intake. He's worrying me, to be honest.

This is a strain on my anxiety levels, not only worrying about him, but simply getting used to the sheer presence and energy levels of Colby and Thimble. I'm glad I have carte blanche to "put them away" when I'm getting too tired to have them around. Of course I also feel guilty at isolating them, since their enjoyment of my presence is so very obvious and their reluctance to be put back in the pink room is also obvious (another pair of squirmy kitties this afternoon on the trip back there).

I just hope we all get used to each other soon. I have less than a week before I have to go back to work, and I'd like to be able to let the kittens roam the house while I'm at work without worrying about Apricot's reactions.

Thimble and Colby Come Home Part III: Introductions

When I got up, after lunch, I went into the pink room to hang out with Thimble and Colby for a little while. I sat on the guest bed, which is a daybed, and leaned against the pillows which are piled up to my shoulder height. And I played games on my phone.

Colby decided the pillows were an excellent place to view the phone. He climbed up me and over my shoulder and onto the pillows so his butt was resting on the pillows and his front half was resting on my shoulders. Since he seemed so very fascinated with the phone, I held it up closer to him. Cats are very near-sighted anyway.

At the time I was checking in on Dragonvale. This has little animated dragons who live in habitats and make money. When a habitat has collected enough money for you to get easily, a little treasure chest appears floating, bobbing in the "air" above the habitat. You tap on it to get the money. There's a list at the top of how much you have in which game currency, and if you tap on those, you get an option to buy more, only using real money this time.

When I showed Apricot the phone with Dragonvale playing, he tried to catch the movement of things on the screen but his paws did nothing. It all comes of having fur between your toes; kept his skin from touching the screen, so the touchscreen didn't respond.

Maine Coons have fur between their toes, so I didn't think anything was going to happen when Colby reached out to the bobbing treasure chest. Apparently baby 'Coons don't have fur between their toes yet.

He not only collected my money for me, but he tapped on the "gems" (different kind of in-game currency) and brought up the "buy with real money" screen. I said, um, yeah, Colby, let's not have you buy gems for me with my own money, and put the phone back down where I could use it and he couldn't. He was disappointed. (Granted, I have in-app purchases disabled, just in case I have no self-control one day, but it's the principle of the thing.)

They are extremely social kitties and do not like being locked away by themselves. At least they do have each other. I got video of the two of them playing together. They like to play with toys, but for them, the other kitten counts as a toy!

I call this one Paddy Cake Paddy Cake Baker's POUNCE.

When I came back out, Apricot was (still or again) in the topmost level of the tallest cat tree in the living room. This tree is so tall that when he's on that spot, I have to stand on the hearth to reach him for a head kiss, and if he doesn't want one, all he has to do is turn around the other way, because I can't reach. This is actually nice because then I know he really does want one if he's turned where I can reach him, since the other rotation means he can look out the window.

He didn't seem inclined to come down any time soon. A text to Ginger got a response that perhaps it was the unknown that was freaking him out. This made sense--I don't like the unknown and it upsets my anxiety far worse than a known unpleasant thing would.

Apricot is astonished.

So I put the CarGo against the opposite wall so Apricot could see down into it, and got Thimble and Colby and put them in the CarGo. Of course, being me, I had forgotten that two sides of the four available were unzipped, so I had to keep kittens confined while closing both exits. This was challenging but I managed. There they were, visible through the mesh (and a lot more visible from above, I discovered later when I stood up and looked down at them from what was close to Apricot's vantage point.)

Thimble sees Apricot

Apricot was astonished. He had a look on his face that rather indicated that of all the things he thought that smell would mean, it certainly wasn't a pair of baby kittens! He stared down at them for the longest time. He did, however, look aside occasionally, and toward the end of the hour (previous conversation with Ginger gave me no-more-than-an-hour for inside the CarGo for the kittens) he was even doing slow eye blinks at them.

Thimble did not like being in the CarGo and meowed at me to tell me so. I ignored him. He had Colby and two other toys, and he should be fine. Colby didn't care; he had his brother and his toys and that was fine by him. Thimble gave up and started purring. Those two purr at the drop of a hat. I told my mother this was slightly insulting, considering one doesn't have to work at it to be rewarded by a purr. All I have to do is show up!

I was sitting with the laptop, writing the previous two Come Home stories, positioned halfway between Apricot's cat tree and the CarGo so I could keep an eye on everybody. Thimble and Colby played a little bit, but then fell asleep. Colby really went into deep sleep; I don't think Thimble did.

Because at the end of the hour, Apricot showed no signs of coming down, and no signs of further interest, either. So I opened the front of the CarGo and let the kittens come out and explore. Thimble came out almost immediately and went right (as in compared to left) into the hallway and the bathroom, where the toilet (lid down), got sniffed.

Colby sleeps silly!

Colby was sleeping with one paw tossed over his head. I've never seen a cat sleep like that. He was so far asleep that it took him a while to wake up and realize Thimble was gone. At that point, he was immediately awake and hunting down his brother. He followed in Thimble's footsteps (even sniffing the same spot on the toilet bowl) but then Thimble came back out of the living room where he'd gone in the other entrance (I have a weird living room / hallway junction. Just go with the flow here).

So Colby joined Thimble as they went down the hall and into the bedroom. My bedroom, not the pink room. Thimble made a short detour into the tv room but, envisioning kittens under the couch, I decided not, snagged his harness and put him back in the hall, and closed the door to the tv room. Assume in all future rambles today I've closed that door so he couldn't explore there.

Because Colby goes where Thimble goes. So if anyone's doing exploring, it's Thimble. Occasionally Colby will strike out on his own, but it's like hiking with someone. You may pause to look at the moss by the side of the trail, but you hurry up and catch up with the leader after the short side trip.

The two of them went into the bedroom, and then explored everywhere. (Well, not everywhere, actually; everywhere on floor level). They discovered you could go under the headboard from both sides of the bed (that's not going to last much longer as Apricot can barely make it through the one side). This was great fun, especially with the bedskirt covering the one entrance. There was some back and forthing with Thimble in under and Colby out in front, playing with each other's paws.

They discovered the cat stairs but not the final jump to the top of the bed. Mostly they discovered that one cat could be on the stairs and one underneath, and this was fun. (Again, something that depends on their size.)

They both sniffed Apricot's food and water but didn't taste either one. Colby discovered the litter box and went in, all but his tail, and backed out again. Apparently he reported on this to Thimble, because Thimble never bothered. Then again, Colby's the one with the fascination with my clear litterboxes!

Exploring my bedroom
Yes, I like Winnie-the-Pooh.

After they'd pretty much explored the whole room, I gathered them up and put them back in the pink room to give everybody a break.

***

Later the same day.

Apricot finally came down from the cat tree and started walking around. I was much relieved as he has shown a stubborn streak previously. (Like he never came down when my sister was in the house.) Speaking of stubborn, he hadn't eaten up until just a few minutes ago. I only infer that he ate something considering when I was eating supper he walked in licking his lips. But that was after all this happened that I am about to relate. (I wasn't too worried about the food thing. He's shown he has a fine-edged survival instinct about food. He may restrict his food intake when his anxiety is high, same as myself actually, but he won't let himself starve. He's got too many memories of what real hunger is like to do that. Er, I hope.)

Anyway, he'd come down and was being friendly cat to me. He seemed more relaxed and he lay down in the area of the living room which, thanks to a desk, has a kind of mini-hallway leading to the kitchen doorway.

So I decided, wisely or not, to push matters. I went and fetched Thimble and Colby again and put them in the CarGo, in its same position on the opposite side of the living room. This time Apricot was viewing it end-on, but I figured that wouldn't make a difference.

Once again Thimble let me know by meowing at me that he did not appreciate the CarGo. (I wonder if he'd be so opposed to it if I hadn't screwed up by putting them in it for the journey home.)

Apricot's ears pricked up. He stood up. For a second he wavered and then he walked toward them. I couldn't believe it. He actually covered about a third of the distance before thinking better of the notion and retreating all the way into the kitchen and onto one of the kitchen cat trees.

And there he seemed determined to stay. Keeping in mind his earlier behavior, where he'd stayed in the cat tree while they explored, I let them out to explore again.

This time they chose to explore the living room. This is Apricot's favorite room, the one where most all of his toys live scattered throughout the room, the room where he sleeps both during the day and, I suspect, at night. (I'm asleep when he goes to night-time-sleep, so I don't know for sure.)

I wonder if the reason they didn't explore it before was because he was watching them from the cat tree. They didn't seem to notice him up there, and it's possible they didn't know, since his scent would be all through the house and as long as he didn't move much, it wouldn't show much of a disturbance in the scent patter. I don't think anyway. My nose may be ultra-sensitive for a human but it's not anywhere in comparison to a cat.

Thimble and Colby were investigating not only the room and its contents, but also the trails of Apricot. They pinpointed every place where he spends a lot of time, and every toy got thoroughly sniffed, and occasionally played with but only for a little bit. As if they were nervous they might get yelled at by the owner of the toy!

Thimble's getting squashed again.

They liked the green cup stairway cat tree, and discovered you could be on the bookshelf beside it and one of you in the cup, and bat at each other back and forth. Thimble also discovered the toy hanging from the cup that's tucked back behind the last stair because it's a jingle toy and Apricot didn't like it jingling when he walked up to sleep in the green cup part. Thimble loves toys that jingle. The fact that it was semi-confined made it more fun, as he hadn't encountered that kind of thing before, I suspect.

I was standing at the end of the desk/wall minihallway and watching them, facing the living room with my side to the kitchen. Thimble came over and was standing over one of Apricot's favorite toys. It's a kick toy that I swear should be too small for him but it works somehow.

Thimble goes weird on me.

Thimble seemed taller and fluffier in the middle than usual. I reached down to pet him and realized he was arched and wary. Over a toy? Huh?

And then I heard a low hiss, from the side. I turned my head and there, against all expectation, stood Apricot in the doorway to the kitchen!

Thimble approached slowly and cautiously. Apricot let him get within the five feet boundary, and then hissed at him.

Thimble metaphorically threw up his hands to show he had no weapons and backed away very hastily.

Apricot retreated into the kitchen, having used up his limited store of bravery in that one show. But he didn't retreat before he saw Thimble retreat first, which is good.

Well, Apricot is back on the cat tree, and the kittens, Colby especially, are still interested in exploring. Colby had been on one of his side jaunts and hadn't noticed a lot of the interaction between Thimble and Apricot.

I let them keep exploring. I wanted to show Apricot when I gathered them up to "put them away" and I thought giving him some time to calm down before letting him see them again would be a good idea. Someone needs to tell me to stop thinking like that ...

Colby wandered into the kitchen but turned into the prep area, not the table area where the cat trees, and a ruffled Apricot, were. Okay, I'll let him ... and here comes Thimble. Who turns the other way and goes wandering under the table. Colby soon joins him, as usual.

Apricot was this time in the tunnel cat tree, since it's more protected. He was watching the kittens very closely. He watched silently as Thimble investigated my shoes.

Colby meandered across the five foot barrier Apricot seems to have decided on. It's about three feet up to where Apricot was, so Colby was very nearly at the base of the cat tree when Apricot decided all right, enough is enough!

Blurry, but all three cats are
in this picture. 

He hissed, and Colby wanted to back away but couldn't immediately figure out where the hiss came from. So since he didn't move fast enough to suit Apricot, he got the hiss followed by a low growl. First time I have ever heard Apricot growl.

Colby practically ran out of the kitchen, with Thimble on his heels. Apricot looked a little confused. He had a couple different expressions at the same time. Satisfaction that the invaders had left, bafflement that they'd obeyed him, and just a touch of ... disappointment? Perhaps I am imagining that last.

I rescued the rather shook-up pair, and showed them to Apricot (from across the kitchen) and told him I was putting them away.

Thimble realized halfway down the (real) hall where we were going. He didn't want to be put away. He wanted to stay out here with me. Colby decided the same thing. So I had squirmy kittens on the trip back to the pink room.

However, they are more resilient than Apricot and have each other, so Apricot gets the primary human companionship until we can all be together without hissing.

Before the second encounter.
Colby is on my shoes, Thimble is approaching.

And I was right; they just fell asleep together. I checked in on them after supper and that's where they were, all in a heap together.

Apricot, much to my astonishment, not only came down from his safe perch in the kitchen while I ate supper, but apparently went and got his own. He's been around ever since, keeping me in sight. I played with him with his feather toy which he was very glad to see (I wasn't sure if he'd want the distraction or not).

But instead of actually playing with it, he used it as an excuse to draw himself into the living room and go over every place Thimble and Colby went. It was funny, because with my misplaced memory*, I could remember the trails they left like I was seeing them walk it, and I could tell Apricot was tracing out their path. Not in order, more like working his way across the living room. He checked on every toy they'd checked out, and spent more time on the ones that they'd played with.

I finally decided he didn't want to play, and started putting the wand away. It collapses into itself, and makes a soft noise (snick, snick, snick) as each piece collapses. Apricot came running over to me, the look on his face enough to tell me that no, he didn't want me to put it away. That's when I figured out he must be using it as an excuse to make himself investigate everything "they" had touched.

I do that too, sometimes. I use a familiar routine as an excuse to force myself to do something scary. Like when we go to a new restaurant with my friends. I eat out at a restaurant every Saturday night with them. Given a choice, I wouldn't go somewhere new. New is scary. But I use the routine of "eating out with friends" to force myself to go to the new place. I wouldn't have to. I could stay home and eat by myself. But the routine makes it easier to branch out.

Finally he let me put the toy away. He did make a few conciliatory attacks to the feathers, as if to make me feel useful! And since then we have been in the living room, with him wandering around and coming over to me randomly to get head bumps and kisses.

I went into to check on the Rowdy Boys, who were almost asleep. But they didn't want me to leave and when they saw me going to the door, they both jumped down from the fish bed at the window (where they sleep, apparently, since I've caught them piled together on it three times now) and ran over to me, purring madly.

So I sat down and petted. I'd turned the lights off already so they had the advantage on me. I could hardly see more than furry shapes in the dark. But I can already tell Thimble from Colby, even with the bad lighting. It's behavior more than shape! And they were very cuddly and made me feel very guilty when I finally did leave and had to shut the door with them on the other side.

I do hope that we make rapid progress so everybody can be out together and at least a mild truce involved!

* I have prosopagnosia, otherwise known as face-blindness. The part of your brain dedicated to remembering and recalling the countless details that differentiate your father's face from, say, your uncle's face, in my head it doesn't work right. Instead of remembering faces, it remembers things and placement of things. So I know where everything is in the drawers of my kitchen and in my house, but I can't recognize my mother if I see her unexpectedly in a store.

Thimble and Colby Come Home Part II: The First Night

When I came home with the kittens yesterday, I put them in the pink room with toys and let them settle in.

The new litter box with the clear sides has proved to be a source of much entertainment as well as actual use. They both used the litter box within ten minutes of coming out of the carrier (which happened within ten seconds of my opening the carrier door). They have to climb in, because the edge is tall. I have a cardboard thick piece covered with a piece of carpet for the "stair". The stair keeps getting played with and turned over. I'm not sure if I should tape it to the mat under the litter box or just keep putting it back. They can (they have proved) jump in without it.

But I've watched Colby decide to leave by one of the walls, and run right into it because it's clear and he didn't see that it was there. Colby has a tendency to not-notice things. I do sympathize with him. I do that too.

He depends on Thimble a lot. Thimble was the one who asked me where the scratching post was. He stretched out on the desk leg, and looked back at me. "Is this where I'm supposed to do this?"

Yes, I know how to scratch, thank you,
I just didn't know where.

I said, no, come over here, this is where it is. The cat tree with the scratching post legs is in the corner to give the tree, which is tall, some stability. Thimble came over and I ran my fingers down the sisal post that I can most easily reach. Thimble gave me this, "uh, thanks, but duh, I know what to do" look and proceeded to stretch out and scratch.

It looked like he wanted the stretching more than the scratching, which makes sense given they were confined to a carrier longer than they've ever been before, and with two of them in there, there isn't a lot of room to stretch out.

So Colby had been using the litter box during this (Thimble was first, there, too, but Colby didn't have to ask him where it was, just wait for him to finish). Colby comes over and they have a little conference, nose to nose, that lasts just a second, and then Colby goes right over to the scratching post and stretches out to scratch.

Way of Cats blog said that one of the cool things about a multiple cat household is watching the cats interact, and watching the cat who understands humans better, translate for the cat(s) who don't. And I saw that happening, right in front of me. It really was cool!

Well, I went out and checked on Apricot, and he still seemed to be normal. This was before the kittens' scent had an opportunity to permeate the house.

My brother's fireplace turns
Max into Supercat!

I have a lot of trouble with anxiety and I figured it was better if I left the house, left everyone to settle in on their own without me wittering at them. So I headed out to my board gaming friends and had my supper and played Lords of Waterdeep, but the anxiety started to build about a third of the way into the game, and I decided I had to turn my part over to a late-comer and leave when I found myself jumping the gun and trying to cut another person's turn short just because I needed to go home so badly. Even though we only had one round to go.

Anxiety also causes me to have trouble driving, so I wanted to leave before it got so bad I would have that trouble. It's bad enough driving in the dark now. (Ten years ago I used to be able to see in the dark better than anyone in my age group, so the fact that I'm having trouble driving in the dark makes me wonder just how badly most people in my age group see the world!)

When I got home, the smell had well and truly gotten through the house and Apricot was a bit on edge. He came to greet me when I came in, because that's in the kitchen at the opposite end of the house. But he didn't want to follow me to my bedroom to "help" me get ready for bed, the way he normally does, although he actually did come in when I called him plaintively enough.

This cat bed is where they've been
sleeping, heaped together.

I checked in on the kittens and found them in a heap together, fast asleep. And the light going on woke them up and they started coming awake and playful, and that was a mistake too. The two bedrooms share a wall so when I wanted to go to sleep, the soft thud and rumble of them playing on the cat tree was a bit disturbing.

Although honestly the scent was worse. It's not a bad smell, I keep saying, it's just different. So I went to sleep and Apricot stayed out in his cat tree in the living room in his Observation Deck, the little square where he stayed when my sister was staying with me and he wouldn't come down until she left.

There was a brief two hour interlude in the morning on Sunday where I got up, cleaned litterboxes, gave food and water, checked on everybody, played with or petted everybody, as desired, went for my hour walk and went back to bed. This is what I do Sunday morning, when I've stayed up late gaming the night before. And when I wake up the second time, in the middle of the day, it always seems a little like a dream.

Apricot was still, when I woke up, stubbornly in the Observation Deck, although he came down to be with me in the kitchen for my lunch.

Apricot's Asleep

I was sitting on the settee in the living room today, and Apricot hopped up into the hammock which is right next to it. He ended up falling asleep in a totally unprotected, confident coil, with his feet and tummy in the air. He looked so cute I had to take a video!

Thimble Plays Fetch!

Ginger sent me this video today. Thimble starts out on her lap. She throws a toy and he goes after it, picks it up, and brings it back to her!

This is so awesome. I've always wanted a cat who can play fetch. Since I'm so tired a lot of the time, it's an easy way for me to play with them, and a good way for them to wear out without me wearing out long before they do!

She says Thimble's ahead of the curve; the rest should start playing fetch around next week.

They're ten weeks old today.

PS For you video fiends who insist on things being all landscape oriented, I'm sorry ... couldn't be helped.