The Black Cat Visits and Thimble is a Computer Cat

I'm not sure why this never occurred to me. Somehow I thought that once I provided indoor friends for Apricot, his outdoor friends would not show up, or he wouldn't pay them any attention, or something like that. Which is silly; of course they'd still show up, and Apricot isn't fickle with his attentions so he's not going to throw them over just because he's finally begun to feel his way toward the beginning of friendship with Thimble and Colby.

I heard a cat, sounded almost like a cat in heat, but I really don't know all the different sounds a cat in heat makes, so perhaps not. However, the cat in black is now going to be referred to as Apricot's girlfriend. Just in case.

Shortly after this calling, which alerted Apricot, the black cat showed up on the porch. Apricot ran over to the patio doors and was very fascinated, staring intently at the black cat. The outside cat, not particularly bothered by the attention, stayed around for a little while and then slowly strolled off, causing Apricot to follow from one window to the next.

Colby and Thimble clearly thought he'd lost his mind, as suddenly they weren't the most important things for Apricot to keep track of.

Oh well, I suppose we will all get used to things like this.

***

Thimble is a computer cat. I am typing, and he is on the desk beside the laptop, watching the screen or my flying fingers with much fascination. He's getting a little tired, or perhaps hypnotized, I don't know. Last night he got rather damp from being spritzed to keep him from walking on the keyboard. Today he has gotten within a hair's width of walking on the keyboard but hasn't actually done it.

The mouse on the screen: endless amusement.
Even if he can't try to catch it.

Today is Colby's turn to get wet because he kept playing with the wires underneath the desk. Colby doesn't seem interested enough in what I'm doing to stay here for long, but as I've noted before, Colby has a bad case of Kitten ADHD.

It's kind of nice having Thimble here getting in my way. I remember that Pippin used to do this, and it's something I'd actually forgotten up until now.

An Inauspicious Way to Begin the New Year ... Or Is It?

The Rowdy Boys are still getting put away at night. When I woke this morning and called "Apricot, I'm up," he came right in the way he has always done (since he started doing this in July) and wanted petted and everything seemed normal.

But when he put himself on the cat tree and I asked, "So, shall I let them out?" he suddenly got a panicked look on his face, pushed past me to get off the cat tree (I was standing fairly close), and ran into the bedroom and under the headboard. His place of last resort, the place he hides when he's truly scared.

I felt sick.What have I done? What if he stays there permanently, and don't tell me he has to come out sometime, because I've heard too many tales from people of a cat who stays under the sofa and only comes out to eat/drink/litter box when no one else is around.

I petted him, reaching around the edge of the headboard entrance like I did when he first came here and that's where he stayed for three days. And then I went and let the Rowdy Boys out, because I might as well; they're people too and if Apricot is going to hide, they shouldn't be punished because of it.

After letting them out I went for my walk, because I am a slave to routine and what else was I going to do? When I came back, Apricot was still under the headboard. I was planning to take a shower while I was still (a little) warm from the walk. (It's 29 degrees F this morning, so my walk did not warm up my extremities the way it would had it been warmer.)

But I wanted to pet Apricot and let him know I was still there for him and I still loved him even if he did become the cat under the headboard.

Of course, the boys came in too. They can get under the headboard because they're still small, and Thimble especially kept pushing it and pushing it, going underneath and getting hissed and growled at, backing out, and then seconds later doing it again. I debated trying to stop him, but honestly, I thought maybe if Thimble proved the headboard wasn't as safe as the top of the cat tree, Apricot would come out and be there instead. Which would mean he was at least with everyone else.

About the fourth or fifth time Thimble pushed past my petting hand/arm that was caressing Apricot and invaded Apricot's final hiding place, Apricot lost it. (By the way, my hand got retracted whenever Thimble pushed in; I'm not completely unaware of the possibilities of claws here.)

Apricot, gentle, retiring, shy Apricot, who let all the other cats in the cat room make him be the low man on the totem pole--Thimble got something out of him that I don't think any other cat has.

Apricot swatted him. Hard. He didn't have his claws out, but I could tell the impact had his muscle weight behind it.

Thimble immediately retreated and this time stayed that way. Colby, observing all of this, decided that he didn't need to learn the same lesson and copied Thimble. (This is Colby's method of operation for everything. He lets Thimble go first, and that way he (Colby) has more time and energy to play while Thimble has to do the heavy lifting.)

Okay, well, at least Apricot won't let them push him around while he's there. I gave Apricot some praise and some petting, and then went to take my shower. (Of course by now I'm thoroughly chilled again and had to spend more time than usual in the hot flow of water.)

When I came out, the first thing I saw was very strange. Both the Rowdy Boys were in the pink room, despite the door being open. Well, maybe the whole shower thing startled them--only they don't startle for reasons like that, not and stay startled.

I went to check on Apricot, and he was gone. Crap. Did he go hide under the sofa in the tv room? It's much harder to get at him, and while I will never haul him out from under the headboard short of a fire in the house, I want to know I can haul him out if I need to. The sofa is ever so much harder for me to get under.

To the point where I thought I'd check the living room first, just in case, and if a miracle had occurred, I wouldn't have had to crawl under the sofa and hit my head multiple times (it always happens).

Apricot was in the living room, in the Ops Deck. Oh, I was so relieved! He can stay mewed up in there (yes, the pun is deliberate) all he likes. Just be out where I can sort of be with him!

But why were the Rowdy Boys in the pink room? They like the living room; it's bigger and (apparently) has better toys. They followed me into the living room slowly, and they both gave Apricot a wide berth.

Then, kittens being irrepressible and all, they both started playing in and around the tunnel. Apricot came out of the Ops Deck and watched from the cat tree ... and then he came down, got himself a casual drink from the fountain, and got down on the floor to watch the two play. Thimble looked over but didn't make a move toward him.

Colby and Thimble in the tunnel,
and Apricot watching from a chosen distance.

Really? Seriously? This is awesome!

Since then Apricot has come over to me several times for a pet or a head bump or a kiss, like his usual drive-by loving self. He's approached the kittens, not going up to them, but going toward them and then stopping. He never deliberately went toward them before today. He stretched out on the floor in a relaxed position and watched them play. He went over to the green cup stairway cat tree on the opposite side of the room from "his" cat tree and looked out the window for a moment. And now he is back on the cat tree at the top, curled up, to all appearances asleep.

Through all of this activity by Apricot, the kittens never once approached him, and Colby, once startled by his presence (I swear Colby, you really need to start paying attention to your surroundings) backed off with his body bent in a U-shape and moving on tippy toes.

Apparently, all we needed to have happen is for Apricot to swat Thimble a good one, and now Thimble (and by extension, Colby) is treating Apricot with the proper deferential attitude.

It's only 9 am and everybody's in sleep mode. I think perhaps I am not the only one who is exhausted by all this back and forth behavior!

Colby and Thimble Go to the Vet

Apricot was miffed at me. Here I'd seen the error of my ways and put both kittens into the carrier and left, and then I brought them back.

I was only thinking of Thimble's discomfort in a larger space, so I should use the carrier to take them to the vet. I forgot that Apricot's only experience (deliberately on my part) with a carrier was going to and from a shelter. He'd gone to the vet in a front pack. Oops.

Oh well, he forgave me by suppertime.

cvz (that was Thimble. He and Colby are on the computer desk, learning not to step on the keyboard or chew the covered wires.They are both rather damp. Ginger's method of aversion training was a squirt bottle of water, and it works very well, when Thimble isn't being persistent, anyway.)

So, to the actual visit.

Colby and Thimble got stuffed into the carrier together and taken to the vet that way. But even in the carrier Thimble protested. Not constantly like he was carsick, just every so often, like "I don't wanna!"

I'm seeing a new vet at my same vet place. Pippin's vet went to a branch of the same practice that's closer to where she lives, and while I can't blame her, I do miss her. The vet I took Apricot to is all very nice, but she's very, um, exuberant and it's exhausting for this already-stressed autistic person to be around her.

So I tried a new doctor. I asked if she'd be okay if I took pictures, and she was. I also made sure the computer screen in the room was on "blank" or standby so I wouldn't accidentally post any critical or private information.

The carrier with the kittens in it

 First we opened the carrier and Thimble came out within five seconds of the door opening. Colby, as usual, hung back to let Thimble do the heavy lifting of figuring out what was what out there. So Dr. Duncan did Thimble's exam first. He is a healthy kitty weighing 4.9 pounds.

Thimble getting examined and
not thinking much of it.

 By then Colby ventured out, just in time to get poked and prodded himself. He is another healthy kitty weighing 4.6 pounds. Not unexpected; he's not that far behind Thimble but he's never caught up to him yet. (Watch him end up the larger cat.)

Dr. Duncan (who is cheerful but not scarily
exuberant like my other vet) and Colby,
getting a heart check.

 Then we had to wait while she went and got an assistant and the shots. See, it used to be a lot easier to give kitties shots. The vets used the loose skin at the base of the neck and it was like getting a shot in your butt. Lots of muscle and fat to absorb the needle-prick.

But then, they discovered that there was an unsettling correspondence between the incidence of cancer and the location of the vaccination sites. This is not something that happens with humans. Cats are scarily vulnerable to getting cancer and no one yet knows why.

So they started a protocol where each shot goes in a different leg. This way if a large number of cancers arise in cats' left legs, they know which vaccine to blame. (They've also removed the adjuvant from most vaccines because that seemed to have an effect on the incidence of cancer. I say "seemed" because you can never prove anything with 100% certainty in science. However, when something has a high correlation, and you can remove it, you might as well. It makes the vaccines more expensive because they have to be stored different, but hey, it's worth it.)

Anyway, the other benefit is, if your kitty does get a vaccine related carcinoma, they can amputate the leg. I know it sounds terrible, but cats honestly don't care. I actually know someone who had to have this done, and he said he had more trouble with it emotionally than his kitty did. She makes her way around the house same as she always did, smacks the dogs when they get fresh, mostly acts just like before. The only difference he's noticed is that she's discovered leaning against a human's leg gives her more stability, so now he and his wife have to be careful which cat is leaning against them because if it's her, they need to give her some warning to take her balance back before they just leave.

Thimble and Colby exploring. They aren't
big enough yet to jump off the counter.

Thimble had been so good during his exam where he got poked and prodded all over that he had the doctor snookered. When she gave him his second shot, he objected mightily and tried to leave. He didn't offer violence or anything like that; just struggled so suddenly that he managed to pull the needle out without all the rabies vaccine going into him. She looked at the remnant in the syringe and sighed. Well, she said, the amount is the same no matter how much they weigh, so he's got plenty in his system.

Colby's shots went off without a hitch, partially because I reached underneath and grabbed a back leg to stabilize him more. You know, the detriment of having a shot in your leg is like if we got a shot in our ankle versus the butt. Much less padding to assist in the pain relief, so it hurts more to give them shots in their legs. It's worth it, though.

Thimble on top of Colby again.
Sort out whose legs are whose ...

It was 11 when we got back and that's normally when they slow down to begin with. After that exhausting experience, they sacked out quicker than normal. I gathered up Thimble (because I could reach him--he was on the lower curve of the cat tree in the picture above) and held him while he slept.

When I had to move, I put him back on the cat tree where I'd gotten him from. I consider this only polite. Having woken him up, he decided that Colby really needed a wash, and climbed up onto him and proceeded to wash him. Whether Colby liked it or not!

Later ... That is how Colby normally sleeps.

I haven't been getting enough sleep, so I lay down on the settee to get a nap. Colby, seemingly a bit miffed that he'd missed out on sleeping on top of me earlier, came over first and curled up across my hips and stomach.

Then in about a half an hour I was woken from my barely-snooze by Thimble joining him and lying across my chest. He had his paws out in the direction of my neck, and when he fell asleep and started dreaming, his soft little paws kept twitching under my chin. 

Needless to say I didn't get any deep sleep. I was, however, quite warm. Which was nice.

At suppertime, after I ate I put the Rowdy Boys in the pink room and shut the door and played with Apricot with the feathers. He seemed to greatly appreciate this, not really in how much he played, but just in having the time with me. Earlier while the boys were still out in the living room but asleep, he'd come into the kitchen and asked for some kitchen cuddle time, which, since I love that, I was perfectly happy to provide him. 

And then I let them out again, and Colby has gone to sleep in the "new toy" box, and Thimble is asleep between the keyboard (which he is slowly learning not to touch) and the mouse. This means when I reach over to move my mouse, it's vaguely furry on the side where his tail is against it. 

Since it's the last night of the year, people are already setting off fireworks. It's four hours to midnight, people! Save your money and do it closer to the actual New Year? Oh well. The kittens don't seem too upset. I need to go check on Apricot, but I think he'll be okay.

An Arrangement Has Been Reached

Last night, as I was standing at the kitchen counter making my supper, someone brushed by my legs. As I looked down, I remember being a bit confused. Apricot was ensconced in his cat tree; the Rowdy Boys had just left the kitchen at high speed due to the new sound of the microwave coming on. (I don't worry about them and new sounds; it alarms them and they shake off the alarm and come back.)

I figured maybe Thimble? But it had felt too high up my leg, and too heavy for that, yet it couldn't possibly be ... Apricot looked up at me, all innocent. "Hi!"

He'd come down, made his way across a living room floor with a kitten minefield on it, just to come in and say hi. Well, someone got petted and praised and phooey on the supper prep!

Since that time, he's been up and down on his own decision, not letting himself be corralled by the kittens. Apparently, an arrangement has been reached.

This video was last night, around 7 pm.

He'll walk through the house, slightly hunched still, and sometimes the others will come over to him and sometimes they won't. Thimble isn't always instantly going toward him now. I've seen him meet both kittens (separate times) face to face, with only minimal growl and no hiss. Apparently the growl is the "medium" warning and the hiss is the "large" warning for him. I thought it would be the other way around.

Colby's the only one who has growled at him, and even that didn't happen this morning when they met face to face in the kitchen. I came back from my walk, and Apricot came to be my upside-down kitty, despite the fact that both kittens were in the kitchen on one of the cat trees, looking out the window (looking for me? They'd seen me leave the house this time).

The kittens are fascinated by Apricot, and they both came down from the cat tree and made their way over to him. Colby got there first, and met him head-on. A warning low growl from Apricot and no comment from Colby, and the two separated amicably and went on their way.

Colby managed to get a sniff in on Apricot's tail, too. I think tail-sniffing is a "safe" way to, well, research another a cat. Kind of like doing an online check (facebook, etc) for someone if they ask you on a date. It's not quite as risky as asking directly! Apricot sniffed Thimble's tail too, when Thimble got himself stuck above Apricot yesterday.

And today, although Apricot is in his Thinking Spot, he's sleeping (or pretending to) while the kittens are playing, which is not something he was doing Monday. He wouldn't even sleep when they fell asleep on Monday. Furthermore, he was thirsty, so he came down and got himself a drink from the fountain.

While he was down, he came over to the opposite side of the living room and said hello to me before heading back up to the top of the cat tree. I think right now he may be on top of the cat tree for the same reason I'm sitting in the settee. It's where we go in the morning (when I'm not at work, asleep, or doing chores, that is.)

This is most promising and far faster than I had anticipated.

Next the Rowdy Boys have to go to the vet today for their 12 week shots. They aren't quite 12 weeks old yet. That will be tomorrow, on New Year's Day. But the vet isn't open tomorrow, and the one I want to see isn't working Friday, so we're going today.

Just now, Apricot came down from the cat tree and went over to the litter box box to look out. Colby is sacked out on the middle cat tree and Thimble is on the floor, intently watching Apricot.

Thimble Gets Himself Into Trouble

Thimble, bless his heart, is a born leader. Or at least he thinks so. Luckily he's got a born follower in Colby, who has no problem letting Thimble go first, be on top (sometimes literally), but still can be friends with him (Colby pounces on Thimble just as much as the other way around, and the washing happens in both directions. Thimble protests more, though.)

So Thimble wants to be friends with Apricot, which is good, but he wants to be top friend, which is not so good. Apricot would probably, eventually, let him. I'm not going to let that happen if I have a say so in it.

This is all to explain why Thimble got himself into trouble.

I went over to pet Apricot. He emerged from the Observation Deck (where he'd retreated to earlier today after the drama) and stretched. Thimble saw this and decided that meant Apricot was ready to receive visitors again, and ran over to introduce himself, again.

Apricot retreated back into the Observation Deck like a turtle into his shell, and proceeded to growl at the approaching Thimble.

Not daunted, Thimble climbed up the cat tree till he was on the same level as Apricot. Who hissed very severely at him. Thimble wanted to approach, but Apricot was having none of that. So Thimble compromised and stepped up onto the next level.

Apricot disapproved but not enough to come out and say so physically. (If Apricot was a human he'd be a pacifist.) So Thimble felt quite proud of himself, and sat there looking like he'd won something. I just waited for him to find out it wasn't quite the victory he thought.

Victory at last.

Colby, down on the floor, had been waiting patiently, lying in a curl, the way he has been doing when Thimble is "talking" to Apricot. Now, since Thimble wasn't discussing things with Apricot anymore (the growling had stopped as the situation was static), Colby got bored. His playmate wasn't around, but there were plenty of toys. He started playing quite thoroughly with a toy.

Thimble saw this and decided playtime would be a good idea. He went to leave, and discovered the flaw in his plan as Apricot noticed movement and started hissing like a steam kettle and growling like a steam engine.

Thimble was going to have to step down over where Apricot was in order to get down. And he really didn't think that was such a good idea at this juncture. So, reluctantly, he settled back onto his platform, no longer by choice, and watched as Colby had fun without him.

The slow process of getting himself out
of the trouble he'd gotten into.

Finally, as the steam ran down in the Apricot engine, Thimble mustered enough courage to step over him and down off the cat tree. He came over to me (I'd been watching the whole time) and I ignored him, instead going over to Apricot and crooning sympathies and praise to him.

This is how I'm doing my best to support Apricot; when they are interacting, he gets praise, and Thimble gets ignored or talked to in a warning tone of voice. I'm not sure how much I can do with this. Apricot thinks I'm a giant deformed cat, and is perfectly willing to defer to me. Thimble knows I'm a human and is still trying to figure out who rules the roost (he tries to groom me, I make him stop, but I "groom" him by petting him, which he enjoys).

As I was writing this, the rowdy boys are asleep on the settee where I had been before nature called, and now I am over at the computer desk. Apricot came down from the Observation Deck and came to me, stretching himself out as he went. This is about the time I usually come home from work and we have our routine of petting in the kitchen, so I went in there and sat down like I would normally, and he agreed that was an excellent idea.

He curled up against me and I petted and petted and he even mustered a purr from somewhere in his wary little body. And he did this knowing that Thimble and Colby were in the next room, albeit asleep. He wouldn't have done that even yesterday.

So he came back in the living room and was on the floor by the vent where he likes to be, and then the phone rang and Colby and Thimble woke up. Apricot decided he wanted to be safely on the cat tree and made his slow, cautious way across the entire living room to his cat tree.

Thimble, for the first time, left him alone and just watched. I think perhaps he learned something earlier.

Not entirely, because once Apricot was safely on the cat tree, Thimble went over and climbed it again, to see if perhaps this time Apricot would be friends. Also, he wanted to check out the Observation Deck that he'd seen Apricot spend so much time in. Apricot hissed and growled warning at him, so Thimble stopped at the Deck level and curled up in the Deck, to see what it was like. Apricot looked over at me with a kind of baffled, where'd he go? but then Thimble stuck a bit of himself outside the Deck and Apricot could see him again.

Thimble doesn't fill the Deck yet like Apricot does. Eventually he'll be too big to fit in there comfortably, although given what I've seen of what they consider comfortable, I wouldn't bet on it.

Well, Thimble decided it wasn't happening tonight and he made his way down and over to me where I was sitting and watching with Colby on my lap. Thimble wanted to be there so he simply sat down on top of Colby. Sometimes Colby puts up with it and sometimes he doesn't, and this time was a time he didn't. My legs weren't good enough to stay on down farther (no blanket across them to bridge the gap, you see) and after he fell off once in either direction, he decided that was a no-go.

Colby looks up at the cat tree with Apricot on the Thinking Spot, the highest perch, and I could visibly see him decide that if Thimble was doing it, so could he. And he went over and climbed up the cat tree, from one level to the next, till he got to the Ops Deck level. Apricot had been (pretending  or not, I don't know) snoozing but he saw him then.

Colby hadn't seen the view out the window yet, and he was totally mesmerized by it, forgetting why he'd come up here in the first place. He climbed onto the secondary perch, the one right below Apricot, and was looking out, his whole body absorbed in the view.

Apricot growled and gave a warning hiss over top of the growl. Colby flinched back and looked up, remembering, oh, yeah, the big orange cat, that's why I came up here. He tried to straighten up, but got hissed at every time he moved, so, unlike Thimble, he quickly decided this was a very bad idea and left. He didn't run, but he moved hastily enough to give Apricot the notion that he'd left directly due to Apricot's hissing at him.

Apricot seems rather pleased with himself. Thimble, who was on my lap this whole time, had tensed up when the encounter began, but relaxed once Colby left with no harm done. That's actually what I'm afraid of right now; that Colby will decide to push it, but without Thimble's fine-tuned sense of what he can get away with, he'll get himself into trouble with Apricot (like a smack, if Apricot actually goes there) and Thimble will launch into defense mode.

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.

Movie Watching (and Random Things)

I'm writing this Tuesday mid-day, but it's about last night's event, so I put that I was writing it early this morning. You can change the publish time like that.

Last night I got one of my dearest wishes.

I decided to try to watch a movie after supper, in the hopes that this would lure one or both kittens in with me and leave Apricot the house while still having them "loose."

Colby never showed up.

Thimble, on the other hand, came in, and jumped up on the sofa with me. After some negotiation which involved Thimble invoking his mother and trying to play with my hair (I leaned forward, same as I do when Apricot tries to groom my hair, and that put an end to that), Thimble settled down on my lap, curled up against me, and fell asleep.

He stayed there through the whole movie.

I have wanted this so badly. Apricot's short jaunts as a lap cat were nice, but this is what I wanted. Long term, warm purring weight in my lap. Thimble made me so content that I honestly don't remember much of the movie!

***

So both kittens have figured out the fountain and how to drink from it without becoming unnecessarily wet.

A kick-toy that I got way back when Pippin was a kitten is finally being put to its intended use. Both Colby and Thimble have figured out you grab the fluffy tail of it and kick the stuffed body part hard. And sometimes the kitten doing the rabbit-kicking gets pounced on by the other kitten, and things deteriorate into an all-out fight from there.

I wonder if they'll ever actually fight with each other. I worried about being able to tell play-fight from real, but so far, it's easy. Their playfights never last long and are always silent.

I've had to use the spray bottle already. Mostly on Thimble. There have been attempts to scratch the chair by both kittens, and Thimble had a love affair with the sheer curtain that's pinned back so they can see out either side. He hasn't shown any signs of wanting to play with it today.

And apparently yesterday's play for four hours wasn't always the way things go, because today they settled down after three, and fell asleep in my lap. Thimble always is the one closest to me and Colby the one farther down my legs, and Thimble is always the one on top, because to fit they have to overlap a bit.

I let Colby slide down between my knees a bit
so he wasn't quite so squashed.