All about the kitties

Mom called the other night to tell me she thought there was something wrong with my blog because the last entry she saw was from Aug. 20. I had to tell her that was correct - I just hadn't updated in that long.

I sometimes compose blog posts in my head while driving or whenever, but then forget to actually post when I get home. Maybe someday you all will get the benefit of my thoughts on those topics ... But for now, all about our cats:

We have three cats. Buster, known as Boo-Boo, is 4 1/2 (I think). Chicken and Olivia were born July 5, 2008. They are all so different. Boo-Boo is aptly nicknamed. He is a fat cat, and sometimes incredibly clumsy. Chicken is finally warming up to me after living with us for three years. (We got her and Olivia in August 2008 and the girls bottle-fed them at first - they were very tiny and hadn't been cared for by their mother.) Olivia is a sweetheart and very lovey-dovey.
Chicken and Olivia as kittens

Chicken is Amanda's cat. She used to be very possessive of food and would try anything. More recently I've had to stop her chewing on plastic, including the sleeve of a stack of crackers. She has over names, but we've forgotten the list - it was something like Chicken Solar Zucchini with a couple more in there. She is a marmalade and white cat, and when she lies down in the kitchen window and the sun hits her fur, it brings out copper highlights.

There is a shelf next to the door of my bedroom. All the cats like it, but Olivia especially likes to sit on the shelf and have me pet her. She will grab at my hand if I move it away, and pull it to her. She's a tortoise-shell kitty, the first I've ever had. She's actually Cayla's cat, but I think she thinks I'm her human. She comes over when I'm on the computer and insinuates herself onto my chest, making me support her with my left arm - which makes typing difficult.

Boo-Boo was born in a garage belonging to friends of mine in Webster City. Debbie J. mentioned at church that a cat had given birth in the garage and there were kittens old enough to take home. Donna wanted one, and she drove us both over to Webster City. I picked Boo-Boo, who is a tabby with white on his belly and legs. We found out that he could catch mice, but he didn't want to eat them, just play with them. We were living in a mobile home that started getting mice that following winter (feral cats started living underneath the mobile and I think that was what started it). Boo-Boo would catch one, play with it, sometimes lose it. So we would (and by we I mean Kent) grab a plastic grocery bag and grab the mouse away from Boo-Boo and throw it outside into the snow,  hoping it wouldn't come back. Boo-Boo's mice now come from the grocery store - I buy the kind with rabbit fur on the outside. He plays fetch with them. Seriously.
Boo-Boo takes naps seriously.

Boo-Boo can also jump higher than Chicken and Olivia. He can jump from the floor to the top of the fridge. The girl kitties jump onto the stove, then on a shelf next to the stove (we no longer put jars of spices there - they were getting knocked down) and on to the fridge, or from a stool to the fridge. Chicken can jump from the back of a chair to the top of the pantry if the chair is in the right position and she remembers that she can do that. Otherwise she cries until someone puts her up there or she jumps on my back if I am careless enough to bend over near the pantry, and then jumps up. Chicken can jump from the top of the computer monitor (which she's taking a nap on right now) to the top shelf of the bookcase, but Boo-Boo can jump to the top of the bookcase. There's a huge entertainment center, too, and Chicken and Boo-Boo can jump to the middle shelf and use that to get to the top. Olivia doesn't jump to the pantry, bookshelf or entertainment center.

The girl kitties' growth was stunted by their early circumstances. They were born to a feral cat who was taken in by Dawn T. a co-worker of mine. Dawn gave the kittens as much care as she could, but she would be gone for hours at work and couldn't bottle-feed them in that time. A couple of the litter died. We got these two at five weeks and Amanda and Cayla bottle-fed them around the clock. We went through a lot of tiny nipples for the bottles, as the kittens would bite right through them.

So  there you have it. We've got three cats, they are all different. They all love being in the window when it's open - I opened a bedroom window this morning and they rushed over like it was their Christmas present. Unfortunately, the days of open windows are soon to end for awhile. They can still look outside, but they love the fresh air. I kind of like it, too.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Aunt Nancy's Green Cake

My Memories May blog train

So, it's been awhile