Last weekend, after the Bookworms had finished up their medication, and I was sure that their litter box leavings were as they should be (ie, solid), we opened the door and set them free to roam the house.
(They haven’t been Combo tested yet – we (the shelter manager and I) decided to wait to have them tested until they’re three months old, since if they were tested right now they very well could come up FIV positive because their mother was. Given a little more time, they may come up negative on the first test, which means we could have them neutered and shoot ’em over to Petsmart to be snatched up immediately. And since all our cats are up to date on their vaccinations, I’m not worried about them catching anything from the kittens.)
The Bookworms really really enjoyed having more room to roam. At first they were like “THERE’S A WHOLE NEW WORLD OUT THERE!”, and then they were like “Hey! Other kitties!” and then “Hey, those other kitties are mean!”
Jake and Elwood dedicated the first couple of days to making sure the ‘worms knew just who was in charge around here (funny, Jake and Elwood think THEY are in charge, but I suspect the older cats would disagree with THAT), and since then, they’ve calmed down and aren’t harassing the babies too much.
“What’s he doing?”
“He said he was licking his toes.”
“What’s a ‘toes’?”
“I don’t know.”
“I said ‘Hi, Mister’ to him, and he didn’t say anything.”
“Maybe he didn’t hear you. Let me try. HI, Mister!”
“…”
“Nope, nothing.”
“Hi, Mister! Hi! Whatcha doin’, Mister? You wanna play with us? We found a mouse and we was batting it around, but one of the big cats came and took it away from us, then hissed and smacked at us. That was mean, we just wanna play. You wanna play? Huh, Mister?”
They really like the coffee table in the front room. Bolitar was hanging out there with his back end up on the lower shelf of the table and his front paws on the floor when Reacher wandered by.
“YOU GO AWAY. THIS ARE MY SHELF NOT YOURS!”
Maxi’s not a fan of the kittens. At ALL. She growls if she even sees one.
“Hi, Mister! Whatcha doin’? You takin’ a bath, Mister? You have nice long whiskers, Mister. I have short whiskers, but that’s ’cause I’m little. The Lady says when I get bigger, I’ll have pretty long whiskers like you. I can’t wait! I want to have long whiskers too!”
“::sigh:: You sure are purty, Mister.”
* =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= *
Beanie asked yesterday if Maura’s doing okay after her extra treats and special food went away. The answer is that yes, she’s doing just fine. She hasn’t complained at me at all, she’s not howling at the door in anger, she’s just happy to see me show up and hang out, and just as fine with me leaving. I am not kidding when I tell you that she’s one laid-back cat. Last night when I went into the room to hang out with her, Jake ran into the room. I didn’t chase him down and toss him out because I wanted to see how she’d react to him. She ran over and sniffed at him, then sat in the middle of the room and watched him run around and sniff everything. No hissing, no growling, no food aggressiveness on her part. She was fine with having him in there. Which makes me look forward to getting done with her medication and getting the all-clear from the vet so she can have the run of the house. I suspect that if the kittens ran up to her and jumped on her and batted at her, she’d just lay there and watch them.
* =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= * =^..^= *
Suggie on the Ham-Mick!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2009: Like a circus, is what I expect it’ll be like!
2008: HG, on the other hand, behaved himself quite nicely, spent most of the night on the end of the bed (which means I had five cats on the bed with me, but still managed to sleep pretty well) and didn’t make any trouble.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Corbett flirting with Jake is the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time!
Awww brave little Bookworms!!!!
They’re so tiny next to the older cats – who btw are just gorgeous too! I hope Maxi warms to them – cos they’re just too cute!!
And great to see Maura all relaxed and glowing!!
🙂
Suggie looks so comfy on that Ham-Mick!
Take care
x
so…you keeping maura? 😉
Oh those sweet little adventurous Bookworms..brave, brave, little fellas, out and about in the big new world and trying (desperately) to make new friends…sigh…too adorable for words…especially little Corbett and his desperate attempts at trying to get Jake’s attention…*thud*…
Maura sounds like an absolute sweetheart…I need a laid back kitty like her…
In the pictures with the bookworms Jake and Elwood look more develish than Mister Boogers. Those crazy golden eyes in the fourth picture look amazing. Elphaba was the only cat (well kitten) when she came to live here. She was in her Glory with one mellow old Basset Hound. When we got Ruby the Cocker Spaniel her bliss was over-despite my chastising Ruby chases her every day. I have one picture of them in a dog bed togeather and it seems unreal-it would NEVER happen now.
Ok, those are so hilarious. I love how polite the kittens are to use Mister though! And Bolitar is like Virgil – I do not understand sitting like that at all – I guess not understanding it is a people thing.
And it is good that Maura has such a laid back personality. Gotta have one of those every once in a while at least!
And boy, does Suggie love that ham-mick. I keep thinking I need one or two of those!!
Oh, if you get the chance, stop by the House of Cats tomorrow and say Hi – we are doing a commentathon for one of our local shelters (where we adopted Floyd from).
Just the cutest babies and such excellent commentary! Corbett is squishable the way he is gazing at Jake – aaww…and ‘what’s a toes?’ indeed! Maura is lovely, i think i’d like a girl cat next. Do they come in orange? Oh, and black, of course, black! Shhh, don’t tell the boys. Just wonder-full!
OMG those pictures have done killing me!
They are sooo adorable, so brave, so candid… wanna play, wanna play?!
The look of adoration on Corbett’s face… I’m melting!
This is one of my favorite posts ever — the captions tell a great story! The ‘Worms remind me of the boys in “Stand By Me” — long in my top 10 of dear movies — getting taught who’s who by the bigger kids but pushing the envelope still. )
I wonder what Maxi’s thinking? NOT!