Asian Lady Beetle season has hit in full force, and the Wonkas are finding it rather fascinating. The mornings are okay, but when the sun hits the end of the house where their room is, the beetles start squeezing in around the windows (looking for a place to hibernate, I guess?) and the Wonkas find it much fun to jump and leap and try to catch them.
I’m sure they’ve gotten their paws on plenty of beetles – there are SO MANY of them, it drives me nuts – but I suspect one or two bites of the nasty things has shown them that they’re not food.
This would have been SUCH a beautiful picture, they sat there POSING for a good long time. But I was laying on my back (they were actually sitting on my stomach) and just couldn’t seem to get a good shot of them. ::sigh::
I find it hilarious that the kitten who was the slowest to come around (if you’ll recall, he was Mr. Standoffish for several days) is the biggest baby, and will lay like this in my lap for ages.
Isn’t he a smug little brat?
Gus isn’t ALWAYS the laid-back one.
“I dub thee… Sir Poopypants! Hee hee hee!”
He haz claws.
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I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the Cookies. All five of them have been spotted eating either canned food (TimTam, Lorna Doone, and Keebler) or crunchy food in the form of Baby Cat (Milano, Keebler, and Hydrox). I didn’t think Hydrox was ever going to show any interest in real food EVER. A few days ago I put a little canned cat food in his mouth, and he looked SO disgusted, it was like I’d shoved Metronidazole in his mouth, he was so horrified. But yesterday I saw him eating pieces of Baby Cat off the floor, and then later he was eating it directly from the dish.
I’m seeing an end to the days when I have to get up at 4:30 to feed them!
(Dear God: That is not an invitation to send more bottle babies my way. Love, Robyn.)
this is either Milano (Pink) or Lorna Doone (Orange), I’m not quite sure which.
“Who, me? NOTHIN. Okay, I was checking to be sure it’s machine washable before I go use the litter box, step in my poop, and track it all over the bed, if you MUST know.”
Fred and I were snuggling with the babies after feeding time one night, and he decided he had things to do (sitting on the hardwood floor starts to hurt him after a while), so he got up and left. Every Cookie followed him to the door and HOWLED for several minutes, their feelings hurt that he’d abandoned them so coldly.
The girls gave up after several minutes, but Hydrox was determined to call Fred back to the room. Look at him standing there, so determined, howling his little head off. And he’s usually the quiet one!
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I had to pull everything off the bottom shelf of this cupboard because ants showed up to swarm all over a poorly-cleaned bottle of corn syrup, and after I’d cleaned the shelf, Sugarbutt wandered along and was like “Oh, hey, what’s this?” He fits perfectly – but he found it wasn’t terribly exciting.
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Previously
2008: No entry.
2007: “Hey, come back here! I want to fight!”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
I actually really like the first “tilted” picture! 🙂
I love your blog and visit everyday…sometimes twice…in homes of a off-the-cuff update!
Keep of the wonderful work!
Have recently discovered your blog and am loving the entries. I’d love to foster kittens altho’ I’d be in triple figures by now for permanent residents.
N
I agree with GD – I love the tilted picture too – very cute. It is too bad the beetles have hit so hard there – we have been lucky this year so far (but I know they will be worse as it gets warmer toward the weekend), and it is very rare to have them in the house (we have awful windows and doors but somehow they keep them out). I love the pictures of Gus all in an uproar – seriously there is something so cute and mouse/alien like with gray kitties that just cracks me up – we have a gray one so it reminds me of her when I see him. It is so funny to me that the girls seem to be loosing their kitten-ness first – I guess girls always mature faster!
The Cookies are so cute – I am so glad they are finally learning to eat on their own. And it is so funny that they stood there and cried – and that Hydrox stayed the longest – because in our house it is usually either Barney (tabby and white) or Virgil (tuxi) that do that and it is always Virgil that keeps it up the longest – maybe it is a young tuxie thing!
I cannot tell you how badly I’d like to adopt Hydrox. I’d even be willing to drive across country to pick him up. Lost my tuxedo this year to cancer and miss her like mad. It’ll be durn-near impossible to convince my fiancee, though.
Oh those little Cookies with their tiny little tails sticking up in the air and howling at the door is just the cutest thing ever…
Dan…you’re not married yet… Don’t need the spousal approval! 😉
Those claws are HUGE. I can feel them right now, digging into my leg.
It’s “Asian lady beetle”.
GD & Chaldanya: Thank you! 🙂
Amy: We’re going to try putting weatherstripping around the windows. I’m hoping that will help – I can’t stand the orange stain these beetles leave behind. And having to sweep them up multiple times a day!
Dan: Probably wouldn’t work to tell her Hydrox would make a great wedding present, huh? 🙂
Hyacinths: My favorite part about kittens this age (well, EVERYTHING is my favorite part, really!) is the way they walk around with their tails straight up. So cute it puts me into a coma!
Freya: Oh, he knows how to use ’em, too!
L: You’re right! It’s fixed now. 🙂
GD & Admin: you both make excellent points. However, when the fiancee and I moved in together, we agreed that we’d let natural attrition take its course and get us down to three cats and not go above that again.
We both do like the idea of a kitten, but we’ve still got four cats.
I’ve just seen the cutest kitten-butt picture EVAH! And I too like the tilted one.
I love pictures of little kitten butts!
What sweet kittens!!
I’d love to adopt one more, but with 3 already, it’d be an incredibly full house! (and I don’t know if Percy, Pandora and Zowie would care to have another newcomer. Plus my bf will be moving in early next year and he’ll be bringing a cat to the fold!)
Have you considered trying the little ones on some of the tasty raw food you can get these days? Maybe Hydrox is holding out for some raw chicken or something 🙂 🙂
That first picture is ADORABLE, off-center and all. Maybe even cuter because of it.
And that kitty butt picture!!! I “awwwed” out loud. I may have to put that one in with the feeding pics… 😉
Eeep! The synchronous-pointed-kitten-tails-in-air. How much cuter can you get, seriously?? They are SO adorable!
Oh, Mike! Chocolate pawpads!
(No, seriously. Who wouldn’t just munch these paws?)
Oh, yes, kittykye… as soon as I saw the pic I was struck with an insatiable urge to have little christmas tree tailed kittens all over the house!