Someone asked in the comments yesterday if Lucy is still “cockeyed”, and the answer is that yes, she is still slightly cross-eyed. Sometimes she’s more cross-eyed than other times, and honestly sometimes I can’t quite tell the two girls apart. When I brought them home, Lucy was wearing a collar, but I took it off, and now I wish I’d left it on because it would make identifying who’s who in pictures much easier. Everett’s easy to ID because of his white whiskers, but the girls are a little more difficult to tell apart.
But I do know that this is Lucy!
And Everett and Sally. I’m also pretty sure that’s Alice right there. Nothing gets by me, y’know.
He’s gone from one white whisker to two on each side!
Everett in mid-air, having jumped up after the feather teaser. It kind of looks like someone threw him, doesn’t it?
All three Peppers. That’s Sally in the front, Lucy in the middle, Everett to the right with his crazy white whiskers.
Jake gets involved. I’m calling it a feather teaser, but it’s actually Da Bird, which I’ve read about on other cat blogs for months, and finally decided to get one for our cats. It moves like a bird, and I’m pretty sure Jake thinks it’s a real bird. He flies through the air, grabs it, and then will run through the house with it in his mouth if we let go of the pole.
Even Miz Poo is interested!
And Alice.
Everett had to take a rest. Note Corbie back there, all “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m staying out of the way!”
The Peppers and Alice Mo. (Please do not get the wrong impression, here. Alice Mo has no use for those Peppers. But they’re on the area of the couch where the heating bed is located, and so she’ll put up with being near them for some of the heat.)
Left to right: Jake, Tommy, and Elwood, all snuggled up for nap time.
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Previously
2011: It was a slipper. No wonder it wouldn’t purr.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: The Annoying of the Poo.
2007: She follows him downstairs and hangs out, giving him the Eyes of Love and all the other cats the Eyes of You-Go-To-Hell.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Even though all your cats are gorgeous and I would love to spend time with any and all of them,Jake and Elwood hold a super special place in my heart.Any time I see a picture of them,I get warm fuzzy feelings and they make me smile from ear to ear.
So the picture with the grey brothers and Tommy is like the jackpot for me.I need to make that my wallpaper or something 😉
My little boy, Vash, LOVES his Da Bird! Whenever his Grammy & Pop (my MIL & FIL) ask what to get him for Christmas (Yes, he’s spoiled) we always say refills for Da Bird. Sometimes when he grabs it we have to pry it from his mouf because he won’t let go. Did you know you can also put the feathery part on a fishing pole and use that? 🙂 My husband did that at his parents house because we didn’t have the pole for it, but he got a refill for Christmas. It works just as well. 🙂 With Vash we sometimes have to drag it around the house so he can hunt it. 🙂
Also – I want ALL THE PEPPERS! I love all black kitties. We wanted an all black kitty to name Vash when we adopted (nearly 6 years ago!), but Kairi was fostered with a litter of tuxes, and I fell in love with my tux, so no black kitty for us now. I’d still like to adopt one (or 4) because I’ve heard sometimes it takes longer for all black kitties to find furever homes… do you know if that’s true?
If you ever need names for all black kitties may I suggest Hocus and Pocus? My boss’s Mom & Sister have all black cats and one is Hocus and the other is Pocus. If it’s near Halloween you could do names from the movie Hocus Pocus too – Thakery would make a good name! THAKERY BINKS!! (Did you know the kid that plays Binks is McGee from NCIS?!)
It is true in general that black cats adopt slower – and in this case all the ‘non-black’ kittens were adopted and no black one was so far.
The black Pepper babies are SO prettty!
And the picture of Jake, Tommy and Elwood is absolutely precious.
The crew always looks so sweet when they are cuddled up. Jake going after daBird is priceless. Nice to see the residents showing the young ones just how it’s done. (I’m so relieved that you aren’t posting about storm damage.)
A friend of mine traumatized one of his cats when the red bit whacked him in the face, he hid every time the wand came out after that. In checking to make sure it was the same toy I came across a growing number of complaints about the change in design over 10 years of being marketed. The usual “the string is thin”, “the feather bits come apart” wasn’t something I considered a problem. The two piece pole is made of fiberglass and it splinters with play with splinters going in peoples hands. A reminder to keep track of toys that may come apart. When it first came on the market I thought the toy was rather expensive so I made a similar toy using a child’s first fishing rod (Micky Mouse style was on sale). Heavy fishing line thick enough not to injure gums when trying to escape with the pole. Just tell the salesperson your going after 20plus pounders that put up a real fight and you don’t need any hooks or bait you have your own. Fishing line is the pricy part but you end up with enough for replacement and use in other projects. And home made attachments (feather and glitter balls). Yes, trolling for cats is fun, just mind the lamps when casting.
Your last line made me laugh out loud. We “fish” for Vash whenever we play with DaBird.
I also dislike the 2 part poles. We have the 1 piece one at home since that’s where we play more, and the 2 piece pole at my In-law’s house. Full sized fishing poles work well too. 🙂
(The image of an adult fishing for a cat with a Mickey Mouse pole makes me giggle!)
Oh I do love me some black Peppers action, and it’s so lovely to see them having a little break from their adoption drive. They’ve been my favourite adoption bunch to read about, especially little Miss Cross-Eyed Lucy, and I’ll be so happy/devastated when they do find their forever homes – you’ll have to try and fix it so that their new parents send regular updates to you!
Do any of the black cats you have now/have had in the past dribble? I know it sounds like an insane question, and I don’t mean dribble in a worrying, upper respitory way, I mean in a I’m-so-happy-you’re-petting-me-and-I’ve-turned-to-a-ball-of-mush way?! One of our cats is all black, and she’s the only one who drools like a loony when she’s getting fussed on our laps. My other half had two black cats as a child who both did it as well, so we’re wondering if it’s an inherent habit in black puddies. Our black girl also doesn’t shut up, and could talk the hind legs off a donkey, which again my other half has said his black cats used to do as well. Whether it’s inherent or just coincidence, they’re certainly little balls of personality!
I want Lucy even more now than I did before. She is just so cute with her slightly cross-eyed self.
Thanks for taking such good care of them!
Jake’s face in that 6th picture is killing me! My tabby, Tucker, takes Da Bird and runs off with it like Jake, but Tucker has to growl the entire time he’s running away with it…kills me dead because the stick/pole will be rubbing against the wall or the cabinets, but he doesn’t care…it’s his, all his…too funny!
Must admit after watching these Peppers grow into such beautiful black balls of fur, I’m thinking my next cat will be an all black one(and a couple white whiskers would only sweeten the deal)!! Ahh if only I lived closer to you…and my husband (and other cats) were ready for another kitty!
I might have to get one of these Da Birds — tho my boys prefer to play with the stick part of feather teasers most of the time — they run around with in their mouth like a dog carrying a stick…odd ducks my cats. lol
aw tommy elwood and jake <3
Just tell folks that in the UK Black cats are lucky, now isn’t that classy enough to garner a few more adopters??
I wish there was some way Petsmart could show a link to this website whenever any of your fosters are there. If folks just knew the backstory of the Peppers and could see pictures and videos of how great they are, they would be fighting to adopt them! Maybe not fair to the other kitties there…but then again, if they ALL had videos and pictures, what a great adoption tool that would be!
Oh Da Bird! One of the best kitty toys ever! I love how it even sounds like flapping bird wings! *I* love da bird, and so have most of my kitties. And then Star.. who was an only kitty for a long time.. she prefers toys that move on the floor rather than in the air! Frustrating when I want to fly da bird! But I dragged it for her for years, sigh. But now Leo! Whoo, he LOVES to jump! So I got refills for my da bird and we go nuts! BWHAHAHA! ahem.. sorry.. No, I don’t get paid for endorsing da bird.. I’m just an enthusiastic user
By the way.. In that last picture I have to wonder.. If Elwood were not so… uh, robust, would he have the same kind of loony expression found on Jake? He’s got some great, smilie whisker humps there!
And pardon me for this… Alice Mo, the Calico, would like to shove those kittens so! hee hee, she looks like she’d like to clear the space around that heating pad alllll for herself.
Our family friends had a white cat who would snuggle up to you and drool while he knitted and purred, so it’s not just a black cat thing…and those Peppers are so luxuriously beautamous!
hee hee hee! It’s probably my computer’s resolution, but the picture of Patty & Charlie appears to be labelled “Patty and Charlie POOPERS”
My cats love Da Bird. Used to be able to get them at PetSmart, but now I buy replacement feathers direct from go-cat.com.