The last of the pictures I took before the kittens moved down to the guest bedroom!
Crooked little whiskers.
It’s a rough life, is what it is.
Darwin and Logie, hanging out in the wall basket.
::thlurrp::
“Hi! HI!”
Razzie checks out the window sill.
Oh, the spotted little belly kills me DEAD.
Three of the four (Darwin’s got a complaint).
“STOP taking my picture, lady. I don’t LIKE IT.”
Apparently the wall basket is perfectly sized for four kittens.
Don’t they look comfy?
“Is time to play?”
The kittens are doing just fine in the guest bedroom. They seem to get friendlier every time I walk into the room. Right now if I walk into the room, Logie and Darwin come running over to me. If one of them is up on the tree, they’ll howl at me while they figure out how to get down, as they jump down, as they run across the floor, and then as I pick them up. Logie will not only howl, she stands there and whips her tail back and forth. I’m trying to get video of it; it’s seriously cute.
Emmy is doing okay. She’s not doing much but sleeping and eating; we can’t get her interested in playing, and she still doesn’t want me to pet her (though she’ll let Fred). She’s going tomorrow to be spayed, and I’ll glad to get that over with.
At one point over the weekend, I was headed into the guest bedroom to check on the babies. Jake was hanging out right outside the door, and Fred said “You should let him in with them!” I opened the door and Jake shot through the door. All four kittens were coming toward the door, and the instant Jake saw them, he turned around and shot back through the door. Not in the mood to play with kittens, I guess!
About Stinkerbelle.
Stinkerbelle turned five years old at the end of March.
Stinkerbelle came to us in the summer of 2007 with a sister and two brothers, and they were the most feral bunch of kittens we’d ever had. (Stinkerbelle’s original name was Maryanne – we went with kind of a Gilligan’s Island naming theme, except for the one who looked like Spanky who we named Spanky.) We tried all the usual tricks and I thought they were never going to come around, and then her sister (Tina Louise) decided we weren’t so bad. This litter went off to Petsmart one by one rather than all together – as they became friendly, we took them to Petsmart – and then eventually Stinkerbelle was the last one left here. Once her siblings were gone, she decided we weren’t so bad, and she became somewhat friendly.
One day Fred and I were in the foster room with Stinkerbelle and her siblings, and Tommy was sniffing around the door. Fred opened the door and let him in, and all four of those kittens reacted like a long-lost loved one had just entered the room. They all ran over to him and rubbed up against him, meowed as if to say “Where have you BEEN?” Stinkerbelle loved him most of all. She became friendlier – though still apt to snap at you if you petted her for too long – and the day came when I decided it was time for her to go off to Petsmart.
I dropped her off one evening, and it just so happened that I was scooping and cleaning cages at Petsmart the next morning. When I walked into the adoption center that morning, the newspaper by the door to her cage was shredded, and I told Fred that it looked like she’d spent the whole night digging to get out of her cage. Well, Fred hadn’t wanted her to go to Petsmart in the first place because he loved her beautiful blue eyes and silky fur and bratty personality. He started harassing me to go back and get her, and when I wouldn’t, he actually stopped on the way home from work and got her himself. The instant she heard his voice as he walked through the door to the adoption center, she started howling her head off and didn’t stop until he got home with her.
She started off life as a permanent resident somewhat friendly – she’d come into the living room with us while we were watching TV and would sit next to Fred so he’d pet her – but she wasn’t crazy about the other cats (except for Tommy) and when she realized she could get up on top of the kitchen cabinets, that became her favorite place to be.
She doesn’t spend ALL her time on top of the kitchen cabinets – she often comes down and meows at Fred or goes and snuggles with Tommy – but I’d say she spends about 75% of her time up there. She’ll let you pet her – and will even enjoy it – but when she’s done being petted, you had BETTER stop or she’ll smack you and draw blood.
I don’t honestly remember how her name came to be Stinkerbelle. We knew she wasn’t a Maryanne, so I think we were just throwing out random names and Fred suggested Stinkerbelle. I laughed, he laughed, and the name stuck. We tend to call her “Miss Stinky”, but I also call her “Dinky Doo” when I’m sweet-talking her.
I often tell Fred that both he and Tommy had better outlive Stinkerbelle, because if she gets sick, there’s no way on earth I’ll be able to get my hands on her. And if Tommy dies before Stinkerbelle, I do believe she’ll die of a broken heart.
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Previously
2011: No entry.
2010: It’s a miracle!
2009: Bed capacity: holds four.
2008: These kittens are never going to open their eyes.
2007: The move went about as smoothly as a move can go.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
She’s got the look of love in that last picture, all right! (Oh, and why aren’t those pencils in that last pictures chewed up?!)
I’d never leave the foster room.
Because the cats don’t chew on the pencils – but Fred does, so they must have been fairly new! 🙂
Love all the pictures but the last one of Stinkerbelle looking at Tommy…ever so longingly… PRICELESS!
It’s neat when cats choose special friends for themselves!
Thanks for the profiles of all the permanent residents. Even tho I’ve not missed a post in quite awhile it’s nice to catch up. Love seeing them as kittens, too, when that has been the case.
The Noms are getting gorgeouser and gorgeouser!
Awww Stinkerbelle and Tommy – such soulmates! Take care
x
Oh, be still my heart…. a baby Spanky and baby Belle in the same litter? Pure magic. I might have been tempted to let them start their own feral colony on top of the kitchen cabinets 😉
Does Miss Stank give you any warning when she’s had enough petting or does she go straight for an artery? Einstein would be purring like a loon when she’d let out what we termed as her war cry… a most pitiful yowl that could quite easily be translated into “Stop touching me! Just sit still and watch me purr!” And who, who I say, could blame a girl for being in love with Tommy? He’s a stud of epic proportions. We all heart Tommy.
Jake, under his breath while bolting out of the guest room… “More of them. I can’t believe there’s more of them. I’ll be nice, but we’re NOT keeping them!”
She pretty much goes for the jugular. You MIGHT be able to figure out when she’s reached her limit – her tail swishing gets a little more vigorous – but most of the time it seems to be out of the blue. She’s gorgeous, but she’s evil. 🙂
The spotted belly is pretty lethal, but I really want to kiss those soft little kitten pits.
I am kind of new to your world and don’t know the method by which you select the “Category” of naming each new litter. So without knowing I’m just going to throw out an idea. How about naming them after ‘One Named’ rock stars/actors… Sting, Cher, Bono, Madonna, Prince-which would actually be ‘symbol-formerly known as Prince’, Elvis, Tina (as in Turner… is there any other Tina???), Donny and Marie, just to name a few. I’m sure there are many more ideas out there, but this was just a thought I’d throw into the ring!
Love the journey through the years ~ getting to know the permanent residents, and seeing them as little babes! Thanks!
I like this idea for a theme! The only other one-name performer I can think of at the moment is Charo. Oh! And Morrisey. Bjork! I read somewhere just recently that one of the guys who make(s?) up Penn & Teller changed his name to just the last name, but I don’t know which one off-hand.
A long time ago, I was introduced to a woman in the military who had a single name; I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something like Watertiger or Tigerlotus. I’m pretty sure one of the words was “tiger” and the other one was a nature word, and I remember getting an image flash into my head of a tiger coming down to drink from a stream with lush, green, richly flowered banks. I thought for years that there was no way I’d ever forget her name because of that powerful image, and yet… Anyway. Her parents were from somewhere in Indonesia, IIRC, and that was how her whole family was named. She said she’d had a hell of a time with it in the military and had thought about separating into two words and just using the second one as a “last name,” but ultimately decided that her heritage and that tradition were more important to her, so she dealt with the difficulties.
She planted the seed in my brain, and I very seriously wanted to change my name to just “Elayne” when I processed the change a few years ago. But people were already weirded out enough by the fact that I was just picking a new last name at random (“That can’t be legal!”), so I left well enough alone.
Ha – I like this naming theme, I’ll have to add it to the list! 🙂
Is Logie getting sick? She looks a little peaked in that top picture. Give her a snorgle for me regardless of the answer!
She looks like she’s starting to lose her kittenface (oh noes!) and beginning to develop her catface.
No, she had just woken up and was feelin’ grumpy! She is getting her grownup face, though, they all are. Why do they have to do that at such a young age? I wish they could stay tiny for at least six months!
Oh my…. How I love coming here on your blog!
I was going to say the kittens are starting to look like teenagers..
Stinkerbelle is such a pretty little diva!