The plan for the weekend...

Not much planned for the weekend. I know that Chani and 9 have definite plans to be cute and sleepy. 

9 always keeps an eye out on me just to see if I'm heading into the kitchen. Never know if I'll be handing out treats or spooning out some good ole Avoderm Chicken... even if it is before 6pm (their dinner time)

Chani loves food as much as 9. They both like the Oven Roasted Chicken Greenies, but 9 likes them better, it seems.  

So, here they are, all sleepy and adorable.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Tunneling Thursday

Despite some nice heat in the Bay Area, Chani still goes under covers. 

Here she is relaxing and yet keeping a wary eye out for the flashy black box thingy I keep pointing in her direction (9's as well)

But, dozing is definitely a higher priority.

Finally, a Princess Diana rose from my parents' garden.  I love taking photos of roses.  With my shiny new camera, I can print these up to at least 9x12 if not bigger.  Now, I just need to get some large format paper.

Toesday and an award!

It's Toesday and what better way to enjoy that but to post some lovely toesies pictures. First up is Chani and her jellybean pink toes.

Next up is 9 with his little black toesies and one pink toe. So darn cute!

Finally, Siena and Chilli kindly granted us this award.  We are very happy to accept it though, I'm not sure about following all the rules!
Here are the rules:

"When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on! "

So, here are 10 honest things about 9 and Chani

1. Although 9 is the older and bigger kitten AND he tries to be the more dominant cat, he is actually kind of a scaredy cat.  Chani is much braver when faced with unfamiliar sounds and objects.

2. 9 is very flopsy whenever he is picked up.  He just relaxes in my arms (or Chris') when we pick him up (which is very often!)

3. Chani loves going under covers.  She loves her fort/tower as well as her flaming blankie fort on the couch.

4. Chani loves to sleep in my armpit or by my neck... always on the right side, never on the left.

5. Although neither kitten can open a swinging door yet, 9 through sheer determination has opened up the sliding door of my closet... new play area for 9 and Chani!

6. Early on, one of the kittens or both, flipped over the butter dish cover and ate butter.  We're not sure which one!

7. 9 loves to watch my computer monitor and bat at the cursor or any text that is being written in a blog window or IM window and such.  Chani's not as interested in the monitor these days.

8. 9 is fascinated by the opening and closing of the DVD tray on the DVD player.

9. Chani loves to run in straight lines after the laser pointer dot.  9 runs in circles following the Evil Feather Toy II.

10. At dinner time, 9 always stand on the right, Chani on the left. 9 gets a bit confused if he's on the left..

And there you go!  I have to think now about who to pass the award along to!

Enjoy!

Lap time

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!  I hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday (for everyone who observes this holiday that is. For everyone else, I hope you're having a great day!).

Here's the latest lap picture of 9 and Chani.  I keep thinking that they're getting bigger and bigger and Chris keeps telling me that they're still small.  No, 9 and Chani have not reached their adult size, yet.  However, they are getting bigger as evidenced by their 'fit' on my lap.

One day, I'll post a progression of pictures so everyone can see how much these two have grown.  Enjoy!

Q

Some people have asked me to post some pictures of Q. I have to admit, that it's been really hard to even contemplate this.  Q was the love of my life.  A partner and a friend as well as a creature I nurtured, played with and even competed with (yes, I often lost to this feline love). Even now, I still cry over him and it's been 3 months exactly since I had to say goodbye.

Q was smart and sweet, loving and devilish.  I miss him so.

As time goes on, I'm sure I'll be able to scan some photos I took of him when he was a kitten and post them.  Yes, Q preceded the advent of digital cameras so most of my photos of him are real photographs, not digital images.

For now, here's one of my favorite shots of my beloved QQ. (no, that's not a typo, that was one of his nicknames)

Blessed be, my love.

Tower Thursday and close ups

Not much to say today.  No news, no hi-jinks.  Just some close up photos.  Enjoy.

9 latest 'fun' times

So, on Saturday, Chris noticed that 9 had a flea on him. I'm not sure how he got it. I probably brought one in or the deck adventure or something.

Therefore, on Sunday, I went to a Pet Food Express and bought some flea medication to put on both Chani and 9. Put it on 9.  His fur seemed to soak it all in. I was a bit more worried about Chani as her fur is so slick that the medication was not soaking in at all.

However... Chani did just fine. 9 on the other hand would start grooming himself (I made him stop as often as I could) and he became a drooling monster.  This lasted for a long time and boy, did I feel guilty and worried and everything else! Finally, it was decided that I should wash the medication off of 9.  He looked so miserable drooling, it just felt like it was the best thing to do.

Fortunately, Chris has a hand held shower extension thing in his bathroom, so I could use that. Let's just say that although 9 stayed in the bath tub, there was water all over the place because in my infinite ability to not set up shampoo or other equipment necessary to bathe a kitten, I managed to put the shower head down.  The shower head refused to stay pointed down but rather pointed itself up. Water arced over the bathtub walls onto my head and back and everywhere else.

At any rate, here are the post bath pictures.

Mid foot shake #1

Mid foot shake #2

Chani coming over to investigate.

It only took 9 a little while to forgive me and rub up against my leg again.  And he's stopped drooling. Thank goodness!

New Adventure... the Deck!

The other day, Chani and 9 got to go out onto the deck for the first time.

They investigated the perimeter. Noses to the ground.
There were a number of little tree bits on the deck which must have been quite fascinating and new for the kittens.

And for those of you who might be wondering what the red thing is in the first couple of images, it's the latest completed painting of mine. Since Q died, I've really been into creating 'primitive abstract' art. It's fast and relatively painless.  By fast, I mean, I'm usually painting the backgrounds in one or two days and then taking a few hours for the figures and any other design elements.

And just so you all don't think that this is the extent of my artistic ability (little bit of my ego here!), Here's a link to my 'professional' website. Darn it!  Need to update that as well lol

http://marlenehirose3dart.com/

9 a-leaping

I've mentioned before that 9 is more brawny and Chani is more agile.  What I didn't mention is that 9 has some serious jumping ability.  These pics are from a set where he was  jumping up after the Evil Feather Toy II. 

He's jumping about 2 feet in the air.  In some of the shots, because of the perspective and the general neutrality of our apartment, it's hard to see how high he can get.  

Fortunately, Chris' pj bottoms provide a little bit of contrast, so you can see some of the height 9 can achieve.

Sunday Sleepies

So, I bought a new camera and I'm still getting used to its focusing mechanism. Usually, I'm someone who likes to do everything manually, focus, shutter speed, aperture setting. However, with these two lovelies, Auto-focus it is. 

That's my explanation why Chani's ears are in focus, but her cute little face is not in the above picture.

Get a load of those choppers.  So tiny and delicate and yet so very strong.

Back lit beauty.

Oh Noes! 9 and Chani visit the V E T

9 and Chani visited the V E T for the first time.  Getting them into the carrier wasn't hard, but 9 can be quite the escape artist when he puts his mind to it.  However, it only took 2 tries to get them into the carrier. They were quite good on the long drive to the vet.  I took them to see Dr. Saito who was Q's vet.  Although, the drive is about 40 minutes long, I know and trust Dr. Saito and wouldn't dream of taking them to anyone else.

As soon as I let them out, they immediately began to investigate. It was slightly bittersweet to be in this room again as it was the same room where Q was helped across the Rainbow Bridge. Still, it was good to see 9 and Chani being so active, engaged and not freaking out.

9 was pretty good as Dr. Saito examined him. He took the thermometer pretty well considering how uncomfortable he must have been. Oh, and in my infinite ability to NOT pay attention to details, it seems that 9 is a month older than Chani. Silly me, I always suspected that he was older, but never looked at his adoption paperwork that actually said he was a month older. Sigh...  So, he's an October kitten and 7 months old now.

9 on the table.  He wasn't too squirmy.  Hehe, but he did purr a lot when Dr. Saito was trying to listen to his heart and lungs. Dr. Saito did say that he has a long body and since kittens are very active at this age, his weight of 6.4 lbs is just fine.  (I worry about their weight a tiny bit since Q grew up to be a hefty 16lb cat who had to be on a diet for the latter half of his life).

Chani was also a good girl when she was examined. She weighed in at 5.4 lbs. Such a delicate little girl. Dr. Saito said that her proportions are good and that she seems to be growing very well. Chani didn't take the thermometer very well. She squirmed so much that I had to hold her when she was getting her temperature taken. Took less time than 9, thank goodness. Chani is now 6 months old, a November kitten.

Jeez, both kittens are probably Scorpios.  According to my horoscope charts, as a Leo, I'm supposed to get along well with Scorpios.  And Q was a Scorpio too.  I find this kind of amusing.

Both 9 and Chani received Rabies shots. A vet tech came in and held 9 as he got his shot. He didn't mind at all. Chani, on the other hand, was not so oblivious. I held her mid section. The vet tech distracted her and Dr. Saito administered the shot. Chani meowed and swatted at the vet tech as she got her shot, almost as if to say, "How dare you!" She calmed down right after the shot. Such a prissy little lady!  Surely, she is the Queen.

After their exams, the two of them continued to investigate the area as I chatted with Dr. Saito, reminiscing about Q and describing the joys of having these two loves in my life.

It was a good visit.

Tower Tuesday

So, I know I've mentioned that Chani likes to be up high.  Chris decided to test out how high Chani likes to go.  He's 6'4".  So, you can tell that she's pretty high up in this picture.

Let's just say, that she wasn't too fond of being that high while being held. I think she would have felt safer if she was on a tower that high, but not in a pair of human hands (no matter how big they are).

On the tower, after being held high. Yeah... she crouched down here and then hopped off the tower.

Later, Chris and I were talking about forts we played in as kids. Now, Chani likes going under covers. Often, I will go to sleep with her snuggling next to me under the blanket. Often, Chris will form the flaming blanket into a fort of sorts for her and she's incredibly happy to go in there. So, all of this led to Chris covering up the top part of the tower for Chani with one of Q's old blankets.

Chani quickly figured out how to get to the top.  So, did 9, not that he is fond of going under covers.  He actually doesn't like to go there at all.  However, this was something new that he had to check out.
9 spent a few minutes lying on top of Chani (she's so tolerant!) before hopping out. The tower is definitely Chani place of refuge and well, it's her spot.

Evil Feather Toy II

Evil Feather Toy I lasted about 3 or 4 weeks.  After a few weeks of seeing a plastic stick with a bell on the end, entertaining as it was, I gave in a bought 9 a new feather toy. He loves it. It is his prize prey. Often, he will walk around with it in his mouth and growl at Chani if she tries to play with it. It's his, don't you know! Fortunately, Chani like playing with the non-feather end of the stick. Yes, a bit odd, but well, somehow, I have to have cats with personalities that are just a bit different hehe.

9: Must clean my paws before, during and after playing with the Evil Feather Toy II

9: Chomp! Chomp! Bunny Kick!

9: Rawr! I'm so fierce!

Chani:  Boy, the end of the stick, I can get it. It's so much fun to play with.. but you know what? I'd rather have the laser pointer red dot.