We're the cats

referee and sanitation department for my cats.

My guys get wet food twice a day...no particular schedule really, but twice a day. They always have three flavors of dry food available from dispensers that are usually full.

When it comes time for the wet food, I have to dish it up and give each of them their bowl. Grover likes to eat under my dining room table, Achilles will eat in the middle of the kitchen, Nala sits on a chest I have in the living room and Fishy...well I have to chase her around with her bowl and stick it in front of her, then coax her to get her to eat (sometimes I even have to stick a little food on her foot so she'll taste it).

Then I have to stand around and wait for Achilles to decide he's had enough of his, because he'll go sticking his nose in everyone else's dish to see what they have (everyone gets the same thing). I have to keep him away from everyone else while they're eating or they'll just walk away from their bowl if he steals it. Somewhere in the middle of this, I have to use a spoon to scrape their bowls so the food is back in a pile because they flatten it while eating. After everyone's done, leftovers get scraped into one bowl, which is then placed in the kitchen.

Then there are the litter boxes. I have four of them. Two in the living room, one in the office and one in my bedroom. For some reason, the cats have chosen to poop in just two of the boxes. They use all of them, but two are used primarily for the pooping and the others get mostly potty'd in. Strange. I had to buy an extra large, super-sized box for the office, because Nala is too big for any of the others.

If I croak, there's no one who could take these cats. They're so used to the way we do things around here, they wouldn't know what to think if anyone else took care of them.

Shawna is going to come over every day for a week before Batsday, so she can learn the routine.

I bought a GIANT bag of Meow Mix for the garbage kitties outside (it was on sale at Big Lots) and Fishy has decided she also likes it. Go figure. She has to have the $1.00+ per can wet food, but will eat the crappy dry food. She's also on vitamins now, since we went to the vet and he said to give them to her twice a day.

So I guess I'm a nurse too ;-)

There are two cats I've been putting food and water out for. One is a gray long-haired kitty and the other is a solid black kitty. The black one lets me pet it now and is very talkative. The gray one is very talkative, but doesn't trust me enough to pet it yet. I feel so sorry for them and I can't stand the weather being so hot and not knowing if they have water and something to eat. So there's a little bowl of food and one of water that I fill each night. I bought the cheap dry cat food for the refuges...I can't afford to feed them what I give my four, but I'm not buying total crap...it's just not the Science Diet or Eukenuba my guys get.

And speaking of my herd...

I took pics of everyone yesterday. Still cannot get Grover to look at the camera, or if she does, she squints.

Fishy on the bed with Achilles in the background (please look at her daggers)

Grover pondering something

Achilles, when he's not getting into things

And Nala, my beast (no, I wasn't super close to her - she really is that big)

Thanks to bbluekitty for this new place to display the belly ;-)

Achilles seems to have made a hobby of getting into places where he really doesn't fit.

Tadpole or Stuffed Animal?

I picked up a huge assortment of canned food today and am going to keep track of which ones go over well with ALL four of my children. Fishy is the pickiest of all and she's the one who's lost weight and was sick first, so I want to be sure she likes whatever I give them. Today's lunch consisted of Iams Ocen Fish Entree and everyone loved it! Fishy even got up from slothing on the cat tree to eat, so I know I'll be buying this again.

I'll just keep adding to this post whenever I feed them, so I don't end up with 20 posts about flavors/brands of food they do or don't like.

I'm in serious need of a nap.

After Achilles trying to choke himself on something last night, I didn't get to sleep until about 3:30am and he woke me up at 7:00am...he was walking through the apartment, meowing and had one of his little mice toys in his mouth. How can he make so much noise with a toy in his mouth? I fell back to sleep and about an hour later, he was standing on my chest, meowing directly into my face. Apparently he wanted something, but I couldn't figure out what, so I gave him a piece of bagel and he seemed satisfied with that and of course some mom lovin'. Rotten baby, he is and such an attention whore.

Stuff everyone seems to like so far:

Iams Ocen Fish Entree
Friskies Ocean Whitefish Dinner Special Diet

I haven't used this journal for my kids in like forever, but I now need to keep track of which one started antibiotics on what day.

I took Fishy to the vet on Tuesday, May 29th. She got a shot of cortisone and started antibiotics that night (2 times per day).

Achilles started sneezing last night, but I wasn't sure if it was because he stuck his nose in something, or if he was getting sick too. He's still sneezing this morning, so he got his first dose of meds on the morning of Saturday, June 2nd.

I really, really hope Nala doesn't catch whatever this is...she is HUGE and scary when she's upset. Trying to give her antibiotics and being successful at it would be nothing short of a miracle.

I don't want Grover to get sick either, but at least I'd be able to medicate her.

The vet gave me 3 bottles of liquid amoxicillan, but I gave one to my mom, because she said one of her cats had started sneezing and had a matted eye and she can't take him to the vet. She's going to have to figure out a way to replace my 3rd bottle if I end up needing it for my cats. I'm not spending another $105.00 to take one of them to the vet because she wanted one of my bottles of antibiotics.

I think I'll sterilize all the water dispensers today and buy some lysol and spray the carpets and sleeping areas. I don't know that it will help, but it can't hurt anything.

And Achilles gave me a good scare last night. I posted about it in my regular journal, but I'll go ahead and put it behind a cut here, in case anyone is wondering what my wild child did.

( Achilles swallowed something )

I was awakened this morning by the aroma of cat poo.

Well, that's not entirely true...Fishy woke me up three times (starting at 5am), because she wanted to bread on me and expects to be loved while doing so :-/

Truth is, I could fall back to sleep after Fishy was done breading, but the smell of cat poo wafting through the entire bedroom at 7am is not something I can ignore.

The new Pine litter I'm using is great for masking the cat urine smells (works better than I'd expected), but not so good at hiding the poopy smells. Especially when Mr. Achilles doesn't feel it necessary to cover his. He's so certain there are no large predators to hunt him down, his instincts for covering his bodily excretions has escaped him. He's forgotten...I'M A LARGE PREDATOR.

He continues to be a furry little terrorist and is training the others to be terrorists as well.

No grocery bag or small garbage can is safe from pilfering. The slightest string or small unattached object is up for grabs. My bed has been converted into a race track...yes, even when I'm sleeping in it. The tops of furniture with breakable objects on them are all within jumping range now that he's gotten bigger. I swear, this cat has springs in his feet.

Never mind the fact ceiling fans are constantly moving...he stares at them as if they're the next big challenge.

In two weeks, I'll be working from home about 75% of the time and am certain I'll witness even more of his antics.

Such a bad boy.

If you're not on my regular friends list, you might not know I had to have my oldest kitty, Nermal, put to sleep on December 22nd.

It's been quite depressing around here since then. I can't seem to stop thinking about her and missing her.

The other cats keep checking the spot next to my pillow, where she used to sleep. I think they're still looking for her and Fishy has lost some weight since Nermal left us. I did find some Science Diet she seems to really like yesterday, so hopefully she'll put her weight back on. She's been playing with Achilles & Grover a lot too, so that could be part of the reason for the weight loss. But when she's not playing with the kittens, she's very mopey and seems sad...I don't know how else to describe it. It could also be that she's lost some weight because I had a lot of time off with them over the holidays and since I've gone back to my normal work schedule, I don't have as much time with my kitties.

I realize I haven't posted here in two weeks, but losing Nermal has sort of overshadowed everything else that's happened.

I did recently buy an electric fireplace for my bedroom, so the remaining four kids have been piling up at the foot of my bed, to soak up the heat from it. This isn't making it easy for me to sleep, so I'm going to move it to the side wall today and that way, they'll all pile up on one side of the bed, leaving the other side for me.

There is no room for a man here ;-)

Rest in Peace Nermal...we miss you every day.

Achilles just had his sister trapped in a box.

She climbed in and he sat on top of it. I rescued her.

He has also discovered he can jump from the dining room table to the kitchen sink.

So not only is he part mountain goat and part monkey, he's part flying squirrel too. I will get this on video.

He also likes to race me into the bathroom and when I lift the toilet seat, he jumps up and straddles the whole thing, while staring down into the bowl. This isn't helpful if you really have to pee and waited until the last minute to go.

Bad baby, but very entertaining.

cross-posted on femmdraven and goth_cats

The kids apparently like them

Achilles breads on my jeans/pajama bottoms/bare legs every time I'm getting their food dished up into the cat bowls...as if I don't know he's down there and might possibly forget to give him his dish if he wasn't tearing holes in my legs.

Bad, bad baby.

And Grover likes to chase her tail. But she doesn't chase it all the time...she only chases it when she's on top of the ceramic pedastal in the bathroom. The ceramic pedastal is only 9" square on top...not a lot of room for tail chasing, but it seems to be the only place she actually notices she has one.

Silly baby.

Could not resist this kodak moment



Then things calmed down a bit...

Being the only male (well, he's missing his bum-bums), Achilles has his choice of les femelles à la maison de femmdraven.

Tonight's date is Fishy


I can't wait until the kittens are full grown and everyone tries to fit on the loveseat...yeah, that ought to be entertaining.

How does something that looked like this just two months ago, turn into something that does this?

I was sitting in the office and heard someone climbing the front door screen. When I got to the living room, I saw Grover hanging on the door. I thought it would be Achilles as he's the door climber. But no, it was Grover...she was apparently trying to follow her brother, to get on TOP of the door, which is where I found him. Again.

The front door is closed. Yes, I'm a party pooper.

This kitten is by far the strangest cat I've ever had.

He eats anything...really, anything.

But the thing he loves most of all: nacho cheese dip...and it's not the mild nacho cheese dip...it's the stuff with a bit of a bite, the stuff with pieces of peppers in it. He goes nuts if he smells it and runs around like a lunatic, until I give him some, purring and meowing at me the entire time.

Last night, he ate marshmallows. Today, he ate a bunch of whipped cream and some green olives.

I don't know how he doesn't get a tummy ache.

He eats pumpkin pie, tortilla chips, toast with cinammon and sugar on it, cereal, potato chips...the list goes on and on.

Grover will on occasion, try whatever he's eating, but she usually doesn't carry on like he does.

He is one strange cat.

A few days ago, a large box arrived with an item I'd ordered. The item wasn't very big (wrought iron ornamental thing on upper left corner of wall). There was tons of packing paper in the box and I threw some of it on the living room floor when I unpacked the box. The cats have been playing in it non-stop for three days. Achilles has been the biggest dork with the paper. Everyone else hides under it now and then and skids on it with toys, but he jumps over it, runs under it, pounces on it, tears it up, waits for others to pass by and jumps on them from underneath it...you name it, he's done it. They're totally amused by this paper. It is noisy paper, so it will be going to the dumpster next time I take out trash...yes, I'm going to ruin their fun. My living room looks like a cyclone hit it.

Achilles has been climbing the security screen door on occasion. Tonight, he took it one step further...



I should have left him up there, but I was afraid he might try to jump down on his own and break a leg.

Very bad baby.

Nermal is having no part of celebrating Thanksgiving. I'm sure she'll change her tune when the turkey is heating in the oven.



And for your entertainment, we have

Apparently, cereal milk is much better than regular milk.

Every time I try to eat a bowl of cereal, Achilles is non-stop with the begging. He meows, touches my leg, circles my feet...rinse, repeat. Tonight, I tried giving him his own milk before I had my bowl of cereal. Nope, didn't work. He drank a bit of his, but as soon as I headed out of the kitchen with my bowl of cereal, he was underfoot, running around me...between my feet and in front of me...meowing the entire time. And it doesn't matter what kind of cereal it is...he wants it.

And now, Fishy, who has NEVER liked milk, has watched him and when he's had his fill of my leftovers, she visits the bowl and drinks a little.

It's funny, the things they learn from one another.