We think it’s time to write to all of you again, since we’re seven weeks old. Boy, have we changed since Kimbry wrote about us at four weeks! We can climb and run and jump a lot better – and we’re a lot bigger, too. I (Tantris) thought Kimbry made me sound like a whiney baby when she wrote, so I said I’d do the writing this time.

The biggest news from our world is that we’ve been invaded! Remember how we said we had a whole room that was all ours? Well, lisa-mom moved our half brothers and sisters in with us. Now Aunt Shira and her six kids are all living in our room. Not to mention that Shadow-dad and our Uncle Zeke (he’s not a real uncle, but we call him that anyway) spend all their time in here, too. It can get kinda crazy in our room. Having Aunt Shira here is kinda like having another mom. She grooms us all the time and if we yelp, she’s right there with Talia-mom checking to see if we’re okay. But our Talia-mom does the same with our brothers and sisters. Talia-mom and Aunt Shira even share feeding duties some times. 

Luckily, we have conquered the baby gate and we climb over to explore other places in our house. (That must mean we’re not babies any more!) We still spend a lot of time in the kitten room, though.

Our day starts early in the morning. We hear lisa-mom and Ken-dad’s alarm go off and that’s our signal to wake up and play. Kimbry and I race through the room, climbing the cat tree, jumping to the bed, diving over the side of the bed, and then run under the bed. Sometimes we attack things we see on the way like little balls or mice. Sometimes we attack each other. Usually that happens on the bed, because it’s soft and doesn’t hurt when the other pounces. Other times we play King of the Hill on the cat condo or the cat tree.

Most mornings a trip down the hall to lisa-mom and Ken-dad’s room is in order and we explore under the bed and try to sneak into the closet, but lisa-mom usually shuts the door. She says it’s so Aunt Shira doesn’t move her babies back in there. lisa-mom has a blanket hanging over the end of the bed with fringe! Oh, what fun! We like playing in the bathroom, too. It has a cold tile floor and balls roll really good in there. 

Once the morning aerobics are done, we settle down for breakfast with Talia-mom. That is, if she’s not in with lisa-mom begging for food. I don’t know why she doesn’t just eat ours, but she seems to think that she should eat from the bowls downstairs. Maybe that food tastes better – soon we’ll have to go down and check it out – but I think our food tastes pretty good. 

[I think you like it a little too much. You’re getting fat!]

I’m not fat, I’m fluffy!

After all this activity and food we need a nap. There are so many places to nap in our room, it’s hard to decide where we should sleep. And now that we can get to the rest of the house, there are even more wonderful spots. My favorite is the top of the cat tree and sometimes Kimbry joins me there. But she likes the tent and under the bed, too. Lisa-mom says she’s just like Talia-mom and I’m just like Shadow-dad. Well, in our sleeping spots anyway. Kimbry is more like Shadow-dad when we play and I’m more like Talia-mom. Hmmm. I guess we’re like both of them. One of my other favorite places to sleep is in with our half brothers and sisters. It’s really cozy and fun to sleep with them. Aunt Shira doesn’t mind at all – even when Kimbry and I both climb in there.

Those little brothers and sisters are pretty cute, but they aren’t a lot of fun yet. They haven’t figured out how to play very well, although I see them wrestling with each other a little. I jumped in with them to play one day when they were doing that. I stood over them and batted at their tails, heads, and legs. But they didn’t play back. Talia-mom says they’ll get better at playing and then they’ll get even with me for biting their tails. Hmpf! I didn’t bite hard. Not nearly as hard as Kimbry bites me.

Shadow-dad likes to play with us now. One morning when he was being rowdy Kimbry was in the hall by the stairs and Shadow-dad went flying down the hallway and batted Kimbry. She fell down the top step. It looked so funny!

[I have to tell you, I didn’t think this was funny at all. I could’ve been killed!]

She wasn’t hurt at all. She just climbed back up the step and stared at Shadow-dad like she was afraid he was going to do it again. Anyway, most times Shadow-dad is just fun. He chases us and we chase him around our room. His tail is very fluffy – even more than Talia-mom’s tail – and we love to swat at it. And usually he’s very gentle when he catches us in a chase.

Lisa-mom introduced us to the big crazy dog last week. Kimbry hissed at him. I just looked at him and he gave me a doggy kiss on my head. The kiss was sorta gross, but he wasn’t too bad. Yesterday he came up to our room when lisa-mom was cleaning house. He just looked at us and stole our food. Boy, were our little brothers and sisters scared! Okay, we were a little scared, too. When lisa-mom ran upstairs to make sure we were all okay, we were still so scared we all hissed at her.

[I thought he was really scary! He’s huge and he could swallow us up with one gulp of that big mouth!]

Oh, lisa-mom would never let that happen. And I don’t think Ken-dad would either, even if the big crazy dog is his. Ken-dad pretends to be so tough, but he’s always playing with us and taking us to other rooms so we can explore. We like our lisa-mom, but we sure wish she’d quit picking us up and giving us kisses when we’re trying to play! I put up with it for a minute, but Kimbry starts wiggling the second lisa-mom picks her up. But it doesn’t make any difference. She’s always picking us up.

Well, back to our day… after our naps we play some more, eat some more, explore some more, and nap some more. That’s pretty much what we do all day long.

When it gets dark our day is over. We curl up in our favorite spots and go to sleep – usually with our Talia-mom. We need our rest so we can play again tomorrow. Lisa-mom comes in and gives us kisses. Her cuddles don’t bother us near as much when we’re ready to sleep. In fact, we usually purr when she gives us our goodnight cuddles.

And that’s the story of our day. The End.

(--> Cat Tails, Pg21)

© 2003 lisa s vasa