There was Louie calmly sitting on the dining room table staring at the computer, which was glowing in the dark room. He seemed to be very hard at work. I had to take a picture before urging him to jump down since he’s not allowed up there (and he knows it. He also knows he’s extremely cute even when he misbehaves).
One of my favorite memories of something funny my Grandpa Paul said happened several years ago when my parents had a small dinner party. The guests were our neighbors, the Doty family, and my grandparents, Paul and Arleen. The small talk proceeded as it is wont to do at a dinner table until we started talking about the Chinese exchange students that had stayed with my family the week before. The dinner discussion landed on the topic of Chinese eating habits. My parents explained how the Chinese visitors ate extremely small portions of food and only took tidbits of the dessert that was served. Mr. Doty, possibly having had experience with Chinese people, tried to explain to my Grandpa that in China they don’t eat baked goods for dessert. They mostly eat just fruit. Grandpa was shocked and appalled. He couldn’t believe in a culture without cake. With a look of great concern on his face he asked Mr. Doty, “What about pie? Don’t they eat apple pie?” Mr. Doty calmly responded, “No, they don’t.” With a look of horror on his face, Grandpa shouted back, “Why, that’s Un-American!!“
Everyone at the table, except for Grandpa, broke out in laughter. In between chuckles, Mr. Doty said, “Yes, Paul, it is.”
…is that this letter was waiting for us when we got home late Friday night from Jacob’s week-long business trip (pictures were included in original letter):
Dear Mom & Dad,
We have missed you all week. We need a lap to sit upon. When we jump on the counter, it’s not nearly as much fun because no one is around to tell us to get down.
We think it’s funny when you guys get your feathers ruffled just because we are super-cats who can jump tall buildings.
Although we’ve been fed our regular food, we’ve still been hungry for paper products and you may notice that some of your mail has been tasted for flavor and quality of ink.
The main thing that kept us busy all week was the big cat party that we hosted. It was going to be a small event but we invited 20 cat friends and they invited their friends too, so it was just wild. But you can see how we cleaned up very well. Your neighbors called the police around 11:00 when the singing got too loud. (Ron should never have rented the karaoke machine.) After that we tried to be quiet and polished off the caviar and shrimp pizza. We napped quite a bit after the party and got caught up on our favorite soap operas.
It was nice of you to send in the maid & butler each day. We did our best to create a small mess each day so that they would feel needed.
Maybe we could go with you on your next trip. We would sing lots of songs for you to help the time go by faster.
We’re so glad you’re home. It’s time to get into some noticed trouble now.
Xxoo,
On Wednesday my mom stopped by to watch Modern Family. She brought along her 90 lb. golden retriever, Zeke, for the first time since we’ve had our kittens. Our kittens, Ron and Louie, are 7 months old now so they can hold their own, but they were quite alarmed and confused by Zeke’s sudden and unexpected arrival.
Strategy: Jacob and I would each hold a cat and Zeke would come in a few feet and we would all stop stare, and smell.
Reality: The kittens did not want to stay in our arms but wanted to get very far away. Louie was the first to hiss at the sight of Zeke and Ron was the first to jump out of my arms, leaving a nice scratch on one hand. Zeke did behave when he was told to sit and stay. The kittens were too curious to completely run for cover so they both stayed a good five feet away in a crouched position for quite awhile.
We all were fairly stationary while watching Modern Family so no one would get upset. Ron chose to perch atop the couch while Louie opted for the cover of the jungle gym (see below).
Results: Ron and Louie don’t like Zeke but as long as he was sitting still they tolerated him. I think if they spent a lot of controlled and calm time together they might get along. I’ve seen how Zeke chases Romeo (my parent’s cat) around their house so I’m not too optimistic about the bond.
Here are a few images that were captured during the excitement-
Everyone felt a little tense.
Ron was alarmed that Zeke looked at him.
Louie didn't care for contact either.
Ready to fight. Notice the fierce arching of the back.
Zeke just wanted to play.
This is way too familiar–and true.
“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.
Every Friday morning my office has coffee, tea, and pastries available for a short socializing time. This morning I went upstairs to get my usual tea and 1/2 doughnut and I walked in on a very deep conversation. Three men were sitting over their coffee and pastries discussing the history of the doughnut. One man in particular knew a large amount about Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts — such as, the geographic origins, where they were sold 10 years ago, where they’re sold today, the business strategies of each company, and I’m sure if I had stayed in the room longer I would’ve heard much more.
I had no idea that three grown men could be so engrossed over the history of the doughnut. I wonder how long that man had been waiting to give that speech and share his vast doughnut knowledge? Do all men pay that close attention to what kind of doughnuts are available and where they are?
I must say, I do love Krispy Kreme doughnuts when they come right off the conveyor belt. I got to experience that pleasure a couple times when we lived in Alabama. One night Jacob and I had a busy schedule and ended up eating terrible fast food and then went to Krispy Kreme with our small group. Not the most nutritious meal but the company was good. If you ever drive by a Krispy Kreme and the Hot Now sign is lit up, pull over and enjoy a great snack.
Allison G.
My sister and Mom gave me an awesome cat jungle gym for Mother’s Day (only because I have kittens). They loved it. Below is the progression of setting up the gym and if you want to see a more complete album via facebook, click here.
Louie in the collapsed tunnel.
Tasty plastic pipes
Fun hanging ball with a bell
Testing a Shelf
Done!
Sneaky Louie
Grrrr...
There have been several momentous events in the last couple days concerning our kittens, but the most amazing was Ron’s physical feat.
The kittens have a tendency to jump onto a ledge at the top of our stairs. It concerns me because if they lost their balance they might fall the distance of the stairs, about 20 feet to the carpet below. So far, we have not had to witness this. Last night I was getting ready for bed and heard Ron making lots of chirping noises and a few odd clawing noises. I was washing my face so I couldn’t investigate but I asked Jacob to find out what it was. He checked the upstairs landing to find that Ron had jumped from the stair ledge to the top of the linen closet door that had been left open! He was somehow balanced on top of the door frame and not sure how to get down. Jacob said he had a look of fear but didn’t want to show it. Jacob rescued him and the linen door was shut. The things these cats do…
We’ve also had a big change because we moved their supplies to the upstairs guest bathroom instead of the downstairs coat closet. We’re hoping this will create more containment of the smells they produce and will be easier to clean. Plus, we don’t have overnight guests very often. The kittens seem to be confused why their closet door downstairs is shut but I don’t want them to venture in and think, “This is where I go to the bathroom!” So far we’ve only had one accident when they did get into the closet. They’re also free to roam around the house at night instead of being shut in the large closet they occupied. Jacob still finds them sleeping on the upstairs landing every morning so we’re not sure they move around much at night anyway.
Updates:
Allison G.
My kittens, Ron and Louie, are 5 months old now and plenty strong enough to jump onto any surface in the house and have become quite mischievous. It seems that Louie is often involved in the more memorable moments. Here’s what he’s been up to lately.
Last week we decided to pull up the blinds by our dining room table and the kittens happily jumped onto the window sill and enjoyed looking out. They also enjoyed playing with the blinds. That night I was washing vegetables for dinner and Louie was on the window sill. I was not watching so I have no idea how this happened, but somehow he managed to get the single strand from the blind pull wrapped around his tail. I don’t know whether it got wrapped around before or after he jumped off of the sill, but Louie ended up hanging upside down from the blind pull by his tail and started hissing like mad.
I yelled at Jacob to grab Louie because he was closer and then I very easily slipped off the single string that had wrapped around his tail. The poor guy was quite traumatized for the rest of the night. His tail does seem to have made a full recovery as has his playful demeanor.
The next happening was completely my fault. Louie finds it comfortable to sit in the bathroom sinks. Luckily, our master bathroom has two sinks so he can sit in one while we use the other. A few nights ago he was in my sink and I needed to wash my hands. I reached over to grab the soap dispenser and managed to only pull on the top of the refillable dispenser but enough to knock over the soap into the sink and pour out on Louie. Ron was also on the counter at the time but in about .5 seconds their were both flying out of the room and managed to knock over 4 bottles of medicine, one bottle of rubbing alcohol, one toothbrush holder, and a brush went to the floor. Jacob retrieved Louie who was completely soaped on one side of his body. Jacob said he looked like one of those penguins/birds that had landed/swam in oil. Much to Louie’s chagrin, we held him in the sink while I washed the soap off of him and then toweled him off. He was not thrilled with the experience but he seems to have forgiven me.
Other kitten accomplishments: knocked over a vase of roses and soaked one of my singing journals; liked the chicken I made for dinner last night; also liked the whipped cream I put in my coffee this morning; Ron has been trying to jump through the glass door to the patio; Louie is much braver outside on the patio, whereas Ron has yet to put all four paws on the grass; they continually try to steal as many hair bands as possible from my nightstand; and they are obsessed with drinking water from our bathroom faucets.
Allison G.
