Millions of [pictures of] Cats

There is a childhood favorite book of mine called Millions of Cats.  It's the weirdest, quirkiest book and I love it. The drawings are black and white and it's about an old man and woman who are lonely so the woman sends her husband to go find them a kittycat. He sets off and naturally comes to a field of, and here's the repeated phrase in the book, "cats here, cats there. Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!"  And he needs to figure out which one to choose which is of course really difficult. I won't spoil it for you what ends up happening but let's just say it gets weird.

This has been a commonly repeated phrase of late, what with our addition of second kitty.  The baby puff has been growing and getting used to things and I really wanted to document the progression of her relationship with Big Cat, whom we've dubbed Big Fat due to the acquisition of his winter coat and blubber.  Kitten is curled up on my lap as I type so it's extra appropriate doing this now. In fact, here's a picture of this:

look at my gumby arm! Or Stretch Armstrong...

Little Marshmallow has continued to be a cuddly sweetie and has her own quirks. For example: 

1. We keep kitty treats in the pantry. I often give them out once a day, usually later on. The big cat meows and wants them but doesn't seem to know where they come from.  Kitten? Definitely knows.  She spends several minutes of her day lying on her back reeeeeaching as far as she can under the door for those treats.  Big Cat has never thought of this and still doesn't.  I'm starting to think he's kind of dim? But it's funny to see the Tiny who actually got her paws on a bag once and i found her wrestling around with it, paws wrapped around in an aggressively loving embrace. But she doesn't quit and always has a plan.  

2.  I'm annoyed I don't have a picture of this but we have a chair downstairs with a blanket over it. It's called the "cat chair" because we allow the cats to use it to scratch.  It's pretty gross and haggard but we can't get rid of it because it folds out into a bed and it's so nice and wide and low to the ground and it's the perfect sick bed, frankly, for when Julian has the pukes. It's also not uncomfortable.  I can sequester or quarantine him away from other furniture and areas of the house and he can easily roll off it and barf as needed. I don't know why I'm sharing this except to reveal that this is apparently an important quality for me.  Every household needs a good sick bed?  Yes, I think this is true.

I forgot what I was even saying. Ok, so the chair has a blanket over it and her favorite place to nap is UNDER the blanket on the chair. Ha ha! So we have to be extra careful not to sit on it bc there might be a kitty.  So funny to see that little lump though. 

So let's talk about the two cats.  Currently their relationship is thus:

• They are much more comfortable with each other.
• They enjoy each other, though mostly for entertainment and chasing purposes. The bigger cat is like a grumpy teenage brother who will concede to play for a few minutes every day and might even enjoy and appreciate it, in spite of himself.  Often i have to break up fights between them and find him clamped down around the little one's neck or her just pinned underneath the enormous girth of him. The moment I spot them and reprimand, they dart away from each other light lightning, only to reconverge seconds later. 
• She tries to be affectionate with him which he tolerates for a couple seconds, which is consistent with the rest of us.  He mostly likes his own space, though he does like to chill out near us.
• I still haven't figured out mealtime stuff since she is too distracted to just eat her food. She'll either quit immediately or eat what he's eating. And he'll always eat whatever she hasn't finished increasing his girth even more by the day. That cat is the fattest.  He got out one night over Christmas and came home seriously injured, apparently having gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.  He had a wound in his shoulder and was out for days. And, he had a limp for at least a week or two.  So the lack of exercise + extra food is making one fat cat. But the limp has made it so Little can get away sometimes.

Here are some pictures that need to be documented for posterity. 

Look- they are twins:

Kitten just loved our tree. She always wore a thick coat of flocking she'd spread throughout the house which made for fun times for us.  But i couldn't say no to her climbing the tree. Even if i wanted to, i couldn't.

 This photo i took early on when they were still super dicey and suspicious of one another.  So it felt significant at the time. They are always battling for top spot in the cat tree.

Cat lap

Cat selfie

More cat lap, looking quite demure:

Cat in arms {sob}: 

She's always curious and tries to start up a chat which he tries to ignore.   I don't see you, I do not see you. 

Julian loves the kitten because why wouldn't he.

 Almost touching!

One time either she was there first or I was, but one of us came up to the other and we shared the chair and she loved it so much that she actually seeks it out now whenever someone's there.  She'll come up to you and look at you as if to say, "share the chair?" It's the best.

More of this please. 

Their tails are touching(!)

  Here we are on the steps Christmas morn with our stockings.  Also there's a cat in the pic so I thought that was appropriate. Also I'm loving Julian's Christmas pants which he's worn since he was like 4 and he only pulls them out Christmas Eve.

And a pic of the Christmas morning tree.  By the way, I was right. Julian was right. It is about the presents. We had such a great Christmas this year.  It didn't feel like too much but we each got some great stuff. And since i've been recording what i got for Christmas since I was a youth, I'll record it here. Julian got a new bike, new legos, a Wii (at long last), books and fun games and toys. I got an old timey typewriter (yay!) and a new OVEN(!!!)  I'm a real mom now. The first time I've ever really felt like one. Because I am so frigging excited about that oven. Sean got kitchen gadgets and a new fancy pot which is so fun because i've finally found a gift that makes him giddy as a kid on Christmas morn. He also got an herb garden that sprouts from pods so uses no soil, and uses a sun lamp which is great because the sun exposure in our house isn't great for growing things.  They've sprouted already and are on their way and it's fresh herbs for us!

Here is Smalls trying to snuggle to no avail.  Big Cat bit on her ear for about a minute before he jumped down and lay on the rug in front of the chair.

Paw-over-face sleeping kills me. 

Can anyone tell me where the vents are located in the kitchen? I'm having the hardest time figuring out where they could possibly be. If i just had a clue of some kind. Anything at all.

look at that chubster.

I love creating perches and hoping upon hope that the cats will like them.   How about this, Kitty? Anything for you, Kitty. Do you like that, Kitty? Here let me raise the blinds.

Aaaanyway.  There, got out all the pics. I feel better now.