The Houdahenians

Been searching for the camera to take a new set of pics of the kittens. It's probably under some stuff that got piled up as we tried to make space for the kittens. It'll turn up. They have not eaten it. I'm sure of it. Right now, Saturday mid-morning, they're asleep. Their momma woke up Libby about 7 asking for breakfast from outside the window. Of course they heard momma, and were quite ready for breakfast too. I slept in, till about 8. Libby was sitting guard in the middle of the living room--the kittens' play area. We have gotten them several things to play with and on. A tubular padded thing with two soft, possibly inviting holes where a kitten might want to hide and peek out, called I think a "kitty condo." Also a more pyramid shaped climbing and scratching thing with a wide base and a small flat top, which all the kittens prize as a mount of advantage, and enjoying fighting each other for. There's also a collapsible horizontal tube that rolls around on the floor, crackles, and although at first it frightened them with its noise, this morning they were all charging through it and rolling it around. They also managed to carry a plastic wand with a pendent of some kind on one end into the tube--missed seeing that action, just noticed it was there, with one of 'em wacking the pendent back and forth. Of course the kittens are themselves kitten toys, each finding the other two of endless interest what with all that quick movement and a tail no less. We wait for them to tire. The waits are longer and longer. It was nice of momma to start them off in a dark shed--when we finally tire ourselves and put them back in the wire kennel for some sleep time, they settle down willingly and quickly snuggle together in a ball in their new soft kitten bed. We got a second kennel and are trying at the moment to figure out how to connect it to the first in a better way--so's the doors are at the ends and not in the middle. You'd think the geniuses in China would have thought of this already. I believe cats are quite popular in China. Possibly they don't pass out their cat secrets to the pale ghost devils who still imagine they rule the world.

Among still pressing needs. A better waterer--one that they don't jump in and kick over when they're not thinking about needing a drink. We want them to have constant ready access to water when they're in the kennel, or out. But this at present requires a cooperation which they do not possess. Kittens are quite shortsighted, in every sense. One reason we don't just forgo the kennel thing and just let them have a bed in the middle of the living room is that they want to check behind the book case, and under the furniture, and behind the records and CDs, and up the walls and stairs, and behind the claw-footed tub which leads to a seldom used storage area under the stairs, and up the other stairs to the loft where we sleep, which has entirely open access to the stone floor below, where a kitten could confidently stride into space while possibly attacking a bug it spots through the fixed-pane window set just past said opening. Or whatever. The general concern is to find neither a whimpering kitten with a bad fall injury, nor to hear muffled and mysterious cries from...somewhere... It's tiring, without late night high-anxiety searches. There's only so much coffee can accomplish, even high-test from Sumatra.

I'm going to try to tack cardboard temporary walls to some of the book and CD storage cases this weekend. The perfect situation for the next month or two will be the kennel with the door ajar, in the middle of a truly kitten-proof living room. It might be possible, without calling in experts from some cable teevee show. Libby and I both have degrees from the University of North Carolina after all. They must mean something? Only last year, at the age of 68, I figured out how to install a new alternator onto my truck. How hard can it be.

Meanwhile, we find distinct personalities in the three. The grey one, which seemed back in the shed days to be merely curious, has become "Bruiser," a possible lad who has the fierce eyes of his warrior pops and with his weight can win any battle with the other two. He likes to drink water, eats well, is still curious, is almost too big to fit on the little top of the pyramid thingy, which is pretty funny after he wins the battle to climb up there. At first no one liked the kitty condo caves, but I put him into the top one last night, with a play-ball, and he stayed in there, peering out with a lordly visage at the other silly kittens scampering around below, having no sense of decorum. All this suggest he's a male, and possibly even a Republican. But drop him back down in the melee and he returns to reality, just another kitten and actually a little on the chubby side, truth be known.

The short-haired black one--who used to be the runt--is now the most curious, and most person oriented. He/she purred first, meows at the sight of either of us, likes to be held but also squirms to see and do the next thing. Wuzzy eats well, poops well, seems still to be bamboozled a bit by a simple water dish, leaning down to drink and invariably getting her nose wet and sneezing. We make sure she has some milk in her food. (Bruiser, on the other hand, does not like milk with food and definitely likes to drink from the dish, when he's not tripping over it or flipping it over during a jump.)

Fuzzy, the other black one, is in a way the most reticent, although when we met in the shed she was the biggest. She eats, poops, plays, but also tires of playing and retires to a quiet corner if she can find one. (Or he.) If held, Fuzzy will usually go to sleep quickly. We have some hope that Fuzzy might be closer to house safe than the other two, but her curiosity is still powerful, and we've caught her just short of disappearing into the CD collection. They all have a skill of simply pushing their heads forward into a small space and seeing what develops. Now and then Libby takes Fuzzy away from the madding crowd into the next room and holds her. I think Libby may see a little of herself in Fuzzy's situation, as she grew up in a big crowd of other siblings. I was a member of the Fuzzy Mountain String Band too. The stars align.

There is a yen/yang to all situations. The easiest way to get from the kitchen to the back room where we sleep and watch TV is to go outside and walk around to the slider. In the middle are the kittens. Houdahenianland.

From last week: Bruiser. Thomas Nickles took the photo.

Update Saturday PM: found the cam, though not the moment for fresh new photos of the kittens in their current environment. I might need to get a head-cam anyways, for that project, and see if the google will let me post a "film," as the old folks used to call 'em. Otherwise I guess it's a youtube post and a link. Anyways, here's a rather comical shot from a couple of days ago. It's titled "The Author" and was taken by Libby.