Last summer, we decided to adopt a second cat. I wrote about it. I know I didn't post many good photos because he was hard to get photos of. Well, since I got my new lens (Nikon 50mm/F1.8 AF) I took some practice shots of the kitties. I thought I would just share a few of Oscar. I can't believe how much he's changed...and how much healthier he looks! We decided to rename him, since none of the first names we thought of fit him well. Husband says he looks like a grouch. I say "takes one to know one". :o) Anyway, we thought Oscar fit him (and he does have more of a grouchy cat look than Cato does.)
sorry about the watermarks. that's just the way it's gotta be.

Labels: cats are space aliens, photographic ventures

Meet our new member of the family. Our baby kitty. He doesn't have a name yet, so I am open to suggestions. I don't want anything cliche like "Fluffy" or "Tiger", though. Ok, well Chad has been calling him Rambo...which I insist is NOT his name...which only makes him do it more just to irritate me.We got him two weeks ago. I was being a bad wife and looking at kitties I knew I couldn't have on petfinder.com. Chad wasn't so keen on the idea of getting another cat (more work...and we are both kind of busy at this point). But there were kind of these shared unspoken guilty feelings over leaving Cato alone in the house all day. I hate to be alone...just having another life here comforts me...even if all he does is meow at me. Ok now I am just rambling. In truth, I went to the pet food store near my house to check out a different kitten...only 9 weeks old. That's when I saw this guy. He was 4 months. And showed so much more personality than the little ones. He is so sweet and affectionate and seems to live only to curl up on my lap and purr loudly. Every time I sit down on the couch, he comes meowing loudly up to me as if to scold me for even being up and about. Well, I managed to get Chad into the store under the ruse of needing more cat food (we actually did), and I plunked that purring kitten on his shoulder. He wanted to stay tough, but he couldn't say no...and I could tell he loved him too. You could almost think that he and Cato were related by the coloring...except new kitty is a little lighter and more brown. Cato isn't quite sure about sharing his space...but the baby is fearless and persistent. He will walk right up to Cato and meow in his face. Cato doesn't really know what to make of that, and he usually does a little backwards jump and runs off. Cato gives up everything to the little one. He lets him eat his food, and sleep on his favorite perch by the window. Little one sleeps at my feet at night now. But Cato gets pissed if the little one is by "his dad" (Chad). He could care less about me...but he gets so jealous when Chad touches the new kitten. Here are some photos of Cato for comparison, and sorry for making such a cat obsessed post. This first one was shortly after we got him. He was about 6 weeks old. He had such a cute little funny face and big ears and those bright green eyes! Not much of that has changed. He is one of those cats who doesn't often express the squinty cat face...but more often has a wide eyed crazed look about him. The new baby...he already looks like a grouchy old cat...always half closed sleepy eyes. I feel really good about giving both of them a safe warm home, and I really really hope they get to be snuggle buddies. Cato was born in some one's garage or shed or backyard. He would ave grown up stray, most likely. Thankfully the man whose yard it was was able to catch him, and we stumbled on him needing a home a year ago. I wonder what became of his family? This new baby was also from a rescue. The woman told us he was in real bad shape when she got him three weeks before we found him. He had so many fleas, that he had become anemic, and had a heart murmur. He recovered from the murmur, and has had the proper vet attention, and should be just fine. Look at Cato rifling through my purse! He can be such a little stinker sometimes. I love my boys! <3

Labels: cats are space aliens

Had a great Christmas, had fun with the kitten. Will make time for a more detailed post later on...but for now, enjoy this video of his antics...or our antics.


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The video is about 1 minute long...the really good part is towards the end when he starts to get dizzy. There is a little bit of background sound...the camera picked up us talking.

Labels: cats are space aliens, just for fun

We recieved the keys to our new house friday night. Saturday morning, we picked up paint and supplies, rented a steamer to remove wallpaper, and headed out to the house. Here's the account of our weekend, complete with "before" and "under construction" pictures.






Saturday:
We got up and drove to my mom's house and to my grandparents' to borrow several dropcloths. Then we drove to the Sherwin Williams store and spent lots and lots of $$$ on paint and primer and rollers and brushes and a nifty little tool for cutting in around the edges of the walls. Then we went back to the apartment and gathered up a folding table and some chairs, a radio, some pop, some lunchmeat and cheese, a ladder, and old clothes to paint in. Chad and I stopped at Home Depot to pick up the steamer, and look at ceiling fans to put in the kitchen over the table. We agreed on one! But he didn't want to buy it right then. Chad's parents helped us with the prep, wallpaper removal, and painting.

Chad and his mom got started with the "paper tiger", DIF, scrapers, and the steamer on the wallpaper in the master bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. The guy at Home Depot told us to score the paper with the "tiger" first, then spray on the DIF and let it soak in for a while. Then use the steamer to further loosen the paper, and scrape it off. They tried this method on the border in the master bedroom first. It didn't work so well. The scoring just made the paper come off in tiny bits, and the DIF just made a mess. In the bathroom, they stopped scoring and just steamed it off. The top half of the paper came off leaving the yellow gluey part of the paper still stuck to the wall.

I started with the second bedroom, since there was no wallpaper or damage that needed repairing. I washed all the walls and Chad's stepdad took off all the outlet and register covers for me. We spread out the dropcloths, and Chad's mom and I set to work painting the ceiling. It's amazing how much better a fresh coat of white ceiling paint makes a "fine looking" ceiling look!

Then I moved into the bathroom to help Chad's mom with the scraping. Thankfully whoever put up the wallpaper had the sense to prime the walls first. However, the paper was stuck so good in some spots, that the primer was peeling off the drywall leaving loose and bare spots. No painting this room until we can fix that. Chad washed the glue off the walls in the master bedroom meanwhile, and then washed the bathroom walls when we finished. His mom moved on to the border in the kitchen, and I went to Meijer for some groceries.

We finished with all the wallpaper at about 1:00 AM, good thing since we had to have the steamer back the following morning. We drove home, went to bed after 2:00 AM, and I was woken up at 7:30 AM by the cat repeatedly pouncing on my head. I miss him while we're out there working...wish I could bring him along, but he would just be in the way.

Don't let the sweetness of his sleeping face fool you...he is such a little terror.

Sunday:
Sunday started with Chad and his brother heading out to patch the bathroom walls, and fix a crack in the master bedroom ceiling with mud. I arrived at the house a little later, and Chad's mom had almost all of the hallway ceiling painted. When she finished that, we primed the pink master bedroom walls. Then we were able to apply the first color! Gave the guest bedroom walls the first coat of "beacon gray" (shown at the top of this post). Then I painted both bathroom ceilings all by myself (I am proud of this!). We washed the glue off the kitchen walls and I got to thinking that we shouldn't paint the ceiling until we mount the bracket for the fan...so that if we have to cut the drywall...or get dirty fingerprints up there...it will get covered. So we decided to get ahold of someone who can help us with that, and while we're at it, we will move the white fan from the master bedroom to the guest bedroom, and get a new fan for our bedroom. We might also put a fan in the office. Chad likes his air moving...and thinks we should just do them all at once while we have the guy to help...I say sure...if I can pick out fans quickly that are within our budget. We finished up Sunday with a second coat to the walls of the bedroom...and almost ran out of paint. We were able to scrape just enough out of the can to cover the outlet plates.

Labels: cats are space aliens, homeownershipness

He learned how to jump to the kitchen windowsill today...and he's loving it. Been sitting there every chance he gets. Every time I walk in the kitchen, he hops up there and stretches toward me as if to say "look mom, what i can do now! I'm closer to you!" (yes, we think of and refer to ourselves as his "mom" and "dad"...i know its silly...but he is part of the family...and he doesn't have his mommy anymore, and he's so little. so BAH to anyone who's laughing at me right now.)

I love the way he wedges between the couch armrest and my hip and gives himself a bath and then takes a nap. It is our little evening routine.

I love the way he shoves his wet little kitten nose in my face when he wants some attention.

I love the way he "chews me out" when I come home, as if to say "you left me bored and alone all day long, HOW DARE YOU."

I love the way he burrows under the covers and all the way to my feet, and sleeps there most of the night.

I love the way he sleeps on the bath towels on the shelf in the bathroom in the morning while I take a shower and blow dry my hair.

I even love the way he gently love bites me when we're snuggling. (Just not the way he furiously chews on whatever flesh he can get his teeth around when he is feeling spastic and ignored.)

I <3 Cato!

Labels: cats are space aliens

Spent a drizzly afternoon and evening snuggling with my hubby and kitty...and eating yummy Thai food. Perfection!

Anyway, here are some photos of Cato holding still...for once. After this, it was back to bouncing off the walls...then sleeping again...I hope he's not up all night again.
His stripedy underside.He's almost black from the top view.Big feet. (Cute brown toes!)He opened his eyes for me...then back to sleep.

Labels: cats are space aliens, queen of the castle

His name is Cato. It fits him very well, and the hubby was quite agreable to it. We left him and our apartment in the care of my friend Renee while we were 2 hours away for a wedding Saturday and Sunday. She had a good time with him...except when he had a little accident and went pee on her in bed at 4 am. He is only about 6 weeks old, and does very well with his litter box...but sometimes he get confused about being in another room. If we leave the living room and go in the bedroom and he doesn't see us, he will cry until we call him then he will follow our voices. He seems like he is getting bigger already! Also, he has finally figured out how to play with the jingly ball I got him. Maybe I can get some photos of him while he is napping today.

We stopped by our new house on the way home last night. The previous owners still don't know when they are moving out yet...but they promised to let us know as soon as they hear their new house has been vacated. They are very much packed already. I haven't started packing anything yet. Oh boy, will that be loads of fun! Can't wait to move in anyway.

Oh, and Renee also found my Canon Powershot after like 5 minutes of looking. Yay! Renee!

Labels: cats are space aliens

The landlord/uncle said we could keep kitty in the apartment! But ONLY since we will be moving out sometime within 30 days. The kitten is so funny...he gets so wound up, then crashes out and falls asleep almost in the middle of tearing around the room. Last night he grew tired of sleeping in bed with us, and started biting at my fingers trying to get me to play. I was sleeping, and couldn't figure out what was going on. I tried to get him to settle down, but he wanted no part of it. The more I tried to pet and quiet him, the more he wanted to play with my hand. So I had to get up and take him to the kitchen. The funny thing is, when he is in the kitchen by himself with nothing to do, he just goes to sleep. I made him a little bed out of a box and an old bath towel (you can see it in one of the photos in the previous post). He does sleep in it...but he crawls under the towel. It is so cute and funny! The first time he did it, I was all worried because I couldn't find him. Then I saw the towel wiggle. He is so much fun!
We still need a name for him. A couple guys I work with were suggesting names yesterday...this is what we came up with...
1. TROGDOR (For this reason, if you are not already familiar)
2. CHAOS (Which sort of fits him right now...but I don't know...)
3. CATO (Pink Panther with Peter Sellers reference...my idea)
4. PINJA (Shortened for Pirate-Ninja)
5. QUARK (Just for nerdiness reasons)
6. ATOM (Same reason as above)
7. PLUTON (Because of pluto being demoted from planetary status)

Please give comments and suggestions.

Labels: cats are space aliens

We got one!!! I still have to convince hubby's uncle (our landlord) to say it is ok to keep him there for at the most a month...because we can't move into our new house until the previous owners move out.
My mom brought the kitten home from an antique store she was at yesterday. The owner of the shop had found the kitten wild and stray in his yard...and caught it, and is looking for a home for him now. He has a few siblings still in the yard...but the guy hasn't managed to catch any of the others yet. Well the guy said it would be ok for my mom to bring him home for the night so I could see him, since the store was closing. He said if it didn't work out, that he will take him back.
Once my mom got him home, she realized that he had fleas...so she didn't want him in her house. I bought flea shampoo, and brought it over and we bathed him twice. I think they are all gone...but if we keep him, I will treat him every two weeks according to the directions for at least a while. Then I brought him home to my apartment. Hubby was surprised to see him...but not mad. He is just worried about angering his uncle. He likes the kitten, but told me that I HAVE to talk to our landlord today...and if he says "no" the kitten has to go back.
I will have a really hard time if I have to give him back...I love him already! He is really attached to me, and follows me everywhere he even slept half the night curled up next to my shoulder.
Ok...I know you all want to see pictures...so here they are. The quality is pretty bad, because I took them with my cell phone and he doesn't hold still for very long. I will have to try to get better ones soon.

Name suggestions anyone???

Labels: cats are space aliens

Fluffy kitty photos to brighten my (and your) morning!

Note: These are not my kittens...yet. They belong to a co-worker's in-laws. She is trying to find homes for them. And I want to take one...but it depends on how this deal with the house goes...and if my husband agrees...he is kind of on the fence.

There's only one calico...I think she's my favorite.


It's this picture that got me!


Look at her cute spots!!!


This one's pretty a pretty close second I think...don't know if it is a boy or girl yet.




When chad saw this picture...he exclaimed "Oh he's cool!" So this is his favorite. He is cute in a funny face sort of way. I love the way his blue eyes stand out too!

Labels: cats are space aliens