The boys always get excited when someone comes to the door with a package, but yesterday the package was full of gifts for them from an overseas friend!
It will take some time to play with each toy. The boys gave every sign of wanting to take on the challenge, though, so we began the journey yesterday with some tiny toy mice. When they were kittens, a tiny toy mouse was their favorite toy, so these new tiny toy mice went over especially well!
Andy needed to remind his brother that it isn’t nice to use his personal tub, but something outside the open back door came up that was more important.
Dougy’ll get his tail kicked later. Right now, Andy has better things to do!
It took me just short of 15 minutes to round up Andy and Dougy yesterday to get them to their morning appointment for a summer haircut. We were not happy!
Dougy on top; Andy below.
On a happy note, though, they behaved well at the groomer’s, so they still are welcome kitties!
Today I take the boys in for their summer haircuts at the pet groomer’s.
Dougy probably will come home scalped because he didn’t cooperate with me when I brushed him, and I didn’t have good control of the many mats now in his hair. Shame on us both! Andy will do better since his hair tends not to mat so much.
Speaking of agendas, some time back, I posted a few photos of a political mailer Andy took a fancy to. He played on it, he guarded it with his body, he chewed on it, he chased Dougy away when Dougy tried to have fun with it, too.
After Andy chewed it up pretty thoroughly, I tossed it out. Notice my caption at the time, below the photo:
“#&%^# cat!” Andy (most likely) slipped the mailer out of the trash once again, and has been playing with it. It is a bit more worn out now. Maybe I can finally toss it one day, shredded to pieces.
Then, today, I noticed something curiously familiar on the floor in the bathroom:
Someone, most likely Andy, wasn’t quite ready to give up on the Smith mailer!
Bad kitty! I will find a spot in the trash under the sink where this will disappear until I bag the trash for pick up tomorrow morning!
Congressman Adrian Smith of Nebraska’s 3rd District
Congressman Smith won the primary Tuesday, with 68% of the Republicans voting for him to run as the Republican candidate for another term. My cat Andy seems to like him as well, though his agenda is not political.
Not much, but there was snow on my car this morning. Mostly, it rained overnight. And it’s barely above freezing at 3:14 AM.
The only safe flowers here this morning are on my screen saver!
On the >whew!< side of things, I got up around a quarter till three this morning, and got right down to business with the boys. Mission accomplished by 2:58 AM!
It took next to zero effort to catch Andy, who trapped himself on the cat tree when he tried yesterday's trick of jumping into the horizontal tube, with the intent to pop out the other side.
We've seen that move before kitty! I put my hand over the escape end, and Andy was mine! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!
While I had Andy wrapped up in the towel to give him his heart murmur medicine, I decided it’d be a good time to administer the flea-tick-ear mite-intestinal hookworm-roundworm fluid, the standard prophylaxis as we go into the warm months. [“Warm months” isn’t meant to be ironic…!]
Catching Dougy was a no-brainer, and he soon had his dose, too!
Even though the boys are indoor cats, an infected mosquito could slip in when I enter or exit the apartment or through a cat-damaged (ahem!) screen.
The boys hate the stuff, though I suspect what bothers them is the alcohol smell. They don’t suffer any side effects from it other than hurt pride from being captured and dosed. Dosed, they going into hiding, so there will be no new kitty photos today!
I noticed yesterday the apple trees out back are in bloom. I was going to film them this morning, but last night’s snow-freezing rain may have fixed that plan. I’ll see when the sun comes up. 🙁
I fell asleep with my bedroom television on. That attracted the flying beastie, which in turn attracted the boys for an early morning hunt. Fly times began for the 2014 season around 1:00 AM today.
It’s so cute when the cat brothers expend 30 calories for something that probably is less than one calorie in total food value. Of course, nutrition for the body isn’t the issue here. It’s about feeding the soul of a cat!
Yep, my boys were hunting a flying insect that managed to slip past the screen door.
“Look here, Fluffybutt! I’m going to rip that tail off!”
Bang, crash, tip, run, chatter, pause and regroup. If the boys have snits with each other from time to time, there is one time they are unanimous in what to do: When there is a spider or insect loose in the house, they are a team!
Television in bed was out, with Andy and Dougy blocking the view and batting at the insect or anything that moved on the screen. I turned it off. It was close enough to “feed the kitties” time, so I did. Then I gave Andy his medicine after a spirited morning hunt of my own to trap this elusive cat.
[Mostly, the boys are BBF — “Best Buddies Forever”!]
The insect disappeared for a time. Andy settled into a nap. Dougy pestered me to play with three or four different toys. His adrenalin was still up from the fly hunt. I became Dougy’s chosen play partner till his prey found the lamp stand light and Dougy spotted his prey.
Whew! After nearly knocking the lamp over, Dougy finally trapped the flying insect and batted it around till it stopped moving. That was just about 4:50 AM. In fly times, time flies!
[This short video shows the technique the boys apply to an insect or spider once they trap it. Yep, bat it to death, then leave it.]
Yesterday afternoon was exciting times for the boys. The UPS delivery person brought a package. Both Andy and Dougy had to know what was in it.
Boys! Boys! Boys! Wait a moment and I’ll have it unwrapped so you both can see!
Dougy won that round, and wasted no time examining the bubble-wrapped contents of the box.
Peek-a-boo! Dougy examines the bubble-wrapped flats.
My boy Andy used the lull in the conflict to do the one thing both brothers wanted most to do:
Just right!
Yes, he tried out the box.
What’s the kerfuffle about this time, boys? Little did they know it was an order of canned cat food. The whole package was for them!
I no sooner posted yesterday’s whine about nothing was happening here, than Dougy committed the most foul of things: He actually spread out on Andy’s new favorite thing, the mailer from Adrian Smith, Nebraska 3rd Congressional District Representative.
Andy was aghast!
You remember the mailer, right?
Andy’s still defending that Smith mailer.
There he was. Dougy noticed Andy’d stepped away from the Smith mailer for a potty break, and plopped right down on “The Mailer”!
I assure you, THIS is not Andy!
La-la-la! Quite pleased with himself, too, that little rascal!
Andy is about to settle Dougy’s account!
Things began to happen faster than my little point-and-shoot Nikon could keep up — notice how less focused the story becomes once Andy pops up!
“Look here, Fluffybutt! I’m going to rip that tail off!”
Andy was not amused. The routing was on, Andy Victorious! RAWR!
Andy oversees the mailer. No Dougy in sight!
Just before Andy got bored guarding his territory and ran off to bird watch out the bathroom window….
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Shortly before I finished this, Andy and Dougy were working as a team to track down and eat some sort of flying insect that slipped in through the open door, most likely through one of the holes Andy (my screen climber) made in the screen.
They have their priorities! Mostly it is to just get along with each other, sleep, eat, wrestle, play “Catch the Antelope”, and to avoid upsetting each other.
=(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)= =(^+^)=
Also, I picked Dougy up this morning, noticed a lump on his butt feathers. Yep! A big mat that managed to slip notice when he was groomed or formed after. I didn’t have anything to trim it out, so pulled gently on the hair till I found the start.
With a small protest from Dougy, I managed to pull it off in one piece since it was mostly made up of loose hair that tangled on a few attached ones. Don’t worry! I was careful to minimize Dougy’s discomfort.
Ordinarily, Dougy is very interested in mats or hair removed from a pet brush. I don’t know what the attraction is, but he’ll eat cat hair if I don’t catch him first!
The door’s open, and birds (including some blue jays) stopped by to take baths in the little bird bath.
I hoped to show the boys enjoying the bird show, but they are off doing other cat things…sleeping, opening cabinets, eating dry cat food and ignoring the wet, acting like they’d rather not play with me today, acting like they want to play with me today…erg! Just being cats!
How bad is it? I had to dig out the photo above from yesterday to show something.
You might recognize Andy (on left) because this is the photo I cropped to get a picture of Andy walking over to the door yesterday.
What’s Dougy doing in the top photo? Darned if I can figure it out. He was on the cat lounger staring at the wall. Spiders? I hope so, or he’s going “nutz” on me!
Andy’s still defending that Smith mailer.
I did get something on record for today’s cat activities, such as that is. Here’s Andy not doing much. His horns are up, but I’m not sure why. The mailer’s still contested territory between the boys, but Dougy isn’t interested in it today, not now.
Not much happening today.
Andy continues to improve. He is much more playful than he was in February, when I learned he had high blood pressure and a heart murmur.
When not taking on a savage folded piece of paper, he was defending his territory against the big usurper, brother Dougy! You know, that Adrian Smith mailer that still attracts both boys.
Andy defends the mailer against Dougy, who wants it, too!
Dougy left the room. Well, he ran from the room with his smaller brother chomping at his tail! Andy’s back in charge of the mailer. Of course, now that Dougy’s out of the room and doesn’t want the mailer (for the moment), Andy’s not interested in it either.
Time to check the back yard for birds on the bird bath!
No birds. Andy left the room to check the rose bush by the north bathroom window for birds. The human opened it this morning in case Andy wanted some excitement…and Dougy wasn’t there first.