Everything Bianca

When CJ and Misty were 'younger kittens' they'd both sleep behind me. Alas, they aren't too keen about sleeping on top of each other anymore.

Today's picture features Misty, who is currently sleeping behind me in the black chair. (I had to stand up to take the picture, of course.)

CJ is curled in a near perfect ball sleeping on the "cat chair" covered with my red robe (more like the cat blanket).

Tomorrow I'll aim to catch CJ's 'greeting pose.' He hops up on the scratching post with his "Love Me Please" face and waits for me to come up and pet him, at which point he lifts his paws to my face head-butts my chin.

Misty doesn't greet me. She will, however, meow incessantly when she's ready for me to verbally call her over. Then I must lift her up, and present my arm for her to lick, and not just any part. She really loves the inside of my elbow. Goodness forbid I've been lax on the nail clippings... she likes to knead me while she tries to lick my skin off. 

Yesterday, a very special "internet friend" was put to sleep.

Before I had CJ and Misty with me, I followed Gun-Hee's journal.  Gun-Hee is a fellow Abyssinian. He died yesterday at the tender age of just under 2 years old from FIP. Gun Hee's mom was religious about taking pictures of him, and it made me think, "hey, I better break out my camera. I don't know when I'll lose my own two."

Rest in Peace, Gun-Hee

In that spirit, I took pictures of CJ and Misty, and the baby Mockingbird we found out in the grass yesterday. I'm not going to care if I'm bad at "picture-taking." Better to have a cruddy picture than no picture at all.

As for the baby Mockingbird... We've been keeping him in an empty, never-used litter box with a towel. The mother bird has been feeding him under the carport. We've been bringing him (or her) inside at night to keep hir warm. 

CJ and Misty (CJ up top)

Baby Mockingbird

Since the mother and father have been keeping up on predator watch and feeding the baby bird, we have not fed it.

We've been checking on him every 30 minutes / hour, and the parents seem to be just fine with hir in this location. I really hope our vigilance and make-shift nest is enough to see this baby through to adulthood.

(And yes, when we bring him inside at night, we lock him away from CJ and Misty.)

For CJ and Misty, I keep dry food out constantly and feed them wet food once a day. This system has worked wonderfully for them up until now.

For a while, we've had an issue with CJ sporadically regurgitating his food. Additionally, CJ has gained weight disproportionate to his sister. 

Well, we've discovered the final clue to all this. CJ is either 1) mean 2) bulimic. I say the 2nd one as a joke. 

My husband witnessed CJ forcing himself to eat this morning. He was pushing his sister out of the way and eating every last bit of food in the bowl. Our hypothesis is, when CJ sees that the bowl is getting low, he will gorge himself until he's eaten it all, thereby making himself sick. 

This would also answer a lot of questions about CJ's puking habits - in the morning, and usually undigested food. (Yeah, you probably didn't want to know that.)

We haven't come a decision on how to handle this yet. I'm probably going to consult the breeder and my vet before I go with feeding them only on a schedule. Another thought is that I could buy a 2nd bowl and put food in both of them and keep them both rediculously full at all times.

First, I present Misty and her wide eyes reflecting the camera flash from her perch on the katwallk in our bedroom.

Second, CJ. I was trying and failing to get a picture of him when my husband began meowing to him. They have this thing where CJ will talk back. Abyssinians in general are very quiet cats. CJ doesn't meow unless he's about to puke. Otherwise, it's this type of kitty bark, I call it. You can hear it twice in the video. Misty only meows when she's lonely and looking for someone to pet her.

Well, here's Patience, my Garrison G10. It's a lot of guitar, but I think I'm doing well with it.

Since I was taking pictures, I decided to get a picture of Misty and CJ as well. They were sleeping. Misty, in my chair, and CJ in the cat tree. 

CJ lifted his head when he saw me coming and went right back to sleep after I got his picture.

Last night...

I heard a crash and ran into my room. I do not remember which cat, or if they were both there. 

I keep the one plant that's cat safe on the 4th shelf in my room. They used to try and get at it, but stopped, *for months*. I never had a problem. Then, this weekend, I've been finding stuff strewn throughout my room. I've noticed things that were on the 4th shelf across the room. I had been warned.

The plant, a bamboo palm, had been knocked over onto my dresser, onto my crystal unicorn.  The unicorn was mounted onto a mirror. It too, I thought, was 'cat safe.' (Not from falling plants!)

The unicorn had come off the mirror, all the legs were broken, the horn, part of its face....

Dirt was everywhere. The riverbed rocks I'd used to cover the soil (just in case) were everywhere. 

I went to the kitchen to get the handhelf vac I'd bought along with the kittens. (No house with kittens should be without a handheld vac.) I got up all the dirt and threw everything away.

I evicted the plant. It's sitting outside now. I can't protect it anymore.

Oh, I'm angry, but I don't know who to be angry with, and it doesn't matter. The plant lived. The unicorn is dead. You can't stop a cat's curiosity, only impeded it for a time.