Hello, all.  I finally have a break in my schedule to write a decent update on the kitties.  There are so many things to talk about that I don’t know where to begin.

• I guess I should start off by saying that I’ve spent a LOT of time working with Tulip over the past few months.  Tu is a funny character.  There’s a big, soft heart in there.  It’s just surrounded by napalm and razor wire.  In other words, she has a lot of trust issues.  I’ve been working on this mostly by handling her.  At least twice a day I scoop her up and sling her over my neck/shoulder, something we’ve come to call “tigey scarf”.  At first she’d squirm and resist.  I’d talk to her, pet her, and try to comfort her.  If she struggled too much I’d put her down.  I wanted her to see that she had some control.  Now she appears to look forward to it.  Sometimes she comes to my feet and waits for me to pick her up.  Sometimes I’ll lean back in my office chair and sling her across my neck.  She now sits there and purs, sometimes up to 5 or 10 minutes before she asks to get down.  It’s wonderful.
• I think because of the tigey scarf game, she has come a long way.  If I sit on the couch and watch the morning news while I drink my coffee, she’ll often join me.  She invites herself up onto my lap and kneads at the blanket like Moo does.
• Speaking of Moo, Tulip spends a lot of time observing her behavior and imitating it.  She sees that Moo gets a lot of attention when she comes up on the couch while we’re there.  If Tu wants attention, she comes up now too.
• Moo has a habit of carrying her toys around in her mouth and howling at the top of her lungs to let us know she’s “caught” something.  Tu has just started carrying her Mini Tiger around and doing the same thing.  I’m hoping to catch this on video at some point because it’s seriously cute.
• Tu has a kitty bed on top of my desk.  There’s a chair to the left of the bed.  She hops up onto the chair and up again into the kitty bed.  I mostly leave her alone when she gets in there, but I talk to her a lot.  Sometimes I stick my face right in hers.  She usually smells me then licks my face.  If she falls asleep in there, I pull the bed closer to me and rest my hand on her or pet her head.  She’s now used to that.  If she doesn’t feel like being petted, she gives me some warning first by making the pouty face instead of just biting me.
• On Christmas eve, Eve’s parents came over and spent the night at our house.  This was the first sleep-over for the kitties.  Moo is always up in everybody’s business, and this evening was no different.  However, Tu was also joining in the fun.  She walked around the house sniffing everyone.  I think everyone got to pet her at some point.  While Eve and Mom and Dad were working at my desk in the office, Tulip was right up there in the pile of paperwork helping out.  I couldn’t believe it.  She hung around with us most of the day.  When she felt like some alone time, she went to the bedroom and hopped up on the bed for a nap.
• The slowest behavior to change is her interaction with Moo.  Tulip loves to play, and loves to chase.  Of course, Moo is her favorite toy.  Moo is less enthusiastic about this idea, but will humor her on occasion.  Sometimes they’ll scamper back and forth after each other.  They play well together with toys.  I’ll take turns rolling rattle balls down the hallway for them.  They dart out from their hiding places and chase the balls together.  Too cute.
• Moo and Tu are still working on relaxation time together.  Moo is always the first one to hit the pile of blankets on the couch in the evenings.  Tulip often comes over and expresses interest in snuggle time too.  But she shys away when she discovers that Moo is there.  I’ll usually pick Tulip up, plop her down right next to Moo, then hold onto her and pet her until she settles down.  Most of the time she’ll go to sleep there right next to Moo.  Moo usually tries to ignore her, although you can see that she isn’t happy about Tulip being there.  Moo distrusts Tu because Tu punks her all the time.  Tu is afraid of getting close to Moo because she gets scolded for punking her all the time.  I’m hoping that eventually they’ll both realize that playing nice is OK.

They’re an adventure to say the least.  But we really love them both.  I’m so grateful to have them, and really thrilled that they’re willing to open their hearts to us.

Eve and I were too tired to go out and do something fun for Halloween last night.  Instead, I made a pasta feast and we watched a Ghost Hunters marathon.  After dinner I made a batch of pumpkin scones for dessert.  As a result, I had some leftover pumpkin.

For their meals, the kitties usually get a scoop of Royal Canin dry food mixed with some water and a few bites of wet canned food.  It makes a little stinky stew which they LOVE.  Well, after cleaning up from making scones, I was preparing their meal and I still had the leftover pumpkin.  So instead of the wet canned food in their meal I substituted some pumpkin.  Now don’t get me wrong.  The kitties do like pumpkin.  But the kitties were not amused.

Tulip dashed over to her bowl, took one whiff, and “looked” up at me with a giant WTF!?! floating above her head.  She then stuck her head in Miracle’s bowl to see what she had.  More pumpkin!  She was completely offended.  She started to walk away, but decided she was hungry enough to put up with it.  She came back and sulked her way through dinner.  Every once in a while she looked over at me in disgust.

Miracle was a little bit surprised by the pumpkin, but as you may have guessed by her girth, she’ll eat pretty much anything at any time.  She oinked down her dinner with no problem.  She did hang around the kitchen afterward waiting for something else though.  “Mama we ate the trick.  Now where’s our treat?”

Miracle loves to snuggle.  So it’s not unusual to wake up and find her stretched out on her side/back like a seal pup, sharing my pillow.  On the other hand, Tulip is much more finicky about our quality time.  Sometimes she’ll snuggle up next to me, but I’d better not pet her unless I feel like making a blood donation.  Lately her little tigey heart seems to be opening up a bit more though.  A few times she has come up and lain on my stomach to get some good morning pets.  Almost every morning she comes up and licks my face or hands when she hears the alarm clock go off.  In fact, I get really disappointed when she doesn’t.

Well, this morning I woke up to quite a cute surprise.  Eve’s alarm went off at 4 AM.  It was really soft so I heard it, but it didn’t wake up Tulip.  I opened my eyes to see the mini tiger stretched all the way out next to me.  Her back was pressed up against me and her head was on my pillow!  It melted my little heart.  I love that punk.  She felt me stir and woke up too.  She seemed pretty surprised herself to see where she was.  It was like she couldn’t stand to be that sweet for long, so she got up and curled up down by my legs.  I guess I have to enjoy those little moments when I can.

While I was waiting for the coffee to finish brewing this morning, I bent down to pet Miracle. She was on the other side of the kitchen, so I lightly snapped my fingers so she’d hear it and come over. She stayed put and gave me a defiant pout. Instead, Tulip came running from the hallway and spun around to get a pet. This from the cat that used to not like being petted. My how things change.

Ever since we came back from vacation, Moo has been kind of distant.  She just hangs out on the rug in the living room, and doesn’t really want anything to do with us.  At first we thought she liked staying with Eve’s parents better than being at our house.  Then we thought maybe she was just upset about all the traveling and changes she’s been through lately.  Then we though, maybe she’s just hot.  Nooooo, Moo wants her blankie!

A few days ago I put on the air conditioner because our house was steaming.  Once it cooled down a bit, I plopped on the couch and put Moo’s favorite blanket over my legs.  As soon as I did, there was Moo kneading in the blanket.  She curled up and went to sleep in my lap.  The Moomoo is back.

Ever since, I’ve been running the darn air conditioner at night so Moo can sleep on the bed with her blanket.  She’s happy as can be.  She walks around with her pouty Moo face.  She’s more talkative.  She seems content again.  Talk about a punk!  Moo better be paying the electric bill this month. ☺

Moo still passed out in her blankie this morning after everyone else got up:

Over the last couple of days, Tulip has been constipated.  She kept climbing into the litterbox, sitting there for a long time with a look of concentration on her face, then coming back out disappointed.  I’m not sure if it was the heat or what, but this is very unusual for her.  Her appetite, thirst, behavior, and attitude have all been normal.

Before calling the vet, I wanted to have a look online to see what others had to say about this kind of problem.  I found what I thought was a pretty interesting recommendation: canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, just plain old canned pumpkin with no additives).  It’s very moist, has a lot of fiber, and apparently cats usually enjoy the taste.  It seemed harmless enough, so we decided to give it a try.

Both Miracle and Tulip got a heaping tablespoon full.  They loved it.  “We has a punkin’ pie, Mama!”  It was like the biggest treat we could have given them.  A short while later, Tulip was off to the litterbox and succeeded in taking a huge poop.  Whew!  So far, so good.

Now I hope it goes without saying that if your cat can’t poop, you should consult the vet.  It’s not completely unusual for Tulip to skip a day pooping, but this had been maybe 3 or 4 days.  The right thing to do would have been to call the vet a lot sooner.  For whatever reason, we were finally ready to call today.  In the mean time we figured that either way, the pumpkin couldn’t hurt.  It just happened that it worked almost immediately.  Her poop wasn’t particularly unusual, maybe just a bit dry.  We’ll keep an eye on her and see how she does.

The article I read about the canned pumpkin had what I thought was a cool suggestion.  It said to take the leftover pumpkin and divide it up into an ice cube tray.  Once the cubes are frozen, you can pop them in a bag and just take one out when you need it.  The article recommended once a week.  In my opinion, that seems like a lot, but what do I know?  In any case, I’m glad Tulip is back in the groove, and amused to know that cats like “punkin’ pie”.

Once again the kitties were on vacation as Eve and I traveled to the east coast to visit my family.  Thus the lack of recent posts.  However, the delay comes with some cuteness.

Miracle went to stay with Eve’s parents for 9 days.  Eve’s mom is very fond of Moo-head and we thought this would work out well.  I predicted that by the end of the trip Moo would be sleeping on the bed with them.

On the first night they gated off the stairs so that Moo would stay on the first floor.  As soon as she got there, she took a complete tour of the downstairs of the house.  Mom hung out with her, talking to and playing with her.  At bedtime Mom and Dad went upstairs, leaving Moo on the first floor.  They no sooner got upstairs when Moo started a mooing.  “Grandma!  I’m lonely down here!”  Eve’s mom ended up going back downstairs and sleeping on the couch with Moo.  Twice.  On the third night Moo made it up to the bedroom to sleep on the rug nearby.  By night four she was on the end of the bed.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Tulip is quite a bit more challenging personality wise, so we were reluctant to send her along with Moo.  Fortunately Janet and Jeff were willing to take her again.

As soon as Eve loaded up Tulip in her carrier to take her to Janet’s house, she pooped.  I was still driving home from work and received a frantic call on my cell phone.  “Where are you!  Tu pooped in her carrier!”  When I got home I had to rescue Tu from the poop carrier, give her some tigey hugs because she was upset, clean up the poop, and load her back into the carrier.  Good times.

Tu being Tu, she spent a fair amount of time hiding out and skulking around at Janet’s house.  At least she was on good behavior according to Janet and Jeff.

As we were on our way to pick Tulip up after our trip, Jeff said he found Tu upstairs with all the rest of the cats gathered around.  Unfortunately, by the time he got the camera all the other cats were gone.  He did capture some adorable pictures of her though.  This one was my favorite of the bunch.  Tulip’s famous Goose Step:

When we got Tulip home, I put her carrier down in the living room and opened the top.  Moo immediately stuck her head in to see what was going on.  Tulip popped out and took a quick tour of the living room with Moo on her heels the whole way.  She stopped and turned around to greet Moo.  They sniffed each other and touched noses for a bit, then went about their business.  Every once in a while Moo would come back to check up on Tu.  Cute!

Tu has been exceptionally sweet since we brought her home.  We’ve been working on keeping the house calm and quiet, with lots of pets and play for both kitties.  They seem to be liking that very much.  They’re even more relaxed with each other.  I’m so glad to be home with them again.

Now that Tulip has been on the kitty Prozac for a while, the effects have waned a little bit. She is still a lot calmer, and still a lot less punky. But the punk flares up more so than it did initially. I guess that’s okay. Better to have her mischievous than just plain rotten. Also better to have her mischievous than exhibiting no personality at all.

With her current state in mind, Moo is slightly less enthusiastic about being around Tulip. I guess that’s OK. Moo doesn’t seem to be afraid of her or particularly bothered by her. The just seem to be agreeing to keep a distance from one another for the most part. I still keep hoping they’ll grow attached to each other.

In any case, Moo is continuing to be on good bathroom behavior. We ran out of the clay litter so I switched her box back to the Swheat litter tonight. Hopefully that will pan out OK. The box seems to stink a whole lot less with the Swheat. I’m really hoping she’ll continue to use it. So far so good.

Since Tulip has been on the kitty Prozac, she’s become more interested in trying to get close to Miracle.  Moo doesn’t mind, as long as Tulip’s not too aggressive about it.  Tulip seems to be beginning to understand this, so lately she’s been sidling up to Moo until she’s right up against her.  Here they are having some snuggles in bed this morning (where they still are right now).

Tulip just works her way right up to Moo, sniffs her, listens to her, and sometimes stretches a paw out to see exactly where she is.  Moo is particularly impressed with the idea, but she usually tolerates it.  I’m just happy to see them relax around each other a little bit.

I think I probably mentioned before that we switched to using Swheat Scoop wheat kitty litter a while back.  I like it because it doesn’t smell like much of anything, it’s less dusty than the Feline Pine, and it clumps nicely.  Tulip doesn’t mind it, but Moo doesn’t seem to care for it.  Her litterbox has clay litter in it instead.

Anyway, I was in the bathroom yesterday and Moo came strolling in to see what I was up to.  After she poked around the room a bit, she walked over to Tulip’s litterbox.  She stuck her face in there and started nibbling on the wheat litter.  Ew!  That’s not Cream of Wheat, Moo!  Eve has seen her do it a couple of times too.  Crazy cat!  Note to self: no more kisses from Moo…