The cat's meow

*I am well aware of the fact that upon publishing this post, the chances of me turning into the Crazy Cat Lady are quite high, especially once the blue hairs start sprouting on my head. With my quilting and NPR-listening and feline love, I really don't stand a chance, do I?








I tell you, I never thought I would love those crazy kitties as much as I do. Even if you are not a fan of cats, there is no way you could meet Harry and Sally and not think they're halfway cool. I had wanted a cat for several years, but my greatest fears were getting a cat that would either hide under the bed all day or have a terrible personality. As my husband, a new fan of cats himself, pointed out, you can't force cats to love you. Dogs might be easier to manipulate, but cats, not so much.

I had no reason to worry.

Harry and Sally are such good kitties. They both are very outgoing and affectionate. They both have super soft fur, almost like mink, which is so nice. They both love to purr and purr and purr. I don't know about you, but I think purring is one of the greatest things about cats. They are both mostly laid-back, and they both are fine with all the dogs. Getting a second kitty was also a great idea, hands down. They are best buddies and don't like to be separated.

Having a both a female and a male has been fun, too. They are so different from each other.

Harry is a true male. He walks like a hunter, slinking around ready to pounce on any prey that might come his way. (Sorry, Harry, there's not too much to hunt as an indoor kitty, huh?)

Harry is downright obsessed with my ponytail holders. That boy can sniff them out anywhere, and once he finds one, it's toast. In fact, as I type this, I realize I need to pick up another package of them next trip to the store because he has taken almost all of them.

Harry also seems to have a fascination with water. He loves it when the bathwater is running, he loves the dishwasher, he loves a sink full of dishes, and numerous times I have caught him with his head down the garbage disposal, hoping to find something tasty.




Crazy cat.

Harry loves boxes, paper bags, and any nooks and crannies he can possibly stuff himself into. The crazier the place to roost, the better.




Unlike Sally, Harry has already morphed into a true feline, perfectly content to snooze most of the day away once he finds the perfect roost.






But he also makes time for television.




That boy loves him some primetime goodness.

Sally, on the other hand, is such a diva. She this amazing strut, swishing her little rear end like she is Tyra Banks. She also loves walking past the dogs and running her tail all over their faces likes it's her own personal feather boa. Yowza.

She is my purring machine. They both purr, but Sally really purrs. Sometimes she is purring so loud you can hear it in the next room. She also will let you know when she has not received adequate love. Almost every five or ten minutes, she will let out these crazy loud meows, calling for you to shower her with more attention. It's so cute.

She loves to lay on her back and have you rub her belly while all four paws are splayed out in every direction. The more kisses you can provide on her little nose, the better, as it just makes her purr even louder. She is definitely a little lover, and her favorite place to lounge is on a warm lap.




They both love two places in the house and will often fight over who gets to lay there -- either the shelf in the kitchen where all the paper bags are, or the tray in the living room where our paper recycling gets stacked. They've both grown so much since we got them, but I'm hopeful that Sally will still remain a bit smaller since she was the runt of her litter. I miss the tiny kitten phase, but notsomuch the crazy tiny kitten phase. They've both been fixed so there will be no baby kitties in our future (whew!), and Sally was declawed since she was constantly sharpening her claws on the furniture. Harry has never done that, so we've allowed him to keep his claws, although the verdict is still out on that one. There have been two times I've seen him get that gleam in his little eye and reach up quickly for a quick sharpening session, so we'll have to see. I am hopeful he was just testing me, haha.

I know they both see me right now as the "FunSucker". Oh yeah, I suck the fun out of everything for them. Sally has a penchant for toilet paper.




Let me just say it was cute the first time to be picking up teensy bits of shredded toilet paper all over the house. And Harry had a penchant for climbing up and practically knocking everything off the shelves. Yipes. This fascination seems to have ended, but let's just say I'm already nervous about Christmas trees and am planning a strategy including water guns. They also love the crafting.










Oh, the fun fabrics they can cover in their fur, the spools of thread they can bat all over the house and under the furniture, the straight pins they can carry around in their mouths (wish I was kidding) -- it's pure kitty heaven for them, kitty h-e-double-hockey-sticks for me...

Having kitties has also changed my husband. He went from being very anti-feline to very much loving them both. And talk about a naive new kitty owner -- the first few days we had Harry he gave him a bath (no joke), which is a crazy idea to most cat owners. Then he took it to a new level when one of the employees at Petsmart convinced him to buy these "claw covers". Oh yes, my husband was crazy enough to first TRIM Harry's claws (Harry was not on board with this idea), and then GLUE these silicone claw covers on them. Seriously. I was laughing my head off. But hey, they really work! And apparently my husband wasn't scared off by the experience at all and is planning on trying to replace them every two months. Oh my heavens...