the carnage...THE CARNAGE!

A couple of days ago, T and I came home from work and just felt that something was amiss. Maybe it was how dead silent the house was. Perhaps it was dust filled air particles breezing by...or maybe it was because we were not met with out usual entourage of furry feline friends by the entrance way.

With out hearts already aflutter, we paced the premises and then suddenly came across this:



I started screaming bloody murder at the top of my lungs:

"Oh my God. OH MY GOD! Dear God nooooooooo!"

T came running in and gasped. At that very moment we both swore that Hippo, our other beloved ragdoll cat...



...had just exploded.

I started sobbing hysterically (keep in mind, logic had not quite kicked in yet as I did not notice there wasn't any blood or guts in the vicinity). "Who could do this to her?"

It didn't help that the demonic mother and daughter duo of Etouffee and Brown Dog decided to enter the crime scene and and start chomping on Hippo fluff:



Just then, I caught site of this sitting on the floor of the adjacent study:






This was when T and I started to laugh uncontrollably because we realized the "Hippo Carnage" was nothing more than a shredded up fox tail the we had purchased at a Renaissance Fair years ago for T's Pan costume (photo left). All that was left intact was the very tip.

The tail certainly was Hippo colored and flufy like her, but fortunately it was not her. We went into the study and found out beloved cat, safe and sound, all body parts intact...and grouchy as usual (she's not too fond of the kitten).

Meanwhile, Etouffee and Brown dog took turns gnawing at the fur and having a grand ole time.

Another C and T family mystery solved.

Till then, we'll be vacuuming and cleaning out air filters in earnest.

stinky cat

I've discovered that my kitten's hygiene leaves much to be desired. She's kind of a stinky cat overall and always has been since birth. Not offensively stinky, but in general cats don't smell like anything. Brown Dog, on the other hand, often smells like sour milk. Yuck. It has to do with her super coarse hair to an extent, but I think she's just not used to grooming herself yet. She's cute as hell, but I'm not too excited about her aroma. Sure, Momma kitty Etouffee cleans her up often and that remedies the issue. However, Brown Dog really needs to teach her herself how to take a bath.

Imagine if you will me blissfully working on web layout stuff for my contract job with my itty bitty lap top happily sipping mimosas when a cute fluffy animal decides to crawl into my lap and fall asleep. Wonderful isn't it? Should be, except that I started smelling the sickly sweet scent of residual kitty litter mixed with fair whiffs of...poo. What to do? The kitten was sleeping oh so soundly but I had to fix the olfactory discomfort. Otherwise, coding would be quite uncomfortable.

Anyway, just keep in mind I had about 1/2 bottle of champagne when I thought of this:

After thoroughly wiping her feet and butt off with a wet paper towel, I scoured the internet for information on non-toxic household items and natural air fresheners and came to the conclusion that cinnamon is non-toxic to cats. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have used my uber-expensive "saigon" cinnamon, but oh well, Brown Dog is kind of the princess around here. I ended up rubbing her damp paws with this stuff and then sprinkling the rest of the bottle all over her.

She smells great now. In fact, the whole house smells great and I'm sure T will kill me when he finds out what I did. She is sneezing a bit at the moment, but seems fine otherwise. All in all I do think this was a good solution because she is now sulking in a corner grooming herself in earnest while momma cat looks utterly confused.

So, if you have a stinky cat, douse them in cinnamon. It works.

obligatory kitten post

Brown Dog is currently the same size and shape as my ceramic Piggy (Kitty) Bank:



She's also one heck of a jumper. My little cousin Eric got a workout getting her to dance in front of the camera.





The look on my little cousin Eric's face is hilarious. I think he knew midflight that Brown Dog was probably going to run into the China cabinet:





And that concludes our kitten update for the weekend. :)

more kitten cuteness

When the world seems horrible, kittens remind you of the softer fluffier cuter side of life.

Like mother...



Like son...



"I'm obfuscating!"


Checking out the doll house:


Every now and then, still trying to nurse:


Etouffee with Brown Dog (formerly known as Yngwie):

New kitten video!

For some reason they look enormous on the video, but really they're not that big.

Before the in-laws get here

So my father in law and T's step mom are coming in this afternoon. T's sweeping. I cleaned the toilets and put things away, but just can't seem to keep my hands off of the new little-itty-bitty lap top. That's what the pics are about.

I have no idea what we're gonna do when Bill and Anna get here. T's mom is really laid back. Vacationing with her kids means doing regular day to day things with them--grocery shopping, watching TV, hanging out at home and reading, listening to music.

T's dad, on the other hand wants to go Polka dancing. Where are we gonna go polka dancing????

For the record, I've gone polka dancing with my father-in-law three times. Yes, three times I've been pelted with god awful German um-pah music swirling in circles trying to keep my head straight and attempting to stay charming after copious amounts of beer. Bill's a sweet drunk and all, but we can't go polka dancing and hang out at pubs every night!

Bill is really similar to my dad. Highly intelligent, but a bit aloof. He never really opened up to his children as they grew up. Ask my husband what his father likes to eat, the response is: "I dunno....Food?"

After all these years, I do know that Bill like homemade blue cheese dressing (which T's momma sent me the recipe for when she heard they were coming down to visit), Manhattans with no ice (that's whiskey with a touch of vermouth), real butter and anything German. I guess cause he is German and so is Anna, but surely you'd think they'd maybe like to try out a Thai restaurant or something (T's shaking his head no right about now).

Sigh.

I think we're gonna go to Fredricksburg for a day trip and then head out to Schlitterbahn water park in New Bruanfels if it isn't raining too much, check out the Wurst Band one night at Scholz Bier Garten...maybe sing "Deutchland Ist" around a campfire while we're at it.


Ich muß Deutsches jetzt sprechen. Die würde die höfliche Sache sein, zum zu tun. Möglicherweise essen sie fajitas. Sie ist nicht deutsch, aber es ist gutes Tex Mex cuisine.

Scheiße.

kitten update

They're starting to use the litter box all on their own now. Although still drinking Momma's milk, her solid food is of interest and they also know how to drink from a water bowl. We still can't quite figure out what color the white one is going to end up. Her faint grey splotches now sport stripes and although color pointed, she does have one mitted paw. I'm guess Yngwie is going to be a diluted calico.



Etouffee moved them to behind the stereo which is an okay location I guess. They don't seem to mind Benny Benassi or 16Volt, but absolutely cannot stand Charlotte Church. Good for them.



We've got wheat berries all over the house (what one uses for kitten kitty litter since they tend to ingest everything). They were dive bombing into the litter box a couple of days ago just for fun.



Personality wise, I like the grey kitten, Capo, the most. She's very mellow like her momma and inherited a lot of Ragdoll breed traits even though she doesn't look like one. Her eyes are a neat sage green color:



Same with her brother's:


Capo's size comparison with Momma (and grandma):

Eyes have opened!

Awwwwww!


Cute.


Kinda uncanny resemblance, doncha think? Either that, or it's the pride of being a grandma making me think that. :)

I get the sense that they were shocked to discover that my hubby and I are much larger beings that imagined. I would assume they thought we were about as big as our hands.

This one is cute too...Etouffee is snuggling with the orange kitten (tentatively renamed "Lanyap" by Kyung and his family).



They officially turn 2 weeks tomorrow!

Cuteoverload

Ha! Etouffee's baby (the white one) is on Cute Overload now thanks to darlin hubby. Just scroll down to June 29th and read the comments. But of course a kitten sucking it's thumbs is a cute thing. I feel so proud of her. She's got internet fame before reaching 2 weeks old! My hand is famous. :) We're beaming of course...and we didn't even birth her.

Yngwie sucks her tumb!

I had no idea kittens do this, but yeah, I guess if your entire life consists of nursing and sleeping, when you dream, you'd probably be dreaming about nursing. It's so adorable seeing her suck her thumb:

cute overload

At 6 days old:






Speaking of cute overload...my office mate Sejal (you can see her in this pic behind me, 6 months pregnant and very hungry) finally had her baby girl on Saturday, June 23 at 3:30pm. She was 7.5 lbs and 20.5 inches long and her name is Nitya.



I think she already has the most lovely features and I love her pink cheeks!


Sejal and I work on the 3rd floor of a really old building (used to be a dormitory) that doesn't have an elevator, so as the months progressed it got more and more difficult for her to make it up the stairs. I think all that excercize and Quznos subs produced a very healthy and beautiful baby girl though!

Congrats to Sejal and Milap!

Kittens at 3 days old

They're all close to 6 ounces at this point.


As you can see they've fluffed out and gained a gut:


Etouffee eating and nursing at the same time:


Capo:


Yngwie:


Humbucker:


I think it's cute how their ears are already open. Their eyes will open in a few days. The white one is already showing signs of silver color pointing (not orange as I expected). I think she's going to be an incredibly pretty cat.

First Kitten Photos

Etouffee acting strange that Thursday morning around 5am:


What T and I saw that confirmed that Etouffee was indeed giving birth (Yes, Capo was breech):


Second baby:


First Etouffee family photo


The 3rd baby was a surprise! I went to check email and went back into the bathroom and around 9:05, he had just popped out. It was over an hour and a half between the 2nd and 3rd kitten.

temporary names for the kittens

Although Monnie's idea on naming them after Etouffee/Cajun related items is cute, I've always wanted 3 cats named these things at the same time, so I figured the kittens could have these temporary monikers until they find a good home:

White Kitty = Yngwie
Orange Kitty = Humbucker
Grey Kitty = Capo

This is a good gauge for which circle of friends you would belong to if you get the significance of how these names are related to one another. :)

3 kittens video

First video of our bundles of joy. Sooo cute!



We're so proud of her....and we pretty much got 1 of each color. Cool eh?