Cats and more cats
This is a long one, don’t say I didn’t warn you… 
I worked a pretty full day at school yesterday (Saturday) in order to get an experiment done. It worked! Really well, which made it worth it. There is nothing suckier than sacrificing a weekend day for an experiment that doesn’t give you a conclusion. But this one did. So, well worth the sacrifice.
HB is in Mnnpls this weekend, and I’m going to be taking a day or two off in the upcoming weeks to go house-hunting and go to my cousin’s wedding back in Indiana. Thus, I felt like I needed to go ahead and work a little extra to make up for it.
Anyway, the POINT is that because I’d driven into school, it was extra easy to drive to my advisor’s house afterward to visit the new kitty member of her family!
Lucy
When I arrived, Lucy was exhausted from her daily activities, and was sleeping on a chair cushion. You can see that she is waking up in this pic and is starting to get pretty interested in the beepy rurr rurrr sounds that my (our) camera was making.
After a fair amount of petting and cooing, I decided I’d better go say hi to the other 2 cats, so as not to make them jealous or anything.
Here is how I found Norman.
Norman, is so named, because as a kitten his paws were very very big, and it was apparent he was going to be enormous. Even with diet cat food, he is either as heavy as or heavier than the Girlie-girl (i.e. 20 lbs). He definitely has a big frame. In my experience, all orange cats are pretty dang big.
He is a handsome sweetie though, even when a little peeved about being woken from his nap.
Then there is Bella. Formerly, the little princess of the household. She is not so fond of Lucy yet; they are still in the adjustment phase.
After visiting with Norman and Bella, I went back to join Lucy on the floor. She was pretty much wound up again and was entertaining herself by batting a little mouse across the floor.
At one point, she came over to me and decided she’d better investigate my shoes.
“Hey! You smell like some other cat! What’s up with that?”
I untied my shoelace so that she could play with it…
I like this pic because we are foot to foot – and that part of the pic is so in focus. But the blur of her paw and face captures that feeling of constant play motion that she was so full of once she got wound up.
Then, surprise of all surprises, Bella came over to join us! My advisor tells me that Bella hasn’t wanted to play much since Lucy came… but we played “something’s in the grass – you’d better get it!” for a while.
Of course, Lucy was back to chasing her little mouse in the midst of all of this.
Which provided a nice photo-op when I scratched the wall way above my head.
Or a few photo-ops, I should say.
Here is my one artsy one – yin yang.
Eventually, Lucy was back to being exhausted.
I’ve never been able to take a picture of the Girlie-girl while she is asleep, because she always wakes up. So, it was rather fascinating to me to be able to take multiple shots of Lucy while she was sleeping. And she just kept sleeping.
Speaking of the Girlie-girl, when I got home (kind of late), I didn’t let her sniff me, but distracted her by feeding her really fast, and then while she ate, I hurriedly changed my clothes and washed my hands really well. So, she didn’t seem to notice that I’d been playing with other cats.
But she might have known something was up (or was just lonely), because I got the hair chewing/grooming treatment when I sat on the couch.
You know what they say, right? Grooming is a sign of affection.
HB says:
Purr purr purr purr
Momo says:
Really nice pictures of the kitties.
I’m sure Girlie-girl new something was up, don’t they always know – somehow?
Danielle says:
HB, right now it is snore snore snore snore.
Momo- yes, even if they don’t do any obviously suspicious sniffing, they seem to have a pretty uncanny sense.
La Pix says:
Beautiful cats.
I like the yin yang photo.
So funny that Girlie-girl grooms you. You are one of her family members. I had a cat when I was younger named Amber and she liked to suck on my earlobes in the middle of the night.
Does GG have a booboo above her right eye? It looks pink.
When we got home we noticed Ray had a scratch above his eye – no doubt from horsing around with Voodoo Kitty. Ironically, Ray’s claws are waaaay more deadly than the kitten’s though. He rarely uses them, but when he does – look out!
Voodoo Kitty is now bigger than Ray and still growing. She’ll be a year old in July.
SeaQueen says:
That Lucy is just too cute!
I’m glad to see a new kitty addition to that house.
Danielle says:
La Pix, yes, Girlie-girl’s whole eye problem thing
http://www.danielleblog.com/archives/008331.html
means that she rubs that side of her face and head against sharp corners until it gets sore. I had to do a warm compress on her eye last night after the grooming session and vaseline on the boobooo today. It looks better today, but obviously the underlying problem with her eye is still, well, a problem. We may have to seriously consider taking her out to the Tufts vet clinic in Grafton.
As for cabbage cabbage being so big, have you been feeding her Miracle-Gro?
Do you have pics of them side by side on Flikr? I’ guess looking would be the obvious thing to do, eh?
SeaQueen – isn’t she just the cutest?! She is sooooo petite too. I’m not sure that her smallness really shows up, except maybe in the one where she is sniffing my shoe. Her little rhinestone collar is just teeny tiny. Evidently, she is cause for much enjoyment and stories for B and S.
Squirl says:
I loved all the pictures, but I think the yin-yang is my favorite. Lucy is a little cutie.
Amber says:
Thank Ying Yang picture is so artsy. I love it.
Closet Metro says:
But, but, but, I’m a dog person. Why am I loving your cats so much?
SeaQueen says:
Actually, it’s the picture with Bella’s tail where her size really shows. so cute, so cute, so cute.
Danielle says:
Closet Metro, come over to the dark side….
or is it
leave the dark side….
LadyBug says:
I like the artsy photo the best.
And yes, I think Girlie-Girl definitely knew. “Have you been…CHEATING ON ME??”
honestyrain says:
they might be cute but they are making me sneeze from here
Amber says:
“Instead of Chuck E. Cheese, it could be called Mac N. Cheese.
Of course, if you feed the kids first and then let them go play on the bouncy moon-walk thing, it might end up being yack-n-cheese.”
You crack me up. I just had to tell you.
Amber says:
umm, you’re tagged
jenski says:
Lucy look so tiny and Bella’s not a big cat either, right?? Tell your advisor I think she’s adorable…and that when my parents got a kitten, it took their older cat almost a year before he’d sit on my mom’s lap again…or maybe don’t tell your advisor that second part.
I think Girlie-girl was probably washing the stench of those other cats off.
One of “our” kitties, Blackberry, (they really belong to my roommate) likes to chew on my ponytail if I don’t get him all the way around my shoulders fast enough…Side story: I’ve trained Blackberry to sit around my neck ‘cuz I remember my mom doing it with the cat when I was little, but that cat was MUCH bigger and could dangle over your shoulders. Blackberry is much smaller and has one front and one back leg on either side of my shoulders to keep from falling. It’s nice and warm in the winter!
Victoria Winters says:
Lucy is so cute! My baby is currently sick and does nothing but sleep.
She needs surgery, we found out, for a herniated diaphragm because her guts are up in her chest cavity. Needless to say, it’s going to be crazy expensive. Would you pay for Girlie-Girl to have surgery? I feel like I don’t have a choice. She’s my pet and my responsibility. 