The Down Side of Up

It's my day off, which means that I'm trying to get some "work" done online as quietly as possible, so as not to attract the attention of the Kittens, who can quickly derail Computer Time into No-Don't-Bite-That-Cord-Or-So-Help-Me-OUCH-Don't-Bite-Me-Either Time. Which is why my blog entries are generally not very long.

After 4 months now of cat parenting, I'd say we've done a pretty good job. All 3 of the little guys are incredibly well socialized and will go right up and make friends with strangers, be they adults or toddlers. If fact, the only thing they're really afraid of at this point is the vacuum cleaner. Some interesting points:

• They like water. Getting wet will surprise them initially, but they don't mind being wet. I think this has to do with how many baths they had as babies (at least one a day, sometimes more -- they were very messy eaters). This afternoon I was cleaning out their fountain (yes, they have a fountain ... what?) and left a large bowl filled with water out for the kittens' drinking water. When I got back to set up the fountain again, the bowl was almost empty ... and Merlin was standing in it, with the other two hovering nearby, waiting for their turns. The carpet was soaked, as were all the kittens from the knees down.
  

• Molly and Merlin especially like riding on people. Correction: Molly likes riding on people, and Merlin is not about to be outdone by Molly. I have yet to teach them to 1) ask permission first (or at least give a warning noise) or 2) jump, not climb, to a person's shoulder.

• A surprise effect of having Daffodil around for a few months is that the kittens now know how to approach a strange animal with respect. Case in point: we had made our bed (rare occurrence) and put some stuffed animals on the bed. Merlin jumped up to see me, and as soon as he saw the teddy bear, he slowed down and started doing the deferential head-bob as he approached. When he got to the bear, he reached out his head and touched noses with it. Once he knew it wasn't alive, he snapped back into normal Merlin mode (and started attacking my hair).
  

• Molly loves exploring our kitchen surfaces. She has both stuck her head down into the garbage disposal and jumped up onto our gas stovetop (this morning).
  

Finally, most of our clothes are now on the floor of our bedroom, because putting away clean clothes would involve opening the closet door.
Miri, however, is not much of a climber.