By the way, I am calmer this morning and not as panicky. All will be well. OK… now to the cat stuff:

Finian and Cullen have created a new game: steal Mommy’s socks, underwear, and bras and carry them around the house. They then leave them in odd places. I found a pile of my underwear under the dining room table last night as well as one of my bras lying in the middle of the living room. This would be funny except… we have someone from the church over daily fixing our shower wall (which has disintegrated). Should I be having to do an underwear check when I get up every morning? I think not!

I also put my mother-in-law’s bridal shower present to good use today. She gave me a set of 5 cat cookie cutters (from Martha Stewart Living of course) and I made cat cookies for my mommy. The dough was soft so a few cats ended up as manxes. This is fine because we used to have a manx named Ivan when I was little. He “ran away” when I was 4 or 5.

Pat has a cat ranch. I am *soooooooooo* jealous. I only have a small herd. 🙂

FYI for those who follow this blog/journal *specifially* for kiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttyyyyyyyyyy news:

Jon was concerned that the babies were sneezing too much (as well as Cullen’s gross-smelling flatulence), so we took Finian to the vet as our test cat. He is by FAR the most cooperative of the two and this time, I rode in the back with him to keep him calm. Our favorite vet tech was there and she flirted with my puffball. (She was the one who fostered him before we got him.) Finian was a very good boy for Dr. Bremer and he was sent home with some antibiotics for him and his little striped brother.

My babies are home again. I am a happy Jen. They are not pleased with us, but they had their foster mommy there (who wanted to keep Finian) and the vet treats them well.

We got up this morning, threw on clothes, and stuffed the boys into their carriers. As there are now two carriers, I couldn’t sit in the backseat with them and when I reached back to let Finian sniff my fingers, he clawed me and refused to let go even though I was screaming. Jon finally helped me get my fingers loose (while driving 60 mph) and we made it to the vet. I washed and banadaged my finger and we got the babies out of their cages and into the arms of the vet techs. (One of the vet techs was the one who fostered the kitties and she really wanted to keep Finian but couldn’t at the time.) As I was handing Finian to Cindy (his foster mommy), he caught my nose and clawed me. He did a pretty good job because the puncture is still clotting and I now look like I’ve been beaten up.

The kitties got weighed before we took them back and Finian is 9.5 lbs. Cullen is only pushing 9 but still… this is 3 times what it was in August and September when we got them. They’re not fat either — just very muscular and solid. We get them back tomorrow morning, but I’ll miss my babies until then. At least Jon is home today so that I have company…

Update: I just called the vet’s office and the babies are OK. They performed the surgery first thing this morning and the kitties are awake but not moving. The vet always keeps them overnight, so we’ll get our babies back tomorrow morning.

My mother sent me these pictures:

This is Trail Kitty

This is Trail Kitty sensing drugs

This is Trail Kitty enjoying drugs

The sad after-effects of drugs

Trail Kitty detoxing with his “mommy blankie”

I just realized that I haven’t done a cat entry in a while so… here is the State of the Felines Address!

They’re getting BIG. Finian is probably going to be the size of a Toyota Camry when grown and Cullen will be a magnificent tiger. His tail is already 3 inches too long.

On Sunday, Cullen tried to hang himself in the blinds cord and thankfully was only tangled for maybe a minute before I found him and untangled him. Then we tried to take Finian outside to play in the snow. He finagled out of his harness and bolted down the street. I finally caught him, zipped him into my parka, and took him home. He spent the next hour wrapped in an afghan on his daddy’s lap while I shoveled snow. Needless to say, my nerves were shot by the time the Superbowl started!

They have realized that they are tomcats and that one of them should ideally be alpha cat. Soooo… they are beating each other up for that honor and Finian is currently winning because of size and aggression. I have a spray bottle on me at all times to stop the fighting.

And that’s all for now. (Did you really think I was going to drone endlessly about them??? That’s what photo albums are for!)