The Fight

There are rare moments when the two new kitties sit still long enough for me to photograph them. Ater they’ve passed out from playing, I’ll squeeze in a quick few shots. But, most of the time they are busy chasing/attacking/wrestling one or more of the following:
A) Me
B) Biceps
C) “Gray Mouse”
D) “Black Mouse”
E) Their invisible friend(s)

But mostly, they are attacking each other. This is the beginning of one such fight.
Maxwell (laying down) taunts Bianca as she innocently walks by, looking for her scratching post.

That initial taunting turns into this white blur for several minutes.

 

I know you can’t tell, but Bianca is winning.

 

The fight pauses momentarily as they catch their cat breath.

 

A few more swats from Maxwell encourages Bianca not to quietly into the night.

 

The fight is over. Maxwell has acquiesced. Bianca is still the reigning champion. Right on, sister cat.

Maxwell and his Tongue

This is Maxwell. He is all boy. He goes 100 miles per hour, or none at all.
He may look innocent, but if you are perhaps wearing a swishy skirt while preparing dinner, he may just try to climb aforementioned swishy skirt to get to you, the chicken or whatever else has caught his interest at the moment.

He may do a drive-by “catting”, which requires his paw, your leg and a lot of speed. Or he may just decide to meow incessantly while winding his way in and out of your feet up until the point you accidentally step on his already broken tail. That is our Maxwell.

 

This is also Maxwell, but at 0 miles per hour. He fell asleep apparently mid-lick. He has no clue my shutter is snapping millimeters away from his fuzzy and slightly orange face.

 

I must have taken 15 shots of this scene, never awakening “0 m.p.h Max”. This moment in time was such a reprieve from his normal antics that I dared not awaken him.

 

Bianca, sunning herself quietly, thanked me profusely-as any cat does with a tiny flick of her tail and squinty eyes.
The house was quiet for almost five minutes.

Meet the New Kitties

We loved our eight years with Cowboy. He was the weirdest and awesomest (yep, that’s a word) cat ever.

He was my little buddy and followed me around the house doing strange things. He would sit on my lap for hours while I would write my articles or blog. And, he slept on top of me each night.

He would sneeze quite often, make a sound like an Ewok when he wanted something, and fought until the very end for his furry little life. We didn’t realize what a gaping hole was left when he passed away. After several days of crying and being pretty mopey, Biceps said a strange thing.
“What about getting a new kitty? And maybe not just one, but two?”
I had a feeling he was lonely without the furry dude, too.
But, I was pretty resistant at first. I mean, how could a new cat-or even two new cats-take the place of Cowboy? But, Biceps reminded me that we aren’t replacing Cowboy, no cat could ever do that. We are giving two new kitties a new home–a much needed home. And they in turn will bring us happiness and entertainment.

And so, after days of scouring rescue centers, talking with several “foster parents” and driving around, we found our forever kitties.
This is Maxwell.
Originally he was named “Flame” due to his orange markings on his nose, ears and tail. But that name we decided was weird. For several days, we confused the he k out of the little guy. I called him “Scout” and Biceps called him “Piglet”. Neither of us could agree, until the name “Maxwell” surfaced. It stuck and the name fit his personality all too well.

He does everything to the max. Whether he is eating, sleeping, being extremely cute or playing, he does it full force. There is no half-hearted efforts here from ol Maxwell.
And, he is all that is boy-stinky, haphazard and always attacking something.

And this is Bianca-the complete opposite of Maxwell. She smells like roses. Literally. We have a feeling she is stuffed with potpourri.

Bianca has taken it upon herself to clean Maxwell. It may seem sweet and motherly, but deep down, I think it’s mainly because she can’t stand the smell.

They became best buds right off the bat, doing everything together. They’ll even eat at the same time and switch to their water bowl at the same time. It’s bizarre. But pretty par for the course in our house. Nothing around here is ever normal….

Welcome home, you two crazy cats. We are so thankful that you are here. Even if you have jumped into the toilet on several occasions, knock things off the fireplace mantle and race through the house at 500 m.p.h..
They have definitely brought life back into the house. Lots of life….

The Home Life Changes!

I’m back!
After 8 months of being away from blogging-I’m back ladies and gentlemen. I didn’t choose to be away, fate chose it for me. It was a rough loss for me back in January when my blog failed via the platform, Iweb.

I wanted to take this sledgehammer and smash Iweb’s face with it. Small problem-not sure where to find Iweb’s face.

I had built the site myself in Iweb and for some reason, after a year of blogging with that platform, Iweb decided it had had enough. The ability to update my site, add posts, change anything, was a distant memory.

I pinched my pennies for several months and hired a web designer to build my site (correctly) for me. Once the framework was in place, I had the duties of importing all of my old posts-a task that required copy and pasting each bit of text, each picture, each title…you get the idea. I lost some of my “pretties”, but sacrifices had to be made.

I have a few exciting things to catch you up on from my eight months of absence. I’ll be expanding on each of these items over the next couple of months. But, I thought you’d like a bit of an overview to wet the ol appetite.

THE BIG CHANGES ‘ROUND HAR (HERE):

I remodeled the Master Bedroom while Bicep’s was away making momma some money.

I also remodeled our Master Bathroom the next time he left for tour.

I got really interested in raising chickens in my backyard-so much so that I wrote an article about Urban Chicken Farming for the online and print paper, This Land Press. It’s the same paper that I have my bi-monthly column, “Together in Tulsa” in.

I planted my first full-fledged garden this year-inciting me to can, freeze, dehydrate and make new and exciting dishes like zucchini boats and squash pizza.

Cowboy, my sweet buddy of a cat, passed away. He died of renal kidney failure, compounded with a heart murmur. He was only eight, and I believe way too young. I wasn’t expecting how much this would affect me, but it certainly did.

I believe Cowboy is sitting on Grandpa’s lap in heaven. Those two had a unique bond.

After much sadness and the realization of how quiet are house was without Cowboy Cat 2000, Biceps coerced me into getting two new kitties from the rescue center. Their names are Maxwell and Bianca. You will be hearing lots from them, I assure you.

There is so much more to catch you up on-like this visit to a blue whale, but we don’t need to shove it all into one post, do we? I am so thankful to be blogging again, to visit with all of you and to catch up on your lives as well. Welcome back to Potholes and Pantyhose!