The most patient cat in the world

Once we had kids, the adoration of our furry family friends definitely waned and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wouldn't be sad if we could find them another home. But, oh do the girls love them; and I'll be danged if Milo isn't the most patient cat ever. He seeks the girls out, let's them fawn all over him, dress him up, and occasionally Charlotte will attempt to ride him like a horse. Daisy is a little less tolerant of the dress-up games, but makes up for it by napping with Anna on a regular basis. Just a few recent examples ....

A cat and his girl (Part IV)

Even if you're not a "cat person," you can't deny that Anna's love for Milo stretches the boundaries of human-pet cuteness and could warm even the coldest heart.  Milo is often the member of the family she's most excited to see when we return from an outing, the first of her "animals" to get a blankie to go night-night, and she loves nothing more than running over to "pet Miwo."  He endures hugs that I know are too tight, pets that are too rough, tail pulls, displaced food and water, and she's recently started attempting to mount and ride him like a horse.  He rarely shows any disdain and shows his returned love with loud purrs whenever she's near; and for that he'll always have a place in our hearts and our home.

One of those "too tight" hugs

View from behind.  This makes me claustrophobic just looking at it : )

A cat and his girl (Part III)

If you know Milo, then you know that food is serious business to him.  He likes to be fed first thing in the morning (weekends when we "sleep in" far-rreak him out and he's in full panic mode by 7am) and by 6pm in the evenings.  (Gee, it appears even my non-biological children carry my OCD gene ...)  Given these strict parameters, I was a little worried when Anna started to literally shadow him around the house, including when he was eating.  But, just like everything related to their relationship, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he's perfectly content to eat his breakfast with the watchful eye and helping hand of his toddler BFF.

A cat and his girl (Part II)

It's all fun and games until the game ends, you've got a shoestring on your head, and Mom sitll has the camera out : )

Accomplice

Both of the cats saw the Vet last week, Milo because his mouth ulcers came back and were affecting his lisp, and Daisy for her regular check-up so that we could get lectured on her obesity.  Seeing as how those bad cats are her best friends, Anna was surprised and had a look of shock on her face when she saw them in "jail" and hauled off, to potentially never return.  Being the good accomplice she is, she immediately tried to set Daisy free as Milo provided guidance on the lock system.  Luckily, bad cat #2 was back home before the "Free Daisy" Facebook campaign took off and t-shirts had been sent to print.

Friday Funny

Wordless Wednesday: A cat and his girl

Ain't to proud to beg

Milo had been awaiting a stray puff or yogurt melt when I went to get the camera,
but scurried off by the time I returned.  Needless to say,
they now understand the new importance of dinnertime.

Sibling Rivalry

Anna has grown out of her bouncy chair for the most part, but we keep it in our room in case we need to set her down for a couple of minutes; with her becoming more mobile by the day, we can no longer lay her in the middle of our king size bed surrounded by pillows and be assured she'll stay put.  Fast forward to Saturday night when the cats were locked in our room for a few hours as I got holiday decorations out of basement.  Milo cried for the first hour, but eventually settled down and apparently Daisy made herself right at home.  Let the sibling rivalry begin : ) 

"What's the big deal? 
You told me on Friday that the tiny human finally weighs more than me ..."

The Heinz 57 of Videos

With a lot on her plate developmentally, Anna has to really pick and choose how she wants to spend her time these days.  Between working on sitting up, being ever so close to scooting, and trying really hard to roll from back to tummy, it's hard to even squeeze her evening meal into the mix ... and then throw her budding friendship with Milo in there and it's enough to tucker a gal out by 7pm.  This video started as a way to showcase her almost-sitting skills, morphed into her showing off her high kicks, and ends with her utter excitement at the sight of one of her best buddies.  Apologies for the dark lighting, it was wee early o'clock : )

And, stay tuned for video of one of her first rolls from back to tummy ... it's been a big week around here!

Buddies

These two are destined to be big pals, if only for the main reason that he knows she's his meal ticket for years to come ...

(enjoying the camera on my new iPhone and playing around with the Instagram app)

Roly Poly Returns

I wanted to be sure to capture some of our activity time with Anna before she starts really mobilizing (is that a word? ha) ... here she decided to show off her rolling skillzzzzz again.  She still loves her tummy time, but doesn't roll as often ... generally it's now a mix of rolling combined with some serious scooting and leg kicking, peppered with baby babbling; those videos are currently uploading, be sure to check back later this week. 

** Disclaimer:  Please consider turning your sound down or off during viewing ... there's some serious baby talk on my part going on here : ) **

Anna Rolls ... Yet Again! from Jen Kelly on Vimeo.

Prior to shooting this, Milo tried to get his turn in the spotlight; you can see him in the background as the video starts, he proceeded to walk around her activity mat and "buddy bump" me while shooting ... such a camera hog! 

Anna Playing 1 - Milo Interrupts from Jen Kelly on Vimeo.

Technicalities

The cats continue to do amazingly well with Anna.  Milo even lets her "pet" him these days ... afterall, they do recommend exposing babies to different textures : )  Anna received a new, super-fun activity mat last week and the cats immediately realized, like the rest of her toys, they were to stay off.  Buuuttttt, no one said anything about under ...  "But, Mom, I'm not ON the mat ...", similar to the many, many times I told my parents "But, I'm not touching him" when my finger was a mere 1mm away.



Going, Going, Gone

Milo still loves to hide under the couch ... the fun has grown exponentially now that Daisy is too fat to join him ...



Cutie

In my last post Anna was pictured with Cutie the Cat and I am so very glad that she was able to meet her ...

You see, Cutie passed away just three days after our visit.  It was bittersweet as it was her time, but selfishly she represented a living tie to my childhood, my Dad's home and oh-so-many memories.  We adopted Cutie my freshman year in high school and she fit in from the moment she arrived home, and like all of our cats developed her own personality that we fell in love with. 

A few years later my parents divorced and Cutie stayed with my Dad and other cat, Duncan (also an awesome pet!).  When my Dad remarried she became quick friends with her new family, which included three small children.  Unlike some cats, she loved all humans and never met a stranger.  Her signature move was licking your hand if you reached down to pet her.  And she'd go to town leaving you clean a whistle and thoroughly exfoliated : )  She loved getting brushed and loved eating the treats she received as her reward even more.  She begged for food at dinner, cuddled in your lap as you watched TV and loved to make kitty biscuits on your belly.  She befriended every child that came through Dad's house and with Anna's visit she even crossed generations. 

She was almost 19 years old, but still looked spry as they come.  We often joked that she was the Jack LaLanne of cats.  Dad noticed she was having issues several months ago and a visit to the Vet confirmed kidney issues.  She was put on special food, but when her eating started to slow down, we knew she was getting worse.  Those final months Dad (who detests wet cat food) let her enjoy plain old, stinky wet cat food and made her as comfortable as he could. 

I can't thank my Dad enough for taking such good care of her during those last days.  I know it killed him to put her down, but it was 100% the right thing to do.  When I heard the news I was a mess, but felt even worse for my Dad; I wish I'd been there with him.  In the end, I'm just happy I got to say goodbye and the pictures below are priceless to me.  I know that Cutie is up in kitty cat heaven having a ball with her old friends and making new ones.  And licking hands every chance she gets. 

My friend Phil said once said about the passing of his cat, Pink, that "He had little strange traits that provided Jennifer and I with at least one laugh every day.  That's pretty impressive.  If someone can make you laugh once a day without the ability to speak, I think that's doing pretty good."  That's what Cutie provided to us and truer words have never been spoken. 

The pictures below were taken back-to-back and show how friendly and loving Cutie was ...
she literally never met a stranger and instantly fell under Anna's spell.

Friday Funny (& and a shout out to our furry children)

In posting the funny above I realized my readers might be wonder what happened to our first "born."  Rest assured they are still with us and have been wonderful with the transition to big brother and sister.  They keep a respectable distance from Anna, understand they are to steer clear of her room, paraphernalia and toys in general and I'm pretty sure they are counting down to the day she'll be able to drop a few nibbles from her high chair.  In being home I've realized that the above caption is oh-so-totally-true and many-a-day I wish that I could fall asleep on a whim as they do about 120 times a day... oh, the life of a cat : )

Milo looking generally regal as usual ... he's started asking for his dinner earlier and earlier each day,
confused as why the tiny human gets to eat whenever she cries, but he doesn't ...

"Oooooooh, you were setting this up to monitor the tiny human's growth ...
I thought it was for me ... is it still OK if I spoon with the bear?"

Wordless Wednesday: Hoppy (Belated) Easter from Milo (the Bunny)

Different house, same routine ...

Last year Daisy intrigued me with her interest in the Puppy Bowl and I thought it was just a fluke.  Not so fast ... as I replayed a portion the other night (it gives me warm fuzzies after a rough day), she perked right up again and "watched" for almost an hour.  At one point she even walked behind the TV to see if she could find the puppies and join in on the fun.  Milo watched in for a few minutes, but then started meowing, I'm sure trying to tell me that TV will rot all of our brains and our time is best spent doting on him ...

2011 ... new house, same obsession

We start the bad habits early in the Kelly household ...



While you were out ...

Milo is definitely a cat of a different color.  We think that if he were a human he'd be Monk ... very loveable, but definitely quirky (I'd go into detail, but then you'd all be nominating me for the Crazy Cat Lady of the Year Award).  Ever since moving into the new house he's had a thing with "investigating" ... he is obsessed with the basement, both the finished and unfinished parts and hates that we don't leave the door open at all times for his access.  He is obsessed with closets and feels that any closed door is shut because there is something super-exciting going on.  He routinely opens the lower kitchen cabinets, peeks his head in and then moves along with his daily routine. 

Fast forward to when we returned from our trip to Florida last month.  We have a wonderful neighbor that watches the cats when we are away ... she goes over daily, feeds them, plays with them and generally spoils them.  She left us a note this last time saying she couldn't find any of their toys and hence brought over a new one for them (now Daisy's favorite).  As we were putting our luggage away and unpacking in general we noticed the doors and drawers to the dresser and nightstand in one of the guest rooms were opened.  Odd ... and a little creepy.  Did Margo open them looking for cat toys?  Not where you think one would look and why would she be upstairs anyway?  We closed the drawers and went about our lives ... until a few days later when we noticed they were opened again.  Cleary the result of Mr. OCD.  Gee ... wonder where he gets it from? 

Nope, not a ghost or nosy neighbor ... just Milo : )

Friday Funny: Cat Diaries

I found this at one of my daily blog check points, The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, and it really made my Friday. This week has been a bit of a challenge at work (hmmm, running theme?) and I needed a smile. As I work from home here and there, I have no doubt that a day in the life of Milo or Daisy would be very much the same. Happy Friday!!