About Ares

Ares

Is single-minded in his adoration of and obsession with Pete.

Is aptly named.  We wonder; had we called him Twinkle Toes, would he be friendlier?

The Mighty Gecko Hunter.

Can easily jump more than ½ way up the side of the lanai cage (not that he is supposed to!)

Has been in the pool more than any of the other pets (swims quite well, too!)

Snorts and wheezes when he’s happy; hence his nickname “Wheezie”.

Marks calls him Butthead.

Has amazing balance.  Used to rail-walk on the balustrade at our old house.

Eats all of the time.  He weighs more than Lily and is seriously gaining on Pete.

Loves his Little Blue Mousie.

Interestingly enough (given his somewhat unfriendly nature) he’s the only one of our cats who appears to really like Lucy.

Is a quite striking looking cat; silvery, dove-colored, elongated face. 

Mercurial.

Constantly tussling with his little brother and sister.

Whines at the door when he wants to go out.  Will not shut up until we let him out.

Is King of the Rubber Maid Storage Box (loves to sit and/or lay on top of it when he’s outside).

Surprisingly enough, he likes to cuddle at nighttime.

Enjoys being brushed but always tries to chew on the grooming blanket.

Has a knack for pissing Lily off.

He and Mr. B don’t get along so much; he’s coming to terms with me.

We’re not sure WHY we adopted him but now it wouldn’t be the same around here without him.

Our Warrior.

Mrs. B

Happy 3rd Birthday, Little Kids (AKA The Greeks)!

Wow how times flies. Golly Whoopers, Batman.

Our Little Kids, formerly known as The Greeks, are three years old today (and, at least until July, the same age as Pete and Lily). I can't hardly believe it, due in some part because they just don't LOOK like they are three years old. They are mini-cats compared to their older siblings and some of the monster kitties I've had in the past (Buda, We'um and Clyde come to mind). Also, how can three years have gone by so quickly?

Those who have read my Blog over the years know full well the story of how these three kitties came (and stayed) in our lives; Ares and Athena with little fan-fare (they just seemed to become part of our family by osmosis) and our sweet guy Apollo became a permanent fixture after quite a bit of drama.

Although they are not generally as friendly as Pete and Lily, they have come a long way in this regard. They are not nearly as fearful as they were three years ago, and, in fact, don't appear to be afraid of us at all any longer. They do, however, remain gun-shy of people they don't see all that often (unless said persons happen to be coming around to feed them, right Grammy?)

I managed to get pictures of all three of them today (although Ares wasn't really cooperating).

I had just finished grooming them, something they all, thankfully, enjoy (this because I started them out right off the bat when they were fosters, something I wish Pete and Lily's foster mom had done because they HATE being groomed).

A rare shot of all three Little Kids 3.31.12. Too bad they wouldn't look at the camera!

I gave Apollo and extra turn because he loves it so much. Heck, he'd take the turn for the other four, if I let him. But, hey, who can resist combing and petting a kitty who is having such a great time; purring, rolling around on his back, etc.? It really is cute; if I turn away for a second, he jumps up onto the grooming table, whether there is a sibling there or not.

And Athena, well, Little Miss Bossy Pants is such a lovely kitty, really.

I bought them a special treat (Fancy Feast Appetizers) for their birthday dinner (which they'll have to share with P&L) and maybe dad will give Apollo and Ares some extra turkey.

Anyway, even though we never really counted on having five cats, our lives just wouldn't be the same now without Ares, Athena and Apollo.

Mrs. B

Happy 1st Birthday, Little Kids!

Wow, it's SO hard to believe our little three are already one year old today! With the exception of Jaba, they are still so tiny! We love 'em, though. A lot.

Also included here is a picture, taken today, of their sister Hera (now Phoebe) sent by Phoebe's new mom, Emily. She reports that Phoebe is MUCH loved and is very playful. They are having a birthday party for Phoebe later on today (Emily has a young son who wanted to stay home from school to celebrate Phoebe's birthday; very sweet). Phoebe, like Athena and Apollo, is also quite small and hasn't yet grown into her little snaggle teeth/fangs!

Back at our homestead, ours will be receiving Fancy Feast Appetizers (which they'll undoubtedly have to share with Pete and Lily) and are enjoying a lovely afternoon in the sun room watching the birds.

Mrs. B

Athena

Ares

Apollo

Lucy gives Ares a birthday smooch (well, sort of)

Bird watching

Hera (now Phoebe)

Ares's Adventure

For some reason, my head just wasn't on straight this morning. Distracted, wandering around starting one task before I finished another, bemused. Not enough caffeine intake, I guess.

One thing I did do was scoop out the cat boxes (this is the ONLY bad thing about having four cats; having to scoop out litter boxes no matter what every morning). As I was doing this, I decided the trash can (next to the litter boxes) needed to be emptied. This is one of those 20 gallon or so plastic kitchen ones with a snap on lid. I finished up the scooping, snapped the lids on the boxes, swept up the stray litter, took the lid off the trash can and laid it on the dryer, lifted the smelly trash bag out, put the bag of scooped litter into it, and threw it out into the primary trash can outside.

When I came back into the utility room from the garage, I noticed the cat food bowls on top of the dryer were empty. As the cats also needed their monthly dosage of Heart Guard (which I have to chop up quite finely and put into their food as NONE of them will eat the "treat" (never had a problem with this with Nigel and Clyde or with Lucy who views hers as a goodie)), I set to doing this task right away; chopped it up, mixed it in with the dry food and put the bowls back on the dryer.

Feeding the cats made me realize I hadn't yet fed Lucy (who was outside in the backyard for her morning constitutional). I got her food out of the pantry, went outside to give it to her (she was anxiously awaiting it) and walked back inside the house. I saw Ares go running by me into the utility room as I walked over to wash the cutting board.

I heard this crash and scrambling noise. Ares's typical MO is to jump up onto the trash can and then hop up onto the dryer (he CAN jump from the floor to the dryer but apparently this is much more fun). Well, since I'd forgotten to put the lid back on, imagine his surprise!

I went into the utility room to find Ares face down in the trash can, butt still near the top with one of his back feet wrapped around the lip scrambling madly to get back out of the trash can. Which, obviously, he couldn't do since it was hard plastic and he couldn't get a grip.

It was so damn funny. You all don't know Ares, but, let me tell you, he's a pill. One of our nicknames for him, "Little Butt Head", should give you a clue! So, yeah, pretty funny to see the normally swaggering Ares in this predicament.

If I hadn't been sorta worried about him (he was scared), I would have gotten my camera and filmed it.

He let me take him out and put him on the dryer where he promptly forgot all about his trauma and began eating his breakfast.

Who needs the TV? These pets provide us with more than enough entertainment! What a fun way to start off my morning!

Mrs. B

Home From NY

Made it safely home last night around 9:45 pm. We had a great trip! It was so wonderful to spend so much quality time with Mr. B's family and close friends! Pictures coming soon!

The only bad thing about the trip was the drive. Oh, being in the new car sure was nice, but, we got stuck in traffic going and coming. The DC area wasn't so bad but they were doing bridge construction in PA and so it took us about 2 hours longer to get to NY than we planned.

Thankfully, we met Mr. B's family at one of their favorite haunts for dinner and some beers when we arrived Friday night so we rebuilt up our stamina!

Brother Jon and SIL Shannon (and the girls) watched the cats/kittens. Apparently they wrecked a bit of havoc; mostly Ares and Athena (who also ate most of the wet food). Pete and Lily, being the odd-ball Maine Coons that they are, hid most of the time.

Well, they were all out in full-force this morning keeping yours truly from sleeping; pouncing, chasing, fighting, playing, attacking my leg, etc. Here are a few pictures taken a just a bit ago. Pete is sorta pissed off, I think; couldn't get him to look at me. Probably the fact he got his neck stuck in the handles of a brown shopping bag a little before this was taken didn't help. He ran around hissing and spitting; thankfully, he ran right past me and I was able to grab the bag and rip it off him. Too bad I couldn't have taken a video of it; too funny!

Happy Lily

Quite Irritated Pete

Athena and Ares: Do Not Be Fooled By Their Angelic Faces!

Tons to do, including going to pick up The Goose at 3! So, more later!

Mrs. B

NEVER Say Never

I'm gonna preface this entry by saying, all of you out there who are going to tell me, "I KNEW it!", well, you were right.

Short story long.

Last weekend, we had a lot of interest in The Greeks, in particular, Ares (two families). As it turned out, only one family submitted an application (for both Ares and Athena) but they were denied by Hobbes House because they have four children under the age of six As an aside, we were none too happy that we had not been informed up front that Hobbes House does not adopt kittens to families with children under six, nor, as it turns out, will they adopt (typically) to college students or people from out of state (their reasoning for this one is that if the people need to return the cat, it would be impossible of they lived out of state. Of course, one might argue the same for someone that lives in state NOW but moves away at some point!) Suffice it to say, WE think that judgement regarding each situation should be a factor, but, hey, we are not the owners of the business.

Anyway, we've had The Greeks almost six weeks now (can you believe that?) and, of the five, Ares and Athena have definitely been the ones to make themselves at home. Ares is EVERYWHERE (he thinks this is HIS house) and Athena follows me around and likes to cuddle. Both of them play well with Pete and Lily and have little fear of Lucy.

So, ya know where I'm heading with this, don't you?

Well, wait. You're going to think it was ME that went back on my word to Mr. B as I'd promised him I would not ask him if we could keep one of the fosters; this was one of the conditions for him agreeing to foster in the first place. Plus, I kept assuring anyone who asked that I would NOT get attached, that WE wouldn't get attached (I really didn't think Mr. B would).

Actually, the way it went down was, Mr. B came home last night and we got to talking about the fosters and our frustration with all the rules of who can adopt and who cannot. He said, "Well, I don't even want to take Ares tomorrow to the Thon. I'm about ready to tell them, "Here is $100 for Ares, he's staying with us and here are the other three for you to take back!"" I was a bit shocked. Mr. B wanted another cat?

I said, "Uh, what about Athena?" (thinking about how she has taken to cuddling with me in the afternoons while I am reading). He thought about this and said, "I don't think there would be that much difference between having three cats or having four cats so why don't we keep both of them".

My dear husband, I think, has officially been converted and is now a cat person :-)

I talked to Hobbes House about it and they were, of course, thrilled that we want to adopt them. They even said we'd get a discount on the adoption fee (which makes sense as we've been forking out money for them for a month and a half, anyway).

They might not be too thrilled, though, when they learn that, after we find homes for Hera and Apollo (both of us are committed to placing them), we're not going to foster again. We can't! But, hey, we agreed to try this, we knew it might not work, and now we have two more cats. Frankly, though, it feels right. Mr. B, not normally the one to say stuff like this, said, "I think those people got denied because we are supposed to have them".

As of tomorrow, Ares and Athena will officially be part of the B household. And, we're even gonna keep their names :-)

Mrs. B

Ares

Ares checks out my computer and my martini. He is definitely feeling at home!

Mrs. B