Kittens Playing

Molly and Bo are good little kittens--mostly. They allow the children to play all kinds of games with them, including wrapping them up in blankets and carrying them around. Julia has made around forty cat toys, all on the same theme--ribbon, feathers, jingle bells and tape. They'll chase those things all day long. They already can climb stairs, so sometimes they go up and keep the kids company in their room. They use the litter box flawlessly. They have beautiful purrs, like to cuddle, get along with Sophie, and ignore Mimi.

But. Matt and I go to bed between midnight and 1 am, in general. That's when the fun begins. They hop up on our bed, acting like they want to curl up and sleep with us--which would make sense, considering the kids have run them ragged most of the day. You'd think they'd be tired. But no. They roll around the bed with each other, biting each others' tails, making little mewey sounds, and occasionally diving for our feet if we move. I generally sleep without covers in the summer, even with the air conditioning on (at least till the dead of night when I sometimes get cold) but I have had to resort to the sheet over my lower legs so I don't get scratched!

If we manage to get them off the bed, they start in with the curtains, or climbing up the wicker laundry hamper, or finding some tiny toy/ball/bell/dust mote/crumb on the floor, which they'll then pounce on, run up and down the hall with, and in general make it impossible to sleep. However, we can thank Rachel for the solution. When we brought them home last Friday--it's already been a week--she lobbied to keep the cat carrier in a corner of the living room so they'd have a place to sleep away from Emma. She insisted that since they're just babies, they need their naps, and got the kids into putting them in the carrier occasionally to sleep.

This has served us well when their antics are too much at night. I just scoop them both up and put them in the carrier. Wednesday night when I did this I didn't even lock the door, in case they needed the litter or a drink in the night. I didn't want to wake up to mewling (or worse, have them wake Emma!) They curled right up and we didn't hear from them again. But last night they were a little rowdier. About 20 seconds after I'd returned to bed, I was startled when both kits jumped up on the bed and resumed their play fighting as if they'd never been sent to time out! This time I latched the door, and we had peace for the rest of the night!

Yay--here's one reason we can give Matt for getting two kittens! If we'd locked one kitten in a carrier, it would be sure to cry and protest, but Molly and Bo have each other and either curl up and go to sleep, or continue their game inside the carrier. Either way, we get a good night's sleep!

Jen