Well, the heat is here and so are the flies and other bugs. This week, since it was so hot here, we have been periodically opening the windows. And a ton of flies stormed in. Not a problem though, when you have five cats. I would almost say that it was just what the doctor ordered.

Imagine, five bored indoor cats, 24/7 between four walls waking up from their winter naps. Now enter five flies going mad in our house. The hunt is on... Crazy jumps through the air and cats flying by were part of our tv channel options this week. Picture four cats on a window sill all trying to catch the same damned bug, with the fifth one not being up there because there simply aint enough room. Now this is good tv, trust me.

So for now, we don't need to keep our kitties occupied anymore. Anytime they get annoying we just open the window and let them and the flies , fly.... At the end of it all there will be a golden medal for the best flying cat *grin*

Sigh, we are back to square one. Someone in this household does not like Lulu and Falkie to use their eyes. And I suspect our Prinny, though Trini might also be the culprit. Falk is again running around with a red eye, squinting and therefore I have to again hunt him down every day to medicate him. It never ends!

The cat is paranoid enough of me as it is, with all the care he already needed. He still runs out of my way when he sees me coming, though he often enough comes and cuddles in bed or on the couch when it is obvious I aint holding no ointments. And now I am gonna give him every reason in the world to keep this behaviour going.

I am seriously considering getting a couple of cat claw clippers, since my kitties don't seem to be able to control themselves and some (aka Prinny) do not comprehend the concept of retractable claws..

Oh well, at least I know better than to panick, since this aint the first time. Yay :P

Ahh, the joy of kittens. When we go to bed at night, we put away the flowers, so they don't tip over the vase to get to the water (Lulu);we secure the easter tree by putting the vase in a cast iron cauldron, so that when they hunt the branches (Arwen and Falcor, sometimes some others), the vase won't tip and the branches won't be dragged through the house; we put away all food that could be dangerous, like chocolate eggs, and we put away their food so the other cats won't gorge on Arwen's food since apparently its 'better'.

Last night, we did all of that, and yet they found something else to do:
I was working on the easter decorations, and they were playing in the easter box yesterday. Now, in that box there are three bags of feathers. I put the lid on the box, but its made of carton, so this morning, I came into the living, which was covered in feathers. Boy, did they have fun *sigh*. As we speak, they are still on the floor. I just couldn't care less. I will clean it up later, as always ;)

When we got up this morning we found something interesting on the floor. It turned out to be a puddle of milk. Apparently they had grown tired of not getting any catmilk from me when they meowed for it, and decided to take matters into their own claws, quite literally.

They attacked our stash of milk, and punctured more than four bottles, one of which they quite literally sucked milk out of. I'm not kidding. Its like a self-service restaurant here or something. We put the remaining bottles in the cubboard under the sink, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Lulu can open those cubboards. She's never opened those but she's quite good at opening others, and Prinny is very good at getting the rest of the team to follow her on a raid. Quite a little general, that one.

The bottles they weren't able to suckle from but were still punctured we put in the fridge, since they were now not sealed anymore. One of the bottles actually has a nail going all the way through a thick plastic cap and the sealing foil that is underneat it. It is just down right scary. This particular kind of milk is actually packaged in big round thick plastic bottles. This means they have a minimum amount of grip and it aint exactly easy to puncture them unless you have like scissors or a knife and considerable strength. Apparently not having these advantages doesn't stop you if you are a cat with nothing else to do, a craving for milk and a great deal of tenacity. Unfortunately, the latter definitely describes our Prinny.

I had some friends over yesterday for a pampering evening, you know, the girly kind. We had fun: we put on masks, and bellydanced, we experimented with make-up, and had buffet of goodies in front of us the whole time. As I said, a typical girly night in. Clearly no boys allowed! But just in case, we were supervised by chaperons: five cats. We sat in a circle around the table and so did they, intrigued by what we were up to.

Especially the belly dancing was followed very closely. Apparently seeing four people doing the same silly movements over and over again is something you've gotto see as a cat. Can't say I blame them :P
During the course of the evening they made sure though that they got their share of cuddles from a variety of people and had their belly scratched by at least one person.

They are always so cute when their routine gets interupted. It is then that you can really see who has what personality by observing their reactions to this intrusion. And it usually makes for some very funny moments :P

Well, I feel like a nurse around here. Arwen needs to be treated with chemotherapy every day, causing me to wear gloves and work with syringes, and Lulu has a scalped piece of skin that is slowely healing and letting go to grow new skin, as well as a painful eye which needs ointment and daily checking. From the looks of it, someone misplaced their claw in her eye *sigh*. For some weird reason they are more active and playful aswell as more confrontational since about two weeks, and these are of course the lovely results. I'm also keeping a weary eye on the Falkies eyes. They are still producing some form of dirt, but he does not seem to be squinting or otherwise bothered by it.

Add to that that Trini is still vomitting every day, right after breakfast. It's like clockwork. And Prinny joins in, every other day *sigh* They are fine otherwise, and I try to wash out the bowls every two-three days to keep the vomitting-chances down, but I am afraid I will have to get the Trini treated soon for this. Seems that other tooth which was infected but still rooted, will have to go as well.

I have like a box filled with drugs for the cats alone and I seriously need a bigger one by now, the lid won't even close properly anymore *sigh*
To be continued, I am sure...

Yesterday I tried to de-worm some more kitties. The last attempt dates back to last week when I mixed the pills into canned food, something they never get. And sure enough, Arwen and Prinny mostly finished their plates, but Trini and Lulu were suspicious and didn't touch their plate. I didn't have the medication for Falkie yet. So I got some more pills at the clinic, and yesterday I gave Trini, Falkie and Lulu theirs. I squished the pill between two spoons and put that powder in a syringe. Then I mixed it with luke warm water to make a paste. Then I administered the paste directly in their mouths. Lulu and Trini were no problem. But Falkie! He drooled all over the place, and I have no clue what he did get inside.

It is the first time I have to administer a pill to all of them. So now I have just got to remember that Lulu and Trini need to have a liquid, Arwen as well if the pill is really disgusting, Prinny will eat it and Falkie is still a question mark, although I suspect he would probably also eat the food if I put the pill in there.

In two weeks I have to do this again, so we will see if I finally figure out who falls for what trick *sigh*

Well, it has been a pretty stressful week for all of us here. And when you are stressed, the kitties notice it. And they act on it. If you then try to feed them a de-worming pill in some canned food, which they are highly supsicious off, their stresslevels soar. Or so we noticed.

Someone peed on the bed. Granted, the kitty litters really needed to be cleaned out. I was scoping them out every day, but with the stuff that was going on, I hadn't gotten to the entire scrubbing and changing the sand-part.

The second time, I had changed the sand and the boxes were clean. But our stresslevels, combined with the de-worming incident caused the cats to fight amongst each other, causing even more stress, and I was too busy to notice the level of the change. There my bed went again.

So today, since it is saturday, I got up, got them their food, gave them a bowl of cat milk, and spread catnip everywhere. Hopefully it will do them some good. If I have time later, I'll also try to play a bit with them, so they can release the rest of the stress. Hopefully, this tense situation will be over soon though, for their and our sake.

Ahhh, now this is much better. Yesterday we did not get the sleep we needed. This night, that already went a lot better. Lulu did sing her song again this night, but when she stopped (to not encourage her to do so I would get up), I went over to her, took her with me to the bedroom, and showed her without forcing a basket rather close which I know she likes.

She decided to get in there and not come out anymore. And there it was, no more meowing. Ergo no more being awake and no more cats assuming we are awake, therefore racing over us, trampling us, purring at us for food etc etc.

Why does this work? I have no clue. All I know is, when Prinny has an episode like this, it works to call her close and cuddle her a bit. I can sense they are troubled and 'lost'. It is kind of like a child during the holidays whining at their mom:" Mom, I don't know what to dooooooooo, Mooooooom." If you then give them an acceptable compromise, they are usually distracted for hours.

Why didn't I do this yesterday? Because it was 4 freaking am and I was deep asleep when she disturbed me, so your subconscious wakes up, but the rest of you does not really wanna follow till it has been pestered enough. This time she did it when I was still rather awake, so I decided to put an end to it right then and there.

Now, it does not always work like a charm. But that is usually because they know what they want and aren't getting it or are too wound up to want to snooze in a basket. I was lucky that all Lulu really wanted was a place to snooze in and our presence to do it in. And as long as you approach them calmly and with a high pitched voice, however frustrated you are, they will gladly come and say hi and tell their 'sad' story, so you can comfort them. And then everyone gets to sleep a little easier!

Urgh, today me and my boyfriend are both in a really bad mood. I dunno what the cats ate yesterday, but they certainly had energy to spare. Lulu decided at 5 am it was time to announce she was lonely and confused. Mreowing for everyone, people. Now, if Prin gets an episode like that, I just softly call out her name and she will come over and cuddle me, and with that, the episode is done. Lulu does not get this hint.

Then, since we were tossing and turning, Falkie took that as a sign that we were awake and started chirping at us for food. He is one big cat nowadays with a heavy voice, that will crawl all over you and chirp at you in the mean time. Of course, Prinny wants her part of the action, if we are to be awake and tramples you completely in an attempt to find cuddles.

Then Arwen and Falcor got in to a play-fight with a ton of racing over the bed, grouching and snarling at each other. Apparently Falkie was being too rough and with his size, it is not like Arwen can take him. Since he was pushing the limits there was a TON of snarling going on from Arwen's side. Dont' worry, she is a vicious witch that does not quit when it comes to roughhousing with the Falkie. She can stand her ground, if not in size, then in tenacity.

Add to that that suddenly some cat decided to actually push over one of our bedroom cabinets, which they know they aint allowed on, so hence, they must climb it, which left the Trini stuck on the even higher closet (not t it kept her trapped for long though) while Lulu was singing another Swan song. That was the last straw. We were awake, but how. I felt like I had slept like three hours or something and my boyfriend doesn't feel much better. So we snarled a bit at each other and the cats who all felt the need to greet us now and beg for food *siiiiiggggh*