Still Sick

Not-Mom is extra worried and asking people who know us to pray for us. We are still not eating, even with new, special food, and we're not pooping and now Tink has been throwing up . . . you can see why Not-Mom might be worried. We still climb on her shoulder, but we sleep in her lap a lot more, too. She lets us sleep on her sweatshirt when she's not with us.

Anyway, we still don't know what's wrong, so maybe it would be good if you did pray for us to get better.

We Are Sick

Not-Mom is worried. But we are still playing and climbing on her shoulder, so I think we will be okay. Not-Mom is sure trying hard to make us better.

I haven't been eating because I don't feel good, but I can't explain to Not-Mom what doesn't feel good. We're both pretty frustrated. I used to be bigger than Tink, but now she is a lot bigger than I am.

Tink isn't eating as much as usual, but she's eating, and that makes Not-Mom all happy. She knows what to do about Tink. I am an enigma. I like being mysterious. I get lots of attention that way. Not-Mom says she would still give me attention if I was eating.

Anyway, we both went to the doctor today. We didn't get to play with our friend Adele because she was busy, but Dawn said we were cute and Natalia held us and helped the doctor, and she said we were cute, too. The doctor gave us icky medicine for worms, and tested us for feline leukemia (yay! we don't have it!). He said Tink has an upper respiratory infection and sent her home with icky pink medicine to eat, and stuff for her eye gunk.

He gave Not-Mom some stuff to feed me, but I wouldn't eat it. Not-Mom keeps putting it in my mouth to make me eat it. I don't want to, but she says it will make me all big and strong. The doctor thinks maybe the icky worm medicine will make me feel better. It's not fair that I have to get all kinds of icky things! Anyway, we have to go back to the doctor next week.

Not-Mom is still very worried. She says she loves us very much. We love her, too.

Ears

I climbed on Not-Mom's shoulder and stuck my tongue in her ear. She laughed! Tink doesn't laugh when I clean her ears for her.

More Pictures from Our New House

Here are two more pictures from our new house. The top one is me walking up the ramp from the bottom floor to Not-Mom after we made a clean plate with our breakfast. The other one is Tinker hamming it up for the camera on the top floor. (I tried to play for the camera, too, but I was too close and it came out all blurry. Maybe 'cause I got my nose prints on the lens?) We are very comfortable in our new house. I still want to explore the rest of the world, though.

Today we got a new, bigger litter box, too, because we were kicking litter all over the bottom floor of our house. It's very nice. We can both fit in it at once, so nobody has to wait.

I got to sit on Not-Mom's shoulder today, too. Usually she doesn't let me, because she's afraid I'll fall, but I think she decided it was easier to just let me be than try to pull me back down while she was trying to get Tink to eat. (Tink eats fine; she was just acting needy because she wanted attention . . . and I wanted to climb up to Not-Mom's shoulder.) And I didn't fall down at all! I got to chew on Not-Mom's hair and look at the view from on high. (Okay, not that high, really, because Not-Mom's shoulder wasn't as high up as the top of our cage--which I can climb to!--but it was still pretty cool.)

I'm Not Really a Tyrant

Not-Mom has started calling me Tyrus the Tyrant sometimes. Just because I have a healthy set of lungs and I let her know what I want--and I keep telling her what I want over and over again because I don't know if she understands me until she gives it to me--that doesn't make me a tyrant. That, and I like to climb on her, and sometimes I might push past Tink in my enthusiasm. That doesn't mean I'm a tyrant. She better stop calling me Tyrus the Tyrant!

Daddy!

This is me with our daddy! He goes to school far away, so we never met him in person before. (We talked to him on the phone, and he reads about us on my blog. He thinks my picture is very cute.) Anyway, he came home today, and we got to cuddle and play with him. He has nice fur on his face.

(Not-Mom asked why I don't call him Not-Dad. He's the only daddy we ever knew, so he's Daddy. And anyway, as I said before, Not-Mom has been our mom for so long that she's our real mom now, because she's been our mom for most of our lives.)

Daddy likes my name. He says I was named after Ty Cobb. Daddy says Ty Cobb was a great baseball player. (I don't know what baseball is, but Not-Mom says she and Daddy and the upstairs cats like to watch it.) But Ty Cobb wasn't always a nice person. But Daddy says that's okay, it doesn't mean I'm not nice. He says I am very nice, and so is Tinker. He gave us lots of cuddles.

A Very Fine House

We got a new house! It has three floors--with carpet on two of them--and room for our litter box and food dish and toys. And there are ramps we can climb to the different floors. It's very cool.

This is a picture of us lounging on the second floor. (I'm the one closer to the camera.) Tink likes the third floor best. We both like to hang out on the bottom floor, too. And we chase each other up and down the ramps. Sometimes I hide under the bottom of the ramp and look up through it at Tinker.

There's lots of room to run and play all day. It's way better than living in a carrier most of the time and only getting out to play a few times a day! We are very happy in our new house. We like it too when Not-Mom comes to see us, because we can climb the ramp to the door and climb right out into her arms.

We Are Mighty Warriors

Sometimes--okay, every day--Tink and I fight. Not fight like we don't like each other--we're just wrassling for fun. Tinker is littler than I am, but she's pretty tough . . . and she knows it and likes to start the wrassling. Sometimes she climbs on the roll of paper towels when I'm playing with it and jumps on me. Sometimes she sneaks up behind me (but not like a tiger--I am the best tiger!) and bites my tail or butt. Sometimes I do the same to her.

Our favorite place to wrassle is in Not-Mom's lap. We roll around, and sometimes we end up upside down between her legs (but she has a towel on her lap so we don't fall or get hurt or escape). Then, after we wrassle a bit, we clean each other and settle down to snuggle.

I Am a Tiger

Hee-hee--I played a prank on Tinker ('cause she snuck up on me and bit my butt!). She was sitting on Not-Mom's knee having her face stroked (we both like that). I pretended I was a big, wild tiger--I took slow, quiet steps, slunk down real low, and crept up behind her. Then I waited, making sure she didn't hear me. Finally, when she was all comfy and purring, I SPRUNG and LEAPED up and attacked her butt! She was very surprised--she never knew I could be a great big tiger like that!

Sandbox

Kitty litter doesn't taste very good. Tink and I both tasted it.

But then Not-Mom showed us what we were supposed to do with it. Yesterday I had a little trouble--my front end was in the box, but my butt wasn't. I kind of made a mess.

But today I did better, and so did Tinker. We both used the box--butts too--without even having to be told. Not-Mom was very proud of us. We felt very grown up.

Mothers Day

Mama and the other kittens came back to the yard today. Mama looked at Tinker and me through the window, then she went away.

I am glad our sisters and brothers are okay. Mama too. Maybe she was checking to see we were all right with Not-Mom.

Later, after she fed us, Not-Mom showed us our new playpen. (It's a cage.--Ed.) It was all big and scary, and we were both afraid to go inside. So Not-Mom crawled inside with us, and we explored a bit, but mostly we just climbed around on Not-Mom and explored her lap. She stayed inside our playpen with us and cuddled us for a long time. Then, when we were very sleepy, she kissed us both and put us back in our familiar nest to sleep. (This is after she almost locked herself inside the cage. Ty and Tink slept through that part.--Ed.)

Not-Mom takes good care of us. I have been with Not-Mom for almost as much of my life as I was with Mama. I am glad Mama knows where we are, but I think Not-Mom is our real mom now.

Look at Us!

This is what we look like--sort of. We're getting bigger every day, and this picture was taken a couple days ago. We are sucking Not-Mom's hand in this picture, which is one of our favorite things to do. I am the one on the right. Tinker is on the left. It looks like Not-Mom's finger is in Tink's eye, but it isn't--it's just in front of it. Anyway, I keep saying how cute I am, so I thought maybe everyone would like to see.

P.S. Tinker is cute, too.

We Made a Big Mess!

We always get milk mustaches when we drink our milk, and sometimes Tinker spills (I am very good at drinking milk!), but today we climbed on the bottle that Not-Mom gets our milk from, and spilled it, and got it all over ourselves. We made little milk footprints all over the desk! Not-Mom had to give us a bath (just with a towel).

Not-Mom is trying to get us to eat kitten food, too. I take a bit off her finger, but I like suckling milk way better. Tinker likes the kitten food, though. She ate a lot of it. She walked all over the dish to get more of it. Then she made kitten-food footprints all over the desk! Tinker had to have two baths today!

Tee-hee

Tinker found Not-Mom's nipple. Boy, was she surprised!

Playtime

Now that Tinker and I are getting big--we are bigger than Not-Mom's hand!--we play a lot. Today we played with the Slinky (I am too big now to crawl through it, but it's still a fun toy--this picture is from when I was little enough to do that, before Tinker came), and a bottle cap, and a flashlight (I climbed all the way to the top of it!), and some pens and pencils (I got my claw stuck in the pencil cup and dragged it across the desk), and a roll of paper towels. And each other. We like to sneak up on each other and jump on each other. We like to climb up Not-Mom, too, and crawl all over her shoulder. Tinker likes to lick her ear.

Then, after we play, Not-Mom cuddles us. I suck on Not-Mom's finger. Tink always gets jealous and tries to push me away, so I usually let her have the finger I was sucking on 'cause she's littler, and I am big and know that Not-Mom has lots of other fingers for me. Then we both nuzzle together in Not-Mom's arms, sucking her fingers. We are very happy then.

Tinker Had a Bad Night

. . . but she is fine this morning. (Kittens are all about instant gratification. They have no concept of suspense.--Ed.) Not-Mom fed us and she rubbed our butts with wet cotton to make us pee and poop. Tinker started to poop, but she was crying really bad, and Not-Mom got all worried because her poops looked funny and were really hard and wouldn't come all the way out. Tinker cried and cried, and I cried too, because I was sad that she was feeling bad.

But Not-Mom helped her and she stopped crying. But she was very tired, and Not-Mom was worried. She even called the night vet. Not-Mom worries about us a lot, maybe because she's not a cat mom, so she doesn't always know what to do. Anyway, she said the lady at the night vet said it was okay to wait until morning, and in the morning Tinker pooped just fine and ate lots of food and she was happy and Not-Mom was happy and I was happy, too.

New Friends

We went for another car ride today. Tinker was afraid of riding in the car, because she never has, but I've ridden in the car a lot--two whole times--so I showed her the ropes. She did pretty well.

I even knew where we were when we got there: the doctor's office. Not-Mom said she didn't know if she was taking good enough care of us (doesn't she hear me purring?!) so went to see Adele. Adele likes kittens. We like Adele. (Even though she tried to make us poop. We both hate that.)

Our favorite thing about Adele is that she gave us our first not-milk food. It smelled really yummy, and she and Not-Mom put it on their fingers to let us both lick it off. I was the experienced one at car rides, but Tinker knew right away how to lick the food up off the plate. She showed me how. We only ate a little, but it was really really good. Not-Mom says we can have some more tomorrow. She said we should remember to say thank you to Adele. Thank you, Adele!

We also met Terry. She is Not-Mom's friend, and she likes kittens, too. She came specially to meet us. She said she liked me special. She knows cute when she sees it! (But I felt a little bad for Tinker. She's littler and just getting used to stuff, but she's still pretty cute, too. Don't tell her I said that, though.)

Since we had a treat from Adele, on the way home we stopped at a place called Starbucks where Not-Mom got a treat, too. Hers didn't smell as good as ours. Anyway, we were tired from all our adventures, and we curled up together in our carrier and went to sleep the rest of the way. We barely even woke up when we got home.

The Rest of the World

There's a whole big world beyond my home, and there are other very lucky kittens, like this one that Not-Mom told me about.

I Have a Sister

I remember that I had sisters and brothers when I was with Mama, but today one of my sisters came to live with me. She looks just like me (except I'm cuter!), only maybe a little smaller. I had to tell her that Not-Mom was okay, and then she played with me. She still isn't very good at drinking out of the thing Not-Mom feeds us with, and she is scared, but she did okay.

Not-Mom calls my sister Tinker. She said Tinker was in the backyard all by herself all day crying, and Mama didn't come for her, and Not-Mom couldn't find Mama and the rest of the family . . . just like me. Maybe Mama left Tinker there so Not-Mom would find her and I wouldn't have to be alone. I like to think that.

Discovery

Not-Mom has a nipple! (Two, actually, just for the record.--Ed.)

I was crawling around on her chest and wiggled my way under her shirt, and there it was! I tried to get milk from it, but Not-Mom said no. (Why? Isn't that what nipples are for?) Anyway, her nipple wasn't the right size.

I Didn't Poop

I didn't poop again after the one in Not-Mom's hand. She tried to make me poop again by rubbing wet cotton and paper towels on my butt. I didn't like that, and squirmed and cried (and peed). But she kept trying.

Finally we went for another car ride. This time we went to the doctor, and a girl there took me in back and made me poop. Then she showed Not-Mom how to push on my belly to make me poop.

I didn't like it, but I behaved myself and everyone said they were proud of me.

The big news is: I am a girl. I don't know what difference that makes. Not-Mom says I can still be called Ty, or even Tyrus, because it doesn't make any difference to her, either.

I went to sleep in the car on the way home.

I Pooped!

You wouldn't think it would be a big deal, but Not-Mom was all proud when I pooped in her hand. She told me I was a good big girl. She cleaned my butt and cuddled me before I went to bed.