So, about those kittens! (Plus decent photos!)
[Relevant icon is relevant!]
This post would have been done an hour or two ago, but we went in to hang out with the kittens, and poof! Time flew. Because kittens.
They've been with us for less than forty-eight hours (two sleeps!), and I already have so much I want to tell you all about them! Thank goodness for cut-tags!
We've settled on their names with enough certainty that we're willing to share (although given that I changed my own name, it is technically not impossible that theirs could change. But I don't think it's likely). Since I habitually name technology after characters I love, it will surprise no one that I did the same thing with our kittens.
So! Warehouse 13 is the lucky (?) fandom that gets to be enshrined in their names: our tabby girlkitty is Claudia, and our black boykitty is Jinksy. (There was serious consideration of whether to name them for Georgia and Shaun, but for a few reasons, I quickly opted against it. That may be a separate post of the sort that will interest no one but me. *g*) Jinksy's name has been almost-certain for a few weeks, but it took me longer to be sure I was okay with "Claudia" as a kitty name; I finally started coming around after consciously deciding that, yes, I can deal with the inherent pun. ("This is my kitty! She's clawed!" *headdesk*) And frankly, of the fictional women I love most dearly, Claudia Donovan is the only one I'd ever characterize as "sweet"--and even then it's more in comparison to the others than because she's actually sweet. But she's affectionate and tactile, and that'll do just as well.
The other most important detail is that they're setting off
scruloose's allergies a little bit, but really not badly at all. When emailing the breeder today, he said, "My allergies have reacted only to the extent of a little stuffy tickle in the nose and a slight tightness in the chest, with no antihistamines or anything, so that seems like it's going to be very manageable. (And that includes taking a 45 minute nap with both kittens sprawled on my chest and neck.)"
There are a couple more photo links under the cut, but this is Jinksy, and this is Claudia (slightly blurry, but I like that she's bookended by manga).
As I said in my earlier post, when we met them at the airport and transferred them to the carrier we'd brought (since it was a bit larger than the one they'd been traveling in), it went like this: the original carrier was unzipped, two kitten heads popped up, and Jinksy immediately hopped out, climbed up my chest, and started purring.
I'm beyond delighted to report that this was an indication of things to come. They're incredibly friendly and social! We were planning to not introduce them to anyone for a few days while they settled, but they're so charming and well socialized that we've already introduced them to my mother-in-law, Kas (hence many of the photos), and
wildpear, albeit in short, low-key visits to Ginny's room.
Every time either of us goes into the room, the kittens abandon what they're doing (which frequently means "chilling out on top of the small cat condo that's going to eventually be in my office") and run over to us, purring like chainsaws. We sit on the futon or the floor, and the kittens clamber all over us, purr some more, and then (without fail, so far) wander off to get a snack or a drink of water. Then they spend the rest of our time in there alternating between playing wildly and climbing back on to us to snuggle and purr. (Sometimes they try to play and snuggle simultaneously, which is fine when that means they're scrambling over each other, but often means they try to wrestle and play-bite our hands. So cute, but...not allowed.)
Yesterday
scruloose went in to install the overhead light fixture, and apparently the kittens were unimpressed that he was paying attention to something else, so they mewed. When he crouched down to pet them, suddenly he had a kitten perched on each thigh, which was clearly not a sustainable position, so he did the only reasonable thing: took a nap on the futon with them both. When I went in later to investigate the extended silence, Jinksy was literally flopped across his neck. *g*
They are so small. Like, two-thirds of the size I was vaguely expecting, or maybe even only half the size. Kas says his camera is four pounds and they're significantly lighter, so I'm guessing maybe two pounds each? Claudia is ever-so-slightly bigger, but somehow she's the one who keeps catching me off guard with how tiny her face is.
Here are pictures for scale: Jinksy sacked out on
scruloose (who does have a head, I swear), and Claud hanging out with me on the futon. (Except she's even smaller than she looks in that photo. *_*) Their ears are so furry! And Jinksy's face disappears so utterly when he shuts his eyes! And they look so grumpy when they're groggy, even if they're purring away and just drowsy.
Here's a closer look at Jinksy's face, and here's a closer look at Claud (and another one!).
TL;DR: They're basically everything we could possibly have asked for in kittens.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/459188.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
This post would have been done an hour or two ago, but we went in to hang out with the kittens, and poof! Time flew. Because kittens.
They've been with us for less than forty-eight hours (two sleeps!), and I already have so much I want to tell you all about them! Thank goodness for cut-tags!
We've settled on their names with enough certainty that we're willing to share (although given that I changed my own name, it is technically not impossible that theirs could change. But I don't think it's likely). Since I habitually name technology after characters I love, it will surprise no one that I did the same thing with our kittens.
So! Warehouse 13 is the lucky (?) fandom that gets to be enshrined in their names: our tabby girlkitty is Claudia, and our black boykitty is Jinksy. (There was serious consideration of whether to name them for Georgia and Shaun, but for a few reasons, I quickly opted against it. That may be a separate post of the sort that will interest no one but me. *g*) Jinksy's name has been almost-certain for a few weeks, but it took me longer to be sure I was okay with "Claudia" as a kitty name; I finally started coming around after consciously deciding that, yes, I can deal with the inherent pun. ("This is my kitty! She's clawed!" *headdesk*) And frankly, of the fictional women I love most dearly, Claudia Donovan is the only one I'd ever characterize as "sweet"--and even then it's more in comparison to the others than because she's actually sweet. But she's affectionate and tactile, and that'll do just as well.
The other most important detail is that they're setting off
scruloose's allergies a little bit, but really not badly at all. When emailing the breeder today, he said, "My allergies have reacted only to the extent of a little stuffy tickle in the nose and a slight tightness in the chest, with no antihistamines or anything, so that seems like it's going to be very manageable. (And that includes taking a 45 minute nap with both kittens sprawled on my chest and neck.)"
There are a couple more photo links under the cut, but this is Jinksy, and this is Claudia (slightly blurry, but I like that she's bookended by manga).
As I said in my earlier post, when we met them at the airport and transferred them to the carrier we'd brought (since it was a bit larger than the one they'd been traveling in), it went like this: the original carrier was unzipped, two kitten heads popped up, and Jinksy immediately hopped out, climbed up my chest, and started purring.
I'm beyond delighted to report that this was an indication of things to come. They're incredibly friendly and social! We were planning to not introduce them to anyone for a few days while they settled, but they're so charming and well socialized that we've already introduced them to my mother-in-law, Kas (hence many of the photos), and
wildpear, albeit in short, low-key visits to Ginny's room.
Every time either of us goes into the room, the kittens abandon what they're doing (which frequently means "chilling out on top of the small cat condo that's going to eventually be in my office") and run over to us, purring like chainsaws. We sit on the futon or the floor, and the kittens clamber all over us, purr some more, and then (without fail, so far) wander off to get a snack or a drink of water. Then they spend the rest of our time in there alternating between playing wildly and climbing back on to us to snuggle and purr. (Sometimes they try to play and snuggle simultaneously, which is fine when that means they're scrambling over each other, but often means they try to wrestle and play-bite our hands. So cute, but...not allowed.)
Yesterday
scruloose went in to install the overhead light fixture, and apparently the kittens were unimpressed that he was paying attention to something else, so they mewed. When he crouched down to pet them, suddenly he had a kitten perched on each thigh, which was clearly not a sustainable position, so he did the only reasonable thing: took a nap on the futon with them both. When I went in later to investigate the extended silence, Jinksy was literally flopped across his neck. *g*
They are so small. Like, two-thirds of the size I was vaguely expecting, or maybe even only half the size. Kas says his camera is four pounds and they're significantly lighter, so I'm guessing maybe two pounds each? Claudia is ever-so-slightly bigger, but somehow she's the one who keeps catching me off guard with how tiny her face is.
Here are pictures for scale: Jinksy sacked out on
scruloose (who does have a head, I swear), and Claud hanging out with me on the futon. (Except she's even smaller than she looks in that photo. *_*) Their ears are so furry! And Jinksy's face disappears so utterly when he shuts his eyes! And they look so grumpy when they're groggy, even if they're purring away and just drowsy.
Here's a closer look at Jinksy's face, and here's a closer look at Claud (and another one!).
TL;DR: They're basically everything we could possibly have asked for in kittens.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/459188.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW: