Le Fin de Resistance

I knocked over what? I don't know what you're talking about. I've been lying here all day.

Some of us were just born beautiful. Even if I was a stray.

Oooh, this is almost like watching paint dry.

It's exhausting being this cute.

Get that thing out of my face.

I know if I chew long enough, I can get this button off.

Or I can launch an air attack.

Boys. So immature.

Don't be snide. I'll eat your tail.

But underneath it all, I love you or at least I like you more than the giant polar bear.

Speaking of which, back off polar bear.

The standoff. Part I.

The standoff. Part II.

He's ogling the ladies again mom.

You can look mister, but you can't touch.

Part of Dexter's disease means that his head has slight tremors when he gets excited. Thus it's hard to take photos that are in focus.

We are the devil kittens and we will destroy your home now. Sleep well.

Yes dear friends. I ended up with two. We went out to the Camano Island animal shelter and I immediately spied Dexter, my intended, sleeping soundly in the sun. I fell in love with him immediately as I adore orange cats. Plus, his wobbly walk and fantastic, independent personality made it a certainty that he would be coming home with me. But of course, I cannot just enter a shelter and look at only one animal so I took a gander around at all the other animals and in the corner of the kitten room was that gorgeous silver tabby you see above. Her name is Samantha and she is stunning. I have never seen such a beautiful cat and silver tabbies are very rare to find in shelters. Both kittens were strays. Dexter is 16 weeks, born on my birthday this year and Samantha is 17 weeks. They are both very healthy other than Dexter's cerebellar hypoplasia. I couldn't decide between them and I always said I wanted two so they could have each other for companionship so I fell off the wagon and they fell into my car.

An expensive trip to the pet store for all the goodies and a brand new giant kitty condo and we were set. They adjusted very well to the house and they are adorable together. Having only had one cat before, I missed out on how entertaining and hilarious they are together. Not to mention the sad state of my upstairs when I awake in the morning with two of them wreaking havoc overnight.

Samantha is very people oriented and very sweet. She adores being held and will try to climb onto your shoulder, often when it is not advisable as in you are still 5 feet away from her! Dexter is a force to be reckoned with! I had read that CH kittens have incredible personalities and are very independent and the articles were right. He is unstoppable. He doesn't like to be held and looks at you as though to say, "Get your hands off me, I can do it myself and I don't need your help!" But he loves to be stroked and fussed over. He is by far the more adventurous one and nothing intimidates him despite his wobbly walk, his constant falling over and his somersaults. He has done an amazing job of adapting to his condition and everything about him says "get outta my way, I'm coming through". He is a very funny cat and it never occurs to him to be tentative or anxious. This is a video of a cat with CH and it is exactly what Dexter looks like when he walks and plays.

As for the polar bear, alas, I have given up on the name. No one can bring themselves to call him Xeno and my attempts to clicker train him to it have resulted in him looking at me like I'm insane and walking away. I have resigned myself to Baby for the rest of his life!

My polar bear did not adapt as well as I had hoped to the kittens. If they are quiet and calm, he is quiet, calm and gentle. But being kittens they like to run and play and if they are moving, he cannot help himself - he gets so excited he chases them down and puts a paw on them to hold them down, thus terrifying them half to death and getting swatted and hissed at for his part. Not wanting to terrify the kitties or have them unintentionally hurt, I have been keeping them in one of my spare bedrooms during the day with a gate across the door so PB can watch them but not get too close. At night they get free rein of the upstairs while we sleep downstairs.

I have been working with him on leash, clicker training him to sit and be calm with them and when he gets too excited, removing him from the area until he can be calm again. I had thought getting kittens would make this effortless but I suspect it actually would have been easier to get an older adult cat who could hold their own with him and not race around in hyper speed like kittens are wont to do. So we are taking things slowly and we'll see how it goes. If he truly cannot adjust to them, I will not consign them to living in a bedroom like Maudie did. I would very sadly have to take them back to the shelter and donate all their goodies. But I will give it a good few months before any decision is made. In the meantime, they will have a life of love and luxury here.

And speaking of the name game, we are trying to come up with good pair names. My father so thoughtfully donated Assault and Battery, Cloak and Dagger, Cut and Paste, Mac N Tosh which led to me thinking we should include the dog and have Control, Alt and Delete but I couldn't do it! So we are still trying to come up with a creative pairing. But no, it won't be another 9 months like it has been for Baby so you can all keep your comments to yourselves!