New Year's Eve!

Well so far, New Year's Eve has brought alot of joy and it's only 946am! First off, Bag slept with us in the bedroom atop his cabinet (when he's usually been sleeping in the living room) last night and then crawled into bed with us this morning. Noodle was again all curled up on her pillow when we awoke but she had been playing in the living room almost until 3 this morning.

They wrestled a bit, then Noodle then Bag pee'd. They settled down back in bed, Bag napping and twitching and Noodle either on the window sill or in bed with us. At times she would help me with the laptop by sitting on the lap tray. She just came over to sit on my chest and get some scratches in. Now, they are wrestling.

They'll need to continue finding ways to occupy themselves as I try to get some work done. Hopefully Noodle won't poop when I'm on my call later.

Well, it's now 12pm and Noodle has been helpful since I finished this blog. Both she and Bag are now into digging into the trash can in the bathroom. It's actually more her than Bag. She does play with q-tips which she hunted down but only when I throw them at her. After that, she's bored with them.

Bag decided he had too much activity this morning so he settled into his spot in the closet. She was still active, so we played for some time.

I got on my work call at 11am and THEN she decides that now was a good time to poop. Thanks, Noodle! So I got off the phone and she must have pooped because I wasn't waiting out front of the litterbox for very long. She saw me mess with the wet wipes and quickly climbed up on the shelf. I started to check out the litterbox at which time she thought she could make her escape. Well, not if Momma can help it. I petted her and checked her butt, and there was some slight liquid-y residual but she cleaned up well. Of course, my first thought was, oh no - runny poop again! But her poop was hard and fell in the litterbox.

She continued to play a little and I petted her again but had to resume my call. She got tired of waiting and when I was done just before 12, I found her in the closet with her brother sleeping. That's just as well, since I have to leave soon for a meeting.

This will be one of the best New Year's with these two most-darling babies. I love them more each day but at the same time, shake my head at their antics. Kids!

I've since returned and there hasn't been much development. They both were still sleeping in the closet though Noodle seemed a little more awake than Bag. But not enough to come out and play.

Their toys still have not arrived and now the delivery date has been changed AGAIN to tomorrow. This will teach me not to fall for the "free shipping" gimmick. But in lieu of the toys to arrive, Dave created a tunnel for them to crawl through with a cardboard box and duct tape. They played with it a little but Noodle primarily ran around it, recognizing that we were taunting her from outside the tunnel.

She remained energetic all night. Turns out that Bag slept with us but Noodle was atop the black couch looking out the window all night and into the morning. What's up with that?

Back to Normal Noodle?

So yesterday Noodle didn't poop at all. We tracked her poop on the spreadsheet but we didn't hear her all night. In fact, she wasn't in bed when we fell asleep but she sure was there when we awoke this morning.

Again I waited for as long as I could but by 730 she had not pee'd or pooped but I had to leave for work. I set up their closet and played with them a little, even flipping up the blinds. She was hanging out on the bedroom windowsill and Bag had just finished his breakfast when I left.

Dave came home at lunch time to check on them and lo and behold, there was poop in the litterbox! It was apparently hers (he is now trained to identify their poop and pee - he is talented!). He checked the house and her butt for residuals but couldn't find any - what a good girl! I wish one of us had been home to witness this but at the same time, it was good to know that she is capable of having a clean, hard poop without the nosy parents around.

And the other great thing was she was on the bed when he arrived. She has always been either under the couch or in the closet, so for her to be sitting in bed while he entered the garage and the house is a big deal - good girl!

I came home this mid-afternoon and they were both in the closet. I petted Bag first but she emerged in the process. The two of them kept me company while I ate lunch (Bag joined me in my feast, too), checked emails, and read. They somehow got me to play with them, too. She likes to play with the plastic bag and catch the water bottle cap, then carry it back in her mouth and drop it in the bag. Endless hours of play!

Apparently that wore them out because they retired to the closet around 5-ish, which is OK because we were on our way out for the evening. I like knowing that they are napping while we are out; makes me believe that we aren't missing out on their energy.

When we got home, they both came out of the closet and greeted us in the hallway. I have no idea if they were already out of the closet or just heard us, but it was the best welcoming site, ever! We played with both, fed Bag his dinner, and although we are shutting down for the night, Noodle is still active while her brother stands guard in the hallway.

Unfortunately their toys did not arrive today, as estimated. I am hoping tomorrow! I think I might be more anxious and excited than they will be. And I hope tomorrow will be another good poopy day.

At the time of this blog, she is in the litterbox and Dave is on his way to check on her. We talked about installing a motion detected camera so we know when she visited the litterbox when we aren't around. He joked about sticking a thermometer in the poop itself to get a time estimate. I think not.

As it turned out, she pee'd and pooped and according to Dave, the poop fell off nicely into the litterbox. She should be set for the night. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Noodle's surprise

No, the surprise wasn't that she pooped a clean, hard poop that fell nicely and perfectly into the litterbox today. If only ... ! Rather, she hasn't pooped since her runny poop incident yesterday afternoon.

Her surprise - twice now - is that she somehow clawed her way to the top of both futon couches and hung out there! She had never shown interest in the couches really, especially the black one against the window. Then last night Dave went out to check on her and there she was, sitting atop the main futon, next to the Hello Kitty doll.

And then this morning when I was trying to get things done at the house, she ran to the black futon, climbed up the stairs with no problems, sniffed her way around another Hello Kitty doll, and clawed her way through the gray throw to make it up to the top! And this time, she chose the couch with the view - good girl! I cracked the blinds open and there she sat. It was extremely darling.

Unfortunately I had to leave for work and couldn't spend time with her and her brother, who was lying in his gray (too-small-for-him) bed (see photo). I don't know how long she stayed up there - I can't imagine too long because I'm sure the garage door opening and closing and the truck starting up startled her. They always do.

All day I was nervous to come home to find trails of runny poop all over the house. But no, for better or worse, all she did while we were gone was pee. She was napping in the closet when I returned and she's been in and out of the closet, playing and chasing everything she can find. In fact, now she is interested in hanging out in the hallway closet, after we had given up on that mission.

Sometimes she'll come up to you if you sit on the floor at her eye level and coax her over. It's really very darling. She seems to hunt you then all she wants is scratches. She did that several times tonight.

The night is still young for them (it's 830) so we don't know what other surprises are in store. But for now, we know they are both resting to re-energize themselves.

Time for a Change

Well, as it turns out, Noodle needed to change up the routine a bit. At the end of the last blog, we mentioned that she was pooping again - the fourth time today. And this time, it was runny poop! Oh no!

Dave stayed with her while I ran the sink water and grabbed towels. She got her butt and paw washed and for the most part, she did well. She meowed a bit but then calmed down. It does help to have two people bathing her, at least. I don't know what will happen if it's only one of us.

We toweled her off then cuddled with her a bit to let her know she didn't do anything wrong. She retired to her spot in the closet and the two of them settled down.

We just brought them out to spend some time with us and although they did stay for a few minutes, they are making their way to the bathroom. Noodle ate some of her food, which is now a mixture of mainly feline caviar and a bit of Evo, so it's not too much of a change. Bag sniffed it and chose to drink water instead. That's the hard part with having two cats and one having a specific dietary need. I'm sure other cat lovers understand.

She is now back in the closet and Bag is roaming around. Let's hope her stomach has settled down. Mine, on the other hand, has been upset since all of this started. Call it sympathy sensitive stomach...

Earlier we started a spreadsheet of her poop. Hopefully it'll show us a trend. So far, it appears that too much Evo is hard on her, but that's all speculation. This is unfortunate because it's a high quality food and it's also alot more accessible than the caviar. We'll see ... we will stick with what works for her.

Three Times the Charm + One

Since our last blog, Noodle has surprised us with three poopies so far this morning - around 645, 830, and again at 10-ish. Although all three were hard poopy (and combined it would have been one good poopy), they didn't fall immediately from her butt as we would have liked. We are just slightly concerned that this is going to be the trend especially with both of us at work, but in defense of Noodle, she did eat alot since the last blog. Starting yesterday, they've been eating a combo of Innova Evo and Wellness, and although I tried to see which they favored, I really couldn't tell. At least the poop is hard, but would be better and cleaner if they fell immediately rather than her carrying them around the house! I'm sure she doesn't intend to do that.

Her brother Bag got his usual breakfast and lunch (Momma sneaking in the wet food for him) and occasionally napped in the living room with us. They both have been in and out of the closet off and on, and at one point, Noodle was in bed than ran over to me to help me read the paper in the hallway.

As I type this, she made her way into the litterbox. Let's hope it's only to pee. (Oh wait, Dave just said she is doing both. That's 4 poopies!) We'll be making a spreadsheet of her poop to find some sort of pattern as to which food (combo) works best for her. Although most of this is physiological and has to do with the trauma to her rear end (which we suspect) and in which case we cannot do anything about ... at the very least, we can help her eat foods that will produce hard poopy but that will fall easily. Such is our lives, but it's a good one!

Last 2008 Weekend with the Babies

This is our last 2008 weekend with the babies, and I'm sorry to see it come to an end so soon. But we had good times today. They were romping around last night when we went to bed but when I awoke, there she was - right by my head on her pillow.

She slept until 536am when Dave got the lucky job of checking on her in the litterbox where she finally pooped (after 2 days). This time, she had poop stuck to her butt that he helped pull out from her bottom. I'm sure she wasn't comfortable and it wasn't fun for him, so we spent today trying to figure out her food issues. They are totally on the Innova Evo now that they finished their Feline Caviar (it's not very accessible as Evo or the Wellness brands) but we think more so than the food, it's because of the trauma to her rear end, she may have lost some muscles that can help her push her poop out successfully. But her poop was still hard (Dave rated a 7 to 7 1/2 on a 1-10 scale) so that was good - no messy poop, at least.

Bag pee'd around the lunchtime, then headed off for a nap in the closet with his sister. We took this time to run errands, including finding a bag of Feline Caviar at a dog grooming place near my office in North Seattle - we'll have it on hand so we'll see how her next poop is. We want to be careful about transitioning her too soon.

They were still asleep when we returned mid-afternoon but came out and hung out with us off and on. At times we would go and retrieve them from the closet and they would stay with us a bit. It's very calming to have them both here in the living room as we're watching tv, making dinner ... just plain ol hanging out. But in the end, it was too early in the day for them to be awake, so they are back napping until we are ready to go to bed, at which time they'll be ready to play, I'm sure.

Post-Christmas with the Babies

I got to have a nice and relaxing post-Christmas Day with the babies today. Noodle is training me to hang out in bed with her for as long as she deems it necessary. She and her brother pee'd last night and early this morning before Dave left for work but no poopie. That has me a little concerned since she is usually regular around the 7-8am timeframe.

But other than that, she has been very active this morning and I'm not sure I'm seeing signs of her letting up. She has given me facials, hunted her brother in the closet, was mesmerized by the melting snow outside (from both the bed and the windowsill), played with her milk rings and catnip cigar, gnawed my fingers, and eye'd my hair. When she wasn't active, she was napping and even laid close enough for some petting and purring.

I love that she isn't in hiding, and while I would love to live this life, come next week, it's back to the office so I wonder how she'll be when there aren't any humans around. She's such a ball of energy and cuteness, if only I could take her to work with me, though I can see how trying that would be. Bag would be more amenable to that idea, I think.

Their toys are supposed to arrive tomorrow - I hope so, what with this weather and the delivery delays people are experiencing. We're excited for more antics.

When Dave came home and cuddled with the babies, Bag did a surprising thing. He started licking Dave's hand! He had never done that before. He would bite, playfully of course, but not lick. Perhaps he learned something from his little sister? If so, how darling is that?