Albus & Minerva

in honor or the kitties arrival tomorrow i thought i'd dedicate a blog to them :)
(that and i'm avoiding that thing called unpacking....)


in case you didn't know - albus is the black kitty and minerva is the grey and white (with a hint of peach) tabby. the pictures go in chronological order starting out here with albus whom i adopted when he was 6 months old. the lady at the shelter told me he was a handful but i was in love and he seemed calm to me....



...turns out i was wrong - he was a wild one :) albus has a fascination with all things pertaining to his mouth. as you can see he likes to stick out his tongue :) he's also a bit ocd and those first few months would lick everything including the floor, walls, furniture, the litter box, toilet, hair, you, clothes - you name it and he licked it. i thought something might be wrong with him so i took him a few different vets....


the vet told me to get another cat - a playmate to distract him from his odd obsession. another cat? me? of course! i knew i wanted a baby kitten and waited and waited until 'kitten season' as the shelter calls it. i went - saw minerva - and knew i wanted her but the lady in charge made me play with her for 15 minutes just to be sure. i brought her home and kept them apart - luckily i had glass doors so they could check each other out without actually having contact. albus was extremely curious.....

minerva was SO tiny! those first few night she would crawl up and sleep right by my head and nip at my nose and fingers - adorable!

i finally introduced the two and they got along great! albus - although he was much larger was intimidated by his new friend. minerva's first meal at the 'big kid bowl' was funny - albus just sat and watched her. i thought he might try and shove her out of the way but he didn't. instead (from this picture it seems) he just gave up on her ever finishing and decided to start knawing on the bag itself! :)

albus hates water. minerva likes it. these pictures were taken from the first (and last) time she decided to shower with me :) now she prefers to sit in the sink with a slight drizzle running down her back. i absolutely adore these pictures!



while albus may not like water he loves to lay on his back - belly up. i've never really known a cat to lie like this until him. he also loves to play fetch. he'll get the toy you throw and trot back to you with it in his mouth and drop it into your hand. perhaps he thinks he's a dog?

he also loves his carrier - or he did until minerva showed her extreme distaste for it. then he decided that perhaps cats weren't supposed to like it. he used to nap in it. jump right in it. minerva on the other hand has to be held at the and front and back paws and dropped in backwards....

i swore i'd never be that pet owner - the kind that dresses their animals up for their own amusement. but the costumes were only a buck on clearence at Old Navy - i had to! albus could care less - running around in his bat wings. minerva on the other hand just sat there frozen and eventually toppled over. she did manage to get up and limp over to the corner and tried to hide her head in shame. poor baby.....

and yes - i did buy christmas costumes. i'm bad i know.....

in short - i love my cats! despite the fact that i've been an absent mother lately i'm incredibly excited to have them back for good! i hope they like their new home!




oh - had to include this video of minerva watching tyra.