Aaaaw!

I’ve almost made it through the first day of the roughest week of the year for us non-morning people. Having to get up an hour earlier, when it’s already a struggle to roll out of bed without weeping every work day, is just brutal. On top of that, there will not be a new episode of LOST this week, and that makes for a week without its usual bright spot. Poor me.

Fergus and Fiona have spent the last week redecorating the room to better meet their specifications. Early last week, we came home to find that the linoleum on one half of the bird
room floor was covered quite neatly and evenly 40 pounds of corn-cob litter. The floor in the room is linoleum, but the central portion is covered with interlocking foam squares, and there are some throw rugs on the floor. The bunnies don’t like the linoleum, so we’ve minimized the amount of exposed linoleum in there. There was apparently still too much linoleum for them. When we first saw the neat and thorough job that was done in there, we thought Luciana decided to dump out the litter for them. She had no idea what we were talking about. A little investigation revealed that the 40-pound bag had been chewed all around the bottom portion. They really spent some time spreading it around; it looked like it had been done by humans. I got that all swept up, and as it was still clean and usable, I put it all in an empty tall plastic trash container. Yay, me. I outsmarted the rabbits and they wouldn’t be able to spread their litter on the floor anymore.

A few days after that, we came home to find that they had done the same thing on the other half of the room with the 40 pound bag of scoopable cat litter. We store the new bags of it in the birdroom, to keep the cats from getting into it. Again, it was done so neatly and evenly that it really looked like a human had done it. These guys are good at redecorating. I got that all swept up and put in a rabbit-safe container as well and looked around this time to make sure there was nothing else they could get into. I was pretty sure when I left the room that night that I was now one step ahead of the rabbits instead of the one-step behind I had been. Wrong again. My animals are so good at keeping me humble, as I always seem to be one step behind them. Apparently the wide variety of toys and chewable items in the room just wasn’t enough to keep them out of trouble. We returned from our night at La Crosse to find that they had chewed (or scratched?) a large hole in our couch, pulled out the stuffing and spread that out all over the room. It was a very functional, comfortable, unholy couch before this weekend. Now it will be duct taped and modified in some way, as soon as I figure out how to prevent the rabbits from doing that again. It has now joined the distinguished group of our other ‘modified’ couches. The one in the living room has a small hole from the cats. The one in the basement has had the cushion corners eaten off by the dogs. That couch has been in the bird room since I’ve had a bird room. It’s made it fully intact through the other five bunny residents, who were content to just sit on the couch. If you’re keeping score, that’s three for Fergus & Fiona and the big zero for me. My goal is to someday be one step ahead of my animals (and children) instead of perpetually scrambling around behind them trying to do damage control!

Sparta and the kittens are featured yet again. These are pictures from Sunday (I've taken their photos every Sunday--it's fun to see their growth that way). They are either running around full speed or passed out cold. They are now running around (quite clumsily, with lots of falling), wrestling, pouncing, and climbing. I am loving every phase of their development. I love being a kitten 'grandma'! I get the benefit of watching and enjoying all their cuteness, while I watch my child do an awesome job of being their human mom and caring for them. I am SO going to miss these babies. They are still in need of great homes...

Dej & Joe have Sparta cat so spoiled that she's becoming obnoxious. She demands attention, immediately and constantly. If she doesn't get the desired type/amount of attention, she makes this horrible squaking noise right in your face, and if that's ignored, she will pat your face with her paw. They're going to be sorry for creating that little princess! :-D

I have so many cute pictures of these guys, I had to force myself to stop adding pictures to this entry! I've taken around 200 each weekend for Dej & Joe. I'm trying to talk them into doing family pictures (them & the cat/kittens), and while they're not fans of being photographed, I think I can talk them into it in the next week or two. I'm pretty sure I can--they're proud parents after all. ;-D