2 Weeks In

Well we've had them for two weeks now. They are about 9 weeks old. We just got them pet insurance. Even though they will probably remain indoor cats and be leash trained, so they won't to out on their own, we still felt it was important because Cats can still do themselves an injury inside, especially when they are so young. They can also still develop all kinds of health problems as well so we wanted to make sure we would be able to take care of them no matter what.

Caesar now weighs 1.2kg and Lyra just around 850g. They grow so quickly and I am a bit photo happy about them at the moment. I just don't want to miss anything and want to make sure I document every moment so that we can look back on their development.

Its quite interesting also watching them find new things to entertain themselves. When we first brought them home we made several snuggly places for them to curl up in but they've completely ignored them for the most part until now.

Here is Lyra in a cat cave/bed Jo gave us, which they've ignored since we brought them home. They've only used it to climb on top of to get to something else but would never go inside. We moved it around the living room a bit but they never took interest in it so it ended up down the side of the couch and then last night I caught Lyra inside of it and then of course wherever Lyra goes Caesar follows and later Bryan found him curled up in it to.

Lyra is more explorative then Caesar to a certain degree, she definately has a head for heights and Bryan caught her on the dinning table one night. She had cleverly used a few objects as a mountain to gain a vantage point. We had move everything away from the table so she couldn't do it again. She also tries to scale the cabinets in the kitchen to get to the counters. Luckily she is still too small for that but eventually they will figure it out.

She always has such a wide eyed expression on her face and she is so sweet when she comes to sit on my chest under my chin. She really does enjoy affection.

Caesar is just too handsome for words, he will be a real heartbreaker, If they had cat shows for non-pedigree Tuxedo's I am sure he would win.

We decided we wouldn't buy them too many specially made toys and stuff, although we want to keep them entertained and their little brains engaged while we are out all day. We don't them to become bored and frustrated. So, we made a few home made toys and activity centers for them. Afterall Cats can't tell the difference between something bought and something made and will wreck whatever it is anyway.

This is just a plastic basket we had around the house. First we put a soft blanket in it thinking they would use it to sleep in but they haven't. Then we took the blanket out and they started jumpin in and out of it. Caesar has become so heavy that if he leans on the edge with his paws it topples over. He got caught underneath it last night and looked like a large blue turtle with no head.

We've put their balls and mice in the basket and the holes are just large enough for them to get their paws through. Lyra managed to get all the mice out through the openings. They also love to get in the basket and play with the toys and then other will try and grab them from the outside.

This is Bryan's best invention, the toilet roll on string. They never get bored with this.

Of course Caesar never gets bored of pouncing on his siter either

Sometimes he knaws on boxes, I hope he doesn't become a book eater (i had a cat that did that, all my books had little teeth punctures on the edges). I don't know if its agression or something to do with his teeth.

They also love a good game of peekaboo with eachother. When we first thought we would get a cat I looked at all kind of litter boxes. I really wanted one of those self cleaning electronic Litter Maid's they have in the US but we don't have those here in the UK. The Omega Paw rollnclean is as close as it gets. I got the "small" version and had read reviews online with people who have kittens who said that it was perfect for them, but when it came it was so huge I couldn't believe it. They were just too tiny for it. So even though we have it we are still using a regular kitten pan at the moment until they get a little bigger. Caesar is getting a bit too big for the pan now but I don't think Lyra will be able to get in and out of the rollnclean as the doorway is kind of high. I'll give it a couple of more weeks before I use it.

We got the mice they love from Ebay and they didn't even have to be prompted to play with them.

How many do you think there are Caesar?

Let Lyra have a go at counting them

Still not sure? Try counting them together.

Caesar has to make sure they are all still there.

And once again, just in case any went missing

Lyra got to play with at least one. I love the expression on her face here, almost like she's talking to the mousey and telling it to curl up with her. Of course later she bit its nose off.

Caesar's bolt hole is under the dinning table. There is a shelf there which was full of books and videos but they managed to pull them all down and now love to clamber over all the rubble. The living room floor is also covered with debris and bits of carpeting off their trees and envelopes and peices of paper they knock off the side tables. We decided we'll just tidy up at the weekends and vacuum really well but otherwise its pointless to continually clear up after them.

Their favourite activity is still chasing eachother and wrestling whenever possible. Sometimes it seems like Caesar is bullying Lyra but then I've seen her stalk and attack him just as much.

I do get worried when I hear her cry out but then I see them snuggled up together later and I know its alright.
They've discovered our floor to ceiling windows now and today they spent most of the day curled up together in the sun.

Caesar has also discovered that pulling my socks off the washing tree makes for a comfy bed. He doesn't cry anymore before he goes to the toilet so I think the person who said it may be from his toilet training when he would call for his Kitty mom to wash him was probably right. They've also been pretty adaptable as we have to change their little a couple of times. We couldn't find the brand of litter they were trained on and then I had bought some clumping litter previously which we tried but then Bryan read that if they ate it, it would hurt them so we had to get some other litter from Tesco. Now I've discovered Cat San and it works pretty well. Even though its more expensive we seem to be wasting less of it when we scoop out and it also means that we don't have to clean the pan as much. I was worried that with all the changes they would become disgruntled and start going where they shouldn't as sometimes cats do but they've been real little troopers and consitantly use the pan no matter what.

Finally, Bryan has a fetish for wrapping them in blankets at night. Here is Caesar all tucked in on top of one of the cat trees.

We also started their de-worming treatment. We were told they had to have it every two weeks as kittens. At first Caesar didn't want the food with the treatment in it but then he saw Lyra eating hers and went straight for it. He's so funny the way he'll do anything if she does it first.

I bought a brush to groom them with as well. Lyra love it when I use it on her but Caesar is not impressed. He doesn't hate it but if I use it on him he'll start to walk away. I think she sees it as affection and he just doesn't care for it. Perhaps some other type of brush will entice him.

Tomorrow they get the allergy whipes as our friend Jim is coming over and he's allergic. I hope they work for him.