Frankie the vacuum cleaner

Frankie has discovered she loves treats...Sammy wants nothing to do with them because they're not real meat. All we have to do is open the cabinet the treats are in and Frankie comes running over yelling at us. She can't even wait for us to get the bag open. She starts clawing at our legs trying to climb us to get to the treats. As soon as we throw them on the floor she has already inhlaed them.

Scratching post

The scratching post the cats had was really worn so we got them a new one. This one looks like a goal post, so there are three areas for them to scratch on and they can walk thru it too. Well after I got it set up they went crazy. They both tried to take ownership of it and keep the other one away. Then they started running around and running thru the posts and tackling it and flipping it to the ground and scratching it crazily.

New water dish

We got the cats a new water dish, one of the filtered running water ones. It took a little while for them to get used to it. Frankie didn't mind so much...Sammy took a littel longer to warm up to it. When he first saw it he went over and started hissing at it...two ddays later he finally got over himself and accepted it.

Frankie and Boots

Frankie has this strange obsession with boots. Whenever Tim comes over she always runs over to him and starts hugging his boots and rubbing herself all over them. She does the same thing to Dave now that he's been wearing his boots to work. She'll run over when he gets home and grab his boots and roll on them and hug them and rub herslef all over them...crazy cat!

Sammy's "TV" Dinners

Sammy caught on to a little trick that benefitted him well. He knows he is not allowed to jump up on the tv stand and he also knows he is not allowed to have our dinner. So now he has figured out that if he jumps up on the tv stand Dave will get up to get him down. Sammy waits til he's close and then runs to steal food off Dave's plate. Then it turned into this fun game he wanted to play so he could get food. Dave would see him heading towards the tv stand and call Sammy over with a tiny piece of food. Now Sammy strolls over to the tv stand while looking back at us with this look like "I'm going to do it...just watch me!" Dave will yell at him and he'll stop for a second and then start getting closer to the tv again and then Dave will pretend to get food and it just continues...

Frankie's Bathtime

Frankie has gotten lazy...instead of bathing herself all the time...she has found an alternative way to get clean. Now she just waits for Dave to get out of the shower and then goes and rubs herself all over his clean hair so she smells nice and pretty.

Such a Handsome Boy!

Sammy loves to check hiself out in the mirror...at the house we were living in in Roseville the closet doors were mirrored and he loved to walk back and forth and chase himself...then we moved into the apartment and he lost his mirror. Since then he realized that there is a mirror in the bathroom that he can check himself out in. So he will go in to the bathroom, jump up on the toilet and then jump onto the counter and stare at himself cause he thinks he's such a handsome boy. We always laugh when we hear the noise of the toilet seats hitting together cause we know he's going up on the counter to check himself out!

Frankie's Quirky Ways

Ahhhh Frankie.....

I went to the pet store to pick up cat food and some new toys. I got home and put the bags down and Frankie comes running over. She crawled inside the plastic bag and pulled out the little monkey toy and ran off. I guess that one's is hers...

The cats have several beds around the apartment that they share...well except for one. After Sammy claimed my nightstand we put a bed there for him. Frankie will not go near that bed at all. She just stares at it with this all knowing fear. I put her in it the other day and she just gave me this really sad look. Then she looked all around to make sure Sammy hadn't seen her and then she hoped out real quick still making sure Sammy hadn't caught her.

So Sammy is dumb when it comes to the litter box. He will go in and dig and use it and then hop out real quick and start trying to cover it up by pawing at the tile and carpet and everywhere but inside the litter box. Frankie watches for when Sammy goes to use the litter box. When Sammy comes out she will run over and go in the litter box and cover up his mess for him.

Sammy's phone calls

So I can no longer put my phone down on the table...I have had to find a new spot to put it when I get home. Whenever I put my phone down on the table Sammy jumps up there and sits on it, then starts playing with it...and eventually tosses it off the table...

Frankie helps

Frankie has decided she has to help us do things. Whenever I am working out Frankie has to crawl all over me and try to help me stretch and such. She has also decided that it is her job to help Dave tie and untie his shoes. She comes running when he opens the closet door to get his shoes out and then chases the laces when he is putting them on. After Dave gets home she follows him to the bedroom and then lays down on his shoes and starts playing with the laces when he is trying to take them off.

Frankie talks

It is so funny sometimes when we talk to Frankie because it is like she is really trying to talk back. She doesn't just meow like a normal kitty, depending on what you are saying to her she has different ways of responding. She will give different kinds of meows and different pitches and stuff and then there's times when she is really trying to converse with you and she does this weird thing where she puts a bunch of little meows together like chirping like she is really talking. And of course she does it when she is really trying to get your attention to play with her or pet her...we have now figured out if she is telling us to pick her up and hug her, pet her or get a toy to play with her.

Sammy plays hide-and-seek

One of Sammy's favorite things to do when we were living at the house was to play hide-and-seek. We would run down the hallway and and duck behind the wall and then peek out. Sammy would see us and start to duck down real low, we would duck back and hide behind the wall and he would get real excited and duck down lower. After looking out to look for Sammy a few times he would end up all the way to the ground and then come running to tag us. He has tried to play hide-and-seek a few times in the apartment, but there just isn't enough room...poor Sammy.

Frankie has taken over

Frankie has gotten a little jealous of the fact that Sammy has his bed right next to our bed...soooo she has now decided that she needed a bed on our bed. She has taken over my pillow and turned it into her bed. So now when it is time for bed Dave and I get into the bed, Sammy jumps up into his bed on my nightstand and Frankie quickly swoops in and lays down on my pillow.

Alarm clocks

So Sammy has learned the purpose of the alarm clock. He has now somewhat put off waking us up early in the morning to get pet. The other morning Dave's alarm went off and Sammy jumped up out of his bed and took off running across the bed to reach him. He went and laid inbetween Dave and his alarm clock and started purring really loud and drooling all over Dave. He figured out that the alarm meant someone would be awake and we went over to take advantage of it to get in some good petting time.

Frankie fun

So now Frankie feels like she needs more attention at bedtime as well. For the last three nights, about 5 or 10 minuttes after we turn off the lights we hear crashing sounds coming from the other room. Frankie has started climbing on the counter next to the fridge and on top of the fridge to pull magnets off the fridge. She has been removing the magnets and throwing them down on the ground to Sammy. When we get up to see what's going on Frankie has dissappeared to hide somewhere and all we see is Sammy in the kitchen surrounded by magnets. We know it's Frankie because of Sammy's bum leg, so we'll call her name and she'll come out from hiding to get her extra attention that she's asking for.

Frankie also has a new game. We got a new tea light candle holder back around Christmas. It's a long rectangular holder that holds 7 candles and we have it in front of the tv. Frankie has decided that she is bored with everything else in the apartment and that the candles are now her toys. She'll jump up onto the tv stand and pick a candle up and then take it somewhere to play with. We'll come home to find tea light candles all over the apartment...and one we have still not recovered.

Sammy doesn't like to share

There are only a few toys we have that Sammy likes to play with...and so we have now had to just consider those Sammy's toys that frankie cannot play with. Sammy does not like to share...and he'll let you know it too...especially when he sees that Frankie is near him.

Bedtime

So for the last couple months now...we have been dealing with "4am feedings" as if we had an infant. Sammy feels that waiting all night to be pet is just not okay....so he wakes us up anywhere from 3am-5am to pet him. The problem is he does it in a way where we are forced to pay attention to him...no way to ignore him. It starts with him crawling on top of your chest and sitting there waiting for you. If you don't pet him then he starts head butting you, he'll start ramming his head into your chin. And if that still doesn't get you to pet him he starts whacking your nose with his paw, but it isn't a cute little nudge...he makes sure that just enough claw is out for you to really feel it.

Frankie's special ways

Frankie gets a bit crazy sometimes when it comes to playing with her toys...

she'll dive into her track...

and then fly through the air to get at other things...


and her and Sammy are good buddies and chaase each other through the apartment

or help me clean the apartment

and then there was the time we went to vacuum under the couch and found that Frankie had hidden two coasters, three shells and a couple of rocks under it

Sammy and food

Like I have said before...Sammy has issues with food...and an attraction to meat...

Frankie's hugs

Everday when we come home from work Frankie has to have her hugs...if we don't we get in trouble...

Silly Sammy

Ohhh Sammy...

Sammy took Daddy's helicopter...he thinks it's a bird!

And then he took the little racecar

Sitting with his buddy the turtle

Just lounging around with Frankie

Frankie loves to find fun places to take little catnaps....

a gift box from a wedding present



loving her blankie

in a blanket thrown on the floor

under the blanket on the couch

uh...my back

the duraflame box

on Daddy

The lazy kitty's bathtime

Frankie loves it when Dave takes a shower. After he's all dressed he will come and sit down on the couch. Frankie then proceedes to join us on the couch and take a bath...it is one of her favorite things to do. She loves the smell of Dave's hair after he has washed it and it is still damp. She grabs his head, crawls on top of it and rubs herself all over his hair and rolls back and forth over the top of the couch and his head to get herslef nice and pretty.

Sammy's demands

So way back when we moved into the apartment we were feeding the cats when we woke up and then when we got home from work....wellllll apparently when we were waking up was not good enough for Sammy. He decided to try to find ways to wake us up sooner so he could eat sooner. First he started by knocking the frame off my nightstand to try and wake us up...after that it became the frame and my alarm clock...and after that it became my frame, the alarm clock and then my lamp. Once everything was removed off my nightstand he decided that should be where he sleeps...so instead of having to wake up to the sound of crashing we just gave up and put Sammy's bed on my nightstand. But that was not the end of it...we would get up and give them their food and then try to go back to sleep...this got old real soon...especially when Sammy decided to start chewing on Dave's lamp shade and then putting the lamp into the bed.

So we got automatic feeders for the cats...not the kind that are just a container full of food...no that would be too much for Sammy to handle...no we got the ones with timers so you can set them to feed your cats when you want them to. We set the morning feeding for before we woke up and the dinner feeding for the evening. Yes well this did not work for Sammy either. he learned how to disassemble the automatic feeder...yes that's right, he figured out how to pry it all apart to get himself food whenever he pleased...and he didn't just figure out how to diassemble it, but he learned how it worked. He learned that there were wheels up inside it that turned to release the food...so he learned that he could lay down, reach up into the feeder and turn the wheels himself to eat whenever he pleased.

So after months of this and taping the feeders together and down to the mat we figured out how to be smarter than the kitty. We finally realized we could cover and wrap the feeders up in pillowcases...worked for awhile until he found a way to get under the pillowcase and get food.

We of course got to explain all of this to our vet upon taking Sammy in for his yearly check up. Sammy shocked the vet by managing to do what "no cat has managed to accomplish before" by more than doubling his weight in 10 months...he went from 8 pounds to about 17 pounds. Happily though we have since figured out the feeding situation and taken Sammy to the vet again. Sammy has lost a few pounds, but it looks like a lot more than that because now that he doesn't spend all of his time stealing food he is actually playing and running around again.

Oh what fun!

After making Frankie's blanket I threw it to her and it landed on top of her. She got up and started strolling through the apartment with the blanket on her back...Sammy did not appreciate this.




Sammy has a special attraction to meat, and one night he decided to steal Daddy's chicken bone..

And of course we have to have a cat who thinks she's a dog...that's right her favorite thing to do is play fetch!

Just playing around

I had the camera out taking pictures of the kitties and Frankie was interested in what I was doing.

I knit blankets for both of the kitties and Sammy took the yarn from me when I was making Frankie's blanket.

Sammy frequently enjoys sticking out his tongue.

Frankie took over the lid to our game box and started getting crazy.

Welcome to your new home

We left the house we were renting with friends and got our own apartment. The kitties had some adjusting to do. Eventually they got over it and became the best of friends.

And the of course Sammy took it upon himslef to make us feel at home.

The apartment complex had given us a welcome gift and it came with a balloon. That balloon became Sammy's best friend for a while...he would carry it everywhere with him.

We decided to make a nice dinner after getting all settled in. Frankie was very happy we cooked a nice dinner to celebrate our new apartment. Big eyes for such a small belly!

Frankie decided that the shark was in a bad place, so she moved it for us.