Yesterday we finally got some snow in Stockholm that did not melt immediately. We are experiencing an unusually warm winter so far. The cats were mesmerized with snow (as always). We put the food for small birds in the lilac bushes and the cats like to watch them eat it.
First snow, December 2011
Hmmm, Maven is on the window on the other side of the living room. But, where is Albert?
The White Squirrel
This picture is blurry since I had to take it fast; the moment I got into the living room, the bad white cat started crawling down.
Albert lives in our Christmas tree! The white squirrel, that is what he thinks he is.
The White Squirrel - or - Albert in the Christmas tree
We got one series of pictures from Agneta, Bea’s ‘mom’.
Agneta woke up early one morning. She heard noise that at first she thought came from the walls.
Was it mice, she wondered. No, it was Bea, standing very high, doing stuff! Agneta grabbed the mobile that was standing next to her bed and took pictures of the little explorer. After the last picture was taken, Bea fell down in her human’s bed. 
I thought to share the pictures here. Thank you so much for the photo, Agneta!
Bea, boldly jumping where no kitten has jumped before
This is what waited for me when I got up this morning:
That is my pink backpack that Albert dragged and left on the floor. Also, there is a mouse that he previously ‘drowned’ in a water bowl (notice how my backpack is wet close to the mouse), and then ‘tied’ it behind the handle. It looked like a ritual killing committed by a psychopath!
Albert drowns toys in the water bowls and then leaves them in the food bowls and similar regularly, but this was a bit more advanced piece of work!
The individual pictures from the Monday photo session are now uploaded here.
And the cat tree… it was so much fun for the small cats to get the whole new tall furniture! We did not put anything that tall in their room earlier since they are small and not scared of anything, but yesterday we bought them the furniture with a lot of funny parts, 165 cm tall. We padded the space around it with a lot of pillows. The kittens went crazy, climbing, jumping and behaving like little monkeys. Jossan was not happy at all. She gave us that look – ‘Are you completely insane!?’
In the morning we found all the kittens sleeping in the cat house with the pillows put over the entrance. Jossan lured them in and dragged the pillows and blocked the small ones from exiting the tipi! 
Jossan is such a clever cat and a good mom. She never ceases to impress me.
Jocke took a cool video of the tree, seen from a kitten’s perspective:
More pictures from yesterday and today:
Belle peeking
Beatrice, boldly going where no kitten has gone before
Your tail! My tail? Wait...
Our cats love to participate in everything we do.
Usually they are pretty careful and just look at us doing things, being supportive, but sometimes they cannot resist the urge to get involved. They are so helpful, it is in their nature! Here is Albert, helping me with the curtains…
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We lived in an apartment earlier, which we arranged in a bit sterile, modern style, but this house requires different style and it takes some time to live in it and feel what suites the interior. It is fun to arrange things, and all the help makes it so much easier… hm. Or, does it? Well, this is how that window turned out, not so bad we think.
Well, no. Last Friday, in our cat group was more like – Leroy takes it all.
This picture of Miii and Albert posing in front of the Christmas tree won the 3rd prize (shared) on the Siames i Fokus Christmas 2010 competition and our prize arrived in the mailbox two days ago! Three yummy furry mice toys! (Thank you Nilla!)
Albert apparently thought that he and Miii were the ones who deserved the prize the most, since they posed for the picture, and went eagerly for the mice, but Leroy thought that such an opinion was ridiculous. He tossed two of the mice under the sofa immediately and then started playing with the third one. Alone!
 Oh, that is a yummy mouse! |
 Albert, you may watch while I am playing with the mouse. |
 Look, the mouse is flying! I am flying! |
 Someone help!!! Grandpa Leroy is a big bully! Muaaaaaaa |
It is that time of the year when a beautiful flower called amaryllis blossoms. Amaryllis is not a flower that cats should chew on, since it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, depression, lack of appetite and other kind of nasty symptoms.
Although cats are not all crazy to chew on the things that are poisonous for them, our Albert is still very young and likes to chew on whatever. So, we lifted amaryllis high on the book shelf where it’s supposed to live until Jelena’s mother takes it with her (Jelena’s parents are visiting and her mom, a dog person who never owned a cat, only dogs, bought an amaryllis plant).
Albert saw the flower and of course it looked yummy and the little long cat tried to reach it:
 Look, there is something up there. I want it! |
 If I stretch just a little bit more... |
Oh, no, I am falling!
The big Christmas tree is up! It is made of good German plastic and steel, 215 cm tall, sturdy and elastic, it stands firm in spite of Maven and Albert climbing on it and poking all the ornaments around.
 Miii and Albert are sitting pretty |
 Albert climbing the tree |
Albert is turning 7 months tomorrow. That kitten must have the bluest eyes in the universe!
This is Albert’s first Christmas and he is delighted with all the ornaments! He likes to drag and carry them around, and chew on the branches.
I’ve tried real tree, plastic tree, hoping he will leave something alone, but, nope – he likes it all, nothing is safe and everything is tasty.
Every morning the poor Christmas tree is disintegrated and the ornaments lie all over the living room.
The worst was when he just discovered the beauty of everything that goes with Christmas. Now, two weeks later, Albert is a bit less creative with his constant rearrangements of our living space, but still not uncreative enough, to put it that way…
I am helping!
 Tasty! |
 How do you mean - I can't eat that? |
 Yes, I can! |
 Why are you here? That is mine! |
 You too! Go away! Mine! |
Crowded? No! There is always enough space to fit me! And - more glitter!
We live with three generations of famous towel-killers.
“Mauuu mau mauuuu”, the first we hear the rebel yell from the bathroom, and then we find Albert proudly standing on the towel he wrestled down and killed for good.
Remember these two pictures (taken 2,5 and 1,5 years ago; Leroy and then Leroy and Jossan)? Well, now their little grandchild/child does the same.
After every box we pack we have to make sure that no cat somehow jumped in and tried to hide. Cats like boxes. Albert is smaller and a bit hard to notice. Here, we documented how at one occasion Jossan helped us find him and, also, tried to pull him out of the box he managed to break into!
“I see you!” (Jossan managed to locate Albert)
“Mau mau mauuu” (“Get out!”)
“Mrauauauauuauuu” (“I am getting him out! Look, matte!”)
And then I took Albert out of the box which we closed again and put under another box that he cannot break into (or so we believe…).
Ada and Alfred moved together to Linköping, where they will live with one little girl and her mom. Alfred chose his matte when she visited the kittens and the little girl wanted Ada even before they met. I think that Ada and Alfred are a very good match, to live together, personality-wise. Also, they are very loved by their matte and her little daughter.
Alfred is very talkative (Antoine is the most talkative, but Alfred’s vocabulary was the most impressive one) and gentle, but also quite active (although I do not know who was not active, all seven kittens were very active and social from the start).
Ada was always so brave and curious and first with everything. A bit naughty, but so sweet. And the way she would look at you would make anyone melt. She and Archimedes (Albert a little as well) have the most amazing way to make an eye contact and simply hypnotize a person.
Funnily enough, I think that the other four have the better eye shape, according to the Siamese standard, since they are more almond-shaped. But, I notice on Albert that his eyes are getting much more almond-shaped than they used to be. It is exciting to see them grow and change.
On their way to their new home, 2 hours in the car, Alfred cried without stopping. But, upon arrival it did not take them a long time to make themselves feel at home. And, as you can see, they continued to develop their gardening skills that they started here.
Many thanks for the photos we got from their matte!
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Individual portraits of the kittens taken today can be seen here: 11 weeks
And here is one of our attempts to have a picture of all of them, no one with his back towards the camera. It is hard! Those kittens are not really calm, they are jumping and flying around all the time!
White kitten + fireplace = …
Ooooh, Albert, it took us half an hour to clean you.
Augustin is half awake. Albert is still sleeping.
Alessandro attacks Jossan’s tail
And he attacks…
Archimedes is awake now and he thinks that Alessandro’s tail looks quite yummy! Serial tail-biting!
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Our kittens got names after famous scientists whose first names start with ‘A’: Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist; Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek mathematician, physicist and astronomer; Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author; Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, a writer and the world’s first computer programmer; Augustin-Louis Cauchy, a French mathematician; Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer and innovator and Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist.
We are happy with the new homes the kittens will be going to. Beside nice humans who will adore them, all of them will have a cat friend there.
Archimedes will live with Misty, a (now) 10 months old Cornish Rex; Alessandro will move in with Skeletor, a mixed breed with a behavior of an Oriental cat; Ada and Alfred will move together to their new home; Augustine will move to a new home where he will live with 5 years old Elora, and Antoine will move in with another Siamese guy, almost 4 years old Frasse. Albert will probably stay with us.
Here is a few pictures taken yesterday. Antoine and Alessandro were too fast to be caught on camera!
… pictures from the photo session, week 5!
The kittens turned 5 weeks today, and we weighed them and took their individual photos. Have a look at a few pictures that are very cute/funny, but did not make it to the best of (because there were so many good ones)…
the seal point boy
one of the lilac point boys
and the chocolate or lilac boy. The Beast!
(BTW, the best of is coming soon…)
Today the kittens went for a walk in the living room, where all four big cats watched the small ones as they researched their surroundings.
“Where to go from here? What are these scary mini-plants?”
“Grandpa Leroy is here, that is good!”
“Oh, no! But, my bottom IS clean! The big cats clean it all the time!”
These two were sniffing the floor. Walnut wood, now that is weird!
The fireplace, their mom’s favorite place for mischief!
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This evening, the first time ever, the kittens have left the igloo on their own and took a short walk, led by two blue/chocolate girls and a lilac boy (mini Leroy, he is his grandfather’s little copy).
During the nights and when we are not in the apartment, there is a ‘wall’ in front of the igloo, so that the kittens cannot exit, only Jossan.
I am thinking about painting. I haven’t done it in a while. Two years, maybe. Can that be true? I found this in our Cat diary, written on Jan 17, 2008, two years ago. That was about two months before Jossan came here.
So, I turned around to bring the last bowl to the table and… 2 seconds later, they are sitting exactly where I want to sit and eat my dinner.
Coincidence? I don’t think so!
The Siamese routinely steal the blanket now. We need another one. I’m sick of waking up freezing with two white cats looking at me like: “WTF, don’t disturb us human”.
They should really be nicer and more thankful for all the food we give them, the sand they spread over the apartment, the toys that lie everywhere and don’t get me started on that kitty-furniture on which they lie to watch over their servants. But we really don’t deserve better.
We pay to become slaves and somehow think it’s all worth it. Adorable fuzzy little furballs
At least once every day one can hear a rebel yell from our bathroom, from Leroy, a very special one, that we translate to “The towel must die”.
Leroy yells loudly as he jumps up on the edge of the bath tub and starts wrestling with a towel hanging on the towel drier.
Leroy usually wins in his wrestling match, which results in the towel falling on his head and dragging him into the bath tub. A bit more wrestling, and our little winner emerges out of under the towel, happy and satisfied.
“Mau mau mauuuuuuuu, come and see me, I won!”
Jossan does not really wrestle, but she likes to join Leroy after the fight is done and pretend she won as well.
Leroy and Josephine are two pure breed lilac point Siamese cats, right. SIA c. But, Leroy decided that he has to toughen up his image and went BLACK!
What really happened is that the little boy pushed his head in the chimney while examining our cold fireplace, always looking for even more sources of warmth… and then came for a bit of hugging with Jelena who was focusing on something else and did not notice anything weird.
Joakim caught two black faces on camera.
