Goofball and Graceful

This cool weather is so delightful, isn't it? I think I can say this much more sincerely than one who lives in an air conditioned home during summer. In spite the fact that my fingers are already beginning their permanant seasonal chill and that I am already dipping into my cold weather wardrobe (which makes me feel a little wistful for my much loved summer clothes), I am grateful that for this gray dampness. The colors in my home seem much more warm and inviting and cheerful.

This afternoon we attended a birthday party for a little friend of ours who just turned one. From there, we brought home a cute, little, flower party hat. David discovered later that it fit our newest family member just right. I'm not sure that Gandalf was too happy, but it created roitous amusement for us. And he is wiry enough, that he soon got revenge. David felt rather badly about having so many pictures of Gandalf and not so many of WOLBI, so he had a charming little photo session with her the other day. She is definitely the perfect cat: calm, quiet, not rambunctious.
You can tell your kitten is becoming a cat when you come home to find him in rather compromising positions, with a stuffed snow leopard. How do you talk to your kits about "the wild thing"? Well, with this one, we don't. Instead, we scheduled him to be neutered. He'll have a local anesthetic. But we have friends who did it farm style: stuck their rambunctious tom in a boot, did the procedure quickly and staunched the bleeding. His "mom" said he was purring a few minutes later! This is proof that kittens have almost no memory. The word NO means nothing to them, even if it is followed by a cuff upside the head, or box in the rear, or a toss across the room, name calling, stomping or any other "disciplinary" efforts... Don't worry, our parenting theories for cats vs. humans are entirely different. Feel free to dispense advice. I'll feel obligated to prove it won't work. I'm afraid he'll be the death of WOLBI. She doesn't purr as often as she used to. And her hair is grayer than ever. Her ninth life is undoubtedly more tortured than we thought it would be...