Friday, February 29, 2008

Leap this post

It’s February 29, 2008. I think we all know what that means. Today is the day we celebrate leap year by looking at pictures of my sister’s kittens. It’s a Shuck N Jive tradition that goes back as far as the beginning of this post.


I feel a strong need to protect the anonymity of these kittens because they would not sign a release waiver allowing me to use their images and likenesses in any Shuck N Jive promotions, so I won’t be using their actual names. But for the sake of my readers, we will be addressing the dark one as E, and the lighter one as O.


There are a few things you should know about these two up front. First, O and E are brother and sister, and from what I can tell, O seems to be in charge. Neither of them ever tires. I think they only fall asleep occasionally out of boredom.


Without further ado, I present to you O and E.

As you can see from this first picture, O is enjoying a nice piece of cake. I don’t know what the rules are on feeding kittens cake, but I can assure you they didn’t die, so that could probably be listed under the “Pro’s” section of feeding kittens cake. What you might not be able to tell from this picture is that O is not only eating the cake, he is also growling at E. She has gotten too close to the cake for O’s liking. Not close enough for him to stop eating, but close enough for him to be audibly annoyed. E has the look of a starving orphan on her face, but O has a heart of stone. In the end, E got a few bites of the cake, and I think it greatly upset O. As you’ll see in the next photo, O has a long way to go in his maturity.


This was taken shortly after the cake eating had finished. E was minding her own business and primarily focusing on digesting the cake. O, still quite irked by the fact that he had to give up a few bites of his cake, set about his revenge. In this photo, he is in the midst of tying E’s tail around her back two legs. Sure, it seems like an innocent prank, but E was hopping around tied up like that for almost an hour. We couldn’t help her because with all the fur, we couldn’t tell how exactly to pull the knot apart. O has apparently been spending a lot of time online learning how to tie some extremely complex tail knots. I have to give him credit for that. He doesn’t do anything half way.


Once E finally got her back legs untied, she was pretty worked up and decided to take her aggression out on O. They battled for what seemed like an eternity, neither one willing to back down. Has anyone seen the movie Beowulf? It was just like that, only with kittens and no CG and a much more compelling storyline. The fight ended rather abruptly.

As you can see in this picture, right at the height of their fight, they both landed a knockout blow, simultaneously knocking each other out and ending the fight. They both lay there unconscious for nearly three days. When they woke up, they both went to the bathroom because seriously, it had been three days. After that, they just left each other alone. I think O has a newfound respect for E. He’s leaving her alone and he’s moved on to bugging anyone that wants to use the laptop.
In contrast to my sister’s kittens, this is one of the cats I live with.

This is Spencer, and he simply doesn’t give a crap about anything, but I think that’s pretty obvious.


Well, another leap year, come and gone. I hope you enjoyed looking at photos of my sister’s kittens. See you next leap year (a.k.a., my next post)!

9 comments:

omar said...

I'll get to the cats in a moment, but first I must know: what are your thoughts on Isaac Bruce being released?

OK, the cats. I feel like me and Spencer are on the same page.

Hm, I think I thought I'd have more to say about the cats. I'll sleep on it and then I'll be back.

Jon said...

Omar: I am saddened greatly by his departure, but I will always think highly of him. This is one of those business situation about sports that I hate. And I won't lie to you, the fact that he signed with the 49ers certainly stings, but there's nothing I can do about that. It was hard when Henry Ellard, my favorite player of all time, left, but I pushed through. Of course, right now, Kobe, Pau, Lamar, Fish, Jordan, Ronny, Luke, and Andrew,when he gets healthy, will pull me through. Best in the West is a nice soft cushion to land on in hard times like these. Plus, it's almost spring, where I'll have time to enjoy a little baseball.

Seriously though, Ike was the last Los Angeles Ram on the team. I'll wear my Bruce Jersey proudly.

Anonymous said...

Wow, great story about "E" and "O". However, I can't help but notice that you seemed to have left someone out. I can't express in words how deeply this angers me. You do have more than one sister, in fact, if I remember correctly, you have three. As far back as this leap year tradition of telling blog viewers about your sister's latest cat adventures goes, you have never left out your other 2 sisters feline companions. And yet, here we are, another leap year come and gone, and several cats were not mentioned. It's as if they don't exist. I cannot speak for your older sister, but as for me, I am greatly offended. I feel forgotten, its as though my cat, who I will refer to as "scar", has meant nothing to you. Luckily, "scar" has been unable to read this blog yet, I don't know how long it will be before he does, but I can only hope that you will mention him in future blogs, perhaps even dedicate an entire day just to him.

Jon said...

Anonymous: While I feel that your posting name is completely betrayed by your comments, I do want to point out to the less informed that Feb. 29 is all about honoring KITTENS. "Scar" isn't a kitten. Last I heard, his desire to pee on all the furniture was a trait you considered undesirable. While I can't blame you, you didn't seem all that interested in a long term relationship.

Also, let us not forget that the last cat featured in this post was once yours, and then abandoned by you. I'm not sure I'm ready to honor a cat-deserter such as yourself just yet.

Anonymous said...

leave it up to omar and jon to turn a post about kittens into basketball talk.

tying legs together? sounds like o is at the maturity level of a lot of human boys my age.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I guess I didn't read the fine print. I apologize for jumping to conclusions. As far as the cat I "abandoned", I love that cat very much, even when I come to visit and he fails to recognize me, I still love him. I wanted to take him at one point, but somebody...lets call her Mom, broke down into tears, and threatened me. Therefore, in fear of hurting "mom", I decided to leave him.
"Scar" does pee on things, but I still love him, kind of like I will always love my brother even when he doesn't consider my feelings when posting blogs.

Syar said...

Anonymous is really getting into some deep feelings here. It's tugging at my heartstrings.

I just want to eat the kittens. Grrr. I'm so deprived of kitten cuteness.

Spencer looks like he'd warm my feet greatly, and wouldn't mind me kneading his tummy with my ice cube toes.

cadiz12 said...

i meant football talk. i stand corrected.

Jon said...

Syar: You have no idea. Spencer has a serious foot fetish. He's also completely terrified of strangers, so you'd have to hang out for awhile before he'd come anywhere near you, but once he's cool with you, he'll warm your feet for as long as you want.

Cadiz: It's ok, it happens to the best of us.