My wonderful kitty cats

I don't usually go on and on about my pets, because it is completely and entirely boring for everyone else. So feel free to skim, but do take a look at the beautiful pitures, photgraphed by my mom while she was visiting me.



I notice that I really love blogs that have pictures of my friends. So often there are just pictures of the little ones, which makes sense, since the mom is usually the one taking the picture. I also notice that since I don't have a camera, I don't take many (any) pictures. So these are ones that my mom took when she was here a couple months ago.
My black cat is named Toby, short for October. He is wonderful and very very big. He started to get kind of fat, but then we got Howie. Now they chase each other around the house all day, so neither of them is fat. Toby likes attention, and at about 7:15 every morning (why do I still set an alarm?) he wakes me up and then sits on the dresser and meows for attention. I used to think it was for food, but then I found that even when I feed him at night, he still comes in to get petted. When he was a little kitten, he liked to curl up in my hair on my pillow while I slept. Now that he is a very large cat, he still likes to do that. It's a bit annoying, but I really love it. He's very much a talker and will meow conversations back and forth with us sometimes. He hates small children, and if he sees one toddle towards him, he makes himself scarce until that child leaves.
Howie, on the other hand, is a bit masochistic. He LOVES little kids and will just purr and purr while they poke, hit, and drag him. He really doesn't have his self interest in mind at all. He purrs all the time. When I was out of town, Kevin had Howie purr to me over the phone and it was super loud!
We found Howie in a tree in our neighbor's yard, and that explains a lot about him. He likes to climb on stuff, but he is kind of stupid. When we squirt him with water to have him get off the table or counters or something, it doesn't phase him. Ditto to when we manhandle him or push his head down onto the ground by the scruff of his neck (like some training books say to do). We turn around, and he's back up there.
We have a little toy that is something like a feathery-looking weasel with a bell on it, attached to a string and a stick. Howie loves to chase this and will chase it until he's out of breath and has to pant like a dog. Sometimes he'll find the toy, pick it up in his mouth, and drag it around the house, stick and everything. It is completely so cute!
Toby is sleek and refined, like a black panther. He's gorgeous and soft. But then Howie is softer in a different way. He has longer fur that is just ridiculously fine textured. It is super long, and his tail is poofy like a squirrel's.