Kitten Update, 11/10/15
Posted on November 10, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 41 Comments
The kittens are on this side of the stairs because they both climbed over the gate, evidence that the gate is not so much useful as a gate anymore, even if it has some continued utility as exercise equipment. That, combined with the fact that the last flea combing produced no fleas (aided by a spraying with age-appropriate flea treatment, which will be administered again probably tomorrow), means that I’m officially letting the gate come down and the kittens to roam around the house. They’ve already gotten acclimated to Daisy, who loves them to bits, and it’s time they had a little more contact with Zeus, who so far is less than pleased but need to deal with it. So out into the world (defined as “the house”) they go.
I do find the kittens already surprise me. When we got them, lo that whole week ago, I assumed that Thing Two, who is the larger and in many ways more forward of the kittens, would be the troublemaker of the pair, but it turns out that Thing One is the adventurous one — she’s the one who hopped the gate first, who acclimated to Daisy first, and who goes down the stairs at every available opportunity. Thing Two, on the other hand, is a little more cautious (but only a little) and is more openly affectionate, coming over to me meowing to be picked up and petted and so on. It’s nice they are already challenging assumptions and expectations.
This is likely the last regularly-scheduled kitten update here. Before anyone complains, if you think this means there won’t be additional kitten pictures here, quite obviously you’ve never actually visited this site before. There will be tons, I assure you. Just not every single day.
Er, probably.
Kittens need a naming.
Not bad that the gate worked as a gate for a whole week.
The cute keeps making my head go all ‘splody.
The kittens have names, wiredog – “Thing One” and “Thing Two”!
Scalzi, did you take these with a cameraphone? If so, which one so I can avoid buying it! I was really surprised, because normally you’re a pro-quality photographer, but these look like the kinds of shots I did with my old Android camera….
Please don’t name them ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two.’ That’s a name for an iPad, not as graceful a lifeform as a cat. My opinion, of course, but felt the impulse to make a plea.
It’s Kitten Talk with host John Scalzi…
Just jam a lot more photos into the kitten posts, and you don’t have to do it as often. But I get ot see them on Flickr, so you can put up as many as you want.
How does Daisy show her affection for the kitties? (Never had dogs nor cats, apart or together, so this isn’t a rhetorical question.)
Thank you for my daily fix of kittening, and please be assured that you will never, ever get a complaint from me if you continue the trend indefinitely. I particularly enjoy your descriptions of their emerging personalities, which make me grin in recognition.
May I ask (with great respect, please know!) if the Thinglets have had their first vet visit yet? Just wondering, trying not to interfere, won’t ask again.
I’m looking forward to learning their official names, once Athena decides what they are. She should take as much time as it requires to determine those names, too; cats have a way of making it clear what they want to be called, but sometimes it takes a while before the message comes through. Names will emerge in the fullness of time, and we’ll welcome them when they do.
They are just plain ridiculously cute!
John, did you ever sex those Things? If so, what are they? I think it more likely than not that you have two sisters, but would like to know for sure.
I think Thing One and Thing Two are pretty good names.
Have five cats already, trying very hard to resist kitten season.
YOU ARE NOT HELPING.
Awww, they’re so cute!
Heh. When I saw the first photos, I had ‘m pegged. Thing One had that “Oooh, what is that?!” look that I recognise from adventurous kittens. I’m not surprised at how they turned out.
I just have one thing to say (to both Things): Hi, Kitteeeeeees!
Can you write novels about kittens instead? I would be a great fan. -Mandy
If you’re taking nominations for names, might I suggest Merry and Pippin?
@ldgilmoure, I would totally listen to that program on NPR.
Also, I’m gonna go with Thing One as a female and Thing Two as a male. Place yer bets here, folks!
“”And I call them
Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
They want to have fun.”
Then, out of the box
Came Thing Two and Thing One!
And they ran to us fast.”
Do you plan on keeping them indoors, or will they be indoor/outdoor like Zeus?
@mrsBug: they’re both torties. There’s less than a one in a thousand chance that either is a boy.
Does Athena have any opinions on names yet, being in charge of the Naming of Cats? Or is she hoping for inspiration to strike?
How about Dante and Virgil?
My first-ever cat, who was brought into my life by my then-roommate when she was about 8 weeks old and was not supposed to be mine…had firm ideas of the way the world was supposed to work right from the start. She demanded to be mine, or demanded that I be hers, I was never sure, and that’s how I got a cat when I was 25.
She was smaller than every other cat she ever lived with. She was, nonetheless, the dominant cat in every multi-cat household, until she was old and sick.
Size never mattered. She was the boss. Velvet-pawed, but still the boss.
I loved her quite madly and miss her still, decades on.
My current cat is a big lug who at 16 still manages to rampage through the apartment on a regular basis (sorry, downstairs neighbors!).
I love the kitten pictures! Or any pictures of your animals. Keep them coming!
These are tabbies, not torties. The stripes and the Ms on their foreheads are especially clear in a couple of the earlier pictures.
By this point, even if they get different ‘real’ names I imagine half the time people will call them Thing One and Thing Two anyway….
I was starting to type “EEEEEEEE kitty belly” and one of my 19-year-old feline overlords climbed between me and the laptop keyboard, pinning my wrist. His littermate is giving me the “What exactly do you think you’re doing, minion?” glare. I’m in bed with a cold and they were in another part of the house; how did they know I was looking at kittens??
Please don’t stop posting photos of the kittens! They are delightful!
Seems to me they’re both tabbies and torties – tabby patterning over the classic tortoiseshell orange/black colors. Otherwise known as “torbies.” I’d expect both kittens to be female.
But whatever they are, they’re cuuuuuute! Looking forward to the Naming!
Can we please still get our good morning and good night kitten pics on Twitter. It starts and ends my day on a good note, which is currently very important.
After an arduously extensive review of the Flickr album, I’m inclined to agree with CRash — both Things are torbies, which requires being heterozygous at the Orange gene (which is on the X chromosome), therefore is far more likely to occur in females. Two’s orange spot near her spine is quite noticeable, for example. I’d suggest “Jupiter” as a name except that (a) you already have a Zeus, which would be bound to be confusing, and (b) very likely female.
It’s a bit harder to see on One because she also has a dilution gene that makes all of her fur colors fainter, but there are still some parts that are more gray and some that are more tan. For example, this is why she seems to have an eyeline only on her left (the right of images where she faces the camera) — the one on the other side is in an orange patch, making it much fainter. (Two’s eyelines are even stronger because she has denser pigmentation in general.)
Carpenter and Hawks, to commemorate the two versions of the Thing?
Scalzi, you are in danger of conditioning me to expect to see kittens and to fly into an irrational rage if they are not there.
I saw the first picture and thought “The Things are on the stairs! I repeat, The Things are on the stairs!”
I have already decided I like Thing Two best. This will have no effect on either of them, but I wanted to get that on record.
Not knowing how loud they are, Frank Gilbreth’s classic names of Shut Up and You Heard Me may not apply. (I did have a friend whose three cats were named God, Damnit, and C’Mere. God died – as they do – so ‘Damnit, C’mere” was what was left. He also had a python named Ebenezer Squeezer.)
Anyone else amused by the Fargo synchronicity on Monday night? To quote one character: “I see Thing One, where’s Thing Two?”…
I just spent 9 weeks fostering 5, then 4, then 3, then 2 kittens and adopted the last one yesterday. Kittens are all consuming. The only way to remain sane is to litter the internets with their images! Post on…
I will gift you with kitten names I came up with last night:
Hillary Rodham Kitten
and
Justice Sonia Sotomeow
You’re welcome. (I’ll see myself out.)
Are you sure you can’t just call the kittens Fur Thing One and Fur Thing Two?
You have spare laptops and tablets around the house, don’t you? Put’em to use:
https://www.metafilter.com/154651/Make-sure-your-tablet-is-in-a-secure-place-before-pressing-play
Videos for Cats To Watch Volume 1 – a playlist of 32 videos filled with birds and squirrels and suchlike.
They are adorable! It makes me miss having kittens in the house. Our two little fur people are 6 and 7 years old.
Do you declaw your cats? My ex-wife was militant about front-declaw, but my fiancée leaves them intact but trims. I’ve gone with the house rules in both cases because I’m a dope, but I wonder if I shouldn’t be more engaged with those decisions.
Cynical Jason, declawing actually removes the cat’s “finger” up until the first knuckle, and can cause severe, lifelong pain.