Showing Their Coats

It's tough to photograph a black cat (at least for me and my digital camera -- too often they are just dark blobs with eyes) and even harder to show that your black cats aren't all black. But Koto (foreground) and Lyra were good enough to stay fairly frozen so I could snap the photo below, and the sunlight did a pretty good job of showing the variations in their coats.


Both were fixated on a bird (or two or three) in the backyard, and Koto was chattering away.

You can see Koto has a silver and black tabby pattern on his body, but mostly solid black legs, tail, and face (with very faint brown tabby markings on his forehead.)

Lyra has much more black, although her belly is starting to silver up. But then she's got these crazy long silver patches that spring out behind her ears - reminds me of Grandpa Munster's hair (am I dating myself? If you are too young for this reference, see picture below.)

Anyway, not knowing the lineage of my sweet shelter kittens (or even what their mother looked like) and not being an expert on cat genetics, I can only guess that Koto and Lyra's darker face, legs, tail (points) mean that somewhere in their heritage was a Siamese or Burman (Birman.)

Both kittens have full tails that look ready to completely plume out at any moment, but Lyra's coat is a bit shorter, shinier, more dense (except for those crazy behind-the-ear tufts)...whereas Koto's coat is longer, fuzzier (you can see I don't have proper cat breeder terms done) and downy soft.

The Cap'n (or Koto Crunch)

The Usual Routine

See Mr. Koto looking innocent. Sweet little Koto.

See sweet Koto cleaning his sleeping sister. A sign of brotherly love?

Nope.

Young Koto was looking for someone to play-fight with.

Awakened Lyra - let the wrestling begin!

Lyra exacts her revenge.

Cats on My Lap

It's nice when your toughest problem with your cats is that they are constantly fighting for lap space.

Mother's Day

The cat, not yet having mastered reading, naturally assumes the newspaper is a special sleeping mat whose cryptic symbols mean "Lie here, please."


Koto is more than happy to oblige, while Lyra patiently waits her turn.

Cone Be Gone

We had a vet visit on Tuesday -- for FVRCP shots, and to have Lyra's spay incision checked.

While the incision still didn't look completely healed to me (still a sliver that looked raw, plus about a dime-sized area under the skin was very hard, like a scab) the vet deemed it okay, took out the stitches, and - most importantly - told us Lyra didn't have to wear the e-collar anymore.

After more than ten days of plastic ring-around-the-neck that made it hard for her to play (and when she drank water, the cone got wet and she'd invariably go straight into the litter box and get clumps stuck all over it - blech) Lyra could go back to being an unfettered kitten.

She was now free to attack my camera strap.




Koto avenges his sister's former imprisonment by attacking the e-collar...


...and then the blind cords, for no reasons other than their existence and his kittenhood.


The vet staff has made a huge fuss over our fuzzy felines every time they've been in - about how adorable they are, and how friendly. And as Lyra and Koto's appointed guardian, I agree...and beam through all the compliments as if somehow I were responsible, instead of just lucky that we happened to snatch these cuties from the shelter before someone else got a chance to.

Of course, their beauty is too elusive to be captured by mere photography. But I try anyway, as I hang out on a sunny loveseat with the pair.

Lyra looks all sweet before she claws her way up my leg.


Koto, working on becoming teacher's pet, sneaks up behind me to purr in my ear.

Kittens on the Keys

Astonishing -- Koto and Lyra want to play the piano! Here Lyra is gingerly touching the keys with her front paw. Well, I could tell these kittens were smart...



Oh. Turns out they were only trying to use the keys to get on top of the piano.



As Koto climbs up, his back paws lower the...um...key cover or whatever you call the thing that lowers to cover the keys, and he scrambles up to onto the piano's desk (music stand area.) Considering the loud bang the cover makes as it falls, I don't think he'll be trying that again.

(Wrong again, silly human. The photos here were taken last night, and as I am typing this I hear a single piano note. A trip to the parlor reveals that Koto is balanced on the music stand -- he got up this time without a bang -- and Lyra is on the bench debating her own path to the top.)

The Incredible Two-Headed Cat

I think I have the start of a sideshow act - a lifelong ambition! (Click photo to enlarge and see the beast in all its glory!)

Okay, well...closer inspection shows it's just Koto with his back leg casually thrown over Lyra's neck. She doesn't seem to mind.

The photos above were taken before the e-collar entered Lyra's life. Below is our hero and heroine just a few moments ago:

Lest the repose of these photos fool you -- be assured a very healthy portion of Koto and Lyra's day is spent dashing across the downstairs like a couple of lunatics, stopping only to engage in fierce mock-battles.

But that is harder to photograph.

Why "Koto" & "Lyra"?

We didn't intend to give our kittens names that would make everyone go, "Huh?" It just worked out that way.

At the shelter, the male kitten was called "Whispers" and the female "Buttons." Or, as my husband put it, "those stupid names."

So, there was no question our new cats would be remained. Unfortunately, when it came to the naming process, I had criteria, my husband had criteria, and each daughter had an opinion. So our little furries' names are the product of much debate and perhaps a bit too much brainstorming.

My parameters were that the kittens had to have real (human) names -- and the names should be short (2 or 3 syllable) and end in a vowel (in my experience, cats respond better to those types of names.)

And, yes I am a bit, um, particular. But that's why I own cats.

My husband wanted the cats' names to work together - or play off each other if you will (and don't most of us prefer "play" to "work"?) and that made things even more complicated. Not that he didn't have plenty of interesting ideas. It's just that they didn't fit within my narrow parameters.

For example, he suggested quite a few classical composers' names -- we all liked Vivaldi, but couldn't think of another name that seemed to go along with it (um, that I liked.)

I thought "Philo" (as in Philo T. Farnsworth) was a perfectly wonderful cat name...and how about Nikola or Tesla (for Nikola Tesla, naturally) for the female? But the fact that Tesla was a man sorta made that a stretch.

We batted around other ideas that included "Boris" & "Natasha" (cute, but weren't B & N evil?) And "Karen" & "Richard."

(Come to think of it, our female kitten is on the thin side...)

Somehow we managed to forget "Donny" & "Marie."

After an hour or so, I started making a list of just about everything mentioned. We also had: Draco, Casio, Mellotron, Chamberlin, Oberheim, Lute, Scarlatti, Staccato, Fugue, Aria, Symphony...you can see my rule about using human names was ignored at this point.

Our youngest wanted to name the kittens "Candy" and "Licorice." "Those can be their middle names!" I said in my cheeriest Mom voice. Because all cats do need full names.

The older daughter was also cooperative. She came up with Melody for the female kitten -- which we liked. While trying to think of a way to make "Lyrics" into a male name, I thought of "Lyra." For the female, naturally.



Not only was "Lyra" a nod to the Golden Compass (and also a reference to my alternate reality as a virtual steampunk - yeah, we won't go into that silliness here)...


...but more significantly Lyra was also a stringed instrument (we're big into music in our household)...


...and the name of a constellation...



...which seemed especially appropriate for this tiny kitten whose big eyes shone out of her dark fur like stars in the night sky.


Still, we went to bed that night without agreeing on a suitable name for our male kitten.

But the next day, through the marvelous power of the internet, my husband had found a companion name, "Koto."

Not only was it also the name of a stringed instrument (as is "Lyra") but evidently "Koto" is also the Japanese name for the constellation Lyra (or at least that's what the internet told us.)

Ah, the symmetry!

Koto (above) & Koto (below)

Cone and Craziness

It's been 2 weeks since Lyra was spayed (at age 10 weeks!) at the animal shelter. We adopted her and Koto (he was neutered too)just about 24 hours after the surgery.

For reasons unknown, we were not given any post-op instructions from the shelter when we adopted the kittens. Both seemed completely up to speed when they came home, so we didn't restrict their activities, above trying to keep Lyra from jumping too much the first few days.

About a week later, I noticed Lyra's incision was weeping -- just a little, but a cause for concern. A trip to the vet confirmed an infection. An antibiotic (Clavamox) was dispensed, and she was given a plastic Elizabethan collar (e-collar) to keep her away from the incision. They had to cut down the cone just to get it to fit around her teeny lil neck.

She adjusted surprisingly well to the cone -- barely bothered her at all, even from the start. And the antibiotic took care of the infection. Unfortunately, the healing hasn't been going as well -- yesterday I thought the incision was healed enough to take the cone off, that is until what appeared to be a scab fell off and I saw that about a 1/8 inch wide area in the middle of the incision was still raw.

In retrospect, maybe the old "scab" was some litter/pus that had gotten stuck in the incision. But a new, real, scab has formed, so I have hope that in another week this will all be history. Meanwhile, she is still on the antibiotic - and still in the cone.

Don't feel bad for our little lady, though. She continues to romp about with her brother as if the plastic around her neck didn't exist. The worst part of the whole thing is that she is not able to clean herself after bathroom duties. So, some human intervention has been required to remove undesirable...er...substances from the fur at the base of her tail.

Both Lyra and Koto have proven to be sweet and affectionate...they transitioned into their new living situation without any problems at all. They purr like crazy, and Koto especially has this bird-cooing-like sound he makes when he wants either human or feline attention.

They play like maniacs and some of their favorite "prey" are balled up paper or paper towels -- which they will carry about in their mouths after vanquishing.

Koto protects the family from a vicious couch.

Meanwhile, at night and when we are out, the kitties remain confined to a bathroom -- I'm afraid to let Lyra roam freely unsupervised with the e-collar on. While they slept in the carrier for the first few days, lately they have taken to sleeping here:

Prologue: April 16, 2008 Adoption Day

Leaving the shelter with kittens in carrier...ten weeks old, and spayed/neutered the previous day.

The female kitten peers up curiously during the ride home, while her brother tries to make himself as small as possible in the corner of the carrier.

Once home, our new little girl comes out as soon as the carrier door in opened...
I pick her up and she starts purring - loudly - and I am thinking, "Yeah, this is going to work out just fine...."

Then it's time to explore (and catch herself some yarn.)

Ten minutes later, the male kitten is still curled up in the carrier;that is, until he is bribed out with a plate of food.

And sister joins in...

Eating is followed by three hours, yes THREE hours, of two kittens chasing yarn and string like crazy. Turns out our seemingly timid young male is a maniac.

They didn't even pay attention to the Obama-Clinton debate.

Kitten as blur:
It's been almost a week since we brought these cuties home. The first night, they spent so much time playing with the kids (while parents watched from the sidelines) that they didn't even seem to remember the older generation the next morning. But it wasn't long before they began to seek me and Esteemed Husband out for petting and playing.

They adjusted amazingly -- the shelter and/or fostering before adoption had them completely litter trained and used to human contact. And at this point they are still content to spend every night in the powder room without complaint -- until they are bigger, I'm afraid to let them roam free at night -- they do get into everything. But that's what makes them so much fun.

Of course, I didn't mention the worms in the poop the first night. Why ruin a nice heart-warming story with tales of parasites? A quick trip to the vet and all has been taken care of (I hope.)

Prologue: Monday, April 14th

I went into the cat room at the Animal Welfare Association, looking for the long-haired kittens I had seen listed on Petfinder the day before.

Instead, I found two cages of adorable short-haired kittens...

Walking out to ask someone at the front desk which of these friendly and playful grey kitties was available for adoption, I finally spotted the long-haired trio I had been looking for in the first place, in a crate that had been partially obscured by the door.

The artists formerly known as Whispers, Buttons, & Pugsly

Two of the three 10-week-old black kittens - one male, one female - were still available. Yay! A cell phone call later, my husband and daughters were there...although I was already hooked, we needed a consensus.

No convincing was necessary. All agreed that we would adopt "Whispers" and "Buttons." And that we would be changing their names as soon as possible.

Site Under Construction

Kittens this cute deserve, nay, demand their own website.

Meet Koto and Lyra, 10 week old kittens...

...coming home with us tomorrow.