I got back from E3 in time to kitten-sit for my neighbors while they were out of town.  This period, which will be called The Time of the Kittens in history books, was to last from May 25 to June 5.  That, as we all know, is 11 days.  11 fuzzy days.

I was worried, at first.  I had a cat of my own already.  I love her dearly, but I’ve always known she was a princess and a snob.  Also, she’d never met another cat.  I don’t think she knew what cats were.  She probably considered herself a people.  A few days earlier I tried to introduce her to other neighborhood cats, without much success.  By that, of course, I mean so little success that it was a fantastic failure.  She hissed and yowled and spat and went into hiding under the bathtub.  So much for that.

So here I was with two six-week old kittens and a cat who hates them.  Great.  Well, she spent the first several days underneath the bathtub in self-imposed exile, while I chased the kittens around with a camera and flooded the #fragdolls irc channel with deep and meaningful treatises like “KITTENS!”

It’s easy to fall in love with kittens.  It took all of 2 days for me to succumb to their fuzzy power and decide that my neighbors were not getting these kittens back.  They slept on me while I was playing PS2, on my keyboard when I was trying to use it, and in the audio equipment on a hammock of wires.  They’re going to be the biggest nerd cats ever.  I love it.

I worried every day that came close to June 5.  I knew I had a shot at keeping one of the kittens.  The neighbors were fostering them from the pet shelter and were considering one of them as a permanent addition to the household, which left the other up for grabs.  I hated the idea of splitting the two up, since they’re littermates, but better living close enough to visit each other than in some random home that doesn’t have awesome wire hammocks.

The 5th came and went, but I didn’t see the neighbors.  Maybe they would never come!  I rejoiced.  The next day they stopped by, of course.  So I gave them the bad news.  The kittens were keeping me.  Much to my surprise, they were happy that i wanted to keep both.  It seems they had done some plotting of their own, and even hoped that we would succumb to the feline charm just as we did.

So without further ado, please allow me to introduce you to the newest members of my family.

This is Legs McGee (top) and Shortcut (bottom).  He’s an adorable little stud who will tackle anything that moves.  I haven’t settled on a permanent name for him.  I like Caboose, but I don’t know if I want to curse him to a future of amusing idiocy.  She’s a beggar with the saddest face imaginable, who has shown me more keyboard shortcuts than I ever imagined existed.  She also loves to sleep on my keyboard.

This is my cat, Nutmeg.  As you can see, she eventually decided she doesn’t hate kittens.  It would take a heart of stone to resist them.  Apparently she doesn’t have one, a fact I was very happy to learn.  I could wax poetic about what a good gaming spectator she makes, but perhaps I’ll save it for another day.

- jinx

i don’t go to sleep to dream