Happy Birthday Sonic!

Shag heard the basement door opening and ran up the stairs, then when the girl shut it behind her he bounded back down, purring. *SHE'S HERE!*
*So?* said Sonic as Shag purred away super loudly. The girl pet him too but Sonic didn't purr.
The girl went through the basement to check out how things were and saw that the water bowl had been overturned and emptied out, then dried out, some time during the day. She refilled it and Sonic started to drink. Shag plopped down nearby and watched from inside his fluff.
The girl combed the impossibly large volume of fluff on both boys. Shag didn't want to be combed but he had to sit there and endure it. Shag looked over at Sonic afterwards and said, *Guess what I am now?*

*Owned?*

*No silly, nobody owns us. I'm 7 months old. I just turned 7 months old!*

*Big deal,* said Sonic. *Cause guess what day today {feb 7th} is?*

*What?*

*My birthday.*

*Happy birthday! How old are you?* said Shag.

*Three.*

*Wow, three months old? That means I'm older than you! You have to be older than that.*

*Three years, nitwit.*

Shag looked at Sonic with round amber eyes. *Three years? You're really OLD!*

*Happens to the best of us,* said Sonic.

*When you were a kitten like me, were you as cute and fluffy as me?* Shag pondered this.

*I had you totally beat in the cuteness area. I was so cute I could just make humans cry over it. Way cuter than you, kit.*

*No one is cuter than me,* said Shag.

*Just you wait,* said Sonic. *You'll see. Some day maybe not too far away, some kitten's gonna come along who's littler and cuter than you. Just you wait. It'll happen.*

*No it won't, silly,* but Shag worried, as the girl brought him back out of the basement to join her and the others in the Room. He wondered whether this was actually true.

*~Sonic & Shag

Ace chasing tail

Tory was out and about in the Room and Ace was once again lost control of his urges. He just had to go begging her for some. *Tory...hey there honey.*
Shag, meanwhile, saw that the Chair was free and hopped up onto it. He used it as a scratching post for a moment or two, then made himself at home.
Tory hopped up on the bed. Ace followed. *Honey...come on,* said Ace as he homed in on her personal space.

Tory gave him the -look-. *Don't call me honey.*

Ace whined, *Come on...please...*

*What part of 'no' don't you understand?*

Ace couldn't take it anymore. He chased Tory around the room. Tory ran under the dresser.

Ace approached the dresser where she was hiding. *Aw, Tory, come on, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, now cut it out. Come on...just one little hump?*

*Buzz off.*

Tory finally came out from under the dresser just a little bit, enough to drink some water from the new dish. Ace joined her. Tory knew she probably shouldn't let him join her...but whatever. He wasn't going to go away, it seemed.

Shag made himself comfy later on on top of the cardboard cat scratching post. He liked to perch on there and let his fur sort of spill down over the sides.

~Ace, Tory, Shag

for our own amusement

Shag lay napping in his cardboard box up on the white wicker couch when he heard the basement door open and shut, and footsteps coming down the stairs. He could tell it was the girl right away by the sound of her footsteps. He opened his eyes and looked at her, lazily at first. She was wiggling something in her hand.

*A toy! Oooh!* He hopped down from the couch and trotted towards her. Sonic was already sauntering over there.

*Another toy for the mindless amusement of kittens,* said Sonic. He swatted at it a few times, but it was Shag who became fascinated with its movements.
*It's YELLOW!* Shag swatted at it, trying to catch it just like he tried to catch any toy on a string.
He got so into it that he hissed and growled a few times, too. Other times the girl made it dance in the air, but instead of jump at it, he would sit there and watch. He wasn't much of a jumper.
Sonic watched Shag play with the toy. He also watched as little bits of feathery yellow wisps came off the toy and floated in the air. Great, one more thing to get stuck in my coat. He was already somewhat annoyed by the easter grass that had somehow found its way all over the basement. He and Shag nearly always ended up walking around with at least one piece of the plastic green stuff clinging to some part of their bodies.
*How's the freedom campaign coming?* said Sonic while Shag played with the toy as though it were a real live thing...odd, he thought, how the movement of a toy could get you feeling that strange high, like you were killing something small and helpless.
Shag stopped playing and looked thoughtfully at the little yellow feathery lump. *Oh, that. Well, I kind of took a nap instead today.*
*I figured as much,* said Sonic while Shag went back to playing with the toy.

*Oh, but I'm going to go forward with it, all right!* said Shag. *Don't make any mistake about it.*

Sonic yawned and blinked his eyes in a bored sort of way. *I admire your youthful idealism.*

~Sonic & Shag

Wham:

{finishes up drinking from the new water bowl and walks over}
Don't be fooled by what looks like a scowl on my face. I won't hurt you. The only things I've ever hurt are chipmunks and mice. {I've killed a few.} The girl says that I don't have a mean bone in my body. I just want to be loved by everyone. I love all cats and all humans...well, except the cat Ace, who has tried to kill me a few times. I don't know why he doesn't like me. I wish he did like me. But Shag and Tory like me, and that's good enough for me.

I am undersized, and have breathing and digestive problems. The breathing problems come from my flat face and closed nostrils, which I was born with. The vet can't figure out why I get the runs a lot any more than the girl can figure it out. Every cat food she's tried for me, both wet and dry, hasn't really worked. Or it seems to work sometimes but other times I get the runs all day. Today wasn't so bad. I didn't have any ickies today.

Right now i'm sitting by the door of the Room, listening. I often hear noises out there beyond the door. I wonder what's going on on the other side.

*~Wham

The damage that AR activists have wreaked has only just begun.

http://www.petpac.net/news/headlines/importedpuppies/

And this is from last October...I shudder to think how much worse it's gotten by now.

~wynnyelle

The Sunbeam, part II

Shag saw his dad on the bed enjoying the sunbeam. He jumped up on the bed and made himself comfy nearby. *Hey Dad, can I share?*
Ace got up. *Eh, you can have it all to yourself actually. I'm going to get a little drink of water and some kibble.* And maybe lick myself for a while. He was feeling vaguely horny, as was often the case.
*Gee, thanks.* Shag lay down and enjoyed the sunbeam as its warmth faded. A few minutes later, the rays had shifted and except for a haze of diffused light, the sunbeam was gone.

~Ace & Shag

Ace: My sunbeam

Ahh, my sunbeam. Don't anyone try and take this from me. This time of year, the sun only shines in the Room for a couple of hours. Like pretty much everything else in my life, I'm taking it while I can get it.

*~Ace