Hi again! I know we’ve been neglecting you terribly – we’re nearly 10 weeks old and we haven’t written you a letter since we were just five-week-old babies! We are so much bigger now and get to do so many more things. Lisa-mom calls us “naughty babies” but she loves us anyway. That means we don’t even get in trouble for most of the naughty things we do. Once in awhile we do… like when Gwennie decided to sharpen her claws on the front of lisa-mom’s chair… but even then, lisa-mom doesn’t get really mad. We can do just about anything we want!

And what do we want? Well, that covers a lot of territory. We are very busy!

Since I mentioned Gwena, I’ll start with her. Gwennie just wants to play -- any toy or game will do. She's the naughtiest of all of us. I think the reason she doesn’t always come to bed with us at night is because she’s staying up planning more mischief. And then when she does come to bed, she’s naughty there, too. She climbs under the quilt at the foot of the bed and peers out at the rest of us, and then she pounces on us. Or she just jumps on us while we’re trying to sleep. That in itself wouldn’t be so bad, except she kicks and bites, too. When she’s not picking on us, Gwennie likes to run through the house attacking balls, mice, and anything else she can find. She doesn’t stop until she HAS to fall asleep. And she definitely doesn’t want lisa-mom or anyone giving her cuddles unless she’s very sleepy. “No time!” she exclaims as she wiggles free. Oh, she does let people pet her a little at night and usually joins in our two in the morning group cuddle sessions with lisa-mom -- at least until she’s really awake, then she goes back to pouncing and biting.

Megwyn likes to get into almost as much trouble as Gwennie, but she also takes time for cuddles now and then, so I'd say what Meggie wants most is to have friends. Meggie also like to play cave cat and hides under the quilt. But sometimes she forgets to play and just falls asleep under there. Then Ken-dad moves his feet and wakes her up. You should hear her squeak when that happens. Oh, you think I should have said, “squeal”? You’ve never heard Meggie talk. She has a little tiny voice and except when she and Treven or she and Gwennie are wrestling, she talks in little squeaks. She must like her voice, though, ‘cause she talks more than anyone except Treven.

Treven wants to wrestle and get tummy rubs. Lisa-mom used to call Treven “the Mouth” because every time she’d pick him up he’d start talking. And when we play with him, he carries on like he is being killed – meowing, squealing, growling… At first lisa-mom used to make us stop because she thought we were being too rough, but Treven would come right back for more. So now she just ignores all his complaining. Treven likes to cuddle, though not quite as much as Felara. Lisa-mom says he’s inherited the “Meisterhaus flop and purr” gene. When she starts petting him, he just falls over and starts purring like crazy. Our half sister Zara does that, too, and we heard from her new human mom that our great uncle Grompus (Talia-mom’s uncle) does that very same thing! So lisa-mom is convinced it’s a family thing.

Felara is the littlest and the cuddliest kitten in the family. I think what she wants to is be loved. Would you believe she even climbs up on lisa-mom’s lap and goes to sleep when lisa-mom is sitting in the chair downstairs?! Lara likes to play and sometimes she acts like Gwennie – the urge to play overcomes her and she bites lisa-mom’s fingers when she’s trying to pet her. But when Lara’s not playing, she is more than happy to snuggle up to lisa-mom or Ken-dad. I think Lara might be Uncle Zeke’s favorite – he’s always giving her baths. So either he likes her a lot or he thinks she’s really dirty!

That leaves me, I guess. I’m Kalira, but lisa-mom calls me Lira or Sweetie. I want what everyone else wants -- to play, to be loved, to have friends... but most of all I want lisa-mom to quit messing with my eye! For awhile I had a sore eye so I had a lot of time when I just watched and didn’t join in the games so much. That’s why I know so much about everyone else. Lisa-mom says Talia-mom gave me my sore eye, but I don’t understand that – Talia-mom’s eye wasn’t sore and she didn't do anything to me. After I got sick, Shadow-dad got a sore eye, too. His eye got better really fast. That was a good thing ‘cause he wasn’t as nice as I was about having lisa-mom put stuff in it. He’d go hide from her. Me, I wasn’t very happy about it, but all I did was wiggle. I was starting to wonder if human moms and dads ever did anything but bother my eye and make me drink medicine, though. I was kinda mad at them. But then, lisa-mom and Ken-dad saw how sad I was and started spending extra time playing with just me so I’d know they really do love me. Now I sleep cuddled up to them in bed every night and purr ‘cause I’m so happy. And my eye is almost completely better!

Now that I can see better again – it’s the pits having only one good eye – I am making up for lost time playing. I wrestle with Treven. I chase Gwennie and Meg. I bite Uncle Zeke’s ears and tail. I even swat at Talia-mom some. I really like to run and will sometimes go up and down the stairs just for the fun of it. I like the teasers a lot – except when lisa-mom is waving them at me and taking my picture. She’s mean then and never lets me get them, so I stand still and say, “give me that teaser NOW!” Can you believe she laughs at me? It’s not funny! She shouldn’t tease me that way. And everyone else agrees. So, lisa-mom, if you’re reading this, we just want to let you know that if we ever get our paws on that teaser, we are taking it and NEVER giving it back!

Well, the morning is racing by, so I think I’ll go have a snack, then see what my brother and sisters are up to. If you can visit us, please do. We love to have company and new people are such fun. We promise not to bite any fingers.

(--> Cat Tails, Pg29)

© 2003 lisa s vasa