Could It Be....SATAN???

Elvira's Halloween photo.

And Here They Are

In the previous post I told the story of how Elvira and her boyfriend Beau worked together to steal a bag of treats from the cabinet. Here is Beau(on the left) and his girlfriend Elvira on top of the refrigerator.

You're Not Going To Believe This One

This post is not about the week's teaching as nothing really different happened on the school front. It was the the usual experiences of great teaching moments with inspired kids, dealing with kids who have crappy attitudes, and struggling with some personal health problems. This is about our cat Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Yesterday I heard a rustling noise in the kitchen and immediately knew that Elvira was raiding the catfood cabinet again. This time when I went in I saw her boyfriend Beau sitting on top of the aquarium outside the cabinet. A sack filled with cat treat pouches was sticking halfway out of the cabinet. In a few seconds out popped Elvira's head with the sack of treats in her mouth. She passed the treat sack to Beau who took it and jumped down on the floor. Elvira followed and they ran out of the kitchen with the treats. Beau gave the bag back to Elvira and I finally caught up with them in the living room. I retrieved the sack, though Elvira did growl at me and slapped at my hand. While searching for a secure place to store the treats I temporarily stashed them in the stove. Elvira ran over and studied the stove door. She then pushed on the door in several places but did not manage to get the door open. I didn't get any photos of the "great treat escape" which is probably a good thing as most of you would have thought I had doctored the pictures. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it!

Oh No!!

This photo was originally posted in January of our evil twins Elvira and Ellen. They have both grown but the sisters still have almost identical color. In the past we were always confused as to which cat we were looking at. Finally there was a difference in that Ellen grew one white whisker. Tonight Ellen hopped up in my lap and I noticed that she had lost her white whisker! Now we are back to the drawing board as far as identification. The white patches on their chests have now become the same and without Ellen's white whisker they are practically identical twins. The only way to know who is who is for the wife to pick one up. For some reason Ellen does not like her and will squeal and squirm. Elvira just lies in her arms and looks sappy. It is deja vu all over again. When they were kittens we used to constantly mix up photos of them.

Elvira Strikes Again

Those of you who occasionally drop by my modest little blog know of the ball of kinetic energy we call our kitten Elvira. So far I've seen her toss cat food cans out of the cabinet so she could be fed, offer me a ball in trade for some treats, and I've even seen her dive into the bathtub while my wife was in there. (The screams could be heard a mile away!) Last night I went into the kitchen to rinse out my bowl after eating some vanilla ice cream when I spied a furtive black urchin doing something I had to look twice at to convince myself what I was seeing. I went back into the living room and said, "Honey, after you got us both ice cream what did you do with the carton?" She immediately grasped the significance of the question and ran into the kitchen to behold our little Elvira. She had knocked the ice cream carton off of the counter, dragged it to a corner of the room where she wouldn't be bothered, and had her head and a good portion of her body buried inside the container. We pulled the now-white Elvira out of the carton and spent the next half hour cleaning her up. Gotta love her!

Mistress Of The Dark

I was sitting in the living room watching the news this morning when I heard a kitchen cabinet opening. I looked just in time to see a black tail disappearing into the cabinet. A moment later cans of Fancy Feast started flying out of the cabinet onto the floor where two of our other guys were waiting. The wife Karen was puzzled why I was laughing my head off so she came in to see. Our Elvira was telling us she wanted to be fed! Here is the little scamp caught in the act when I opened the cabinet. I knew you all wouldn't believe this unless I provided visual proof.

And here is Elvira right after Karen grabbed her out of the cabinet to save the remaining cans of food from being deposited on the kitchen floor. I think she would have also opened the cans if she could have. Welcome to my world!

Little Squeaker

This is Ellen. It's funny how she and her look-a-like sister Elvira are so different. Elvira is crazy about my wife and likes me ok. I call Ellen "little squeaker" because she loves to hop into my lap and make squeaking sounds as she rubs her head against my arm. She gives me a really sappy look all the time. When my wife tries to pet her, Ellen hisses and growls at her. Ellen won't have anything to do with my wife though she has only been kind to Ellen since the girls both arrived. Go figure!

Geez, I've Become My Worst Nightmare!

I've always dreaded people who pull out endless photo albums of their kids and here I've turned into one of them! I'll give into it for now and post this cute photo with Elvira on the left and Ellen on the right. We came home from shopping and saw them in this cute pose. It was just too much to resist so here they are with their proud 'papa' snapping the shot.

Switched At Birth?

Chris's comment on the previous post about Elvira having that same look as the velociraptors in Jurassic Park got me curious so I put a photo of Elvira next to a velociraptor for comparison. Yep, I can definitely see the resemblance! You can see the thoughts churning around in her mind.

Elvira

This is a lot cuter than the previous entry's photo. We are constantly running Ellen and Elvira off of the kitchen counters but they are bullheaded. This morning I caught Elvira sunning in the sink. When I got her down she knew I was irritated with her so she gave me this "aren't I cute?" pose.

Back In Black!

Beau with his adopted kids Ellen and Elvira.

Great News!

We had Ellen and Elvira tested for FELV/Aids today and they both tested negative! That means that we can begin introducing them to the other 7 cats here (slowly, of course). Ellen is now 2.3 pounds and Elvira is 2.5 pounds, both almost double their original weight when we got them. We let them all meet through the baby gates. Beau wanted to play with the girls. Velvet watched from a distance. Princess and Luvey hissed a little and ran off. Tonight we let the girls out into the main house for the first time, without any other cats present. They explored and had a great time. Here is Elvira on her way back to the bedroom for the rest of the evening.

Ellen and Elvira Video

Here are the cute ones in action in this short video. If you watch it I would really appreciate a comment about my darlings.