Lucy, a tiny little Tortie with a Calico face is our newest family member and complete distraction. She is the cuddliest, snuggly-est little kitty on the planet. Her favorite pastime is burrowing under the covers and hugging our legs as we sleep, or nuzzling our necks and falling asleep herself.

She LOVES her big brother Chuki, who is a little unsure what to do about her. He gets along with her so much better than any other cat, even Ollie, allowing her to cuddle up to him at times and even giving her little licks on her head. But she wants to snuggle with him ALL the time – when he is asleep, when he is eating, when he is walking across the room, and he either ends up stepping on her by accident or getting pushed over himself.

She is definitely our cat – the first night she was home she sat very patiently for Adam‘s photo shoot and poses quite nicely for all the random camera moments so far. She doesn’t seem to understand the human respiratory system since she tries to sit on our heads at night and nearly suffocates up, but she is learning…

Lucy was rescued with her three brothers Jude, Sgt. Pepper (“Sarge”) and Maxwell by Toronto Cat Rescue who are still looking for homes for one of Lucy’s brothers who is just as snugly and playful as she is.

No, it’s not a remake of the Schwarzenegger classic cast entirely with felines, it a magic brush (well it seems like magic, anyways) that removes a sweater-full of cat hair at each sitting. I thought it had to cut it to do this, but it doesn’t, it just gets to the undercoat and takes of the hair that has already fallen out, but not off. I first read about it on Mary Robinette-Kowal’s blog (spend some time reading it while you’re there – such an interesting person! A writer and a real live puppeteer!!) and she was amazed that it worked just as well as advertised, and it does!

The pictures at the beginning of the post show the actual amount of hair removed in one sitting (from the Furminator website), and you have to check out the video, below. I got mine at Petsmart, by the way

Chuki LOVES this thing and he’s usually hesitant about new things. He rolls on the floor for it and the first time I brushed him with it he sat by the brush all night hoping I would do it again. This is the hair I took off him in one sitting – we could have gone longer, but I got tired. It is supposed to reduce shedding up to 90% and I have already noticed a huge difference. Some cats may not sit still for a long session, but even doing them in bits or just following them around to continue is enough to notice a difference.

Chuki was very proud of his fur-pile and wouldn’t leave it alone for me to take a picture of it. Maybe he wanted it back? Sorry kitty, it is compost-fodder now.

Here’s a tip: if you have a birdhouse, fill it with the hair you get from the cats or dogs and it will be used by birds to help line nests.

Chuki turned 7 this past Wednesday, we think. He was a rescue kitten after-all, and we estimated his age at 8 weeks when we got him in July 28th, 2001, but later the vet thought he might have been 5 or 6 weeks (!) since his teeth were small and he was still suckling at our fingers, like he had been separated from his Mom before 8 weeks. We didn’t update his “birthday date” though, so May 28th it has been for the past 6 years.

Yeah, kitty birthdays are dumb to some people, but we don’t have any kids and have to take it out on someone.

We bought him some toys and a “Furminator” (found Via Mary-Robinette Kowal’s blog this weekend, more on that later) and I cracked out the bead case and made him a few new necklace collars. He liked the wooden bead one best, so he’s now sporting a fancy new collar for the summer months.

Then we ate 1 piece of cheese each and took birthday photos.

Ever wonder what one of those sparkly cat balls looks like when a cat chews it open and turns it inside out?

No, me neither.

Chantelle: “Why is everything cuter when it’s sleeping?”

Colin: “Because then it can’t hurt you.”

Chuki’s brother/cousin/nemesis/bestfriend/scapegoat, Ollie lives with Colin and Emily but came to the family while we were all still living together and Ollie the kitten could still terrorize his older, grumpy brother Chuki.

We just finished painting a large part of the house – a light brown on the first floor and our bedroom and blue in the kitchen. It was a learning experience, and here are some of the truths we have discovered..

1. Painter’s tape is for woosies.
2. Chuki sucks at painting trim.
3. Sour Cream and Onion Chips splattered with Rona Blue #227 taste just as bad as you’d think they would.
4. Our room painting limit is exactly 2 and 1/4 rooms per weekend. The limit is determined not by time, but by our threshold for aggravation.
5. Cats have a strange affinity for freshly painted surfaces.
6. No matter how cleanly I can paint a trim, I cannot paint a room without getting paint in my hair.
7. Wash your baseboards before you start unless you want blue-painted dust-bunnies (which are not as cute as they sound). If you are one of those immaculately clean people who clean all their baseboards every week then stop reading this blog and go away because I hate you. Emily, you don’t count.
8. You know how cats like to sit on anything on the floor that isn’t usually there? Apparently that counts for upturned paint can lids.
9. Chuki looks good in blue and brown.
10. Don’t sneeze when edging a baseboard unless you want brown baseboards.
11. It takes exactly the same amount of time to paint the first floor as it does to watch the special features on the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy (minus the second disc of the third movie, which we couldn’t find because I forgot to take it out of the DVD player upstairs last time).

So, I’m wasting time and I found this site that generates a cyborg moniker based on your own name. I did one for Chuki and, considering the fact that Chuki is a fuzzy little cat, neither humanoid nor particularly efficient at manslaughter, the result was pretty funny:

Mine isn’t as dramatic, but is kind of appropriate since I am a pretty curious explorer anyways:

I’m having fun playing with all this fun Internet stuff aimed at bored teenagers. I think Wednesday is my “re-living my Internet childhood” day.

Ollie is staying at our house for a bit while we cat-sit for Colin and Em, and he’s learning a few things from our cat, Chuki:

1. Climbing up towels to sit on the towel rod is harder than it looks.
2. I don’t fit on Chuki’s window ledges.
3. Chuki is allowed in the backyard but I’m not because apparently I’m a “flight risk.”
4. My food is okay, but when I try Chuki’s food they say “No” and “Bad.” I don’t know what it means when your food is “No” and “Bad” but Chuki still keeps eating it. I hope he doesn’t get sick.
5. Dust bunnies don’t taste as good as you’d think.
6. Chuki likes to spoon, but only if no one is looking.
7. Chuki told me that if I lick the spilled beads from the dungeon studio floor, little colourful dots will appear in my poop.
8. I don’t fit under Chuki’s couch.
9. Apparently, no one meows while Uncle Adam is watching “24.”
10. If my head is under the bed but the rest of me is not, I’m still invisible.