A Maddie and Trotter Poem B4 Christmas

'Twas four nights before Christmas
And all 'round the house.
Two kittens were racing
For one fur-less toy mouse.

The sheen on the floor tile
In the kitchen so quiet
Was soon to become home to
One eight-legged cat riot.

First Maddie,
Then Trotter
To the room came a skidding.
Each reaching far forward
To bat at the mouse.

But wait!
In a flash
Their direction had changed.
A chopstick was poking
From under the fridge.

They rumbled,
Then tumbled.
Each after that stick.
Both fighting to prove
Who could grab it most quick.

But then it was Trotter
Who spied a white string.
He reached with his paw,
To his mouth came the twine.
And he trilled as he left
Dragging string 'cross the room,
This thingy is mine,
It's all mine, you can't have it.

Then quick 'round the corner
Speeds Maddie right at him.
He grabs for a tail
And the string is forgotten.
They leap and they jump
Flying one o'er the other.
Biting and kicking
And then it's too much.

So much running and playing
Wears two babies out.
One face lick,
Then an ear kiss
And they collapse on the floor.
It's nap time, they're tired.
They've finally relaxed.

So I run to the computer
My mind whirring like crazy.
It's time to check Facebook,
Then make a blog post.

It's just a brief respite
From purrballs
You see.
They like to take monitor space
Right in front of my face.

Now Christmas is coming
So I'll finally say,
Merry Christmas sweet kittens
And you two sleep tight.
It won't be long now I know
Till you're at it again.

The Velcro Move

Maddie was bouncing around on the bed as I got ready for work this morning.  I'm not sure what bee got under his bonnet, but he was running in circles chasing his tail, and doing vertical leaps all over the bed.  I had decided to wear a favorite Christmas necklace to work, which is a handmade piece made up of clothespins with reindeer faces (and one in the middle with a red nose) and tiny jingle bells strung on thin red and green ribbon.  As soon as I brought it out of the closet, I noticed Maddie was extremely interested.  He began to follow me and watched my every move as I placed it over my head.  He leaped up and began the dangerous kitty hunting crouch on the edge of the bed.  I moved back just as he launched himself, arms outstretched, toward where my neck had been a moment earlier.  Someone at worked referred to it as the Velcro move... arms wide and claws ready to catch onto anything in his path.  I've laughed at him Velcro-ing himself to the back cushion and sides of my La-Z-Boy rocking chair, but I never imagined he would so fearlessly go for a human target.

Good Morning!

At 4:15am this morning, I was awakened by a trilling kitten walking across my face.  Trotter stayed a few minutes, but I was then able to go back to sleep.  Whatever he'd wanted to say had apparently been said, so he returned to someplace else in the apartment.  When my alarm sounded at 6:00am, I attempted to reach over to hit the snooze button, but something prevented my movement.  There was a grey kitten lying across the air tube of my CPAP machine.  He wasn't blocking the air flow, but he was close enough to my head that I couldn't move in any direction.  As I finally managed to reach for the alarm, I was greeted by another weight at my back... of course, Maddie had to be sleeping there!

Later, as I was taking my morning shower, I laughed at Trotter, who was perched on the edge of the tub watching the water.  He jumped away without falling into the shower stream, but as I turned off the water, I noticed his favorite toy, (a thick piece of woven cotton cord that he likes to drag about) which he'd apparently dropped into the tub.  I don't think it was a gift.  I think he was waiting for me to get out so he could jump in and attempt to drop it down the drain.  For some reason he enjoys dropping it into wet things.  A couple of times I've found it floating in their water dish.

This is Trotter and his String

 Later, as I was fighting off kitties who were trying to untie my shoe laces as I tried to tie them, there was a cat fight commotion to be heard somewhere outside.  Both of them jumped up on the chair beside me with extremely worried looks on their faces.  I like to think that they were ready to defend me from the marauders.  Whatever it was passed quickly, and they were soon back to surfing in a trashed shopping bag that had contained my toilet paper purchase from Saturday.

Uh oh, gotta go.  Maddie is sitting beside me at the computer desk, and he's just noticed the toggle chains from the ceiling fan above us.  He's standing up leaning against the monitor and peeping toward the ceiling.  That can't be good.

Racetrack

Racetrack, that's me.  The kittens were not happy that I lingered in bed longer than normal this morning.  After the now-usual face touching and climbing over my head, they resorted to racing around the bed at full speed.  There was a bit of foot-chasing, but mostly they were just running around all over me on the bed.  What choice did I have, but to get up and assess the damage.  Yup, all I got were innocent looks as they moved on to the next game.