Phineas and Isabella

I just found this post. I wrote it the first week of December, about two weeks after bring the cats home.

Phineas and Isabella are doing great! Everyone is adjusting to each other and it seems to be going well. We are sporting fewer scratches theses days. They are hissing at Howdy less and are venturing out of the master bedroom with much more frequency. In fact, we are finally letting them roam the whole house even when we aren't home and with the dog in. That is huge progress.

They look a lot alike. It takes more than a glance to know who is who. The day we picked them up from the shelter, the person there got confused and told us that Ryka was the male and Asicis was the female. We knew that Ryka had the white hind leg and that Asicis had the darker stripes. So we put a collar on what we thought was the male and off we went. Ryka with the white hind leg became Phineas and Asicis with the darker stripes became Isabella. A week later, when reviewing their paperwork to take to the vet, I realized that the shelter lady had them backwards. So then it switched and Phineas had darker stripes and Isabella had the white hind leg. We were all so confused by this point that all of the children just started calling them both "Cat!" And honestly, I was really still not 100 percent sure who was actually who.

I was embarrassed to ask the vet to tell me which cat was which gender. I grew up on a farm, I felt I should be able to figure this out for myself! However, after the vet tech said she hated trying to determine gender on a cat and I watched what she had to do to determine it, I no longer felt stupid at all. The good news is we were right! And now everyone is starting to be able to tell the cats apart with some confidence.

They are really sweet cats, for the most part. Phineas is more outgoing and Isabella is a bit skittish. They both like to sleep between Michael and I in the bed. Isabella is determined to get on the kitchen counter and try to eat anything she can find there. This morning she got a good squirt of water in the face for her efforts. She hid for 30 minutes. Isabella is a mouser, she loves all the little mouse toys throughout the house and loves to play fetch with them. Isabella also snores! Luckily it is a cute snore and not a loud annoying snore.

Phineas is more likely to try to scratch the furniture and drink out of the bathroom sink while I try to wash my face. Phineas is a birder and attacks anything with feathers on it.

Both cats are determined to drink out of the water glass I leave by my bed - I've resorted to covering it with a rubbermaid container so they can't get into it. Unfortunately they have learned how to flip the rubbermaid off and then proceed to knock the cup on the floor, making a big mess. I've now resorted to a cup with a lid and the straw and I have now found teeth marks on the straw! Crazy cats!

Charlotte can not see one of the cats without immediately needing to pick it up. It does not matter what the cat happens to be doing at the moment, if she sees it she is going to carry it around until it scratches its way free. Charlotte then wants sympathy for all of the scratches she incurs, unfortunately her mother has none.

It is good to have cats in the house again. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them.
Jenn