Twofur Tuesday with a bonus nekkid tummy

These two love showing off  just out of reach.. Don't you just want to smooch them and cuddle them?? Yeah, I do too.

Eureka, we have found the 'jackpot' food for these kittens

These kittens have been particularly tough nuts to crack. I have tried hanging out by the food I have just given them but they simply refuse to eat when I am near... well sometimes they would eat, sometimes they wouldn't; they were very quick to run if I was able to touch them while they were eating.

I tried a variety of foods, no go. I tried baby foods, no go. The crust to my quiche was tempting enough to steal, but they ran off with it so that didn't really help.

The other day my husband and I were being lazy in our meal choices and cooked up a box of steak tips wrapped in bacon. Well bingo, bacon was freakin awesome and my fingers were bitten several times as a reward - fyi, I consider any time a kitten is touching me voluntarily and not in fear is a huge win, be it that they are trying to eat me or investigating me with the paw o'doom.

We didn't have any other bacon in the house, so I tried to think of other things they might like. We hit another bonus food while eating hot dogs. I was on the receiving end of both licks and the paw o'doom. I was investigated for more. Mary climbed up on my lap as did Sarah. I vowed to pick up some more hot dogs when we went grocery shopping.

I picked up some cheap hot dogs, because the grass fed organic hot dogs I generally eat are expensive. As soon as I put them in the cart I mentioned to my husband that they probably have grass fed tastes and the cheap ones are going to be a huge fail.

Well I cooked one up and brought it down to the kittens. Apparently they don't like hot hot dogs, because they immediately started hissing at the pieces I offered them. As soon as it started to cool down they started to take the pieces from my hand. I think I've been giving them a bit too much food because there was some breakfast left over, so it didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but there was some definite improvement in their interest in me, and I was able to take my empty hand and put it near them without them bolting for the other side of the room. I shall bring some more hot dog down with me and continue with this experiment for the next few days and hopefully I will be able to gain a little benefit of the doubt.

I should mention that Winifred has made some incredible strides on her own. She runs right up to me when I walk in the room, she winds around my ankle when I walk across the room to feed them, and as long as she isn't watching my hands I can reach down and pat her and she loves it. However is she sees those hands she is gone.

I so wish I knew what these poor kittens went through. Tomorrow they are going to have a reading with an animal communicator so hopefully that will help as well.

It looks like I will contact the shelter at the end of the week to get them in for adoption next week. I will write up adoption cards explaining ways to win them over (bacon and play) They are going to need very special homes that are willing to work with them, but they are so very much worth it. They have so much character

You asked for it, you've got it, More kittens

Drunk sleepy kittens are freakin awesome

The kittens have been making progress and they are gaining weight, so it is time to start thinking about bringing them back to the shelter to be adopted. I wrote in and asked if they wanted to schedule them to be neutered while they are on the smaller side to make it easier on them and let them continue to take charm lessons at Casa de Gato while they healed up.  The challenge of being neutered is a huge one, and if they could return to something they know the hope is that which frightened them before won't be so frightening now.

So I took them in to the shelter yesterday and picked them up at around 5pm. I brought them home and they were still kind of drunk and sleepy from the sedation.  Mary ate some, Winifred used the litterbox, Sarah was a bit paranoid. I was able to hold Sarah and we cuddled for a bit, but she remembered that she doesn't like that and asked to leave.

Mary wanted to snuggle with Winifred but Winnie wasn't having anything to do with it and was growling at her, so I picked up Mary and snuggled her for a bit. She was tired and cold and wanted to snuggle so she put up with me. I was able to kiss her silly, it was so nice. She finally got sick of me and wanted to get down too, and she and Sarah ended up snuggling together on Happy Bear.

I wanted to take photos of them but I had left my good camera upstairs so I finally decided to go and get it. Sarah didn't much like my moving around and ran and hid under the couch. Fortunately they were back on Happy Bear by the time I returned and were sleepy enough to let me take photos, pat them, kiss them, and even manipulate Happy Bear into a place where the lighting was better.

and so I took 100 photos or so of them..

You are only getting seven of them now..

Anyone want to see more of the photos tomorrow?

Maxwell and Faraday, from A Tonk's Tail, at a Walmart near you! #giveaway

A few months ago I found out that the famous Maxwell and Faraday from A Tonk's Tail were in a hush hush top secret photo shoot. Even though I have an in with their human Lisa, I had no idea what this was all about - that is how hush hush it was.

The other week there was a rumor (started by their mom) that this project was at its fruition and if one went down to their local Walmart store they might just find our two fury friends there.

Excited I ran down to my local store and low and behold there they were! I actually couldn't find the third one initially because someone had stuck a different card in front of it, but I eventually found it.

So I bought them all.

and yet still I wanted more, so my husband went to three other Walmarts for me and I ended up getting a few more. I also heard of a few other Maxwell and Faraday fans ran to their local Walmarts and bought out their stock as well.


I love the fact that two kitties I've snuggled were on these cards, that I spent some time thinking about it and wondered how it came about and if my buying all of their cards would matter at all in their college fund, so I wrote to Lisa and asked.

ME: Hi Lisa, I have so many questions about the cards!! Did Hallmark pay them to model? Do they receive royalties? And most importantly, do they have an agent.. No no, wait, I meant do they have.. N/M, that is getting stalkerish.

Lisa: often other departments and other projects it is much much less than this but for this particular project, because it was Star Wars, they got a sitting fee of $50 per hour

Me: That is so cool.

Lisa: So...for the shoot, they spent 1.5 hours in wardrobe (yes, they had to go in for a costume fitting!) and then the shoot took about 1.5 hours (trip 2). They had loads of fans swing by to say hello. Maxie did his 'in the window' shoot months later, and that took about 2 hours.

Me: Was it invite or an open casting call

Lisa: They contacted me, since our two studios work so closely together and they know about my blog (for those of you who do not know, Lisa works at Hallmark). They have tried to use the boys before but the timing would always fall through or the concept changed.

Me: For what? Have they ever been on other Hallmark products?

Lisa: It never got to the point where they told me what it was for - they just asked if they were available. The kitties before - Ryker and Caleb - were featured, though. Ryker was in 2 TV ads, and Caleb was the August pinup cat in Hallmark's 1995 cat calendar.

Me: So no bonus tuna if I run all over the country and buy them all up?

Lisa: Rats! Well, Faraday might donate a wand toy to the cause...

And now I'm curious what Maxwell and Faraday think of being all famous, so I asked them how they felt about being famous.

Me: Hello Maxwell and Faraday, thank you for agreeing to this interview. So are you overly excited to be the new face of Star Wars Halloween?
Faraday: Does it come with WAND Toys????
Maxwell: uh, well, I was actually kinda disappointed. Do you know those lightsabers don't even WORK? I tried to take one apart, but they...
Faraday: yeah, yeah, yeah, back to me. I'm a STAR now, you know.

Me: Did you enjoy the photo shoot?
Faraday: Like I was saying...
Maxwell: He's been demanding his own trailer. With a star on it.
Faraday: Stocked with bonito flakes, Maxie. Don't forget that!

Me: What do you think your fans would want to know about you that they don't already know?
Allie: I'll field this one, boys. Did you know Faraday has a secret desire to move away from the Midwest? It's true.
Maxwell: uhhhh, he never said anything about that to me... but he did mention Star Wars was mancat stuff. More than once. Loudly. Where Allie could hear.

Me: I have heard that Faraday wants to come to Maine to see me.. but back to the interview; So Allie, how do you feel about all of this?
Allie: *sigh* well, if Hallmark and Lucasfilms can't see that I'm the natural and obvious choice to play Carrie Fisher in the feline remake.... Let's just say they may wish to hire a better casting director if they want it to be a blockbuster.

I really wanted to do a giveaway because of the excitement I've seen from other cat bloggers at this and Lisa kindly offered up three sets of cards, so we will have three different winners. We will even go international so everyone can enter. All you need to do is comment on the blog. If you would like additional entries, leave additional comments saying that you:

• Comment on this blog, mention you want to win
• Comment on one of Lisa's blog posts then come back here and leave a comment that you did that
• Visit me on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did.

So three comments for three entries for three cards: Beep Bloop Bleep MEEEOW!
It would be fun to close the entries on the third, but that seems too short, so I will pick the winners on the 5th and announce it on the 6th.