Personality

I feel like maybe I should put a link to "Cult of Personality" here. I didn't really know the song too well a month ago, but it's on one of our Guitar Hero games and R likes it so there you go. Anywho...

Those of you who know me well may know that I'm a dog person, through and through. I've never had a dog of my own: my brother got a dog-who was incidentally put to sleep about a month ago God rest her mischievous soul- and my sister got a dog and my mom got a dog. Never worked out for me, mostly because I was old enough by the time my sister got one that I was going to go to college and couldn't take it with me. So one of my life goals has been to get a dog. I would love to have a lab of some sort-while I love all of my family's dogs, I think our lab fits my personality best. On top of that my boss has a black lab puppy and this has reinforced my belief that a lab is my dog: playful, smart, loving, and admittedly somewhat of a hellian. Sounds perfect to me! It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a dog when I got married and moved into a house for the first time (I've been living in apartments of varying quality since college), however our house isn't very big and R and I don't really live a dog life at the moment. Since we both have long commutes this means the puppy would have had to be inside for too long at a time. It seems that a dog is going to have to wait until we move to a bigger place with more space, a bigger yard, and within 15 minutes commuting distance (by car...I would LOVE to be able to commute to work by bike) from our house. Not to mention that R is not a dog person, so he has to get accustomed to the idea.

R is, however, a cat person. They've had cats in his family for most of his life, and he adores the two that live with his parents-Jimi (or Jimmy...don't know which) and Mia. We wanted to get a pet, and since a dog is out for now cats seemed the most likely choice. I've never really been a cat person, but I was willing to get some because I figured if they had a good personality it wouldn't matter.

And so, may I introduce to my blogging community:
Leela




And Gizmo!!!
They're about 3 months old now. We got them a month ago from a local animal shelter. These pictures were just taken a few minutes ago, so they're the most recent that some of you will have seen (I've got smaller kitten pictures on Facebook that many of you have most likely seen). And these cats have got some personality.

We were told they're from the same litter, and while Leela is black and Gizmo obviously is not, they do seem to have the same bone structure, and they're about the same size. Gizmo is fluffier than Leela, however. I took them to the vet yesterday for a round of vaccines and expected Giz to outweigh Leela but surprise! They were the same. Go figure. It's funny these are the kittens we got, because we almost passed them up. At the shelter, you could go from cage to cage and take the kittens out and interact with them. There was one domestic medium hair who had a great personality and we were close to picking her as one of our kittens (we wanted to get two so they would have some company during the day!), and when we got to the cage with Gizmo, Leela, and their brother, odds were not good. Gizmo, when I took him out to hold him, was TERRIFIED. He wasn't struggling to get away, but he was clinging onto my shirt for dear life, and just had this look of utmost fear on his face. And he was shaking-not that I blame him too much. I imagine life in a shelter is stressful, but his personality wasn't exactly shining through. Leela wasn't quite as scared (which is her nature-she's gutsier than Gizmo) but still was shaking and such. So we put them back and moved on. When we circled around again, though, I watched them in their cage and they were so playful! I went out on a limb suggesting we get these two, and Rick agreed that they had some personality, they were just too stressed to show it.

So what are these personalities? Well, Gizmo is an attention hound. He was the most shy at first, so I worked hard that first day to pet him and make him comfortable. Now he's always begging for attention-from bringing a toy to us while we're watching TV, to coming into the shower with me (he fell in yesterday-pretty hilarious). He has the loudest purr I've ever heard. If we'd known it was this low when we got him, I'm pretty sure we'd have named him Diesel. Oh well. I like the name Gizmo better anyway. He's a troublemaker too-he loves the kitchen table, loves stealing the bag of treats (closed thank the Lord) from the coffee table before we clip their nails, and generally getting into other bouts of mischief. He's really curious too, which can be funny to watch. The first time I showed him himself in the mirror was a sight to see! He loves to be held, especially on his back so he can have his tummy scratched.

Leela is very different, which I didn't really expect since they're siblings. She's fearless-you turn on the vacuum and she just looks at you, whereas Gizmo is already hiding somewhere. She's really friendly and loves to be held and petted, but only on her terms. If you pick her up unawares, chances are she'll tolerate you for about 20 seconds and then be ready to move on. She's often following her brother around, but sits and watches him do whatever goofy thing he's up to. It's really funny to watch them with the toys too. Gizmo will attack the mouse on the string outright, without really waiting. Leela-she really hunts this thing. I think I know now why females are the hunters of the cat world...

Oh and both of our kittens growl like dogs. It's really strange, but so funny. Who knew?

So yeah. Our cats have personality. They get into everything. They LOVE to eat. They like sleeping on top of me when I'm reading on the couch. And they're fantastic.