It's been quite a while since I've posted, though I have been
occasionally lurking and having the kitties send their purrs where
appropriate.  I thought I'd pop in to post a few random anecdotes about
cats, just in case such posts are still welcome here.  ;-)

Tallulah has a way, unique to her and impossible to describe, of being
stately and goofy at the same time.  She makes me think of a duchess in
a silly hat.  She's still growing more and more secure about having a
foreverhome, and it's a joy to see.  She now leaps on furniture and
climbs in cabinets with impunity, claims boxes and bags as soon as they
enter the house, and can watch me use the broom and the fly swatter
without flinching.  She's a happy, happy girl; happy to be fed, happy
to be petted, happy to be loved.  Sometimes she looks at us and
squinches up her eyes in such a way that it looks exactly like she's
smiling.  She's also learned to be much less anxious about food, and
has begun turning up her tiny little nose on occasion like a proper
cat.

Lula's hair tends to get curly when it rains, just like mine.  It's so
very fine and silky that petting her is like petting a cloud.

Lula sleeps tightly curled with her fur fluffed out; she looks like a
little black puffball with often a teeny protruding bit of pink tongue.

Hubert is now considerably bigger than Tallulah; he doesn't know it,
though, and Lula bosses him shamelessly.  As best I can tell by peering
at the dial on the bathroom scale, Hubie is about 16 pounds; he's about
2 pounds heavier than his mom and quite a bit longer and taller.

The day I nabbed baby Hubie and brought him inside I popped him in the
laundry basket while I went back across the street to get Lula, because
he was too little to be able to get out of the basket.  Now, even when
he curls up the laundry basket is a tight fit for him.

Hubert will be a year old next weekend, and has informed us that there
will be no more of this "Little Sugarface" or "Mr. Sweetypants"
business.  He is now to be known as "The Hubinator" or "The Mighty
Hube."  Just so you all know.

Summer is bug season here in south Georgia, and at night when I go
outside to smoke I leave the door open so that Lula and Hubie can watch
The Bug Show through the screen door.  I get to watch their little
heads moving in unison as they track moths circling the carport light.

Yesterday at lunch Lula was in a big cardboard box and Hubert was lying
right beside it; three times she reached over the edge, bopped Hubie on
the head, and crouched back down in the box so he couldn't see her.
Eventually Hubie stood up, reached in the box, and bopped Lula on the
head.  She was terribly offended, and had to take a bath.  I reminded
her that she'd started it, but she didn't remember doing any such
thing.

Recently I had fallen asleep on the couch when I felt a very light
touch on my face.  I opened my eyes to see Hubie withdrawing a paw.
He'd booped me!

Hubert runs along right in front of our feet, tail up and curled
forward and ears a little back, in what DH calls his "ready" position,
mrowing and mrrping for attention.  Lula, on the other hand, arches
herself very lightly against our legs, so that we often can't even feel
it, and waits to be noticed.  Both approaches result in our spending
quite a lot of time tripping over the cats.

After so many years with tailless Mike, I have found myself taking an
unexpected delight in the kitties' tails; Lula's long and wondrously
fluffy, and Hubert's long and stripey and magnificently bushy.  It's
sheer extravagance.

Lula likes to stand right beside the air cleaners, letting her tail
blow gently in the breeze.

DH and I sometimes contemplate Hubert's size and activity level, and
wonder where Lula found the hyperactive mammoth she must have mated
with.  (We haven't seen any in the neighborhood.)  At other times, we
watch him hanging upside down and turning flips on the cat tree, and
realize that he is actually part monkey.  But then again we gaze upon
the wonder that is his tail and it's clear that he's really a lemur.
In any event, I suspect that I may be posting about him here on a cat
group under false pretenses.

------
Krista