Hi everybody,

Megan sent me a post where someone asked how Jack was doing, and I was
responding when our power went out (not related to the BIG ONE, just
our local ancient transformers). Now I'm back to retry and can't find
the thread.

Anyway, Jack and his clone Dmitri are both happy as clams! Jack just
isn't the same boy who was so scared when he first got here. He's
social, he's playful and he has his own personality.

It still never fails to amaze me, or touch me, every time they get
involved in a lick fest...or I find them curled up together on the bed,
butts touching. (Jack sometimes just needs to sleep with something
touching Dmitri; sometimes Dmitri doesn't want to touch and will move
over, but then Jack gets up and moves so he can touch. It's sweet!)

There's never been as much as a hiss between the two of them, even when
they're playing musical food. Musical food occurs when one of them
decides he wants the other's plate and sticks his head in and tries to
push brother away. Then the other guy moves to the pusher's plate and
it begins again. Back and forth. But there's never any fussing about
it. Sometimes one will push his head in, and they just push heads back
and forth until they decide to eat from the same plate. Then they move
to the other plate and begin again. It's wacky!

After they eat, they move to the living room and sit side by side, like
the bookends they are, and bathe in unison. Left paw to face, right paw
to face. Like mirror images!

Their summer highlight has been the huge catnip plant that I'm growing
out on the balcony. Oooh, they LOVE that! Fresh bouquets! Sometimes
Dmitri decides he'll hog all the catnip, and will plop down on one
branch, then grab the other in his hand. Jack will run to me and go
Rrrrrowwwww (I call him Moo sometimes as a nickname, because he has
such a deep meow and it sounds like a cow mooing). "Dmitri's hogging
the catnip!"

Dmitri just grins about it all, but then rolls over and lets Jack have
his.

Then there's "Dueling scratch box." Dmitri has always liked those
cardboard scratchers, so I bought them a new deluxe model, the "Play
Cavern Scratcher." They're too big to get inside the cavern, but still
enjoy trying. Originally, dueling scratching was occuring on the corner
of a wall. LOL. But they LOVE the cavern.

Dueling scratching takes place when one gets on the box and scratches
like crazy, then looks to make sure brother is watching. It seems to be
a show off thing. Then he hops off and the other one gets on and
scratches...but louder and harder. And back and forth until they've
apparently decided the winner of the scratch off. It's really funny,
because of the looks on their faces.

Dmitri: scratch, scratch scratch

Jack: "Oh yeah, watch this!"scratch, scratch scratch!!

Dmitri: "Wait til you see this one!" scratch, scratch scratch!

Jack: "Ha, that's nothing, check this out!" scratch, scratch scratch

The sweetest thing is during thunderstorms. Dmitri has always been
terrified of thunder, and hides under the sink in the bathroom cabinet.
Jack isn't scared at all, but he usually goes in with Dmitri, just to
take care of him. During one particularly bad storm, Jack got in there
with him, and when I peeked, had his arms around Dmitri, like he was
hugging him, saying "It's gonna be okay, brother. Just hold on."

If I've got one guy on my lap and I'm sweet talking him, the other one
comes running, even if he was in a dead sleep. "Me too!"

Oh, and Jack LOVES tv! One night I was watching a movie and there was a
sex scene. He really enjoyed that. LOL. Sat there and watched the whole
thing.

A few weeks ago, my neighbor's cat was out (I've scolded her for this,
because her cats are DECLAWED for crying out loud!!! She's an idiot.)
She's a friendly little cat, and followed me to my door, and when I
opened it, Jack and Dmitri were right there, dancing around as if to
say "Ohhhh, a new friend? Yipee!" She arched her back and started
hissing.

They were nonplussed, just kind of looked at me like "Well, she doesn't
have good social skills, does she?"

Anyway, Jack (and his twin) are the happiest boys in the world. He
smiles so much, is very talkative (GIVE ME CHICKEN!) and has quite the
personality. It feels like I've always had him.

Does anyone hear anything from Catharine? I tell Jack all the time how
much she loved him and how hard it was to let him go.

Juls