The sad story of our plants

We have been trying to keep our basil plants alive over the winter. The few, the brave are struggling on. We sprouted some kidney beans for a science experiment. They grew and like Jonah, we were happy. We even planted a couple and they grew even more. They grew more leaves and we were excited to see their development.
And then.... the basil plant in whose pot they resided inexplicably lost all of its leaves. The bean plants looked like something had nibbled at its leaves but I saw no caterpillar.
And then yesterday, it all became clear- I saw Efendim chewing our bean leaves not once, but twice. And then, in the morning all the leaves of all the 3 plants in that pot were stripped bare of their leaves. Not a single leaf remained. Except for the ones he quickly puked out onto the floor.

Thus ends the sad story of our bean and basil plants.

Cats

This conversation took place a few weeks ago:

Eirena: Mommy, Berji-boo-boo doesn't need to go outside to go potty.
Me: But she likes to.
E:But she has a litter box
Me: But she doesn't like sharing it with Bug-bug (Efendim)
E: Well... then we could eat him!

2 min later...
E: I know! We could hang Bug-bug.
Me: If we hang Bug-bug he will die.
E: And then we could eat him!

(Apparently she has decided she doesn't like Efendim because he is mean to Berji, meaning, he gorges himself on their shared food.)
Well, for her birthday we arranged circumstances so that she could have her cat and eat it too.

(this picture has nothing to do with anything except to show Eirena's silliness)

Mommy Pile-Up

The skull

Dr. Daddy showing Eirena the skull

the skull- anyone have a better guess as to what animal it came from?
(yes, that is Eskil in Dr. Daddy's arms, he's being indoctrinated too)

biology lesson for the day- compare the teeth on the skull with the teeth on our cat

Favorite quote: Later, I was telling Eirena that Dr. Daddy would be going to Peru and Colombia for field work soon. Her immediate response was, "and is he going to bring back a skull?"

Utterly desperate

or utterly disgusting.

Eirena used to think it was very amusing to take the cat food and dump it in their litter box. (Hopefully after the last time, she will cease to think it is amusing and desist in that activity.) So there was cat food in the litter box, along with litter. In the past I haven't bothered to take it out because I figured the cats had enough sense not to eat food out of the litter box, and just kept an eye on Uc, who thinks cat food and cat poop are equally good treats.

And then last night Dr. Daddy told me that while he was up working late the previous night, Efendim felt himself to be desperately hungry. (Never mind that I had fed him his allotment of food for the day, this cat always thinks he's hungry.) He was so hungry that he ate his food from his litter box. Incredibly gross. But then, Dr. Daddy continued to tell me, Efendim then used his litter box for its intended purpose, right after eating out of it! Utterly disgusting. And they say cats are supposed to be clean, sensible animals!

Why I am tired...

I'm ready to move out to my own room. Oh wait, technically I am in my own room. Then why am I not sleeping? Let me explain the nightly routine.
So not only do I have to get up to pee twice a night, but Berji has to cuddle with me. Not just snuggle in of course, but knead, then snuggle, then purr loudly in my ear, by which point in time I'm ready to change positions. I finally fall asleep. Then I have to go pee. Repeat the above.
Then Uc starts grooming. Not just licking, but the smacking slobbery type of grooming. I yell at her. I fall asleep. Then Berji starts scratching the carpet. I yell at her. Fall asleep. I hear Uc gnawing on something. Turns out it is either my underwear (yes, she is gross, weird and has destroyed more than one item of clothing), a box, or she is now pulling things out of the boxes under our bed and chewing on them (today it was a palm tree). I yell at her. I start falling asleep and Efendim starts scratching. Then Uc starts chewing again. Then they decide to play chase. I have to pee again. I finally get up... its hopeless. No wonder I want to take a nap everyday!

Now the simple solution would be to kick them all out. Oh... but have you ever tried to kick a dog out of your room? Not so easy. She will whine at the door. And scratch and whine. And bark. And the last time Efendim was left out the room he jumped up on the computer (downstairs), crashed it to the floor and bent the power cord all in a search for food. No, much as I hate it sometimes, I think it is better for us all to let the animals be in the room with me.

The Story of Efendim

This is a brief story of our second cat, Efendim. Why am I telling you about him? Well, because he's odd. And I have a cute picture to share at the bottom of the post :)
So anyway, we got Efendim back when we first moved to AZ. Dr. Daddy and I were starting grad school and would be gone most of the day. We figured Her Highness Berji would enjoy some company. So we looked in the local papers and found a kitten being given away for free. We went to take a look. The story that we got was that the lady had a cat who had a litter and her ex's cat also had a litter but that mama abandoned the kittens so there were 12 kittens to the one mama now. He was fairly skittish when we saw him, but we figured he smelled Berji on us or something. The daughter had named him "Draven" but there was no question that we would not be keeping that name.
He cried in the box on the way home, and sounded miserable at first. But eventually he came out of the box and started to investigate the house. Berji, who in hindsight should have been an only-cat, did not take well to having someone else in her domain. Efendim was actually the bold one wanting to cuddle with Berji and be friends. Berji would have none of it. Since he seemed so bold, we decided upon his name, which in Turkish means "my master/lord". Little did we know how inappropirate it would be for his personality.
Berji quickly put him in his place, which is far away from her. He is very people shy. He's used to me, but hides whenever people come over. We had friends in AZ that did not believe that we had a second cat because in the 5 years that we knew them, and had them over often, he never appeared. When it is just Eirena and me at home, he is out, but even when Dr. Daddy comes home he disappears.
Enter Uc. Uc thinks the world loves her. Uc thinks the cats must love her too. Berji lets Uc know what she thinks of that. Hiss, hiss, whop, whop. Efendim... lets Uc gnaw on his head. Occasionally he fights back, sometimes he even instigates, but normally it is Uc pouncing on Efendim, the cat on his back playing dead, waiting for the dog to ease up the slobery grip on his ear or head so he can hide. This all leads me to the picture I want to share:

Efendim climbed up there and snuggled in. Is this a case of sympathizing with your torturer? Or is the hiding and fighting all just a show? Anybody know of psycatatrist? :)

Someone is confused around here!

This morning Dr. Daddy and I were having a quiet breakfast (Eirena was sleeping in) when our attention was grabbed by Uc. Our female dog was on top of Efendim (male cat) and was *ahem* making thrusting gestures with her pelvic area. Now either I am very confused as to what she was doing, or she is confused as to both gender positions and species. I grew up with only male dogs so it is possible that she was doing some mysterious actvity that I was unaware female dogs did. But sure didn't look too mysterious. Thankfully Eirena was sleeping.

Pets & Pesto

Do 100% biodegradable balloons biodegrade in intestines or just out in the environment?

Doesn't Efendim look handsome here?
(This is a picture for those that still don't believe we have two cats!)

Finally, Dr. Daddy comes home tomorrow-hurrah! I usually make a special meal for him. If he is able to be in contact, he may have a special request. Sometimes it is lasagna. This time, it is pizza. Almost all the time, when we make our own pizza, we make pesto sauce instead of red sauce. We LOVE this pesto recipe. It is really good and pretty cheap if you happen to have your own basil and parsley plants.

Basil Pesto
1 c. fresh basil
1/2 c. fresh parsley
1 large clove garlic
1/4 c. nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts...whatever. I think I prefer walnuts or pinenuts)
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese (back when we lived near Trader Joe's I used the actual cheese, but now in our sans TJ life, the powdery stuff from the deli has to suffice. I think it is still paremsan, just not freshly grated in your own kitchen!)
pinch of salt
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

Stick it all in a food processor and whiz away. Store in the fridge until use.
It freezes pretty well too, if you want to make a whole lot at one time. We have used it on pizza, on noodles, on chili, pretty much anything that you'd like to give a little kick to. Enjoy!

The buddies

Here is a short clip of the "buddies". Yes, this is Uc, preening Efendim. Aren't they silly? And just in case you were wondering (I'm sure it was keeping you up at night...) Uc does fight like a cat with the cats.

We're a snuggly lot part 2

We used to put all the animals in a closet at bed time. Well the princess and owner of this domain gets cold at night because she won't snuggle with lesser beings - (I'm talking about Berji). So we decided to let Berji come snuggle under the covers with us. But then it felt a little unfair to make the other two sit in a closet. So we gave them a trial one night. Uc didn't go crazy, she didn't even pee anywhere, especially not in her sleep. And now Dr. Daddy is gone so it is just me in a big bed.

Actually, no, it is not just me in a big bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and Berji was tucked under the covers at my feet. Uc was lying in Dr. Daddy's spot, with her nose on my neck and her ear flapping over onto my nose and mouth. And Efendim was perched on my shoulder blade.

I think Dr. Daddy is going to have a bit of a fight to get his pillow back.

"Four in the bed and the little one said..."

We're a snuggly lot

having these two snuggled up together actually is a common occurence

cozy, aren't they?

Eirena climbed up onto the bookshelf in her closet to give Berji a hug

Berji really appreciated it- see the fire in her eyes? ;)

This just in!

Efendim finally has a spine! After two months of having Uc chase him around, nuzzle his ears and generally try to play pounce with our most skittish of cats, Efendim had enough.

I was sitting here ever so serenely reading blogs and checking email when I heard yelping from Uc. She raced around the living room and kitchen and yelped some more. And then I heard hissing. I saw Uc cowering by the back door flinching at the mere presence of the hissing, swatting black cat. Uc darted by Efendim as quickly as she could to avoid the wrath of the cat and came running onto the couch to sit next to me in "safety". Efendim sits boldly in the middle of the kitchen floor, having finally developed a little backbone.




I love it when they fight!