You've Got Mail...

Dear readers!

We must, again, apologize for not keeping you updated, but our parents were on vacation before Christmas and have been stressed out ever since they returned. While they were gone, we spent our computer-time sending our parents emails instead of blogging. I hope you understand :).

Here is a translation of the emails we sent our parents (thanks for all your help, Omi, our two-legged granny):

December 12:

Dear Mom and Dad!

We understand that you need to take a break and we are not upset about you being on vacation. Omi is taking very good care of us. She enjoys playing with us, and, what's even more important, she knows where you've hidden our food!

Even I (Hanzō) have stopped protesting and my eye inflammation is completely gone now. Omi didn't even recognize which eye was sick today. I was so hyped up and active that she didn't even get a chance to put eyedrops in my eye this morning. I am so proud that I was much faster than her and was able to escape. Moreover, I defended myself with all four legs when she tried to catch me. I don't need those stupid eyedrops any more. I am usually quite busy playing with my brother and I don't like being disturbed. Omi said that she had to administer another dose of eyedrops in the afternoon. Ok, I will think about it. I hope you will be well rested when you come home so you can bear us rioting non stop again after Christmas.

Omi has promised to clean the fur Hattori threw up on a few weeks ago. We can't wait. She'll spend the whole afternoon with us today. We'll see...

Many kisses!
Your sons,
Hattori and Hanzō

December 13: 

Dear Mom and Dad!

Hattori and I have decided to divide up the work of sending you emails. Today, it is my turn. Tomorrow, it will be Hattori's.

Omi came over at noon. That was fun. Hattori and I helped her clean the fur. Omi put the fur in the bathtub and filled it with a bit of water. We wanted to watch very closely, of course. As you know, Hattori is a go-getter, who is much less scared than me. He kept standing on the fur, until his paws were already quite wet. I preferred to play safe and remained on the side of the bathtub. When it got too wet, Hattori lost interest in the fur and started chasing me, which was so much fun. In the end, we were so exhausted that not even the vacuum cleaner could distub our peaceful nap on the couch. Later, Omi went home to cook dinner. We arranged for her to come feed us at 6pm. Hopefully, she'll play with us again after dinner!

Kisses! Hattori sends his regards!
Hanzō

December 14: 

Dear Mom and Dad!

Yesterday, I thought you were coming home. There was a loud noise in front of our front door. I started meowing "hello," but the door didn't open. In desperation, I also meowed a little bit in front of your bedroom door (Omi says it sounded quite pitiful)... without success. Hanzō then reminded me that you'd be gone a bit longer and that it was my turn to send you an email. Omi picked us up in front of your bedroom door and explained to us the we need to sleep nine more times until you return home.

Don't worry, though, I forgot my grief quite quickly when I started playing with Hanzō. The food was also good. In the morning, Omi spent a little bit more time with us, but we didn't want to cuddle with her because we were in play-mode. We didn't play with any of our toys, just with each other. It was sooooo much fun. I mohawked up and Hanzō slapped me. We even tried to fight with Omi's grey tights.

Now, Omi is off to buy us some yogurt at the farmers' market. The sun is shining and the carpet Hattori threw up on a while ago is drying on a stool. But where is our fur?

Lastly, I have to complain about one little thing: Hanzō got two treats, while I only got one. Oh well, to be honest, I only wanted one. Hanzō is currently craving vitamin B in the form of yeast tablets, it seems, and I don't really know why.

Hanzō says "hi." Kisses!
Your son Hattori

December 15: 

Dear Mom and Dad!

It's me again. I am extremely proud that I was able to hide behind the speakers and then ambush Hattori when he was walking by. Omi says I am very smart and can climb very fast. When Omi is playing whith us, I am always the first one at the top of our cat tree, but when Hattori is playing with the feathers, I prefer to watch. He is too rumbunctous for my taste and is really good at jumping really high. Omi says everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

When Omi came over at 8am (on a Sunday!), we ran out into the hallway, as usual. This time, however, she was able to lure us back into the apartment without having to catch us. You see, dear parents, we can also behave sometimes!!!!!

We're doing great. Omi is being really nice to us and is trying to be a good tremporary replacement for you. She is just not able to find the flannel pants we love so much. At least our fur is finally dry. We've told Omi to place it right next to our cat tree. However, when she comes over again in the evening, it might already be somewhere else. We'll see what mischief we can get up to.

We got treats today and almost forgot about our food. Don't worry, we'll eat it a little bit later. Omi left the food out, just in case we were still hungry. She was here for almost and hour and told us that she was then off to visit our great-granny in Wördern.

We hope you have a great cruise. Bring us some presents!

Kisses from both of us!
Hanzō

December 16: 

Mom, Dad!

Are you already on the plane? Hanzō and I just fell asleep in Omi's lap. We both purred. I turned around at least 5 times so she could pet me from all sides. Only Hanzō was in my way sometimes. What I really don't understand is that it is still light outstide where you are. Here, it is already completely dark.

We can't wait to hear all about your trip!
Kisses from both of us!
Hattori

December 16: 

Mom, Dad!

How can we join the cat union? We have to complain. Omi locked us in the living room, even though it would be been so much more fun in the other part of the apartment. A woman came over and cleaned the bathroom and toilet and, instead of petting us, Omi vaccum-cleaned the bedroom. Finally, she came in and gave us a treat. She also explained to us that you'll be able to spend more time with us when you get back, as you won't have to clean the apartment again before Christmas. Ok, we forgive her. It didn't take long before we managed to escape. We had to examine if the woman did a good job in the bathroom. It is really, really clean. Hopefully, Omi will let us spend a little bit of time in there and won't be afraid of us making everything dirty again. We'll behave! We promise! We only left our paw-prints on the cooktop in the kitchen. You can see everything on there... unfair! It really isn't cat-proof!

I (Hattori) have to confess one little mishap: when Omi was playing with me with my favorite feather toy, I accidentally landed in the water bow. My paws and the area around the bowl were completely wet and I was puzzled. Omi laughed at me...

Enjoy your cruise...

We've already gotten used to Omi taking care of us... except from today: she mustn't lock us up. Protest!!

Hanzō and Hattori

Stay tuned for (approximately) the other half of our emails!!
Thanks for reading,
H&H

Riot-Kitties

Hi guys,

sorry we haven't posted anything in a while, but we've been busy annoying our parents. We're already very grown-up, but let us individually tell you a few annecdotes from the past few weeks.

Hanzō:
We have been extremely hungry lately, probably because we're growing. This is what our days look like: sleeping, begging for food, sleeping, playing with each other, begging for food (if our parents are home), sleeping, begging for food, playing some more, sleeping, begging for food, sleeping. We have found out that meowing in front of our parents' door very early in the morning is very successful in getting us food earlier. I've become a little bit more vocal, but Hattori is still a lot louder than me. He "talks" way too much in general.

I've discovered my passion for sleeping on my nose. At first, I just let my nose rest on my parents' legs, for example, even though daddy kept making fun of the whistling sound this maneuver makes, but then I got so addicted that I had to start lying on the floor by myself nose-down when nobody was home. If anyone can perhaps explain my new addiction, I would be very grateful, as I am at least as confused as you are. Maybe it is due to the fact that I've had a stuffy nose for a while. My parents think it is because I am spending too much time on the cat toilet, inhaling cat litter. It is not my fault if I have to clean up after my brother all the time. In any case, I really enjoy it when mommy rubbs my nose. I can't get enough of it because it clears up my nose.

Lastly, I have been very needy lately. I keep having "dirty" dreams involving cat ladies, but when I wake up and they're gone, I am so upset I need to be pet as soon as possible. If nobody is looking, I am also cuddling intensely with my brother. I won't admit it though because I am already a very big, 2.1kg heavy, boy.

Hattori:
Mommy is job hunting and we are enjoying hunting dried beef these days. First we make sure it has been chased until it is so exhausted we can easily kill it by salivating on it. Only when it is as dead as it can get, we chew on it as long as possible in order to enjoy the delicate taste.

Last Monday, our guests accidentally left the door to the office/ guest room open, and I could not resist the temptation to eat half of mommy's jalapeño plant. I was punished for not obeying my parents a few hours later though because I had to throw up very badly. We are also suffering a bit from hair loss, as daddy has discovered ten hairs on his speaker stand. I know you might think this is noting, but you have to judge each breed by its own standards. Haha. We are proud to be hypo-allergenic, especially since daddy thinks he is allergic to other cats. This is good for us though so he can only love us... and mommy, that's also ok... as long as he doesn't neglect us. Yeah, we are very high-maintenance!

Here are a few pictures taken in the past two weeks or so. Sorry they are not as good as usual, but:
1) Mommy forgot to charge her Nikon SLR camera, so most of them were taken with her phone.
2) It is already dark when our parents get home from work, so lighting is not ideal.
3) We can't sit still.

Love,
Your rioting Samurai

Mohawking

Dear two-legged friends,

Hanzō is (voluntarily) cleaning the litter box for me at the moment, so I will tell you a little bit more about my weekend. I'd been hoping for a second date with the neighbor's cat for almost all of last week until it finally seemed to become reality on Sunday. We'd met once before when Hanzō and I managed to escape from the apartment, as our mommy was coming home from work. The neighbor was just about to leave her apartment when I spotted her girl cat graciously hiding behind her owner's legs. I was in love, perhaps because I had never seen a cat that wasn't grey (oh, excuse me, blue) before. While my shy little brother was sniffing on the door mat, I quickly, and in a very determined fashion, tried to get closer to her, smell her and perhaps exchange a few meows with her.

However, I sadly never made it there. After taking her coat off and putting her bags on the floor, mommy grabbed me and picked me up. At first I didn't fully realize what was happening to me because I was blinded by love. I had already been dreaming about getting closer and staring into the cat's eyes when I realized the neighbor was petting me. Nooooo. Then mommy said "come on, let's go home" and I found myself sitting in front of the door, staring at the door handle and meowing pitifully. Mommy had no mercy, and told me: "oh come on, Hattori, you are barely four months old." After this traumatic experience, I was so glad to get a second chance.

On Sunday, when our four legged granny and great-granny were leaving after an afternoon at the St. Charles' Christmas Market and a few minutes at the apartment to admire how cute we are, I saw my chance, as I'd heard the neighbor unlock her door. Now or never, I told myself, and entered the neighbor's apartment as fast as I could. Already thinking about the lovely girl cat, I almost got a heart attack when I was confronted with a boy cat much bigger than me blocking my way. He was parked next to the door and I got so scared I mohawked up. His facial expression only said: "what are you doing here little bastard?" Standing sideways with all my hair standing on end, I hissed: "I am here to see the girl." His facial expression didn't change, and I didn't move. Suddenly, I was picked up by the neighbor, who tried to hand me over to daddy. I was so upset that I scratched both of them and sprinted back to safety. In the apartment, I saw my brother Hanzō, and, just in case it was the other mean boy cat in disguise, I mohawked up again in order to hide that I was, at that moment, scared of the whole world. A bit later, I was fed, and calmed down. But what's the morale of the story? I'm done with girl cats for now :)

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Hattori

Right Before Cat-Puberty Started...

If we can't visit the cat-ladies next door, we have to cuddle with each other!

My brother makes a good pillow!

I can sleep anywhere!

Oh come on, no more pictures!

In action...

I will kill you, feathers!

Why haven't we left for the trip yet?

This feels good. My arm is all sore from playing 24/7. 

Mhhhh, sleeping on the computer sleeve is almost like sleeping on the computer itself...

My brother's tail is also a nice pillow!

Kitten Salad! 

In action!

Waaaaahh, where did my brother go?

No, you are not allowed to work from home! 

Cat salad, take 2.

Looking cute!

Today, granny is dressed like us- grey rulez!

This week, I am testing all kinds of pillows...

We love the bathtub a little bit too much!

What, I'm supposed to be a cat? No, I'm a rabbit, can't you see?

We love our parents' pots and pans!

Just checking his pulse :)

No, not gay at all ;)

Yay, daddy is home! 

And mommy is asleep again...

Let's try to eat her hair! 

Do you think I can fit in there, Hattori?

Can't you see, this is a private party!

Ok, one picture

Purr, purr, purr...

I have X-legs :)

Playing with daddy!

Sleeping on daddy!

Where is daddy? Can't he join me in the hammock? 

Mohawk-Kitty :)

What a Week...

Dear readers,

this is Hattori. I am writing this post because I had a bit of a rough week. Daddy returned from his business trip on Friday, so I am not completely frustrated any more, but I am hoping that he won't be gone for this long any time soon. In any case, I am slowly recovering from last week's events, and am thankful for avery minute of cuddling with my parents. Mommy even gets up at night when I start meowing pitifully in front of the bedroom door, and checks on me. I must say that I occasionally take advantage of it and meow her out of bed just to make her pet me. It is adorable that she is always worried about me now. But let me start explaining from the beginning.

On Monday last week, I was feeling terrible. I had this weird feeling in my stomach, and didn't know what was happening to my little body. Probably I was upset about daddy being gone, but now I know that I also should not have tried to lick everything in the apartment and eaten too much wheat grass. Let's say it was probably a combination of unfortunate events. I barely managed to drag myself to my parents' bedroom door and meow pitifully a few times in order to attract mommy's attention before my body started jerking backwards and forwards, like a fast version of an earthworm moving forward, and part of what I had eaten came back up my mouth.

When I thought the nightmare was over, it happened once again. I was so scared as it had not happened to me before. I was very distressed and was shaking. I tried to hide in a bathroom corner, but after a while, I decided it was better to cuddle with mommy, especially since she stayed home from work because she was so worried about me. I slowly started feeling better. In the afternoon, my brother and I tried to annoy mommy very much because even though she said she needed to get some work done, we kept occupying the computer. We can't help it, it is so nice and warm. Also, we are way more important than work anyway, and we are very cute when we are both curled up on her computer on top of each other.

Later in the week, my curiosity caused me to take a bath with mommy. I was sitting on the side of the bathtub and was so fascinated by the movement of the waves, resulting from me repeatedly touching the surface of the water with my cute furry paw, that I lost my balance and fell in the water. Mommy tried to dry me off with a towel, but I am already a big boy, so I wanted to clean myself. The water tasted terrible, like oranges, ginger and salt. Mommy says she used nice bath salts from Salt Lake City, but if it was up to me, I would bathe in fish or meat-infused water. Mmmmhhh.

On Friday, just when mommy said she was going out to pick daddy up from the airport, I had to throw up again. This time, I chose the living room carpet as my puking target, not the wooden floor. It is just softer to sit on when you heave to go through this terrible ordeal. At least this time, I already knew what was happening to me. But it still wasn't pleasant because my parents force-fed me flax seeds soaked in warm water in order to "repair" my tiny little stomach. This time, I also had diarrhea, but my dear little brother, who is obsessed with cleaning, helped me hide the mess in the cat toilet. Sometimes, he would scrape around for three minutes or even longer until the corpus delicti was well hidden and he was satisfied.

Now, I am feeling better, but I am always hungry. I could eat the whole day, especially fish, which we were allowed to try for the first time yesterday. We only got a few bites, but it was so delicious that we tried to climb up daddy's pants when he was cooking. Life is good now that he's back because we like to see our parents together and happy. I have also discovered my passion for curling up and taking a nap on mommy's head if she's fallen asleep on the couch... again!, but I will talk about this in another post!

"Talk" to you soon, friends!
Your party pooper, Hattori :)

The Samurai Way of Life :)

aaoO\\\\\7[''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' (comment typed by Hanzo)

First exploration of the cat tree. 

Since I couldn't pee for 8 hours, I am "camping" in front of the cat toilet, just in case. 

Still a little bit skeptical. 

 Whaaat, the carrot is not actually a mouse? 

We love the Kitty Brain Trainer. 

Cat in a bag. 

Exhausted from all the exploring. 

Missing his four-legged mommy :(

At least they have each other. 

Daddy, feed me already!

Very cute!

Mmmhhh, tea... oh wait, I got diarrhea last time... Uh Oh! 

Sweet dreams. 

We love daddy's flannel house pants :)

We also love sleeping on top of each other. 

Cat sandwich!

Let's try this dissertation writing thing...

He prefers reading blogs...

I want to eat it already. 

... in peace! Leave me and my carrot alone!

Brotherly love! 

Cuddling with mommy. 

Purr, purr, purr...!

The couch is also quite nice. 

Sleeping on the hammock's roof. 

... and enjoying it very much!

The bigger picture ;)

On top of the cat tree. 

Same. 

Yeah, I'm cool. YOLO. 

Why are there only pictures of us sleeping? We're too fast when we're playing ;)

Snacking ;) yummee! "3ei49`" says Hanzo!

  b

I'm so pretty ;)

Laudry is so soft :)

Playing with the stick!

And loving it!

We also love the dishwasher!

Giving mommy a kiss!

Spending time with daddy!

And we're all happy :)

We like using the cat toilet while mommy and daddy are emptying it :D

But why can't we use this thingy like the grown ups?

Seriously, you're taking another picture?

I love sleeping on mommy's hair. 

Hanzo feels he needs to clean mommy's face. 

Exhausted from all this cuddling and cleaning. 

Everybody needs to be clean. 

Taking another nap. 

Ugh, I have such a bad meat hangover :D

Yes, my brother is behind this door. I know it's him and not a mouse. 

I am hiding for a reason. Stop taking pictures, you paparazzi. 

The hammock is also quite nice. 

I cought a bird. Brrrr...

No, I'm not letting daddy take a shower and get dressed before he cuddles with me. 

No, my neck doesn't hurt at all... 

Look how long my tongue is ;)

No, we're not gay at all :)

I am a huge fan of 3D and no, I don't even need 3D glasses. 

I am a parrot. Arrrrr. 

Just enjoying the view, I guess. 

Look, it's our two-legged great granny :)

Mommy stole daddy's flannel pants :)

They're so soft. 

Maybe I can go on a trip with my parents one day...

I already packed my suitcase :).