Pinche Gatos!!

A few months ago, I was unpacking from a trip, I left the room for two minutes and came back to this.




Make yourself at home, Nacho. A lot of those clothes were clean. The operative word ther being were.

And then about a week later I entered the kitchen and saw Toonces found a new place to hang out. Some of you may think this picture is cute. I know someone who doesn't.



I'll hand it to Toonces: she broke nothing on this sortie to the top of the kitchen, which is full of fragile items. No harm, no foul, I say. But still, seeing her with those crack-addled eyes, like a strung out bull in a china shop, makes me want to scream "Piiiiiiincheeeeee gaaaaaatos!".

One Big Happy Family

Or judging by the look of resigned tolerance on Pancho's face, perhaps I should change the title to just "One Big Family."



One of Pancho's dog beds (yes he has more beds than we do) is at the top of the stairs by our bedroom. He does little to keep the cats out of his bed, so they have come to think of it has their bed too.

I believe I have previoulsy posted a picture of one cat in the bed with Pancho. But I've never seen both cats with him. In fact, I took this picture this morning because it was the first time I had seen all three of them on the bed together.

Pancho seems to prefer Nacho out of the two cats, just like Emily and I do. Only a true cat lover could fall for Toonces and her freakishly, chronically dialated eyes. She looks like a meth addict, for all I know. I've never seen a meth addict, but I picture them running around all jacked and spazzed out, with hyper-dialated pupils. And this is a perfect description of Toonces.

But Toonces can be calm at times, and Pancho seems to appreciate that as much as Emily and I do.

It's Like This, Cat

We lock our cats in the basement at night. That way Toonces can be as crazy as she wants without driving us crazy. Somehow she escaped this morning and decided at 5:30 am that she really missed us.

I wish cats were more into being pleasers. I swear, if I glare at Pancho for two seconds because of something he did, that dog does whatever it takes to get my affection back. He mows the lawn, takes the trash out, and offers to take the 88 Accord off our hands.

But not so much for the pinche gato. As if her TO DO list for this morning reads like a shampoo instruction bottle, here's how the first 20 minutes of Toonces' morning played out.

1. Jump up on bed.
2. Meow in search of affection.
3. Get knocked off of bed with pillow-to-the-face.
4. Repeat.

It took twenty freaking minutes for that cat to finally give up.

But I'm no better. This became a battle of wills. Mano a paw. I was fully awake and ready to get out of bed. But I refused to get up until the cat gave up and knew it was never going to be in the bed while I was.

It's no small accomplishment for me to win a battle with an animal that has the intellectual capacity of a one-year old. But I can say with confidence that so far, on June 22, 2007, on the scorecard for the daily battle of Mike and Pancho vs. Toonces the score is...

Mike and Pancho:1
Toonces: 0

Here's to an early end to today so our score may be preserved.



One night I came upstairs to find this. For a cat with no balls, Toonces is one ballsy cat. Pancho's body language suggests he is not at all comfortable with the idea of a cat in his bed. Toonces' body language would suggest she doesn't give a damn. I feel your frustration Pancho.

The Zoo Crew

As Emily posted earlier, we got cats. She describes "getting cats" the same way one might describe getting the mumps or termites. And in fairness to Emily, she is the one who cleans the litter box, so I can see why she is less than thrilled to have them.

Fortunately for me, I have the cushy, glamorous job regarding los pinche gatos: I feed them. So the cats appreciate me as the food source and I don't have to pick up their poop. This explains why I am more forgiving of these cats' friskiness than Emily is. Actually, Nacho is pretty mellow. Toonces, not so much.

So I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. I'll begin by posting some pictures of our two cats, Toonces and Nacho (they are sister and brother).


I think Toonces is on the left in this picture, and Nacho is on the right. Toonces is the smaller of the two. I wanted to name her Flaco, but Emily had naming rights on her.




Toonces and Nacho spend a lot of time together, be it playing, eating, sleeping, or just looking out the bedroom window wishing they were outdoor cats.




And it's good that the cats have each other. Because Pancho still commands most of our attention and definitely has the most toys.