Kabuki pictures

So, as I mentioned before, my mom is very lame at keeping up with this blog. She claims to be ultra-busy. I think she just can't stand immersing herself in the level of cuteness that I bring to the screen.

I wanted to share a few pictures of myself. I have grown A LOT in the past few weeks. For a time, my favorite retreat from the dog was to hide in his dog dish. While this may seem counter-intuitive, it seemed to protect me from his mighty jaws.


Then tonight, all I was trying to do was sleep, and what do you suppose - my mom took the camera, held it up above me and ... FLASH! There I was again. Good GRIEF, these people! I'm trying to take a NAP here.

Even though they are a little camera-happy, I am happy and healthy and glad I have such a great family. They are glad they have me too - lucky for them. If they weren't, they would suffer the wrath of KABUKI!

My mom fails - bigtime

Hi, it's me, Kabuki. Wow, I have been trying and trying to get my mom to post some new stories about me. I'm practically twice as big as the last time she put up pictures! But she says she has been too busy with work and coaching and throwing pots in her studio for Christmas.

I like the studio - it's filled with all kinds of things I can get into. Sometimes she takes the lids off these big white buckets and uses a big brush to stir around this funny-smelling liquid. I try to get in to taste it, but the buckets are too tall. All I can do is put my little paws up on top of them and peek in. Even then, she tries to chase me away! It MUST be something good, if she doesn't want me to have it.

Mom's pottery studio has a kick wheel, too. I like to play with the kick wheel, but I have to be careful. I can smack it with my paws, but once I tried pouncing. THAT was a big mistake. I flew around on the wheel and flew right off the other side! I'll never try that again. But one of these days, I'm going to stop that wheel just be smacking it with my paw. Just see if I don't.

Anyway, there are new pictures of me somewhere. I am getting bigger and stronger and much more fierce than ever before. Rawr. Now if only I could get those dogs to see how fierce I am!

Yarn Yarn Yarn Yarn - I just love to SAY the word.

Yarn Yarn Yarn Yarn - I just love to SAY the word.

One awesome thing about being a kitten is that you get to learn new things almost every day. Take this thing called yarn, for instance. My daddy has been saying for weeks that we needed to get me a ball of yarn. I had no idea what he was talking about. Mom always just said "uh huh," and nothing new ever happened.

Then today, Mom picked me up and put me in a high place, and a miracle happened! I FLEW! But let me tell you the whole story. In the high place, there was a shiny brown bowl. It had a long string coming out of the round bowl thing

 (I know what bowls are, because I eat from them.) The bowl had a kitty on it - just like me! Then she took the long stringy thing and pushed it through a hole in the bowl.

I'm no dummy - I know what to do when there is string in a pile. I POUNCED, and then I ATTACKED.

Well, you know what happens when you put kittens and string together. I grabbed that rope in my teeth and PULLED. It came right out of the hole in the bowl - aand it got longer, and longer... and suddenly, I dropped of the edge of the world!

My mom was taking pictures at the time. She was pretty surprised when I dropped out of the frame - but nobody was as surprised as I was. When she put me back up on the high place, I took a careful look around, peeking over every single edge. No matter where I went, it was high. 

Then my mom picked me up and put me on the floor with the bowl and ball of string she called "yarn." But by this time, I was smarter. I KNEW yarn was dangerous - it makes you fall off high places. 

Oh, by the way, my mom says the yarn bowl is for sale in her Etsy store. Whatever THAT means!

Why Kabuki?

Turns out some people wonder why my mom and dad named me Kabuki. I'm not Japanese, after all - I'm Manx! But my mom just thought Kabuki would be a great name for me. Here's why:

My New Best Friend

Kabuki at 5 weeks - ready to play

So I may have mentioned earlier that this house has several other four-legged occupants. One of them is an enormous black... I think they call him a dog. He's a German Shepherd, whatever that means. Anyway, he is so big I can hardly see him. His tongue is as big as all of me. I know this because he always wants to lick my butt.

My mom knows that it's important for the dogs to get along with me, and to know it's not ok to eat me. I am very happy she is teaching them this. But up until this week, I really couldn't move around all that quickly, and I was so small, I didn't get to visit the dogs without being held.

A few days ago, my mom put me on the floor to let the dogs get used to me. I was afraid of them. The big black dog - his name is Newton - laid down on the floor and put his head down, so that I could look him in the face. He laid there very still, so I decided I would go check him out. Turns out I LIKE dogs! The only thing is, he's so very big that he has to be careful where he puts his feet. It would still be pretty easy to squish me.

Newton sniffs at this strange little furball that has decided to crawl on him.

The other active dog in the house, a cocker/Boston terrier mix, is afraid of me! I was just trying to play, and I chased her right under the table. What a chicken.

Maybe she's afraid because of what happened the other day. I was on the floor again, and Freya (that's the little dog) bowed down like she wanted to play - but she was being very rough. Before she could do anything to hurt me, Newton pushed his head between the two of us and made her behave. My hero!

I have included a few pictures of me and my new best friend. I hope you enjoy them.

"See how good I'm being, Mom? This little furball is REALLY little...

OK. Let's talk toilets.

Kabuki shows off his mohawk after a nice warm bath.

Seriously, yeah? You people get to use this shiny white throne, filled with lovely water that just washes all the poo right down a hole and sends it to who knows where. No smell, no mess, and definitely NO SCRATCHING.

So what's up with this litterbox thing? Today I used the litterbox by myself for the first time, and let me tell you, it is no fine defeCATory experience! The clay sticks to my feet, the poo sticks to my butt, and I had to have a BATH afterward! Why don't you people just make toilets that are my size? I'd even learn to flush, honest.

*Sigh*

I guess it's just like the food you put in the middle of the plate. I'm going to try to learn not to put my feet in it. It's hard being a kitten.

NO MORE PAPARAZZI!

Please, no more pictures. I just can't take it anymore. I just want to be left alone!

Oh my goodness, FISH

It's a big day for me today. I am four weeks old, and today I had my first taste of FISH! Well, that's what the can said it was, although it looked a little like brown mush with milk. My mom found out today that I should probably have been eating solid food a whole week ago, which might explain why I am so very hungry when I drink my milk. So she went to the grocery store and got a can of this smelly brown stuff and mixed it on a plate with some milk.

First my mom tried to get me to eat it by putting her finger in it and holding it up to my lips. Let me tell you, that is NOT the way to get me to eat! So finally she just left me alone to use my sniffer. It smelled GOOD! So I put my face down and lapped it right up. Mmmm, I don't know why she waited so long to give me the good stuff.

Now, I'm hungry, but I'm still not very good at using my paws. When I put my head down to smell the mush, I stepped right in the middle of it with BOTH PAWS! I didn't care, but my mom said she was grossed out. I just kept on eating and eating, happy that I finally had something besides milk in my tummy.

Well, my first attempt at eating was a little messy. OK, a LOT messy. My mom even took pictures, because she thought I looked so funny. Sheesh, mothers!

Pictures today... Sweet face for a gray Saturday

Morning! Thought I'd share some photos my mom took of me in my box. When I'm naughty (and I'm almost NEVER naughty), she says "Go to your room! And then she puts me here.

The World According to Kabuki, Age 4 Weeks

The world is big. I am small.

The world is puzzling. It's filled with giant creatures, some with two legs, some with four. The four-legged ones have giant tongues and seem obsessed with licking my bottom.

Words people seem to use all the time: "Awwwww!" and "CUUUUUUTE!" Do you think maybe it's my name?

Warm milk is good, but the plastic bottle it comes in annoys me.

I have paws. I just found them last week. They are fun to chew on, and sometimes I can hit things with them. My mom likes it when I pat her face with them. She doesn't like it when I have these sharp things on the ends of my fingers out and try to pat her face. Then she says "OW!" and pulls me away.

Speaking of "ow," my mom also doesn't like it when I bite her chin. I don't know why - my teeth are very little.

The world is big. I am small. Life is good. Keep your paws clean!

Things My Mommy Didn't Know about Kittens

Morning, it's Kabuki again! This morning I drank a whole mini-bottle of kitty milk. My mom says I'm growing. Anyway, today I thought I would share with you a few things my mom has learned about kittens as I have grown.

1. Kittens DO NOT DRINK COW MILK. They also don't drink human breast milk, so the woman at the grocery store who tried to give frozen breast milk to my dad was a little crazy. The recipe that my mom found on the Internets using evaporated milk,egg, corn syrup and oil was SUPPOSED to work, but it made my hair fall out. The best thing for kittens is kitty milk. If you can't milk a cat, go to vet and buy something called "KMR" - Kitty Milk Replacer. It's YUMMY! Add a little fish oil for Omega 3 vitamins. (Fish oil stinks, but I LOVE it.)

2. Tiny kittens can't pee. Or poop. It's kinda gross, really. Usually the mama cat licks our tiny butts until something comes out - but my mom draws the line at licking my butt. She uses paper towels, baby wipes, toilet paper or a soft washcloth, depending on where she is. She says she can't wait until I learn to use the litter box. I don't know what that means.

3. Baby kittens are born with their eyes closed. But most people don't know that they are born with their ears closed, too. We can't see, and we can't hear - but we eat, and sleep, and love warmth. My eyes opened around 2 weeks - and was I surprised to see my new family! They're kinda weird looking - especially the big black one with the huge tongue who keeps licking me. I wonder if he's just seeing how I taste...

4. To teach kittens how to groom themselves, and to keep them clean, mama cats lick lick lick. My mom uses a warm, damp washcloth to do the same thing. Once she gave me a bath - THAT was a big surprise! I'm starting to lick myself like a grownup cat now. mmmmm.... I DO taste good!

5. Boy kittens and girl kittens are hard to tell apart in the first weeks. Even that vet man couldn't tell for sure. My mom had one friend tell her that if our pee place has a little dot like a period, it's a boy, and if it looks like an exclamation point, it's a girl! Most people agree I'm a boy. *flex* I'll let you know for sure later.

Well, that's it for now! Have a wonderful Thursday - and keep your paws clean!

Kabuki's story - Part 1

When I was just a week old, smaller than a hand, my human mommy found me crying in the tall grass out at the horse corrals. She picked me up and wandered around, trying to find my cat mom, but had no luck. So after 45 minutes of trying to decide what to do about me, she took me home. "We have a little problem," she announced to my new dad.

They fed me milk with a ketchup bottle the first night - good thing they thought to look on the Internets for kitten milk recipes, because cow milk isn't good for kitten tummies. Then a nice lady at work had a kitty bottle - so no more sipping from a big plastic red bottle for me! My mom discovered that if she kept the electric heater running near my box, I got nice and warm and cozy, and didn't cry so much at night.

Anyway, I survived that first week, even though I wasn't much larger than a peanut. I had a little problem with my hair around week 2 (half of it fell out), but the doctor said I probably just had problems adjusting to my new food.  Now they're not sure if I'm going to be gray or black. I have black and gray stripes where my hair is growing in. One thing is certain - I'm going to be ADORABLE!

Now I'm three and a half weeks old and growing every day. Today I am very hungry, and so far have eaten like a tiny pot-bellied pig (at least that's what my mom says). Tomorrow, I will share a few of the things my mom has learned about tiny baby kittens since she found me. Until then - keep your paws dry!

Kabuki the Pirate King

Hi again. It's me, Kabuki. I just wanted to show you this really fun picture of me. Don't be afraid - I'm not really the Dread Pirate Roberts. It's just for fun, I promise.