There's so much more to share about the babies.  And plenty of photos too.  So lets get on with it.
 
 

Smoke's Fur Obsession:

Smoke has something of an obsession with all things fur.  First it was the Kissing Reindeer (though we refer to them as the kissing Moose).  As Fudgie told in his blog Smoke developed an early obsession with the "Mooses".  He, being the more hyper and agile cat of the two, was always stealing them from the top of the computer monitor.  Joe would chase him, find him beating on the mooses and take them away.  Putting them back on top of the monitor only made it easier for them to get stolen again.  So they were stuck on top of the entertainment centre.  At seven feet off the ground, they should be safe there... Then Smoke developed an interest in the small bear Lynda received with a boquet of flowers.   Now this poor bear had never done anything to offend Mr  Smoke.  It sat innocently on top of the bookcase in the Master bedroom.  But it's covered in soft fur so that's good enough for Smoke.  He would bear-nap it and take it down to one of the kitty beds and play (attack) him there.  The little bear had to be rescued more than once.  Since the kitties were getting access to the bedroom from mid-November on, we had to watch for bear-napping shenanigans on a regular basis.

After a while Smoke decided he had to find a way to the Mooses on top of the entertainment centre.  In early December we noticed that Smoke was doing a lot more climbing.  He attempted to jump on top of the dressers in the bedroom -- usually with disasterous results.  Watches, rings and various objects normally found on top of the dressers were scattered on the floor.  Smoke had to listen to a lot of "Smoke! GET Down!!", with only nomimal chance of compliance.  Little did we know at first that it was merely practice to get to the top of the entertainment centre.  One weekend morning we woke to some unusual noises out in the living room.  "What are they doing out there?", we wondered.  When we got up, we found out as the mooses were on the ground and not on top of the entertainment centre.  It didn't take long before Smoke showed us his climbing style: from the floor to the top of the stereo system, then to the top of the TV an then reaching to the top of the bookcase and climbing the shelves while pulling himself to the top.  Once at the top, toys and mooses were all his!  Spot meanwhile, innocent kitty that he is, merely looked on.  We think he's actually the brains of the operation -- encouraging Smoke in his naughtiness but keeping a 'paws off' policy.  You'll notice in the photo of Smoke on top of the entertainment centre that, along with the dislodged advent calendar, the mooses have been flung to the floor for easy retrieval later for play.  And attacking!

You can see it's quite the climb.  Smoke showed us a couple of times how he gets up and down from there -- and also had some fun with the poor plant up there.  He loves to play with plants (which is why we have fewer and fewer of them) and managed to tip over the plant and all the water and most of the soil in it while playing up there.  It may have scared him off since we haven't seen him up there since that incident.  But with no toys stored up there there's not that much to attract him.  The Mooses were rescued from him and taken to the bedroom where they were suspended from the ceiling fan pull chains (6 feet straight up) to keep them safe until they were hung on the Christmas tree.  You can see Smoke looking at them there with Joe's help in the top left photo.

Smoke's fur obsession reached new and troubling heights with the Christmas season.  When we began our decorating, the Santa hat came out.  An ordinary Santa hat: red fur trimmed with white and a white fur pom-pom on the end.  Perfect for a fake-fur hating kitty to attack!  We were in trouble if Santa came to our house -- Smoke would attack to save us from the fake fur-clad beast.  Not exactly what we had in mind for Christmas.  So Christmas eve Lynda found Smoke his own personal kissing mooses and presented them to him in the hopes that the little guy would wear himself out playing and attacking them and have no energy to go after Santa.

 

Smoke has a lot of fun playing with Mr. and Mrs. Moose on Christmas Eve...

 

Grooming:

The kitties get a regular toenail clipping from Joe.  He has managed to master the nail clipping partly because he used to clip Angelo's claws.  You can see that Spot doesn't like it that much.  He makes quite the fuss about it, while Smoke mostly endures it.  We are keeping them as indoor cats and in the hopes of saving our floors and furniture we decided to do something about their claws.  No.  We are NOT going to have them de-clawed.  This 'procedure', essentially the amputation of their toes at the first joint, is cruel and we would never consider it.  We have instead tried them on Soft Paws and though we're not quite convinced that it's for us, if you need to have kitty's claws such that he won't claw up your stuff, this might be the option for you.  They keep pulling off their soft paws but when it came time for their most recent bath, they kept us from getting torn completely to shreds!  (Updated)  Although the soft paws seemed  a good idea, we decided that if they did ever get out by accident, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves with the soft paws on.  That combined with their ability to remove them with dispatch, meant that the experiment with claw covers was over.  Joe makes sure their claws are trimmed regularly and that will have to do the trick.

Smoke and Spot had their second bath on December 27, 2004.  This time we were all on our own.  It seemed like the how to bathe a cat jokes were all appropriate: Cat Bathing as a Martial Art especially.  Actually no cats or humans were hurt during our bathing adventure.  We weren't as efficient as Miss Shari (who showed us how to do it when they had their first bath) but then she's had more experience.  The kitchen was set up -- objects moved out of reach and towels  found, including their new chamois-style pet towels, and made ready.  The water was warmed (not too hot, not too cold) and shampoo at the ready.  Joe was designated holder, and Lynda washer.  Spot mostly endured the procedure with some complaints and he still doesn't like the blow dryer.  It was at this point that he hissed at us.  Smoke struggled mightily through the whole procedure, yowling and scrabbling for purchase on the kitchen counters.  But both managed to get bathed and dried and are much cleaner and softer for it.  I suspect we'll keep to the quarterly schedule.  In the evening Joe found this blog entry on Fark -- how appropriate.
 
 

Kitties' First Christmas!

Smoke and Spot, at 6.5 months old didn't know quite what was going on when all the green boxes came down from the attic and then weird things started happening.  Lynda was spending lots of time writing in cards and wrapping things.  Then a tree came into the house!  What the heck was that all about?  They wondered about the tree but Lynda and Joe had anticipated that and taking a tip from the newspaper had balanced a couple of small soda (sorry, I've converted from pop on this) bottles filled with pennies on the lower branches.  When Spot and Smoke tried to climb on the branches the bottles fell with a clatter and scared them away.  Thus they developed proper respect for the tree.  The next day the lights and ornaments went on the tree and the respect didn't go that far.  Lynda and Joe placed unbreakable ornaments on the lower branches -- lucky for them.  Smoke and Spot enjoyed batting around a few wooden snowflakes and even took some Newfie woolen socks off to play with.  Those were found in the computer room!

The arrival of Christmas decorations also meant the arrival of the Santa hat.  Lynda traditionally wears it while decorating the tree and sometimes when writing Christmas cards, wrapping presents or doing other Christmas related things.  Smoke's above-mentioned fur obsession came into play when he spotted the hat.  He was mortally offended by it and proceded to take it off any head in his vicinity when it was close enough to snatch and then to beat it.  Of course Joe wouldn't encourage this behavior by wearing the hat and dangling the pompom in front of Smoke and Spot...  Surely he wouldn't!

Finally boxes from the mail and wrapped presents went under their tree.  They were quite confused, but soon found that it was pretty neat to have a tree in the house to hang out under and then the presents.  There were lots of presents for everyone and plenty for kitties.  Spot liked one box in particular -- a green one Joe wrapped for Lynda.  He thought that gnawing on the corner was quite fun.  Did you know that cardboard makes a neat crunching sound when bitten by sharp kitty teeth?  Spot knows and loves chewing and shredding cardboard boxes -- as you can see by the incriminating photo to the left.  Joe eventually gave up, knowing that he wouldn't stop harassing that present and taped all the corners with packing tape.

Smoke and Spot fared very well in the Christmas present department.  Although they were relatively new to our household, friends wanted them to have presents as much as we did.  Lynda will admit to going a little overboard in the pet store to fill their stockings.  Yes, they had their own stockings.  Sandra found a kitty treat that Spot would eat (we'd had no luck so far), and Lynnda graced them with a present of kitty balls as well. 
 

The Cat Teaser that they love so much was available in Christmas colours with the addition of some fuzzy balls as a bonus.  Little did we realize at the time how much Spot would love the fuzzy balls.  To the point that Lynda went in search of Christmas toys through January to make sure that we had an adequate supply.  More on the reasons for this later.  They got a talking Garfield ball that says things like "Hey! Put me down!" and "Aww, you got me!".  Quite annoying actually, and too heavy to actually play with.  When it was opened and activated, Joe put it on the floor for the kitties to play with.  Spot saw it first and Joe muttered under his breath, "go on, touch it!" anticipating a startled kitty when it spoke.  Spot, showing how smart he really is, walked up to it looked at it and then proceeded to bury it!  He was startled when we burst out laughing.
 

As well they got a kitty tower.  We wanted them to have a place that was completely their own.  A carpted kitty tower seemed a perfect idea.  And by placing it behind the rocking chair, we could use it to block the rocking chair from slamming into the wall when the kitties run at it full-tilt and jump on it when they're chasing each other around the house.  They actually put a mark in the wall that I had to repair and re-paint!   Both Spot and Smoke liked it, Smoke playing with his moosies on the top of it and leaving one there for Spot.  Not a bad haul for two kitties on their first Chrismas.  They also got to play in lots of shredded paper (courtesy Joe's present unwrapping techinque) and more boxes.

We didn't have Christmas dinner at our house so Smoke and Spot haven't had a chance to try turkey yet.  Thanksgiving was also an out of the house event (we're lucky to have good friends to take pity on us being away from family), so they are so far still in the dark about the taste of turkey.  Judging by how much they like chicken, I'm sure they'd make a couple of happy connoisseurs.  After Christmas was over and until the tree came down, they were perfectly happy to hang out under the it and enjoy the lights and ornaments.
 
 
 

Magic Basket and Ball Patrol:   The kitties had all their toys in the 'magic basket' on the floor by the fireplace.  In it we kept the feather balls, the mooses, catnip mice, half balls and fuzzyballs.  We tried to fill it when they weren't looking so toys would magically appear in the basket.  We have since read that they can get bored if they have unlimited access to their toys at all times and have moved the contents of the basket to a tin box (Lebkuchen tin, actually) that we can close.  They can't get at the cat teasers there as they would 1) shred them and 2) they don't fit in the box or basket.

Unlimited access is now a thing of the past but not so 'Ball Patrol'.  It has been determined by a poll of the judges (Lynda and Joe) the the kitties suck at 'ball'.  It doesn't take them very long at all to lose a ball under the couches or a door.  Then they either try pitifully to reach under the door or couch to retrieve the ball or miaow in front of it hoping that we will rescue their toy.  It's not uncommon to rescue a ball from under the pantry door only to have one of them immediately lose the ball under the same door!  Therefore they suck at ball.

They are now quite familar with the ball rescue impliments.  If it's not yet time to sweep the floor (now that we have laminate floors, we sweep once or twice a week, moving the furniture) we will retrieve a long handle in order to reach under the couch and 'sweep' out the balls and toys.  As soon as Joe or Lynda reaches for it they come running and position themselves to get the best access to whatever might come out from under the couch.  We have been known to sweep out 6 fuzy balls, two or three feather balls, a couple of mice and a couple of half balls (although they are losing interest in these) in one session of ball patrol.  Silly kitties!
 

More Cute Photos!
 

Well that's the latest from our little fuzzies.  I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse into their privilaged world.  We are training them to go outside on a harness and leash (do you have any idea how hard this is?) and they are learning where they live in case they ever accidentally get out of the house.

We've added a new kitty, Scrappy, to the household in October 2007.  She's still young and full of beans, certainly she's keeping the boys on their toes.