Yes, I seem to attract the pretty playboys. *sigh*

Surprisingly true. We thought there would be more overlap in kittens from such a closed community, but the five have vastly different personalities. Phineas, of them all, shows the least interest in going outdoors. He's not lap fungus like Grady, but sits nearby a lot of the time or sleeps on the floor near the bed. Ferb never wants to be picked up (Phineas likes being a cat-parrot on my shoulder), but follows us everywhere outdoors and chirps a lot.

It's funny who ends up being lap fungus and who doesn't. I certainly can't tell. And sometimes it's just for one person and no one else. And while I liked Phineas from the moment I saw him, I had no idea he would prefer to be an indoor cat (at least during winter) or that he would attach himself primarily to me. He walks up and gets up on his hind legs like a toddler asking for 'uppies.' And then nuzzles your neck and face to death.

I think sometimes cats develop lap fungus tendencies as they get older. One of our cats pretty much loathed me for 4 years and wanted nothing to do with me. Now he sits on me like a giant lump for hours at a time, purring like a mad thing.

And I agree, Phineas is a gorgeous cat!

Oh, that's the adolescent phase where they're too independent for you. I've seen that a lot. And yes, these guys might go that way, every one of them. Though I'm pretty tuned in to their various vibes and I'd say Grady and Phineas won't.

My sister wanted Grady from the start, saw him at the adoption when we picked up the girls. He and another black kitten were so shy no one wanted them. They hated being caged. Two months after we got the girls, he was still there, being shown every weekend. We were going to take both, but when we got there, someone was torn between Phineas and one of the black ones. Phineas, for some reason, also hadn't been adopted, despite this tendency to wrap his paws around your neck and rub against your chin. Maybe it was his tendency to give you the occasional nip that did it. I don't mind that. I just talk to him about proper manners when he does it. He's a kitten, after all.

At any rate, we saw that one of the black kittens would go to a home at long last and we would take Grady, the cat my sister wanted all along, as well as Ferb, who had never been to adoption because of an ulcerated cornea. And the woman wasn't sure about Phineas, who's a bit hyper at times. And has his limits when it comes to being handled, something we're comfortable with. And yes, his markings and his alertness were so charming, we couldn't understand why he was still unadopted two months later.

Because the boys bunked in the master bedroom, they bonded with The Dude and myself. Grady eventually came out of the closet and showed a tendency to attach himself to me. I allowed it, but didn't encourage it, and eventually he transferred to my sister as he should. She adores him. And he's going to be her lap fungus. He has a needy and skittery personality and he feels safe in a lap.

Phineas, meanwhile, vacillates between wanting me to pick him up and carry him about and sleeping nearby as if he didn't really care too much what I was doing. But he gives himself away when I come inside and he's been waiting on a bench by the door for me.

Btw, Persians are known to be lap fungus. Unflappable cats that just want to drape themselves on you so you can't get anything done.

I love using natural light for photos, even if it means a few get blurry when the cats refuse to pose for extended periods of time. But don't be fooled by Phineas' pose. He's a complete Doodlehead. He's a handsome playboy running in and saying "Tennis Anyone?" and hasn't a thought in his head beyond "Oh, look, it moves!" I had hopes he would be a mouser, but now I'm not so sure. I think any captures will be a matter of accident, not intention.

Yes, this year I shall have plenty of office helpers. I'm already training the new staff on where they can and can't sit. Keyboard-sitting is verboten, though that's easiest to teach with the laptop. I try to move the desktop keyboard to accommodate their preferred sleeping positions. There's room.

Well, I thought it was a great outcome for 5 of the feral kittens, but I just learned from the shelter that other rescue operations highly disapprove of us because we let the cats go outdoors. She's blacklisted by about half the local private agencies because she doesn't make anyone sign an agreement that the cats will be kept indoors. She received negative feedback regarding Miss E's book and it's discussion of cats going out of doors.

You know, it's not like we throw them out. They can only go out if they want to go out, if they know their name and where they live. And we certainly don't let the little ones out after dark yet. And our adults are all expected to come home before we go to bed or we go calling for them.

Yes, there's some risk. But they *love* being out. And we do what we can to minimize risk. I haven't lost one to the out of doors in 30+ years and this place is the best for cats yet.

So yes. Cindy feels "her" cats went to a great home and so do we, darn it!