The animals are out to get us

Over the course of the last two weeks, our apartment has been emptier than usual. Two weeks ago, I had to travel a bunch for work-related conferences. Basically, I left on Monday morning, got back late Tuesday night, Wednesday was normal, then left Thursday and got back LATE Friday night. Justin was super busy during that time, so the cats were largely left to their own devices. By the time Saturday rolled around, Condi was starting to look dishevelled and Liza was overly cuddly (to the point she followed Justin from room to room no matter what he was doing). Mr. President, of course, was unfazed, so long as he got his food on time.

Then, after one glorious day where the whole "family" was together, Justin flew to Kutztown for spring break, and I set about prepping for jury week. Again, the cats were on their own. Let me tell you, if these cats are any indication, I would make a terrible single mom. "Playtime" meant throwing a toy mouse and saying "well go get it, stupid". I started sharing Sun Chips with Liza, and let Condi lick directly from a spoon I continued to use. But even worse than those two things...in order to avoid a 5:00 a.m. wake up pounce from a 17 pound beast, I abandoned Mr. President's diet - opting instead to leave a bowl of food on the floor at all times. By the time Justin returned home 5 days later, Mr. President had regained some weight and Liza was even more cuddly than before. Condi and Mr. President appeared to have entered into a blood feud (complete with tail poofing and bites on the butt). And somehow during the last two days, Liza developed a limp of some sort.

Although we've been back together for a weekend now, Condi, Liza and Mr. President are noticeably mistrustful of us. It's like they've forgotten what normal is. Condi's gained some weight and meowed a real "big girl" meow, Liza left some serious teeth marks in my arm while we were playing, and Mr. President managed to break a wooden banana hanger when he tried to jump to the top of the fridge yesterday.

In parting, Justin and I want to point out that after nearly two months of maintaining this blog, this is the first cat-centric post. Even better - we still haven't posted any cat pictures...maybe there's some hope for us after all...