Summer vacation is always wonderful, even when it’s full of stress, so it’s always tough to leave the States and head back to work. This year was a bit easier because we knew Ella and Khushi were waiting for us in India.
We acquired the kittens in May. They liked to sleep in a little rattan tray I bought in Thailand.
We left them in India for June and July (in the capable hands of our housekeeper, Raji, and her whole family). When we got back, we found they STILL like to sleep in the tray even though they spill out of it.
These cats are living seek-and-destroy missiles.
The other day, Ella climbed up her cat tower and leapt into a wall sconce. I heard the sound of scraping on glass and turned around to see her stuck inside the light fixture. If I hadn’t rescued her, she likely would have thrashed around until the whole thing broke loose from the wall and smashed to the ground.
Yesterday, I was working at the dining room table when I looked up to see Ella perched on a basket, stretched up to where my Chinese calligraphy brushes hang from a framed set of photos. She had the bristles of one brush in her mouth, and she was tugging on it so the whole display lurched off balance and threatened to fall. I jumped up to save it and then moved the basket, but they will inevitably find another way to stalk and kill those brushes.
One or both of them knocked down my world map, which is mounted on fun-to-chew foamboard. They routinely climb the drying rack to fling all the laundry on the floor.
They also share our enthusiasm for Turkish carpets, which they demonstrate by attacking the fringe and wrestling on the kilims until the rugs ball up into a pile. So much for home decorating…
I made the mistake of showing them a cat app on my iPad. A laser-like red dot zings around the screen, and pops with a “ding” when they tap it. Unfortunately, that means we now have to use our iPads covertly if we don’t want cat heads blocking the screen. Similarly, they sit mere centimeters from the iMac screen when we try to watch movies or TV shows on hulu, so we have to keep getting up to move them.
Last spring, I bought some dishes from a departing expat. I finally got around to unpacking them this weekend. I could have saved a lot of money at PetSmart this summer if I’d remembered how much cats enjoy playing with newspapers, cardboard boxes and dangling strips of packing tape.
Despite their destructive nature, Ella and Khushi are both loving and cuddly. They purr incessantly and beg to be petted. So far, they don’t bite or scratch or tear up the furniture. And they make us laugh every day.
So, who needs a stylish home when you have that?
