As you may have figured out, I don’t live at the ranch. I’m a big girl *puffs out chest proudly*. So I often get my dose of animal antics over the phone. For example, I called Dad’s cell phone on Sunday, and the conversation went something like this:
Me: “So, what’s going on?”
Dad: “We’re going on a Sunday drive…look at this guy! He’s clearly got his head up…ok, sure, cut me off without a turn signal.”
Me: “Well, you’re talking on the phone and driving…so…”
Dad: “And I’m still driving better than this guy. What’s on your mind?”
Me: “I don’t know…I was supposed to call, but I can’t remember why.”
Dad: “RIGHT! We got our first confirmed kill!”
Mom (in background): “OOOO! Yeah! I wanted to tell her about that!”
Me: “…uh…”
Dad: “Ok. So. We think a mouse wandered into the grain room where the kitties live.”
Me: “That was a mistake.”
Dad: “Definitely. Whiskers…uh…whisp…”
Mom: “It’s WHISPER, honey.” (I can hear her roll her eyes just in the tone of her voice, Grammy is in the background too, giggling)
Dad: “Right, whatever. WhisPER pounced on it, and then the three of them spent at least half an hour passing it back and forth, playing with the poor little thing.”
Mom: “Poor little thing! It’s a MOUSE!” (outraged, as if this is on par with “felon”)
Dad: “Still, it wasn’t very nice. Anyway, it was a group effort, but Squeaky wanted the credit so he brought it out to Mom.”
Mom (still in the background): “And I gave them all a treat! I’m training them to be heartless serial killers.”
Me: “I wish I could say I was surprised.”
Cliff House Alpacas 
Wait, I thought there were only 2 cats?? When did the third make an appearance?
Yeah, I didn’t do a good job formally introducing him. He showed up first in this post mostly about Whisper. His name is Squeaky, and he’s a BIG black cat. Unlike Zipporah, who’s a LITTLE black cat. He’s a rescue from the same gal who lost her ranch.
Aaaah, two completely black cats! Very tricky 🙂 How are you liking having cats?
Right! Sneaky! Zip is much smaller than Squeaky, who sounds kind of like a rusty door when he meows. We LOVE having cats. We spend quite a lot of time standing around watching the flip out. Since we’ve never had them before, everything they do is surprising and amazing! They’re so…squuoogy and erratic.
I couldn’t stop laughing at “I’m training them to be heartless serial killers.” That’s exactly something my mom would say about her cat!
Maybe it’s the glassy eyed stare, but cats always seem like they’re only a few bad days away from being heartless serial killers anyway! We love our little murderers, though.