Meet Patches.

 Patches, aka Gracie, is a blue tabby and white kitten with a lemur-like ringed tail.  She is Mitten's sister, but Patches couldn't be more different.  Rene adopted her in December 2011 from the Pima Animal Care Center.

 Gracie spent the first month of her new life in Rene's bedroom with her sister.  The first two weeks they were recovering from an upper respiratory infection; the next two weeks Ninja was recovering after he caught it by playing with the kittens under the door.

 Introductions didn't go so well.  Gracie, upon seeing the large black Ninja in the living room, stopped suddenly and literally shrieked at the top of her lungs.  Ninja ran in terror, and it took weeks for them to be able to be friends.  Now they are fighting buddies.

Patches has a unique personality.  She is sweet, always asking her humans for pets, but she is also a tough little biter.  She almost seems detached and stuck in her little world, but she spends countless hours playing with her sister and Ninja.  She is at her cutest when asking for pets: as you reach down to pet her, she stands up on her back legs and raises her head high in the air to reach your hand.

(sniffer face)

Meet Mittens.

 Mitten is a kitten, and her previous name was Scrunchie.  She is one part of sister duo, and she was adopted from the Pima Animal Care Center in December 2011.  Though the shelter said she was already a year old, we think she is more like 7 months old just now.

 The day I picked Mittens up, she was very sick.  We went straight to the vet--it was an upper respiratory infection caught in the shelter--and she and her sister, who was also sick, spent two weeks quarantined from Ninja while they recovered.

Mittens and Patches (formerly Scrunchie and Gracie) are blue tabby sisters.  They have bunny-like fur, and they are approximately seven pounds right now.  Rene knew they were his cats the first second he laid eyes on them, and they just happened to be put out for adoption the day we went to the shelter to get him another cat.  

Though she looks like her sister, Mittens' personality is very much different.  Mittens would always choose a toy over play fighting, and she tends to play in the kitchen on the tile by herself a lot.  Her favorite toy is a small grey mouse, pictured above by her left paw.

 Mittens is brave, and she is always curious about new situations, even if--maybe even especially if--the situation is scary.  As you can see, she had no problem riding in my car.  And she investigates the vacuum rather than running from it like most cats.

Don't let her graceful tiger looks fool you.  Mittens is silly, and the above picture shows her normal goofy face.  She is an independent girl.  She only likes to be petted when she's in the mood for it; she'll slap Ninja if he tries to play with her when she's not interested; and she has a singular focus when it comes to interaction with humans: food.  Mittens is already quite skilled at asking for canned food, and her distinctive bird-like chirpy voice often echoes through Rene's apartment.

Meet Ninja.

 Ninja is a ten-month old, eleven-plus pound black kitten.  I have known him since he was about three months old, and it has been so much fun watching him grow up.

Ninja was born to my boyfriend's brother's cats in April 2011.  He was the only kitten in his litter, and he has spent most of his life around only Rene and me.

As I think you can tell in the pictures, Ninja has a pretty goofy personality.  At first, he was all claws and teeth, and he was hard to touch or hold.  I diligently gave him "sweet boy lessons," which consisted of lots of hugs and kisses, and now he is quite a bit easier to interact with.

 Ninja was an only child at Rene's until December.  We spoiled him with tons of toys, and he thought he owned the apartment and everything in it.  Everything that was brought home, be it a box, a table, or anything else, was instantly claimed as his own.

 I knew Ninja needed company to keep him happy and to burn up some of his energy, so I kept asking Rene to get him some friends.  In December, Rene brought home the two girls, and Ninja has never been happier.

Ninja is very special to me.  He is the first kitten I had been around in years, and there's nothing like playing with a little wild kitten.  Not only is he wild, but he looks like a little black panther.  Everything on him is solid black, except three things: his yellow eyes, his white toenails, and random white hairs on his chest and legs.  He often blends into the shadows or black furniture; he truly is a ninja.

Meet Harry.

Harry is an eight (almost nine) year old flame point Himalayan.  My first indoor cat, Harry will always be my favorite big furry boy.  Now he lives with my mom in Sherman, Texas.  He has lots of personality, and he makes the rules.  After developing a habit of only drinking water out of the tap, requiring the assistance of his human friends many times a day, he earned the moniker "King Harry."

His feet are huge! They literally, as you can see, are almost the size of the palm of my hand.  His body is just as huge.  He weighs sixteen pounds but, with his excess of hair, he looks like a giant.

(sniffer face)

One thing is for sure, no cat can compare to Harry in terms of size, hair, or regality.

Flashback: Doodles and Lily meeting.