Last week I wound up neglecting to make a post between editions of my comic strip.  I didn’t want to make the same mistake this week, and since we know that 99.3678933% of all people who log on to the internet are only interested in cute pictures of cats (The other 0.6321967% of course are looking for Spongebob porn), I decided to dedicate an entire post to the little fuzzballs that occupy my house since squirrels are too hard to housebreak.

Back on September 17, 2009… 4 months after I moved into my own place, I finally took the plunge on getting a couple feline companions.  Someone I work with had a litter of kittens that she was looking for homes for, and I took two of them in.  That’s who you see in the picture above, brothers Ody and Spilly.  I had mentioned Ody was named after my character Odyssey, and Spilly was named by Fanny after then-Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs.

I got them when they were seven weeks old, and gosh, even I have to admit they were cute little things….

Awwwwww!

There are so many words that could be used to describe Spilly…..

Spaz.

Psycho.

Playful

Demonic.

Unique.

Spilly was certainly one of a kind…. and I speak of him in the past tense because unfortunately I lost him on February 4, 2011 due to a cruel illness the vet diagnosed as Feline Infectious Peritonitis.  I miss him dearly still, and the level of entertainment around the house has greatly decreased since his passing.

And then there’s Spilly’s brother Ody, the “straight man” (or straight cat, if you will) of the pair.  Ody is much more reserved and shyer than Spilly was, and spent most of his life trying to figure out what made his brother tick, and how he could avoid getting mixed up in his shenanigans.

Ody is a big fan of my computer desk, which I didn’t mind much when he was this size:

Enter, Mark, Spend, Nap.

But Ody grew up, and boy did he ever.  And now he’s a desk hog….

Oh, I’m sorry. Were you planning on using the mouse? You may have to wait….

While Spilly was the most entertaining cat I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Ody takes the honor of being the most beautiful.  His white markings perfectly offset his black fur, setting him apart from the common, ordinary tuxedo cats who normally have too much white, especially on the face… and the bright white whiskers just seal the deal.  He is elegantly handsome.

I deserve to be spoiled.

Of course, Ody does have his Spilly moments….

Beat it, bro!

Elegance and refinement on display.

Those squirrels look like menaces to me.

And I thought Spilly was evil….

And though he struggled to put up with his brother, you could always tell Ody dearly loved him….

Let me know when he turns blue.

Finally, there is Spilly’s replacement, Biskit, who I adopted from the vet’s office five days after Spilly was euthenized….

I’m excited to be here today.

Biskit is the Joe Besser of cats.  If you’re not familiar with The Three Stooges (and shame on you if you aren’t familiar with comic genius when you see it), Joe was brought on to fill the Curley role after Shemp died.  While Joe bore a physical resemblance to Curley, he didn’t fit in at all with the rest of the trio, and the Stooges’ chemistry went all to hell (If the movie shorts business hadn’t already been on the ropes in the 50’s, Besser would have killed the franchise anyway).

Believe me, after thirty minutes of “Not so HARD!”, it’s justifiable homicide.

The analogy here is that while Biskit replaced the black cat role in the household, his personality is about polar opposite of his predecessor Spilly, who was very animated and outgoing.  And while Ody has grown to love him (though not like he did his real brother), their interaction is nowhere near as dynamic or entertaining as it was when Spilly was his partner.  And it kinda makes me sad too that the cat antics have gotten more boring over the past year.

But just because Biskit doesn’t seem to fit in doesn’t mean I don’t love him.  And he does have his moments….

Ody! We have an intruder!

Biskit in the basket!

No more baths!

Biskit is shy and reserved to a fault.  And he doesn’t just hide from guests, but sometimes he even avoids me.  I can occasionally bring out the feistiness in him….

WWSD?

And to make this post a bit on topic for my ES blog, I should point out that my cats have made it into a few of my avatars I have drawn.  Here is the avatar I introduced Ody and Spilly to my message board with:

ES loves kitties.

My avatar from their first birthday, which pretty much typifies the amazing dynamic between the pair:

Spilly loves his CANDEEEEEEE!!!!

Dealing with my kitchen flooding due to a leaky icemaker connection…

Watch those claws, Spilly!

Frolicking in the snow, sadly drawn just 3 days before Spilly’s death…

Inside cats don’t do snow very well.

Ody and Biskit rapping with ES….

Respresentin’ the GC!

So if I don’t post anything else until my next comic installment Thursday morning, at least you will have a bunch of gratuitous kitty photos compliments of my own feline brood.  And no doubt, they’ll probably be even more popular than my regular characters…