Kittens and Petticoats

Bentley and Fatty (El Gordo) are my two enormous Main Coon cats who love food, insisting for it with kitten meows then napping for hours and getting into trouble. Ten years ago I bought them as mini baby kittens for 20 dollars each at the Anne Arundel County Animal Shelter on Maxwell Fry Road. I had just moved out on my own, was 19 and needed a good feline to keep me company. I got both since they looked so cute together and couldn't be separated, they were brothers after all. In the past 10 years they have been my buddies, purred on my textbooks through college and grad school, moved with me a few times, patiently flew 20 hours in a crate across the Atlantic to Italy and even woke me up from a black out when I fell from a chair. They are troopers. One thing to note is that however benevolent the affection from my cats has been, it is conditional on that I feed them generously, pay attention to them when they demand it and open the door to get them on the side desired though they quickly change their mind and want to go back to the other side. Although they are huge like a bull dog (their crates are for cocker spaniels), they think they are small kittens. Although they are fat, they think meal time should be buffet style. Although I am human, they think my fiance is the new cat in town and are jealous. They have it made though:

Now that I am making preparations for my wedding and future life I am wondering how Gattoni (plural for cats in Italian and what we refer to them at home) will handle the changes. The Towson Vet who helped me vaccinate and microchip them was worried that they wouldn't adapt well to living with a man in my life. They have done good so far, apart from 2 sneak attacks by Bentley at my fiances ankles and one scratch from El Gordo. We have done good so far. But these guys are very attached to me. El Gordo follows me like a shadow wherever I go in the house.

I'm thankful they have warmed up to my fiance (who also feeds them potato chips and gets cat brownie points for that) but I think they are on to our wedding and plans for a family and don't approve of the kitchen lady (me) procreating and feeding others. Today, for example, I decided to work on the petticoat that goes under the wedding dress. I just wrote an article on how to make a petticoat and thought that mine could use a bit of extra umph. I have lost 10 lbs since getting here and my wedding dress is big, so rather than spending 700 euros on getting it tailored, I am beefing up the petticoat. So I bought a meter of tulle and got to work this afternoon. All cats were out of the room then, of course, Bentley started tapping at the door. After 10 minutes of annoying tapping I let him in the room. He spotted the tulle petticoat, eyed it for a second, gave it a few taps with his paw then attacked it with all four paws. Trying to get my cat out of my petticoat was no easy task. His claws were through the tulle, his eyes wild, and he was holding on for the ride.

 Bentley getting my apron pried out of his claws

Bentley does the wierdest things when he doesn't want me taking care of others. I am convinced him and Fatty are pulling the last strings to hold onto me. Today, however, I carefully won the fight with Bentley getting him out of my petticoat. If I manage these guys strategically I might actually get married and have a family. They could be capable of pouncing on my veil the morning of the wedding. Thank god I have a patient fiance who though he has never lived with cats has adapted wonderfully to a woman who has 2 demanding ones. On that note I will end with this clip that could have been me...