A heated panel discussion

Every evening in prime time, four provocative panelists discuss the hottest issues of the day -- or the hotness of the day.

Fisticuffs on the front stoop

Former sparring partners Alvin and Homer occasionally consider a rematch.

Siamese-mix Alvin is nearly 5 years old, but still a lean welterweight under all that hair. Grey tabby Homer, age 3, is a heavyweight with a slow, some might say sleepy, stance.

They face off, threaten each other, then forgetaboutit.

Alvin adores autumn

All the kitties are energized by fall weather, but no one is more ecstatic than Alvin. He was so hot under his hair this summer.

Meezers R Us

While the new kitten eats, Alvin looks at me with exasperated disbelief. "Another cat yet. How original."Yesterday a teen girl knocked on my door with this Siamese kitten in her arms. She found him abandoned at the neighborhood park. I took him in to foster because he should be easy to rehome.My other meezer kids are Sailor (below left) with his buddy boy Sky, who is still feral.Sky's sibling Dutch (below), who seemed so male, has turned out to be a girl. I love her brown tabby points. She's still feral too.

Easy Alvin

Alvin strikes this pose all the time, and it always breaks me up. Something about his cool nonchalance despite that smotheringly fluffy neck ruff. He reminds me of my favorite lolcat:

Group portrait with benches

I made these 14 benches from old discarded wood left over after I rebuilt my fence. The benches are perfectly proportioned for me and the cats. I rearrange them all the time, all over the yard.The kitties-in-the-round are, clockwise from center bottom: Natalie, Linus, Olga (face and paw only), Gidget, Daisy (back only), Alvin, and Betty.Gidget (left) and Betty prefer the top bench.

Still life with tomatoes

The kitties love our tomato "forest" -- tall metal cages overflowing with tomato plants. What the cats don't get is my obsession with this sticky, sweet, tangy colorful fruit.

Puppy poses with Celebrity tomatoes. Jesse is in the background.Alvin does a prim white-glove pose, with Juliet tomatoes (a paste/roma variety) in the background.Cosmo complements the cream of the crop, a Green Zebra heirloom tomato.

Embraceable you

Homer and Alvin love no-holds-barred wrestling.

Who shot the sheriff?

Natalie did. Then she stole his hat.

Threatening to play

Alvin likes to roll 'n tackle other cats. Homer likes to be rolled 'n tackled. But both boys are pretty laid back. They're seen here almost in action, nearly in action, and in not-now-maybe-later action.

Alvin's sky lodge

Alvin sunned himself on the roof and chatted up a storm during these photos, then came down the ladder superman-style.Cats won't climb this grand tree's trunk -- the bark is too hard. They run up the ladder to the roof and climb the tree branches from there.

Bunny kicks the blanket

Natalie pities the Bunny (Alvin). He suffers from frequent and incontrollable fits of seizing and bunny-kicking the bed covers.

Catnip boomerangs

Our most fun Christmas moment was a surprise package of Jake & Micah catnip boomerang toys. This catnip is so potent, it's bound to become illegal! The ecstasy-inducing nip even permeates the packaging the toys are wrapped in.Alvin (above) was so intoxicated by the catnip-infused tissue paper, he couldn't find the toy.Pierre's blue and orange-flash eyes (above) match the toy's fabric. The dark spots on the fabric are happy-drool marks.
Marvin passes out after a few rounds of boomerang.

As the laundry dries

Kitties love hanging out laundry as much as I do. These vintage fabrics were being prewashed for kitty beds. Betty has a treeside seat for the laundry show, while Alvin watches from below.These fabrics are part of a group of fantastic vintage yard goods I got via kitty-bed swap with blissvintage, a delightful Etsy artisan in Canada.

Chomp 'n tackle

Alvie likes nothing better than a game of chomp 'n tackle with his best girl, Gidget.She growls 4-letter-words the entire time, but Gidget keeps coming back for more, rolling over in front of him.

From the archive: Keenan and Alvin

While kitten Alvin hangs on, Keenan realizes he could have had a V-8.In this photo from Dec. 2007, Alvin was 6 months old, and Keenan about 2 years old. They were best friends for awhile, until Keenan started playing too rough and Gidget arrived to replace him as Alvin's best friend. Today Gidget and Alvin remain best playmates, though Alvin's the one who plays too rough now.

Misterpants and Sisterpants

Feral tabby kitten Francine is finally a housecat!With the suddenness of winter (39 degrees here last night), I have worried about Pierre's sister Francine. In the past few weeks she has started letting me pet her while giving her treats. Outside today while she was lapping her dish of lactose-free milk, I impulsively grabbed her with her dish and hurried into the house. She freaked out but didn't scratch me. I plopped down in the living room floor with Francine in my lap, and she huddled there, stress-purring loudly for a long time, then relaxed a bit and finished her milk. Finally Pierre came in, and when Francine saw him she stepped out of my lap and rubbed lovingly on him. I hopped up and closed the kitty door to keep her in, while Francine meandered around the house, following Pierre's lead. An hour or two later I got these photos of the brother-sister duo on the bed.

I have such a Christmasy feeling now that this Francie care package has arrived! Big Daddy Alvin looks on, perhaps dimly aware that those two kids are likely his offspring.

Alvinator

The Alvinator 2009 model is equipped with rear supports that raise to facilitate posterior ventilation in sleep mode.

Son of a bunny

It's time to break out the baby pictures of daddy Alvin (also known as Bunny) and compare them to son Pierre.That's Pierre on the left, and on the right is Alvin as itty bunny and big bunny.

Cat in a Phyllis Diller wig

When Alvin couldn't find a plain brown derby in 1965 Hats magazine, he decided to just go for broke.The magazine describes it as "a ravishing profile wig in a giddy whirl of curled ostrich feathers."