L’Amour Brute

The weather has been rather wet lately and, when yesterday a glorious summer sun deigned to show up for a change, the feline denizens of the House of Chaos decided it was Play-Time. Hence the Garden of Chaos has been thoroughly terrorized again by the frolicking felines who have no regard whatsoever for the well-being of fragile flowers and petite plants. All 4 of them have at least been rolling around and generally goofing off. It was fun.

Bean Sidhe and Hrimnir have taken a real liking to each other. By now their friendship has been cemented in re-enforced concrete and rarely do they not sit together and erupt in playful bantering. Their boisterous friendship is a marvel to behold: one 4,5 kilo cat romping it out “no holds barred” with one 1 kilo kitten. It is a testament to Bean Sidhe’s gentle nature that he manages to show Hrimnir all corners of the Garden of Chaos without injuring the tyke. When you see those two rolling all over the place, mrowing and wrewing, paws in all directions, fur flying (oh yes, they’re still shedding…) you cannot help but be worried a bit that the kitten might get hurt. Especially when Bean Sidhe starts to put biteys on the little one, at times even engulfing one tiny kitten head with his massive jaws, one expects to witness bloody murder to happen. Your heart stops cold when his massive hind-paws start kicking in on that tiny furry form of Hrimnir’s. But the kitten always walks away unscathed.

Not that it’s always pies and roses between those two. Bean Sidhe has been known to growl at Hrimnir when he was involved with a particularly tasty titbit, but it is obvious that the huge lumbering hulk has closed the tiny kitten into his giant heart and the heart-felt gusto with which Bean Sidhe is wont to lovingly groom Hrimnir is a joy to behold. But when these two partners in crime are playing together those massive paws of Bean Sidhe’s are sure to bat around his little brother all over the place. Call it “tough love”… we call it “l’amour brute”.

Interestingly enough Loup-Garou too is wont to treat the tyke with kindness when the situation permits. He can be likeable towards humans to no end, especially when a lap is spotted, but towards his fellow felines he has always been kind of reserved. No doubt the prickly relationship with his sibling Zorro would be the culprit, but he warmed up a bit when Bean Sidhe came into the House of Chaos. And when Hrimnir completed the quartet Loup-Garou sort of… melted.

Despite these misgivings Loup-Garou adores the tyke. Still a bit wary of the energetic playfulness that kittens are wont to exhibit this massive (5,5 kilo !!) couch-potato can radiate utter contentedness in the mega-watt range whenever a tiny furry fluff-ball creeps up on his dozing form and engages into a serious kitten-nap. He has been caught grooming Hrimnir’s ears. He has been spied gently nudging the kitten closer to his expansive belly. And he can be seen gallantly suffering in silence when Hrimnir wakes up and beholds a thick black tail slowly wafting to and fro in front of his eager eyes. But when Hrimnir grows too bold and starts attack-playing with the black hulkster tempers quickly sour and a black paw, claws only half-retracted, will swat down and teach the culprit to have fun elsewhere.

Of course Hrimnir can be rather insisting. We all noticed.

Even Zorro, His Ultimate Prickly Grumpyness, has fallen victim to the kitten’s cunning wiles and was caught red-pawed playing with Hrimnir. Only once so far, but for the tiny kitten it’s been a triumph of Olympic proportions. Of course, Hrimnir already sports an impressive scar on his nose, courtesy of Zorro, and the Man In White proclaimed that one millimeter to the right would have left our kitten half-blind before his 14th week, but with Zorro you can be sure that this swipe wasn’t intended to kill or even seriously maim. It was a love-tap really.

As the day went on, and after a few hours (!!) of frolicking in the sun-splashed garden, the cats all retreated to a shady or comfortable spot in order to get some well-earned rest. Zorro of course flopped down next to his beloved cat-mint. Loup-Garou chose the full sun smack in the middle of the Garden of Chaos. And both Hrimnir and Bean Sidhe stretched out together in the beshadowed grass for a convivial snore, now and then gently gnawing on a handy appendage of the other. There’s less happiness to be found elsewhere in the world for sure, but I doubt you could name a place where more bliss was to be experienced than there and then.

Picture below:
L’amour brute allright… “chomp chomp “… go for the jugular…

More friends can be found having a party on board of the Friday Ark. Care to join ?