Separation Syndrome and the Great Toilet Paper Massacre

As any cat owner knows, it is difficult sometimes to determine when the kitten-owner bonding period has been of a sufficient time to be able to leave them for a day or two. One always worries what the reaction will be when the kittens are left behind. Will there be severe separation anxiety? Will stress increase due to abandonment issues? Would this result in long-term psychological scars?

And that was just me and Sandy...the kittens could care less.

Anyhow, we took off Saturday morning for a brief, one night get-a-way at Disney. My Mom would be checking in on the wombats the first evening, and then again on the morning we were to return.

Sandy and I had a great time at Disney, though we found it a bit hard to sleep in a hotel room without a mouth full of kitten fur and bleeding ankles.

While we were off frolicking with Mickey The Rodent, "Grandma Sacks" was tending to the kittens, and doing a wonderful job of totally spoiling them in the process (as grandmas are supposed to do). She provided them with extra food (crunchy AND soft), and supplied them with the obligatory new toys that are expertly designed to produce highly annoying noises the moment she leaves.

When Mom checked on them Sunday morning, all was well. Minimal mayhem had occurred. After topping off their water bowl, cleaning "The Box", supplying them with (a larger than normal portion of) food, and a little love and attention, she left.

Jump ahead several hours. Sandy and I arrive back home and enter the house. All is quiet. we drop the luggage, and make our way to the bedroom to assess the situation.

Bedroom door still on hinges? Check.
Bed still in one piece? Check.
Curtains still on the wall? Check.
Kittens waiting just inside the door to greet us because they missed us? ......

>>crickets<<

KITTENS WAITING JUST INSIDE THE DOOR TO GREET US BECAUSE THEY MISSED US?!.....

Nothing. Kittens not in the bedroom.

Ah. Noise coming from the master bathroom. We head down the hall towards the bathroom, cautiously, in anticipation of the excited pattering gallop of kitty feet as they swoop upon us in an excited rush of bloody, ankle-shredding love.

No greeting for us. They are, shall we say, preoccupied.

Apparently during the several hours between Grandma's visit and our arrival home, they treated us to that classic Halloween tradition that has taken place since time began. They TP'd the house.

OK, so technically they TP'd the bathroom. Regardless, they discovered just how much fun toilet paper can be...

....the pleasure of unravelling endless reams of scented, 2-ply, quilted bliss to carpet the majority of the floor...
...rolling around in all that fluffy goodness...
...shredding it into fun little pieces ideal for batting around and sticking in places normal humans can't reach...
...using their water bowl to wet it (thus making a unique, cement-like substance that sticks most effectively to bathroom tile)...

Have you ever noticed that a kitten's face gets more cute the more mischief they get into? I think this is nature's way of preserving the species... (Full size pictures can be found at the link at the top of the blog.)