I admit it, I was wrong

So, earlier this month I was feeling all kindly and pleased with our cats' good behavior. See:

http://thevetschooljourney.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-babies-are-growing-up-sniff.html

Due to a recent series of events, I can only conclude that while CLH and I are at work and school, Johnny & Simon get on the Internet and read my blog.

Here are some of the things they have done in the last couple weeks:

• Kept us awake all night. Eight nights out of ten, the cats get shut out of the bedroom so we (okay, I --- they never wake CLH up) can get some actual sleep. So that's about 6 nights a month that they get to sleep with us. Normally, about 4-5 of those 6 nights are spent sleeping, with only minor annoyances to the humans in the room. Lately, every opportunity for them to get near us while we try to get some shut-eye has ended in meowing, pouncing, wrestling, etc.
• Shredded the toilet paper. This is something they had never done until sometime around last October. All of a sudden, they decided that shredding the toilet paper was a highly entertaining activity. After weeks of keeping the bathroom door shut at all times or hiding the TP under the sink, we tried giving them access again and they were fine. Now, the TP habit has returned with a vengeance.
• Shredded the paper towels. Unlike shredding the toilet paper, shredding the paper towels is something that J&S will do every chance they get. It usually results from one of us (generally me) mistakenly leaving the paper towels in an accessible place.
• Dragged stuff around. They do this with some regularity, especially if we are both gone all day and they don't get their 4:30 pm meal on time. Items displaced in recent weeks have included socks, slippers, shirts, bathmats, dish towels, oven mitts, and several stuffed animals that they are not supposed to play with but I've pretty much given up on.
• Gone up on the counters on a near-daily basis. This has been a constant struggle ever since we've had them, regularly refueled by the fact that occasionally they manage to get up on the counters and we don't catch them before they get food, which only reinforces the bad habit. Lately, Simon has decided that it's a great idea to get up on the backside of the TV table, behind our 2-month-old flat screen TV. If he knocks it off, he's going up for adoption.

Today was the crowning glory of their misbehavior. CLH wasn't home last night, and I left at 7:10 this morning. Neither of us returned until 7:30 tonight. Evidently, three hours past normal dinner time was the straw that broke the kittens' back. We arrived home to discover that J&S had gotten the pop-top of the very full trashcan open and delighted in the disgusting contents. Fortunately, unlike some previous incidents, they only got the top open, rather than tipping the whole thing over --- thus, their access to the garbage was somewhat limited.

Nonetheless, I feel it's time for an apology.

Johnny, Simon, I now realize that you read my blog. I'd like to admit publicly that I was wrong in writing anything about you having grown up in even the slightest bit. You have made your point, and made it forcefully. I fully accept that you are still naughty little teenager cats. Feel free to cease your determined attempts to destroy our house, and return to your average amount of chaos. Thank you.