ella and Fella are sister and brother cats adopted by my mom around Christmas, 2004. They were kittens then, born a few months earlier, and were just about the most adorable and friendly little furballs ever. Much cuter than the young Jinxie was, since frankly, she was pretty ratty and scrawny in her early days.

Bell and Fella have since grown, as animals tend to do, but they're still very pretty and very friendly.

I don't get to see them that often, as they live in San Diego and I live in the Bay Area, but they're fun to play with when I visit, and it's nice to see two cats that don't run in terror when anyone new comes into the house, the way Jinx and Dusty do.

Bella and Fella have been discussed in several daily updates, including:

• December 22, 2004: Their first photo and appearance.
• January 3, 2005: Bella's early illness and miscellaneous kitten behavior discussion.

This page runs in chronological order, with newer photos added at the bottom.

The first photo I ever saw of them, courtesy of mom. Bella is the hobbit-looking one on the right, I don't know why they're leaning sideways, and no, they could not be cuter. Well, maybe if Fella didn't look quite so suspicious...

The following kitten shots were taken by me, when I was lucky enough to visit the young ones over Xmas, 2004.

You can never have too many cute sleeping kitten photos, right? Let's hope not, since there are quite a few to come. Sleeping together isn't real unusual for cats, but since Dusty and Jinx never do it, it seems novel to me.

Yes, more sleeping. Bella is orange while her brother is gray. He was larger as a kitten too, and he still is, though less noticeably now that they're both nearly full grown.

Bella had quite gorgeous markings early on, with spots like a leopard, or perhaps a hyena. She still has them, but as her fur has gotten (even) longer the spots have been blurred by the length of her fur. Her nice orange coloration and black tipped tail has remained, though.

• A larger look at her from the front.
• Fella in a basket.

They did play quite a bit, sleeping pictures to the contrary. At one point during this play session there were four cameras snapping away at them, as me, mom, and two guests burned batteries and storage space immortalizing the agility of two kittens.

• Fella plays while a very tiny Bella watches with interest.
• Bella goes for it.
• Fella with an audience.

One of the other guests that first Christmas brought them this toy, which was actually quite a large bug-like thing, covered in floppy legs with clattery plastic beads. I didn't think they'd have anything to do with it, but that proved me no cat psychologist, since both of them went right for it and chased it around madly. Best of all, it came on a stretchy cord, so when tied to this hat rack and dangled a foot off the ground neither cat could resist attacking it, pulling it down, and then leaping madly to get after it again when they eventually let go and it sprung away.

I'd make a joke about cats being easily entertained, but since you've probably been sitting motionless and staring at a plastic box for the past several hours, and I know I have, let's quit while we're ahead.

And one last angelic sleeping photo.

We now jump forward to June 2005, when the kittens have grown to adolescence. They're about nine months old here, and still sleeping together, though they chase and fight and wrestle now as well. There's absolutely no way they can fit into this little furry bed though; it's the same one you see above in their earliest photo, but they don't seem to know that.

The second juvenile photo of them, taken in June 2005 when they were about nine months old. This is about how Dusty and Jinx play too; one attacks the toy while the other watches, waiting for his/her turn. We do not have a cool climbing thing like this for our cats, though we keep meaning to get one. It's about six feet tall, with multiple levels. The pipe-length at the bottom of this photo hangs from a rope, but apparently isn't really their favorite place to sleep. The top portion is a box, with about four inch sides; all the better to keep sleeping kitties from rolling out and crashing down on top of fragile decorations, I guess.

Bella taking refuge during a vacuuming incident.
--May 29, 2006

Bubba posing in the catrun outside the kitchen. The box behind him is their litter box, located conveniently out of the house, following the plan we use with Jinx and Dusty.  It's hard to tell with it framed by chicken wire, but Bubba's got a long face, for a cat at least.
--May 29, 2006

The trap door back into the kitchen. The lizard is a rubber model, and serves mostly to startle humans. The cats don't seem to notice it at all.
--May 29, 2006

Bella looking shocked by my cell phone cam. Or possibly my sneakers. She's usually quite a pretty kitty, so we'll just say this is an awkward pose and leave it at that.
--May 29, 2006

More to come...

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.