Ari has a blue tag, and a snow leopard color collar.

I don’t have a big celebration planned, just a can of her favorite “stew” and a nice relaxing day.  For early Christmas/birthday (late birthday for Ari), I got both Sammie and Ari new collars and name tags off of Etsy.com.  Their collars were getting a bit dingy, so I found cute leopard print ones to get.  Decided to get them some new spiffy new tags as well, better than the drab “made by a machine” Petco ones.  I will try to get pictures of them up!

She is back to napping on the cat condo in her “kitty,” so I think it must have something to do with the time of year/change of seasons… as she avoids it all summer, but sleeps there in the fall and winter.

Sammie looks so sour in this photo, makes me laugh:

Maybe she dislikes me sticking a camera in her face all the time!

In other news, Ari got a great new product to test out as part of his job as a “Feline Consumer Product Test Driver” for The Bengal Bulletin.  It is the Kitty Calisthenics ball from Petlane, and you’ll be able to read his complete review in the next issue of the bulletin!

Here is Ari looking rather business-like.  I think he takes his job very seriously!  (By the way, Sammie holds the same job, but unfortunately she couldn’t be bothered with the Kitty Calisthenics ball, just not her style!)

Sammie and Ari have begun to make a name of themselves as the feline consumer product testers for “The Bengal Bulletin” (official publication of The International Bengal Cat Society).  The column is called “The Spoiled Bengal.”  They’re greatly enjoying their jobs, although they can be harsh critics!

Ari is now 2 years old as of September 11th.  Still acts like he’s 6 months, I don’t think that will ever change about him!  He’s still a rather petite cat, but very long and lanky.  A bit less awkward looking from last year.  Sammie is doing well, just her usual self.

I have a lot of pictures that I need to just throw up on here… so in celebration of the wintry weather the west has had the past few days, here’s some “snow” bengal ones!  These are from a storm in early December.  I do believe this was Ari’s first experience with snow, and he didn’t know what to think of it.  Sammie begged to go outside, but quickly wanted back inside.

Sammie is much more content to look at the snow through the window, while snuggled in her “kitty.”

I have a homegrown TV lover named Ari!

He’s been turning on the TVs like crazy.  Last night he turned on the bedroom one for the first time and started crying loudly when he did it, almost like “Ma, come watch Police Women of Broward County with me!!!”

This morning he turned on the Today Show.  Then I left to go work out for a half an hour, and came home to find the bedroom TV turned on again.

This is getting crazy!!

I fully believe he knows what he’s doing, and is doing it intentionally.  I often find him watching the TV, so maybe he likes to turn it on to watch, or have the sound?  I am not sure.

My oven is a bit dirty, please excuse the mess :(  I need to run the cleaning cycle one of these days!

It held their interest for about 5 minutes, and then they went on to do other things.  This reminded me very much of the day when Sammie insisted on climbing into the dishwasher to check it out.

On another note… Sammie Macrovision!

I just love the detail!  Especially on the nose, so I cropped out just the nose to get more of the detail:

It’s so bubbly!  Unfortunately it is a bit difficult to get such pictures, as cats just don’t want to sit still.  Ari is scared of cameras, so his pictures were pretty difficult.  Sammie doesn’t mind cameras, but she didn’t appreciate being held and having a camera inches within her face.  I must admit it is quite intimadating to be looking through a camera at an angry cat, haha!

Ari was kind enough to hold the paper for me, and chase around the ink bottle, while Sammie stood by my side to make sure I had the technique down properly.  I threatened to add some more spots to Ari if he didn’t get his face out of my water glass, too.  So he sat down and behaved like a good boy, stating that my ink just wasn’t the correct color for his spots.

Sammie was apparently preparing herself to be mail somewhere!  USPS box is no challenge for “fold flat compact bengal!”  She crammed all 12 pounds of herself in there, haha!

“I fit, therefore I can be shipped!”

“Nah, I have nowhere to ship myself to!  I’ll stay right here!”

“Much roomier outside the box!”