Monday, September 14, 2009

Cleaning up.

Smaaht Kitty was happily snoozing on the Kitty Blanket. It was soft and fuzzy on one side, and soft and even MORE fuzzy on the other. He and his sister, Little Kitty, had loved the blanket from the moment they saw it, and the two spent much of their time sleeping, playing or kneeding on the blanket. When they were little(-er) they had even nursed on it.

"Kitten. My little Smaaht Kitty... Wake up..." Mom said, gently picking Smaaht Kitty up. He blinked at her, and yawned. "Come on, Kitten." and Mom cuddled him and carried him off to Dad, where she told the two of them to be good.

"Wasshait?" Smaaht Kitty said. He didn't wake up quickly, and was still not certain what had just happened, but he was in someone's lap, anyway, so that was good. At least, it WAS, until he heard his sister. "But MOOOOM, that's OUR blanket!"

"Blanket?!" Said Smaaht Kitty, who was begining to thing something was just not right with this situation. He got up to investigate, and found Little Kitty, Mom, and the Blanket in the room with Shower. Little Kitty was glaring at Mom from the side of the tub, and the Blanket was IN Shower! And it was getting WET! "Mom! How COULD you?!" Smaaht Kitty demanded.
"She's become evil." said Little Kitty. "We should purr and meow at her, to teach her a lesson."

While the kittens made a Fuss™, Mom continued to fill the tub with water from Shower, and Blanket got wetter and wetter. It was Little Kitty who noticed that the water wasn't it's normal clear color; "Why's it so... brown?" Little Kitty asked. "And it smells not nice." She looked at the water with disdain, then looked at Mom.

"See, it needs to be washed. I told you." said Mom. "That thing's been camping for six weeks every year for three years, it's been loved on by your Uncle Cooper, and now you two, with your Litter Paws of Death™ going on. It's FILTHY." She poured a good dollop of something that smelled like the best kind of Kitty Bedding (clean laundry!) into the water, and swished it with her hands.

"Do you want to use a broom handle, or something?" asked Dad, who had come to see what all the Fuss™ was about. "That's pretty nasty." Mom declined, and the Kittens found themselves scooped up and handed off to Dad, and shut out of the room with Shower, and their poor blanket. The door closed in their faces, and Little Kitty decided to go the dignified route; she went to nap on one of the kitchen chairs.

Smaaht Kitty decided to mew, and cry and try to open the door. "It ALWAYS opens. Why won't it open!?" he cried, pushing on the door as hard as he could. While he continued his efforts, the Kittens heard Shower come on two more times, and finally Mom emerged. She smelled like clean laundry more than like the icky water, but the icky water was still definitely present.
"Ok, you two. You can't go in the bathroom until that thing is done soaking. I just don't trust you not to jump in, get tangled and DROWN." Mom said, looking mostly at Smaaht Kitty.

She and Dad left ("They LEFT. How COULD they!?" Smaaht Kitty wanted to know) for a while, and the door to the room with Shower stayed closed. That night, one of the kittens opened it, but when Mom discovered this, both kittens were dry and innocent looking; they weren't telling her who managed it, but she suspected Smaaht Kitty anyway.

In the morning, the tub was drained, the Blanket was rinsed one more time, and the tub was filled again to be sure all the Clean Laundry liquid had washed out of it. Once again, the door was closed in little Kitten faces. This time, though, Smaaht Kitty opened the door quickly, and the two Kittens snuck in before Mom could notice.

"Oh, look!" Said Smaaht Kitty. "It's not that wet, Blanket makes an island, so we can hop on and not get wet!" And so saying, he hopped.

*SPLASH* "Oh! Oh woe is me!" cried Smaaht Kitty. "Woe, I tell you!" Mom came into the room to find the orange kitty hauling his dripping, soggy self free of the sodden, and now-obviously floating Blanket. "I'm WET." Smaaht Kitty informed her.

"Oh, KITTEN." Mom said. "See, I knew you'd do something like that. But at least you didn't drown." She shook her head, and grabbed a towel, and started drying Smaaht Kitty off. "So, next time I close the door, you think maybe you'll remember there's a reason?" Little Kitty tried to hide a laugh while Smaaht Kitty ignored Mom's words in favor of nomming on her hands. "Yeah. I kinda thought not." Mom said. She finished drying Smaaht Kitty, and then began draining the Blanket. "Well, this is clean, anyway. Getting it to dry'll be special, though, since it's raining." She left the Blanket to drain, and left the Kittens to dry.

Smaaht Kitty, having had enough of being wet for one day, followed Mom. He figured he could share the Damp and spread the love at the same time. Little Kitty spent a bit more time watching the water flow out, but eventually, she too left the room.

Hours later, Mom and Kittens returned. The kittens watched as Mom wrestled the still sodden Blanket onto a large, odd rack that barely fit in the tub. And then the kittens watched as water trickled down from the Blanket. Facinated, Little Kitty climbed into the tub, and sniffed the water. "Ah-choo!" she said as water went up her nose. *sniff sniff sniff* "Aaah-choo!" Smaaht Kitty watched as his sister repeated this process over and over. Eventually, she started drinking the dribbles of water, instead of inhaling them, and Smaaht Kitty lost interest. "You have fun with that." Mom said, and she too, left Little Kitty to her fun.

"Moooooom! It stopped dripping." Little Kitty said, rubbing her wet head all over Mom's previously warm and dry leg. "Now what am I supposed to drink?" Mom just looked at her, then scooped her up, and took her into the room with Shower, and dried her off. "You have a bowl of water, you know. You don't HAVE to get all wet to get a drink." Mom informed Little Kitty, while scrubbing the kitten's head dry. "But I don't suppose either you or your brother will ever believe me on that point."

The Blanket, now left to it's own devices, hangs, and drips occasionally, and generally is pouting at being all wet still, three days after it's soggy adventure began. The sun is out, though, so the Blanket will be moved to the laundry line, and will dry, and be useful again soon.

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