Goblin and Sister [redux]

Goblin is the orange tabby, and very much lives up to his name and the character he was named after (from Anne Rice's Blackwood Farm). He is quite a pest when he wants to be, pestering Sister to no end, keeping me and my fiance up at night, and prancing and pouncing like a psychotic gazelle when playing. His other side, however, is quite affectionate, and he just LOVES head rubs and neck scritches, and insists on sleeping on my legs each night, even if it's too hot and we end up battling about it all night.

Sister got her name simply because we couldn't decide what to name her. We tried several different names but she didn't respond to any of them. However, whenever Goblin was in the room with us and we didn't know where his little sister was, we'd ask him, "Goblin, where's sister? Go get sister." And, to our surprise, he'd go and find her! It didn't take long before she would come running in when she heard us asking Goblin, "Where's sister?" and she responded to it really well, so Sister she became. She is very affectionate, loving belly rubs and bumping her head against her humans for attention. When she was much smaller, if I wasn't paying enough attention to her, she'd walk behind me swatting at my feet and eventually she'd pounce, wrap her front paws around my ankle, plop her little bum on the floor, and look up at me with a sweet meow and purr.

Now, an amusing difference between these two is their voices and attitude when it comes to dogs. We have two dogs in the house, and although they know they shouldn't chase the cats, sometimes they forget. Because of this, we have the back of the house blocked off with a baby gate so the cats have their area where the dogs can't get to them easily. Sister sees this as a challenge. She will wait right at the gate and silently stare down Shadow, the black Lab, until he walks timidly up to the gate, wagging his tail in a "Hello." At this point, Sister reveals that she's not really feline but instead is demonspawn. I have heard some pretty intimidating growls come from cats before, but nothing like the bass, angry growling that she does. The growling very quickly turns into "growl-talking," where it literally sounds like she's actually forming words in some demonic tongue. It's actually pretty creepy, especially to wake up to in the middle of the night. The growl-talking will eventually end with Sister standing with one front paw on the gate and the other swiping madly at Shadow's face, while Shadow grins and wags his tail harder and keeps just out of reach.

Goblin, on the other hand, is so not macho. When confronted with a dog at the gate he is much more likely to hide around the corner and nervously peek his head around to keep an eye on things. The only time he gets "brave" is when I'm in the hall with him, walking to the bathroom. Then he will keep very close to my heels, and he'll get that arched-back, swaggering kind of walk as he stares down Shadow. As long as I stay in the hall with him, he will find the courage to get about a foot away from the gate, one paw held tentatively up, and then he'll meow. The exact opposite of Sister, Goblin has the smallest, softest, sweetest, most effeminate meow I've ever heard. It actually cracks sometimes to a tiny, sweet croak. He will tentatively meow-croak very quietly at Shadow with one waving paw, but if Shadow so much as twitches (he usually stands very still for Goblin, barely waving his tail) he bolts madly back down the hallway and peeks his head around the corner again.

Goblin and Sister could not be more opposite. :-) These two kitties bring my fiance and me much happiness and humor, and are our furry kids. I don't know how I ever lived without them in my life before.