Junia and Tunia

Just wanted to start off the new year by sharing a small collection of Junia and Tuna together.

Come look at my baby! She insists while cradling her baby in her arms.

I have to squeeze both of them together until they squirm, squeaking and croaking and funny sounds coming out of esophaguses. Junia is now almost three and is in preschool most of the time, so these pictures are fewer and farther between. I’ll take what I can get.

This cat! He has wormed his way into our hearts and our wallets and our family and Junia’s arms and we love him for it. Perhaps when Junia arrived, Tuna was particularly welcoming because at last, someone more useless than he had come.

Tuna came into our world shortly after our dog left it, and before Junia arrived. It was a time of transition. Isn’t that all of life? People and creatures coming and going, everyone on their own journey.

While I think Tuna has always chased after Chicken in the deepest of his heart of hearts, Tuna and Junia have had their own love story from fairly early on. I think Tuna suspected a kindred spirit in mewing and crawling around on the floor and napping schedule. Chicken is too much of a fighter to be susceptible to pity for the weak. Who’s going to defend our stronghold from the raccoons? Not this pathetic, anemic, grey-striped indoor cat, Chicken scoffs while he waits at the door to get into fights with the other alleycats. He laments the death of his former general in squirrel patrol (the dog), but the student must become the master at some point.  

The least scrappy members of the family need to stick together if they’re going to get any scraps from the dinner table, in this survival of the fittest.

Pay attention to my stories! Junia insists, pointing out the pictures of the cats. He does not.

LOVE ME! She insists, upon the point of strangulation. And he does.

Guess how much I love you! To the moon and back.