At the beginning of August, he was this:



Now, he’s THIS:



(Please ignore Mike’s “playoff beard”. I know I certainly am.)

He’s the same height as Guinness, although leaner. He’s still quite a character. Definitely a kitten in spirit, if not in size. The declawing and neutering only slowed him down for a few days, and didn’t calm him down at all. He’s a hunter–he hides and pounces, catches his prey (usually a cat toy), and then hides it in one of Mike’s shoes. He’s also a thief. There are things missing from the house that Forrest has hidden that we just can’t seem to find, like Mike’s nose hair trimmers. Seriously.
Because of Forrest, we know not to put toilet paper on the holder,

to put breakables up high,

to check the dryer carefully before turning it on,

and to duck when you turn the water on, because he’s sure to come bounding from the furthest part of the house to see what’s going on.

Some of his hobbies include:
- eating your food when you turn your back
- pulling the strings out of drawstring pants and carrying them around the house
- biting toes
- watching snowflakes and trying to catch them (even though they’re on the other side of the glass)
- checking to see if the sink is clean and licking it if it’s not
- slamming his body against the shower door while I’m in there, then waiting until I open the door when I’m getting out and playing in the water. He then lays on the bathroom rug and stretches out, enjoying the heat. We call it his “sauna”.
His favorite foods include:
- anything you’re eating at the moment. Anything.
- soups–split pea, potato and bacon, bean
- cereal, preferably soaked in milk. Cheerios are a big hit.
- bread. We’ve learned not to leave a loaf of bread on the counter because he’ll bite through the bag.
- beefaroni
- eggs
- lettuce
- as a last resort, Friskes.
We tried so hard to train him to stay off of the island and counters, but he’s untrainable. He’ll jump back up just as many times as you put him down. He was afraid of the spray bottle for about 3 seconds before he learned to hold his ground and turn his face to the stream of water, completely unfazed. When we have people over, we have to move the food and litter box into our bathroom and shut the bedroom door. It’s just a matter of time before he figures out that our door doesn’t latch and if he would throw himself against it, it would probably bounce open.
Sometimes I think he’s the smartest cat ever. Other times I think he’s as dumb as dirt. The one thing I do know is that he’s definitely a cutie–
