Sleepy babies or vicious killers?

We always thought our precious Pom Pom looked so cute when she yawned. After spending hours curled up on the bed napping she would yawn, look up, and stretch in that way that only cats can. But when we finally managed to capture that elusive moment on camera, we saw a monster with giant teeth ready to eat us alive! Clearly we have to keep feeding her delicious food or we could be eaten next!
We thought Ben Ben was too regal and graceful to be such a monster, but here she is trying to devour Lili!

BenPom come home to Mommy

The time finally came when Lili came back from summer school and our two furry babies had to go back home with her. I was sure to miss them, but I had no idea how much they wanted to stay.
Lili came over to help load up everything; their stuff pretty much fills up a whole car. Given their stated dislike for travel, we thought we would play it safe and try to get BenPom loaded into the carriers before we packed up all their things. Pom Pom went right into the carrier once again with no difficulty, other than her usual verbal protests, "meow." Ben Ben was a nightmare as always. Last time we tried to load her up in the carrier we got lucky because she just ran right into the treebox and we could force her into the carrier; she wasn't going to fall for that twice. Convinced that she would literally die if she went into the carrier, Ben Ben tore the room apart running around avoiding us. Even when we managed to corner her, she had her claws dug so tightly into the carpet that we still couldn't move her. We circled around my bedroom for hours trying to force her into the carrier, but to no avail. Finally we just gave up and let Pom Pom out to let them both calm down.
We didn't try again until next weekend. Our plan was to hang out until Ben Ben had her guard down, then pounce. Unfortunately, Ben Ben now saw Mommy as a some sort of sadistic cat-napper, and hid anytime she was in the room. Our last desperate plan was to remove all the furniture in my room and then she was have no place to go. Of course this plan also failed because Ben Ben freaked out and fled the room while we were moving the mattresses out. We found her in my roommate's room underneath his dresser. So we blocked all paths out from underneath the dresser with cardboard and books, then made a opening that lead only to the carrier. Then, we slowly pushed Ben Ben towards the box. After a lot of hissing that sounded remarkably like an ambulance wailing, Ben Ben was in the carrier.
Pom Pom was surprisingly difficult to put in the carrier at this point. I think the ambulance wailing must have made her nervous. Fortunately Pom Pom's love of string clouds her judgement. Dangling some string inside the carrier made Pom Pom dive right in. With that mountain moved, we hastily packed up everything of theirs, including the tree, and made a quick trip back to Lili's place.
We could tell the girls were happy to be home. Ben Ben was never afraid to be around Lili anymore, I suppose she figured out that we always want to do the best for them. Here they are home and snug in their new beds Lili got for them.

BenPom at Dad's home

Since Lili was still in California I tried to entertain the kids as much as I could. Since they've spent most of their time with Lili, I saw this as an opportunity to bond with them personally. Fortunately, I found that Pom Pom has a deep love for bags, so I let her play with one of my more spacious tote bags.
It's too bad that Pom Pom didn't get along so well with one of my roomates. I found this out when I woke at 3:00 am to the sound of a loud crash. I look out into the hallway and I saw Ben Ben just sitting calmly in the middle of the hall in front of the closet. Since she's the skittish cat, she would be hiding if anything remotely bad happened, so I go right back to sleep. Later I'm woken again by the sound of desperate meowing. I look in the hall again and Ben Ben is still right there staring at the closet. "What are you doing Ben Ben?" I asked her. Then I noticed the scratches on the door, and I heard the desperate meowing coming from within.
"Pom Pom!" I exclaimed, and tried to push the door open. It wouldn't budge! We keep lots of stuff in that closet, but we always make sure to leave space for the door to open. Pom Pom was clearly in a panicked state, so I said soothing words to her as I pushed the door with all my weight. Eventually I found that whatever was blocking the door was pushing the bottom, so I throw all my weight at the top, trying to make an opening. After several minutes of pushing I open a crack low enough to Pom Pom to claw her way through. Of course she immediately rushed under the bed where she is comforted by Ben Ben.
Squeezing my head through the narrow opening I see that the ironing board had fallen and was the perfect length to brace the door from the back wall. It turns out that one of my roommates was doing laundry last night and somehow managed to trap Pom Pom in the closet, while simultaneously bracing the door from the inside.