Because Dan said so…

Yes, Beth and I now have two delightful little kittens who are probably the two cutest creatures in the history of creation. I have been promising people pictures for a while and so now I’m getting around to putting them up. They don’t fully capture their cuteness, of course, nor are they the best pictures in the world, but they will have to do for now.

Their names are Odin and Loki. The names come from Norse mythology, although both our kitties are much nicer than their namesakes. Gods in Norse mythology aren’t really terribly pleasant. They’re brothers (there was initially some doubt as to their gender because they were quite young and their testicles hadn’t… come down) and very much enjoy doing everything together. Eating, playing, fighting, sometimes sleeping. Although when one of them is awake he’ll often try to wake the other one up in order to have a playmate.

Odin is the gray, stockier one, who is somewhat silvery actually, although that’s something that definitely doesn’t come through very well on the pictures. He likes to make all sorts of funny faces and is an extremely agreeable kitten. He’ll purr when you pick him up, even if he doesn’t actually want to be cuddled, just to let you know that he appreciates the sentiment, but he’d actually prefer to be off exploring, thank you very much, so he’ll be on his way now. He also likes to curl up on the floor near me when I’m working at the computer, just to sort of hang out in my general vicinity, even if he’s not actually sitting on my lap. Not as lithe or agile as Loki, but very solid.

Loki is an orange tabby who jumps all over the place. He was initially very opposed to sleeping as a concept, since it seemed to detract from the time he could have to play. Any distraction would keep him from sleeping, so he would go hide in little nooks where there were no distractions in order to be able to actually sleep, as witnessed in the pictures of him. If you tried to get him to sleep in your lap, he would generally be too distracted by your presence, the bed, the ceiling, the air, to be able to settle down. In the last two days, however, he’s settled down a lot and will now sit happily on my lap and take a nap while I type away on the computer. I think he was a bit skittish at the start. He was definitely smaller to begin with and is still quite a bit skinnier, but he’s gotten very long. He can jump to higher places than Odin can at the moment, but Odin is able to pin him in fights because of his superior body mass.

So far they both seem extremely happy, playing a lot, sleeping a lot, and being absolutely adorable.
I am frequently reminded of the xkcd cartoon about cat proximity when I see them and talk to them, however. It is a little disturbing.