On the counter in my office I keep a small pile of twist ties, the kind you tie around wires to keep them from becoming unruly during shipping. I have since replaced most of these ties with Velcro wraps where I've needed them, so I suppose that I should be rid of them, but every so often Berta has the need for one, or their unique nature leads to a specific useful result like ejecting a stuck CD drive.

In any case, I keep this pile of twist ties on the counter between my synthesizer keyboard and my scanner.

Phobos, the gray of the two kittens we acquired last year, frequently visits my office. He does not visit me, for that is not the cat way, but he does come in my office to review what he's forgotten about the vast territory available to him in our house. There is a shadowy spot behind the synthesizer, under a shelf where I store an old toaster-looking NAS appliance, where he occasionally likes to curl up and nap. Recently though, he's taken to a completely different activity when he visits.

Phobos has been seeking out twist ties. I don't know why. When he enters my office, he now jumps directly to the spot where I keep the small pile of ties, roots through them, picks one up in his mouth, and then leaves my office.

I don't know what he wants with them. Perhaps he chews on them. I don't know.

Over the last few weeks my twist tie supply has dwindled down to nothing. Phobos has taken nearly every twist tie I had and redistributed them around the house. It's most likely that the bulk of them have been batted under the basement door, where he finds some mild momentary amusement reaching his forepaws ineffectually under the door before returning to my office for another tie.

Now that the twist tie supply is scarce, Phobos is removing other things from my counter. You must realize that if I am keeping a pile of twist ties out in the open on my counter, then there must be any number of good wiry things that are just sitting around, ready to be knocked about by cats.

I recently saw Phobos leaving my office with a pair of iPod headphones in his mouth.

A moment ago, I caught him rooting around again, pushing a stack of loose burned CDs onto the floor. There was a white twist tie that he wanted, but he couldn't orient his head to pick it up without tossing the CDs aside, and stepping on several buttons of the remote control for the satellite receiver, including "power" and "volume up". After restoring peace, I handed him the twist tie he wanted, and he promptly left my office.

He has since returned, and is now standing on the scanner, smelling the USB port. His brother, Deimos, conspicuously smells the counter where the pile of twist ties used to be.

The kittens have been with us for a couple of weeks now, and we're all adjusting to the changes.

When they first moved in, they lived in the laundry room behind the dryer, where we assume it was warm and out of the way. Eventually, someone turned on the dryer and that was the end of that, but they still venture in there to their electronic litter box (yes, it cleans itself), which has been working quite well for everyone concerned.

As Berta noticed, they would venture out slowly from the laundry room, going only as far as a few feet, then returning to base. Then they'd go a littler farther, then return. They're still a bit shy about leaving the family room, although we've since given them nearly full access to the first and second floors.

My office is usually off-limits because there's just too much delicate stuff in there. I let them visit over the past week and Phobos started to stalk the blinking network traffic light on the back of my PC. He hunkered down in the wires behind the case, and leaped at the LED and the surrounding wires. That came to a quick end, and I ejected the both of them.

Riley and Abby have taken to the kittens quite well. They've both decided which kitten is whose -- Abby's is Phobos and Riley's is Deimos. The kittens don't really see it that way, since they're friendly to both kids.

Riley is now unable to take naps at home during the day in the living room because the kittens make too much noise running around. They're like speedy little elephants, tearing up the carpet racing around the furniture chasing each other and making all sorts of trampling noises in the process. Riley's been taking naps in his room this week, which is actually working out better than usual since he was often unable to nap during the day otherwise, and it's helping him adjust to falling asleep without someone in the room, which has been a problem.

The kittens have already started waiting by the front door for Abby to come home from school. They were a little off yesterday, showing up around 3pm, and decided instead to knock on my office door. But when Abby finally came home, they were excited and ran around the house. Abby spent her afternoon playing with them.

Although she likes to pick them up and otherwise bother them a little too much, the kittens have really taken to Abby. They're still a little afraid of Riley, as well they should be. Sometimes he isn't aware of his strength. But he still likes to play with the kittens with their toys.

For me, Phobos and Deimos are often under foot. They like to congregate around my feet when I'm in the kitchen, which is especially tricky at night when I can't see them and am a bit groggy to be thinking about it. More than once I've accidentally launched a kitty across the hardwood floor. They're resilient though, and come right back to stand around my feet.

The two of them seem to play rough, but they don't bite or claw hard. Sometimes I think they consider me just another cat in the way I play. They like to attack my feet in socks, and I'll drag them around the floor while they bite and claw.

Apart from having to tape up some wires and the heat generated in my office from having to keep the door closed, the kittens are making a nice addition to our family.