We didn’t plan on it. But we got it.

Black and white. Night and day. Literally. Iris the White Queen does her crazies in the morning. Raven the Black Queen does hers at night.

The chess has to do with the intricate machinations involving access to soft cat food. The real food is kibble, which is continuously available, but the contention is for the contents of those tiny cans filled with unspeakable who-knows-what that cats just love.

Squared off 24/7. Only thing missing is the clock chess nerds use to show how quickly they decided on their next move.

Iris attacks early and hard. Gulps down the first doling out of the day. Raven who is more passive aggressive waits for later, knowing she can stay up all night and feast while Iris gets more and more settled on the pleasure of sleeping on mommy’s feet behind a closed bedroom door.

But Iris dispatches her Bishop, Elliott, to block Raven during the night. Sometimes we wake to the sound of yowling as Elliott pursues Raven downstairs. Which is when the Black Knight, Raebert, wakens with a what-the-hell woof and runs pell mell downstairs to rescue his liege.

Yeah. After the first night or two, it seems the two Queens no longer sleep together in the same cozy bed. They’re not enemies but they are competitors. The good news is they both think they always win. As soon as they get their own fine banquet of salmon entrails or whatever is in those cans.

Iris wins!

Raven wins!

Or I guess you could call it a stalemate.