Busy Mom

Mom did get out the sucky monster and I did hide under the bed, but I did get some treats after it was all over.  Then she put all my stuff back on the floor and I got to relax.  I can't believe I didn't tell you the worst danger of an energetic Mom.  She actually held me down and furminated me all over, despite my meowed protests. Sheesh!

Karen Jo:  It's a good thing that I did hold you down and furminate you, Herman.  Your chest was getting tangled fur again.  I got great clumps of it out.  I am sorry if it pulled a little bit, but it will save you from having your chest shaved again. Remember how embarrassed you were walking around bare-chested?

I remember.  I didn't like that one bit.  Can't you just work the tangles out with your fingers, like you did with the one that you found last night while you were petting me?

Karen Jo:  I am afraid not.  I can't always find the exact spot of the tangle with my fingers.  I just noticed that your fur didn't feel right when I was petting your chest before I furminated you and that's why I held you down and made you go through it.  If you would just let me brush you all over every day and furminate you once a week, you probably wouldn't have any problems with your fur.

I know that I should let you do that and I used to let you do that, but it doesn't seem to feel as good as it used to.  I would rather go under my platform and try to get some treats from you.  You have been a bit stingy with the treats since I barfed.

Karen Jo:  Only a little bit.  You still get plenty of treats.  I let you finish off the bag of Dairy Temptations tonight.  I don't want you barfing again and the amount of nip treats you got that night may have had something to do with it.  I would rather give you some treats more often than give you all you want at one time and have you barf again.

You said that you thought it was the dry food plus water that made me barf.

Karen Jo:  Yes, I did, but there was only a little dry food and a whole lot of treats.  The difference is that you chew up your treats, but swallow your dry food whole, at least the Purina One and the duck and pea, which are little disks.  You chew up your Kitten Chow and Friskies.  Come to think of it, it's the Purina One and duck and pea which tend to get barfed.  I will think on this some more.

I hope you decide that I can have all the treats I want whenever I want them.

Karen Jo:  I don't think so.  When I was really letting you have tons of treats, I noticed that you weren't eating as much of your regular food as you used to, so I started to cut back on the treats.  Then you went back to eating more of your regular food.  Treats are great and I love giving them to you, but they shouldn't take the place of your regular food.

Rats!  I would love to try living on treats.

Karen Jo:  That is not going to happen.

Caturday

Mom was hoping that my eye color would show up a little in this photo and it did, but you have to look closely to see it.  I let my Mom sleep yesterday and, let me tell you, kitties, a well-rested Mom is a dangerous thing.  She went nuts.  She got up and went shopping.  Then she started cooking up a storm.  She totally trashed the kitchen, then cleaned it up again.  There was the smell of cooking chicken all afternoon, but she didn't give me any.

Karen Jo:  I was cooking my lunches for the next few days and more for the freezer.  I had almost depleted my stock of cooked food for when I don't have time to cook from scratch.  I offered you some sweet and sour chicken today, but you didn't want it.  That didn't surprise me.  I didn't think you would, with the soy sauce and vinegar in it.

When she was through with all that, she cooked a steak and I helped her eat it, a little.

Karen Jo:  You asked me for lots of treats just before I cooked the steak again.  I didn't give you as many as you wanted because I was afraid you wouldn't have room for steak when it was ready.  I was almost right.  You only wanted two bites and you had me tear those up into tiny bits.

After all that activity, when it came time to blog, she told me she was too tired.

Karen Jo:  I wore myself out and I still didn't get everything done that I needed to get done.  I gave you another ride in your stroller.

I enjoyed the ride and didn't jump out until it was over.

Karen Jo:  You did jump out the second it was over.  I was reaching for the camera and didn't even get it into my hands before you were out.  I think I am going to have to zip you in to get a picture of you in your stroller.

I don't want to be zipped in.  I like being able to stick my head out to see where we are going without any mesh in the way.  Mom is threatening to get the sucky monster out tomorrow.

Karen Jo:  I know how much you hate it, but the carpet really, really needs vacuuming.  I need to dust, too.  Actually, I think I better get up early in the morning, with all the work that needs doing.

You will find me under the bed.  I better get some treats when you finish.

Snoozy Thursday

I'm taking a nap on the carpet again.  Mom had another one of those days where she doesn't do anything again yesterday.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Herman.  I have to work very hard on Sundays and Mondays and sometimes I am very tired on Tuesday.  I will get and cook the chicken tomorrow and we will have steak.

That sounds good.  I barfed big time Monday night and Mom took my treats away.

Karen Jo:  You are such a drama king.  I didn't take your treats away yesterday; I just didn't give you as many as you wanted, in case your tummy was still upset.  From the looks of the barf, you ate some dry food on top of a whole bunch of nip treats, then took a big drink of water.  When the dry food began to expand, there just wasn't room for all of it. You got as many treats as you wanted tonight.  The nip treats were well on the way to being digested, so I figured that the treats weren't the cause of the barf.

I really bugged Mom this morning.  I got her up early for breakfast, then woke her up again a couple of hours later and wouldn't let her go back to sleep.

Karen Jo:  You were being a little stinker.  You didn't even get up with me the second time, when I went to check if you had eaten your breakfast and wanted more.  As soon as I got back in bed, you went back into your routine.  I petted you in case that was what you wanted, but you put your paws on my hand.  It turned out that you wanted to use my hand for a pillow.  By then, it was almost time to get up, so I didn't get back to sleep.  You did, though.

I finally played with Mom a little bit yesterday.  I let her know that I wanted to play and she tried out various toys on my until I batted a ball back to her a few times.  Then I walked off to my bed for a nap.

Fuzzy Tuxie Tuesday

Many of you have wanted to see a picture of me in my stroller.  I didn't cooperate.  I am a bit fuzzy in the photo because I jumped out of the stroller as Mom was taking the picture.  Mom put me in twice, but I didn't want to go for a ride this morning.  Mom will keep trying.  She wants me to get used to it.  We won't be going outside any time soon.  It snowed a little bit today.

Karen Jo:  I was hoping that your first reaction to the stroller meant that you liked it.  This time you gave your complaining meow when I first put you in the stroller and jumped out almost immediately.  I put you back in and just managed to get a picture.  I know you don't like being confined, but this is meant to be fun.

It's only fun if I can get out whenever I want and I wanted out.  Mom actually found some good food in the freezer.  She found a package of chicken and rice and I helped her eat it.

Karen Jo:  You surprised me again.  When you first came here, I gave you microwaved chicken bits from the freezer for your elevenses and you liked it, but not for long.  Since then you have turned your nose up at anything I got out of the freezer.  Maybe you liked this because I thawed it first and the chicken had no herbs on it.  I am going to cook sweet and sour chicken tomorrow, which you probably won't like, but I will also make baked chicken, which you do like.  I think I will make the baked chicken with Swiss cheese, which you went nuts over the first time I cooked it.

Yummy, fresh baked chicken.  I can hardly wait.  I fooled you again about what I want.

Karen Jo:  Yes, you did.  I was giving you nip treats tonight and you went and scratched on your platform again.  I didn't really believe that you wanted me to change treats, but I did and gave you an Indoor Adventure treat.  You ate it but turned away from me and didn't ask for another one, so I put them away.  Luckily, I hadn't put the nip treats away.  I showed you the package and, sure enough, you wanted more nip treats.  So what was the platform scratching about?

I just felt like having a scratch.  I love to keep you guessing.  It's fun and I still get what I want.

Mancat Monday

Mom didn't take a picture of me today.  She said that she didn't want still another picture of me lying on my side on the carpet, so she went outside and took a picture of the moon instead.  It didn't turn out, so here is a picture of me from a day or so ago, enjoying a bit of sun on my warming mat.

Mom didn't have anything good for lunch, so I didn't even ask for any.  She managed to get her work done a bit early and had more time for me, though.  I got lots of treats, but not too many, as she was afraid I would fill up on treats and not eat my lunch while she was at work.  She didn't have to worry.  I licked my Medley and Stinky Goodness dishes clean.

Karen Jo:  You sure did.  I hardly had to wash them at all before I gave you your dinner when I got home.  You wanted lots of treats when I got home, too.

Yes, and I got them.  I had mostly Temptations and some nip treats.

Karen Jo:  I think I interpreted what you wanted correctly.  You show me that you want treats by going to your platform and scratching.  Once I start giving you treats, you pat my hand or reach toward the treat package to tell me that you want another one.  After a bunch of Temptations, you walked back to your platform and scratched again, so I switched to nip treats and you ate several of them before you decided that you were full.  I tried to get you to play with me before I went to work, but you weren't interested.

You should know by now that I like to play at night more than during the day.

Karen Jo:  But you haven't been interested in playing at night lately, either.  Your toys get moved around, so I know that you are playing at least a little while I am at work.

I will let you know when I am ready to play.  I think Ayla, Iza and Marley have a great idea.  You should cook chicken again.

Karen Jo:  That is a good idea.  I will pick some up tomorrow and decide how I want to cook it.

Bad Fur Day

Here I am wondering if I would rather play or nap.  I have been having bad fur days lately.  It just sticks out every which way.

Karen Jo: It's the dryness of the air, Herman.  You get a touch of electric cat and your fur stands out.

Then I wish the air would get wetter.  This is a bit embarrassing.

Karen Jo:  I wish it would, too.  We were supposed to get snow today, but we didn't even get clouds.  There was a very nice almost full moon out to light my way home from work.

Mom finished off the meatloaf today and I even helped her.

Karen Jo:  That surprised me a little.  You ate quite a few tiny bites even though you haven't been the least bit interested in it for the past few days.

What's next on the menu?

Karen Jo:  I haven't decided yet.  I will probably eat out of the freezer for a day or two.

Yuck!  I don't like stuff out of the freezer.

Karen Jo:  Don't worry, I will cook again soon.  You have enough treats to see you through.  I found your nip treats on special today, so I stocked up on them, too.

At least I won't starve to death waiting for you to cook something good.

Caturday

Here I am just lounging around again. Mom got a bad case of the blahs yesterday and didn't do much. I didn't get another ride in my stroller and we didn't even get steak.

Karen Jo: Sorry, Herman. I decided that I really needed to eat more of that meatloaf, so I can finish it before it goes bad. I don't want to freeze it.  I did give you lots of Mom time.

Yes, that was fun, even if I didn't want to play. 

Karen Jo:  You did play with the red spot for a while.

Good news.  Mom brought home lots and lots of treats.

Karen Jo:  They were on sale, so I stocked up.

Mom opened up a package of Dairy Temptations.  I like them.  I also like the Friskies Indoor Adventures treats.

Karen Jo:  The only treats you haven't liked were the ones that were supposed to be good for you.

Healthy treats, yuck!  It seems like a contradiction in terms.  Treats are just supposed to taste good.

Karen Jo:  Well, you have a good supply of Temptations and Friskies Party Mix now.  I still haven't gotten you any more Greenies, but the weather has been too cold to walk all the way up to the store that carries them.  Maybe my next day off.