Mousebreath Interview

Spyro:  We are all very excited because our interview with the Funny Farm Cats is up on Mousebreath today.  How cool is that?

Oja:  And you did most of the talking.

Spyro:  I have been here the longest, so that makes me spokescat.

Rocio:  I hope that most readers believe that I was named after a fish, because the other part is downright embarrassing.

Oja:  HAHAHA!

Rocio:  What are you laughing at, opera singer?

Oja: Raspberries to you.

Bambino:  I like my part.  I shoved Spyro's kibble bowl off the counter just last night.

Jose:  Too bad my excellent jumping abilities didn't surface until after the interview.  I was the first cat to get up on the curtain valence in the living room, which is the highest place in the whole house.

Bambino:  I got up there, too.

Jose:  But I was first.  You didn't jump up there until you saw me do it.

Karen Jo:  I expect that Spyro will jump up there soon, too, but Jose gets the claim of being the first to be the highest.  Rocio and Oja are getting along better.  He did make her yowl yesterday in the computer room, so I plugged the Feliway in there.  He was starting it up again this morning, but left in a hurry when I dropped to all fours behind him.  A whole lot of you want to see a video of me being MomCat, but I don't know how I could arrange it.  There is no one else here to take the video.  Maybe I could find something I could rest the camera on, then perform for the camera.  We'll see.

TCC News

 Rocio:  See this ratty-looking scratching post?  If I scratch on it, I get a treat.  I am trying to decide if it is worth the trouble.  Bambino, Jose and I are all exceited.  Mom finally put in our applications to join the Tabby Cat Club and Gracie said we could consider ourselves unofficial members until her computer comes home from the computer hospital.  Yay!

 Bambino:  I am trying to decide if I want to give Jose a whap for trying to take my sparkle ball that was dipped in nip.  See my raised paw?  I am the only full tabby cat here.  The rest of you are tuxie-tabbies or Russian Blue tabby.

 Jose:  Mom has been trying and trying to get a picture of me full face with my eyes open, so you can see what she calls my Egyptian eyes.  This is as close as she has come so far.  My eyes are a light green and with  my brown eye-liner I look quite exotic.

 Oja:  Ha!  I have you all beat.  Everyone should go right over to the Tabby Cat Club and look at the wallpaper.  That's me!  Right there!

Spyro:  All this excitement!  I was the first to join and tuxie-tabbies are just as tabby as full tabbies.  No that is not a smudge of Stinky Goodness under my nose.  That is just part of my markings.  I am getting screen door whiffies and trying to figure out how I can get outside without my harness.  Mom is getting too fast for me and I hardly escape at all any more.

Karen Jo:  Thank you all for the good advice on calming things down between Rocio and Oja.  I have been basically letting them work it out, until Oja yowls.  I don't want a full-fledged fight.  Until the Feliway arrives, which will probably be a waste, because it is finally open window season here and the sockets where I could plug it in are right under the windows, I have tried Brian's suggestion of acting the MomCat.  Rocio got Oja cornered in the litter box room last night, so I got behind him down on all fours and hissed at him and chased him into the bathtub.  This morning, he tried it in the computer room and got I down beside Oja, facing Rocio and hissed at him again.  He ran away and hasn't been a pest to Oja since.  I don't think this means that the problem is solved, but it is working.

Oja Takes Over

 Oja:  Mom is finally letting me have the blog to myself for a change and she's finally letting some cat blog here.  She's been doing all sorts of stuff, just not blogging.  A lot has been said lately about how I am built like on opera singer.  I am only one pound overweight, so there.

 Remarks have been made about my short legs and how I am not as good a jumper as the other cats.  See how high I can get?  I am up on Spyro's spy tower.

I don't like boy cats much, but I am not afraid of them.  See what I can do to Spyro?  I only rassle with my friends, though, and that is why is hiss, growl and yowl at Rocio when he tries to start something.  I run away from him at times, because if I got into it with him, it would be a real fight.  He is such a brat.

Karen Jo:  He has been a real brat to you lately, Oja.  I break it up and put him in time out for a while, but he keeps trying to mix it up with you.  I ordered a Feliway plug-in and I hope that will help things.  I just hope I can find the right place to plug it in.  Rocio mostly goes after Oja in the kitchen and in the computer room and they are at opposite ends of the house.  Maybe I should get two of them?  Any suggestions?

Meet Jose

 Jose:  Hi, I'm new here.  I just arrived this afternoon.  I spent about an hour in the safe room, then I wanted out.  I knew there was a whole house here, 'cause I saw some of it when I arrived.  Here I am inspecting a messy room with a big bed.  I didn't see anything interesting in here.  I also checked out a room with a some tables with all kinds of stuff on them and the litter box room.  I didn't see anything interesting in them, either.  Then I loped into the living room and there were three cats in there.

 Jose:  Here I am walking very slowly around the living room, trying to figure out if I am welcome here.

Jose:  The smaller tabby cat jumped down and half-scared me.  Here we are meeting.  I have him a soft hiss and retreated under the chair.  I have been lying under the chair or walking around under the little table and behind the platform ever since.  The nice lady brought me some food under the table.  I don't want to stay in the safe room, but these three other cats make me a little nervous.

Karen Jo:  Jose is a very nice cat.  He came over to me on my second little visit to the safe room and let me pet him a little.  He really liked looking out the high window in the safe room.  I was surprised he wanted out so soon, but he wanted out and I let him out.  He seems to like hanging out in the living room watching Spyro, Bambino and Rocio.  Rocio has almost entirely ignored him since he approached the carrier when Jose first came in and got hissed at.  Spyro sneaked into the safe room and approached Jose very slowly and got a small hiss after a nose kiss.  He has pretty much ignored Jose, too.  Bambino seems fascinated by Jose.  He keeps approaching him and getting a small hiss, then he backs off and does other stuff for a while, then he tries greeting Jose again.  Oja has stayed out of the living room altogether.  She has no interest in Jose at all.  Since the hisses are all soft little hisses and one-sided, I think Jose will feel at home here pretty quickly.  I hope so, anyway.

Happy Gotcha Day, Spyro!

Karen Jo:  Before I turn the blog over to Spyro, I just want to thank everyone for all the love and sympathy you gave me and the cats on the loss of Austin.

Spyro:  I am resting up a bit because today is my Gotcha Day and I want to party hearty!  I was adopted one year ago today and boy have I had fun since then!  When I first moved in it was just me and Herman and we hit it off right off the bat.  I was in the safe room maybe ten minutes before I wanted out to meet Herman.  We sized each other up and started playing with each other right away.  Then Oja moved in and hated both of us on sight, but got to like both of us a few months later.  Herman had to leave, but along came Austin and Rocio and it was party time!  We had a ball together.  Austin had to leave, but Bambino moved right it and it's party time again.  You will never guess what Mom is getting me for my Gotcha Day.  I am going to love it and Oja is going to get hissed off big time.  Give up?  Mom found another mancat for me.  His name is Jose and he's a three-year-old tabby-and-white just like me.  We will be almost the same age, as I am two-and-a-half.  I just know that we are going to have so much fun together.

Now it's time to party!  Tonight we have niptinis, meowgaritas, real live dead shrimp and tuna to snack on and dance music, along with toys and lots of places to nap.  In the morning Mom will start bringing out ham, turkey, roast beef, chicken and more shrimp and tuna, along with cat food for those of you who just like canned food and kibble.  To drink we have fresh water and milk along with the nip drinks.  We have nip, more toys than you can shake a stick at, wand toys that we will make Mom work for us until her arms fall off and Spring moths to chase.  They are tiny little things and fly around in all sorts of directions, which make them lots of fun.  Mom will fill up the bird feeders and bath, so the Cat TV Bird Channel should be pretty good.  There are gopher holes in the back yard to sniff along with grass to roll in and eat and dirt if anyone fancies a dirt bath.  I like them myself, much to Mom's dismay.  There is a fairly long hall for THoE with a table for sliding across at the end.  There are two nice boxes in the living room, one medium and one really big.  Mom gives out treats to any cat who uses the scratching posts.  Kitty rasslin' is a specialty of the house, everycat is welcome to join in.

Now let's get this party started!  Whoo-hoo!

Meet Bambino

 Bambino:  It's about time my lazy Mom got around to letting me introduce myself.  I've been here since April   7th.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Bambino.  I was greatly affected by Austin's running off to the Bridge.  Then I got involved with my income taxes and that along with the return of winter really got my spirits down.  I'm OK now and will start blogging more again.

Bambino:  I love this nifty cushion.  See all those papers?  I pushed them all off on the floor the other day.  I'm good at pushing things off.

Karen Jo:  I've noticed.  The last three mornings I have been awakened by loud crashes.

Bambino:  It gets your attention and I get hungry in the mornings.  I guess I should tell you how I got here.  Several months ago a nice lady found me as a tiny kitten wandering around on a busy street in Santa Fe.  She took me home and took care of me, but when she discovered that I was FeLV+ she had to keep me in a playpen most of the time to keep me from infecting the cat who was already there and started looking for a new home for me.  She was a volunteer for Felines & Friends, who rescued Austin and Rocio.  There were plans made to pair me with Rocio, but then Austin came along and they were perfect together, so I had to wait.  When Mom first brought me home and put me down in the living room in the carrier, no cat hissed at me, not even Oja.  Things soon changed.

I noticed right away that Rocio and Spyro were both bigger than I was and Oja was stockier and stronger, so I decided that it was best to stay in the safe room for a few days.  Monday, I stuck my head out of my room and promptly got hissed at by Rocio, so I scurried back into hiding.

Karen Jo:  I was surprised that Rocio hissed at you.  He had never hissed at any cat before.  I think he was still missing Austin a whole lot.

Bambino:  Monday evening, I crept out into the hall in slink mode and Oja growled at me, so I ran back into my room again.  Tuesday morning and afternoon, I ventured out just a little, but when running back to my room when I got hissed or growled at.  By Tuesday night, I had figured out that these bigger cats were all talk and no action, so I came out and stayed out.  I spent part of Tuesday night on Mom's bed, until Oja got hissed off that I thought I could sleep ON Mom instead of beside her.

Bambino:  It was only a few more days before I made friends with Rocio.  He saw all the fun I was having with Spyro and decided that I was OK after all.  Here we are playing with Da Bird together.  Spyro, Rocio and I all play chase and rassle together, though not all three at once.  Well, not rasslin' anyway.  By the amount of stuff that gets knocked off of tables Mom strongly suspects that all three of us play THoE at once.  Oja isn't always hissy with me any more and I try to stay out of her way.

Karen Jo:  Bambino may not be the Sultan of Swat, but he is the Prince of Pounce.  He loves pouncing Spyro and Rocio.  From some yowls I have heard, he may have even pounced Oja.  I know that Rocio has been teasing Oja by jumping up the foot or side of the bed and taking a swat at her, then running away.  As a side note, I filed my application to adopt Bambino yesterday.  There is just a little more paperwork to do and he will be an official member of the family.

Remembering Austin

Karen Jo:  Here is Austin in action, which is how I most remember him.  There are things about Austin that I never got around to blogging about, so I thought I would do a remembrance post about him.  He was the most silent cat I have ever known.  All I ever heard out of him were the oofs and hunhs he made while rasslin'.  I never heard him meow at all.  He had other ways of communicating with me.  When he wanted to remind me that it was time to feed the kitties he would just stand and stare at me.  Every kitty here has a flat dish for canned food and a bowl for kibble.  Austin knew which ones were his and always ate out of his first.  When I would pick up his canned food dish, he would leap up and grab it.  I would show him that it was still empty and he would stand by where I would put it down full.  Sometimes he would run into the kitchen to watch me fill it, then run back to his room to wait for it.  This didn't stop him from sampling Rocio's dish as soon as I put it down and often Rocio would eat out of Austin's dish while Austin tried his.  As far as I know Austin only ate kibble out of his bowl.

I wear fuzzy plush socks to bed to keep my feet warm.  Austin thought they made great toys while they were on my feet.  He would grab at them and gently bite my toes.  He would rub his head all over them.  Once I took them off, he had no interest in them.  He never got tired of rasslin'.  Once he finished with Rocio (meaning Rocio ran off) he would look around for Spyro for another round.  After Spyro ran off, he would check to see if Oja was around.  She rarely was.  She knew what was coming and wanted no part of it.

I don't remember Austin being terribly interested in the toys on the floor, though he would play with them.  He loved the wand toys and would leap up to get them.  Da Bird is much in need of new feathers now, he played so hard with it.  He was just so full of life and fun that it is very sad to remember that he is gone.  I have some nice photos and memories of him and he might have send a present from the Bridge.  There is a new kitty in the house named Bambino.