After the Ball Is Over

 Oja:  I want to thank everycat for coming to my soiree yesterday evening and night.  Almost everything went perfectly.  I did wonder why so many of my guests, especially the gentleman cats went out to the patio for a breath of fresh air and came back smiling.  We did have the windows closed, as the evening got rather chilly, so maybe it got a little hot and stuffy in the living room.  The gopher hunting must have gone really well, because I saw Bambino going all crazy pants in the back yard.  I'm really glad I sent his silly self outside during my dignified party, because he doesn't even know how to act dignified.  The only fly in the ointment was my Mom.  Halfway through the evening, just after she got all the trays refilled with canapes and sushi, she said she needed to sit down for a minute.  She sat down in the easy chair by the window and promptly fell asleep.  I was so embarrassed.  At least she didn't snore.  I nearly had to go out to the patio for some fresh air myself at that point, but Jose and I had to get busy passing the trays of snacks around.

Spyro and Rocio:  Whew!

Oja:  What was that?

Spyro:  Nothing Oja.

Oja:  I didn't see you or Rocio all evening.  What were you up to?

Rocio:  We were outside, keeping an eye on Bambino and the younger kitties.

 Spyro:  Psst, Rocio, is Oja out of earshot?

Rocio:  I think so.  We got away with it, didn't we?

Spyro:  We sure did. High five, bro!

 Rocio:  Spyro and I really enjoyed putting one over on Oja.  She still hisses and growls and yowls at me.

Karen Jo:  She wouldn't if you didn't keep smacking her with your paw.

Rocio:  She insists on sitting in the chair I want.

Karen Jo:  This house is full of chairs.  I think you just enjoy annoying Oja.

Rocio:  That could very well be the case.

 Bambino:  I sure had fun in the back yard last night.  Spyro and Rocio let me have just a little niptini.  I'm not that much underage.  I will be a mancat next month, I think.  The younger kitties and I played chase and sniffed the gopher holes and chased moths, though there weren't many of those.

Karen Jo:  That's because I don't have any flowers for them.  One or two of the peony buds opened, but the rest of them turned brown.  I don't know if it was lack of water (probably) or some bugs got them.

Jose:  I enjoyed the soiree very much.  I had never been to a dignified party before.  Oja and I danced together, then we danced with the other guests.  That is until the Mom fell asleep and we had to take over her duties of seeing that everyone got canapes, sushi, shrimp and catmint tea.

Karen Jo:  I apologize.  Throwing two parties in three days tired me out.

Karen Jo:  Now I want to bring up another subject.  Last summer, Spyro loved going outside in his harness and leash.  I think I spoiled it for him this year.  We had a warm day in April and I put his harness on him, but it had been a long time and I forgot how it went.  I got it on him wrong, took him outside and something spooked him.  He pulled strongly on the harness and got out of it and ran to the back door to be let back inside, then hid.  In late April, I tried it again, getting the harness on him right, this time.  Again something spooked him and he jerked the leash right out of my hand.  I opened the door for him and he ran, still wearing the harness and dragging the leash and hid.  I thought he was under the bed and that I would take his harness off of him when he calmed down enough to come out.  I heard a big meow from him and when I went to investigate, I found him in the hall without his harness.  He had gone into Oja's hideyhole, where there isn't much room, gotten the leash caught and managed to wiggle out of the harness.  I tried taking him out on his leash twice more, once in  May and once again today and he lets me put the harness on him, but as soon as he gets outside, he wants right back inside again.  Have I ruined his enjoyment of his harness and leash forever?

Spyro Goes Outside

Spyro: Oja's picture came out all black and Herman got up and walked away after Mom pushed the button on the camera, so it's just me today. See me tasting the grass?  It's mostly brown from the heat and Mom not watering it.  She really needs to get up and water it on watering days.  Today Mom picked me up and showed me the back yard.  At first I just snuck around on my belly, but after a while I got used to my harness and started to walk normally.  I explored about half of the back yard.  I rolled on the patio and chewed on grass and found some dirt to dig in and roll in.  I even found an interesting hole and stuck my paw in it, but didn't find anything.  I sniffed an ant and chased a moth that flew up when I explored a bush.  Mom let me stay about about 15 minutes.  If she had let me stay out just a little bit longer, I might even have peed outside.  The first thing I did when Mom took me back in and took off my harness was pee in the litter box.  Then I tore all around the house and meowed to be let out again.

Karen Jo:  I am surprised that you didn't find the gopher holes more interesting.  Maybe the visible holes are all old and don't smell much like gopher any more.

Why didn't you use one of my old pictures?

Karen Jo:  They show you with all your fur and your friends might find that very confusing.

I didn't have much fun today.  Spyro picked a fight with me to take over the ham-mick.  We had quite a smack down, but I finally gave up and got out of the ham-mick.  Spyro jumped in it, then decided he didn't really want it.

Karen Jo:  I think you have fun rasslin' with Spyro.  You really cried when I took Spyro outside.

It's not fair.  He gets to go outside and I don't.

Karen Jo:  The harness isn't big enough for you.  If I got you a harness, would you wear it?

I won't know until I get to try it.

Oja:  I was nice and stayed still for a picture.

Karen Jo:  I guess there wasn't enough light.  All I got was a black square.  You didn't take your Interferon again.  That's two days in a row that it got wasted because you jerked your head away at the last instant.  I hope you licked it off your fur.

Oja:  I don't like stuff squirted in my mouth.

Karen Jo:  I can't even bribe you into starting to accept it because you don't like treats.

Oja:  I played with my fish today.

Karen Jo:  I noticed, but you wouldn't come out, even though I left the door open for quite a while.

Oja:  Spyro was at the door.

Kare Jo:  You could have come out just far enough to meet him.

Oja:  I don't want to meet him.  He scares me.

Spyro's Big Adventure

 I have mostly just been relaxing.  It's gotten hot again.  I do play with Spyro and look out the windows quite a bit.

 Spyro:  The day before yesterday Mom went out shopping for our food and came back with this.  That first day she just put it out on the floor and let me sniff it.  I didn't find it very interesting.  Yesterday she tried to put it on me, but I wasn't having any of it.  Today I let her put in on me and just relaxed once it was on.  Then Mom showed me what it is for:

 Looky!  I'm OUTSIDE!  I got to sniff the bushes and vines and chew on the grass!  I got to chase bugs!  I got to hide under a bush and watch woofies go by!  I got to roll on the concrete!  I got to roll and dig in the dirt!  Sometimes I snuck along on my belly, but sometimes I walked normally.  I even jumped at a bug.  This is my best present ever!  When Mom brought me back inside, I ran around like crazy, then cried and cried at the screen door to go out again.  Mom says I can go out every day.  I'm so excited!

Oja:  This is a terrible picture of me.  You can hardly see me next to the black box.

Karen Jo:  I had to use this old, rejected, picture because you haven't been cooperating.  You won't let me take your picture.  You won't take your Interferon.  It's been three weeks and you don't show many signs of ever wanting to come out of your room, though that doesn't really matter.  You can stay in there as long as you like.

Oja:  I let that Spyro explore my room without hissing at him.

Karen Jo:  That's true.  Spyro sniffed all over your room and you just stayed up on the bookcase and watched him.  I'm not trying to push you out of your room, but I think you would have more fun with the whole house to explore.  You haven't even been playing with your fish lately.

Oja:  I haven't felt like playing.  It's been awful hot.

Karen Jo:  You don't get much air circulation with the door closed.  I'll leave it open more, unless you object.

Fabulous Friday

I just told Mom that I wanted a treat by scratching on my Alpine Scratcher.  I got one, too.  Mom and I think today is fabulous for different reasons.  I think it is fabulous because the weather warmed up and melted all the snow and it even got warm enough for window whiffing.  We had lots of birds at the feeder and I talked to them.

Karen Jo:  I think it is fabulous because I finished my income taxes, even with your help.  Why were you sitting on my tax papers?

You put some of your dumb papers on my cushion on the table and I wanted to watch the birds, so I sat on the papers you were working on until you moved the ones off my cushion.  Then I got on my cushion and started talking to the birds.

Karen Jo:  You make such an interesting little sound when you watch the birds.  You don't chitter, you go keck-keck.

The food around here has been pretty boring.  Mom keeps eating chicken that she put herbs all over.  I don't much like it.

Karen Jo:  I try to give you pieces of the inside where the herbs aren't, but you still don't want it.  Don't worry, it's almost steak time again.

Yay!  I've been playing with my toys while Mom isn't watching again.  It's fun to play by myself.  I have found out that if I sit by the kitchen sink and meow pitifully enough, Mom will pick me up and put me on the sink and give me a drink from the faucet.

Karen Jo:  I should make you jump every time.  You need the exercise.  That pitiful meow gets to me, though, and I pick you up.

Mom isn't picking at my fur as much.

Karen Jo:  I have gotten out most of the mats.  You still have some around your armpit, though.

Oooh, that's a tender spot.  I really don't like you pulling my fur there.

Karen Jo:  I know and I'm sorry, but it has to be done.  You did one the hard way yesterday.

I was up on the couch, resting my head on Mom's thigh and getting petted when she started in on the fur pulling.  I jumped down.

Karen Jo:  I was still holding onto the mat and it pulled out when you jumped.  I have decided not to do any more mat picking during our bedtime petting session.  You don't like it and it is our special time.

Thank goodness for that.

Karen Jo:  I was out and about quite a bit today, doing errands and I saw lots of bugs.  I hope you are going to be a better bug hunter this year.

I am choosy about which bugs I hunt.

Karen Jo:  I have noticed.  You just watch flies, but you hunt and eat moths.

Moths taste better.

Mancat Monday

I was sound asleep in my hammick when Mom started to sneak up on me with the camera.  I just opened my eyes a slit, saw what she was doing and went back to sleep.  Mom spilled some nip on my hammick the other day and that makes it even more special.

Karen Jo:  You certainly are not a nip-head.  You didn't even play with the ball that I had marinated in the nip today.

Nip doesn't affect me all that much.  I really go for a new nip toy the first time you give it to me, but after that it doesn't seem like as much fun.  The only nip toy that I played with time after time was my nip syringe.  It's too bad that Emma destroyed it.

Karen Jo:  I am thinking about getting you a new nip toy from that company for your birthday.

That would be nice.  You were on the computer a lot today, but you weren't blogging.

Karen Jo:  I need a new computer or to update the one I have.  I was researching what I need/want for hours.  I found a good deal and ordered it.

That was kind of fast, really.  Shouldn't you have put more research/thought into it?

Karen Jo:  Maybe, but the one I found had everything I needed/wanted and it was on sale, but only through Sunday.  I only had an hour to make up my mind, so I went ahead.  Had I spent more time on research and thought, I would have ended up paying at least $200 more for a machine with the same/similar specs.  From what I checked upon about the prices of the parts I would need for an upgrade, buying a new computer was cheaper.

I hope you didn't spend my food money.

Karen Jo:  Don't worry about it.  My Social Security payments have started and my pension finally starts next month. We will be doing fine.

Not much else went on today.  I napped and ate and ignored my toys.  Mom did the laundry and used the computer.  I discovered that the printer makes interesting noises, but the paper coming out startled me.  I found a moth in the litter box room and played with it for a little while, but it was tiny and I lost sight of it soon after it took off flying.  I did bat at it a couple of times when it first took off, but I missed.

Bed and Bugs

The rainy season has started here, which brought the temperatures down. My bed has become my favorite place to nap again. I have become more playful with the cooler temperatures. Mom and I had several play sessions today. Mom has been wondering why my scratching post changes position, as she hasn't seen me scratching the post part, which makes it tip and move. I showed her today. I don't scratch the post, I attack it! I leap on it and wrap my body around the post, so it doesn't tip over and to go town on the post with my claws. That makes it move.

Last night I showed Mom that I am too interested in flying bugs. I was lying on her bed while she blogged, then she heard a big thump and turned around. I was on the floor eating a moth I had just caught. Mom was hoping that it wouldn't come up again, and it didn't. She let me have a tiny bit of her ice cream for dessert. Today I chased a big fly around the big room, but gave up the chase when it went into the kitchen. The floor in there is too slippery for a flying bug chase.

I have mostly been eating up all my food and helping Mom eat hers. I got a little mac and cheese for lunch and we had steak for dinner. Mom gave me tiny bites until I didn't want any more. I have it really good here and I love it.