Party On!

Bambino:  Yay!  I get to be spokescat this time.  Mom decided that since she was so late getting the word out about our big Birthday-Gotcha Day party yesterday (see previous post), we could party all day and evening today, too.  As before Horus and Spyro are hosting an outside party with hot dogs, hamburgers and steaks on the grill with grass rolling and gopher sniffing.  Oja is hosting a dignified catmint tea party in the safe room with waltz music and no rowdy boys, only gentlemen cats and lady cats allowed.  The used-to-be kittens are having a Rock'n'Roll party all through the rest of the house with THoE and King of the Mountain on the new cat tree.  There is plenty of food and drink, with water and almond milk for any kittens who want to come play.  Come on over and let's party!

Happy Birthday, Brody and Cissy!

 Brody: Man, it sure is hard to get out Mom to blog.  She was supposed to do this this morning.  It's our first birthday today and do you know what Mom gave us?

 Cissy: A trip to the vet!

Karen Jo: It wasn't that bad.  You just got looked over, weighed and had your temperature taken.

Brody: That's the bad part.

 Karen Jo: I also got you this.

Brody and Cissy:  We love that.  Now for our party.  We birthday kits--Julius, Brody and Cissy have taken over the living room for our Rock'n'Roll party.  We have the stereo turned up and Mom filled the dining room table with goodies for us.  There's a turkey on one end and a ham on the other end and in the middle is a whole grilled salmon.  We are serving meowgaritas now that we are old enough to drink them.  We also have meow-tais and nip Russians.  We can play endless games of THoE up and down the hall and play King of the Mountain on our new tower.  There are gazillions of toys lying around and Mom has promised to work Da Bird until her arms give out.

 Spyro: Horus and I have taken over the gas grill for our outside party.  We are cooking up hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks and salmon filets.  We have a picnic cooler full of niptinis and we filled up a big metal tub with ice and nip beer.  There is grass to run around in and it's pretty long on the side of the house.  The gophers have come out since the rainy season has started, so there are lots of mounds to sniff.

 Horus:  We can poop and pee out here, too.  In fact, Mom said it would be great if we pooped in the gopher holes.  Maybe we'll have a contest to see who can drop the biggest, stinkiest load in a gopher hole.  We can play in the front yard, too, but Mom says to stay out of the street or be sent home.  I should also tell you that there is a friendly min-pin who lives next door.  He will come right up to you and sniff.  Feel free to eat as much grass as you like.

 Oja: I am having my quiet, dignified party in the safe room.  I am serving cat mint tea and sushi and tuna and salmon tea sandwiches.  There are no rowdy boys allowed and I mean it! Gentleman cats may come in and join my party.  I am playing waltzes and there is a little room to dance.

 Rocio:  I will be moving back and forth between the outside mancat party and the birthday kits party.  I am staying far away from Oja's party.  She would hiss if I stuck my nose inside the safe room.

 Bambino:  I will also be moving back and forth between the outside and inside parties.  I may even visit Oja because now that I am two, I can act dignified when I want to, which is seldom, but her noms sound good.

Julius:  I will be at the Birthday Kits party.  I wanna start up a game of THoE right now.  Come one, come all and lets party!

Update from Julius: Mom says that since she was so late getting the notice up yesterday that we can party all day today (Friday), too.  There is plenty of food and drink and we are rested up and ready to go!

Happy Birthday, Julius!

 Julius: Today is my birthday and Mom almost missed it.  She's been saying that she would blog all day, but she is just now doing it.  I am one year old today.  I got a present.  It's an orange fish that makes noise and has catnip inside.  I love it.  We are having a really big party starting with a sleep-over tonight and going on all day and evening tomorrow.  Mom has a lot of catching up to do.

Karen Jo:  While I wasn't blogging, I missed special days for all my kitties, so we are having one huge party to make up for it.

 My Gotcha Day was March 20 and my Birthday was June 4. I am two now. I want a party with lots of THoE and rasslin' and toys.

 Oja: My Birthday was March 31.  I am four now.  My Gotcha Day was June 2.  I want a dignified party without any rowdy boys around.

 Horus: My Birthday was April 3.  I am also four now.  My Gotcha Day was April 28.  I want an outside party with lots of running though the grass.

 Bambino: My Gotcha Day was April 7 and my Birthday was July 6.  I am two now. I want a party with lots of playing and THoE and rasslin' and toys and food and treats.

Spyro: My Gotcha Day was April 24.  I want an outside party with lots of niptinis and food and chewing on grass and sniffing gopher holes.

Karen Jo:  I will see what I can do.  I will also show off the big gift that I got for all of you.  It will be one big blow-out of a party, I promise you that.

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?

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!

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday, Oja!

Oja:  Welcome to my Easter/Birthday party.  We have plenty of food, nip and toys to go around.

 These are our Easter toys.  Mom rolled the bunny in catnip and there are treats in the eggs.

Mom is also throwing a huge nip party.  Austin and Rocio have already started.  We have tiny Spring moths to chase.  They have been drowning in our water bowls.  We aren't telling whether they had any help.  There are lots more toys than what you see, including wand toys that Mom will wave around for us.  For the cat who like to go outside and the woofies, there is grass to roll around in and gopher holes to sniff.  Mom filled up the bird feeders and water, so cat TV should be pretty good.  There is lots of cat food, both canned and dry, plus roast beef, ham and turkey.  Lots of fresh water is on hand, along with niptinis and meowgaritas.  When you get tired there are beds and sofas and chairs all over the place.  I am three years old today and I want to party!

Nippy Sunday

Spyro: This actually happened last Sunday, but Mom didn't get around to posting about it.  Mom decided that it was time we had a nip party.  First she got out a little fuzzy ball that had been in the nip container for a few weeks and put it on the paper you see me on.  Rocio ran right up and grabbed it.  Then Mom put a generous pinch on nip on the paper and Rocio decided to roll in it.  I just lay beside the paper and watched, sure that my time would come. Sure enough, Rocio wandered off a little ways.  You can just see him in the background.  Then it was my turn.  I licked it and rolled in it and had a great time.

Rocio:  Mom serves up some great nip.  After Spyro crashed (you can just see his feet) I came back for a little more.  Then I just started staring off into space out the window.  Mom checked and there weren't any birds to watch; at least not that she could see.  Shortly after this I got the munchies and went off to chow down on Oja's crunchies.

Spryo:  I do love my nip, but it makes me sleepy.  All in all, we two had a great Sunday.  Lazy bones Oja and Austin napped through the whole nip party.

Hug Your Cat Day

 Wowee, kitties!  Did we rock the house down yesterday or what?  Mom gave up at midnight, mixed up a big bowl of meowgaritas, made sure the niptini fountain was full, put a bunch of records on the stereo and went to bed.  We kitties were still a-rockin' and a-rollin' and THoEing to beat the band.  Max the Psychokitty was shaking his booty like mad. When Mom got up just after dawn to get breakfast, there were crashed out kitties everywhere, including in bed with her.  She served up a generous breakfast of Stinky Goodness and Tiki Cat and went back to bed.  By the time she got up for real, all the visiting kitties had recovered enough to teleport home.  There weren't any leftovers to speak of.  I have spent most of the day just lying around on the living room carpet recovering.  Thank you all for helping me celebrate my 5th birthday in style.  ::finally notices the title of the post::  Hey!  This is supposed to be Mancat Monday!

Karen Jo:  This is a special day.  You can have Mancat Monday again next week.  So, how do you feel about being hugged?

I hate it.  Pet me and give me chin scritches and especially chest scritches, but don't hug me.

Spyro:  Man, I'm pooped.  I haven't played so hard in all my born days.  I spent most of the day crashed out in the laundry basket.  As for hugging, keep it to yourself.  Pet me and give me chin scritches and especially belly rubs, but don't hug me.

Oja: Hug ME!  I love to be hugged, petted, scritched, rubbed and loved on any way you please, just love me.  This picture is kind of dark, but I hope you can see my curly tail.  Mom loves how my tail curls up.  My front half is blurry because I decided to jump down just as Mom snapped the picture.  I still spend a good deal of time hiding because it is awfully noisy around here and I don't just mean the party.

Karen Jo:  I hope it doesn't put too much stress on you, but there is a bunch of roadwork going on very near my house.  You come out almost as soon as I come in your room, then it's a love-in.  I lean back on the couch and you get on my chest and we love on each other for a long time.  I got you a vet appointment for tomorrow to see about your runny nose, though it seems better today -- not quite as much kitty snot coming out.

Oja:  I don't wanna go to the vet!  I wanna stay here!

Karen Jo:  Don't worry.  We won't be there long.  We just need to get you checked out and in the vet records as being my kitty.  Then we will come right back home again and I will love on you.

Oja:  I guess that's all right.

Aftermath

Here I am in profile. Mom us using up some of the pictures she has already taken of me. It's gotten hot here and most of the time I am stretched out resting. I am still good for a short game of soccer in the morning, though. Ooooh, I think I had too much fun at my birthday party. I barfed the morning after.

Karen Jo: That wasn't a too-much-party barf, Herman. That was a hairball.

What's that?

Karen Jo: You haven't ever had one before because you never used to groom yourself much. Now that you are grooming yourself, you get loose fur in your tummy and it comes back up.

Gross! At least I was a good kitty about it and did it on the plastic mat in the kitchen. I did put me off my Medley for a while.

Karen Jo: Not for long. When I got home on Friday, you had eaten up all your Stinky Goodness and your Medley and the bottom of you pea and duck bowl was clearly visible. You are one hungry kitty!

I need to gain back the weight I lost. Besides, it's too hot to do much but eat and sleep. Saturday I made some good poops, too.

Karen Jo: You sure did. One all solid poop and one half solid poop. That's the most solid poop in one day so far.

Thank all of you for coming to my birthday party. It was a blast! Now Mom is going to get to work on my latest batch of awards, so she can post about them.