Oja Comes Out!

Karen Jo:  First off I would like to thank Ann of Zoolatry very much for the new header.  I love the old one, but Spyro and Oja deserve a place on the header, too.

I am watching Spyro play and deciding whether or not I want to pounce him.  In the end, all I did was bat his tail once.  He was too occupied to notice.  Mom wouldn't take us out Sunday, but we got to go out for a long time today.  Spyro got to go first, but I didn't mind too much.

Karen Jo:  As soon as you discovered that we were out you started meowing that you wanted out.

I don't get all spastic like Spyro does.  I had a lovely time exploring the front yard and the neighbor's front yard and the back yard.

Karen Jo:  I carried you from the neighbor's front yard to our back yard.  You were getting a bit to nosy about their carport.

I got to chew on grass and watch ravens fly overhead.  I checked out a couple of gopher holes, but didn't find them all that interesting.  Mostly I just walked around on the grass and looked all around.

 Spyro: Mom got out a nip ball.  I had never seen it before.  Boy, do I love it.  I batted it and smelled it and licked it and rubbed all over it and even tried to bunny-kick it.  I am holding it in my paws in the picture.  Mean Mom wouldn't let me out yesterday, even though I meowed and meowed about it.

Karen Jo:  I thought there was enough going on yesterday.  Besides, I had a ton of paperwork to get through.

Spyro:  Mom took my out early this evening.  It had been cloudy all day and even rained a tiny bit, so it was nice and cool.  I still move with my belly low to the ground, but I go much faster now.  I chewed on the grass and rolled on the concrete and sniffed the spiderwebs.  Mom let me go wherever I wanted until I tried to step in the street.  Suddenly, I couldn't move forward.

Karen Jo:  That's what the leash is for.  You are not going into the street, ever.

Spyro:  I was sad when Mom took my back in.  Then she took Herman out and I cried and cried and jumped up on the screen door and tried to get out, but I couldn't.

Karen Jo:  I wish I had had the camera with me.  You had your front feet looped over the top bar on the screen door and your hind feet on the bottom bar.  I am really glad that the door has a hook-and-eye for when I leave it open all day.  The handle is just a pull-down type and you could pull it down with your acrobatics.  I might have to close the back door to keep you from opening the screen door when I take Herman out.

Oja:  Enough of the mancats!  The big news is about ME!  This is probably the last photo you will see of me in my room.  Sunday I decided that I didn't want to stay in my room any more and I came out and stayed out.

Karen Jo:  You came out when I got your breakfast, but went back in to eat.  When I left the door open for you to get your lunch and fresh water and litter box scooped, you came out and went into both my room and the litter box room.  You didn't go back into your room when you ran into Spyro; you chased him down the hall.

Oja:  Hahaha!  I chased Spyro all over the place.  By the end of the day I had been in every room in the house, except the one with the closed door.  I still go into my room to look out of my window and to eat and drink, but mostly I am in Mom's room or exploring.  Last night I got Mom all to myself.

Karen Jo:  Poor Spyro.  After I went to bed, he jumped up on the bed like he usually does and you chased him off.

Oja:  You are MY Mom and I want to sleep with you.  I claim my room and your room as MY territory.

Karen Jo:  I hope you learn to share more.  Herman and Spyro are used to sharing the bed with me.

Oja:  We'll see.  Right now I hiss and growl at the mancats almost every time I see them.

Karen Jo:  I have noticed that it's tapered off just a little bit, not much, but a little.

Snow!

 Mom left me over the weekend.  A nice lady came in and fed me, but I missed my Mom.  She got home Sunday, but she was too tired to turn on the computer.  She was going to blog yesterday, but the first thing she saw was that Scooby from Little Cat Feet had run off suddenly to the Rainbow Bridge and she didn't feel like blogging any more.  Today she wrote a limerick for Scooby and found out that Daddy Mark from Kattonic Cats had passed away on that same awful Sunday.  Now she is finally going to blog for me.  Above is the picture that she was going to post yesterday.  See how big that raven is?  You can biggify the picture a little bit by clicking on it. No way would I tangle with one of those, even if I could go outside.

Karen Jo:  I missed you, too, Herman.  It was very hard to get to sleep without giving you your bedtime petting.  April 1st was one bad Sunday.  I'm glad that the raven picture came out.  I was afraid that it wouldn't, since I was shooting into the light.  Yesterday afternoon it started snowing.

 Karen Jo:  This is what I woke up to this morning.  Here is the forsythia bush.  It didn't get cold enough to kill the blossoms, for which I am very grateful.  The snow and the blossoms make for a very rare sight.

 Karen Jo:  This is the snow piled up on top of my trash can.  You can see how deep it got.

This is what I thought of the whole snow thing.  Mom got a big box from Nip and Bones while she was gone.  It came in really quickly.  Inside was a Plague Rat, which she gave to me and something else that she put in the room that always has the door closed.  She says that one is for my birthday.  The Plague Rat is really smelly.  I sniffed and sniffed it and rubbed the top of my head all over it.  Then I grabbed my Mom's hand and bunny-kicked her arm.

Karen Jo:  You are supposed to bunny-kick the rat, not me.

I might get around to that later.  I really like my new rat.  I sniff and sniff and bite its nose.  Then I run around the house and want to play with Mom.

Karen Jo:  I am glad that you like it. Baby Patches said that they have some freeze-dried treats that you might like.  They are low-fat.

I don't care if they are low-fat.  I just care if they taste good.

Karen Jo:  I will check them out.  If they are not raw, I will get you some.  You can't have raw meat because of your viruses.

Mom has really been pulling on my fur since she got home.

Karen Jo:  I got out five or six little mats.  You still have some left, so I will be doing it until I get them all.

You said that if I groomed more, I wouldn't get mats.  I am grooming more, but I still get them.

Karen Jo:  You are doing a good job of grooming yourself now.  You always take care of your klingons by yourself.  I guess that your fur is just the kind that mats.  Between the two of us, we are keeping it from getting bad, though.

I'm glad about that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  As you can see, Mom didn't find the green bow tie when she went to the store, so she put this stupid hat on me again. Do you think I look as miffed as the last time she did this to me?

Karen Jo:  I don't think you look quite as miffed.  At least you held still so you weren't all blurry, like last time.

It only took you about elebenty tries to get the picture.  I kept tossing the hat off.  It's times like this I really miss Emma.  It was her turn to wear the hat.

Karen Jo:  I really miss Emma, too.  February would have been her second birthday and March 1st would have been her first Gotcha Day anniversary.  I am still debating on whether to send her dates to the Cat Blogosphere calendar.  This year the pain was still too raw to think about celebrating her birthday or gotcha day.  I did finally get around to telling the people at the shelter she came from that I had room for another leukemia kitty.

Don't cry, Mom.  This is supposed to be a happy day.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, Herman, I can't help it.  If you want to see a bad picture of Emma in the St. Patrick's Day hat, you can find it here.

Now that Mom has stopped crying, maybe we can get on with the good stuff.  Mom fills up the bird feeder and suet feeder and bird bath every day and the Bird Channel on Cat TV is great.  I even have different noises I make for different birds.  I meep at the little birds and make a kack sound at the ravens.

Karen Jo:  I find it fascinating that you differentiate between the birds.  I am glad that you only make your raven sound infrequently.  The first time I heard it, I thought you were choking.

I saw a fly in the kitchen window yesterday.  Another sign of Spring.  Are you sure it's going to snow tomorrow?

Karen Jo:  No, I am not sure.  It's nearly up to 60 today, but it is very windy, which could very well mean that a storm is on the way.

Or it could just be our normal March winds. I have been around long enough to know that high winds are normal this time of year.

Karen Jo:  That's right.  You are going to be five in June.  And in November, you will have lived with me for three years. That means that you will have lived with me longer than the early, not-so-good part of your life.

I really appreciate it, too.  Now, when do I get some more food?  I ate up that tiny lunch you gave me.

Karen Jo:  Not until ten tonight.  You have your dry food to carry you through.

I have been eating up most of that since you started measuring it. Aren't you supposed to be cooking corned beef or something right now?

Karen Jo:  That's right.  I need to go start dinner. Don't worry, I'll give you some corned beef.

I hope it doesn't taste too much like cabbage.

I Want My Mom Back

This picture is a couple of days old, because Mom has been ignoring me, but it's what I am doing now.  Mom got all wrapped up in her computer and has been on it day and night.  I want some attention!  Oh, she feeds me and gives me water and cleans my litter box and gives me treats and walk-by pets and cuddles me at night, but the rest of the time she is on the computer.

Karen Jo:  I have started rebuilding my blog list at Kitty Limericks and I want to finish it.

But you are only up to the C's.

Karen Jo:  I had some roadblocks along the way, but it should be a smooth road ahead.

Meanwhile, it seems that Mom and the ravens have finished their war.  The suet feeder still gets emptied every day, but Mom isn't mad about it.

Karen Jo:  It is their nesting season and they are hungry.  I can't stop them from flipping the feeder over the crossbar for easy access, but at least the starlings are getting a chance at it.  Still no sign of the flickers.  They may be smart.  I hear on the news that we may get snow again this weekend.

One good thing about Mom getting distracted by her computer is that I have seen no sign of a green bow tie around here.

Karen Jo:  I have to go shopping tomorrow.  I could still pick one up for you.

Noooo!

Mancat Monday

Yet another picture of me lying around the living room.  Mom took this picture weeks ago and kept it as a spare in case she didn't get a picture taken, but found she had time to blog.  See my baby sun puddle?  I got too warm in the big one, so I moved to the baby one.  My fur is completely grown out again.  Mom has been really bad about blogging again.  She still hasn't done my award that I got weeks ago.

Karen Jo:  My apologies.  I have been very busy.  I had a lot of work to do with year-end reports for an organization I belong to and now I have to write another report for the state convention coming up.  I still haven't gotten my new computer up and running and I think I will let it wait until I have written my report.  A friend on mine has been having a rough time and I have been spending quite a bit of time with her, helping her unwind after some very stressful days.  All I can promise is that I will blog when I can.  I should be able to do your award tomorrow.  I also have to do my income taxes very soon.

Sheesh!  I had a busy day today myself.  I got taken to the vet for my yearly wellness exam. The great news is that I am so healthy that everything shows up as normal.  The good news is that I have lost 0.6 pounds since the last time Mom weighed me last fall, before the weather got too cold to take me in for a weighing every month.  The bad news is that the vet says that the weight isn't coming off fast enough, so Mom is going to have to take a little bit of food away from me.  The really bad news is that I need to have my teeth cleaned.

Karen Jo:  I am so very pleased with your wellness exam results.  The only change I am going to make this month is to start measuring out your dry food.  We'll check your weight again next month when you go in to have your teeth cleaned.  If I am happy with your progress, I won't make any more changes.  I am waiting a month to have your teeth cleaned because I have so much going on right now.

I can wait; in fact, I can wait a really long time for that.  I have been feeling really good.  I am playing with my toys more and talking to the birds more and running up and down the hall more.  I think I can feel Spring in the air.

Karen Jo:  You are really good at detecting it then.  We had snow just Saturday.  It wasn't much, but a bitingly cold wind came with it. Today it was really nice.  Some people's bulbs are coming up and the crab apple trees are budding.  The forsythia is getting tiny buds, too.

Mom's war with the ravens has come to a stalemate.

Karen Jo:  I thought I had them outsmarted when I put a twist-tie on the suet feeder.  One of them looped the chain over the crossbar of the clothesline pole and got the twist-tie off.  This time I put one of those heavy duty twist-ties that comes on computer cables on the feeder and they haven't gotten it open again.  They do occasionally loop the chain over the crossbar so they can get at the suet more easily, but at least the starlings are getting a share now.  The flickers haven't shown up yet.

Easy Like Sunday

I am just relaxing with my toys.  When Mom went to get the camera, I was up on the kitchen table, helping her read the Sunday paper.  I jumped down and came in here while she was gone.

Karen Jo:  You are really good at moving while I am off getting the camera.  So instead of a fun picture of you sitting on the paper while looking out the window, I got yet another shot of you lying next to your Star Chaser.  It looks like you are ignoring your toys again, but I know that you play with them.  I found fluffy beaver down the hall next to the night light today.

Sometimes I just like to play by myself, without any help from you.  Mom's war with the ravens over the suet feeder continues.

Karen Jo:  To recap:  first I put the suet feeder in the crab apple tree in the front yard, but the ravens found that they could unhook it from any branch I put it on.  Next I got a snap hook and put it on one of the eye-bolts on the clothesline.  They discovered how to get the cage open and take all the suet.  I wired the cage shut and they discovered that they could unhook the cage from the chain.  Once they got the cage on the ground, they could eat all the suet very quickly.  Now I have closed the hook from the chain completely and so far it is working.  I don't care if the ravens help the starlings and the flickers eat the suet; I just don't like it when they find a way to eat it all at once, so the other birds don't get a chance at it. I give the ravens Herman's left over canned food.

Not much else is going on around here.  Mom's new computer came in, but she hasn't hooked it up yet.

Karen Jo:  I am excited to get a new computer, but I dread all the stuff I have to go through to get it up and running.  My new computer has Windows 7 on it and I am afraid that most of my programs won't work any more and I will have to get new ones.  I might even have problems getting it online.

Moms!  All worry, worry, worry.  At least I can help her relax at night by demanding my petting.

Just Hanging Around

I am just snoozing on the carpet today.  It's cloudy, so I don't get the good rays on my platform.  Please ignore all the bits from my cardboard scratcher.  Mom isn't a very good cleaner.

Karen Jo:  I am afraid that your Mom has been a shockingly bad house cleaner lately, Herman.  Once I get well, I am really going to have to do something about it.

Mom didn't play with me yesterday evening after all.

Karen Jo: You didn't get frisky until my dinner was ready to eat.  I tried after I finished, but you weren't interested any more.  We did get in a little play time before your midday nap today.

Mom has taken to putting my fuzzy balls in a bag with catnip.  She got one out for me today and I batted it around for a little while.  When the catnip got all knocked off of it, I lost interest.

I didn't get my usual amount of petting last night in bed, either.

Karen Jo:  I got chills really bad last night.  I petted you as long as I could stand having my arm outside the covers, then I just had to tuck in and try to get warm.  I finally had to pull up the throws that I keep at the foot of the bed to get warm enough to sleep.  This is the first time this winter I have had to do that.

I got a good laugh at Mom this morning.  She heard some noises and came hurrying into the living room to see what I was meowing about.  I wasn't meowing at all.

Karen Jo:  Ravens are excellent mimics.  We have some around here that quack like ducks, which they picked up at the duck pond.  There was one for a while that barked like a dog, driving the neighborhood dogs nuts.  Now I have one that makes a sound that, when filtered through the closed windows, sounds like Herman meowing for attention.  I hurried to see what was up, because Herman never makes that particular meow unless he is with me.  I thought there was something wrong.  Ravens must also have very good hearing, because Herman's meow isn't all that loud.  He does meow at the ravens sometimes, but it is a different meow than the one that is being imitated now.

I thought I would fill you in on a change in my behavior that Mom has noticed lately.  Ever since I moved in, Mom has liked to do what she calls walk-by petting.  She walks by me and rubs my head on her way.  I used to hate it.  I would duck and swat at her hand.  Now I hardly ever duck any more and I never swat at her hand.  I guess I just got used to it.