Herman Goes Nekkid!

 Mom did it!  She went and got me a full lion cut.  She took this picture the day I got shaved, but I look pretty much the same now.  I didn't enjoy having it done at all, but I am glad she did it.  I don't have any more mats and I feel much cooler.  Before the shave, I was just lying around all day, not doing much of anything.  Now I have my energy back and I'm playing with Spyro again.  I even spent some nights snuggled up next to Mom, which I hadn't been doing because it has been so hot.  It's been too hot lately to do that any more, at least not for the whole night.

Karen Jo:  I am glad that you are enjoying your cooler lion cut, Herman.  I love it when you sleep next to me at night, but I really understand why you are doing it so seldom now.  It's been in the 90s everyday for a couple of weeks now.  I have been a really bad blogger and I apologize, but the heat got me down.  I will just have to make myself do it.  It's not that I don't enjoy it once I get started, it just seems like too much work in the heat.  I know that 90 isn't so hot for a lot of you, but it used to be rare up here in the mountains and I'm not used to it.

 Spyro:  I am sleeping under the kitchen table on one of the chairs.  I like this one because it has a soft cover on it.  It's cooler here where I can catch the breeze that blows from the kitchen window to the living room window.  I still play a lot, usually in the mornings and evenings.  Herman and I both sleep a lot in the afternoon.  Know what I discovered?  When Mom opens the screen door just wide enough to stick her arm out and grab the mail, I can slip outside.  I got out three times today.

Karen Jo:  It amazes me how small an opening you need to slip out.  Luckily, you never go anywhere.  Once you are out, you just stop and look around and it's really easy to get you back in.  Once I just told you to get your furry little butt back inside and you obeyed.  I am either going to have to figure out how to get the trash cans out without your getting out, too, or shut the kitchen door to the living room before I open the screen door.

Oja:  Can you believe it?  Mom finally got a decent photo of me.  You can see both my beautiful eyes and my curly tail.  There has been some progress since the last post.  A couple of days ago, Mom left my door open for about 15 minutes and when she came back, I wasn't in my room.  I decided to explore Mom's bedroom, or at least under her bed.

Karen Jo:  When I didn't see you in my room, I went back to your room and you let out a "Merp!" and ran back into your room and into your hidey-hole under the corner table.  Later I came and got you and put you down a few feet away from Spyro (Herman was nowhere to be seen at the time).  You hissed at him, so I took you back to your room

Oja:  I can't help it.  Those big kitties are scary.  Mom left something interesting in my room.  I have been moving it around.

Karen Jo:  It's a silver vine-stuffed fish that I got from Nip and Bones.  Herman and Spyro weren't that interested in it, so I brought it to you.  It's the first toy that I have found moved from where I put it on the floor.  I think you like it and I hope that you are playing with it and not just kicking it with your feet as you move around the room.  I think I will switch it around with some other toys and see if you will play with them, too.

Karen Jo:  I have solved the problem with getting so many claw-pricks when I visit Oja.  I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out.  All I have to do is put on a sweat-shirt.  Oja occasionally gets a paw down the neck of the sweat-shirt and I get pricked, but it doesn't happen often.  We spent the longest time together ever tonight.  I was with her for over half and hour.  She has settled down some, which is really nice.  She used to be all over my face all the time and it would get rather unpleasant. First she would rub my face with hers, cheek to cheek, which was rather nice.  Then she would turn around and we would be cheek to cheek the other way, which wasn't so nice, especially when she whapped my face with her tail.  That short, curly tail is really strong.  I would get fur up my nose and in my mouth and kitty drool all over my face.  Oja drools, usually out of the left side of her mouth.  Ten to fifteen minutes of that was all I could take.  Tonight we did the face to face and butt to face bit for a little while, then she moved down to my chest and just looked up at me and let me pet her.  After a bit, she moved down to my lap and just enjoyed the petting for a long time.  I pet her until she decided that she wanted back up on the bookshelf beside the window.  It's cooler up there and it's where she spends the night.

Oja:  I want more sessions like tonight's.  I really liked it.

Catchup Thursday

 Mom has been a really bad blogger again and there has been so much going on.  We were offline and our friends Parker and Sammy left for the Bridge and we weren't there to tell them goodbye

Karen Jo:  I feel really bad about that.  I will go by their blogs tonight and say how sad we are that they left for the Bridge.  I don't have any really good reason for not blogging.  My allergies have been acting up and I have been spending a lot of time with my friend who is having a really bad time with her mother, who has dementia.

Spyro: I think Mom finally took a picture of my face that is in focus.  Can you see the little brown smudges around my mouth?  They are not from not washing after I eat.  They are just part of my markings.  I have found out that I really like Herman's ham-mick and Herman's bed.  I have my own bed in my room, but I have never been in it.  Herman doesn't seem to mind.

Karen Jo:  I really hope that this picture is sharp enough to make your Tabby Club badge.

Spyro:  You know what?  I played and played with Herman's tail while he was eating and he just ignored me.  All he did was walk away from me when he was finished eating.  I have to pounce him now to start a rasslin' match.

And I finish the rasslin' matches.

Spyro:  What do you mean?

You are always the one who runs away and I chase you just a bit.

Karen Jo:  What I want to know is which one of you is knocking over Spyro's dry food bowl and spilling kibble on the floor.

Herman and Spyro:  We'll never tell.

I need more kibble because Spyro eats some of mine.  He never eats his own until mine is all gone.

Karen Jo:  That's why I'm not trying to stop the kibble spilling.  Herman, you are about due for a weighing.  We'll see if I have to try to find a way to keep you from getting any of Spyro's kibble.  You are also due for some shaving.  You have gotten a bad mat on your flank again.

I don't want to do either of those things.

Karen Jo:  I know you don't like to be shaved, but you will feel better once that nasty mat is gone.  I think just a little spot shaving is all you will need this time.  If I let it go much longer, you might have to have a half-lion cut again.

I guess the spot shaving is better than the half-lion.

Mancat Monday

I have been spending a lot of time in my ham-mick lately.  It's warm in the winter and cool in the  summer.  We finally got some window-whiffing time yesterday and just a little bit today.

Karen Jo:  I wanted to give you a whole day of window-whiffing today, but it has been too windy.

You have been a really bad blogger again.

Karen Jo:  Sorry, I have both been busy and feeling so overwhelmed with all that I have to do that I got down in the dumps again and didn't feel like doing much of anything.  It's like I am all full-steam ahead or just sitting on the couch reading.

At least you are back to it again.  I did get some corned beef and it was really yummy.  I got a little bite whenever Mom took a bite until it was all gone.  Mom has been trying to get a photo of a raven, so you can all see how big they are.  No way would I tangle with one of those, even if I got to go outside, which I don't.

Karen Jo:  I framed a shot through the window, but couldn't get the right perspective.  If I go out, they fly away.  Maybe one day I will just go outside with the camera and sit still, hoping they will get used to me and come where I can get a good picture.  They are still helping empty the suet feeder every day, but now the starlings and the flickers get a chance at it, too.  Yes, the flickers have shown up. There are signs of Spring everywhere now.  Some fruit trees are blooming, along with some forsythia bushes.  I saw a daffodil today.  The peonies are coming up and so are the iris.  There is only a tiny patch of snow left in the front yard. Even the beleaguered lilac bush is putting forth some leaves.  The gophers didn't manage to completely kill it after all.

I have gotten a bit friskier and am running around the house in the evenings and nights again.  I am even playing with some of my toys.  I am tossing my little mice all over the place.  I even play with Mom a little bit.  The problem is that all this activity makes me hungry and Mom is being really stingy with my food, especially at lunch time.  I had to get her up twice this morning: once at dawn for my canned food and again when it was high time she was up to refill my dry food.

Karen Jo:  You know what the vet told me about your weight and what to do about it.  I want you to be as healthy as possible.  Another sign of Spring is that you are getting little mats in your chest fur.

I don't like the way you get rid of them.  You pull on my fur until you get it out.

Karen Jo:  It isn't as bad as all that.  I separate your fur into smaller and smaller clumps until I can separate the mat out.  It only pulls a little bit at the end.

That's what you think.  I find the whole process uncomfortable.

Karen Jo:  Would you rather I let it get bad until you have to have your chest shaved again?

No!

Karen Jo:  Do you want me to use the scissors on your mats?

No!  I hate scissors.

Karen Jo:  Then stop complaining and let me brush you more.

That pulls, too.  I know, it only pulls what the brush finds some loose fur caught in the rest of the coat, but I still don't like it.  I only like it when it feels like petting.

Karen Jo:  It's so tough being you.  You still get more food than you generally eat; you have more toys than you can play with; you have a full-time live-in human servant and you get all the petting you can handle at bedtime.

Put that way, I guess I am a very lucky kitty.

Herman Goes Nekkid

 I found a sunspot on the big pillow in front of the living room window.  Mom would get me shaved just when the weather turned cool and rainy.  I am trying to keep warm now.  I am also using my ham-mick and bed in front of the heater again.  This is called a half-lion cut.  I think it is more three-quarters.  I thought Mom would become a better blogger when she retired, but she's worse now.

Karen Jo:  My apologies.  I am still trying to get used to my new schedule, or rather a lack of one.  I fall prey to the lure of the TV much too often, then fall asleep watching and don't blog.  I am also going out more.  I love having a social life again.  Working nights and weekends meant that I had barely any social life at all.  I promise to do much better.  Herman, don't complain about your shave too much.  You know that you feel much better.

True, I am running around and playing much more, now that my flanks don't hurt from the nasty mats.

Emma:  One of the things that I really like about having Mom around all the time is that she lets me explore places I was never allowed in before.  I surprised Mom by getting up on her clothes in her closet when she was trying to pick out something to wear.  I walked from one end of the closet to the other up here, then I jumped down again.

Karen Jo:  I was about to offer you a ride down, but you handled it all on your own.

One of the things that I don't like so much is that Mom changed our lunch time.  We used to get fed at 1:30 every afternoon.  Now we have to wait until three or four.

Karen Jo:  I was throwing out so much food that you didn't eat between breakfast (any time between 8 and 10) and lunch that I decided to space out your meals more evenly.  Now most meals get eaten almost completely.  You still get breakfast and supper at your regular times.

You are not giving me enough treats.

Karen Jo:  I am only giving you one treat at a time and only several hours apart now.  You need to cut down on treats so you can lose weight.  You need to go in for a weighing again fairly soon.

Rats.  Hey, maybe I lost weight when I got shaved, so I will weigh in at less this time.

Karen Jo:  That's possible, but you are still not getting more treats.

Rats again. At least I still get nibbles from your meals.

Emma:  Mom has started giving me a treat when I take my Interferon, but I still run from her when I see the syringe.

Karen Jo:  I don't know why you don't like it.  It's just a little squirt of cold water in your mouth.

Emma:  It's the cold I don't like.  It makes me shake my front paws and sometimes give a little shiver.

Karen Jo:  Sorry about the cold, but the Interferon has to be refrigerated.  Herman likes it.

I still shake my front paw right after I take it.

Karen Jo:  Emma is still having a lot of fun chasing the ribbon tied to my Happy Retirement balloon.  It's Mylar, so it still floats.  Today, she was playing with it in the living room when I left to attend a meeting.  When I returned several hours later, Emma was napping on my bed and the balloon was in my bedroom, too.  I am guessing that she grabbed the ribbon and took the balloon with her.  The windows were closed, so it couldn't have drifted there on its own.

Emma:  I am not saying a word. It is really fun, though.  I am also still very partial to my new wand toy, though I still like Da Bird best. We are getting more play time, though we aren't always interested when Mom wants to play.

Mom went on a toy hunt the other day.  I love watching her lie on the floor and try to reach the toys we have batted under the couch.  She found a bunch of balls and a couple of mice.  Mom has been watching me pounce Emma.  I jump out and try to grab her with my front paws.  She always gets away, though. Sometimes I chase her afterward and sometimes I don't.  I like to keep her guessing.

Emma:  I don't know why Herman wants to grab me.  I don't mind it, or the chasing.  I can always get away from him.  He won't follow me if I go up high or if I duck into any of my hidey-holes.  Herman can be fun with toys, too.  I whapped a ball near him and he whapped it again and I chased it.  He lost interest after that, but it's the most play with toys interaction Mom has seen between us.

Karen Jo:  The two of you seem to be getting closer and closer.  Most nights both of you sleep with me on the bed, though not close to each other, usually. The other night Emma beat Herman to his favorite spot next to my chest where I pet him.  I was petting Emma when Herman showed up.  He just lay at my feet, out of whapping range from Emma and went to sleep.  I kept expecting him to try to get his spot back, but he never did.  I didn't even try to pet Herman, because I know how Emma reacts when I switch my attention from her to him, even if I pet both of them at the same time. The upshot is that Herman is no longer jealous of Emma, but Emma still gets jealous of Herman. What was really unusual is that Emma stayed by me all night.  She usually moves during the night, then Herman reclaims his spot.  I had both kitties in bed the whole night, which was really great.