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.

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.

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.

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!

Award

Way back in February, Team Tabby gave me this very nice award.  Mom is just getting her lazy self into gear enough to post it.  Here are the rules:

Upon receipt of the award, one is to:
1) Link back to the blogger who gave it
2) Paste the award on the blog
3) Choose 5 blogs to pass this award to (they must have fewer than 200 followers)
4) Let the recipients know about their nomination by leaving a comment on their blogs.

It is very hard to pick only five friends to pass this along to, but I'll do my best.

Eric and Flynn
The World of Hansel
Furry Paws
Grrreta
Jan's Funny Farm

Now for a bit about what's been going on around here.  Mom measured the dry food in my bowl and it was just about right.  I would never eat that much dry food in one day.

Karen Jo:  I am going to start making sure that you have only 1/2 cup of dry food in your bowl from now on.  I think that even that is more than you eat in a day.  It looks like I might have to follow the vet's suggestion about giving you a light lunch after all.

I think I'll survive.  I rarely eat it all, anyway.  I have found a new way to tease my Mom.  I got her at dawn this morning for breakfast and as soon as she got into the kitchen I started eating the leftover Medley.

Karen Jo:  I think you were just trying to get two breakfasts.  You know I would never take a dish away from you while you are eating.

It worked, too.  Mom gave me fresh Stinky Goodness at dawn and fresh Medley when she got up.  Score!

Karen Jo:  You do realize that you got the same amount of food you always get, just split up into two breakfasts, don't you?

That's OK.  The plan was to get two breakfasts.  Mom brought a strange kitty into the house today.

Karen Jo:  I saw that same little kitty with tortie markings in my yard that I had seen months ago out in the snow.  This time she came up to me and rubbed against my leg.  She let me pick her up and read her tag, though she wasn't too happy about it.  Once I had the phone number firmly in my head, I brought her into the house and put her in Emma's room.  Then I called her Mom, who came to pick her up. She just lives up the street and is an indoor/outdoor cat who sometimes wanders.

Herman:  I am glad that her Mom came for her right away.  She hissed and growled at me while you were carrying her by.

She was probably just scared of you, Herman.  She was just about Emma's size and you are so much bigger.  I am just very relieved to know that she has a home nearby wasn't a lost kitty.  I felt really bad the time that I saw her out in the snow and she ran away from me.

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.