Breaking News Story!!

Yes, it's true!  The cats are still sleeping on the bed!!  Well, except for emo kitty, who is still emo.  Zaphy has been spending all of his time on the landing in front of the door to Jennifer's room.  His head resting on the top stair, waiting for her to come back from her father's house.  "Where is my girl??  I can't meow in front of her door in the morning, pleading for her to let me in so that I may lay on top of her and clean her ears if she is not here!!  Oh wooooooeeeeee is meeeeeeeee!!"  The other cats think he is silly and spend their time as always.  Thomas started out on the other side of Dale, then on the top of Dale's head, moved in between us, and ended up on my body pillow.  He stayed there for the rest of the night, even though I got up twice.  Thomas loooooves me!  ::grin::

this graphic just got changed to make sure that it fits well on the t-shirts

more of the graphics in the shop will be changed as well! 

Right now Star is sitting beside my chair so I should probably see what he wants.  ::pause::  Ah, a cuddle and after some "Show me!" it turned out that the food bowls need renewing from the Big Bowl™.  Of course, he couldn't eat from any of the bowls but his bowl.  You know that multiple cats in a household establish a hierarchy.  In this house it goes, Thomas/Mr. Kitten with Thomas usually winning the staring/pushing/height contest, Zaphoid, and Star.  Although I should say that I have occasional staring contest with the alpha cats so that they know who is the real Alpha Kat in the house!!

My husband's Christmas present shirt came today.  This is a Good Thing since he can go show it off to his brother.  ::weg::  I may have to get him the coffee cup for his birthday which comes up next month... muahahahahahahaha!  I made the icon for this a little larger so that you can see the "dictionary entry" on the graphic.

 this link goes to the page that has both the cat and the plain graphic

Habari Gani? (a little late!) Happy Kwanaa!!

Clothing Section!

Unfortunately I was bad and forgot to wish everyone Happy Kwanzaa on Saturday!  Mea culpa!!  I'm having my left knee replaced on January 4th and we've been figuring out how to reconfigure the bedroom.  The cats have been putting in their two cents, especially since this will probably mean moving their window seat which is currently in one of the bedroom windows!  Oh no!!  ::grin::  But because I failed to do that, I have slashed everything in the Winter Holiday sections!!  Shirts, cards, mugs, mousepads, magnets, and tons of other cool items that you can pick up now and save for next year!  Well, actually you can get New Year's items as well so those can be used right now!!  (Did you miss getting out Winter Holiday cards??  I know certain family members who are sending out New Year's cards instead!)

Last night the most amazing thing happened!  Normally when Star is sleeping on my body pillow and Thomas appears, Star will move down to the end of the bed.  This is normal since Thomas is Top Cat™ in the house.  But last night... last night... Star was sleeping on my body pillow, curled up against me, and I woke up as Thomas crept up onto my shoulder and curled up there.  I couldn't believe it!!  I very carefully went back to sleep, doing my best not to move.  I take this as a good sign.  I've been working hard to make sure that these two boys know that I love them both equally

  

Now if I can just get Mr. Kitten (at 15.5#) to keep off of my legs!!  ::sigh::  He wants to hit the end of the bed and pounce! onto my ankles and galumph! up my legs either to flop! on my shins or thighs.  If his target is my thighs, he inevitably hits my knees.  This is not a Good Thing™.  But there is a reason that one of his aliases is Flop Cat.  He will flop onto you like a rug, his arms spread out about you.  He is such a silly cat.  Mr. Kitten is also fascinated with water.  It doesn't matter if you are taking a shower or a bath.  If he can finagle getting into the bathroom, there he will be, on the side of the tub peering in... "Hmmmm, what is this stuff?  It's quite interesting!"

If I can find a laptop in my price range, blogs should continue on a regular basis.  Otherwise, they may be sporadic, since I'll have to pry netbooks & laptops out of other household members cold, cold hands!!  I'd better get going on my bedroom now... the cats are ready for us to get busy!

Oh and the Emo Kitty is still emo.

Merry Christmas!!!

[clothes in the shop]

So yesterday we all went to my mom's house for Christmas.  Our family tradition is to have Christmas Breakfast.  We usually manage to get started some time between 12:30 and 1:00 pm.  Well, first everyone has to do "Santa" (that's us and Christie & Garrett** right now... the ones with kids... okay, mine are teenagers but we all still hang stockings) and everyone else just has to wake up or start cooking for a gazillion people.  Well, it may not be a gazillion... it just feels like it with all of us gathered around the three card tables in the living room pigging out (no, really we do) on (skip down to the next paragraph if you're vegan!) scrambled eggs, hash browns mmmmm, bacon, sausage, country ham, and the only reason for Christmas Breakfast... biscuits.

"Biscuits?", you say, "why biscuits??"  Because, all through the year, anyone who travels must (yes, it is indeed imperative) collect a jam or jelly or other fruit product which may be spread upon biscuits (yes, biscuits!), hot steamy luscious biscuits, fresh from the oven (or microwave where they've been reheated... we eat a LOT of biscuits!) and spread with a heart-healthy margerine... mmmmmmm and then topped with jam or jelly or other fruit product (or just topped... depending on what you want, we're not picky here).

Then it's off to present opening.  My mother and father have been writing Interesting Labels™ back and forth to each other for as long as they've been married now (goodness... 37 years now!).  Things like "To Mrs. Lincoln From: Mr. Booth, with apologies for spoiling the play" (my dad's a historian)  This year my mother was given two of her own books.  Inside each was a typed note and a gift card.  One note was from an environmental group praising her for saving trees and the other was from Al Gore.  My family has a wicked sense of humor.

My mother's cat (actually my brother's cat but she lives at my mother's house) Miss Kitty, did not make an appearance.  She is Very Shy and is, indeed, the cat upon which my Shy Cat was modeled.

Miss Kitty normally hangs out on a pillow behind a comfy chair in the living room in front of a wall heater.  Alas and Alack!!  Yesterday, the comfy chair was back against the heater and the pillow was gone!!  But all was well for Miss Kitty!  She has a good retreat for when there are ::shudder:: Strangers in the house.  In the basement is a gas fireplace where Miss Kitty can hang out on a pillow.

Now Miss Kitty has always been shy.  A mother cat was living in the basement of a school where my mother was teaching.  There have been generations of cats living there.  Miss Kitty was born in June and came to live with my parents & my brother David in August.  She has health issues now so has to endure more vet visits than most cats must.  But at the age of 17 that isn't too bad.  Miss Kitty is a beautiful black and white long-hair.

So children the moral of the story is

Rescue, if you can, in some way; but Always remember to neuter & spay!!

(No, really, not trying to push anything but if you do get a cat or dog, it's the most important thing you can do.  We once had a cat of ours get out of the house, because he didn't like the roommate's new cat I think, and he never came home.  One of the first things I said when I realized he wasn't coming home was, "Gee, I'm glad he's neutered!")

                                                                                     

**This site contains adult language!  Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson!!

PS we're running a sale through the end of the year!!  Grab up stuff for next year or things for birthdays!! pass it on...

Happy Christmas Eve!!

The cats and my family and I have been quite busy with our holiday preparations!!  I've had all four of our Tims in bed with me every night, although they've been taking turns.  Thomas has been doing more of a 'peeking in' of late.  Zaphoid, being emo, stays at the foot of the bed; trying to steal the small wedge pillow I have so that he can lay his head on it.  This morning I found it on the floor where it evidently got knocked out of the bed last night during our struggle for control.  Mister Kitten (yes!  Oberon has finally decided on his name!) and Star take turns laying on my body pillow.  Star gets the first half of the night and Mister Kitten gets the second half of the night.

I'm not sure which cat it was who tried to kick me out of bed last night (I woke up at 3 am on the very edge of the bed!), but I suspect Mister Kitten who is now up to 15.5 pounds!!  He is sitting on the top of the small scratching post right now trying to look innocent.  ::grin::

Dale, Jennifer, Corwyn, Sir Thomas of Snuggle, Zaphoid Beeblebrox, StarWalker BitCat the Computer Kitty, Mister Kitten, and I all wish you a Safe and Happy Christmas Eve.  May any of you traveling do so in safety.

 

Holiday SALE!!!

Yes, that's right, the store is having a Holiday Sale!!  From now until December 24th!!  Come and get some great deals on original cat drawings on a variety of gifts & cards for cat lovers at reduced prices.  Whoot!  Shopping!!

A Tumult of Teenagers

I'm not sure exactly how many young women from JCL will be invading my house tonight.  They are working on a project for Latin class on the founding of Rome.  Fortunately for my son, he'll be going to his father's house.  Star is laying on my lap at the moment, supervising the blogging, and keeping me from cleaning the office.  This is probably to do with him supervising my cleaning out of the van.  Three small trash bags of trash, two large bags going into the house of things that should have been brought in much earlier.  But now everything is back where it should be.

It's been cold lately and all of the cats have been staying with us at night.  I started out the night with Thomas on my feet and Star on my chest.  However, when I turned to my side, Star freaked out and went over to hang out with Kitten on the other side of Dale.  Thomas has been trying to play a dominance game and I've been having to explain to him that "No, Mommy is the dominant cat in the house, not you".  We've been having a lot of staring contests lately along with a few nose bops.

I'm going to see if I can finish putting up the New Year's kitties while Star is sitting on my lap and then make some more tea and get started on this... mess.

What? What??

So this morning my mom and I were talking about the two New Year's cats that I'm gong to be putting up, a blank and an invitation.  While we were talking she happened to mention that while she really really liked the cards that she'd ordered, what she actually wanted was to have the message on the inside to say "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".  She did suppose that I could do that, could I?  ::rolls eyes::  Now it says on the front page that I have no problem changing things if someone wants/needs that, right??

So now there is a What? What?? E that says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year... for my mom.  My weekends and part of my upcoming weeks will be full.  (Gee, can't imagine why at Holiday time!!).  I'm going to be invaded by a gaggle of Latin student girls Friday or Saturday as they put together a Saturnalia project that is due the following Monday.  Primarily costumes as I understand it and as I did somewhere between 25 and 30odd plays for my dad when he taught AP History & Drama before he retired, heh, guess who will be stuck helping them out?  ::grin::  I don't mind.  While my primary interest in historical costume is medieval, I'm familiar with most periods of historical costume, I've been doing it since I developed an interest when I was 11.

The cats prefer to stay on my side of the bed when they can.  I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that we have one of those two sided mattress pads?  The control thing doesn't work on my husband's side (which bothers him not at all) but my side... well... "Ah'm a del-ah-cate fl-aour of tha South"... I have to stay warm.  It automatically turns off after awhile but still.... ::grin::

New Cards in Kats Kards

I've put in some more pet sitters thank you cards as well as some more miss you cards.  I think that's all... now off to look for Christmas'y gloves & a scarf for my son!!

Son in Concert

My son, who is in both the non-audition choir as well as the audition choir at his middle school, was in a concert last night.  It was to honor those who passed away in the last year.  We had a tornado this year which hit about two blocks away from us.  Some of the children in the group lost friends.  I remember my children getting off of the bus after the first ride and telling me the names of the kids who were no longer on their bus, the houses hit.  There was one house where a mother, her husband, and their six month old baby were all lost.  The entire house was gone.  There is still a memorial there.

On the Christmas tree at the memorial there were ornaments with the names of everyone whose name was called out.  I was talking to the director as one of the children came up so excited that he got the ornament with his best friends name on it.  Life and death.

He will also be at the Christmas Tree lighting tonight.  Life and death.  I think the cats understood.  They all snuggled up to us last night.

Surrounded by Cats... or We Need a Bigger Bed

All four cats slept with use last night.  I think the only reason that Sir Thomas of Snuggle deigned to join us was the fact that I had doctored him and gave him Greenies.  Yes, it was Greenie night at our house yesterday.  I had stopped by one of the Major Pet Store™ to buy a mondo bag of Iams® so, of course, had to pick up Greenies.

You see, while one can buy crunchy kitty treats at the grocery, unless they have Greenies... well, it's just not the same.  I also picked up mite medicine for Kitten (the only one with mites), ::sigh::, this results in a major struggle that ends in the realization by the 15 pound baby (largest cat in the house) that he is Getting the Meds No Matter What™.  So both ears got drops & rubs and he got Greenies for being a Good Boy™, along with pettings and murmurs of comfort. 

At that point, every other cat in the house (except Thomas who is above such things) came racing into the bedroom.  Greenies?  Greenies??  I've been Good, really I have.  I should get Greenies.  Moooooo-oooooom!!  Give me some Greenies!!  So, being the sucker I am...

Later, I noticed that Thomas had a small sore on his shoulder.  Time for an antibiotic... and you guessed it, Greenies.  Ergo, we ended up with all of the cats on the bed.  Kitten on the body pillow by my husband, Thomas between us, Zaphoid at the end of the bed.  Star was at my feet for a bit but ended up on the floor rather than come snuggle with me.  I think he feels that it isn't his place when Thomas is there.  I need to teach him that this isn't the case.  He is the smallest cat and thus low 'man' on the totem pole.  ::sigh::