Happy Birthday Corwyn!!

 "Hi!!  I don't care what anyone says, my boy

Corwyn doesn't think I'm fat!!  Well, not much."

 "I'm only four but today Corwyn turned FIFTEEN!!"

"Corwyn got to help pick out the next cat in the

Horde and I'm so glad he helped pick out ME!!"

 

 "This is a picture of Corwyn about three years ago.

He is napping with the late Quigley the Demon Dust Bunny Hunter who was Corwyn's First Official Cat."

Everycat in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde wishes

our Feeder Corwyn a Very Happy Fifteenth Birthday!!

Quick Update, Mister Kitten, and a Soapbox

We've got a call in to Da Boy's vet because this morning before he'd eaten, Zaphoid threw up a dark green hairball.  Now it could be dark green because of greenies but it also means that he's not digesting things as well as he should.  We'll see what the vet says.  I trust these vets, I've known the practice for over 20 years.  They're not only intelligent but the type of vets to get out of bed at midnight and go open up the office to try to save my friend's Queen who'd just delivered a litter.  She turned out to have kidney failure, not picked up because of her normal lethargy during pregnancy.  He spent the entire night and part of the morning trying to save her.  Fortunately for the litter, my friend had another Queen at home who'd delivered about four weeks beforehand.  She loathed me trying to get her to take the litter but finally accepted it.  (That was the one thing that really ticked me off about this friend.  She  had a number of cats but wouldn't get them neutered or spayed on the grounds that it was "too expensive".  Funny, all of mine were!  I took one of the kittens from the litter, Quigley the Demon Dust Bunny Hunter)

Anyway, I got some nice face shots of Mister Kitten this week.  Oh, and while I was doing my water exercises yesterday, I forgot to take my camera.  Naturally, Thomas, Star, & Mister Kitten came out and posed like there was no tomorrow!!!

Just a reminder...

This is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde's creedo.   Each one has been a rescue or shelter cat.  Each one has been spayed or neutered.  There are too many feral cats and other litters being born.  Help reduce over-population!  This links to the same graphic on things in the CafePress store if you're interested.  Mugs, stickers (all of the stickers can be used as bumper stickers), sigg bottles, cards, buttons, magnets (shirts are in another section).  Yeah, I'm trying to make a wee bit of money on each one (~.50-$2.00 depending on base price) but the quality is excellent.  I'm wearing one of the shirts now.  My daughter has a sigg bottle, my mom bought Christmas cards, I got ornaments.  All of them looked even better than I expected.  And they've  got a return policy.  Sorry, I tend to run on when I'm nervous.  And Zaphy's got me nervous today.

Happy Purrday to My Son Corwyn!!

Fourteen years ago today (not quite an hour from now after six days of labor) my son Corwyn was born.  He has been raised with cats.  He learned very quickly that you Do Not Pull Tails.  Right now Corwyn is on my bed with Thomas' head laying on him.  As soon as Corwyn came home from the hospital we put him in the cradle that has been in my family for several centuries.  Immediately the late Christopher T. Cat took up his duties as Baby Guard Cat (he had done this with Jennifer as well) and after sniffing Corwyn to ensure he had his scent, he settled down at the end of the cradle.  He regally permitted the other cats to come "sniff the young Princeling" but if their head went too close to the edge of the cradle he would rise up and bop! them!!

Once Corwyn was out of the crib and starting to crawl he gained "his cat", Quigley the Demon Dust Bunny Hunter.  They were friends until the day that Quiggles passed away two years ago.  As you can see, they were the best of buds and Quigley was puddy in Corwyn's hands... and vice versa!!

A boy and his cat.

It took awhile for Corwyn to get over the loss of his very best friend.  It also took some time for him to find another cat.  Dale isn't ready to get another cat.  Four is more than plenty for him and for a time it seemed that the other members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde had already bonded to certain humans.  But wait!!  But wait!!  Mister Kitten, who had always been a wee bit stand-offish (probably due to the fact that his 'mom' had gone immediately off to college and then moved out), began warming up to Corwyn.  AHA!!  And we noticed that Mister Kitten could usually be found sleeping on Corwyn's bed.  Corwyn just told me that one of the drawers in his dresser came out (and he can't get it back in), so Mister Kitten is sleeping there!!).  Gee, you think Corwyn may have found his new cat??

The boy begins the "poke" game with Mister Kitten.

This is the shirt that Corwyn got for his birthday!!  ::grin::

PS Corwyn has approved this message.

Sleep Duty... Changing of the Cat Guard!!

I am a side sleeper and I use two pillows on my side.  One is a body pillow placed between my knees and a small pillow which I put at the top of the body pillow that I rest my arm on.  I always sleep best when there is a cat tucked up with me on the smaller pillow.  My preference is Star.  Star's preference is that I am facing away from my husband.  I think it's a combination of my husband snoring and the fact that he moves around a lot.  Star is a wee bit skittish.  If I'm by myself, he'll stay with me as I turn over, slipping with his Ninja Skills from one side to the next.

I usually turn at least once during the night because of the arthritis and the chronic myofascial pain in my legs & ankles.  Some nights I'll turn over three or four times.  Last night was a six night turn.  Twice I had no cat.  ::sniff sniff::  I started with Star.  Then Mister Kitten showed up.  After that, Zaphoid took a turn followed by Thomas.  This doesn't happen very often.  It reminded me very strongly of the Changing of the Cat Guard that I'll often get in the Spring, Summer, and Fall when the front door becomes a revolving door!  That's why I created this graphic:

link to the organic women's fitted T - it only comes in natural color

In other news, I've got everyone but Thomas on the bed with me.  Thomas has taken his normal role of Aloof Explorer back up again.  ::rolls eyes::  It's Spring and the weather is getting better.  This means birds and field mice.  We have a large hay field behind our house.  The Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde truly appreciates this.  I don't remember if I've told this story before but it's one that sticks in my mind...  Warning!  Warning!  Danger Will Robinson!!  This story contains cats & a field mouse!

My husband and I walked outside one day and noticed that Thomas, Zaphoid, and the late Quigley the Demon Dust Bunny Hunter were sitting in an equilateral triangle.  Odd.  We quietly went a wee bit closer.  Oh my!!  Because they were playing Mouse in the Middle.  Yes, there was a field mouse in the middle of the triangle.  It would start to dash one way only to realize that there was a cat in it's way... back to the center!!  Turning, it would run another way... oops!!  Another cat guards the escape route!  Swiftly back to the middle only to turn and go the last way out.  No!  No!!  Yet another cat!!  (My husband called them Tres Gatos Hombres.  ::snicker:: )  

We must have watched this go on a good five minutes.  Da boys just hung out amused while the field mouse got more and more nervous.  Unfortunately we had to leave so we didn't see how long they played with this poor mousie.  But it reminded me of StarWatcher, who was the last black cat I had before StarWalker (it's not my fault!  you know cats... they picked their names!).  At my old house there was a small spring in the back.  This small spring was the habitat of snakes.  StarWatcher loved to play with snakes.  He would bring them up to the driveway, bat them around & flip them into the air.  That is until I came up and said, "StarWatcher!  Put that back where you found it.  Right this minute!!"  He would sigh, pick up the snake and go put it back.

It's a Snake! No! It's Mister Kitten!!

All the boy wanted to do yesterday was to pet his cat.  That was all he wanted!  But as he gently stoked Mister Kitten, Mister Kitten whose ears were calm, whose tail was calm, whose body was relaxed, what should happen??  That's right, his head darted out to nip the boy.  This happens a lot.  I'm not sure what it is and we'll need to work on it.  Because the boy really really really really (no, really!) wants to love on his cat.  Actually, what he wants is a cat like the late Quigley the Demon Dust Bunny Hunter who was really really really his cat (no, really!!).

 

 this was taken when Quigles was 10 and Corwyn was 12

 

Corwyn has always been a good Cat Daddy, making sure that his babies are fed and have water.  He hasn't really been able to clean kitty litter well until this year and still has to be reminded but that's not unusual.  He loves to talk to kitties and has never yelled at them from the time he was a baby.  I don't think I recall him ever pulling a tail more than once either and he's bipolar/ADD!  But then, cats are more perceptive about that kind of then than humans are... well, most cats.  Mister Kitten needs more training.