Breaking News! Audrey Needs a Longer Leash!!

"I like going outside but my leash needs to be longer mom!!"

"How come Da Boys don't wear leashes??"

"Daddy opens this cat door that he made when the weather gets good.  Zaphoid says that we should have a real cat door so it can stay open longer during the year.  ::tilts head::"

"But Star is worried that I might learn to jump

the side & back fence like Da Boys do."

"I've been back here once with mom but it took her for-ev-ah to

get me to come back inside!  But there are so many fun things

to look at!!  There was a deck, a above-ground pool, a table

with chairs, steps to climb up and down and under, a ramp to scamper up that mom uses to get into the pool, a shed..."

PS Don't forget to purr for all the cats and woofies and feeders in Japan!  Some of them crossed the Rainbow Bridge and some lost their homes.  And take a look at the cats & woofies at my Foster Mom's blog, your house may be Just Right for their Forever Home!!  I love mine and I want you to know that Handsome looks just like me!!  Mom says that if he's even half as nice as I am anycat would love to have him in their house.  ::preen::  Which is true.  Thanks!! - Audrey

PSS Jennifer says I need a catio, whatever that is.  I don't care as long as I can safely go outside.  I am very smart and want to go back inside as soon as I hear cars or woofies!!

Saturday...

 "YES!  Mom and Corwyn are going shopping and

I'll love you and squeeze you and pet you and..."

"If you call me Mumfred I'll scratch you!!"

 "Da-ad!  Da-ad!!  I need love too!!"

"You do know that I don't like any of you, right?"

 "Okay, mom and I are going shopping and then

when I get home we'll take up where we left off."

Star - "No problem."

Audrey - "You'd better!!"

 "All right boy, you promised you'd be coming back and I'm going to... wait.  How can I keep an eye for you if the door is closed??

Hey Boys!!  Give me a hand here!!"

PS check this out!!  Pass it on!!

The Whys and Wherefors of Cat Names...

 "Me-om!!  Whadda mean I have to play nice with her?!"

There are times when cats change and when this happens their names change as well.  There are also times when you can help them through a crisis or change a behavior by changing their name.  This is one of those Great Cat Mysteries™.  Now when Mister Kitten was first brought home by Sarah, everyone thought that he was a she (and I've been sexing cats for... a long time).  She named him Vicious Miette Pumpkin Thunderblaster Knives Pterodactyl.  Once it was discovered  that she was a he Miette no longer worked.  Then he became the Kitten aka Trouble aka Oberon aka Cat with the Identity Crisis which eventually became Mister Kitten.  I am of the opinion that he needs to go back to his original name.  So we are going to try Knives for a week and see how that goes.  If that doesn't work, the next thing to try is Miette, even if it is a girl's name rather than a boy's name.

 "Well, we all like her!!  And she pretty much likes all of us!  Naturally she like me the best!  I'm her brother of a different mother.  She likes Zaphoid the next best and then Thomas.

But as you can see, she lets us all onto the bed now."

 "hehehe  Can you find me??  I'm hiding!"

 "Me-om!  Me-om!!  Zaphy's looking at me!!  Oh!  My daddy has given me a new name!!  He said on the way home that I looked like Audrey Hepburn because of my beautiful black furs.  I love it!!!  Daddy called me Audrey this weekend and I bounced right up to him!  Mommy called me that and I came right to her!  Please call me Audrey now!  Mommy says that my full name will be Lady Audrey Nova StarWatcher.  YAY!!!  Oh, and I love love love the window seat and I'm starting to explore the house.  A big kitty litter is now the hall outside my room for me to use and the itty bitty one in my bathroom is gone.  Now I just have to do something about that stinky yellow cat."

Audrey has been with us for a week and a day now.  She is integrating well into the Horde.  Yesterday she touched noses with both Star and Zaphy.  Certainly she pulled back and gave a delicate Princess hiss but this is an excellent sign!  I have often found that cats who have not reacted well with other cats just need a different environment.  Sometimes just dropping into a smaller number of cats or a cat/dog household can do it.  I've been working with my aunt Susan to help her two cats interact with each other.

Audrey had her nails clipped again yesterday and was determined that she would let me know that it was Not Fun™.  I now have three good sized scratches on my left arm!  However, I'm used to it so I already had treats for Audrey for the ::hand to forehead:: trauma and alcohol wipes & triple antibiotic cream for me.  Then I did Da Boys' nails as well.  You have to be SUPER careful when clipping a cat's nails because if you clip into the quick it is VERY VERY BAD.  So if you should decide to do this for yourself make EXTRA sure that you only clip the translucent/clear part of the nail and I would suggest only clipping the front nails.  That's what I do.  If I sound a wee bit... ummmm... stringent about that it's only because I've seen what can happen to a poor baby whose nails have been clipped too far back.

So, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde are all doing well.  My son has grown another half inch since the first of the year.  My daughter is going to be going to night school Tuesdays & Thursdays.  Now this wouldn't be too much of a problem except that my husband is taking a Tuesday night class and my van has a short in the rear lights and I can't drive unless it's... sunny.  Fortunately he can fix the passenger side window which wasn't working when he came out from a concert last night.  I've been very glad to have Audrey here because she has lifted my spirits through a fibro flare.  She's a darling!!  She's been playing with her new toys from Noodle and Olive while Da Boys adore the fountain they sent.  With the donation from the Califurrrrrnia 5 Petey, Jack, Spunky, Tabitha, Madison LaRue & Momma Pam she has yummy kitten food that must be defended from Da Boys.  The kids and I had physicals last week and I had another doctors appointment which wore me out.  So Audrey kept coming up to me and headbutting me.  She is such a delight and darling and winning over everyone who sees her!!

Please Please Please

Take some time and support a shelter!  Time, coupons, blankets, towels, money, adopt, whatever you can do!!  There are so many who need so much.  And take a minute to love your companions!!

Da Boys Are Bilingual!!

 "I didn't go outside until yesterday because of the cold.  When we say we want to go out or come in mom only holds the door for so long.  It doesn't take me long to check and see what the weather is like!!"

 "She counts 1, 2, 3 in English... but if we don't respond she repeats it in German.  That's when we realize mom is serious!  Mom learned a little bit of German from her late father who was stationed there in the Navy.  Then she took it in High School and at the University."

 "As you can see, I just have to roll even when it's cold!!

Mom talks to us in German when we're really bad as well.

We're bilingual and respond better to German sometimes."

 "However, last night I was very very very good!!

I came inside early!!  So mom didn't have to call me!

Ha ha ha!  I got treats first!  muahahahahahahaha!"

"Mom's had a lot of migraines lately but insurance says

she can only have nine a month.  She finished putting in the

new products in the shop and then put in some new graphics.

We wouldn't let her until she felt better."

Our Kids Are Having Midterms Today...

Both kids were upset because they didn't have school yesterday.  Why??  Because yesterday was the first day of midterms.  If things had gone as planned they would have had three half days of midterms on Tuesday through Thursday.  But because of the snow day they have to make up the exam from yesterday today.  Poor poor kids.  In other news, I managed to get permission from Da Boys to work on the shop.  New items are going in and once they're all fixed I'm hoping I'll have enough 'good' time that they'll let me start putting in some new graphics starting with New Years Eve.  They are very picky about how much time I am allowed to spend on the computer.  If I'm pushing myself too hard a member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde will come lay on my hand or start getting in between myself and my laptop so that I am forced to put it up.

 "Ahem.  I believe it is too cold out here, even for cats."

 "Mom is starting get a little worried.  She says I'm starting to look like an old Tim.  Me?  I'm curled up at the end of mom's bed.  I want Jennifer to put the waterbed up in her room.  Waterbeds are warm."

 "Ha!!  If I lay on things then mom can't use them!!  What do you mean this isn't the mouse?"

 "Let me innn!  Let me innnnn!  Timmy's in the well and it's tooooo coooold outside!!"

"This is one of the sections we let mom work on the new items last night.  We know what phone covers are but what is a yoga mat??"

To All Our Sick Furfriends & Their Feeders!!

 "Da Boys have heard too many sick..."

 "So we want you to Get Well QUICK!..."

 "We're sending our best prayers & purrs..."

 "No matter what your kind of furs."

 (this is virtual card, everyfur will get better ne-ow!)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde and their Feeders say

EVERYONE MUST GET WELL QUICK!!!

Treats in the Morning! Treats in the Evening! Treats in the Afternoon??

You always know when it is time to get up at our house because the members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde come up to you one by one (or two by two, three by three, and rarely four by four!) to remind you that it is Time for Morning Treats!!  This necessitates mom getting out the treat bottle, since I put treats into an large, empty supplement jar that is fairly easy for me to open but is cat-proof (thus far).  Now there are certain rules for getting treats.

Rule #1 - You must sit politely to get your treat(s).

[generally Da Boys get 1-2 at any treat time]

 "See?  I'm sitting all the way down mom!  No, really!"

Rule #2 - No pushing, shoving, or trying to take someone else's treat.  If you do, you have to go last.

Mister Kitten - "I didn't see anyone doing that!"

Zaphoid - "It wasn't me!!"

Rule  #3 - Thou shall not stare at the treat drawer in an effort to make mom give you treats in the middle of the day (even if this works half the time because you are soooOOOooo cute!).

"You are getting sleeeeeepy.  Very sleeeeeepy.
You want to give me treeeeeeeats!"

"Lookee!  We helped mom put up all of the 'This is my costume!'s and the first of the Trick or Treat section yesterday!!  Wheeeee!  Oh wait, there's a lot more to come!  Oh dear, and then Winter Holidays.  Hmmmm, we just might need a nap now.  Sorry mom!"

Mom!! We've Got an Idea for YOU!!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde got together and kept posing all over the bed.  Not only that, but they stayed still long enough for me to take pictures of them.  Now it all began with StarWalker BitCat the ComputerKitty.  I looked up and there was this stunning beauty turning his head with just a wee bit of red collar showing (Star always insists on having either red or blue).  I must admit that I do have a certain fondness for Star's lithe grace.  He is my panther.  And even if he doesn't always come in at night, when I curl up to go to sleep as I'm drowsing I find a paw draped across my calf.  [Thomas likes to get in everyone's way... this includes the humans.  He has been known to shove humans off of the bed as easily as Mister Kitten, and Mister Kitten outweighs him by four pounds!]

"I'm very good at making sure mom sleeps longer

when she hasn't slept well."

He makes me sleep in when I've had trouble getting to sleep.  As an example, last night I wasn't able to get to sleep until 0200.  This meant that Da Boys made me sleep until just after 1200.  Wow!  Then I had to read a gazillion posts, emails, an odd bizarre cartoon on lj or two, and watch something on YouTube.  During this I had to stop to reply to some of the gazillion posts, emails, forward an odd bizarre cartoon or two, and something on YouTube.  As you can imagine, this took some time, especially since it was interrupted by forays to get Sumpin-to-Eat & Sumpin-to-Drink (these are technical terms) for me and Sumpin-to-Eat & Sumpin-to-Drink & Treats for Da Boys (these are extremely important!!).

 "I ensure that mom takes naps.  Naps are important.

Everyone should take at least one nap a day.

Two are better.  Make that five... maybe more."

There was also some checking in on the painting going on in the kitchen.  "MOM!!  Does this mean that our food will be in the Right Place soon?!"  Not yet boys, but soon!  ::everyone crosses paws::   After that Some Cat Who Shall Remain Nameless (we suspect Zaphoid, but it could have been Star since they were both in here) viciously made me fall asleep while trying to get over to the Blogger tab!!!  It was a two hour nap which isn't the world's most comfortable in that position.  By that time I had to go get Sumpin-to-Eat & Sumpin-to-Drink again.  Which meant going Out Into the World because there was nuthin' to eat at the inn... ummm... uh... the fact that I wanted Peach Tea had nothing to do with it.  I just got more because the drive-through had the caloric intake written on the board (in ranges... whoot!!).

"Okay... who's got the greenies?

Law & Order: Criminal Intent is coming on!!"

 And then our "stories" came on...  what's that?  Oh!  Their idea.  No idea.  I'll ask them tomorrow.  No, really!!

"Hey mom!  If you get this bag you can go to the store, buy us lots of greenies, and not have to use plastic bags to carry them home in!!  Green-ies!!  Green-ies!!  Green-ies!!"

Mu-thar!! Waht-ev-ah Did You Do to Ar Kitch-Chin?

A friend of ours wanted to repay us for helping her by painting our kitchen (thank goodness!  we've been here four?  five? years and I despise that wallpaper!).  She was here on Thursday and had to move things around in order to mud the seams.  She took a bookcase downstairs, moved the cat food bowls, etcetera etcetera.  So it's no surprise that we have been shunned.  For all of Thursday night the cats only came in to eat.  Humans?  What human??  ::bows head in shame::  Last night we manged to get Star & Mister Kitten to come into the house with bribes of treats and Corwyn was able to hold his beloved Mister Kitten again.  Star went Ninja.  However!  Thomas graced us with his presence at bedtime.  whew! 

This morning Star came in again when I walked back inside.  I almost thought he wasn't going to do it.  He almost thought he wasn't going to do it.  But after some treats, laying on my ginormous mousepad, letting me scritch him, and trying to walk across the keys a few times, he has resumed his post at the foot of the bed.  ::sigh::  It's only one cat, but it's a start.

"You do realize that you'll have to get us

greenies rather than treats from the grocery now."

"I will graciously accept the treats you have in hand now,

so long as you give them to me ne-ow."

"I might even be tempted to hang around with you for a bit."

Da Boys wanted me to link this to the large pet bowl in penance for the kitchen fiasco!

I'm going to go put it into the two sections (clothing & other things) right now!

This is Not Trash the House Day!

It was the weather.  It must have been the weather.  I have a tendency to tell my children and my cats "Tu das nicht!" when they are doing something of which I disapprove and wish for them to stop.  I also count in German from one to ten to keep my temper.  When the cats are standing or sitting at the door I will open it and count in either English or German from one to three, occasionally putting in "Raus! Raus!  Raus!"  or "Hurry, hurry!" or "Last call for alcohol!" before the word "drei" or "three"

Yesterday?  Well, let's just say that I spoke a lot of German yesterday.  There was nose-bopping, scruff-holding, flea combing, etcetera.  And I did the same to the cats as well!  ::grin::  They all did have some moments of goodness.  And they did do better than on Tuesday!!

In other news, the pool is starting to turn blue (we use Pristine Blue rather than chlorine).  Soon we will have the pool to play & exercise in while Da Boys ramble around us on the deck.

"We didn't do it!  We swears!!"

"I have nothing to do with the state of the bed.  No, really!!"

"Shhhhhh!  Now, this is how you use

Ninja powers to get into the closet."

"is bumper snicker...

mom says it all the time... we're not sure why!"

Where Have You Boys Been All Day?!

Monday the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde were not often to be seen.  Now part of this may have been due to the pre-teen in the house (Little Jen is 11, almost 12) who is not normally here.  Part of this might have been due to the kids' honorary cousins dropping by so that their dad could go pick up a few prescriptions for me (Abby just turned 4 and her brother Max is 8).  Part of it may have just been due to the weather.  But the gist is that I wasn't even mobbed in the morning for treats!!!  Wait!  I've got it!!  It was the three children staying up all night Sunday night!!  I'm typing this Monday night to go up Tuesday morning early Just In Case.  Oh!  And we managed to get the pool cover off with the three kids & two adults & Star supervising.  Whoot!! (much easier to exercise the new knees in the pool... and Da Boys will be supervising that as well!!)

"Ummm, mom?  Can I stay out tonight??"

"I love this star blanket... never get rid of it mom!!"

"::sigh::  It's true.  I am Emo Kitty."

"Fear not.  For I am the Ninja Kitty.

And all of your files are mine.  muahahahahaha!"

"Well, someone has to do it!!"

links to the clothing & other stuff page