Few Words Wensdee

Oh, oh, oh!  Mew, mew, mew!!  We kits iss sooooooo exited!!  Mom gotted out da video cam and plugged it into da wall thingy.

Mebee she gonna make us sum movies??  Keeps your paws crossed for us!

s...Jigsaw

Tewsday

Hai, Furriends...

    Dis iss Tigger speakin'.   We has been watching mom bring out a lot of black and orange stuffs for her ceeramicks.  She sez she is making thinks for sumpin called 'mewloween.'  I'm almos positif that's what she said...

   Dey iss still more of dem hard cold things, tho..  Not for us kits.  She said she could make us sum nice mewloween costooms.  What do you all tink of dat idee, furriends?  

  Costooms... hmmm... like, those would cover up our beyootiful furs...  anyways, Jiggy and I are already orange, and Patches is already dark gray--that's almost like black, right?  I tink only da Munchkin needs a costoom..  MOL

   I need to take a nappy to tink about dis... purrlease tells us what you all tinks.


s...Tigger

Monday, Monday...

Weeeeee!!!  Our purrrize came in today's mailbox!  Mew, mew, mew!!  We loves it.  We each got a speshul bag of nip treat wid a ribbon to carry it by.

We had all kinds of funs playing wid it, and now we iss all wored out, and iss nappy time.

Fanks you Misha, for putting us in your contest, and many  fanks you to Stuff Handmade Arts and Crafts for sending such a nice purrrize. 

Effurryones, yous can find more of her Stuffs at:  www.osha.etsy.com . Purrlease shop wit her, she iss a furry nice lady to sponsor such nice purrrizes.

Nite nite.

s....Jigsaw

Sunday Stories

Munchkin

    I just realized that last Sunday's post was supposed to be about Soot and Munchkin, and how we came to have them both at the same time.  That much was accomplished, but I'm afraid in my lengthy explanation of Sootsie's misfortunes, poor little Munchkin and her personality was sorely neglected.  Today's post will rectify that by giving Munchie her very own story article.  This is only fair, because, after all, it was Munchkin we had originally agreed to adopt, and Soot was a last-minute decision.

   Munchkin is, and always has been, a clown.  She is quite vocal, and has many funny and endearing quirks.  Some are less endearing, but you have to laugh, and think she is cute, in spite.   One such is her habit of insisting that we humans need company and/or assistance of some kind when using "the facilities."  

    She will jump up on the counter, and pat at our hair until she gets petted; or she will put her front feet down in the basin, and 'Meeooowwwr" demanding the water be turned on to a trickle, so she can lap right from the tap.  They have a very nice water dish with a bottle of water automatically dispensing refills as needed, but somehow Munchie prefers the tap.  "Nice,"  I thought one day, as I was getting ready to brush my teeth...."how many 'cat cooties' are all over this faucet?!"  So, the next time, I watched her carefully...she doesn't actually lick the faucet...she laps from the stream below, somehow managing not to get her face wet in the process.

   One of her less-appealing habits is thinking it is funny to awaken us in the morning by sneezing in our face! UGH!  Bad kitty! Yuck!  But, should the tables turn, and she somehow is the recipient of a direct sneeze...(this usually happens if she is underfoot while I am preparing food...naturally, not wanting to sneeze on the food, or in my hand if there is no time to grab a tissue, I will bend over and sneeze at the floor)...and, oh, my, the look we get!  Double standards abound in the kitty lane!

   When she was a kitten, she would curl up in our pants...while we were occupied using "the facilities"...  the little pervert!  I actually have a photo of this...but you'll be relieved to know I will refrain from posting it!

   Munchkin is the timekeeper.  It is she who will set up a fuss, and 'get in our faces' if their meal should be tardy.  "Tardy" being defined as anything from "I don't care what the clock says, I'm hungry now," to us humans deciding to sleep in an extra hour.  It is a duty she shared with Soot, but has fully taken over as her responsibility.

   Toys?  Did you say toys?  Munchkin is the toy hog of all toy hogs.  Sometimes, she will let Tigger and Jigsaw get in a swipe or two, but she will take over to the extent that the other two will just go away and lie down.  In order to give them their own playtime, Munchie must be shut out of the room!  She doesn't care what toy it is, either...they all get hogged equally.  Including any in which she is normally not interested...just let one of the others start to play with it, and all of a sudden, whatever it is has become her very favorite toy!

   She does not understand the concept of the shower, and when we step out, insists on 'helping' by trying to lick our legs dry!  And did I mention, she has the roughest tongue in all of catdom! While I am bent down to dry my feet, she rears up on her hind legs and attempts to 'comb' my hair with her claws.  Mostly, she just gets hair, but now and again, she will catch scalp.  At that point, she gets 'the boot.'

   She is the consummate licker.  She licks everything, and everyone, including all the other cats!  Pet her, and she is liable to grab your arm, and start licking you to death with that rasp in her mouth! 

   Munchkin, like her sister Soot, loves her food, and has managed to pack on a few extra pounds.  When she sits in a formal sitting pose...her front paws do not quite come together, and she has 'cleavage.'  Hmmmm... racy kitty mags, anyone?

   We named her Munchkin because when she was a kitten, she was such a tiny little thing, with great big eyes.  In fact, she almost got named "Gizmo" after the character in the movie "Gremlins."  However, we went with her overall size, hence 'Munchkin."  It is hard to tell from just her photos, but seen in person, she is a study in proportional mis-match;  she still has a very tiny head, but needs a 'wide load' sign at her other end.  If it were not for the extra weight, she'd really be quite a small cat.  Nonetheless, I still call her 'tiny girl' now and then, just because she has such a cute, tiny head.

   Smart?  Yes, she is a smartie.  She has figured out all kinds of things... not all good.   If she gets into the laundry room, she knows how to paw open the bottom cupboards;  she knows where their food is kept, and will attempt to open that door...but it is a bi-fold door, and not so easy for kits. 

   When she was a kitten, Tigger was guilty of teaching her how to scratch and paw at the office door to be let in.  Tigger doesn't much bother anymore...Munchkin is quite expert at this trick.  Actually, I got tired of being interrupted, or of the noise if hubby was asleep..so I rarely even close the office anymore if I am in here...hmm... who's running the house??????

   She loves to snag my ponytail holder and make off with it.  I am normally very careful to put it in the drawer overnight, but the other night, it must have fallen beside the drawer, and I did not notice.  Hubby caught her chasing and tossing it all over having a great time.  The look on her face when he took it away was priceless...and pathetic.

   She and Tigger are best buddies...even more so since we lost Soot.  They will walk around the house together, nap together, and play together.  Their latest game is batting at each other through the fabric wall of the 'kitty cubes.'  Sometimes, though, Munchie goes into 'herding' mode, and side-shoves Tigger away from the direction he was heading.  It is quite comical.

   I'm not sure what is up between her and Jigsaw..she will chase him and antagonzie him...but not always.  I guess they are playing in their own way, but Jiggy seems nervous of her much of the time.

   Munchkin is not as much a 'people cat' as the others, at least so far as lap-sitting is concerned.  She likes her pets, but is a much more independent cuss...and while getting petted will often start playing the 'rabbit-kick' game.  She'll also grab onto your arm..and hold tight...she's a strong little dickens.  In our laps, she will sit only if it was her idea...and she'll sit down toward my legs where I really cannot reach to pet her.  It is rare that she is actually in our laps! 

   She's a rascal, and often gets called a "Skeeziks."  (A ne'er-do-well character from an old child's board game, "Uncle Wiggly" ... I'm no doubt dating myself badly with that reference!)

   And that's our little Munchkin.  We adore her, as we do all our fur children. 



  

  

  

  

  

  

Satidee....

Mrowl!

    Da beans slept late, which meant our breakfast wuz late!    Dey said dat none of us iss in any danger of starvings to death...  Whazzzzat s'posed to mean??   Not funny.

   Den, we iss all out of our Satidee treats food, and only got dry crunchies.  Dey wuz talking about sumting called a 'budget,' and says we has to tighten our belts jus like dey do. Hmph.  We no unnerstands... we don't wear belts...  Beans are furry strange.

  Mom said when dey goes shopping next Toesday, we will get summmore of our treat foods.   We don't know whether or not to wait nicely, or be bad kittehs and get into mischiff for revenge.  Tigger says wait nicely, it will be ok, Patches will wait, I wants revenge, and Munchie can't make up her mind.  What a purrlemma!

P.S..

   OK..we will behave somewhat... Dad did give us some of our special treats from da crinkly baggie...



s...Jigsaw Puzzle

Fuurrrriday!

  We think that for Fuuuurrrrriday, we will sheds furs all over all da furrrrniture and mom and dad's bed. 
  They had to get out da lint brush last night before they could get in da bed! 
  Dat wuz Jigsaw and Patches did dat--right between their pillows!  (MOL--snickering behind paws...)  Dey sneekys under da covers... hee hee.. mom and dad tinks cuz da covers is up, da bed is 'safe.'  ROFMOL
  
   Jigsaw sleeps all nite on da pillows above mom's head.  Or, at least, dats what mom tinks.  After she is sleepying, he sneekys down and shares her pillow.  Den she wakes up wid fuz-furs in her face.  MOL

   Tigger, he has a bad habit--he sucks his own tail--and mom finds hairballs all da time.  Last nite, he coughed it up in his own bed.  Dat wuzn't so funny to Tigger.  Now, he has no bed till mom washes it, and his pillow takes a few days to dry all da way.  But, he doesn't learn not to do dat.  Silly boy!  Has any of you odder kits effur heard of such a silly habit?

   Uh-ohs..here comes da Tigger... gotta hid dis quick, so he don't sees we told on him.  Dat's all for today.

  Purrrrrssss to all our furrrriends.

...s. Munchkin

  

Thursdee

Meeeewwwwwhhheeeeehheeeeemeeww..hee hee  ROFMOL!

Tigger is a snoop..he follows mom effurrywhere...and today he followed her into da laundry room when she went to look for sumpin... and he started snooping around.. Mom didn't sees him, and he gots hisself shut in.

He wuz saying, 'mew, mew,'  and mom and dad couldn't figure out where he wuz.  Finally, mom figgered out da laundry room was da last place she went dat had a door.... an sure enuf, out come da Tigger.

He sooooo silly!  He gits hisself shut up in mom's offis pretty offen, too. 

s...Munchkin

...

Wordy Wensdee

Mew, mew, mewl, meeeeeooooooowwwooowwwoooowwwwwww!!!!

 We iss not happy wit mommy today.  She stepsed on an broke our favrit toy ball wit da jingly thing in side.  Den she has da nerve to tell us we haz plenty of odder toys!  Hissss!

We iss not haffing a good week:

  Da Munchkin, she kept getting underfoots and gots her pawsies and her tail stepsed on twicet dis week. 

Da Tigger kept getting in trubble for sitting on da short table in da liffing room, and I fell off da bed pillows and embarissed myself.  

And Munchkin tried to sit in da baskit of mom and dad's cleen cloze, like she luvs to do, and sumpin went wrong and Munchie and da whole baskit fell off da dresser upsides down!  Hee, hee... den Tigger thot it wood be funny to get in da basket behind the stack of cloze..and when mom tried to turn it offur, it wuz too heavy.  MOL!

Me an Munchie wuz in da offiss looking around, and dis jingly thing on mom's desk went off and skeered us both...and we had to scramble outta da room.  Dis is a slippery floor, we had trubble getsing our footings so we could scram.  Natcherly, our tails got all floofed, and mom thot dis wuz funny!  Mrrowr!

And Munchkin, she gots in trubble agin fur clawzing up da liffing room carpet.  Twicet.



We iss tinking, mebee just nappys da rest of da week, and better luck next week.  Mew, mew, mew.


s....Jigsaw


P.S.  Tanks to effuryone dat voted fur me in da Catwalk Caturday contest.

A WORD TO THE WISE:

Mommy has something to say today, so we turn over our bloggie to her:


This applies to you if you are on FaceBook, and play any of their games and/or ever decide to click an ad for an online game.

WARNING:


Whatever you do, do NOT sign up for any online games with GAMEVANCE.com.. Here's the full explanation of why, as I sent it to Face Book under 'report an ad':


"There are some 3rd-Party applications and games running on FaceBook, and then there are those which come up as ads. I believe this complaint falls into that category, and this is an ad/company that FaceBook should block/disallow in order to retain its credibility as a safe venue.


"Specifically, the outfit in question is “GAMEVANCE.” They run the game “Duck Hunt” among their other ‘free online games’ offerings. In order to play, they require a person to sign up for an ‘account.’ This is free, but they ask for you to supply your e-mail address.

"Yesterday, I did sign up, and attempted to play a few games. The site is not user-friendly at all, because after you have finished a game, (screen reads, “game over”), you cannot open another one; it tells you that you already have a game open, and must close it first. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this. No ‘close’ button, and by the time this message is displayed, the game you were playing is no longer visible, anyway. The only way to effectively ‘close’ the game is to log out and start again. A nuisance, at best.



"Yet, that is not the worst part. The major problem with this outfit is that they ARE guilty of SPYWARE and ADWARE.

"I had not had my “account” for even 2 hours, when I noticed, when checking one of my blogs, that all of a sudden, one of the words well down in an article was underlined as a hyperlink, and a mouse-over brought up a “GAMEVANCE” search engine dialog box!!!!


"Now, HOW did they get INTO my blog, and mess with it to do this??? Because they are SPIES!!! How do I know this? Simple! In signing up for anything that I’m not quite sure I trust, I use a DIFFERENT e-mail address than I do for anything else. No one knows about what this e-mail addy is; I don’t tell anyone. It is a DIFFERENT e-mail than the one I use for both my blogs and my FaceBook account!

"ERGO---this PROVES that “GAMEVANCE” snooped into my computer, and found all my other items, and without permission, inserted their invasive link into my blog!!! This is INTOLERABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, AND UNETHICAL IN THE EXTREME!

"FaceBook should take whatever steps are necessary to IMMEDIATELY block/cancel/remove “GAMEVANCE” and any and all of its apps from any connection with FaceBook.


"This information WILL BE POSTED everywhere else on the web I can think of…including copies to the ‘big 3’ broadcast corporations. “GAMEVANCE” is a dangerous player, and needs to be taken down post-haste!"


…Liz

Thanks for reading my rant...and please feel free to re-post THIS article, (or excerpts/salient points therefrom), anywhere else you like. We don't need anymore "players" of this nature online.




P.S. --I just found out that one of my acquantances on FACEBOOK had the SAME kind of experience with these clowns...only worse...she had to take her computer in for repair to clean out all the crap this outfit installed without permission!! 

NOT a good company--let's do all we can to spread the word & take them DOWN!

SUNDAY STORIES

SOOT AND MUNCHKIN

Soot was born just about a week before Munchkin; (as near as we can figure the 'genealogy,' Soot was not only Munchie's half-sister, but also her aunt!) These two litters our neighbor kept indoors until they were old enough to be adopted. Munchkin, then, never knew life without Soot.


We adopted them both together. Soot was coal black, with nary a single white or other color hair anywhere on her. She had beautiful gold eyes, and a short stubby tail.  (We are not sure if she was part Manx or part American Bobtail.)  Her coat was so, so, soft, like velvet, and very dense, so although she was a short-haired cat, she gave the impression of having longer hair…she certainly shed like a long-hair!

Soot and her half-sister, Munchkin, were the offspring of two of the feral cats in the area. Soot’s mother was known as “Mama Cat,” and Munchkin was "Mama's" grand-daughter. We ‘met’ them when they were just a couple of weeks old, and at that point, spoke up to adopt Munchkin. However, when the time came, little Soot was right with her, and instantly stole our hearts, so that is how we came to take them both.

These kittens were born across the street, as that neighbor 'sort of' looked out for the feral cats, putting out food, and so they felt safe there. “Mama Cat” was probably the most prolific, and sadly, no one had ever been able to catch her to have her spayed. She was a tiny cat...barely 4 pounds, even at several years old and who knows how many total litters.....

At the appropriate ages, we took them both in to be spayed. This was in 2004. We enjoyed having them add their kittenish antics to our household of 2 cats (Patches and Tigger), and they helped fill the hole left by the loss of our dog, Delila, who had passed just a few days before we took the kittens home.


These were the two little kitty girls described in Tigger’s story, as having him cowering him under a chair. Even though he would hiss at them, they did not seem overly intimidated, and pretty much ignored him, preferring to play their kitten games with each other. As they grew, Tigger eventually came around, and they all became buddies.


The kittens grew up, as kittens will, and blossomed into beauties. Munchkin is a gray-white-black tabby, and Soot just got more beautiful every day. Her coat was such a deep, rich black that begged to be petted. She was irresistible, and just as well, for she certainly loved sitting in laps and soaking up ‘pets.’  I even wrote a limerick about her:

"Soot is a very nice cat

Who wears a soft coat; velvet black.

Pet her, she'll purr, as you stroke her fur,

And add a cute tail to all that."

© 2008 Liz Elias

Sootsie seemed very empathetic, as well. I have a bum knee, and in the winter, if my arthritis had set in and had the knee aching, Soot seemed to sense it, and would lay in my lap, more on my leg, acting as a live heating pad for my aching knee.  That also helped with my physical therapy, as I was supposed to do stretching exercises to get the knee to straighten again.  Her warmth and weight on the leg helped, making a gentle, but firm stretch-and-hold.


Both of these girls were extremely interested in the food bowls, Soot especially, earning her the somewhat derogatory nickname of ‘food slut.’ We jokingly said we’ d set her out on a street corner in San Francisco bearing a sign reading, ‘Will do anything for food.” Of course, we would do no such thing….but she did love to eat. And she had the oddest tastes of any cat I’ve ever come across. She loved bread. I did not dare leave a loaf of bread, or cookies even, out on the counter, for as soon as we’d be asleep, Soot would be up on the counter, and tearing the wrapper. In the morning, I’d find a chunk bitten from the middle of the loaf! I did catch her in the act a couple of times, so I know it was she. She would even eat garlic bread!!


Her midnight food prowls got her into trouble more than once. Mostly, it was of the petty annoyance category, but one night, she hurt herself—prowling the counters, she bumped and knocked down a glass candy dish. The crash scared her, and she jumped down and took off…unfortunately landing right on the broken glass. She cut the inside of her hind leg rather badly, luckily missing any arteries, but she still left a scary-looking blood trail. As soon as I heard the ruckus, I bolted out of bed, then yelled for hubby to help. We managed to get a bandage on the leg, and called the vet’s cell number, as it was still before midnight….she asked a few questions, inquired if it was still bleeding actively (it was not), told us how to wrap it for the night, and said to just bring her in next morning…no appointment needed…and no need to spend the extra bucks on the all-night emergency vet.


Aside from her penchant for over-eating—despite our attempts to ration her food—(after all, how do you put just 2 of 4 cats on a diet, in an open-plan house??!!)—she was a happy, healthy cat. That is, until the last year and a half of her life. She began to ‘go down’ with extreme lethargy and fevers. We’d take her to the vet, she’d be put on a course of antibiotics, get better for a couple of weeks or a month or two, and ‘round we’d go again. The vet ran every test she could think of, and everything came back negative—there seemed to be no reason for her to be getting these mystery fevers. It got so that I would just keep a supply of the antibiotics on hand at home.


(Munchkin also ate more than she needed, but has never--knock wood--developed any health problems. Aside from being somewhat overweight, both girls would otherwise be quite small cats.)


One day, Soot began to feel poorly again, but with a new symptom…she was ‘oozing’ a clear gooey fluid from her rear.. I cleaned her up, and we put her with her bed in the bathroom overnight, so she wouldn’t mess the carpets. She was to see the vet in the morning.

She never made it to the appointment, having crossed the rainbow bridge sometime overnight. We were devastated. I think she was hubby’s favorite: she was the most cuddly, loving, sweet kitty of the lot. And she was only 4½ years old! Not fair. No reason she should have died, and so young.


The vet was equally perplexed, and did a necropsy at no charge out of 'professional curiosity.'  She expected, she said, to find ‘massive peritonitis’ or some other grossly evident problem…but there was nothing. Soot’s heart, she said, was “slightly enlarged,” but certainly not enough to have caused her death.

I cried my eyes out for days and weeks… and even now, almost a full year later, I am tearing up at writing about it. I have kicked myself over and over and over, feeling so very, very sad and so very guilty at leaving her locked up in the bathroom for what turned out to be her last hours with us…and we were not even with her! If I had only known she was that sick, I would have sat up with her and held her all night!  It still kills me to think about it. She deserved better…she gave us so much joy.


Munchkin came up to us in the morning, where I was sitting on the floor holding our beloved Soot and sobbing like a baby. She sniffed at her, and walked away. But, as I said at the outset, Munchie had never been without Soot all her life, and was depressed and looking for her every now and then for at least a couple of weeks…and she stayed rather depressed for a good couple of months. (I didn’t blame her a bit.)


Even Tigger missed her, as they had all gotten, finally, to be friends. We had by then acquired Jigsaw Puzzle, and had had him just about 8 months when we lost Sootsie. His presence was somewhat of a comfort, but there will never be a cat to replace our beautiful little Soot. Jigsaw had been tested and vaccinated before he was introduced, so his introduction in no way contributed to Soot’s untimely passing….she had, after all, been suffering these on-again, off-again mystery fevers for over a year prior.


Munchkin finally recovered from the loss of her sister, and is still with us. She has even seemed to take over some of Soot’s “duties,” such as being the ‘timekeeper’ and reminding mom if their dinner or breakfast is tardy. She is very playful, loves toys, and is very vocal—a trait that was also Soot’s. .. Munchkin has become more vocal of late. We call her the ‘confused cat,’ for she will miaooww… ..meew, meeeeoowwww… purring all the while… or interrupt purrs with complaints. She is a bit of a clown, as was Soot. She has been more of a clown lately…sometimes, it seems as if she is ‘channeling’ her sister.


We treasure our little Munchkin, as we do all our fur babies. May she live a very long life!

CATWALK CATURDAY

Munchkin--rushing the season...

Patches in a blur--'doing the Q' tail..and about to leap to the floor.... we'll post a 2nd pickchur of her, too, so it's not so blurry... but, hey... waitaminit...she's already featured right at the top.  Can that pickchur count?  It's her best one!

Tigger models his best nappying pose atop mom's jewelry chest.   Notice the careful counter-balance of head/hind paws.

And me, Jigsaw, in a formal portrait pose.

And those are our "Catwalk Caturday" pickchurs.  I hope you likes dem, and we all hopes our furrriend Misha wins his contest!  Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsss and nosetaps to Misha! 

***************

PeeeYess...... Guess what??  Mom just took sum noo pickchurs of Patchy-cat.  Here dey are:

She iz modeling her purrrty blue harness and leash.  It iz da only way any of us iz allowed to go outside.  Patchy-cat just lays down in da grass and freezes.

FURRRIDEEEE....

Hai, all our furrriends!

   Guess what Mom said today is??   It is Patches' birthday!  She iss 10 years old!   Wow...she is furry old--dat's 10 hooman beans years, you knows....

   We wuz gonna have a party, but we tinks Patchy-cat don't care it's her birthday...she is sleepying as usual.  Mebbee Mom will make her a kitty cake?  MOL...

   Happy Birthday, sweet Patches! 




s...Tigger, Munchkin and Jigsaw

Thursday Thoughts

Mewy Thursday, effurryone...

  OMC---How did you likes our 'Wordless Wensdee' bloggie?  MOL...  Hee hee hee... we didn't write any post yesterday...guess you can't get any more 'wordless' than that!   ROFMOL 

  Mom has been furry busy working on her ceramics stuff...so we iz kinda bored dis week.  We knows she will make it up to us, tho.... we always gets late-nite playtime on her busy days. 

Our fave toy right now is a stick and string with a whole bunch of little strings on da end...mom says it is lether...whatefurr dat iss... but it is funs to chew on.  Mom says she likes dat toy, cuz we can chews it and not destroy it like we do wid da feather toy.  Awww....what's the fun in dat???

Patches has been a furry bad girl dis week... she keeps peeing behind da bathroom door...right next to da litter box.  Mom says Patches thinks dat if her face is ofur da box, she tinks she's in it!  She iss a bad kitteh!  We iss good kittehs...we don't do dat....well... 'cept maybe Jigsaw iss a bad boy sumtimes... he iss in da box alright, but den he stands up and sprays out ofur da edge!  Mom never catches him at it, so he never gits scolded.  Sumtimes Patches gits blamed fur dat.

But I iss a furry, furry, good boy.  I nefur git into trubble like dat.   I luvs mom, and I keeps her compiny all da time she iss in da office.   And I gits scritches and pets.

Iss nappy time now...and mom is leaving da office, so I have to get off da compooter...  be well and happy, my furriends...


s...Tigger

TOESDAY

Greetings, Furrriends!

    We finally has sum offishal Toesday pickchurs.  We hopes you likes dem.

Dis is Munchkin--one of her odder names da beans call her is "Pretty Paws."  Hey!  I tink I has pretty paws, too!  :::pout:::




And heer she is again, makin' biskits.

Dis is da Jigsaw puzzle--I guess he didn't want to show off his toesies today.

Here is Patches, "thinkin' " ... you see her toesies better in the bloggie header.

And finally, we has, me, da Tigger.

Mom calls this pickchur "Tanglefoot Tigger"  MOL.

And dat is our Toesday entry.

s...Tigger

Mischief Monday

Well, hello, all our furrriends.  We hopes you had a nice weekend.  We wuz kinda bored, cuz mom and dad were gone all day both days, den dey came home all tired, and went to bed early.

I guess it wuz ok, tho, cuz we got extra nappys.  Mom tried to let us play with our feather toy when dey got home, but da Munchkin, she iz a toy hog, and no one else can play!  I tried to catch da toy, and she pounced on it right in my face! I tink she even stepped on my whiskers, dat's how close she came!  Not fair!  

So, we wuz plotting revenge, and sum kits left comments for how we could do dat, but we tinks it is ok now, cuz after all, mom and dad work at home, so really, dey iz here wid us efurryday anyhow.  We gits pretty much a lot of pets most days...and playtimes if we feels like it.

I loves running what mom and dad calls 'da kitty 500' all around da house.  Funs!  Hee hee... sumtimes I crashes into fings...and den mom or dad yells at me...or sumtimes it makes a big bang and I git skeered.  But we has funs...and we luvs nappy piles.   Iz it nap time yet?

I tink we wore ourselfs out trying to tink up mischiefs.  Dat is hard work.  So maybe we don't do mischief todays.  We surprise dem and do it on Toesday instead.  Mew mew mew!!  MOL!!

s...Jigsaw

Sunday Stories

TIGGER'S TALE:   

  As mentioned in Patches' Story, Tigger arrived on the scene in May of 2001.  He was approximately 6 weeks old, and since no one knows when or where he was born, or his parentage, his birthday was assigned as April 15th.  (This gives a bit of a pleasant twist to an otherwise very unpopular day--income tax filing day!  It also makes it easy to remember.  Patches, on the other hand, had her birthday reverse-calculated to be celebrated on the anniversary date for our wedding.)


    So, enter Tigger, one of a litter of 13 kittens!  His story is much simpler, and much happier than Patches'.  Where we were living at the time, we were operating a small handyman service, and one of our clients either worked or volunteered (I cannot recall which), at the San Francisco SPCA.  One day, a woman brought in this huge lot of kttens in a big box, proudly stating, "I've brought you some kittens!"  as if she thought she was doing the folks at the SPCA a huge favor.  How naive!


    Sadly, that animal shelter, city run, and also operating the animal-control services for the City, is not a no-kill shelter.  :-(  The staff said they were already full, and had no more space for kittens, it being 'kitten season.'  It was stated that this entire litter of beautiful little kittens would only be euthanized.  Luckily for this litter of kittens, our client, had other ideas. "No, you won't,"  he told them,  "I'll take them all home and I'll find homes for them!"  And he did.


    We saw the ktties, and wished we could take them all.  Nonetheless, we were limited to selecting just one, since we were technically already at the limit of 2 pets--(we had 1 cat and 1 dog)-- allowed by the rules of the condo complex. Although, we did choose one of the others, a female, for my daughter and her family..you've seen Kaylee's photo in this blog.

   Since hubby had picked out Patches, he left it to me to pick out one of the kittens from this lot.  It was a most difficult choice.  I know he liked one that looked very Siamese, and had a very loud voice, earning him the nickname of  "Mouth."  However, I saw Tigger, and fell in love with the beautiful Orange Marmalade cat I'd always wanted.


    My penchant for orange cats was no doubt influenced heavily by my childhood exposure to the fantasy book series of "Orlando the Marmalade Cat...   ...  Goes Camping;  Buys a Farm...."  etc.  Delightful anthropomorphic tales of a large marmalade cat and his "wife" Grace, a Tortoishell--and their children.  I loved these books so much, that as an adult, I attempted to track them down, and did find the two titles mentioned here.  They were printed in Great Britain, and are long since out of print.  But I digress. 

    So, the pretty little orange kitten came home with us.  I wanted to name him "Marmalade," but hubby thought that was kind of a wussy-sounding name...so, we bided our time, and watched his personality.  We had intended for Patches to have a companion and playmate, but as this was nearly a year after we'd gotten Patches onto her meds, she wasn't very enegetic and playful anymore....it made us sad.  


    Tigger loved to go bouncing sideways down the hallway...literally bouncing on all fours, rather than really running.  If Patches or Delila (the dog) were in the hall, when he got to them, he'd stop, rear up on his little hind legs, and spread his front paws apart in a "BOO!" gesture, right in their face!  Then he would scamper off.   I wish we had video of that ... it was quite comical.  And so, referring to another set of stories for children, this time by A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, he was given the name of Tigger,  because, according to the Tigger character of the  "Pooh" stories, "Bouncing is what Tiggers do best!"


    Little Tigger grew up to be quite a large cat.  He tips the scales at about 13 pounds. I think he is mostly fur--although his paws span my three middle fingers!   He is a medium-long haired cat, and has the appearance of having been brushed with a balloon, so static-y is his fur. 


    Tigger loved to hide in very out-of-the-way places, and more than once gave us a terrible scare that he'd gotten out somehow, and been lost.  He was a very naughty boy, for he would not answer when we were calling him, and I would get very panicky and tearful, fearing of having lost my precious Tigger.


    One day, it was a horrible rainy night, and I'd been mopping down the stairs and doing other cleaning in preparation for selling the house.  When I came in (dead certain that I'd had the door shut while I was cleaning), Tigger was nowhere to be found.  He would not answer, and we could not find him.  I was devastated, and went out in the rain, door-to-door asking if anyone had seen an orange cat....of course, they had not...who was outside on a night like that???  I even drove the car around a couple of blocks, knowing that cats can move very fast when they want to.  I did not find him, and I was terrified that he'd been lost.


    When I got home, however, hubby told me that I had not been gone very long when Tigger came strolling nonchalontly up the hall, as if nothing was amiss.  He was not wet, so he'd not gotten outside.  Where he'd been hiding, we have no idea to this day, since we'd all but torn the house apart, looked in closets, under furniture, and everywhere we could think of.   When I saw him, I scooped him up and gave him all kinds of kitty loves, and at the same time scolded him for being such a bad boy and giving mom such a fright.


    I think he must have understood, for he never hid anywhere that well again.  After we moved to our current location, he snuck out the back door only a few times, but always very cautiously and slowly...and minded instantly when told, "Get back in that house!" 


    Tigger is my cat...he will sit in my lap, he loves to be petted, but he is more aloof toward everyone else.  He will sit in hubby's lap rarely, but he lets my daughter play with him and pet him...which is good, since it is she who is charged with coming to the house and kitty-sitting when we need to leave for a few days. 

    Tigger is the one who most likes to play the "I'm gonna git you!"  game.  However, he also has a very large streak of cowardice. ... ... perhaps the 'wussy' name I wanted in the first place would have fit him better.  When we introduced 2 new kittens about 5 years ago....little, tiny kitty girls....he hid under a chair, tried to make himself as small as possible, and hissed at them!  Bad boy!   Eventually, thought he got accustomed to them, and they all became buddies.  He and Munchkin especially seem to have a strong bond. 

      Our very newest addition, though, Jigsaw, and he are constantly having stare-downs and chase-a-thons.  I keep telling Tigger,  "If you don't run, he can't chase you!"  Poor Jigsaw just wants to play and be friends, but Tigger isn't having any.   (They are both males.)  We've had Jiggy about a year and a half, and if I recall, it was nearly 2 years before Tigger accepted the other two new kittens, so I hold out hope. 


   Tigger celebrated his 8th birthday this year, but he is still very playful...when he is awake...he spends a lot of time napping on his cushion at my feet while I'm working in the office.  He is one very lucky kitty, and we are very grateful to our former client for rescuing that litter of kittens!  (And he did find homes for each and every one...counting the one he and his roommate kept for themselves!)   Would that there were more such folks!

Saturday Mewsings

Humph... well... we got fed early, and we got our treat food**, so I guess dat's a good thing.. but we tinks it's a bribe, cuz mom and dad are not gonna be home all day.  They iss going to sum thing called a "Almond Festival."  We has no idee what dat iss...  But we saw dem yestidee washing up da fancy car....so it doesn't look good for kitty playtime and lap time today.

So....it's eider an oppurrtunity for mischeif or extra nappys, we hasn't decided yet.

**Mom told us da vet said we can't has da can food efurry day cuz it isn't good for our toofies.  So, we gets da dry crunchies mostly, and we gits our can food treat on Saturday... and dat's how we keeps track of da day of da week... Mewy clever, don't you tink?

Well, our furriends, mom and dad are about to leave, so we iss getting kicked off da computer, so mew mew for now.  Have a happy Saturday, efurryone.

Tigger, Jigsaw, Patches & Munchkin

Peeeyyesss... OH, NOES!   We just founded out dat Mom and Dad are gonna be gone all day agin tomorrow.  :::Pout:::  We will plan our revenge....

Fuurrrriday....

Hmm.. we missed Thursdee... mom furgot to wakee us up to write our bloggie!  Today, we don't have  a article planned, just going to put sum stray thots.


Well, anyway, it's Furrriday agin, and we iz looking fur mischif.   We tinks Furridays are fur mischif...don't you?  Mom says she's gonna try and make sum bookcuvers... we iz not sher what dat means, so we iz hoping for a oppurrtunity fur mischif.


Nobuddy commented on our post a cupple weeks back about da hard cold micees, so we guesses no odder kits likes dat kinds of micees, eider...Mom musta just made dem for da hooman beans.  Hoomans are furry strange, don't you tink?


And anodder strange thing about da beans...dey always gettin in dis big tall box and gets all wet, and says dey is 'bathing.'   Munchkin, she waits till Mom gits out, den she tries to help Mom dry off, and help comb her hair, but mom tells her to scoot.   Much more efficient to just lick yurself clean, we tinks. Den you don't has dis thing da beans call 'laundry,' and they don't seem to likes it.  Furry puzzling.

But we know our beans luvs us, and we got a great big compliment on our purr songs. Mom said dat there is no sound more soothing than a cat's purr.  Issn't dat sweet of her?  We practices our purr songs and purr chorus a lot, spec'ly when we is getting pets and scritches. 

Well, we iss still gotta bug mom to dust off da video cam...she didnt' get it out yet.  She said she don't has a U-Tube account, and don't know how to put moving pickchurs online anyhow, so I don't know how dat iss all gonna turn out.  We iss still trying, tho, our fuurrriends...Mebbee sum of yous has sum idees how she kin learn dat stuff?   

I tink dat iss all fur now... YAWWWWNNN.. I tink iss nappy time.


s....Jigsaw....

Peeyesss....I seems to be doin' most of da bloggin..you tink da odder kits iss lazy, or what?  I tink it is funs.

Wordless Wensdee...

See--we can get along...(when we iss nappying)...

OMC!!  Dis iss too funny.  Dis kitty is Tigger's sisfur...her mom is our mom's daughter.  As you kin see...Kaylee is not amuzed!

Me, Jigsaw Puzzle ... I wuz tired...

Dis next one is da Tigger.  mom says he fell asleep reading... ... ...

And dis is Patches...she falls asleep when she tries to play wid a toy...she likes da rope... we feels bad cuz she can't play wid us.... she is a nice kitteh.

And dat is our Wensdee pickchurs...we iss not so wordless as sum offur kits...  Munchkin tole me what to put...and mom says Munchie talks too much.  Hee hee...Miaow... miaow...

s...Jigsaw

Tooseday...

YAAAAAAWWWNNNNSSSSS........


Oh, my...is it Tooosday already??? Uh, Oh, I sleepsied most of da day.. mom says it's after fur o'clock!


We wuz playaings in our cubes...(or at least, da Tigger and da Munchiekins wuz.)..  . Funs... dat Munchkin, she pounces right on top when Tigger iss inside! Hee hee... he runs out, and gives her "da look."


Den dey wuz wressling inside, and playings tag and chase. I wuz watching frum da scratcher tree. I wanted to play too, but Munchkin, she always puts da paw-bop on me! I don't tink dat's so funny.


So I fix dem both.. I wait till dey were done playing in da cubes, den I sneekeyed under da big table, and ran real fast and jumped offur da Tigger and ran down da hall. Hee hee MOL.. Tigger didn't know what happened. I tink Munchie wuz laffin. But den she chased me down da hall. Uh-ohs...


Whew... den we all had a nappy. I just woked up. Mebbee times to go start sumthing agin, ya tink?




s...Jigsaw

P.S.:

OH, NO!!  Mom and Dad came and gotcha'd us wid da claw clippers!  We HATES dat!  I guess dat made it "Toesday" alrighty.  UGH.  I don't get it wid da hoomans always clippsing our clawzies.   Dey said sumpin about our safety since we iss indoor kits.  Humph.. sounds fishy to me!

Regoolur Monday Post

Today is Mischeivous Monday, so we iz going to post sum mischeivous notty pickchurs.  We missed out on the full monty and "Q" contest... so we iz gonna put those pickchurs here in our bloggie today.

 Mom says da capshun, is "Okay, where's my beer and who took da remote?!" 

Dis wuz Soot...Munchkin's sisfur.  She is gone over da bridge now, but she wuz famous for doing da Monty every chance she had... mom has lots of pickchurs of her in all kinds of dese poses..dis is just da funniest one.  Mom says Sootsie was a "eggzibishinist."   

There is anodder one of Patches wid da "Q" tail...but mom can't finds it rite now.  She tinks it is in her old computer.  If she findes it, we will put it up.

Dat's all for now... we will add to dis post if we finds da odder pickchurs.

s....Tigger, Munchkin, Jigsaw & Patches

Short Monday Post

Say,,, we losted the linky for da page to submit entrires for da "Full Monty" pickshur gallery.  Does any ones know where it is?

Fanks you in advance..

Patches: Sunday Stories

I've decided on Sundays for a few weeks to give the cats a day off from blogging to tell the story of each one of them.  I'll start in the order in which we got our wonderful kitties.


PATCHES' STORY

     It was early November, 1999.  Hubby and I were in a pet supply shop getting some things for our dog, Delila.  A cat rescue-adoption agency had some cages in the front of the store, with several perfectly adorable kittens.   They were all just sooooooo cuuuuute!  We knew our doggie was getting older, and we also knew that we could not picture life without a companion animal as we, too were growing older.  We love dogs, but they are much more high-maintenance than cats.  As we were now having some health issues of our own, we figured going forward, we'd be better off with a cat.

   I was still in a pretty deep grieving process over the sudden and unexpected death of my mother the previous September.  Hubby figured a new kitty would cheer me up a bit.   In one of the cages was a perfectly adorable little kitten, all different tones of gray.  (We later learned her coloration is known as "Muted Tortie.") She was climbing up the door of the cage, and when we asked to see her, she did not let go, and was still clinging to the door as it swung open.  That was a preview of her personality.  It took us about 2 minutes to decide that was the kitty for us.

   Her story, as we were given it, was that she and her siblings had been found, only a few days old, inside a paper sack tossed into a paint locker at one of the local school district maintenance yards.  One of her sisters was very sick, and did not make it, but the remainder of the litter was successfully fostered to adoptable age, Patches being one of them--she came to us already named. 

   From here, the story goes sadly downhill.  The gal who fostered the kittens saw them through to a healthy 8 weeks, and saw no problems with any of them.  Patches was a tiny girl, less than a pound, and fit in the palm of hubby's hand.  Unfortunately, the adopting agency would not release her to us, insisting she had to be spayed prior to being released to us.  At the time, we were disappointed, but did not know any better.

   We were set to pick her up 2 days from then, after her surgery.  When we went and collected our adorable new kitten, she was just as cute and mischeivous as when we had selected her.  After about a week at home, however, she began exhibiting some disturbing symptoms.  The first was, that she would suddenly go stiff in our arms for several seconds.  In another week or so, she began having outright seizures.

    We were quite alarmed, and immediately called the adoption agency, and asked what on earth..???  They claimed that she'd been fine...reiterated that the foster mom had not seen any problems, or she would not have been released for adoption.  At their expense, they took me with Patches to their vet, where the spay surgery had been done.  The vet disclaimed any responsibility, and tried to offer off-the-wall congenital explanations, such as "liver shunt," or other weird abnormalities, all of which would require extensive and expensive testing to determine, with an uncertain end result.

   Since we are both well educated, and good at research, we did some digging of our own.  It was at that point we learned that the spay/neuter recommendation is for a minimum of 6 months and/or 3 pounds!!!  Patches had been neither. (The adoption agency and their vet claimed, "we do it all the time with no problems." ... hence their refusal to admit culpabililty, and attempt to weasel out and claim a genetic problem.)  

    As it happens, one of hubby's uncles had been an epileptic, so he knew full well what a full-blown grand-mal seizure (I think they have now changed the terminology...)  looked like. This is exactly what was happening to our beautiful little Patchy-cat.  Based upon our research, we concluded that she must have been overdosed on anesthesia during the spay proceedure, and suffered brain damage as a result...directly causing the epilepsy.

    We already loved her, and had committed to giving her a home, and were not about to give her up.  She would not be considered adoptable at that point, and we were not about to have an otherwise healthy animal put down.  In her waking hours, she was still a happy playful kitty.

   Disgusted with the non-answers from the adoption agency, we went to our own vet.  Likewise, they would not accept epilepsy as the problem.  I took her back several times, and in the end, had to have hubby accompany me, and bascically chew out the vet and demand that Patches be put on appropriate medication for epilepsy.  At last...after over a year of not living through a single week without at least 2 seizures, she was provided with phenobarbitol.  The seizures lessened to not more than about 1 'breakthrough' per month.  Imagine that!

   Sadly, the medicine, in addition to controlling the epilepsy, also had the effect of  making her stoned and sleepy all the time.... even more so than most cats,  who tend to do a lot of sleeping anyway.  Poor Patches was awake a few times a day to eat and use the litter box.  While young, she would still play some, and had the funny habit of climbing my husband as if he was a tree, and sitting on top of his head.  Her personality was still evident.

    In an attempt to coax Patches to play, and offer a kitty companion, we adopted Tigger in May of 2001.  But, the rest of that tale will appear in Tigger's story.

   All of this transpired while we were living in San Francisco.  In early 2003, being tired of freezing to death all summer, we relocated to the far eastern end of Contra Costa County.  Almost immediately, we found a new and wonderful vet, who was very helpful and understanding, and not so willing to make hard and fast 'out of the textbook' statements without doing research of her own.  She will be the vet providing care to all our animals for the rest of their lives!
  
   I am happy to report that as of this writing, we still have our beautiful Patches--it is her photo in the header of this blog.  She is now 10 years old, and seemingly still going strong.  Over the years, she has had to have some adjustments made to her medication, and is now also on Valium to supplement the phenobaritol.  As her meds wear off each day, just before it is time for her next dose, we see her old personality shine through for a little while.  She was our first kitty together, and will always be our "baby."  (But since there is another kit on these blogs with the official name of "Baby Patches," our girl is 'just plain" Patches--or 'Patchy-Cat, as we often call her.)   ;-) 

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   (Sadly, just a year after our move, we lost our doggie, Delila. She was about 12 years old. She'd been a house dog all her life, but in the last year, had to be put outside to live in the yard, as she'd become incontinent. Even though she had a lovely insulated dog house, unless it was raining or extremely cold, she preferred to lay in the dirt under the truck, earning her the nickname "dirt dog." A few days after loosing Dee-Dee, we adopted 2 more kittens, that we had already committed to take. But that is yet another kitty story.)



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  Now, I am going to name-names: 

 ....  the adoption agency from which we got Patches had their display in Daly City, CA, and their name was "Safe Haven for Cats."  After our experience, and learning what we did about the spay-neuter guidelines, and 'Safe Haven's' insistence to the contrary, we did not find them to be very 'safe.' 

   Just because something is "standard practice" does not necessarily make it correct or safe.  Just because you get away with it most of the time, does not mean that at some point, there will not be serious consequences!  If this agency is still in business, I would not recommend them to anyone!

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In sharp contrast, however, if you live anywhere in the Brentwood/Oakley/Antioch area of California, I cannot think of a better veterinary recommendation than the Oakley Veterinary Medical Center, operated by Dr. Sandra Lafferty, DVM.  She is compassionate and thorough, and a very special lady.