Sunny spot in the chair

I love a sunny spot in the green rocking chair. Mom and dad say sometimes I look like a person. I say sometimes people look like cats.

Scratching post found!

Dad finally found my old scratching post, and all the dining room chairs breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't take Huggy Bear long to find it. He was attacking it while dad was putting it together. Dad almost missed it, because it was in a storage box with some rarely worn shoes. He was distracted by the fact that he had found a box of shoes that he didn't see "scratching post" written on the list of items in the box. He did find it as he started to restack the boxes though.

Under cover 2

OK, it's blurry, but here I am tucked under the covers. There's another picture that is more clear, but I'm very quick to react to a flash and my eyes are closed and the brightness kind of washes everything out and you lose the impression of how tucked in I really am.

Under cover

You can't see me in this picture. Mom and dad had pushed the covers to the end of the bed to play cards, and I had tucked myself all under the covers. Josie decided she wanted to investigate.

Resting by the back door

Josie was looking out the back door on a nice sunny February morning.

Huggy Bear's big foot

Huggy Bear stretched out on the end of the bed while mom and dad played cards and watched tv. He had all his feet strecthed down, but his neck stretched long.

Bad Kitty

Josie attacked mom's "Bad Kitty" slippers from Target. Mom and dad love Target ... going to Target is their hobby.

Watching out the window

It's rare to get us all together like this. Momma cat held our attention and it was a nice day to look outside.

My story

When I first started this blog several months ago, I intended to write a little bit about my kittenhood. But when we got involved with the new kittens, they occupied the majority of my attention on the blog and I haven't written much about my past. I'll keep this initially brief...

My mom and dad were living in Iowa, where they attended chiropractic college, when they adopted me. They lived in Davenport, Iowa, which is on the Mississippi River bordering Illinois. I was born in a "no kill" shelter in Illinois. My mother had been brought in pregnant, and I was one of a litter of seven. My mother was a manx (the short-tailed cats), so I must resemble my dad. When mom and dad came to the shelter, I was the last of my litter. We had just been put up for adoption that week.

When mom and dad came in, they viewed many of the other kittens, most of which were not available for adoption. Once they brought me out, it was love at first sight. I climbed all over mom, perching on her shoulder like a parrot, sniffing and purring into her ear, and when they set me back in the cage, I climbed the cage door and called for them. Right away they knew that I was the one.

We went home that day, and I ws slowly introduced to the house, first in the bathroom, and later being allowed to explore the whole house. (Yeah, I ate the adapter to the phone that first day, but I was just exploring ... that was before dad figured out how to slice wires back together.)

Ironically, a friend of a friend adopted my mother from the shelter the next day. It's a small world. I'm so glad she found a good home.

Occasionally, mom and dad would put me in a harness and "walk" me outside so I could experience some of the outside world, but in the big picture, I have always been an indoor cat. I've never had to scavenge like the kittens, so I don't harrass mom and dad at dinner time. But I appreciate what I have been given. Mom and dad keep me very safe and comfortable and secure. Earlier, I wrote of our misadventures of moving to South Carolina. Since moving here, I have enjoyed more time in open windows than in Iowa, and have welcomed in these to kittens, who have added so much joy to my life. I have lots of "kitten" stories of my own I can tell, and I will save those for another night. All this typing is making my paws sore, and I know long blog entries get to be a bit much to read... goodnight.

Momma Cat's back?

The mother of Josie and Huggy Bear appeared to be pregnant last time we saw her. The temperatures outside dropped and our neighbor took her in, I assumed. After a while, the weather had warmed up but we still didn't see Momma Cat so I thought maybe they found her a good home. But we saw her out back eating grass the other day. I couldn't tell if she had had babies or not, but there were no kittens prancing around with her.

Door standoff

Josie and Huggy Bear are having one of their door standoffs. It's one of dad's favorite things to watch. Huggy is in the guest bathroom (it has two doors, one closed, the other open) at the closed door. Josie is in the office at the other side of the closed door. There is a piece of packing paper slightly under the door and they are "getting" each other's paws and tails as they wrestle over the paper. They are so funny to watch.

The move

Ginger commented that she had moved a few miles a while ago, so I thought I'd briefly tell of our move. On the ride from Iowa to South Carolina, I rode with dad in the Ryder truck and we followed mom's car. Somehow, we ended up with a truck with no heat, in the winter, in Iowa! Don't even ask me what that was about. I'm not a big fan of the automobile and much prefer a comfortable home. So the 20 hour drive South was not a lot of fun for me. Most of the trip, I was laying as flat as possible under the couch seat of the truck at dad's feet. Dad tried to get me to drink some water, but I was so stressed that I dehydrated myself. We spent the night in a "pet friendly" hotel (translates to "smells like dog") that freaked me out even more. You can only imaging how thankful I was to get to our new home. Mom and dad were very worried about me, but I bounced back very quickly once I felt secure again. But I've never been back in a car since!

My stack of boxes last year

This was the stack of boxes in the "staging area" before the move last year. Dad was nice and stacked them like stairs so I could climb high. Once, I tried to jump down onto another box, but it was empty and just flapped over and I went all the was into it. After seeing that I was OK, mom and dad laughed about that one a lot.

Helping pack

I helped hold down the packing paper while mom and dad packed boxes. Sometimes, I ended up inbetween the paper. I'm lucky I didn't get packed up myself.

Testing the box...this one's good.

A year ago, we moved from Davenport, Iowa to Columbia, SC. I was a good helper, as you can see.

Be my Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Busted

Dad caught me eating a plant today. Mom had bought these plants for dad's bathroom that doubles as the guest bath. One of them was noticably gnawed on, and dad had blamed the kittens, but today I got busted. You see, the countertop runs behind the toilet seat, so these small plants sat behind the toilet. When dad walked in, my back paws were on the seat, my from paws on the counter and I was just chewing away. It's not my fault it resembles cat grass!

Down comforter

I love down comforters.

Bookshelf

Huggy Bear loves to get in between the books. His latest thing it to totally remove the books from the bookshelf. Mom doesn't find this as entertaining as Huggy does.

Celery

Huggy Bear tried some celery the other night when mom and dad ordered wings. He liked to chew on it, but didn't actually eat any of it.

Josie hugs Huggy Bear

Josie likes to lay with Huggy Bear. I really like this picture because she laid down beside him, then put her arm across him in a little hug.

Playing tricks on dad

Mom and dad usually don't drink soft drinks, but mom hasn't been feeling too great lately, so she was craving a Coke. The Coke machine was all out, so dad brought home a Pepsi instead, and it had a winning iTunes cap. Dad had this cap sitting beside the computer with the code for the free song, and the other night, we decided to take it and hide it from dad. It was funny watching him look for it (not crazy looking, just casual "is it here?" looking). He finally found it tonight, hidden behind the food bowl, three rooms away from the computer. Tricky hiding place...

Josie's sore and tuckered out

Josie has returned from the vet and she's understandably had a bit of a tender and tuckered out day. She's slept with mom under the covers, where I'm sure she feels safe, and even had to hiss at Huggy Bear when he wouldn't leave her alone. Her little belly is shaved and she is a little sore. Give her a couple of days and I'm sure she'll be back to her rambunctious self again.

William the Cat

I was so happy to see William the Cat leave a comment the other day. It is a thrill to see that other cat's with blogs are visiting and reading my posts and enjoying my pictures. Thanks for visiting William!

Sad HB

Huggy Bear really misses his sister. With Josie at "camp" overnight, Huggy Bear just isn't sure what to do. He looks for her and calls for her and mom and dad have to console him. He played ice cube in the kitchen a little, but without his usual exuberance. we'll be happy when Josie comes home tomorrow.

Josie goes to the vet

Josie has to go to the vet in the morning and get fixed. She'll be gone over night and mom will get her Saturday morning (dad has a seminar this weekend). I'll miss her for the night. It'll be boys night, though. To be honest, I'm glad she's going to get fixed, because the past week, she's been walking around with her rear up in the air making the most aweful noises, and there's not a thing Huggy Bear or I can do for her, but that doesn't make her stop. To use a very misplaced expression, she's barking up the wrong tree ... if cats could bark.