Picture trouble

Although Hello seems to actually work for others, I am still having trouble and Dad wrote to Hello to see what's up. In the meantime, I am using Blogger to post pictures, but it appears that with Internet Explorer, the picture dorks up my titles over my posts (although it looks fine with Firefox) ... so who knows? So please bear with me while I try to keep things looking right as I work through this photo issue (and Dad works through his frustrations).

No photos lately

Dad has been trying to help me get Hello to start working again. It's not communicating with Blogger right now, so I haven't been able to put up pictures. I actually saw how to use Blogger to do pictures, but Dad and I would like to know what happened with Hello ... I just want to know. It bugs me. Has this been happening to anyone else who uses Hello?

Sleepy girl

Baby Maggie got all hunkered in Mom and Dad's comforter the other night and took a good nap while they watched TV. She has been playing so hard with us that when she gets tired, she crashes, but when she's awake, look out!

Big night for Maggie

Last night, little Maggie spent her first night out of her carrier and hanging out with us. she did so good. She slept with Mom and Dad some and didn't get into any apparent mischief. I bet she sleeps good today, though.

Blingo is my name-o

Mom and Dad have found a new search site called Blingo that uses Google and gives prizes randomly with your searches. The search results are just like with Google (with a few "sponsored links"). And if you CLICK HERE to sign up, when you win, Mom and Dad win too. So sign up and invite your friends to sign up under you and win cool stuff.

All in the family

Maggie has really taken to being a member of the family. She is really keeping Huggy Bear and Josie busy. Huggy pretty much hovers around her like a curious big brother and Josie has settled down from her hissing and even gave her a bath today. And this afternoon, after a lot of hard playtime, Maggie curled up and took a nap on Mom. I'll post some cute pictures soon.

"Down" right naughty Huggy

Sure, it may have been Josie, but Huggy sure looked guilty the other night when Mom saw him investigating the down comforter. So when Dad moved it today and feathers went a-flying, you can guess who got the blame. Mom and Dad calmly dealt with it ... Dad gathered as many of the feathers as he could while Mom stitched the two neat gashes. It's up high now, and considering that it was 101 degrees with a heat index nearing 119, I don't think Mom and Dad will be needing it right now anyway.

Brief introduction

Maggie got a brief introduction to the rest of us today. She's had a few moments of quick sniffs with Huggy when he darts in or she darts out, but today she got to freely roam from room to room. Mostly Huggy stuck by her side, sniffing at her, patting her and directing her. At one moment, Maggie pounced him from the side and despite being outweighed by 10 pounds, she managed to make Huggy roll. It was very funny.

She caught me by surprise and being a wise and cautious cat, I found a comfortable chair to watch Huggy and Maggie's antics. Josie, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with any of it. She went in to Mom and Dad's room and curled up safely under Mom's chest of drawers.

She's back in the bathroom for now. She's going to get a flea check later tonight, then maybe some more exploration.

Visiting with Maggie

Huggy Bear has shown why, before Mom and Dad adopted him, they called him Bullet. He is quick to dart into the bathroom and sniff Maggie and try to eat her wet food. Maggie is due to get her distemper shot this weekend. Then Mom and Dad will be more comfortable with us visiting her.

By the way, it's obvious Maggie has the same mom as Huggy, because she's just as quick to try to dart out when Dad steps out of the bathroom. She almost got her head shut in the door last night!

Maggie and the toilet paper roll

Maggie has been playing in Dad's bathroom while she recovers from her surgery. She has been staying most of the time in a large carrier, but she gets a lot of "out of the carrier" play time. Yesterday, she discovered the toilet paper roll and unrolled several sheets of TP. She had a blast chasing and wrestling the paper and Mom and Dad would dangle it for her and she would to the spread-eagle leap at it and rip it from their hands. Bring back memories, doesn't it?

Big day for little girl

Maggie's surgery was scheduled for Tuesday when the vet planned on coming in on his day off to do it, but plans changed and Maggie was slipped in today. She got her right eye removed successfully, and the doctor said her eye stitched up well and will look smooth and neat when her swelling goes down. She's already eating and playing and purring like nothing ever happened. Mom and Dad are very proud of her for being such a good trooper.

(The vet went ahead and spayed her while she was under so she wouldn't have to be anesthesized a second time, so that's out of the way too. She's so little that her incession is just so tiny!)

Fuzzy underbelly

Dad really gets a kick out of my fuzzy underbelly when I'm on cat stand. Look at all my hair!

Cat stand

Today was a great day for a nap in the cat stand.

Helping Mom in the kitchen

Mom has been baking individual-sized breads for Dad's patients as part of their Patient Appreciation Week they are doing at his office. Huggy likes to help mom by laying right in front of the kitchen sink where Mom wants to be standing.

Reading Mom's cookbook

Josie was reading Mom's cookbook and got pooped so she decided to take a nap. Instead of keeping all her old Southern Living, Martha Stewart and all her other magazines, she tears out the recipes she wants to keep and saves them in three-ring binders.

Tough day

Mom and Dad ended up taking little Maggie kitten to the vet today. He was so, so nice and obviously has a great heart and Mom and Dad are very happy they ended up there. But, as we feared, Maggie is going to lose her right eye. The retina prolapsed and she's been blind in that eye for a while, so once it is removed and cleanly stitched, she'll be good as new and simply look like she's winking. It won't be any change for her, since her eye has been bad for the past few weeks. Mom and Dad just hate that it came to this. But considering there were moments when Mom and Dad feared she wouldn't pull through the initial illness, this is really a blessing. On the bright side, Dad's cousin Kerry lives in town and he mentioned Maggie to her and she's thinking of giving her a home, which would be such a weight off of Mom's mind and heart, knowing she's in a good home and that they could visit.

Maggie and Babyface

John holds Maggie, our last remaining kitten, while his wife holds Babyface, who fell asleep in John's arms. The kittens were all so sweet that night that we thought they may take them all. They had recently moved to South Carolina from Germany and had to leave their cats behind. So they were very eager to adopt a few sweet kittens.

Paul and Harry

Andrew and his sister sit with two of the kittens. Andrew took Harry home, while Paul, asleep in sister's arms, found a home two days ago. (By the way, Paul's new name is Tiger.)

Sun bather

Josie grabs a ray of sun in the afternoon. Doesn't that look great?

... and then there was one.

A wonderfully nice lady came by today and adopted Paw/Paul (he had a hurt paw at one point, so he became Paw, but it evolved into Paul). Mom says he went to a very good home. So now the only one left is Maggie. She is the little girl with the bad right eye. She was the sickest of the litter and the one Mom and Dad feared wouldn't thrive. But she can see well, despite the bad right eye, and Mom said the ulceration appears to be draining. So keep your toes crossed that she will heal well and find a home too.

No more kittens for Momma Cat

Mom took Momma Cat to the Humane Society yesterday to get spayed. As she came out of her anesthesia, she got a little disoriented and herniated her stitches (too many babies had weakened her abdominal wall) so they ended up keeping her overnight. But this morning they repaired her stitches and Mom brought Momma Cat home and gave her back to the neighbors, who seem to be taking more responsibility now. Thankfully, this means that Momma Cat will no longer have kitten after kitten, which is a blessing for her and her health.

Two more kittens go to a good home

The other night, this nice man and his wife and their son and daughter came and took home two more kittens. They had recently moved back to South Carolina from Germany and weren't able to bring their cats with them, so they were eager to adopt a few kittens. They almost took three, but we're happy they took two. They took Spot, who was such a lover, and Harry, who was what Dad called a "free spirit." I think the son liked Harry's energy. Spot and Paul both fell asleep in their arms, which is why we thought they may take all three, but Paul is hanging out with Maggie as her eye still tries to heal. She has an ulcerated cornea, but she can see and plays hard and wrestles and hunts. But it looks like Mom will be taking her to the vet tomorrow to see what else can be done for her eye. Once she is healthy, we hope to find homes for these last two so they have a permanent place to call their own and get love.

Evaporated goodness

Today, Mom was cooking a special meal for everyone at Dad's work because one of the ladies at work is graduating from college. As a special treat, Mom gave us all some evaporated milk. Oh my goodness! This stuff is great! I'm not even a big fan of people food and I enjoyed some of this. So if your people have some of this lying around the house, let them know that they need to share.

(We might have gotten a little extra special treatment since Dad locked Josie in his closet when he got his tie out this morning. She probably chewed his shoe laces while she was in there, so it's all even.)