Five tag

This one's for Mattingly.
5s:
1) 5 Things You Can’t Do: Whistle, get my teeth on Joe Bender magnet cat on the fridge, get enough brushes, climb the doorframe, open Dad's closet and get to my special nap place
2) 5 Things You Can Do: Sleep for hours, catch a ball in midair, take up an entire chair, fit in the tiniest of boxes, snore
3) 5 Things That Scare You: nothing I'll admit to ...
4) 5 Things You Love: Mom, Dad, Josie, Huggy Bear, Maggie
5) 5 Things You Dislike: When Dad bathes me (I dislike it so much, I'll just multiply it by five!)
6) 5 Random Facts About You: I have a cutaneous horn grows on one of my front paws, I was born in Illinois in a shelter, my mom was adopted by Mom and Dad's friend, I was the last of my litter to be adopted but ended up with the best family, I am under chiropractic care for my snoring
7) 5 Things You Want To Do Before You Die: Sleep on top of the fridge, make a positive impact on another's life, write the next great American novel, learn to play SSX on Tour (Mom and Dad say it's a lot of fun), learn to juggle

Since this is a "Five Things" tag, you'd think it would have five categories, not seven. Still, these are fun... Thanks, Mattingly.

Sweet girl

Isn't she just so pretty? Josie has been sleeping on this white blanket that Mom and Dad set out on the futon and it has become one of her favorite places. This peaceful moment was disturbed later by Maggie being sweet and giving Josie a bath, which later turned into wrestling, Josie getting fed up with her sister and going somewhere else, and Maggie triumphantly sleeping in Josie's spot.

Huggy's pink mouse

Dad pulled out this pink mouse from the toy stash and just left it in the middle of the room. Huggy found it first and claimed it as his. He took it to the laundry room in his mouth, curled up with it and guarded his prize. He even growled and showed his teeth to both his sisters. He's usually so amiable, this was so out of character. So Dad had to take it away and put it back in the toy stash for now. Mom and Dad plan to give Huggy some alone time with the mouse later.

Our paws

Well, since the Paw Pawtrait contest is over, I thought I'd point out our paws. Me (Jasper), I'm picture number 9. I'm laying belly-up on the futon, showing off my white belly. In picture 10, it's Huggy Bear playing with Maggie on the blue kitchen rug. The Maggie paws were included to help differentiate between other solid black kittens. Picture 11 is Maggie with her one orange paw contrasted by her black paw. And Josie is stretching out her toes in picture 12 while she rests on the plaid comforter cover.

Catpacity

Dad was on the computer this morning doing his Dad things and realized he was at 75 percent catpacity with Maggie, Huggy Bear and Josie all asleep in different spots on the futon. Rarely are we at 100 percent catpacity, but every once in a while the stars align and Mom and Dad are treated with all four of us. It truly is one of their happiest moments.

On high alert

Maggie watched Midnight prowl around and enjoy a snack Dad set out. With the windows open, Maggie and Huggy Bear were on high alert. The funniest was when Midnight walked around the corner of the apartment, Maggie ran to the edge of the window and tried to look through the wall. Mom and Dad just love her little shoulders in this picture.

The pinnacle

Let's just say my life has reached its pinnacle -- I'm on top of the fridge!

Toys galore

Mom and Dad usually ration our toys some ... not too few, not too many. But lately, a new toy would appear. Mom assumed Dad pulled it out. Dad figured it was Mom. But no, credit the tricky girls Maggie and Josie. They realized the Ziploc bag that the toys are in is close enough to the pantry door that they could paw at it from under the door, tear a large enough hole in it, and acquire their own toys on their schedule. Mom vaccuumed the other day and put all the toys in one large bowl. That's a lot of playtime there.

By the way, two balls to point out. First the orange ball with the purple, green, red, green striped at the bottom center by the stuffed cat's tail, see how clean that one looks? It went through the wash with a load of towels. Those are my favorites. Also, the center chunky orange and green with the white center stripe, that is Maggie's favorite ball. It's really loud.

And while we're talking about these toys, the red mouse with blue ears, that one goes back to when I was Maggie's size ... still an old classic! It was a gift from our friend Little Jen whose birthday was Valentine's Day.

Paw Pawtraits done

Wow ... it was quite a night looking at all those paws for the Paw Pawtrait contest, but I've sent in my guesses (and I do mean guesses) and it's time for a good nap! Good luck to everyone. I can't wait to see if I got close on some of the ones that I had no clue about.

Haiku

Everyone has been writing Haikus lately, inspired by Max. Mattingly really touched Maggie with his. I haven't done much poem writing but Dad thought he would be funny and submit this one:

Love, exciting, new
come aboard we're expecting
you on The Love Boat.

OK, he's laughing at himself right now. Now you see what we have to live with all the time...

Maggie versus Mom

Oh I thought Mom was going to get Maggie last night. At 3 a.m., Maggie got something in her system and wouldn't let it go ... she started clawing and picking at the carpet of Mom and Dad's bedroom doorway. She was digging and picking so much she pulled some clumps of carpet up and woke Mom. So first Mom sprays the Bitter End, but it's old and weakened and doesn't really faze Maggie. So she keeps digging. Then Mom decides she'll sit in bed and shoot Maggie with the water bottle. Well, Maggie just goes to the other side of the wall and keeps picking at the carpet. Mom tried covering the spot with shoes ... Maggie pulled them away. Finally Mom covered the spot with a heavy rug, some shoes and another rug. I think by that point, Maggie had about worn herself out anyway, and Mom swept her up, slipped her under the covers and Maggie fell asleep between Mom and Dad. First thing this morning Mom and Dad clipped her nails. I say it's just a good thing she's cute.

A chair or a scratcher?

I wish Mom and Dad would get a few of these chairs. Then maybe Huggy Bear wouldn't get in trouble for scratching them!

A couple more hints

OK ... just a few more hints. I don't want to give it away, but also don't want to make it impossible. Maggie is in two pictures. This napping photo gives you a good look at her back paws. One is dirty, one is clean. If you view the October 2005 archives, you'll see a gimme picture of Maggie (but only look if you are stumped). Also, this recent picture gives you some of what I'm sleeping on in my Pawtrait. Finnegan's not big on hints, so I hope I haven't said too much.

This may help some, too. I'm Orange, Josie is tuxedo, Huggy Bear is solid black and Maggie is gray striped. Good luck!

I'm sure about Oreo and Oscar, and think I've figured out Timothy Dickens. This is hard, but the fun kind of hard.

Paw Pawtraits

I submitted some Paw Pawtraits to Finnegan and Buddy's Paw Pawtrait contest but as anyone who has looked at all those photos (1-15, 16-31, 32-41) has probably thought, wow look at them all! So I thought I would post some hints. First, I was unselfish, so there are photos not just of me, but also Josie, Maggie and one of Maggie with Huggy Bear (since Huggy is all black, Maggie joined him for a little extra hint). This post includes a possible hint. This might also provide a hint, but not for the picture Maggie's paws are in. This one could also help some. Good luck everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all my blogging friends. Remember to give extra kitty kisses to your beans today!

Maggie and Dad's feet

Maggie has recently developed a new way of sleeping. It used to be the Josie was the only under-the-covers sleeper, but twice this weekend Maggie crawled under and slept across Dad's feet and ankles. He seemed pretty happy with it, so long as he didn't have to move.

I did have to put Maggie in her place once this weekend, though. Dad was giving me really good brushes on the bed while watching Olympics and Maggie jumped right up between us. I gave a quick verbal reprimand then swatted the top of her head about four or five times. At that point, the moment was ruined anyway so I hopped down. Sisters!

New bench

I'm so excited! Yesterday, Mom and Dad went to the store and stopped by Target (their favorite place) and bought us a bench for under the window. It was 75 percent off (whatever that means) so they were excited about it. While Dad was putting it together with some silly little wrench named after some Allen guy, he said it was a good thing it was 75 percent off. But now that it's together, he seems pretty happy about it. I can sit on it and look right out the window now, instead of perching on the small edge of the window frame. I'll have to send a picture soon.

Humans with our names

At work, Dad has two patients with our names -- a Jasper and a Maggie -- and it really throws him off sometimes when he's talking to them by name because he has to resist the urge to say Mags or Jazz (although he says it's easy not to say Maggie-doodle -- sung to the Magna Doodle tune). I doubt he'll end up with a patient named Huggy Bear, though.

Black and white Josie

I had to play with this picture of Josie to make it look better. The original was kind of dark and Dad won't buy me Photoshop so I did what I could with what I had. I just really liked how it captured her face, especially her nose and eyes. She can be such a gentle girl and so intense at the same time.

Guarding the sheets

Huggy Bear and I helped guard the clean sheets after Mom washed them and pulled them out of the dryer (I think it should be called a warmer). Guarding the sheets is a very important duty -- we take it very serious in our house.

And yes, Huggy Bear is in this picture ... he's the area of darkness in the upper left. You can often find Huggy Bear by the light color of his tag.

I've been tagged...

Oh my goodness... I've been tagged. This is the first time I've been tagged (at least that I know of, I may have catnapped through one or two ... hey, it happens).

Here are the rules:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

"Josie, the little black and white girl kitten, is home with us and mom and dad let her out of the bathroom so she could explore some." [original post]

Thanks to "...it's all Good" for the tag.

Now I need to tag a few... I hope I'm not duplicating anyone here...
Buzzerbee
Magoo, Smudge, Bella & Dolce
Oreo
Bonnie Underfoot and Victor Tabbycat
Kukka-Maria

Paw portrait

I submitted some paw portraits of each of us to Finnegan and Buddy's Paw Portrait contest. Good luck everyone!

Josie on the nip

Josie got all nipped up. You can tell she's so totally nipped that she's just a blur of kitten-nippiness.

Filed under "J" for "Jasper"

Mom and Dad were doing some cleaning and needed to empty some old files out of the filing cabinet. When they opened the top drawer and made some space, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to hop in. I wiggled down into the bottom drawer and curled up for a minute or so until I thought, "wait a sec... what am I doing?" and got out.

Table for three

Mom and Dad had company over for dinner a two weekends ago and even though we did actually behave during dinner and did not get sent to the bathroom, Maggie, Josie and Huggy Bear (tail to the left under the tablecloth) all had to get up on the table while Dad was trying to set it.

Onion ball

The other day, Dad looked into one of our cubes that we play in and saw a strange looking ball. He figured maybe Mom had pulled a new ball out of out toy bag and he just didn't recognize it. Then he reached in and picked it up ... Maggie had stolen an onion and had been playing with it! That explains her stinky kitten breath.

Our parents

Whippy Curly Tails in the Toasty South asked about our parents so I thought I'd give you a brief description and answer her questions.

First, their shoes ... yes, we all like their shoes. Huggy Bear and I will sleep on their shoes when they leave them under the "junk drawer table" and Dad has to hide his dress shoes so Josie won't eat the shoe strings. One of Josie's favorite times of the day is when Dad is putting his shoes on to go to work. First, she attacks his socked feet, going after the toes. Then she swats at the strings as he tries to tie them. Sometimes she'll catch one with a claw and untie his shoe as he tries to tie the other one. Mom wears mainly flip-flops because we're also in the Toasty South (Carolina), but she also wears nicer shoes. She was a little upset when she saw where one of us had clawed up a pair of her loafers.

Second, drinking from the tub ... we all LOVE the shower. I like to get between the shower curtain and the liner, although it kind of freaks Dad out when he's in the shower. Maggie and Josie usually greet Mom or Dad as they get out of the shower, and Josie will like the water from their legs. Maggie is more of the tub drinker. Huggy just spreads out and takes up as much floor space as possible.

Third, sleeping on their heads ... Believe it our not, they actually like for me to sleep on their heads. I think Mom prefers for me to sleep on Dad's head. I was never a very affectionate kitten, so I think they are happy that I am snuggling more, even if it means that they need to get an adjustment the next morning (they're both chiropractors, so that's OK). Maggie used to be a head sleeper too, but now she sleeps on top of the covers when Josie is under the covers. I think Maggie actually tries to sleep on top of Josie. Huggy cuddles right up next to Mom or Dad and he is so warm and purrs so loud that they hate to get up. And as for the hair ... Dad keeps his hair short (it's very thick, so long is out of the question) but Mom is growing her hair out to donate to Locks of Love. She's almost there, and needs about an inch and she is so ready to chop it off. And Maggie loves to sit on Mom's shoulder like a parrot and eat/hide in Mom's hair.

I hope that gives you an idea of my parents and answers Whippy Curly Tails' questions. I'll do more later ... my typing paw is getting tired from hitting all these keys...

"Talking to the cats"

Sometimes Mom will say something and Dad will call back from the other room with an answer, and Mom will reply, "I was talking to the cats." It's at this moment that I think, "Of course she was talking to the cats. How long until he learns?"