Finally Friday

It's finally Friday, and although this was a short week, it was a full week. I'm hoping we've seen the last of the fleas. Just thinking about them brings me down. On a positive note, three cheers to the Feline Greenies Pill Pockets because I do not like to take pills, but I gobbled that up right away, Capstar and all.

Since Mom and Dad are busy volunteering at the theatre (again), I'm going to show you some of the zoo pictures from when Mom and Dad too our favorite sticky people (Gracie and Clara Ann) on Memorial Day.


Mom's favorites are the giraffes. Aren't they just beautiful and graceful?


Dad made eye contact with the turtle -- will he never learn? At least the turtle didn't leap on him like the squirrel a few weeks ago.

Of course, my favorite is the lions...








(That last one is me...)


And look at this peaceful cat. I need a log to sleep in.


Then there was this odd black/white/reddish-brown squirrel. Something like that, I'm glad they have it locked up. Yikes!

Thursday Thirteen #45: Fighting fleas

We spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom last night fighting fleas with Capstar and Frontline. This has got to be my least favorite thing to do on a Wednesday night. Here are 13 things I'd rather be doing than fighting fleas:

1. I'd rather be fighting the power.
2. Or fighting the good fight.
3. Or even fighting the Man.
4. Shoot, I'd even be OK getting pounced by Maggie.
5. Or even getting spooked when I'm in the litter box (which is never a good thing).
6. I'd be OK being put on a diet.
7. Or forced to exercise.
8. I'd even consider a new sibling (although new siblings seem to bring fleas).
9. I'd consider a move.
10. Or a collar.
11. I might even wear clothes.
12. We'll definitely forgive Mom and Dad for tormenting us with the flea treatments.
13. It just may take a day or two...

Thanks to everyone for giving their advice on the fleas. Mom and Dad have been cleaning the house and washing all our napping spots. We hope this does the trick. But enough aggravating flea talk ... here's a cute Maggie picture instead:


Maggie in the master bathroom window looking for birds.

We interrupt our currently scheduled post

I had a Wordless Wednesday post planned, but it'll have to wait. Mom and Dad are really stressing about a flea issue we are having. We are indoor cats, although we will play in a secured garage. Somewhere between hitching a ride on a pair of shoes or coming uninvited into the garage, fleas have managed to latch on to us. About three weeks ago Mom and Dad applied Frontline on all four of us, but we are still showing signs of fleas. Frontline is supposed to work better than Advantage, but we're all scratching, and Mom is finding fleas, picking them off, and drowning them in alcohol.

Our dilemma is what to do next. We're torn between all of us getting flea baths, Capstar capsules, or more Frontline (or a combination of all three). Any advice is welcomed because this is an uncommon issue for us. Thanks for any feedback you can give.

Tuxie Tuesday

Mom ordered us a Chum from the Sock Drawer Shelter on Etsy and it came in the mail the other day. Our Chum is Hug'um and she is very sweet.


Josie has taken a particular liking to Hug'um and is using her as Josie's own special pillow. Mom and Dad keep finding her resting her head on this tiny sock creation. I'm pretty sure Josie has a new favorite plaything.

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend. Mom and Dad went to the Riverbanks Zoo Monday and I hope to share some pictures this week.

Finally Friday

Ah yes ... finally Friday! I think we'll be doing a lot of napping today ...


Like this...


...and this...


...maybe a little of this...


...yeah, you just can't beat a good box for a nap.

The backyard

In yesterday's Wordless Wednesday, Huggy Bear and Maggie were looking out into the backyard, and Huggy Bear was whispering about the sassy bird that has been giving them the business from the tree near the window. No big secret that the bird bugs us.

A while back I talked about the plants Mom had been planting in the back yard. Well, I finally have some pictures...


This is a new rose bush. We have seven now, but two are new and small. (One is a newly discovered rose from South Carolina that is purple, but very small right now.)






These are three of the other rose bushes, the ones that are blooming big right now.

Mom also planted a bunch of elephant ears. She started last year, and the one's from last year are coming up now, but these are new ones.




These are the coffee cup elephant ears, because they form a cup shape.


And this elephant ear is purply-black and very cool. This was a steal at the botanical garden plant show because they only had a few, and Mom got one.


I don't remember the name of this plant, but this one bloomed (we have one that's three years old and has never bloomed) and I think the flowers are so cool.


And this is the shade garden from before Mom planted the elephant ears against the fence in the back corner. The fountain is being used as a planter now with flowing plants hanging off of it.

Anyhow, this is the view from the window HB and Maggie were in yesterday. Hope you enjoyed the "plant show" today.

Wordless Wednesday

Train them well

Sticky people aren't so bad if you train them right.


Clara Ann has learned that we'll hang out with her as long as she's handing out the treats. It seems like a fair exchange to us.

Warming up the stroller

If Maggie gets the stroller all warmed up then just maybe Mom and Dad will take her for a walk this weekend.


She'll nap in the stroller to make sure they know she's ready.


She even sits in the stroller and watches out the window. I think she's daydreaming about her walk.

The Squirrel Incident

Last weekend, Mom and Dad flew up to Cincinnati to go to Aunt Kelly's graduation (Dad's little sister). Aunt Kelly graduated from Miami University, which has a nice campus in Oxford, Ohio. At one point everyone was taking pictures with Aunt Kelly when they noticed a squirrel (Kelly called it a "campus squirrel" like that makes them OK -- you and I know there are no OK squirrels). This silly squirrel hopped up on a trash can, sniffed around, then disappeared into the trash can. Then, a second later reappeared, only to go back in. This attracted the attention of everyone, and they decided to snap a few "cute squirrel" pictures. (Again, we know there's no such thing.)


Here's the squirrel and the trash can. I mean, really, it eats trash! What more do I have to say?

So Dad tries to get a better picture, thinking it would be good for my blog. But he forgot how much he had zoomed in for the previous picture, and it was bright and he didn't size the picture up very well. This is what he got:


Half a squirrel is no less sassy than a full squirrel. But Dad insisted on getting a better picture of the squirrel, and you can see he was being pretty agreeable about the whole thing. So Dad lined up to get a better picture, when suddenly the squirrel leapt at Dadand landed on the back of Dad's hand. As the squirrel landed on Dad's hand, Dad continued the squirrel's momentum off of his hand and down onto the sidewalk and away from him.


The funniest thing about this is that Dad managed to snap a picture as the squirrel propelled itself at Dad. I wonder is vishus deer repellent would have come in handy here? Dad was fine, not even a scratch (or rabies, or Miami squirrel flu), but I think he learned his lesson. All weekend, every time another squirrel was around, Dad had to endure, "Look out, there's your squirrel friend!"

Wordy Wednesday

Remember Zak that Mom and Dad delivered from Aunt Lisa to the lady down the street? Well, one of his litter mates, Jackson, wasn't integrating too well with the other cats at Aunt Lisa's house. He was having all kinds of problems with pooping and peeing in all the wrong places. Aunt Lisa was at her wit's end and didn't know what to do. So the nice lady down the street said, "Bring him to me." So Mom and Aunt Tiffy delivered Jackson to Zak's house last night so that Jackson could get a second chance at a new beginning.


This is Jackson. He was exploring the kitchen, and working his way around to the food bowls.


He found this neat plant that hangs down. He was circus-bearing up to investigate the plant, while Zak was venturing a little closer to investigate Jackson. They're from the same litter, but it's been a while, and this is Zak's turf now, so there was definitely some hissing last night.


Zak really wasn't sure about this fast cat that's slightly bigger than him. He stayed low and defensive while Mom and Dad were there, then headed upstairs before they left.


Plus there's Zoey, the older cat, who's already been through this once a few months back when Zak showed up. She was a little more accepting of Jackson, and even snuck up behind him and sniffed his butt. But she thought the flat cat position was best to study Jackson.


Jackson did find the toy basket, so I'm pretty sure he knows he's in a good place. This might be a temporary stop and he might go with the neighbor's Mom back to Oklahoma when she comes to visit next month. Either way, Jackson is getting a second chance.

Tabby Toesie Tuesday

I know ... Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. I hope you like pictures of Maggie because she's been posing like crazy lately. We were banned from the garage briefly last week after a flea incident. (Ugh! I hate fleas!) We've since been treated and are getting brief, supervised garage visits. Before the ban, Maggie did some serious hanging out in the garage, and that's where this Tabby Toesie picture came from.


Mom just loves kitten toes!

Maggie Monday

While we don't play in the crinkle tent too much (probably because it is a small cone), we do play in our IKEA tents a lot.


Sometimes Maggie plays a little too hard though, and the tent "malfunctions". That doesn't stop Maggie, though. She'll just keep on playing while the tent comes down around her.

(Speaking of IKEA, I think Mom has an IKEA problem. The weekend before, when Mom and Dad were in Atlanta, they went to IKEA that Sunday. Then Mom had to be in Charlotte on Monday and went to IKEA. Then when they got to Cincinnati on Friday, they went to IKEA again. Yikes!)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there -- cats and beans! Where would we be without you? You are all so special. I hope you got extra snuggle time today.


Maggie's right -- it's worth shouting: MOM, WE LOVE YOU!

Finally Friday

Another Friday, another trip for Mom and Dad. Thankfully this is the last one for a while. But this one is for a very good reason -- Aunt Kelly is graduating from college (Miami University in Oxford, Ohio). There are actually two graduation ceremonies -- one Saturday for the entire university, and then one Sunday for the specific schools (Music Education, in Kelly's case). So we'll be hanging out with Aunt Tiff again.


Since we're just hanging out this weekend and the weather is supposed to be nice, the girls will probably to some "sunbathing" -- just cat-style. Here's Maggie "sunbathing" Josie the other day. Josie gets a little nervous when Maggie gives her a bath because Maggie tends to go lick, lick, whap. She certainly keeps us guessing.

Josie's crinkle tent

Mom and Dad got us one of those crinkle socks, or cones, at Christmas time, the kind you're supposed to curls up inside and be all cozy in. Well, we did that once of twice, then decided we were kind of trapped in it and left it alone. Now Josie has rediscovered it, but instead of going inside, she will curl up on top of the thing. I guess as long as we're doing something with it, Mom and Dad are happy. Making it your own, I say.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie Tuesday

This has recently become one of Josie's favorite napping spots, especially this time of day as the afternoon sun comes through. It used to be Huggy Bear's spot, but, as you can see, he has very nicely given it up to his sister. He's content just to be near it.

Lizzie and Hobbes

I know I said that this week would be about Josie and Hubby Bear, but Mom and Dad brought back some pictures of their friends' cat and dog that I had to share. Lizzie is the dog, and she thinks that Hobbes, the new kitten, is her baby. She cleans him, and tries to pick him up. Hobbes is very patient with Lizzie and tolerates her fumbling attempts at picking him up.


Here's Lizzie attempting to pick up Hobbes.


Lizzie loves Hobbes so much that she really wants to carry him around, but she really needs to work on her technique. It's funny that Hobbes tolerates his entire hear in her mouth. It looks bad, but she's not hurting him, just aggravating him some.


Eventually Hobbes lost patience with Lizzie and told her to give it a rest. Dad picked up Hobbes and he was soaked from dog slobber.

[Also, this is a funny Lio comic.]

Finally Friday

Yes, it's finally Friday, which usually means we're getting excited about the prospect of some Mom and Dad time, but not today. Mom and Dad are heading out to Atlanta for a seminar. Fortunately Aunt Tiff is staying home so we'll have someone to give us love and attention and treats.

You may have noticed a lack of Huggy Bear and Josie pictures these last two weeks. This has not been by design -- more that Mom and Dad haven't gotten as many pictures of them. Huggy Bear would much rather get love than pose for pictures, and he's hard to photograph anyway. Josie is good about posing for pictures, it just hasn't happened lately. But next week will be dedicated to Huggy Bear and Josie to make up for things...

We'll be purring for the Sherwood Bunch. Keep them in your thoughts, too.