Jeroma update

I know some of you were wondering about Jeroma, the missing cat from the van robbery and crash. So far there's been no sign of Jeroma. Where she got loose is a pretty sparsely populated area but the people who do live there are keeping an eye out for her. We're just keeping our paws crossed and purring that she comes home, or that she found a new home.

Sadly, the Midlands Kittens Rescue group is folding in the wake of the robbery and everything that has followed. Mom and dad don't have any details, only that they have decided to stop for personal reasons. They did a lot of good for feral cats, including one that Mom found around the theatre last spring. They did good work and their services will be missed.

Maggie in the tree

I guess Maggie figures that since Santa Claws has already come that she can start being sassy and climbing the tree. She didn't even consider climbing the tree until Christmas Day, but that night it's like she found the tree again. I think she was showing off last night because Mom and Dad had a friend over and Maggie climbed to the top of the tree twice! We have pictures, but they're still on the camera, so hopefully they'll be up for tomorrow.

Secret Paws!

We got our Secret Paws post up over on the Secret Paws blog. Looks like everyone got some great stuff. Thanks again to Sweet Praline and her Mom for making this happen.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my cat friends and your families. I hope Santa Paws brought you lots of treats and feather toys.

Cat Christmas funnies

Don't miss these two very funny comics:
Lio and his cat Cybil
Santa's early years

Hope everyone is having Happy Holidays as Christmas quickly approaches. We're trying to stay on the nice list right now with lots of purring.

Missing kitten update

No news on the missing kitty yet. Fortunately it is warming up this week, almost into the 60s, and there are some residents in that area who leave food out for their outdoor cats, so here's hoping. Mom and Dad's friend said that the other three had a good checkup from the vet today.

Here's the video account of the incident. Mom and Dad's friend is Samantha, the one who chased after the van. You can also follow Midlands Kittens on Facebook for updates and pictures of very cute kittens. Sadly, they think the van is totaled, which makes it tough for the kitten rescue, not to mention the rescuer with three small children. We're still keeping our paws crossed.

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Also, if you want a McKitten-Cat Christmas card, they're going in the mail tomorrow so please send us your address to jenianddean [at] gmail [dot] com.

Secret Paws is in the mail

Our Secret Paws package is in the mail. We tried to keep it, but then we remembered that this is the season of giving. I hope our Secret Paws likes what they get ... I'm pretty sure they will.

Christmas cards

Mom and Dad are a little late getting the Christmas cards out, but if you'd like to get a McKitten-Cat Christmas card please send us your address to Mom and Dad's gmail: jenianddean (at) gmail (dot) com. Better late than never...

Also, here's a video link to Mom and Dad's friends who had the kitten/stolen van adventure.

Secret Paws!

UPDATE: Thanks so much Cheysuli, Gemini, and Ichiro! We love our Secret Paws!

Mom and Dad finally let us open our Secret Paws package and it was so awesome! The only thing is, it was sent straight from Petco and there's no note to say who sent it. So please let us know so we can thank you and give you credit for the awesome gifts.


As is the rule, we have to inspect the box before we take everything out. We have to help Mom with the unpacking.


Maggie really got into inspecting the box.


We got all kinds of great stuff like fuzzy jingle balls, and Temptations!


And an awesome new pink blanket!


And a super cool nip Pawbreaker!


And some feather balls! Oh, and lots of paper in the box, that we love too, but I think that's just a bonus.


Huggy Bear couldn't decide what to play with first.


Maggie picked the blue fuzzy ball.


Josie loved the blanket bunches.


Huggy Bear had a blast on the paper.


And I love the box!

Thanks so so much for our Secret Paws gift! Please leave a comment so we can thank you by name and give you credit for these awesome gifts!

Purrs needed for our friends

Mom and Dad support a feral rescue group in town called Midlands Kittens. Well Midlands Kittens had quite an adventure today. They were at an adoption day and it was wrapping up and they had loaded the remaining four kittens into the van when a guy stole the van! Here's the account of what happened:

To make it short Stormy's car was stolen right in front of me and I followed the guy to a house. When he got out of the car to open the gate I blocked him in with my car (I was on the phone with 911, the cops were on the way). The guy used Stormy's Dodge Caravan to push my measly Nissan Pulsar easily out of the way - scraping the side and breaking off the side mirror. I tried following him but he was flooring it. The cops caught up to him on Bluff Road going 110. He flipped her car 3 times...with 4 kittens INSIDE. One kitten got out of her carrier and ran into the woods, but we recovered the other 3. They will be checked out by the vet tomorrow I hope. They seem to be fine. We will be searching the woods tomorrow for Jeroma, we thought she was a he and named him Jerome. It turns out the guys that stole Stormy's car was a 60-some-odd-year-old CRACK HEAD!!! The cop asked me if I wanted to press charges for ATTEMPTED MURDER...I said HELL YES!!!! I could definitely be a cop!!!

Please purr that they are able to find Jeroma. It is wet and cold here tonight -- colder than it normally is in Columbia.

[Update: I was typing this late and it read right at the time, but just to clarify -- Mom and Dad weren't actually there, but their friend was. She was the one who chased the guy down. Dangerous, but glad the guy was caught.]

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In happier news, Mom and Dad finished helping us pick out all the Secret Paws stuff and it'll be going out in the mail on Monday. Dad brought in a huge arm full of stuff from their shopping trip, including the bag of Secret Paws stuff and set it all down. Well it didn't take half a second before Maggie had her head buried in the bag -- so I'm going to say Mom and Dad did OK shopping. On a scarier note, it was puppy adoption day and Mom almost brought home a puppy. I don't know what she was thinking. I think puppies put off some kind of drug hormone that makes people crazy.

Secret Paws is here!

Our Secret Paws package arrived the other day and can you believe that Mom and Dad are making us wait!?! But we'll be opening it today, so pictures this weekend! And Mom and Dad are both off work all next week -- we are so excited!

My pillow

This is my pillow -- mine, mine, mine. Dad, you're just going to have to go sleep some place else.

Dad is in trouble

Dad really did it this time. He is in big trouble. This morning when Mom got a wash cloth out of the linen closet Maggie jumped in. So Mom left the door open. Well Dad walked by, looked in and didn't see any of us, and shut the door. I think he was expecting to see me, and I'm very easy to see. But Maggie had hidden and got locked in the linen closet. Well Mom dropped Dad off at work and came home and heard the noise of stuff falling and Huggy Bear was holding vigil by the door. Maggie had climbed to the top of the linen closet and knocked down about 12 towels. Needless to say she was happy to be out of there, and glad Mom came back hope after dropping Dad off.

New furniture

Mom and Dad bought new furniture for their bedroom. Mom was so done with the old bedroom furniture, and since Mom and Dad upgraded to a king size bed they needed a new bed frame. So this morning at 7:30 the delivery guys were here. Obviously we couldn't be under foot, so Mom's plan was to put us in the garage. Well, it's cold out there right now, real cold. But Josie and I got swept up and escorted to the garage. But then Huggy Bear and Maggie, who are always wanting to go to the garage, didn't want to go out today. So they got put in the downstairs bathroom -- the hottest room in the house. So not fair!

The delivery guys were quick, though, and got it all set up and took off. So then it was inspection time. Maggie has been sniffing everything, and putting her stink on stuff. Huggy Bear found a spot on the bed right away. I claimed one of the bedside tables. Josie, on the other paw, decided to be mad about the whole garage thing and is staying away. She'll warm up to the new room soon enough. (Warm up, haha, that wasn't even intentional.) Pictures will follow soon.

Neighborhood troublemakers

Apparently the police apprehended four people who were trying to break into a house a few streets over. That's pretty scary. Now we'll have to patrol the windows for more than just squirrels!

The weather has been very very cold today. They're even talking about snow! Really, in South Carolina! That's just nuts. Just another reason to snuggle in close to Mom and Dad.

I got my match today for Secret Paws. Mom and Dad said they're going shopping tonight so we can get it packaged up right away. It's one of my favorite things we do in the Cat Blogosphere.

Dad accidentally deleted a Huggy Bear photo spread, a picture of his grandmother from Thanksgiving and some pictures of some food Mom cooked. He selected a few pictures to delete and the laptop went ahead and ate them all. He's bummed, which is probably why there are no new pictures in this post. But I'll make up for it in the next one, even if it means we have to pose a lot in the next day or two.

Holiday travel

When it comes to holiday travel, I find it is difficult to stop Mom and Dad from going places. Apparently the draw of family is even stronger than the draw of a kitten pressed up against you in bed -- and that's pretty strong! But that still doesn't stop me from trying to keep Mom and Dad home.


I highly recommend sleeping on or in their luggage. In this case, I'm doing both. Mom and Dad like their orange Eddie Bauer duffel bags (easy to spot and they hold a lot). I like them for a nap. So even if they force you off of the bag so they can pack at least they'll be traveling with a big hunk of Jasper hair so everyone knows who they belong to. Thankfully it looks like Mom and Dad are home for a while after traveling for Thanksgiving. Hopefully your beans are staying put too.

Windows Wednesday

Or maybe Wishful thinking Wednesday...


I found this picture from September that never got shared, but it was nice to remember those open window days. It was so so nice yesterday, hitting almost 80. It was a fitting farewell to November, which was a weird month with unseasonably warm weather even for South Carolina. But today is supposed to make up for it -- cooling down considerably. It's 73 right now, but the low today is supposed to be 29. Talk about your temperature swings! Thank goodness for winter fur.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so completely thankful for the amazing friendships we have gained over the years through the cat blogosphere. Y'all are the best -- and I truly mean that. (You know it's true because I broke out the y'all, and I don't do that loosely.) I hope there's plenty of turkey and ham to share at your houses, and that your beans are nice enough to share. If they don't, I say go ahead and help yourself. It is Thanksgiving after all, and you know they'll get tired of the leftovers anyway.

Today is also Mom and Dad's 15th wedding anniversary! So a big purr to Mom and Dad!

One of those weeks...

Wow! I can't believe I went a full week without an update or anything. It was one of those weeks. Mom's play finally wrapped up this weekend. They had a lot of fun at the closing night party (got home so late that it was early the next day). Mom and Dad were running on fumes all last week, so they've been enjoying some more relaxing time now. And we've been enjoying that they are home relaxing. We've made sure one of us is pressed up against them no matter what they are doing -- just to make sure they remember why they want to stay home.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and we'll be doing some serious relaxing. Mom and Dad will be visiting with Dad's grandmother. She is 91 and they are overdue for a visit, so we're OK letting them spend Thanksgiving with her. It helps knowing that we'll be getting a lot more Mom and Dad time starting next week. Hopefully that means a lot more visiting our cat friends' blogs, too.


In the meantime, I'm going to find a comfortable stack of magazine to nap against. I recommend Food and Wine or ReadyMade.

Waiting, wishing

Some days you just have to wait by the door and wish that Mom and Dad were home sooner. They've had some late nights with Mom's play. Dad is making the sounds happen (he pushes play and pause 15 times during the play for the scene transitions) so they have to be at the show until it is over every night. But it ends this weekend. Then hopefully we'll get our Mom and Dad back. Until then, we'll keep watching out the windows, making sure the squirrels behave and looking for Mom and Dad to pull into the driveway.

Home, but not home

Mom and Dad were supposed to go out of town this weekend. They were heading up to Rocky Top Tennessee to see Dad's parents and an old college friend (and hopefully a football win). But the girl who is running the sound board for Mom's play is sick, which means Mom and Dad are staying home -- but have to run sound for the show. So we'll get some time with them, but have to share them with the theatre. But some is better than none.

Hanging with Mom and Dad

Sunday was so nice ... apparently Mom and Dad got an extra hour in their day. To us, it still seemed the same. But on the bright side, Mom and Dad didn't have to go to the theatre all day, which is the first time in what seems like weeks. The play Mom is producing is up and going, but they didn't have a show Sunday, so Mom and Dad relaxed, watched some tv and cleaned out their closet. And most importantly, they spent some quality time with us!


This is our neighbor's visitor cat -- Zoey. I've been meaning to introduce you to her properly for a while now. Remember a while back she was putting her stink on when he would take the morning litter scoopings out? And she was playing with Maggie through the front window. Well this picture was taken a few weekends ago when the neighbor was over checking on the HVAC before the weather cooled down. Zoey tagged along and played in the mulch. Zoey's family has three indoor cats that Mom and Dad cat-sat a while back, but unfortunately Zoey is Feline Leukemia Positive so she has to stay outside. But she is very sweet, even if she puts her stink on Dad in the mornings. I guess we can let her visit.

Dona Nobis Pacem

The outrage!

It's bad enough Mom and Dad have been having late nights again. Mom is producing another play -- A Few Good Men. It's her last for a while. But it's tech week, which means crunch time. And last night they got home around midnight. Now it's bad enough that they got home late, but Dad forgot to go and pick up out cat food. So he obediently rushed out to Wal-Mart and bought us some food. Mom and Dad felt bad, but that's no excuse.

Happy Halloween!

Happy early Halloween! It's going to be spooky and ghouls time soon, so all you kittens out there be careful! It's not always the best time of year to be a black cat, so Huggy Bear's going to be spending trick-or-treat time hanging out on his hammock. Have fun, and only eat kitten-approved candy. And be patient with your beans if they try to dress you up in a costume -- they really can't help themselves.

Happy 6th Blogoversary!

Today is my 6th Blogoversary! I can't believe it, really. I started this blog on a whim a long time ago, back when I was in a one-cat apartment. Josie and Huggy Bear were two of four kittens who had recently been born to a neighbor's momma cat, and they were being awful cute around the apartment building, sleeping on the handrails, and playing around Mom and Dad's pumpkins they had carved. Honestly, I never expected the blog to last. It was a way for Dad to see pictures of me when he was at work, and to keep a little journal of the kittens as Mom and Dad fostered the litter of Josie and Huggy Bear (and Curly and Frisky) until they were adopted out. But then I started meeting other cat bloggers. When I started, I had no idea there were even other cats out there with blogs. Now look at how many there are. I remember visiting every cat blog in less than 30 minutes -- it was so easy back then. I know I've slowed with my posts a little over the past year -- it's been a bit of a challenging year -- but I'm still proud to be a member of the Cat Blogosphere and try to visit when I get a chance. I'm very thankful for all of you. And I'm looking forward to the adventures of the coming year!

Tocktober!

Happy Birthday Derby! In honor of your birthday, here's my Tocktober picture (well, Huggy Bear's).


Mom loves his floofy tocks, especially the way they show up when we're in the window.

Two for Tuesday

Part of having windows open is that you have to sometimes share a window.


I was in the window first when Maggie decided to come and join me. We had to discuss if this was OK.


I'm a good big brother, so it should come as no surprise that I shared the window with Maggie with little fuss.

Mom and Dad had a friend who was in the hospital, so Friday and Sunday nights Mom stayed with her at the hospital. We missed having Mom home, so when Dad was in bed those nights we all slept in Mom's spot and on her pillow. Then Monday Mom stayed home because she was exhausted and needed the day to recover, and Maggie was Mom's shadow. Maggie didn't like not having Mom home at night, so she was determined to make sure Mom stayed put. Unfortunately it's back to work for Mom today.

Huggy Bear's hammock

We got this awesome hammock from Forty Paws during Secret Paws two years ago (wow, time flies...). Well, Huggy Bear has pretty much claimed it as his -- hair and stink and all. He sleeps in it almost every night. We all checked it out when we first got it, but I think it's stretched out just right for Huggy Bear's shape. If he keeps stretching it out I think he'll be on the floor soon. I'm not saying Huggy Bear is heavy for it, I'm just saying he's broken it in well.

Tabby Tuesday

We've had such wonderful weather here lately, it's meant extra open window time.


Maggie loves having the windows open. She'll snoopervise everything going on, and there's been a lot going on. Our neighbor does heating and air work, and Mom asked him to come and look at our units to make sure they were OK before the cooler weather came. He was in and out of the house, and even in the attic (Josie looked up the steps to the hatch, but didn't want to climb them). It's a good thing he came, too, because he found mold (yuck!) but was able to get it all cleaned up.

Speaking of cleaning up, on Thursday and Friday, Mom and Dad were in serious clean-up mode. Mom's brother and father came last weekend for the Alabama-South Carolina football game, but Mom's brother is allergic to cats so she had to get all our furs up (and there was a lot of fur!). We had a nice visit, even if his Alabama team lost. We got to put our stink on them when they weren't paying attention, and that's fun too.

You could tell Mom's brother isn't a cat guy because he saw Maggie in the sink and asked, "What's the cat doing in the sink?" Well, duh, why wouldn't a cat be in the sink? It's the best spot in the whole house!

Mancat Monday

Even a Mancat can be sad when an old favorite toy has seen it's last day. Pink mouse was hunted a lot, and provided hours and hours of entertainment for Huggy Bear, as well as the rest of us. But it was Huggy Bear's mouse. Unfortunately, it was losing it's stitches, and started to be more of a hazard, so pink mouse had to go.


Huggy Bear said his final farewell. But fear not, I think a trip to Target may net a new pink mouse soon.


Pink mouse about to lose it's insides.


The eye came off pretty early in the play, but the loss of the ear was the final blow.

Wordless Wednesday

Up close and personal

This is one of my favorite old pictures -- and very meaningful because it was the new camera Mom and Dad got for Christmas in 2007. I can't believe that was 2007, but Flickr says it is, so it must be. So now Mom has her early Christmas camera, and the next pictures will be from the new camera. I'll try to get something up tomorrow, but I'm not promising because -- surprise surprise -- Mom and Dad will be over at the theatre tonight. There's a magic show Friday and Saturday, so this is the tech week where they get the sound and lighting and lobby decorations up (Mom and Dad are doing lobby decorations). But with all that going on, I still think they can upload one picture!

Also this week Mom's dad and brother are coming for a visit. They want to watch the Alabama-South Carolina football game. Mom's brother is allergic to cats, so there's going to be a lot of evening cleaning going on Wednesday and Thursday. Really no point in doing it over the weekend because you know we'd just put all the hair back anyway.

So that's why you get an old picture today -- with the promise of new and exciting coming soon!

New camera but no pictures?

Yes, Mom got a new camera -- a Canon Rebel. She's been having lots of fun with it, too, especially taking lots of pictures of us. But even though she got a new camera, it appears she hasn't gotten more time yet. So there are a bunch of cool pictures of us -- still on the memory card in the camera. Hopefully by Wordless Wednesday I'll have something to post!

Lazy Sunday

We enjoyed a nice lazy Sunday with Mom and Dad, taking turns snuggling with them as they got caught up on their TV shows they've been missing with the play and everything going on. And the weather has cooled down so we even had some windows open. Let's hope this is a new trend!

Visitor cat

On Tuesday morning, when Dad stepped out to take out the trash, our neighbor's gray and white girl cat Zoey was by the car and ran over to visit and get some loves from Dad. He gave her a few pets and headed back to the house. She ran ahead to the porch and was putting her stink on the porch when Dad went in. Maggie had noticed this little interloper trying to steal our Dad's affection and was giving her the stare-down through the window when we heard a ::thump:: and little girl was all sprawled out on the screen and window. She may have been saying to Maggie, "bring it" or "come and play" ... I'm not quite sure as it was early and I was still a little sleepy. Either way, we all agreed she would stay outside and we would stay inside -- and that we got to keep Dad.

Later that morning, after Dad left for work, Josie got to stalk and huff at a squirrel on the deck out back. So overall, it was quite an exciting morning from all the windows. (I'm pretty sure the squirrels didn't want to steal Mom or Dad -- but you can never be too careful.)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is Dad's birthday! He wanted me to thank everyone for their birthday wishes. And we all want to thank you for the kind thoughts sent to Tucker's family.


This is the look I gave Dad when he said he had to go to work on his birthday. I mean, really, isn't that a holiday?!?

Maggie Monday

Here's a cute picture of Maggie giving Mom some raspberries last weekend. Isn't she so cute?

I wanted to post a happy picture because we are a little sad. Mom and Dad's friend's cat crossed the bridge yesterday. Tucker experienced renal failure, and Mom and Dad suspect foul play by the neighbor. Tucker spent most of his life as an indoor cat, but got a taste for the outdoor life recently. The neighbor made it clear that he had nothing for Tucker and made several threats (like Tucker was causing any problems -- come on!?!). Over the past few weeks Tucker has not been well, and yesterday his kidneys failed. I can't imagine how someone can be so cruel. I know someone who Tucker will be waiting for at the bridge -- to show him the down escalator. In the meantime, since we can't bite him on the butt, we send him raspberries and karma wishes.

Happy 6th Birthday, HB and Josie

Today was Josie and Huggy Bear's 6th birthday! Thanks for the birthday wishes. Sorry we didn't have a birthday post up earlier, but here's some pictures from the birthday celebration...


Josie and Huggy Bear each had their own 6 birthday cake made out of stinky goodness.


They both enjoyed the first bites of cake before Dad split it up for us.


It was some good stuff. I was really digging it. I may be the biggest of the four of us, but I'm usually not the food hog. But tonight I was all over this stinky goodness. Too bad the next birthday isn't until April. (Unless you count Dad's, which is Tuesday, but I don't think he's having a stinky goodness cake.)

Showing off

Mom and Dad had people over last night working on an adult spelling bee fundraiser they are doing on Friday after the Spelling Bee musical. It should be a lot of fun, having people spell dirty words (or words that sound dirty). But as you may notice -- no picture again today! I don't know what I'm going to do with these people. I was even showing off for them yesterday. With all the people around trying to concentrate, I brought down one of my favorite red fuzzy balls and was whapping it around, and throwing it, and being all kitten-ish (which is very good for an eight-year-old cat). And yet still no pictures -- although I did get lots of pets and ooohs and aaahs!

Spelling Bee

Mom is producing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Workshop Theatre in town here, and it opens on Friday, which means that she is very distracted and getting home very late. We're a little spoiled by the week before when she was sick and home all day, and now she's getting home at 11:00 or later. That's just not fair! And to make matters worse, there are some excellent pictures of us on the camera just sitting there, cluttered among pictures of actors spelling and dancing and singing. But after this weekend we hope things get back to normal. I heard Mom say this morning that Saturday will be all about us (and maybe some football).

Protecting Mom from a skink

Mom's been home sick this whole week, so we've been tasked with monitoring her and making sure she gets enough rest. We've also had to protect her, apparently. On Tuesday Mom was feeling a little bit better and while she was in the kitchen she let us in the garage for some playtime. While we were out there we found a lizard. More specifically, we found a skink. If you're not too familiar with skinks, I think it's what you get when a lizard and a snake have a baby.

Here's what happened:

Mom opened the door from the house to the garage (with the big outside garage door shut). As soon as we get out there she hears all kinds of ruckus. She looks, and Huggy Bear has the skink in his mouth and is running toward the door to show Mom. Mom, less excited than Huggy Bear, quickly shuts the door -- locking us IN THE GARAGE! Well, the door to the garage has a big peep hole, so Mom is watching us play with the skink while she calls Dad to tell him he has to come home and remove the skink from the garage so we can come back in.

In the meantime, we're still playing with the skink. There is a drop cloth on the garage floor from a project Mom and Dad are working on. Well, the skink got under the drop cloth. But that didn't stop us from playing with him. Mom looked out and saw me and HB and Josie on the drop cloth. (Maggie was off doing her own thing.) After a while Mom checked on us and we all looked bored so she opened the door and Huggy Bear came in (no lizard). Then Maggie followed, hoping for some treats. I came in next -- Mom was being very careful to bring us in one at a time in case we tried to sneak the lizard in to play with later. Josie had to be coaxed in because she was determined to make sure that skink didn't try anything tricky. But finally Josie came in too.

Since we came in without the skink Dad didn't have to come home at lunch. So when Dad got home that evening he checked the garage. Apparently we broke our skink. He found a tail bit by the steps and a broken skink under the drop cloth. He has pictures but hasn't uploaded them. The skink was silvery-blue with stripes, probably six or seven inches long -- nothing Mom ever wants in the house again. (Again, because of this incident in 2008.)

I guess the lesson here is, if you have a lizard or a skink to play with, check with Mom forst before inviting her to play -- especially if she's not feeling good. And be careful with your skink/lizard because if you break it they aren't nearly as fun to play with. On the other hand -- once you break your lizard you will get all kinds of treats from Mom.

Addicted to plastic

I'm addicted to biting plastic. I've tried to stop, but there's just no breaking this habit. There's just something about the taste of the yeast they put on the bags to keep them from sticking or the crinkle as you chew them. But the best is the feeling as your teeth puncture the plastic. Just the best!

Check out the technique:









Love that bag! I know going green with reusable bags is good, and Mom and Dad use them a lot, but I'm sure to reuse the plastic ones. This is how I go green.

Mancat Monday

Just hanging out in my cat stand and enjoying a lazy Mancat Monday...

Pay attention to me

Maggie has a very convincing way of making Mom stay off the laptop and pay attention to her instead.

Lots of hugs and purrs to all our Cat Blogosphere friends. It's been a very difficult week, and I just want you all to know you're loved.

Goodbye, old friend

We are so sorry to hear that Fat Eric crossed the bridge this week. We will miss him so much. Our purrs go out to his family, who were traveling in America when Eric took a sudden turn. So so sad...


See you at the Bridge, Fat Eric.

Tabby Tuesday

The other day Mom was playing Bejeweled Blitz. Usually when Mom is focused on a game Maggie will walk across the laptop. But not this day. Instead she decided to curl up against Mom and give her some good karma instead. I think Mom got a high score. (It should be noted that Maggie is also laying on the grocery list...)

Mancat Monday

Huggy Bear did a lot of begging last night at dinner time. He's usually very good about being very near the food, but not intruding. But Mom and Dad had picked up sandwiches from McAlister's on their way home last night and Huggy Bear couldn't help himself. He was so eager he actually ate a little piece of lettuce.


Here's HB looking very content. This was not from last night, but I think this is how he felt after getting some ham, turkey and roast beast from Mom and Dad's dinners.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

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Dad needed a mental break from work and found this funny catnip t-shirt.

Surviving the weekend

We managed to survive the visitors this weekend. We had a 14-year old boy, a 12-year-old boy, and 12-year-old girl and a four-year-old girl in the house. The older three didn't pay too much attention to us, but the little four-year-old was VERY interested in us. They were on their way back to Ohio from Disney and the little girl was wearing a Princess Jasmine outfit with jingly bits on it. We think all little people should wear jingly outfits so we know when they are coming. At one point Mom was petting me so the little girl could visit with me. I never moved but I did let out a very civil hiss. Little Reese said, "He's a silly cat." She has no idea how "silly" I was thinking of being. But we all behaved. We spent the night sequestered in the room with Mom and Dad, then got lots of garage time Sunday morning while everyone ate breakfast. I think this worked out best for everyone.

Then Sunday evening we helped snoopervise as Mom and Dad replaced the faucet in the kitchen sink. The old one decided to stop turning off right before company arrived (or course). Aunt Tiff was supposed to come over for dinner, but since the kitchen was in pieces, that got delayed. So maybe we'll see her on Wednesday instead. We hope.

We have pictures, but they're still on the camera. We'll try to get Dad to upload some tonight.

Super Saturday

Today has been a most excellent day. It is the first time in a long long time that Mom and Dad have actually been able to spent the majority of the day home with us. We have been snuggling up with them and cleaning them and having sure our stinks are all over them. Sure, they've been cleaning some because there are some sticky people coming to spent the night tonight, but that's OK. Just as long as Mom and Dad are home.

What's in the closet

Huggy Bear just can't stand himself sometimes. He just wants in the office closet. He doesn't understand that it's just full of paper and envelopes and a shredder and other miscellaneous office junk. But he'll just beg at the door for a while, Dad will open it for him, he'll poke his nose in and be done with it. Until the next day... I think sometimes he forgets.

Cat icons

If your beans like to customize their icons on the computers, check out these cat icons from the Icon Factory.

And here's an article about Hollywood's anti-cat agenda.

Box, part 2 (and a funny story, continued)

The box from yesterday's Wordless Wednesday was officially claimed by Josie. She normally doesn't get in the mix with that stuff, but she made sure this one was her's. At least until company came and the box had to leave the kitchen and go up to the office. We don't like it as much in the office.

Remember a while back, I told a funny story about a friend's dog who likes to eat the mail as it is passed through the mail slot in the front door? Well, the dog, Mary Gertrude, just hates the mail slot. When that little flap gets flipped she just goes nuts. And recently, Mickey, our friend's 12-year-old cat, has gone through a bit of a mid-life crisis. After years of being a laid back, cool cat, now Mickey is slipping out through Mary Gertrude's doggie door, bringing in prizes for our friend Randy (including a live baby rabbit the other day, which Randy rescued). One day Randy was up on the roof fixing something and he looked over and there was Mickey. He's just turned into a rascal lately.

So the other evening, Randy is in the living room and Mary Gertrude hears the tink-tink of the mail flap and just goes nuts. Randy knows it's too late for the mailman and opens the door to see who is out there and there's Mickey, sitting at the front door. Mickey has learned that it gets the dog all kinds of crazy when he plays with the mail slot flap, and does it all the time now. I think we know who the smarter animal is in that house.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Mom and Dad came home!

Mom and Dad came home after a wonderfully beautiful wedding in Marietta, Georgia. They kept talking about some Big Chicken, which I'm very interested in. Any place that is famous for a big chicken is worth visiting. I'll make Dad get the pictures off the camera so we can all see, but he told me not to get too excited, that it's not the eating kind of big chicken. The weather was perfect for Dad's cousin's outdoor wedding. Despite a 70 percent chance of rain, it stayed dry when it needed to. Hopefully things will start to slow down for Mom and Dad soon so we can visit my cat friends more, and spend more time with Mom and Dad (and post pictures!).

Huggy Bear perched on the bed

This is Huggy Bear's favorite pose -- he loves to perch on the edge of the bed, especially in the morning while he snoopervises Mom and Dad. The Beans are heading to Atlanta for Dad's cousin's wedding, which means Aunt Tiff is going to come over and squeeze on us (but mainly Maggie).