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.