Forced feline fun...

Well, in the aftermath of what we are now calling the Great Flood of 2013 (aka, the pipe bursting upstairs and getting nine rooms wet), we were forced to spend some time in the bonus room over the garage. It was a safe dry space, away from workers and the fans and dehumidifiers, with the laundry and a place for the litter boxes, and a TV.


Strange things happened because of this, like Josie and Maggie sharing a blanket (although they were not touching).


I really enjoyed some extra snuggles with Dad before Mom got back home.


Mom and Dad tried their best to make it a comfortable and safe-feeling place for us. They brought in our favorite blankets to make it smell like us, and make it a place where we'd want to be. You can see the orange blanket that we all love to curl up on.


Huggy Bear and Maggie are best buds, so it was no surprise to find them hanging out together.

We are out among the normal space now. The fans are all gone, and most everything is set back where it goes. The contractor looked at everything and thinks he can knock it out in about a week -- baseboards, paint one wall (the one they had to cut to get to the pipe), drywall, repaint every ceiling downstairs. That week we'll be back in captivity -- at least during the day when work is being done.

Fortunately the carpets were saved. The bathroom floor -- not so much. But Mom thinks she wants tile in the bathroom now. They had to pull up the linoleum and left some staples in the floor (pokey side down). I managed to bruise my paw pad on one, jumping down from the counter, and limped around for a few days. This made Mom very sad, but I'm OK now -- just sneezing a little from all the dust that got blown around by the fans. It'll all be OK. It can just be a bit overwhelming.

Party Cat

Here's the first in a series of Party Cat comics. We can relate...
http://nedroidcomics.livejournal.com/222317.html

Home improvement?

On the plus side, with all the work in the house, maybe we can talk Mom and Dad into making our house more cat-friendly like this place.

I just realized I haven't posted any picture in a month. I'll make up for that -- maybe some pictures from our "slumber party" away from the mess.

Monsters in the house

We had some excitement this weekend -- unfortunately, it wasn't the treat bag being left out kind of excitement. It was the wrong kind of excitement. We had a pipe burst upstairs. Water was everywhere, including flowing through the ceiling fan in the living room like a fountain. Fortunately Dad was home. Unfortunately, it took him some time to get to the water shut off switch because it had been buried over time. Now there are fans running constantly, and strange people in and out of the house.

We've been locked in the room over the garage, living with Dad like a couple of college roomies. Mom is up in Cincinnati until Tuesday night, so she's stressing from afar, and imaging the worst possible scenario since she's not there to see it for herself. We all were having a really good weekend until late Saturday.

The cleanup crew is really good, and Dad has a lot of confidence in them. But in the meantime we'll protest about our captivity, and wake Dad up at 5:00 am talking because we want to go battle those loud fans that sound like monsters.

It has been very stressful. In the midst of all the chaos Dad managed to wrangle three of us. Poor Huggy Bear was scared to death and was hiding in the garage under a piece of furniture. Dad got him safely into the bonus room over the garage with the rest of us, but I'll tell you, there was a moment when Dad couldn't find him that he worried HB had managed to sneak out. Thank goodness that wasn't the case.

Like Mom said, it is all being taken care of. The carpet isn't ruined, no furniture was ruined. The house is still standing. It's just not fun right now.

On the bright side, we all took turns snuggling with Dad last night. Josie even got under the covers with Dad.

Cool collars

I am really impressed with the concept of these collars ... http://furcode.corecommerce.com/Breakaway-Kitty-Collars-with-FurCode/. I just wish they had better design variety.

Getting our revenge on the treats

After explaining the betrayal of the treats earlier today, we figured we needed some revenge. We managed to open the pantry door, get out a fresh bag of Temptations, and chewed a hole in it so we could just help ourselves. Who needs thumbs?

The betrayal of the treats

It happened again this weekend -- we were betrayed by the treats. You'd think we would learn, but those treats are just too good. Mom and Dad had a surprise party for Aunt Tiff's 40th birthday, but of course that means we get sequestered into the big bathroom. But that's also where we usually get our treats, so it's pretty easy for Dad to lure us in. Josie has actually learned to stop just short of the bathroom for her treats. Huggy Bear has learned to recognize the level of simultaneous cooking and cleaning as a sign for him to hide under the bed to avoid getting locked in the bathroom. He's very funny about it, because Dad will try to lure him out from under the bed with treats. But he'll just reach out one long arm like Hungry Hungry Hippos and pull the treat under the bed and eat it. This weekend Dad even wrapped Tiff's gift right by the bed thinking Huggy Bear would come out and help. Eventually Dad gave up and just locked HB in the bedroom. (Mom later came up and he was up on the bed, and she put him in with the rest of us, so he had food, water and litter box.)

But Aunt Tiff was very surprised by her party, which makes getting locked up OK, I guess. Tiff wanted a nice, low-key dinner with a couple of friends, so Mom threw her a big party instead. You only turn 40 once, and they've been friends for 35 years, so it had to be done.

Once the party was winding down we did get to visit and get some love and attention and wished Aunt Tiff a proper happy birthday with purrs.

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In other news, Dad has almost reached his fundraising goal for their big MS 3-day, 50-mile walk. Mom still needs some help. If you have a few dollars to help her out, every bit is appreciated. You can donate here. Thanks again for all your support.

Purring for Eric

We are worried for our friend Eric. I just saw that he's having some liver issues. Please purr for him.