African Serval kitten

Mom and Dad went up to Knoxville, TN last weekend for the UT-South Carolina football game. Mom and Dad went to the University of Tennessee back in the day, and live in Columbia, SC near USC now. So they were pulling for UT and feeling bad for Mom Paula when the Vols beat the Gamecocks on a last second field goal 23-21.

On the way home, Mom and Dad took the scenic drive through the Smoky Mountains. They stopped at one of their favorite pumpkin stands along the way to get some pumpkins for the front porch, and look what they saw there:


This is one of three African Serval kittens that were by the goat petting area. They hadn't had any shots yet so no one was allowed to hold them, which is probably a good thing because I think Mom would have brought it home if she could have. Of course, that breed gets as big as a small dog, so it's a good thing Mom didn't.


This is a panoramic of the Newfound Gap that Dad took on his phone. This is where North Carolina and Tennessee meet in the Smokies. The leaves looked amazing. The white twiggy dead trees you see are the hemlocks that were killed by a non-indigenous wooly bug.


This is the view of the creek (or Little River) that goes through part of the Smokies. The shortcut they take to avoid the traffic in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg takes them along this creek for a while.


Coming out of the National Park on the North Carolina side there is a field where a herd of about 15 elk have migrated away from the larger herd of about 300. The rack on the male here is about 50 pounds, according to the ranger Dad talked to. This was a picture on Dad's phone that was easy to upload. The good pictures are on the big camera.


This is another pretty view. This is of the Chimney Tops, the peaks on the left side.

Even though Mom and Dad were eager to get home to see us, they stopped a lot on the ride through the mountains to take in the views. It is always so pretty, especially in October.

Saturday football

We'll be hanging out with Mom and Dad watching Tennessee football Saturday. They've been very busy with Mom's play she's producing so it will be nice to just chillax with them. Hopefully the football game will be a good blowout and they can focus on getting some pictures of us so I'm not having to make any more boring posts like this one.

PhotoHunt: Beautiful (and It's Football Time in ...)

...well, Dad wants me to jump up and down and finish the title with Tennessee, because, well, it is Football Time in Tennessee, but not really until Monday night when they play UCLA, and then not really IN Tennessee because they play in California, and then it's hard for me to know it's Football Time in Tennessee since we live in South Carolina, and it WAS football time in South Carolina Thursday night, for sure. I guess all I really know is we're going to have a lot more time to sit on the couch and get excited with Mom and Dad now that football season is here (and even better yet next weekend because we'll have the Vols and the Colts on TV!). Maggie's still trying to figure out what a touchdown is, and which team to cheer for. I've told her, it's the team that's the same color as me!

Now, on to our regularly scheduled Saturday post...

The PhotoHunters theme for today is an easy one for me, because the theme is Beautiful. They say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I get to behold a lot of beauty because of my sisters. Mom said there were some "beautiful" pictures of me, too, but I insisted that since I am a Mancat that I am handsome, and not beautiful, and that those pictures will just have to wait for a "handsome" theme day (as of yet to be determined).

It was tough to pick just one "beautiful" picture of Josie and Maggie, so I went with pictures from yesterday.


Maggie can be a little stinker sometimes, chasing and wrestling and even, believe it or not, bullying, so I think that she's most beautiful when she's sleeping.


I really love this picture of Josie. Her eyes were really green yesterday.

Hope everyone's football teams win today, and that Gustav steers clear of you.

Mancat Monday

My dad and I (and my mom) have a manly Saturday tradition, we watch Tennessee football. My dad has called me "Big Orange Cat" for obvious reasons, but mainly because of The University of Tennessee. You see, my dad and mom both graduated from there and are huge UT fans. I have been a Vols fan since I was 4 months old (that was my first football season). My favorite place to watch the game is sitting on the couch with my dad. Or if the game is getting really good I hop up on the coffee table for a better view of the TV.

They said if I had been gray, my name would have been "Smokey." Personally I can't believe they would even think about naming me after a drooler. (But for a drooler, he's pretty cute.)


--Now I know there lots of people out there ready to give us a hard time about Saturday's game against Florida, don't worry about saying a word. We've heard everything. This post is about me and my dad doing manly mancat things together. We take our wins with our losses and move on. Now by no means are we happy about the loss to Florida. Did dad say a few bad words? Yes. Did mom throw a catalog across the room during the game? Yes - But as I said before we move on, and on Sunday we were very happy about Peyton Manning and the Colts win over the Titans.