Two very happy birthdays

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! You are all too kind. Maggie and Mom both had very nice birthday celebrations. We'll be posting pictures of Maggie's birthday cake soon. On Friday night Mom had a disco party so we were sent to the master bathroom. Dad meant well and bought us some turducken flavored wet food as a treat. Well, the juice was good, but the turducken was not so much. As a new rule, Dad -- no food that's not really found in nature, OK?

On Sunday, Josie brought Mom a birthday present. Josie had been out in the garage and caught a lizard (really, a salamander or skink) and brought it into the living room for Mom. Josie set it down, then chased it again. Josie was having so much fun, too. But then Mom realized what she had. Dad just said, "Josie! Come on," and walked with Josie back to the garage, Josie with the lizard in her mouth. Dad tried to get the lizard from her, and it took him a while before she would drop it. Dad evicted us all from the garage, then went to find the lizard, but he was gone. Later, Dad found him outside, but he didn't make it. Poor lizard, but they should all have learned by now, really. The worst part, I don't think Mom really was excited about the gift. (OK, she was excited, but not how Josie thought she would be.)

Wild Sunday

We had a very wild Sunday. Earlier in the evening Mom let us in the garage. It wasn't two minutes later she glanced in the garage and called to Dad, "There's a dead lizard in the garage!" And then she shut the door with us out there. So Dad gears up with some paper towels to dispense of the dead lizard, but when he opens the door there's no lizard. "It must not have been dead," he told Mom as he stepped into the garage to investigate. Well, after my ordeal of being locked in the garage over night last week, I wasted no time busting into the house. Then Josie was right behind me. Good thing Mom was paying attention because she called for Dad, "Josie's got it in her mouth!" Josie was trying to bring the dead lizard into the house to show Mom and Dad. Well, Dad scooped her up and she put the lizard down for him in the garage. Sure enough, Josie had found a small skink and played with it until it broke. She is a very good huntress.


Here is the broken skink. You can understand why Mom didn't want this in the house. It was about four inches long minus the tail. (Dad never found the tail.)

Well, this was just the beginning of the adventures on Sunday. Later that night our friend Samantha came over to ride bikes with Mom. But Samantha was feeling guilty about not spending time with her crazy dog Louie. So Dad offered to walk Louie while they rode bikes. That was fine, I guess, if Dad wants to show some pity to a dog. But then, after the rides and walk, Mom, Dad, Samantha and Louie all went to the back deck to hang out, enjoy the nice night and talk.


I'm not sure how clear it is in this picture, but we do not approve. We disapprove like a rabbit disapproves. Josie got up against the door and whapped the door while hissing. I was very puffed up and roaming the back of the couch patrolling. Maggie was the only one who really didn't seem too concerned. I think we made it clear that dogs are not welcome on our back deck, or in our house. We were getting so agitated that Dad actually took us to the bathroom so we could calm down. When we came out later Louie was gone. Apparently he likes to be chased by cats. He thinks it's a funny game. All I have to say to Louie is this: look at that skink and consider yourself warned. (OK, he is cute, I'll give him that...)

On the hunt again/food protest

A while back we were very fortunate and won some Science Diet Hairball Formula cat food from The Creek Cats. We really liked it, and there were noticeably fewer hairballs, which Mom and Dad liked. So Dad went to the pet store to get some. Admittedly, he had a little sticker shock when he realized we were given probably $80 worth of cat food to try. But he said he loves us, and bought us a big $33 bag of cat food. But Dad thought he'd tricky and get us the Light version (apparently two or three of us could stand to lose a pound). Well, Dad -- we don't like the Light version. Seriously, he's not rushing out to get the light version of his food, and I've seen the direction of his graph on the Wii Fit... I'm just saying.

So today Mom was home not feeling 100 percent. She let us go play in the garage while she was resting. Next thing she knows there's Huggy Bear tearing through the bedroom and going into the bathroom. Right behind him is Josie and Maggie. She's seen this before, and didn't like where it was heading. When Mom looked in the bathroom, sure enough, HB had brought in another skink. He had deposited it right at our food bowl, I suspect as a sign of protest to the light food. I imagine the symbolism: see Dad, even this dead lizard won't eat this food -- no matter how good for us you say it is; or maybe, how about some lizard for dinner?

I don't know what HB is fussing about, Dad's given him ham the past two mornings while making his lunch. But me, I'm getting hungry.

Lizard adventure

We had a little lizard adventure the other day (little lizard, and little adventure). Dad was in the living room and he could hear Maggie whapping the back kitchen window. He looked to see what she saw, and there was a lizard on the screen. Then he looked closer and realized the lizard was on the wrong side of the screen, somehow trapped between the screen and the window.


Here's the "lizard under glass."


Maggie was very good about keeping an eye on things while Dad tried to decided how to handle this.


Josie did some investigating too.


It seems the lizard tried to hide in the corner but Maggie pointed it out to Dad.

Dad went out back to check and couldn't figure out how to get the lizard free from that side. One of the clips on the screen is broken, so the lizard could have climbed up and back down the wrong side, trapping himself. The other possibility is that we were playing in the garage the other day and this window was open, too. If the lizard was really sneaky he could have made it from the garage to the window, but we would have spotted him before this weekend.

Dad eventually opened the window and tried to reach up and grab the lizard, but of course he ran up and away. So then Dad unlocked the top of the window so it could lean in a little, un-did the screen and shook the lizard free.

Maggie and Josie watched the whole thing, but never had a shot at "helping" with the lizard too much. We're glad he is safe and free, but we miss our lizard tv.

Lizard watch

Dad went out to water some plants and guess what -- Dad almost touched a lizard. The lizard was right on the hose caddy, and Dad didn't even realize at first. Think about it -- he could have caught us a lizard and brought it in the house for us to play with. But it is right near the garage, so maybe the lizard will sneak under the door and come visit us in there. Let the lizard watch begin!

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.

A very tempting lizard

We stay inside, and for this lizard's sake, it's probably a good thing, too. Doesn't this guy look like he'd be fun to chase?


I mean, really, look at him. He's quick, hiding in the lilies. That just says fun. I'm afraid that Josie would destroy all the plants to get this guy. She's all hunter when the opportunity presents itself.

Outside visitors

Usually our outside visitors consist mainly of neighboring cats intruding on our deck, or maybe a sassy squirrel or two. But with Mom and Dad working in the yard so much the last three days they have seen a lot of other visitors, too.

They saw lots of lizards (or the same two lizards over and over again)...


Huggy Bear really wanted to hunt this one.


But he was really quick and a challenge to get a good picture of.


This was a tiny baby lizard.


And what we assume is the momma lizard hanging out by the catnip plant.


There was a birdy investigating the new hanging ferns on the front porch. I hope she doesn't try to build a nest in the ferns because it'll get all messed up when the plants get watered.

Then the weekend before last, there was this guy:

A rat snake was sunning against the house. Sure, he's non-venomous, essentially a large worm, and chased out of the woods behind the houses across the street by some construction, but still, it's a snake where Mom and Dad would rather not see snakes. Fortunately he wasn't back this weekend while Mom and Dad were doing so much or else this weekend wouldn't have been nearly as productive for them. On the other hand, we might have had more Mom and Dad time...

Thankful Thursday

We received two awards on Tuesday (Two for Tuesday?)

Thanks to The Island Cats for giving us the Gold Card award!

I want to pass this along to Ginger, William and Scooby, Shaggy and Scout because they've been there since the beginning.

Sweet Praline passed on the I Love Your Blog award.

I'm supposed to pass this on to seven others. (I hope I'm not overlapping anyone.) First, Gandalf and Grayson for their interactive Tuesday stories, Four Furry Cats for the Story Chair, Victor and Nina, Chase, Kaze and Latte all together, Diva Kitty and the buns, meep, Twizzler and Bear, and PB&J! I could link everyone, of course, because I love all of your blogs, but I had to pick seven.

And while we're giving thanks, how about a big "thanks a whole lot" to Dad, who told Mom about the dead lizard he found in the poop room. We have a boot mat that is supposed to be to put your muddy boots, but since Mom and Dad have no muddy boots they have it in front of the litter box to catch the kick outs. Well, we hid the "overplayed with" lizard under the mat so Mom wouldn't find it. But Dad was cleaning up and lifted the mat and there it was, looking like a used up toy. He grabbed it real quick in case it was playing possum (can a lizard really play possum ... good question for Daisy) so Dad grabbed it with a paper towel and put it in the bag with the scooped litter. "Tough guy" acted so quick that he didn't even take the time to get a picture of our big game hunting.

So the "thanks a lot" is because, now that Mom knows of a second lizard in the house, that means no garage time until it cools down some and the lizards find some other place to hang out. (We'll see how long this lasts ... I say about a week.)


Here's Huggy Bear guarding the crack that lets the lizards (and spiders and frogs) in. He's been like a gargoyle in the garage guarding the two edges of the door whenever he can get in there.


Maggie's always ready to help in the hunt, but she's giving Dad that innocent, "I'm just watching" look. Since we've been banned from the garage, now we're just staring at random corners around the house to freak Mom out until she lets us back in the garage.

Wordless Wednesday