The treat givers...

So last Friday night Mom and Dad brought little Eliza and Elliott to the house. These are two of their godchildren and they will come and visit and stay the night every now and then. They really like to give us treats, but they need to work on their treat-giving technique.


Maggie was on the steps. She's cautious around the twins. But Elliott really wanted to give her a treat. I'm not sure if this is the best approach. But he gets an A for effort.


Josie is much braver, and will visit the kids. But even with a handful of treats in the hallway, Josie still wasn't ready to relax and eat. Elliott gathered them up (gave a few to his sister), and chased Josie into Mom and Dad's room trying to make Josie eat the treats. I think the treats eventually ended up in the food bowl.

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.

Secret Paws!

We got to open our Secret Paws package last night -- it was from Sparkle the Designer Cat! We really got fixed up good -- we got a copy of her book, some treats, mice and nip toys -- all kinds of great stuff. I'll be posting pictures soon ... we have so many great pictures of us going nuts over all the great stuff we got. But the desktop computer has been fussy lately, and sometimes doesn't want to wake up after hibernating, and sometimes doesn't want to boot up right, and we think it needs to be looked at by someone who knows more than Dad does. So the pictures didn't get uploaded last night. So instead, here are some pictures from two weekends ago when our little friends Gracie and Clara Ann visited and gave Josie and Maggie treats.


The girls walk with quick heavy feet which makes us want to run away quickly (which is why Huggy Bear and I aren't getting treats) but Josie is a little braver, and was willing to eat treats from Gracie's hands.


And wherever there are treats, there is Maggie. Once she saw that Josie was getting treats she was right there to get some from Clara Ann. The girls think it is so funny the way we eat treats straight from their hands.


It's a little blurry, but I love little Clara Ann's smile in this picture. I think all four girls in this picture were having fun.

Cat treats galore

Before I talk about Dad's big score at the store, I should mention about yesterday's Wordless Wednesday: Yes, that was a re-usable Target bag. They make great pillows, and Mom and Dad really like the Target bags that fold up and snap the best, too.

Now, last night Dad got a call from Aunt Tish telling him that the grocery store up the road was closing to move to another location and that everything was 60 percent off. Most of the people food was gone, but the cat food was still stocked pretty good. Dad went a little overboard. He bought a bunch of kitty litter and food, but then he also bought nine bags of cat treats and even got some stinky goodness. He saved $65 (which means he spent $45). We even got a new toy (but he clipped it cutting off the huge tag so Mom has to stitch it before we get to play with it).

Did I mention NINE bags of cat treats!?!

Treat challenge

Mom and Dad read over on Forever Foster about the treat triangle and thought it would be a good challenge for us and might make enjoying our treats more fun.


Dad saved toilet paper rolls and stapled them together. Then he did this awful thing ... he put the treats inside the tubes so they were hard for us to get. I had nothing to do with it. I've made it clear that treats are something I enjoy on my own, so I left it to the other three. Josie was briefly curious, then disinterested. Huggy Bear and Maggie were more intrigued. To my surprise, it was Huggy Bear with his large paws that learned to whap the treats out, or to pull them to him. Maggie kept trying to stick her little nose in there. Josie just waited for the other two to free a treat then she helped herself. It was a nice challenge and a good break from the routine morning treat. And fun to watch, too.

Special visitors

We had some special visitors Saturday night/Sunday morning. Mom and Dad's friends Lisa and Brian came for a visit to celebrate Lisa's birthday and Gracie (4) and Clara Ann (1) came along and got to spend the night. They were very good, and Dad showed Gracie our new trick of eating treats out of his hands. She liked doing this a lot, which was good for us because, even though we had to work for it some, we got lots of Whisker Lickins.


You can see here Gracie is demonstrating to Maggie how she should open her mouth to get the treat .


Gracie was very sweet with us, even though she did shoo me away from the dining room when she was helping Dad set the table. I guess she hasn't learned that I'm allowed in there because I don't beg like some other Mancat in the house does.


Josie showed off a little for Gracie. She did the circus bear pose (Mom's favorite) to get her treat. Josie is very agile.


Josie is probably the most cautious of all of us. She was very good with Clara Ann, though. She would let her get near, but not too close. Clara Ann is just mastering this whole two-legs thing, so Clara Ann would approach Josie, then Josie would give her a sniff and head off, which would lead to a whole "wobble after Josie's tail" adventure.


Josie figured out the Clara Ann couldn't quite follow the maze of under-bread-cabinet to the stools. This didn't stop Clara Ann from trying!


Even Huggy Bear got in the action of the treats. I think he was Gracie's favorite.


There was one issue, though. It seems that Gracie ended up in Mom and Dad's bed. When Dad first cleared the space and put pillows up so she wouldn't roll off, I tested the spot, but left when Gracie showed up. Huggy Bear hopped up, took one look at Gracie between Mom and Dad, and left. Josie spent a little time under the covers as close to Mom as she could get, and sheltered from Gracie's feet by Mom's arm, but she got hot and left. I think Maggie got a little jealous, because in the morning she was sleeping so close to Mom! I think she was sending a message that this was her Mom, and she'll share her with Josie, HB and me, but that's it.

It was a very nice visit, and Gracie asked when she could come visit and spend the night again, so maybe soon. If she keeps feeding us treats, she's welcome any time.