Wild Insect Kindgom at our house

We have had a crazy rainy summer and it has turned our house into a Wild Insect Kingdom.


The other night Mom and Dad were playing on the Wii (Lego Harry Potter) when they noticed this giant moth. At first Mom questioned if it was a bat, but no, it was a moth.


For the most part we ignored it, but Maggie did give it a passing glance. The thing is as big as her head!


Every year our beautiful yellow writing spider returns. He is usually in the shrubs, but this year he decided to make camp on the cafe table in the front porch. Look at that amazing web!


He really is something to behold.


Part of me wants to "play" with him, but I'm afraid it would end poorly.


Of course, this isn't an insect, but we had a lizard visitor the other day, too. He stayed away from the garage so we didn't get to hunt him.

But Josie did get to catch a roach in the house the other day. (Just reality of living in South Carolina. Rarely happens to up, but it happens.) But Dad was quick and made her give it to him before she could eat it. She did get a bunch of treats for being an excellent huntress, though.

Rest in Peace, Abby

We just learned that Abby from ManxMnews went to the Rainbow Bridge last night. She had been ill, but that really doesn't make it easier. We met Abby through Secret Paws. She was one of our first Secret Paws back in 2007. Although I don't get to make the rounds to the blogs as much as I used to, I always enjoyed keeping up with Abby when I could. She is such a beautiful cat with such a great spirit. She will be missed. Our hearts go out to her family, and to Boo, Gracie, Jinx and Ping.

Happy World Cat Day

Of course, we all know every day is world cat day, but today is World Cat Day! We're celebrating by showing a couple of Josie pictures. (Josie is so under-represented in the blog anyway.)


The other day, Josie went into the garage and preceded to spend the next few hours right here, watching the little gap in the garage door, waiting just in case something tried to creep through. She didn't catch anything, but you just never know.


This is how Josie tries to keep Dad from going to work. As he's putting his shoes on she gets all cute and goes into rub-my-tummy mode. Then she'll grab him and try to make him stay. It hasn't worked yet, but she's determined to keep trying.

Have a very happy World Cat Day! We're trying for extra treats today.

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We saw a crazy huge moth on the back door the other night. Dad has a few pictures of it he needs to upload, then I'll post them for you. Just you wait... it's nuts!

CB Calendar

We are working on our submissions to the CB Calendar. We are sneaking in at the last minute, of course. I hope it's not full already. Big thanks to Paula for getting this together.

Happy cat

If you've ever wondered what a happy cat looks like, it looks something like this:


Maggie loves her cat bed, especially since it has a blanket in it too. Win-win!

Enjoying some box time

We've had a lot of good boxes in the house lately and we've been taking full advantage of it!


Mom got new biking shoes that clip onto her pedals. I got a cool box to lean on.


We've been getting all kinds of shipments of costume pieces for the upcoming play at the theatre. Since Mom used Amazon, they come to the house. I like this box a lot!


Josie really likes it, too.


Sometimes, if you are very quiet, Huggy Bear won't see you in the box.


It took some work, but I managed to get into this box too.


There were lots of shoes bought, too, since Dad's sister got married this past weekend. When the fit is tight, it's about doing it with style.


See, almost all my floof is in!

Putting on the pink for Skeezix

Today the Cat Blogosphere is going pink in honor of Skeezix. I would change my template to pink, but I'm not confident I would ever get it back right again. So my text is pink instead. Skeezix, you are missed...

And in keeping with the pink theme we're also posting pictures of Huggy Bear's favorite pink friend -- pink mouse:


Huggy Bear loved pink mouse the most. He didn't care if people say pink is for girls -- this was HIS mouse. 


Sometimes he would share pink mouse with Josie (but you can see Huggy Bear snoopervising way in the background).


You can see how he loved all the feathers off pink mouse's tail.


Eventually pink mouse was loved a little too much... We need a new pink mouse, but Target doesn't carry it anymore and we can't find it. This makes us sad.

Sad day for the Cat Blogosphere

Skeezix went to the Bridge yesterday. His passing has brought all kinds of sadness to the Cat Blogosphere. He truly was an icon among the blogging cats with such a huge personality and presence. He leaves a large void that will be hard to fill. It's a tough reality check when our blogging buddies pass. We are purring extra hard for his family, and for all our blogging friends out there for health and happiness in whatever you are dealing with.

Happy birthday Maggie!

Happy birthday to my little sister Maggie! She turns eight today (the same day Mom turns 40). We'll be having some stinky goodness cake tonight. Mom and Dad took the day off for her birthday (or maybe for Mom's) and are giving us extra snuggle time. I'm happy to have my sister. She started life a little rocky and touch and go, but she's a force to reckon with now and always good for a wrassling match or a chase.

Negligent blogger

I have been a bad blogger. I had no idea that almost two weeks had gone by since my last post. Mom and Dad traveled to Cincinnati over Memorial Day weekend which threw off my routine a little bit. I try to blog at least once a week. I've been even worse about visiting, and I apologize for that. You are all so nice about still coming and commenting and I owe visits and comments as well.

This past weekend was an adventure. Mom and Dad were babysitting their friends' two 15-month-old twins so their friends could go to Savannah for their anniversary. There's a boy and a girl (Elliott and Eliza), and they are very sweet. Or so I'm told. I stay upstairs away from them. So does Maggie. Sometimes Huggy Bear will venture through the room they are in, looking for treats and fallen food. He managed some chicken lunch meat, so I guess it was worth the risk. And then there's Josie, who for some odd reason decided to hang out with these two. She would sit in the room, even getting near them. At one point, she even let Elliott "pet" her. (He needs to work on his petting technique.) She was very brave, and I'm mixed between being proud of her and being concerned about her judgement.


Here's Josie hanging out on the DJ cat scratcher. This turned out to be the babies' favorite toy. We ignore it more than we play with it, so at least someone is enjoying it. But Josie decided to sit on it for a little bit, just to make sure they knew who it belonged to.

Test driving the box

I love when Mom gets new shoes. She and Dad went to Cincinnati over Memorial Day weekend to visit with Dad's parents and sister (she's getting married and they had showers and such to go to). So Mom had to get new shoes for the event. Which meant new shoe box for us!


Here I am first checking out the box to see how I fit.


It seems an OK fit. (Sorry, I didn't realize this one was blurry until just now.)


I had to do a curly Q tail to get in just right.


See ... just right!

It's been a tough week

It's been a tough week in the Blogosphere with bad news about Skeezix, and Ginger Jasper struggling ... so I figured we needed to see a video of kittens to make things better.

Maggie's new spot

Well, there's still areas of the house that aren't quite put back together since the awful flood a few months back and the repairs that took longer than expected.


Maggie is benefiting from the stack of pillows on the guest bed. She likes to get way up on there and perch and sleep. Who wouldn't like to sleep on a giant stack of pillows? The guest room has become our new hangout. I sleep on a suitcase that needs to be put away (but couldn't during the repairs since it gets stored in the secret storage space we're not supposed to know about, but is off the room we were locked in during the repairs). Josie has been sleeping under the guest bed. I think Huggy Bear is the only one who hasn't migrated to this room. He still hangs out on Mom and Dad's bed.

Baby birds

Mom is not a fan of birds, but she likes these baby birds on our porch. She does get a little nervous that momma bird is going to dive bomb her is she's on the porch too long.


Here are the four babies a few days ago, on the fourth.


And here they are now, just five days later. You can really see how well their feathers are coming in. I doubt they'll be hanging out in that nest much longer.

Happy Cinco de Meow-O!

We hope all of our cat friends and their people have a very Happy Cinco de Meow-O! We don't put hats on for just anyone -- this is special just for you! Go easy on the nip as you celebrate. Those nip hangovers are no fun, and if you're going to be catnapping, let's make it because we're cats and not because we're still loopy! 

Mom time

Sometimes Mom and Dad get stressed out. Mom works for a non-profit, so you can image how it wears on her some days. I can't fix the things that stress them out, but I can do this:


And I think that's a pretty good thing to do.

An old box picture

I was looking through my pictures on Flickr looking for one of me standing on top of a door. I know there has to be one out there, but it's not in my Flickr set. But I did find this old picture of me in a box from December 2010, and I liked it so much I decided to repost it.


I think I need to go find another box.

11th birthday stinky goodness cake

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It makes my day so special and enjoyable. I am so blessed to have such great friends in my life.

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It was a few days late, but we finally got to enjoy my stinky goodness cake!


The cake was very yummy, and, as usual, in the shape of the birthday. The 11 was easy for Dad to make. I was pretty quick to help myself t the cake, so the 11 got messed up pretty quickly.


I was enjoying the stinky goodness so much that Dad didn't even make me share. He opened a second can of food for the others.


Huggy Bear and Maggie are nice enough to eat next to each other.


Josie wasn't too far away, but it's best to give her a little space so she can enjoy the food without Maggie stressing her out.

Happy birthday to me!

Today is my 11th birthday! I really can't believe I am 11. That means I will get some yummy stinky goodness cake tonight. It has been a wonderful 11 years. I have had great adventures over the years, and was lucky to get to share most of them with you. Stay tuned for cake pics...

It's not ALL Dad's fault...

...but I'd say it is easily 90 percent Dad's fault.

As you know, Mom and Dad have been having to deal with some renovation issues in the house following the upstairs water pipe breaking. The master bathroom is almost done, thankfully. The new tile is in and looks good. Mom and Dad bought a new toilet, so they decided to paint the part of the wall they couldn't get to because of the old toilet. Dad did a good job painting, and didn't get any paint on the floor.

BUT, he left the paint lid on the bathroom counter right beside our water bowl. And Josie hopped up to get some water and got paint all over her side and one back paw. Fortunately Dad realized before she got down and tracked paint everywhere. She was such a trooper while Dad held her and Mom bathed off the paint. She's all cleaned up and OK, but it was no fun at all.

We're locked in the garage today (a new sequester since we started tearing up the carpet in the room we were in trying to get out). But today should be our final lock-out day. Please keep your paws crossed that this ordeal will end today and we will get our house put back together. It's about to drive Mom crazy (Dad's already crazy).