My mom -- officially a "crazy cat lady"

So Mom knows a news anchor who does the more casual news broadcast -- Friends at Five. Mom had shared a collage of all four of us yesterday as part of National Cat Day, and the news was showing different cat pictures during the piece. Even though our picture wasn't shown, Mom's friend Darci called her by name and referred to her as a Crazy Cat Lady. So it's official -- the news lady said it. But she also said it was a compliment -- "She's crazy, she has cats, and she's a lady."

Happy National Cat Day

It's National Cat Day and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the day than us hanging out in boxes. Josie likes this box downstairs. I have one in Mom and Dad's room that is a perfect fit for me. Mom said something silly recently about getting rid of it, which we all know is crazy talk. Once you find a perfect box you need to hang on to it. Have a happy National Cat Day!

Happy 10 Year Blogoversary to Me!

10 Years! 10 Years! My 10 year blogoversary was on October 25!

I can't believe it has been 10 years since I started blogging. I felt like such a big cat at the time, and now looking back I was just a little kitten, really. I enjoy looking back at those early posts and seeing what was happening back then -- Josie and Huggy Bear joining the family as rescue kittens, meeting my first few other blogging cats (this was pre Cat Blogosphere, so it was much more difficult back then). I still remember some of my first visitors were Max, and Ginger, and Timothy Dickens, and Scooby, Shaggy & Scout's Mom even before they had a blog (or Scout, for that matter). It seems I have to try a little harder to blog and visit than I used to. Mom and Dad stay very busy doing Very Important Things (like work), but even though I don't blog as much as I used to I don't have any plans of going anywhere soon. It may only be a weekly post, but I'm going to keep posting.


Speaking of doing Very Important Things -- here is a picture of me doing a very important job. The godchildren Elliott and Eliza were visiting, and they were locked in their rooms sleeping, and I was guarding the doors, just in case. They are good little 2 1/2-year-olds, who we tolerate pretty well, mostly because they are very good at giving treats.

Thanks for all the visits throughout the years. I look forward to many more years of blogging. Here are some interesting stats... I keep my old stat tracker on the blog even though it is technically out of date because it still counts my visits.

Over the last 3645 days, I have had 99208 visitors, my highest day was 136 visits on 10-8-08, and most of my visits are on Wednesday. I'll have to watch to see when I hit visit number 100000.

One mad cat

Mom and Dad are on the road heading up to watch Tennessee play Alabama (Go Vols!) and they just passed this car with a cat in the back window giving everybody heck. I'm a Big Orange Cat and I love my college football but I'll pass on the trip to Knoxville, thank you very much. That cat is better than me. I would have shedded all my fur by this point of the trip.

It's been a busy week for Mom and Dad. Last weekend they biked 100 miles for the Bike MS fundraiser (50 miles a day). We had two days to hang out with them before they hit the road again. Once they get back I think we will have to pin them down for a while.

Rocky's "adventure"

Our Aunt Tiff had a little scare last night. She had workers in the house and she thought she had wrangled all the cats (she has four now). Rocky likes to hide in the kitchen cabinet and can get behind the dishwasher, and Aunt Tiff figured that was where he was. Well one of the workers left a window cracked, and when Aunt Tiff couldn't find Rocky she figured he wasn't where she thought he was and that he had slipped out of the window.

Mom and Dad went over around 11:30 pm and hunted around the house inside and out trying to find that boy. He is rather skittish, very fast, and an excellent hider. Mom thought she saw him in a neighbor's fenced-in backyard, and they looked as close as they were comfortable at midnight (after all, they didn't want to get shot).

Eventually they all decided to call it a night, left an outside utility closet door open with some food in it so Rocky could get shelter and safety and Aunt Tiff was going to hit the streets today. Dad was thinking that Rocky may still be in the house because the window Rocky would have made it out of was about seven or eight feet up and the pine straw under the window wasn't disturbed (Dad's no Aragorn, but he figured an inside cat would have kicked up some dirt jumping and running off).

Well, at 4 am Aunt Tiff was awoken by Rocky meowing from inside the closed up guest room. Somehow he had slipped in there and found a place to hide. Now this room is pretty empty, so Rocky must be a Very Good Hider to have stayed away from Aunt Tiff and Dad when they searched the room. He was probably very unhappy with strangers in the house and decided he needed some alone time, and a little excited to be in a new room.

Thankfully he is all safe and with him Mom, sisters, and brother.

Happy belated birthday to Josie and Huggy Bear

Josie and Huggy Bear turned 10 on September 15 and it was such a crazy busy week at our house that I somehow missed posting about it. It's not a lack of love for my siblings but more of Mom and Dad leaving the computer off so I couldn't post. They will get a proper post later but I wanted to get this up. I just can't believe it has been 10 years since they showed up outside our apartment and stole Mom and Dad's heart.

Meow Like a Pirate!

This picture is an oldie but a fun one...


Here's Maggie ready for Meow Like a Pirate Day from 2008. She is the pirate cat in the family. Since she has just the one eye people are always suggesting that Mom and Dad get her an eye patch. I'm not sure how well that would go over.

So to celebrate Meow Like a Pirate I suggest waiting until really late at night to do the meowing. I think that's what a real pirate cat would do.

One of those days

Mom and Dad are both having one of those days where they probably should just go back home and not be around people and just pet cats all day. We're all OK with that, except that they both have "very important things to do" today.


So I'm posting this picture of Maggie sitting on a stool in the middle of the kitchen to help remind Mom and Dad that we are here, looking cute, and ready to de-stress them whenever they get a chance to escape the real world and come back home.

Doody Calls

Dad was behind this truck today. If you can't see it real well, it says Got Poop? We Scoop! It's a business named Doody Calls, mobile pet waste removal starting at $15 a week. I know scooping poop for four cats quite literally stinks, but I'm not sure they will be coming to our house. We don't make THAT much poop. I'd be a little embarrassed if we needed a service like this.

New favorite zoo exhibit

Mom and Dad went to the zoo this weekend. Mom doesn't like birds but Dad loves the exhibit where you can feed the birds. Looks pretty tasty, I mean fun, to me.

Veggies to eat

Maggie likes to chew on celery when Mom is cooking but Mom was worried that celery might be bad for us so we did a little searching. Dad found this interesting article, that says celery is ok: http://catsnco.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/which-vegetables-to-feed-and-not-to-feed/

We aren't going vegetarian, but I'm glad to know I can chew on some celery leaves.

Black Cat Appreciation Day

Today is Black Cat Appreciation Day. I know I am appreciated every day, but I expect a little extra love from Mom and Dad tonight. Black cats are pretty awesome and deserve appreciation.

Watching TV with Mom and Dad

Every now and then Mom and Dad will break their routine and hang out in a different room. They got on a kick of watching Motive and were catching up on old episodes in the bonus room, which was great because that room has one of my favorite couches to hang out on.


Here I am on the back of the couch. I kind of blend in to this couch, so I can disappear and just chill out. It is a super comfortable old leather couch, and definitely one of my favorites. This room is also where the laundry is, so it's cool when I get to lay on sorted piles of clothes. (This is also probably why Mom and Dad don't use this room as much -- they feel they should be doing laundry if they are back there. But it has the best AC in the house, too.)

(Also, I can't believe it's been 11 days since my last post. I know I get out of the routine some, but I didn't mean for it to be this long...)

Mom and Dad's vacation

Mom and Dad took a little beach vacation last Thursday to Monday. They went down to Fripp Island, SC with a few friends. The island is really pretty and is also a nature preserve, so there are a bunch of vishus deer (and alligators too). Mom and Dad saw a bunch of deer, but only one young alligator, but they didn't get a picture of him.


Mom and Dad both noticed this little cluster of trees as they drove in. This isn't the best angle to get the look, especially from a moving car, but Mom and Dad both thought these trees looked like a cat. They wanted to try to get a better picture, but there never was a good opportunity.


This is Aunt Tiff feeding one of the vishus deer by hand. She was very brave. This deer also helped himself to some of the carrots in the bag.


The deer are everywhere at Fripp Island (well, except on the beach). Mom and Dad enjoyed seeing them and said they were very pretty, but I'm still keeping my distance, just in case.

Cheating on us...

Mom had a visitor at work yesterday... a little kitten named Ruby.


Look at Mom here, cheating on us with little Ruby, their friend Samantha's new kitten.


Ruby got to play on Mom's desk. We've never even been to Mom's office (of course, that would involve the car, and we don't want anything to do with that, but still...)


The window frame is very big, but Ruby is also very tiny. She liked this spot. I'm sure I would fit perfectly there (if not for the whole getting in the car thing...).


Well she is pretty cute though. I guess I'm OK with her visiting Mom, but only at work. I'm not too sure about her visiting us at the house.

That's about all she can take

Some days you just can't go any longer and you just need to find your favorite cat bed and sleep.


Here's Maggie in her favorite bed. (I would have sworn this was bought for me to replace a really ragged box that I had to give up -- but now it's pretty much Maggie's). You can see she's covering her eyes from the light so she can sleep a little longer. It's not easy being a little sister some days.

Belated Stinky Goodness Cat

Well, it took them long enough, but Maggie finally got her Stinky Goodness Birthday Cake!


Maggie turned nine back on June 17, but it was almost exactly a month later before she got her cake. Maggie got her taste first, but then she shared with the rest of us. We don't do a lot of wet food, so we usually just have a few licks, then come back later for a nibble. But either way, it was good.

Also, our wall climbing shelves arrived the other day. We still need to order brackets and figure out where they need to go, but at least the shelves are here, and that is very exciting!

We are winners!

Yes, you heard that right -- we are winners! Well, we're always winners because we're cats, but we're extra winners today because we got a confirmation e-mail telling us we were one of the lucky 500 who won a four-pack of wall climbing shelves from Contempocat in the Hauspanther "Cats Climbing High Challenge" yesterday. Mom and Dad will still need to order some shelf brackets, but the shelves themselves are on the way! Now we need to scout out a good place for our shelves. Special thanks to The Island Cats and Chey for putting the link up.

Finally July...

June was just a stupid crazy month for Mom and Dad. They just realized last night that Maggie never even got her birthday cake, so that's happening this weekend. They do have a good excuse, with Mom's work having to move before the wrecking ball shows up. Mom has worked pretty much every day for three months.


Sometimes we just have to pin Mom down and force her to stop moving. Huggy Bear and I are very good at making Mom stay in bed. It really is a team effort.

Mom's move continues

Mom and Dad have been working like crazy to get Mom's theatre all packed up and moved into the warehouse, and for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to have a show this weekend, too (at a different location). So most of the heavy lifting of the move is done and now Mom and Dad are helping with tech week to get The Little Mermaid up and going (this weekend only, thankfully). But what all this means is that Mom and Dad get home around midnight, crash about 10 minutes into a TV show, then are out and going again the next day to work and work again. We are looking forward to a calmer July, and hopefully visiting more cat blogs again.