The Oil $hit Storm

Ok, so this is cat blog and I don't normally rant about things. I leave that to my husband at me-first.blogspot.com.

BUT, there are exceptions....

“The storm shut down oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, representing about 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity or about 1 million barrels, further driving up gasoline prices.”

8% of the U.S. refining capacity and the WORLD's oil market is going crazy. We are going to have an increase in gas prices of at least 50 cents here. Not to mention the fact that the gas we are paying for at this very moment was refined who-knows-when and they are hiking the prices up right now in a panic.

I have received e-mails calling for the boycott of ExxonMobil (my husband mentioned on his blog last week that their income was up 38% from this time last year). So that is understandable in a way - but how can we choose just one oil company??? Aren't they all making a huge profit? Do I really need to see actual numbers to believe that??

I have received e-mails saying that we shouldn't buy gas on September 1st. I'm not sure how this would make a huge difference - maybe someone has run the numbers to conclude that this scheme will make someone important notice. What about the people like me who only buy gas once a week? Do I factor into their numbers??

Obviously, my little rant doesn't change anything. What can we do? We have to buy gas - end of story.

And to end with what I should have started this blog with. How can I (or anyone) bitch for one moment about the ever-increasing gas prices when there are thousands of people who may have lost their life, their loved ones, their pets, their house, their car, their job..........

Cat 'N a Basket

Lucky loves to burrow. I know - we are nasty people to let a cat get in our clothes basket. But, let me preface this picture by saying that - well...again - - sadly enough, we have had this basket sitting around of (previously) clean clothes and a winter blanket sitting on our dresser for quite some time. It is one of our other cats nightly sleeping spot now.

Anyway, here's a picture of the cute damn cat in a basket.

G

OK, so this is not the most flattering picture of me. I think I was about to say something when the picture was taken. But, I wanted to show the trick that G used to do. He used to let me sit him up like this and he'd sit there for a little while and kinda look at the TV with me.

Ally

I really can't say anything about this - except how damn cute I think she is.

New Blog Site

The other half of CatPeople - my husband - has created his own blog. Check it out if you are interested.

http://www.me-first.blogspot.com/

G

G - our first cat.

Actually, my grandmother bought G for me when I was 18. So, he was just my cat for a long while.

For many years, G was an outdoor cat. My mother would not allow him in the house. He finally became an indoor kitty when I moved in with Mike. And G absolutely adores Mike. That made me crazy with jealousy. (Obviously, this is not a problem anymore since we have five cats to share now.) The first time we realized just how much G loved Mike was when he came home from a trip and G walked right accross my lap to Mike's, looked up at him and gazed lovingly into his eyes. And now, G does that almost every night we're home.

Bad Behavior

What would you do if two of your cats kept being agressive toward a very shy one? I've tried spraying them with water and locking them up for a few minutes in a bathroom alone. I don't know what to do. This happens every night. At least one or the other of the cats starts bothering the "weak" one. I don't think they are actually hurting her (yet).

Fat Cats

These are our two largest cats - Tuffy and G. They weigh AT LEAST 15 lbs. each.

Big, cuddly, fluffy tubs o' love!

Ally

This is the new little kitty we got about two months ago. And, ABSOLUTELY, the last kitty we are getting for a very, very long time.

Her mother had a litter of kittens near Mike's grandma's house, but the mother cat took her kittens all around the neighborhood and somehow this one got trapped in Mike's parent's garage. Mike's dad (Harry) said that he wanted one of these kittens - so, we went went "cat hunting". We finally caught this little one in a net and I wouldn't even hold it. (I was afraid of wanting her.) So, Mike holds it. And, she really is a cute little girl. Mike looked at me: "What do you think?" I look at him and say: "What do you think?"

"What do you think?"

"What do you think?"

And, of course, it's obvious how that turned out.

One Cat Household

A picture of our li'l family when we were only a one cat household (living in the apartment).

Aggie and Tuffy

We got Aggie and Tuffy from a supervisor of mine (Ellie) at my last job. We only had one cat at the time and Ellie asked if we wanted a kitten. Of course, I wanted a kitten. We had just bought our house and were about to move in so there wasn't any of the apartment deposit hassle you normally have to go through. We talked about what colors the kitties were - she said she had an orange tabby. I told her that I've always wanted an orange tabby. That settled it.

So, I called the vet to schedule an appointment. The lady at the vet's office asked if there were any other kittens - she wanted a kitten too. So, I talked to Ellie and, yes, she had another kitten. She would bring it along too. She didn't really explain what color it was to me. (I don't think she knew what to call it.) Anyway, we were at the new house cleaning and painting, etc. and Ellie brought the new babies over. The other kitten happened to be a tortie (black w/orange specks) - I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A TORTIE! [Now, it would probably be accurate to think that I've ALWAYS wanted EVERY type of cat out there - kinda true, but - I had never owned either of these types and for whatever reason, always wanted an orange tabby and a tortie.]

Anyway, there they were and, thankfully, Mike said that he didn't think there was anyway we could separate these two. So, Aggie and Tuffy became ours.

More about Lucky

This is Lucky's little trick of jumping on top of the door. He uses a bookshelf that is next to the door to jump from. He likes to try to reach the ceiling fan cord - but never really gets close. (This picture is taken from a strange angle so the cord looks closer than it actually is.)








A picture of me and Lucky.

Lucky

Lucky was found in the middle of the road by a convenient store in Greenville, Illinois. We were returning home from my parents' house and decided to take the country roads home. He was sitting in the road meowing very loudly (crying). We stopped the car, I picked him up and brought him into the store parking lot. We decided to buy him some food there and give him some water. I asked Mike: "What are we going to do?" His first, casual response was: "There's a bush over there. He'll be safe there." I said - "At the very least, we could take him to the Humane Society." A few minutes later, Mike was petting Lucky and asking him: "Do you want to be part of our family?"

What softies we are!!

Our cats

My husband and I have five cats: G, Tuffy, Aggie, Lucky and Ally.

We didn't mean to acquire this many at once - but, obviously, we love cats.

Probably too much! :0)

(This picture was taken last year and shows 4/5 of our cats.)

Welcome

I will post pics of our cats soon!!!!