Du na na na na na na na na BATMAN!!

OK. My chance finally arrived. I know everyone's been so excited about this. I'm guessing just about as excited as I am to probably have a friggin' colony of bats in, on, around, up on inside my flippin' house.

The bat pics aren't too house flattering. Believe it or not, we worked our asses of trying to redo this room earlier this year. A friend of mine (thanks, Aimer!) even came to help me paint. Multiple ceiling problems, wall problems, etc. prevent this room from just being painted and looking good. For some reason, some freak-of-nature-genius-type thought it'd be a great idea to wallpaper the whole ceiling and walls and then paint over it. There may be some "structural" purpose to this - but so far I haven't found it. AND despite my husband's hardwork that involved scraping all of the paper off the ceiling and starting fresh - I somehow managed to screw that up while he was out of town in my painting attempts. The paint peeled off the ceiling and now there's a lovely uneven texture up that looks like $hit. It's still an improvement from before:



(notice the lovely, bright, cornea-searing yellow and all of the ceiling scrapings on the ground)


After:





Anyway, the point of all this is - when you see this photo taken of a lovely, captive bat in our spare room (that no one will ever want to stay in) - is "IGNORE THE STATE OF MY OLD A$$, UGLY A$$ HOUSE). Just enjoy the view of the potentially rabid, diseased creature inhabiting our living space. (And as crazy and lousy as a painter that I am - I did NOT drip paint on the vent - it was already there when we moved in. I think.)



If anyone's counting (I know I certainly am) - that is TWO so far this year. Hell, this month!

He (she?) - IT may be still be trapped inside my house somewhere - but by gosh and by golly - it's been photographed. And blogged.

Kitty Haircut

Even though I I didn't get any video of my own cat shearing incident, I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago and my dad needed a haircut. My mom buzzes his hair off with a trimmer. They got out the "haircut chair" and their kitty Archie just hopped right up and got his apron on.

This is the reenactment of that. It didn't go as quickly as the first time (when I didn't even know it was going to happen and didn't have my camera ready) - but it's still priceless.

(For all cat lovers - not sure about the rest of you.)

Gnightgirl's cat story

My friend, Lori a/k/a Gnightgirl, has one cat. ONE cat. A measly amount of cats if you ask me. (You may or may not know that I have five. Yes, we're crazy - she's normal.)

Sylvia is a sweet li'l grey tabby. Why, here she is now:

Hi, Syl-bia!!! Awwww....sooo cute!

Lori has had a weeeeee bit o' trouble with Sylvia recently. Her son's friend, John, has been staying with her temporarily and I'm not sure Sylvia likes that too much. Following is an excerpt from Lori's e-mail to me a week or so ago:

John was laughing his ass off at me last night. 2 a.m...Sylvia kicked down the door, came in my room. Then began yowling. I turned lights on, and she was in an odd posture, I thought she was going to pee. So I was trying to herd her into the litter box, but she ran into Brian's room. So I grabbed her and put her in the litter box, but she jumped and barfed all over the living room floor. There I was in [only] a shirt, 2 a.m., groggy, screaming, and watching the cat puke.

It must have been funny from John's POV.


I know I laughed MY ass off! I can only imagine. Damn, wish I'd been there to YouTube it!

Free House to a Good Home

Note to our bloggerfriend, ChuckieEverDapper, who has been looking for a house - if your other house falls through: I have just the one for you. It's a nice, nearly 100 year old house, close to 2000 sq. ft., that gets an annual visit from oh, say - - one or two bats.

We awoke at 5:00 this morning...wait - I woke up hearing the familiar squeaking/screeching sound of a bat and the cats going apeshit over it. "Oh, no! Oh, no!" My husband stirred and asked what was going on...All I said then was: "Bat! Bat!" and rushed out into the hallway...

where the kitties and the bat were waiting. The kitties were extremely interested in the friggin' thing - especially Ally, our youngest kitty who may not have had the experience of stalking a bat before.

All in all - we handled this one pretty calmly. I put all the kitties in the bedroom and then realized I kinda needed to pee - so that's what I did while Mike planned his attack and suggested that I should probably shut the door. He was going to stir up the bat - he didn't like where it had landed. It's placement wasn't very conducive to trapping. I thought I was brave enough to go out and see what was going on but I really wasn't. Nah - I'd just peek through the door every once in a while and I swear the bat would then try to get in the bathroom with me. I don't think I'm a wimp - I used to catch mice "with my bare hands" in Texas but bats, for whatever reason, scrare the crap outta me.

Anyway, we get the thing trapped in a shoebox and we tape it up in there. It is at that point I realize: I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT! The blog-a-holic that I am. Reading all of my favorite blogs everyday - constantly thinking when things happen: "Oh, that would be a great blog subject." (Even if I don't get around to blogging on my sites too often.) BUT, I had promised myself if I ever had another bat in the house that I would photograph it and blog it!!!

Here's all the photographic evidence I have to present to you:





In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas that are better than paying the Animal-Creature- Capture-Guy $2,400 to batproof our house and/or "caulking all of the kumquat sized holes" in my house (exact words from the Animal Control lady that I spoke with today. Who really was a lovely person and I'm so thankful for her advice and I think we'll definitely try to heed it. I just love saying that: "caulk the kumquat")....just let us know.

Kitty Update

I'm gonna keep this one short and sweet as the story itself really is not.

We took a road trip down to gather the sick cat up and take it to the vet. We looked and looked and did not find it. We did run into one of our favorite families down there - so that was nice. And we visited with Mike's grandma for a bit. We had good talks in the car on the way there and back. I'm so glad that I'm married to someone who loves animals as much as I do.

And I can have peace knowing that we tried and that the kitty is probably in a better place...

The Other Kitty...

**This is a graphic story - don’t read if you’re squeamish.**

This past Sunday we headed down to Mike’s parents for his niece’s birthday party. Right as we arrived at his parents’ house, Mike’s dad, Harry, told me that they needed my help with a kitty. It seemed as though the “mama cat” that had been hanging around their back porch was back. Skinny as a rail and had had kittens again. Only this time, she had a kitten stuck in her who-ha. Her…you-know…

and they wanted me to remove it.

I’m not squeamish. I’ll do anything to help an animal out. I once helped one of my cats with her first litter of kittens. I don’t know how to do these things – from reading lots and lots of cat care books, I guess.

So, I am a little nervous to go out and pull a kitten from a cat’s who-ha because I’m thinking: “This cat is going to require more medical attention than I can give.” I mean, that’s for sure. REAL medical attention.

I head outside. Mike’s dad had handed me some plastic gloves. Don’t ask me why he has gloves lying around his house…in fact, I guess I can’t really answer that question…

The kitty comes to the back porch after Mike’s mom calls them to come get food. I pick the cat up, flip it over and discover that…

It’s a male cat. The protruding kitten is really it’s “sack”. It’s extremely swollen and protruding sack. It’s IS a very sick cat – but it definitely doesn’t have a kitten coming out of it.

Mike’s dad spends the rest of the afternoon telling everyone: “Donna tried to pull that cat’s balls off! She kept saying: ‘Man, this is really tight!’”

A funny story in parts, I guess. I have, actually, been seriously worrying about this kitty all the while. Hopefully, we can get this kitty some help. I’ll update you when I hear how the kitty’s doing.

A Tale of Two Kitties

This one's not too upbeat - but both kitties have been weighing on my mind.

First of all, there's my kitty, G. G is a long-haired...well, freak. It's not all his fault as he has a "mom" that doesn't brush him frequently enough. So, he develops mats that are impossible to brush out. I shave him once a year and that seems to take care of it. He looks horrible shaved (as you can tell in the pictures below). Something like an old, wrinkly, flabby elephant/tiger creature.

(close-up of the mohawk)

This Sunday I took G outside and shaved him. It started out very calmly. G's the best kitty. He puts up with all sorts of pill giving and ear cleaning and things of that kind. He also doesn't mind being shaved because it feels like being brushed to him (which he loves). All of this changes once you get down to the nitty-gritty - - the mats. Then, it's a different story. He started to get cranky and stabbed me a few times. You know how when kitties get their little claws stuck in a blanket or rug or something? Yeah - same thing. Except this was my hand.

Anyway, we've been outside for maybe 30 minutes tops and I can tell he's done. That's is. Finis. So, we go inside and G lays on the kitchen floor trying to cool off. Lucky comes up to him and I can tell that something's awry. Lucky does not know who G is anymore. This comes as quite a shock to me. Here's me and G: doo, doo, doo - we're coming back inside. I know who G is and he knows who he is and he knows the other kitties - but not one of them knows who the hell he is anymore.

Now, I know kitties aren't the smartest things in the world sometimes - but I'm always shocked to find out that their instinct doesn't prevail. They smell things right? They know "who" G is by his smell and his voice and, again, his smell if it's even his butt smell!!

No, they don't. They don't know him at all. They're scared and they scare G by hissing at him and trying to hit him. And it's turned our world upside down for a few days now. It's frustrating as hell. I'm also sad when I look at poor ol' G and can tell that he's frightened and confused.

So, he's getting a lot more attention from his humans...and that makes him feel better I'm sure.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Odd drinking habits...

No, I'm not talking about me this time.

Our kitties love water. And they have some pretty strange habits.

Here's Lucky a few days ago:



DISCLAIMER: I usually attempt to hide my water glasses. I do NOT mean to allow kitties to drink from my glass. This water was subsequently poured out and the glass has been incinerated.

Another one of our kitties, Tuffy, has an interesting way of drinking his water. It's still entertaining (to us at least) every time we see him do it. He usually soaks the whole area around him, but what I can do?

Mini Vacation Part Deux

The next day we traveled to Purina Farms .

We arrived pretty late in the day (par for the course for us). We wandered around and came across the largest bunny I have ever seen:

I loved this bunny! I couldn't believe the size of it. And, as sick as I am, I couldn't believe how much it acted just like a cat.



I also got a kick out of how much it enjoyed drinking water.



We came across some funky chickens and geese. Here's Mike noticing a strange goose.




Close-up of the goose:



Then, we ventured over to the dog area. I'm not really a dog person but, these dogs were different. First, I just noticed how cute they were:




Imagine my surprise then when I saw that the dogs are trained "professionals"!





At Purina Farms, they adopt stray dogs, train them and enter them in agility competitions.

Here is my absolute favorite, mutt, extremely lovable doggie:

One doggie was a little spastic:





Cat Whisperer in action:



We had a lovely day at the farm and I'd go back in a second. In time to catch those little doggies strut their stuff on the course!

Mini Vacation 1

For our lovely three year anniversay, we took a little mini-vacation.

We usually alternate between Chicago and St. Louis for these little trips. This year, after much hemming and hawing and thinking and planning we went ahead and decided on St. Louis. Close to MY "neck of the woods". When we go to MY town, I drive. I leave the Chicago driving to Mike. And then I lean my seat back and stare at the headliner...

Anyway, we booked our hotel on Priceline. I neglected to call back and ask for any specifics (as in, King bed, non-smoking (since I'm a non-smoker now).

After "one beer" on Thursday night before leaving (where a great time was had by all, I think) - we woke up later than anticipated on Friday morning to leave for our trip. As it turns out, that was a blessing in disguise because - for the second time in a week, St. Louis got smashed by storms. Half a million people in the area were without power. We were the lucky ones that did have power while we where in St. Louis. We arrived to find two people stuck in the parking garage elevator. We heard shouting as we were gliding down to the earth and couldn't figure it out what was going on. A disgruntled customer? A fight? Just as we stepped out the elevator we heard even more shouting: "You guys need to get that f---ing thing fixed." (Wave of hand, snap of fingers.) You give 'em hell, girl!!

I tell Mike: "We will not be riding in that elevator. Ever." Mike christened it the "death elevator".

We end up following the gentleman who had been riding in the death elevator. As we were walking, he proceeded to tell us of the goings on in Illinois that day that we somehow had missed while driving through. Whew!! Thank you! Thank you five (or was it six?) pitchers of beer!!

I assumed everyone in my family was fine (they'd call me, right?) and we headed into the hotel lobby. Holy $hit!!!! We lucked out and arrived in St. Louis the very weekend of the National PartyLite convention!!! Gaggles of ladies abound!! My husband had no idea what PartyLite was. "Is it for kids?" he asked. I explained to him that they have these great candles that liquify...Really. Does it matter? To him probably not. What matters to him is that he finds 50 women in line for his Starbucks inside his hotel.

We check in and I see a PartyLiter go storming off grumbling: "@#$%. They've overbooked this hotel...grumble...grumble" So, as I'm checking in and notice my room number - I don't say a word.


Just in case you don't believe me and think that I took a random photo of some "other" room - I took this photo, too.


Inside the room, I notice that we have double beds. No big deal really. Mike doesn't find it worth complaining about and neither do I. There are people without power!! There are PartyLiters without rooms!! We settle in and Mike goes downstairs for a smoke. I shout after him: "Take your cell phone! What if you get stuck in an elevator!?!?!?"

So, I'm lounging around reading some St. Louis attractions magazine thingy and I get a call from Hubbo. He's stuck. In an emergency exit. He saw groups of ladies trying to get on the elevator and went down the stairs. Only he couldn't get out. Finally, someone came by and opened his door from the other side. Poor guy!!

In the meantime, I'm taking photos of two of my favorite things about St. Louis:

Ahhhhh, I love St. Louis!!!

To be continued....

Ally and Me

Ally dislikes being held. Sometimes.*

You really need to hear the sound to enjoy this video:



*DISCLAIMER: I did not harm this little baby kitty at all in this video. If you see my hands moving - it is just to scratch her belly and/or her back. Other times, she is just being held...

3 years ago...

the best thing to ever happen to me happened...

And, today I got these at work:

Arc de Cattomphe

Work

Over the past few weekends, my husband and I have been working on our house. I haven't gotten too, too much accomplished and, admittedly, didn't do much Bob Vila work this past weekend - but I do have this to report:

Before

After

Mike worked on the gutters and eaves:

Before

After

He also stained the deck:


And the kitties enjoyed an open window to help get the stinky stain scent outta the house.



Only 565,000 more things to go!!

Ilaiy

Days spent at Kopi feeling at ease because you're there...
projecting a calmness

always thoughtful
and reflective

Laughing with such ease...
smiling and shining eyes
head tossed back, mouth wide open with laughter
days spent laughing

Days with Ilaiy




Ilaiy, we'll miss you more than words can say.
A bit of our sunshine goes with you to California.
That must be why it's so sunny and warm out there.

WE LOVE YOU!!
Marcy (and Mike)

Happy Birthday, Hubbo!

Cat Blogs

As if my blog obsession wasn't going strong enough, Jamie blogged about what has now become my newest hobby - webpages for pets. There are sites for both dogs and cats. Do I have to say what I did next??

I set up pages for each of my kitties, of course!!

G

Tuffy

Aggie

Lucky

Ally

Goings on at the Park

I work accross from West Side Park in Champaign. Things alwasy seem to happen here.

For instance, this morning as I get out of my car:

• I think I hear an orchestra. I think: "OK, they're getting ready for Taste of Champaign later this week....Uh, nope. It's the "homeless" guy in his "home"/car blasting classical music. Normally this time of year, he's got his hatch open and is blasting a rap concert. That's fine with me too - except for that whole noise violation thing.

• There is a man sleeping on top of a picnic table. Maybe you've seen this sort of thing before. I'm sure that I have but there's one difference this time. The man is not shirtless, sunbathing or stoned looking. He's wearing khaki pants and a button down shirt. It's 8:30 (or so) in the morning. What gives????
  

Another New Blog!

I have recently set up two other blogs:

I'm a Quitter

and the ***ALL NEW***

BlogSongs

Little Kitten Loves Dog

I stole this link from another blogger but this video really cracks me up.

Little Kitten Loves Dog

Kitten vs Frontrow (by mattcoats)


Aren't kittens cute?

Stupid...but cute.

My other Blog

I have "BIG" news...if you're interested check out my other blog.

Milestone

Last weekend we went to my ol' home sweet home for my sister's high school graduation. The time has flown (especially for me). I didn't cry at the ceremony - well, I could have while waiting for the nearly 600 names to be called out. BUT:

I am proud of her. She's moving onward and upward! Going to Rend Lake College with a full scholarship to run track and cross-country. Good luck, Mal!

And, I haven't forgotten that this blog is about kitties. Here I am with my parent's "baby" Archie. He's barely a year old and he's a biggun. But very cuddable.

A boy and his cat

*Actually, that's MY cat,
I just liked that title

Sunbathers

I love walking up to a warm, sunbathing kitty and burying my face in their fur. I give my kitties kisses. (I'm a sicko.)

And they're too groggy to reject the love.

If it doesn't have four legs...

I'll kill it...


I should stick to cats.

"April showers kill May flowers"