Intro

We decided to bring Tommy in last night. We sometimes don't have the brightest of ideas. I know the proper way to introduce cats. You put the new cat in a separate room. Sometimes for days. Let the cats smell through the door. Eat on the opposite sides of the door. You get the picture.

Of course, last night we just let him walk right through the door.

Ol' G was unconcerned. (I say "Ol' G" because my vet always asks me: "How's Ol' G doin'?" That's what he asked me the last time I brought in a new cat - basically, "Do you know what you're doing to your old, nervous cat????") Well, as I said, G couldn't have cared less. Lucky - our easygoing, everfriendly, never-scared kitty was...well, I heard sounds coming from him that I'd never heard before. I've heard growling from some of my other cats (usually when they are growling at Lucky). We have five cats. Never has an introduction gone so strangely. Lucky growled for probably the first time in his life. And never stopped as long as Tommy was in his sight.


Aggie (our most frequent growler - she's very shy) made a new noise I'd never heard: "OoooOooOOOoooooo" and puffed herself up. I'm surprised she was even brave enough to be in the room. Tuffy (our 20 lb. cat) hid under the bed - skeered. Little Ally just peeked around the corner occasionally.

Tommy wasn't the least bit aggressive. Until he felt cornered. Lucky and G usually follow us around the house. Tommy was trying to. Lucky blocked Tommy's path toward us. G came up behind him to try to follow and I could see Tommy looking for a way out. He didn't find one - so he swiped at G.

I'm not sure that Tommy is happy as an inside cat. He likes us. He likes to be held. But, I was trying to let him explore the house and all he wanted to do was yell at the back door to go outside. I mean, he really wanted out. We were outside for a few moments and he climbed the door and hung from the window in the door. Like a li'l kitty chin-up. He is a ster-rong cat. We finally let him walk outside and he followed Mike to the garage. He spent the night out there. It's a stressful time introducing a new cat. You'd like it go smoothly. You'd like them to get along. You'd like to have your life back to normal. And your cats' lives. I feel for them the most. They're truly frightened. Their lives are completely disrupted. They can't understand what's happening. Mike tried to explain it to Lucky:

"This kitty needs a home. Like you did. Remember?"

We'll try it again later. Maybe taking it slower this time.

Kitties, kitties, kitties, kitties, kitties

Uh, more pics of my kitties. I'm trying to be a good-photo-taker-of-er.

CATsNAP

Champaign Area Trap Spay/Neuter and Adoption Program. www.catsnap.org

This is a FABULOUS organization. I cannot say enough about them. They currently have my stray kitty. Well, the volunteer vet at the animal control facility has him. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him after I pick him up today. (We will, at the very least, be his foster home.)

Anyway, back to this wonderful organization - CATsNAP. They are a no kill shelter in the Champaign-Urbana area. If you have a stray kitty and you are strapped for cash, they will spay/neuter and vaccinate the cat for free and/or would appreciate a small donation to their cause.

I, for one, believe in their cause. I got choked up while talking to their generous vet, Gretchen Reed (sp?) out of LeRoy. I thanked her for her time and generousity. (Well, I tried too.) I told her that I have five cats and I just don't know how I could adopt another one. She has eight kitties and provides a foster home for others. What an amazing woman - the type of woman I can aspire to be.

Lost Kitty

Please. Someone. Take this kitty.



He is extremely friendly. And cute.

I have 5 cats. I'm a crazy cat woman. I cannot have another animal. If I could, I would pick this cat.

If anyone knows anyone with a loving home for this kitty - - please let me know.

My friend gnightgirl has taken some beautiful shots with the kitty. Check out her blog for the cutest photos of Tommy a/k/a TomKat.

Burger King

I’m sure everyone – at one time or another – has gotten a call in the middle of the night. Usually, your heart jumps into your throat (and then out of your body) as you scramble for the phone thinking the worst possible things could be happening…

But, this time it’s only:
















Yes, Burger King. Not – THE KING – I’m sure. And this was happening to us way before the King came out. It’s some sort of FAX or DATA TRANSMISSION or some other blasted thing. They’ve called at some of the strangest times too. As I said, it’s usually in the middle of the night when we’re dead asleep. Though they did call once around 3:00 a.m. when we happened to be up trying to catch a bat inside our house. [A story for another blog(s) someday.]

Anyway, this last time happened to be after I’d stayed up watching the Oscars. I got to bed later than usual. I had finally almost fallen to sleep and the phone rings. Who is it???????

Of course, it’s friggin’ Burger King!!!!! I hadn’t gotten a call from them in a few months. I pick up the phone and hang up on them. BK calls back and I let them leave a message.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Blip!!

I pick up the phone and hang up on the message. Who knows how long it could go on??? Plus, I have the cats in bed with me and I don’t want them to leave ‘cause of the loud, annoying message.

Whew! This is a long blog for me.

OK, I have previously called my phone company AND Burger King customer service. BK claims that they don’t recognize this number. Well, I called my phone company again yesterday and here’s their advice:

“Dial: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and then hang up.”

ME: “Ooooo-kay. What if that doesn’t work?”

THEM: “Just a second….clickety-clackety-click-click-clack...”

“My coworker says that she usually tells people to dial 2 seven times.”

Now, she did try to locate the number to no avail and then asked me if I had tried a reverse look-up.

Yeah. Duh. I have. I haven’t found it.

We’ll see what happens if those b@$%@&$ call back.

(That’s Lucky helping me arrange the phone for the picture.)

Cat Photos

Surprise!! I'm posting....cat photos - what else?!?! I'm still trying figure this camera out. Some of the pics were too dark and I tried to brighten them with the camera's software and then they just look fuzzy and ugly, but I'll post them anyway. I'll get this pitcher-takin' deally down someday.

Here are the cats - from the top o' the stairs to the bottom. Sometimes - when they feel like it - where I hang out is where they hang out.

Attempt at photography

OK, so I do love my new camera. And I haven't been taking too many photos lately. AND I just recently figured out how to turn the flash off. Really. That's mostly because I'm too impatient and/or lazy to read the instructions.

Obviously, I still haven't mastered the flash/lighting thing. But I like the angle of this picture. And these stairs are my new project. I'm refinishing them. Started that last night at 7:45 or so on a Sunday - perfect timing for a big project.

What does...

a month's supply - - or 200 lbs. - - or about $24.00 worth of litter look like?

how about this?

or this?

Simple minds are amused easily.

(and by that, I mean mine.)

Kitty treat?

Lucky - our diabetic kitty. He doesn't get many treats. When we first got him I noticed he was sickly. We kept giving him antibiotics for - well, let's just say a li'l problem he was having. When you take excessive amounts of antibiotics - it's recommended to eat some bacteria to replace the "good bacteria" that gets annihilated by the antibiotics. Lucky developed quite a taste for yogurt.

Mike sat down last night to eat a little yogurt snack. He couldn't figure out why Lucky went so crazy. I think that Lucky remembers his yogurt days. Before the tests came back to show that he was diabetic. I still can't be certain that it wasn't my fault - that I didn't elevate his blood sugar level by feeding him tons o' yogurt. But, we treat him as a diabetic kitty and feed him special food and he acts like he feels better.

Lucky - cleaning up the remnants of a snack...

Rat a tat Cat

I don't quite have this food thing worked out yet and it's not from lack of trying. First of all, we have five cats. We feed them three types of food. Ol' G gets ol' man/kidney trouble cat food. Lucky gets diabetic food. Ally was just recently put on the fast track to adulthood and is eating fat-cat food.

Where do we store all of this cat food? Well, our downstairs stand-up shower serves as a good place to keep the 20 lb. bags of food out of reach. See, kitties are hunters, scavengers and -- really -- a lot like rats. They claw and scratch their way to any food they can find. Case in point: this picture. This cabinet has a childproof lock on it - it's where I keep the bins of fat-cat food. We hear this door banging at all hours of the night. Sometimes they manage to get a paw in there and knock the food over. But, damn they sure are cute...

This is what happens...

when you leave the room for a few minutes. These photos were taken the other night at our New Year's Eve party. **

Kitties gotta have some fun too, I guess!


**Kitty-eaten food was promptly disposed of!!!**

Ringin' in the Year

We were extremely excited to have a party for New Year's Eve. We cleaned our @$$es off and Mike cooked up a storm and I was ready to get saucy.

We were also able to surprise our dear friend Gnightgirl with a li'l birthday cake and gifts that I think she enjoyed.

I had a wonderful time and I hope every new year can start this way.

Eating Habits

Some might find this disgusting. Others may find it funny. But, seriously - - please don't believe we would actually feed a cat from our table.

OK, we might do that. But, we would never feed the cats directly from our own forks...

At least we haven't yet.

Family

I can't seem to get over the fact that Christmas is over and we're facing a loooooong winter. But, looking on the bright side, I've got my own li'l family and a lot of great friends (just like family) who will help me get threw it...

Anyway, I got a kick out spending time back home with the family (wish I was still there) and I thought I'd post some various pics...


Dad was our guinea pig - here he is in the new sweatbands my sister got him:


And a stocking cap - I liked his placement of the hat:


Mother - cooking us dinner before we left:


My sister and her cats:


And - finally, their cats:

Kitty Christmas

We had a great Christmas weekend. Got to see everyone's families and really enjoyed ourselves. The only problem is it goes by so fast.

Here are some pics of our kitties' little Christmas before we left for the weekend.

More new camera pictures....

Did I mention I love my new camera??


Ally...




Lucky destroying some pesky shoe box fluff for us....





Tuffy on the fridge....





G posing for the camera...




Aggie in a rare, brief appearance...

Christmas Kitties

I bought an early Christmas/no-reason-at-all gift for us - a new digital camera! I was so excited I took a million zillion pictures last night. And the kitties helped us wrap our gifts. I still haven't perfected the red eye stuff yet. Right now I'm getting some very glowy eye shots. Not red - just glowy.