On the Road

Hi All,

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are heading off on the road this weekend to get Ash.  His room is all ready for him, complete with new cat bed that Casper has already given the "ok". 

look closely to see Casper

I have his food and bowls, a new litter box and lots of nice toys.  He will have to stay separated from the gang for about a week before I start the introductions to the boys, and I'm hoping he will settle in after the long journey and relax for the duration ("yah right mum, he's a kitten remember...sheesh" ~ Ben). 

Chrystal, Amy and I will all be posting on Monday about Saturday's activities, so please pop by for a visit and read all about The Dash For Ash! (thanks for the great name Jan).

Wordless Wednesday

(biggify)

Tuxie Tuesday

Hi folks, my Mum says that I am "Total Tuxie Goodness", so here are a few pictures of my tuxieness for your viewing pleasure :-)

tuxie tummy

tuxie-tude

tuxie tongue

tuxie toes

Happy Tock'tober

I didn't get pictures posted last week in time for Derby's birthday, but I figured it's still October so I've made it in under the wire :-)  Here are the boys in all their Tocks glory and a special cameo from Molly.

Ben

Casper

Archie

Molls

Something Unexpected

Yesterday I received a letter from the University of Guelph. This University located about an hour west of Toronto has world renowned Agriculture and Veterinary programs. It houses the Ontario Veterinary College, a teaching hospital which offers medical care to large and small animals while training future veterinarians. I figured I had gotten onto some animal mailing list and this was a solicitation for fundraising. I was wrong.

The letter, from the Associate Dean, was a letter of condolences from the University on the loss of my “beloved pet Molly” and to tell me that the animal hospital where I take my cats had made a monetary donation to the Ontario Veterinary College in her memory. I cried at the kindness of this gesture and that my vet, who both Robert and I already admired, would do this.

There are several doctors at the animal hospital we go to, but I like Dr. D. the best. He has three cats and three dogs himself and his genuine love of animals shows through in his care. He is always behind schedule because he never rushes anybody and no question or concern is too silly for his patient and measured answer. So nobody minds waiting for him. He is the doctor who helped Molly to the bridge, one month ago today, with compassion and professionalism.

A cynic may say I’ll be contacted at a later date for a financial contribution to the University or its just good PR for the animal hospital, neither of those things matter. What does matter is that one man thought the passing of one cat was important enough to one person that he did something beautiful about it.

Lovely Molly

Ash's Update

Hi All,

Some of you may or may not know that Ash had his neuter yesterday.  Our little man was very brave and came through with flying colours.  Chrystal said that in the evening when he was supposed to be resting, he was wanting to run around the house and play so she had to sequester him in her downstairs bathroom.  He cried and cried in the bathroom to come out and be with the family and all their cats and dogs.  I think this bodes well for his integration here that he is such a social boy!

Another great thing you may not know about is that our friend Amy from House of Cats has offered to help with Ash's transportation!  At first I thought Robert and I would go all the way to Chrystal's (1376 km or 855 miles) but that is a lot of driving to cram into one weekend, so I asked for some help.  Chrystal put the word out and three wonderful people stepped forward and offered to assist; Amy from House of Cats, Lee County Clowder and Meezer Tails.  Chrystal discovered that Lee County Clowder was too far away from the route that had been established so she was coordinating with Amy when Meezer Tails contacted her and offered to help.  Since Amy was already on the job, Meezer Tails volunteered to drive for the next adoption....

Which brings me to a serious topic.  Chrystal has just found six more feral kittens in addition to the five cats already in residence at her cathouse...she is full to bursting!!!  Ash will be coming to me, but Possom, Blossom, Alice and Sparkles still need to find forever homes.  They are all beautiful and social kitties, can anyone out there find room in their homes and hearts to adopt one of these deserving cats?  If so please contact Chrystal right away: c3k@lazernetwireless.net  :-)

So the plan for Ash is he will recover at Chrystal's house until October 30th which is transport day.  Now we need a name for our big adventure like Operation Ash only better lol!  If anyone can come up with some neat ideas please leave them in the comments.  Chrystal, Amy and I will all be blogging about our individual legs of the journey so I hope you will spread the word and tune in for the fun!

Wonderful Wednesday - Family Portrait

Look at this fabulousness!  This is a portrait from the whimsical brush of the talented Susan Faye which arrived at my house yesterday; matted and ready for framing.  I contacted Susan at the beginning of September when she had just returned from a summer hiatus from custom portraits.  Unfortunately between the time I sent her pictures of me and my cats and the time the portrait was completed, Molly went to the bridge.  When Susan read about that on my blog, she contacted me and graciously offered to make any changes (to the already finished painting) that I wanted.  I had seen in her gallery several pictures which had kitties with angel wings that looked quite lovely, but I ultimately decided this picture would be a representation of what my family looked like at the time I commissioned it.  What did it matter really if there was one change in the members... little did I know at that time Ash would be coming to live with us too - LOL!


close-up view

Susan has done many wonderful portraits that you can see on her blog 365 Cat Ladies and most recently on Wendy's 3D blog who was given a portrait of Dante, Dylan and Domino for her birthday.  I just LOVE my portrait, it incorporates all my favourite colours (you can specify what you like) and I think my stylized kitties look happy and beautiful!  If you get a chance, please visit Susan and tell her you think so too :-)

Tuxie Tuesday Spooktacular

Count Catula

Hi Everyone, this is my entry for Hansel's Halloween Spooktacular Contest.  I am in the "Accidentally Looking Scary at Halloween" Category.  Casper and Archie are still trying to figure out their costumes but Mum says she doesn't have a hope of attaching anything to my head or body so this is the best picture she can submit.  I think she knows me pretty well...heh, heh, heh!

Sunday Miscellany

Hi All, I have a few items of business to take care of today:

On Friday a package from Sparkle arrived.  I won the Furminator giveaway that was offered during her book launch, I also received a fun-fact bookmark and autographed book plate with  pawprint.  It looks great in the front of her book!

Goodies from Sparkle :-)

A little while ago I bought this beautiful necklace from Cats of the Wildcat Woods Vintage Treasures site.  This blog has gently used, hand made and vintage jewelry, clothing, books, and home decor for sale and all proceeds go to care for the rescued feral cats of Wildcat Woods.

Great jewelery for a great cause

Finally, Casper helped me to pack up the Paw it Forward boxes.  Then acting as postmaster, he gave them his final seal of approval before they were mailed out yesterday.

Casper does the packing-up

then inspects the boxes

Friendly Friday

Pet Blogs United is hosting Friendly Friday and they have asked us to write about one of our favourite cat friends.  Well Ben says that would have to be his darling Clemmie from Life From a Cats Perspective.  On September 14th Ben asked Clemmie to be his special girlfriend and she said yes.  It was the happiest day in his young life.  Clemmie's mum made this beautiful graphic of the two young romantics and we display it proudly on our sidebar.  Ben feels that with all this talk and blog space taken up with his new baby brother Ash that he might have been neglecting Clemmie a little but he wants her to know she is in his heart every day!

love cats :-)

Btw, a few of you have mentioned our new Halloween banner...pretty scary huh?  Well on KC's blog this past Tuesday she had lots of neat info and links for Halloween templates etc. and that is where we found it.  Thanks so much KC!

Molly has been hatted!

Sammy and Andy from Sammy and Andy's Place and their wonderful mum Judi have done a posthumous hatting of my Molly.  They contacted me a little while ago and said they had Molly on their schedule but then she left for the bridge and would I mind if they still hatted her. Well of course I was delighted!

Here is Miss Molly in all her peach glory looking quite saucy I think :-)

Thank you so much Sammy, Andy and Judi you really have no idea how much this means to me!

Homeward Bound

Look what fantastic Ann from Zoolatry made for Chrystal and me...Ash's very own Homeward Bound graphic!  Isn't she wonderful :-)

See my darling boy with his little kitty bags packed, what a cutie pie!  Ash is almost ready for the big trip, just his neuter (next Wednesday) to get through and then he is ON THE ROAD!!!

Ash: What's in a name?

Shakespeare said “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, meaning that it matters not what something is called, but what something is!  I know that Ash is the important something here but if it is okay with Chrystal, I have been thinking about maybe changing ye olde kitty moniker (she said no problem).

With the exception of Benjamin who was named in a hurry to ward off bad omens (I know I'm pathetic), it is my practice to see a kitty’s personality emerge and then choose a name accordingly. I particularly like to give my kitties nerdy human names.  I have three names in mind for Ash and I can’t wait to see if any of them fit his personality. 

In no particular order:

1. Tavish – I like this name for a couple of reasons. It is a Scottish name ( I was born in Scotland) which means “twin”. As some of you may know I had a very special kitty named Max who died; Max was an all-gray like Ash. Also, it contains the letters a, s, h, which of course spell out the original name.  I also liked Hamish, but then I found out it means "the supplanter" and I didn't think that sounded like a good thing.

2. Phoenix – I like this name because in the legend the Phoenix rises from the ashes and is reborn. Well first off there is the word ash again. But metaphorically speaking like the phoenix rises form the ashes, so hope rises from despair.  The despair we felt from Winnie’s death and Molly's death resulted in hope for this little guy to have a better life.  Also Phoenix is a U.S. city and therefore the name pays homage to his American roots

3. Lloyd – simply means gray and is nerdy :-)

Please feel free to cast a vote for your favourite name or help me by offering any suggestions of your own.  Remeber folks, these are just ideas and nothing will be decided until we spend some time together and Ash has had a chance to settle into his new home.

BIG NEWS!!!!

Hi All,

I have some wonderful news to share with you...I'm expecting a new addition to our family.  This is Ash, he is one of the Winnie's Wish kitties and he needed a home.  I have a little extra room at my house since Molly went to the Bridge and I thought Ash might like to come and live with my gang.  Molly came from very humble beginnings and I think she would approve of Ash who had a similar start in life

Ash is scheduled for neutering on October 20th and after he has had a little time to recover he will make the 1376 km journey (855 miles) to my house.  Please stay tuned to my blog and Chrystal's blog Daily Dose of Dogs and Cats to follow Ash's adventure to becoming one of Cat's Cats!

There are more lovely kitties at Chrystal's private shelter that need homes.  Perhaps you don't have the time or inclination for a long road trip just to collect a cat (I'm lucky that my Robert is always up for an escapade).  No problem! lots of generous folks from the CB have offered to help out with transporting the kitties, so final destination is not an issue.  I know sometimes it is overwhelming to think of the big picture "oh my gosh there are so many cats out there that need homes, I couldn't possible make a difference",  but you can!  I  just tried to focus on helping one cat and one friend and it was easy that way :-)

Mancat Monday

So here are my lazy mancats on the bed that they never leave these days.  I can't make the bed because I don't want to disturb them.

snoozing mancats...the coast is clear

I did some shopping for Paw it Forward yesterday so I figured with the boys sleeping it would be perfect time to do a little organizing.

Don't look too closely if you are playing!

After I began laying things out on the dining room table I heard a thump from upstairs and young Master Archie made an appearance.  He looked so pathetic sniffing the empty shopping bag that I had to give him a little something...I had a spare mouse :-)

sad Archie needs something this second to play with

A few moments later another thud from upstairs and Sir Benjamin appears "but mum we don't have any toys to play with" he said with an equally pathetic look on his face.

sadder Ben has such a hard toyless life

After he came downstairs and joined me on the dining room table I had to quickly pack up my work and stash it all in the closet for safe keeping.

Hide the loot

Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow.  At least I now know what I have still to buy, so something was accomplished after all!

Ben lied

and by the way, just in case you were inclined to believe Ben's nonsense, here is just one of the toy baskets we have around the house!

and the players are...

UPDATE:  Thank goodness Blogger Dashboard is back to normal :-)  No more gigantic pictures and missing scroll bars...seems a lot if us were having the same problems.

Hi all,

Well I had exactly three people who said they wanted to participate in the Paw if Forward which is great because that's how many you need to play and this way I didn't have to choose!  So I will be contacting all of you below in the next little while to gather your addresses. Then I'll be off shopping 'til I'm dropping to find some neat kitty stuff and try to live up to the high standard that Amy set for me.  Once your parcels have been received, it's up to you guys to pick three new bloggers and keep it going  Paw it Forward :-)

and the players are:

The Island cats - Ernie, Wally and Zoey
Manx Mews - Abby, Boo, Jinx, Ping and Gracie
Adventures of Scarlett and Melly - Scarlett and Melly

I could not seem to find an email address on the Manx Mews blog, so if you wouldn't mind emailing me (my contact info is in the "meow to us" tab) I would really appreciate it!

It's Thanksgiving here in Canada (Monday off - yay) and among the many things that I have to be thankful for are wonderful friends from the Cat Blogosphere.  Enjoy the weekend everyone!

PS - did anyone else's reading window in Blogger Dashboard change overnight? Yikes!

Paw it Forward

What can this be?

Oh my goodness, such excitement in the house today!  A knock at the door and a box delivered for the cats.

With little regard for his personal safety, Archie jumps head first into the box to investigate

 Ben steps up to see what it's all about..."look you fools there's a card".

"It's from Amy and the House Of Cats...yippee it's our Paw it Forward package"!  I helped the boys open their package (it must be such a drag not having opposable thumbs) and the loot just kept on coming, it was like the Fantasia of cat toys.

There were two bags of cat treats, and a silky pouch of nip, one foamy ball, four poms, three balls with bells, one large crazy unbalanced ball that moved on it’s own, catnip bubbles (which I will get on video when we open them), two yarn tubes with rattling stuff inside.

There were two three turquoise mice, one mauve mouse and a shiny pink pillow which were all nip-filled and made the cats crazy.  There was also a cat dancer which was a gigantic hit and a refillable catnip cupcake.  All of this was packed in a funky canvas kitty shopping bag. 

Holy cow Amy, did I forget anything?  Every cat played with every toy and nothing was left untouched :-)

It was really the most fantastic selection of goodies.  My boys would like to thank Amy, Kirzon, Lola, Virgil, Barney, Gus & Stella for their overwhelming generosity!

Now, who else would like to play?  Just leave a comment on today’s post and I'll choose the first three kitties who say they want to Paw it Forward.  It doesn’t matter where you live, let’s just keep the fun going!

White Wednesday/100th Post

I was inspired by a post on Mishkat's blog this past Monday.  This is the quote that got me thinking "Actually, Dobby is almost always sleeping. We have about 100 photos of him on this quilt and they all look exactly the same." 

I have so many pictures of Casper sleeping that sometimes I have to make a concerted effort to find a shot of him awake for the blog.  I especially like the following series of pictures taken two years ago.  They are all of Casper sleeping on his favourite blanket of the moment and look identical, but were all taken on different days!

Slumber Boy

Sultan of Snooze

The Nap-O-Matic

In Repose

The Feline Pretzel

Dream Boat

Hey folks, guess what?  This is my 100th post!!!  I've had such fun blogging about my babies these last seven months and making so many new friends; feline and human alike.  I want to thank eveyone for welcoming me and my kitties into the wonderful CB community :-)

Boys in the Bedroom

The boy’s lives changed dramatically after Molly died. Because she was very old and frail and sometimes ornery, she lived in our master bedroom exclusively. She did not like the boys and did not want to fraternize with them one bit. On the other side of the door however the boys were dying to get into this secret chamber that was off limits to them, but for quite different reasons.

Casper had been in love with Molly for all of the years he has been with us. He would spend hours in the adjoining bedroom under the bed, spying through a large decorative heating grate in the wall. He would watch her moving around in the bedroom and pine for his ladycat who would not acknowledge his existence. Ben on the other hand just wanted to be with us and was very jealous of the mysterious room where we disappeared. When I would go into the bedroom to spend time with Molly or in the evening when we went to sleep he would jump up and down at the door trying to peer through the frosted glass and scratch on the panes at all hours of the night. Archie, who has only been with us for seven months, found the behaviour of his brothers somewhat comical and wondered what all the fuss was about. He did however agree that there must be something interesting behind the door and as always was in the thick of things.

The day after Molly went to the bridge, we opened the door to the bedroom and let the boys come in. Casper entered the room sniffing every inch for a trace of his Molly, Ben moved slowly head-bobbing the entire time because he knew he had never been allowed in before, and Archie galloped down the hall, blew past both of them and hurdled onto the bed in his normal “ta-da here I am” fashion.

Three Amigos

The three of them explored every inch of the room and jumped on every surface...dressers, bedside tables and closets were all investigated. Then they settled on the bed and did not leave. For days it seemed that all they did was change sleeping positions, were it not for the fact that food was eaten and boxes were used I never would have guessed that they left the room at all while we were at work! The first night there was very little sleeping done by either Robert or myself; thank goodness it was Friday and we didn’t have to get up early the next morning. Our excited boys ran, jumped, played, tussled, and knocked things over all night! Every book I had on my nightstand ended up on the floor along with my coaster and a bottle of water. The boys were thrilled with this new arrangement and spent extended periods of time leaping on an off the bed; just because they could. We also now had to get used to several heavy cats on the bed at once sleeping, leaning, curled and stretched over various parts of our bodies (Molly slept either on my pillow or in her basket which was on a bench at the foot of our bed). Does all this activity and late-night kitty shenanigans sound awful? Actually I loved every minute of their enthusiasm and seeing them so happy was the one bright spot during a very sad time!

Blissed Out Boy

Easy Like Sunday

Well things are pretty quiet around here after all the excitement of Livestrong Day yesterday.  As you can see Casper, Ben and Archie are all taking a well deserved rest. 

It was amazing to see that practically the entire Cat Blogosphere went yellow and we were thrilled to be a part of it!  You may have noticed in the comments that I left I said we should "Lovestrong" too.  I just sort of made that up but felt it was appropriate because it seemed to me that the mass CB participation was an illustration of love.  We all came together for family, friends, pets and each other to fight a common foe, to celebrate and remember, to reach out and give strength...that's textbook love folks :-)

Casper may never type another comment again - LOL!

Ben and Archie reflect on all the inspirational blogs they visited yesterday

LIVESTRONG

Casper, Benjamin, and Archie hope that everyone will LIVESTRONG and LOVESTRONG too!

So Livestrong Day has arrived and the entire Cat Blogosphere has joined in to support the global campaign by going yellow today; October 2, 2010.   Too many of our family and friends have been touched by cancer so we gather to celebrate survivorship and commit to working towards a world without cancer!

Please check out the beautiful Livestrong Slideshow created by the talented Chandra from Life from a Cat's Perspective and the special We Livestrong Today blog created by inspirational Jan from The Cat's Meow to see all our kitties in the Cat blogosphere who show support for Livestrong!

Special thank you to the generous Ann from Zoolatry for creating all our Livestrong badges and to Huffle Mawson's mum who helped me to "go yellow" ;-)