Feel better, Auntie Deb!

Too Much Free Time Toozday: An Engineer's Guide to Cats

We found this documentary interesting an' informative. The engineers "claim" that no kitty cats were injured during the filming of the documentary, but the stars (Oscar, Ginger, an' Zoey) were often annoyed.



IF you've got a couple of minutes of free time between loungin', eatin', an' using the litter box, take a look at this documentary ...

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt #85: VIEW

Today's theme is: VIEW!

I couldn't decide what to post for this week's theme as we've got so many beautiful pictures of stunning VIEWs on Mom's hard drive. So, I'm gonna show a couple from last year's drivin' trip to the Pacific Northwest ...

This one is of Multnomah Falls ... Can you imagine how drippy your paws would get if you were sittin' up there on that bridge? I shudder to think!



If you drive up the western coast of Washington, you'll come to a beach community called Kalaloch where they have Grandma an' Grandad's favorite food: Geoduk clams. I wasn't sure how to pronounce that name at first 'til Grandma told me that it was like "gooey duck" ... Mom doesn't eat shell fish, but I sure could wrap my mandibles of death 'round eleventy-squillion of those!



This last photo is of Mom's favorite place in the whole world: Just south of Crescent City. She loves the smell an' the cold an' the foggy air. She loves the tall trees an' the roar of the surf. She loves how close it is to Jedediah Smith campground an' Klamath. This is where she wants to be scattered when she dies ... Isn't it gorgeous?

Mom update

Mom contacted us an' said that she missed us. She had two nights with NO KITTIES an' she couldn't sleep furry good.

She visited with our cousins, Zoey an' the Furballs, over the weekend. Chewie caught a ginormous mousie that had come into the house an' hidden itself behind the television speakers ... She was usin' her excellent "mousing" skills an' her sharp, sharp clawrs. The boys did a whole lotta snoozin' an' Zoey played with Mom.

Today, Mom is back in Seattle with Ben an' Lucy-Furr ... It's kinda chilly ('bout 63 degrees is chilly to Mom) an' it's supposed to rain a whole bunch tomorrow when our auntie is taking Mom to a work function at the Dahlia Lounge.

Mom says that she'll be home in a week ... seven days is loonnnngggg ...

DMM

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt #84: ROAD

Today's theme is: ROAD!

Bein' a Feline American ... an' not excellent driver like my good buddy Skeezix the Cat ... I don't know a whole lot 'bout ROADs 'cept they're black-an'-white much like a Tuxie ME ... an' if you're not careful, you could get run over (that would be bad)!

Mom travels some ... either first class on Alaska Airlines or drivin' the black masheen on ROADs. This is one of her favorite ROADs: Interstate 84 westbound (the Columbia Gorge).



Mom likes this ROAD best when it's rainin' outside, but she also enjoys watching the sailboarders skim through the wakes on the Columbia River during the summertime. Rain or shine, she drives with the windows down to smell the clean, crisp air.

Meow Like a Pirate II!

Ahoy an' avast ye lubbers! Today is the second annual MEOW LIKE A PIRATE DAY ... an' I'm officially in my pirating hat. If you haven't gotten your pirate name yet ... click the link under my pirate name ... to get your furry own.

Your Pirate Name Is...

Deadly Daisy Spicy Vixen

What do ye call yerself?

Leavin' on a 'plane to Jet City ... again

Seattle clip art credit: ABKL Designs

Mom is leavin' today for a trip to Seattle. She won't be back for nearly TWO weeks, so we're bein' "cat sat" by our Uncle James. He's not furry good at litter box/smashin' the stinky goodness in the bowls/keepin' the cup filled with ice/vacuumin', so you're all gonna hafta pray for our health an' safety 'til Mom gets back an' things go back-to-normal.

The house-trashin' party will start at 12:30 PM (which is just after the drivin' to the airport guy drives off with Mom). We'll supply Temptations an' stinky goodness, but someone else will hafta bring the stuff for 'niptinis 'cuz Mom doesn't drink (so there's none of that stuff in the house). Oh, Miles an' Sammy (an' Billy Sweet Feets Gingersnap, of course): Mom stocked up on toilet paper, so there's LOTS for unrollin'!!!

Oh, an' when she comes back, Mom BETTER HAVE A SMOKED SALMON FOR US 'cuz she "forgot" last time ...

Award Toozday! Thanks to Abby & Jack!

We are so honored to have been given this prestigious award by our new woofie friends, Abby & Jack ... Can you believe that these two ginormous woofies like MY blog?!?  I know!  Me, either!  Abby & Jack are furry famous an' are as cool as my woofie buddies Roxy an' Lucky (Pugs ROCK!).

Gettin' back to the point:  Thanks to Abby & Jack for givin' me this furry wonderful award ...

Feel free to just enjoy this award or pass it along.

The Rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you've nominated.

I think that I'm goin' to HORDE this award for my furry own ... Nah. I'll pass it to my cousins: There are seven cousins, just not seven blogs ...

A. Ben Fuzz an' Lucy Furr
B. Zoey, the Furballs & Cha-Ching

America's Pet Store chose ME!!!

My good buddy Steve H. works in Online Content and Advertising for America's Pet Store  an' he approached me with a unique business opportunity to do some "product testing an' reviewing" for his company. Apparently, real cats are needed efurry day to test out cat furniture, treats, an' other products geared toward the upwardly mobile feline-about-town ... an' he wanted me ... yes,  ME!!! ...  to try out a super-stylish cat seat: Mr. Herzher's Single Seat Cat Furniture #MH-17100.

I get opportunities all the time, so Mom dealt with the legal stuff promising that I'd test out the seat an' then post about my experience (to include a link to America's Pet Store) ... an' in exchange, I'd get to KEEP the seat for my furry own. Cool, huh? It would belong to me ... an' the Feline Americans would have to get their own corporate sponsorship ... 'cuz I'm the one with the blog, right?

Anyway, the ginormous box   (shipping is FREE no matter how large ... or small ... the order)  holding my present ... uh, I mean my research ... arrived last Friday an' the man-in-the-big-truck (not to be confused with the man-in-the-brown-shorts who Mom thinks is hot ... hee, hee ... ) left it on my back porch out of the prying eyes of the JEALOUS neighborhood cats 'til Mom could bring it in an' put my cat seat together.

Charmee got there first.  He always manages to be the snooperviser when boxes arrive.  Mom opened the box an' unpacked the parts of my brand-new seat ... an' Charmee immediately took over the box.  It's about eleventy-squillion feet bigger than his office cubicle ... so I don't blame him for movin' right in.

I surveyed the parts to make sure that Mom ... who has only had a Master's degree for fifteen years ... could assemble my furniture all by herself.  It had five wooden parts in addition to the comfy fabric-covered seat ... plus there was a bag of screws-an'-washers with an Allen (or is it Alan?!?)  wrench.  So complicated!  But all of the parts were there an' so were step-by-step instructions with pictures so Mom wouldn't have any trouble.

It took her 'bout twenty minutes to assemble efurrything (after several false starts an' a couple of parts facin' the wrong way ... what can I say, she's not a construction worker for a reason, folks!).  She claims that it was simple to assemble ... MUCH simpler than many of the things that she's built in the past.  It's pretty, isn't it?  

After gettin' the whole thing built, we had to find a good place for it.  We tried by the window in the dining room, but the curtains kept blowin' all over me an' it's furry tempting to sharpen clawrs on curtains ... so it got moved.

Now it's in front of the television armoire near my catnip scratcher ... oh, yeah ... our catnip scratcher.  Mom got the camera all set up for the requisite action shots of me enjoyin' the Mr. Herzher's Single Seat Cat Furniture ... I'm glammin' it up!

The cat seat is the perfect size for a spicy vixen like me ... It's not too tall, either ... 'cuz I'm a geezerette an' don't climb efurrything in sight like a certain Feline American whose name rhymes with Lucky Charmz ...  I like the moleskin-like fabric on the seat an' I enjoy rubbing my whisker humps against the corners for a good teeth cleaning.

Okay ... This glamour shoot is over an' it's time for some delicious Temptations ... I think that I'v e earned 'em 'cuz bein' a product tester is pretty darn hard work.

If you're in the market for some new furniture ... cat trees, scratching posts, stairs ... stop by America's Pet Store for a wide selection of top-quality items plus FREE  SHIPPING directly to your door!  I really enjoyed being a pet product researcher an' I'd do it again!

ManCat Monday: The Jolly Moggy!

ManCats need to control the best toys! This is Charmee an' his Jolly Moggy. It's lime green an' fuzzy with a springy elastic attaching it to a fully functional wand that Mom uses to keep her tender, joosy fingers far from Charmee's razor-sharp clawrs an' fangs. ManCats gotta play, right?

Pixie has gone to the Bridge ...

We're very sorry to report that Daisy the Curly Cat's sister, Pixie, has gone to the Bridge after a long battle with cardiomyopathy.  We'll miss her ...

Daisy has asked that efurryone eat a banana in Pixie's honor today.  Mom will eat the banana ... an' we'll all play with our catnip 'nanas for Pixie.

Bon voyage, sweet girl!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt #83: WILD

Today's theme is somethin' that I can really wrap myself around:   WILD! As you know, I'm a spicy vixen ... Therefore, you can understand how I might be wild an' untamed ... especially since I have four panty-waist Feline Americans to keep in line. My powerful personality an' unpredictability make me WILD!

Some of you might not know what "wild" really is, so I'm using this definition (props to Merriam-Webster) ...

Main Entry: WILD
Pronunciation: \ˈwī(-ə)ld\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English wilde, from Old English; akin to Old High German wildi wild, Welsh gwyllt
Date: Pre-12th century

1 a: living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated



This is me showin' my wild side:  I'm wearin' my vishus giraffe headgear an' getting ready to ravage a brand new packet of Temptations!  Watch out, efurryone!  I'm WILD!

ManCat Monday: I'll be in my office!

Charmee knows that a successful ManCat spends LOTS of extra hours in his office (or in Charmee's case ... cubicle) workin' with his nose to the grindstone ...

All I wanna do is wash my face ...

I was over at Daisy an' Pixie's bloggie where I noticed that Daisy had gotten a striking make-over complete with MAKE-UP!

I've always wanted to play in Mom's make-up while she's gettin' ready to go to school, but she never lets me wear eye shadow or lip gloss.  Sigh ... 

So I snuck over to TAAZ.COM an' they did a make-over for me with really expensive make-up from Chanel an' Clinique an' MAC.  All of the colors were really pretty, but I got pretty freaked out when they put on the false eyelashes (they said that mine were too short!) an' the fakey-fakey blue contact lenses.

The ladies (an' Joaquin the cross-dressing stylist) kept sayin' how pretty I looked, but my skin felt really odd an' I kept wanted to bat my eyelashes (with my paws).

When they showed me the finished result ... they called it my "After" ... I gasped!  I didn't even recognize myself!  What will my super-sexy tomfriend, Jake, think of the "new and improved" me???  I'm horrified to even contemplate his reaction.

It's a good thing that Mom put a brand new tube of Merle Norman Luxiva in the bathroom, 'cuz this stuff doesn't LICK off.  Ugh.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt #82: STRING(S)

STRING(S)

The Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt theme for this week is String(s) ... So I'm gonna post (or rather repost) a photo from earlier in the year when Sparky Fuzzypants and Lucky Charmz were helpin' Mom with all of the baby stuff that she was crocheting for people ... I called 'em the Yarny Boyz.

An' then there's an old photo from nearly twenty years ago featurin' the Feline Americans who came before ... This photo was taken in the old house an' featured Mom's first kitties:  The one on the top is Lacey Buns.  She liked to climb up on stuff an' taunt her brothers.  The grey boy on the bottom pad of the cat tree is Percy.  He lived the longest of the three an' was seventeen years old when he went to the Bridge.  The chocolate-striped boy on the end table is Cookie Monster.  He was a furry timid dood; Mom called him "Wussy Cookie" much more than she called him "Mister Monster" ... 

Why am I postin' their photo?  Because they're playing with brown string (it's actually yarn) in their photo, too.  String is universal to cats ... just don't EAT it.

Friday Fill-in

Friday Fill-Ins #88

The creator of the Friday Fill-ins wrote this --

This week I'm going to use rather obscure song lyrics; you can fill them in with the correct words if you know 'em...but wouldn't it be more fun to do it a bit differently?

And...here we go!

1. If I was to walk into your life, _you’d have very sore legs, swollen ankles, and slightly numbed toes as I’ve been dealing with middle schooler-sized chairs made for people under 5’2 ... an’ you all know that I’m about a six-footer ... Coupled with high humidity, it’s hell on the ol’ stems_?

2. Catch a bright star and place it _in my closet so that I can see all of the stuff that I’ve got stored in there_.

3. And you can send me _my packages by UPS, DHL, Fed-Ex or the good ol’ postal service. It’s my big week of online shoppin’_.

4. _My students may not study,_ but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets.

5. I'm the innocent bystander / Somehow I got stuck _in a neighborhood full of people who can’t keep their noise to themselves_.

6. What's keeping us apart isn't selfishness, _it’s that we’re both magnetic_.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _putting my feet up and watching the free preview of Cinemax for a couple of hours_, tomorrow my plans include _maybe shopping, but definitely getting packages ready for the mail_ and Sunday, I want to _go out to lunch somewhere like PF Changs_!

Wordless Wednesday: I'm a WINNER!

Happy Labor Day to all of the worker bees ...

In honor of Labor Day, we're reprinting an email sent to Mom by her friend, Darleen.  It seems appropriate since most of the stupidest things that 'beans see (an' hear) are at WORK.  That Mr. Job must be a real wonder dummy ...

In a bathroom:
TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW

In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT

In a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

In another office:
AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

In health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park:  (I sure hope so)
ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a farmer's field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.

Message on a leaflet:
IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS

On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T WORK)