Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Toes and Teeth Tuesday

See my teef? gimme a fedder to chomp! Aarrrrr!!


Extry Toes! Throw yer paws in the air like ya just don't care!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Middle of the Story

Back on Friday I did a post called Table Trouble and I talked about how Leo couldn't get off the table because Star, Princess HissyFace, was chasing him. I realized that I had a few pictures of the intimidation tactics she was using so I thought I'd share them today.

Aside from actually chasing him, she uses the stare tactic. She gets braver she gets, the closer she gets to him before actually jumping, slapping, or chasing. That night, she was feeling pretty brave.
I was already trying to call her off, she just gave me annoyed looks and wouldn't back off.

Star: No. It is time. I'm going to kick his big furry behind.
Leo: uh... help..



She refused to move until I actually started to get up. Then she took off all "I wasn't going to really do anything, hee hee"
I coulda handled her.. Yeah, you take off HissyFace..


Not twenty minutes later, she was chasing him up the stairs. No hissing or fight sounds, I let them work that one out themselves. And then, as you know, he was back downstairs and on the folding table, out of her reach. She was sitting under the chair, watching him until her daddy woke up and told her to chill. She listens to him.

That night, Leo slept like the dead. I think she wore him out.
zzzzzzshe moved out?zzzhow nicezzzzzzz

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Long Sleep?

Ok, yesterday I was shocked to see that Leo was tall enough to put his face on the table from the floor. And then last night I saw this!


I've labeled it so you can see exactly what I saw. Too Tall Leo! And that's just sleeping, not stretching out!

I'm afraid that one day he's going to tap me on the shoulder when I'm standing and scare the bejezzus outta me! And to think, I once thought he was a little kitty.. NOPE!

I hope you all have a long sleepy weekend! I have no doubt at all that we will!!

Edit: I figure for reference I should report that Greg is 6 foot tall

Friday, January 27, 2012

Table Trouble

I know that there are many of you out there who don't mind cats on your counters and tables. I know that there are many of you who think even if you don't allow it, that the cats get up there anyway. Around here, we've worked hard over the years at getting the cats to know that they do not belong on counters or tables.

I will admit this next bit only to you.... I know that they do get on the counters, but I prefer them to hide this fact from me because if I don't know, it's not gonna bother me. Don't tell Greg though! He believes they don't get up where they aren't supposed to! And I sure as heck ain't gonna be the one to tell him any different!

The broken curtain rod on the window who's only access is from the counter or stove? I have no idea how that happened! So the bend in the rod resembles a certain black cat's belly and there is black fur on the curtain, I'm sure the rod bent from age and the fur means I need to vacuum more.. (his name was Calvin, he was so well behaved, except for this one window thing)

Tongue prints in the butter? Can't be!

Paw prints in the kitchen sink? That must be a water spot from an odd shaped dish..

Someone knocked stuff off the counter? Must have been one of us..

Fur clumps on the stove? They had to have floated there on some freak indoor wind..

Someone keeps opening the curtains that I can't reach past the table? Huh, maybe the rod is just slippery. No, those are not claw pulls in the gauzy material..

Denial, not just a river in Egypt! That's my motto!

Now that I've set the stage, so to speak: Along came Leo. By the time he arrived our kitchen table was turned into a computer table. And even though Greg wanted the 'no cats on the table' rule to stay intact, I was a little more lenient. Mostly because I didn't have my laptop when he arrived and sat there a lot during the day and Leo loved to hang over my shoulder there. Then he'd slide down and boy, he got heavy so I'd rest my arm on the table, and before too long it was Leo resting on my wrist rest. I told him that if Greg caught us, Leo's new name was 'wrist' so he was allowed to rest there!

When it comes to the folding table that we actually use for dinner, I'm with Greg. I'm not crazy about the thought of kitty butts where we eat..

Tonight I glanced up from my laptop and saw this:
Scanning... hmm, no chicken. Rats

Before I digress into 'who could yell at that face to get down??' take a good look at that picture, there's a lot going on! Aside from the fact that it hasn't been wiped off yet, just ignore that please... Notice the double lasers glowing along the table, like he's trying to slice it in half. Notice the one fat paw on the table. There were two when I looked up, I think that was his attempt to show that he was not, in fact, on the table. There's the nose just below the edge, hidden at the same time the other paw went down.
There's the complete absence of his huge floofy tail! There's the fact that he's completely ignoring the feather behind him! There's his LONG tummy! And then there's the back feet!

Let's get a close up on those:
You can totally see the extra back toes! You usually can't that well, they're much less obvious than his front paws. They look like little hands standing there.. or as his front paws were once described, like little blooming onions!

Back to the subject. All I had to do was look at him and he knew to drop back down. What a good boy! I was proud of him, and saw no reason to wake Greg in his chair to share the experience of having such an obedient boy.

I gave him a good snuggling, then he went off to see if his snack had magically appeared. He does that several times a day. I went back to reading kitty blogs because I'm kind of addicted to them.. Don't tell anyone!

A little while later, not even half an hour! I heard a noise, looked up and saw this!!
Hey. How ya doin'?

Gasp! ON the table Leo? Right in front of me?? Say it ain't so! Say my boy wouldn't disobey so blatantly right in front of my face! While daddy's right in the room too?! Get your butt down from there!

Daddy's snoring. Besides, I can't get down. Princess HissyFace is chasing me again.

And she was. She was sitting right below him, not letting him get down. I told her to chill out and keep moving, but she ignored me and stared at him. He glanced at her and didn't move. Alright, I'll have to deal with this, "Star, stop being ornery and go play with your kick-a-roo!"

That did it. Not that she paid any attention, but it woke up Greg! He was all, "Hey, what's he doing on the table!" I told him that his baby girl was preventing him from getting down. He scoffed, "Come here, Star" She went. Leo got down. Whew!

Now we can go back to believing they don't get where they don't belong!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Tug of War

I know all kitty people are familiar with the "I may have the whole bed/couch/counter/whatever to sit on, but since you put that clothing/towel/mit/whatever there, that is the exact spot I must sit on. Besides, I must fur up whatever it is." So it will come as no surprise to know that every day I put my clothes on the bed, leave the room for a few minutes, and when I come back, someone is sitting on it.

As an aside here... It just occurred to me this moment that I could wait to get out clothes until I return.. So really, who's at fault for my clothes being sat on every day, him or me? This bears some thinking on..

Anyway.. Oh, I say him, though when Star was queen of the bed, it was her who sat on the clothes every day. But now that Leo has control of the bed, it's his job. I'm sure that when the situation reverses again, it will be Star again.

So they sit on the clothes, but have you ever had a tug of war over your clothes?? Leo thinks it's a game when I try to pull it out from under him! He grabs on with both paws and if I didn't give in, I swear he'd have me wearing shreds every day! Sometimes I can't even lure him off with his hoodie string..

(The hoodie string, I feel I should comment on since so many people expressed concern that he might swallow it. Rest assured that this is not a string string, but a thick rope like string from the hood of a hoodie sweatshirt. It's almost as thick as my pinkie, and though he carries it around in his mouth, I don't think he could swallow it as thick as it is. And he shows no inclination to either. He put the bitey on part of it so bad that it fell off and he wouldn't even look at the broken part, deeming it too small for his notice. But I am keeping an eye on it's condition and if/when it gets too frayed for safety, it will magically disappear. I appreciate your concern!)

I managed to get just a couple shots of the tug of war the other day. I think you'll agree that I have a rather large problem to put up with on a daily basis...


Oh no you don't! You can't take my sleepy thing!


Blouse? What do you mean by 'blouse'? This not a blouse, it a sleepy thing! I just telled you.. MY sleepy thing!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Star and the Twins

Star has a love/hate relationship with everyone. I was going to say 'even me' but that would be redundant. I think I've said before that the ONLY person that Star loves unconditionally, fully and without question is Greg. She is his, well, he's hers I should say.

When it comes to my nieces, the twins, there's been more hate than love. Except for twin 1's hair. She lives to smoosh her face in twin 1's hair! She loves wet hair, but with twin 1, wet or dry, if it's where she can get at it, she will rub her face in it like it was catnip! And forget it if she leaves a headband laying around.. She'll roll around in it and sleep with her face in it.

As for twin 2, well, their relationship has always been touchy. Twin 2 is afraid of Star. Whenever you go to pet Star, she will turn to look at you and meow. Of course that shows her teeth. Twin 2 always interprets that as she wants to bite her. That's not true. All the time.. But recently, I think since twin 2 got her own kitten, she's been better able to pet Star and get along with her. She's even let Star in her hair. (Identical twins or not, Star still far prefers twin 1's hair!)

Back to twin 1, who lives with us. It isn't just her hair that Star adores. Anything that belongs to that twin, Star wants. She takes her hair things, sleeps on her clothes, digs in her purse, lays on her school books, and sniffs her shoes. About the only thing she doesn't like is the twin herself.. (aside from her hair) Probably because twin 1 has made it her life's mission to pick up Star, and Star is NOT pick-up-able!

Over the weekend, I got some pictures of Star and her obsession and her tolerance.


Twin 1 left her school/book/gym bag on the sewing cabinet. Star did not need a second invitation to explore it..
Ah, the loud one has left me a present.


What? If it's not for me, why is it in my sitting spot?


*sniff sniff sniiiiifffffff* Ah, that's the good stuff...


Excuse me while I dig out the contents..


Star has taken to sleeping on twin 1's bed, but only when she's not in it. She loves the comforter and piles of clothes. Twin 1 took this picture, you can almost see Star daring her to throw her out.
Go away. It's my turn to sleep here and I'm not done.


Twin 2 really wanted to try picking Star up. It was not happening.. See Star talking to her? That's what she does whenever anyone starts to pet her. I don't know if it's a hello, a warning, or just acknowledging that you have invaded her space and she is thinking about tolerating it.
Oh, hello flinchy one. I suppose you may touch me. For a moment.


Do you see what I put up with? See how good I'm being?
I deserve a good snack today for this.


Pick me up? Not happening. Try again later. Like in 50 years.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Leaping Leo!

The other day I got out some old toys that the kitties haven't played with since we started our sorta remodel. Today I got out other toys that have been away, attachments to a teaser toy. Leo was going bananas! Probably because Star was snoozing upstairs and he had it all to himself. But whatever the reason, I couldn't resist trying to get some video of his, to borrow a Katnip Lounge phrase, Crazypants-ness!

Please try to ignore that I need to pick up and get rid of boxes.. And doggone it, I wish the video was better! I do not recommend enlarging the video to full screen because they'll just be blurrier. Leo, moving as fast as he was, is a blur anyway!

On the third video, Greg is telling me to get the picture while I can, which made me grin because he didn't know I was videoing, not picture taking!

All warnings done, enjoy the videos!







Monday, January 23, 2012

Window Weekend

There's so much to look at out of the windows. Especially when there's somewhere easy to sit in front of it. We don't yet even have window sills for them to sit on. That makes two of the windows inaccessible except for standing on back legs and hanging onto the edge of the window. Star, of course, is too short to do this. But Leo has done it more than once. Not for long enough for me to grab a camera... but he does it.

Of the other two windows, one has a chair near it, but they don't seem to like sitting there. Probably because of the breeze from the unsealed part of the door and untrimmed window.. it's chilly is what I'm saying. The last window has never been view-able because it has an air conditioner. But now that my sewing machine cabinet is in front of it, it's the window of choice! And boy does it have squirrel TV galore! They love the tree behind the house and the fence and the low phone wires!

At night, there's a whole new contingent of critters! Raccoons and possums I'm sure. Oh, and though I thought they hibernated(?) there are a ton of bunny tracks back there!
Whatever the critter, the kitties have been watching out the window a lot lately!


Star's turn in the window
Hello birdie, fly a little closer...



Squirrel!



Come back birdie!



Leo's turn
That black cat is back in the yard!



Where you goin' bucko?!



Come look at this brash trespasser!



Boy.. if I was out there, I'd show him who's yard this is...

Friday, January 20, 2012

Award Day!

Lars and Odin from Bengal Business designed and gave us an award!

It’s called the LIEF Award. Lief mean’s Sweet in Dutch and I think that means they think I have a sweet blog! Well I’m honored!


They say we must pass it on to three others, and while it’s hard to narrow it down, we’re gonna do our best!

We pass on the LIEF Award to:

ThreeCatYard

Random Felines

The Monkeys

Now you three get to pass it on to three others! Yay! I love awards!

Thank you Lars and Odin!

Now, because the award is ‘sweet’ I decided to post pictures of my kitties that I think are sweet! You’ve probably seen most of them before, but they’re some of my favorites!


Star






 Leo The Chinese Lion






Thursday, January 19, 2012

String Theory

Leo is the master of the super cheap toy! First, he loves feathers, a buck for half a dozen! His newest toy, which he drags around with him is even cheaper! It’s the string out of someone’s hoodie! We suspect it belonged to niece 1. All we really know is that it turned up one day with him and he’s been in love with it ever since!

He will play with it all by himself, flipping it around, dragging it off the bed and back up, rolling around on it. But he loves for us to play with him with it too.

Lately he’s been sleeping on it. It just lost about a four inch section, I think he’s guarding it from further losses. It’s clear that he loves his toy.

The pictures today were taken over a couple of days, on both the camera and my phone. As you can probably guess, I didn't get the phone because of it's great camera... (I got it because it's purple!)

I loves muh stringy 'n my stringy loves me...


*chomp!*


Mine! You no touch.


Swing stringy! I'll catch you yet!


Which way did stringy go?


There you are! *smoochy*


Whoopsie, missed..


Oh Stringy, you 'n me has tons 'o fun!