Spring Tag

Well, I've been tagged about a million times to play this game, so I guess I have to cooperate. However, I'm giving it the Monster twist.

5 Things I DO NOT LIKE about Spring

1. Mom puts away the fuzzy green blanket that I like to snooze on

2. The husband turns off the hot air blower, so I can't lie on the floor vent

3. The pawrents stop using the gas fireplace, so I can't sit in front of
it and warm my nose.

4. The space heaters are put away

5. Stink bugs get in the house

Just another day...

NOT!! It's my 11th birthday! Just want to give a shout out to my pals who have sent me all sorts of fun rosettes - things to eat, things to wear, things to play with! Full thank you's will follow this weekend.

Mom and the husband, on the other, have hardly paid any attention. I only got one treat after breakfast, and I did not receive the toe ring set with sapphires to match my eyes that I'd requested. Well, they're going to get something special on the carpet tonight!

I'd like to the thank the academy...

I am so overwhelmed by the embarrassment of riches and good wishes sent to me during my COTW reign! Mom's fingers are raw from typing all these thank yous to my meowvelous furriends!


A wealth of stars and rosettes!

Izadore
Ali
Fearless
Simone
Biscuit and the whole family
Teebo, Callie and Rose
Meep and Bibi
Queenie
Platelicker and his huge family
Cassie
Sono Bono and family
Ingen
Grace
Smiley Cassanove
Kalley Kat
Zoe
Luke and family
Minerva Lucille
Angel Mea and the Hawaiian cats
Finney, Lacey, and Angel Alex
Benson
Newman and his awesome family
Milo, Mallee, and their fursibs
Calista
Reanan
Samson T. Hunter
Kaci Sunshine and family
Leo, Charlie, Lucy, Sophie and Sally
Monida
Guido
Timmy Tomcat and his enormous family
Rue Rue
Angel Alfie, Ollie, Dave, Buzz and Boo
Tink and family
Skylar and family
Angelica and family (and thanks for the coupon!)
Muppet and family
Keisha
Rory

Adding Minuette and Penelope, Blizzard and family, Mietzi and Timo, and Tristan!

Fabulous portrait art

Rory, Tundra, Manytoes, & Lynzee
Pipo & Minko

Pawmails & concats

Mia
Toki
Meiko
Angel Buddie
Blizzard
Littleboy
Toby
Charlie
Lindsay and Sebastian
Xena Princess Warrior

And I've made even more new furriends! And Catster gave me a bazillion zealies to spend! This is great stuff! Thank you so much, my pals!

It's snowy and cold here today, so I'm resuming my position on top of the heating vent.

Stunned!

Furriends, as you know, Mom and the husband have been in Hawaii the past ten days and so we had no idea until they got back today that I am COTW!! I am thrilled beyond saying, as this is the first time in 3 years of being a Catster that I have been chosen for this honor! I was COTD once and DOTD once, both when Mom was away on vacation. She ought to go away more often, I think!

She's dead tired at the moment, having just arrived home after two days of traveling, so I'll have to get all my thank yous for the outpouring of presents, comments, and pawmails at a later time. Just want to say that I appreciate all of you!

Aloha!

Love is a many-splendored thing

Thank you to all my furriends for sending boxes and boxes and boxes of treats to me on V-Day and to Biscuit and family for the animated rosette!

Smooches to my lovely largeness Simone for being my fursome Valentine. Not only did she send me two pawsome rosettes, she also sent me two pawsome catnip toys from the Happy River Dances cat toy store! Made by her mom's very own hands! I lie on the floor with my paws wrapped around them, dreaming of blue eyes and dark brown fur. Sometimes I let my sisfurs play with them, but not too hard! They must last forever.

The husband gave mom a dozen red roses (following my lead, of course, for that is what I sent the scintillating Simone). And on Tuesday, furriends, my sisfurs and I will be confined to the basement for 9 days while mom and the husband vacation in Hawaii. I hear there are a lot of feral cats there; she better not come home with any.

Love note

Mom is sneaking a few minutes at work to write this long overdue diary entry to let everyone know (if you haven't heard already) that this year the luscious, voluptuous, sinuous, furbulous SIMONE (Moe Moe Toes) agreed to be my valentine! Woo Hoo!

What a great match, n'cest pas? Matching eyes, matching fur, and matching CAT-itudes!! I knew I had to put the moves on early or some other undeserving, undereducated, underemployed excuse for a feline would grab her up.

Love ya, babe!

And now for something completely Different!

Just want to take a moment to wish all my furriends the best of everything in the new year (since it looks like there will indeed be another one)!

Be sure to click on the link to see my special-for-you card!

Happy New Year!

Test smarty

Well, it's coming to the end of our Litter Genie testing period, and Mom has decided to let it stay. She was frustrated at first by the crappy (har dee har har) instructions and figuring out how to do everything correctly, but she says it has grown on her. She likes that it doesn't let any odor leak out, even when she takes out a full bag and puts it in the trash can. The garage smells much better now. Mom just wishes she had patented the idea when she first had it. Did you know that she also invented the sip hole in the plastic coffee cup lids? Way back in college, but again she didn't do anything with that. And she invented post-it notes, left-handed scissors, the space shuttle, Betty Crocker cake mix, polio vaccines, and new math.

Test dummy

Mom and I have been asked to help with some market research. Not the kind where we go to the pet store and try all kinds of food. We are testing out the Litter Genie, along with several other Catsters. Litter Genie is like Diaper Genie, but for litter (duh!) Mom says she thought of this idea years ago, but never got around to patenting it, and that's why we don't live in Malibu.

The Genie arrived in a big cardboard box and was cushioned with wads of paper instead of those nasty, annoying, recyclable styrofoam peanuts. Mom had some trouble with the directions. She says the pictures were too small and the instructions had her very confused. It took her about 15 minutes to figure out how to put the thing together. She could have asked me, but NO!

One of fellow testers has 8 fursibs at her house. I don't know how their mom is going to stuff 9 cats' worth of pee and poop in the bottom storage compartment. There are only 3 of us at my house (although Diva pees enough for 6 cats) and Mom is somewhat dubious about the Genie's capacity. She thinks she may end up having to empty it every day anyway.

Tune in next week for a progress report.

LA update

Wouldn't you know it, furriends? While mom was away, I was a DDP! But she and i didn't know for days because the hotel she stayed in in Los Angeles charged $12.95 a day to get on the internet! Highway robbery. They charged an arm and a leg for the room; you'd think they'd at least give guests a free toe!

Anyway, thank you to my furriends for their concats and pawmails and rosettes! I was so honored.

Mom says she had tons of fun at the cat writers' conference. She met our idol, Jackson Galaxy, and actually spent a little time discussing a case from his show that had me particularly upset (it was about Pump, the 24-year-old kitty whose owner's girlfriend hated him). Mom told the husband not to worry, that even though Jackson is ultra nice and she's sure he would let her have as many kitties as she wanted, he really isn't her type (something about all those tattoos) and she would just as soon stick with the husband.

Jackson spoke to the group about the experience of writing his book, "Cat Daddy," which is an autobiography and kitty-help manual all in one.

Mom also met some experts she had interviewed for stories and a wonderful children's book writer, Lee Wardlow, who has won all sorts of prizes. We highly recommend her book "Won Ton: A Cat's Tale Told Through Haiku." (or something like that). It's about a cat who is adopted from a shelter, and it's written completely in haiku - brilliant! And the cat has blue eyes. What's not to like?

And she met Zeki, the cat who belongs to behaviorist and author Arden Moore. Zeki travels everywhere with her and serves as a "patient" to train people in pet first aid. She lets herself be wrapped up in a towel like a purrito. She also sat at the dinner table with her owner and mom and the husband (yes, the husband came out for the awards banquet). Now why am I not allowed to do that? Just because I try to get my paws on the plates...

Mom watched behaviorist Marilyn Kreiger do a clicker-training demonstration on two Bengal cats. She says they were positively stunning. What am I, chopped liver?

Mom didn't win any medals, but when she heard that there were 600 entries overall in the competition, she was very flattered that all four of her stories were finalists. Most of the attendees do cat-writing for a living and produce dozens of stories every year; mom had only written those four.

Mom brought home a bag full of swag - at least 15 pounds worth. Toys, treats, more toys, more treats, calendars, cans of food, more toys, a doorstop, and a cat bed she won in a raffle. Actually, the bed was so big that she had to mail it home. She was sure that TSA was going to bust her at the airport because she has so many catnip-loaded playthings in her suitcase.

Mom loved every minute, but was very glad to get home to her own bed. And I was very glad to have her back.