Easter Eggs, The Birds, and Identity Theft

Part 1: Easter Eggs and The Birds

What a surprise it was when Mom checked her email on Sunday night and saw that there were 175 messages! Upon closer inspection, it appeared that Toffy and I had received multiple (must have been over 100) special gifts from a handsome black cat from New Zealand named Tyson (#476218 - I'd link to his page, but since it takes forever to load, you'll probably just get stuck there like I did, waiting and waiting and waiting, until you realize that you'd be better off if you just left.). The special gifts that Toffy and I received from Tyson were the beautiful Easter Eggs that you've most likely seen gracing many a Catster cat's page, including your own. Thank you, Tyson! We are infinitely grateful for your friendship and generosity! We'd have loved to send you our own special gift as a token of appreciation but as I mentioned before we got stuck on your page and couldn't do much except to eventually leave in frustration. (I'm sure that Tyson didn't intend to give us so many Easter Eggs and maybe Catster should find a way of preventing incidents like this from happening. These Easter Eggs may have been free but imagine the same thing happening with one of the expensive gifts!)

Anymeow, as Mom began checking her 175 messages, she thought it would be a good idea to watch TV at the same time and as she flipped through the channels there was a movie that caught her attention and she decided to watch it, as it was just starting. It was a well-known Alfred Hitchcock movie from the early 1960s. So, as she's watching this movie, all of a sudden she notices that Toffy is standing on the small stool beside the TV trying to get at the screen. Now, why on earth could that be? Well, I'll give you a hint: the movie was called "The Birds," and a bunch of birds were chirping madly, which piqued Toffy's curiosity, obviously. The movie, which I too was watching from atop my cat tree, turned out to be quite a scary one. The feathered creatures--there were lots of them--had invaded a small town and were attacking the people who lived there, trying to get into their homes. I witnessed a murder of crows swoop down on a group of innocent school children who were trying to run to safety. How frightening! By this time, Toffy had already retreated to his basket in the opposite corner of the room.

Meanwhile, Mom was having major problems trying to read her email messages, even after deleting all of the multiple messages from Catster announcing Tyson's many special gifts. It was futile and she eventually just logged out and decided to let us visit Catster. I think we were on my page admiring my special gift Easter Eggs when we clicked on Tyson's picture to get to his page. We weren't able to see much of his page except for row upon row of Easter Eggs in the special gifts given section. We were intrigued by Tyson's primary photo, which shows him being held by a funny-looking big bird with an extra long bill. What a coincidence to be watching the movie "The Birds" at the same time as finding out that we had been bombarded with all these emails from Catster announcing multiple gifts of Easter Eggs from a cat whose primary picture is of him posing with a giant bird!! Yet, stranger things have happened!

Part 2: Identity Theft

Mom may have been the victim of multiple messages clogging up her email program; the people in the movie were the intended victims of all those evil birds that had invaded the town (most of the people managed to get away in the end, or so it appeared); and I was recently the victim of… Identity Theft!! No kidding, cats! My lovely friend Sabrina alerted me to the situation several weeks ago. Well, I didn't find out until I finally logged onto Catster after a long hiatus. Some person had stolen one or more of my photos, my name and bio from my Catster page and used it on another website (Cat Channel) in order to enter contests and win prizes. Can you imagine that!? Unfortunately, there is a downside to being cute and photogenic… but seriously, this could happen to you too and unless you frequent other websites besides Catster, you won't even be aware of what's going on unless someone happens to notice and mention it to you, like my friend Sabrina did. I'm so thankful that Sabrina suspected that it wasn't really me on Cat Channel and took the time to question me about my supposed page there. Believe me, I did not create a profile on that website and have no intention of doing so! Mom wrote an email to the people in charge there explaining that this was a case of identity theft and asked them to remove the fake page. If any of you happened to see my page there and thought it was really me, I can assure you that it wasn't the real me but someone who was pretending to be me, or rather someone pretending that I was their cat. Don't some people have better things to do with their time?! All I can say is… hhhhhiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssss!!!!!!

Vanessa

P.S. To make it harder for someone to steal your Catster photos, follow these instructions:
1) Go to your Catster account.
2) In option #2 Account preferences, click on the link "Review and set all your custom preferences".
3) On the Account Preferences page, you'll see #4 Photo sharing preferences. Click on the words "Modify now".
4) Read what it says on the page titled "Photo Sharing and Security Preferences" and then select the first option at the bottom of the page beside the sentence "Please add extra security to my photos so people cannot easily use them."
5) Click on the "SUBMIT" button at the bottom of the page and you're done.

P.P.S. I saw the funniest breaded cat photos of my friends TT and Tasha (look for the photos on their pages, you can't miss them)! Aren't they pawsome?! Strangely, Mom recently caught me eating a hole out of a piece of multigrain bread. Yes, it sounds bizarre for a committed carnivore like myself to have a craving for grains, doesn't it? But should you ever happen upon a photo of my face sticking through a piece of bread, somewhere on the Internet, rest assured that it's not really me it's someone who has stolen my identity! MOL!

Health Update

Hi there, kits! I hope you're enjoying the holiday season! I haven't written in my diary in a while and some of you might be curious about how things are going with me. Remember the pee sample that never got to the vet clinic? You'll also recall that I was due for a teeth cleaning. Mom made a dental appointment for me a few weeks ago to coincide with her time off from work. It was recommended that I be allowed to stay overnight so that I could be observed and so that a pee sample could be obtained from me as well. The pee sample would be analyzed so that any abnormalities could serve as a clue as to what might be wrong with me. You see, Mom thinks I've been producing more pee than I used to, based on the size of the clumps in the litterbox. She claims I'm peeing more than Toffy and thinks it should be the other way around.

So, on Monday afternoon Mom dropped me off at the vet clinic. She had every intention of leaving the stroller there with me so that I could sleep in it but the vet tech told her that there just wasn't enough room for it in the back with all the borders that they had at this time of year. Okay. Fine. The empty stroller went home with Mom and I got to stay in the standard accommodation, which was probably better since I had a food dish, water bowl and litterbox too, items not available to me in the stroller, obviously.

Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon around 1:30 pm. Mom gets a phone call from the vet clinic. The dental cleaning went really well, apparently, but the vet wants to talk to Mom. Perhaps something was detected in the pee sample, she guesses. Mom arrives at the vet clinic shortly before the scheduled time of 5:00 pm with the empty stroller. She has to wait several minutes before we are reunited in one of the examination rooms. The vet tech tells her that I've been rather cranky all afternoon. The first thing Mom notices is that I have these awful eye boogers. I've been getting those a lot recently. Perhaps it's something to ask the vet about… She eventually gets a tissue from her purse and starts wiping the eye boogers. Just then the vet walks in the room. Mom mentions the eye boogers but the vet tells her that I was given some antibiotic ointment and that I'm in no mood to be poked. Okay. Fine.

At this point Mom is expecting to hear some not so good news about my lab results and perhaps even receive a lecture of some sort. But guess what? There's nothing wrong with me!! All the tests came back normal!!* Even the pee sample, which had to be taken from me because I did not pee while at the clinic, turned out to be perfectly normal. Not only that, but unlike Toffy I didn't even have to have any teeth extracted, something Mom feared might have to happen. I was sent home with some tablets to take for a week. They're supposed to help my gums or something. We'll see starting tomorrow morning how that goes. I'm supposed to eat the tablet with a little bit of food and then Mom is supposed to give me some water as well. Afterwards, I can eat my regular meal.

Oh, before I forget, there's some more good news! The store where Mom buys our cat food now sells Weruva! She brought home a few cans in addition to the usual brands she buys for us and promised that she'll include a few cans in our rotation every week. The price was pretty reasonable too. Tonight we had "Polynesian BBQ" for dinner. Yeah, I know it contains fish, but we're allowed fish once or twice a week. Mom even caught me eating out of Toffy's food bowl! That's how hungry I was! Ha! ha!

Purrs,
Vanessa

*Two of the values (albumin and cholesterol) were slightly elevated (above the maximum), but the vet hadn't mentioned anything so it's probably nothing to worry about.

News from last week

I'm kind of late posting this, but what a surprise it was to find out that I was one of the daily diary picks last Sunday! It's a bit embarrassing, actually, considering what I wrote about, MOL! Congrats to all the other cats whose diaries were featured too! My friend Alfie even made me a lovely keepsake photo. Check it out by clicking on the heart rosette that he gave me!

Writing about litter box issues is kind of addictive. I just wrote several more paragraphs but then decided to spare you all the details. A lot of it was probably a repetition of what I wrote already.

Mom made a video of me last week. No, not of me in the litter box! I didn't even use the litter box at all last Sunday. Unfortunately, she didn't focus the camera on me the whole time and missed a really good shot of me yawning. By the time she saw the yawn, it was too late. She ended up cutting the scenes without me. If only she hadn't moved the camera this would have been a pawsome video. You'll just have to imagine me sitting there and all of a sudden yawning.

Well, the video didn't seem to want to upload to Catster. The message said that "an error occurred while connecting to the server." We've heard other cats complain about the fleas on Catster but haven't experienced anything unusual until now. Oh well, all the video shows is me sitting down while some music is playing on the radio. Before long I stand up, shake my paw and then slink off. Remember that I yawned too but that part wasn't captured on video. I was going to ask if any cat recognized the song and group but obviously I can't do that now that there's no video. A certain cat bed of mine is in the video too. Mom has been trying to get me to use this bed for the longest time and has been moving it to various spots in the living room but it wasn't until today that I finally rediscovered this cat bed and chose to curl up in it again. Was Mom every happy about that!

Purrs,
Vanessa

P.S. Toffy and I will be announcing the grand prize winner of our series of games on Tuesday.

It gets complicated

In my previous diary entry I told you about how the vet wants some of my pee so that it can be tested for any abnormalities which would help to determine whether there's anything wrong with me. Remember, Mom noticed lately that I had hardly been peeing at all and was worried that something was wrong with me, especially since some cat peed twice on the bathroom floor. Mind you, that was next to Toffy's litter box, so don't look at me!

Well, since I had peed in the old kitty litter after getting home from my vet appointment last Tuesday, there was no telling when I would pee next, but later in the day Mom cleaned both litter boxes (Toffy's and mine) and into Toffy's box she put his usual kitty litter and into my box she put the special kitty litter that she bought from the vet clinic. She made sure to watch us and prevent me from trying to use Toffy's litter box and vice versa, even shutting me in the bedroom alone with the special kitty litter. Before long, Toffy was curious as to why I was shut in the bedroom and started scratching at the door and I did likewise from the other side. Mom was getting annoyed so she let me out. Since Toffy had already peed in his own litter box a short while ago, the chances of him wanting to pee again in my litter box weren't that great, but she made sure to keep an eye on both of us. When it was time for bed, she decided to shut me in the room with her without Toffy. As you may have guessed, this arrangement did not work out, and Mom ended up letting Toffy have accesss to the room too, trying to stay awake and watch for any litter box activity. Eventually, she fell asleep.

In the morning, she checked both litter boxes and was happy that neither of them had been touched by any cat. She hoped that I would pee in the special kitty litter before she had to leave for work and shut me in the bedroom once again, checking on me every few minutes. I did not pee. There was only one option now because there was no way she was going to leave the special kitty litter, which by the way is very expensive if you hadn't guessed, and risk not knowing which cat peed in it when she got home. So, Mom transferred the special kitty litter into a glass Pyrex container, covered it with the lid, and stored it in one of the kitchen cupboards. She put some fresh kitty litter in my litter box, but because the store was out of my usual kitty litter when she went shopping the day before, she had to buy a different kitty litter. It's the same as Toffy's but the regular one instead of the one for multiple cats. Mom figured that since I don't seem to like the litter in Toffy's box maybe I'd prefer this one.

In the evening, when she got home from work, she noticed that both litter boxes were still untouched. However, before long Toffy did both types of business in his litter box… or maybe he peed and I pooped in it. One thing's certain: I had not yet peed in either litter box since Tuesday after my vet appointment. Before feeding us our dinner, Mom transferred the fresh kitty litter that she had put in my box in the morning to a plastic garbage bag which she left on the bathroom floor, rinsed out and dried my litter box, and then transferred the special kitty litter from the Pyrex container to the clean box. After I had finished my dinner, she shut me in the bedroom with the litter box. At about 9:00 pm when she came to check on me, she saw me beside the litter box and was delighted to see that I had peed in it. Oh, yes cats, I had peed in the special kitty litter all right, and it wasn't just a little bit of pee, it was A LOT of pee! Mom was pleasantly surprised and collected enough pee to almost fill the small vial that she intended to bring to the vet clinic first thing the next morning. She stored the vial containing my pee in a small plastic baggie that she put into a bigger plastic baggie which she put in the fridge. If she brought my pee sample to the vet clinic at 8:00 am sharp (which is when they open) she'd still be able to catch her bus for work and hopefully not arrive too late. True, the pee sample would be almost 12 hours old, which according to the vet tech who explained this to her, was the maximum amount of time the pee sample could remain in the fridge before being no good any more. I should mention here, that this special kitty litter is a one time use only type of thing, and believe me, I would not have wanted to pee on it again with all that pee in the box. Of course, Mom poured as much of the pee as she could (close to a cup, she thinks) down the toilet, and then added regular kitty litter to the box, leaving the special kitty litter at the bottom, since it would have been too gross to clean out the box, according to her.

Any meow, back to the pee sample. So, Mom is about to leave the house on Thursday morning and head to the vet clinic when all of a sudden the phone rings. The phone never rings that early in the morning, so she knew it had to be an important call. And it was, kind of. It turned out that Mom needed to be at work as soon as possible, which meant that she had to leave immediately in order to get there as fast as she could.

So, to make an exceedingly long story somewhat shorter, Mom did not take my pee sample to the vet clinic, which by the way is in the opposite direction as her work place. But even if she had gotten it there on time, chances are the sample would have been too old by the time someone got around to testing it, especially if it had to be sent away to a different lab for analysis. Mom says she's going to keep an eye on how much I pee, because she thinks I might be peeing too much now. Of course, she can't be sure because you see, cats, I'm now using Toffy's litter box while Toffy uses both boxes. I know that Mom wants me to use my litter box again. She is happy about one thing though: whereas I always kicked out a lot of kitty litter and made a huge mess when using my own litter box (with the old kitty litter in it), when I use Toffy's litter box I am much tidier… so far at least.

So, what do you make of all this cats? I told you it gets complicated, didn't I?

Purrs,
Vanessa

Wanted: Pee Sample

Hi, cats! I just wanted to report that my vet appointment went well this morning. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with me--well, except for a gum infection (I foresee a dental appointment in my future)--and even declared that I have a nice bum! (laughs) She does want a pee sample from me though. I happily obliged shortly after Mom and I got home, but apparently I was supposed to wait until Mom washed my litter box and put some special kitty litter in it. Now that my litter box has this special kitty litter I'm not sure I want to pee in it. The stuff barely covers the bottom of the box. I'll have a tough time kicking it out.

The vet was unable to say which cat peed on the bathroom floor. I maintain that it's Toffy, but he accuses me. Maybe the pee sample will provide the answer? It's either a behavioural issue or a health issue. If the pee sample is abnormal, then it's a health issue and it's Toffy who peed on the floor… because he's the cat who was sick these past few days. If there's nothing wrong with it, then it's a behavioural issue and it's still Toffy who did the inappropriate peeing… because we all know that he's the only cat in this household with behavioural issues, so don't we have our answer right there? At least that's my take on the situation.

What do you think, cats? Which cat peed on the bathroom floor and why? Please say it wasn't me!

Purrs,
Vanessa

Thanks! And something's been going on around here...

Thanks, Diary Gal, for picking my diary as one of today's daily picks. Congrats to all the other kitties whose diaries were also featured today. Thanks for the nice comments and rosettes, cats! I hope that more cats will decide to play the games in Toffy's journal and in my diary. You have to play all the games for the best chance at winning the grand prize. Toffy has promised to do a recap of all the games and maybe even give out a few clues, but he hasn't been feeling well since yesterday due to poop issues, so you might not hear from him until later in the week.

On Saturday I heard Mom on the phone making a vet appointment for me for tomorrow. She's worried because I have been peeing less than usual for over a week, but I don't act like anything is wrong. I'm eating all my food (to which she adds a bit of extra water) and am acting like my usual self. It's just that the kitty litter clumps are very small and break up instantly when picked up with the litter scooper. Could it be something about the kitty litter? It's due to be changed this week. Mom says she'll buy fresh kitty litter tomorrow (as well as more food since we're almost out).

Toffy's poop problem started yesterday several hours after breakfast. He hasn't been able to use the litter box despite many attempts to do so and has only produced a little bit of poop, including a small piece just found inside one of the pink cat cubes where he had been resting. He also threw up on the carpet several times yesterday, and left traces of poop on it from scooting. Mom has been busy cleaning up after him with the Nature's Miracle.

Toffy has hardly eaten a thing since breakfast yesterday. He ate a little this morning but wouldn't touch his dinner or even lick food off Mom's finger. She just force-fed him some water but isn’t sure how much he actually swallowed. Mom told me that she's going to call the vet clinic tomorrow morning to see if she can bring in Toffy instead of me if the situation with him doesn't improve overnight. Go right ahead, Mom! I have no objections to that idea! What, Mom? Oh, she meant that she'd bring in Toffy at the time that my appointment is scheduled and then try to get an appointment for me later in the day.

I also have to mention another problem that occurred two days in a row now (yesterday and today). Some cat (Mom claims she doesn't know who it was because she wasn't home when the incidents occurred) has been peeing outside the litter box… on the bathroom floor next to where Toffy's litter box is located, to be precise. This has never happened before, so obviously Mom is worried. Well, if I haven't been producing enough pee, it can't be me. Besides, I don't normally use Toffy's litter box… at least, I'm rarely seen using his litter box. Toffy has always been making trips to the litter boxes in his attempts to poop, so why wouldn't he make sure to pee inside the box too?

(Looks at the time.) It's Tuesday already! This diary entry is about Monday. Sorry for any confusion. I'll write an update when I have more news. Please purr that nothing serious is wrong with us. Thanks so much.

Purrs,
Vanessa

The Name Game

In this challenging game you'll be tasked with forming as many words as you can using only the letters in my name:

Vanessa Olivia Creamcheese

Here are the rules that you must follow to be sure that your words qualify for points:

1) All words must have a minimum of 7 letters.
2) Words with fewer than 7 letters will not count.
3) Words in the plural form (i.e. with "s" or "es" added to the end) will only count if
a) the word would be less than 7 letters without the "s" or "es"
b) it is not possible to form the singular form of the word with the letters in my name (for example, a word that ends in "y"). In this case, you may list the plural form.
4) Words that end in "s" but are not plural forms are fine.
5) Verbs must be in the infinitive form, i.e. the form that follows the word "to".
6) You can include names of places and brand names.
7) Don't include names of people or pets.
8) If a letter occurs more times in your word than in my name the word will not count.
9) No more than one word from the same word family will qualify, so use the one with the most letters to get the most points.

I hope this isn't too confusing. If you have any questions, just ask!

You will receive 1 point for each 7-letter word, 2 points for each 8-letter word, 3 points for each 9-letter word, 4 points for each 10-letter word, etc.

Please do NOT post your answers in the diary comments! Send me a pawmail with your list of words by 9 pm Catster Time on Saturday, November 12th. That will also be the deadline for playing any of the other games in my diary and in Toffy's journal.

Good luck! Thanks for playing!

Purrs,
Vanessa

P.S. Toffy and I have decided that the grand prize winner will have a choice of receiving a whole bunch of Zealies (exact number to be determined later) or, if you prefer, a gift certificate to a Catster merchant (the value of which will be decided later and provided that this option is available). Other players with correct answers will also receive some Zealies so don't stop playing, cats! Rosettes will be awarded to all cats who played the games.

Bad kitty!

Cats, I must confess. I was a bad kitty today. Some of Mom's clothes were hanging on the back of one of the chairs in the dining area where she had placed them yesterday so that they could dry. Well, this afternoon all of a sudden she hears a noise. Curious, she goes to check where it came from. The sound that she heard was me sharpening my claws on the back of one of the chairs. Shh… don't tell her that! The first thing Mom noticed as she walked into the room was a bunch of her clothes lying on the floor and me sitting on top of them. "Vanessa! Naughty!" she yelled, as she picked up the clothes and hung them back on the chair.

Ha ha!! I may be Naughty Ness, but Toffy is ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ !

Can you guess what is the above word that describes Toffy so purrfectly? Three points to the cat that guesses it first and one point for any other cat that guesses it correctly before I check my diary comments!

Purrs,
Vanessa

P.S. If you haven't had a chance to play the other games that Toffy and I posted recently in our diaries, it's not too late to do so!

The Guessing Game: Motto

I just realized something: Toffy's name and mine don't have any letters in common. Interesting but not surprising.

Anymeow, I've been contemplating changing my motto. I ran it by Toffy who immediately protested because he thinks this motto describes him purrfectly. I disagree. So what if all three words end in the letter "t"! The letter "s", of which there are two in my name, also figures in each word. And in two of the words the letter "e" appears right before it, just like in my name!

So, now you're curious about this motto, aren't you? Sorry cats, I can't tell you what it is. You're going to have to guess it yourself. Hint: the words are separated by commas. You get two points for each word that you guess correctly, plus three bonus points for getting the order right.

Thanks for playing!

Purrs,
Vanessa

Look out, spider!

The following incident happened a while ago but I'm only getting to post it in my diary now.

After a brief game of chase, Toffy suddenly chickens out after I hide behind the TV. There something quickly captures my attention. Mom approaches to take a look, thinking that I'm trying to play with one of the power cords or cables. But no, there are no power cords or cables under the TV stand, which is where my paws are swiping at something. Mom rolls the TV stand forward and to the right. That's when she sees it… the itty bitty spider I was attempting to capture is crawling about on the carpet. I sense that fear has overcome her as she utters: "Be careful, Vanessa! Don't touch it! Wait right there!" And she runs off and returns 30 seconds later with a paper towel and a shoe in her hand. "Get out of the way, Vanessa!" she exclaims as she locates the spider, but just as she's about to whack it with the shoe she realizes that it appears to be curled up in a little ball and that it isn't moving. I tell her the news: "Mom, it's already dead! I just killed it with my paw!"

You won't believe what Mom does next! Before I could stop her, she slams the shoe down hard on the already dead spider and picks up what was supposed to be my snack and goes to throw it in the garbage.

More recently a spider that was making its merry way across the ceiling suffered a similar fate at the hands of you know who. Spiders beware. If I don't get you first, Mom sure will!

Purrs,
Vanessa