Kenzie's Korner

I Still Got It!

I'm telling you, living with Sebastian is quite a trial. Nothing is sacred to that cat! He has no morals, either. He's bored? Must be time to pick a fight!

Yesterday Mama was home with another one of her really bad migraines and I had been trying to help her but Mama said that my paws and claws in her face weren't appurciated so she put her pillow on her head.

I was quite annoyed by that; what does she mean that I am not helping? So I got off the bed.

Sab was nearby and decided it was time to take me on. He pounced on me and it was a free for all.

He's been doing this lately; Mama says he's bored and feeling better with the weather getting cooler. I wish his asthma would be hard every day and he'd be quiet and sedate! I decided to teach him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget.

I bit his back paw. I got him good. I also howled, hissed, and took a big slap at it.

Mama was no happy. "I said SHUT UP!" she yelled.

Sab dashed off, wounded. I got him good. Later Mama was up and about and saw the blood on the glider chair and she got all worried and woke me up to check me over. Then she checked Sab over and then she found the damage.

Guess who got scolded? It wasn't me!

I'm Normal!!!!

On Thursday Mama pulled a fast one on me and hauled me off to the vet. It's bad enough to get dragged out there, but then I had to endure a whippersnapper of a black kitten, on a leash, who tried to make friends by coming up to my carrier and sticking her nose inside!

Boy I'm telling you... I taught that kit a thing or two about respecting her elders!

Then Miss Carole came out and put me on the scale and then she stole my blood again. Said it was time to check my thyroid level.

The good news is that I've lost over two pounds since March, when it was discovered that I'd gained 3 pounds in 6 months. Miss Carole and Dr. David are very pleased with me!

And the coolest news of all - or so says Mama - is that my thyroid level is dead center in the normal range! I knew there was a reason I've been feeling more like myself. My beautiful fur is looking sleek again and I've had enough energy to spare; I've been beating up on that Sebastian who think's he's in charge and putting him in his place. I've been leaving clumps of orange hair for Mama to find. Even though she scolds me, I think she's proud that I can still put him in his place!

We Made it!

I'm telling you, it was a very scary Friday we had.

Mama had been keeping an eye on the TV, watching someone named Bill who was making waves in the ocean and no one was sure he wouldn't come visit us, but he didn't, or so Mama says.

Instead, on Friday afternoon, there was no sun in my windows. That's not surprising since this year is the wettest summer ever, the weather people say. Mama took out our cat carrier and the guinea pig carrier and she moved Reese the hamster's cage and put all of this stuff next to the door to go outside. She also had the TV on loud so she could hear it.

We had supper, and just after that, it got very, very dark. It's not the right time of year for it to get nighttime dark when we eat supper. Mama took her camera outside to take pictures. She wasn't gone for very long before she came racing up the stairs. She put her camera down, yelled out "Sab! Kenzie!" really scared like, scooped up the guinea pigs and threw them in their carrier. Sab was already over sniffing things and shoved him in the carrier. I wasn't about to let Mama put me in there but she was quicker than I was and she picked me up - not gently, I might add - and threw me in the carrier with Sab. Mama put all of us in the stairs in the hall. She covered her head with a towel and sat next to us and we waited and waited and waited.

It was very hot out there. Sab was digging at the door and howling; I didn't blame him at all. I was howling too. It was getting scary! The guinea pigs were chattering their teeth, and the hamster was just plain curious. Just as Mama sat next to us, horrible noises started to come from outside and I could see Mama praying for all of us to be safe. It was so dark but the lightening was flashing and the thunder was the loudest I had ever heard; Mama says she hadn't heard anything like that before either. The rain came down so hard it sounded like banging on the roof. It was so loud! I was scared! I hate to admit it, but I was glad to be hiding with Sebastian so I wouldn't be alone, but all I wanted to do was curl up in Mama's arms!

Finally the storm went away and Mama got up. She brought our carriers into the apartment again and let us out. Mama says that when she went to take photos of the dark clouds coming in, she had looked up into the sky above her head and saw a funnel starting to form right over our building; that's why she was so scared and made us wait in the hallway. Later she heard on the news that it was confirmed that there was a funnel next to our building but it didn't touch the ground or anything around it.

Mama says we were very fortunate, because tornadoes don't come here much but we've had six in Maine this year. There was another one about an hour away from us that did a lot of damage and people got hurt but no one died.

I, for one, want the sun to come back!

I am Stylin!!!

Mama took a very special trip yesterday. She picked up a couple baby rats that someone she knew had, and she went to some place to meet Morgan the PirateGato's mom because she and Morgan were adopting them!

Mama says that Morgan has a wonderful mommy and they had a short but lovely time at the park where they stopped and they are both sure that Morgan is going to fall in love with his new brothers. Poor Morgan woke up a few days ago to find that his last rat sister had died during the night and he was so sad. I hope he's not so sad now!

Mama also didn't tell us she was coming home with a surprise. She's talked about it for a while, and Sab and I have whined for a couple for a while, but finally we are proud owners of a genuine, original Morgan's Bed! I would have chosen pink, but you know, after napping so comfy in the red one, I have to admit, I think it matches my fur just purfectly!

Sab, however, is such a sore loser; do you see his face in my new picture, showing off my bed? Its not my fault that he sniffed it and turned his back; I know a good opportunity when I see it! I'm telling you, if you don't have a Morgan's Bed yet, then you don't know how much better your naps can be with one!

Mama says that she'll keep it in the kitchen for now so the foster rabbits don't use it (and chew it; that Shorite girl chews almost everything!) so now we've got another soft spot to use while we hide from rabbits!

PS: thank you, Diary Gal, for making me a diary pick today! What a way to wake up after sleeping in a Morgan's Bed

Three Entire Years!

That's how long its been since Mama found a place called "Catster" and said "let's check this place out!"

I can't believe that we all missed that important anniversary - it was last Wednesday! Mama's been busy and I've just been lazy and trying to get as much love out of her as I can.

Mama's not been easy to distract, though. A friend of hers that she's worked with on church stuff for years lost her dog a couple weeks ago. To hear Mama tell it, her friend had gone to Flo Ri D'oh to pick up this dog and they got all the way to the town next to us and that big, silly dog slipped her collar and hasn't been captured since. Mama's helping her friend to find the dog because this friend lives a couple hours north of us and doesn't feel good, but she's been driving to our area every day to look for her dog. The police have seen the dog but she's too scared to get caught. Rescue people have seen the dog and tried to trap her, but she got out of that, too, got hurt, and now won't come near people at all. Mama says its a female, tan Great Dane and that those are big dogs and hard to miss.

Ahem, Mama, I don't miss dogs at all. Dogs are the enemy! But I don't like the idea of a dog being lost and being hurt and not having a place to sleep or anything to eat. So please purr that Mama and her friend Chris can find her dog!

Turn Off the Noise!

An Olde Furt such as myself can't get a moment's peace around here these days. I'm telling you.... all I want is to nap next to my mama and get my head scratched and it's just not happening!

Two days ago Mama was home all day. Sounds purfect, right? That's what I thought.

Instead, she cleans the rabbits and guinea pigs. She moves Sab's scratching table out of the corner that the rabbits like to hide and Mama started howling and growling like an angry cat. (I've taught her well, I will admit!) That's when she discovered that Shortie had ripped/torn/chewed a hole in the corner of the living room carpet. Then Mama went on a mission to cover the hole and protect it so she doesn't make it worse and wowsers Mama made such a racket!

Reese, my hamster sister, has been doing housekeeping of her own. Mama gave her a tube to sleep in at the top of her cage and she decided it makes the best cupboard to store food and sleep. Mama said that was OK until Reese decided to start kicking stuff down the tube to the bottom. I thought hamster slept during the day! We have to listen to this horrible crash, bang, bonk all day long of her knocking food down the tube. Mama says "enough is enough" and promises me that she'll give Reese's home a thorough scrub today, but in the meantime, oh the noise!

Yesterday, I was curled up next to Mama sleeping peacefully in front of the open window with the starlight in it and the breeze from the lake. It was a great spot to sleep. It was still nighttime after all; it was even too early to bed Mama for breakfast. Next thing I know, there's the loudest BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP outside our window! I was immediately awake and couldn't get off the bed fast enough - it was so scary! It woke Mama up too and she sat straight up and said "what is THAT?" She looked out the window to find that the road workers were already awake and they were putting the yellow and white stripes on the road in front of our building - in the middle of the night! They've been putting the black stuff on the road across from us for days and there's been all that noise, too, but "they had to do stripe the road at 4 am?" Mama growled. Was very rude, but Mama got up and fed us breakfast anyway!

If that wasn't enough noise, then there's noise about a baby coming - a human baby. It's Auntie Becky's human baby, and Mama says there are "complications" or "possible complications" or maybe even "coming early" and other silly stuff. I don't know much about it, but its got Mama going here and there and all over the place to help out Auntie Becky and Mama says its only going to be more busy as it gets closer to the baby being born. Mama's been shopping for the baby and come home with shopping bags so I've been making noise of my own.

I love that kind of noise - I love it when Mama watches me play with shopping bags!

Birthdays and Browsers

Today is Sebastian's 1oth birthday. I can't believe its been that long since my life has been disturbed! He came to live with us when he was 8 weeks old, and life just hasn't been as quiet and sane since!

He's good for some things, though, like the non-diet supper food we got to eat - succulent wet pouch food from Pounce with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. Oh it tasted so moreish!

Mama just about got buried in her paw mail with all the notes that cats sent Sab birthday greetings so she almost missed the paw mail from Catster that talks about the new Catster brower add-on for FireFox. Of course I don't totally understand what all of that means, but I told Mama to put it on our computer right away! Like a good mama, she did, but she said "its too big" for our computer screen and she took it off. Says its also too busy for her eyes to pay attention to anything else but the cats. I liked it though. I'll have to figure out how to put it back when Mama's not looking!

Mama tells me that a lady called the shelter today asking questions about Shortie. Do I dare to hope that maybe Shortie could get a new home soon? Oh that would be pawsome!

Finally Mama Has Time!

Oh this morning was just wonderful; I didn't want it to ever end. I climbed back into bed before Mama did this morning (after she got up to feed us and read the newspaper, that is) so she picked me up.

Instead of moving me out of the way, like she usually does, this time she held me and rubbed my chin and behind my ears and kissed me and just loved one me. It was so wonderful; its been such a crazy week around here!

It all started last Monday night, when Mama went to say hello to new hamster sister Reese and was horrified to find out that Reese had lost one of her back paws during the day! Mama has no idea how it happened; I don't remember hearing Reese in distress, but sure enough, one of her back paws was gone and in its place was a swollen leg with dried blood on it.

Mama panicked and washed it off before she called one of the bunny people at the shelter who is a vet helper purson. They talked and then Mama gave Reese some pain medicine.

But on Tuesday Reese's leg got very, very big, so on Wednesday Mama took her to see Dr. Shawn, who gave her more medicine to take but said that her leg looked good. Mama hasn't found the paw yet, but Reese is taking her medicine (not happily, so I hear) and the swelling and healing is going well, Mama says.

Then on Thursday, Mama took Monet, our 3-colored guinea pig, to the vet. I was worried something was wrong with him, but Mama said it was just his well piggie visit. He checked out just fine so that made Mama so happy!

Poor Mama's been having such allergy problems and she's had a hard time seeing and reading and smelling things so she's been taking pills and sleeping. She was so messed up that she ended up giving Reese way too much medicine and gave her 14 days worth of antibiotic medicine in 5 days. Mama couldn't figure out why she ran out of medicine so quick and complained to the girls at Dr. Shawn's office. That's when they told her what happened and then Mama felt so silly.

So, since "Dr. Sab" has not taken his responsibilities to heart, I have stuck to Mama like glue, as she says, and I've been a very good nurse. Mama's head and nose won't bother her if I sit on her head! That's my plan!

Another Foster Bun?!

Oh my catness Mama brought home another bunny named Ringo. Mama and the shelter staff have had a long time to get to know Ringo but he's been at the shelter for almost a year a year! so I don't blame Mama for wanting to get him out of there.

But the deal is that Shortie is getting worse in the behavior department (I will spare you the details of when she RAMMED ME) and talked it over with the girls. They are hoping that Shortie needs a buddy and that Ringo is the guy! Mama tells me that she wrote up the new bio so someone would come and love Ringo, so maybe Shortie has been waiting for Ringo!

Anyway, I must agree with Mama; Ringo is very cat like. He's also very bunny and hops and zips all over the place. He's actually amusing to me: he keeps Shortie in her place!

I've got some more bunny watching to do so off I go...

She's Kidding, Right?

Today is Mama's stay home day. I love those kind of days!

The phone rang, and Mama, who's had her nose stuck in one of those Sparky books over the past day, moved her nose enough to reach over and answer the phone. However, I am a smart cat and can read and the phone had a number on it that I know belongs to the shelter.

That's enough to make me worry!

I worry even more when Mama starts asking questions about cages and space and room and "how long" and "when" and "sure".

I'm hoping this is all about Shortie going back to the shelter and someone else taking her place because if its not.... I'm going to be way too busy to do anything other than supervise!

Newest Member of the Family...

and I have been slow in mentioning it!

Introducing.... Reese! Mama says that her name is like the candy and said "REE-see". Yup, she's a hamster!

Reese's mama, Trixie, arrived at the shelter with Sonny and Brownie on March 2nd. On March 3rd, Trixie surprised the small animal staff with 11 babies! Mama says it wasn't a total surprise because when you've got male and female hamsters all in one box and they are surrendered the the shelter, they always assume the girls are pregnant. What they didn't realize is that Trixie was that pregnant because she didn't look big at all!

Mama's been whining about wanting another hamster because of how sweet and silly Henri was, and with 11 babies to choose from and babies that Mama took care of from birth, she just had to have one of the babies!

Mama tells me that the 5 boys all looked like Sonny, the dad, and were almost the same color as Henri. The 6 girls, however, were different colors. Mama says that Reese had the most unusual color patterns of all the hamsters and she got the first pickin!

Then surprise! Mama says that they all thought Brownie was a boy... until Brownie gave birth to 10 hamsters on March 20th! Mama says those hamsters were brown and black, but Reese had already caught Mama's eye, and they won't be ready to leave Brownie for another couple weeks.

Mama introduced me to Reese on Tuesday, after Reese came home on Monday, was spooked out, and had to get used to her new cage and home. Mama says that poor Reese had never been alone until Monday; she still lived with her mama and sisters at the shelter, but it was time to separate them.

Reese is a fussy thing. She does not want to be touched. When she sees Mama coming, she races into her tube so Mama can't touch her. Mama has to learn to be quick, I say!

Mama says I have to give her time; she's just 5 weeks old and still getting used to being handled.

In greater news: I got to sit in an open window this morning! Oh it is the most heavenly thing to spring! It's almost 60 outside today, so Mama opened it and let me climb in. I have no intentions of letting Sab have it!

Back to Normal!

Mama needs a new brain - or at least a new grocery list. The last one she had was not very helpful to her. She forgot all sorts of stuff when she went shopping last month!

Just in the last few days, we had problems.

Sab ran out of his kidney food. Mama started feeding him my weight loss food which, according to Dr. Vicki, apparently he needs to loose a few ounces, so Mama wasn't too worried about him missing a couple days of his kidney food. That was Tuesday.

Mama had to totally empty the #1 box because Sab uses it for #2 (he's such a pain in the tail!) and when she went to fill the box, she realized we were out of litter. So the #1 litter box got bleached and washed and then put back in the bathroom with no litter, and with its top off so we wouldn't use it. That was Wednesday.

Yesterday Mama fed the guinea pigs the last of their timothy pellet food. This morning she had to give them alfalfa bunny food. (Mama says that timothy food is the best for animals, but alfalfa is what is donated at the shelter. Bunnies can eat guinea pig food, but guinea pigs can't eat a steady diet of bunny food b/c it doesn't have enough vitamins in it for the pigs.) Bijou didn't care about the change in pellets, but Monet...

We learned early this morning that guinea pigs can throw tantrums, too. Mo-Mo was not pleased that Mama gave him Shortie's food! He flipped his bowl over, buried the pellets, pushed his bowl to the side of his cage, then used his teeth and nose to bang his bowl against the side of his condo for about an hour! He was so noisy none of us could to back to sleep! Not only was he banging his ceramic bowl, but he was squealing his mad squeal and occasionally stopping to gnaw on the bars of his cage to tell Mama "feed me my regular breakfast!"

Shortie ate the last of her timothy hay on Wednesday, and she was sniffing around for more, but Mama didn't have it to give her. Shortie was not pleased with the regular horse hay that Mama had for her litter box, so Shortie ripped all the newspaper out of her litter box, tossed it all over the pen, then did the same with the hay.

Thank cat Mama got her check today! Since Mo-Mo was making so much noise, Mama had a hair appointment today, and she had run out of breakfast foods, she got out of bed early - for her- and left to go buy

food for Sab
food for me
double packages of litter
food for the guinea pigs
food for Shortie
hay for Shortie & the pigs

and cereal for Mama. When she got home, she poured fresh litter into the #1 box and I got to christen it first.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah life feels so much better when things are back to normal! I made sure Mama put "extra" on the grocery list so we don't run out again!

Bad Bun!

My tissues are GONE! While I was napping in the sun, that "busy body" bunny named Shortie and is mysteriously black, went over, peed and pooed and chewed all over my tissues so now Mama says they have to go.

I wonder what bunny would taste like in a wet can pate?

Pass the Tissues!

Mama's secret sister from church continues to be my second most favorite human around. I do say this with a bit of caution, because I don't think I've ever met her and I'm probably going to hide and hiss at her if she ever came to visit.

However, she knows how to pick out gifts that are sure to please! First she sent us catnip, then she sent us fancy treats and catviar (that Mama said looked like bunny poo to her), then she sent us cat toys.

This month Mama came home with a pretty bag with water and dolphins on it and she put it on the bed. I was napping nearby, so I didn't do much more than a cursory sniff. Smelt like chocolate, and no one messes with Mama and her chocolate!

Sure enough, Secret Sister got Mama some Easter candy (and while she didn't give us a real bunny, she did give us a curiously green eating bunny. Have you heard of a green bunny? Yeah, didn't pass my sniff test either but Mama says it was "ok") and some cat stickers.

And the tissues! Mama says they weren't really part of the gift. She says humans use huge, colored pieces of tissues to decorate packages. While it seems silly to me, what is not silly to me is that

Mama put the tissues on the floor and said "have fun, Mackenzie!

Oh my cat - can you say crinkly tissues? Crinkly bags? Oh my catness - the blue and white tissues make the best toys ever! Mama says its safer than playing with plastic bags, but what do I care. It crinkles! It wrinkles! I can leap on it and slide and make all sorts of noises!

Mama put a couple pieces on the bed today when she left to go to the shelter. I made quite sure that Sebastian didn't get NEAR it!

Shortie has even gotten into the act. She discovered that tissue is fun to chew, nibble, and toss, and, since she is black all over, she chose one of the bright white pieces. Mama said it was cute to see her attack it, but that cleaning up her "confetti" will not be fun at all!

Secret Sister outdid herself this month!

Thank You Doesn't Seem Enough

First of all, on behalf of Mama, Bijou, Monet, Sebastian, and Shortie, I want to thank each of you who send kind thoughts and messages to us upon Chocolate's passing. A special thank you to my new furiend, Emma and family for the heartfelt rosette, as well as notes from
Diogi,
Jason Hopper,
Freddie,
Hazel Lucy (does she really need any introduction? I think not!),
Pepper,
Sparkman,
Onyx and her family, and those who left Sab some rosies:
Kiwi and her big family, Chumley, Morgan the Pirate Gato, Alfie, and
a very, very, VERY heartfelt an grateful "thank you" to the mama of one of the above mentioned cats who gave money to help pay for Chocolate's vet bill on behalf of the shelter.

Chocolate was only about 18 months old when he died, but he had such an effect on everyone he met. He will be missed by so many people; I wonder if he knew how much he was loved and by how many.

Things are back to normal around here: Mama spent a few hours on Sunday scrubbing spots he made on the carpet; she finally got his sick cage and his bedding and litter boxes all washed and put away. She took Chocolate back to the shelter for a proper "burial". Mama says they did some testing or something on him to find out what happened. She says that Chocolate apparently died from suffocation; his belly was so swollen and bloated that his heart and lungs didn't have space to work anymore. They also believe that some helpful visitor fed him some broccoli, which is not good for bunnies b/c it causes them to bloat. Mama says that everyone is now on special alert to make sure no broccoli gets into the bunny room ever again!

It is with Very Heavy Hearts

and I must tell you that Chocolate died at 8:38 pm Eastern time, right next to Mama's bed, on the floor, in his makeshift bed.

I'm also very sorry to say that I slept through it, until Sebastian started to howl his fool head off.

I am so sad that he's gone, but I am glad that he could at least be here, where he felt at home, for his final hours. Mama says that's what's important to remember right now: he died with his family and that we gave him as much love as we could for the 9 weeks and 1 day he lived with us.

Psst, don't tell anyone, but I will miss you, Chocolate.

Our Chocolate is Back - and SICK!

The apartment has been such a flurry of activity today. It has been so distressful!

Mama's still extremely tired, so she had just laid down for a nap with us when the phone rang and she did some talking. I heard her ask "is he going to die?" and then there were some more talking.

Anytime you hear that question you've got to get worried, right?

Mama hung up the phone and hopped off the bed. She started scurrying around, moving stuff in the living room. She pulled out the guinea pigs "sick" cage, where they go when they need monitoring. She started putting it together. Then I heard her call Memere and work and ask her to puray for Chocolate because he was very, very sick and could be dying.

Chocolate? As in our last foster bun, Chocolate? Please say its not so, Mama!

Mama left and came back about an hour later with one of those boxes that I came home in... the box that usually means there's a foster animal arriving. This was confusing, though; Shortie was still in her pen!

Mama opened the box and pulled our Chocolate out of the box. He certainly didn't look like the Chocolate I remember from 5 weeks ago! Mama told Sab and I that he was very, very sick. He was extremely dehydrated; he hadn't eaten or peed or pooed in at least a day, and his tummy was full of gas and air. Mama says that they were very, very worried about him this morning and that the shelter is so broke right now that they can't afford to send poor Choc to the vet! The vet gave them instructions on what to do for him, and one of those includes giving him belly medicine every six hours and force feeding him.

Mama got right to work. She cleaned Shortie's pen, but instead of putting it back together, she pulled out the dog crate and made that up. Then she took the pen and she pulled it across the living room so it was in two pieces: one for Shortie to have, and one for Chocolate to have. Mama says that he needs to get out and about to expel the gas in his belly.

This is quite confusing, I must say. Mama had to move the fence/barrier to get to the guinea pigs, and I followed her. Next thing I knew, I was on the back side of the pen, with Shortie, and I couldn't get to the door! The fence is just too tall for me to jump! Mama noticed immediately that there was a problem and she let me out.

Chocolate seems happy to be back; even I can see that. Sebastian, of all cats, has been sitting by Choc's cage and sniffing and taking care of him. Can you believe it? Another amazing thing is that Shortie and Chocolate have been almost inseparable since they met through the fence. They touched noses for a long time, and then they laid down next to each other with the fence between them.

Mama says he's in a lot of pain; he keeps grinding his back teeth. He's not trying to hop onto the bed at all; he's just staying in one space. Mama says he can't have pain medicine until morning.

It's gonna be a long night here, I can tell already....

please remember to purr big purrs for Chocolate. We don't want him to die; he's got to start eating and getting rid of that gas!

Cleaning Up After Mama

This morning Mama was roaming around in the kitchen when I heard her call us. "Kenzie! Sab! Come here!" she called out.

Mama + kitchen + being called = pay dirt!

Sab got there before me. I found him staring at the orange-yellow stuff on the floor. Mama pointed to it and said "Kenzie, have a bite!"

I didn't need to be told twice! I sniffed it - score! It was an egg and its shell! I lapped at the egg for a moment before backing away so Sab could have a bite.

He didn't seem to appurciate the egg so much, so I muscled my way to the expanding egg to lick at it some more.

Apparently Mama had an accident and "plop" went her breakfast on the floor before she could even cook it! Eggs are most definitely not part of my new "must loose weight" diet but who am I to question the food that falls from heaven?

Ooooooooooooooh it was so delightful, until Mama wiped it off the floor. I wanted her to leave it, but she mumbled something about "un level floors" and "running across the kitchen" so bye-bye when my egg!

Goodbye to Socks

Mama tells me that Socks died on Friday. I am so sad.

Mama and I loved to hear and read stories about Socks when he was living in that big, white house at the capital with the president purson. Even though he was black and white, I thought he was a handsome boy. If he only had some brown in him, like me, he'd have been purfect! MOL

Socks was a grand Olde Furt, though. He lived to be 20 years old, and he caught the cancer. Silly Socks; that's not a good thing to catch.

So purrs today for Socks and his families. Thank you for all the stories, Socks.

I Failed My Test!

Mama says that Dr. Diana called her while she was at the grocery store this afternoon. (Mama is forgiven; she brought home a CHOCOLATE BOX for me to play inside!) Dr. Diana told her that my stolen blood told her my garnish is way too much and that I have to cut back on it.

Cut back on my liquid chicken garnish? Oh that is so sad. Mama says "no its not" because it is what has helped me to get so fat.

Oh. No, that's not good.

Mama says she assured Dr. Diana that I'm being normal in all my other ways, so I don't have to give them more blood and I don't have to go back for more poking and prodding.

Phew!

Is This Week Over?

Things have been crazy here!

First, Mama comes home on Tuesday with this white mat thing and she puts it in front of the #2 litter box. I have tried to move it, but its not going anywhere. Mama says its to trap the litter that Sab and I kick out of the box. She says its to help keep the litter out of her bed. I don't like it there. I've tried to move it, and its not going anywhere. I'm going to have to keep working on it.

Second, Mama starts taking all the furniture out of the living room and putting it in the kitchen. She moves my food bowl. She took away the glider and her desk chair. She stole all the room in the kitchen. She even put the bunny cage in the kitchen and Chocolate had to sleep there.

Then, Mama brings in this big, huge, vacuum machine. She put water in it, and then she vacuumed. But this vacuum machine made the carpet all wet! Mama went over and over the carpet and when she was done, the carpet smelt much better, but it was wet. I had to step on a wet carpet to get to the bed. I did not like this and I showed my disdain by shaking my wet paws at Mama. She thought it was funny!

Thirdly, Mama gets us all excited when she pulls the bunny cage down yesterday morning, puts Chocolate in his carrying box, and out the door they went. Oh it was such a good feeling...

until Mama came home with the same white box, but then she set up a different looking cage and then she pulled out a black bunny. Chocolate is a white bunny with dark circles on his eyes. This is a small bunny. Mama says her name is Shortie and she's a dwarf who has a bad attitude. Mama says we're going to love that bad attitude out of her while she takes her medicine for an infection.

This is all good and fine, except that this morning, after Mama put the furniture back in the living room, she pulled out the pet carrier, put me inside, and took me outside in the freezing coldness! What a dirty trick! Mama took me to see Dr. Diana for my semi-annual exam.

I was not about to cooperate. I growled and howled at Carol. She wasn't worried about that at all. She just took the top of my carrier off so I'd come out! Well, I'm not stupid. She put the lid on the floor, next to the carrier, so I just raced out of the bottom and went under the top. She can't get me now! This made Mama and Carol laugh - can you imagine? So Dr. Diana comes in and they take off the lid and they put me on the scale and everyone gasps and starts saying nasty things about me.

Yeah, I know I'm fat. It's just not anyone's business to get upset and tell each other that I weigh 18 pounds and that's bad and I need to be on a diet right away! Dr. Diana got pursonal and poked me and listened to me. She says my lungs are raspy but she thinks that's because I weigh too much. How rude is she... specially since both she and Mama could stand to loose a few, too, and they even said so!

And then... Carol stuck me with two needles! One was for my rah-babies and other one was to steal my blood. I was NOT about to cooperate! She gave up and had to poke my back paw instead of my neck. No way I was gonna let her touch my neck with that needle!

Dr. Diana thinks I've been getting too much thyroid medicine, and that's why I'm getting fat. We shall see...

To top it all... Mama left me there to go to the store! She said it was a good thing she did, because after she left the clinic, she discovered she had a flat tire and had to fix it. I suppose that's a good idea; the car was cold inside!

I'm home now and I'm supervising the new bun hop around the room and check things out. Mama hopes that with the freshly-cleaned carpet, she won't smell any more bunny pee and keep peeing on the carpet!

I'm on my way to the bed; the sun is resting there. At least that is warmer than the air!

Late Night Prowls

Mama went to work at the shelter yesterday. Tonight her back really hurts. So Mama gets up to sit up straight.

I go snooping... mostly hoping that she'll not pay attention and feed us in the middle of the night! That's when I find a note that fell out of her pocket. It says:

Mackenzie
2/6
9:30
no fast

I don't know what it means, but I have a really bad feeling about this!

Bunny Chase!

Oh you won't believe it!

This morning! When Mama went into the shower! She had to shower; it was going-to-shelter morning and she also had to go to the doc so they could steal her blood before eating. Doctors are so mean! Oopps, sorry... as I was saying...

So anyway... Mama was in the shower! It was still dark in here!

I was waiting for Mama, right in front of the shower.

I turned around and was so stunned. Chocolate, the foster bunny, was sitting right next to me! He's supposed to be in his cage!

I got up and ran to the kitchen. Chocolate hopped along behind me and followed me!

I turned around and ran into the living room. Chocolate was right behind me, almost on my tail.

Mama got out of the shower just as Chocolate and I ran past the bathroom.

"Chocolate! What are you doing out?" Mama called out. "HOW did you get out? Mama was drippy wet; she couldn't save me!

I got on the bed... its hard getting up there these days.

Chocolate stayed on the floor. I inspected his cage. The door was wide open! I don't know how he did it! I think he went to the same school as Henri, our Houdini hamster, did!

Mama dashes out of the bathroom! Her hair is drippy! WATER! YIKES! I run away. Mama touches Chocolate. He doesn't want to be picked up. He runs to his cage.

Mama closes the door and locks it.

I don't know about you, but that's just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much work for 6 am in the morning!

She Caught Me!

Dang!

My reputation has been ruined.

Mama caught me... laying down next to Chocolate! Mama says she's never seen me be nice and so close to any of the foster bunnies before.

I thought I heard her. I looked up and saw Mama peeking around the glider chair, where I was lounging, protecting my carpet scratching board from lagomorph invasion, I must add and Chocolate was a mere foot away, happily chewing the hay in his outside-the-cage litter box.

Well... it was Mama and she was looking at me... what else was there to do? Get up and greet her, naturally! So I did. That's when I realized what I had done.

"Oh my goodness Mackenzie you make Mama SO PROUD OF YOU! I knew you'd grow to love that Chocolate. Mama is so proud of you!" and on and on she carried. Then she had to call and tell Memere.

So, as you see, my reputation is ruined.

Oh my cat I just has the most horrific thought. What is Mama twists this to mean that Chocolate will need to live with us forever and become an official part of the family? What have I done?!

Where Did that Lost Pound Go?

Mama and I have a serious problem: we've both gained weight. Mama says its not my fault; says its my thyroid medicine making me fat. I wonder what her excuse is?

Mama says that since I am eating about the same amount of food as before (please don't tell her I've been pushing Sab away from his bowl!) but I've really porked out, we need to do something about it.

I really didn't notice the changes at first. After all, I was severely distracted by having bunny poo in my bowl! Serious - that's what it looked like! It was almost the same color; exactly the same shape. It didn't smell like bunny poo, and it certainly didn't taste like bunny poo. Mama called it "catviar" and said it was from her secret sister at church.

I wasn't touching it. Sab wasn't touching it, either. Just looked too much like.... bunny poo! Even Mama thought so!

Then Mama mixed it in with Sab's kidney food and it was an entirely different food. Wowsers it was wonderful! Mama's decided to keep me on Sab's kidney food. Mmmmmmm

The other thing Mama did behind my back without me realizing it was she's scheduled more play time in my day. Naturally I didn't complain! Chasing that green boa is just the most fun thing in the world. I will admit that its hard to do with my plump frame. It kinda squeezes the air out of me so we don't do it for a long time.

I don't know if its helping, but Mama says I didn't give her my "cut off meow" when she picked me up this morning. She's worried that picking me up cuts off my air supply. She'd better not stop giving me attention in the morning because of this!

Stalker Cat

I am being forgotten! Mama's pushing me out of her life! I am being asked to move! I won't have it!

So, yeah, I've been stalking her. Anywhere she is, that is where I will be. I want attention! I want to be reinstated as top pet in this house! When she goes to the litter box, I go with her. When she goes to the kitchen, I get up and greet her. I throw myself at her feet and she walks over me. I don't understand!

Mama won't let me sleep by her pillow at night anymore. She says I take up too much space in the bed. She won't let me stay in my spot anymore. Mama will bend down and pet me but she won't hold me.

I just want her attention again. Is that too much to ask for?

Tonight, though, Mama did pick me up. She brought me to the bed before she dropped me. I don't understand why she won't hold me! She scratched my head and gave me tons of kisses and rubbed my chin. Oh, attention feels so good!

Mama says she's sorry she can't let me sleep there with her anymore. Since she's been going to the doc to fix her shoulders, they discovered she's got ribs out of place and other stuff and she's in a lot of pain. She's got to sleep with pillows, she said, and with my trying to sleep across the bed, she can't keep her body straight and she has no place for pillows. She says its hard to pick me up because I've gained so much weight, and it hurts her to bend over. She says she still loves me tons and that she'd never replace me with Chocolate, the foster bun, and she wouldn't let Sebastian ever have my place, and Bijou and Monet could never be me. She says I've got nothing to worry about.

What? Well since I don't have to worry about her not loving me, what are we going to do about her ribs?

She Forgot!

Mama poured kibble in my bowl this morning and walked away. Can you imagine? How am I supposed to eat my kibble without my thyroid garnish squirted on top?

I just couldn't eat it. I waited and waited. No matter how hard I wished, no garnish was squirted on my kibble. Sebastian had already inhaled his kibble and was circling around my bowl. What's a cat to do?

Go complain to Mama, what's what a cat does. I found her scooping that green kibble junk into Chocolate's bowl. What a funny bunny he is when food is around! He hops out of the cage and zips around Mama like she's a race track. He head butts the container and her hand and the bowl and then hops around in a circle in his crate until she puts the bowl with the green kibble junk in his crate. I gave Mama a couple head butts of my own and Mama knew exactly what the problem was.

"Uh oh, Kenzie; Mama forgot your medicine!" she put the lid on the bunny kibble and followed me to the kitchen... where Sab was now inhaling my kibble and trying to bury it with the placemat. Ugh that boy is so irritating!

Mama shooed him away and put the garnish on my kibble. Oh thank cat for chicken garnish! I must leave a note for Mama to make sure she gets me more of that wonderful garnish, because I noticed the bottle is almost empty.

Mama then goes and ruins my morning by saying she's not filling it under she calls the vet to schedule my next blood stealing event. That's the bad part about eating fancy stuff squirted on your kibble. I'd rather keep my blood to myself!

Sleeping In

Mama is wondering if its a full moon - so she says. She was shocked to wake up after 5 AM this morning and find all us animals sleeping. We usually wake her up about that time for breakfast.

I was sound asleep on her desk chair when I felt something on my ear. I flew my head up and there was Mama! I was so happy to see her, even though she calls today my birthday so I thought I'd sleep late. I stretched and purred for her, then got on the floor and she rubbed my belly. Then she picked me up and hugged me and said "happy birthday" to me and reminded me that its Auntie Becky's birthday today, too.

I am 12 today! I can't believe it! Kittenhood is a blur to me until I came to live with Mama. That was the best part of being a kitten!

Mama went to the shelter today to clean the bunnies. She says it looks like the animals partied last night. She told me there was food throw-up on the main lobby floor, though no one knew which cat that got out did it. Said she found poo smeared on the window of the garage door that they use to go in and out of the shelter. Also said the bunny room was trashed - there was hay and black fur all over the place, but every bun was accounted for.

So happy 2009 to all of you! Pardon me while I go sleep in the sun. Mama says its super, very cold outside, so I'm taking the sun spot for me!

Post Christmas Carrying On

I'm telling you... that dang bunny has messed up everyone's timing. He did not go back to the shelter to stay. Just today Mama was taking a nap next to me when Chocolate hopped onto the bed and over Mama and landed right between us!

Anyway... it all started this morning. Mama didn't go to the shelter b/c her neck and shoulders hurt so much. She was set up in just the right position to feel better and I was sleeping next to her.

Suddenly there was the most horrific noises coming from outside the window. It sounded like people were banging on mettle. Woke both of us up. Mama tried to ignore it but it wouldn't go away. Finally she peeked out the window when there were big truck noises and beeping stuff. She saw a big work truck with workers right next to her car. Mama can't see "jack" without her glasses (though I've never met Jack, so I don't know why she'd want to see him with or without glasses) but she thought they were putting the stop sign in the truck.

Mama got up to have breakfast and the truck was back. This time the guys were digging the snow around at the corner. They were pulling out a big pole. I couldn't help but keep watching. They left.

Then the guys and the truck came back and out came a really tall, new stop sign. They took it to the corner and did some stuff and now it stands straight and tall where the old one used to be. The old one got plowed over last week.

Later today I was trying to nap after watching the bunny on the floor and there was more beeping and truck noises out the window. Another big truck was pulling up next to Mama's car. It scooped up the neighbor's car and the neighbor watched it drive away.

But pardon me... carrying on about the bunny. Did you see the picture Mama put on my page? That irritating bunny.... I've done more hissing at him in the last 10 days than I have in the past couple of weeks. Chocolate just follows us all over the place. That's the name of the bunny - Chocolate. That explains part of why Mama's so gaga over him... his name!

I mean... Mama helped me write out a list of thank yous to all of you for all the gifts on my gift program here but where did it go? She didn't give it to me, and she didn't put it in my diary for me, so please forgive me for not thanking all of you for all the gifts and the rosies and the packages on that tree on my page.

The gift I was really tickled with, though, was from her Secret Sister, who not only gave Mama some magazines of cats, but she got us two cans of Wellness wet food! It was so heavenly! I sure hope Mama gives it to us again!

I wanted Mama to decorate my page for new year, but has she done that yet? Blame that nasty bunny again!

Goodbye, Omar

It was so sad. Mama went to feed Omar, our fish, this morning and she couldn't find him sleeping in his favorite plant. She looked all through the plants for him, and he wasn't there.

Mama couldn't understand where he'd be, because he's never tried to jump out of the bowl before, and he had his heat lamp on top.

Mama couldn't see him because during the night, Omar died and settled to the bottom of his bowl. He had blue and white rocks at the bottom, and he's a blue fish who turned white.

Mama is sad for Omar. She knows he was in pain and uncomfortable and didn't feel well, but she didn't know how to help him. She tried all sorts of fish medicine but nothing seemed to help. That whatever-was-white-and-growing through his fins finally got him.

I'm going to miss my daily entertainment of watching him swim around and do the fishy dance.

Purrrs, Omar.

Oh No You Don't!

I knew it was only a matter of time...

I've been lounging on the side of the bed for two days, watching that new bun, Chocolate, hop about and mark all his favorite spots. He leaves poo triangles everywhere, that silly bun!

I will admit, he is cute. He knows how to beg (and get) attention from Mama, and he is particularly fond of having behind his ears scratched.

He is now also fond of hopping on the bed. He figured it out this evening.

He stepped back and gave a mighty leap and landed barely a whisker's space away from my face!!!!!

Needless to say I was quite shocked and surprised, and so was he. I gave him a mighty hiss and swung at him. Lucky for him, not only did I miss, but Mama was right there to rescue both him and me. She picked him up (he absolutely loathes being picked up) and told him "no, Chocolate" in a firm voice. "You will not get onto the bed. You do it again and you will go back to your cage."

She put Chocolate on the floor. Guess what he did?

That's right, my friends. He didn't learn his lesson the first time, I guess. Nosiree, he had to hop onto the bed in the same place, this time, next to me instead of in front of me.

Mama was right there, picked him up, carried him to his cage, and he's been there since. He did not, however, stomp in disapproval. He's such a good bun, Mama says.

Not if he's going to make the bed his next stop. Mama won't be happy to find poo triangles there!

Remembering Mary Today

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, Mama is not a fan of Christmastime, particularly this week. Today we are sad for the loss of one of Mama's close friends, Mary, who died on this day in 2001.

I met Mary a couple of times. She had two cute kids, but the older one, Ryan, was a little monster. He liked to chase me around & hog my windows. Thankfully, Maeve was too little to chase me. They came to stay with us when that big, monster ice storm hit Maine the first winter I spent with Mama.

Mama and Mary worked together at the nursing home place. Eventually both of them stopped working there, but they stayed furiends.

Things weren't going well for Mary, and I remember helping Mama puray for Mary and her family as Mary and her husband wanted to stop being married. But Mary didn't feel good, so sometimes Mama had the kids over here for a few hours so Mary could get some sleep.

Mama was angry that doctors were ignoring Mary's complaints about not feeling good. I guess Mary was mad, too. By the time the doctors finally took their complaints seriously, Mary was very, very sick. Mama said that by the time they found her cancer in her colon it was too late to save her life.

Mama did her best to help Mary out, even while Mama was looking for a job, working when she could, taking care of that kitten called Sebastian (he is still a pain in my existence!) and going to college. Mary made it to celebrate her 1 year anniversary with cancer, but she began failing soon after that. Mama was spending more and more time helping with the kids and shuttling Mary's mom to and from the airport, because her mom lived in that Chicago place far away.

Mary got so sick she had to go to a nursing home - the same nursing home where she had been working as nurse just weeks before, Mama says. Mama says it was strange, because a lot of other nurses and helpers that Mama and Mary worked with, took care of Mary, but she never got better. Mary died in the evening on Dec. 18, but Mary's husband forgot to call Mama until 2 days later in the mess of everything. Thank goodness they decided to stay married after Mary got sick, but that still left Ryan and Maeve with their mommy when they were both little.

It makes Mama sad that she doesn't get to see Ryan and Maeve anymore, but she does still hear from Mary's mom and husband's mom. Mama got a picture of the kids last Christmas, and they are now both taller than Mama - I can't believe it! They were just little the last time I purred for them in purson. They were 7 and 4 when their mama died.

I was spending the day purring for sad Mama and Mary's kids, but then... Mama came home with a bag from Kohl's that she said had presents for the babies inside. I didn't see any presents, but I did see the empty bag on the bed that Mama left for me to leap on. WHOA I've forgotten to purr for them because I've been having SO MUCH FUN!

Well, that is, when I'm not watching that Chocolate rabbit. He is a busy boy. Mama says he's only a few months old; he's full of youthful energy. I believe it! He's so small he got between Mama's desk and the drawers underneath Mama's desk; he couldn't turn around, so Mama had to pull out the drawers for him to get back out. That dumb bun went right back in that spot!

He was so helpful when Mama cleaned his cage, too. He hopped all around her and left a poop circle around her. Mama laughed and said that Chocolate has spoken: she's HIS mama now! He follows her around like a shadow. If Mama gets up, he gets up and stands right next to her. If she walks to the guinea pig cage, he follows, or goes in front of her. When she goes to the kitchen and he can't get past the gate, he sits and waits, or he'll lean against it and wait. He's very impatient for her to come back. I am not sure I like him taking over MY mama!

Remembering Dan-Dan

Mama reminded me of a sad day today. I am sad to say that I forgot; I've been busy putting that foster bun in his place. He tried to hop onto the bed twice today, and I slapped him down both times. He hasn't dared to do it again!

Anyway, how could I forget it is little Dan-Dan's day! He was such a cute little fella. I remember him coming over with his brothers for Mama's birthday, the first one of hers that I celebrated with her. Mama had babysat Daniel's older brothers when she was in high school, so goes the story, and their grandparents lived across the street from us. All four of those really great boys came over for Mama's birthday and they just thought I was really sweet.

Naturally, I hissed at them and hid.

Mama says that Dan-Dan was "precocious" and a"go-getter". He worshiped his big brothers; the oldest being 10 years older than he. He loved coming over to be with "Phinnie", my mama's nick name.

It was on 1:15 pm Wednesday, December 17, 1997, that Dan-Dan took his tuna sandwich outside and was never again seen alive. Mama had just gotten home from work when we saw all the ambulance cars and fire cars come speeding out of the garage that was next to us; they used to live next door to us. Then the phone rang. It was Auntie Becky, who was frantic. She told Mama that Dan-Dan was missing; they hadn't seen him in over an hour.

Mama drove right over to help in the search. That's when the rescue people found the little boot prints that went to the pond behind their house, and they stopped by a hole in the ice made by ice fisher people. Dan-Dan's tuna sandwich was next to the hole. Mama says that even though it looked like Dan-Dan had fallen in, she helped romp through the fresh snow, looking in all of Dan-Dan's favorite hiding places.

The diving people pulled Dan-Dan out from under the ice two hours after he went missing. Mama and Auntie Becky joined other family members at the hospital, waiting for Dan-Dan to wake up, but he never did. Dan-Dan's heart stopped on Dec. 19, just as Mama was on her way to perform at a Christmas concert that she had been booked for weeks before then.

Mama says she's never forgotten Dan-Dan. His poor family fell apart after that. His parents never went back to the house, and they ended up moving across the country for a while. Mama says the only laugh they got out of that really tough week is that when Dan-Dan's aunts went to the house to get clothes for the family, they discovered that Dan-Dan had already found his Christmas presents & unwrapped them!

Mama lost touch of "her boys" when they moved; it still makes her so sad, and now they're all in their 20's, though I can't imagine it. Cute, blue-eyed Ethan is 20 now? Don't say it, Mama! Mama called biggest brother "Jerms", short for Jeremy, and he took Dan-Dan's loss particularly hard, because he had been babysitting when Dan-Dan went missing. Other brother Nick was already having a tough time because their mom was divorced from their dad (Dan-Dan had a different daddy, I think Mama said) and he didn't talk about his feelings.

So tonight I purr for Dan-Dan's family, like we do every December 17. Mama says no parent should ever have to bury a child, especially a little guy, and Dan-Dan was a sweet, blond little guy. He was only 3.

On Behalf of Bijou & Monet

I am making this plea to all of you holiday cooks:

don't listen to the Peruvians!

I'm sure the people who live in Peru, the country, are very nice people, but their idea for saving money on Christmas dinner this year is not acceptable to some members of our household.

They are urging people to feast on guinea pig as a cheap & healthier alternative.

Naturally Mama didn't want the boys to know about this, but when Mama gets excited about something, she gets mouthy. I mean, she gets animated. She jumps up and down and around and throws her arms in the air and shakes her arms and her fists and yells at the walls. Our poor walls get blamed for everything. Sometimes I am worried about Mama. I am also worried about what the neighbors must think. Mama was saying to her furiend "How can a guinea pig feed 7 or 8 people when they don't weight much more than 3 pounds? They cost $3.20 for the meal? That's an expensive meal at $1 a pound!"

I think Mama's missing the point. Why would anyone want to eat their pet? I certainly hope no one eats Cat. After all, we are worshiped in other ancient cultures!

I was also worried when there was a knock at the door after supper. Mama opened the door and let this very strange-looking fella inside and he followed her to the kitchen. He had a very long pony tail and writings on his skin. As I ran for cover, Sebastian told me that if I would just snoop around once in a while, then I would know that the strange looking man was the neighbor across the hall and that he was a nice fellow who just happened to need some spices so his fiance could finish making cookies.

Phew. I thought Mama was really loosing it. Men in our apartment? Mama has a man? She's never had one with me around, and I surly hope she doesn't start now; I don't want to share her!

As it is, she brought home another foster bunny today. She tells us Chocolate is only here for a week, until he can have his front teeth removed. He's got jaw problems and his teeth are causing him health problems. Mama also assures me that SHE didn't name him, because he doesn't look very chocolate to me... he's mostly white! I will admit that he's got brown on his ears and his eyes are outlined in brown, but other than the couple splotches of brown on his spine, he's white. He's also been quite and not moving around a lot in his cage. He passed the sniff test, so I guess he can stay.

Remembering Auntie Claire

Today is the day we purr for Memere. She lost her big sister two years ago today.

I never met this Auntie Claire, but I do know Memere. I'm purring extra hard for your, Memere, and I know Mama is too!

We Loved You, Pupah

Wowsers I can't believe that it was five years ago today that our beloved Pupah died. We started the day like any other day, except Mama was going to see Pupah at the hospital, and then he just died. Just like that.

No more Pupah coming over with deli turkey when Mama was gone.

No more Pupah coming over when he didn't see Mama's car to make sure she was supposed to be gone and that someone didn't steal her.

No more Pupah coming over to remind Mama to make sure she looked at her engine and checked it.

Mama was very sad. Me too. Mama was OK today; said she knows he's not in pain and she can't be sad about that. So she called Memere and Auntie Becky and Auntie Lisa and her auntie that had surgery last week and of course, its Tuesday, so Mama went to see the bunnies.

She didn't bring home a foster bunny like she thought she would. We got lucky!

So Sab was the one carrying on about how are we gonna remember Pupah and what can we do? Mama helped me write out a bunch of stuff about how Pupah died and why and that if people know this stuff, it could save them too, because Mama didn't know this stuff till after Pupah died. If you really want to know, go see Sab's diary.

Meanwhile, I'll be sleeping on top of our Christmas stockings that I knocked to the floor from being taped to the table with the holiday beanie babies in it! I'll be dreaming of Pupah...

The Bunnies Go Back

Mama took Parsley & Clover back tot he shelter today. She has to leave us (can you imagine???) and take care of her auntie for a couple of days and her friends can't care for the bunnies. Mama says her auntie has cat-n-rats in her eyes so the doctor is going to cut them out.

Sounds super painful, if you ask me!

While Mama's gone, I will be watching and supervising the decorations that she put up on the table in the window. I'm sure Sebastian will do his best to tear them down....

Yes, I am Thankful, but...

I could have done with the pet-i-cure this morning! I was doing a good job sharpening my claws on the carpet board; I wish Mama would not clip my claws! She woke me up from a nap to do this; can you imagine????

Anyway, I am thankful for my Mama. I just love her to pieces. I want to be around her all the time; she finds this frustrating and annoying sometimes, but I know she loves me. She tells me all the time, and she does play with me and love me and hug me and kiss me and hold me and tell me I'm her baby.

I'm glad for money. I don't like what Mama does with it, like sending me to the v*t and stealing all my blood, but at least the money makes sure that I get my chicken garnish and it makes me feel better. Yessire, money is a good thing! Money also buys food, and toys, and turkey....

I am thankful for my home. It's small when I have to share it with foster bunnies and Sab and the guinea pigs, but I've lived on the streets before, and this is super, way better!

I am grateful for Sebastian... I think. He washed my head the other day, between my ears, where it's hard to reach. He also helps me take care of Mama, so I guess he has his good qualities & uses.

I am thankful for the turkey box! I am thankful for the towel in the turkey box! Oh its so super comfy to sleep inside. I love it!

I am thankful for shoelaces. Mama pulled them out of an old pair of shoes, and they are the most exciting thing to chase!

I am thankful for a mama that doesn't like to do dishes. Oh the stuff I can lick off a plate.... MMMMMM!

I am thankful for crinkly shopping bags - they are the best!

I am thankful for Catster; I never would have made the bestest friends in the world without it!

I am also thankful for Jesus, who gave all of this to me. Purrs to Him and all of you!

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to watch the turkey thaw on the stove...

Who Hid Trojan?

I don't know him, but apparently Trojan is one bad dude, and someone let him in! Mama has been very upset about the whole deal and when Mama's not happy, nobody's happy!

Mama discovered on Saturday night that someone got in her email and started sending spam by the bucket loads. This made her very angry and she fixed her account.

On Sunday she sent her auntie a few pictures of the babies and auntie said that it was a virus! More spam showed up in her email! This time Mama was super angry and she sent an email to Google to complain.

By then I was complaining. I love spam! It's delish! Why wasn't she sharing with us? I will admit though, having spam stuck in your computer must be very messy.

The Google people emailed back and told her try "this, this, and this" to see if bad things were stuck on her computer. Grumble, Grumble, Grumble is all Mama's done for two days. She said she scanned the computer and she cleaned the computer and no bugs were found. Mama says "how many programs does it take to clean a computer?"

So Google says "try another this" and Mama growled some more. However, people were still sending nasty spam from Mama's email. I mean, really - don't you think its rude to suggest that Mama is Mrs. Obama with no clothes on? And why would Mama want to fall out of her pants? She hasn't lost that much weight yet; she's still complaining about pants not being big enough! Such nasty stuff, I do admit!

Mama set everything up and then told Sab and me not to go to Catster last night because she had to do another "sweep". He agreed with me that this was her problem, because that broom in the living room is full of hay and bunny and guinea pig messes and its probably not good for the computer. Doesn't matter; Mama did a full sweep with something else the Google people said to use. That's when Mama discovered Trojan was hiding in her computer!

Mama says that Trojan is bad, super bad and he's got to go. Naturally, Sebastian is being stupid about this and whining because he wants to play with Trojan. Mama says "NO" because Trojan is dangerous and makes bad things happen to computers. She then explained that Trojan was responsible for giving our Catster diaries fleas and all the spam that got smooshed up in her computer.

Bad Trojan! I hope Mama can chase him out of there and fix her computer!

WHOA It's Moving!

Mama got tired of the bunnies hiding under the glider and using that area as their litter area, specially since it was just carpet there and they kept moving the plastic!

Mama moved the glider across the room and put it in front of her clothes shelves. I don't think that's very good for her, but at least the buns aren't using that spot to pee anymore!

This evening when I got on the glider I happen to see movement above me. What could it be??? I looked up and - whoa- it was Omar, swimming around his bowl!

I can't believe I've totally forgotten about him. I used to go up there and visit him until Mama caught me. Omar's feeling better now that the white rocks in his tail are going away, and he's been doing his fishy dance in the bowl.

I couldn't help it... I was mesmerized... the fishy dancing... the blue fish... oh look at the blue fishy going this way and that way and zipping here and zipping there... it was trance like!

Mama looked over at me just as my eyes started to glaze over. "Kenzie, don't you even think about it!" she waved her finger at me.

What a kill joy - can't a cat dream? I won't hurt Omar... I learned my lesson the last time!

Mama turned his heat lamp thing off so now I can't see him. No worries... I'll just close my eyes and dream....

Margo's Tag - Caught Me!

I saw Margo's tag going around and viola - Diasy Mae Sunday Times caught me! So lemme see... can I read Margo speak?



1. How mene toes duz yew hab?
I have as many toes as I'm supposed to have, right Mama? How many toes am I supposed to have? Mama?

2. Is yew marreed?
What does this word mean? Mama doesn't have married, so neither do I!

3. Duz yew hab short, medium, or long hairs?
I have short hair, but apparently not short enough; they give me hairballs!

4. Duz yew likes tew dress up?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

5, Hoo gots da stinkeeeest gas in yore house???
Mama? Oh wait... she's not the one who left that horrific smell in MY litter box... that would be the orange one!

6. How mene toys duz yew hab?
I don't have any of my own; I have to share with my brother! We have a small basket full, but I've not counted them. That would take up precious nap time!

7. Is yore tale straight, kinked, curly, fat, thin, or jus rite?
My tail is just right in design, but I don't usually keep it straight! MOL

8. Hab yew eber killed a reel mousie??
What's a mouse? Is that like a hamster? I'd never hurt our dearly departed Henri!

9. Is yew beeyooteeful, hansum, or uglee??
I'm beautiful, of course!

10. Is yew da King ob da house, Kween ob da house, or da Serbint?????
Absolutely the queen! I'm in charge; just ask Mama!

We are Sad

Mama got news last night that a close friend of hers, who has had cancer for several months, died yesterday morning. It made Mama sad for his wife and kids.

I suppose that is why Mama didn't sleep well. Oh my cat - she was up and down and up and down and UP and DOWN all night and moving all over her bed. I gave up trying to sleep with her and curled up in my chicken box. If she'd only stay put, I could help to comfort her. Silly Mama,

Special Message from Mama

Hi American cats!

Tomorrow is a most stupendous day - big word, huh? It means "so great in size that it elicit awe", and that is so true.

We get to vote!

Do you cats realize how important it is to vote? I hope your pawrents do. We are citizens of such a special country that allows us the privilege to choose the people who will run and guide our country, and we have a say in what policies we want to see.

It makes me so sad when so many humans don't bother to vote, for whatever reason. Don't they understand how awesome we have it? Millions of people have died - given their lives - for the privilege to vote. Millions more are willing to die for this right.

We vote in the Dogster/Catster photo contest; we know how important a vote can be there!

People vote by the millions for American Idol and really, how important is that? It's "just" a song, and a singer.

Voting is one thing, but understanding what you're voting for is quite another. Voting comes with responsibility to know what your "yes" and "no" choices mean. It means understanding what the names on your ballot believe and stand for, and you can't know that in a few moments.

In Maine, we've got a couple very important ballot issues called citizens initiatives. (They are on the ballot because enough people signed papers saying they wanted to vote on it, for you cats who don't know what that means!) Question 1 is about whether to repeal the "beverage tax". This would repeal the 1 cent tax on beer, 3 cent tax on wine, and 4 cent tax on sugared drinks, sodas & flavored waters in order to fund DirigoHealth, the low-income health insurance program.

We've also got Question 2, the casino referendum. This is a tricky vote, so pay attention! The question is worded so that you have to vote no in order to say yes, and you have to vote yes in order to say no. Some people say we need a casino in Maine in order to bring new jobs and taxes to help pay for things. Do you want to have a casino here in our backyard? It's that simple a question.

I am not going to tell you how I plan to vote. I am not going to urge you to vote for a specific candidate or whether to choose yes or no. I just want you to know the facts so you can make up your own minds - Catster people are intelligent people! There's been so much arguing about why you should or shouldn't vote for him or her or them or that. Go to the source to read up on both initiatives: the State's website. Read the bills as they are current written, then vote based on what you read.

Question 1: An Act to Allow a Casino in Oxford County (this is a bill that will become law if the voters approve. It is not law yet.)

Question 2: Repeal of Health Access Surcharge (this law has passed but isn't enforceable unless the repeal effort fails.)

If you've made up your mind, and you aren't sure about what to don Election Day, this handy dandy website will tell you everything you need to know. It's called Can I Vote? and will help you find out if you're registered, where to go, and what times you can go.

Remember: if you don't use it, you'll loose it. So please, hound your humans until they get up and vote!

Hey What about Me?

Mama is still fussing over Monet. She is sure that his paw is swelling again, and this morning she took him and Bijou to see Dr. Shawn. All I could think about was better them than me!

Mama says that Dr. Shawn is worried that there could be an infection still stuck in his foot, so Mo-Mo's got to take more medicine. After getting to run around a little bit this afternoon, Mama can tell that his paw is twice the size of the others, and Monet doesn't want to lay on it. Mama is going to call Dr. Shawn tomorrow to get some medicine for that, too.

Now Mama is also fussing over Omar. Our blue fish is rather blue, but not because he is blue. He looks like he's got sand rocks in his tail! Mama is quite worried about him; she thinks he looks distressed. She got on her computer and went all over the internets looking for pictures to help her figure out what was going on with Omar. The white stuff in his tail is flaking off and she thinks she sees blood, too.

Off Mama goes to Pet Smart yesterday, special for Omar medicine. Pet Smart is a cool place, I hear, but its an hour away from us. Can you believe that Mama went to Pet Smart and bought stuff for the bunnies; she bought stuff for the guinea pigs; she bought stuff for Omar, and all we cats got was litter? I can't play with litter, Mama!

Mama got Omar a clean water bowl and she threw out all his plants and rocks. She got him new ones and she put medicine in his water and she's been watching him very closely.

I don't want Monet or Omar to be hurt, but what's a cat to do when Mama's got other pets on her mind? You've got it: bug her till you get attention!

Mama's been feeling better so she's spending time at her desk, catching up on stuff. I've been sitting by her chair, sniffing her leg and bumping my cool nose on it. This annoys her, but at least it gets a hand on my head!

I so wish that Mama would just pick me up and love me and give me attention like she used to do when it was just her and me. Mama seems to be so busy that she doesn't do that anymore.

But Sunday, she did something super cool. She picked me up and put me on her desk! She's never let me do that before, so I was shocked but happy.

Mama put her keyboard below the desk, along with the mouse that's not a mouse, and she continued her computer work and stroked my head. Ooooooooooh this is the life, I'm telling you! I stretched out, put my head on the little pillow that was there, and closed my eyes. I got so comfy that my paw fell down and dangled over the side. Mama let me stay there until it was time for her to go to bed.

It was so wonderful I want her to do it all the time! Mama says she's created a monster out of me.

She took of picture of me using her mouse pillow and put it in the 4th annual Catster Show. < class=bodyTextRev target=site href=http://www.catster.com/show08/vote_pet.php?i=347179>Please vote on it! Mama doesn't know why the link doesn't show up on my page, but please don't forget me!

Bad Omar?!

Mama's been sick lately.... but I looked around and wowsers! What's this business about Omar, our smart lil' beta fish, being in the news?

Yeah, you heard me right. Omar's been in the news and I just realized something was wrong! A hurricane? My little blue fish in the bowl is causing trouble in the deep, big blue? How could that be?

I did an extra-deep sniff. Sure enough, there is Omar, fluttering around in his bowl, happy to see something on the other side. He was so happy to see me that he did his happy fish dance, then waited for me to feed him. What a silly fish! Yeah, he wasn't causing problems at all!

Mama, however, is causing problems. She's gagging and coughing and it hurts her to cough so much. Cough me right off the bed, is what she did! I can't get comfortable around her these days! I can't wait till she's feeling better!

Poor Monet! Poor Mama! Poor ME!

Mama says you just can never tell when drama will strike!

Yesterday she had the guinea pigs out on the floor to run around and be together, since they have to be in separate cages. She gave each of them a pile of hay to eat.

Naturally, they both wanted to eat the SAME PIECE of hay. Bijou didn't like it, so he bit Monet. Monet screamed in pain and scolded Bijou, and Mama separated them.

Sab then noticed that Monet was bleeding! He went to the fence they were playing behind and began to howl and shake the fence. I went to investigate and it was true; Monet was leaving blood prints on the floor!

Mama came to see what was going on and when she saw the blood around Monet, she freaked out. She picked him up and looked him over, discovering the wound on his right front paw. She washed his bite, then put special powder on it so he wouldn't bleed to death, then called the vet, who wasn't working. She had to call the back up guinea pig vet, who didn't have any appointments, but agreed to take him in on an emergency basis.

Mama had to wait for Uncle Tony to finish fixing the lights on her car, then she rushed Monet to the vet. Mama was sure that at the very least, he would need an anti-biotic and some pain medicine. It wasn't till Dr. Linda looked him over that she realized how deep the bite was. Mama says it was very deep and went nearly to the bone. Monet had to stay with Dr. Linda for a couple hours so she could finish her visits, then stitch him up - 3 of them! She gave him a bright blue bandage for his paw, some medicine, and a head cone like Sab wore - just in case - and sent Monet home.

Mama is very worried about Monet. He's not chatty like he usually is. He's not begging for food, nor is he eating much. Mama's been keeping a close eye on him, and now he doesn't want to be touched.

I have done my very best to comfort Mama - if she'd only stay still! I've been brushing on her leg, meowing at her, running after her, and still she ignores me. She even stepped on my tail! She yelled at me, saying it was my fault because I don't stay still. Can you believe she said that? She's not the one running around like a lunatic!

I'm trying to tell her that Monet is hurt; he doesn't feel good because he's probably still in pain even with his medicine. He can't walk on that paw very well, so why would he want to be racing and reaching up to beg for food? I wouldn't be purring and meowing if I was hurt!

Mama's also not been paying the rest of us much attention. I know the bunnies were not pleased to spend all day in their cage because Mama was in and out all day. Sebastian's been competing with me for attention. On top of all this, Mama's had a silly cold - no sniffles, but a tickle in her throat that makes her gag, and she's been super tired too.

A cat's work is never done, I tell you!

Meow Meow Meow Meow

Auntie Julia's mama has two cats, I'm told. I've not met Auntie Julia's mama, so I'm going to trust that she's got one of them, too!

Auntie Julia's mama loves to shop. My mama says she's addicted to bargains. Sometimes this is not so good, and sometimes, it is!

The story I heard is that Auntie Julia's mama found Meow Mix wet food on sale somewhere and had to have it. Mama says that Auntie Julia's mama must have cleaned the store out because she bought so much of it and - you know how it goes - her two cats wouldn't touch any of it! Mama says there were the non-can wet food canisters and treats pouches and .... chocolate. Huh? What did the chocolate have to do with Meow Mix? Yeah, I don't know either, other than to say that Auntie Julia is convinced that the real reason Mama hasn't felt good is because Mama's suffering from a severe case of chocolate deficit.

So.... Auntie Julia's mama sent all the rest of the cat food to Auntie Julia's house so Mama could pick it up and feed it to us! Mama was glad to have such a bunch of cat food... but we're on prescription food now, and Mama says she wouldn't normally serve us Meow Mix anyway.

Seems that Mama changed her mind, though, because guess what we had for supper last night? The most succulent chicken and veal you ever did taste is what we had last night! Mama even gave some to Sab! Oh my - I'm so loving Meow Mix!

Mama says not so fast... she only got a couple of the canisters; the rest went to Memere's cat, Ivan. I hear that Ivan wasn't fond of the treats, so how come we can't have it? Mama says "no worries"; they'll just sent it to the animal shelter.

Can you believe this? Mama complains about not enough money and then she's passing up free food! What is wrong with this picture? Just because I've been throwing up lately....

Don't Mess with My Garnish!

Mama's been feeling super, super tired lately. Today she spent a while lounging on the bed with Sab & I. We had started the trend, laying on the bed in the sun. He stuck his head in my space so I did what most any cat would do: I cleaned it. Man that spot behind his ear was dirty!

I think Mama had actually fallen asleep when the rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring of the phone disturbed us. It was closer to Sab, so it spooked him upright; I just looked around. Mama looked at the phone and said "the vet?" before she answer the ring.

Huh? Was Mama tattling to the vet about us again? Then I heard Mama says something like "hold on; let me check" and she came back with my food garnish bottle! (Silly Mama calls it "thyroid medicine; I know better; it tastes just like chicken yummies!) Then Mama said "oh dear! Do you think she'll be OK?"

Other than Mama, I am the only "she" in this place right now (the buns don't count - they won't live here forever - phew!) so I sat up more straight. What was going on?

When Mama hung up the phone she came back to the bed and laid down. She told me that the vet people just realized that, when Mama went to buy me more chicken garnish the other day, they gave Mama the wrong medicine! Mama hadn't noticed that it was different! I didn't notice either. It sniffed the same; it tasted the same too. Mama says it was thyroid medicine, but it wasn't the proper quantity. Says that the bottle she'd been giving me for the past couple of days is half of what I'm supposed to have every dose. Says that this will be a bad thing if we don't fix it now because I need more medicine to keep me healthy and normal. So tech Linda said she'd had another bottle with my name on it ready for Mama to swap tomorrow morning. Mama just hopes this mistake doesn't cost her more money; she forgot to ask that question! Silly Mama.

Speaking of buns....

they are not allowed in the kitchen. None of them have been allowed there, but that doesn't mean they won't stop trying! Clover discovered that, when she managed to be brave enough to hop on over, there is sometimes stray pieces of hay on the floor. Now she must hop to the kitchen every time she's out of her cage.

Mama found a piece of old cage that's tall and wide enough for a gate to close off the kitchen to the buns, but its short enough that Sab & I can hop over it. Something tells me that if the buns really wanted to, they could hop it too! Mama forgot to put that cage gate up today.

I was getting ready to be comfy in the pet carrier when I heard a "thump thump thump" and saw Clover hop right over to the fridge! She sniffed it and sniffed it and even put her paws on it to get a higher sniff. That's when I heard Mama call "Clover, are you in the kitchen?" and she came to investigate. When Clover saw Mama, she knew she was a bad bun and she tried to hop away, but she doesn't hop well on the no-carpet floor. What a silly bun! Mama says she's got plenty of hay in her cage. I did a visual inspection just to be sure and, yup, she's got plenty... if she'd only go eat it before Parsley does!

You Call That a Hurricane???

Mama here;

there were rough seas.
there was a road closure b/c the road washed out.
there were times when cats & dogs fell from the sky along with the rain.
the air was so humid you could see it.
the sky got very dark.

there was NOT any wind.
there was NO loss of power.


and that was the extent of Hurricane Kyle going by our house. While we all understand why we had alerts, most everyone I've seen wonders what all the fuss was about. We've had nor'easters that were worse than this! Other than 6.5 inches of rain that mostly feel before Kyle was close enough that pushed us to a record amount of rain for the year, Kyle was a dud.

We're all fine!

Tropical Storm & Hurricane a'Comin!

the storm called Kyle is now a hurricane. It is not expected to be a hurricane that hits my town. It will, however, be a tropical storm, and we still need to be ready.

We've got flood watches & warnings up now. The area from Stonington up to Eastport are on hurricane watch. That's Mid Coast to Downeast Maine and the Canadian border. We're in Southern Maine.

We've already had 4 inches of rain. As of last night they said the heaviest winds would be 6-11 PM tonight.

You can keep an eye on my weather by going to our TV station for news.

We'll keep you up to date; this area got hit hard the last hurricane in '91 and we lost power.

No Time to Panic!

PS: are the Catster fleas gone? Sab & I couldn't post to our diaries last night - they didn't' save! Good thing Mama saved them!



I need some serious help, furiends. I don't know what I will do to help my poor Mama who has had to endure so much suffering and bad news in her life. I usually console her, but I just don't know how to help her with this news.

We read this morning that chocolate isn't chocolate anymore. It's a staple in Mama's diet, and sometimes, only chocolate can make things feel better. Mama says she can handle no money, and high gas, and hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes and people killing people and pets but no more chocolate would send her over an edge and make her jump out the window.

Now I've fallen out the window before. It's scary, and small. There is no way she can fall out of that window even if she wanted to do that. I had no idea there was a good thing about Mama being plump!

But ever since she read that chocololics are soured on Hershey's new formula and then found the Candy Blog that made the devastating revelation, Mama's been inconsolable. This causes a bad cycle of Mama chasing her tail. See, when Mama's upset or sad or needs cheering up, she eats chocolate and hugs me. So now that Mama's upset about chocolate not being chocolate, she really needs to... eat some chocolate and hug me. How is that going to work if chocolate isn't really chocolate?

Mama says she'll pay more for her chocolate. Dingbats somewhere in our state are trying to get everyone to vote for more taxes on chocolate in November so they can pay for healthcare, and Mama says if she's got to pay more taxes on her guilty pleasure, it had better taste like her guilty pleasure!

I don't know how I'm supposed to fix this. I'm not panicking yet, though. The news people say that the ordinary Hershey bar hasn't been tampered with yet. I must just survive this!

Shall We Sniff the Apples?

Mama tells me that right now is the best apple picking weather and we read in today's paper that this wet summer was purfect for making the best apples around, even though they're aren't as many of them.

To go along with my apple theme, how about some apple facts from Maine?


• Maine produces some of the reddest apples in the country.

• Ten percent of Maine's apple production is organic, compared with 5 percent nationwide.

• One of the hottest new apple varieties in Maine is the honey crisp. (Mama says they are the best; she doesn't like McIntosh, the other very popular brand here.)

• It takes about 36 apples to make a gallon of apple cider.

• A 9-inch pie requires about two pounds of apples.

Leave Me ALONE!

Mama is worried about me. She is convinced that I'm not feeling well. I'm afraid she is right but why would I want to admit it?

I haven't felt like purring. I've not been the hungriest cat in the house lately, so I've not been begging for food. I've also not been purring much. That and my not eating worries Mama the most.

So she was a jerk earlier today. I was napping on the bed and she called me and came over to hug me. She picked me up and carried me to the kitchen. Then, she shoved me in the pet carrier that Sebastian was sleeping in. She locked the door and out the door we went!

Mama seemed to take us further than we usually go. I guess it didn't matter; we stopped at the money place and then we went to the v*t.

It was time for the techs to steal my blood for my thyroid! Mama got us in to see Dr. Diana, too. I've not met her before, and trust me, I don't like her! I mean, to start with, Wendy stuck that thing where it shouldn't be, then Dr. Diana came and decided to take my blood before she listened. She told Mama she'd check my other blood stuff along with my thyroid to see if anything's happening. They wrapped me in a towel, the Wendy shaved my neck, and then she stole a lot of blood!

Then it was back to see Mama and Dr. Diana and she tried to listen to my chest. I made it as difficult as I could by growling and howling and hissing and meowing. Dr. Diana says I'm a wonderful calico and have a great vocal range!

Mama says I've also been throwing up a lot of hairballs lately, too, so Dr. Diana says I need to take a pepcid something and this paste that Sab already takes.

Mama came home and left us while she went to get my new medicine. She then fed us CAN FOOD but I still didn't want to eat. Naturally, Sab wanted to eat my food along with his, so she put my bowl away until I was ready. I finally ate my meal - two hours later, but Sab still wanted to eat my food. Mama locked him in the carrier so I could eat in peace.

Now I'm resting on Mama's bed. She was mad that someone left poo all over her sheets so she had to change them. There was also poo on the bathroom floor. Mama is sure that its Sab, but doesn't know for sure. Why should we tell her?

We Remember

I probably wouldn't remember that night over any other night if Mama hadn't watched the news.

I remember Mama came home that night very upset. She hugged me and kissed me and told me how much she loved me and that she would never, ever leave me as long as she had anything to say about it.

I wasn't sure what she was babbling about. Wasn't it Tuesday, the day she goes to work and then to school? The day that she leaves for work right after an early breakfast and then doesn't get home until way past dark and my supper?

Mama turned on the TV to watch the news and I couldn't believe my eyes at the horrible pictures Mama was watching. I thought Mama should stop watching a movie that made her so sad and upset, but Mama cried and said she wished so bad that it was a movie but it wasn't. She told me how earlier in the day evil, despicable men took over some airplanes and flew them into buildings. I don't know what an airplane is, but I guess its something that people travel in to go far away places. No matter how you think about it, people hurting other people is just evil and wrong, so why should it makes sense to a peace and love kind of cat like me?

It was another day, not so long ago, that Mama took her camera and went for a ride. She does this a lot, so I don't really pay attention, except that she again came home crying and upset. She reminds me about that horrible day when planes flew into buildings and the ground and that she had visited a very special memorial that was visiting Portland to remember the people who were murdered that day. She says the thing that hurt her the most where those who died and left behind their pets. One in particular was mama to several cats and a beloved horse. Mama said that one made her the most sad.

On this day of remembering, Mama has given me the address for you to visit the pictures she took that day of the very special memorial called United in Memory: the 9/11 Victims' Memorial Quilt Project.

If you are someone who lost a friend or family member that day, please know that Mama and I are purring specially for you tonight.

Shoe Fetish

I just don't understand Mama sometimes. Why is she hating me right now? All I want is some love and attention!

She's been gone most of the past three days. I don't like this. She's come home tired and wanting to rest, and yesterday, she brought home two foster rabbits.

I still want TLC! I rub on Mama's legs whenever I can. It usually spooks her because she's sitting at her computer and all of a sudden, all she feels is my tail. Then she rubs my head, but not long enough.

This morning Mama got all hissy at me because she found a massive hairball ON her sneakers and spilling on the floor. "Kenzie! Ugh leave my shoes alone!" I hear.

Why does she think I did this? These are the sneakers she wears only to go the shelter, so they are still out from yesterday. Sab's the one with the hatred for the foster buns, who are now exploring the living room. Why would she assume I did it?

Besides, I remember helping Mama when she went to legal school and her toughest class, criminal law. Didn't it say "innocent until proven guilty?"

Mama says "not so fast, Kenzie. It's also about a 'preponderance of the evidence' which means, you are my shoe scratcher, and just yesterday you scratched up the soles to my new indoor shoes and now they are bumpy. I wore them once! Sab doesn't do this stuff - you do. That's how I know you did it, so you'd better stop!"

Mama, I just want some love! If you gave it to me, then I wouldn't have to do naughty things to get your attention!

Mama tried to hold me but she says I've put on so much weight lately that I hurt her shoulders so she can't hold me much. How rude of her to say that!

At least we got cuddle time after my breakfast this morning....

Peticure!

I have heard from the TV that peticures are supposed to be all that and a bag of freeze dried anchovies. I wish I understand how that worked, because there is nothing relaxing or pleasant about it!

She caught me off guard, too. I was sleeping on the glider. She called out "Mackenzie! Where's Mama's Baby?" Um, well, what else do you do when Mama calls - you come running, that's what! Oh it sounded good!

So naturally I hopped off the glider and meowed my way over to where Mama stood by the bed. She picked me up, put me on the bed - on my side. That's just bad news - and I could see she had the clippers in her hand!

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but your claws have been catching the carpet again, so we need to trim your claws," she says as she snips away and kisses my head. How am I supposed to be unhappy with the loving that goes with this procedure?

So I endured having my toes separated and clipped one, by, one. It was done in a flash. Mama says they boys are due for their clippings, too, but Monet & Bijou were too busy eating and moving around their fresh piles of hay so Mama says they can wait till cage cleaning day.

She snagged Sebastian, too, and tortured him. Then, get this, Mama thinks that I'm going to pose for a fall photo for the new decorations she's helping me put together. She's kidding, right?

How a Cat Purrs

Mama here;

I have discovered what makes a cat purr!

I picked Mackenzie off the bed today, and she fell into my shoulder, like always. I rubbed her chin and behind her ears and usually she'd purr before I'd start, never mind after getting attention.

She didn't do that this time. I also didn't feel her tail brushing my arm, like she always does when I hold her and she's totally content.

I checked her tail, and found it curled up between my arm and her legs, so I moved it so it could hang free.

Immediately she began to purr and switch her tail back and forth. She laid her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes, so happy to be with Mama.

So, what other conclusion can I make other than to say: purring is directly connected to the position of the tail?

"Mama Has a Birthday; We're So Glad!"

"Let us count how many she has had!" Mama was singing that song this morning. I have never heard it before. She says its the song that the wee kids sing a church when they celebrate their birthdays. She says the teacher would bring out a special cake with a slit on the top for a special birthday offering and there would be candles on it to count how many candles you needed for that birthday number.

Mama says "no counting candles anymore" for her! She's all worried that she's old now. I don't know what her problem is; I am much older than she is! Mama is so silly sometimes!

Mama spent some time with Memere and Uncle Tony and Auntie Becky and their families, and Auntie Lisa called to say happy birthday. A bunch of other people called to say hi today, too, and Mama got all sorts of good wishes from people on Catster and a couple other groups she's on. Wowsers its so cool!

I just wish she'd get around to making the bed. She took the sheets off today and she hasn't put them back on. I don't know why she did that for her birthday, but she said they were dirty, and quite frankly, I'm not impressed!

Catnip!

Mama's secret sister gave her a can of organic catnip. Mama keeps it in the closet on the shelf where we can't reach.

This afternoon Mama sprinkled some on the kitchen floor for Sebastian to eat. He's dumb; he doesn't roll in it.

I heard the commotion so naturally I had to investigate. Wowsers its catnip! I shoved Sebastian right out of the way and plopped myself in the middle of the catnip pile.

Mama and Sebastian were looking at me like I had four ears or something. I can't understand why.

Just because I've never paid any attention to catnip all my life, can't I choose to like catnip now? We've never had organic catnip before so why can't a change my mind? Isn't it a cat's prerogative to change her mind?

"I Adopted Your Cat Today"

I found this in Catster's foster home group and, since I am an adopted cat, I just had to share it. It made Mama sad and happy!

I adopted your cat today;
The one you left at the Pound,
The one you had for ten years
And no longer wanted around.

I adopted your pet today...
Did you know that he's lost weight?
Did you know he's scared and depressed
And seems to have lost all faith?

I adopted your pet today...
He had fleas and a little cold,
Guess you don't care what shape he's in,
You abandoned him I am told.

I adopted your pet today...
Were you having a baby or moving away?
Did you suddenly develop allergies
Or was there NO reason he could stay?

I adopted your pet today...
He doesn't play or even eat much,
I guess he's very sad inside and
It'll take him time to trust.

I adopted your pet today...
And here he is going to stay,
He's found his FOREVER home
And a warm bed in which to lay.

I adopted your pet today...
And shall give him all that he will need
Patience, love and security,
So he can forget your selfish deed!

~Author Unknown~

I Want a Pantry!

Mama's been busy this week doing lots of things, like today she came home with this really heavy, long box and after she cut it open, out came a shelf! Well, the pieces came out, and Mama put them together, and now we've got a nice silver colored shelf in the kitchen.

Oh what a box it was after it was empty! Then the top piece fell on me, and it wasn't so fun anymore.

The word on the box said "pantry shelf". I have no idea what a pantry is, but its a word that's been going around here lately.

Mama's also been busy printing posters and putting them in windows around town. Know what the posters are about? The new pet pantry that the shelter is doing! Mama is super excited about this. She says that the pet pantry will help more cats and dogs be able to stay with their families because lots of them are having really hard times buying all the stuff they need to take care of the families these days. She says people bring in pet food donations to the shelter and a couple hours a week, people who don't have money for pet food can come and get some for free. Isn't that cool? I'll be poor if I can get free food! MOL

Mama's also putting up posters for "Paws in the Park" in a couple weeks. If you hadn't noticed, she also helped me decorate my page for Paws in the Park. It's my favorite event! Last year the walk got $39,000 for the shelter. That's some party, don't you think?

Then Mama takes one of those pet pantry posters and says she going to another pantry that is for humans and she'll be back. When she comes back, she's got food and she says its from the pantry.

So a pantry must be where they keep food! Oh the food that Mama was pulling out of the bags! Even better, the bags that the food came in! I didn't know what to attack first: the long, think bread sticking out of the bag, or the mound of chicken-smelling morsels that apparently really was chicken, or the small bag of cheese in the crinkly bag that was in the paper bag.... oh the bags were endless! Then there was a bag full of rabbit food that Mama was particularly excited about. She says the pantry had food from the local organic farm and she got broccoli and swish chard and cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers and eggplant and orange tomatoes and lettuce and potatoes. This doesn't sound the least bit exciting to me, but Mama's got visions of salads dancing in her head now and oh how she can't wait for lunch tomorrow! I wonder how much of that the guinea pigs will get to sample, too....

Mama says that yes, a pantry is where you get food, but these kinds of pantries are where poor people go to get free food that's been donated by stores, farmers, and every day people. Mama says she is so glad that we have a pantry now in our town and it will help us out really good.

It surly will! I'll get bags and bags and even more bags to play in and wowsers - if Mama hadn't put the food away when she got home, I could have had myself a chunk of yellow cheese!

There's just one problem. Our pantry shelves... Mama didn't put any food on them. Instead, she put storage on it. What fun is that?

We're Behind, Maine - Give us a Hand!

Pardon my commercial here, but we've got important stuff to discuss, Maine readers!

Our initiative to get a specialty plate for adoptions is coming up short! Here's what our newsletter had to say:

Dear Friend of MALT (Maine Adoption Leaders Team)~

Our update this week comes just days after the 1-year mark of the J'Aime Kennel (Buxton Puppy Mill) Raid led by the Animal Welfare Program. We all remember it, particularly the dedicated group of people who worked tirelessly to save the animals who were a part of the largest raid in Maine's history. Click here to read the story as it was reported last year by the Portland Press Herald on August 23rd.

We are proud to report that the 350 animals who were a part of the horrific conditions at J'Aime Kennel were all cared for and subsequently found new homes. It could not have happened without the Animal Welfare Program and the other animal organizations that stepped in to help.

The Buxton raid is exactly what the Adopt Plate initiative is designed to PREVENT and SUPPORT. Funds will go to RESPONDING to animal-related emergencies that require professional, respectful human intervention and to the HELP FIX ME spay/neuter program to prevent the birth of unwanted animals.

Our deadline of September 1st is upon us and
we are quickly approaching the 75% mark. Even though we have sold nearly 1,300 plates in record time, we will fall short of our goal of pre-selling 2,000 by September.

The very good news is that MALT has been working closely with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Senator Nutting (the bill's sponsor) and there will be a meeting on Friday, August 29th to discuss possible ways to get the bill into the 2009 legislative session.

Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, MALT will continue to pre-sell plates so the initiative can be heard in the 2010 legislative session.

In the meantime, please buy a plate and get your name on our Leaders List. Our Leaders List will be published here in this newsletter the week of Sept 1st. It will include all the people throughout the state of Maine who are leading this charge in support of animal welfare. See below for a short list of events where you can purchase your Adopt plate.

As a reminder, this may be the last specialty plate that the State of Maine allows, so PLEASE make it one that will support the health and welfare of all our animals. NO animal deserves inhumane treatment. ALL animals deserve our respect.

Sincerely,
Members of MALT

So, please - if you live in Maine, can't you somehow find $25 to help us reach our goal! I know my mama doesn't have money, but she tells me she ordered her plate already. Since she's already got the loon plate on her car, she's been paying for a special plate for years. She says she'd much rather support the people who gave me to her!

If the initiative falls through, you can either get your $25 back or you can donate it the Animal Welfare Program. Either way, you win!

Stop by Planet Dog for more information & to order your pate, or just visit its website and you'll be all set to go!

Why You Lookin' at Me?

Mackenzie? What is this?

Huh, Mama? You're home! Oh boy I am so glad to see you! Are you going to pet me? Take a nap?

I don't like the looks of this bed, Mackenzie. Why can't you leave the litter in the bathroom?

Huh? Oh that? That's from Sebastian coming up here after dragging his butt on the floor. You know how he does that!

I also know better than that. You're the one who carries litter on her pantalooms. Please leave the litter off the bed. It doesn't belong here. I don't want to be sleeping with litter - clean or dirty.

How could you accuse me of such a thing, Mama? I would never bring litter into the bed!

Because I'm Mama and I know these things. I'm not accusing you; I am stating a fact. Just be kind and not bring litter to the bed, OK?

Fine, Mama. You're forgetting one little detail.

What's that?

This conversation may make you feel better, but I am under no obligation to pretend I know what you said, or comply with anything you want. I'm the cat; I'm your baby, and I know you'll put up with litter in the bed, whether you like it or not.

Nothing to say now, huh? I thought so!

Love Must Be Shared

Another day without Sebastian... oh its lovely! Only problem is that... Mama didn't spend a lot of time home, either.

Sab had to go have his under-the-tail area fixed... or whatever they did to him. Mama had to go to the shelter for something; I didn't understand exactly what she meant, but something about birds. I looked for them, but didn't find anything. Bummer.

Mama did try to clean my ears - can you imagine? I'm doing a fine job on my own, thank you very much! Mama doesn't like the way I'm digging at my ears; she thinks there's something wrong. Can't a cat appreciate clean ears? So she sticks a white stick in my ear, pulls out some stuff, and puts it in a back to take with Sab.

When Sab comes home (and I've appropriately hissed at him) Mama opened two cans of wet food and naturally fed me first - well, she tried. Sab came out of nowhere and totally shoved me out of the way. Mama said to be easy on him, since he hadn't eaten since last supper.

Gracious... he certainly knows how to get all the attention. He's doing OK, but Mama's been spending time with him because he's been so affectionate. Excuse me, what I am? Chop liver?

So I've been rubbing on the desk and file cabinet and bumping Mama's leg with my nose to get her attention, brushing my tail against her for good measure. Finally she stopped typing to her furiend and picked me up. That's all I wanted; love and attention!

Oh how I love Mama. She gives the best chin scratches. I put my head back so she could reach all of my chin, and she rubbed her chin on my head to go with my chin scratch. Oh, its heavenly. I didn't want to get down. I would have stayed there forever if Mama's arm hadn't gone weak and she had to put me down.

Now I can rest for the night. Goodnight from the glider chair!

Thanks to Catster & Furiends!

Mama tells me after I inhaled my breakfast this morning that I've been chosen as a daily diary pick! That makes me so exited! I've gotten a star from Entrechat Cat, and Febreeze collars from Samoa & her family, Mr. Sam @ the Bridge, and a watermelon rosie from Wally. I feel so special!

However, I would ask that you send special purrs to my rotten orange brother, Sebastian. He's having ongoing problems with places where the sun doesn't shine, and Mama is very worried about him. We just found out this afternoon that since his problems aren't going away with pills and ointment (have you ever seen - and tried to clean - preparation H streaked across the kitchen floor? Mama asks) so he has to go to see the v*t again in the morning and be given medicine to take a nap so they can really get a look down there and figure out what's bothering him.

It will also stress me out. When he comes back from the v*t, I'm sorry to say that I have a horrible habit of hissing at him and treating him like scum. Mama gets very distressed because I beat up on him while he's stressed and not feeling well... so as you can see, tomorrow will be stressful for all of us!

So thanks, Catster, but tomorrow, could you choose Sab as a diary pick? It would really lift his spirits when he gets home tomorrow afternoon!

Maybe Not So Bad.....

Now that Mama is doing her writing class and working from home, she's really messing us up. We can't tell when she's coming, when she's going, and when she's eating. That last piece is most very important. We have decided to stay close and supervise so that we will know what she's up to doing. She even caught us supervising - peacefully - that she took that new pic of Sab & I on the bed with her books.

She still fooled me, though, when she was going back and forth at the wrong time of the afternoon for human eating. I was snoozing in the sun, on the glider chair, when I heard Sab meowing from the kitchen and then Mama called "Kenzie!" Food must be going down! I leaped off the chair and zipped to the kitchen, meowing the entire way. Mama says that's my crying meow.

She was pouring something into my bowl! I raced over to sniff it... ugh... that stuff again. I don't know what its supposed to be, but the box she's pouring it from says "chicken broth" on it. Let me just get this strait with you: it doesn't smell like chicken, it doesn't taste like chicken, and it doesn't slurp like chicken broth. Chicken soup broth is oily and salty and YUMMY. This stuff doesn't have any of that. You aren't going to see ME drinking that stuff - that she put in my kibble bowl!

Then came supper time, and Mama wasn't here. We had to wait 3 hours for supper, until she came home from her church meeting. She naturally put her purse down and went to the cupboard to feed us. I got my kibble first - and Mama poured it right into my bowl - the bowl that had make-believe chicken broth in it!

This was actually amazing. By itself the liquid wasn't worth a second sniff, but this way.... the kibble soaked it up and got big, and I didn't think anything could make kibble taste better. Took me quite a while to eat it all, and Mama topped that off with my chicken garnish, too.

Maybe that liquid stuff that Mama says she bought to make Sab drink more really isn't so bad.... it was actually really good when it was mixed with something!

What Was THAT?

I just love to eat. Have I mentioned that already? Eating has got to be the single, most important thing ever in the history of catdome. Humans also eat the coolest things, which means that I must eat whatever they are eating!

I get in trouble a lot because Mama says that I chase Sebastian away from his bowl and I eat his food. I have told her time and time again that it's all in her mind; I would never do that to Sab. Besides, he tattles on me often, so why should she take his word over mine?

This morning, however, I got busted, big time. Mama prepared my bowl and I immediately chowed down. She then fed Sebastian, then went to the living room to feed the guinea pigs. While she was gone, I finished my grub but I wanted more! I marched over to Sebastian's bowl and could see that he still had food left - including the big, monster piece of kibble I've seen Mama putting in his bowl the past few days. I don't understand why he gets it and I don't!

I shoved him out of my way and he went to lay in the hide-a-box under the table. I chomped down on that monster piece of kibble... mmmmm... but something was wrong with it. There was something hard on the inside. I bit it - and that's when I discovered its not a treat - it's a PILL! How could she deceive me like this?

I had to get that pill out of my mouth! I thought fast and decided to chew with my mouth open so that the yumminess would stay in my mouth but the pill would fall out. Mama came around the corner about then, heard the crunch, and saw me spit the pill out and she was not happy with Mackenzie! "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT EATING HIS FOOD!" Mama roared at me at 5:06 AM - that's in the morning. I wasn't about to loose my extra food, and Mama turned to Sab and said "I really wish you'd stick up for yourself when it matters!"

Mama muttered something about Sab not getting his anti-biotic this morning and it was a bad thing and when she brought the pill to the counter, I heard something go "thunk" on the counter and Mama growled again. She hadn't put the top on my chicken garnish and she knocked the bottle over and all the garnish that was left in the bottle went all over the counter. I found some of it later today and ooooooh I licked the counter clean. Mama caught me doing that, too, and I got in trouble again. She says that taking too much medicine and someone else's medicine is not good!

Sab didn't believe me that there was a pill in that monster kibble bite; he ate it tonight anyway. He's so stupid....

Someone Stole My Mama & I Want Her Back

This new mama is so unpredictable. She's doing very strange things - and not giving me the proper attention or time of day. What strange things might she be doing?

(1) she spent hours this week making a menu and a grocery list. Do you know what a menu is? Neither do I. never seen one before. Apparently it goes on blueish colored paper and had lots of boxes on it.

(2) she came home from grocery shopping with all this food and not a thing for us to eat. No meat, no milk, no ... well, she got eggs, but do you think I got to have any? No. Mama got stuff she calls healthy food to do with her recipes and her menu.

(3) she started pulling out bowls and flower and I've never seen flower look like this before. I tried to sniff it, and all I got for my trouble was powder up my nose and I gagged and coughed. Mama was not pleased that I stuck my face in the flower.

(4) she cut and make strings out of vegetables and put them in the bowl and then she mixed it and then put it in a pan and called it bread. I've never seen bread look like this. She calls it "zucchini" but I think its something better left for the guinea pigs to eat!

(5) lastly, my mama doesn't bake. She also doesn't cook much, if anything. So who is this lady who is now baking and cooking and making a mess with flower that's not flower and putting guinea pig food in a bread?

At least she grunted and groaned and complained about the entire process. That sounds like my mama!

Now I only need to get this new mama to take over the old mama's schedule of cuddling, hugging, kissing, and worshiping me every morning after breakfast. This new mama is also doing reading and exercising and other stuff that I'm not allowed to do.

If you see my mama, would you send her back? I really miss the old one!

I Love the Rain

I know, I wouldn't normally say such a thing, but the pouring rain worked to my advantage today!

Did I say pouring? That is just not a strong enough word. It was more like a hole was ripped into the fabric of heaven that holds the water in place and there was so much of it that it just all came down at once - for a long time.

Mama's muscles still hurt but she's moving better so today was animal day. She cleaned out our litter boxes (thank cat for that - she was 4 days overdue because she got hurt!) and then she cleaned the guinea pig condos and let them run around while she did it. Then she had two trash bags ready for the dumpster.

Mama was not about to drag those two huge bags of trash (the trash piled up too) in the rain that was coming down so hard you almost couldn't see out the windows, so she put the bags in the corner of the kitchen.

Mama went to see the eye vet and she came home and it was still raining dogs and critters.

When it was time to feed us supper, Mama gave each of us the other halves of our cans of food. She put the cans in the open trash bag.

Then she went to the church meeting where they pray. She was gone for a couple hours.

This is why I love the rain so much. If it wasn't for the rain, the trash bags would have gone to the dumpster right away, and then Mama wouldn't have put the empty cans in the open trash bag and left it right where we could reach! I pulled both cans out of the trash and I gave one to Sebastian. Well, that's what I wanted him to think. Truthfully, I can only eat from one can at a time, so after he'd licked to his content, I went over and double licked the can just to be safe. I also thoroughly enjoyed licking my can!

Mama came home and took a shower and it was only after she got out of the shower that she realized something was wrong. I got a little too aggressive with my licking and I banged the can on the floor. That's when Mama's hearing radar went into overdrive and she came around the corner growling "Kenzie! Get out of whatever it is you're in!" She looked around but couldn't see anything because she's got to wear an eye patch right now. She did find both cans, and growled to herself for being so silly.

I don't mind her being silly! I hope she does it again tomorrow!

We Live for Doctors

Mama hurt herself on Friday. She turned just right and pulled muscles in her chest and her left arm. Now her body is going numb and she can't pick us up.

I am very unhappy about this!

I wish Mama would go see her doctor about this business. The last time she got hurt in her muscles, she lost her job and really hasn't been back to work since then.

Mama says "what is the doctor going to do that he's not already done before?" and complains that with her eyes bothering her she's got to go see that doc and with Sebastian scrubbing his butt all over the floor she's got to somehow figure out how to haul him to the vet and since my ears are bothering me she says I'm gonna need my ears cleaned (what did she say? I can't hear her! She better not have said going to the vet!) and she doesn't have money for all of this.

Silly Mama. If she didn't go to the doctor and insist on taking us to the vet, then she could save money! Doesn't this make sense to you?

I can clean my ears just fine, thank you very much! I dig at them several times a day and even Sebastian helped me clean them yesterday. Yeah I know they smell but don't worry, everything is under control.... I'll dig out those itchies eventually - either that, or I'll draw blood....

Ode to Jasmine, 2000-2008

Mama is feeling sad tonight for church friends, who are dad and mom to Jasmine. Mama used to dog sit Jasmine when they'd go away for an overnight.

Today they had to have Jasmine PTS. Mama is so sad for them.

Jasmine has been behaving strangely lately, and they don't know why. The vet said she was doing well at her last yearly check up.

Jas' pawrents are Nonnie and Nana to two-year-old Connor, and they get him overnight Friday and bring him to church every Saturday because Connor's mom works Saturday morning.

Jasmine didn't really mind having Connor around until Connor started walking and moving around. Jasmine was getting jealous, and if Connor touched her, she'd nip at him. Once she barely missed his eye.

Ten days ago Connor climbed in his nonnie's lap and didn't quite get up. He fell off one leg and landed on Jasmine, who reached right up and bit and tore Connor's ear.

Connor and his family spent several hours at the human hospital getting his ear stitched, and he was totally freaked out and upset. Because it was a dog bite after he touched the dog and not totally unprovoked, Jasmine's life was initially spared. She had to be on a rabies guarantee, so no matter what decision was made, she couldn't be "disposed of" until today.

Because of Jasmine's overall disposition of late, her pawrents made the very painful decision to have Jasmine PTS this afternoon. They debated for days and hours about what they should do, and they felt this was the best decision, even though it breaks their hearts.

Mama is sad for them too, because Jasmine has always been a good dog; she's just extremely protective of her pawrents. She once tried to intimidate my pupah, Mama says, but she never tried to bite or hurt him. Mama says that Jasmine has this silly habit of taking her freshly-filled kibble bowl, tip it onto the floor, and bark at it, dancing around it, and making sure it didn't go anywhere before she ate it. Mama tells me the first time she took care of Jasmine, she couldn't figure out what she was doing or what was wrong - Mama thought she gave Jas the wrong food!

I asked Mama if Jas' pawrents had thought about giving her away, but she said they asked that their decision be respected and that animal control was also keeping an eye on the situation. Mama says they did consider this but they didn't want a potentially dangerous situation to get out of hand. If Jasmine hadn't tried to snap and bite Connor in the past, they wouldn't have made this decision.

So tonight we purr for Jas' family as they mourn her loss, and purr that little Connor isn't totally afraid of dogs for the rest of his life. Mama will miss you!

Mama's New Machine

Monday is Mama's day to travel to Portland and do city errands. She usually leaves mid morning, and today was no different.

When Mama only goes for her doctor visit, she comes home about mid afternoon, like today. This is prime beg-for-supper time, even though Mama has this horrific rule about no cat or pig or another other four-legged creature in the house having supper before 5PM. Evil rule, I know.

Today she comes home and immediately takes out the trash - she forgot to do that before she left and oh my - it was getting smelly! Mama came back from the dump box with a box just big enough for me to climb in and have fun! It never occurred to me to look over and see what Mama took out of the box.

Mama sat on her bed for a while and when she stood up, she went to the kitchen and - lo and behold - she took out our food containers! Wowsers! This was totally unexpected, as I said, so Sab and I were all over her like bees to flowers. We meowed and I twirled; the guinea pigs got excited and started squealing and wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeking from their condos.

However, it was soon very obvious to me that she had no intentions of feeding us. Instead, she was sticking words on the containers! Sab was intrigued so he got closer for a look. I am not allowed on the counters, so Mama doesn't let me get that close. She says Sab can because he stays on the stool next to the counter and behaves himself. (Sab? Behave? Those two words don't belong in the same sentence!) He reported back that the words said things like "Hairball - Kenzie" and "k/d - Sab" on them and she was putting the labels on both sides of the container. Then Mama started putting different labels on the containers. They said "1/4 cup AM & PM".

I rubbed on Mama's legs extra hard to figure out what she was doing. She told me that she wanted our food clearly labeled so (1) she wouldn't forget because we've got different and special diets these days, and (2) if she was ever not able to come home and feed us, the pet sitters would know what and how much to feed us.

Next time Mama walked to the living room, I followed behind. What was this business about labeling things now after all this time? I hopped on the bed and that's when I saw this computer keyboard thing in the middle. It's a really cool keyboard because its got a screen with it and red buttons and blue buttons and white buttons and round buttons and square buttons and a big pushy button on the side. Mama typed some stuff on the keyboard and - this was the really cool part - this strip started buzzing out of the side of the keyboard! Mama pushed that pushy button and the strip fell onto the bed.

I immediately leaned over to sniff it. It smelt funny. It said "2T food per pig AM". Then another one fell out! Mama carried one of the labels to the kitchen and reached for one of our food containers... but that looked like the guinea pig food! Mama said that their extra food was in a container just like ours so she put feeding directions on that, too.

I just have one complaint. Why did she have to put a serving size on my container? I'd much rather the sitters not know how much I get and just top the bowl off!

Caught Again!

Mama says she's been really bad about her eating lately because she hasn't officially gone grocery shopping with a shopping list in weeks. Since she didn't have much of anything in the apartment, she went to the store this afternoon and she came back with deli cheese!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy my mouth waters just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, Mama had other ideas on what to do with the cheese ends she got at the deli. She made mac & cheese with it and apparently had decided that I was not allowed to have any. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Mama went back to the living room to eat, leaving the pan with some left over on the counter. She was too preoccupied with watching weather radar and something us being in a tornado watch till 7PM and really, really bad weather in New Hampshire. I could smell something special, something delish, so I hopped on the counter.

Wowsers - that's when I found mac & cheese in the pan on the counter. Oh wow - I didn't know where to start! I had the entire rim of the pan to lick! I leaned over to lick the side with the most cheese on it, but that's when I made my mistake. That part of the pan was furthest away from me, and when I leaned over the pan to lick, I jiggled the metal hook hanging from the pan handle.

I immediately heard Mama get out of her chair and head for the kitchen. YIKES! I wanted that cheese but not that bad! I was leaping off the counter just as Mama turned the corner and saw me.

"KENZIE! You know better!" she growled at me. She then came over and took the pan and threw the rest of it away! She swears that she could see where I had eaten noodles and she wasn't about to eat after me. I don't like being accused of everything. After all, if I had eaten noodles, don't you think I would have hawked them up like a bad hairball like I do must every other thing I eat and shouldn't?

Case closed as far as I'm concerned! I'm innocent!

Mama Loves Wally?

Mama went to run errands yesterday and she came home carrying on about someone named Wally. Last I knew that's a guy's name, and Mama didn't have a special guy in her life, so I got suspicious: who did Mama meet that got her all excited and wound up?

Then it hit me: Mama must be talking about Catster-famous Wally Wallingford who was once so popular he was named Cat of the Week. That couldn't have been it, either, because Mama wasn't gone long enough to pay Wally a visit, and besides, I don't want to think about Mama loving on another CAT!

Soon Mama was talking to Auntie Becky about Wally and a movie. This certainly wasn't making any sense to me, and she wasn't talking to me about it. Finally I just had to know: who is Wally?

No, no, no, Mama says. WALL-E is a robot, not a cat, and he is in a movie that she went to see yesterday. Mama says the same people who made the WALL-E movie made Finding Nemo.

Did she say Finding Nemo? I LOVE Finding Nemo! I exactly where Nemo lives. He's not lost; he's in the TV and ooooooooooooh how I'd love to get my paws on him! Mama turns it on and he floats by on the screen along with his fish buddies and I just can't turn away. I want to eat them! Unfortunately, now that Mama put the TV on top of her desk I can't reach Nemo and his fish friends. How ever will I tap the screen with the TV up so high?

Anyway, while I was dreaming of Nemo, Mama was telling me that WALL-E should run for public office, and that he'd make a better choice than the other ya-whos running for office these days. She even found someone who agreed with her! Mama says it is just such a terrific movie and any human who has the chance needs to see it. She told me not to worry; she'd buy it and bring it home as soon as it is on DVD. She said it had her laughing and crying by the time it was over, and there wasn't all that much talking, either.

My biggest worry is that she thinks WALL-E is better than the video that I just starred in and you can see right here on Catster. "I love you more than any dirty robot," Mama says and she picked me up and hugged me and kissed me and cuddled me.

That's it. As long as Mama's adoring me and bowing to my wishes, I have nothing to fear, and everything is OK in my world.

New Video Release Starring: ME!

I can't believe it; when did Mama do it?

Today she showed me a video - a video! of me - me, of all cats - twirling and crying about, begging for food! I can't believe it! We don't even have a video camera!

How does she do this? Does she have a special setting on her new digital camera? Where else would be hide such a thing?

No matter; not only did she take a video of me begging for food (I should remember her taking video because she wasn't feeding me on my demand!), but she put it here on Catster for all of you to see! If you really pay attention, you can also hear me meowing at the very beginning, and you'll see Sebastian's paws near the top of the frame because he was waiting for his food while perched on the pet carrier. He likes to sit there a lot.

I guess its better than being in a video with a Big Papi or a Sen. McCain. You couldn't turn on the TV today without hearing about those two guys. Both of them where in town today. Big Papi just wants to play baseball but he's hurt so he's hanging out in Portland this week to get better. That McCain fellow wants to run the country and he came here to get people to pay gazoodles of dollars to pay for his trip and tell all of us why we should vote for him.

Pursonally, I don't think either of those fellas look as good in their videos as I do in mine. The best part is, I won't make you pay me money in order to see it! Mine is free for the viewing.

You can, if you are inclined, leave some rosettes or other gifts. I would never turn away a treat or a gift! MO L

We Need Help Re-Homing a Cat - Quickly!

Mama got a call from a friend of hers this morning and she's so upset because she needs to get rid of her cat. Mama's been working with her friend to help this placement go through, but that's not going to work any longer.

We need the power of Catster to help Sabrina find a new home! I gave the entire story to the Forums, so please stop by the Shelters, Rescuing, and Fostering Forums (this is a direct link) for the full story and ideas & ways you have to help.

Catster has been so awesome for so many - now its time to help a fellow calico!

Mama made Sabrina her own adoptable Catster page - stop by and say hello to her!

Has it Really Been Two Years?

We just can't believe it. Only two years? Feels like forever, and feels like just yesterday. How does that happen?

We never questioned how good a life we had when Mama rescued us and made us part of her family. As the organizer lady said: "there's no doubt who runs this house!" She loves us, and hugs us, and kisses us, and feeds us, though never enough of any of it to make us totally pleased. Although she drags us to the vet often, and we'd rather dig her eyeballs out over that, we've got to admit that, well, she really does love us and want the best for us. After all, we've seen her cry big crocodile tears when we had our cancer scares.

So we had no idea we were missing anything in life until Mama mentioned in passing that she found this place on the spider web where cats could have their own pages and make friends. She read about it in one of her news sites that Mama calls "Newsweek" and, since it was for cats, that made it totally OK in her book.

That's the story of how we found Catster, and what a wonderful two years it's been! We have found such kindred spirits here and the best cats and humans you could possibly ever meet. Nowadays we just can't begin or end a day without checking up on our friends and finding out who's done what, who needs special attention, and meowing about the weather, our favorite sports teams and players, our troops, our favorite foods, finding someone to support us in our cat fights (Sab, haven't you had the keyboard long enough????), expert cat opinions on what might be ailing us, support for cats who need rescuing, the latest pet food recall news (the most evil thing to ever happen to cats, if you ask Mackenzie), and how to deal with chronic problems like thyroids and asthma. We've cried over the losses of beloved furiends, and rejoiced at the arrivals of best friends to come. When Mama was feeling super sick and unwell, our cat furiends and their humans cheered her up and helped her feel a litter better - way better than we cats could ever do. We've so trained Mama in "cat speak" that she finds herself saying "pawsome!" and "furiends" out loud in front of other people who look at her strangely (we really wish we could see their faces when that happens... Mama says its funny) and, last but not least, Catster has taught Mama a lot about codes and how to "build" pages on the spider web! (Wait.... is the spider moving? I've gotta chase it! Sab, please finish our tribute!)

Mama frowned at places she calls "social networking sites" but has no problem telling people that Catster sucked her in so quickly and quietly that she never saw it coming and she can't believe she actually spends money without question on such a thing!

Anyway, what we're really trying to say is that the last two years have been the best two years we cats (and the human) have had. Thank you to each and every cat and human who have made our time here so stupendous (that's Mama's big word and we have no idea what it means) and we're so looking forward to another year.

~Love,
Mackenzie & Sebastian

PS: hey Mama... while we're thanking everyone, how about you thank HQ and buy us the super bundle of zealies? Love, Sab

The Results are In!

Mama is so tardy in giving me these numbers. Bad Mama - they came out on Wednesday!

Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you about Mama's strange phone call? The results are in from her answers. I guess these people called a BUNCH of people that night!

Mama says it might not be the actual poll that she was asked about because the dates don't match up, and nothing about cats in these answers and she doesn't remember questions about a Bush, but this is what the people had to say! She says to tell you that "it has a plus or minus 5% accuracy ratio".

PRESIDENTIAL RACE

* 46 percent said they would vote or lean toward voting for Sen. Barack Obama for president.

* 32 percent said they would vote or lean toward voting for Sen. John McCain.

* 4 percent said they would vote "other."

* 18 percent said they were undecided.

DRIVING HABITS

* 82 percent said they plan to drive "a lot less" or "somewhat less" this summer because of gas prices.

* 16 percent said gas prices will have "no effect" on their driving plans.

PRESIDENT BUSH

* 68 percent said they regard President Bush's presidency as a failure.

* 18 percent said they regard his presidency as a success.

* 14 percent said they don't know.

Dragged to see Dr. Shawn

Ugh Mama promised me she was taking me to see him today, but I surely hoped that, after she spilled boiling hot water from a pan all over her left hand this afternoon just before we were to leave, she would be too distracted to take me.

No such luck.

So I cried, then growled and howled, the entire time I was there. Carole was so glad to see me, and then Dr. Shawn came in and got super personal. Wendy stuck that thing up my butt, then Dr. Shawn listened to my heart (Mama was particularly proud that I stayed quiet until he was done listening) and he combed my back and pronounced me "flea-less". If he had asked me, I would have told him I don't have fleas! Gracious! What an insult!

He got all touchy-feely with my belly and said that yes, that's my shelter tattoo and that, because I'm probably over grooming myself, that's why Mama can see it. My skin looks great, so he thinks I'm just getting huffy because of all the changes Mama's been making about moving furniture and my sleeping spots.

Mama says "great! I have a psychologically sensitive cat!"

Just to be sure, Dr. Shawn made them steal my blood to check my thyroid and Carole and Wendy cleaned my ears. ARG! Such indignities!

When all that was done, and Mama brought me to the counter, Lauren and Jessica wanted to visit! Can you imagine? I showed them what I thought of that - I turned my back to them and stared at the door while I desperately bathed all that smell off of me.

At least I got freeze dried anchovies when I got home! Sebastian was at the door waiting for us. He came right over to check me out. He's such a pain!

I'm HOT!

That's what Calvin said! I am so honored that he would mention it, too, because I know he's a special dude here on Catster and everyone just loves him.

May I quote you, Cal? He said: "All hot chicks have tattoos." Isn't he just grand to figure that out?

See, I asked my furiends at Old Furts what they made of my tattoo markings and I've gotten plenty of suggestions, most of which have to do with ID and spaying at the shelter before I was adopted by Mama. She can't remember such things, and I know she's dragging me to the v*t tomorrow to figure it out. I am not pleased!

Mama says the bigger worry is why she can see the numbers: my naked belly. I should have fur on my belly, and that fact that its missing in patches has her concerned. She says THAT is why I'm going to the v*t tomorrow.

Mama has me worried about something else, too. Tonight she measured my kibble before putting it in my bowl. Excuse me? She doesn't give me enough as it is, so why did she give me less? Not only is she giving me less, but Sebastian is eating something different and I'd much rather eat that instead. Mama says "Kenzie, NO! That's medicine food!" but I don't care. He even gets can food sometimes I don't! What is that about? Do you think Mama loves him more than me? As I say, this worries me!

Marked

Mama doesn't know what to make of it. I have writing on my belly!

She is being way to pursonal for me - looking at my belly, between my legs, but she is totally baffled about what she says she's found. She even took a photo of it to study and look at.

At first she thought it was a vein. Then she looked more closely and looked like someone wrote on me instead of paper! The more Mama looks at it, the more she sees numbers and a symbol. She swears the numbers are "2, 8, 9, 7, 3, 1, 4, 3".

I didn't believe her until she showed me the photo. What could it mean? How long has it been there? I don't remember seeing it before; Mama doesn't remember seeing it before yesterday.

How did it get there?

Who put it there?'

Why? When?

Mama and I have been together for over 11 years now. How come we're only seeing this now?

Mama promises me that she's calling the vet first thing in the morning to see if they know anything about this. Mama looked at my belly closely, and she things the fur is coming off, or I'm pulling it off. She doesn't remember seeing so much pink belly and wonders if I'm having problems with my chicken garnish.

Mama says the first thing she thought of is that someone - maybe my original family - had their phone number tattooed on me so if I got lost, I could be reunited. Mama's afraid that if this is an ID number, she might be required to give me back.

That wouldn't happen - would it? Could it?

It's just the weirdest thing ever. I'll keep you posted.....

Maybe I'll Keep Her

After I complained about Mama in my last post, I looked up from where I was laying and saw her staring at me. Naturally I got right up and ran to her leg. She picked me up and pet me and hugged me and kissed me and told me how special I am.

I love you too, Mama!

Kenzie Bashing

Now that Mama's done with camp and Auntie Lisa and toddler Emma have gone home so Mama can stay home with us, Mama has decided to embark on a new pastime: Mackenzie bashing.

I don't understand what I ever did to get growled at so much. All I want is some undivided love and attention! I wish she'd pet me more. Mama says "I'd love to pet you, Mackenzie, but you don't stay still! You walk off and meow at me!" You'd think, after all these years together, I would have gotten Mama trained that when I want to be petted, I will twirl around in front of her, walk away so I have enough space to lay down, then I will roll over for her to scratch my belly, then I'll get up and move because the spot I picked is now too warm. Mama says that if i want attention bad enough, I'll stay still; she's not chasing me all over the living room to give it!

Yesterday morning Mama was waiting in the window for Memere to come over so they could ride together for a family reunion. I got on the bed next to Mama and she rubbed my head and behind my ears and oooooooooooooh it felt so super good. I was so pleased that I bathed my paws and even cleaned Mama's arm. Mama was very grateful to have such a clean right forearm.

When Mama came home from the family reunion, she didn't look like she was comfortable. She almost dropped her bag on top of Sebastian because her left wrist is sore and weak and the bag was too heavy for her to carry. Then Mama said I couldn't brush her shoulders because she got a sunburn on her back from wearing her bathing suit in the water and... she felt like a red lobster about to be eaten. (Did you know that lobsters only get red after you cook them? They're green when they're still alive.) Mama wouldn't let me get too close to her so I could help her sore shoulders heal; all she'd yell was "Mackenzie that huuuuuuuuuuuuuuurts!.

This morning she took her foot and pushed me out of the way because she said she was going to end up stepping on me while she moved the step ladder to move cans in the cupboard. Her feet and ankles are sore, too, from all that walking this weekend and... she says she's sore all over. I say, I think I need a new mama!

I get no respect around here!

"The Spirit of Liberty"

Mama has a book on her bookshelf that she says every American cat, dog, or human who considers him or herself to be patriotic needs to have. She likes to read it from time to time and naturally, I must join her in reading it, too. The book is called "A Patriot's Handbook; Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love" which was put together by Caroline Kennedy. Mama says that Caroline comes from a very famous and American-loving family so she's not surprised that Ms. Caroline collected some excellent words to put in one book.

When Mama read this speech today I had to agree with her that I really liked it too, because when I think of liberty, I think of that Lady on my page who holds that book and a torch in the sky. Mama typed it out so I could share it with all of you.

The speecher was a man named Judge Leonard Hand, and he gave this speech on May 21, 1944 at an event called "I Am An American" Day in Central Park, New York. You can find this poem on page 220 of the book.

We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land.

What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty; freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by way of winning.

What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.


"What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.

And now…in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country. I now ask you to raise your hands and repeat with me this pledge:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America; and to the Republic, for which it stands – one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Happy 232nd birthday, United States! Happy Independence Day to all my American furiends!

Thank Cat Mama's Safe

Mama was outside working this afternoon; Sebastian was supervising from the window. I agree with him: she should have been feeding us!

Sebastian started freaking out and digging at the window, meowing all the time. I finally went to check it out and saw a gathering going on in the middle of the intersection that we live next to, and Mama was in the middle of the group of people. They seemed to be looking over her and checking her out!

Sebastian's howling about how a red car just hit Mama and Mama was probably hurt! I looked but Mama was still standing up. What was he carrying on about? I saw people pointing down the road and yelling and it was seeming like a bad movie out there!

Mama walked back inside a few minutes later and Sab was all over her. He got to her first, so she picked him up, but I was all over it, too, meowing and rubbing on Mama's legs. I didn't see any bumps or scratches. She asked Sab if he saw what had happened, too. She said the maroon car ran the red light and got so close to hitting her that Mama felt the car go by and she touched it. Other people thought she had been hit so they stopped to help her. Mama says that she wobbled on her feet because she was trying to get out of the car's way so some people came to help her cross the street and make sure she was OK.

OMC - Mama almost got hit by a car???? Who would feed us if she got hurt? All the people who take care of us are far away at camp! Who would squirt my kibble with chicken garnish? Who would clean my litter boxes? Who would give lettuce to the guinea pigs and dead worms to the fish? Who would love the babies and spoil them so they can grow up big like Mama? Who would take care of Memere so she wouldn't be so upset about Mama being hurt? Who would take care of Mama if they took her away and I couldn't get to her?

Oh I am so glad Mama's angels took care of her today! Mama says that she thinks her angel got run over instead of her. We've got so much to celebrate tomorrow with fireworks!

I love you Mama; I'm so glad you're OK!

Oh, Canada!

Happy Canada Day everyone! I especially purr for Memere's aunts, uncles, and cousins in Quebec. I hope you all have a safe and happy day!

A special shout out to my Canadian Catster buddies! Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

Messed Priorities

Um, hello, Mama?

Yes, Mackenzie? How's Mama's Baby?

I am displeased, Mama, that you have been so sick and still going out to do stuff? You aren't staying home to take care of me.

I have fed you and hugged you and kissed you and slept beside you. What else would you like?

Um, well, yes, you did feed me, but did you forget I've got two bowls at my placemat?

Yes, you have your food bowl and your water bowl. You don't like them anymore?

Yeah, well, Mama, but my water bowl is almost empty. How come you didn't fill it yesterday?

I didn't???? Oh my catness! I didn't realize I forgot your water bowl! Are you OK? Are you dehydrated? Do I need to force water you?

Gracious Mama, don't get all freaked out on me! Just fill the water bowl! And don't let it ever happen again!

Yes ma'am! Never again. You shall have water bowls in every corner of the apartment!

Mama! Don't be dumb! You'd still have to fill the water bowls!

Yes, indeed. I promise to never forget your two water bowls again.

OK OK OK just make sure you also add wet food to my diet so I get more liquid!

Galloped

The phone rang tonight and Mama answered it. She spent the entire call going "no" and "yes" and "maybe" and "5" and "6" and other numbers. It was a strange conversation, if you ask me.

Mama tells me later it was a man from Gallop. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but she says they ask questions for polling reasons.

A pole? Something to climb? Yes, put me down for one of them!

No, silly Kenzie, Mama says. She says they wanted to know who she'd vote for if the election was today. She had to choose between that Obama fella and the MaCain person and she said she didn't know. She can't make up her mind right now. She says the man also asked her questions about her health and how she's doing with money and buying things and can she afford to live and - the last question she told me about - was the most annoying, to me.

He wanted to know if she had had animals in the past 12 months, and if she had to get rid of us because she had no money.

Can you imagine such a question? Get rid of ME?

Mama assures me that this would never, ever happen. She says she's not getting rid of me because I'm her baby and she's doing everything she can to take care of me. That's all I need to hear - you tell that man that I'm staying and that's the end of it!

Then there are the other creatures of the house. Mama clipped the guinea pigs' nails tonight and she was so proud of them for not fussing too much. Monet is the fussier of the two, and he was quite squirmy. I sat nearby on the bed to make sure he didn't get out of line. He tried to bite Mama but she said it wasn't a big bite; he was just trying to tell her he didn't like her messing with his paws! I can certainly feel for him there. She clipped my claws a few days ago and I don't like it either. Then she let the boys run on the floor but Monet bit Bijou hard so that was the end of them playing on the floor. Once Monet went back to his cage, Bijou had the time of his life - zigging and zagging and popcorning all over the floor. Mama had a hard catching him!

And oh yes - how could I forget - Mama stripped the bed this morning. She wrapped me up in the sheets and we got to play hide and seek for a few minutes. I sure captured more of the sheets than she did! Then she put new sheets on the bed and I caught those too. She says I'm a better "hindrance" than I am a help when it comes to making the bed! Can you imagine?

Let's Stick Together - NOT

It's been like this for a week. I've had enough - only because it means no open windows.

It's been very humid and sticky. That's Mama's reason for not opening windows, instead using the a/c box. It's been on almost constantly since last Monday.

Mama has been going to her regular places and, now that Auntie Lisa and baby Emma (who is now toddler Emma, I must add) are here for an extended visit, Mama is going in and out more often.

This means that Mama is coming home looking shiny and glossy. I don't care, though. She's Mama and I love her! It's just the two of us girls in the family now - even Omar the beta fish is male. So we've got to stick together, right?

Mama says "not so much". It's not that she doesn't love me, she says. It's just that every time she hugs or kisses me, all my loose fur sticks to whatever part of her body brushed against me. For instance, Mama gave me a hug and kiss when she came home yesterday and buried her face in my side - so she had fur all over her nose and eyes and mouth and ended up doing the "pfffffffffth" noises she does to spit fur off her tongue. (Mama says this also happened after snuggling a buggy at the shelter today. I could have told her that hugging bunnies was a bad idea!)

Mama doesn't want me being so closer to her while she's sleeping because even with the a/c, she swears it still too warm, but she doesn't dare make it colder because the guinea pigs will get too cool.

This afternoon there was a super nasty thunderstorm that went right over our apartment. We were all so scared and Mama wasn't here! The sky was super dark and the lightening flashed and crackled and the thunder was right on top of the light and balls started falling out of the sky and oh it was horrible! Mama says she was visiting Maggie and Auntie Lisa and Auntie Becky and Memere and Maggie was super scared, too. She spent the storm hugging Maggie while the babies looked around and seemed to enjoy the flashing, she said. Silly babies!

Since then, the sun has come back out and its cooled off outside, so Mama's finally opened the window next to the bed. That is where I'm going back to now that I've diaried tonight and so if you need me, you'll know where to find me!

Litter Box Rebellion

I hate Sebastian having asthma and it getting worse. Mama's messing with my #2 box!

The v*t put a nasty thought into Mama's head a couple months ago that went like this: because Sebastian has breathing problems, you should not use clay litter anymore.

First of all, Mama used this yellow looking stuff that smelt like the guinea pig shavings in our #1 box. She was very impressed by this "pine litter" and was raving about it.

Me? Not so much. It was tolerable because the #2 box still had ordinary litter inside it and I could avoid it if I really wanted to, particularly since I am the cat who can't do both box items in the same box! Please! I'm a clean cat; things must be segregated! (Whoa - there's a big word for you.)

When the pine junk was done, Mama came home with another type. Very strange looking, after I did the sniff test. It's white and purple. Sab says its white and pink, but he's color blind so what does he know? He thinks anything that's not orange is a bad thing! Mama says that technically the color is "magenta" and she agrees that it looks funny.

Mama does not like this litter. She thought it was some type of crystal-stuff, but we discovered (after the cloud appeared over the box after filling it and me thinking the world was coming to an end because aren't mushroom clouds BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD?) that it is really clay litter pretending to be something it's not.

Yesterday was the kicker in the tail, though. We are now out of clay litter. Mama put that clay wannabe stuff in the #2 box.

This calls for war. I don't like it.

Maybe I've not mentioned that the #2 box has a cover on it? It's so nice to have privacy while doing your business; this is why I've chosen it to hide my solid offerings. So what is this impostor of a litter doing in my space? It doesn't belong in there!

Mama was quite surprised to see a pile of litter kicked out of the box during the night. I wasn't awake to notice it, but apparently she stepped in it, and she wasn't happy. (Another bad thing about this litter: it really hurts the feet!) The cool thing about Mama stepping on the litter? She asked Sab if he did it!

That was until I messed up and used my box while Mama used hers and I kicked a bunch of that litter out the opening. Mama got what Oprah calls an "ah ha" moment. If its anything like that Oprah lady gets, then I'm in deep do. I have a feeling it wasn't a happy "ah ha" moment!

Pardon me while I go back to repairing my #2 box.

Thank You, Secret Sister!

This is so mysterious - and soooooooooooooo wonderful and exciting and delicious!

Mama's part of this thing at church that they call "Secret Sister". The ladies of the church fill out papers about their likes and families, and then put them all in a bag, where the girls draw a name and provide small gifts and encouragement to their "sister" through the year. At the end of the year there is a special tea party where you get to find out who your secret sister is.

I love this game. Mama did it last year and helping her wrap gifts every month was quite fun. Helping Mama guess who her sister was was cool, too, and she was right!

This time, though, instead of Mama's secret sister leaving her gifts on the table at church, her things are coming by mail!

So when Mama got a package in yesterday's mail without a return address on it, she was puzzled at first, wondering which Catster sent us a package this time! When Mama opened the package - no small feat because of all the super duper tape used to keep it closed - there was a note that said "I thought your kitties would enjoy this." There was a box inside wrapped in yellow tissue paper.

Did someone say tissue paper? Oh I love how that stuff crinkles! Thank you, secret sister! Mama pulled the paper off the box and said "oh boy, cats, I think you are going to love this!" It was a box - a perfectly sized box for there to be treats in that box!

Mama opened the box and pulled out a bag that had fish in it! Seriously - freeze dried fish, she called it. Could see their eyes and everything. The package called them anchovies, which Mama assured me were fish and she promptly proclaimed disgustingly smelly.

Smelly? What's she calling stinky smelly? It was only the most wonderful smell to cross my nose in like forever! I tried to slap that bag right out of Mama's hand, but she had a good handle on it.

She got up and tried to walk to the kitchen, which was hard to do because I tripped her up with all my twirling and meowing and crying, which brought Sebastian over to beg and cry with me, which got the guinea pigs thinking they were missing something big so they woke up and started wheeking and making their "pook pook pook" noises, which got Omar the fish all excited & waiting in his corner of the bowl to catch his beloved freeze dried blood worms.

Mama put a few anchovies in my bowl and oh cats - if you've never had one before, you have no idea what you're missing. It was quite possibly the most delicious morsels I've ever chewed. So this is what stuns me: Sebastian turned his nose up at them! Took one sniff and walked away. Can you imagine? Naturally I did not leave anything to chance. I devoured my helping and his quickly so he wouldn't change his mind!

Mama threw their box in the trash can and put the fish in the treat cupboard - we've got one of those now, cool, huh? I went after that box and knocked the trash over. Mama was very displeased by that, as the trash was full and full of nastiness and got on the carpet and she had to clean it up.

So to whomever Mama's secret sister is: I love you tons! Send more fish!

Grass!

Mama says that I am a cat outside of my time; that grass was all the rage a couple decades ago. I have no idea what she's talking about, but I do know one thing:

today she came home from running errands and going to the post office with fresh grass in her hand!

Mama said she pulled it up for the guinea pigs, but I wasn't about to let such a rare, succulent treat pass me by. I reached right up and batted the roots hanging out of her hand. So Mama let me have a couple blades.

Oh yum yum, I guarded that grass. Sebastian came over to sniff, but I growled at him and, for once, he got the hint.

Mama doesn't like giving me grass. She says I have a nasty habit of coughing it up and leaving it in the places where she's most likely to put her feet. Mama can be so dramatic sometimes!

Just to prove her wrong, I've not spit up my grass. It was my prize for being diary pick again today, I think. Yay for me!

Doubly Honored!

Imagine my surprise and shock this morning to discover that Catster has named me a diary pick for the second time this week! I had to blink a couple extra times to be sure.

Mama wasn't sure, either. Her eyes were so dry this morning that she had to put extra drops in them just to make sure she had read it right.

Thank you, Catster, for recognizing that I should be supported and loved on days when the world and life are against me, like yesterday. Headbonks to all of you!

I am now off to figure out how I can make Sebastian support my every whim and thought today..... he's going to be super upset by this!

PS: Thank you Capt. Morgan, for taking time out of your pirate duties to send me a congratulatory rose!

Rough Day

Oh what a day I had. It went like this:

~~the organizing lady came over. She messed up my hiding spaces again.
~~the organizing lady put books on the bed next to where I chose to take my afternoon nap.
~~the organizing lady bumped the stack of books that she put on the bed and they fell down - on me.
~~the organizing lady felt so horrible for hurting me that she tried to soothe and comfort me - she touched me! She stroked my head! She rubbed behind my ears! How dare she touch me!
~~Yes I hissed at her for bumping the books on me. That's why she touched me.
~~the organizing lady was shocked that I was on the bed and that I let her touch me.
~~Mama was very shocked that I let the organizing lady touch me.
~~I am very shocked that I didn't cuff her for touching me. Just goes to show you how much I wanted that prime real estate on the bed!
~~Sebastian got a box from the man who wear a brown uniform. It was birthday presents from one of his orange besties.
~~Sebastian didn't want to share the toys he got from his bestie for his birthday.
~~I hissed at and slapped Sebastian for swiping at me when I took the mouse he was rolling on.
~~Mama scolded me for hissing and slapping Sebastian. Where is the justice in that?
~~Sebastian got a bag of treats in that box, too. Mama says she called me, but I didn't come, so Sebastian ate the treats in my bowl AND in his bowl. I got none.
~~I got on the counter and knocked that treat bag on the floor.
~~Mama scolded me for getting into the treats bag and she put it away where I can't reach it.
~~I ate my supper and decided to lay with Mama on the bed so we could watch the news. I found Sebastian there, curled up in my spot, with Mama, watching the news.
~~I got in trouble for pushing Sebastian out of the way so I could lay down next to Mama while she watched the news.

Yes, indeed, the world was out to get me today!

Wacky Night

Last night was rough for sleeping. Just as Mama was going to bed, a horrible, nasty thunder storm showed up, and it got really LOUD and BRIGHT outside.

Then the storm knocked out the power. It got really, really dark outside, except for the lighting flashing all over the sky.

Mama woke up after the storm went away and not only noticed the power was gone, but realized how hot it was in the apartment because the a/c and the fans had been on. She opened the window next to the bed, so naturally I jumped at the chance to join her in the open window.

It was pitch dark outside. The storm was gone; it wasn't even raining hard. We could hear the ran rushing down the road and into the ground where they have those holes.

Mama and I were enjoying the coolness of the nighttime when we heard the lady start yelling for "Cuddles". Mama shook her head but wouldn't tell me about this "Cuddles" creature until we were away from the windows. Seems that this was a neighbor that lives on the other side of the building that's across the street from us. She just moved in there a couple months ago, and Mama met her a week or so ago. She says she's a nice lady, but on the different side. Cuddles is the name of her 9 month calico who got her tail run over and amputated. She's just got a stub of a tail. The neighbor lady was walking her calico, Cuddles, down the walkway, in the dark, at 2:30 in the morning, yelling at her to stay out of the puddles! Mama thought it was a strange time of day for such an activity, particularly after such a violent storm and there was still flashes way off in the distance, but no growling from the sky.

Well, I do agree that it seems strange. I'm glad Mama stayed with me (and Sebastian who barged in) on the bed to enjoy the cooler air blowing through. Not long after that the power came back on and Mama turned the fans back on again before going back to bed.

Never Too Hot for Love!

Mama has not wanted to hold me and cuddle me the past couple of days. She says "it's too hot to be close". I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

I rub on her leg; I bump her with my tail; I meow and cry and look my cutest. She rubs my head. That isn't what I want!

She says that she's hot and sticky and sweaty and if she picks me up, all my fur will stick to her and then I would be naked. That wouldn't be fun, would it? she asks me.

Sounds suspiciously like she's trying to avoid me, is what that sounds like!

This morning, though, Mama did pick me up and she held me and hugged me and kissed me and rubbed my head and my chin and my cheeks and ooooooooooooooooh the love felt so good. Mama was also right about all the fur sticking to her! I still had plenty to keep for myself and to share, actually. I don't know what she was so afraid of!

This evening Sebastian and I got our post cards ready for Mama to mail for our new favorite group, Catsters Around the World. Well, I would like it better if the cards we were getting had BOTH our names on them. For some reason, they only come in HIS name!

A Diary Pick Today!

Wow I am so honored and surprised to visit Catster after breakfast and find out I've been chosen as a diary pick today!

It must have been the pawsome pawty I hosted for Sebastian yesterday that caught the Dairy Monitor's eye. Yup; I'm convinced that whomever chooses daily diaries was at the pawty yesterday. Now who could it be?

Naturally, Sebastian is none too pleased with this development. He feels that since it was his birthday yesterday, he deserves to be a diary pick, or COTD, or some similar honor. This is the downside to having a birthday; now he think he's entitled!

Mama says you know its gonna be super hot when the overnight temperature only reached 72. Thank cat I don't have to go outside today and can stay inside with the a/c!

Happy Birthday, Sebastian!

As much as he annoys me, I really do love that pesky brother of mine. Today is his ninth birthday! I helped throw him a birthday pawty in the Forums and it was a rousing success, as usual!

He has so many good furiends that showed up to support him, and I realized how many furiends that he and I share - specially in the same family. I got to see furiends from the "I'm Not Orange" group, and naturally, we all behaved ourselves around the oranges in the pawty, and the oranges behaved themselves too! We feasted on salmon sushi and tuna water, Jason's fried guppies that are always a grand treat (specially dipped in chicken pate) and oh I can't even think about the cake. It was totally divine. I'm afraid my prowess for food got the better of me for a moment and I dove headfirst into the cake, but all was forgiven. In fact, I had help cleaning up the mess and eating it, too!

It was also really cool here at home, too. For Sebastian's birthday we got to eat wet food at breakfast and supper! Oh it was so bowl-licking good I had to lick his bowl too, which didn't please Mama.

She surprised me later this evening by putting her bowl on the floor in front of me. She said it was OK to sniff it out. Naturally I couldn't pass that up. There was MILK in her bowl! Oh what a treat - cool, white MILK! I haven't had that in a while, either, and I didn't have to share it with Sab! MOL

It is super hot outside. Mama says its super humid outside and it was 95 in the shade today. Mama left our shades down, had the a/c on all day, and had fans going to circulate the cool air. She also left us an ice cube in our water bowls. Oh that was fun to bat around on the floor! Mama wasn't pleased to find the puddle in the middle of her dirt pile, but oh well, she got over it!

Tagged by Heckyl!

Thanks for thinking of me, Heckyl! Usually Sebastian is the one who gets tagged. Now its my turn!

So I tell 5 facts about me, then tag 5 other cats. Let me see...

(1) Empty boxes are evil. I must fill them. Ditto on laundry baskets.
(2) The ties that dangle off Mama's pant legs are the best toys around.
(3) I love my mama. I must be wherever she is.
(4) There's nothing better than Mama holding me. I bury my head in her shoulder.
(5) I love to be brushed, but I don't like to just lay there and take it. I've gotta walk around, twirl my tail, and give Mama a challenge in brushing me!

I've really gotta think about five cats to tag.....

It was 70 Years Ago

Mama says today is the official Memorial Day, and on this day, we remember a very special event.

It was on May 30, 1938, that Memere's mom and dad got married. Mama called them "Memere" and "Pepere" and tells me she used to spend a week at a time visiting with them when she was little. She says the entire family would go up for the week, including Missy and Brandy.

She has a photo of her memere and pepere sitting in chairs with a bunch of kids around them. I don't recognize any of them, but Mama tells me that 4 of them are Mama, Uncle Tony, Auntie Becky, and Auntie Lisa when they were all small. It was for the 50th anniversary pawty they had for Memere and Pepere, and it was the last time the entire family was together: the five kids, their spouses, and all 13 grandkids were together in one place. She says she was just a young teen squirt then, but she remembers it being a great time meeting all the Canadian family members and listening to all the French. Mama says it was also the last time that all of her memere's siblings were together.

Today Mama's new desk came, but it didn't look like a desk to me. It was just a box with lots of boards in it! I was thinking that maybe Mama made a mistake in thinking she bought a desk, or that she should get her money back. I took a nap, and when I woke up - I found a desk! Mama was busy all afternoon putting it together. She's still got lots of boards left over; she mentioned something like "shelf" and "cart" that sounds a lot like "hiding spot" to me!

My Box is BACK!

While Mama was away last week, scary men showed up outside our windows and stole the grid things on the other sides of the glass! Mama reminded me when she got home that she'd asked the landlord to repair the screens that we ripped. (I fell out of the window once not long after I moved in with Mama; I got stuck between the glass of the window and the screen and ended up pushing the screen out the window when I freaked out. Down we both went, and I put big, long holes in that mean, evil screen!)

Today the landman came over to put the screens back on the windows, but he didn't have someone to help him because he needs someone outside on a ladder to help him do it. Mama asked if he might help by putting the air conditioner in the window, and he said yes.

I was already hiding on top of the a/c box that is kept under the kitchen table. I've been sitting on top of it as my hiding spot all winter and spring, and the land man came and found me there! I didn't like him touching my box, so I hissed at him and ran!

Later, after he left, I joined Mama in the kitchen. She was putting the box back under the table, but it didn't see heavy. I poked my nose in the box and joy of joys - the box is now empty and under the table! My special hiding box is BACK!

I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Other than hounding Mama for supper (and then eating it), I've spent the rest of the evening hiding in it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah, comfort!

Who Would Want to be Mama?

Mama had a busy day today but not the busy day she had planned when she got up to get an early start on the day.

She left to get the mail but didn't come back for a while. I waited by the door for her. She did say she'd be "right back".

Mama came home all flustered and with a stack of papers. She told me that the credit union canceled her debit card. I am not sure what a debit card is, except that she uses it to buy toys for me and cat food. They took it away from her? That sounds bad!

It was almost bad, Mama says. She reminded me of the big story a few months ago about the grocery store up the street that had bad, evil people who stole lots and lots of card numbers and then went shopping. They stole money from thousands of people. Mama says her card was one that could have been taken, but so far its been OK. She says its called "identify theft", when thieves pretend to someone else.

Who would want to be my mama? I won't have any of that - I only need one Mama, and I've got the only one I want, thank you very much!

Then she went to visit Auntie Lisa, and used her card to buy presents for the family and other stuff, like medicines for her cold. About the same time, so many other people at the credit union were having money stolen from them with their cards like Mama's, so the people who run the credit union decided to cancel all the cards and send people new ones.

Mama only got the letter today, and the letter says that as of today, her card wouldn't work. That got Mama upset and worried because she doesn't keep money around her. I think she's afraid that we'll go and buy tons of deli meat and seafood and cheese and milk and oh the foods we could eat!

So Mama had to go to the credit union and make sure that the gas she bought for the car yesterday would still get paid, and she had to get money from them so she could buy guinea pig lettuce and carrots.

Can you believe that? She went through all that story just to tell me that she didn't buy me a thing?

Yeah, Do what Samoa Says!

While I still have my fur all up and at attention over loosing human mamas and having no where else to go, I stumble across Samoa's expertly written advice about ICE. She's got a great idea, too!

Mama assures me that yes, she's got it all planned out, written down, and Memere knows where to find it and what to do. That's good enough for me.

I have also chosen to forgive Mama for leaving me and am one again cuddling next to her. I decided that four days of aloofness was good enough punishment for her. After all, how could I let Sebastian get all the love?

Away so Long; Miss so Much

Hi every cat! Mama's come home! I'm soooooooo glad!

Last week, just before Mama left for vacation, I had her type out a going away message from me, but those stupid fleas that invade Catster on a regular basis got in my way and my message was lost! Mama didn't have time to help me type it up again, so all I got to do was sulk and whine for her while she was gone.

Mama went to visit Auntie Lisa for a week. Mama was gone for 10 entire days! She had Darby's parwents come over and feed us and make sure we got our medicine like we're supposed to.

I was so happy to see Mama walk through the door yesterday that I choked on my purrs. I was worried, though, to see that Mama got sick on her trip! She brought home a horrible cold. She's been gagging and coughing and blowing her raw nose... oh what a sight.

Mama finally had energy to help us get on Catster and oh what a sight! The group box was busting with over 500 messages in it, so Mama said "we're not reading any of all those messages because we'll never get caught up." What we did see made Mama so sad she wanted to cry but she said its hard to cry when you're already stuffed up and can't breathe!

We read about Hazel Lucy & her mama's efforts to save Aldo, Noelle, and Tess after their human mama died suddenly. This is a subject very close to Mama's heart, I discovered. Mama explained her extreme distress to me just yesterday. I had no idea she worried so about this particular thing in life: her dying and leaving Sab and I alone.

She's not worried about dying, she says, because its a part of life and one day, if it happens to her, she'll rest in Jesus. However, she does worry about what would happen if something happened to her while we're still alive and we're all alone. She tells me she wrote up instructions a couple years ago for Memere on what to do with for us and how to take care of us long-term if she should die. I don't like Mama thinking about such horrible things, but she says "I worked at a nurses' aide and a paralegal - how can I not think about such things?" She says it the price one pays for being single, without a partner, and having fur babies. It's just part of being a responsible pet owner, she adds, and anyone who hasn't made arrangements for their fur babies will get a tongue lashing from Mama if she knew about it!

Mama tells she she's also made a list of people she wants Memere and the family to contact if she dies. Because she has so many special furiends in her online ministries (Catster is one, she assures me) that she has a list of specific people & how to contact them. Mama says that the family could not take us cats if she were to die but that she's adamant that Sab and I stay together - Sab doesn't know life without me, and she feels that loosing Mama and then loosing me would destroy him. We hafta go together.

Anyway, I'm glad Mama's already taken care of this for me. I know she loves me and that's just another way for her to show it!

On to more cheery news... Mama says the guinea pigs will be coming home tomorrow. She was too exhausted to go get them today or yesterday. Since Memere changed their cages just yesterday, Mama decided to pick them up tomorrow when she's had time to store up some energy.

Mama took about 1,000 photos while on her trip and she's going to have fun trying to figure out what to do with all of them. She said she had a great time playing with baby Emma, who is going to be 14 months old next weekend and is now toddling quite well. Her favorite word is "hi!" and she says it over and over and over and over and over and over and with her smile and wave you just can't help but smile and melt, Mama says. Mama went to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and took pictures of all the big cats. Oh they are so gorgeous - and orange! What is up with that?

Taking Care of Sebastian

Oh it was so scary this morning. I can't stand Sebastian a lot of the time, but this morning, he really scared Mama and me. He had a super bad asthma attack and Mama was about ready to drag him to the emergency clinic before he was able to catch his breath and settle down.

I didn't know what to do. He was so scared and his eyes looked funny. He was in the pet carrier so I couldn't get beside him, so I stood in the doorway and licked his head and tried to go nose to nose with him, but he was trying too hard to breathe and I think he panicked a little bit.

He's okay for now; Mama talked to the v*t and got medicine for him, but now she's keeping a big eye on him, just in case. He tells the story much better than I ever could, so please visit his page and see his side of the story. Also please purr for him so he'll feel better and get his energy back. He wasn't his totally bouncing self today.

New Boxes!

OMC today was so super exciting. Mama did some spring cleaning in the kitchen today. She was going into each cupboard and pulling out stuff she doesn't use anymore. I haven't seen a lot of this stuff in many years, when Mama was selling crystal and glass in people's houses. That was always fun because she carried it around in a suit case and there were HORDES of boxes and felt bags that the crystal things when inside before they went in the suit case.

Mama said "it's time for them to go, Mackenzie; I don't have space for them and we've not used all this stuff in a long time." Sounds like a plan to me!

Then Mama pulled out a red box with a lid and put it on the floor. Scooooooooooore! Mama picked up her new cell phone to call Memere and she turned around and - there I was! That box was the totally purfect size - I could curl up and stretch in that box and there wasn't a spot to spare. No space for that orange beast that annoys me! Mama says to the phone: "I can't pack the crystal in the box when there's a cat in the box."

Mama went on to do other really impressive stuff, like drag things with cords along the floor, and touch my food container cupboard. I know I wasn't imaging things; even Sab got excited about maybe eating early, and the guinea pigs started squealing and carrying on. The only one not happy about all of this was Omar, who had just had a bowl change and he seemed slightly dazed. Mama said his water was so nasty that she had to change it all at once, instead of slowly taking it out. I guess he doesn't like loosing all his water all at once!

Mama was making her supper too, and we got treated to tuna water along with our kibble. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Falling Windows

Yesterday was the bestest day since spring showed up. It was so warm it was almost hot. The breeze was almost not there, and Mama had the shade open wide and the window opened even wider.

I allowed Sebastian to join me on the bed, in front of the windows. It was just too glorious outside yesterday to deny him the privilege. Yes, I know, I'm a softy. I can't help it. It was just that wonderful outside. It was quiet outside - quiet for being in the middle of the village and living next to four corners of two busy roads. No big, bad, noisy trucks were driving by; no horrible sounding two-wheel machines were going by. (Mama calls them obnoxious motorcycles, so I'll trust her on this.) It was about as purfect as a day could be.

So when the window fell down it was beyond startling. It was downright SCARY! It was so sudden and so loud compared to the quiet and it moved really FAST. Yeah, I didn't stick around for the ending, and neither did Sab. Mama says that we made more noise leaping and digging our ways off the bed than the window pane did when it slid into the "closed" position.

I do know one thing: neither one of us went near the window the rest of the day!

Today the window is back open, only this time.... Mama's got a round stick in the window holding it open, so it won't go tumbling down on us and freaking us out. Speaking of an open window.... well, you know where to find me!

Yes I Want the Muffin

Mama was out and about early this morning - early for her. She came home with breakfast for her - and nothing for us. Can you imagine? I mean, she even got leafy stuff for the guinea pigs to eat, but nothing for us cats!

Mama had a bag at her computer and she put it on the floor next to her chair. Oh my goodness - make me drool! There was a chocolate chip muffin in that bag! I LOVE chocolate chip muffins! Mama says "absolutely no chocolate chip muffins for Mackenzie! Chocolate is BAAAAAAAAAAAAD for Mackenzie!" but hey - Mama's not supposed to eat them either with her die-ah-beet-ies and all.

I crouched next to the bag and I started pawing at it. "Kenzie!" Mama scolded and took the bag away. "Not for Kenzie! That's Mama bag!"

Might be her bag, but she's not eaten the muffin. That makes it MINE. I want that muffin!

Mama left the bag on her desk while she laid down on the bed. I stealthfully pushed the bag off the desk and hauled the muffin out.

I was sorely disappointed. One bite out of that muffin and it was horrible! I now understand why Mama hadn't eaten it. It tasted like gummy paper! How nasty! So I left the rest of it right there on the floor for her to pick up for me.

Mama found it later and wasn't impressed. She was not pleased to find it top-down on the furry floor, nor was she impressed to find that I'd taken a bite out of the muffin wrapper. She was also not pleased with herself for not putting it away where I couldn't reach it.

No wonder it tasted like paper - all I got was muffin paper! That's okay, though. If that's the new flavor of chocolate, I will have no problem with refraining!

The Water Goes Down

Here is a place where you can see photos and read about the bad flooding. The good news: the International Bridge opened this afternoon!

Water & Clutter Goes Away

Mama and I were watching the news this evening and saw all the water in Northern Maine that's causing quite the problems up there. The two major bridges that connect Maine and New Brunswick (or the U.S. and Canada, if you prefer) are still closed and the people are worried that the bridges were damaged by the water being so high that it flowed OVER the bridges. Scary stuff!

Thank goodness our rivers here stayed put. They just did the normal going over like they do every spring.

Mama's been busy doing her spring cleaning. I can't wait till she's done. She's been covering and burying all the best sleeping spots! She says to be patient; when she's done, we'll have more space to play and sleep. I hope she's right because I'm getting very annoyed by all of this!

Watching the Rivers

Mama's been keeping a very close eye on the news the past couple of days. After 24 hours of pouring rain, she tells me the rivers are very fat and falling over their normal places. We don't live near enough to a river or creek to be flooded out, but we could get stranded and Mama not able to go anywhere to get us food, for instance. She certainly wouldn't be able to go see Memere and the nieces because she's got to cross a major river to get there.

Phew, she tells me this morning. We missed a really big disaster. That river, the Saco River, is brushing some places with fat water but didn't do major flooding - Mama calls it back yards and parking lot floods. The Saco River comes from New Hampshire, and people there have had to evacuate and had damage to houses. Thankfully the water didn't crash over here!

She and I were looking at photos from Northern Maine, where the big bridge that goes to Canada has water just under the road. Mama says she's not been to Fort Kent (says at the very, very top of Maine) but says they got just under 200 inches of snow this winter and with their 3 days of rain, most of the town is flooded and its the worst in 30 years. I think she wishes she was able to take photos of the biggest story of the year but Fort Kent is 6 hours away.

She says that the animals are also getting stuck. That really worries me. People not able to take the cats and dogs to the shelters....the wild animals whose homes are under water.... I can't think about it. It's so upsetting!

So I purr for everyone up north and cross my paws that everyone will be OK. Flooding is bad enough; people dying from flooding is just the worst.

In other news... also while reading the headlines, we note the sad passing of Japan's oldest panda bear, Ling Ling. He was 70 in human years. Congrats on a great, long life, big bear!

Now, if you will excuse me, I must go bury the smelly mess that Sebastian left in MY litter box. That dang orange brat just won't bury his business! Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

My Celebrity Quiz Results

they came out really funny, I think. I'm not a sociable cat, so it was hard for Mama and me to answer questions. My first result was so bad that I made Mama do it again. At least we got a different, more comparable result!

Your cat is Oprah!
When Mackenzie meows, people listen. Yes, indeed, Mackenzie is Oprah Winfrey.

A true rags-to-riches story, Mackenzie is a comeback pet who has not only survived a troubled start, but uses her success to lend a helping paw to others. Well-rounded and hard-working, Mackenzie has re-written the rules of stardom and continues to spread her influence throughout the animal kingdom. Still a down-home country girl, Mackenzie's one weakness is the chow that she knows from her youth, and she's not afraid to gobble up a little gravy every now and then. Mackenzie manages to keep her positive reputation intact, despite being hounded by the press and her thousands of diehard fans everywhere she goes. Mackenzie is smart, creative and innovative and has used these qualities to build up an empire the likes of which have never before been seen.

I suppose that fits me well. I am very selective about everything; I love to support other homeless & shelter cats like I was once. Now if only Sebastian would leave me alone.... I'd be a total diva!

Animal Rescuer

Another gem Mama got from the animal shelter. She was supposed to give it to me to share with all of you, but she forgot. I found it, sniffing around her "going to recycling bin" pile. Phew - good thing I'm good at supervising! Mama says she doesn't know who wrote the poem, but it's purfect for her, and I'm sure, many of you.


I am an Animal Rescuer

I am an Animal Rescuer
My job is to assist God’s creatures
I was born with the need to fulfill their needs
I take in new family members without plan, thought, or selection
I have bought dog food with my last dime
I have patted a mangy head with a bare hand
I have hugged someone vicious and afraid
I have fallen in love a thousand times,
And I have cried into the fur of a lifeless body
I notice those lost at the road side
And my heart aches.
I will hand raise a field mouse
And Make friends with a vulture
I know of no creature unworthy of my time

I want to live forever if there aren’t animals in heaven
But I believe there are
Why would God make something so perfect and leave it behind
Way may be master of the animals
But the animals have mastered themselves
Something people still haven’t learned.

War and abuse makes me hurt for the world
But a rescue that makes the gives me hope for mankind
We are a quiet but determined army
And making a difference every day

There is nothing more necessary than warming an orphan
Nothing more rewarding than saving a life
No higher recognition than watching them thrive
There is no greater joy than seeing a baby play
Who only days ago, was too weak to eat

I am an Animal Rescuer
My work is never done
My home is never quiet
My wallet is always empty
But my heart is always full

In the game of life, we have already won

~Anonymous

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Bad Catster!

I wrote a grand, exciting story about the wasp that invaded the apartment today, and when I went to post it, it went "poof" and it was gone! Bad Catster!

Funny, but that's what the landman said after coming over to rescue us from the evil wasp that crawled through the hole Sebastian made in the window screen. Mama is very allergic to such bites, and would have to go the hospital and stay a long time and take medicine and go on air machines so she didn't dare try to kill it. She called the landman to come.

He came over and wouldn't you know it, that stubborn wasp wasn't giving up without a fight. He made it very difficult for the landman to kill him. I monitored all the conversation from the safety of the a/c box under the kitchen table. After all, I don't like strange men, even though Mama says he's been over here before.

After he saved the day, Mama and he got talking about the holes in the screens that Sab has made while chasing flies that go fly by on the outside of the window. I ruined one when I got stuck in the window; I tried to dig my way out. Sab's the one who stuck his paw through the screen - more than once. The landman carried one away with him to get it fixed, and Mama's agreed to pay for it.

Naturally, Sebastian was right at the door, supervising everything that was said. The landman saw him sitting there and gave him a pet on the head with a warning: "when are you cats gonna learn that you can't chase the bugs that are outside when you're on the inside?" Sebastian did his best to give his "who me?" look and didn't say a word.

After all that excitement I needed to sleep. With the window closed, I could only enjoy the sun coming through. No more fresh breezes for us today!

On an unrelated topic, my thyroid results came back - NORMAL! I get to keep the same amount of garnish for my kibble as I've had the last six months. Mama's grateful we finally found the right dose.

More Lost Blood

Man, I hate giving blood to the lab. It's just about the worst thing on my list.

Mama made both of us go to the clinic and have Dr. Carol take all our blood. At least I got to share the trauma with Sebastian. When he's scared, he gets very quiet. You don't hear a peep out of him. At least, I don't see his mouth moving. Mama says I made enough noise and protests for both of us.

Vet Tech Carol had to have Mama help her put me on the scale. I was not in a cooperating mood this morning. After all, Mama disturbed a purfect nap in the morning sun to make me give blood to the lab! She kept telling me she loved me so much and this was why I needed to be there and by taking my blood, Dr. Carol would be able to tell how much more or less kibble garnish I might need.

Carol carried me out back and Wendy helped her take my blood. What - did you really think I was going to cooperate for that? They rub all that foul-smelling stuff they call alcohol on my throat and my coat and my fur and then Wendy holds me down while Carol does the stick and the stealing of my blood.

Can you believe that Mama actually pays them money to steal my blood? She didn't even ask me if this was okay!

Thankfully Wendy brought me back to where Mama and Sab were waiting very quickly. I got to pace the exam room a few times while Wendy took Sab back for his torture test. He told me later that they even made him pee! Better him than me!

Dr. Carol says that I'm doing great at maintaining my weight and she thinks my thyroid level will be enough that I won't have to adjust my garnish much, if any. Mama says "phew" and "cool" and "I'm sure she'll appreciate that" and she put me back in the carrier.

It is very rude of people to talk about you while you're right there, in the room, listening to everything. I wish Mama would stop talking about me like that to the clinic people!

Jessica helped check us out and took Mama's money for all of this nonsense. I really hope Mama looses all her money to the clinic; that will teach her for making me go! If she doesn't have money, then we don't go to the clinic. Maybe with gas getting so expensive and reaching $3.50 in Portland this afternoon, Mama will stop driving to the clinic! I can hope, can't I?

Organizing is da Bomb!

Mini Pig's mama came to get her this evening. Mini was such a great guest; she didn't even make a peep. Mama kept her fed and medicated and she was a happy pig. Mama says Mini Pig comes from another era because she lives for grass and drugs now.

After Mini Pig and her mama left, I discovered one of the joys of having Mama move stuff around and box things up. Mini Pig's cage had been on the big box that the new printer came in, and with her gone, the box was open.... calling my name.

Whoa peoples! There's a box!

I leaped in it. It wasn't empty, but didn't have much in it. I got right in it to hide, but Mama saw me get in the box. Next thing I know, I hear noises on the other side of the box. I hear toy noises out there! Sure enough, next thing I know, I see my green boa on a stick.

SCORE! I nabbed it - and Mama nabbed my picture. Mama she loves it when I get the wild, kitten look in my eyes. So we played back and forth for a few minutes.

I hope she continues to organize for the rest of my natural life. I've gotta keep this box in my possession!

Mini Pig

Mama is pet sitting this weekend for a furiend of hers. I don't know this furiend very well; in fact, I am not sure I've ever met her before. Mama met this furiend, Cathy, way back before I was born and adopted. Mama tells me that Cathy was the nurses' aide who helped train Mama at her very furst CNA job. When Mama called her "guinea pig Cathy", I knew who she meant.

Guinea Pig Cathy has no human kids; she's just got 6 guinea pig girls. When Mama left for a long, long trip to Cheese Country a few years ago, Taffy went to stay with Guinea Pig Cathy and the girls.

Cathy called Mama last night and asked if it wasn't too late to have us pig sit Mini Pig while she went away for the weekend. (The pig's name is Mini Pig.) She's well into her 6th year and slowing down. Mama tells me Mini Pig has cancer and is on "comfort measures". I wasn't sure what that meant. Mama says that means they're just going to give Mini Pig medication to make her comfortable until she's ready to go to the big Meadow in the Sky. (Guinea pigs don't go to the Rainbow Bridge because they might get eaten - that's what Mama says. I wouldn't know otherwise - I'm not a guinea pig!)

Mini Pig requires pain medication twice a day; that's why she's here. I stayed away while Cathy and Mama brought in Mini's travel cage and set it up. Cathy showed Mama how to give Mini her medicine and Mini was happy to have it.

Mini is a big girl! I can only tell from looking from the bed; Mama says in no uncertain terms am I to disturb the visitor! Mama explained to both Sab and me that Mini Pig's never met a cat and she's sick and doesn't feel good, so we've gotta leave her alone.

My curiosity is getting the better of me, though. I'm trying to be a good girl, too. I'm only sniffing around her stuff; I promise I won't bother her, Mama!

Bijou and Monet don't quite know what to think. They smell a girl in the air! They've been all atwitter and excitable since Mini Pig's arrival. Monet's been biting at his cage, desperate to get out and see Bijou since Mama moved furniture yesterday, but now he's digging in another direction to get to Mini Pig. Bijou doesn't seem to care as much; he's just busy squeaking and wheeking when Monet does.

Gracious is it ever LOUD in here! It's hard for me to sleep with all this noise!

SPACE!

Mama's organizing buddy came over today and wowsers were they ever busy! They moved lots of stuff and then -

they started moving furniture.

I stayed out of the way while they did their business. Sebastian, naturally, had to get under foot and in the way.

I am quite pleased with the results. Mama put the bed across the room so its in front of the windows now. I forgot how pawsome it was to have the sunshine cover the entire bed! She put the TV and the bookcase on the other wall where the bed used to be, and now the bed is where the TV and bookcase used to be. It was quite a swap and WHOA was it crowded in here for a while!

It all wore Mama out, so she's not finished putting the bookcase together and deciding what to do with all her beanie babies that suddenly have no home.

I think this is the total bomb. I am quite positive that, when Mama put sheets back on the bed, she hid one of my pounce toys under there. At least that's what I'm pretending because I just can't contain my joy from pouncing on it, stalking the boxes underneath the bed, zipping around the corner, and hiding on the shelves of the bookcase that aren't filled yet. Mama keeps looking at me like I'm strange. She's just happy that I'm having a grand time and Sebastian is snoozing in my hide-away box, which is still sitting in the kitchen for the moment. (Of course he's there - its in a new place!)

It's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice to play without him bothering me! In the short time it took Mama to eat her bowl of fruit, I conquered the entire living space that's now open and not clogged with stuff. Mama says de-cluttering is painful; I think it's fantastic!

Eyes & Balls

Great trauma first thing this morning! Mama usually lays down after she feeds all of us breakfast, and today she did the same thing.

This time, when Mama woke up for the second time, she had a problem. Her eyeball really, really, really hurt. She was sure she had something in her eye and did her best to clean it out. I was meowing for her because I knew she hurt; Sebastian was trying to do his best "Dr. Sab" thing and sniff out the problem. Eventually Mama called the her eye v*t and Uncle Tony came to take her to see the eye v*t and he said whatever she got in her eye scratched it in two places.

This hasn't been fun. Mama's having a hard time seeing stuff today, so she's stepped on my tail. I was trying to be helpful and take care of her, but she says I shouldn't try to rub on her legs while she's walking. Mama's been carrying a bottle of liquid around to squirt in her eyes every few moments to help her eye not scratch some more and swell. She spent the afternoon laying on the bed listening to the TV so she could rest her eye.

After a day of pacing, meowing, purring, laying next to Mama to help her feel better, and putting up with Sebastian's counter productive helping Mama out efforts, I was ready for some fun. I followed Mama to the bathroom and discovered that Sab had left our plastic ball with the bell in it on the carpet. I slapped it with my paws and "plop" it hopped right into our water bowl!

This was quite puzzling. What was I supposed to do with it after that? It was all wet! I tapped it with my paw, but it didn't come out of the bowl. I didn't want to splash the water out of the bowl. I sat there and stared at it for the longest time, until Mama's voice interrupted me by saying "aren't you going to take it out?"

Mama talked to me! I got right up and rubbed on her legs.... again while she was trying to undress and walk around the bathroom. She leaned over, pet my head, then she took the ball out of the water bowl and tossed it into the living room.

Scooooooooooooooooooooooore!

I've been having fun ever since, pouncing, attacking, and chasing the ball.... and Sebastian, when he's gotten in my way. He thinks its a great game, so now I'm hissed at him. Mama says I am such a sore looser!

I sure hope Mama's eye feels better tomorrow; she's got to go shopping to get shavings for the guinea pig cages because they are starting to smell!

Payback Tastes Wonderful

Sorry I've not posted in a while. Mama's been running around here like a crazy lady and she's been neglecting us. I know that Auntie Lisa is back in town and something about Emma's first birthday and the babies being dedicated and Mama was supposed to make food and programs and take pictures and

*deep breath*

She was sure that she'd forget something and, if she didn't, it would be a bona fide miracle. Gracious she buzzed around here like she was going to loose what marbles she's got left.

I suppose she did forget something. She went to church and - forgot the most important thing: her bible. She put it on the bed to pick up her camera bag and never picked it back up. I took good care of it by sleeping on it, just to be sure it didn't go anywhere until Mama was ready for it.

Mama did, however, make a critical mistake on Sunday as she rushed out of the door to go to the birthday pawty. When she put her breakfast things away, she forgot one very special item.

I found it, though, and it was totally heavenly! Oh yum it was delicious!

Mama came home to find the cream cheese wrapper on the floor. What was left of the cream cheese was covered in tongue licks and gouges. Mama says that considering being left out, she was surprised I left so much behind!

That will teach Mama to ignore us!

She made up for her mistake today. She cleaned the sheet she uses to cover the glider (so it stays clean for company but we can sleep and shed on it) and gave us a new, clean, fresh sheet that was all tucked in and without wrinkles. I am glad to have the chair back!

Thanks to Catster...

I am still ahead of Sebastian in being honored as a diary pick. Oh he is not happy about this! I am sure it is because I shared that beautiful poem about loosing a pet, and it was just a couple days before Sab lost his good furiend, Stinker. I am purring for Stinker's family.

However, right now I am highly distracted, as Mama's put the guinea pigs on the floor. She didn't feel good yesterday so they didn't get out of the cage time, and they're wired and ready to go tonight! So I will make this a brief entry so I can perch on the edge of the bed and watch them buzz about.

PS: Thank you to Gracie Mae & her family for the wonderful butterfly gift that so matches my page; and to Kujo & Kittanna and family for the rosettes. I love them!

No Catster for ONE HOUR

Mama says that the Earth is a precious gift that Jesus made for us, so we need to take care of it the best that we can while we're still using it. She tells me about this special event that's going on tonight called Earth Hour that's a time when businesses and people are asked to turn off all the lights for just one hour.

That's an easy thing to do here. Mama is a silly girl; she likes the dark. She prefers the darkness, and when its dark outside, she doesn't use many lights inside unless she's doing a project. In the winter we get to use lots of candles and its so pretty and such.

Mama says that Earth Hour is all about saving electricity and power, so since we don't use many lights, she asked us cats to promise that we would not use Catster for one entire hour and that she would promise to turn the computer off. She says this is the machine we use the most and it does use lots of power, so let's be a family and snuggle for one hour.

I'm all over that!

Thing is, Mama had a sore tummy today. She came home from Auntie Becky's house and felt like she might cough up a hairball. Oh that is such a dreadful feeling, so she's already taken a long nap after taking her anti-coughing up medicine. Sab and I have been spending time on the computer making sure that she's not really suffering from eating too much sugar, as she wondered if the little die-ah-beet-ies box was trying to tell her something with the "funky numbers". Sab and I don't think so; we just think Mama ate too much! MOL

So now that we are done hanging out on Google, we're going to practice Earth Hour early and say goodbye to the computer for a little while. Mama tells us that many towns here in Maine, even Portland, are going to do Earth Hour, and how cool this is to see the city go dark. She's wondering why we don't do this more often?

Nothing Important

That's all I've got to say. It's been a blah kind of week.

Well, I suppose the "exciting" news of the week has been the introduction of the boys to the floor without pens or fences. Mama's let the out for about an hour each time, and I've been supervising from the edge of the bed. Man, they love to chase each other! Sometimes Monet chases Bijou; sometimes Bijou chases Monet. The chase stops and all activity ceases if they find a blade of hay on the floor - must eat it! They go pook pook pook in one direction, in a big circle, then turn around and wheek wheek wheek in another direction. They poo on the floor; they spray each other; they race all over the place and back again. Then they do this jump called "popcorn" and they step on each other. It's grand entertainment, watching them race, zoom, and roam on the floor like Paisley and Taffy used to do. At least once the girls got used to roaming the floor, they'd stake out a hiding spot and lay under it. Not the boys! They are off and all over the place.

Mama says that after having that horrible smell all over, she's contemplating having them neutered so they don't scent all over creation. She's right; I don't remember Milo having this problem. She thinks (and I agree with her) that its because Milo never had a buddy to dominate or be dominated by.

Sab doesn't smell anymore. Thank cat. He's just back to his pain in my butt way. At least Mama's been making him share the wet cat food cans!

Dedicated to Those Who were Lost

We've been thinking a lot about all the victims of the pet food recall lately. It's been a little over a year now. Mama is so eternally grateful that we didn't eat the bad food, particularly since she had no job and no money to pay for helping us get better. We do know many families here at Catster and Dogster were devastated by the evil food, and we meowed and cried with each loss.

None so more than our good friends T C and Diogi. T C was more Sab's friend, she being a shade of brilliant orange and all, and Diogi is a good pal of mine, even though we don't get to meow much. T C fell victim to the recall last April after a valiant battle. Her loss was so hard to take because it was totally preventable and unnecessary.

Mama came home from the shelter yesterday with this poem that was sent by a grateful family who adopted a pup from the shelter about the same time that Mama adopted me. The pup died around Christmas this past year, and the family wrote a thank you note to the shelter to say how blessed they were to have him in their family. They also included a photo of the pup. Mama, being a writer and all, thought it was a pawtastic poem and brought a copy of it home. Sab beat me to it - he's been sharing the poem in a few places, but how could I, the shelter alum, miss this chance?

The only sentiment of the poem that I would change, though, is that love never, ever, EVER dies. We do, but our memories and love stay behind. So here's the poem, to all the pets who were lost..... from tainted pet food, or any other type of reason, really.


Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come...

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I though that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

~W.H. Auden

"Because You Really Love Her"

That's what the banner says that I see every time I get on Catster these days. Apparently Mama didn't read that banner because she doesn't really love me. How do I know? Let me count the ways.....


(1) Instead of buying that luxurious litter in that banner, she bought something else the bag calls "pine". What the clay is this stuff? She says that with Sab's confirmed asthma, we have to stay away from clay now. She's messing with my litter box!

(2) Sebastian went for surgery and now he smells. Really bad, I might add. I hiss and try to push him away, and what thanks do I get? "Bad Kenzie!" "I said NO!" "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Sometimes I even get a slap on the nose or worse - she moves me altogether. Excuse me? Where is the justice in this world?

(3) Mama is not feeding me canned cat food right now, even though she spends a lot of time mixing and preparing the canned food she's giving to Sab. Just because he had surgery in his mouth doesn't mean he should monopolize the wet food! I know she did the same thing when I had my surgery a couple months ago... but that was then. This is now. Now is not suiting my fancy!

(4) There is no number four. I can only think of three ways. Now that I've written down my grievances, they don't seem quite so.... egregious, one of Mama's big words that she says means bad. I mean, after all, Mama still gives me attention, and loves me, and lets me sleep next to her, and plays with me, and feeds me, and loves me, and gives me attention and takes my beautiful picture....

... okay, so she does really love me!

Sebastian, GO AWAY!

Yesterday was blissful. No Sebastian!

Didn't start out blissful, as Mama absolutely refused to feed us till way after the sun woke up. When she did get around to it, Sab had to go the carrier and I got to eat. When I was done, they were gone.

Mama had appointments yesterday so I got the day to myself and the noisy guinea pigs. Oh my they make so much chatter! I don't ever remember Milo, Paisley, and Taffy making so much chatter.

Mama brought Sab home past our supper time and oh my.... he smells horrible! I have been so hissed about it.... I hiss at him when he walks by me. I hiss at him when I walk by him. I just wish he'd take that stench and go away. I've slapped him for good effort, too, and that hasn't helped.

He's not been himself since he got back, either. He's been dumpster diving and pacing and kinda loopy on his feet and looking at Mama and crying and then - the strangest of them all - he started banging his head on the apartment door! That worried Mama and she called the emergency vet clinic to see how long it would take the pain medicine to work on him and what the signs of medication reactions might be.

Mama has been taking good care of him, petting him, hugging him, talking to him. He eventually settled back in the carrier for a sleep.

Mama is not happy with me, though. She's been scolding me. *pout* "Mackenzie, you be nice to Sab! He's upset and doesn't feel good and had a tooth pulled out. Leave him alone! I have no been feeling her love. My "hostile" behavior got me locked in the carrier for a while, too.

THE PET CARRIER SMELLS LIKE THE VET! This is worse than torture!

NPO After 20:00

That's what Mama's door says. She wrote that on a sticker and stick the stucker on the door so I could see it... or let's see, no, I think she stuck the sticker to the door a few days ago.

I've seen these kind of notes before. Mama told me once that its nursing "short hand", whatever that is. Her hands don't look any shorter than they did when she got up this morning. She says that "NPO" is another way of saying "nothing by mouth".

Oh, yeah. It actually means "no food or anything delicious to eat, sniff, or lick" after 8 PM. Mama says you can't eat anything many hours before having a surgical procedure because the v*t will give you sleepy medicine and its not good for a tummy with food in it. She says its okay to eat after you wake up, if the doctor v*t says you can wake up. She says to just be prepared because tomorrow will be different and no food before the sun comes up.

Oh, wait.

Did I forget to tell you that is SEBASTIAN who is NPO after 20:00 tonight? Don't tell him that tomorrow its his turn to get his teeth cleaned! MOL

Happy Guineas & Sad Dog

Oh boy its been quite a weekend!

On Sabbath, Mama came home with the old guinea pig cage that she had planned on throwing out. She said it was a "SOS" situation and she needed to get the boys separated right away. So that's what she did. She set up the old, cold, rusty, metal cage and and put it on the box with the smiley face from a place called Amazon and put Monet inside it with his food bowl, water bottle, hidey hut, cavy cozy blanket, and a huge pile of hay. Monet was a very happy boy, and apparently Bijou was a very happy boy too. He ran and zipped around his cage and he squealed and wheeked and talked to Monet, and Bijou answered back.

Now I've got TWO cages to watch! Thankfully Sebastian is willing to assist me in supervising the new brothers. They are so busy! I tell you, it hasn't been quiet AT ALL since the boys moved in. I tell you, that Bijou has so much to say and not enough day to say it in. Every time Mama gets up during the night to go to the bathroom, Bijou will start wheeeeeeeeking and whistling a storm. If one of us cats bats our toys with bells, Monet gets all excited and he starts wheeeeeeeeking and whistling a storm. If Mama touches a bag that crinkles, the boys start wheeeeeeeeking and whistling a storm. I can't blame them about that, because when Mama's moving grocery bags, food can't be very far behind! MOL

Mama got very sad news this morning. When we woke up, she found a message on the voice mail from Darby's daddy. Darby is the dalmatian that she takes care of when her pawrents go out of town. Darby's daddy called Mama from the airport very far away to ask her to watch the house for them because Darby's mommy's mommy died unexpectedly yesterday. Mama says that the mommy's been sick off and on for many years but she's always gotten better before. She guesses that finally the mommy just couldn't breathe right anymore and her brain told her to stop breathing. It's so sad to loose a mommy. I don't plan on loosing my mom any too soon!

Very Upset Mama

The guinea pigs continue to wage war in the cage. That's what Mama's making it sound like, anyway.

I suppose I understand, seeing that Sebastian picks on me often. If we were stuck in a confined space and he was doing that, wouldn't I be miserable too? I most assuredly would!

Poor Bijou just doesn't get any peace in there. Monet is such a bully! Today Mama ended up putting Bijou in the play pen area by himself, first, then put him in the cage. Monet hung out in the pet carrier while Bijou had his exercise, then Mama put Monet in the play pen. That seemed to work out well. While Monet was in the pen, Bijou squealed and carried on and a serious racket! It was the funniest thing, too. Mama was listening to some music and it almost sounded like Bijou was squealing the same time the music played, only stopping when the voices stopped. Mama finally had a chance to laugh over a very stressing situation. She's been really loosing sleep over this. She's just got to find a way to get another cage in here! Mama's not been feeling good today; that PMS lady showed up again and is really hassling Mama today, so she's been super whiny!

Auntie Julia called this morning and she was very upset. She woke all of us up. Mama had to jump up to get the phone and she disturbed Sab and I by flinging the blankets and moving us to get up. It had something to do with needing to take Lucy somewhere and Uncle Tony wasn't home and so Mama said "don't worry; I'll be right over" so Mama threw on some clothes and out the door she went. No breakfast, no Catster, no newspaper online, no shower, no morning attention rituals for me. Just up and out.

Mama came back a few hours late with baby Lucy, who didn't seem to be all that happy. Mama said she had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from the doctor's. Every time we see Lucy she gets bigger and bigger! Mama went to put Lucy on the bed but as soon as Lucy saw me she started crying - very loud, shrill, hurt-my-ears-crying and she squeezed Mama extra tight and wouldn't let go. Mama looked at me and said "I'm sorry, Kenzie, Lucy is afraid of kitties now. You've got to get off the bed."

I looked at Mama. Why was this my problem?

Apparently it was my problem because when I didn't move, Mama took her hand and pushed me right off the bed! Can you imagine the hideousness of her audacity? (Do you like my big words tonight? MOL) Mama then put Lucy on the bed and she was okay. Mama was hoping that Lucy would fall asleep before Auntie Julia could come back and pick her up, but that didn't happen because Auntie Julia got there almost as soon as Mama did. Mama later told me that Auntie Julia had to visit her doctor and Lucy had to visit her doctor and at the last minute, both appointments were changed to the same time! Silly doctors; they should all be in the same building like my doctors!

Mama's been spending a lot of time on a guinea pig message board, looking for help on getting the boys settled. She found out from somewhere there about a horrific fire at a shelter in California called Animal Friends of the Valleys and 39 homeless dogs and cats were killed. Mama heard about it and took me to the website and we saw the pictures of after the fire and how horrible and terrifying it must have been for those poor animals to die in their cages because they couldn't get out. Mama started crying and I helped her send some money to help them replace the supplies that were also lost.

Just sadness and upset-ness all around. I've got a lot of soothing to do tonight, as well as purring for all the people who are sad about the fire and for the 24 dogs and 15 cats who didn't make it.

Fretting over Piggies

Mama has been so upset over the (guinea pig) boys the past couple of days. I wish I knew how to help her, but I'm concerned too.

Monet is the dominant pig. I feel bad for Bijou because Monet is beating him up. Monet is biting and nipping at Bijou, so Bijou screams and squeals and tries to run away. Mama doesn't know what to do.

She says the most sensible and easiest thing to do is to put them in separate cages, except that its not that easy. See, we don't have space to put another cage.

Mama's been trying everything she can think of in order to keep the peace between them. Monet spent quite a bit of time in their carrier yesterday while Bijou took a nap. Mama gave them another food bowl and another water bottle so they wouldn't have to share. Monet was still being a bully.

Mama tried to put a makeshift divider between them and it didn't work at all. Was scary at how easy Monet plowed through it like a trap door.

So today Mama drove all over town to find two, wooden houses for them to hide in, and she finally found the last two in town. That seems to have worked, except -

when Monet goes in Bijou's house. Bijou is so used to being defensive that he squeals and carries on. Mama's almost in tears because the only other alternative she knows is that she'll have to choose between the two because there is no place to put another cage, period. Whatever to do?

"I'm not playing favorites, Kenzie. They're family. We don't send family away!" she cried into my fur. I tried to purr my very best, and Sebastian and I have been taking turns supervising from the edge of the bed, but still things persist. They only stopped fighting when Mama took the hiding houses away altogether, and that's not a very good idea. If I stare at them much longer I'm going to miss my beauty sleep!

At least they behave when they're on the floor!

Introducing.... My New BROTHERS

It's official: the baby guinea pigs have names!

Monet is the white, tan, and black guinea pig. Mama says its the perfect name for him because he's different colors and he's got that tail fan going on in the back of him. He is clearly the boss of the two.

Bijou is the black and white guinea pig. Mama says it means "gem" in French. I know Mama's French, but she's also Italian, and we've got the Italian last name, so isn't that going to sound funny?

I have been supervising the boys' every move. Mama says I'm making them nervous. The cage is right at the end of Mama's bed, so I have a perfect place to sit and lay and see everything going on. Mama's got this silly notion that Bijou, who spends most of his time in their hidey hut, doesn't like it. In fact, she took their blanket and put it over the cage and their hut! Now I can't look inside!

I fixed that problem. Mama was all upset about a missing package yesterday and she spent time on the phone pacing back and forth getting upset with the men in the brown clothes so when she wasn't paying attention, I pulled the blanket onto the bed and off the cage. It makes a better door! Bijou didn't like that and he sprayed that blue stuff all over the place as he raced out of the hut.

Mama was not pleased. That stunt earned me a tap on the head with a stern "Mackenzie! I said no!" finger shake.

Mama is so dramatic sometimes!

My Annual Checkup

Mama pulled a really nasty, evil, dirty trick on us today. I was sleeping on the bed, next to her, when she got up and started scurrying around. Sebastian was loving his spot in the sun.

A few moments later Mama called us from the kitchen. Being called from the kitchen means one thing: FOOD. So naturally we came running - only for Mama to catch us and put us in the pet carrier, which was parked in the middle of the floor.

What an evil nasty trick! She locked the door and then out the big door we went!

Oh the horrors! Oh the evilness of it all! I meowed and growled the entire way to the v*ts. I bumped the door with my head. I stuck my paw out. Sebastian cowered in the back of the carrier. He won't tell you that, I'm sure!

THEN we got to the clinic and we had to wait. The girls were all excited to hear about the baby guinea pigs. Apparently Mama has already made an appointment for them to visit Dr. Shawn so he can torture them too. Dr. Shawn is the resident guinea pig doc, among other creatures that he takes care of. Mama says he's hard to get an appointment with because he's so popular so she had to call right away to get a visit booked. The girls at the counter can't wait to see the babies, lah, lah, lah. Just get me OUT OF HERE!

Eventually Linda called us to the room and naturally, its where the torture began. Mama opened the door to the carrier, and then she closed it. Linda picked me up first because I made the dumb mistake of walking around while Sebastian cowered under the bench. Linda did horrible things - like sticking that stick where the sun doesn't shine! I was not having it! I meowed in protest but Mama wasn't paying attention either. In fact, she was the one who insisted on putting me on the scale.

After that, Dr. Carol came in. She was happy to see Mama and Mama happy to see her. They greeted each other like old friends and Dr. Carol asked about guinea pigs too. What is with these people with guinea pigs on the brain?

Dr. Carol had the nerve to listen to my belly and my throat and look under my tail. I growled and howled my very best so everyone would know how upset I was. Dr. Carol said I was being a wonderful, typical calico and my growling sounded just fine but she really wanted to listen to my heart so I needed to settle down. Who is she kidding?

Dr. Carol declared me "fine" and Mama opened the door to the carrier. I don't need a second invitation! I zoomed in there so fast I left a plume of fur behind. Other than complaining about my weight, Dr. Carol says I'm looking good; what teeth I've got left are good; as long as I'm getting the right chicken garnish I'll be fine.

As if this trauma wasn't enough, Mama didn't go straight home when we left. She drove us to this big building that had blue letters on it that said "post office" and parked the car. She locked all the doors so we wouldn't get out; told us not to drive off without her, and away she went! Thankfully she was back before I could finish my protest and she drove the car home.

Home never looked so good!

Mama later explained to me that a long time ago, when Dr. Carol was first starting out as a v*t, she worked at another clinic and she took care of guinea pigs and rabbits and other animals. She was the doctor who helped take care of my first guinea pig brother, Milo, when he was sick. Mama said that Dr. Carol's office was further away and when Dr. Carol left, she was very sad. Dr. Carol took time off to have a baby and when she came back, she went to work at OUR clinic just down the road, but she doesn't keep up with guinea pigs and things anymore. She says that's why they were talking about guinea pigs; she says we haven't seen Dr. Carol in a couple of years and last she knew, we still had the girls. Dr. Carol plans on sneaking into the room when Dr. Shawn is looking at the boys so she can see the babies.

I had no idea that guinea pigs were THAT exciting!

Bunnies have a Catster!

Okay, I get it. Rabbits couldn't POSSIBLY have a Catster, but what else can I call it?

The people call it BunSpace.com. Mama says her secret, guilty pleasure is reading blogs, so she and I spend a few moments every day looking at a few. Naturally, she's got a few that she really loves, and one of them introduced her to this new place.

She was most excited about the "best bunny behinds" photo contest. It was difficult for me to concentrate because she should be feeding us about now.

The guinea pigs did well overnight; no serious noises. Mama says that its been a lot time since we heard guinea noises in the apartment, but I think she's going through a serious memory poop right now. After all, all the boys did was ..... drink from their bottle .... rattle a toy bell in their cage .... rustle in the Care Fresh .... well okay, rabbits don't live in shavings, but other than that, we've heard these noises before! Whatever could she be talking about?

"They aren't squealing yet, Kenzie," Mama says. Ah yes. Paisley, Taffy, and Milo would wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek wheek wheek pook pook pook whenever Mama would get up in the middle of the night and we cats decided to meow, trill, and beg for breakfast.

Give them time. It's their first morning with us and WE HAVEN'T EATEN YET. How would they know?

Okay I've gotta go. I can't handle not harassing... er begging... for breakfast! Enough blog stuff!

For you cats who don't know, a blog is another fancy name for diary. I like diaries better.

More Babies & Toilet Paper

What a super busy day its been around here! It's not a wonder I'm super tired this evening! Let's see if I can get through this before I totally fall over and have to nap for the next 20 hours....

My day started out in a really lousy way. It has been eight days since Mama last cleaned our litter boxes and, just between you and me, our #1 box has gone past its freshness date. You can't really tell by looking at it, but its really messy under that fresh-looking litter and I was not about to set my precious pantalooms on such undignified soil. Thankfully Mama had a half roll of toilet paper on the roll. It was an easy thing to pull it down and make a much cleaner seat. Since I cannot bury my business because its on the toilet paper, the only thing to do is to pull more of it down.

Sebastian seemed to think this was a grand idea, so when I was done, he lined the box with toilet paper so that he could do his business. As is usual for him, he indiscriminately does BOTH in the #1 box but thankfully he had the good sense to cover it up when he was done.

Mama walked into the bathroom to do her business just as Sebastian pulled the last sheet off the roll and it floated down like a feather right onto his head. I decided the best way to save face for everyone was to twirl between Mama's legs and greet her as if I hadn't seen here in hours... even though I woke her up. Mama just shook her head and went to the sink to get another roll.

Serves Mama right: not only did she "forget" to clean our boxes, but she also "forgot" to buy more toilet paper, so now she couldn't go! She was not amused. She had to get dressed before her breakfast and go to the store.

When Mama returned from the store, she had just opened the door to our apartment when the girl who lives next door opened her door and came out with her mom... and a brand new baby! Mama and I were so surprised to see this, as we had no idea that the lady and man next door were having a baby! The lady said the baby girl had been born last Thursday. Mama "ooohed" and "ahhhhed" and finally, after more twirling around her legs and head butts, she came inside to eat.

After getting ready, Mama left to do the real errands she had to do today. She was gone a lot longer than she mentioned to me. When she came home, she carried in one of those "I Love My Pet" boxes that she brings fosters home from the shelter! I walked right over to sniff the box. I wasn't exactly sure what the smell was telling me. Mama went right to the living room and began putting the empty cage together that she bought the other day.

Were we going to meet new guinea pig siblings?

Sure enough.... Mama pulled first one, than another very small guinea pig out of the box and put it in the newly made cage. One was black and white; the other one was white, tan, and black, and it had tan hair sticking strait up on its butt. I walked over and sat right next to the cage while Mama put them in the cage, then took their pictures. She said they were boys and they were brothers, brought to the shelter with their two litter mate sisters and that they are 8 weeks old. I must admit, they're cute. I reached my paw through the cage and touched the black one. I don't think he liked it because he ran away.

They are now resting in their new cage, in the same place where Milo's cage used to be, and where Paisley & Taffy spent their in-the-cage time. Mama says its going to take a few days for them to get used to us and "acclimated" but she can't wait to get to know them.

I do know this: the white/black/tan colored one is braver than the black and white one. He spends more time at the food bowl, outside of the hidey hut.

Mama's working on names for them. However, Mama's already made pages for them on Petster.com. Introducing......

the black & white cavy
the tricolored cavy

The Supervision of Omar

Did you see the new photo of Omar that Mama gave me for my page? She took it with her new digital camera and she's quite pleased at how well it came out.

Mama's put Omar on an "every Thursday" bowl cleaning to help his fin wound to heal. She was busy today so she didn't get to Omar until after supper. He didn't seem to mind, though.

Mama carried his bowl from the living room to the kitchen like she always does. She put him on the counter next to the small fish bowl, which already had clean water in it. (No worries; Mama uses special bottled water for him. Don't ask me why its so special; apparently Omar is very fussy about the water he swims in.) She took out his plants and put them in a paper plate. She then used her little fishy net to catch him and rush him to the clean, little bowl. Once Omar was happily swimming in the clean-up bowl, Mama emptied the colored rocks into the strainer to clean them and his bowl.

Normally I don't pay too much attention to this, but what else did I have to do tonight? I sat right on the bench in the kitchen and stared at him flopping around in his clean water. Mama says he doesn't like coming out of his big bowl in the net; something about a fish out of water is a very bad, bad thing. He didn't seem upset to me. Mama was sad she had to break up the bubble nest he was making, but she wanted to scrub all the slime off his bowl with her special scrubbing sponge.

I didn't take my eyes off Oman, just in case he decided to do a nose dive like the goldfish did and hop out of his bowl. Mama says this fish bowl is too small for the fish so maybe they were crowded? I don't understand all this fish stuff but Mama got the "Betta Bible" recommended by a furiend and she's been reading it so she can help Omar feel better and heal the hole in his fin.

Mama has a new theory about this hole in his fin because it doesn't behave like "fin rot" and it doesn't look like a "parasite" and it really isn't "ich" either. No siree. She's decided that he probably got this hole in his fin when yours truly started drinking out of the fish bowl. Can you imagine Mama's nerve? She thinks that maybe I slapped him with my paw and caught him with a claw, or maybe it was a tooth? I can't believe Mama would even think that I could do such a thing. I am Mackenzie, Mother Hen to all Creatures Smaller than Me. I would never hurt Omar! I didn't hurt Henri; I didn't hurt Milo, or Paisley, or Taffy. I never even tried to hurt the foster bunnies, guinea pigs, and hamsters. I am quite offended by such an accusation!

Mama says its okay; Omar's going to be just fine because he's got his fin rot medicine now and his aquarium salt and his pH drops and his nylon hat. I guess she must be right; after she poured Omar back into the freshly-cleaned bowl, he swam around and did fishy aerobics. I think he was super happy to have fresh water to blow more bubbles in.

Now pardon me as I go investigate the kitchen. Mama actually did honest to goodness baking today and whatever it is is now cooling off in a cookie sheet. Must go sniff!

Bunny 101

In honor of the Make Mine Chocolate Campaign, Mama gave me some information to share with all of you, as you all know Sebastian would never allow anything but bunny trash talk in his diary!

"Make Mine Chocolate", you see, is not about keeping people away from bunnies. It's all about making sure the people getting bunnies really want them and know what is required when a bunny becomes a member of the family - and that's exactly what the bun will expect. They are very social creatures; trust me! I got my nose bit by a "social" bun who really wanted to take over my space!

Just in case you aren't sure yourself of everything you might need to know before you adopt that bunny looking for you, here are something things you need to know and questions you should ask yourself:

* Small rabbits can become big rabbits quickly

* Rabbits need a balanced diet of hay and leafy greens

* Rabbits love to chew and dig a lot

* Rabbits can be litter box trained

* Rabbits need a lot of space to run, jump and play

* Rabbits can become pregnant as young as 3-4 months old

* Rabbits can become pregnant 30 minutes after giving birth


Now, are you ready to:

* Spend at least 2 hours a day bonding with and socializing your rabbit

* Spend as much time choosing greens and fresh produce for your rabbit as you would for your family

* Deal with potential noise from digging and chewing (especially young rabbits)

* Shell out upwards to $200 to spay or neuter your rabbit to prevent unnecessary breeding and health problems

* Locate a rabbit qualified veterinarian & realize that such vets are consider rabbits "exotic" so it costs more for an office visit

* Purchase a large habitat for your rabbit to run and play

* Purchase bales of hay for maximum nutrition


If you are, congratulations! You're ready to have a rabbit. I know where you can find some really cute ones! Mama approved!

Speaking of Mama approved.... she came home with a brand new digital camera today - her first. Her very first photo of me was a surprise to me - I had turned my head. Why should I make this easy on her? MOL

Don't Meow at Me!

Last week Mama was feeling super energetic and she did something she doesn't do very much: she washed the apartment curtains. To hear her say it, they were super dusty and dirty and she couldn't remember the last time she'd washed them and she had time and laundry soap and there would never be another time to do it like now.... and all the other stuff she says to cheer herself on to do something she doesn't want to do.

She swears that the reappearance of the nasty house fly is related to her cleaning of the curtains. I have no idea how she can think this. Where does she think this fly has been hanging out all winter?

Yeah, don't look at me. Mama is not pleased that this fly is still alive and sharing our space. "You could at least help with the rent and the heat this winter," she growled at it when she took a swipe in its direction. As usual, she's not fast enough for that taunting fly.

Mama is of the erroneous opinion that it was my responsibility to kill this fly back in the fall. Pardon me? I do not remember it being my sworn duty to attack this thing. After all, I did kill 2 house flies in the fall. I do not remember "bug killer" being written into the adoption paper work that Mama signed at the shelter when she brought me home. I also don't remember it anywhere in the bible saying that cats should catch flies. (Come to think of it, I don't think cats are ever mentioned in the bible!) Why can't Mama catch this stupid fly? It's not bothering me! She's the only one who seems to be annoyed that its here.

I tried to calm Mama's nerves down by purring my very loudest for her today whenever she sat on the bed. She had gone to the store today and when she came back, she had photos with her and some of them were of Sab and I sharing the Valentine's Day present that Toonces' sister sent to him.

Mama says she is finally going to do it: buy a digital camera. She says she'll never have the money again to get the one she really wants so she's just going to do it.

I've seen what Mama does with a digital camera. She takes more photos of me for Catster. This doesn't sound like such a great idea to me - she stalks me when I'm sleeping!

Campaigning for Mr. Pinkerton

Now I'm displeased. I had an entire entry written on how, on this extra day in the year, I would take the time to campaign for Mr. Pinkerton & his run for president. I had all my reasons mapped out and how and why you should care about him, but when I clicked "save"..... one of those nasty fleas that go around Catster every so ofter must have gotten stuck in my diary because "poof" there went my campaign speech!

I'll be much more brief this time around, but please give particular attention to Mr. Pinkerton's campaign by visiting his website and reading up on where he stands on the issues. Some of his positions include:

ending world hunger and provide health care by making everyone eat 24 carrots a day for every man, woman, and child.

napping makes the entire world better, so we should all be napping at least once a day.

discrimination is not okay. Even white buns with pink eyes have tons of love to give.

domestic violence is abhorable, and is his most passionate cause, particularly when it comes to rabbits. His favorite non-profit is "Save a Bunny" out of California, and he's hoping that his campaign will shed light on its good work in finding homes for so many bunnies.

Mama says Mr. Pinkerton's best feature is that he's a God fearing bun. His favorite bible verse is a not-so-well-known verse called Genesis 1:29: “God said, ‘I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food.’”

Like all candidates running these days, he does have one skeleton in his closet: he doesn't support domestic abuse, but he has no qualms about attacking and devouring cilantro. I hope this doesn't come back to bite his tail off and destroy his credibility in the 'hood.

I do realize that Mr. Pinkerton is a rabbit himself, but hey - in this year of a woman and a black man running for president, I think its a purfect time for a white rabbit to campaign too, especially when he's being the champion of all the underbuns of the world. Being a rescued shelter cat, I can totally feel Mr. P's pain and that is why I have no reservations about supporting him!

My favorite issue of his.... naps. In his honor, I think I shall take a nap before Mama and I are ready to go to bed for the night.

Purzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Something's Not Fishy

Mama says I ran out of my kibble garnish so she went to get me a new bottle. Oh there she goes again, talking about food. Gets me going every time!

Today, though, she pulled a fast one on me. The garnish is different! She squirt it on my food and naturally, that's the spot I ate first. Only things time the spot didn't taste like salmon. I couldn't quite place it, but eventually I figured out it was: chicken garnish!

What's up with that? Not that I dislike chicken, but I really, really, really look forward to my salmon garnish. Whatever shall I do now?

Mama says that "chicken medicine is what the v*t gave you this time". Of course all I heard from 'chicken' and 'this time'. She promises me that its the same medicine for my thyroid and I don't have to go back to donate more blood to the lab any time soon. Whatever. I don't plan on going back there anyway!

So, maybe the fish people didn't catch enough salmon for Mama to squirt on my kibble. I suppose I can appreciate chicken squirts.

However, I am most grateful for the fresh chicken skin and piece Mama gave me this evening after she got home from the store! Why have the garnish when you can have the real deal?

You're Invading My Space!!!

Really strange things have been happening around here the past couple of days. I think Mama's out to torture herself and Memere came along to help torture ME!

It all started yesterday. Mama didn't eat her breakfast. That's not entirely strange, because Mama's not a big fan of cooking and eating first thing in the morning. She was complaining about not having breakfast, though.

She was drinking all this funny looking juice stuff that she doesn't usually bring home. It was cool because she let us play with the tags she twisted off the juice containers, and I beat Sab silly in the war to win the tag. SCORE ONE FOR MACKENZIE!

This is where it got really strange. Mama didn't eat lunch, either. I know she didn't because she whined all day about not having lunch, and she didn't eat supper either. I sure wished she had just eaten, because she was driving me crazy with all her whining and complaining about some colon test and not being able to eat.

For starters, I have no idea what a colon is. Secondly, not letting someone eat is the one of the closest means of torture, in my book, second only to visiting the v*t, and maybe a pounce attack by Sebastian. Mama was dreaming of all the things she wanted to eat and I couldn't help but dream with her. She was dreaming of pizza.... and pasta.... and ice cream.... and milk..... and eggs.... and stuff I don't like such as pretzels and fruits.

Secondly, she insisted on drinking this really horrible stuff that she said tasted horrible. I think Mama just wanted to be miserable because not only did she force herself to drink this horrific nasty stuff, but then she spent forever at the litter box, intruding on my litter box time. (I prefer to do my business in private; I don't like being there when Mama's there!)

Mama didn't have supper, and when she woke up this morning, she wanted breakfast again but didn't eat it. Then Memere showed up!

Memere doesn't come here in the middle of the week. Memere doesn't even come here at the end of the week. Memere's first mistake was that she walked into the living room with her shoes still on. That's a big no-no. Mama always leaves her shoes at the door, and when they're wet from outside, she leaves them in the hallway.

Memere's second mistake was to come over to the bed, sit down next to me (Mama and I had been resting side by side until Memere knocked at the door). "Hello Mackenzie. How are you? How is my baby?"

Excuse me? Who died and made me your baby? Not in this lifetime! I belong to MAMA!

Then - the worst thing Memere could have done - she raised her hand up to stroke my head.

*sigh* I know how much Memere means to Mama so I did my very, utmost best to behave, but man, I was TICKED! I pushed away from Memere as far as I could - right into the wall at the head of the bed - and I pushed my ears back and narrowed my eyes and gave Memere the most wild look I could muster. "She's not happy with me," Memere says to Mama.

"I can't believe she even let you sit there!" Mama says. "Kenzie must be getting senile."

Memere had the nerve to try to touch me again. This time I growled and raised my paw at her. "Are you going to strike me, Kenzie?" Memere asked another stupid and obvious question.

I never thought I'd be happy to have Sebastian around, but about then he finally rounded the corner to see who had come through the door. He rubbed on Memere's leg and meowed at her and she was happy to see him.

Mama had to find her shoes, so she gave Memere the stick to Rosie on a Stick and Sab had fun with that. I'm sorry to say that I couldn't resist. I had to leap at it. Mama found her shoes and they left.

Phew.

A few hours later, Mama and Memere came back. This time Mama looked like she was having her verti-goes again and was wobbly. Memere rushed to the litter box while Mama got comfy in a chair. Naturally I was worried about Mama so I ended my nap and crept over to sniff Mama out. She smelt like hospital smells. Mama said she couldn't bend over and pick me up or she might fall over but that she loved me and she'd be just fine. Said the human v*t gave her some medicine that made her a little sleepy so her head was feeling funny. Her test was "pink and normal."

Mama didn't look pink to me, but she did look like my normal Mama, so I am very happy about that. Especially because after Mama fed us, she fed herself.

I'm even more happy that Memere didn't try to touch me when she left. She just waved a goodbye from the door.

SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Mama left her plate of something in the sink tonight. It smelt like cheese! I know she put a box that said "pizza" on it in the recycling bag. She didn't even try to hide that plate in the sink. In fact, I thought I saw a spot on it!

I say I think. Tonight I was not graceful and stealthful enough to counter surf. I had no sooner gotten on the counter to slink into the left hand side of the sink (where the dirty dishes go) when


CRASH!
BANG!
CLANG!
CLATTER & LOTS OF NOISE!

I bumped a pan handle with my fat butt and knocked over the stack of dirty silverware and pans and they all fell into the sink with the most horrific, scary, and tattle tail noise that you've ever heard in the history of catdome.

Oh my cat it was the scariest noise ever. Even Sebastian thought so. He was trying to get comfortable for a nap on the dog bed on the other side of the kitchen.

Hey I wasn't born yesterday. I was NOT about to stick around with that noise. Mama was bound to hear it and come to investigate. I tell you, I haven't moved that fast in a long time - leaping off the counter, barely touching the floor, paws flying in all directions along with my fur and that of Sab's as he tried to beat me around the corner for the safest hiding spot in the living room. My hair was standing on end. I was petrified!

Sure enough - we hadn't even begun to round the corner of the kitchen to the living room when guess who showed up. MACKENZIE GET THE HAY OUT OF MY SINK! Mama yelled with her loudest voice to be heard over the clatter of bad knives, forks, and spoons. YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!

My poor feet couldn't get any traction. I was desperate to get out of the way - particularly with Mama yelling over my head. Mama swears that I was like Wyle E. Coyote in the cartoons.

Mama spun around on her heels and came after me shaking her finger. "BAD MACKENZIE!" I hid behind the red tub on the floor that Mama's been putting things inside for storage. She eventually went back to the kitchen to clean up the mess.

phew

I know she loves me .... she cleaned out the litter boxes today. Said she had to do it while she felt good and before she has a colon-oskopy on Friday. I have no idea what that is, but she says its not going to be fun around here the next couple days. I wonder what she means?

Mama stopped by the shelter today. She came home very sad. She told me about Lily a while ago. Lily's been a sick bunny at the shelter. She was found on the side of the road with a horrible infection in her ear. Mama says it took a lot of medicine to get the infection to go away, but Lily didn't seem to want to get better. Mama says Lily was very sad and depressed and so she stopped eating and drinking. Mama and the other girls tried to help Lily by feeding her but Lily didn't want anything; she spit it out of her mouth. Lily died late last week. Mama says the bunny doctor had gone over Lily several times and couldn't find anything wrong with her other than a yeast infection in her ear. The vet says she thinks Lily died of a broken heart.

No wonder Mama was so sad! That makes me feel very sad, too. No bunny should die of loneliness. Makes me want to meow in pain for her, but also purr and lean on Mama because she rescued me from the same shelter and how much I love her for that!

My New Hiding Spot

... is quite wonderful, dark, and imaginative, and Mama wants to take it away from me!

I discovered it last week on the floor in the kitchen. It's a bag - a really big bag - and it crinkles and makes noise and when I climb into it, you can't see any of me. You also can't tell I'm in the bag. It's the bestest place to hide in plain sight and listen to what's going on.

Except that Mama discovered my new hiding place. "Get out of that bag!" Mama growled at me. She opened it and tried to push me out. "I don't want you hiding in the dirty recycling trash bag! Yucky! You're going to get food and dirty stuff all through your fur! YUCK!"

Food? D'oh Mama, why do you think I like it in there? It's a great place! I don't know how she can call it dirty, though. All the glass jars in there were clean - trust me, I did try to clean them!

Since I couldn't find anything interesting in the recycling bag, I tried the sink. Mama must have been feeling good that day because all the dishes were washed and the sink was clean. What kind of a deal was this?

Auntie Lisa and baby Emma are here right now so Mama's not been home too much, except for today. I think that's why she's so tired and not feeling well today: she's been too busy the past couple of days. That will teach her to stay home with us and nap!

What is this Valentine Stuff?

That's what Mama says, anyway. Actually, I can't really meow what she really calls it. She says its a ploy by Hallmark to make money off men. I get the privilege of listening her carrying on about this nonsense every year. Why do we need a day where you're required to buy things for your loved ones to let them know you love them? Isn't that what Christmas is for, and didn't we just have that holiday? Mama says "see, even the good people at The Today Show understand my predicament, Mackenzie. Love is something you show year round, and only if you feel it and want to express it. This is a forced holiday!"

I just look at Mama and wonder what she is so growly about. Aren't I good enough? I rub my head on her arm. "Yes, I know you love me. I'm soooooooooo happy about that. I'm not growly at you, Baby."

Ah phew.

Actually I'm liking this Valentine stuff, as Sebastian got a package in the mail today from his buddy Ashley, who's brothers with my furiend, Toonces, at "I'm Not Orange". Ashley got Sab a bunch of toys and Temptations treats! I have never heard of such treats before, but WOWSERS they are totally scrumptious! Mama let me taste some of them too, then she told me that these were Uncle Boogie's favorite treats. He'd do anything for them, including scratch a hole into the cupboard door to get to them. She says the landlord was not happy. Sebastian didn't seem to mind sharing his loot with me, either. Oh the fun we have had tonight! Speaking of which... I need to get back to it!

My Prize Turkey

Mama made a silly mistake tonight. She ran away from her turkey sandwich. She left it on the desk. She left it right in easy reach for me!

I wasted no time, as I had watched her put the sandwich together and was rather annoyed that she didn't share it with me. I climbed onto the desk chair, pulled the turkey and cheese out of the bun, and dropped it on the floor. I had to race off the chair to reach it before Sebastian got to it, because he tried to take it right out of my mouth! Just because it was too long to fit neatly in my jaws the first time I picked it up didn't give him the right to try to take the overhang out of my mouth!

Bad news for us: Mama discovered us by then (apparently she was in a super hurry to examine her litter box) and unfortunately, I was the one with the food in my mouth, not Sab. Guess who got scolded?

Mama carried the food into the kitchen and ripped it in two, giving each of us half. Sebastian was so darn pokey slow in eating his that I thought I might get it all for myself after all but that didn't work. DANG! Mama says "you are one lucky cat to discover that I was distracted!"

This topped off a day of wall to wall sunshine! I got to have a long nap in the hot sun coming through the window. Even though I could hear the wind howling outside, it was toasty in here. I'm so glad that our windows face south. Mama says that's not a good thing come summer, but in the winter, it helps save energy.

I totally agree. Saves my energy - how can I think about moving about when that huge spot of sun goes wasted? Two living room windows, two living cats. What more could you want?

Unpalatable

Mama's been busy today. Can you believe it - we saw the sun today! The sky got light and I saw sunbeams on the carpet! Mama took advantage of the situation by dragging all the trash and recycling outside to the dumpster and took a drive to the recycling station. She also, finally, took her old computer to Memere's house. She then moved all the stuff that goes on the table back on the table so now I have my kitchen perch again! Mama also went to do that political stuff that she's been talking about - something about picking a president - and she called it a full day.

Unfortunately when she came home it was snowing so hard you couldn't see out the window! I like watching snow, but after 8 days of this, I'm ready for the sunbeams to STAY PUT!

Mama's also been really busy on computer playing on a new website one of her furiends got her stuck on. She calls it "ancestry.com" and she's been so totally into it that I don't get my Catster time anymore and Mama's been awake most of the night going through papers and typing.

I don't care about this. After all, the papers aren't where I can observe, so I'd rather be sleeping. But when Mama stopped her business and went "where did the time go! I haven't had supper!" I knew things were going to get good. Mama says she can't skip meals anymore because of her new diabetes stuff, so I was sure it would be good.

I got to the kitchen just as she had a container in her hand that looked about the same size as a cat bowl. She was heading towards my bowl! It must be destiny! I meowed and got all excited. I ran right over, with Sebastian hot on my heels. But all Mama did was open that micro box and take something out. "You guys will not eat this stuff," she says. She put the container down and I saw a word that went something like "hommus". I have no idea what that is, but it must have been good, because Mama was putting it on her bunny-type food.

I snuck onto the counter when she left the kitchen to sniff the container that looked like it would have yummies in it. Sure enough.... I couldn't stand the smell. That wasn't any meat I've ever smelt! Sure smelt like bunny-type food, but I can't imagine even bunnies would eat that food.

Ugh. Totally unpalatable. Guess I'm going to bed with a snack tonight.

February is Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month

Hey everyone;

Mama wants me to let you know that its February, but I said you already knew that. She says "no, Kenzie, remind them about Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month!"

So here is your reminder. It's Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month. If you or anyone you know is looking into adding a rabbit to the house, please go to your local shelter or rescue groups and not breeders and pet stores, who are the sources of rabbits that end up being abandoned and needing to be rescued.

Need some help? Petfinder is a great place to find a bunny if you really need one.

The House Rabbit Society has a couple great webpages to check out. One of them is their Online adoption resource, listing rescue groups across the country, or you can read all about Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month by sniffing around the rest of the site.

Please rescue the bunnies. If you don't, they'll end up at the shelter and, quite possibly, at my house. We don't like bunnies here.

Interrupted Love Fest

Mama got up this morning and decided that, since she felt pretty good, she'd tackle a project she's really been dreading: cleaning the shower & bathroom sink. She was so pleased with herself when she was done.

Then she went outside to clean off the car, again, from all the snow that's collecting out there. We haven't had sunbeams for 3 days - just snow, or sleet, or sometimes rain - but its been falling since late Monday night.

When Mama came back inside, she got comfy to watch "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" which comes on just before the news. I curled up next to her on the bed and snoozed.

Mama took a commercial break to bury her face in my neck and rub behind my ears and scratch my chin and oooooooooooooooooooooh it was heavenly. Mama nuzzled my neck and I purred and purred and wiggled so Mama would have the best possible place to reach all my lovin' spots and smother me with love.

Yeah that was short lived. Mama was talking to me. Sebastian overheard and had to come over, sticking his paws up in my face so Mama would know he was there.

I was not about to share her for all the food in the world! I didn't even bother to stop purring this time; I just reached out and slapped that orange head of his. Mama looked over at him and said "No Sebastian, its not your alone time with Mama. It's Kenzie's turn."

He cocked his head to use his charm to get to Mama, but she wasn't about to budge. She continued to rub my neck and shoulders and chin and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah it was so wonderful.

Sab wasn't about to be ignored. He tried to climb onto the bed, and onto Mama, but she knocked him down and said "ENOUGH! You'll have your turn!" but by then then the mood was ruined and, once again, that blasted pain in my tail ruins another perfect "Kenzie only" moment.

Man I curse the day Mama brought him home!

Flying Here and There

Mama told me today about Uncle Derrick's job. He flies planes all around the country for people. He works for a plane company called "Continental" and she says he's wanted this particular job for almost all of his life. He had to fly a plane to Portland on Sunday and then fly one out on Monday, so that's why he spent Sunday visiting with everyone.

She said that he was telling about his flight to Portland. On board was a soldier returning home from Iraq. He says those are his favorite flights; he takes great pride in bringing a service member home. He said when he got into the terminal there was a huge crowd gathered to greet the solider home and he was hugging his family. Made Uncle Derrick feel lonely for Auntie Lisa and Emma, but also so happy that he got to help in the reunion.

I would say that's a pretty pawsome job, too. I am not sure what a plane is, as Mama's never mentioned being on one, but she says that planes are the noisy things that sometimes go over our apartment on their way to the airport.

That's when Mama told me she's thinking of taking her first plane ride, to go see Auntie Lisa and Emma in Michigan. She's just waiting for something called taxes before she buys a ticket.

Taxes? Oh I LOVE TAXES! That means Mama's going to spread papers on the floor and check them out and I get to lay on top of them and help her read them! I'm not so sure about the Mama going away part, but I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'm off to sleep next to her pillow so I can warm it up for her and be ready when she climbs in bed for the night.

No Law and Order Here!

This afternoon Mama laid down on the bed to watch that Law and Order show. I sure wish she'd take the show seriously and institute some law and order here!

I always curl up next to Mama when she's watching TV. It's our time. Naturally, Sebastian had to come and join us. He drives me crazy when he does this, particularly when he decides he must be close to Mama and me.

Today, though, Mama thought he was being super, super cute. Not only did she carry on about it, but she had to say it over and over. Today he rested his face on my hip and buried his face in my fur. Mama says its the most endearing form of worship and adoration that he feels towards me. She says I need to be nice to him because he really does love me.

Yeah, right! Why can she lay down the law with him and order him to behave? He listens to her! Mama knew I wasn't happy because my ears were as flat as I could make them. I was NOT HAPPY!

We are also not happy because the New England Patriots lost the Super Bowl last night. Not funny at all. Mama's been sighing and trying to be happy for the Giants, but she says it doesn't dull the pain of the loss.

Compliments

Mama was giving me attention yesterday and she told me how much better my coat looks these days. She says it feels softer, silkier, and looks shiny again. She's so glad, she said, because that tells her my salmon garnish is doing its job of making my thyroid happy. Now that the v*t found the right dose for me, I don't have to go for blood work as often, and that makes Mama's wallet and me very happy!

Mama's furiend showed her a website today where you can make your very one bookcase on the internet. What good is that kind of bookcase? I can't sit on the internet; I can't sniff it out; I can't leave my fur all over it. Not fair! However, Mama is now obsessed with putting all her real books on her internet shelf. This is going to be fun, helping her go through her books and checking out the holes they leave in the bookcase! MOL You can even buy the books right off Mama's shelf!

You can see our internet bookshelf by going to Shelfari. I have a feeling I won't get to be on Catster as much while Mama plays with her new obsession!

Leave Me Alone!

That dang Sebastian... boy I'm telling you, he really gets to me sometimes! He just doesn't know when to leave me alone!

I was minding my own business this evening. I had been happily napping on the glider when I heard Mama call my name from the kitchen. Food! I think, so off I dash to greet her. Sure enough, she's got teeth-cleaning yummies for us. Oh boy!

She went back to the computer, so I thought that I might join her. Sebastian, however, had other ideas. He sat right in the doorway, and when I tried to walk by him, he leaped on me. I growled and hissed at him, and that got Mama's attention.

"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab! Get off of her!" I love to hear those words. Mama is my protector!

I rushed into the living room and went to stand in front of the TV stand. He was right behind me and tried to attack my head again. This time Mama was up and heading our way. He knew he was bad! He immediately tried to hide behind the paper bag of recycling paper. "You leave her alone!" Mama shook her finger at the retreating pain-in-my-tail.

Mama picked me up. I gave Sebastian one last growl to know how hissed off I was, but I can't be mad if Mama is giving me love! I laid my head on her shoulder and snuggled into her neck. Then I purred. Mama petted me and told me she loved me and that Sebastian didn't really mean to hurt me; he's just bored tonight. She put me down in the middle of the bed so I could get comfy. Just the wonderful spot I needed. Going back to the glider would have just invited him to intrude in my space!

So now my world is okay and I think I shall go back to my spot and nap until Mama decides she wants to go to bed. I shall save some energy to purr her to sleep. She's still got that nasty headache from this weekend, so I try not to make too much noise for her. She thinks she got a headache from the shot that her doctor gave her last week so she wouldn't get sick. Bad doctors! They're as bad as vets! Leave my Mama alone!

Mama Please Stay Home

Mama says her head is full of something. Says her head feels heavy and stuffed. I think that means she's got a cold!

Bad time for Mama to get a cold. Something big is going on at the church this weekend, and Mama's in the middle of it. Of course, it wouldn't be a big thing unless Mama was in the middle of it. She's always helping out with stuff there. She tells me that Memere and others have been working on this for about a year, and for the last few weeks Mama's been directing traffic and making sure the out of town people have places to stay.

Mama says: yesterday was finally the day it started, and she was sorry she'd be gone most of the day and didn't know when she'd be back. She gave me an extra kiss on the head before she left.

She was right; she didn't come home until way past our supper time. Thankfully she was ready to feed us as soon as she opened the door. I was so happy to see Mama I couldn't decide what to do first: rub on Mama's legs for attention, or meow at the cupboards to beg for food!

She came home tired and still feeling stuffed in the head. She says I can't play on Catster tonight because she has to go to bed because all the people from out of town who came to the youth group meetings at church need to have breakfast in the morning so Mama has to be there at 6 AM to help make breakfast for all the people!

Wait a minute. My mama is going to go somewhere for 6 AM? That's not far from the time that I eat my breakfast and Mama doesn't really function at that time of day. This is something I'm going to have to see! I asked Mama what she was cooking for breakfast and she said they were having yummy things like waffles and breakfast loaf and hash browns and english muffins and fruit salad. That doesn't sound yummy to me at all! I sure hope the humans like to eat it!

Mama promises me that after breakfast, she'll come home and spend the day with us. She says she'll probably have to come home and nap! MOL

Litter Box Repairs

I think Mama needs to replace her litter box with one like ours. Hers is broken and now she can't use it at all.

Mama's box uses water. Water is baaaaaaaaaaaaad, so I don't know why she uses it in her box. Lately, though, the water hadn't stopped moving. It just runs and runs and runs all through the pipes and back again. Mama says this is very bad.

Her litter box has also been dripping into our #1 box, and that makes for an extremely messy, nasty, goey situation. Also means we're using more litter than normal.

Things got really bad this morning - water dripping on the floor, our litter box, and it wouldn't stop moving - so Mama called the landlord purson. He came right over and tried to fix it with a black thiny, but that didn't work. I have been listening to the banging and the clanging from the safety of Mama's pillow. She was trying to rest, too, but how you can really sleep with all that noise?

I've really got to go, you know. Very distressful indeed. Our #1 litter box is next to Mama's litter box, so that Niel fellow had to move our box in order to fix Mama's. He's got his tools on top of our #2 box lid, so I can't use that one either. Mama's made a nice spot for our #1 box here in the living room ("just this once, Kenzie", she says) but how can I possibly use the litter box when its not in its proper place?

Extremely distressful. Mama is concerned that if I hold it too long, I'll get an infection. I meowed to her: if you're not using the litter box, then I'm not either! Puleeze, I have my dignity, Mama!

Thank You Again, Catster

for choosing me as a daily diary pick. This is such an honor, and you've been remembering me quite a bit lately. I totally apurrrrrrrrrciate it.

I just wish that you could do something about whiny Sebastian. He's upset that I've been chosen more often than me. I don't know how to let him know that with an attitude like that, its not a wonder he's not chosen as often!

Mama tells me this morning at breakfast: "good news, Kenzie! You've only got one more day of pills and then your teeth problems will be all fixed!" Um, pills? Who said anything about pills? I bite the fingers that dare to shove pills down my throat... or at least I would, if the v*t would stop stealing them! I wonder if Mama put the pills in my fish garnish. If so, then I don't mind. They tasted wonderful!

Mama also told me that it's so lovely to snuggle with me and not smell my bad breath anymore. Yes, I know that sounds like quite an insult, but she quickly told me that it was because my teeth were broken and it wasn't my fault and she knew I didn't feel the best about it and she's so glad she was given money by Uncle Sam to help fix my teeth.

Uncle Sam? Who is he? We don't have an uncle Sam! He must be a distant uncle, because I've never met him, not that I'd actually come out and meet him.

Mama's been feeling particularly yucky the past couple of days, and this makes her super, super, extra super tired. She made herself go to church yesterday, but I wish she'd stayed home. She didn't look well enough to be going out and seeing people! At least on Friday she was smart and let me take care of her. She napped for a long time and I was able to lay right next to her face and purr in it to help her feel better. She says a cat's purr, specially from me, always makes her feel better.

We're Back Home!

Oh my goodness what a night we had! I've never had anything like it before in all my lives, and I don't EVAH plan to have another night like it!

It all started last night when Mama was thinking about supper and was trying to watch that Brian guy on the news. Suddenly the TV was OFF. The computer was OFF. The heat was OFF. The micro box was OFF. The lights were ON, but they were really, really dull and not bright at all.

I looked at Mama. She looked at me. Whatever was all of this?

I helped Mama poke around. The candles in the windows were still on, but not very shiny. The Christmas lights Mama's not taken down yet were still blinking, but not very shiny either. Mama turned on the big light and that came on, but it wasn't very shiny either. The light hurt our eyes!

I helped Mama unplug the computer, then she picked up the telephone to call the power number. It said there was a "half power" situation and then it listed 5 different towns, including ours!

Uh oh, Mama says. I'll bet the "substation" broke! The what? I have no idea what that is, but Mama was concerned. No power means no heat. No heat means bad news, because the news had just said it was going to get really cold overnight.

Mama took out the emergency candles and I helped her put the Christmas stuff away. Still no power. Mama tried to rest. Still no power.

Mama had been feeling nasty all day. Next thing I know she's on the phone again. When she got up, she said we were going to visit auntie Julia.

We are going to visit? Who was this "we" that she spoke about?

Mama cleaned the #2 litter box. She put her overnight clothes and pillows in her L.L. Bean bag. She brought Omar's bowl to the kitchen and put some of its water in a container and then scooped him into the plastic container. She sealed it tight.

Then Mama went for the carrier. I was already in it, hanging out. Next thing I know, she's shoving Sab inside and she locks the door.

This was looked bad!

Mama says we're going for a ride. In the dark? In the really nasty cold? She must be kidding!

It's crowded in that carrier with both of us inside, so I growled at Sebastian for taking too much space at the door. He was desperate to use his paw to open the door and get out. Just as she locked the door, the apartment went totally dark. No Christmas lights blinking, no candles in the windows looking dull. Nothing.

We kept driving. We weren't going to the v*t place. That's a short ride. This was at least two times longer than that!

Finally Mama says "we're here! Let's get out!" and she carries up into a place we've never seen before. The door opened up and there was Uncle Tony, saying stuff about "vile varmints" and holding the door so Mama could home in.

Mama carried us down a hall and into a room that looked like a bathroom. It didn't look like Mama's, because this one had a really long shower spot in it and a long sink. There was Auntie Julia! Mama opened the door and I wasted NO TIME in getting out of there. Faster than anyone could say "stop!" I was out the door and down the hall.

What was this place? The smells, the sights.... I have never been here before! It's not the v*t place. In fact, I smell baby Lucy smells! Mama chased me and picked me up before I could much farther. She said I'd have to stay in that bathroom place for tonight so we wouldn't be so cold.

I sniffed around. Sebastian was not about to get out of the carrier, but upon further inspection I discovered that Mama had brought the #2 litter box with us, and she brought my sleeping box!

To explore or sleep? What a horrible choice! It was horrible: no Mama in there! Well, she did come in to see us a couple times, and so did Uncle Tony, and Auntie Julia. Other than that, I had to listen to Sebastian howl all night.

Daylight was outside before Auntie Julia came back in with baby Lucy to give her a bath. I have never seen a naked little purson before. I had to sniff out the water and I wanted to stick my paw inside. Baby Lucy just stared at me and then she started laughing and she thought it was funny.

That's when Mama showed up with BREAKFAST! Oh boy! That got Sebastian out of the carrier! Mama brought wet food. Score one for us!

And then we waited some more. Mama brought Omar in the bathroom; she was worried about his water being so cold and scolding herself for not putting him in the warm bathroom overnight.

It seemed like forever, but finally Mama came in, pushed me back in the carrier, and said "it's time to go home, kiddos!"

Home? Really? We're done staying in this place we don't know?

The ride home didn't seem so long. As soon as we were inside, Mama opened the door and we both came out. Our kitchen! Our water bowl! My a/c box! Oh, how good it was to be home.

Just one problem. No sun in the windows yet, and it was cold in there!

Mama turned on the heat. She said she didn't sleep well, so after she got Omar back in his bowl (he was so happy in there that he did his happy dance and dove for his plants) and put it back on the bureau, she put her PJs back on and climbed into bed.

Ah, life was good again. I curled up at the top of the bed, next to Mama's pillow, and she rubbed my head. The sheets were chilly, but we warmed them up fast.

Power is good. Home is even better!

Mama says that the clocks were flashing when we came home. She says that we didn't really have to stay at Auntie Julia's and Uncle Tony's at all, because it looks like the power came back on not long after we left. How were we supposed to know that?

When God Made Cats

Mama's cat friend sent this poem to her. She let me share it to you!

When God made the world, He chose to put animals in it, and decided to give each whatever it wanted. All the animals formed a long line before His throne, and the cat quietly went to the end of the line. To the elephant and the bear He gave strength, to the rabbit and the deer, swiftness; to the owl, the ability to see at night, to the birds and the butterflies, great beauty; to the fox, cunning; to the monkey, intelligence; to the dog, loyalty; to the lion, courage; to the otter, playfulness. And all these were things the animals begged of God. At last he came to the end of the line, and there sat the little cat, waiting patiently. "What will YOU have?" God asked the cat.

The cat shrugged modestly. "Oh, whatever scraps you have left over. I don't mind."

"But I'm God. I have everything left over."

"Then I'll have a little of everything, please."

And God gave a great shout of laughter at the cleverness of this small animal, and gave the cat everything she asked for, adding grace and elegance and, only for her, a gentle purr that would always attract humans and assure her a warm and comfortable home.

Catching Up on Business

I have been so sidetracked with my teeth business. At least I am getting more attention out of it!

Today is Uncle Derrick's birthday. I wonder if he's home or hanging out in a plane somewhere? (He flies the planes that you travel on to go from here to there. If you see him on a Continental flight, wave to him for me!)

First order of business: Mama slept late this morning, and Wendy woke her up by calling and saying that my thyroid level is right in the middle. She says I can keep taking my salmon garnish just like I have been. Finally! I don't have to go back and give more blood until spring! Mama and I are so happy about this!

Mama wants to say "thank you" to all of you who pmailed about Ellen, the shelter purson, whose house was damaged by fire last week and 4 shelter cats died. Her dog is still at the hospital but her vet had been very gracious with the bill. Mama says the Red Cross people found her a hotel where she could stay with her animals while her house gets fixed. Mama says that all Ellen is worried about is getting her shifts covered because the shelter is very short staffed right now.

The foster bunny went back to the shelter as fast as she got here. I am sad about this. Juliet was a very pretty girl and she was also very quiet. Hardly knew she was here! Mama got a frantic call from the shelter on Thursday afternoon, telling her to bring Juliet back because they gave her the wrong bunny! Juliet was not only not pregnant, but was supposed to go and get fixed the following morning! So Mama had to race around and pull Juliet's things together and get her to the shelter before it closed. She wasn't even here long enough to make a mess!

Mama hasn't taken the cage down yet; she's got to spray it and clean it. She left the door open a little bit, so after I came home from having my teeth cleaned, I hid inside it. Mama thought that was funny, as there's no place to hide in a dog crate!

It's been warm outside the past week. That's a good thing, because the snowbanks were so high Mama says it was hard getting out of the driveway. Now some of the snowbanks have totally disappeared and its snowing again today. I love watching the snowflakes fall down past the window.

I was too busy worrying about my teeth, but Mama tells me that a seal pup hopped out of the ocean on Saturday morning way up the coast and wiggled all the way across the sand and onto the busy road. I guess he was hanging out waiting for them to seal off the road. Thankfully no one hit him! The police people that work with wild animals were able to get the seal pup back into the ocean. I would think it would be much more comfy in the ocean than on a cold, dirty road!

Mama is happy that I chose to take my nap on the bed this morning. She's been concerned that I haven't slept with her since my surgery. She's thinking that its because I can't jump up. D'oh, Mama.... I'm mad at you still! I am feeling better, so I'm purring louder and more often, and that makes Mama happy, too.

My mouth still hurts, though. It's still hard to eat my wet food. It's hard to chew it with all that ouchiness in there! Mama promises me she's been hiding pain medicine in the food, but I sure can't feel it when I'm eating!

Mama really is a softie. She gave in and went to the store to buy more wet food so Sebastian could have some, too. He just wouldn't leave my food and my bowl alone! Mama figured that spending another $5 on food would be worth the piece of mine that it would give me.

I am ready for another nap. Mama's had breakfast; Omar's had breakfast; its not time for lunch yet; that means its time for a snooze!

Before I go, though, I want to thank Sammy for the delicious cupcake! That is very kind of you to send it, and its just soft enough for me to gum around in my mouth and leave crumbs all over the floor! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm salmon flavored!

That's My Food, Sebastian!

Oooooow my mouth hurts! It's hard to eat today! Mama's been giving me wet food and mixing my pain medicine in there (that's what she says; I haven't found it) but

Sebastian is very jealous. He wants my food! Mama did not buy enough wet food for him. She said she spent enough money on my yesterday and there's plenty of kibble in the apartment. He just would not leave my bowl alone! Mama had to stand over him and stare at him while we ate so he wouldn't leave his bowl. He thought he'd pull a fast one and sneak past her, so she pulled him into the carrier and locked in him there so I could eat in peace. He was not pleased about that.

I also caught Mama pulling a fast one on me: she stuck in pill in my food! This tiny white pill she called "antibiotic" and she says "there's no getting out of this. You're taking your pill."

Ha! I'm a cat. You don't tell me what to do. Mama doesn't always take her pills, so why should I? She tried to shove that pill down my throat this morning and I was not cooperating. So she smushed it in my food. I found it. She did something to it and stuck it in, but I couldn't find it.

I didn't see it at all tonight. I am sure I have won this fight! Then again, she did an awful lot of noise and grinding with my bowl before she gave it to me.

Note from Mama: can you crush Clavamox? It has a hard shell; is it a time released capsule? I cannot get the pill in her mouth like I can pill a dog. She's never been an easy cat to pill - Sab is easier than Kenzie!

They Stole My Teeth!

It's a conspiracy! I cannot believe that Mama would do something like this to me! Now that I can talk and walk, I've got plenty to hiss about!

FIRST, Mama decided to starve me yesterday. She refused to feed me breakfast.

SECOND, Mama put me in the pet carrier then fed Sebastian.

THIRD, Mama carried me outside (in the carrier, of course) and put me on the ground - the cold, wet ground. She took me outside when it was raining out!

FOURTH, Mama forces me to take a ride to the vet's house.

FIFTH: She left me there all day!

This is how I know it was a conspiracy. She let Dr. David and Wendy and Rene steal my blood and then make me super sleepy and next thing I know, my mouth hurts and I've got holes where I used to have teeth! Four new holes! I made sure that as soon as my sleepies started wearing off, I let them know what I thought of all of this evilness. Wendy stopped to peer in my cage and I let her have it. "Yup, she's awake and feeling fine!" she says. She called me a perfect calico. D'oh, of course I'm perfect - or I was until you stole my teeth!

To make matters worse, is this not the first time Mama has done this to me. I heard Wendy tell Mama that "the good new is that she doesn't have many teeth left to clean!"

When Wendy finally carried me out to the desk so I could see Mama (after being away from her all day), I had some choice words for her. I growled at her. Mama was shocked, naturally, but told me she still loved me and that I really would feel better soon, especially now that my broken teeth were gone and the roots and nerves were covered. She says I can get my purr back.

Yeah, right. Not right then!

Then Carol and Jessica came out to say goodbye to me and put their faces in the front of my carrier, so I growled at them just so it was clear how annoyed and hissed off I was.

My moment of glee came when Mama had to pay for all this nonsense. Because they stole so many teeth and Dr. David had only planned to take 2, it cost Mama much more than she had planned. Mama's voice went way high and she squeaked "how much more?" She thought it cost $500 MORE than the estimate they gave her. Boy, I wish. Should serve her right for treating me this way!

We came home and, can you believe it? Sebastian was GLAD to see me. Mama says that he paced and cried for me most of the day. I didn't know the orange dude had a heart like that!

To top off my day of nightmares, Wendy told Mama not to feed me last night. Hello? I was famished! I tried my best to beg for supper, but my legs wouldn't hold me up and I kept flopping over. Mama laughed; she picked me up and gave me kisses and loved me and said she was sorry to do this to me, but that I will feel totally better when the medicine wore off.

The best part of the day (other than Mama giving me love and saying she was sorry) was that she bought me wet food that's all mine; I don't have to share it Sebastian. When she gave me a spoonful of food, she locked Sebastian in the pet carrier and he freaked out in there.

Mama says that all the blood they took from me said that I am very healthy and doing just great. I suppose the good thing is that while they stole blood, they are going to test my thyroid too.

So now that I'm feeling better, I'm roaming, and stop by Catster to find out I was chosen as a daily diary pick today. That makes me feel better. Thank you to be Big Cat at HQ. Sympathy from everyone!

Now if only Mama would serve breakfast on time....

She Teeters & Wobbles but Did Well!

Of mah gaadnesssssssssssss ah ahm fahin offer mah pahs and *flip*

ah wahd beh so mah aht mahmam ahn wanna huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush ahter *flop* oiy oh ahcahn tahk ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssso ahn hisssssssssssssssssssssing ahn gowing and *thump* mah wehgs donna wahn and *bump* oooooooof ahm'gonna thiiiiiiit heher ahnd thleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

*conk*

Mama here, everyone!

Poor Mackenzie would love to tell you about her horrific day, but she's still out of it and thankfully she's resting. She went and had her teeth cleaned today, and she had to have four of them pulled. I feel terrible, knowing that her teeth have been rotting in there a while, and I couldn't afford to fix it. She should have had this done a year ago, but I had to take care of Sebastian's polyp and possible cancer scare before her teeth. Dr. David told me one tooth was split in 3 places, and her surgery took twice as long because of all the teeth. The good news is that she doesn't have many of them left to clean and remove next time; she had a couple pulled a few years ago, too.

I went to get her tonight and when she saw me she hissed and howled at me! When I got her home, though, she was trying to walk, but she was still pretty groggy and her back legs didn't want to hold her up very well. She was still determined to beg for supper, however! I went and got her some of her favorite wet Science Diet flavors, so I gave her a spoonful and her pain medicine.

She's home now, and she's resting. We'll see how feisty she is in the morning. It's Sebastian I'm worried about. He's the one freaking out!

We are Heartsick

Mama learned late last night that horrible things happened yesterday to one of the cat people from the shelter. One of the girls had a fire break out at her house, and before the fire people could put the fire out, four sick cats, all shelter cats that she was taken care of, died. A dog was also rescued but is still at the vet hospital. Mama didn't mention that Ellen lost her entire house, only that it was "damaged".

I am just so sad. Those poor kitties! They were not feeling well, and doing a really good job at getting better, and all of a sudden, they get stuck in a room full of smoke and can't get out. Mama says that the fire people think the cats actually started the fire by knocking a heat lamp over, but still...

We former shelter critters suffer enough on our ways to our forever homes, and this horrible news just makes me so sad. I am so happy my mama rescued me when she did. I love her soooooooooooooooooo much!

The Moody Blue?

This is one of the silliest things. Do fish have attitudes?

Omar is puzzling her, and after listening to Mama explain why she is puzzled, I am now puzzled.

When Omar sees Mama coming near or walking by, he gets as close as he can and he fans out his fins and does a fish dance. She will tap the glass like she's playing the piano to say hello back to him. When she did that yesterday, though, she thought she saw a hole in one of his fins. I have no idea how he'd get a hole in his fin; he's a FISH. It's not like he comes out of the bowl that has a nylon sock on its top and flops around. Mama says "silly Kenzie. I'm worried that maybe he got his fin caught on the stone hiding rock in his bowl." Ah, yes. The weirdly colored thing in the center of his bowl that Mama bought for the gold fish that once lived in that bowl but now it belongs to Omar.

Mama was worried that Omar would miss his hidey rock, as he's come to enjoy ... hiding in it. So she decided to do a swap. She bought Omar a couple of plants for his bowl for Christmas, and she was going to wait for the next bowl cleaning to put the plants in. She decided to just move the hidey rock out and move the plants in without cleaning the bowl.

I watched her do this last night. She brought Omar's bowl to the kitchen. He was dancing and doing all sorts of exercises in there. I don't think he likes having to come out of his bowl. Mama didn't take him out; just moved things around.

Ever since Mama put Omar and his bowl back in its place, Omar has, in Mama's opinion, behaved depressed and moody. I have no idea what she's looking at. I look at him and I see a blue fish. She says that he's been hugging the bottom of the bowl, near the colored rocks, and he doesn't come dance at the side of the bowl when she walks by. She also said she didn't see that hole this morning when she gave Omar his breakfast of blood worms.

Poor Omar. I guess he really, really liked his colorful hidey rock.

I might be worried about him, but tonight I've got bigger things to consider. Mama brought home a bunny from the shelter tonight! Her name is Juliet and she is pregnant. Mama thinks that she should have her babies any day now. Mama calls her a "lion head". She is a brindle color and even I must agree: she is a stunning looking bunny. Mama says that, unlike previous bunnies, she will not be allowed to romp about the apartment just now. Mama doesn't want her hiding some place to have her babies!

Remembering the Ice Storm of '98

When Mama mentioned this to me, that today is the 10th anniversary of the big Ice Storm of 1998, I had an "ah ha" moment. What a storm that was!

It was strange. It was after Christmas, so that tells me it should be cold enough to snow if anything is going to fall out of the sky. That didn't happen this time. It rained. Then everything was covered with ice. It was really bad. Everywhere people were loosing power. Even we lost our power for three days. It was cold. Mama got a really stupid idea that I needed some extra layers so she pulled out this sweater and put me in it. She took pictures of me desperate to get rid of it, but she doesn't have them on her computer. It was Mama, Milo, and me back then, and she made sure Milo had plenty of shavings, hay, and blankets to hide in so he would stay warm, because without heat, we had no power.

It got really interesting around here. Memere and Pupah lived across the street then, but they lost their power several days before us, and they were without power for several more days after ours came back on. Mama says this was because our power was on the same line that the emergency crews used to power the 9-1-1 stuff, so we were lucky. Mama says that going to Memere's house then was interesting, because it was warmer outside than it was inside.

Mama was close with the neighbors directly across the street, and they didn't have power just like Memere didn't, so our little apartment got super busy during that time. Uncle Tony, Auntie Becky and Auntie Lisa all lived with Memere then, and so they would come over to take showers. Memere came over to cook. Pupah came over to watch football. The neighbors came over to shower, cook, and get water. It was really cold at Memere's, so Auntie Lisa sent over Dakota, her bunny, to stay with us because we had power.

Mama worked as a traveling nurse then, and she had a hard time working during that time. Trees were down all over the roads, along with telephone poles and power lines. Her patients were also without power, heat, and food, so that made her job more important and difficult.

We haven't had a storm like that since. Phew!

from Mama:

This storm was the biggest ever seen around here, and it wasn't just because of the devastation. The ice stretched from Maine to New York, into Quebec and Ontario. It was snowing in the atmosphere, but it was warm under the clouds, and when the snow melted and then hit the surface, it froze solid. Maine stood still for nearly the entire month of January; the first storm lasted from Jan. 5 to 9. After a week of being without power, another ice storm hit.

When it was all over, over 70% of Maine was without power at the same time. That means 840,000 out of 1.2 million people were without heat, some of them upwards to 3 weeks. Everything was coated with 2-3 inches of ice. Other staggering statistics from the storm:

>>Power crews from as far away as Georgia were airlifted by the Air Force to come and help restore power. They replaced:

>> 2100 transformers
>>1600 crossarms
>>3200 poles

Our trees still suffer the worst of the storm. Justs in 1998, the losses of timber were $300 million. That's a big deal in "the state where the Christmas trees grow" and the most heavily forested state in the nation. We are still suffering $28 million of year in after-harvest losses because of the storm.

For the trees that survived, they grew their tops back, but not before bugs moved in and started snacking. Thus, most of the loss is coming from trees that look fine, but are now rotten from the inside out, top to bottom. The plus side to this is that many critters have found new homes and others are feasting on bugs and more bugs. Beech & Ash trees were particularly hurt, with losses of 25-50% of its current value. Arborists predict that our trees won't recover for another 100 years.

Not having power meant most everyone used alternate power sources. This brought on another dubious statistic: the worst outbreak of carbon monoxide poisoning ever recorded in the U.S., with over 400 hospitalizations & 6 deaths.

While all that ice was gorgeous once the sun came out, what I remember the most was the noise. Someone described it as rifle shots, listening to limbs crack and crash to the ground. I don't mean just one. Dozens and dozens simultaneously breaking and falling under the weight of all that ice. Trees that had stood for 100 or more years lost massive branches and never recovered. The apple crops were devastated that year.

The other very impressive sight was watching transformers blow when trees fell on the lines. It was like a fireworks show and it sounded horrific. It's the closest I think I've been to a war zone!

The local paper is doing a 10th year edition tomorrow, but you can read about the Canadian devastation here.

It's My Birthday!

Mama gave me lots of loving this morning, then reminded me this was the day she chose as my birthday, because neither of us know when I was really born. She told me to come with her to check her pmail, because Catster had sent me a special mail. How nice of them to give me 25 fish treats and a 5-paw rating! I know I'm special, but its so nice to know that other people think I'm super special.

Mama felt well enough to go to the shelter this morning, and when she left, she took the foster hamsters with her. It took her a while to pack them up. She first went to the car to start it up so it would warm up for them. Then she had to put Nibbler back in the cage she came in, as we had to move her out after the water bottle flood. Then she had to pack up their food and extra supplies she had here for them. Then she carried them outside and put them in the hall.

So its just Sab, Mama & me now, just as it should be. Well, I wouldn't mind another critter to take care of, but Mama says "I don't think this is the best time for another creature, Mackenzie, because we don't know why I feel sick and tired all the time, and with you having to go to the vet every month...." Mama's worried about not having enough money to care for a guinea pig that might get sick. So she told me this morning she's going to wait and see, and keep her eye out at the shelter.

There is one guinea pig there who stole her heart, but he comes with medical problems, she said, so she's not sure. There is also a pair of girls who haven't been adopted because one of them has a medical problem, but its very fixable and not expensive, and Mama had been thinking about adopting them, too.

I'm telling you, though, the view outside the windows is getting boring. It snowed Friday. It snowed yesterday. It started snowing again this afternoon. What is with all this snow? At least its fresh and pretty, but where are they gonna put it all? Mama's loosing her spot for her car because the banks are getting bigger and bigger all the time, and I'm tired of getting cold, wet, melted snow on my paws!

My Tail of Devotion for Mackenzie

This is a special Tail of Devotion

See All Tails of Devotion

Was Not a Happy Christmas

Mama used to go to work at a place she called "the nursing home". She would take care of the people who couldn't take care of themselves anymore. I remember that she would come home every Christmas night and tell me about someone who had died on Christmas, and how sad that must be for their families. She said it didn't always happen to be the purson she'd thought would die, but that every year she worked at the nursing home, one of her patients would die on Christmas Day.

I suppose that's okay. I mean, that happens to people every day, right? Just not people that I'm supposed to know!

Mama tells me that I need to purr special purrs for Auntie Julia right now. I actually like Auntie Julia. She's the only other purson I let touch me, other than Mama. On Saturday, before Christmas, Auntie Julia's grandma and aunt went out to get grandma's hair done. While they were out and about, Mama tells me that grandma fell and broke her hip, and they had to take her to the hospital.

When the aunt got home, she found that the house had caught fire and was burning to the ground while they were gone. Mama says the fire was so hot that grandma's car blew up and then melted to the ground. It took fire people from many towns many hours to make the fire go away, and now there's nothing left. Auntie Julia's aunt, uncle, and grandma have no place to live.

Auntie Julia's grandpa has lived at one of those nursing home places for a while. The nurses that work there found him dead early on Christmas morning. Mama says its not been a good week for Auntie Julia and her family, and that Auntie Julia is feeling sad. She says "you've got to send lots of purrs to Auntie Julia right now."

Mama got a sad email last night. It was from her very bestest friend. She told Mama that a very special lady that I never met but has known Mama since she was a small kitten got sick, went to the hospital on Christmas Eve, and she died on Christmas Day, too. Mama says this lady was special enough that Mama and her siblings called her "grandma". Mama hasn't been able to see this other grandma in a while, but that her heart had not been working quite right lately.

Mama says it wasn't a very good Christmas this year, but that she had fun with the babies. Mama told me that the baby Lucy had her very first food on Christmas Day, and she liked it. I guess that was good for Auntie Julia, to make her smile.

Me? I've been having fun playing with all our new toys. Mama also left out some boxes, and I've been jumping on Sab as he walks by the boxes that I'm hiding in. It's been sooooooooooooo much fun, making HIM mad for a change.

Mama also says its time for the foster hamsters to go back to the shelter... as soon as she has energy and strength to clean them and drive them back. I wish I knew how to get iron for Mama so she'll feel better. I don't like her not feeling well, especially when the litter boxes start to smell! MOL

Presents!!!!

Mama gave us our stockings tonight. I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!

I got to have my stocking first. Out fell a fuzzy ball, a ball with a bell in it, and, my favorite, a yellow mouse with feathers for a tail. I sniffed and batted at it, but when Mama put that mouse in Box number 7401 from Hill's Science Diet, it became the coolest gift ever known to cats. I proceed to to pounce, fling, and toss that mouse everywhere. Just for kicks, I carried it into the living room, dropped it in Mama's basket of clean clothes, and went tearing after it. Sebastian was hot on my heels.

He got a stick with a bell and a Rosie Rat on it. Very cool indeed. He won't let me play with it, but that dumb cat needed help to figure out what to do with a Rosie Rat on a string. He didn't attack it until after I showed him how.

We are going to have soooooooooooo much fun once Mama goes to bed! She's been super tired again today. She didn't do any of her Christmas baking or cleaning or anything today like she was supposed to do. She says she's going to be in trouble tomorrow morning!

The human vets are worried about Mama because of her blood. They called her again today to tell her that her metals were low in her blood and she has to donate more blood after Christmas to go to the lab cats. Oh how I hate donating to the lab cats. Poor Mama! As soon as I'm done tearing the kitchen apart with Christmas abandon, I will have to work on helping Mama feel less tired.

Merry Christmas every cat!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

I am sorry that I am late; I didn't respond to Sebastian's tag for the Kissmouse game. I've been busy helping Mama set up her new computer and taking care of her. Mama is feeling very sleepy tired again. I think she secretly wants to be a cat! MOL

So, even though I am late, I will expound upon what my Kissmouse wishes are, but I will refrain from tagging anyone because I'm so late.

1. I wish for Mama to be all better and not to have to donate blood to the human v*t anymore!

2. I want a day free of any harassment from Sebastian. Oh that would be bliss.....

3. I would like to have another small critter friend to watch. Do you hear that, Mama?

4. I wish that every soldier will be safe this Christmas and how much their families love them.

5. I wish for more time to spend with Mama giving me love and attention, and that we can spend more time napping and reading books...without Mama being sick.

Total Excitment!

I can't believe it - I am a diary pick again TODAY! Thank you so much, Catster. Sebastian is beside himself with envy.

That's okay, because Mama brought home super exciting stuff today. She carried in two BIG boxes and put them in the middle of the floor. She opened them up and said "wow, I didn't expect this so early!"

Doesn't matter what's in the box; Sab & I want to know what she's doing with the boxes once she empties them! But what could be in those boxes?

Mama calls it the new computer. She ordered it late last week, and was super surprised to see it come today. She also wasn't ready for it to come. She has to do this cleaning to get to the old wires, and finish taking all the stuff off the old computer. She's giving that to Memere, since our computer is newer than what Memere has & Mama only got a new one to work on her new business.

Sab's already scoped out the smaller box and scratched at it. I tried climbing on top of it, but Mama yelled out "danger!" and I knew better than to do anything else.

This will be so much fun. Mama's been moving stuff all over the apartment so she can move the old computer and get space for the new computer. I will be so exhausted when its over!

Mama tells me there will be some bad news. This computer has something she calls "Vista" on it, and she says she'll need to figure out how to use it before we can get back onto the internets, so we might not have Catster for a couple days. She hopes we won't even miss it, but just in case, she's warned us that we might be Catster-less for a little bit.

So until then.... Meows!

Pretty Packages

A grateful thank you to Catster for choosing me as a diary pick, again! I am so honored. At least I've got something better than Sab! MOL

Last night Mama wrapped all the presents we've been snooping out. I was feeling very tired and didn't quite care about presents & bows and wrapping paper, so I curled up in the glider and took a nap. Just going to show how you can't please your humans.... Mama came over when she was done and called both of us "lazy bums"! Sab was sleeping on the desk chair (and NOT trying to crowd me out, thank you) and I was minding my own business, so neither of us are quite sure why Mama was scolding us. I knew she secretly loves it when we help her!

It was horrible weather all yesterday. Sometimes it snowed; sometimes the hard stuff Mama calls sleet banged on the outside walls. It was super windy and it was cold in here. Mama left the heat on all day so we wouldn't freeze our tails off and so the hammies wouldn't freeze on the floor. They didn't seem to mind, as they just used more bedding to hide under. I did spend some time watching over them. They like it when I do. Both Jasmine & Maria will wander over to the fronts of their glass cages and sniff me out. I sniff them out, and we're friends.

Silly me! I am just realizing that Mama's gotten out of bed. I must take her place on the pillow and curl up in the messed up blankets. I've got my morning planned for me!

Officially Worried

Normally I don't get overly excited about such things, but Sebastian started it. First, he got in the glider while I was sleeping in it. Ruffle my fur the wrong way! Then he purrs to me that he overheard Mama on the phone talking to Memere talking about being "all done" her Christmas shopping.

Now he's got me wondering: what did I miss? We've inspected every bag that's come into the apartment. Mama even promised that she'd start wrapping presents tonight. I didn't see anything come in that would be for us. I double checked with Sebastian, and he's not smelt or seen anything come in for us, either. Not even human food.

I don't even know when Mama's going to have time to do more shopping for us. Tomorrow she's going to see her grandma so she can attend the Christmas pawty that the nursing home place is having, and Sabbath she's got Uncle Tim's birthday pawty. (Today's Uncle Tim's birthday. Hurray for Uncle Tim!) Sunday Mama says its going to be horrific snow storm and Monday she goes to see the eyeball v*t. It's also a very sad annifursary for Mama on Monday; she's already feeling sad about it. I might tell you about it later. Then Tuesday is a sad annifursary for Mama, too, because she lost a very good friend of hers, named Mary, on that day 6 years ago. (Mary was very nice to me. Even though I didn't let her touch me; she said I was a beautiful cat.)

When will Mama have time to get my Christmas presents? What about gifts for Omar and the foster hammies? I will not sleep right until I figure this out.

Not Again

Mama is back to not feeling well again. I knew it was too good to last. She's been very exhausted. I'm glad she's taking herself to the human v*t tomorrow. I'm sure they will make her feel lots better.

She needs to feel better soon. I know where she hid the Christmas presents for people and the wrapping paper. I can't wait to wrap presents!

I Don't Like These Bags

Mama went shopping after it got dark. She talked herself into going near the mall to go Christmas shopping. "I just hate crowds, Kenzie. I wish I could stay here with you!" She told me.

So Mama came back with all sorts of bags. Presents! Oh it was so exciting. For a little while.

I sniffed the bag that said "Babies R Us" on it. Nothing for me in that bag.

I sniffed the two bags that said "Target" on them. I smelt chocolate.... mmmmmmmmmm I like chocolate but Mama won't let me touch the stuff. I'd better leave it alone. She says the chocolate is for her secret sister at church. Nothing for me in either of those bags.

There was a bag that said "A.C. Moore" on it, but I already know there's nothing in that bag for me. Mama goes there a lot and .... well, on second thought, that's where she gets all that pretty colored thread. Maybe I need to give this bag another look! Still nothing for me.

The last bag had a big roll sticking out of it. I had no idea what the bag said; it looked like funny stuff to me. Mama says "Its just the bag from the discount store; I don't know what it says either." She says the roll of paper was free for spending money at the store.

Now THAT is something I can get into! Are you going to wrap presents NOW, Mama? I would so love to help you with that! I will hold down the paper for you so it doesn't move away and roll up and get crinkled. I'll even use my claws to hold it down so it won't even THINK about moving on you.

Mama says something about "my feet hurt and my legs hurt and I'm so tired" and no wrapping is going to happen tonight. I sniff around in that bag some more and come up with Christmas cards. MORE of them? How many of those do you need, Mama? I thought you were done?

"I thought so too, Kenzie," Mama shows me the very pretty cards with all sorts of animals on them. Now I know why Mama got them! It's got a dog and a cat and a bunny and a couple chipmunks and squirrels and a deer and a bird they are all saying "we all wish you a happy holiday". Mama says at that after she finished her list, she realized she forgot a couple people and we were totally out of Christmas cards. These will work just purfectly! I really like them!

Just one problem with the card. The cat on the card is ORANGE! It is a conspiracy against me; of this I am totally sure.

Okay, so I have two problems tonight. No bags from the pet store. No treats for Mackenzie in any of these bags. No toys for Mackenzie; no presents for Mackenzie. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Mama says "take it easy, Kenzie; I didn't say I was finished shopping; I'm almost finished."

Phew. Don't tell Mama I was really worried about this. I wouldn't want her to think that I was all about the presents. MOL

Attention: Complaint Department

Dear Mama;

Sebastian & I are very happy to know that you are feeling better. It has also been fantastic fun helping you clean the apartment the past couple of days. Having fresh litter and a very clean (and wet) bathroom floor are very much appreciated. I have decided to refrain from any hairball hurling for another day so that you may look at the pretty, clean floor. Then I will christen it for you.

That was very sneaky of you to start sorting your financial papers on the bed while Sab & I were napping on it. I can't believe we let you get through half of your stash before we realized what exciting things were happening. I know you weren't happy, but someone had to stretch and knock those stacks into a pile. Piles are much better than stacks. You can't lay on a stack, Mama. They are just too dang uncomfortable.

Which brings me to my chief complaint about being uncomfortable. We are so happy that you are well enough to do housework, but could you make your next project be the laundry piled in the glider? It's impossible to sleep in it when it's towering with clothes - and we can't burrow in the clothes, either.

You also have a box of cans on the director's chair in the kitchen - my chair, I might add. I haven't been able to sit in that chair for a week now.

Even though you are not sitting in your desk chair, you've got financial papers piled on that, too. How are YOU going to sit there when its time to read your pawmail? Huh? Someone needs to keep it warm for you while you're not there.

And what made you think it was a good idea to put the recycling bag on our bed in the kitchen? What a messy, nasty thing for you to do! Isn't there enough floor in there for you to use? You could have taken out the recycling and THEN swept the floor. That's what you usually do.

That just leaves us the bed to sleep on, so imagine how upset and disgusted we feel when you come over, scoop us up, then move us so you can climb in? Yes, I know you hide that move under the guise of giving us attention, and I do appreciate any attention you give us, but Sebastian is quite perturbed about this and I promised him I'd let you know. Do you really need to give him another reason to scowl and then come harass me?

And another thing: I was NOT sleeping when I heard you call the v*t office yesterday and make arrangements for me to have my teeth cleaned. I don't remember telling you that this was an important thing for me to have done. Why are you listening to that mean v*t again? I will repeat it again? Dr. David just wants to take your money. If you want to get rid of some money, why don't you give it to the shelter for all the cats who need it, or better yet - have you gotten our Christmas presents yet? I doubt it, since you have been home so much and neither of us has sniffed anything unusual bags and boxes around.

So I hope you don't take this as complaining Mama; we really do love you. We'll be waiting for you to come home and give us attention this afternoon after you get the car fixed.

Love, Kenzie

Patrick's Family Needs our Love

I just heard about Patrick, who passed away this weekend. I didn't get to know him at all while he was here, but he is a member of the "I'm Not Orange but I'm Proud" group. He was only 5 years old. That monstrous disease cancer took him away.

He doesn't have all that many furiends or corrals on his page, so he probably wasn't the busiest cat on Catster. However, if you have a moment today, please stop by his page and give his family some of the Caster love that helps so many families get through this most difficult and painful loss. I'm sure his family will appreciate it.

Rest in peace, dear Patrick.

Hamster Patrol

I've been soooooooooooooo busy since the hamsters showed up. I've been helping Mama take care of them, and I've been taking care of Mama, too.

Poor Mama's got verti-goes again. I am beginning to think this never goes away once it catches you. Mama's been stuck in bed since Friday evening. She's still super wobbly, and now I wonder how she will clean our smelly litter boxes!

The Noisy & Nosey Fosters

Wow its been busy around here since Mama came home with the 3 foster hamsters. Their names are Jasmine, Maria, and Nibbler. Mama tried taking pictures of them, but she says it was very hard because they don't stay put. Not sure when I'll be able to show off the pictures.

Jasmine is golden, like Henri was. Maria is the busy body; she's a sandy brown. Nibbler is mostly black with white.

We've forgotten how noisy hamsters can be at night. Jasmine's wheel was too close to the glass in her aquarium, so it banged all night. Someone was also very thirsty; when Mama woke up to feed them this morning, we discovered that Jasmine's water bottle had leaked all over the cage & was empty. Mama gave her more water, then had to go digging in the closet to get Henri's cage out. Maria had a very small cage & she was going stir crazy. When Mama returned to Jasmine's cage about 10 minutes later, the water bottle was 1/2 empty again.

I supervised Mama scooping out the very soggy shavings and wipe down the aquarium. Jasmine wasn't sure what to do, hanging out in Henri's cage while Mama cleaned hers. Mama used the water bottle on Maria's cage for Jasmine. Then she set up Henri's cage for Nibbler, whom Mama says we might keep. Maria got Nibbler's cage after Mama scrubbed it down, and finally all the girls settled down.

Until a few minutes ago, when Maria started banging around her wheel and making quite a racket. I have been sitting and sleeping next to the aquariums on the floor. Mama put my scratching board next to them so I'd have a place to hang. Sebastian slapped Nibbler on the head when Mama took her out to take her photo, so I must be extra careful to be sure that Sebastian stays far away. Mama put books on the tops of the cages so the girls couldn't knock the lids off and Sab couldn't get in if he got the mind to try.

Mama gave each of them a raisin for supper, and Sab had to stick his nose in Maria's cage to see what was going on. He got his nose slapped (again! I love it when he gets in trouble) by Mama and I lunged at his tail. He didn't hang around after that! Maria was curled up, hiding in her hay nest, so she didn't seem to mind.

I must go and continue my watch. I don't want Mama to have to worry so much about them. She thinks that because she can't put them on the bureau (which has all our Christmas decorations on it), the hamsters are more interesting to Sebastian, especially since we can watch them do their business.

New Foster(s)! are Coming

Mama got a call from the shelter today. From what I could hear of the conversation, I think she knew the call was coming. The Bunny Manager wanted to know if Mama would take in three hamsters that arrived yesterday. Mama tells me there were 7 of them (to add to the 8 they already had and the 5 gerbils to boot) and the boys and girls weren't separated. They think the 3 girls are pregnant.

Mama says I need to be nice to these hamster while they are here. I must treat them nicely, just like I did with Henrietta. I ask Mama "where are we going to put 3 hamster cages?" and she says they will be coming in a cage I've never seen before. She says its an all-glass cage with a wire top on it, and she will put them on the floor for now. We have to watch them to see if they get bigger, and if they do, and the babies come, then we will help take care of the babies & hold them and handle them so they'll be ready for adopting. Well, okay, Mama will do the holding and I'll do the supervising. You just never can tell what Sebastian might have going on behind those mischievous eyes of his.

Mama says she met the hamsters yesterday and that they are all very cute. She says they are big hamsters - longer than Henrietta but not quite as fluffy and fat. She says that, if everything goes well, she might let us adopt of them when they go back.

Mama is going to get them in the afternoon. I will be waiting at the door to greet our new visitors!

THE WALLS ARE FALLING!

Mama fed us supper tonight and I was minding my own business - for once. I was eating out of my bowl. Sebastian was eating out of his bowl. We were both happy.

Mama hadn't even put our box of food in the cupboard when there was a horrific crashing right above my head! Faster than Mama could react, both Sebastian & I ran scared from the room, digging our claws in and zipping by Mama. Sab stopped at the apartment door but I went right to the desk.

Mama went right to the sink, where one of the little, crystal vases that sit on a shelf over the sink had slid off and went BANG onto a crystal bowl in the sink. Mama says she looked it over; usually when the vase falls its okay, but this time, it chipped just a wee bit. Mama usually pushes them back onto the shelf, just in case, but this time, again, down it came.

Ugh not enough to loose a life, but still....

Mama went shopping today and came home very happy - her feet are happy. Mama got sneakers for her sore feet, and with those sneakers.... come BOXES! I am waiting for her to empty those boxes. There are two of them. How purfect is that?

Food Fit for a....

Mama says that if there is any better than a Thanksgiving Day meal, then it must be the Thanksgiving meal leftovers. She says its the special time when, after everyone has put together what they brought for the meal, it all gets divided and people take home what they want. Problem is, Mama didn't bring home any special leftovers for us to munch on.

Unless you're a rabbit, and thankfully, I am not! (I should have put that in my "I am thankful" list!

Yeah, no fancy leftovers for us, unless you consider what's "left over" from the turkey breast that Mama got for us for Thanksgiving.

Mama left with her big, blue bowl yesterday that she had filled with lettuce and tomatoes. She said that Auntie Julia was bringing the rest of the salad stuff to add, but that you didn't want to mix the lettuce and tomatoes, so the lettuce was in the bowl, and the tomatoes were in a bowl that was in the big, blue bowl, and then she put a package of CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE on top of the big, blue lid that she put on the big, blue bowl and then she put all of that into a PET QUARTERS bag.

Supervising anything Mama does in the kitchen is a very serious & tough job. I am not sure why anyone would want to eat a salad after she puts in it the big, paper bags with handles that come from the same store Mama gets our Science Diet canned food and her critter supplies, but they all fit inside - and then she topped off the bag with a box with blocks of bread inside.

When Mama came home last night, she still had the big, blue bowl and the big, paper bag with handles and the big, blue lid was still on the big, blue bowl and she even had the package of cheese, although it didn't look quite so heavy to me. And, even worse, the big blue bowl was still pretty full - of everything all mixed up in what she called a salad.

Bunny food in a salad? The only salad we get around here is egg salad and tuna salad. What is she putting bunny food in the salad for?

Mama says "silly Kenzie; Mama made too much salad and, after everyone was finished eating salad, there was a whole bunch more."

Trust me, this salad stinks. I know I once chomped on an onion peel, but honestly, I have no idea what came over me. I'm telling you - the onions in that salad are enough to scare out every nasty germ in this apartment, and that's saying a lot, since Mama can't clean the litter box today because her verti-goes came back. (Something else I should have been thankful for in my list! I'm so sorry, Mama!)

Gracious mia - you'd think that the salad in that bowl was the most heavenly turkey ever known to cat. Mama's been "mmmmmmmmmmming" and "yummmmmmmming" over that salad all day! Then she wants to get close and pursonal with me. Yeah, I don't think so. Mama complains about my bad breath?

Ugh.

We have a problem. There's no bunny here right now - and I'm pleased about that! I guess Mama's going to turn into one if she eats any more of that lettuce, and there's no way I'm going to be her pal until she does something about that breath of hers.

For This We are Thankful

Oh boy - my favorite holiday is HERE! Mama brought home a cooked turkey breast this morning to save for us for tomorrow. Oh it smelt so good - and tasted even better!

It's a good thing I don't have to think hard to find things that I am thankful for:

** a mama who loves me and treats me like the queen that I am.
** I'm not seriously sick; that my thyroid problem is fixable.
**As much as I loathe him, I would miss Sebastian if he wasn't around. I'm not sure if that makes me thankful, though.
** turkey!
** cheese!
** food on the counter!
** mama deciding to stay home to work so we can spend more time with her
** we don't have a foster bunny & haven't had one in a few months. Phew!
** warm sun on the carpet
** mama's bed & pillows to sleep on
** the remote control, which is also comfy to sleep on
** playing hide and seek with mama when she goes looking for the remote that I'm napping on

Hey Mama; what are you thankful for?

Well, I am thankful for you and Sebastian and that both of you are still healthy after scary episodes this year. I'm thankful for the squirmy babies Emma, Lucy, and Megan, and that I have a family. I'm also thankful for our Catster family who love us and are so supportive. What else is there to be thankful for?

Oh silly me. How could I forget Catster? Life was boring before Catster.

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs to all of you for a safe & happy Thanksgiving!

More Fish Garnish

Just like he said he would, Dr. David called Mama last night to tell her how my blood work turned out. He says its high again - a 6 - so I have to take more medicine.

I still think Mama's fooling me. Medicine would not taste this yummy. I know; I've had medicine before. Having a pill shoved down your throat is one of the ultimate injustices in this world. So if Mama wants to squirt more fish garnish on my kibble twice a day, I'm happy to let her do it. I love it so much I rub against her leg if she doesn't give it to me on time.

Oh how I love fish.

Why Yes, I'm Beautiful

This morning Mama was up and about earlier than she usually get up. That is to mean she was up, dressed, and moving about our apartment before 9:30! Mama hates being up before 10.

It didn't take long to figure out why Mama was up and ready for company: we did get company! She was a lovely lady who came to check Mama out to make sure she was healthy. I don't quite understand it, but I watched from a safe hideaway - the pet carrier - while the nice lady made Mama stand on a scale (I've never even SEEN a scale; I heard her call it that) and check Mama's arms and ask her other questions. When they weren't looking, I dashed to the living room.

When they were done, the lady peeked in the living room to look at Sebastian. "Where is the other cat?" she asked. Mama pointed to the foot of her bed, where I was sitting, waiting for the intruder to leave.

"Oh wow - look at her face!" the lady said. "She's got such unusual markings for a calico. She is beautiful!" Mama agreed that she was so right; the lady talked about her two cats, and said she has an orange cat. She also said she'd never seen such dark colors on an orange tabby. Sebastian tried to play coy, and hid in my box.

How wonderful. All I had to do was sit there and someone recognized how beautiful I am. That makes me so pleased. Mama gave me an extra kiss and headscratch when the lady left.

Later today, Auntie Julia and Lucy came over to go shopping with Mama. When they came back, they came up to the apartment so Mama could change Lucy's diaper and Auntie Julia could feed her. Once Lucy had food in her tummy, she was all giggles and smiles. Again, I observed from afar - far enough for Auntie Julia to see me and say hello, but not close enough for anyone to touch me. Thankfully Lucy doesn't move around like baby Jordan. That would be so SCARY!

I Checked Out Fine

Mama pulled a mean, nasty trick on me on Friday. After lunch she pulled the pet carrier out and put it in the middle of the kitchen. If I had thought it through enough, I would have realized this wasn't a good sign!

No, I didn't think it through fast enough. Naturally I climbed right in, thinking what a great Mama I have for pulling it out for me.

My good thoughts vanished as soon as she closed the door and locked it. I tried to be nonchalant about it, but how could I pretend I didn't care when she picked up the carrier and headed for the DOOR?????

I couldn't believe she'd take me outside, either. Last time she put me in the car it was hot outside. It was not hot at all! It was freezing! My worst fears were realized when Mama took me out and I saw we were at the clinic again!

Whatever did I do to deserve such treatment? I tried to get away. As soon as Mama put my carrier on the floor I pushed against the door and, lucky for me, Mama hadn't locked it all the way. I dashed for the door.... but I didn't get very far. I could see through the door, but I was stopped right in my tracks. Man, that hurt. Mama and Jessica, the receptionist, laughed and said I was a silly girl.

Then Wendy showed up. I don't like Wendy. She takes all my blood! Sure enough... that's what she was after - again! I growled a steady stream of my displeasure at her, but she wasn't feeling very threatened because before I knew it, I had wet smelling stuff on my neck and in went the needle and out it came and I was missing all that blood.

Wendy brought me back to the room where Mama was waiting for me. I was not about to go into my carrier, so I paced the room and rubbed my scent over everything.

That's when Dr. David came in and looked at my chart. Mama greeted him like an old friend, saying we hadn't seen him in so long. He said I was still a beautiful girl and I was looking good for my age. He listened to my innards - how pursonal - and he particularly looked at my face. Mama is still worried about my scratching it so that I bleed and scab over. That's when he looked in my mouth and frowned, saying he saw some very red gums. He showed Mama. They wonder if maybe that's why I've been digging my face. Dr. David says that cleaning my teeth will cost Mama a lot of money; she said she'd think about it.

You know, I thought it was rude of people to talk about you right in front of you. That's what Dr. David and Mama did. He told Mama to make sure I don't gain any more weight and to not feed me so much. He also promised to call Mama first thing this week to find out how my T4 level is, just in case my medicine needs adjusting.

Well, the best part of this trip to the v*t is that I had no run in with d*gs! That's just fine with me, because I had the d*g run in on Monday. It was so traumatic I still can't talk about it. Sebastian managed to get the story out so he can solicit more sympathy, I won't stoop to such a level!

Evil Liquid in the Sink

I have chosen to stay OUT of the bathroom today. No, I'm not staging a strike against the litter box impostors (that would be a good idea, though, just to make sure Mama knows I not pleased that she ran out of litter so we only have one box right now!) but its that horrific chemical-smelling stuff she poured into the sink. She told me to stay away. "No sniffing, Mackenzie! This is very bad stuff!"

"Why are you using bad stuff in the sink, Mama? That's not good for the planet," I reminded her.

"We've got to much hair in the sink. Between you and Sab and me, the sink won't let the water go away anymore. I don't know what else to use to make the hair and fur go away, so Uncle Tim got me this stuff."

YIKES! Scary stuff! So that's why I'm not going to the bathroom today. If that chemical-smelling stuff is that strong, maybe it just might carry ME away, too!

A Hurricane's a Coming?!

I heard them talk a lot about a hurricane today on the news. Mama had the TV on most of the day, which is not something she normally does.

What I wasn't totally sure about was the word "hurricane" and "here" and why we needed to get all prepared. That's when it occurred to me that maybe the hurricane was COMING here!

Well, Mama replies, it won't really be a hurricane by the time it gets here, but almost. She says its called "Noel" and tomorrow its going to try to drown the state and blow it over. She took out the emergency candles and made sure all the battery lights worked, as well as having food that doesn't need to be cooked.

I've never lived through a hurricane before. Mama says the last one to come here was in 1991, which was long before I was born and became a stray. She says we're going to get lots of and lots of wind and rain, but that we're just enough inland so that we won't get the really nasty rain and wind and waves. I asked her what "inland" meant and she said it means that we aren't close enough to the ocean to get the storm's full effects. The sailors and fishermen need to be out of the ocean, if they know what's good for them, she says.

Sounds bad! I'm glad Mama's planning on staying home with me, just in case I get scared. If its going to rain, maybe we can do some reading and look at her books. Well, I suppose Sebastian can join us if he absolutely must. Just don't tell anyone I actually curled up next to him yesterday on my very own! It might destroy my reputation!

My Newest Toy

I have no idea where they came from or even what they are. All I know is that they are purple and they make crinkly noises when I touch them and they've got knobs in there. And there's two of them - they look like identical twins.

Mama calls them "pom poms". I don't care what you call them - they are the best thing since a new box.

I have no idea where they came from; Mama says they're from a work project she did this spring with her doctors. Hmmm maybe I'd like these doctors?

Oh puleeze I didn't just say that!

I have dragged them and pushed them and scratched them all over the living room. It's been very entertaining for Mama to watch me turn kittenlike and have a blast.

Here I go again!

Three Cheers for Mama!

I am so proud of my mama. She's the bestest I could ever hope for, and she loves me, and she gives me all the love I could want, and she takes great care of me, even when she takes me to the v*t and I don't like it.

I'm even more proud of her because today Mama killed the fly that's been buzzing around us for days that I haven't been able to catch! Even Mama's pleased with herself. She says "those buggers are so hard to catch - I can't believe it!"

She cornered the fly in the bathroom window. I think it was trying to find its way outside, and Mama slapped it with her hand. I was rather annoyed at first - how dare she put herself in my window while I'm in it? But then I saw the bug fall down and I was like "whoaaaaaaaa here comes a bug!" Man it was a tasty bug, even if I didn't kill it myself.

But guess what we discovered? There is still another bug! It's flying about the window that Mama's put plastic on already. It's making a horrific noise buzzing on the plastic. It's bugging me out! Mama says its my job to take down that bug; she did her bug duty for the year.

Come here little horse fly.... come here you pesky fly....

Derelict

That's the new word Mama came up with to describe me.

At first I thought it was a compliment. Mama loves me so much; she told me just today how much she loves me!

Then I find out that "derelict" means I'm baaaaaaaaad and not doing my job! What didn't I do now?

Mama's not happy about that house fly that's still flying around. She thinks I should have caught it by now, specially since I've been napping so well in my new box.

I don't know why I should have to do Sebastian's dirty work. He's younger than me; why can't the kid do something to earn his keep around here expect being "orange" and "brilliant"?

I think I like being derelict, though. Mama was given a bunch of food by a friend who felt that Mama might need some help and in the box of food was a can of Spam. Mama can't stand to even sniff Spam, so she chopped it up and gave us to us! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! She put the rest of it in a bowl and put it in the fridge; I expect to be having yummy Spam for a while!

He Took My Box!

I knew it would only be a matter of time...

I chose to come out of my box long enough to say hello to Mama when she got home from church and lunch at Auntie Becky's. I thought Sebastian had been right behind me; he usually beats me to the door to greet her.

So when I trotted over to my box to curl back up... his stinkin' orange HEAD was sticking out of my box! Of all his nerve! He had already made himself quite comfortable and I could tell just by looking at him that he didn't think there was anything wrong with the situation.

I'm telling you, I was hissed! I swatted my paw at him and I growled and I hissed some more. Mama had made herself comfortable at her desk, so she turned around to see what all the fuss was about. I was sure she'd help me protect my turf - after all, she gave me the box.

What does she do? "Mackenzie - would you just leave him alone? He's minding his own business, for once." That's what Mama said. That's the truth. Every single word.

I paced and I stared at him and I hissed and I swatted as I walked by. Mama says she couldn't make this up if she wanted to. She says "I've never seen you get so possessive over a box, Kenzie. What is up with that?"

As if I need to explain myself!

Sab was still laying in that box, his head sticking out, totally zoned out to the trauma he was causing in my life! Mama thought he was looking "so stinkin' cute" that she had to talk to him. "What are you doing in there my baby boy?" she asks. "You are such a cute baby boy; what would Mama do without her silly Sab?" I hafta listen to her carry on about him all the time - I was in NO MOOD for such chatter!

Except - wonder of wonders - Sebastian thought it was marvelous that Mama would speak to HIM. He answered back and then he climbed out of the box to visit Mama!

Mama bent over, picked him up, and by the time she was sitting up strait again, holding him, I'd taken over the box. I am not going to let such an opportunity pass me by! He was the one who gave up the box.

Mama says she didn't tell my box story to the kids today. She did tell Memere, she said, and Memere and Auntie Becky thought it was a marvelous story.

I am going back to rest in my box. Mama says "thank goodness the best things in life are free, huh Kenzie?"

My New Box is the DA BOMB!

I must sing the praises of my new box that Mama gave me after the horrible day I had when she took the a/c box away from me. The only times I've left the box is to use the litter box (NOT a place for lounging!) and to get some food.

Well, not entirely true. After the night Mama had, she said she wanted to take a photo of me comfy in my new box. But when I heard her camera turn on and saw her point it at me, I got up to pose. "No don't move!" she wailed at me, but too late!

I scratched in that box most of the night. Mama made the mistake of neatly folding the towel she put in it. How am I supposed to sleep on a pristine towel? I can't sleep on such softness. I need lumps and bumps to lean against and put my head on! It just wasn't working!

Mama says I made such a ruckus in that box that it woke her up several times. I guess she took pity on me because at one point, during the night, she got up and fluffed the towel for me. After rubbing on her legs and meowing my eternal thanks, both she and I went back to bed to sleep soundly - she in her wrinkle-free bed & me in my very happily lump towel in my Tyson chicken box.

You know the drill. Must fluff the towel often! I made such a racket scratching at that box this morning that I never noticed Mama settling in for her morning prayers. She says I was so loud I was disturbing her! She came and gave me a hug & kiss, saying she couldn't help but thank Jesus for making cats and giving me to her.... even with all my noise. She says that I have reminded her that the simplest things in life are the best! Says she's even going to use my box story to tell an object lesson to the kids at church today!

I am so famous - I can't help it!

Excuse me; my towel and box are getting cold. I must return to them!

Don't ask me where Sab is. I've barely seen him since the box arrived. He's a smart boy this time and realizes he's not getting near that box if I have anything to say about it!

Story of the Boxes

I was just so upset and out of sorts today. I didn't know what to do with myself.
Mama took my favorite hiding box away!

This was my very special hiding place. It's been under the table - and empty - all summer. I figured out how to get into the box and I could totally hide and stretch out inside it. I could listen to everything going on in the kitchen and no one would know I was there. It was my stealth spot!

Then today Uncle Tony came over. He took the a/c machine out of the window for Mama. Last year she dropped it out the window, made a big crash, and it was really nasty. So this year she got Uncle Tony to help her!

Mama pulled out my stealth hiding spot. She opened up the box, where it was totally exposed to the world and all its coldness. I was starting to feel very worried about this business. I started sniffing the box.

Mama took out the string that came from one of her shorts and she put it in the box. Score! She and I played tag and hide and seek with the string. Sebastian even joined us. Mama played with us for a while before she stopped. It was grand. She left the box in the middle of the kitchen, open, just like that.

Well, it wasn't the most hidden spot in the kitchen anymore, but a box is still a box, right? Can't be all that wrong! So I got back in the box and curled up for a nap.

I heard the door open up and Mama came inside with a grocer bag! When did she leave? I helped her put the church food in the fridge and thought I'd go back to sleeping in my box. That's when my world came crashing down.

Mama took the a/c - that big, mean, evil white box - off the living room floor (I will admit, it was in the middle of everything where Uncle Tony had left it) and she put it in the box! She then closed the top of the box and she pushed it into its spot under the table. The she left - as if its supposed to stay like that!

I sniffed and I tried to get in the box but now there's not any room to spare in there. I can't even get my paw in a corner of the box - that's how much space the a/c machine takes in that box. Now, I do realize that there's a big picture of the a/c-mean-evil-white-box on the front of the box, and I'm a literate cat; I can read that it says "air conditioner" on the box, but since when do boxes actually have inside what they say on the outside? When have you ever seen that happen, huh? That was my box, my very special hiding-from-Sebastian box. Now its gone. How could Mama do this to me?

I haven't know where to sleep now. I did hide in the pet carrier the entire time that Uncle Tony came back with Auntie Julia and baby Lucy, but still... its not my special spot. Sebastian sleeps in there too.

Just after supper I realized there was another box in the living room! It was the box that has a picture of the window fan on it - so I raced over to try to get that one open. Can you imagine - another box that has a cold machine in it that I can't get into? I am totally distraught; even Mama sees that I don't know what to do. I've been pacing back and forth, meowing and crying. She says she had to put the stuff in the boxes, but she feels bad for me. She showed me the shoe box in the living room, but I can't hide in that box; I can only sleep in that box, but you can see all of me.

Whatever shall I do? I was so sad. I finally made peace sleeping on the window perch in the bathroom.

It was after Mama's supper time when she came into the bathroom and picked me off the window perch. I was happy to see her; I put my head on her shoulder and purred. She brought me into the living room and put me on the floor - in front of a 3-sided box that said "Tyson Chicken" on it!

Did someone say CHICKEN????

Whoa what do you know - a box that doesn't have inside what the outside says! I couldn't smell anything chicken-like on it. Mama had put a blanket in the bottom of the box and told me it was for me, to replace the boxes she'd taken.

Wow! I do have a pawsome Mama! I immediately climbed into the box, fluffed that blanket to my specifications - lumps are the best to sleep on - and I've been comfortable ever since. It's not as big as the a/c box, but it will do just fine!

Thank goodness for boxes you can hide inside!

That Bugger!

It has been quite the calamity of the day.

That good-for-nothing fly has been harassing us all day, and still he flies around.

It's not from a lack of trying. I leaped and I swatted and I ran and I jumped and I sprinted and I skidded and I even tried to climb on Mama just so I could reach the stupid fly.

Sebastian joined in the hunt, too. He leaped and swatted and ran and jumped and sprinted and skidded (into me) and tried everything he could think of in order to catch this really miserable fly.

I thought I had him, too! He was right there in front of me, just sitting there. Mama says he was cleaning himself, but that's because she couldn't hear the fly taunting me because he was still alive and flying and I was now panting for air.

Nope, it was quite the frustrating event.

Finally the bug made the fatal mistake of resting on Mama's bed. I pounced. I got him! I killed him!

Then the chase was on to see who would get to eat the mean ol' bug. Sebastian knocked him off the bed, so I knocked Sebastian off the bed. He caught the bug first but I was right on top of Sab so a knock down, drag out fight broke out. I don't normally attack Sab (usually he's jumping on me) but I wasn't letting him have my bug! I rolled him over and bit his ears and he snarled and tried to bite me and...

I lost sight of the bug! Sebastian swears I ate it, but I really didn't. Can you believe this - Mama, who can't stand bugs and usually calls us to kill them - took the bug and put him in the trash can? What Sab doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

So I dove into the trash can. Out spilled all the stuff Mama had put in there before, but the bug didn't come out. "No no no, Kenzie, this is not for you to play in," Mama says. She puts everything back in the trash can and carries it to the kitchen to put in the bigger trash can.

So much for my fresh snack!

I'm sure you can just imagine how confused and awestruck I was when I trotted into the kitchen this evening to assist Mama in cooking the chicken - and there was the fly, sitting on the counter! I stared at it. Mama laughed. She says "you're slowing down in your old age, Kenzie; you've got another fly to capture."

Another fly? I don't know about this. This one isn't going to make a fool out of me - this is better than chicken!

Except that he did make a fool of me. I tried to chase him to the window but instead I bumped the plastic and glass recycling box and down it all fell, because Mama hasn't taken the recycling out and its been going over the Tidy Cats litter can that she uses. Scared a life right out of me.

I've been camping out in the a/c box under the table ever since. I can't handle the bugs anymore. Good thing Mama's been putting plastic on the windows to keep out the cold that's coming. It will keep the bugs out, too!

Celebrating Fresh Water!

Mama tells me that today is a very important date when it comes to being an American cat and remembering our rich heritage and ... there she goes again, carrying on about stuff only humans care about. Sometimes I wonder why Mama even tells me this stuff! MOL

She tells me that a long-time ago, before she was born, on October 18, 1972, the Congress people who make laws around here passed a law Mama now calls the "Clean Water Act". She says a man named Senator Muskie got the law passed because he was so sad at the dirty water that ran by his home in the river.

She tells me that Senator Muskie was a very important and great man. She says he wanted to be president once, like that Bush fellow is now. She says that he was a great representative for Maine and that he was passionate about this great place that I live.

She also tells me that it's an even more special story because Sen. Muskie was born and grew up in the same town that Pupah grew up in, and he played in the same river that Pupah and Memere lived next to when they grew up and even Mama got to play in that river. Mama tells me that her grampy, Pupah's daddy, grew up with Sen. Muskie and they were like brothers when they were little, and were always friends, until grampy died.

She tells me that this law was so important because before this law, the waters would sometimes catch fire because of all the bad things that people were letting get into the water. Without this we wouldn't have the great water in the ocean that Mama loves to visit.

Naturally, once Mama starts telling me about water, I am all ears. Is she gonna let me have a sip of Omar's water again? What would Omar do if he couldn't swim in his clean water? What wou