Meow! I don't know why dad is outside on our driveway, making a lot of noise shoveling snow and scaring the birdies away from my bird feeder. He ought to stay inside with me! I don't need him to clear the driveway! I need him to come in and scratch my head! *flips tail with annoyance*

Meow, I'm so excited to be a DDP today! Thank you, Catster! And thanks to Hazel Lucy; Buddie and Gunnarr T and their furmilies; Riley and Skippy; Pigeon; Kerstin K; Chai Latte; Ishtar; Dusty the Puppycat; Twinkle; Mr. Sam; Squirrel; Opie; Felix; Jason Hopper; Vanessa, and Coopurr for their greetings and gifts!

*lies on back and rolls happily from side to side*

Mom--where are my extra treats? You'd better start getting them out now. Is there any salmon left? *giggles*

I love the sound of mom's voice. When I hear her talking--especially if she's speaking at length--I run to wherever she is so I can hear her better. (As a result, I am always present for phone calls!) Even if I am in the basement and she is on the second floor, I dash up and am with her in a second. And mom loves the sound of my voice, too. She is always attentive to my nightly concerts, even when they wake her up. And during the day, she always responds to my meow!

I was very busy this morning helping mom organize her sock drawer. So many socks! I wonder why she needs so many. And of course they ran out all over the floor when she took out the drawer and accidentally tipped it, and I had to bat a lot of them into submission so they would stay quiet and wait for her to come and pick them up. While the drawer was out of the dresser I took advantage of the opportunity to check out the space underneath it (it's a bottom drawer) and warn mom that there was some dust down there that she really needs to remove. Mom and dad are really not the neatest housekeepers. They need all my help! "A kitty's work is never done"--it was an exhausting morning, and I think I'm going to need a longer than usual midday nap.

Today is my birthday, and I'm so very grateful to all the kitties who sent greetings or gifts! It was wonderful to hear from all of them. My boyfurriend Copy sent flowers and a huge cake. But the best part of his gift was hearing from him again--he's been away for quite a while, taking care of his family.

The humans got me a catnip banana and some new catnip mousies. They also bought a new kind of food for me to try (we'll see about that!). But I really don't need anything for my birthday because I already have everything I could possibly want--a comfortable palace (it's bitterly cold outside); devoted humans; plenty of food, toys, and nap spots; and my Catster furriends. So I told the humans that instead of spending a lot of money on presents for me, they should buy a case of catfood and take it to the shelter I used to live in for the kitties there who are still awaiting their furever homes. So that's what they did!

Meow, it's so cold outside my palace now that even the humans, who refuse to be house humans no matter how much I try to train them, are staying inside! We just keep watching different versions of the Nutcracker ballet on TV. The procedure goes like this--first we watch a pas de deux, and then during the commercial I perform a paw de deux with mom or dad (a petting session). Then we watch another pas de deux, and then there's another paw de deux. I hope this goes on all week!

I had a long conversation with my dad today, while he was taking a bath. I sat next to the bathtub and meowed at him, and he meowed back at me, and we took turns meowing at each other for quite a while.

(No, I did NOT climb up on the side of the bathtub. I haven't done that since the time I fell in while mom was taking a bath and she had to rescue me--what an embarrassment!)

Dad was telling me about Maslow's hierarchy, which tries to explain some aspects of human behavior, and I was asking him questions to make sure I understood. It seems that in Maslow's hierarchy, the idea is that humans have needs at different levels, and they don't pay much attention to higher needs, like self-actualization, until lower needs, like food and safety, and intermediate needs, like social approval, have been met. When dad told me about this, I immediately saw its relevance to feline life. When I was living on the street, I had to give all my attention to finding food and being safe--I didn't have time to think about having fun. But now it's different. My food and safety are taken care of by the humans, so I don't have to worry about them at all. I can attend to my own higher needs.

A good example is yesterday. In the morning mom set out my brunch treat, as usual, but instead of running right away to eat it, as I usually do, I stayed in the living room watching a big bug that had somehow gotten into the house from outside (very unusual, especially at this time of year). It scooted back and forth, trying, no doubt, to stay away from me, and I watched and watched, and poked at it with my paw. Fun! I didn't stop until mom came and saw what I was doing and screamed for dad to come and get rid of the bug, which he did.

Isn't this kind of an example of Maslow's hierarchy in action? I didn't want to eat the bug; there wasn't much on it to eat and it wouldn't have been as tasty as my brunch treat, which was sitting there waiting for me to give it my attention. I just wanted to play with it--a higher need. And because I'm well-fed and safe, I had the leisure to amuse myself this way.

What a nice family evening I had with mom and dad! We watched a TV show together, a nature show about hummingbirds. I got quite excited. My tail was flipping back and forth very fast--I even accidentally hit dad in the head with it quite a few times! *giggles* The humans, though, didn't seem to be that excited--just interested. I wonder why humans don't seem to get as excited about birds as we do?

What a nice Thanksgiving holiday I had! The humans stayed home the whole day. Mom didn't go out at all, and dad only went out for five minutes to get some firewood from the rack outside in the garden. Mom used it to make a nice fire in the fireplace in the living room. We sat in front of it for hours, listening to music and watching the flames. The humans petted me a lot, and I purred and purred. They had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, and offered me some. I really don't care for human food, though, so they gave me extra treats instead.

My tummy is full! My humans are home! My palace is warm, safe, and comfortable! What more could I ask for? I'm very thankful today.

I sat just outside the kitchen door waiting for my evening treat. I waited and waited, sitting quietly and politely so mom would look through the doorway and see what a good girl I was--and so neat, too, with my tail wrapped carefully around me! It seemed to take a long time for her to respond. First she got the plate, and then she got the treat jar. Then she counted out ten treats, put them on the plate, and set it on the floor next to the refrigerator. I waited patiently for her to go and sit down at the table (I don't like to have anyone too close while I am concentrating on treats!). Then I stood up, trotted in, and began to eat the heavenly pieces. Seafood medley today, yum! I ate the first one, then the second, then the third, . . . .

They were gone! Where did they go? How did it happen so fast, after so much waiting? I looked all around the plate, but it was empty. I sat by the plate a few minutes to see if the treats would come back, but they didn't. :(

How is it that something like waiting always seems to take forever, while wonderful things, like treats, go by so fast? Is this what Einstein meant by relative time? I don't understand. . . .