Tao invents a fun game! Please Play Along!

Tao has invented a fun furmily game. My diary entry won't be too long, b/c there aren't many of us in our house anymore. One cool thing about a new game is that you can make up the rules as you go along! Thanks, Tao!

MY FURMILY: (THE ONES DOWN HERE)

Daddy - Daddy is a big guy with a big heart. He had a stroke 8 years ago and now he works part time. He talks to me and Delilah but we know he likes the doggie sisfurs more. He works at a bus company who runs tour buses to casinos and other fun places.

Mommy - Ah, Mommy! Mommy rescued me 4 years ago when I was just a baby. Most people don't believe in love at first sight except for Mommy and that's how she feels about me. She doesn't work outside our home, so she has lots of time to take care of me and Delilah and the doggie sisfurs.

Delilah - She is my big kitty sisfur. She and I get along pretty well. I chase her sometimes but it's not fun because she doesn't run. Mommy calls her a Diva Princess.

Cady- Cady is my BFF. She is a dog, but that's OK. She is the first one who played with me when I came to live in this furmily. I like to share her supper with her and I bug her by headbonking her. She doesn't growl. She just leaves. Mom says all cats love Cady. I sure do!

Jessie - Jessie is a dog, too. She chases me sometimes. Mom says we have a "love/hate" relationship. Sometimes she lets me headbonk her, but she also likes to chase me.

Izzie (ME!) I am a Maine Coon (mix) who Mommy thinks was born under our neighbor's deck at our old house. I was outside for at least 12 weeks. Mommy set out a trap for me when the neighbor's called and told her there were kittens running around. She was the neighborhood animal welfare person, we guess! Anyway, I think that somehow I knew I'd have a fantastic life here cause it only took me about 1/2 hour to get "trapped". I like to "help" Mommy do just about everything including taking a bath/shower and cook meals. I especially like to help her make deli turkey sandwiches!

If you read my diary and would like to participate in this fun game, please feel free to add this to your diary (about your OWN family, that is!!)

Love,
Izzie

The "Dog Days" of Summer!

Hello, Fans

I don't know why they call them "The Dog Days". I am hot, too! It will be 95 degrees here in Cleveland today and just as hot for the rest of the week! The tv lady says the "feels like" temp will be almost 115! I'm almost tempted to start panting like the doggie sisfurs! Mom is being very good about telling everyone to be careful in the heat, especially with their grandpas and grandmas and their animals. Mom called the police once when she went to a shopping center and saw a little dog in a carrier in the backseat of a car. The nice policeman came and got the dog out of the hot car and mom took him to a kennel/vet she worked with during her animal welfare days. "Some people just don't get it..." Mom says.

Mom and Dad went to see Big Hoomin Brufur in North Carolina last weekend. Mom said it was just as hot there, but they have Yuengling beer! They went to a "Swamp Dogs" baseball game and Mom says they had a wonderful time visiting but it makes her miss our Big Brufur even more. She won't see him again until Thanksgiving. And we managed to get all the paper cups, plates, pizza boxes and the other stuff all cleaned up from our big party. Even Delilah the Divine Diva pitched in. I told her I'd tell Mom the party was HER idea if she didn't help! What mom doesn't know...! We had lots of fun playing mousehole, mouseshoes, but the mouse darts didn't really work well. Little Stinkers wouldn't stick to the mouse board! ;-)

Hope you all are enjoying the summer that's going too fast. Our hoomin kitteh is almost 8 weeks old!! Mom feels sorry for our hoomin big sisfur because the little hoomin kitteh has something called "colic". huh. REAL kittehs never get that. We are always very well behaved and quiet with out kitty mommas!

Love you all lots,
Iz

Still a Little "Off and On"

Hi, Iz fans

I am feeling better, but still a little lethargic and "off". I am eating and using the box and pretty much normal, but mom says I am still sleeping more than usual. She said it might be because of the hot weather. I'm the typical cat who sleeps 23 1/2 out of 24 hours and Mom says she's not worried. She says at least I stopped sitting on the kitchen island and staring off into the livingroom, which I guess really creeped mom out. She didn't see anything in there but it looked like I did. Actually, I am chasing Delilah, head-bonking and laying by my BFF in the world, Cady, and just generally being King of the World as usual. Mom says I'm almost acting like I'm depressed. Do you all think it's possible for a kitty to be depressed? Hmmmm. Mom almost doesn't want to go visit my hoomin brufur in NC next week b/c she says she'll worry about me. I'll be fine. I already have the parties scheduled and I have to find out when our hoomin sisfur is coming to check on us so we can clean up after our parties. 8-)

We were very glad that it was very quiet here for the Fourth. Mom says there are advantages to living in a 55 and over community! Those silly little outdoor kitties keep roaming through our yard, though. So, I peed by the door that goes to the garage just to show them. Mom says the smell when she walks in the door sure is enough to chase HER away! 8-o

Have a good weekend, evfurone!

Love you all lots,
Izzie

I am SO GLAD to be HOME!!

Hi, Iz fans,

Well, after my little and thoroughly unenjoyable trip to the V-E-T, mom picked me up today and brought me back home. I let her know exactly how unhappy I was about what she did by howling and yoe-yoe-yoeing all the way home. Mom said if she'd rolled down the windows, cars would have been pulling over to the side of the road thinking it was a fire truck coming. After I got the once over from Cady and Jess, my doggie sisfurs, I got up in mom's face and asked not only for treats but some wet food, which I got immediately. Then mom went to clean my box and I got in there while she was cleaning it. (Sorry, Mom, I really had to go!). At the V-E-T, I got poked and prodded and squeezed and stared at. No one, including me, could find much of anything wrong with me. All I know is that I wasn't feeling so great and wanted to be left alone. I heard mom tell the doctor that she really missed me! I let Mom pick me up and kiss and hug me just now and I only gave her a few little claws. She has a very big boo-boo on her arm from where I let her know I did NOT want to go into the carrier on Wednesday. This is an experience neither I nor Mom want to repeat anytime soon.

So I'm going to go take a nice long nap on the nearest windowsill. I've managed to learn how to get the access panel off the side of the bathtub and there's LOTS of hidey-spots in there so I might crawl back in there, too. In any case, I'm glad I'm home!

Thanks for your purrs,

Iz

I don't feel so good!

Hi, everyone

I am dictating this entry to mom from under her bed where I am hiding. I started throwing up last night after supper and spent the night inside the couch. Mom looked for me for 1/2 hour this AM but I didn't feel good enough to come out. When she finally saw my tail sticking out of the back of the couch, she stuck her hand inside and I gave her some pawpats, but I really don't feel good. I just feel like hiding in a dark spot right now. Mom is hoping it's something that I ate, but if I'm not better by tomorrow, it's off to the V-E-T I go. Since I never get sick, this is new for me. I want to run and act silly like I usually do, but for right now, I just really want to be in a quiet, dark spot.

Send some purrs if you can, Iz fans.

Izzie

I've been very patient, but now it's time to start paying- attention to ME again!

Hello, Iz fans!

I may be sending you a pawmail to ask if I can come stay with you! I've been getting ignored here lately and one day a few weeks ago when mom ran out of my wet food noms, she actually gave Delilah and me some of our doggie sisfur's!!!! We ate a little bit of it, but most of it was still left on the plate the next morning and mom was lucky we din't also leave something on her pillow or in her shoe if you all know what we mean!

We have a new (and very little) hoomin kitteh here. Jacob was born on May 21st. He wasn't doing so good, mom says. When he was delivered (she said this means born but it has nothing to do with the Post Office. Hoomins! Why don't they just say born then???) Anyway, when he was born, his heart had stopped and he wasn't breathing. He had to be rushed to the Cleveland Clinic and put in a special place called the Neonatal Intensive Care. He was there for 2 weeks. Mom showed me a photo of him. He had tubes and patches everywhere and mom said there were lots of monitors and lights around him. We all were praying to God and the Great Cat to make him well and bring him home. We're happy to say that's exactly what happened.

Mom has been babysitting like crazy for the first kitteh, Nicholas. He's even been here overnight a few times. But, mom always makes sure that he's very nice to me an the other animals and we all think he's OK. Jacob doesn't do much but eat, poop and sleep (kind of like ME!!). But, mom has been very tired and busy and not spending too much time with me and Delilah. I try to lay on her lap at night, but it's been very warm here so that's kind of uncomfortable. So, I just follow her around, get into her business and make a general nuisance of myself, like I usually do. But, I have let her hug and kiss me a little more than I usually do, and now we have ants in our kitchen, so I'm busy chasing those...

I know things will get back to normal eventually, Iz fans, but I sure wish they'd hurry up!!!

TTFN,
Your little Izzie

The Izzie-athlon!

Hola, Iz Fans!

The sun is out here and Meowmie has opened all the windows. I follow her around and jump into each one as she opens it. She told me that the same birds are out there no matter which window I sit in, but I run after her anyway. She calls it "The Izzie-athlon". I guess it is good exercise, but it's not nearly as much fun as when Meowmie and I make the bed together in the morning! I jump on the bed and lay right in the middle so she has to pull the sheets/blankets/bedspread out from under me. I also chase bed mice while she's trying to make the bed. She picks me up, puts me on the floor and I jump right back on the bed. I am SUCH a stinker. Meowmie calls this the "Izzie-lympics" and says it's a lot of "fun" making the bed with a 17 pound cat laying on the sheets. It's worth rolling over on my back and getting kisses for!

The geese down at the lake have been popping out babies like crazy! One mom and dad have at least 10 babies. They are SO well behaved (no comments, Meowmie!). They follow their mom into the water and they always come when she "honks" at them. But you know, there is always one who gets distracted and the Dad has to give him a little reminder. Meowmie says she's VERY impressed by how well they listen to their mom and dad. Hummmmppff! I listen too! (When it suits me...)

We hope that wherever you are the sun is out and it is a beautiful day!

Love,
Izzie

Spring has Sprung! (And so have I)

Hi, Iz fans!

I am so excited. Mom and I just ordered our catgrass seeds for the summer. Yay!!! Mom does buy me that stuff from the pet store, but it's expensive and sometimes tastes kind of funny. She got me some organic stuff the other day but she told me that was a rare treat since it cost about as much as her and Daddy's dinner. I love the catgrass even though it makes me and Deliah auto-eject on Mom's carpet. But since we both have fairly long fur and we do such a good job of grooming, Mom doesn't mind. She just gets out the big, noisy monster with the handle at one end and those nasty looking rotating brushes and water and the other end.

Mom says one of her best memories of Ernie was when she planted catnip at our "old" house and Ernie would come and roll in it and then fall asleep! She said she will plant some catnip if I promise that, when she dries it and puts in on our scratchy boxes I don't get mean and try to pick fights with Delilah. Sheesh! I did that ONCE! Well, ok, yeah, I will be nice this time. Mom says it looks kinda funny to have all that catnip tied up in the garage in the window. She says it looks likes she's drying....something else.....

Delilah and I are enjoying our new house. We actually have big windowsills in this one--just right for a Maine Coon kitty who mom says weighs 17lbs. Wow. I didn't know I was that big! Anyway, Delilah and I like to lay on the windowsills and survey our catdom. I have the bad habit of laying in the window in Mom and Dad's bedroom all night looking out the window. Then I am sooo tired the next day! I've found that if I don't give into temptation and chew on Mom's toes and legs at night, she will let me cuddle and sleep with her. It's nice when it's cold, but I usually follow my BFF Cady, the dog, onto the love seeat. As long as I don't annoy her, she'll also let me lay with HER. I guess there is something to this idea of behaving myself.

Enjoy the warmer weather wherever you are, Iz fans. Be safe and be happy and remember we love you all very much!

TTFN,
Izzie

Please say a prayer for our furrend in Japan

Dear fans,

Mom says she knows that we can count on all of our fans, friends and followers to send thoughts and prayers to our friend, Val Durham, who lives just outside of Tokyo in Japan. There was a very massive earthquake there today. We've heard that our dear friend is OK as are her kitties, but we are asking God to continue to keep her safe and out of harm's way during any sunamis and aftershocks. We are, in fact, sending those same thoughts to everyone there. Our friend has posted on Facebook and says that the atomosphere is "surreal".

Please pause a moment today and send our friend your thoughts. She is a very sweet person who has posted many wonderful answers about breeding kitties (she breeds Maine Coons) on the Answers board.

If we could, we would send a big bubble over there and put her and her kitties inside it to keep her safe!

Keeping good thoughts,

Iz and the rest of the Zoo Gang

OMC!!

Wow, Iz fans!

Mommy and I are very excited that "we" are included in the DDPs today! We work very hard to bring you all our latest mews and it's so nice to be recognized by Catster HQ!

Mom and I would like to add a PS to our diary entry also. Yesterday, we were looking out over the lake down the hill and mom saw these big white things that I now recognize as birds floating on the water. Mom told me they were probably something called "domestic ducks" since we now live in a pretty rural area--that means some farms and lots of ponds and open land. But when we watched them a little longer, mom said, "Izzie, I think those are swans!" When mom went out later on she drove past the lake and when she came home she told me that there is a pair of swans on the lake! She said they are very beautiful but she has heard that they are even more bad-tempered than Canada Geese can be. We are heading into (more!) bad weather over the next few days and mom says she hopes the swans will stay and that they will be OK. She says the swans on the lake "class up the joint a little".

Anyway, I'm off to tell Delilah how important I am. I think there might be a new bag of Temptations or Greenies in my future!

Love,
Izzie