It's a Fact - I've been Tagged!

My special friend Moses asked me if I would play 'tag'. He listed seven facts about himself and then meowed to (tagged) seven other kitties to do the same. Pawmails or spare rossettes work great for informing furriends that they have been asked to play along.

I was in the most horrible place imaginable before my meomy brought me home. So my facts are just facts and I'm not feeling a bit furr-sorry for myself. K? * giggles and can't wait to start this game *

1) I am very petite for my age as I did not have proper nutrition growing up. I love that people mistake me for a 5-6 month old kitten as I'm a true lady-kit and never would want to show my true age. My pictures make me look much bigger than I really am.

2) I'm missing three of my top front teeth. My meomy assures me that it just adds to my cuteness and character. :)

3) My nickname 'Puppet' I obtained because I used to remind people of a puppet on strings when I walked. My name Muppet came a bit later when my facial expressions reminded people of one of John Henson's (sp?) muppets. I also appear like I have white lipliner all the way around my lips. So when I talk, it resembles one of the muppets speaking. My meomy assures me once again that this rates me very high on the cuteness scale, but I still don't appreciate people petting my head as they are chuckling underneath their breath. And what's worse is when I give them the look like, 'What are you snickering about?' .... and they bust out laughing! :)

4) I still don't like to be held for any length of time nor sit on my human family's laps. I do keep my meomy in close sight though and sleep on her pillow at night. I love to be pet on and told how beautiful I am. What furr-kid doesn't? :)

5) I am living on less than 25% kidney function. Meomy has me on a special diet (not by a vet) and I am doing purrty fantastic. My allergies causing my ear infections have even gone away since I stopped eating that 'dry bought food'.

6) I've adjusted very well to indoor living in every aspect except one.... the dreaded vacuum monster. My meomy tells me that every indoor home has one of these and I will get used to it. Get used to it? I can't bear the sight of it! If meomy leaves it in the hallway, I can't bring myself to even stroll past it! And I don't dare make grrrr noises at it because it can roar back at me like nothing I've heard before!

7) My furr-sis Nakita still is suspicious that I am an actual 'puppet'. Now and then when meomy isn't looking, she pins me down and paws me everywhere checking for 'strings'. She explains in her diary why she does this, but grrrzzzz and hisssses she frightens me when she does that. Other than that though, I love her and all of my furr and non-furr family. In fact, I've become the social butterfly these days and love everybody furry or not. :)

Thank you sweet Moses for including me to play this game!! :)

My 7 furriends I tag are: ~ Gray (aka: Greystone ~ my secret crush) - Jester - Cabbie the Tabby ~ and I'll have to go trot around and see who else. I want to make sure that they have not been recently tagged. I'll update soon ! :)
~ Muppet ~
Ok, (giggles while out of breath) my remaining four 'tags' are Siamama, Mittens, Mrs. John Smith, and last but not least... my furiend Satine.

The Great Kitty Rescue - An update by my meomy -

* An update for anybody interested about the latest info on the massive cat rescue where Muppet came from. If not interested, please skip this diary entry because it's not exactly about Muppet herself. * ~ If anyone feels that this is not appropriate to post on here, please let me know and I will remove it. ~

Our Wednesday paper reads, ~ Million-dollar rescue finished at FLOCK site ~

The same day this article came out, I was informed that the DA has decided not to press any charges and has thrown the case out! (( UPDATE: March 01,2008 - The charges against at least one member of flock (the former president) are still being persued. I'll update as I know more. -- March 16 - I added an update to the bottom of this entry.-- )) Another UPDATE - June 2nd, 2008 at the bottom of this entry!!

Real brief, I was there from the end of May through the end of July. It looked like the aftermath of a war zone! The new owners were only interested in hiring a few people to clean up the property so more cats could continue to be 'dumped' there. They thought the remaining cats would survive by just putting dry food and water down. The nightmare was obviously nowhere over for these kitties. I notified Best Friends and asked for their help the beginning of June. A month later and 2 more pleading phone calls, they thankfully sent 4 people out to evaluate the situation, and in mid July got with animal control and took over the property. Until then, only a few of us 'non-hired' people were there with very limited med supplies trying to help save the cats. So many were already dead and so many more died. A personal heartfelt 'thank you' to Dr Herr, the vet who stepped up and helped us save so many including precious Muppet. The remaining cats are alive today because of the extreme dedication of Best Friends. They constantly get too many calls from all over asking for their help. God Bless them and their volunteers who came to our town from all over the US and beyond to save these kitties who were bound to continue to suffer and die.

Here are the latest statistics according to the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California:

* FLOCK is the single largest recorded hoarding case and subsequent rescue of cats ever in the United States.
*After Best Friend's Animal Society took over the sanctuary in mid July, 2007, 748 cats were recovered, micro-chipped, photographed, vaccinated and catalogued during the course of the rescue. 64 of these have since died due to health complications. (This number has now since risen.)
*The majority of the cats (discovered the end of May 2007) were found starving, dehydrated, sick or all of the above.
* The cost of the rescue, mostly picked up by Best Friends, is just over $1 million. $240,000 of that was for vet costs. (The final 53 cats to be removed
and transported to Utah have accrued an additional $53,000 in medical expenses.) Public donations for this rescue totaled just over $300,000.
_________________________

I have over 250 photos I took out at the sanctuary the first 6 weeks I was there. They have been 'waiting' on a disc as evidence against the Flock members. Now that the case has been thrown out, people have requested that I post or publish the photos and tell the real truth, as some of it was covered up. It's too sad for me. I really just need to move forward, not ever forgetting, but just moving on.


Thanks and Blessings for everyone's prayers and support.
~Muppet's meomy Cheryl~

Muppet gives huge meows and trills and says "Thanks so much for efurrybody's support and all who have and continue to purray for me and my fellow Flock fur-buddies. Purrhaps nobody got in trouble for what they did to us, but we are all off of that purroperty and furrever in safe hands. Hurray!!" :)

UDATE March 16,2008
~ On March 13, our district attorney filed misdemeanor animal cruelty and neglect charges against the former president of FLOCK regarding her own animals. The law under which she was charged prohibits anyone from depriving an animal of necessary food or drink, abandoning an animal, or engaging in an act of cruelty against an animal. If convicted, she could face maximum penalties of up to six months in jail, 120 hours of community service and a fine of $1,000 on each cruelty count. She is scheduled to be arraigned April 14, 2008 . She's still under investigation regarding the place Muppet came from, Flock.
*April 14, 2008 the former president plead 'not guilty' and a date was set for trial, August 14th, 2008. She will be representing herself. *


UPDATE - June 2, 2008

* Under NV law, the DA has up to one year to press charges regarding flock. The one year mark is fast approaching, and still no charges had been pressed. But today I received word that the DA has filed charges, over 17 criminal counts of animal cruelty and neglect. This is a very low number, but from what I'm told, it's a start and more can be added on. I was not told who exactly was being charged. Just Flock, it's board members, and employees. I'll update when I find out more.*

UPDATE - July 30, 2008

Flock attended their first court hearing on July 24th. They entered a plea of 'Not Guilty'. A jury trial date is to be scheduled.

On August 14th the former president of Flock's trial is to begin regarding animal cruelty of her own animals. She will be representing herself without an attorney.

Vets, Tests, and Results

Dear Diary,

I feel a bit more fur-fiesty today. :) I have to be on icky medicine for three weeks, but efurybody's hopeful that this will finally knock out the bit of infection in my inner right ear. I also have the start of something called a UTI, but the icky medicine will clear that up also. I should be back to my full fur-fiesty self soon. I can't wait. :)

Thursday, my doctor once again took me away from sight from my meomy and stole some of my blood. Why does she do that? Then she calls my meomy later and discusses what she's done with my blood? This always leaves meomy sad and even though she tries to hide it, I can feel her concern for me. This time was no diffurrent. I tried to ease-drop on their confurrsation and this is what I heard.... "the BUN was normal" *meomy smiles* "the Creatinine was elevated" *meomy almost drops the phone* "the small remaining amount of kidney still functioning has chronic renal disease." *tears run down meomys cheeks*

I have no idea what any of that means, but meomy has spent lots of time on the 'puter researching it. She keeps assuring me in her optomistic way that I will be just fur-fine. In response I give her a few of my monkey-tunes - 'oooh-oooh, aaah aaahs' - those always make her smile! :)

I better get off the 'puter for now and go see what Armani's up to.

G'nite for now Diary,
~Muppet~

Farewell Jester

Dear Diary,

My furiend and fellow flock survivor, Jester -aka Simon-, had to leave this morning. He gets to now go live his life at the beautiful Best Friend's Sanctuary in Utah.

Jester was a most special boy and even in those sad first times, when meomy and a few others were trying to save us out at flock, Jester could always make them smile. He was the biggest clown. Meomy and I have many fond memories of this silly character. My meomy named him Simon the Silly Siamese.

Jester was adopted by a most wonderful family after Best Friends took over the sanctuary. A nice lady came over to our house looking to adopt a kitty. Meomy told her all about the flock nightmare and about silly Simon and drove her out to the 'sanctuary'. (We don't like calling it that) This sweet lady spent her time and looked at as many kitties as she could. Simon followed her everywhere. Meomy and I were so happy when she chose Simon to adopt!! His new family named him Jester, a most fitting name. :)

His new family adored him and spent lots and lots of love, money and time getting him well. He had everything a kitty could possibly ever dream of. His new daddy made him his own special cat towers, and he even made a special one for me. They had one other kitty, but Jester most liked their doggy Maverick.

Jester had one quirk. He would not urinate in his box. For the last 8 months his family that adored him tried everything imaginable .... and I mean everything ... to get him to use his litter box and not the floors, walls and beds. Sadly nothing worked. So today, with a heartbroken family and meomy too in tears, Jester is on a road trip to live with Best Friends. He will not be placed up for adoption but will live out his life with them. There he can be who he is. We know that he is in the best of hands. He's the same age as me.

My family has become very close with his family. My family cherishes their friendship. This came to be all thanks to this loving, silly boy! I wanted to say "Farewell Jester! I know you'll be happy. You are very loved and will furever be very much missed!"

His family asked for me to say "thanks from Jester's family to beautiful Anna (514232) and sweet Moses (702341) for being his special Catster furiends". His meomy has taken down his Catster page.

Bye 4 now ~ Purrs ~ Muppet ~

Grass, Fences, and an Update!

Dear Diary
My hooman 'Auntie M' came from California to visit us. Oh, I just luv her and was sad to see her have to go.
I followed her out to the backyard on Friday. I have never seen this stuff called grass before. It tickled and felt funny on my feet. *giggles* The new smells and fresh air made me feel so frisky. I couldn't help myself, I started zooming all over the yard. My meomy got stressed that I shouldn't be out there, but my Auntie M pointed out to her that I was having so much fun. My meomy couldn't disagree, she had never seen me that full of life and happy, so she let me continue to race around.
I got to running so fast one time that I sailed right over the fence! Meomy fureaked out and kept scolding me to come back over. Wow that was cool, I was never able to get over the fence out at Flock! I was going to come back to meomy, but spotted the neighbor's taller fence and wanted to see if I could possibly jump that too. So I ran up, wiggled my behind and was just about to try when I saw meomy busting through the gate and racing towards me frantically saying something about 'the dogs would get me if I jumped in there'.
I scampered off into our front yard, hmmmm.... no fences here. I ran past meomy to the back part of our property.... no fences back here either. So I finally just went and jumped the fence to get in our backyard again. Meomy was out of breath, but was so relieved that I was back in the safe part of our yard. She promptly picked me up and carried me inside. I had fun, meomy almost had a heart attack. :) I know meomy is working on a way to make it safe where I can go outside. Until then, I must keep to being indoors only.

I'm on my last week of icky medicine. My ear is much better and my painful UTI has cleared. Hurray! I feel purrty good most days, but have some icky days as well due to my kidneys. Meomy and I take it one day at a time. Blu went to his new home on Friday and I miss him. I know he's not here, but I still forget and look and call for him. He was a blast to play with. Armani and I still play though. :)

Meomy originally heard and told me that cruelty charges have finally been pressed on somebody regarding the horrible place I came from. It turns out this person has been charged with cruelty and neglect on her own animals and is still under investigation for flock.

Ok Diary, that's all fur now.
Loves and Purrs ~ Muppet ~

~ I Have an Angel ~

Dear Diary,
(written on Friday, March 21st)

The last couple of days have been rather icky with last night being the worst. I felt overall yucky and didn't want to get up to do anything. Meomy noticed that I also felt 'hot'. Chico came and curled up with me, he knew I didn't feel well and wanted to help in anyway that he could.

I didn't have the energy to follow meomy to the room where I sleep with her, so with tears in her eyes she thought it best to leave me to rest with Chico on the sofa. She also left me with something that she had been carrying in her hand while she purrayed. She finally tucked it in close to me and told me that it was my Angel. All I knew was that I wanted to rest. Meomy said that she would take me to the doc first thing in the morning. :(

By 6 in the morning I felt so much better and I just had to tell meomy all about my experience with my Angel. With all of my might I made my 'monkey sounds' and high pitched mews... ' Meomy! Open the door! I have to tell you all about this!' Meomy busted out of sleep and let me in. I excitedly told her all about my experience, she was smiling so big. We cuddled in bed for a bit, then I led her, still jabbering all of the way, out into the kitchen and let meomy know that I was now hungry and wanted my special food. I ate it like a champ! Meomy cried and said that I 'did a complete turn around'. I don't remember turning around, but whatever. Hee, hee.

Meomy told me the story that my Angel had originally came from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. She called her a 'Worry Stone Angel' and she first brought it home and gave it to my now human sissy, 'C'. When 'C' was in a horrible car accident and her car rolled, it was a flat out miracle 'C' wasn't badly injured. The contents of 'C's car were strewn all over the accident site. The officers retrieved what they could and placed it in the trunk of her car.

When meomy went to where the car was towed to retrieve the contents, she found only one 'item' actually left inside the car. ( besides the contents in the trunk). On the driver's side front floorboard .... exactly in the middle like it had been placed there .... was the Worry Stone Angel that meowmy had given to 'C'.

Wow! And now this Angel is here looking out for me! From now on I will sleep every night with my special little 'Worry Stone Angel' from Best Friends. I'm going to share this Angel with Armani too as he had a bad reaction to his recent shots and is not feeling well. The doc said that he should pull through but can never have shots again. What a lucky boy he is! :)

Gotta go trot around now and finish hiding the Easter eggs. :)
Purrs ~ Little Muppet ~

My new video

I added a video today! My very furrst one! It was almost all purrty pictures of me that nobody had seen. I added music to it too. I don't know why but I was not allowed to play it on here. Purrhaps the music?? Sorry to those who wrote me wondering why they couldn't view it or why it disappeared. I will work on re-making another one. Purrs and Luvs ~ Little Muppet ~

~ Learning the outdoor rules ~

Dear Diary,

Meomy has been allowing me to join her in the backyard for about 20 minutes effury day. Oh how I luv it! I'm even learning the purroper rules of being allowed to go outside.

I've learned that meomy has a big issue with me and fences. If I trot around exploring the yard, she's fine. If I jump on or over the fence, she gathers me up and it's usually time to go inside. It took a lot of testing meomy to figure this whole thing out.

Test One: I leap over the fence and start trotting off like I know where I'm headed? Results: I hear my name loudly called several times, I hear the gate bust open, meomy catches up with me and inside we go. * Hmmmph! Sigh!*

Test Two: How about I jump over the fence and in an instant jump back in the yard? Results: It's time to go inside. * sigh! *

Test Three: Let's see what happens if I jump on the fence, but not over the fence? Results: I hear my name shouted out and one of those silly looks from meomy, you know the whole crooked eyebrow and odd shaped lips look humans get. I jump down and meomy relaxes. Repeat test three again?: Results: Inside we go. * Hmmmph! *

Test Four: Now let's see what happens if I jump on the fence and balance there purposely ignoring meomy? * I have to remember not to look at her. Her face gets too silly looking and I'll snicker and lose my balance - hee, hee* Results: She snatches me off of the fence and inside we go. * Sigh*

Test Five: I don't jump on or over the fence, instead I patiently plan and carry out an ambush on Sampson who's peacefully resting on the patio?
Results: We remain outside! * Hurray!! I think I'm finally getting it! :) *


I've been feeling purrty good these days. My diet is important and lately meowmy has been giving me a bit of Pepcid and some other prescription stuff to help my belly stay calm. And I don't have to have fluid therapy at this time. *Trills! * I'm not dehydrated and it's just too stressful on me.

Meomy came home last week all upset. Something about her purse being stolen by some gang thugs. She was on the phone solid for days and Jester's former family came over and changed all the locks on our doors. I heard meomy say that they charged on her credit card and they even have her cell phone. I decided to go get this 'purse' back. Nobody messes with my meomy!! Now go back to 'Test One' ...... "meomy catches up with me and inside we go." Grrrzzz, hee, hee.

We have two foster fur buddies other than Armani living with us. One of them, Shazam, was adopted today off of meomys group's Pet Finder's site. Although we will miss her lots, we are soooo happy for her. Her and her brother Spunky are terribly shy and so finding them their own furever homes has been very hard. Spunky has some special needs, and we are purraying he gets his new home soon too.

That's all for now! Going to go find meomy and see if it's time yet to take a stroll around the yard.

Luvs and Purrs ~ Muppet ~

~ I'm a Genius! :) ~

Dear Diary,

My furmates are a bit peeved at me right now. *giggles*

Meomy does not allow me to walk out the back door on my own. I must wait until she picks me up and places me out there with her. She explains that this keeps me safe and I don’t run out the back door every time it is opened. I’m a good girl and always have waited and get so excited when it’s time for her to carry me out there.

Well, this morning I wanted to go out back and not wait until this evening. Meomy had the big glass door open and the screen barrier allowed us to see and enjoy the fresh air. The days are getting quite warm, so my furmates really enjoy this ’open door’ time in the mornings. Meomy said that she would carry me outside later. *sigh* I wondered if there was another way to be carried out?

Hmmmm …..I know not to claw at the screen, and even if I got it slid open I know that I must be carried out. I knew there must be some other way to be able to get out there and not break the rules. So, when meomy was doing the dishes, I quietly scaled up the screen door. I reached the top and started pawing around. I knew that there must be some way to get this barrier open, but how?

Suddenly a loud ‘click-click’!! I got it!! Hurray! The screen door was heading outside, I just had to hang on and enjoy the ride. Yaahooo! * Meomy heard the loud ‘clicks’ and looked in disbelief not only to see that I was sprawled out clinging with all fours near the top of the screen door, but that the entire screen door was falling straight backwards!*

Ka-Boom! The screen door and I landed on the patio. I was carried outside by the door, how clever was that?! I’m a genius! I was just deciding where to trot to explore first when I caught a glimpse of meomy’s face. *gulp!* She was not pleased and was worried that I got hurt. Inside I went and the glass door was closed! *humph*

So, my furmates are not quite happy with me right now. Meomy says no more ‘morning and evening open door time,’ just windows, until the screen door gets repaired. They do admit that it was a cool thing to watch though. *giggles* And now meomy can’t stop laughing either. :) Knowing her she probably wishes that she could have caught that on her thing she calls a camera!

Going to go have a snack and take a nap now.
Luvs and Purrs,
Muppet
aka- the flying trapeze kitty -
~I hope Grey is impressed, hee, hee ~

Snuck up on and Tagged! :)

I’ve been tagged by my beautiful furiend Anna and the handsome Romeo to play the '4-game'! Thanks furiends for including me, I luv games!

I am to then list four more fur-pals to play along also.

4 Jobs that I have:

1) Mom’s Keeper - I must keep a close eye on meomy and rarely let her out of my sight. This is a challenging job, but I perform it well. The days meomy calls ‘buzy’ I really have to be on my paws to keep track of her. I like the ‘lazy’ days, where she sits in one place for longer periods of time.

2) Melter of hearts/Actress - This job comes purrty easy for me, but at times does take some skill. Like when I get on my family’s last nerve, it does require mustering up just the right facial expression combined with my monkey-tunes to see their stern look melt in to one of ‘ahhhh, you’re so adorable!’

3) Entertainer - Once again, this job comes naturally for me. Meomy says that I can make her bust out laughing with just one of my many facial expressions or the things I do. I can also keep her on the edge of her seat in an utter state of shock with the things I attempt to do. Hee, hee.

4) Hostess - I am the door greeter for our guests. And I have to make sure that they are all comfortable and smiling while they are visiting. This can be tiring, but I do get lots of nice compliments and head pets.

4 Places I have lived or stayed:

1) My first two places I’m not sure of. Wherever they were, I was unwanted. *sighs*

2) My next place was at the scary concentration camp in Pahrump, NV with 1000 other kitties. We didn’t even have the minimal of care or food/water there. *sighs with a tear*

3) My furever place now is in Pahrump with my family who rescued me. *goodbye past, hello my new pampered life!!*

4 Places I would rather be:

1) Out back a lot more than meomy allows me to be.

2) I would rather meomy take me with her efurry where she goes. She does sometimes, but it’s usually just to see the doc. Now and then I get to go visit with my fur-cousin Mystique. I luv visiting with her, we have a blast. I do get to go with meomy occasionally when she goes to the pet store. Efurrybody luvs me in there, but meomy insists on carrying me because there are doggies.

3) I really would rather to be able to climb my neighbor’s trees. They are huge and are actually on our side of our puropurty but not inside my restricted fenced area. *humph* I have snuck over there a few times, but meomy always grabs me right when I’m headed up one of their trees. *dreams one day of being way up high in their trees*

4) I would rather spend more time with my beau, Greystone. Our family’s have very busy lives though, so I cherish our time we do spend together when we meet up at Catsters.

I will update with my four tags as soon as I trot around, sneak up on them and tag them! *giggles* ***** Ok, my four furiends I asked to play are: Isis, Sissel, Mercedes (Mercy), and Peaches. Some are busy and some can play later, so I sent a speacial tag to my beau Grey.


Loves and Purrs to all my furiends, Muppet :)