Attack of the Cleaning Monsters

Yesterday was a horrible, awful day. Just horrible. Mom and Dad moved all the furniture around in the early morning, including all our cat furniture, and created utter chaos in the house.

Mom got the vacuum monster out and started cleaning every nook and cranny she could find. Room by room she came in with the terrible monster and cleaned. We’d hide in one room and then have to run out and find another room to hide in when the monster came after us. If that wasn’t bad enough, she got Dad's Shop Vac out of the garage and started using that inside the house. That thing is so loud it scared all of us silly. She sucked up every trace of dust and cat fur that she could find behind every door, along every wall, and every window sill. She even took the darn thing in the kitchen and vacuumed behind the stove and the refrigerator. The monster was on a mission to eliminate every dust bunny it could find.

When Mom was done with all her cleaning, 2 scary men showed up at the front door just after lunch with ANOTHER vacuum monster. This one was HUGE with a long tail attached to a truck in our driveway. The men came inside with the scary monster and started using it on the carpets. All of us ran for cover and didn’t come out until the terrible monster was gone.

Now the carpets are all clean and they smell weird. They don’t smell like us kitties at all. There’s no trace of dust or fur anywhere. Even Dad commented how clean the house smells. Mom says she isn’t sure how long that clean smell will last.

I think I feel a hairball coming up – MOL.

Love,
Luke

You Must Be Joking

I guess I was a very bad kitty last night. I kept jumping onto the ledge of the bedroom window and made all kinds of noise by playing with the blinds trying to wake Mom up. She woke up but didn’t get out of bed right away. So I jumped up on the dresser and starting knocking all her stuff on the floor. A hairbrush, bottle of hand lotion, a picture frame. That did the trick. She got up and opened a drawer on the night table. Wait a minute…what is THAT? Oh my cat, here she comes with that dang calming collar. That thing stinks! I ran away from her but she caught me in the living room.

I hate this thing. It’s a big ol’ choke collar filled with some smelly stuff that turns me into a docile and mellow kitty. That’s not me at all. It’s been awhile since she’s had to use it with me and I only wear it if I am extra naughty. A big storm blew in this morning and it’s raining pretty hard right now so Mom thinks that might be the reason for my bad behavior. I’m pretty calm now and I’m just watching the rain from my cat perch in the front window.

Happy Caturday…yawn…zzzzzzzz.

The Bad Boy,
Luke

Celebrating an Anniversary and Our Birthday

Man, was I getting worried. Mom and Dad left the house early Tuesday and didn’t come home until yesterday. Our Grandma came by and fed us while they were gone, but I couldn’t figure out why they left us home alone. It turns out March 21st was their wedding anniversary, so they spent a couple of days skiing in the mountains.

I was afraid they weren’t going to be home today to celebrate our birthday, but we finally saw the car pull up in the driveway last night – phew, that was close. Mom says she could see all 4 of us sitting and looking out the front windows waiting for her to come home - MOL.

Today Tully and I turn four – wow, where did that time go? I’m just so happy Mom and Dad are home with us today. Thank you to all the friends who stopped by to help us celepurrate today – our pals are the best.

I think I’m gonna like being 4!

Love, Luke

Doppelgangers

Doppelganger (synonyms) = alter ego, carbon copy, clone, counterpart, double, duplicate, look alike, mirror image, ringer, spitting image, twin

Awhile back my good buddy River referred to me as his doppelganger. There are certain photos of us where we look like we are the spitting image of one another. Take this one for example:

River taking a catnap


Me taking a catnap


If it weren’t for the black smudges on my face and chin, it would be tough to tell us apart don’t you think? My pal Zach recently commented on one of my new photos about how much we look alike. Sometimes there’s a certain photo angle or pose that really accentuates how much we look like another kitty:

Zach's handsome profile


Me in a similar pose


We look pretty similar don’t you think? We think Tully’s doppelganger is Gump:

Don't you love Gumpy's cute nose?


Tully in a similar close-up shot


We fell in love with Gumpy the minute we laid eyes on him because he reminded us so much of Tully. Not only do they look alike, but they act alike:

Gump enjoys eating his greens


Tully also loves eating his greens

We think our good pal Finney O’Floofigan is Sammy’s doppelganger, especially now that Sammy is getting bigger and floofier like his handsome cousin Finney.

Natasha’s doppelganger is Grace. Grace is a very dear friend of ours, and Tully and I have been friends with her and her brofurs Casey, Leo, and Frankie before Natasha and Sammy were even a part of our family. As Natasha has gotten bigger and floofier, she reminds us a lot of sweet Grace.

Who is your doppelganger?

Love, Luke

Sunny Skies and Fresh Catnip

We haven’t had much of a winter here so far in sunny California. January and February have been mostly sunny and warm with very little rain. Not that we’re complaining mind you. When the weather is nice, Mom lets us go outside in the backyard sometimes to nibble on the grass and watch the squirrels in our big oak tree.

Yesterday Mom was outside doing some weeding when we noticed her catnip plant on the patio. She grew the plant from seeds last summer and thought that the plant had died after we got some frost last December. With all the warm weather and sunshine we’ve been having, the catnip plant is happy and growing in again.

Boy, were we ever happy. There’s nothing better than fresh catnip! Here are some photos of us enjoying our catnip:


Hey, what is this stuff?


It smells kind of good


Sammy and Tully getting in on the action


Sammy wants the catnip all for himself while Tully is in catnip nirvana


Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and having some good weather.

Love, Luke

How To Drive Your Human Crazy

1. Walk across pillow on your human’s bed just as he/she is about ready to fall asleep. Plop down next to his/her head and position your tail so it falls directly in human’s mouth.

2. At approximately 2 a.m., start hacking until you cough up a ginormous hairball. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids before you go to bed so hairball is nice and juicy. Cough up hairball anywhere on bed where it will make the greatest impact.

3. At 4 a.m. jump up on dresser in bedroom. Knock objects onto floor that will make noise and get your human’s attention. A hairbrush, a picture frame, or bottle of hand lotion works well.

4. At 5 a.m. jump on window ledge closest to bed. Play with curtains or blinds, anything that makes noise and will wake your human up.

5. At 5:30 a.m. jump on top of bed and walk across human’s body. Remind them that it is time to eat. Do not let them go back to sleep, do whatever you can to get them out of bed. Lick human's earlobes or face if they do not get up.

6. At 5:45 a.m. run alongside your human as they walk out to kitchen. If they reach for coffeemaker before opening can of cat food, walk directly in front of their feet until they almost trip. Remind them to feed cat first, make coffee second.

7. Bolt out front door when human goes outside to get newspaper. Run across front yard and allow human to chase you. When human starts to get really frantic about you running away, run back to front porch and allow them to bring you back inside house.

8. When human sits down to use laptop computer and drink coffee, walk across keyboard. Plop down on human’s lap and beg for attention. Roll on top of keyboard as needed.

9. Jump up on coffee table. Knock book or magazine to floor, anything you can find to get attention.

10. When human leaves house or engages in chores or other activities, curl up and take a LONG nap. Get well rested for the next evening.

11. Repeat #1 – 10. Happy Sunday!

Love,
Luke

Catster May Have Gone to the Dogs, But I’m a Happy Cat

What in the meow has happened to Catster? A doggy is Diary of the Day (again) and there are fleas galore. Looks like the diaries were working again earlier today, and now they’re not. Now we hear there may be a ghost or evil spirit somewhere on Catster who is leaving nasty diary comments – what is going on here kitties? This is a happy place. A place where kitties meet to love and support one another. Evil should find another place to lurk.

All this nonsense isn’t going to ruin my Gotcha Day. This is a happy day for me and for Mom. Three years ago today I found my forever home – how cool is that? What’s even better is that I got adopted with my best furiend and bro, Tully. We’ve been together through thick and thin. Our foster Mom held out until she found a home that would take BOTH of us. Foster Mom knew we were a bonded pair and needed to stay together. Our Forever Mom was that person – hooray that she found us! And how ironic that she found us on Petfinder, only to find out that we had been attending adoption fairs less than 2 miles from our house for months before she even saw us on the Internet – hooray for the Internet!

Thank you to all our pawsome furiends who sent us pawmails, made us mementos, and sent us so many wonderful gifts to help us celebrate our Gotcha Day. The power of love and friendship cannot be broken by Catster fleas or by evil spirits.

Love, Luke

*The Thing*

Man, what a scary night we had last night. We were slumbering very peacefully next to Mom when we heard growling and hissing outside the bedroom window. What in the meow was THAT?

All of us kitties jumped up and ran to the window at the same time. Mom heard it too and she bolted upright in bed. Then we heard rustling outside in the leaves and the sound of something trying to climb over the side fence. Mom always worries what would happen if a wild animal got trapped inside our backyard since we have a cat fence. It helps prevent us from jumping over the fence and escaping, but it also makes it harder for other animals to escape. Mom wasn’t sure what to do when she heard the scary noises. Should she go outside at 3 a.m. with her flashlight and open the side gate and chase this thing out? What exactly was it? Was there more than one? She had an idea of what it might be, but since it was so dark outside she couldn’t be sure. Dad was away this weekend visiting his Mom; otherwise she would have sent him outside to investigate – MOL.

We heard *the thing* making angry sounding hissing noises and trying to climb the fence over and over again. It made 7-8 attempts to climb over judging by the rustling sounds in the leaves and scratching noises it was making. All of a sudden Mom could see clearly from the light of the moon that there was a ginormous raccoon on top of our fence! She shined the flashlight outside through the screen and it stared right back at her. *Gulp* I could see *the thing* was much bigger than me and wore a mask! At least it was on top of the fence and not trapped inside our yard any longer. “Go on now,” I heard Mom tell it. *The thing* jumped down into the neighbor’s yard and scampered off.

Whew - that was close! Being the head of household and all, I thought I was going to have to outside myself and take care of *the thing* Let’s hope we don’t see it back anytime soon!

Love, Luke

Invaders

We were invaded this week by ants! Mom has been so frustrated trying to get rid of these pesky critters. We usually get an ant invasion at least once in our kitchen during the summer, but this year they have been very persistent in coming back. Mom doesn’t like to use pesticides, especially in the kitchen and around us, so she’s been using natural sprays with orange peel extract and lemongrass oil that kills the ants on contact but doesn’t prevent them from coming back.

She spent half the day today driving around to different home and hardware stores looking for “diatomaceous earth.” She read that it is supposed to be a safe way to get rid of ants that won’t harm pets, but she couldn’t find it anywhere even though one of the stores she visited has it advertised on their website. She’s planning to order some so hopefully it’ll arrive here next week.

Mom bought us an elevated feeding station, which she had wanted to buy anyway, so our cat food bowls aren’t sitting directly on the floor. Even when she removed our bowls this morning after we had eaten breakfast, she found more ants on the kitchen floor this afternoon that seemed to be attracted to our water fountain.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr – if you know of any safe and effective ways to permanently get rid of ants, please let us know! My food is at stake!

Love, Luke

A Birthday Wish

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking back with my catnip mousie.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

Okay, so I improvised a little on the lyrics, but I’ve been trying to remind Mom today to slow down and have more fun. She’s been crazy busy lately and it’s been cutting into our Catster time. I hardly know what’s going on anymore with my furiends since we haven’t had time to keep up on the diaries and stuff. I haven’t pawed anything in my own diary in over a month ~ geez, Mom, get your priorities straight. You’d think she’d learn by now what the important things are in life since she lives with 4 cats…eat, sleep, play, and repeat. Throw in a few neck scritches and belly rubs ~ those are the things that really matter.

Earlier today when I stopped by the page of Zachery Kolohe’ Rider to wish him a Happy Birthday, I told Mom she could learn a few lessons from Zach. This Dude knows how to have fun. One look at his page and you know that he enjoys life ~ sporting reindeer antlers and a red nose in the middle of July, wearing a Mardi Gras mask, a birthday crown, and other party paraphernalia, electric guitars, and surfboards ~ those are the things I think of when I think of Zach.

Happy Birthday Zach and thanks for reminding my Mom that it’s okay to work hard, as long as you play harder ~ pawty on!

Love, Luke