What a rotten day!

Today was such a rotten day. Mom had to take me to the Emergency Vet. I started sneezing on Thursday night and still was sneezing today and having trouble breathing through my nose. I had my midnight snack last night, but didn't want to eat today. I didn't even come downstairs this morning.

So, into the carrier for the 35 minute ride. I was quiet in the car, another sign. We had a really nice doctor, who even remembered my brother
Rusty from when he was there in the fall (He must have made quite an impression).

It seems I have an Upper Respiratory Infection. I got antibiotics and an appetite stimulant to make me eat. I did perk up and even manage to get a few good growls in at the doctor. They wanted to do a chest x-ray, but doctor felt they would have had to sedate me and mom doesn't like to do that because of my heart defects.

So we came back home, I had a little bit of canned chicken and took a nap. Mom has me separated from the others so that no one else gets sick and so that they let me get some rest. Mom offered me a midnight snack tonight, but I really didn't want anything.

I guess we will give the meds a chance to work and see how I am feeling in the morning. We do have to follow up with our regular doctor, Mom has to call them on Monday.

Mom is worried about me, especially because of my heart problems. The doctor agreed that it is more serious because the infection can settle around the heart. Mom is hunt down the e-mail address for my cardiologist (his practice is in the same location but has a new name) and check in with him.

I am so glad that Ollie's brother Alfie just agreed to be our Family Guardian Angel. He is taking all 9 of us under his big wings. I feel better just knowing he is there, watching over me. (Funny thing...on the way to the ER Vet we were following a delivery truck that had all of its information in french. Mom got closer to him and it turns out he was from Quebec. We zipped along in the passing lane behind him for a while. It was a sure sign that Alfie was there with us.

Please keep me in your purrs and prayers. Me and Mom would really appreciate it. Thanks! Love, Skylar

Meet my new little sister!

Hi friends!

You may remember me writing about our cold weather visitor, Baby. She was a stray that was living in our yard. She was trapped and spayed in December and then released back to the yard. She had the nice warm box, closed in under the picnic table.

You may recall she wound up in our mudroom when it got really cold in January. You might have heard me ask "where is this leading?".

Some of you were correct! Of course, she would wind up inside.
From the mudroom, to the kitchen, to the rest of the house. Yep, she is here to stay. Mom was hesitant to add her page; she wanted to make sure that things would work out first. If taking her in was going to cause problems for any of us established residents, Mom knew she would have to try to find her another home.

She is actually very good. A little shy with the humans at times, but on the whole, she has been no problem at all. She eats with us & has been using the litterbox faithfully. She loves to play; either by herself or with us. She loves to wrestle and chase Percy. They go racing from one end of the house to the other. She seems to understand that she is the new kid on the block and found her place in the order. She doesn't even try to play with Rusty or Murphy, although she will give them a sweet little head nudge from time to time.

We had originally named her Baby, but every time we called her Maedia would turn her head (because we sometimes call her Maed-ee) The sound was just too close. Then we tried Babette, but she didn't seem to like it ( How Mom would know that is beyond me!) So we settled on Daisy and all seem to be in agreement that it works (even Daisy!)

So please, come see my new little sister, visit Daisy and send us a friend request.

Fellow Catster in Need...Please Read

Please read Art Blakely's diary entry about a Catster family that desperately needs help. They are looking for homes for six beautiful cats.

Art

Please also keep them in your thoughts and purrs. Thanks.

Meet my Lovely Valentine

Hi Everybody! Guess what? I want you to meet someone...

Meet Grace, my special Valentine. She caught my eye a while back, but I was a little too shy to say anything. I guess the cat has my tongue when she is around. MOL! I think she is very pretty and sweet.


I realized we have a few things in common. We both like cuddling, catnip mousies and Cheese!
Grace has an older brother, Casey and a brother Leo who is really only a few months older than she is. She also has a doggie sis named Zoe. What a beautiful family!

I asked Grace to by my Valentine the other day and I am so thrilled that she said yes!

Hugs and purrs,
Skylar

Brain Freeze or Brain Farts or I Need a new Secretary

Ok...last time I wrote, I was complaining that I uploaded new photos and that you coulcn't see them on my page and that my Plus Photo Book was missing. Mom composed a letter to the watchcats who checked everything out and got back to us this morning. Ready for the answer?

It was not fleas! It was not Catster! Oooops.... that can only mean one thing!

It was my secretary's fault. She kept forgetting to check the box in the photo manager where it says to "display photo yes or no". Ooops. Mom's bad! Hard to beleive we have been here this long and made such a silly mistake. We will blame Brain Freeze. Or Brain Farts. Or too many niptinis. Or Scatterbrainopathy.

So my friends, in case you missed it...check out our temporary? boarder, Baby, and anything else you might have missed.

Now You See It, Now You Don't...Hey What's Going On?

Ok, I just tried to upload two photos. They show up in my photo manager. I put them in order, save them and then go to see my page and they are nowhere to be found. If I click on my page to see my plus photos there is only one page....You know as well as I do, Mom has lots of pictures of me! If I go back in to manage photos they are all where they should be.... What's going on? Did Mom have a few too many? Is the cold weather slowing her brain? Is is a flea?

We Had a Visitor too!

We had a visitor last night. And although it is not nearly as exciting as Snow's Daddy coming for a visit to Snow and Tink's home, it was something different.

Last night was very cold and windy. As you might remember, we have an outside semi-feral cat. She got fixed in December and not all her belly fur has grown back yet. We have a shelter for her. It is an insulated wooden box that has hay and cedar shavings in it. It is kept under our picnic table which is then covered pretty good with tarps to break alot of the wind and keep the rain and snow out.

Well, last night she was complaining about her accommodations and the weather. She was meowing, loudly at our back door. She had fresh food, water that was not frozen, but she wanted something else.....

She wound up spending the night in our mudroom. She slept on warm towels in a cat carrier. The room is not heated, but it sure was warmer in there compared to outside. We didn't hear a peep out of her all night, in fact even when we were all moving around in the kitchen and Mom was getting our breakfast ready, she was very quiet.

She had a litter box in with her. Mom had stuck her paws in it, like you would to show a kitten. The poor thing must have been so tired, she didn't even use the box all night. After breakfast, Mom opened the back door. Gave her the choice..... Then sun was shining and she trotted off down our yard. We have not seen much of her today, but if she is back tonight, I suppose her room will be waiting for her.

Boy, I wonder what this is leading too!

Happy New Year!

We just wanted to stop in before heading to the party with Zach, Zoey and Gris to wish everyone a wonderful New Year! So let's raise a glass and toast to our wonderful friendships, good health, a hope for better days to come!

We also want to say thanks for all of you who made our
Christmas Holiday extra special this year. For kisses under the misteltoe, for greeting cards,and for Catster gifts, comments , and good wishes. You sure helped to make Christmas Merry and Bright!

A special thank you to Zach, Zoey and Gris for the Christmas present. The party never stops! Those toys bring us hours of enjoyment! You guys are such awesome friends!

Happy New Year!

Shopping for Mom

Christmas is almost here and let me tell you, it is tough for cats to shop for humans! First off, alot of us are indoor cats. We can't exactly get to the mall very easily. Secondly, not many of us are gainfully employed. Thirdly, we get on the internet pretty often, but our Mommy hides her MasterCat and passwords from us. So what were we to do? We wanted to chip in and get something really special for Mom for Christmas.

Here's what we did. We had to earn some money to buy the awesome present! (We'll tell you what the present was later in this diary entry). Some of us gathered loose money from the sofa and recliners - a grand total of $1.47 , some of us sold our least favorite toys on the internet, some posed as models for calendars and lingerie, one did some telemarketing, and another raided Mom's change jar. It took about a month, but we scraped up enough to get Mom her dream present.

You might know that Mom has been a New York Yankees fan since she was a little girl. You might know that we are from Hazleton, PA (the hometown of the Manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Maddon). You might know that Yogi Berra is one of Mom's all-time favorite players! For Christmas, we got Mom her ticket to a fundraising dinner held in our town last night. Joe Maddon is trying to raise funds for a Community Center in our city. Mom got to meet Joe Maddon, Don Zimmer, Russ Canzler (1st Base, Rays), Sgt. Slaughter from the WWE and and her beloved Yogi Berra!

She came home on cloud nine last night and hugged and kissed us and danced us around the house. Yikes! What a reaction! We were glad we could do this for Mom, because we know and really appreciate how much she does for us every day. On behalf of all the cats in this house, Merry Christmas Mom! We love you!

Trap, Neuter and then Release... Mom, Please follow all 3- Steps

We have a had a cat hanging around in our yard all summer. She is the grand-daughter of the mother of most of my siblings. Sadly, both the mother and daughter were hit by cars this summer. She hangs around alot, yet managed to never show herself when it was time to take kitties to shelters.

Mom didn't want her to become like her grandmother, having litter after litter and too feral to even be trapped. So we have been courting her, wooing her, bribing her to be comfortable with us. She will even sometimes allow Mom to hold her...sometimes! We lured her into our mudroom and were able to crate her and take her to vet who does a low cost spay neuter and his comfortable working on ferals.

She went last night at 8pm and can be picked up tonight after 8. So...steps 1 and 2 are complete. Step 3 is "release", which I have decided that Mom needs to be reminded. "Released" means "let go", "set free from containment". In other words, Mom, release her OUTSIDE, please! One quirky calico sister is enough!

Maybe I'm selfish, but I just don't want her in the house. I want my Mom time!


Mom's note. It seems from when we moved here, 10+ years ago, there has always been alot of feral cats in the neighborhood. Most being very fearful of human contact. We have been trying , along with another neighbor, to do our part to control the population. Our outside kitties are always treated well. They get fresh food and water, have an insulated house to sleep in here and at the neighbors and will get medical care if necessary.