The Big Snow - NOT!

Last Friday, this big snow storm was heading our way...we were supposed to get several inches. I realize for some of you that isn't much, but it's a pretty big deal down here. Anyway, the flakes started falling, and we took the boys out to play for a while. Tanner immediately started watching the birds who were unafraid and coming out to the feeders because it was so cold, even though we were all out there.

Tanner is a bit late for Hunt Week, but he can stalk birdies with the best of them. He's never actually caught one, but he did jump up and touch one...it kind of scared him!

Back to the non-existent snow...we had some snow for a while, and then it turn into sleet. You coud hear it whacking on the windows, and was quite loud. Finally we switched to all rain, and the roads were fine again. What a bummer :) The boys did enjoy watching the flakes fall while they lasted though. I think snow is so beautiful!

Pirate also enjoyed all the birds flying around and eating...He loves running around in the grass, and he loves snow too! Afterall, he thinks he is Canadian, but that's a story for another time.

Here's Smokey and a bit of Sophie...they could care less about the birds...they just wanted to chow down on the now brown grass. If you look real close, you'll see a few white specks on Smokey...that's the snow! :) LOL

There are no pictures of Devon this time, because he thought it was too cold and asked to go back in earlier.

How to entertain 5 cats at once!

I had been eyeing this toy in the Petsmart, where I work part time for a while now. I thought my boys, especially Tanner, would just love it! He loves to play a game called Pokey Stick, where basically I poke a plastic stick out from under a mat on the floor and he attacks it. He loves this game, but as you can imagine, it gets a bit old for the poker! So, when I saw this, I thought Ah Ha...automatic pokey stick! Let the games begin!!

Even Tanner's cat sitters will ask with a bit of dread, does he still like the pokey stick! That's how fanatical Tanner is about this game. He never grows tired of it.

This is when I first put it down...I was surprised that Smokey came over so quickly. Pirate had to hurry and finish in the litter box to join in on the action. (Those laundry baskets are there to help remind the kitties that we do not potty on the carpet!)

Everyone was quite curious about it...pretty impressive to have 5 kitties congregating around a toy. It was a little loud, but that didn't bother them. I thought it would just going in a circle under the cover, but no, it is completely random with it's movements. Round and round, back and forth, and sometimes it even stops for a few seconds and then goes again! Great for keeping a cats attention.

You can see the little red thing that is going around near Tanner's feet. It was soft plastic, so if it ran into them, it just kept going. Devon was the most active with the toy. Tanner was a bit nervous about it, but still curious. He finally got more comfortable and played with it.

Another shot of everyone checking it out! There are two speeds, low and high, and then also a random mode, where the speed will change. Money well spent on 5 good kitties!

Flashback Friday

I saw the Creek Cats post on last Christmas where they were able to remember and write once again about their beloved Cal, and I thought...I'll copy that idea, so I can write about Mojo!

Here's Mojo hanging out on a chair in what is now the dining room...we didn't have a table last year, so we moved this chair in here from the study, while the tree was up. Mojo loved sitting on this blanket...doesn't he look festive?
We knew this would be his last Christmas with us, so we spoiled him in any way we could. If he would eat better on the carpet, then so be it. Notice his red toe nails on his back foot. We put the soft paws on so when he scratched at his mouth, he wouldn't keep cutting it. His allergies always presented with a sore on his mouth, that itched and burned. The nail covers helped keep him from making it worse, and he didn't mind wearing them at all!
Here's another shot of him in his favorite chair. You can see his tumor (fibrosarcoma) here, and believe it or not, it got a lot bigger before the end. He was doing well at this time, still eating and playing some. He was on some pain med, but still loving life. He was such a good boy, and I will always remember him.
This is me and my sister (Auntie) last Christmas at our Granny's house. I'm in the green sweater.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hunt Week

We wanted to participate in the Hunt week, but we are indoor kitties, so we had to be a bit creative!

We love to hunt the red laser light! Here's Tanner getting ready to pounce when it comes by again. Cousin Sophie waits in the wing for her chance!

Man, that light fooled us again, we all had to turn on our own lasers to show it who was the boss! That light is fast, let me tell you.

Devon has finally caught it...I wonder if it will escape again.

Smokey spots it on the wall...he's going to jump for it. Cousin Sophie has spotted the source...she's too smart for her own good.

We hope you all liked our hunting! If mom would let us out, I think we could get some fevvers or something, we have honed our skills to perfection!

Wordless Wednesday

Toes being Naughty

Devon was quite intrigued by this package for some reason...and yes, we have entirely too much wrapping paper!

He enjoyed standing on it and squishing it! I think he was enjoying all the attention he was getting...he's such a ham.

Later on, he was biting it and picking it up with his teeth! I have some video of that, but the quality is horrible...my camera had trouble staying focused on him for some reason. Thankfully, it's a gift to our Dad and he won't mind his paper being torn!
Here's a cute ornament I got several years ago from my boss at work. I love this cat and look forward to putting it on the tree each year. I thought it could serve as my "Tummy" shot this week :)

Pet Photo Contest

I received an email from the web director of Mambo Sprouts. For the month of December, they are holding a pet photo contest. Here's a link to the contest...

Mambo Sprouts Pet Contest

My boys are going to enter, and the way the contest works is that for every entry, Wellness brand pet food is going to donate $1 (up to $1000) and the winner of the contest can chose an animal related charity to give the money to. How cool is that? I hope you'll enter along with me, and may the best cat win :)

Mancats Decorate!

Here is the new family ornament for 2009...we decided to not put Mojo's name on it, since he isn't here with us at Christmas.

Devon is modeling a Christmas tree skirt! I found this small one for the tree at my office, and it looked like it would fit him...he didn't mind too much!

Smokey is helping unwrap the ornaments. This is the first year in a long time that he has come out to help. He's really been a lot more social lately...I'm loving it!

Smokey, near the top of the photo, and Devon are checking out the box the tree came out of. We do artificial trees because Smokey is allergic to the real ones. He flaired up a bit because of all the extra dust we stirred up, but he's all better now.
Tanner laying under the tree in the study, making sure the lights are all working properly.
This is the finished tree in the study...it's a weird angle for the photo, I'm standing on the stairs...it was hard to get a good shot of the lights. We like this one because people can see it from the road when they drive by the house.

This is the tree in the den. This is the one we can enjoy while watching tv and eating dinner, etc...We had great fun decorating, and are enjoying looking at the trees. Trying not to think about taking it all down in a few weeks!

Secret Paws

We went shopping the other day for our secret paws kitty, and here's what we came up with. I hope our kitty likes it.

Tanner and Devon came out to help wrap and package everything together...

Tanner loved to lay on the paper to help out!

Sorry Secret Paw kitty if your paper has holes in it...Devon loved to scratch at the paper!

It's been mailed now, and will hopefully arrive later this week, or Monday. This has been such fun...

Also, please notice our new VSquillion in the side bar. His name is Julius, and we picked an orange kitty because Tanner was feeling out numbered!

Lastly, the bed that Tanner was kneading on in yesterdays post, affectionately known at our house as the purple puff, came from here...

Drs Foster and Smith

We have the 26inch bed. We love it, and it washes just fine in the machine!! Enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday - A Video

Well, mom is crazy, this was supposed to publish tomorrow, hence the title Wordless WEDNESDAY!! Honestly, you can't get good help these day! I guess we'll keep her though, she has thumbs and can open the stinky goodness for us.

Toasty Warm on Tuesday

Update: I just got a new header from Zoolatry!! Thank you so much for creating it, using the ornaments from the tree...I love it! Also, notice the new Christmas Memories of Mojo on the sidebar, also from Zoolatry.

This is Devon...he loves to lay on the couch with you and watch tv. Normally he sits on this leopard print pillow, but this day, he ended up on a down throw. About half way through our movie, Auntie covered him up with some of the throw, and he loved it. Until I got the camera out, he was laying down flat and sleeping so hard. I think he loved being toasty warm!

I think Devon was a bit bored with the movie that was on the tv. His favorite show is "Planet Earth" on the Discovery channel. He also enjoys a good Harry Potter movie, and sat on his pillow for 3-1/2 hours on Friday night watching the first one with me!

Do your kitties like to "watch" tv with you? Where are their favorite places to sleep?

Mancats Love Ornaments

Ornaments are fun to collect and my mancats do their fair share to boost the local ecomony by collecting them too! This is a fun yarn ball...I put this one up high on the tree, so it stays there!
Last year, the boys all got a fun bird in their color...this is Smokey's purple bird.
I found a local artist that makes ornaments out of clay and glass. She custom made us cat ornaments, in the boys colors. Here's Tanners green belly cat. Smokey's canadian goose ornament is beside of it.
We do a family ornament every year. This is the one we got last year, when we were at the Apple Festival. I am behind this year in getting one made. I've been struggling with whether to have Mojo's name on it or not, since he passed away in February. I suppose I could do it this year...what do you think?

Do your kitties 'collect' ornaments? Do you like to get special ones that remind you of your cats?

Foster Flashback

We haven't fostered in years, but here's Tanner helping me feed the babies....His orange stands out in the mostly see of black!

Tanner snuggling a kitten. He loved the kittens and they all seemed to love him. Maybe he was soft and squishy!

Tanner in a bed of babies...I have another picture of him in this bed with about 6 black kittens. The foster coordinator knew that black male kittens were my weakness, so that's what she tried to give us most of the time! I think she was hoping I'd keep them. I have to admit I was tempted by several of them! Her plan almost worked!!

Here's Tanner when he was a foster kitten...I adopted him shortly after this picture. I'd had him several months already, since he was only 13 days old when he came to my house. When he was a couple of months old, we (the whole household) got ringworm!! It took us months to get rid of it, so he couldn't be adopted until he was all clear. Luckily, knocking as loud as I can on some wood, we haven't had it since.

Fostering was rewarding and fun, but a lot of hard work. My hat goes off to those of you who are still fostering and working with rescue groups! Thank you for all you do.

Wordless Wednesday

Toes on Tuesday

Today the toes featured are moms. I love to play with her feet! They don't always smell so sweet, but I don't mind.
It's fun to try and grab toes around her feet...it makes playing more challenging.

Sometimes she gets my belly with her toes while I'm trying to play with my toys...this is fun too. Cause then I give her toes a big bunny kick!Sometimes I use her feet and toes as a launching pad...I can push myself off and slide across the floor to get another toy. I love this too!

Other times I just like to lay claim to these toes, so the other boys don't get any ideas...I'm not sharing mom's feet. She's all mine.

Tanner