International Box Day

Today the Four Crazy Cats celebrate International Box Day...what a great day in the life of a cat, because really, who doesn't love a good box?

Tanner loves to sit in boxes with paper in them...

Devon is curious about this box, and comes over to check it out...

Devon has claimed this box for himself...sans brother.

Boxes can be fun turned on their side too...

Boxes that are too small can be fun...

Decorated boxes are loads of fun too, especially when they are sitting in a chair!

BIG boxes are great for sharing with your brother...

Here's a video of Devon sitting in a box, shredding paper. Multi-tasking never looked more enjoyable!

The fun is never ending when a box is around! Happy International Box day everyone!

Mancat Monday

Mancats, especially Tanner, love to be covered up...
Tanner has always loved to be covered with clothes from the dryer. In our townhouse, the laundry was upstairs in a hall closet, and so we could sit in the hallway and fold clothes. Tanner would always come around to help, so he could be covered with the warmness.

In the house now, the laundry is in a separate room, and so we have to take warm clothes to Tanner. He loves to help fold clothes and be covered.

Do your mancats like this too?

Frenemies

Tanner and Pirate are what I would call Frenemies. They seem to love to antagonize each other on a daily basis. They have a routine now...so I think they secretly enjoy tormenting the other one.

Example One:
Pirate gets brushed in the mornings by Auntie. Tanner and I play in the hallway, or in the kitten room. Tanner blocks the door, so Pirate can't get out of Aunties Room. Pirate then lays on the stairs, so Tanner can't get by. Tanner runs by anyway, and Pirate chases. Both boys get called down. Every morning!

Example Two:
Pirate goes into the litter box. Tanner comes over and blocks the door. Pirate runs by, Tanner chases, both boys get called down.

I think they secretly like one another, but they are picking on each other all the time it seems.

Do you have frenemies at your house? How do you handle it?

Wordless Wednesday

Two on Tuesday

Devon and Tanner checking out their new ESS toy...everyone loves this new toy, and scratch on it often!

Mancats love Catnip

Devon and his brothers all love a good catnip toy...Devon was trying to be slick about his and not let us see what he was doing. I was sitting on the couch and continued to hear this raspy noise...turned around and Devon was licking his new toy, with his back to me. I still see what you are doing crazy kitten!

Thursday in the Garden

Today in the Garden, we want to show you some of the pretty blooms we have at the moment...
For more wonderful gardens, visit Jonesie and the Society of Feline Gardeners.
This picture doesn't have any blooms, but do you see all the baby catnip that is growing? We can't wait for it to get bigger...we'll have to host a nip fest!

In the front yard, we still have some pansies, and the peony is getting ready to bloom. You can also see some of the Gerbera's in the background.

I am not sure what this flower is, but I love it's bright yellow color!

This is a bloom on the butterfly bush in the back yard...the birds love these plants.

More pansies still going strong in the back, along with a sunflowerzilla! We hope ours will do as well as Raymond and Busby's did last year!

This is a neat pot that Auntie made...we think she did a good job, and would love to be out there chewing on that grass!

Two on Tuesday

Devon and Smokey (in cube) wondering why I am on the ground with them! The world certainly looks different from this level!

Mancat Monday

Hey Brother, do you want to come and play with me?
Tanner asks to play with his toys by sitting next to them...
Well, I can wait a while longer if you're not ready right now...

Thursday in the Garden

Today we are focusing on our vegetable garden...it's been a while since mom went out to take pictures, but everything is growing nicely. Auntie picked a grape tomato the other day for them to share. We'll turn it over to mom now to tell you about the garden, since we aren't allowed outside to inspect, we have to take her word for it...

Here is a shot of our garden plot...it isn't large, but it holds enough for us!

The heirloom tomato has a large fellow growing...doesn't look too pretty, but should taste lovely in another week or so when it ripens. We can hardly wait to have a good tomato sandwich!

One of the bell peppers...we planted a red and a yellow bell this year. Both have a pepper growing and we hope they will change colors soon!

Here are all the tomato plants...we have a grape, heirloom, and two better boy plants. We should be set for tomatoes!

The squash and zucchini plants are full of blooms...nothing better than fresh veggies!

Check out more wonderful gardens at Jonesie's page.

Wordless Wednesday

Tails on Tuesday

Whose tail is it today?
Heading into the red cube...

Inspecting the purple cube...

It's Smokey!! He has been a frisky kitten lately, and I've loving it! He has taken to sitting in the cubes too, so I was happy to get a shot of him in both cubes.

Mancats are tired

For Memorial Day weekend, I was gone almost the entire time...helping a friend at a convention in town. The boys and I took this past weekend to catch up on some much needed sleep! Not having mom at home makes mancats tired!
Smokey found a good spot in the guest room!
Tanner loves the purple puff!
Devon snuggled in a snuggie on the couch!

We hope you all had a restful weekend as well...

Thankful Thursday

We are thankful for many people today, who have helped to make this card possible. Thanks to Wendy at the LOLSpot for finding his picture on our blog and posting it. The people at Cheezburger saw it and decided it was card worthy.

It was an on again-off again project for them, so we have been waiting and wondering if it would actually happen and now we have confirmation that it will indeed be a card. We received our sample pack the other day and are thrilled with the results! The Christmas Cards will be in stores that carry the line starting late summer/early fall.
Here is a link where you can find out if they will be near you :) Madison Park Group, Cheezburger Network.

I also want to thank Daisy and Sparkle for the advice they gave about whether we should or should not give the photo rights to this company. I'm glad we did it!

There is a byline on the back that says Thx to: Tanner, photo by Suzanne Canipe. They did not want to put the blog address on the card, which is fine with us. We are so happy Tanner's name is mentioned!

If I have left anyone off that helped make this a reality, please accept my apologies and my thanks here!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Update on Tanner...his blood pressure is just fine. They did multiple readings throughout the morning and while he was on the high side of normal, she felt this was just due to stress. No med change.

Many of you may remember that the vet school was recommending an anticoagulant for Tanner. After some deliberating and researching and discussing with his primary vet, we have decided to start an aspirin therapy on him. He will be getting a half of an 81mg baby aspirin every three days. We all felt this was the safest route to take at the moment, realizing that there are stronger options still available if needed.

Thank you all for your concerns and purrs for Tanner...he is a good boy and I want to see him around for many years to come!

Mancats Love to Clean

This weekend we spent a lot of time at home cleaning. It was a great weekend for it, and the mancats helped out. We were recently given a bottle of @SeaYu Clean+Green Natural Pet Stain + Odor Removers to try out. We were given the Furniture Refresher. It took us a while to figure out a good place to use it, because our cat beds are simply washed in the washing machine, and the slip covers on the couch are washed periodically too. So what would be a good area to use this product? I asked the mancats...and the answer was unanimous. They all said this area near their favorite cat tree needed to be cleaned. Someone, who shall remain nameless, pees in this area on occasion. While most of the liquid hits the carpet, some will get on the curtain. We thought we would try the furniture refresher on the curtain, as it is a difficult area to clean.
I sprayed the curtain, and went ahead and did the floor as well...Let it dry and was impressed with how well the residual odor that was left by our other cleaning agent was removed. The area was fresh and clean smelling. The little bit of stain on the curtain was removed too. We were happy to not have to take down the curtains to wash them!!

Smokey gives the Clean+Green products two lasers on!

If you haven't tried these products, I recommend them. You can visit their website here, and see how the products work, and the many varieties that are available.

Tanner Tails

Today Tanner is off to the vet again to get his blood pressure checked. He was not pleased this morning to be shoved in the PTU again! This time he is going to see his regular vet instead of the cardiology group at the vet school.
Here he is sitting the car, trying to alert the neighborhood that he is being taken away...you should have heard him! I tried to video him singing, but he stopped when he saw the camera, typical.

Sitting in our room at the vet...he is hooked up to the blood pressure machine...notice the blue cuff around his tail? This machine was a bit alarming, as it kept beeping at him...that's enough to get anyone's blood pressure up!

Close up of the cuff on his tail...

Now they are trying it on a front arm...he is holding on for dear life! He turns into a super snuggly boy at the vets office! I'll take hugs anyway I can get them from my boys :)

The only reading they were able to get was on the high side, so he is spending the morning with them. I will go and rescue him in a couple of hours!

I hope his blood pressure isn't high enough to require a change to our medications, but we will do what needs to be done to keep the boy healthy. I also have a 'diet' plan I am going to discuss with his vet today too. I found some great information at the Pet Obesity Prevention page, but I want to run these ideas past his vet just to make sure we are on the right track.

We hope everyone has a great weekend.

Thursday in the Garden

Today we are in the garden...the boys still aren't allowed out because of allergies, but they have given me permission to show you around.
You can see other beautiful gardens at Jonesie's place...

In the bed near the intersection we have Day Lilies that are blooming now, blanket flowers and some purple things. We are trying to get this bed established so we don't have much work each season in it...

These pretty purple flowers are very wild looking and we love them!

Here is our visitor...Auntie found him when she was tying back the daffodil stems...do you see him?

Here is a better shot...do you see him now? It's a toad! He was gone later in the week when I went back out to look for him...I hope we will see him again though.

Well there you have it...our garden tour with a visitor.