Two on Tuesday, Mystery Solved

Do you remember the mystery from this post?

We had messed up cushions and blankets and could not figure out what was going on, or who was responsible...

Mystery solved!!  Smokey and Cousin Sophie are the culprits!  I found them the other day like this...I think I surprised them when I came in the room!

They sure look comfy though!

Tanner's Gotcha Day, or not

Well, CB has the date that I gave them, but clearly I was not in my right mind when I submitted those dates :)  I need to resubmit, but we want to thank everyone for wishing Tanner a happy gotcha day! 

Tanner was born on April 7th, making his gotcha day April 20th.

We will have this corrected before next year, but for now, we will celebrate getting Tanner!  He has been a blessing in my life, and I hope I've been a blessing to him. 

Tanner's story...

Tanner was born to a feral mom, but in a house.  The mom had been caught, and was going to be spayed...she had other plans, and had her kittens before her surgery.  There were four kittens.  One tortie, one calico, one black and white, and Tanner.  The mom was not very excited about these kittens and was unsure about what to do...Tanner was found buried in the litter box, and the tortie was just laying in the cage, still in her sack.  The other two were nursing away.  Thankfully, Tanner and the tortie survived their ordeal.  The founder pulled all the kittens off the mom and moved them to another mom in her house.  This mom took right to them, but her kittens were a couple of weeks old, and so huge in comparison.  Tanner and his siblings had to fight for dinner.  After a while, it was clear that Tanner and his siblings were not thriving like they should, and the decision was made to pull them off and bottle feed them.  I was given Tanner and the tortie, we named her Riley.  Another family took the other two.  Tanner was 13 days old, and weighed 7 ounces.  He came to my house on a Saturday and after a frantic call to a friend to "get over here and help me" Tanner and Riley were drinking their bottles, and the rest is history.  I fell in love with my boy from day one.

Thank you Tanner for letting me be your mom.  You bring me joy everyday!

Mancats were good Momma's

These are older pictures, probably at least 6 years ago.  We were all living in the townhouse and were fostering kittens all the time!  Tanner loved the babies and was such a good momma to them...

 Tanner with the "C" kittens...Cole, Caleb and Caityn

Tanner with Cole

Tanner with Cole and Caleb, laying on the heating pad!

The Way We Were

The boys are participating in Kizzie Cat's, The Way We Were celebration. 

I love looking back through the boys baby pics, and need to scan more from their baby books.  Most of these were pre-digital age and have been scanned. 

Tanner as a baby...he is probably 8-12 weeks old here.  He is staying at a friends house while we take a vacation.  Tanner came to live with us when he was 13 days old. He was my first bottle fed baby.

Smokey as a baby...he was about the size of a beanie bay!  Smokey would have been 6-7 weeks old here. I found Smokey from an ad in the newspaper, and drove about an hour to pick him up.  He was so tiny!

Devon is a couple of months old here, and had been at the house for about two weeks.  He was found in the woods at about 10 days old, and bottle raised by our friend. 

Well, there you have it...we'll give you a moment to recover from all the cuteness!

Trio Tuesday

An oldie but a goodie...I love when I find the cats hanging out with one another.  Smokey has been smitten with Sophie since the day she walked into the house :)  Tanner fit right in when he came along and I would find the three of them laying together quite regularly.

This photo is from 2007.  Now Tanner has become more anxious and nervous around everyone.  I don't really know what has happened to create this attitude.  Has anyone else experienced a change like this?  How were you able to help the nervous one overcome his fears?  Tanner will lay with me and snuggle with Devon some, but I normally find him by himself upstairs in a bed alone.  We are currently trying Amitryptaline to see if that will help him, along with feliway and a calming collar.  Once our two month supply is used, I am thinking about switching him to another anti-anxiety to see if we get better results.

Mancat Monday

The mancats enjoyed a nice weekend...mom took the day off work on Friday, and spent the whole day snuggling with everyone. 

By Sunday, the weather was warm again, and Smokey enjoyed a nap in the yard while Auntie pulled weeds.  There's nothing better than sun warmed furs! 

Mancats feel very manly sleeping outdoors :)

Trouble on Tuesday

We were not on top of things enough to get in on the Mystery event the other week, but we do have a mystery at our house.  The guest room covers and pillows will not stay straightened up!

 These blankets are here so the cats can lay on these beds if they want...but they are normally covering the pillows completely...very strange that these blankets are all messed up!

 Here is another shot of that same bed...again you can see the blankets messed up, and the pillows are squished down, like someone has been laying on them.

The other bed isn't as bad, but still the blankets have been scratched at a bit...

I find this room like this pretty much every day...and I fix the blankets...I feel like I am stuck in a Groundhog Day movie!  Of course the boys are denying any part of this, but I have my suspicions!  I don't think it is Auntie causing the trouble...

Who knows, maybe the boys are trying to tell me that these blankets don't match the comforters and I have made a decorating faux pas in this guest room!

Mancats and Contest Winner

Wow, showing off toesies for the contest was hard work...we are thankful to be off duty now! 

Thanks to everyone who played, whether for fun or to win, we are glad you all liked our toesies!

Now to announce the winner...Sweet Purrfections!

There were four correct guesses from the comments...the order of the toes were Tanner, Devon, Pirate, Sophie and Smokey.

Now the mancats (and Sophie) are taking a much needed rest today...Happy Mancat Monday to you all.

Wordless Wednesday

Toesday Tuesday

Guess Who!  Leave a comment with your guesses...the correct answers will be entered into a drawings for a Mr Chewy gift certificate!  The winner will be announced on March 5th...

Note: Cousins Sophie and Pirate are making an appearance in this contest :)

Orijen Product Review

Mr Chewy contacted us about reviewing a food called Orijen. Our mom was very curious about this food, and decided to let us give it a try. Please note, we were given a free bag of food from Mr Chewy in return for our review. The views of this product are our own though.

We tried the Orijen Cat and Kitten Dry Food.  Upon opening the bag, we were very excited about the new smells.  We all enjoyed the food at first inspection, however, as is normally in case in our house, once the newness wears off, this was not a preferred food.  We will still eat it, but not as ravenously as we did the first time we saw it.

Our mom did some research on the company, and also read the materials provided by Mr Chewy.  One of her favorite features of the food is that "Champion PetFoods closely works with local farmers, fishermen, food processing innovators, and the scientific community to produce the highest quality products.  Arriving fresh from the region each day, the meat is never frozen and never exposed to heat or chemicals."  Shopping and buying locally is something mom is quite fond of, so this was a plus to her about the Orijen food.

Since we weren't overly fond of the food, we asked around to some of our friends to see if they liked this food, or had tried it.  One friends cat LOVES the Fish formula, and can't get enough of it! 

Another friends cat enjoyed her sample pack we provided her and gobbled it right up.

For our review, the Four Crazy Cats are giving Two paws out of four, since we did not continue to choose this bowl over our other food.

Our Mom gives it 1-1/2 thumbs up...deducting half a thumb for not pleasing the cats all the time.  Great job on the company aspects and the concepts.

If you would like to try this food for yourself, check out Mr Chewy's Website.

Thankful Thursday

The mom here today...

I am thankful for my boys...
I am thankful that they get along with one another and seem to enjoy each others company
I am thankful they are healthy
I am thankful Smokey is gaining weight
I am thankful Tanner is losing some
I am thankful Devon is a controlled eater and can maintain his weight just fine :)
I am thankful for the days off work I had this week to spend time with them

I am hopeful that Tanner's new medicine will help with his inappropriate pottying. 
I am hopeful that Smokey's new allergy shot schedule will keep him itch free this allergy season.

I am thankful for snuggles and playtime
I am thankful for friends

An Award

We were honored with this award by Team Tabby, Moe and Mindy.  We are very excited to have received this, and now we will pass it along.

It seems like many of you have already received this award...however, if you have not, then please take it from us! 

Wordless Wednesday

Mancats Love the Weekend

Mancats love the weekend, but don't we all?

 There is plenty of nap time...Tanner takes advantage of the bed in the chair...he still has a good view of the bird tv outside.

 Devon loves to lay in a bed on a cozy blanket...this is the life!  It was very cold here this weekend, so those blankets were a must!

 Tanner loves that mom is home and plays with him a lot...can we play now?

 Ah yeah, my favorite new string...mom got me this green one in Japan!  Pay no attention to my girlie long finger nails...we also went to the spa, so I am back to being a manly mancat!

Smokey shows us that at any age a Mancat must get a silly notion once in a while...sitting on/in the end table is pretty silly!

There you have it...we hope you all had a great weekend too.  We are already looking forward to the next one!

Wordless Wednesday

Toysday Tuesday

Devon would like to demonstrate to all you cats out there, the proper way to "pull the snake's head off"!

Mancats like Mr Chewy

Mr Chewy sent us a request for an honest review of their website, products and service.  We were excited for this opportunity and placed an order right away to be able to give a good review.  Since Mr Chewy offers free shipping on orders over $49, we made sure ours was over that amount.  Paying for shipping is highly overrated and we avoid it if we can. 

We ordered some of the food we normally eat, and were please that Mr Chewy had the larger size bag, than the one we get at Petsmart, and the price was better too.  We also tried out a new food and some new treats. 

The order was shipped very quickly, and we had our food at the door in about 3 days from the time we placed the order.  This is very efficient!  Mr Chewy also has an automatic ship program, where they will send your items to you on a schedule.  This would be good for our mom because she tends to be a bit forgetful at times!

                                    

The box the food came in was quite large, and Devon thought this was a nice touch, since it also doubled as a toy for him! Mr Chewy thinks of everything!

Some facts about Mr Chewy:

• 70+ brands
• Subscription based ordering
• Prompt Shipping in the US
• Free shipping on orders over $49

The Four Crazy Cats give Mr Chewy  - 4 paws up!

Thursday in the Garden

We have been fortunate to be able to enjoy some really nice weather this winter, if you can even call it winter around here.  The boys have done a great job of helping in the garden, here's a preview...

 You'll need to biggify, but Smokey (near the tree), Devon (near the catnip) and Tanner all love to explore in the yard.  The trees are all bare.  The grass is mostly brown. But there is fresh nip growing and a few other things...

 Tanner loves to lay near the holly tree.  There are berries on it this year for the birds.  This is a great place to catch whiffies of possible introoders!

 On the ground we have meal worms for the birds...yes, we put them there on purpose!  We put some in the feeder, but the cardinals like to eat off the ground.  Tanner is watching a few try to get away!  The nandina are a bright red in the background!

The surprise of the garden is the daffodils starting to appear!  Let's hope the groundhog doesn't see his shadow today, so spring can get here soon!

Wordless Wednesday