April 2014

THANKFUL THURSDAY: GOT MICE?

Got Mice? is the slogan for Barn Cat Buddies (the TNR/Rescue group for which Mom volunteers). Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Josette were all adopted from BCB. And Astrid has taken mouse hunting and catching as her personal responsibility. If you have not been following our Mouse in the House posts, you can do so by clicking on these links: Wordless Wednesday: Mouse in the House, Mouse in the House Part 2 and Mouse in the House Part 3.

The humans are extremely thankful that she is so diligent in her duties. After deading the large mouse that had taunted her and the rest of us, the humans thought the house was without a mouse. So imagine their surprise when they noticed Astrid standing on her hind legs juggling a mouse above her head. As Dad jumped up to grab a paper towel and then the mouse, Mom demanded he get some photos first. Of course, he missed the juggling, and the photos he did get weren’t great, but here’s the proof of Astrid’s pawsome mousing skills.

Mauricio, Astrid and The Mouse.

Mauricio, Astrid and The Mouse.

Mauricio inspects the prey. You can see the mouse tail to the right of his nose.

Mauricio inspects the prey. You can see the mouse tail to the right of his nose.

When Dad picked up the mousey, he discovered that the little fellow was not dead and so deposited it outside. Hope that little mousey learned his lesson and doesn’t try to sneak in again. We don’t think he will be so lucky next time.

None of us, including our humans, have any idea where Astrid is finding these mice. We’re delighted ’cause we think it is great fun to stalk and tease mousies. The humans are glad to have such a dedicated mouser in the house.

Now that the weather is warming up, we suspect we won’t see any more critters until next winter, but we feel certain that Astrid will remain on alert nonetheless.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo 

TUXIE TUESDAY: NIP INDULGENCE & A BIRTHDAY

Lisbeth’s dad says she is a “cow” cat and not a true Tuxie. In this photo, her largely white body is hidden behind the catnip plant we brought home from Williamsburg a couple weeks ago. So I am letting her take center stage again today on Tuxie Tuesday.

Lisnip

I hope a certain Lisbeth-admiring Cat Scout will enjoy seeing her again so soon in this cute photo.

The nip plant has been quite popular with mostly Lisbeth and Giulietta nibbling with abandon quite regularly.

In other news, today is Mauricio’s girlfriend Allie’s (Friends FurEver) birthday. Since it is Tuxie Tuesday, and Mau is a Tuxie, he asked if he could be part of this post to wish her Happy Birthday and share the card he sent to her.

alliebday

As we all love Allie, I could never refuse this request. All the Kitties Blue and I invite each of you to stop by her blog and offer her your Best Wishes. She truly is a special lady-cat.

See you tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

MAN-CAT MONDAY WITH CAT SCOUT MAU

 

Mauricio has learned that being only one of six Cat Scouts holding the rank of Cougar brings with it the responsibility to do good deeds and set an excellent example for the other Scouts.

Scouts had been having trouble getting into the Cat Scout site and dealing with error messages, misdirected links and a server that was very, very slow. With Cat Scout membership growing, Denmaster made the decision to procure a dedicated server for Cat Scouts and build an entirely new site. The new site launched one week ago. All the problems with the old site have been eliminated, and according to Mauricio, the new site is very “Scouty” looking as well.

As Cat Scouts pay no dues or fees to participate, Mauricio wanted to do something to help Denmaster defray some of the cost for the new server and site. He decided to have a fundraiser at Cat Scouts and set up the Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale. That’s him manning the booth now. Scouts have been donating (virtual) scrumptious noms for the “sale,” and those same Scouts and others have been making pledges per item or outright donations.

If you are a Cat Scout and haven’t visited the new site, Mauricio encourages you to do so. And if you aren’t a Cat Scout yet, he recommends you check it out. It is a great place to make new furiends, learn new skills and eat lots of great noms, especially s’mores! To get there, click on the Lemonade Stand graphic.

The Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale close in three days. We’ll give an update with regard to Mauricio’s efforts sometime near the end of this week.

Wishing all our furiends a great week. It appears as if ours is going to be a rainy one.

CATURDAY ART: SUNFLOWER LISBETH

One of Mau’s Cat Scout furiends, who I will not name so as not to embarrass him, has a bit of a crush on Lisbeth. He follows our blog and says that she is rarely featured. This is true. She is a rather quiet cat and doesn’t place herself front and center very often. So, with that in mind, I decided to feature her today for Athena’s Caturday Art Blog Hop.

Lisbethflower

 

I used PiZap and the two photos below to create this. The sunflower is from our last summer’s garden. Since having to erase my hard drive, I don’t have too many photos loaded onto the computer and so Lisbeth’s head came out a little blurry as I had to enlarge her photo more than that of the flower. My apologies for this.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

As mentioned above we are participating in Athena Cat Goddess’s Caturday Art Blog Hop again this week. To enter or view the other submissions, click on the badge at the right.

Hope Mau’s buddy and our readers enjoy this artistic rendition of Lisbeth.


BOOK REVIEW: LOST & FOUND

True Tales of Love and Rescue from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

According to the Press Release for this book: “Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is the UK’s oldest and most famous home for dogs and cats. The home aims never to turn away a dog or cat in need of help, reuniting lost animals with their owners or caring for them until new homes can be found. Battersea also works to educate the public about responsible pet ownership. Every year the Home cares for over 9,000 lost, abandoned and neglected dogs and cats, and in 2010 the Home marked its 150th anniversary.”

Each chapter of this book represents a different rescue and is written by the adopter. And each chapter begins with a paragraph about Battersea and their operation. For example: If a dog is found and brought to Battersea, it becomes their property and available for rehoming if not claimed by its owner in seven days.

The rescue stories are slightly different than those I have read previously as they are as much or more about the human adopter than the animal. But I thoroughly enjoyed finding out how the humans and the animals they adopted interacted, bonded and lived together.

Battersea employs more than 300 individuals and a couple of the stories are about employees who ended up rescuing animals that had seemed unadoptable. One of these animals is a Rottweiler named Star, who had been at Battersea for more than 250 days. The employee, Caroline, who adopts Star already has two dogs. One of those, Ted, a German Spitz, has a personality change after the adoption of Star. She becomes nervous and uncomfortable in her own home, and though various methods are attempted to alleviate the situation, Ted becomes more and more withdrawn. In the end, Ted is rehomed with a friend and Star stays with Caroline. Caroline and her partner feel they are Star’s last chance and that Ted will be fine without them. I found this story very sad; though in the end, both dogs are happy.

One of my favorite stories is that of the Collie, Bryn, who becomes a trained search and rescue dog, and the trust and bond human and dog have to learn and develop.

Other stories include one of a young boy and the dog who helps him deal with an autoimmune disease and one about the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Guinness, who is by her human’s side throughout a diagnosis of and treatment for cancer.

Battersea cares for 190 cats and kittens at any one time. So, if I have any complaints about this book, it would be that only two of the stories are about cats. One of those is about a litter of eight motherless kittens found on Battersea grounds on a freezing winter night. Though all the kittens are fostered by employees and well cared for, only four survive. The story of one of those, Wriggler, warmed my heart.

If you are interested in stories about rescues and the special bonds formed by animal and human, you will enjoy this book, which I think is appropriate for any age.

Royalties from the sale of Lost & Found will go to the Home, which has rescued, reunited and rehomed over 3.1 million dogs and cats since it was founded.

Lost & Found is available from Amazon in paperback for $6.18 or for $7.44 for the Kindle version.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review but did receive a free copy of this book from the Penguin Group.

 

EARTH DAY

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In celebration of Earth Day, I am sharing a few photos of our yard. We live in the city on a lot and a half, and so I have ample space for flower beds. I apologize for things looking rather untidy. I haven’t had much opportunity for gardening this spring.

The final photo is of Calista Jo enjoying a little of the local fauna…one of our resident squirrels.

Have a glorious day and please take good care of our earth by recycling, reusing and repurposing.

tulips

MONDAY MEOWSINGS: THIS AND THAT

Kitties Blue Sail into Purrmotion

Good morning furiends. We hope you all had a meowvolous weekend. We finally had our first real day of Spring yesterday with sun and warm temps. The humans got to ride their bike and swim, so they were happy.

Currently we are purrticipating in a competition on our Brofur Bailey’s Facebook page. We’d be ever so grateful if you would “like” our photo. Here’s the address for his page: https://www.facebook.com/baileyboatcat. And here’s the photo you’ll need to look for:

Back row (L to R): Astrid, Fiona, Giulietta, Mauricio Front row (L to R): Misty May, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Lily Olivia

Back row (L to R): Astrid, Fiona, Giulietta, Mauricio
Front row (L to R): Misty May, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Lily Olivia

The competition is to purrmote Bailey’s book, Bailey Boat Cat: Adventures of a Feline Afloat, which will launch on April 24. If you don’t know our brofur, you can read more about him on our “The Felines” page, by visiting his Facebook page or his blog at, Bailey Boat Cat. Of course, we hope you will buy his book when it becomes available!

Cat Scouts Easter Egg Hunt

egg,jpgWhen Mauricio wasn’t napping through a gorgeous day yesterday, he was searching for eggs on the Cat Scout site. Twelve eggs were hidden around the site, but after hours of searching, the poor old guy was only able to come up with six eggs. Seems he is going to need to hone his search skills prior to the next Quest or contest.

Easter Cards

The two love-birds among us, Mauricio and Astrid, sent Easter cards to their special furiends, Allie (Friends Furever) and Sampson (Kitty Cat Chronicles) and wanted to share them here.

eastermau

sampsoncard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happyeasterastridAnd finally, this is the adorable card that Sampson sent to Astrid. She is so over-the-moon about her relationship with this sweet and gentle Cat Scout. Isn’t he a cutie-pie.

Both Astrid and Mauricio would like to call your attention to our new poem, “A Cat’s Heart,” in the side-bar, which celebrates their relationships with two extra special cats.

Wishing y’all a meowvolous week with lots of sun puddles and naps.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo