October 2018

TOCK-TOBER ART

Caturday Art

My Tock-tober photo was used to create today’s art. I was promised a Tock-tober companion, but our artist mom seems to have forgotten in which file she saved the other photos. So I am all alone here today.

Our art is abstract as Mom thinks my Tock-tober photo is a tad graphic; though, I think it is darn adorable.

We usually like to tell you how we created our art, but we can’t imagine you would want to reproduce something like it. I’ll just let you know that a combo of Painnt/piZap/Picasa was used.

I am entering the Caturday Art blog hop over at Athena Gat Goddess Wise Kitty’s site. If you’d like to join in the fun, click on her badge.

Here’s the original Tock-tober photo. I was perusing the sink in the hope of finding some noms. No luck!

I think you’ll agree that I have some super cute, little tocks. Being tailless helps to show them off.

Click on the badge below to visit Ducky!

Sunday Selfies Reminder

Tomorrow is our weekly blog hop. So as not to interrupt your easy or any other plans you may have for tomorrow, why not get your selfie taken care of right now. If you know any other bloggers you think might enjoy showing off how adorable they are, invite them to join us. I have no idea who will be hosting tomorrow, so you’ll need to stop in to see.

Until then…

Purrs and paw-pats, Sawyer

PRINCESS & THE BEE

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #127

Today, I conjured up a bit of help from Astrid and Lisbeth to complete some Halloween-themed fill-ins.

1. Astrid: For Halloween, I want to be myself…no costumes please!

This is me, too embarrassed to look at the camera, in the stupid bee costume Mom thought I would wear last Halloween.

2. Lisbeth: A tiara makes me feel like royalty.

My handsome and thoughtful boyfriend, Charles, also makes me feel like royalty.

3. On a dark and stormy night, I like to snuggle into bed with a good book.

4. If I had a witch’s cauldron, I would stir up a potion for no-calorie real sugar. None of that artificial stuff. Then I could eat all the Halloween candy I want.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a blog hop hosted each Friday by Ellen (15 And Meowing) and Lorianne (Four-Legged Furballs). You can find the sentences to be filled in each Thursday on their blogs. To participate, complete to sentences and post the link to your post at Four-Legged Furballs. Click on the badge to go there.

Tock-Tober

Tomorrow is the official day to celebrate Tock-Tober; though, I know many of you have been celebrating all month. As Kitties Blue are always reluctant to show their tocks when they see the camera, we’ll be celebrating tomorrow only. If you’d like to see which of the gang was brave enough to show off their tocks, please stop in.

Feline Friday

Astrid and Lisbeth are joining the blog hop at Comedy Plus. To join them, click on the badge below.

October 19, 2018 by Janet Blue Feline Friday Friendly Friday Fill-Ins 13

A POEM & THANKS ON THURSDAY

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

If it’s Thursday, it is time to join our pals, Teddy and Angel Sammy for their poetry day. Currently our poems are based on a photo provided by the Two Spoiled Cat’s mom. Today’s photo is of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

Old Faithful

I visited Old Faithful with my family when I was nine.
It’s been erupting for a very long time.
At least 145 years that we know,
It continues about every 90 minutes to blow.
The bison have been watching since 1902;
Though probably don’t appreciate it like me and you.

If you’d like to join in the poetry fun, you can find the new inspiration photo each week at Two Spoiled Cats. You can click on their badge to go there from here. Sammy transmits an exceptional poem each week from the Bridge. It is always a must read. Links to poems by other bloggers can be found in the Comments.

Thankful Thursday

We also like to join the Thankful Thursday blog hop at Brian’s Home each week. Mom says no matter how bad things might be, one can always find a silver lining. Things have been great for us, however. Sawyer remains seizure free. We’ve gotten catio time and treats and snuggle time in bed with our mom and dad. For Mom and Dad, their big grateful for the week is the progress on the addition. There are now two concrete garage walls.

All of us are extra, super duper thankful that so many of you on Blogger have made the changes necessary to your Comments settings so we can now comment. It warms our hearts that you consider us friends and have offered this support to us.

Finally, we are happy and thankful that our host, Brian, is improving after the extraction of oodles of teeth. We continue to send him POTP and lots of purrs.

To join in the blog hop, click on Brian’s badge.

So that’s it for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with Fill-Ins.

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

October 18, 2018 by Janet Blue Kitty Written Blog Thankful Thursday Thoroughly Poetic Thursday 12

QUIET PLEASE!

Wordless Wednesday

October 17, 2018 by Janet Blue Wordless Wednesday 26

A SPARK OF POSITIVITY

Sparks

Some days it is difficult to have a positive attitude, but I try not to complain and always believe in silver linings.

This is another of Dad Tom’s photos. In fact, I used it in its original form for a Spark in June. This version was “artified” using the Phoenix effect from Picas.

In case you are not a sports fan and thus unfamiliar with Wade Boggs, here’s a little information. Wade Anthony Boggs is a former American professional baseball player (third baseman). His career lasted 18 years. He played primarily for the Boston Red Sox but also for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While with the Yankees, Boggs won the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves. He was with the Devil Rays when he reached 3,000 hits. You can learn more about him here.

Sparks began as a blog hop, created by our friend, Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). Annie is taking a “break” from blogging, so there is no hop. Many of us still continue to post a Spark on Monday, as we believe in Annie’s vision: “I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world!”

I am also joining the Awww Mondays blog hop at Comedy Plus. I think this butterfly and art deserve an “awww.” Click on their badge to join.

Comments…Thank You

Kitties Blue and I are grateful to all of you on Blogger who have changed your Comments Settings so we are able to comment on your blogs. If you find this change ends up causing trouble for you, please let us know.

October 15, 2018 by Janet Blue Dad Tom's Photography Sparks 14

“TWOFUR” SUNDAY SELFIE

Sunday Selfies: Week #218

It would appear as if one of our selfie participants today was less than willing to participate. But actually, Mau is just miffed at Astrid for trying to cram into Dad Tom’s lap with him. She loves Mau and will take any opportunity to get close to him.

When I suggested a selfie, Astrid, was all ready to go, but Mau preferred to sulk. Sorry, Allie!

Blog Hop

Now it’s time to share your selfie and hop with us. Here are those hopping tips that we post each week.

The link to add your selfie to the hop is below.
You also will find below the code to use if you’d like the hop to appear on your blog.
Posting on Sundays is not necessary to join.
You do not need to be a cat to enter. All anipals are welcome regardless of species.
The hop remains open for entries through Thursday midnight.
Please be so kind as to display our badge and/or link to The Cat on My Head.
Take the opportunity to visit some of the other hop-alongs and make some new friends or reconnect with some old ones.

Comments

I am just going to mention this one last time. If you are using Blogger as the platform for your blog, and your Comments setting is “embedded,” we can no longer comment on your posts. If you want to check out what setting you have, go to Settings › Posts and Comments. Under Comments check out the location of your comments function. There are four options:

embedded
full page
pop-up window
hide

If your Comments function is set to embedded, would you please reset to full page and let us know so we can try to comment.

If you are not interested in receiving our comments, don’t worry about it.

Wishing everyone an easy and restful Sunday.

October 14, 2018 by Janet Blue Sunday Selfies 36

SAWYER’S SECRET GARDEN

Caturday Art

Mom had lots of false starts today when attempting to create some art. She finally ended up in picMonkey and decided to give the Beta version a try. Many of it’s usual options were not available, but a variety of new ones were. Here’s what she came up with.

She used the Cloudy Ink filter in the hardlight mode and then added a Botanical overlay. After that she used Boost to bump up the color just a bit. Then she added the blue Vignette and the mat and frame.

I like it. What do you think?

I’m entering Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty’s Caturday Art blog hop. Why don’t you select one or two of the free photo-editing apps and create some art of your own Then you can join me on the hop. If you’d like to do so, click on Athena’s badge.

You can even turn yourself into a jigsaw puzzle if you like. Mom has done that of me. She didn’t cut it into as many pieces this time, so maybe it won’t be super hard. Click on the link at the bottom of this post to go to the puzzle.

Comments

Yesterday Mom printed a suggestion for changes you could make to your Blogger web-site (if you are using Google to identify those who comment on your posts) that might allow us and others to leave comments on your posts. Cathy Keisha (Stunning Keisha) tried it, and it worked! Mom and all of us are super excited about this and hoping others of you will make this one little change. To see what you need to do, click on the link to yesterday’s post. It’s at the bottom of this post.

Sunday Selfies Early Warning

Have you taken your selfie yet? We have a “twofur” for tomorrow. One of my fursibs was a willing participant. The other…not so much. We appreciate all of you who join us week after week and all those who have become hoppers more recently. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Until then…

Purrs and paw-pats, Sawyer

180 Sawyer Cloudy Ink Botanical

October 13, 2018 by Janet Blue Caturday Art Blog Hop 19

CATS, POTATO CHIPS & EDITH BUNKER

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #126

Another fun Friday with fill-ins hosted by Ellen from 15 And Meowing and Lorianne from Four-Legged Furballs. I really like this week’s sentences. I did, however, let the kitties complete #4.

If you’d like to participate, you can find the sentences to be completed each Thursday on both blogs. This is a blog hop. To join click on the badge.

1. I have a weakness for Utz Ripple potato chips and cats.

2. Seeing cute cats make(s) me want another and another and another. They are like those potato chips in fill-in number one.

3. I’m surprised that we aren’t growing moss or mold on our bodies with all the rain we’ve had this summer, including another four inches yesterday.

4. Kitties Blue: To make a long story short, don’t look to our mom. She loves to talk. (If you are old enough to remember the All in The Family TV series, think Edith Bunker.)

Comments

The kitties and I continue to have problems commenting on blogs that only use Google to identify commentors. In trying to find a solution, I found the following on-line. If you’d like to get our comments and are one of these blogs, would you mind trying the following?

Do you have an embedded comments page for your Blogger blog?
>If you want to check out what setting you have, go to Settings › Posts and Comments.
Under Comments check out the location of your comments function. There are four options:

embedded (causes a problem for those using a Mac [like us])
full page
pop-up window
hide

If your Comments function is set to embedded, would you please reset to full page and let us know so we can try to comment.

I have no idea if this will make a difference, but we really want to be able to comment on your posts. If this doesn’t work, I will explore further in an attempt to find a solution.

Feline Friday

Astrid was all snuggly a couple of days ago, and I managed to get a couple of photos of her while she was enjoying the warmth of the computer on my lap. She asked to share one for feline Friday at Comedy Plus. Just for fun, I added a little Halloween embellishment.

Feline Friday is a blog hop. To join, click on the badge below.

October 12, 2018 by Janet Blue Feline Friday Friendly Friday Fill-Ins 19

BALANCING ACT

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

We always look forward to Thursday and the challenge of writing a poem to accompany the inspiration photo selected by Angel Sammy and Teddy (Two Spoiled Cats). This week it was particularly fun, as our humans enjoy doing exactly what the family in this photo is doing. We’ll tell you’re about that after our poem.

Cats Don’t Ride Bicycles

Biking with friends and family is always fun…
A great way to spend a day in the sun,
Getting some exercise, enjoying the fresh air,
Feeling the wind blowing through your hair.
It will give you a sense of freedom and calm,
And that’s a good thing for our dad and mom.
But we are kitties, and we don’t ride bikes.
If given the chance, we’d rather take a hike.
We don’t want to wear helmets or special shoes;
Even though, we might enjoy some exciting views.
But for our humans, it makes them smiley and happy,
So we’ll remain home and have a lovely nappy.

Mom and Dad Tom ride a tandem bike and have since 2000. It’s perfect for them as mom has no independent balance and cannot ride a single bike. It does take some practice, as Dad isn’t great at communicating and Mom isn’t good about giving up control. But after 19 years, they have gotten pretty good at this. Unfortunately with the alternating rain and hots we’ve had this summer, they haven’t been able to ride outside much. Instead they spend a lot of time on the Peloton. Mom hasn’t missed riding in 67-straight weeks. (If you don’t know what Peloton is, click on the link.)

We asked if we could share a couple of photos of them with the tandem. The one on the left is from 2004. The one on the right is from 2013. They were in Williamsburg, VA, with friends who have biked all over the world on their tandem.

We’d like to invite everyone who hasn’t taken part in Thoroughly Poetic Thursday to give it a try. It’s fun and gives you the opportunity to stretch your imagination. To read Sammy’s poem (which he transmits each week from the rainbow bridge) or find links to other poems in the Comments section, click on his badge above.

We’d like to invite everyone who hasn’t taken part in Thoroughly Poetic Thursday to give it a try. It’s fun and gives you the opportunity to stretch your imagination. To read Sammy’s poem (which he transmits each week from the rainbow bridge or find links to other poems in the Comments section, click on his badge above.

Thankful Thursday

We all have a H-U-G-E thankful this week. The footings for the addition were poured before it started raining again. The lower left corner in the photo is where the addition will attach to the house.

We’re thankful as well that Sawyer’s meds are working. He’s been seizure free for the past few weeks. We are most grateful we had Chris taking care of us for three days while Mom and Dad went out of town for their great niece’s Bat Mitzvah. It was the usual nip and treat bonanza for us!

Thankful Thursday is a blog hop hosted by Brian. Click on his badge to join the hop and let everyone know for what you are thankful.

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

October 11, 2018 by Janet Blue Thankful Thursday Thoroughly Poetic Thursday 14

SPOILED…WHO, ME?

Wordless Wednesday

October 10, 2018 by Janet Blue Wordless Wednesday 18

YOU
For Fiona

It seems like only yesterday…
You were just a kitten.
When I saw your pleading look,
I was completely smitten.

Now at only six years old,
You are getting ready to leave,
Soon you will have your wings.
I’ve already started to grieve.

You’ve fought hard for the past year,
And I’m not ready to say good-bye.
I can’t imagine you not in my life
I am so sad…today I had to cry.

I am grateful and blessed
For my six years with you.
You’ll live in my heart forever.
You’re one of the best ever Kitties Blue.

YESTERDAY

Many yesterdays have passed since
You gained your angel wings. Today
Is six months since you left us behind
To remember and mourn. Our hearts
Continue to hurt, and we miss
You as much as the day you left.
Giulietta whined from the catio
Yesterday as I worked in the yard.
I know you put her up to it. That
Was your way of getting me to,
Allow you to join me as I
Gardened. You were there with me
In spirit. With every meow
I thought of you and how much I miss
Your sweet face and disposition.
In these past few months, many friends
Have traveled your same path in your
paw-steps. I am certain you were
Waiting to greet them with purrs and hugs.
I pray you and your friends are laughing,
Frolicking and having fun together.
Picturing that makes me smile, but
Does not lessen my sadness at your
No longer being here to snuggle
And receive our love, care and kisses.
Fiona, please do not ever forget
You are still and always will be loved.

ONE YEAR MISSING YOU

One year has passed since you flew away,
And I still think of you everyday.
I see your sweet face in my mind’s eye
And wish we’d never had to say good-bye.
It’s nice you’ve sent us kitties needing a family,
But my dearest love, we are now at capacity.
You thought it would take more than one cat
To take your place in our habitat.
We love Cooper Murphy and baby Sawyer dearly
But thinking either could replace you makes me teary.
You were one-of-a-kind and will stay in my heart
Until the day I join you and we’re no longer apart.
When once again I can hold you in my arms
And revel in all your love and feline charms.
Together with you and all who have passed.
I will spend eternity contemplating how blessed
I was to share my life with my furry children,
Each and every one of you one-in-a billion.

UNTIL

I miss you each day.
Until we meet in heaven,
The pain will remain.

ONE OF A KIND

I don’t know how to say good-bye.
I thought you were invincible; though,
You used up many of your nine lives.
You ruled us all with an iron paw;
Never took “no” for an answer
And always got your way.
If not, you’d bark to signal your
Displeasure and sometimes raise a paw.
I always joked that you were bi-polar.
When I told people you were a calico
They immediately understood what I meant.
Today was unnaturally quiet in the house.
Can a home seem empty with eight cats?
I will miss waking up at night to find you
Sitting next to me and staring at me.
I will miss you yelling at us as you did
When you wanted breakfast and dinner.
I will miss watching you lounging and snoozing
On the porch settee on a warm afternoon.
But most of all I will miss your kisses!
When kitten Sawyer befriended you,
We suspect you were imparting your
Wisdom and secrets for controlling us.
Time will tell if he was a good listener.
But whatever he may have learned,
Neither Sawyer nor any other cat
Can or will replace you in our hearts.
Lily Olivia, you were one-of-a-kind.