Angel Fiona

ARTY FLASHBACK PHOTO

Caturday Art

When looking for a photo for Caturday Art, Dad Tom came up with this one from 2011. Our sweet angel, Fiona, and Mau were snuggling in a cat bed in the bedroom. They both had laser eyes, so I never used the photo.

 

 

I am trying out a new photo-editing program, PhotoPad. It is going to take a while for me to become proficient. After original edits, I returned to Painnt to create my art. I used the Toons effect and an aluminum frame. I did manipulate the contrast, saturation and hue in the app.

Mau and Angel Fiona are joining the Caturday Art blog hop hosted by Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty. To join them or view art by other bloggers click on the badge below.

Sunday Selfies Reminder

We should have a sunny day tomorrow, for which we are all grateful, after being inundated with days of rain. That means we’ll be on the catio taking our easy. But before that happens, one of us will be snapping a selfie to share with you on our blog hop. And we are inviting you to do the same. Your fans look forward to seeing your adorable faces here and on your blog each Sunday.

We appreciate each of you who continue to join us every week and, of course, newcomers are always welcome.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

 

 

REMEMBERING FIONA

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Sunday, December 1, marked the three-year anniversary of our precious Fiona receiving her wings and leaving us for the Rainbow Bridge. Kitties Blue were remembering KaTwo from 15 And Meowing (who only recently received her wings) that day, and I didn’t want to upstage her.

Most of you who follow us remember Fiona. She was a precious angel when she was here on earth. I will always remember the day we met. I had gone to the home of the friend of a friend to meet a black kitten. That kitten was a a floofly little munchkin, but she just wasn’t the right kitten to join Kitties Blue. After “interviewing” the kittens from two litters, I found the purrfect candidate. That kitten would join the family and become Giulietta. Before the two of us left for home, I asked to visit with all the kittens one more time. As I entered the kittens’ quarters, an itty bitty, short-haired, grey kitten looked at me with a gaze that screamed, “please,” and I new I’d be going home with the two sisters. That second kitten was Fiona.

That day was the Friday prior to Mother’s Day in May, 2010. I had no idea then that Fiona would only be with us until December 1, 2016. Unfortunately malformed kidneys caused her to develop chronic kidney disease. She passed away naturally while snuggled on my chest after more than a year of treatment and love.

You can read more about Fiona on The Felines page or by entering her name in the search box on our sidebar.

I have so many photos of our beautiful girl, I had a difficult time selecting ones to share. I hope you will enjoy those I selected.

 

 

On the sidebar beneath Fiona’s photo are four poems I wrote for her. If you have never read them, I hope you will take the time to do so today.

Fiona you will be loved and in our hearts and memories forever. Thank you for “asking” to join our family.

 

 

BIRTHDAY SELFIES

Sunday Selfies: Week #188

Today Giulietta and our special angel, Fiona, celebrate their eighth birthday. Fiona left us almost 16 months ago, but as long as sis Giulietta is alive, we will celebrate Fiona as well. Giulietta snapped 23 selfies and was pretty miffed at me that I made her take that many, but she’s not great at looking at the cell phone. I’ll share the final photo later in this post. It’s a doozy. But first here is the gorgeous birthday girl.

 

Giulietta's Birthday Selfie

 

Of course, Fiona was unable to send a new selfie from the RB, but she too needs a birthday “card,” so I made her one from a photo taken before she got sick.

 

Angel Fiona's Birthday Selfie

 

Our resident baker, Cat Scout Mau, made a cake for the girls. We hope you’ll join us for a piece of cake and some champagne.

 

 

Remembering a Friend

Before hopping Kitties Blue and I want to honor and remember a super sweet woofie, who now has her wings. Maggie was an adorable and energetic Rack Russell Terrier who lived with my dear friend, Mary Jane, her husband, Kevin, and their daughters, Emily and Amelia. In her photo she is posing with a Christmas ornament I gave her a few years ago.

 

Time to Hop

Now it’s time for you to share your selfie with all of us. If you are new to hopping or just need a refresher course to enter our hop, here are some pointers.

  • 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.

Giulietta’s Outtake Selfie

Giulietta's Outtake Selfie  

SAWYER, FIONA AND FILL-INS

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #82

1. I can’t believe Silly Putty is still sold, as it is so low-tech. It was always on my Christmas list as a kid. SillyPutty is a trademarked name of Crayola. Similar brands are marketed under other names. According to Wikipedia, Silly Putty was invented in 1943 and since 1950, more than 300 million eggs of Silly Putty (approximately 4,500 short tons or 4,100 tonnes) have been sold.

2. I have been on Craigslist only once when I was looking to see if anyone had listed (not Charlie) Cooper Murphy as “lost.”

3. Going into December, the weather outside is mild, just the way I like it. Growing up in California, the temperatures were usually in the 60s during the day at Christmastime. Some people get all mopey when it isn’t cold and snowing on Christmas. I get happy if it isn’t. 

4. My current weakness is just about everything. My all-time weakness would be the (handmade on-site since 1850) dark chocolate truffles from a shop in Lausanne, Switzerland, named Blondel.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a blog hop hosted by Ellen (15AndMeowing)  and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). You can find the sentences to complete each Thursday on their blogs. The hop appears on Annie’s blog. You can enter it by clicking on her badge. My completions are in teal italics.

More From Sawyer

Now for the expected and required kitten photos. Be prepared to SQUEEE!

 

Fill-Ins

 

fill-ins

 

Sawyer is in the pouch of my KittyRoo sweatshirt. The first photo was taken before he got his eye meds and amoxicillin. The second was taken after. He’s all tuckered out from the ordeal. Sawyer’s eyes are looking great, and he is sneezing and sniffling less. Dad Tom and I will be happy when he is no longer quarantined. He really doesn’t like being alone, and we cannot be with him 24/7.

fill-insAnniversary

Though I wrote a poem for Fiona yesterday, reflecting upon her getting her angel wings last year, today is the actual one-year anniversary of that event. She lay cuddled on my chest that entire day and so many times I wanted to call Dr. Neel and ask her to come and help her. I could tell she was suffering. I was both relieved and heartbroken when she took her last breath. Fiona fought hard for 49 weeks. She was brave and strong and fearless and will remain an inspiration always. I thank God she was a part of our family for those six-and-a-half years.

I’d like to thank all those who visited and commented on yesterday’s poem. Your kind words warmed by heart. If you missed yesterday’s post, you can find the link below.

 

NOVEMBER THEMED FILL-INS

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week #78

 

1. My favorite part of November is pumpkin pie.

2. Every November, I start to panic if I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping.

3. For me, peace is working in the garden when it is quiet outside (no lawnmowers, leaf blowers, weed whackers, chain saws…). I especially loved it when I could take Fiona with me, as it was one of her favorite things to do. (Hope you don’t mind seeing Fiona again today.)

 

Friendly Fill-Ins #78.

 

4. So far, my upcoming holiday plans include spending Thanksgiving with two of  Tom’s nephews and their families.

We are joining the Friendly Fill-Ins blog hop hosted by Ellen (15 And Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). You can find the fill-ins for the week each Thursday on both of their blogs.

To join the blog hop, click on the badge above.

Total Cat Mojo Giveaway

If you missed our Monday post, Mom reviewed the new Jackson Galaxy book, Total Cat Mojo. Mom says this is the reference manual all cat guardians or anyone considering adopting a kitty needs at their fingertips. Galaxy addresses every cat behavioral problem he has ever encountered or been questioned about.

One lucky reader will have the opportunity to win their very own copy. Just leave a comment on the review post, Total Cat Mojo Review & Giveaway, prior to 5 p.m. ET tomorrow, November 4. Winner will be selected using Random.org and announced on our Sunday Selfies post. Giveaway is open worldwide.

Blog Blast for Peace

Tomorrow is a special day on the internet, in which Kitties Blue always participate. We will do so again this year by creating an artistic peace globe for our entry in the Caturday Art blog hop. We hope all our friends will participate in Blog Blast for Peace as well.

ANGEL FIONA FEATURED AS CATURDAY ART

Caturday Art

Today’s art features our angel Fiona, who also is mentioned in or Friendly Fill-Ins, which you’ll find below. When I was searching for a photo to use for today’s art, I ran across this one of our beautiful girl, and I knew immediately I had to use it.

 

Angel Fiona is featured in Caturday Art.

 

I used Pixlr again this week. If you haven’t tried this app, I think you will like it. Infinite choices are available in overlays, and they can be easily stacked one atop the other. They also can be used at a saturation from 1 to 100 percent. I used overlays from four separate groups in the following order: 1) Splattered from Grunge; 2) Hearts from Bokeh; 3) Orange from Leaking HD and 4) Devine from Default. I added the black edges using piZap.

Angel Fiona is featured in Caturday Art.Here’s the original photo of Fiona. I truly hope you all have enjoyed seeing her today. If you are new to our blog, I wrote the two poems on the sidebar for Fiona. She got her wings on December 1, 2016, at age six, after fighting CKD for nearly a year. Fiona is Giulietta’s sister. She will remain forever in my heart.

Caturday Art is a blog hop hosted by Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty. You can join the hop or find links to other art by clicking on her badge.

Friendly Fill-Ins: Week 76

I didn’t do yesterday’s fill-in blog hop as it was the official day to celebrate Tock-Tober. So, with some help from Calista Jo, I am completing the fill-ins today. Both mine and C.J.’s completions are in teal italics.

1.  Calista Jo: If I was a ghost, I would haunt the home of my foster mom, Diane. I wouldn’t do it to scare anybody but to spend some time with my sisfurs, Ellie and DeeDee, who still live there.

2. I always feel sad and lonely  when I think about or look at photos of my beloved Fiona.

3. My favourite scary story is the movie, “The Ring,” with Naomi Watts from 2002.

4. I will be so glad when the upcoming elections are over. As usual, the political ads are driving me crazy. So much negativity!

Friendly Fill-Ins are created and hosted each Friday by Annie (McGuffy’s Reader) and Ellen (15 And Meowing). To join in the hop or find links to other participants, click on the badge below.

Sunday Selfies Reminder

Wow, this past week absolutely flew by. I cannot believe we are already talking about taking selfies for tomorrow’s blog hop. Some kitty will be here to greet you and act as your host. No volunteers have stepped forward as yet. You’ll just have to check back tomorrow to see who is here.

Thanks, dear friends, for continuing to join us on this hop. We appreciate your support.

See you tomorrow.

FIFTH BLOGOVERSARY BLOWOUT

If you had asked us five tears ago to predict if we’d still be posting five years later, we wouldn’t have had a clue. We’d never read a blog, and we had little to no idea what we were doing. Yet here we are today. If you’d like to know why we are still blogging after five years, our reason is YOU. Each and every person who has ever visited or left a comment is the entire reason for our existence.

We have met so many amazing anipals and made friends that are dear to our hearts. So stopping now isn’t an option. We would miss all of you too much.

Many bloggers do a retrospective of the past year on their blogoversary. We will do a mini one, as you know what has happened if you follow us.

  • The low point of our year was the passing of our beloved Fiona on December 1 with Sammy (OneSpoiledCat) following a day later.
  • The high point was Fiona delivering Cooper Murphy to us on January 7.
  • Mau and Allie were married at Cat Scouts on July 23, 2016, and will celebrate their first anniversary on our Sunday Selfies blog hop.
  • We won a few badges that were not Greenies on the Tuesday Teaser, including this week’s First Commenter badge.

  • We enjoyed using our imaginations to create art for Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty‘s Caturday Art blog hop, TwoSpoiledCats Thoroughly Poetic Thursday and the Friendly Fill-Ins hosted by Ellen (15AndMeowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader).
  • Lily Olivia turned 18 and joined the Crotchety Cougars Club.
  • Cooper Murphy became a Cat Scout and joined the Tabby Cat Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we have bored you with that rundown, let’s get this party started. We have all kinds of delicious noms and beverages. And Mau baked us a cake in his Cat Scouts Bake Shop.

blogoversary feast

blogoversary feast

blogoversary desserts

blogoversary cocktailsblogoversary champagne

blogoversary cake

 

If you have any interest in reading our very first post, here it is: “Why the Cat on My Head?” It is super short and has no photos.

Giveaway

To celebrate our blogoversary, we are having a giveaway for some additional loot from the BlogPaws Conference. If you’d like to be entered to win, please leave a comment on this post prior to Monday, July 24, at 5 p.m. ET. The winner will be selected using Random.org and announced the following day.

Friendly Fill-Ins

We normally participate in this blog hop each Friday but will postpone our entry until tomorrow and include it with our Caturday Art.

Thank You

We may not have written about Fiona yesterday for our Thoroughly Poetic Thursday post, but a dear friend did. Mom Lorianne (Four-Legged Furballs) wrote an adorable poem, entitled, “Fiona the Ferrier,” and did a doodle featuring her. We all hope you click on the link and read it.  Thank you from all of us, including Mom and Dad. This warmed our hearts.

Thanks for being our followers and friends and joining us for our blogoversary party. You rock!

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

ALWAYS FAMILY FIRST

Throughly Poetic Thursday with Angel Sammy and Teddy

We are once again joining these great friends for their fun Thursday event. The prompt letter for the week is “F.” We also had a choice of four words from which we could use as the topic for our poem: 1) Feast; 2) Frog; 3) Frosty; 4) Family. We know that most of you probably expect us to write about our sweet angel, Fiona. But mom didn’t think she could improve on the two poems on our sidebar. So, we selected family. Here is our poem.

Family Love

With our humans, we are a family.
It has nothing to do with ancestry.
Mom says family is about caring and love
And has nothing to do with species and blood.
She’ll do anything for us, no matter the cost,
Even let us pretend that we are her boss.
But let’s stop kidding: We really do control her.
If we want something, we just have to purr.
Or look at her with sad or expectant eyes,
And we will receive our desired prize.
It could be treats or kisses and scritches,
Maybe some nip, a toy…whatever our wish is.
Every cat should have such a devoted family
Where shelter, food and love are priorities.
We wish this for all the felines on this earth…
A special family to let them know their worth

© Kitties Blue 07/19/2017

Here are a couple for family photos.

 

 

Both of these photos were taken last November when Fiona was still with us. The top photo includes Lily Olivia, Fiona, Mauricio, Lisbeth and Calista Jo in the foreground. The second photo has Lily Olivia, Fiona, Mauricio, Lisbeth and Misty May in the background. Even though we are having a super hot summer, a minimum of four of us are on the bed every night. Do you sleep with your humans?

To read Angel Sammy’s poem or find links to other poetry, click on the badge above.

Thankful Thursday

Today is also the blog hop on Brian’s Home blog when we tell you for what we are thankful. We bet you can guess what that is. That’s right, it is our family. We kitties may not always get along, but we are always well cared for and loved, even when we are little stinkers.

What are you thankful for this week?

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

Upcoming Excitement

We have lots of exciting things coming up that you won’t want to miss. Tomorrow is our fifth blogoversary. Party Time and time to giveaway some more goodies from the BlogPaws Conference! And Sunday is Allie and Mau’s first wedding anniversary. We will dedicate our Sunday Selfies blog hop to them and have a comment-a-thon. (More details about that on Sunday). Obviously, you are not going to want to miss either of these special posts.

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

YESTERDAY IS GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

 

Yesterday - Fiona as a kitten.

May 12, 2010

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.

© Janet Buickerood Blue 06/01/2017

 

Yesterday - Fiona (seven months before her death).

May 8, 2016

 

This is our poem for Angel Sammy and Teddy’s Thoroughly Poetic Thursday. If you haven’t already figured it out, this week’s prompt letter is “Y.” Twenty-six weeks ago, our “Y” poem also was about Fiona. That poem, which was written the day before Fiona’s death, is on the side-bar. I used to change the poem there occasionally, but I have not had the heart to take “You” down. I think this poem will either replace or join it. If you have an opinion, let me know.

To read Sammy and Teddy’s poem or find links to others, click on their badge.

 

Thankful Thursday

It would seem as if it would be impossible to be thankful with this amazing cat—my heart cat—no longer in our daily lives. But I am thankful everyday that we were blessed to have her as part of our family for the six years she was with us.

We are entering Brian’s Thankful Thursday blog hop. To enter, click on his badge.

 

FRIENDLY FILL-INS FROM BLOGPAWS CONFERENCE

Friendly Friday Fill-Ins: Week #54

1. I have googled anything and everything for which I’ve needed an explanation or answer. It sure beats having to go to the library to check an encyclopedia, like I had to when I was a kid.

2. I have purchased many things on Ebay, including a replacement wedding ring for Tom after he lost his original.

3. I think the BlogPaws Conference rocks! Here are a few photos from today.

 

BlogPaws 2017

Emily (Kitty Cat Chronicles) felted a mini Fiona for me. She’s purrfect!

 

Samson - BlogPaws 2017

I met Samson at BlogPaws 2016 when he was just a kitten. To see my photo with him from last year, click here. It is the photo in the bottom left of the bottom collage.

 

Sophie's birthday party at BlogPaws 2017

Sophie Hall, in Emily’s arms on lower right, celebrated her upcoming 5th birthday with a party in her honor.

 

Sophie at BlogPaws 2017.

Sophie playing at her party.

 

4. Mauricio thinks his wife Allie (Friends Furever) is the gentlest, kindest and most gorgeous cat in the universe.

Friendly Fill-Ins is hosted each Friday by Ellen (15 And Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). It is a blog hop. To join click on their badge. It will take you to Annie’s blog where you can enter your link.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with Caturday Art and more from the BlogPaws Conference. You can follow the conference on Twitter at #blogpaws.