Sparky

SPARKY’S THANKFUL THURSDAY AND EVERYDAY

Sparky

May I have some more, purrlease.

 

This is Sparky. He lives next door. He has a tuxedo cat fursib named Biscuit. He also lives with three woofies. He has been our neighbor for 12 years. During that time Sparky and Misty May have had oodles of heated conversations regarding his penchant for trespassing on our property. He runs home quickly at the conclusion of these disagreements, but only after giving Misty May the raspberry and reminding her that he has lived next door since before she was born.

In recent months Sparky has been doing more than trespassing. He has been enjoying both his second breakfast and dinner on our front porch. Even now, while we are taste testing noms for an upcoming review, he is waiting at the front door at mealtime. He rates whatever he is served with four paws up and is always a member of the clean bowl club.

I have discussed with his dad, Randy, the fact that I feed him, as I would not want to do it without permission. Though embarrassed about his mooching cat, Dad Randy, has said it is okay. If he happens to be outside when Sparky is giving me his sad-eyed, I am starving look, Randy always tries to coax Sparky to return home. Hasn’t happened yet…at least not until his bowl was spotless.

Mauricio is also thankful today as he took his last antibiotic pill (again, quite unwillingly) last night, and his lip is much improved.

CATURDAY CONFESSION

Hi Efurrybuddy,

Have you missed us? Our visiting and commenting have been minimal and sporadic. But it is not our fault. Our lame-a-roo, gallivanting, thoughtless and neglectful humans left us again. This time they were gone for ten months weeks.

What? Days? No way. That’s just a big, fat fabrication on Mom’s part.

Though we managed to post a few times and leave a few comments, we had to do it by sending smoke signals to Mom in Canada ’cause that’s where she and our dad went. As usual, she took all the electronic devices with her. Without being able to keep up with our friends, we know we missed birthdays and other events, which, of course, has our furs ruffled.

And, the humans did not even visit our sisfur Nylablue while they were in Canada. We think the fact that she lives about 1,000 miles from where they visited is an excuse with no merit whatsoever.

We’ve been bored to hissing and growling without being able to go out on the catio (and it was 89 degrees F. yesterday). We can see a couple of our bird feeders from the kitchen window, but the minimal counter space requires us to take turns…more hissing and growling.

And, of course, Fiona is required to go UTB when Maggie comes to feed us. The rest of us made appearances, and Giulietta even let Maggie pet her, but that doesn’t mean we were happy about having a stand-in.

The humans arrived home as scheduled last night. That doesn’t happen too often. All of us, except Astrid, who was staring down from the top of the stairs, were swarming around the foyer by the time Dad got all the luggage inside. But only three of us, Mauricio, Misty May and Calista Jo, deigned to sleep with them. Lily Olivia managed to get herself closed up in the guest room overnight. Mom didn’t even see her dash in when she opened the door a fraction of an inch to switch off a light she accidentally left on when she left.

We were absolute angels during the absence. We only left three big hurls and threw another and different lamp on the floor busting the bulb. And Fiona got and still is nekkid.

Mauricio was fitted with a calming collar before the humans deserted us and did not manage to remove it. Mom hasn’t as yet had the opportunity to inspect the entire house for spray, and Mauricio is not talking.

Even Astrid is enjoying the catio today. Sorry her eyes are close, but we wanted to use the photo that showed her cute little buff-colored paw.

Even Astrid is enjoying the catio today. Sorry her eyes are closed and the photo is a little blurry, but we wanted to use the photo that showed her cute, little, buff-colored paw.

We are all looking forward to life getting back to normal. We are enjoying the catio right now and can’t wait to start visiting and letting all of our friends know what we think about their recent comings and goings.

Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

P.S., Mom only saw two live kitties while she was away. She was having withdrawals when she got home. That should get us even more attention that usual. Bonus!

P.P.S. Mauricio got his official Cat Scout membership card in the mail! He is itching to get back to earning merit badges now that the humans are home. His friend, Wally, from The Island Cats has surged way ahead with Karma points which has Mauricio’s competitiveness revved up and raring to go.

CATURDAY BONUS: SATURDAY PHOTO HUNTERS

Today’s word is Spark so we couldn’t resist showing you a photo of our handsome, neighbor, man-cat, Sparky. Sparky spends lots of time hanging out at our house, including in this photo, which we originally posted on September 23, 2012.

Sparky settles in on our upper deck after our pusses have come inside for the night.

Sparky settled in on our upper deck after our pusses had come inside for the night. Now that we have the catio on the lower deck, Sparky no longer has access to the back decks.

 

GARDENING ON THE FIRST DAY OF FALL

Early Wake-Up Call: First Day of Fall

So just as I suspected, I was not given a chance to sleep past breakfast time yesterday. Misty May woke me up at 5:30 a.m. and pestered me continuously until 6:30 a.m. Then she went back to sleep on my pillow above my head. None of the others took over the pestering and I was allowed to sleep as well. I awoke again just before 8 a.m., fed everybody, started some laundry and headed out to the garden.

 

Brown tabby and white cat ng at camera.ying down and lookib

Skooter, our first cat.

 

Yesterday was the first day of fall, my favorite season. The temperature went to 83 degrees F, above our normal for this time of year but perfect for some yard work, especially as the humidity level was low.

Tending a Kitties Blue Gravesite

I hadn’t planned it, but I ended up at the gravesite of Skooter (our first cat), Steamer (cat #2) and Chloe (cat #6). They have a large plot surrounded by rocks (all dug from our yard by me). Steamer and Chloe each have a metal cat sculpture and Skooter has a concrete cat marking their individual places. A large monkey grass plant, several day lilies, an aster and some grape hyacinth grow on the site. I cleaned up the weeds, moved some additional hyacinth and three rudbeckia stalks to the site.

Calico cat that appears to be intently watching something.

Chloe keeps her eyes on the other kitties expecting an attack.

I did lots of other weeding and trimming. For the nearly five hours I worked, Misty May stayed close by me, napping under various trees and bushes. She startled me, however, when I was cleaning out under the monkey grass, as she was hiding beneath it atop Skooter’s grave. Stretching our her paw, she put it on the top of my hand!

Misty May didn’t remain with me the entire time, however. She stepped away at one point to protect us and her territory from our interloping neighbor cat, Sparky. She hissed and growled and gave him a good talking to while he stared at her and cowered. I finally convinced Misty May to leave him alone so he could trot home. Usually, she chases him over the fence to his yard, but she returned to me.

I contemplated taking Fiona with me into the yard, but she has been bullying Astrid and Lisbeth so much lately, I decided she hadn’t earned the privilege.

Second Day of Fall

After a wake-up call this morning consisting of the horde romping, stomping, tromping and squabbling on the bed (what happened to the DMZ?), I decided to to let Fiona join me in the yard in the hope it would tire her out a bit.

 

Orange tabby cat

Sparky settles in on our upper deck after Kitties Blue have come inside for the night.

 

She behaved herself admirably; though, she took on the duty of keeping Sparky at bay. She didn’t hiss or growl, but she did puff up her tail and park herself about three feet from where he was sunning himself in the grass. I don’t know how long this had been going on, but Sparky took my appearance as his opportunity to vamoose. I was proud of Fiona for not giving chase.

If you read my post, Cats in the Garden, you know that Fiona lets me know when she is ready to go back to the house…she climbs into my lap. When she did so today, I noticed she was naked yet again! I sort of expected it as she has been wearing an old collar that she had lost in the yard previously. I still have not found the one she removed in the house several weeks ago. Anyway, I led her back to the deck, opened the door for her and then went back to the yard for a couple more hours.

I was quite privileged today to have a contingent of supervisors. Misty May, Mauricio and Lily Olivia were all present at one time or another. I wished they’d offered a paw or two to help me dig holes for the handfuls of grape hyacinth I was transplanting. But I was just pleased to have their company.

When my work was complete and I was heading to the house, I found Fiona’s collar in the driveway. Yippee!

 

 

Note: For those of you who have not been reading The Cat on My Head since its inception, you may not know that all the Kitties Blue were inside/outside cats before we enclosed our lower deck to make a catio.