Tom

SHOWING THE BIRTHDAY LOVE

Today is Love Your Pet Day, but it is also our dad’s birthday. In honor of both, we have decided to share some photos of us loving our daddy and vice versa. Even though he is allergic to us, he lets us love on him and he always reciprocates.

All photos show us in Dad’s lap on lying atop him except the one with kitten Calista Jo using dad as her personal snuggly. A few of these photos have been shared on our blog previously.

 

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We love you daddy, and we know you love us. Happy Birthday to the best cat dad ever!

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

p.s. Don’t forget to love your pet today.

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THANKFUL THURSDAY: A CATLESS VERSION

I know this is a cat blog, but the felines will not be featured in today’s Thankful Thursday post. I do know, however, if they understood what was happening, they would be standing on their hind legs giving their dad a big round of APAWS. I hope my readers will forgive me for going in a different direction today.

Tom Blue (L) receives “Frier” Award from USA Volleyball

Last night, Kitties Blue Dad, Tom, was recognized for more than a quarter century of devoted service to USA Volleyball and FIVB (Federation of International Volleyball) when he received  the prestigious Harold T. Friermood “Frier” Award, the top organizational award given by USAV, at the 69th Annual Dorothy C. Boyce Awards Banquet at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

In accepting the award, Kitties Blue Dad said, “I am overwhelmed – USA Volleyball’s been a big part of my life. I am sorry Janet wasn’t here tonight. She supported me through 25 years of gallivanting around the world for USA Volleyball and FIVB. She was significant in her work for USA Volleyball.”

Needless to say, I am super proud of him. I did know he was receiving the award, and I had been given the opportunity to fly to Phoenix to surprise him. However, I never would have been able to keep the secret if I had been “missing” for the day I was traveling. Kitties Blue Dad would have been worried out of his mind if he couldn’t reach me. And it seems I made the right decision as I am still suffering terribly from the scorpion sting I received at BlogPaws.

I will always be sad that I missed this big event, but no less thrilled for Tom. I hope my readers will join the kitties and me in congratulating him.

If you have any interest in reading the entire story about the award and presentation, you can do so by clicking this link: USA Volleyball Honors Tom Blue.

OUR FIRST TRANSPORT

Not too long ago I signed up at Your Daily Cute to be a kitty transport driver. This weekend, I was called into service for the first time to do a leg of a trip from Florida to Maine, where those being transported will have a better opportunity for adoption and not be euthanized. The transport consisted of 12 kitties in five carriers and enough paraphernalia to set up a small town.

Shakira and George

Shakira and George

I had planned to do this on my own until traffic delays on other legs pushed my leg about an hour and forty-five minutes behind. This meant I would be returning home in the dark. Driving at night is not something I am fond of doing so my wonderful spouse, Tom, volunteered to accompany me. I think he actually was afraid that all the kitties might not get passed on to the next driver, especially after he saw my Comment about the beautiful gray and white kitten, Shakira, on Your Daily Cute.

Janet and Debbie at transfer in Roanoke. Debbie is holding the PTU containing the Ginger Nuggets: Chester, Cheeto and Frito.

Janet and Debbie at transfer in Roanoke. Debbie is holding the PTU containing the Ginger Nuggets: Chester, Cheeto and Frito.

 

 

 

 

If Debbie, who handed off to us had her way, she would have absconded with tuxie, George, the PTU companion of Shakira. Katie, the driver following us probably would have questioned why she was getting an empty PTU and only ten kitties.

Anyway, things went great. By the time we picked up the kitties, all had been traveling for nearly two days and seemed pretty tuckered out, except Maggie, a tiger kitten and part of the Simpsons: Mom Marge (tabby), Lisa (tortie) and Bart (ginger). She and I had a few rounds of smacky paw through the door of the PTU before she and her siblings settled down to have a meal from Marge and then a good snooze.

The final kitty was Ellie, a lovely, white and ginger female, who was headed for her furever home.

The Simpsons: Mom Marge, tortie Lisa, tabby Maggie and ginger Bart.

The Simpsons: Mom Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Bart.

Our transfer to Katie, holding Maine coon Thea and Siamese Linxie,before beginning the final leg of the day.

Our transfer to Katie, holding Maine Coon Thea and Siamese Linxie, prior to beginning the final leg of the day.

I volunteered to do this as I am unable to foster kitties from the local group, Barn Cat Buddies, that I support. Demando-cat, Mauricio, with his extreme jealousy would make our lives (kitties and humans) miserable if we had a bunch of itty bitty kittens here.

And I think it will actually give me the occasional kitten fix all of us who love cats seem to crave once in a while. So as Tom calls it, The Underground Kitty Railroad has a couple more drivers.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: SURPRISE!

Baby Mauricio

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WE  ♥ YOU, LILY OLIVIA, MAURICIO, MISTY MAY, GIULIETTA, FIONA, ASTRID, LISBETH 

& CALISTA JOSETTE

 Just in case you haven’t met our dad, we thought we should include a photo (whether he likes it or not). We decided to go with a casual rather than a formal pose. And though this photo is a couple of years old, he still looks the same. If you follow our blog, you can see that Fiona and Giulietta have grown quite a bit!

Dad Tom with kittens, Fiona (aka Trouble) and Giulietta (aka Tribble).

Dad Tom with kittens, Fiona (aka Trouble) and Giulietta (aka Tribble).

We apologize for getting a little wordy today. Since it is a special occasion, we hope you can forgive us. The photo of baby Mauricio we selected is one of Dad’s absolute favorites (which he also took). His caption for the photo has always been, “The last thing the mouse saw.”

MY CAT’S BETTER THAN YOUR CAT

Cats Are Predictably Unpredictable

Who am I kidding! My cats are no different than your cats, your neighbor’s cats or even cats in foreign countries. Though I have found those in other countries speak a different cat language than those in the U.S.

The din from all of you disagreeing whole-heartedly with me is deafening.

But admit it, all cats are predictably unpredictable, which is why I have selected that for this blog’s tag line.

If you have come to expect them to do something with regularity, they won’t. Just when you figure out what food she likes, she turns up her nose, tries to bury it and then turns and walks away in a huff. A few days later she is wolfing it down again.

If your cat is doing something silly or adorable, he will stop the minute he sees the camera. But, unexpectedly and on occasion a cat will come along who doesn’t do this. Our Mauricio is one of those. He is an attention “hound” and a chance to pose offers an opportunity for the ultimate amount of  “me” time.

 

Tuxedo cat lying on his back with paws on chest and mugging for the camera.

 

If your cat has been curling up to snooze in the same spot for the last couple of weeks, he will vacate it for a new one never to return to the original. But, if you try to guess where he will perch next…good luck!

If she constantly plays with the same toy, dragging it around the house, taking it to bed and attacking any person or kitty who picks it up, again she will abandon it for a different one.

In the same vein, when we ride our tandem bike I always count the kitties I see along our route. Some of these I will see day after day and year after year and then suddenly one will disappear. Of course, some do move away or pass away, but they are just as likely to reappear weeks, months or even years later. I hadn’t seen Emma, a neighborhood calico, in at least three years and now I am seeing her with regularity. (Sometimes I can make cats along the route reappear. If I disparage one for not being around for a ridiculous amount of time, it will show up on that exact day.) I am always excited when a new cat pops up, but the likelihood exists that years can go by before I see it again.

Reader Challenge

As much as they are capricious, however, all kitties will do much the same things at sometime during their lives. I challenge any readers who have cats to let me know if their cats have never done any of the following things:

 

Grey kitten and tuxedo cat sitting on newspapers.

Kitten Fiona was unable to obscure much of the Sunday funnies so she enlisted Mauricio’s help.

  • Blocked your view of whatever you were reading. Almost any one of our cats could serve as the poster puss in support of illiteracy.
  • Stripped the leaves and flowers off your house plants. We haven’t had a house plant since Steamer ate every last leaf off of a topiary teddy bear. In the picture below you can see how difficult it can be to have fresh flowers in our house.
  • Shoved everything off a table or countertop. I was fortunate that the vase pictured here was inexpensive and easily replaceable by a similar one. As a novice cat owner, I was devastated when Steamer knocked an antique, amethyst glass vase (an anniversary gift from Tom) off of a window sill. We had no idea that cats enjoyed sitting in the window and “reading the news.”

 

Vase smashed on the floor and floors strewn everywhere.

Not one of the kitties would confess to making this mess. I did crop Fiona out of the photo. (Note cat toy in upper right of photo.)

 

Tuxedo cat in box of styrofoam peanuts.

Mauricio discovers a treasure trove of styrofoam peanuts.

  • Shredded or chewed up the newspaper, wrapping paper, napkins, styrofoam peanuts or anything that leaves bunches of small pieces to clean up.

 

Grey kitten standing on hind legs with head in human'a water cup.

Fiona helps herself to my water.

  • Drunk out of the toilet, the sink faucet, your glass or any scummy puddle they could find.

 

Tuxedo cat sitting in front of computer screen with paws and nose on it.

Mauricio helped Tom when he was working from home.

  • Helped out while you were working on the computer.
  • Helped you make the bed or change the sheets.
  • Burrowed down into a basket of clean, warm laundry.

This is a short list of a cat’s quirks and foibles. If your cat hasn’t done any of these things, he will. And you can expect that it will be when you least expect it. After all, a cat’s main goals, if he actually has any, are to keep us guessing and to prove us wrong always!

 

KITTY HELPER RETURNS FROM LONDON OLYMPICS

Dad Tom Returns from Olympics

Dad Tom returned home late last night from his Olympic adventure so the washer and dryer are running non-stop today.

He kindly added a note about this web-site to his Facebook page today. If some of you are new readers who found me through his announcement, WELCOME! I hope you will visit often. Anyway…

Three cats sitting looking out front door...one white, one tuxie and one ginger tabby.

Usually when the car enters the driveway the cats stir and make their ways to the foyer so all are in attendance when we come in the door. One might think this is a welcome home party, but it is nothing more than an opportunity to escape while bags are being brought in the house. Whether suitcase, grocery or 18.5-pound cat food bag, it doesn’t matter. If the door is open even just a crack, one of the felines is going to try to escape. None succeeded last night!

No Cat Awaits

When we first opened the door, not one kitty was waiting. It was after midnight, but that was no excuse. They began to slowly meander into the room. Dad Tom’s return was of little consequence to them. They were interested in sniffing every inch of the luggage in an attempt to find out if he had been cheating on them with some other animal. They found absolutely nothing.

Lily Olivia was the last to arrive. She was probably asleep on the floor of Dad Tom’s closet. She started bellyaching as she came down the stairs. I am not sure if it was because we woke her up or because she wanted to go outside. It was probably a little of both.

Once the exterior door was closed and locked, most of the kids went back to their sleeping spots. Mauricio, however, followed us around silently. For those of you who know Mauricio, you also know that it is almost impossible for him to keep quiet. We weren’t sure if he was holding a grudge because his dad had left him for three weeks, or if he was miffed because Dad Tom was home to reclaim his spot in the bed and divert some of my attention.

Mauricio Breaks His Silence

Five cats crowded onto the humans' bed.

This is how our bed looks normally: No room for humans! Only Misty May was missing.

Once we got into bed, Mauricio broke his silence. He snuggled in next to his dad and proceeded to regale him with tall tales of how I ignored him and never fed him. He even threw in some unkind words about me going to Richmond and leaving him with no human attention except for a short, twice-per-day visit from Maggie, the kitty caregiver.

When he finished his harangue, he sauntered over and threw himself down on top of me. Misty May then took his place, crawling up on her dad’s chest for some snuggling. She and her dad are each other’s favorite of human and cat.

And that was the end for us. Tom and I both fell asleep. What the kitties did after that is anybody’s guess.