Snow Day

It's crazy here. There's white stuff everywhere, and it often looks like the sky is falling apart. It comes down in huge flurries just like rain does, only this stuff seems to float on the wind instead of falling. The human came in from taking Dogface for a pee today and there was some in her hair. I didn't show any interest. To be honest, I didn't want to get close to it. If it's bits of sky, then it must be very heavy, and I don't want to risk one of them falling on me accidentally.





The human says we have over four inches of white sky on the ground now. She still can't go to the work hunt. I was worried about this as it could mean no foods for me until she told me that she'd just ordered some more which might arrive tomorrow, and that the work hunt would still give her moneys even though she was at home cuz she couldn't travel in because of the white sky falling. I'll never understand peoples. I mean, I'm glad they're giving her the moneys cuz we need them for food and tuna and ping pong balls and catnip and, I suppose, for human stuff too, but why are they giving her moneys when she didn't even hunt anything for them? It makes no sense at all. That's like someone having a ping pong ball and not playing with it. It's mind boggling!





She's been working on the text of a website today, so there's been a lot of tippy-tapping. She's made time for snuggling with me though, so I can't complain too much. She even gave me nip today, but she put it on the carpet instead of letting me eat it out of her hand like I usually do. I was a bit nonplused and just stared at it. What, did she think I was going to turn into Dogface and eat it off the carpet? I don't think so! "But Tia," she said, "You're supposed to roll around in it and get all excited and stuff." Roll around? I've never rolled in nip before in my life, sept that fresh plant she brought home and when I did that, she complained about me squishing it and killing it. Honestly, she never seems to be able to make up her mind!





I was reading about Herman's nip ball today. I've never had one, but I think it's something I should have. The human says she's never heard of them either. If you ask me, that's a lame excuse. Just cuz she doesn't know what it is or where to get it doesn't mean it's Ok for me to be deprived, does it!





Speaking of toys, we're going to order our things for Santa Paws soon. The human is very excited about this. Half of me is, cuz we get to give toys to other cats and show them what we have in England, and part of me isn't, cuz, whatever way you look at it, it's hard to see that many nip toys go somewhere else when they've been in your house. I'm sure nobody would mind if I tested a few of them out, right?





In response to some comments, Kassey, I sure do have catitude, in fact, I've got tortitude! If you look carefully, you should see the tortie on my face and feet and tail. I'm not sure how well it's come out in the photo though. For the most part, I pretend I don't have tortitude so that the human thinks she's trained me. Trained! Laughable, isn't it? Every now and again though, it comes bursting out of me, and I just can't keep it hidden enough when I have photos taken, which is why you and your people spotted it! I'd love to show you my white sky, but the human doesn't have anyone here with a flashy box and working eyes to take a picture for her. It's a pity, as she says it would probably be a beautiful sight. It's all piled up on our grass outside.





Catnip Lounge crew, did you perplex your people in the end by sleeping in strange spots? I hope you did. What fun! Tori, thanks for the suggestion about the counter. Clouder, I have to apologise for my human who, once again, has been slow. She says she promises to email you tonight, but we need to know if the address you gave us is the one you want added to our blog? We still love the idea of a counter!





Ok, that's all from me. It's Dogface's time to go out in the white sky again. I'm glad she gets to freeze in place of me!

Perplexing Peoples

I had planned today to continue my diatribe on the subject of toilets, and, while I still intend to do it, I've got more material than just that.

I think we might have mentioned the Hoover Lady was not coming back to the human's place any more to work with us. This meant that the human has had to go interviewing for a new hoover lady to come instead. It's hard work finding the right one, as she found out tonight.

The trouble started right as he walked in the door. He couldn't be another hoover lady cuz he wasn't a she. I pointed this out to the human, but she was too busy making polite talk noise with him, so didn't listen. It's not often that I take a dislike to peoples on sight. I'll do the propper thing and ignore them when they come in of course, but that's more my way of showing that I think it's disgusting that they usually go gaa-gaa over stupid Dogface first. Admittedly, she is barking and slobbering all over them while I'm staying well back and watching in a more dignified manner which perhaps could be seen as aloof, but that's no excuse. Even peoples should have the sense to say hello to cats first. I'll wait until they fight off the dogface, sit down and dry their hands of all her slobberstink before I will show my absolute superiority by walking onto the sofa next to them in a very quiet and gentle manner. I need no overt attention grabbing moves to ensure peoples love me!

Tonight was different though. As soon as Dogface saw the hoover lady replacement, she started growling, and it wasn't her usual growl either. This one meant business. Luckily, the human had thought to put her on her lead, so she couldn't get at him. Even when he'd sat down though, she made no attempt to come and greet him. I watched closely, but didn't like what I saw either. While he was in, I didn't once move from the arm of the sofa by the human, either to greet him or to go eat some of my foods.

The human has put in the job description that the ability to be comfortable with animals is a must. Even when Dogface was just doing her normal barking before she started growling, he seemed very nervous, and things only got worse when the human asked him about cats. he had lived with one, but get this. He expected him to hunt for a living! He only fed him very rarely, and even though he lived indoors, Hoover Lady replacement never once picked him up or cuddled him. That's outrageous! I can't believe that this replacement never even considered giving him tuna or cuddles! Luckily replacement's mum wasn't so harsh.

I'd had a chat with the human before the man people came, cuz I wanted to get my interview technique good and propper. She agreed that it must be a joint interview between the two of us, and to help proceedings along, I'd especially worked up a good case of the runny eyes. The human didn't clean it just to see if the replacement would notice. Even after prompting, he didn't say a thing about it. All he did was complain about the number of toys all over the place. That got him a massive thumbs down from me... If I had thumbs, I mean.

The human doesn't much like him either, so I guess his fate is sealed. Buh-bye, Replacement. We hardly knew ye... And I for one am glad of it!

So, on to more important things. Human toilet behaviour, part two. She must have been outraged by what I'd written yesterday, and perhaps she was just trying to prove a point, but late last night I heard what was akin to sweet music to my ears. I heard scratching from the box. It was the one in the bathroom rather than the one I'd had set up for her convenience in the living room, but still, you can't win 'em all, right? With baited breath and no small excitement I hot footed it into the bathroom to watch the human do her first propper toilet. What I first saw made me proud. She had a hand in the box and she was scratching around (human note: I use gloves and plastic bags. I have to scoop by hand to have a hope of finding the poo, but I'm hygienic, I promise!). On second sight, what I saw made me more than a little disgusted. She withdrew her hand, and my hopes with it, but that's not all she took from the box. In her clutches was, well, the same thing that the horrible vet peoples stole from me not so long ago. What on earth was she doing! I couldn't believe firstly that she would contaminate herself by touching it if she didn't have to, and secondly that she was exposing my scent to any lurking predators such as Dogface and the spider wand toy that always bops me on the head. Oh, and the feathers too. Didn't she realise the danger?

Frantically, I tried to communicate this to her, but she took no notice. What's more, there was worse to come. With absolute disbelief I watched her turn to her water bowl, open the cover that she puts on it, then drop my um, poopoo into the clean water. I was outraged, and not a little revolted. This was a dreadful way to make a point. She had obviously read between the lines and noted my contempt of human stupidity yesterday when I was speaking of how they didn't have the sense not to contaminate their own water, and now, even though I didn't engineer it that way, I'm part of that contamination. Was it coincidence that she scratched, that she made me think she was doing what I wanted to draw me in, then committed the worst sin when I was there to watch the dirty deed? Or was she removing all traces for the enemy to follow, for, although it pains me no end to admit it, next time I used that box it did smell a lot cleaner, a lot less attention drawing, and once she'd poured more water on the waste to make it go away, I couldn't smell it in the bathroom either. I am at a loss to know what is going on. Did she do it to spite me, or is she operating on instincts so deep that she doesn't even need to be taught to get rid of poopoo far away from the place of safety where you live? I'd thought they had no sensible instincts left in them, but was I wrong? I'm sorry to say that for once I have no answers. This owning the human can be very confusing at times.

There's some super news to lighten the indignity though. We've had another person enter our competition! This brings the number up to 2 and a bit. One cat left a comment saying how great Soft Claws were, but not why she wanted them or what size and colour she needed, so we're not sure if she wants to be entered or not. Still though, this leates entry means we have one more!

Thank you to all those who commented on yesterday's post. The hit counter is an excellent idea, but I'm not sure how accessible they will be with Screen Reader. That's the little man in the computer whose job it is to read all the writing to the human. He must get so tired of doing that, you know. Anyway, he's not the smartest of little men, so sometimes he can't cope with difficult coding or reading things that have graphics. One of you offered to help us put one in, and if it's Ok, we'll take you up on that and see how it goes.

Amy and her Cats said that one of these days they're going to have me as a Friends on Friday. I'm super excited about that, oh yes I am! There's also the chance that a person who makes a living out of annoying peoples and cats by pointing one of those flashy boxes at them is going to come and take pictures of me. They used to only do peoples weddings but now, sensibly, they've decided to branch out and want lots of cat pictures. I told them I thought I'd be just perfect, and they're thinking about it. If they come, the human will only have to give them moneys to feed the big metal machine (the human says it's a car but I know better) so that he can run all the way from their house to mine and back again. I'm a bit worried about this. I send her to work to get those moneys for my foods. I'm not sure I like the idea of it going into someone else's belly. He needn't think he's getting any of my tuna! If they do come though, it means lots and lotsa pictures for the blog which is super!

Anyway, enough from me for today. I need to work on sleeping off the memory of replacement.

Tired Thursday

We never seem to be anything else lately, do we? The human is still finding it really hard to stay awake in the evenings when she comes back from the work hunt. Truth be told, she's finding it hard to stay awake even at the work hunt. They're obviously not making her hunt hard enough if she has time to think about sleeping! In brighter news though, she received a contact from what she calls a "possible future job". I'm not sure what a job is, but she says that's the peoples word for the hunt. Honestly, I don't know why they don't just use the propper words for things. Why do they have to over-complicate everything? I think it's to make themselves feel more important cuz they can use big or different words. Doesn't mean they're correct though.

Anyway, the human says that she gave some peoples some papers a little while ago that told them how great she was (a resume or a CV, I think she called them). Again, if you ask me, it's over-complicating things. All you have to do is show my human your yummy tummy and you'll soon work out how great she is. Her tummy tickling is the best! So, these peoples sent her a letter this week saying that they are recruiting physiotherapists, and please would she apply. Of course, she said yes. She's in the middle of writing more papers to tell them how great she is, and why she's the only one for the job. Weren't the first ones good enough? She obviously doesn't think so. She says this one just asks for more detail. It's called an application form. No wonder she's tired with all that writing!

Me, on the other hand, well, I do what I've always done. I lie around and sleep most of the day. I also play, and I've discovered a new thing that I like. My human has this thing she holds that has a dangly, bouncy string on the end. Attached to that are some feathers, and boy are they fun to hunt! We've had this toy for a good few months, but I did the propper ladycat thing and ignored it, just to show it its position, you understand, until I was good and ready to play with it. Over the last few weeks, the human has been teasing me with it; bouncing it in front of me, making the feathers attack my head and yummy tummy. I've just walked away from it. I've been interested, yes, but I can't have a feather string thinking it can make me play whenever it wants! I pounced on it once or twice, but then just left it alone. My human doesn't think I was ever shown a wand toy in my other homes. She says she's not seen a cat who backed away from them so consistently. Mummycat did the same thing too.

This morning, I was running all over the room, attacking my human's feet under the duvet and, in her words, "making a general pest of myself." Even though it was early, she thought it would be a prime opportunity, and went to find the feather string. It danced on the floor in front of me. I ignored it. It jumped on the bed. I crouched, but didn't go after it. Then it bonked me on the head, right between my ears! That was enough for me. Quick as a wink I flipped on my back, grabbed the feathers and... lost them! They flew high up and boinged on me again! I couldn't keep hold of them!

After that, all bets were off. Feathers think they're better than me, do they? Think they can boing me then run away, do they? I don't think so. I chased and chased and chased them. On and off the bed, along the floor, even up the wall once. Sometimes I missed them altogether, but when I did catch them, I hung on and killed them until they were good and dead! They didn't stay dead for long though. Even when the human got back into bed, I wasn't convinced they were really dead, even though they stayed very still on the floor where she'd dropped them. I stalked closer, then pounced... And they were mine! I dragged them from one side of the room to the other, and this time, I killed them good! They even stayed dead when I was done with them. I have buried them under the human's bed ready to play with again tonight when she does the snore noise thing.

I think I've decided I like feather strings. Do any of you think they're good fun? Do yours come back to life too? If so, do you have any tricks for killing them dead even when your people is still bringing them back to life? Hunting is fun!

To finish off, my human caught me scratching again this morning, and says I'm making another scab on my neck. She says while I was in the vet they put a collar on so that I couldn't scratch, and the scab had healed nicely. I didn't scratch for a while after that, so she thinks it's the itching of the healing cut that makes me do it more, and that, if I'd just give my skin a rest, they might go away for good. She has ordered something called Soft Claws from the computer box for me. She says she had to give some of her moneys for them which I was worried about cuz we really don't have a lot at the minute thanks to mr bug, but that if it keeps my skin better, she doesn't mind going easy on the food shopping this month. As long as it's not my food shopping she's intending to go easy on! Have any of you ever used these before? The human says they won't hurt me and that they just slip on over my claws to blunt the tips, but I'm not so sure I like that idea. If you've used them, did you like them Ok? The human says she'd like peoples thoughts too. She's not sure she's done the right thing in ordering, but she says my skin is important enough to try it.

I can't say see you tomorrow, cuz thanks to my human and her not blogging every day, I don't know if I will! Silly human.