Yummy Tummy Tuesday

Friends, in preparation for my upcoming show this week, I must be a good ladycat and allow every inch of me to be groomed. Can you see how good I am in this picture? I only bit the comb a zillion times as it groomed the floof on my yummy tummy!






My human says that I have really long whiskers that tickle her a lot when I put my face near hers, which I'm doing more and more of lately. In the shows, there's a class for the cat with the longest whiskers, but because I'm a pedigree ladycat and not shown as a household pet, I can't enter it. How much of a bummer is that! My human says I'd win that class. Do any of you have really long whiskers like me?





The human says that my show bath will be tomorrow now, which I'm relieved about. One more day without torture is a good day in my book! I slept on the bed a little with her last night, but she did have to coax me. She sat me down and had a good talk to me last night, so I thought i'd better give in a little. I didn't like the sound of her getting tough on me. When it comes to things like that, my human is surprisingly effective thanks to her thinking she knows all about cat behaviour. Why does she have to be smart in that sort of area, and so stupid when it comes to the simple things like giving out treats on demand and learning to use a litterbox propperly? Honestly, I don't think I'll ever totally work these creatures out!





I'm getting ready for my big party around here. The human says I can have some more of my new toys on that day, but get this, she says I can't have any stinky goodness! Apparently you shouldn't give it to a ladycat with as much floof as me right before a show unless you make them wear a bib, cuz it stains the fur of the ruff at the front. I'd rather not have stinky goodness than wear a bib, so I'll just wait till the next day and then eat loads of it! I'm not a humankitten, and I will not degrade myself enough to permit a bib to be put on me!





In other news, the human says that she gets to go see the babycats that we told you about a little while ago that were born to a friend's mummycat. They will be five weeks old, and thankfully, the six that were born alive all survived! They will still need some hand feeding as they don't like big cat food yet, so the human will even get to do that! She says she can't wait to have a lap full of babies, and she said it in a tone that demanded I listened. I just laughed at her. If she's hinting at me to get busy and start my elevator bum again, she'll have a long wait! i'll decide when I'm ready for my babies, thank you very much.





The human says she's going to go shopping during the day with her friend too, so she'd better bring me back something to justify me letting her go and see other cats, even if they are cute babies! What should I have in my list of demands?





Now, it's time to catch up on my napping before she gets me ready for the horrid bath! I hear in the grape vine that the Katnip Crew are being cruelly tortured by their peoples, so if any of you want to come nap with me in a house that loves you as you should be loved, then feel free to drop in!... Especially you mancats.

Monday Monday

Friends, just a quicky post from me today, as the human forgot to write for me until now, and now she's tired!




Since last I wrote, I haven't really done much except cuddle with the human and love on Dogman who went away again yesterday. Whenever he's here though, he takes the human away from me a lot. She says she goes walking with him, but I don't care. Her being anywhere other than by my side is not good, and so I've been less loving to Dogman than before jus to show my displeasure.





I continue to sleep by my litterboxes instead of with the human, but she took up the little bit of carpet that used to be in front of them, and put down a mat instead. Last night I spent more time with her than normal, so she's wondering if the carpet had something to do with me sleeping there. However, every chance I get I sneak off in there to hide. The human says she can't always chase me out cuz I now watch for her coming, and only get up to move when I know she's going to kick me out of my napping spot. The human says that if it was just me that was always going to live here, she'd put up with it, but as other cats are going to join us, she needs to help me kick this habit before it really sets in. She says I'm not allowed to do it when others come, cuz then they won't use the litterbox cuz I'm guarding it. She says that now that she's sure I'm not stressed, she's gonna get tougher on me... I don't like the sound of that one little bit!





The human's ears are also feeling much better today. She says they don't feel like they're under water any more, but I've been on her lap all day snuggling just to make sure. I'm certain it's been my diligent nursing that's pulled her through this last bad spell!





She says that I might get my show bath tomorrow, but maybe she'll do it on Wednesday. She hasn't decided yet. Either way, you'll get the pics as soon as my torture is complete!





Until then, keep those peoples guessing!

Saturday Stuff

Friends, I'm so ticked off that my human didn't write for me yesterday, cuz I had stuff to tell you. She says she wasn't up to it for ages, and then when she was, Dogman arrived as usual to stay with us for the weekend, so she had to talk to him. I say my mewsingsg are way more important than silly people talk, but she's so dumb that she won't even agree on that point! Let me tell you about my yesterday.





I ended up being on nurse duty for a lot of it. When she got up in the morning, the human said she'd be taking a trip to the human vet to have her ears sorted out. She said they were going to remove the wax build up by squirting lots of warm water into her ear so that it would get flushed out. I thought this was a pretty poor idea of having a good time, and she agreed. She says that it always is a massive struggle afterwards, cuz her hearing is so important to her, and that it's nasty and scary for her having it done. I offered to do some paw holding, but she says they don't allow cats into the human vet. how about that for double standards! Peoples are actually required to be with us at the cat vet! Unfair, unfair!





With the help of a friend, I managed to bundle her up in her human PTU, and then turned her security over to said friend to make sure she didn't escape on the way there. It must have been pretty awful, cuz when they brought her back, she was really wobbly and a bit white in the face. She said her ears were all funny, and when the friend had helped her back to the sofa, she didn't move for a long time. Friend said I was to cuddle her lots, and I did just that. I nursed her good!





A little while later, the door knocked, and the human dragged herself off to answer it. Guess what? it was my stuff from the auction that I bid on to help Shell! Let me start by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to the wonderful peoples that donated this stuff so that I could eventually end up with it, and help Shell in the process! I got a book all about babycats in their new homes which I will use to write up my advice for new kitten owners, and I also got the Harp of Hope CD. Now, let me tell you, this is something real, real special. When the human saw what it was, she packed herself straight off to bed to listen to it in the hopes her ears would feel better when she got up.





I haven't slept on the bed with the human for ages. Sure, I'll start off there for alittle while, but when she wakes in the morning, I'm usually out sleeping by my litter trays again. But when this CD went on, after about 20 minutes, I could stand it no longer, and crept up to cuddle the human. I've never slept so good in my life, and the human who normally doesn't have a hope of sleeping during the day slept for well over an hour! Her ears were still uncomfortable when she got up, but they'd gotten better a bit. What's more important to her though was the fact that we got some snuggle time on the bed. I don't really know why I'm hanging out so much by my smelly toilet trays, and why I'm only doing it at night instead of going to the comfy bed. I just do it.





The human had plans to scan in the book that we'd just been given so that the talking man in the computer box could read it to her, but she never did do it cuz a lot of shopping arrived just shortly after that. There was loads of peoples food, but was there anything for me? No! Not even cat treats! The human says I don't need any after the loads I got sent, but I simply don't agree with that. Every cat needs treats, don't they? And you can never have enough! All she got me was two bags of stinky litter for my boxes. As if that's exciting! I ask you!





By the time she had put all that away she was feeling pretty rough again, so went for another long sit down. Then Dogman arrived. He took the human for a walk, after making lots of fuss with me, of course. I advised him that fresh air might help clear her ears a bit, and even if it did nothing else, it'd take her out of my fur for a bit too. he agreed, and so off they went. I've never seen my human walk so slowly! Still, she says the outdoors did indeed help, and they ended up walking a few miles before they came back. She got to listen to the birdies as they went from full song into night time sleep, and she says that kind of thing is good for the soul. Good for the stomach, if you ask me, but hey, I'm not a people.





I spent all of last night keeping the human awake by playing with my toys, running around, and generally having a good time. Ah, it's good to be a cat! I was just punnishing her for not writing my blog, cuz there was something really special I wanted to tell you. Yesterday was my last Friday of being three years old. Yep, that's right, next Friday, only one day before I become a show cat again, is my Birthday and I will be four years old! I haven't decided what to do for my Birthday yet, and nor has the human. This is the first of my birthdays that she's been with me for. I can't go too mad cuz of my show the next day on accounta the fact that I gotta be well rested, so any ideas would be welcome. I'll be travelling to the HG's house that day too cuz we're staying over there the night before the show. Do you think she'll buy me lots of nice goodies cuz she'll see me on my Birthday? how do I make her do it! Should I throw a small house party? Help!





I plan to spend my last Saturday as a three-year-old napping to catch up on all the sleep I missed last night by keeping my human awake. She on the other hand, will have to stay awake. Did I mention it's good being a cat?





Update: I've just learned that miss Shell sadly left us to travel on to the rainbow bridge. I am sorry that it was her time to go. Please could you all send good thoughts to the ones she left behind? Shell, you will be missed so much. You fought so well for one who was so ill.





To read her story and leave your thoughts please Visit her blog.

Progress?

Friends, it's me! Well, who else did you think it was gonna be? Hahah! Today, my human is very happy, and it has to do with that boring old trust thing again! Let me tell you all about it.




As most of you now know, Dogface has retired, so the human is having to use a white stick to get around places. She says the propper name for this is a long cane, but then she says that it's white and it's a stick and she likes to call a spade a spade. Now I don't know what a spade has to do with a white stick, or why she's bringing the vet peoples into this, cuz I'm not due to be spaded for ages! But she's a human, and so I just shake my head and get on with thinking about higher things when she has little turns like this.





Because she's now using the stick, she has to learn how to get places all over again, and so some peoples come to the house occasionally, and she picks up the stick and leaves with them. They go and teach her for a long time and then they come back. The human is usually tired after it cuz it's hard brain work for a people to learn a lot at once, and learning with the stick requires an enormous amount of concentration. She covered about two and a half miles in today's session alone, and that's a lot of walking, if ya ask me! But i'm getting ahead of myself.





So, today, one of these peoples came to the house. He was a manpeople, and he seemed to be quite nice, but you know my views on strangers, folks. Steer well clear! I have a thing about manpeoples too. Well, I have a thing about ladypeoples as well, but it takes me longer to like manpeoples than ladypeoples. When he came in, I didn't run away straight away, but I didn't tell him hello either. I might have hid a little on the human's lap, but can we just say that I jumped up there for a cuddle? It'd make me feel a whole lot better if we took that approach.





Then it was time for her to leave for her learning, and me to get in a quick nap. After a long time, they both came back in again, and it was then that the manpeople really came into his own. Do you know what he did? He said hello to me just like my human does when she comes in the door, and he didn't move quickly when he passed me. When they had both sat down, I went to snuggle the human just to say welcome home. I went right to the end of her knee and sat there for a long time just looking at the manpeople as he talked to the human. Any time he caught me looking, he would tell me hello again, but not once did he reach out to try and pick me up. I decided to be brave, and I jumped down from the human and went and sat by his feet. He reached down and he tickled me! Then he started to tell the human and me all about his mancat who is old now. Well, I thought, if he has a cat, and a mancat at that, he's surely got some trustability. With a deep breath, I jumped up on the chair beside him, but he did nothing other than tickle me! This was good, I thought as I breathed a sigh of relief and crept a little closer.





He and the human carried on talking about animals for longer, and they both were laughing about how they treat us like peoples almost too much and spoil us too much. I laughed too, up my furry sleeve of course, cuz I know that this particular human treats me better than a people. She told him all about how sick I got and how close she came to losing me, and he said that his old mancat would go soon, and he thinks he'll be upset enough that he'll have to take a whole year off the work hunt! Then he laughed a little at himself, but seemed reassured when the human told him that she, unlike many other peoples, totally understood this deep attachment and care for your cat. See? I've taught her well! All the while he was talking, I was getting closer and closer, and he was tickling and tickling, and by the time he was finished, I even gave him a head bumpy!





When he left, I didn't run away, even when he stood up, something I don't normally like. I enjoyed my time with him, and even gave him head bumpies when he was going, and asked him with a little miaow not to go. He laughed, gave me a tickle and told me he'd be back at some point, so not to worry. I really like him! And that's made the human very happy. She says it's a good thing that I am beginning not to be afraid of new peoples. She's wanted this for me for some time now, cuz she wants me to know that everybody that comes in will love me. Now I know that's not true, and I told her so. I will continue to pick and choose who I like, but perhaps I won't run away so often now, not if they're all like this nice people!





Have a good Thursday, friends, and keep checking back! I promise you there will be a few more pictures to come whenever I can get them! On Tuesday, there'll be loads. It will be the day I have my last bath before my big show next weekend, and now that that lovely student people has taken lots of pictures, I can talk you through the process, and even show you! Have you ever seen a purple ladycat before? You won't be able to say no to that question after Tuesday! Intrigued? Keep coming back and all will be answered very, very soon!

Yummy Tummy Tuesday... On Wednesday!

Exhibit A

over the last few months, I've been talking about trust in the human. It 

takes a lot to get this from me, and so it should from any cat. Peoples are 

stupid. We cats are born with the knowledge that we are superior, this only 

reinforced by all of the idiotic things our peoples do on a daily basis. So 

to learn to trust one in spite of all of this is rather a big deal if you 

ask me. Add to that the fact that I was definitely not trusting when I came 

to this human, and you can see that whenever I show a modicom of deciding to 

go down that path, it gives the human a great deal of pleasure. In support of this, note exhibit A.





The look of apparent bliss on my face as my human bestows affection upon 

the floofy yummy tummy is not, in fact, real. It's simply put there for the 

benefit of peoples, as I know it makes them go all mooshy, and when a people 

is mooshy, it leads to better amounts of treats! For the sake of my human 

and her dysfunctional eyes, I added loud purring and a few well timed 

miaows. As any cat worth their salt will tell you, this is not an indication 

that I am thoroughly enjoying this activity. It's only a way of getting the 

human to capitulate without a fight. And you know what? It worked!





The moral of the story? Trust isn't such a bad thing... Not when it gets 

you treats!





Have a yummy tummy Tuesday, friends, and show off that floof! you never 

know, it might actually gain you something worthwhile!

I'm Famous!

Or at least, I will be in a few months. Do you remember me telling you the last time I posted that over this weekend, something cool was going to happen? Well, today that something did.




you remember that I go to shows, don't you? Well, my next one is coming up in about a month, and so the human has started the stupid old "let's bath the cat every two weeks" rubbish again to make sure my coat looks its best on the day. Recently, she was contacted by a Media student who was very interested in the ins and outs of showing cats. She wants to do her end of year project on it, and asked if the human would be willing for her to come up and take some photos and video of how she gets me ready for show. Without even consulting me first, the human said she didn't mind at all. Honestly, the nerve! I didn't shout at her though, cuz let's face it, every cat wants to be the centre of attention, don't they? And that's exactly what I'll be. The student is going to do an exhibition, and guess what? I'm gonna be the cover girl! Well, they didn't confirm that, and she did say to the human that she also wanted to feature another people and their cat, but I just know I'm gonna be the one on the cover!





The cover of what, you say. Well, she's hoping to do a sort of fold out book, rather like a consertina affair. She's been thinking too and says she wants to do an etching for the front of it, and then emboss it so that the human too can appreciate some of her work! Isn't that lovely? We might even be given a copy to keep for our very own!





She came today and took lots of pictures of me in my bath and while I was being dried. At the start I didn't mind, but by the end of it, I was thoroughly fed up with the whole thing, so much so in fact that I hissed at her when she tried to come close! It's not cuz I didn't like her. I'm just practicing being a diva, that's all. But I do now understand what you all are talking about when you say that the flashy box is an annoyance. It really is! I think I could learn to hate it, but for now, I'll allow its flash to flash unchallenged, cuz it means that lotsa peoples are gonna get to look at me!





I just want to address something about Caboodle to follow up. It's been brought to my attention firstly that Caboodle will actively sue anyone who posts a defammatory story about them, and secondly, that the pictures I was sent are up all over the internet with inconsistent dates as to when they were taken. In light of both of these things, I'm not going to take the story any further, and am sorry if I've posted something which wasn't entirely justified. I did it for the good of the cats potentially stuck in those situations, but I think in future I'll just keep my mouth shut. I've been thinking about this for many, many days now, deliberating with myself. After all, it's us little folk who can get things done by raising awareness of issues such as this, so I didn't make the decision not to go ahead lightly. I also didn't decide not to post about anything like this again lightly, for that very same reason, but I think that unless I've been there and seen things myself, I'm going to steer well clear of it. If I can work out how, I'm going to take the Caboodle post down, and I will also pray very hard that if what was said there is true, someone will step in and help out..





To clear up something else that Craft Cat posted, Clouder does not own this blog, no. he just contributes to it with his super duper technical know how! He's a whizz! Nope, it's me, Tia, that owns this blog, and it'd better stay that way!





Well friends, I'm quite worn out after all my photo shoots, so I think I deserve a long, long nap. The human says that the student promised her faithfully that she'd send her pictures, so when we get them, we'll try and put them up! I might do a series of them leading up to my show day. Who knows! Have a smashing Sunday!

Fun on Friday

Sorry I haven't been around again for the last few days, friends, but I've just been so busy playing with all of the amazing toys I was sent! I have so much news to tell you today!





Ok, most important thing first, toys. Eventually, the human did give me my mat that smelled like catnip to play with, and you know what? It was a refillable catnip mat! There's a little zip in one side that the human can open and pour loads and loads of catnip in there. And it even came with a bag of its own! Is this a Boogie Mat? When Dogface came round (I'll tell you why in a minute) the human picked the mat off the floor so that she couldn't lie on it and get dogface stink all mixed up with the lovely smell of catnip, and she put it on a little table where she forgot all about it. Well yesterday when she was trying to find me, she discovered me on that table on my side with my feets stretched right out. Friends, I was soooooo zoned! I don't normally climb on tables, but the smell of that scrummy catnip was too much even for me not to go look! She still hasn't given me my nanner. She says I gotta wait for that too cuz I'm a spoiled cat at the moment with so many toys that I don't know what to play with next! I disagree. A ladycat can never have too many toys, right? She's put a lot of them away and is now rotating them which is fun cuz I get to discover new toys all over again every day, but not fun cuz I want to play with them all! now! All the time! Forever! Please friends, tell me how I can make her give me them all back? They're mine, and she shouldn't take them away from me!





But there's more news to come! I got another parcel in the post! Another one! And guess what? It had more treats and toys in it just for me! There was another letter, again very thoughtfully typed so that the human could get the talking man in the computer to read it to her. This one said that it was from all of my friends at The Random Felines.
You should go see them! Their people even put in a present for my human! It was chocolate with nutty stuff in (she told me the propper name for them, but whateva, I'm trying to get to the toys as quick as I can!). Anyway, she loved them, and says thank you, thank you, thank you to the Random Felines people for sending her such a yummy gift! She shared them, but she didn't want to!





now onto the important bit, the toys! They were lots of fun! I got a few sparkly things which are soooo much fun to bat around and chase. I did this for a loooooong time when the human gave them to me. I also got a ball with a feather on it. I tell you what, you toy makers in America are soooo clever. First you put feathers on a mousey, and now on a ball! It's sooooo cool to have a bird mousey and a bird ball in my house. I chased it and chased it and chased it, and when I caught it, I chased it some more!





But you know what else was in that package? Treats! More treats! I'm not sure what one type are called, so maybe if the people of the Random Felines could leave a comment, you can all see? But the other type? PARTY MIX! PARTY MIX! Did you hear me? PARTY MIX! I love, love, love, love party mix! Even though I'd had some not so long ago, as soon as I heard the packet, I came running, and I shouted so long and loud that my human had to give me more. Oh Random friends, thank you so, so much! It was such a nice parcel you sent! And the party mix was great!





This whole toy exchange has been so, so much fun. It's given me and the human such a look into what other peoples buy for the most important member of their household. Thank you very much to the cats at Amy's and to the Random Felines for agreeing to take part in this experiment. It's going to be tough to top this when it comes to the 200th post. I'd better start thinking of ways to celebrate!





Some of you asked about my favouritest hut in the universe that came out of Amy's parcel. It's called a Starry Night hut and I think it's made by PetStages. Amy, please correct me if I'm wrong, cuz the human had to do a search on the internet and hope that the product she found was the same as what you sent for me. It sounds the same, so let's hope! It has what they call peek-a-boo mesh all the way around it on the top sides so that my human can play peek at the cat to make sure I'm all right, and I can play peek at her to make sure she's getting my treats. Well, this doesn't work so well for the human cuz she can't peek, but the big opening in the front is her peek-a-boo mesh, cuz her hands come through there a lot to check what i'm doing, and to tickle me. My human put my favourite towel in the play hut, so I sleep in there a lot now. Round the sides is a band of material that has what we first thought were pokey dots on it. This had me a bit worried. Pokey dots didn't sound like pleasant bedfellows. You can't sleep if dots are poking you, can you! But it turns out they're actually really tiny little stars that apparently shine in the dark. This is so neat cuz it means I will always be able to find my favouritest hut, and I can go stargazing without ever having to get my ladycatness cold by going outside! Just to add to the perfection, my human stuck one of my pipe cleaners in the mesh in there, so not only is it a great sleeping place, it's a super thwapping place too! This hut is just perfect, and anyone who doesn't have one yet should kick up a torrential fuss until your people agrees to buy you one for every room in the house! It's not that you want one friends, you need one. Believe me!





Although Dogman's been here, I couldn't get him to take pictures of all my neat stuff. He only came to go to his sister's wedding you see, so he's been busy running around and doing stuff. So has the human, actually. She's been helping organise stuff, as she is very close to the family, so close in fact that she got invited to the family only bit of the wedding reception yesterday! That's also why we have had stupid Dogface in the house with us. Dogman and his mum couldn't look after her for the last couple of days. Well, they could, but time was tight and they were rushing around here, there and everywhere, so the human said she'd have Dogface for them to make things easier on them. I've been watching her closely. In fact, I'm dictating this message to the human from the hall where she is. But it's such a pain having her back in the house. She eats everything she sees. The human has to guard my foods and my toys for me, and it's soooo annoying. she also gets dog stink everywhere when she lies down or wags her massive tail. Dogman caught me hitting her again yesterday, but she'd just wagged me off the arm of the sofa again! It's impossible to keep your balance when a tail hits you in the face with that sort of force! Luckily, my human didn't laugh at me and Dogman didn't see it, so my dignity remained intact once I'd whapped her for her insolence. She goes home today, hopefully, and so does Dogman which is not so good. I'll miss him!





The human came back early from the wedding yesterday to look after us both, but Dogman didn't get back till late, and he smelled all funny. The human says he'd been drinking, but this doesn't make sense. We all drink all the time, and yet we don't smell funny like he did, and we don't get all tired and wobbly like he did. I was actually afraid he was very sick. Often sick things will give off a different smell, and when they're really sick, they might wobble like he does. But the human reassured me that he didn't need to be rushed to a people vet. She says this is what some peoples do to celebrate things like their sister getting married. I'll never understand them. how is getting sick a fitting celebration for a happy event?





He was sposed to be going back to his work hunt this morning which is very far away from here, but when the human went in to wake him up, he was still too sick to go. He's got to go back home today at some point, but for the moment, he's snoring his head off so hard that I can hear him all the way from the living room where I've just come into to see the human. She says she's going to go hold his nose in a minute if he doesn't be quiet. Then she laughed, a lot. Strange human.





Before I forget, Karen left us a comment a little while back asking about the surgery for the human's eyes, and, stupid as she is, the human forgot to answer. I'll do it for her. She still hasn't heard any more on the surgery. Nobody's gotten back to her yet which she's sad about. She says she'll probably give them till the end of the month and then phone them back to see what's going on. As soon as we hear though, we'll keep you posted!





Wow, that was a long post, wasn't it? I think I've said enough for one day. Oh, just to keep you going, I'm going to become a famous cat over this weekend if all goes according to plan, so famous in fact that I'll be used in a presentation to lots of peoples at a university! Want to know more? you'll just have to wait!





Happy Friday, Friends.