310th Carnival of the Cats

Izumi: "Doh! Momma forgot we were hosting the carnival. AGAIN."


Maggie: "What's that Izumi? Carnival? Oh boy! I can put off my nap for this!"

So we don't have to wait any longer, let's go ahead and get started, shall we?

We're dedicating this carnival to Kate, who has went on to the Rainbow Bridge. Rest in peace, sweet Kate.

Hakuna dukes out with Honey Bunny for equal blog space over at Blog d'Elisson. Two parts cute equals lots of photo opportunities!

Nikita's Birthday will be here soon, and his daddy gives Nikita the first of many awesome gifts to celebrate.

Also at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat, Nikita takes issue with the essay "House Rules for Pets" from the United Pet Care website.

Not only do we have the Winter Olympics, but check out some of the Animal Olympic Events over at Cokie the Cat's site.

Speaking of Animal Olympic Events, Samantha and Clementine go for the gold in the highly skilled competitive napping event.

Competitive napping is a big deal to kitties and the right position is key. Check out Mrs. Othello in a classic yet effective nap curl pose.


Kal-el: "I'm in training for the next Olympics. I call this "Log o' Kitty". It's a very risky manuever, but I'll win the gold for sure."

Right...you get any bigger and it's going to be "Lard O' Kitty". Let's continue.

Cats are also champion cuddlers. Luna shows off her cuddly side with her blue fish over at CatSynth.

Humans are so picky about their hair and who styles it. Thanks to Gizmo, we see that felines are just as picky about grooming.

Maddie enjoys a snooze in the sun (and apparently enjoys sitting on the porch watching snow fall) over at StrangeRanger.

Ritzi finally finds a peaceful place away from Meowza in a spot that's typically reserved for human quiet time.

Meowza is distracted from Ritzi from the tons of tummy rubs he's been getting lately. Of course, we're not surprised...who can resist that tummy?

Cats should be no surprise at When Cats Attack...but dogs too? Maggie provides commentary on the Westminster Dog Show, and Lupin is introduced.

A happy Meowza rolls in the dirt to celebrate Valentine's Day (or any day, for that matter) and sends sandpaper kisses to his Valentine Sally.


All: "Hello LADEE. We've done our part in hosting, now it's your turn. Pay up."

Uh oh, since the herd is circling in the kitchen, I suppose that means it's time for dinner. It's time for us to say goodbye.

Thanks for letting us host! Next week's carnival is at Sniffie and the Florida Furkids.

Dogs? On When Cats Attack? EGADS!

This post is going to the dogs! Eeek!

The other night, we watched part of the Westminster Dog Show. We amused ourselves with snark over the commentators and over the fact that 90% of the terriers looked almost exactly alike.

Soon, however, we realized that there was another unlikely spectator in the house.


Maggie was fascinated by the dog show. He didn't hiss or puff up like a big Cheeto or anything.


He just sat and watched most of the terrier group, not making a peep.


He even picked out who he think should win. Sadly, his pick did not win the group. Our favorites never do.

Speaking of dogs...we have had a new addition to the household since last summer, but my pitiful lack of posting has kept me from introducing him earlier.

Meet Lupin.



Lupin, like most of the other animals in this house, just showed up one day. He was bestest buddies with the dog across the street, but the owner couldn't take on another dog, and this dog had no identification or collar. Adam gave me the big sad eyes and started talking about how GREAT it would be to have a dog.

Now, let me be clear. I like dogs very much. I grew up with Huskies and Samoyeds my whole life, and my dog Misty was wonderful. I didn't get to be a cat person until college. But it's been a long time since I taken care of a dog. This one in particular seemed extra bouncy and would nip at my hands. Plus, we didn't have a fence or anything for the dog, and he definitely couldn't be inside with the herd of cats, some of which hate dogs with a vile passion. And, well, it's one more mouth to feed, and we already have too many of those around here.

But after a long talk & bout of the Big Sad Eyes, I agreed to the dog, and so now we have a dog. We believe he is a Husky/Lab mix and is about 2 years old. He now has a fence and tons of toys & treat-filled Kong toys to keep him busy.

We had to bring him inside during some extremely cold nights this winter, and he did very well in his little room. He didn't pee or poop everywhere (held it until he went back out in the morning, actually) and didn't make a peep all night. As we were bringing him in & he saw the cats, he didn't bark or try to take off after them.

Now if he'd just quit barking so much outside & calm down a little, he'd be the perfect dog.

Sadly though, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed and gets confused when he sees snowflakes. Or a blade of grass. Or just about anything.

Can Haz Spring Plz?

I'm officially over winter. We've been getting so many significant snowfalls in the past few months here in Northern Tennessee. Of course, significant to us is more than a few inches. Other parts of the country may scoff at that, but Tennesseans spazz out over that small amount because a) we don't have the dozens of plows & salt trucks that northern areas of the country have and b) most of the people here have hardly seen snow, much less have any clue how to drive in snow or sleet. Thus a few inches or more makes for a stressful drive.



Fortunately, I have a job that is pretty flexible in allowing me to work from home when the weather gets bad. My daily commute is 2 hours and my job is in Nashville while I live in a northern county which is far more rural and hilly. While I am grateful I don't have to live in Nashville, it makes commuting difficult during weather like this. While Nashville may get only a dusting, we wind up snowed in and with no hope of getting the streets plowed for days (and I live within city limits of my tiny little town). Not only do I have to navigate bad roads to get to a cleared area, I also have to deal with drivers on the interstate who have no idea what they are doing. And since I am still using my parents' car to drive to and from work right now, I can't take the chance of it getting hit and not having anything else to fall back on. So if it looks bad, I just stay home.



More snow is due tomorrow. Fortunately I have Presidents Day off from work, so lets hope it's cleared by Monday afternoon.



Speaking of cars, I am having a horrible time with my insurance company. The jerk who hit my car has no insurance. Fortunately I have uninsured motorist coverage. But, surprise surprise, they are having a hard time getting in touch with him. There is a chance that I won't see a dime out of this claim. My car may be fixable, but it's a total mess and I need a new car for my long commute. I had hoped to use that money towards a new vehicle, but now I'm not sure if I'll get anything. Honestly, I'm not as worried about the money as I am angry over how hard it is to track this guy down. He lives in Kentucky...I have his name, city, drivers license number, license plate number - it's ridiculous. I want some freakin' justice for the fact that he doesn't have insurance. In the state of Kentucky, that can get your license taken away. He gave me an insurance card and acted like he was covered, and that pisses me off more. I have to pay out the nose for car insurance to keep my car & my license (TN has the same laws as KY). Why should he be able to get off with no penalty whatsoever?

Tried calling some colleges this past week. I still want to teach, and my plan was to go for my master's degree in the fall by taking night courses & working full time. If I get it in Education, I could get certified & teach in two years. I'm not sure if this is going to happen, though. So far, the colleges only have M. Ed. degrees in high need areas like math or science, and you have to have your B.S. in one of those areas in order to get in. My B.S. is in Business, which is also what I'd like to teach. So at this point, it looks like I may have to go back and get another B.S. in teacher certification. Since they don't offer those classes at night, I may be waiting at least 4 years to go this route.

I just feel stuck, you know? Stuck waiting on my car, stuck in my job, stuck waiting to fix up the house...I even feel stuck in therapy right now. For financial reasons and other reasons out of my control, I don't feel like I can take a step in any direction to make life happier. I have been slipping into a hole more and more since probably October of last year, and I don't see any way to dig myself out.

And a cold, wet, foggy, snowy winter is not helping at ALL with my mood. Please, go away.

Kitteh Updates - Is 12 a herd?

Wow, two weeks in a row posting. I'm on a roll!

I thought I'd give you an update on the kittehs. We are still holding at 12 total. Here's a few of them milling around the kitchen, waiting for their dinners.



Felix is doing well. He still prefers his favorite hobbies of sleeping and eating. He has a rare allergy to some type of mite that you typically find on animals (that they usually don't react to) which is causing him to overgroom above his eyes and the backs of his front legs. We're treating it with Advantage Multi once a month to keep down the mite levels & 1/2 tablet of Chlorpheniramine twice a day to keep down the itchies.


Here's Felix, not joining the other kitties (Bagheera, Maggie, and oddly enough, Pepper) in their pile of snuggle.

Tiger is having territory issues. I think he is one of the culprits of random markings through the house. He constantly gets into squabbles with Quixote & Kal-el. No health issues these last few months, but he did get a UTI back in November. I've now got them all on Purina One Urinary Tract Health in the hopes that food does the trick & I won't have to go back to the Hill's C/D.

After Miya's passing, Pepper has become our new elderly cat with 20,000 health issues. As of her last checkup, her heart murmur hasn't changed (I think it's a Level 3?) hopefully with the help of atenolol, her thyroid levels look good thanks to her methimazole, and her pinched nerve/back issue only bothers her occasionally & we treat her with Metacam probably once a week for that. But now she also has a potassium deficiency, and we're adding that supplement to her medicine regiment twice a day. She's hanging in there though, and definitely is still a lovebug.


Pepper is not happy about the state of the unmade bed, or the lack of a person in it to snuggle with.

Winry is still bouncy & tiny & cute & compact. She loves to curl up on my chest or in my lap.


Compact kitty. More efficiency for less cat!

Scamper is still floofy. She greatly disapproves of Oreo, the latest addition, and gets into squabbles with him constantly. She's become more affectionate toward me.


Scamper does not approve of cookie cats. Especially cookie cats who steal her sleep spots.

Bagheera is still huge. He isn't as much of a bully, but when he gets bored he goes out of his way to find someone to terrorize.

Sidonia is still quiet & sweet. I try to protect her from some of the other bullies, and she's becoming more lovable.

Quixote is also becoming more affectionate and is beginning to hang out in Spidey's room all the time, which is unusual for the antisocial one. He loves to terrorize Tiger.


Quixote: "I'm innocent! See this innocent face? Pet me and lets forget this whole silly 'terrorize' thing, shall we?"

Izumi is the cat equivalent of Velcro. She will sit in your lap all day and wants to be carried around all day and wants to lay on you every moment you are asleep. You must avoid eye contact when focusing on something else, because if she sees you looking at her or if you touch her, you will not be able to get rid of her for hours.

Maggie is a jealous little baby. He's definitely full grown, but he acts like a big kitten that must be snuggled with and carried at all times. There's nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to him snuffling your nose and trying to snuggle with your FACE.


Maggie: "But Momma, I's so cute. I am just a big kitten...see?"

If Kal-el gets any bigger, he could double as Chewbacca in any new Star Wars films. He is gorgeous and fluffy and very loving, but you have to be careful of the sharp claws, because he knows how to use them. As big of a tomcat as he is, he is TERRIFIED of little clawless Tiger.


Kal: "I hate that little tiger-striped whiny beast."

And finally Oreo, the newest to join the group. He is becoming very affectionate & is very sweet. He does get into quite a few squabbles & bullies around some of the others like Scamper (I think she has a price on his head for stealing her sleep spots) & Sidonia, but for the most part, he's pretty quiet.


Here's Oreo, posing nicely for the camera.

The biggest issues we have these days is random territory marking (even though they are all spayed & neutered) and the occasional squabble needing to be broken up with the help of my new best friend, a spray water bottle.

While they seem like an army at times when they group up, and the constant vet visits & costs stress me out, they are a never ending source of entertainment & love & I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Let's just forget January even happened, shall we?

You know, I look back over my blog posts, and it seems sad that all my personal posts are so depressing. I know I'm tired of feeling that way, and I'm sure everyone else is tired of reading it.

I think that's why I hold off so long between posts. I just flat out feel down in the dumps, and I don't want to heap my troubles onto anyone else. I've felt this way for a long long time. But my therapist said it's best to write all this stuff down & get it out of my head, and since I haven't actually been physically writing it, I guess I'll try this instead.

The only hope I had for 2010 was for it to be better than 2009. And so far it hasn't worked out so well.

1) Adam was officially laid off from his job on the 15th. This is both good & bad. Good because now he's taken over the household duties & can spend more time with Raven. Good because he now can start college in the fall. Good because his unemployment is only a few hundred dollars less than his previous pay. Bad because it only lasts until the fall when we though it would be a year. Bad because even if you take away childcare and extra gas, that still puts a dent in our income. Bad because I feel resentful that he can go back to school so easily, but now I'm definitely in my job for the long haul.

2) The weekend after Adam was laid off, we decided to have our last big "date night" for a while. I had won an award at work in December, and part of the award was money to be used towards a "night out on the town". Now, Adam & I would rather stay at home with movies & the Wii than go out anywhere, but since this was a reimbursement deal, we had to actually "go out".

We decided to go see "Avatar" at the IMAX theater at Opry Mills, eat dinner at Dave & Busters, play a few games there, then go see Here Come the Mummies (Their lyrics can be crude & a little inappropriate, but the music is great) at a club/concert venue in Nashville. So we were all set to have one last great "date" out before we had to tighten our money belts.

And thus the Date of Doom begins.

Some idiot hit my car as we arrived at Opry Mills. There were two lanes, and he just decided to move on over to the left lane without noticing the OTHER CAR, hey Hey HEYYYYYY ZOMG! So he smashed up my front passenger fender & made it cry & made my bumper sag in defeat. The police would not come out since it happened on Opry Mills (private) property, so I got his insurance information & wondered how we were going to make the hour's drive home.

Since we were already there and now in a parking space, we ran to catch the movie. I had bought tickets online, and there were no refunds. We wound up being about 40 minutes late to the movie, but what we did see of Avatar was amazing & well worth the IMAX/3D trip. After the movie, we found a hardware store & bought a cord to hold up the bumper & officially promote the car from "sad sight" to "white trash city". We determined we could drive the car home, but it made a horrible scraping noise of tire against bumper when we turned left. We decided to try to stick out the rest of the night.

On to Dave & Busters...where I proceeded to get food poisoning & spent the entire game time holed up in the bathroom. I was ready to go home at this point, but once again, I had bought tickets for the Mummies show ahead of time, and I was determined to go, pukey or no pukey.

The Mummies show was at 12th & Porter, for those of you familiar with Nashville. I will never ever ever EVER go to that place again. I am not really a club/crowd person, but can deal with it if there's a decently behaved crowd. And do you think I would catch a break like that after the day I had?

I spent 3 agonizing hours on my feet, being jostled & elbowed by 20,000 different drunk people, & only managed to see a third of the show when some drunken lumbering Green Giant of a man wasn't standing right in front of me.

The band was fantastic...if it had been a typical concert venue with seats, I would've been so happy. But alas, that was not the case. There was shoving, and arguing, and rudeness, & just...no. Maybe when I was in college & if I had downed a few drinks, but not now. I am officially too old for that nonsense.

With 30 minutes left in the show, my stomach was hurting again, I was tired, and I was miserable. I decided that we should just go, and endured a long, painful, & sad drive home. I spent the following Sunday in bed, still sick from food poisoning.

The ONLY good things about that Saturday were Avatar, the Mummies, & the fact that I get all that money back that we spent.

Now I'm working with my insurance company, because the guy that hit my car had expired insurance, SURPRISE SURPRISE. Since my car was built by cavemen and is probably one wolf huff n' puff away from disintegrating into pieces, they will probably total it. Which sadly means that if I get $750, I'm probably getting more than it's worth.

The goal is to make the car drivable until I get my taxes back. Taxes + insurance = newer car that doesn't throw itself into a pit of despair & break if you look at it wrong.

Hey, my car is as depressed as I am. HOORAY!

Those two events pretty much sum up January for me. You're all caught up now. Let's close with SOMETHING positive in this entry.

Would a kitty cuddled in clean laundry suffice?



You're welcome.

306th Carnival of the Cats

Izumi: Hello fellow felines & welcome to the 306th Carnival of the Cats! Momma is sick, AGAIN, so we're trying to suggest ways to make her feel better. She doesn't need all that silly medicine...she needs good old kitty home remedies!


Izumi: First off, I suggested that she try a little catnip instead of that nasty smelling people medicine. It's natural, and I know it always makes me feel REALLY good.


Izumi: We'll show you a few more suggestions soon. Let's go ahead and get the carnival started!

The cats over at Perfectly Parker are doing their part to protect the stairs in their home. If there is a password, I'm sure it has something to do with "catnip" or "treats."

Poor Cubby is feeling itchy over at This That & The Other Thing, and he could use some advice on taming the itchiness until his family can get him to the vet. Any help would be appreciated!

At CatSynth, Luna curls up for a long snooze during stormy weather, but then wakes up enough to greet the sun back. We thinks that snoozes are the best way to pass the time, well, anytime.

At My Cats and Funny Stories, Arthur tries to get Rosie to wrestle with him, while all Rosie wants to do is to have a good snooze. Brothers can be so annoying sometimes!


Felix: I suggested to Momma that she try sleeping like this and get somebody to rub her belly. That would make her feel better for sure!


Bagheera: Snuggling with someone is always a quick way of feeling better, as long as they don't try to bite you or lick you too much.

I really appreciate all the advice, but something tells me this is not going to help my cough. But let's get back to the carnival & finish it up, shall we?

It's been a busy time over at Mog's house. Ritzi is now a resident, and strikes a pretty pose for the camera over at Mind of Mog. Ritzi was also busy taking over iInfidel and claiming it as her own blog. Welcome Ritzi!

Meowza was eager to have a new kitty friend, and is especially happy that his new kitty roommate is his mom Ritzi. For the moment, though, Ritzi is not quite as happy to see him.

Isis and Wasabi say hello on their guest post at StrangeRanger, where they are fascinated by candlelight. Candlelight plus kitties always makes for a beautiful photo.

At Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat, Nikita is happy it is finally drying out after a long week of rain. Also, Nikita's dad manages to capture a photo of a phantom feline...or is it?


Izumi: Doh! Silly Bagheera, I've been trying to snuggle with Momma nonstop since she started feeling sick (and really, even when she was well), and she just won't give in. But I keep trying, and I will make her feel better no matter how much she fights it!

Izumi: We'd like to say thanks for letting us host! Next week's Carnival is at Kashim & Othello and Salome.

Carnival of the Cats #302

Oreo:Hello. My name is Oreo. I hope everyone had a great Catmas!

Oreo:I joined the Attack Cat household back in October. My owners, Adam's grandparents, had taken me in after I got into a fight with another cat and got a bad wound. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep me inside any longer because I was always underfoot and they were scared they would get hurt from tripping over me. To keep me from having to go back outside, the crazy cat lady and her husband took me in. It's taken awhile, but I'm finally starting to feel at home. I don't like to be picked up much, but I love skritches and pettins and the nightly supper we all get. The other Meowers seem to be okay with me, except for Scamper. I don't know why she doesn't like me, but if I get too close, she chases me across the house and hisses at me. I just want to be friends, but I guess it's going to take a while for that.


Oreo:They decided to keep calling me Oreo, since I've been named this for so long. It also looks like I have an Oreo cookie on my chest, so the crazy cat lady said it's a good choice.

Anyways, I'm going to host the carnival this week, so let's get started!

Budget-tightening for this holiday season affected even us felines. But thanks to Gizmo's great tip on re-gifting, humans can have gifs for their felines that they will love, thanks to our lack of long-term memory.

While we love getting presents at Christmas, sometimes the most enjoyment comes from the tree itself. It's great to climb, or as in Maddie's case, it's fun to just hang out underneath and play with new toys.

Oooo, what an exciting gift! Nikita's Daddy is giving him a blog all his own for Christmas. We'll definitely have to check it out. Congrats Nikita!

This is a great idea. Over at CatSynth, Luna shows us the cats featured in the Macy's SF/SPCA Holiday Windows, which is a great way to showcase adoptable pets during the holidays.

Meowza shows off the lovely Christmas greetings he received from Maggy and Zoey and discusses the fun he has had during the holidays, even if Mog didn't make him a card.

Mog shows us an example of why she doesn't have more than one cat. When you have more than one curious cat, nothing fragile is safe from us...our Momma definitely knows that.

At House of Chaos, the resident kitties are surrounded by snow and while some venture out on their own, others are unceromoniously subjected to the cold wet stuff. At least they'll remember how good they have it in the nice warm dry house.

Oreo:That's it for this week. It's a small carnival, but with the visits from Santy Claws, I'm sure all the kitties have been busy enjoying their new toys.


Oreo:We got something really neat for Catmas. It's a Kitty TV video that has lots of birds, squirrels, and other kitties on it. I don't think it's all that interesting, but a lot of my brothers and sisters love it and try to "catch" whatever is on TV.

Thanks for letting us host the Carnival! Next week's carnival (the first carnvial of 2010, yay!) is at Mog's.