Spirit

Here is Spirit when she caught one of her feather wand toys. She loves feather wand toys most of all. Spirit was adopted from the pound at the same time as Ezra. Mom and Dad went to pick up Ezra, whom they had already picked out to adopt and saw Spirit. They decided to take her home, too. She is about one year old. She already had her name, so Mom and Dad decided not to rename her. She is not as mischievious as Ezra and doesn't want to go outside at all, unlike Ezra, who goes out in his harness.

                                         Spirit loves her flying feather wand.
                                         She can leap three feet in the air and beyond
                                                        To catch that feather
                                                         And see whether
                                         It can fly again once she bites her wand.

Ezra

Ezra and his big sister Spirit were adopted from the local pound in January of this year.  They are two fun-loving kitties.  Ezra loves getting into mischief.  They live with a woofie and a big cat, who both live outdoors and and hamster.  Ezra is quite fond of the hamster and likes to lick him, but once he got carried away and gave him a little bite.  It wasn't a hard bite and didn't hurt the hamster, but Mom is making sure that he never does it again.  Ezra's favorite toy is a ball in a track, which he tries and tries to get out of the track, but never succeeds.  He also likes toy mousies.  He also really loves his blanket fort.  You can see him there in the photo.

                                          Ezra likes to hide in his blanket fort.
                                          From there he can indulge in serious sport.
                                                     Hidden, he can spy
                                                     With his watchful eye
                                           Anything that needs pouncing from his blanket fort.

Lucy

This is Lucy, Artsy Catsy's Spokesmodel.  She is a ragdoll who was found wandering around the streets all on her own in 1992.  Isn't she adorable?  Recently, she used her media contacts and expertise in snoopervising to blow the whistle on Rockey the CEO when she caught him kissing a picture of Lilly Lu in close proximity to his catnip cigar.  It is that incident which prompted the limerick.

                                    Lucy really dug up the dirt
                                    And showed the world that Rocky's a flirt.
                                             She's the Spokesmodel.
                                             The job is a doddle,
                                   Leaving her time to dig up the dirt.

Sophia

Sophia, the Diva Kitty, is a tuxie girl with very impressive whiskers.  She loves helping DKM make snuggles, but she isn't destructive with the yarn.  She just likes playing with it a little.  She cleans her toes thoroughly every day.  She likes to go out walking with DKM and she doesn't even need a harness and leash.  Sophia is a bit jealous of DKM and doesn't like sharing her with people or, especially, other cats.  She doesn't mind sharing her with the bunnies too much.  Sophia gets along well with the bunnies, though it is rare to find all three of them on the daybed together.

                                  Sophia shares her blog with the buns
                                  And with DKM, who makes veggie yums.
                                           Sharing her daybed
                                           Fills her with dread,
                                  But looky here, a cat and two buns.

Fiona

Fiona is a three-year old brown bunny, just a couple of months younger than Orlando.  She loves to eat and will try to beat Orlando to the broccoli and banana chips.  She often wins, as she is just a tiny bit bigger than he is.  She also likes to play and one of her favorite things to do is the Bunny 500.  You know how a kitten will be bursting with energy and just tear around the house like his tail is on fire?  Well, bunnies do the same thing.  Bunnies will often binky while running around, which is how they express joy.  A binky is when a bunny jumps up in the air and turns her head at the same time.  Fiona is also raising funds for the AIDS Hop.  She is almost to her goal of $1000.  If you are interested in helping, there is a place to click on the sidebar of Diva Kitty.

                                      Fiona's sport is the Bunny 500.
                                      That's run indoors, in case you wondered.
                                                  She does a binky,
                                                  Quick as a winky
                                      Then around the corner her bunny paws thunder.

Orlando

Orlando, usually known as Lando, suggested that I try bunny limericks for a while, as I seemed to be stuck for kitty limericks.  I tried it and it worked.  I wrote two bunny limericks and one kitty limerick and got an idea for a second kitty limerick today.  Thank you, Lando.  Orlando is a three-year old bunny, half English Spotted and half something else which I can't remember and now can't find, either.  Anyway, he's a lively bun, who enjoys his food and also enjoys chewing things he isn't supposed to chew, like the carpet.  He sometimes gets to venture out onto the patio, where he cleans up any birdseed that he finds.

                                        Orlando is a cute spotted bunny.
                                        He eats all the broccoli and thinks it is funny.
                                             For a 'nanner chip
                                             He will almost flip.
                                        It's the best bunny crack for the money.

Goodbye, Chatham

Thank you, Skeezix for the wonderful graphic. I was planning on doing this much earlier, but work intervened. I was an occasional visitor to Chatham's blog and I can't say that I knew him really well, but I really enjoyed reading about him. The thing I remember most about him is that he was the announcer at the Catolympics last year. He did a wonderful job and there is a great picture of him in a hat and tie on the Big Piney Woods Cats' blog in the posts of the Catolympics. I am going to miss him quite a bit.

Forty Paws Fur

Here's a bit of silliness to get us through until the regular limericks start coming easily again.  This is Maw's vacuum cleaner after a light going over of two bedrooms.  Of course, it is early summer and winter coats are hitting the floor at an astounding rate, but I get the feeling that this goes on all year.  Lando had a good suggestion and I am off to research bunnies after I finish up here.   I am also going to take Saturday nights off from cat blogging, just to give myself a little break and hoping that I don't run down my limerick batteries again.

                                Mighty is the fur at Forty Paws!
                                It tries to escape the sucky-machine's jaws.
                                    Just two little rooms
                                    Of zoom-zoom-a-zooms
                               Nearly choked this vacuum of Maw's.

Drought

Things have been happening.  Nothing serious, just stuff.  I haven't had much time lately for my research on kitties to write limericks about and the limericks just aren't coming to me.  I'm sure they will come back sooner or later.  There is some good news.  I had my last appointment with my podiatrist yesterday and my toes are completely healed.

Buddy

Here's Buddy guarding his cat grass. Buddy is Finnegan's brother. When Buddy was a little kitten, he wandered away from his mother and littermates and got lost. A boy named Brandon found him while he was being mistreated by some boys and saved him. Brandon took him home and the two of them became inseparable and Buddy got his name because people would always say, "Here comes Brandon and his Buddy." After a while, bad things happened to Brandon's family and he couldn't keep Buddy any more. Brandon tried very hard to find a good home for Buddy, by asking around and finally asking on the internet. He contancted Debra, who put Buddy's need for a new home around on the internet and Finnegan's Mom found him and adopted him. Buddy missed Brandon very much at first, but now he and Finnegan are close brothers. Right now Buddy is living with Aunt Ree and two other cats named Gilmore and Grady, while Mom tries to sell their old house and find them a new place to live together. I think Finnegan and Buddy had to go to different houses during this time because Grandma and Grandpa already had two cats and Aunt Ree already had two cats and each said that they could take in one more cat, but not both. Let's all hope that the old house sells soon and Finnegan and Buddy can live together again soon.

Buddy is a farmer. He grows cat grass.
He guards and protects it and keeps it under glass.
When it is grown,
With teeth it is mown.
Buddy and Finnegan both love cat grass.

Finnegan

Here is Finnegan with his favorite nip toy. Finnegan was adopted from a shelter when he was about a year old. He got his name from a saying of his Great-grandma's.  She used to say,"In again, Finnegan?" or "Out again, Finnegan?" every time she opened the door to let a cat in or out of the house.  His Mom always thought it would be great to have a cat named Finnegan.  He is a fun-loving kitty who loves his brother Buddy, his nip, catgrass and his grandparents. His Mom changed her job a while back and now they are waiting until they can sell their house so they can either buy a condo or rent an apartment in Durham. At present, Finnegan is living with Mom's parents and Mom and Buddy are living with Aunt Ree. They are all hoping that the house sells soon, so they can all be together again. The present situation isn't too bad because Finnegan really loves his Grandpa and Grandma. He helps Grandpa in his workshop and loves to "splat" on Grandma's shoulder for loving.

                                         Tell me how Finnegan got his name again?
                                         "In again, Finnegan?"  "Out again, Finnegan?"
                                                           Great-grandma used to say
                                                           As the cats got their way,
                                         Trooping in and out of the house.  Hey, Finnegan!

Brach Lee

Brach Lee is Kukka-Maria's brother or husband (it's complicated). He is 7.75 years old. As you can see he loves to be brushed. He is delighted that Kukka-Maria has no interest in his brush, so it is his alone. He has an unfortunate attraction to string and will try to eat it whenever he finds any. This had very bad consequences in 2004 when he swallowed a piece of thread, which wrapped itself around the base of his tongue, then tore 18 holes in his intestines. Luckily, the vet was able to perform surgery to remove the thread and Brach recovered completely. Brach is a fun cat, but he gets very little blog time, as Kukka-Maria does most of the blogging, being the Alpha Cat, hence this limerick.

                                       Have you heard of a cat named Brach Lee?
                                       He's usually eclipsed by Kukka-Marie.
                                                But he's very smart
                                                And has a good heart.
                                       He needs more blog-time, does Brach Lee.

Prince Muddy Paws

Prince Muddy Paws is a Himalayan, which means that he has lots and lots of fur. He loves to be brushed, which is a very good thing, because it means that he can keep all that fur in tip-top condition. Prince Muddy Paws is a very playful cat. He loves to chase the other cats around and play with the people. He is a great watcher of birds and bugs, but woe to any bug who dares to enter his house, as he is a mighty hunter, too. He has been blogging for quite a long time and is very amusing.

                                    Prince Muddy Paws really loves to be brushed,
                                    But take your time; he doesn't like to be rushed.
                                                    From head to tail
                                                    You must not fail
                                     To get every inch of Muddy Paws brushed.

Dobby

Here's Dobby, in one of his few moments of standing still. He is a very active kitten, always zooming around the house and playing with anything he can get his paws on. He really loves his big brother Merlin. The two of them took to each other quite quickly. Dobby started off as a rescue kitten and spent some time with Bubbles and Mrs. B, but they couldn't really keep him, as they had as many cats as they could handle already. His kitten antics were also upsetting the older cats. Luckily, Merlin's Mom and Dad had room for him and he moved in. Dobby loves to wrestle with Merlin, play chase with him, snuggle with him and groom him. Unfortunately, one time while he was grooming Merlin, he chewed off his whiskers. Merlin didn't even notice until later. Luckily, Merlin's whiskers are growing back.

                                          Dobby is always on the go.
                                          He's always fast and never slow.
                                                   He chewed Merlin's whiskers
                                                   Down to little twiskers
                                          And did it so fast Merlin didn't know.

Chairman Mao

Sweet Ariel and her Mom requested that I do a limerick for Chairman Mao, who is Ariel's boyfriend. Maomao showed up last year at the Ballicus house as a stray and first appeared on the blog in December. He made himself at home in the garage, where the Dad has a workshop. He bonded with Dad very quickly and soon moved inside. Maomao soon made friends with the other cats, though Dorydoo still doesn't much care for him. He is very attached to Brainball, following her around, snuggling with her and wrestling with her. He is still full of kitten energy, being about a year old now, and is always getting into something. He has learned how to open all the kitchen cabinets. He will play with anything he can get his paws on and delights in killing evil coffee stirrers. His motto is : The whole world is a kitty toy.

                                   Chairman Mao is a very busy cat.
                                   He can kill a coffee stirrer in nothing flat.
                                                He pulls out drain stops
                                                And jumps on counter tops.
                                   He writes poetry, too.  What a talented cat!

Suzanne Went to the Bridge

As most of you know already, Suzanne went to the Rainbow Bridge this morning. She cuddled with her Mom, laid her head on her shoulder and just went. This makes me very sad, but she saved her Mom a little pain. Today was the day her Mom was going to make that dreaded decision, but Suzanne saved her from having to decide. If you haven't already, go over to Under the Bed and leave some virtual snuggles for Mom and Ben2. Thank you so much, Daisy, for the lovely tribute card.

I only knew Suzanne for about three months, but I became very fond of her in that time. She was the first one to make a suggestion for a limerick. She suggested that I write a limerick about her cousin, Daisy Mae Maus. I had been working on a limerick for Daisy Mae, but it was going nowhere. After Suzanne's suggestion, I decided to throw away what I had written already and start over. After that, the limerick came fairly quickly. Then Suzanne shyly asked if I would write a limerick for her, too. When I start out to write a limerick for a kitty, especially one I don't know very well, I go and start reading their blog from the beginning. I read Suzanne's entire blog and came to love this tiny, shy, but feisty little feline. I am really going to miss her. I'm getting too teary-eyed to see the screen anymore, so I'll stop there. Good-bye, Suzanne. Have a wonderful time at the Bridge while you wait for your Mom.

Merlin

This is Merlin with his favorite toy, Fishie. Merlin started out life as a feral kitten. He somehow hooked up with three younger kittens and was trying to care for them when a nice lady found the four of them and took them to her vet. Merlin was eight weeks old and the others were five to six weeks old.  She kept one of the younger ones and the other two younger ones were also adopted. The lady told Merlin's Mom-to-be the story and the two of them went to the vet's to see him. Merlin and his Mom took to each other at once and he went home with her. Merlin loves to play, look out of the window and romp around with his new brother Dobby.

                                         Merlin's favorite toy is named Fishie.
                                         It's shaped like a fish and is nice and squishy.
                                                              Merlin could play
                                                               All night and all day
                                         With his favorite toy named Fishie.

Mr. Hendrix

Here is a picture of Mr. Hendrix after he sampled the catnip growing in the pot. The question is, is this still Hendrix, or has Bendrix come out? You see, Hendrix has an evil twin who shares his body and does all the naughty stuff and his name is Bendrix. Mr. Hendrix was a feral kitty who lived rough for a while and became FIV+. This means he must be an only kitty and he often gets ear infections. He has to wear Softpaws all the time, so he won't damage his ears by scratching them. Softpaws or not, he loves to scratch -- on the carpet, on the walls, anywhere but on his scratching mats.

                                         There is a sweet kitty boy named Hendrix,
                                          But he has an evil twin named Bendrix.
                                                  When Bendrix is bad
                                                   It makes Hendrix sad,
                                         Because he would never play such mean tricks.

Oscar the Puppy Cat

Oscar the Puppy Cat is a nine year old ginger tabby. He is called Puppy Cat because the first family who took care of him and his siblings owned a Great Dane, who became like a father to the kittens and Oscar picked up some of his characteristics. Oscar and his siblings were abandoned by their mother when they were fairly young and this family found them, cared for them for a while, then adopted them out. That's how Oscar found his forever family. He also cared for a very old, blind Chow Chow at one point. He prefers the company of dogs to other cats, but he loves any animal which doesn't try to beat him up. At present he is good friends with an older tomcat named Graymbo, who lives under their house. The area Oscar lives in is pretty rural, so he can roam outside and hunt moles. He hunts birds, too, but they get away more often. The windowsill you can see in the picture is one of Oscar's favorite places. It looks out onto the back yard, so he can watch the beankids playing, birds and other animals in comfort.

                                      Oscar has a wide window sill.
                                      It's his favorite place to nap or sit still.
                                                   Out comes the flashy box,
                                                    Which he finds obnox-
                                      Ious as Mom takes pictures of the cat on the sill.

Dona Nobis Pacem

ML made me this wonderful peace globe which incorporates my limerick. I wanted you all to see it, so I'm putting it up, even though it's a day late. Thank you so much, ML.

                                  Peace is something for which we must strive
                                  If our poor little planet is long to survive.
                                             It's peace that we need,
                                             And not wars of greed,
                                  For our wonderful Earth and all creatures alive.

Rascal

Rascal is a mighty wrestler. Here he is wrestling the couch into submission, just before Catzee decided to pounce him. Rascal was born in 2000 and was adopted by his Mom and Dad as a kitten when he was old enough to leave his cat Mom. Rascal loves to play with just about anything, but his favorites are boxes, milk jug rings, string and yarn. He will drink water out of his bowl, but he prefers to drink out of a cup. He also likes to lick the water off his Mom and Dad's legs just after they finish their showers. He doesn't like crumbs in his food bowl and has been known to refuse to eat until the crumbs are removed. He loves to get up at 3am and sometimes he likes to wake up everyone else, too.

                                       Rascal's a ManCat -- that's easy to see.
                                       He can outwrestle Little Cat Zee.
                                              He wrestles the table.
                                              The couch he was able
                                       To pin until pounced by Little Cat Zee.

Chase

Chase gets two pictures because I wanted to show him with his Awesome Man and the famous tail poof. Chase does this unique tail poof whenever he goes to greet his Awesome Man. It shows that he is very happy. Chase is the only cat I have ever heard of who does this. Chase is a six year old tabby. He has lived with his present family since he was about six months old. He originally lived with a mother and daughter in a small apartment, but they decided that they didn't want him any more. Luckily, his present Mom was looking for a cat and found him. He spent most of his first five years as an only cat, then Latte moved in and Kaze followed shortly thereafter. He likes both of them and plays with them, but they bug him sometimes.

                                    Chase loves, loves, loves his Awesome Man.
                                    He sits near him whenever he can.
                                                  He poofs his tail
                                                  In love like a gale
                                    Whenever he sees his Awesome Man.

Zeus

By my count this is my 100th Kitty Limerick, so I decided to write a limerick for Zeus, who is one of the most famous blogging kitties around. Why did it take me so long to get around to writing a limerick for Zeus? To be honest, the middle two lines (the short ones) have been in my mind for months, but Zeus has so many talents that I had trouble deciding what should go around them. The rest of the limerick finally came to me last week and that's when I decided to save him for limerick #100.

Here is Zeus relaxing on his Gizzy quilt. He is a Classic American Short-Hair Orange Tabby. He was born on January 1, 2001. His Lap Lady found him in Pet Smart when he was a kitten. The people there thought that he was "broken" because he purred all the time. It turned out that there was nothing at all wrong with him; he's just a happy-go-lucky kitty. Zeus writes a fantastic blog in which he covers a wide range of subjects -- from news articles concerning the horrible things that people have done to animals of all kinds to neuticles and everything you could imagine in between. It makes for fascinating reading.

                                    Zeus is a blogger of great renown.
                                    He's been everywhere; perhaps to your town.
                                             There is no excuse
                                              For not reading Zeus.
                                    He's one of the best cat bloggers around.

Little Cat Zee

Little Cat Zee was adopted on August 18th, 2006 from a shelter when she was about four months old. She had been found by as a tiny feral and taken to the shelter where she spent two months until she was adopted. She is a very active cat and gets into everything. She loves putting the bitey on stuff and she can really bite hard. She even put holes in a milk jug of water that her Mom was using as a weight on her loom. Catzee is very good at hunting down bugs and can even catch flies. She loves playing with her jingle balls, which her Mom will throw down the hall for her to catch. Rascal wasn't too sure about her when she first moved in, but they get along much better now. Since Catzee loves to play so much, she will turn anything she finds into a toy. This includes Christmas tree ornaments, wastepaper baskets and Mom's yarn.

                                    Little Cat Zee loves to play and play.
                                    She will play with anything that comes her way.
                                                   She loves Mama's yarn,
                                                   But Mama says, "Darn!
                                    Where did little Catzee hide my yarn today?"