K. C.

First a brief Mom update: she continues to improve and was moved from the Cardiac Unit to a regular hospital room today. I still don't know when she's coming home, but she is definitely on the mend. Thank you again for all your good wishes, purrs and prayers.

K. C. rates two pictures -- one so you can see her pretty face and one to go with the limerick. K. C. is the oldest cat in the house at about 13. She belonged to her Dad before her Mom and Dad got married. She has adapted to the addition of two rowdy boys into her peaceful world, but sometimes she doesn't appear to be thrilled with it. K. C. is completely deaf and has the loudest meow the Mom has ever heard. She uses it a lot and it gets her rapid attention. She also collects a lot of dirt in her fur and her Mom can't figure out how. She never goes outside, but when she lies in one spot for any length of time, she leaves behind a bit of dirt along with her fur. That was why the Mom was not terribly thrilled to find K. C. sleeping in her sweater drawer. K. C. was allowed to finish her nap, but now the Mom keeps that drawer closed. K. C. naps a lot, but she has been getting a bit more playful lately. She was recently spotted chasing her own tail.

                                 K. C. found an open drawer.
                                 She napped in it to her Mama's horror.
                                         She shed fur all over
                                         The sweaters to cover.
                                 Now her Mom always shuts her drawer.

Good News

My Mom is doing much better today. It turned out that a lot of things added up to make her so sick. Mostly she was really dehydrated. The doctor thinks that a few days in the hospital getting rehydrated will fix her right up. I will get around to thanking all of you personally, but I want to give out a general thank you so much for your purrs, woofs and prayers. Right now I am totally physically and emotionally exhausted, so I'll just leave it at that. I will get back to you soon, probably tomorrow, at least visiting.

Purrs Needed

My Mom collapsed Saturday and is now critically ill with kidney failure. I don't know when I'll get back to the limericks, but it may be a while. Please send her your best purrs.

Farewell, Cal

I wanted to do this last night, but the limerick just wouldn't come. Fortunately, it did come today. Cal was the first of The Creek Cats. He was ten years old. He had problems with IBD for quite a while and complications set in. He finally reached a point where nothing more could be done for him and fluid in his abdomen was making it difficult for him to breathe, so his Mom and Dad took him to the vet to be helped to the Rainbow Bridge. Cal was a sweet and easy-going cat, who took in stride all the additions to his family. Being sick had almost stopped him from playing, but when a catnip heart was introduced, he had quite a time with it. He loved being outside and when his health really began to fail, his Mom took him outside as much as possible. He will be sorely missed, but I picture him romping around at the Bridge in lots of grass and sunshine.

                                    Now we have to say goodbye to Cal.
                                    He suffered a lot with irritable bowel.
                                           Our faces are wet,
                                           But we mustn't forget
                                     He is running free, being everycat's pal.

Motor

This is Motor hugely enjoying himself playing with a pipe cleaner. He has just discovered them and they are his new favorite toy. He is a little ball of fire and seldom naps during the day. He is about seven months old now and hasn't slowed down a bit. His Mom went to Petco for cat food and a group called Bless the Beasts had kittens up for adoption. She saw Motor and just had to take him home. K. C. took one look at him and gave him the Big Hissy. Motor got the message and doesn't bother her. He does have a special greeting for K. C. each morning. Motor doesn't sleep with the beans at night, but when he hears them getting up in the morning, he bounds up the stairs to the bedroom. First he greets K. C. by presenting her with his butt to sniff. Then he jumps up to the Mom for his morning loving. Tiger was an entirely different matter. For Motor, it was love at first sight. Motor adores Tiger and wants to play with him all the time. He will leap at Tiger at every opportunity. He even jumps off the couch onto Tiger's back. There is a lot of kitty wrestling in this house, almost all of it started by Motor. Tiger is a willing participant most of the time, but Motor wears him out eventually and he growls. Then he leaves and asks to be let out into the back yard or, if Motor starts chasing him, Motor gets put in his room for a little while. When Tiger doesn't want to play, Motor has no trouble amusing himself with his toys. Motor got his name because he purrs very loudly and very often. In the evenings, when it is family relaxation time, Motor jumps up on his Mom's lap for cuddles and pets. He loves to be loved.

                                        Poor Tiger hardly gets any rest
                                        'Cause he is the cat Motor loves best.
                                                    It's PLAYPLAYPLAY
                                                    All the live-long day,
                                        But at night he goes to his Mom for a rest.

Tiger

There are four cats at TheVeryBestCats: K.C. (the eldest), Tiger (the Mancat of the house), Motor (the kitten) and Smokey (the outside cat). Tiger was adopted when K. C. was the only cat of the house and the Mom and Dad had been used to having more. They went out for a walk and decided to stop by the pet store to see if there were any kittens up for adoption. A foster group had a group of kittens outside the store, including Tiger, and the Mom fell in love with him at once. He went home with them and has been living there happily ever since. He is three years old now and a very happy Mancat. He has lots of fun with his toys and perches and he gets to go out in the back yard when the weather is nice. He has made friends with Smokey, who is living out there now. He is getting used to being Motor's favorite toy. Motor absolutely adores Tiger and wants to play with him all the time. Tiger will play until he gets tired, then he gives Motor a low, throaty growl to tell him that playtime is over for now. If Motor doesn't get the message, then the Mom will put Motor in his room and close the door. The funny thing is that it isn't long at all before Tiger goes over to the door and waits for the Mom to open it again, so playtime can start all over. Tiger has a thing about shoes, especially the Dad's shoes. He will lick them, bite them, bunnykick them and stick his face in them.

                                         Tiger has a thing about shoes.
                                         The very stinkiest ones he will choose.
                                                  He sniffs them and licks them,
                                                  Bites them and kicks them.
                                          His very favorite toys are shoes.

Award

I don't have a limerick for today, so I thought that I would finally get around to passing this award along. Elin created this award for all her friends and urged us all to pass it around. There are no rules, but I think it would be nice if we all linked back to Elin when we pass it along. I would like to present this award to:

Kimo and Sabi
Adventures in Cat Philanthropy
Zoolatry
Artsy Catsy
The Taylor Catsssss
Whimpurr's Whim
Meezer Tails
Save Moki
Twilight's Muse

Henry

This is Henry in his favorite meatloaf position. He even snoozes in this position sometimes, though he usually stretches out more to take a nap. Henry came to live with his Lady in 2005 when he was just a little kitten. His Lady found him at a shelter and knew right away that he was the one for her. He is a ginger cat, but much lighter in color than most ginger cats. Henry is declawed on all four feet. He is a bit of a biter, but he doesn't bite very hard. He does like to surprise his Lady in the night by biting her toes. There are two things that Henry loves most: tuna and catnip mousies. He closes his eyes when he eats tuna, to savor the flavor to the utmost. Henry will lick and lick his catnip mouse until it is really soggy. This grosses out his Lady a bit, but Henry never loses interest in a mouse until the catnip is totally inactive. Then his nice lady will buy him some new ones. Henry also likes tents and now has six of them. This is great for him, because he really doesn't like to be in a tent with another cat. Henry isn't much of a snuggler with Clyde and Charlotte, though they do make up a nap pile occasionally. Henry says this is just to keep warm. Henry is very touchy about where anyone can pet him. He only likes head scritches. He will bite if anyone touches his back, tummy or ears.

                                 Henry loves his mousies with nip.
                                 Licking them gives him quite a trip.
                                               They get really wet
                                               But you can bet
                                 That Henry won't give up his mousies with nip.

Clyde

I really don't know how to begin to tell you about Clyde. He seems to be a kitty with two different personalities. When the Lady first adopted him, he had very few problems with Henry. He had no problems at all when Charlotte joined the family and he is Clifford, the dog's, best friend. However, he seems to hate Mar. Let's start at the beginning. In June, 2007, the people at the Lady's office noticed Clyde hanging around with a few other stray kitties. Since Clyde was wearing a collar with a nametag, they thought he had a home and was just visiting. After a few days, one of the ladies at the office noticed that he seemed very thin and scruffy-looking and went out to check on him. She picked him up and noticed a phone number on his collar and that he was declawed. This lady made a note of the phone number and called to say that she had found a lost cat. The woman who answered the phone at first denied that the cat was hers, then admitted that she was moving to Canada and couldn't take the cat with her. This horrible woman had just dumped a declawed cat out on the street and expected him to take care of himself. How did she expect him to do that? This is one of the worst things anyone can do to a cat. A declawed cat has a horrible time trying to feed himself. My sister-in-law adopted Bos because she saw how difficult it was for him to try to catch a mouse with no claws. She was a teacher's aide in a temporary classroom and Bos chased a mouse into the classroom. He finally managed to chase the mouse into a corner where he could bite it. She took him home the same day. The Lady also took Clyde home. Clyde and Henry got along almost at once. Clyde loves catnip mousies and is mostly gentle and easy-going. He sometimes bites Charlotte's ears so hard that it hurts, but the only kitty he has problems with is Mar. I think this is because Clyde had built up a little coterie of cats that he was leading while he was outside and got the feeling that he should be the Alpha cat in any group. Henry had no problems with this and Charlotte was part of his group of outside cats. Mar is twice his size and was used to being the only cat, so Clyde might think that Mar is a threat to his leadership.  Clyde also likes to be outside.  After everyone moved from Downing Street after the Lady and Senor got married, Clyde would rush the door anytime it was opened.  The Lady decided to let Clyde come outside with her when she was working in the garden.  He loves it out there.  One time he got to thinking that maybe he liked it more outside than in and took off on his own.  He quickly remembered how hard it was to look after himself and came home after four days.

                                      Clyde has a yearning to head up the pride.
                                      He will take on any cat, in- or outside.
                                             He will meet their gaze
                                             With eyes all ablaze.
                                       Intruders watch out!  Look out for Clyde!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Enjoy your corned beef, cabbage and Guiness! May the Luck of the Irish be with you, now and always.

Charlotte

Charlotte joined Henry and Clyde in November of 2007. She had been hanging around with Clyde outside the Lady's place of work, but the Lady thought that she had a home. When she found out that the neighbor lady was just feeding her, she brought Charlotte home to join the family. Like Henry and Clyde, Charlotte has no front claws. Some really cruel person or persons declawed Clyde and Charlotte, then eventually dumped them outside to fend for themselves. Because of the way that Clyde and Charlotte hung around together and the fact that they seemed to recognize each other when Charlotte was brought home, it is possible that they were both dumped by the same person. When Charlotte was introduced to the family, there was only a tiny bit of hissing on Charlotte's part at Henry, but within a couple of hours, they were all snuggled up together napping. Charlotte loves giving Clyde and Henry baths. Clyde likes it, but Henry's not too sure about it. Sometimes he just gets up and leaves before Charlotte is finished. Charlotte doesn't react to catnip, though she still enjoys playing with the catnip mice. Charlotte is a bit on the shy side. She likes to hide under the bed. The first time she met Mar, she was afraid of him and hid in the basement. She hid so well that Senor and the Lady had a very hard time finding her. She's not afraid of Mar any more. She has decided that Senor has the most comfortable lap and will jump up into his lap and demand scritches by pushing his hand with her head. She will do the same thing to the Lady, but Senor has become her new favorite.

                                     Charlotte is retiring and shy.
                                     When the boys fight, she wonders why.
                                                She prefers a lap
                                                Warm enough to nap.
                                       She lives a quiet life, being so shy.

Mar

I decided to do the kitties of Henry, King of Downing Street, in reverse order of their joining the family. This is Mar. He was Senor's only cat for a long time before Senor married Henry's Lady. When Senor and the Lady got married in January, Henry, Clyde and Charlotte moved in with him and he has been having something of a rough time of it. Clyde is determined to be the Alpha cat and has been attacking Mar quite a bit, even though Mar is twice Clyde's size. Mar has been giving in a bit and it looks like Clyde will be the Alpha cat. As if that wasn't enough, now Henry, who got along with Mar quite well at first, is attacking Mar, as well. To top it all off, the new woofy, Clifford, likes to chase Mar all over the house. Clifford is a puppy and is just playing and Mar seems to realize this, but it must be a bit aggravating. There Mar was, large and in charge, in his nice big house with his human to look after him, then here come three cats and a dog to change his life forever. Mar is mostly an easy-going cat. He doesn't mind Charlotte at all and he and Henry looked like they were going to be pals. The humans have tried Feliway diffusers, but they aren't helping. The really odd thing is that all four cats sleep together on the big bed at night with the humans without any problems now, but during the day, fights can break out. I feel a bit sorry for Mar and hope that things will settle down soon.

                                 Pussycat Mar is a big furry boy.
                                 Being an only cat was his joy.
                                      Then came Henry and Clyde,
                                      Charlotte and Clifford beside.
                                 Now he fights for his home, this big furry boy.

Farewell, Sasha

Sasha was adopted into Curly's family on December 12, 2008. This picture was taken the next day. You can just see a some of Curly in the background. The other cats were pretty miffed about Sasha's appearance in their home, but Curly even let Sasha share her bed, for a little while, anyway. Sasha was always wanting to play with the kitties and Curly would play with her. They had some great wrestling matches and even a good romp in the snow. On March 6th, there was a terrible accident and Sasha went to the Rainbow Bridge. She was only four months old. Her whole family is just devastated. Now she's romping and playing with all the other woofies and kitties at the Rainbow Bridge.

                            Sasha was quite a lively pup
                            Until an accident tripped her up.
                                     To the Bridge she did go
                                     And though it brings us woe,
                             She's running and playing, this lively pup.

Farewell, Boody

I thought I was going to take a couple of days off blogging and get my blogroll switched over, but then I started feeling like I was coming down with something and just came home from work and went to bed. I was offline for two days and came back to some sad news. I think I better get back to doing my limericks and just doing the blogroll stuff when I can.

This is a picture of Boody from a couple of months ago before he got so sick. Boody was born on May 5, 1992 and was adopted by his forever family that June. He had a long happy life in his new home. He liked to eat various kinds of fruit, which his family found amusing. When he stopped being so playful, his family adopted Elin. Boody wasn't so happy with this. Elin always wanted to play with him, but he didn't feel like playing, so he would warn her off. Mostly, he just ignored her. He was a Persian-Malaysian cat mix, which gave him floofy fur and Malaysian markings. He also had a very short tail, which you can see in the photo. Yup, that's all of it. Lately, Boody got very ill and there was nothing that could be done for him. The vet said that he was too old and too sick to be cured of whatever was wrong with him. He stopped grooming and eating. Then he lost his ability to stand and walk. On the evening of March 8th, Boody made his own way to the Rainbow Bridge, which made his family very sad. I am sure that he is now having a wonderful time with the other Rainbow Bridge cats.

                                   Poor old Boody wasn't having much fun,
                                   So off to the Rainbow Bridge he did run.
                                         Now he runs carefree
                                         Through grass and lea.
                                   Have a great time, Boody, now your suffering's done.

Awards and Stuff

Cat's Eye gave me this lovely award, which I really appreciate. Thank you d ma and boyz.
UPDATE: Elin has also given me this award. Thank you very much, Elin.


Grrreta gave me this cool award, which I love. Thank you so much, Grrreta. I have received both of these awards before, so I won't pass them on this time, but if you haven't gotten them yet, feel free to take them from me.

Blogrolling is "fixed" now, but I have problems with it. As you can see, adding links to my posts is a very important part of my blogging style. I want everyone who reads my limericks to be able to go straight to the blog and read more about the cat, dog, etc., that I wrote about. I don't mind the ads that I get when I use my blogroll now, but the address of the blog is obscured and I can't copy the link I need to put in my post. Therefore, I am moving all my links over to Blogger's list, which I started because I couldn't add new links while Blogrolling was down. This is going to take for-freakin'-ever because I started out with 416 links. I will be visiting while I am making the changes, but I probably won't be writing many limericks for a while. Or maybe I'll get bored just moving links around and write some, I'm not sure. I just wanted you to know what I was up to if I don't blog much.

Farewell, Soraya

In March of 2007 the fenced in garden, where the cats go out to play, was being remodeled and Ruis escaped. A friendly family let his Mom know that he was in a shelter, which she knew well. When she went to pick him up, she got to talking with the people at the shelter and they told her about an older Persian cat who had been brought in with all her papers. The Mom fell in love with her at once and brought her home along with Ruis. Soraya was very shy with her new people, but not with the other cats, who all took to her at once, except Ruis. Soraya looked very much like the previous Queen of the cats and Ruis, being the present Alpha cat, was very suspicious of Soraya at first. Ruis soon discovered that Soraya had no intentions of trying to be the Queen cat and he came to like her, too. Soraya never did get completely over her shyness and spent most of her time in the bedroom, though she had begun to come out into the living room a bit more. Soraya was mostly dignified and calm, but when the wand toy came out, she played like a kitten. She loved to sleep with her Mom Marlene. One evening she suddenly became very ill and was rushed to the vet. Unfortunately, the vet could do nothing for her. She came home to her family and got lots of attention and love all night. Early in the morning, she made her way to the Rainbow Bridge.

                                      Soraya was a pretty shy cat.
                                      A sudden movement would make her scat.
                                                 She got old and sick;
                                                 The vet tried ev'ry trick.
                                      She found the Bridge on her own, clever cat.

Gopher Tracks

I don't have a limerick ready for today, so I thought I would show you the photo I took of what the gopher did this winter under the snow. This section of my front yard looks like a little maze. I find it fascinating. You may click on the picture to biggify it. In warm weather, the gophers stay underground and you just see a few mounds, but in the winter, they build these tunnels above the ground, but under the snow. When the snow melts, they go back underground. This is probably the work of just one gopher.

Farewell, Randy

There are several feral cats who hang around Puff's house and Randy was one of them. Puff's Mom feeds them and tries to looks after them as best she can. Puff's Mom and Dad decided to try to catch Randy last December because he wasn't looking too good. They succeeded on December 10th and took him to the vet. Randy was pretty sick. He tested positive for both FIV and feline leukemia. He had an open wound on his tail, four teeth that had to be removed, fleas, worms, IBD and some kidney problems. He was also quite wild and quite capable of slicing and dicing any human who got too close to him. He lived in a nice big cage in the small bedroom, with a carrier to hide in. He got lots of medicine in his food, which he usually ate, until he got really sick. He was getting used to being inside and around humans. Puff's Mom found out that if she attached a soft brush to a stick, Randy would let her brush him. He even purred while she did it. Just before he went to the Rainbow Bridge, Randy even let Puff's Mom pet him with her hand. He was turning into an inside cat. Randy lived in Puff's house for a bit over two months and was apparently getting better, but then he went into a serious decline and had to be helped to the Rainbow Bridge. Puff's family are very sad.

                                        Randy was a cat who lived outside.
                                        When Mom tried to catch him, he would hide.
                                                   Then he got really sick
                                                   And went to the vet quick.
                                        It was too late to save him, so he went Bridge-side.

Award

I got this very nice award from the Sherwood cats. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Here are the rules:
"When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on! "

Here are my 10 honest things. I'll try to mention things I haven't said before that aren't too boring.

1. When my hair first started going grey, it started with two stripes at the edges of my forehead. I looked like a two-striped skunk.

2. I don't really hold any animosity toward the gopher who is digging up my yard, but I do wish he would move on. I have a picture, but I couldn't get it to upload from my camera.

3. I love peanut butter and peanut butter flavored things, like ice cream and cookies.

4. I am also very fond of chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter together is irresistible.

5. I am a terrible housekeeper.

6. I love science fiction and mysteries, both to read and to watch.

7. I have a whole bunch of stuffed animals on my bed.

8. I like to collect carved stone animals.

9. I have a bunch of books that I haven't read yet.

10. I have way too many magazines that I haven't read yet. It's a time problem.

I would like to pass this award on to:

Cheysuli, Gemini and Georgia
Grrreta
Gretchen
Pearl, Bert and Jake
Princess and Pierro
Molly, Shadow, Trooder and Jake
and Maomao, Brainball, Marilyn and Dorydoo