Number 2 Pencil

Alice loves her new toy

Black-and-white velvet kitty toys, to match my black-and-white kitties.

Arsenic Fashions rules. They have more kitty toys, if you're interested.

They're so adorable when they're too small to eat you

Kill me now, before I die from all the cuteness.

(Via CuteOverload.com, which isn't afraid to say that baby snakes can be cute too.)

Hand over the cat, and nobody gets hurt

Sometimes, you just really, really want a cat:

Authorities in Texas are baffled over the theft of an adoptable cat from a pet store by two armed men. "It's one of the more bizarre crimes that I've ever heard of," Dallas police spokesman Max Geron said.

Police officials said the men entered the Dallas-area Petco store and walked to the cat's cage. Witnesses said one of the men held his finger to his mouth while the other pulled up his shirt and displayed a gun.

The men took Simon the cat and fled.

The shelter volunteers weren't trained to deal with this sort of situation, because...well, because nobody in their right mind ever thought anyone would involve armed robbery in pet adoptions. I can't say their method of "adoption" would make me feel very reassured about the cat's fate, either. Gruesome images of cats being used to train attack dogs come to mind.

And can I just say that I know several women who would gladly risk taking a bullet for the kitties at their shelters?

Just one word - plastics

*Sigh.*

I can't say that I know what it feels like to have a "special" child, but I know what it's like to have a "special" cat. Pippin is very sweet and loving and fun, but, bless his heart, he's not the brightest light in the chandelier.

This morning he tried to get at the wrapper from a small piece of cheese - he's obsessed with chewing on plastic and thin cords - and I put it out of his reach, so I thought, on the counter.

Next thing I know he's upstairs with me, huge dreadlocks of drool hanging from his mouth, with a trail of thick saliva from the counter downstairs to the bathroom upstairs. Oh yeah, he ate the plastic, and it's irritating his digestive system, as plastic tends to do. I called the vet, who wondered why Pippin ignored the tasty cheese and ate the plastic instead.

Doc, that would be because he's special.

Good thing I can work from home on my laptop.

*Sigh.*

Update: Of course he's fine now. I'm just the one who's freaked out.

The self-packing gift

New from Avon, special for this Christmas season - cats!

This particular model is disgruntled, grumpy, demanding, pissy, ornery, jealous, and possessed of a sense of entitlement that would do Paris Hilton proud, yet is able to switch to cute-and-sweet mode in a flash if crunchy treats are involved. Order now for shipping by December 25th.

Caught red-handed (and red-furred)!

Brit kits Tigger, Thomas and Max help police catch a burglar by doing what they do best - lying around the house shedding, the better to cover all possible surfaces in cat hair:

Gary Sutcliffe clambered through a window at a house he hoped to rob, but fled after being confronted by the owner. He was arrested after a police pursuit in which he drove without headlights through several red lights.

Sutcliffe denied any involvement in the burglary. But he was trapped by the tabby trio of law enforcers who produced all the evidence needed for detectives to pounce. Using DNA technology, police were able to place Sutcliffe at the scene of the break-in because fur from the three cats was found on his clothes.

What 43-year-old Sutcliffe had not known was that the window he had forced open served as the daytime cat-flap, so fur was all over it when he clambered in.

Left unmentioned - walking in through the front door, or touching any other surface in the household, would have left him just as furred. Cats make sure of that.

March of the Mummy Cats

Ew. Ew. Ew.

The Egyptians have King Tut, the Incas have ice maidens and one Cache Valley school now, officially, has joined them with its own preserved artifact. Students at the Cache Valley Learning Center, a private school in Logan that moved to a new location this fall, voted Tuesday for the school's first mascot: a Mummycat.

The idea didn't just come from nowhere. A real, naturally mummified cat sits on a shelf in the 116-year-old building's basement, just a few feet from where it was found in a dark crawl space. About 3 feet long, the cat appears to have died while on its back, looking upward and stretched out. While parts of it seemed to have decayed, others are completely intact, including its whiskers and ears.

Of the 78 students who voted at the K-8 school, 35 students wanted to be the Mummycats. A wolverine and raven came in second and third in the mascot poll.

Middle-schoolers have the grossest sense of humor. On the other hand, perhaps the school administrator should run with this, and have anthropologists and Egyptologists come in to teach more about the specifics of mummification. I doubt that'll be covered on the state standardized exam, but what the heck.

Christmas Shopping Guide # 1

Doctors Foster and Smith's Cozy Cushion for Cats.

Cozy Cushion works like an electric blanket without the electricity! Your cat will snuggle warmly on this faux fur, double-thick thermal cushion. Patterned on the front, coordinating solid fabric on the back, with a core layer of thermo-reflective material that uses your cat's own body heat to warm the entire cushion - no cords or electricity costs! Soon to become your cat's favorite snuggle spot. When soiled, you can throw the entire cushion into the washer. Please specify Tan Leopard or Gray Leopard. Cushion measures 18" x 22".

Price: $19.99. Endorsed by: Pippin.

Update: "Ha ha ha ha!!! The cushion is now mine!"

Cat-in-the-box

Okay, that does it.

I am definitely covering some Avon boxes with fabric and giving them as Christmas gifts to friends of mine who own cats. Pippin and Alice practically battle over them when I leave them sitting around empty.

Loooong week, finally over

Boy, it's been a tough week. I had a nice little bout of sinusitis in the middle, just in time to have me lose my voice right before my two-hour presentation on equating and scoring. Egh.

However, I feel a bit better this morning. The cats report that lying in sunshine might help.

"Really, sun is a good thing!"

"Doesn't my white belly look shiny and enticing in the bright light? Note, however, that any attempts to rub said belly may still result in scratching and clawing and amputation of the offending limb."

Friday catblogging

This story makes me so sad...but I know from experience that this happens. There's nothing like working in a euthanasia shelter to get an understanding of just how callous and stupid people can be about pets.

If you're nearby, and looking for a cat, please consider this one.

They let me know when I'm late

Thanks to work and errands piling up, I arrived late at the shelter tonight, to hear a cacaphony of pitiful yowls.

"Where have you been? We're hungry!"

"I said, WE'RE HUNGRY!"

(N.B. They weren't actually hungry. When I put two bowls of wet food in their cage, they promptly smeared it all over the floor when I wasn't looking. What they were really yowling for was (a) attention and (b) the feather toy that was just out of their reach.)

Ding dong, catblogging calling

Avon delivery day is always a popular day around my house:

The boxes Avon uses for shipping cosmetics are a little bit shorter and a little bit wider than printer paper boxes, and apparently they are irresistible to cats. I should cover them with fabric and sell them as kitty nests.

Kitty round-up

Life's going to be insane - and blogging will be light - for the next couple of days. Here are some kitties to hold you over:

Shelter kitty #1: "What big eyes I have? The better to mesmerize you with."

Shelter kitty #2: "Why yes, I DO look down on you little people. Why do you ask?"

A word to the wise: Don't expect to live once you've done this to your cat (be sure to click on the photo).

Finally, when the daily news gets too stressful, be sure to visit The Daily Kitten.

Rest in Peace

Lawrence Simon, who organized the famous Carnival of the Cats and has made his pet kitties famous through catcams, has suffered a grievous loss. One of his kitties, the majestic and tyrannical Edloe, recently passed away. Condolences can be made here.

I don't even want to think about the day when I lose one of my cats.

A little bit o' catblogging

The usual shelter work last night. We haven't had too many kittens this spring, but we do have two unnamed siblings right now whom I've nicknamed Smoke and Charcoal:

I don't use flash when I photograph the kitties, but I still get the most precious annoyed looks when I take their photos:

Most of the common room cats were taking advantage of our outside enclosure last night:

Patron saint of the kitties

I think this is pretty cool:

When he was a cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI often delivered sermons at the German-language church in Campasanto Teutonico near St. Peter's Basilica, but his most heartfelt talks may have been the ones he gave after celebrating Mass.

"I went with him once," said Konrad Baumgartner, the head of the theology department at Regensburg University. "Afterwards, he went into the old cemetery behind the church. It was full of cats, and when he went out, they all ran to him. They knew him and loved him. He stood there, petting some and talking to them, for quite a long time. He visited the cats whenever he visited the church. His love for cats is quite famous."

He now has an email address. Maybe I should send him the Carnival of the Cats links for his web surfing pleasure.

Kittypalooza

The dogwoods are in bloom and the stray cats are overflowing the intake center - it must be springtime.

This is what you see when you open a cage that has four hyper kittens in it:

Spring (that's her moniker) investigates the goods on the counter:

Of course her name is Snowball. What else would it be? Sweet as sugar, deaf as a post.

"This is my summer haircut, thank you. Stop laughing at me!"

Yes, that's a crib.

"What's that? You say I'm beautiful? Tell me something else I don't know."

So far, this kitten's nameless. "Whiskers" comes to mind.

I tried taking some photos of myself with the various kittens. Some photos...

...came out better than others.

Yes, he turned around and got in a nice eyeball lick in that photo.

By a sunny window

Perfection of relaxation, from above:

Perfection of relaxation, from the side:

"Excuse me, but some of us are trying to sleep here? So - not to be too blunt about it - would you mind getting that #*(@* camera phone out of my face?"

"Oh, never mind, I can see you're not going away, so I'll just sulk, in a very photogenic manner."

Big and beautiful

As promised, two new inhabitants of the PALS intake center.

Here's sweet and fluffy Holly, although "Hefty" seems a more appropriate name:

And Nunner is giving me bedroom eyes, but that's because he's still a little dazed after surgery:

The weather (despite today's descent back into gloomy rain) has been getting steadily nicer, and the cats are loving it - they can go outdoors via a kitty door built into a window of the intake center.

The first catblogging of Spring

At our intake center, we have Scout, who is as fluffy and soft as a plush stuffed toy, and just about as docile:

And on St. Patrick's Day, we got Erin, Little Mistress of the Big Round Spinning Toy:

Bad kitty!

The look in this (staged) photo says, "Just try to take my toy mice away from me...."

On a related note, did this man find cooking to be so dangerous that he felt the need to be armed while in the kitchen?

Springtime approaches

Yesterday, a squirrel appeared on the windowsill of Dave's studio. Next door, in my library, I noticed as the cats suddenly became very interested in something going on over on the right hand side. The camera phone doesn't capture anything in bright light very well, but then again, I don't think the squirrel was dumb enough to stick his head around the corner.

The return of sunshine

The weather is sunny and relatively balmy (meaning, not freezing cold). I opened the window in the library, and .02 seconds later, Pippin was there, chattering wildly at the birds outside.

I want birdies! Do you hear me? BIRDIES!

Attack of the orange marmalades

Currently at the P.A.L.S. intake center where I volunteer:

Figgy is a fiesty young female who likes to play:

Tanner is an FIV+, FELV- male, and is the sweetest lapcat ever:

Go to Petfinder to adopt a cat today!

Wednesday catbloggin'

Not sure if there will be much posting today - my insomia has kicked in and I'm home from work, because being a zombie around the office doesn't sound too appealing.

The cats are happy I'm home being a zombie instead. And the weather is springlike enough that Pippin is birdwatching from the library window. I love this position of his - he flattens himself out on the perch and places his front paws on the radiator, making himself a very attentive, yet flat, kitty.

Puppy love

Here's my version of babyblogging - my newest "family member," my nephew's lab puppy, Roxie:

Awwww. Everyone in my family has always kept a lab or three around, since they're such great Southern dogs (love to hunt, love to fish, love to swim, love to play, love to chase cars). One of my stepfather's labs, in fact, is named Bubba. Don't get much more Southern than that.

Monday catblogging!

I decided to shake things up and slip the photos in now. Given my new diet and work schedule, I expect to be comatose by Friday.

At least SOMEONE around my house is drinking enough water:

My penchant for big, soft, plum-toned bedding leads to snuggling staredowns, i.e., "Showdown at the Purple Corral":

Ah, for spring to come again...

Like cats need any more reason to act superior

Recently, a particularly Devoted Reader sent along a link to this story:

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office Monday sued an online university for allegedly selling bogus academic degrees -- including an MBA awarded to a cat. Trinity Southern University in Texas, a cellular company and the two brothers who ran them are accused of misappropriating Internet addresses of the state Senate and more than 60 Pennsylvania businesses to sell fake degrees and prescription drugs by spam e-mail, according to the lawsuit.

Investigators paid $299 for a bachelor's degree for Colby Nolan -- a deputy attorney general's 6-year-old black cat -- claiming he had experience including baby-sitting and retail management. The school, which offers no classes, allegedly determined Colby Nolan's resume entitled him to a master of business administration degree; a transcript listed the cat's course work and 3.5 grade-point average.

What caught my eye was the subject line of the email sent to me: "Good News, Pippin and Alice can get their MBAs!" What's weirder - that a cat can now obtain an MBA, or that a complete stranger (in the face-to-face sense) knows the names of both my cats and thought of them when he read about this on CNN?

Here, Pippin studies his textbook on capitalism and the arts:

Christmas Eve Catblogorama

The neighbors across the street from my parents have a very sweet and friendly kitty. My stepfather was testing out his new digital camera (without really taking the time to focus) while I played with the visiting kitty (and made goofy faces - yes, I am slightly cross-eyed....)

Hope you're all having a Merry Christmas Eve!

catblogorama

Surely, some of you out there need a cat.

Surely, you cannot resist Little Chris:

Or Olivia:

Or, surely, not Miss Peaches:

Petfinder.org, folks. These kitties are at PALS as we speak, looking for good homes.

Here's another shot of Little Chris, just in case you needed more to make up your mind:

Show us your --ts!

Well, fine, then. No one asked to see them, but here's my pair. Birdwatching, to boot.

Heh.

Update: As one of Meryl's commenters noted, you can tell these are real, because they're not the same size - although my right one is now larger than my left one. Funny how that works.

Friday catblogging

Haven't taken any new photos recently, but here's an old favorite of mine. I used to take my older cat, Alice, home with me when I would go to SC for Christmas, because she travels well. Meaning she barges right in and takes over whatever house she's been transported to.

She really enjoyed my mother's Christmas-red tablecloth - and so considerate of my mom to place it near a sunny window, too!

To see other pushy kitties, go check out the Carnival of the Cats. Last week's entry was at Watermark; today, we should see one appear at The People's Republic of Seabrook.

Cats are organic Tasers, and should be licensed as such

If I sound a tad cranky in any posts I write today, it's because of how I was awakened this morning.

I'm an anxious, high-strung person, and I don't like to wake up suddenly. As far as alarm clocks, I prefer clock radios with the music volume set to low. Or a soft ringing sound, or a very soft beep. Nothing startling. If you want to wake me up, just sit near me and hum to yourself. No loud noises or jostles, no sudden moves. Waking up gradually suits my temperament best.

This morning, my younger cat Pippin must have rubbed his paws on every carpet in the house, and rolled around in the blankets for a while, just to build up as much static electricity as he possibly could. Then he situated himself on my pillow, reached out, and touched his nose firmly to my nose.

ZAP!!!

Nothing like sitting bolt upright from a dead sleep, every hair on my body on end, heart racing. And Pippin's sitting there looking at me, like "What? What's your problem? Aren't ya gonna get up now?"

Gah. I'm now drinking herbal tea in an attempt to calm down before I get to work.

Update: Verve Hosting must have their own electric cats walking around, short-circuiting things; my hosting server was down all day.

Sunday catblogging

At least someone around my household is relaxed...

Believe it or not, Pippin is actually pretty active...when he's awake.