Post 1597: Christmas 2017

Neither Andy nor Dougy likes to dress up for the holidays, but my friend Deborah’s cat Charles has a different attitude about it!

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Says Deborah: Yes, Charles says he would be honored to grace your blog post for Christmas. He wants it to be known that no kitties were hurt during filming and that he rather enjoys the attention that he receives while getting into costume. This is in fact true: my son is so amazed by his behavior and tolerance for this kind of thing (well especially mauls from [my granddaughter, Charles’ favorite kid]) that he tells me all the time that 99.99% of cats would never put up with these things – as if I did not know that.

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Regardless, I’m sure Andy and Dougy wish you a blessed Christmas, as do I! And may the new year be better than the last.

Post 1520: whisker bug…

Andre the Bombay cat had a hitchhiker on his whisker.

A little closer look at the bug….

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Thanks to my friend Deborah for letting me use this photo. I am exhausted today, and this photo is charming enough by itself without any further commentary, photos, or effort on my part!

Post 1483: International Cat Wrestling…

Charles and André, Deborah’s Bombay kitties

My friend Deborah recently hosted grandchildren at her home, and they came up with an interesting game for Deborah’s two cats.

I noticed that my grandson C. was pretty good at imitating the voices of sportscasters. I told him he might have a future as a sportscaster but that by the time he was an adult all sports were liable to be broadcast on the Internet and that on the Internet cats rule!!!

André Breton (Monsieur Moustache)

So we came up with the idea for Internet Cat Wrestling, governed by the IICWA (International Internet Cat Wrestling Association).

Charles is a handsome black kitty!

Like all sports, the rules had to be codified, so while I was cooking dinner, C. and I made the rules.

Some of them can only be read by him apparently, and there had to be exactly ten which got harder as the dinner making reached a crucial stage, but here are the ones I can decipher:

1) both awake
2) both in same room
4) only hand and mouth
7) cat can have a coach
10) sportsmanship at all times

Charles and R. are BFFFF’s (Best Fur Friend and Friend Forever)!

The game is played as a best of 10 rounds each day for a week and involves dangling their favorite cat toy (a multicolored felt wand on a pole) in front of them until one or the other traps it in their mouth or under their paw.

Seeing C. (just finished second grade) write down the rules inspired R. (mid-kindergarten) to write her own set of rules which seems to consist of a lot of “no”s only one of which I can decipher with certainty: “5. No C.” although “no shoes, no cats, no boot, and yes Mom” are strong candidates.

R.’s rules
André won the series, not surprisingly, as he is much more a game player than Charles. André is quick on his paws and does not mind flying around to chase the wand, while Charles prefers to conserve his energy.

For half brothers they are very different. Charles does have the ability to get a grip with his mouth and not let go despite tugs from the referee but there are no points awarded for tenacity.

The Award Ceremony: André vs. Charles

At the end of the week, during our Camp Monster dinner party with their parents and A. and his wife in attendance, C. presented the awards: a fish for André The Vainquer and fish juice to Charles The Sportsmanship Winner (by default — the loser always gets the sportsmanship award).

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120116 andy (left) and dougy

I hope you enjoyed this story from my friend Deborah! Her kitty boys are BFFF (Best Fur Friends Forever) of my kitty boys (Andy on recliner arm, and Dougy on floor), who were glad to have a day free of me nagging them to stand still for photos or “Do something… anything… interesting, dag nab it!”

Post 1308: the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains…

…but my friend Deborah shows the snow in Maine is clearly on the blow. Look at this drift outside Deborah’s window!

And poor Charles the kitty and his brother André have to deal with a boring window where few birds and the neighborhood squirrel can deal with this hill of snow. Since it’s not that easy to see Charles, I’ve highlighted where he’s watching birds in this photo…. (You have to look closely!)

I don’t know about you, but I won’t complain about the piddly snow we had here in Western Nebraska a bit back when I see what Deborah’s dealing with now.

Post 1251: A Christmas greeting from a couple of cats…

No, not Andy and Dougy (though they do wish you a blessed Christmas), but from my friend Deborah’s Charles and André, here in a holiday photo slide show.

“Meow! Meow!”

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Deborah assures me Charles enjoys dressing up, and that he purrs while in costume. On the other hand, Dougy and Andy prefer to walk around in their birthday suits!

Post 1229: update on Post 1218, when pets mourn

My friend Deborah told us about how her cats Andre and Charles reacted to the death of their half sister Serena. The passage of time has helped, as have efforts Deborah’s made to help the kitties adjust to their missing half sister.

Even though Charles no longer meows for Serena, I am sure he still misses her. Both boys have been eating a lot more of late, even demanding to be fed three times two days ago. As long as Charles does not get too big, I guess it is OK. Everyone seems to be more hungry on winter days.

We’ve had a lot more chases and playtime of late and they both demand more affection. I hope they are not feeling I might disappear them too and they better stay on my good side.

I decided to give them a little excitement so I cut down a small fir in the yard that I would have pruned next spring anyway, stuck it in a pot of geranium that has somehow survived the frosts to date, bought a few ornaments and voilà! We have a Christmas tree for the first time in years if not decades. It helps that the tree is free and would have been sacrificed anyway come spring and that I had a few ornaments in storage already. André has already started batting at them from the arm of the sofa, but having lined the pot with pine cones I hope they will stay out of it. Yeah, right.

Well they do like it when I change things up so they were pretty excited.

I don’t know how you feel about dressing cats up. I remember Louie wears a cape. I have been an offender since I was a young girl on that score. Not every day or anything. I found this Santa outfit in a thrift store earlier this year and took it out today. Boy did I underestimate how big Charles is! Maybe it will fit the squirrel who lives under the porch!

Now that our Christmas decorations are finished, we can relax and enjoy the rest of the month.

Except…Deborah got two telephone calls that changed things a bit!

The inspiration for my tree came from a Chinese auction of similar trees in a nearby town today. I bought some tickets but basically always view it as a donation to the group running the event as I have participated in the past and not won anything.

André knows what Christmas tree decorations are for!

Just awhile ago the phone rang and I learned I had won the Joy tree. As I sat pondering what to do with the Joy tree (my house is very tiny), the phone rang again and it seems I also won the Blue Bus tree. Good grief!

It’s raining Christmas trees. I would send one to your boys if it would ship. I’m sure they would have fun destroying it. As it is, I may have to find a random person upon whom to bestow these. I’m feeling partial to my own tree.

Post 1074: André the cat…or is that André the Olympian?

Remember the three cats that flew to Paris? Well, they’re back in America and my friend Deborah shared this about André, her kitty that performs feats of athleticism worthy of an Olympic athlete! Of Deborah’s cats’ activities she notes:

We just had a whole-house cat chase. These days, that only happens when I serve something that hits the spot with all three. It’s my way of knowing it was appreciated. It’s their way of communal rejoicing.

Charles the cat, victim of the stained glass window incident…. Aw! Poor kitty!

How about André?

Other than that, André nearly killed Charles and me last night by knocking a stained glass window on us. How? Only André can answer that. He spends a lot of his spare time in deep thought about all the possibilities for disorder. His father was also a devil cat. Very clever with their paws. He likes high places and the out of the ordinary spot.

Where’s the kitty?

André is a very active Bombay kitty! (Is that redundant?)

What can I say!? If it were a box, we’d laugh and say, “Well, you know cats and boxes!” Same principle.

You might guess André would "rest" up there!

You might guess André “rests” up there!

Thank you, Deborah, for sharing this update. As you might guess, I am a fan of black cats, and am delighted to know mine aren’t the only “devil cats”!