Award!

We got an award!

 Bryan's Cats gave us The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award! Thank you Bryan's Cats! If you haven't seen his blog, it's very inspiring, he cares for his own clowder (I love that word too!) of kitties as well as many in the neighborhood!

I'm suppose to tell you seven unknown facts then pass on the award, so here goes!

1. Leo has an overbite. Just a tiny one, but it's oh so cute! I keep trying to get a good profile shot of him, but he won't stop looking at me! He can hear that camera open every time..

Here's my attempt at a profile shot of him..

This isnt a  profile shot, but you can kind of see the overbite..



2. Star has a fused tail. Just the last two or three bones. We think she must have gotten it slammed in a door just before we got her. When we adopted her, she would have these fits where she would spin in a circle and act like she was in pain. We kept checking, thinking it was her leg, but could find nothing wrong. She never once licked or bit at her tail so we didn't think to check there and the fits would pass as quickly as they came on her. I can't tell you how many times she'd have those spin fits while sitting on me, and having her claw stuck in my skin would not, could not stop her from spinning. I still have scars.. Anyway, it wasn't until much later that we discovered the stiff end of her tail and put two and two together and came up with poor baby must have had a broken tail! I still feel awful about it, though I don't know what the vet could have done for her. Can you even cast a tail? It doesn't bother her in the least now.

3. I suffer from terminal shyness. It's worse than painfully shy, it's excruciating. Of course, when I get to know someone, I can talk their ear off until they scream for mercy! But it's also the reason that I had been reading kitty blogs for years before I got the nerve up to comment on one. Let me tell you, I almost had a heart attack before I pressed the 'post comment' button with all the anxiety I was feeling! But I'm really glad I did. And I'm really glad I got up the nerve to ask Chrystal about adopting Leo. And I'm really really glad I started this blog and met all of you!

4. Star was almost exactly like Leo is now when we first got her. She was two, and we had three other cats, all senior kitties. Her playful, exuberant attitude nearly drove them all completely nuts. She just wanted to play, and she pounced on everyone the moment they moved. She was the bouncy, playful, annoying intruder back then! Poor kitty, getting a taste of her own medicine after all this time.

I was reading this to twin 1 in Alaska and she insists on my telling about one particular day with Star when she was still new to us. I had a rule about doing homework right after school, (snack, then homework, then playtime), so she, twin 1, was sitting next to me as we were going over her work when Star, having one of her run and pounce fits, ran up the girl and bounced off of me to land in the window behind us. She used the girl as a running board and me as a trampoline to get to where she wanted!

5. Greg is a cat whisperer. He can pick up Star, I cannot. Star is one of those cats that when you start to pick her up, if she can't get away, she goes pointy on five of her six ends to discourage you. If you can brave claw and fang and actually get her up, then you have to deal with the fact that she will wiggle and squirm and fight tooth and nail until she gets her way, which is down. Greg, however, can pick her up, she doesn't growl, hiss or scratch. She never bites him. He can hold her and pet her and not have to have a death grip to keep her from jumping away. She isn't always thrilled perhaps, but she stays until he lets her down. And surprise surprise, she does not run from him when she gets down! She will even rub up against him, like thanking him for picking her up.

Greg has this effect on babies too. When the twins were infants, and one would start crying, setting the other off, sometimes there was just nothing you could do to settle them down. And they were the kind of screamers that would cry so hard they'd stop breathing and turn blue! Scary! (There are tricks to stopping that, aside from the fact that once they pass out, they start breathing again, still not fun to deal with!) There were day's I'd be beyond frazzled and I'd call him and he'd come to where I was, (their house or ours) and all he had to do was pick one of them up and they shut up! I don't know if it was his calm manner, which I didn't have after hours of crying babies, or what. He always says it's his giant mechanic's mitts that make them feel safe and comfortable. Once he got one baby calm, usually in about three minutes.. He'd get the second one and do the same. Occasionally he'd hold them both at once, but really, it was so fast that he could do one at a time. Still frustrates me that he could do what I, a former day care teacher, could not do.. Babies and cats love him. To my mind, that's a very telling thing and after nearly 24 years, I'm still positive I made a wonderful choice in him.

 Being held by daddy!

She's purring even though she's giving me the hairy eyeball for taking her picture.

6. We're... oh dear, this is a horrible confession... We're kinda.. nerds.. We are really into Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate.. Greg even went to a party as a Klingon once, and I made his mask (horrible paper-mache), starfleet uniform, and all the insignia including his rank pips and commbadge. I went as a bajorian tourist.. I made a bumpy nose thingie and wore a Star Trek tshirt that had Deep Space nine on it. (someone went to Deep Space 9 and all I got was a lousy tshirt) Oh, I also made a whole big garbage bag full of tribbles.. I won't mention the food, but it was very Star Trek. *deep sigh* ok, now the truth is out there.. feel free to call me a wacko.

Wow, seven... I don't know what else to say.. Leo is kind of an open book since I started blogging about him almost from the minute we got him. Star is still probably a bit of an unknown, so I'll stick to a fact about her for the last one.

7. Star really is a sweet kitty. I know she seems like a big ol' crank, and she is. But that's not all she is. She is an attention hound, just on her terms. She's cuddly, just not pick me up cuddly. She waits for Greg to wake up in the morning so he can pet her. He's her personal property, you know, she has claimed him totally. She loves to get attention upstairs, and that's not just since Leo arrived. I think she thinks we're undivided up there or something. Whatever it is, she will roll around acting all cute just to get pets. When she's done with that, she wants to sleep on my hip or back depending on how I'm sleeping, and on my tummy when I'm watching TV or trying to work on the laptop.

When Greg wakes up, and she's sure he's not going to put the snooze on again, she will pester him. And he will darn near be late to give her the attention she craves. I heard him one morning, telling her that he had to go to work now or he wouldn't be able to keep her in chicken treats. I'm pretty sure she let him go then..

And tummy rubs! Goodness, she demands them! She will flop over and kick at my arm until she gets into the correct tummy rubbing position, then will just bliss out while I stroke her curly tummy furs. if I rub in front of her ears while I'm rubbing her tummy, well that much the better, she will almost go catatonic with pure joy! That's her other best spot, the front of her ears. She will lean into my hand so hard! And if my knuckle goes into her ear, oh yeah, that's the good stuff!

Star the sweetheart

So there you go, 7 little known facts about us. Thank you again Bryan's Cats for the award!

Now I want to pass it on to:

Katnip Lounge

and

Love and Hisses

for the sweet and funny voice they give their kitties in their blogs!