Mo Cats Day

Can you believe someone thought there should be a no cats day on the internet? I'm so glad we have Mo Cats day instead!



So to do my part, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures of my kitties. I had planned on finding pictures of kitties I've had through the years, but computer and house things got in the way and I haven't had time to look for any. If I get to that later in the day, I'll post them!
For now, enjoy my current fuzzy friends! And give me Mo Cats!
(These have all been sitting on my camera/phone/computer for a long time, they just hadn't gone with anything yet)

Leo The Chinese Lion

Star

Thursdays in the Garden with Moose

I’ve been blogging for a little while now, and I really enjoy the special days other kitty bloggers do. Tortie Tuesday, Tuxie Tuesday, White Wednesday, Meezer Monday for example are days I can’t do because I don’t have kitties those CATegories.

I can, and occasionally have done Wordless Wednesday and Wordy Wednesday.

I could do Formerly Feral Friday, though I haven’t yet. Femme Friday would work too, if Star didn’t just glare at the camera... Mancat Monday would work, but most of my posts are about Leo anyway. I could CERTAINLY do fuzzy Friday since it’s for out of focus pictures, and I have plenty of those!

I really like the Thursday in the Garden, but my kitties don’t go outside and I haven’t had a garden in a few years. I don’t have any kind of indoor garden either as I have a brown thumb.. When I was first married, my mother-in-law, a real wiz with anything growing, gave me a few plants. I watched in horror over the next few months until the last brown leaf fell to the carpet.

Nothing I did, water, don’t water, feed, don’t feed, keep cats out of it, put in sun, keep out of sun, nothing worked. Nothing would keep them alive. I even asked Greg to take over their care for a while to see if they would perk up without my inept handling. But it was too late. The only plants I should care for are silk, and I could probably figure out how to turn those brown somehow as well!

So while I like looking at cats in their gardens, I knew I wouldn’t be able to post on Thursday in the Garden for myself.

But there IS a cat in my family that is a feline gardener! I introduced him in my blog a while back. It’s my mom’s cat, Sir Moose-a-lot Roadkill Goodyear Thunderbottom. Roadkill and Goodyear are more nicknames than part of his name.. but it does sound impressive.

Roadkill pose 

(helping with the laundry, that's an 18 month size shirt)

  

And he is an impressive cat, if you define impressive as leaves an impression on your body when he walks across you. Yes, Moose, as he is known to those who love him, is a huge cat. HUGE. And so heavy that he dents you with his tiny kitty feet holding up all that round beefy mancat goodness.

My parents have a lot of garden and Moose inspects it all. They have a flower bed. An actual wrought iron bed frame with a raised bed garden in it. Unfortunately there’s no picture of Moosey actually in it, but it’s still pretty enough to post.

  

Moose exits the house from the bathroom window. Like any cat, he stands half in and half out of the ‘door’ while he decides if he’s actually going out. You can see the flower ‘bed’ from there.

   

And of course, when it’s time to come back in, he sits at his special door until someone opens it for him.

  

And now, very recently, he’s taken to sleeping in a new spot. I say it’s because he can keep an eye on his ‘door’ and who comes in to let him out.

  

Let’s head out to the garden, shall we? Moosey will lead the way.

  

Here he is guarding the garden around a flowering crab apple tree.

Closer up

  

And at the front garden, he seems to like the bricks. Keeping his footsies dry maybe?

  

Then again, maybe not..

  

Some pretty wave petunias in a pot with some other things. Moose is there, see under the van’s bumper?

That’s about it I guess, time to head back inside. Passing the garden between the porch and sidewalk.

Stop taking pictures, get in there and feed me. Can't you see I'm wasting away?

  

Remember the hibiscus I gave my mom for Mother’s day? The one Leo bapped at?

 

Here’s it’s new spot on the corner of the sidewalk.

  

I can’t close this without showing Moose in the garden in the winter. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to go out in the snow.

Are you kidding me?

  

But nature called so he had to find a few inches of dirt amongst the roses under the eves.

I can has dirt?

  

Scarf Time

I know I’m late to the party, but I love the cat blogosphere too and am thankful to the lady who puts so much work into it!

The Katnip Lounge gave Leo another name in the comments yesterday and boy does it fit! Leo the Chinese Acrobat! If you could see the way he flips and leaps around after his kitty teaser toys, you’d agree! I should have thought of that, lol!

They also asked to see pictures of Leo being a scarf. I know I’ve posted a few, but here are several all together. Most of them posted previously.

This one hasn't been posted, mostly because it's all blurry. But it's the only picture of him on my shoulder on the ride home when we adopted him from Chrystal. He was leaning into my head so hard I got a crick in my neck, but I still didn't move him. Who could give up all that furry love??

I don't know you, lady, but this gonna be my new spot.

This is at the computer, he climbs up me with such a determined look on his face, then throws himself over my shoulder and lays his chin on me. Again, can't refuse him, it's just too sweet.

No typing.. it's too loud and I's takin' a nap here.

Again at the computer, on my soft computer sweater (it's freezing at there in the winter!)

No flashy flash thingie, I's gettin' my snuggles in.

This is probably also at the computer, it's a good snuggle place because he steals my complete attention.

If I swat at these butterflies, will my claws cause you to drop me? better not chance it..

So there's my Leo scarf in all his warm fuzzy glory! He's such a snuggler. I really got a good deal when I got him!






Random Felines: I have tried and tried to comment on your blog and I just cant seem to get it to work. I can only seem to comment on ones that let me choose to comment as a URL. I don’t understand it. But I love your home made cat perch! I am planning on making a tree or something myself one of these days.

By Any Other Name

Officially, his name is Leo the Chinese Lion. And I can see the lion in him, even though we think he really resembles a fox. He’s got a long pointy fox face, a long fox body, and a truly magnificent extra fluffy puffy tail, sorta fox-like.

He is Lion hearted, unafraid to sneak up and goose the snarling she-beast we know as Star. He’s leonine in that he spends the heat of the day rolling around in several naps and conserving his energy.

But we’re talking about his many names today. And oh my does he have more than one. We’re silly like that around here. At least I am, but since It’s my blog, I can say we if I want and no one can counter me, bwahaha! .. um, anyway..

Leo the Chinese Parrot was the first extra name he was given. Mostly because he spent at least half of the eight hour trip home from Chrystal’s (please adopt a kitty from her!) on my shoulder. Nothing can make him come down when he wants some shoulder time.. He’s a very determined pussy cat. Which leads to:

Leo the Chinese Scarf. Or just Leo scarf, but are you sensing a theme here yet? He drapes himself over my shoulder, around my neck whenever I’m at the big computer, and occasionally elsewhere. He’s a very warm scarf. But the purrs are worth it.

Leo the Chinese Cockroach. Ok, that’s a new one since he’s started sleeping on the bed with me in the mornings. He’s perfectly content to stay there, rolling around, curling up, borrowing pillows and generally making himself at home. Until the light turns on. Then he scrambles off the bed and out of the room like scattering cockroaches!

Leo the Chinese Goofball. There are a couple of times during the day that he gets all bouncy and goofy. Morning is one, when he’ll leap on anything and strut around with his tail straight up while he’s looking for trouble to get into. The other time is after snack at night. That’s when he’ll go on bug hunts and stalk Star. Wait, does that mean he thinks she’s a bug? Hmm..

Leo the Chinese Snoop. He inspects everything that comes into the house. I know a lot of cats are like that, but he will even stand up on his back legs, and tall boy that he is, he can see everything on any table. The other day, he inspected my nieces purse, chewed through a pair of ear buds and stole a hair band she didn’t even remember was in there. Which brings us to..

Leo the Chinese Thief. He takes things and carries them around. Tissues are common enough, but he takes newspapers on occasion. Sections anyway. Plastic clam shell packaging is an amazing draw for him. He’s not been extremely thrilled with the laser pointer, but he will go to great lengths to steal the package from it which still has spare batteries in it. Before anyone brings it up, I know how dangerous button batteries are for kitties, if they swallow them it can be very very bad. They are safely put away now.

You know, I never did ask Chrystal why ‘Chinese’ Lion.. and I certainly mean no disrespect by using it in his nicknames so I hope no one is offended. I have looked up Chinese lions, and basically saw two types. The long dragon lions used in parades where several people inside it make it look like it’s bounding up and down the street. Leo is a very long cat and he bounces up and down all over the place, so perhaps that’s it.

But he got his name before he got long and bouncy. Perhaps it’s from the other type of Chinese lion. The carved ones with the ball in their mouth. These works of art are carved from one piece, the ball is carved from inside the mouth, not carved and placed inside later. The mouth is always open to show off the skill of the craftsman who can carve a perfectly round ball inside a lion’s mouth. Leo is not a talker, but if you look at his kitten pictures on Chrystal’s site, it seems like his mouth is open in most of them! And of course, there’s his habit of carrying things around in his mouth, ball or whatever.

Whatever the case, my Leo the Chinese Whatever is a pretty special kitty and I’m so happy he’s mine.

While we’re thinking of Chrystal, why don’t you bounce over to her blog and look over the kitties up for adoption? You know you want one and they are just the sweetest things! And then you can look at the fund raiser bricks! Leo’s got one, you should get one for your kitties or doggies or yourself before she ends the sale! Hurry and be part of the Winnie’s Wish Walkway!



Here’s a little action from Leo the Chinese Goofball and a rather chewed up da bird. He jumps in the goofiest, wildest, most flippy and adorably way for this!

I's loaded like a spring.. I's gonna burst out 'n get you flying fedder!

Mid-turn, skidding on the carpet, trying to grab the bird when it swings the other way

You can't get away from me! I will track you to the end of times! Ahahaha!

Star got in on the fun as she was hopped up on catnip. She's far too fast to get pictures of when she's on the chase, but here she is contemplating her next burst of attack speed.

It will turn five degrees to the left on it's next pass, I'll grab it then...

Wait for it.. wait.... NOW!

For the record, I have tried to give Leo catnip on several occasions. He either ignores it or runs from it. I have never seen a cat act that way with nip. Star got another butterfly like her favorite, it has catnip in it. Billed as zoom around the room high test catnip, she adores it. It makes Leo zoom around the room... to get away from it. 

Bird Day?

No no no, we have been talking about birthdays, not bird days! What happened, did I miss the memo that said all birds must go nuts today? Or did it say they must drive cats nuts today? That must be it.

This morning, after sticking a claw in my foot to let me know he was there, Leo went bird crazy. This particular bird has long been driving me crazy.. We have an air conditioner in a window in the bedroom and it is a favored place for mourning doves (or something in the pigeon family, we just call them mourning doves) to sit.

Of course, they don’t just sit.. They coo. Loudly. And, I swear this is true, the air conditioner amplifies their coos a hundred fold. So there you’ll be, sleeping peacefully, all content and snug only to be jarred awake rudely by a deafening, amplified COO!

This bellowing nemesis of mine caught Leo’s attention. You cannot see the bird through the air conditioner, but that didn’t stop Leo from trying to get at it anyway. Unfortunately the only way to there is to cross a dresser covered with precariously balanced books and papers and assorted other things that really should be somewhere else.

Leo has tried to take this trek previously and something invariably falls to the ground. Catching his attention, so he follows it, then he hears the bird again, so it all starts all over again. Between Leo and the dove, I about went crazy.

And then... Star, who’d been napping on the jewelry chest, heard a bird land on the screen. How or why they do that, I’ll never know, but these little house sparrows are always jumping on the screens, their little claws or talons making a scraping sound as they hit the glass behind it. Makes my teeth rattle...

Star got all excited and pawed at the curtain trying to claw it open. In the interest of saving the curtain, I got up and nudged it open for her. She would hunker down and wait, then slap at the window when a bird would land. Her claws, which badly need to be trimmed, scratched over the glass.

So here was my morning:

Crash!(something falls off the dresser)
Thud! (Leo follows)
Bump-screeeeech! (Star attacks the window birds)
Coo-OOO-coooo (stupid dove)
fwump (Leo jumps on the bed, he’s getting better at jumping!)
Crash!
Thud!
Bump-screeeeeech!
Coo-OOO-coooo
fwump
And repeat and repeat and repeat..

Sigh, I love my kitties..

Whew, that was a work out, I need a nap after that!

Can't you keep it down, mom?

Driving you crazy is the one thing the infidel and I have in common.

You wouldn't want to take that way from us, would you?

Sleep On It

If you have a cat, you know that they believe that EVERYthing is put there for them to sleep on. Anything you lay down becomes an instant kitty bed. Leo has always been a silly sleeper, contorting into the oddest positions. But lately I’ve been noticing a trend in some of the pictures I have of him.

Recall him helping to pick out the new carpet?

Unfortunately, we aren’t going with that choice. But he was quick to give his approval of the new choice! He also thought it was a nice place to scratchy so we had to trim off a few stray bits he’d pulled before we took it back to the store...

(it's not the exact carpet, but the blue is the right background color, a sample of ours wasn't in stock)

You might remember this old picture of him sleeping on a saw.. I still don’t understand that one!

Now that he’s decided he can share the bedroom, pardon me, The Land of the Giant Cushy Bed, he’s finding all kinds of new places to snooze.

And then we took the curtains off the door so we could prep it for painting..

Guess I should have expected it, huh?

Catching Up

Yesterday I was telling about Leo and the mirror. I cannot believe I forgot to tell how that all ended! After he had a fit seeing that strange cat in the mirror I put it away and after a moment or two, he calmed down and curled up at the end of the bed. As I did up my hair without the aid of a mirror, Star came out of the closet.

She must have been way back in there because I knew she wasn’t on her box or bean bag. As she was coming out, she noticed Leo on the bed and started hissing at him. And he, as usual, just looked at her. I don’t know why he hissed at the mirror kitty, who was not being aggressive until he was, but passively just looked at the real kitty who was being aggressive!

I don’t get it. I don’t understand him. But I love my snuggle bug.

Since his birthday was just a few days ago, niece 2 decided to get him a birthday gift. She got him a kitty teaser toy with two fur mice on the end. Big fluffy colorful mice! He saw that and just went nuts! He was too fast for me to get many good pictures, but I got one anyway.

Mousies!

Huggy micies, I will nom you! As soon as I get my paws on you!

I can hardly believe he’s a year old now. But my boy is growing up. He’s growing bigger than his favorite places. He hardly fits on the folding chairs when he lays on them.

He’s always hung off the end of the Royal footstool, but now he’s more on it, and still hanging over the end.

He hangs over everything now days..

He’s just a big ol’ sweetie. I can’t believe how happy he’s made me in the short time I’ve had him. He’s my buddy, my companion when no one else is around, my snuggler, and someone who’s always happy to see me.

I have to say it. You can have this kind of fuzzy love too. Leo’s sisters are still looking for a home. As are other kitties in the cat house where he came from. They are over crowded. You would be doing a great service to Chrystal and other kitties who will need space in that cat house if you would just look over the list of kitties and adopt one or two of them. Please, consider this, don’t just read the words, seriously consider, and then contact Chrystal at Daily Dose of Dogs (aka Cats with your Coffee) and help this amazing rescuer. You will never regret it.