A great big thank you

You have no idea how flippin excited I was to find this on my doorway yesterday. I was absolutely giddy with delight. I had seen this container posted on Facebook something like two years ago and I have been searching for one (okay, fine, not very aggressively, but actively) ever since. Apparently, Dee knew me well enough that when she saw it at her local store she grabbed one for me and it totally MMD!!  Thank you, Dee!! This freakin rocks (and it looks like Scottish kittens don't wear anything under their kilts either)

Now, for those of you who were wondering, as I totally was, if the cookies inside were kitten shaped..

They are not. I know the Walkers Scotty Dog cookies are dog shaped, but these kitten ones are not. I am surprisingly okay with it though, as I am not sure I could have eaten kitten cookies.

I also want to send a great big thank you to each and every one of you who sent cards to me. We were so light on Christmas decorations this year, because of the move, that it was nice to have something to brighten up the kitchen.

I loved each and every one and they are currently being moved from the kitchen to my secret stash of cards people have sent me.

...but I am giving bonus points to Amy J for sending me a card with a cat's behind prominently displayed. I laughed so hard, and every time I looked at it I smiled. I mean seriously, what is Christmas without a cat butt in your face?

For those of you who didn't request a holiday card from me, here is this year's card:

I had one returned to me for an improper address, and so if anyone who wanted a card didn't get one, you can just let me know by emailing me at connie @ kittyblog.net as I still have plenty. Hopefully next year we can get back to kittens on my cards

Handsome Jack on the "Polar Bear Rug"

A friend and fan of the blog, Kerry A., saw how Jack and Fleurp loved the "Polar Bear Rug" that Rachel had sent us and offered to send us a second one (they sold out on the CatLady Box website - although as of right now it looks like they are back in stock)

Well, Jack was well pleased with his new found ability to lay on both rugs and not have to conserve space.

Have I mentioned lately how ridiculously handsome my boy is? Although I don't think Fleurp was pleased with this turn of events. In fact, I'm pretty sure she thought one of those were for her.

In fact, when they showed up, I had to actually separate the two of them because they were both absolutely sure that both rugs were for them - although that might have had a bit to do with the catnip toys that were involved..

A gift for the kitties

I posted some photos of when I was playing with the kittens and Anne saw them and commented that the toy I was playing with was very similar to ones she makes. She offered to send me some toys, and I am one who will never turn down the offer of cat toys..

A package? for us?? 

What's this? My name isn't Connie!!

Well doesn't this mousie toy smell interesting

I'll just take this one thank you!

Mary took the knot, Winifred took the mouse, and Sarah was having a blast with the paper!

Toys are much more fun if they are interactive

They absolutely love them, and that mousie toy has traveled all over the kitten room. A couple of the toys went up to The Crew who also adored them, and the rest are being saved for when the ones that are currently being loved need to go into retirement.

Thank you so much Anne!! That really was so very kind of you!

What's this?!? and no, it is not a tail warmer.

So last Friday I went out and picked up my mail to find in it that I had a package that I needed to sign for. I had to wait until the next day in order for it to get back to the post office so Saturday morning I braved the crowds (my house PO is in the heart of a very busy tourist town) and found there a very large box. I was so perplexed as I didn't remember ordering anything, and certainly nothing from out of the county. The packing slip didn't help jog my memory at all, so I tossed it in the car and brought it home.  I opened it up and laughed, and shared the above photo on my Facebook page to share my few minutes of mystery with everyone.

Muffin and Fleurp had no idea what was in the package.. they gave it a good once over too. I think they were hoping to sit on it for a while but I was too curious as to what was in it to let them.

Well this clears things up, doesn't it? Fleurp is still hoping it is food. I do have to say I was mightily impressed with the packaging. That bit of artwork up against the box is a thin plastic folder that the invoice was in (which also didn't help me figure out what it was because it was in Korean)

The second I saw the first box I laughed so hard because Robin had told me she was sending these and we both joked about it taking so long to get to me that we'd forget. I had first seen these chair socks on Facebook and not only were they so darn adorable but they weren't for sale anywhere. Robin apparently found somewhere and ordered them for me even though they were on backorder.

Sadly my chair legs are a little too wide to fit them right, but they are still freakingly adorable. I am so going to find just the right thing to put these on, until then I am going to put them somewhere where I can see them all the time because they are so cool.  Thank you Robin!!

I have you and Gracie in my thoughts as you go through these difficult times

Christmas at Casa de Gato

This is going to be a fun and photo intensive post.. I hope you don't mind..

I'd like to start out with my Secret Paws gift.  Cat bloggers get together and draw names and I've participated for a few years now.  This year my secret Santa was Stacy from Ms. Stella O Houligan's blog. She contacted me and asked me for an Amazon wish list to make things a bit easier, and I filled it up with things for the foster kittens and a couple of things for Jack... I guess I had Jack on the brain as The Crew would like me to remind you there are seven of them in total and that Muffin is just as deserving of fun things.. (MUFFIN! get off my blog)

Amazon.. you have to love them.. nice big boxes for small items and lots of brown paper for playing with.

See that long box in the middle there, all that was in there was that wand toy.. :) It was really nice to be able to restock the kitten room. Donations to the shelter are so slow this time of year and I generally have to scrounge for good things.

I also got some lovely gifts from friends.. Amy over at Seabasscat.com baked for me!!  YAY!!

JACK! those are human treats!!  back off!  The wonderful Lisa over at A Tonk's Tail.. or more accurately Faraday from A Tonk's Tail (according to the card sent with the gift) also sent me a gift that made me laugh and smile.

Then there was the annual dressing of the kitties for Christmas.. I adore clothes on cats, but I totally respect the cats in their willingness to put up with me. Eli is 12 years old and this is the first time I have even attempted to put something on him... he has come such a long way

Yes, there was bribery involved.. a lot of it.. I like to make it worth their while. Jack volunteered from the wrong side of the door that if Eli wasn't being co-operative he'd happily step in..

Seriously, that boy will do ANYTHING for food.. and love and attention.. he's "freakin awesome'. Muff and Fleurp are also highly food motivated so it went fairly well.. and it made me smile.

I did go down and tried out a few outfits on the kittens.. but we are all ready pretty photo intensive at this point, so I guess we are going to have a part two.

A Gift for the Kittens

Remember my little 3000th post giveaway? Indulgent Furries won and when I sent her an email to let her know, Donna and Raven replied asking me to use the gift card to purchase a gift for The Girls.

I really liked the feathered toys by Kong she mentioned as a possible gift, but they were an 'add on' only item and could not be purchased outright. I lamented about it while I was at work and a co-worker was about to place an order and so she ordered them for me, YAY! They came in over the weekend and I got them yesterday.

Lori could not resist them, and went right for them. The balls themselves are about two inches in diameter and are full of catnip. Not sure why they are called crinkle balls, as they don't really make any noise when you handle them like traditional crinkle balls... but they are still pretty awesome.

I am still learning how to use my new flash and sadly these photos are a little dark, also just to be clear this is not a sponsored post, this was a gift by a friend - I just happen to think they were pretty awesome.

Thank you Donna and Raven, it was so kind of you to do this, it was much appreciated..

The kittens are doing better

The girls are starting to put on weight and are starting to lose that boney feeling. If you look for it, you can easily still feel their bones, but you do kinda have to look a little harder now. I used to be able to feel each nodule on their ribs, now I can simply count the ribs, and I am sure in a few more days I won't even be able to that.

I have had them on raw since getting them back and their stools took another day to firm up but have been very firm since. I ran out of raw once and they got some canned to supplement and the stool got a bit softer, so I am going to keep them on raw for a couple of more days.

I normally feed Bravo after a very disappointing customer service encounter with Oma's Pride a number of years ago, but because of the most recent recalls I have been having a hard time getting enough Bravo, so I decided to buy some Oma's to make sure we had enough food while Bravo sorts things out. Unfortunately we immediately encountered the same issue this time that that started the ball drop last time - a piece of bone big enough to get caught on a tooth and that tooth belonged to one of the kittens. She was NOT happy to have me try to get it off, but I finally did.

I also was gifted a new piece of kitten room hardware. I mentioned that the scratching post I have in that room was getting a bit disgusting and one of my kind readers offered to donate a new one.  It is absolutely lovely, thank you very much!

Something sweet from someone sweet..

So I was opening up the this morning (it tends to pile up) and I received this..  It was made for me and sent to me by the wonderfully sweet Rene over at It's all about the cats!  I do have to say, I really am thankful for cat people..

Sweet?? but not sweeter than me right?? mom.. right??  ~Jack

A good day..

Well despite the fact that yesterday was Monday and my husband was out of town, and I had a killer headache for most of the day, I have to say that yesterday was all in all a good day.

It started out with Jack snuggling with me, licking my nose, wanting to be close to me.  He was avoiding being on the bed while he was having his medical issues, so to have him  up there when I woke up was really nice.

Then the shelter called to let me know I could bring the kittens in to be neutered.  I was so pleasantly shocked that they did.  Not only because there was space for them, but that the message got through the chain of staff and someone followed through.  Part of me was kinda hoping the phone call wouldn't happen and they would still be here, but they do need to go back so off they went.

During the day I made adoption cards for them, so after work I ran to the shelter to drop those off, and my boys did very well and looked very good.  Hawkeye and I cuddled, Trapper ran free and said hello to another kitty in a different cage.  Radar was just looking for mischief.  Talking to the staff it turns out Radar already has a home.  One of the staff members has a brother who saw him before I got him and wanted him.

so good for him.  This just means Hawkeye and Trapper needs a new home.  Together would be awesome, but if not that's OK too.

I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home.  I found large cans of pumpkin on sale for half price.  So I got a bakers dozen.  There were a few more left, but I just couldn't face carrying them to the car then into the house. (big headache.. remember)

I got home and had two packages waiting for me.  The first from a friend of mine..

How cute is this??  It is one of those mini books that are the size of a coaster.  I can't wait to read it once my head stops hurting..

and I also got a very large package sent priority mail from Purina.  I couldn't stop giggling because I knew exactly what it was.. the tote I won at the end of last year..

 it is nice and roomy, and I can imagine it will be awesome for all kinds of things.  CatLadyLand is one of those blogs I adore, and I love that I can tote around her logo.. cause Cats Are Funny.. (Of course this spurs me to want to make my own logo.. I just need to find someone willing to do it for little to no money.. )

I'm looking forward to bringing it to BlogPaws..