Thanks for the toys Alice Marie

I stopped by Alice Marie's blog for her fifth birthday and we had a lot of fun.  Apparently The Crew stayed behind and won the "Pouncing on a Toy" contest and as such we won a prize from their awesome store Pacific Cat Toys

I have to admit when I heard I won 'green beans' I though how silly, they are never going to like them.. oh well they'll be good for kittens, kittens play with anything.. but even Jack, 12 yr old Jack, enjoyed playing with these :)

Christmas at Casa de Gato

Well it was a nice Christmas by all accounts.  I went and spent Christmas eve at my sister's place with my family.  I am blessed that my immediate family is all in the area and all in good health.  My nephews are a absolute riot, and I enjoy spending time with them.  And there were frosted molasses cookies, which have been a staple of family Christmas.

The men of my life

We woke up Christmas morning to a light snow.  It snowed all day and it barely covered the ground.  Unfortunately the TV I bought my husband was one that had been returned previously and were missing parts :( but we spent the rest of the day just enjoying being home with the cats.  The cats were beside themselves enjoying the wrapping, the nip, the treats, the presents and then a good long nap / snuggle with us.  One of my favorite quotes of the day was when we were laying down watching TV and Jack came up and did his dance on us.  He does this odd dance/prance/ kneading thing on us, much like a dog does before settling.  My husband told him to stop prancing on him, and I said, well he is known as "Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and sometimes Vixen" (cause he is such a flirt)

My husband also innocently said that it is sad we don't have a "family picture" of the cats, you know, all lined up and posed.  I couldn't help but giggle.  I told him that would only happen with photoshop.  I am so hoping one of these days to get off my procrastinating duff and learn that (anyone know of any good tutorials? and when I mean tutorials, I mean starting from "this is photoshop") but we did have a little bit of fun dressing up The Crew in their holiday finest (that we found in the dollar bin at Target along with a few left over from years past) I know a lot of people don't think dressing up cats is good clean fun, but I only do it to those cats who are accepting of it, and they get well compensated with treats..

My cats are spoiled through out the year, and with there being seven of them, I don't buy them individual gifts any more.  I've got so many toys that they still haven't been given some from last Christmas :)   I did win a Crinkle Sack from a BlogPaws twitter party, and so I saved that to give them on Christmas Day.. they do enjoy it - although they tend to like to sit on top of it now that it is all said and done, but there  is nothing wrong with that :)

Twee thought all these shenanigans were a bit over the top.  She's not a big fan of change nor the competition for treats, so she just sat under the table till things slowed down.  Fleurp just wondered when we were going to get to the good stuff - when the wrapping paper, tissue and boxes would be strewn about the room..

And then we got to the stockings..

Yup, they got Da Bird.. everyone was instantly attracted to it, and sadly I shouldn't have started playing with it on the hard wood floors.  it is hard to get traction enough to jump, but I soon moved over to the area rug and there was a lot of fun.  Sadly after just a few short minutes my most skilled hunter damaged one of the feathers... who is my most skilled hunter?? bet you'd never guess..

Yup, my few kibbles short of a bowlful kitty is the most skilled at pulling things out of the air.. even after all this time it still amazes me..

Then it was movie time..

Just call me Vixen.. (and give me a kiss and a treat please)

Kitty’scape™ Cat Tower

WAAAY back on October 7th I won a Kitty’scape™ Cat Tower from Cat Chat with Caren & Cody.  I was so excited because I love bringing in new enrichment for my own cats and also for the kittens.  It was hard to tell which this product would work better for from the pictures, so I figured I would wait till it showed up and decide once I got my paws on it.

First it needs a cat scan

and a second opinion

We got the Deluxe Playscape Kit

Seriously guys, what's with all the cat scans??

Snoopervising?  really?  don't you trust me??

Guess not.

How the base looks from underneath.  I like how it is well finished.

The set up I chose.
You can configure it any number of different ways.

adding the padding and the support for the cabana

Fleurp was the first one on, and the first to deposit her scent.
Keep your eye on the kitty on the floor.

Floor to cabana roof in a single bound

I shall call this.. 

KITLANDIA!

Hey, what about us??

You may join me in KITLANDIA any time.. 

Twee scratching on the scratching post

Muffin wanted to get in on things

Muffin says she fits in the Cabana..
 Kit tries to pretend it isn't happening

See.. I fits.. 

Even Eli wanted to check it out.

Kit is in the 'hammock' under Skippy

Three out of four of the girls.. 

I will say I am pretty darn impressed with this.  For a modular tree it is impressively sturdy and while I wouldn't say it was overly roomy, as you can see it did work fairly well for Muffin who is 14lbs.  Both my husband and I agree it would probably be better for the kittens in general, but there are some major MAJOR issues with giving it to them. Since baby kittens aren't always the cleanest things I quite often have to launder anything that can't be bleached.  The wood is slightly rough - I should probably say not as smooth as I would like.  It isn't so rough that I'm worried about splinters, just that I am not sure that if I end up with poopy footprints on them that I'd be able to clean it well enough.  The scratching pad (green) would be impossible to clean because it does not come off, and the "hammock" would require me to disassemble the whole thing to get it off to wash it.  Then the pad in the hammock is attached to wood, so again washing is not really an option.  I would have much prefered it if these items were more like the cabana which in my opinion was well done.  The pad in that is much like a shower cap and can be taken off pretty easily.  If they had put a zipper around the top of the hammock instead of just across the bottom it would have been much easier to remove and launder when necessary... because I am going to assume even my adult cats are going to get it dirty at some point.  I'm also not overly thrilled with the cat toy attachment because it is proprietary.  The end of the toy has a plastic bit on it so it fits in the collar that goes around the pillar.  So when they destroy the toy, which I know they will, I will have to buy another one from them instead of being able to use one I happen to have.  If they had made the collar accept a round pole toy I would have liked it better.  I think the bit might have been an attempt to keep the toy in a little better, but it doesn't lock and it is easily pulled out.

So The Crew has pretty much determined that they hozied it.  Muffin wants to call it the KittyCabana and was singing the Copacabana song (you are welcome for that earworm).  As you saw, Kit determined it is KITLANDIA..

Thank you Carin and thank you to Solvit Products

This review is 100% of my own accord.  I wasn't even asked for it.  I was not compensated in any way, but I did win the product so I didn't pay for it.

Fancy Feast Mornings aka watch your fingers..

So back in July I won three cans of Fancy Feast Mornings cat food from http://www.catladyland.net.  It was fun to win, and the package arrived very promptly.  So why did I wait till September to dole it out to The Crew?  Let's see.. seven cats three cans.. you do the math :)

I know I know.. I could have purchased a few more cans myself, but I just didn't (OK fine, I kept forgetting!) so when I went to pick up some more food for the kittens at the shelter and saw a few extra cans there I nabbed them (I don't usually abscond with shelter resources for my own cats, but I do quite often purchase supplies for the foster kittens so I figure they more then make out on the deal) and happiness ensued.

Are we FINALLY going to get this mom??

Don't tease us!

She was so just kidding, wasn't she Muff?

The Flavors

The Food (the Trout flavor was the mushy one)

The happy dance

The rejoicing

The totally getting in the way of the food being put down

Please daddy.. PLEASE PUT IT DOWN FOR ME!! *dance dance dance*

PLEASE!!

He is such a tease!!

NOM NOM NOM!!

NOM NOM NOM NOM

Jack checks out the second plate.  Twee, whatcha doin sweetie?? 

Crowds bug me momma, so I'm cleaning up the dinner plates

but it smells kinda yummy, lets see if there is a place for me.. 

Are you guys full YET! I mean geeze, you finished dinner just 10 minutes before.. 

No momma, I'm not done yet, I can get some more in

really.  I can.. just give me a minute.. 

Twee got some uninterrupted time with the food.  She is so hard for me because I love giving treats to my kitties and they love eating them, but Twee WILL NOT compete for food.  She just waits everyone out, and if they eat it all on her, well then she just goes on about her business.  She doesn't seem to mind, but I totally do.  Even if I try to separate her out to give her food, she won't eat it.  And as you can see, Jack so won't give up till all the food is gone.  I swear he is the kind of kitty who would unbuckle his pants if he were wearing any! :)

So, 28 paws up for FFMs.  I can't completely agree because I'm not a fan of the ingredients, but I care less about ingredients when it is a treat, which this totally was.

(I was not compensated for this post in the least.  I did get three free cans of food, but it was not requested nor even suggested I blog about it.  The kitties however feel they were compensated in the best possible way ever. They will do pretty much anything for food!)