Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cat Blog of the Week!

We are honored and humbled to have been chosen by Franny Syufy as the About Cats Cat Blog of the Week! Franny is the quintessential Cat Lady (even more so than me, if you can believe that). She loves all kitties to death, is an expert on all things cats, and her life revolves around them. The woman is an angel!! If you haven't already done so, go to http://cats.about.com/ and sign up for her weekly About Cats newsletter, read her Cats Blog, and find out all kinds of cool things about cats!


Lots of love and purrs to Franny and her kitty family!


Sunday, March 22, 2009

Karuna


Karuna is the Buddhist term for compassion, which is what I felt when I saw this gorgeous kitten who had been heartlessly dropped in the yard of my neighbor's daughter. Knowing that the Crazy Cat Lady lived next door to her mom, Carol found my number and called me. I agreed to let her bring the kitten to my house so I could check her out and try to find a home for her.

When I saw this face, my heart melted. This photo was taken the day she arrived at my house. Try to find a home for her? Fuggetaboudit, she already found a home!

Karuna is a sweet, gorgeous long-haired dilute calico with the cutest facial markings I have seen. She's a bit plump, according to Dr. Duel, but not fat. Her big plume of a tail is carried straight up, with the top half flopping from side to side in a constant wave.



Just like Maria in West Side Story, Karuna immediately fell in love with Reese, the bad boy of my brood. She follows him everywhere and constantly head-butts him for attention and kisses. This is amazing to see, because Reese pretty much terrorizes all of the other cats, and they all hate him, but Karuna gets kisses on the top of her head. He has even taught her to scratch on the dining room chairs, just like he does. They can usually be found together, as they are in this picture.



Karuna will be two years old this summer and is still the youngest in the family. She is an amazing, sweet, beautiful girl.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Timmy


Here is my 14-year-old thyroid patient, Timmy, in his favorite place - the kitchen. He almost never leaves the kitchen anymore. I wish he would come to bed with the rest of us and sleep in a nice, warm bed - but he prefers the floor beside the refrigerator or the wooden kitchen table. Sometimes he will sleep in that nice cuddly blue bed I bought him, but Sweet Pea seems to have taken that over.



Timmy has never in his life, to my knowledge, drank water from a bowl. Instead, he stands on the sink and stares at me until I turn the water on for his "dinky." I have probably let hundreds of dollars worth of water go down the drain because I forgot Timmy was having a dinky and walked away - sometimes for hours or even overnight before I come back and hear the water trickling. Ugh! I try to leave the light on over the sink as a reminder that the water's on, but it doesn't always work. Timmy doesn't even let the other cats drink out of the bowl - as soon as I fill the bowls up, he goes over and splashes all of the water out with his paws. This is such a huge problem that I keep water bowls in several places in the house so the other cats can have some water, poor things.

Timmy still takes 2 thyroid pills a day and is doing really well. He now wants to eat everything in sight, including pizza, cinnamon rolls, bread, cheese, etc. He is on a carb craze apparently. But that's okay because he was so skinny and now he's filling out again and his fur is shiny. Tonight he snorfed down the end of a piece of pizza I gave him. Every Saturday (don't ask me how he knows, maybe because I sleep late and make tea), he begs for milk until I give him some in a bowl. That he will drink from a bowl.





Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Friends Awards


I am honored! The beautiful Texas lass Suburbia Steph has given me the coveted "Friends Award"!


This award is given for the following reasons: “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I would like to share this award with some old friends and some new friends I have made through blogging: First of all, right back atcha to Steph! Also my friends from the Observer-Reporter in Washington, PA - Miss Bess, who always finds the coolest things and is the best shopper I know; Celeste Van Kirk, whose beautiful photographs can be found at Behind the Lens; editor Brant Newman, whose View on the News is always good for a laugh; Grumpy Old Editor Park Burroughs and his great stories (buy his book!); and Scott Beveridge, who always has an interesting story about the Mon Valley. Of course, I can't leave out a couple kitty blogs - we like Derby the Sassy Cat and China Cat's Blog.

Of course there are so many others; I wish I could mention them all here! Thanks to all of you for brightening my days with your stories!

Now ya'll go on and bestow 8 other of your bloggy friends!