Wordless Wednesday with O and Y

~Lisa Co9T

Two Cat Tuesday: Match Makers

We played Match Maker this summer!

On two occasions we had the happy opportunity to find kittens for humans in need.

Early this summer, DP's brother and sister-in-law were ready to open their hearts to a new beginning after their 14 year old calico passed away last winter. They were hoping for another calico and we convinced them to get two so they'd have each other.

DP searched and searched until finally she found a tortico and her sister. When asked if they'd be okay with that coloring they replied, "You know we're going to love any of them to pieces!" Good answer!

So here is Gracie and Lily who were born in Maine and now live in New Hampshire.

Then my boss's Silver Bangal had an unexpected batch of kittens. Unexpected because this is her second litter this year!

Here is Bella with her six kittens.

We have some friends who have two male cats. One is a 16 year old named Cyrus and the other is a rambunctious 3 year old name Sushi looking to play a lot more often than his elder sibling can deal with. So these smart humans decided to get Sushi a playmate of his own. We suggested a girl might be in order and told them of my boss's kittens. Bella hadn't even had the kittens yet and our friends agreed they'd wait to get one from Bella's litter.

We visited the kittens at three weeks and took lots of pictures to show our friends who live a couple hours away. Which kitten would they choose? Luckily, Bella had 5 girls and one boy.

The kittens were well socialized and handled a lot by sticky ones.

These two girls are twins.

A couple weeks later, our friends came up for a visit to pick out their own kitten, but when they saw them all, they couldn't decide which one so they got TWO!

Meet Lily and Maizy, the twins!

There are three kittens left, if anyone is interested!

All girls are settled in and happy in their new homes with loving, doting humans to attend their every need.

Life is Good!

~Lisa Co9T

A Room of Their Own

Snafu's antics are pretty well documented and raved about here at Cat of Nine Tales, but what we don't talk about much is his....inappropriate urination. I just had to use that phrase once, but we all know we are talking about a peer. Our dearly departed Moseley was a peer and since I've returned to work, Snafu has become one too. He does not get along well with the other cats and his fear and anxiety prompts him to spray his cry for dominance all over our house. After our useless attempts to repel, dissuade, avert and medicate him, he is totally banned from the bedroom.

We even put blue plastic sheets over our bed to prevent the pee from soaking in. Of course he just stopped peeing on the bed and seemed to go double time under it along the wall and under my bureau (see it in the background of this photo) where BJ loved to hide.

So, no more bedroom...to put him outside in the cat enclosure, which requires crossing through the bedroom, he gets "air-lifted" in and out.

We've been dealing with Snafu's habit for about a year now and he joins Nick who is also a peer, albeit far less often than Snafu. Nick feels compelled to mark and defend his territory and generally gets upset when the neighbor's cat comes calling. But, one pee begets another so the both of them are treated equally.

We have committed to supervising Snafu at least 80% of the time he is out of his room. Oh, yeah, remember the music room we converted from Moseley's room after his passing?

It's now Snafu and Nick's room.

 We can't watch them when we are gone to work and overnight so they go into their room.

Nick is good natured about it, and even asks to go in his room, but he does have to put up with Snafu roughing him up on occasion. Even though Nick is nearly 15 lbs and Snafu is just over 8 lbs, I find tufts of white fur on the floor some mornings.

They have several beds and hidey crates, a two level cat tree, two litter boxes, two feeders, one fountain with spring water, a bowl of tap water and a large window for viewing and fresh air. They also have a toybox for knocking over and their very own Feliway dispenser.

 When we come home from work, we let them out.

~Lisa Co9T

With Bells On

If you've been following Cat of Nine Tales for any length of time, you should be aware by now of Snafu's rambunctious nature. Well, as humans and cat lovers we are delighted by his antics at best, and at worst we get frustrated with our inability to keep up with him at times.

The other kitties in the household are not as charmed by Snafu as we humans. He can be very aggressive if the mood strikes him. While Wizard tolerates him and mostly leaves the room where he is acting up, Yukon will whap him if he gets too close, and Penny will offensively attack him if he's "in a mood." Owen has learned to take him in short spurts, running for a high place when he's had enough or if Snafu bites too hard (usually in the privates). He is very aggressive towards BJ and Angus and will stalk and attack them if given a chance.

Three Feliway dispensers keep the worst of him in check and our watchful eyes follow him around to monitor his whereabouts. But in order for everyone to track him more easily he has been given something very special...

BELLS!

We've tried a calming collar on him for a couple of months (new and fresh each month), but he just chews that up and spits it out laughing (not really). He gives new meaning to the phrase "Hells Bells."

~Lisa Co9T

Owen's Discovery

One morning this summer, after a night of campfire and meteor showers, DP found Owen very interested in a bag of marshmallows on the kitchen floor. The bag was on the counter the night before.

Here you can see that a hole has been chewed open

 and a mallow is sticking out...also quite chewed.

Apparently, Owen has a sweet tooth.

He doesn't like canned food at all,

 and could care less about most people food,

but we learned last year that he loves licorice

 and now marshmallows!

~Lisa Co9T

Breaking News: Cat of Nine Tale's Returns from Summer Break!

We are back from Summer Break!


And we have missed you all so very much!!!!!

Happily, everyone is healthy and we've nothing too eventful to report.
We've had a good summer with plenty of...

Hanging around outside in the Cat Enclosure...

But some days it was just too hot so we....

stayed inside with the air conditioning...

We had some visitors!

forcing Angus to seek out new hidey-holes in the bathroom cabinet.

Don't see him in there?

Let me biggify for you...

There he is!!!

We did plenty more this summer but I'll save them for future blog posts.

Many thanks to all of you who kept visiting, checking in on us and wishing us well.

Hello to our new followers!! We're at over 100 now, yay!! Welcome!

While we are definitely back to blogging, new internet rules at my work place will drastically reduce my daily participation in the CB. I'm able to get around the new "security walls" in our fancy new system and visit blogs, but it will not let me comment, no way, no how. I've tried many things to no avail. No social networking allowed at all including Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and ones I've never heard of.

I plan to post and visit when I can, but everything will have to be done at home between chores and my limited time available there (we do have 8 cats and 4 dogs to take care of!).

Meanwhile check out our entries in Monty Q's Do The Q Full Monty contest. We have four posts for three kitties.

Two for Yukon.

One is his Full Monty (brace yourself) here.

The other is his Monty Q-(less) here.

One for Snafu in a Full Monty as a kitten here.

One for Penny in her Full (Modest) Monty here.

Voting starts today (I think) and there are lots of great entries! Have fun!

We're glad to be back!

~Lisa Co9T