Return to Blogging!!

Hello Everyone!  We are Returning to our Blog!

It’s been a long (ahem) summer (feels closer to 3 years), and a lot has gone on with us. We always knew we’d return to blogging some day, but the time was never right. Thanks to Ann of Zoolatry’s emails and our friends on Facebook, we've kept current with most of the CB’s happenings, some of which are heartbreaking.

As far as our happenings, here they are in a nutshell:

-I worked and worked and worked until I got laid-off last year (which wasn’t a bad thing).

-Yukon had 4 urinary blockages and ultimately PU Surgery [perineal urethrostomy]. It was a scary time, but now he is doing great!

-We bought a house and moved (not too far from where we were).

-We lost our eldest boy BJ to abdominal cancer.

-We lost our German Shepherd Stanze to liver cancer.

-We got married

-We got Howard, a Newfie/Aussie mix with a wonderfully calm temperament. This was greatly needed in our tightly wound terrier – shepherd household.

We are so happy to be sharing our pet’s lives with you all again and look forward to making new friends! Another post with more pictures will follow soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa

Two Cat Tuesday - Cheek to Cheek

BJ (on the left) and Wizard (on the right) are sharing a coveted spot

 in front of the window on the back of the couch.

Back in the day when BJ was an indoor/outdoor kitty, 

Wizard would rush up to greet him when he first came in the house for the evening.

All he'd do is sniff him all over, probably getting a "scent" of where BJ had been in the great outdoors.

 BJ didn't seem to mind it.

BJ is our oldest kitty at 12 years old and Wizard is at least 8, although we don't know his exact age.

~Lisa Co9T

Garden Post?

I'm sure this morning you have seen some beautiful flowers and healthy plants in all the many gorgeous gardening posts around the CB.  

All we could conjure up is BJ showing us the world's tallest dandelion. 

DP must have missed this guy when she mowed inside the cat enclosure, so we had to take a picture of how tall it grew! It's hard to tell from this picture, but it is about 3 feet tall.

OK. You may resume your viewing of beautiful flower posts...thanks for stopping by.

~Lisa Co9T

Enjoying the Outdoors!

Finally! We are getting some dryer weather and all the kitties have been enjoying the outdoor enclosure.

If you'll notice that BJ is on the top rung of the ladder and Penny is on one of the side steps trying to get back into the house while Angus is on the platform on the ground. They have essentially surrounded Snafu who is sitting on the platform in front of the ladder looking at me...always looking at me.


To round out the gang, Yukon is on the platform with Angus and Nick is on the grass. They are watching a squirrel (aka The Red Tree Rodent).


.

Our Christmas Post

We had to share some great pictures taken during the holidays. I'm sure you are all way over Christmas by now, but I can't let these go to waste.

So may I present to you...

Our Christmas Post!

Once the tree was up, everyone found a place to nap beside the good outdoor smells. Penny is on top, of course, then Yukon, Angus and BJ. Do I detect ranking here?

Wizard wanted to help wrap presents....

So of course Snafu wanted to help wrap, too.

But Snafu had his own idea about wrapping.

Owen thought the paper would make a good surface for batting around his toy.

Then Yukon and Angus tried it out for napping possibilities.

There were plenty of gifts for kitties and terriers too!

Snafu immediately took over one toy for himself.

Owen tried out one of the gift bags.

I think you'll agree that Angus is a gift.

We also took a moment to remember Moseley, who went to the Bridge

a year ago on December 26th.

Our humble thanks to those of you who stopped by our silent blog just to wish us a happy holiday. We read and enjoyed all your comments even though we did not post anything at the time.

~Lisa Co9T

Annual First Snow Pictures

Our first snow was on Black Friday and did not amount to very much at all.

Penny and Snafu enjoyed a brief romp.

And BJ is an old pro at snow.

Penny explored a bit then came back inside after BJ.

She decided that watching from the inside was a lot warmer.

Snafu hung out for a little while longer.

When I came back to check on him a few minutes later, he was ready to come inside and I captured that on video.

If you listen hard, you might be able to hear his happy chirp as he leaps up the ladder.

If you can't play the video here, try YouTube HERE.

~Lisa Co9T

Collars for All

Early in the hurricane season the US's Northeast Atlantic coastline had a hurricane (Earl) barreling up the coastline heading for Maine. As part of our emergency evacuation plan (should we need one) we bought collars and ID tubes for all the cats.

BJ is quite accustomed to wearing a collar since he used to be an indoor/outdoor kitty. I think this blue collar looks dashing on him.

Own got this red studded one. He was the only kitty who didn't care for the necklace, but he seemed settled in after a time.

Penny's yellow collar is a little big but it does have sparkles.

I couldn't picture Yukon in anything but black. You can see the ID tube hanging next to the bell. Oh, yes, all the collars had a bell too.

Mr Jingle Bells got a brand new pink collar. But he gave up one of his three bells to give to Penny.

I just love Snafu in pink (Hey, he pees on my carpets and bites my hand, I can put a pink collar on him if I want to).

Wizard already had his green collar and an engraved ID tag, because of his bad habit of dashing out an open door. I just snagged him off the back deck steps this evening. He didn't even make it onto the grass.

I never got good pictures of Nick and Angus in their blue and white collars, but they looked very handsome. 

The main purpose of the collar was to have an ID Tube (the orange bullet looking thing). It had a tiny bit of paper rolled up inside it with our names, full address and all our cell phones numbers.

But the bottom part of the bullet kept coming undone, losing the paper, and so the whole ID Tube idea was fruitless. We ditched it and brought the remains of the tubes back to the store. We plan to get old fashioned engraved ID tags for everyone like Wizard's.

Except for Snafu's and Wizards, we took the collars off after Earl passed by...

We got this emailed picture summing up the total devastation Hurricane Earl brought to Maine:

~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

Bed Buddies

I read a couple of posts recently about where kitties sleep on the bed with you. I had these pictures kicking around so I thought I'd put them to use. 

This is generally where Penny sleeps.

Can you tell I'm not really sleeping?

One day, I was sick and stayed home from work.

Everyone wanted to help me get better, but Penny wasn't about to lose her place of importance.

It was pretty crowded...

~Lisa Co9T

Two Cat Tuesday - Nick and BJ

Two Guard Cats

BJ and Nick are on alert for "introoders,"

 which in this case would be Rocky, one of our neighbor's cats.

Rocky is an unneutered male who likes to claim our sheds as part of his territory, leaving a lovely scent behind. In defense, Nick likes to leave his lovely scent inside our house.

Lavender, it's not...

Short of keeping Nick doped up on Amitriptyline, we manage the problem okay with all the usual products. Nick has such a bright and happy personality when he's not doped up. We've missed him and are glad to have him back to his old self.

~Lisa Co9T

P.S. The Semi-Finals of Kitty Fight Club are going on and Snafu is up against Cookie. Check out the post on Misha's Blog and vote today!

Thanks!

Mancat Monday - BEEE JAY!!!!

Are you talking to me?

BJ, the mancat. Exclusively at Cat of Nine Tales. 

(Pink Mousie and Secret Agent Cat not included)

~Lisa Co9T

Wordless Wednesday with BJ

~Lisa Co9T

TwoTabby Tuesday

I'll have two tabby's please, one medium haired and one short haired.

BJ and Yukon. Not quite the same.

~Lisa Co9T

Mancat Monday - BJ

BJ

With Moseley's passing, BJ has now taken the honorary position at the top of the sidebar as our elder kitty. He is 10 years old this year. Moseley has been moved to the honorary position at the bottom.

I don't have as many pictures of BJ as I do the other kitties because he sleeps hidden under the bed most of the day. He comes out only to get his nightly dose of loving or to play group games like in these pictures. In the one above, he's just missed getting the feather.

The blue feather, that is. Do you see it right above Wizard's head?

Oops! Missed again!

Got it!

BJ is still very spry for an elder. He is THE mancat.

Do you know what BJ stands for?

~Lisa Co9T

Friday Night Fights - The Zen Master vs Dairy King

Welcome to Friday Night Fights!

Tonight we are featuring Dairy King (Wizard) vs The Zen Master (Yukon)!

While The Zen Master has won and lost previous matches, Dairy King is undefeated. In their last match together Dairy King used a back kick to bring The Zen Master down. What will he do this time?

Being studley champions, the fighters begin with mutual grooming.

A half hour or so later, Dairy King puts the bitey on The Zen Master’s neck.

Ouchie!! It’s too much and The Zen Master arches back in protest.

Dairy King is persistant so TZM makes a grab for his face.

A shove….

Oh! And a quick jab under the chin.

What a master The Zen Master truly is...all without moving a tock.

Blam! And then the big blow!

He did it! The Zen Master held his ground and pulled no punches. Dairy King gets up to shake it off.

It’s clear from here folks, The Zen Master gave Diary King a lickin’!

And now a word from our sponsor…

BJ says, “Back Bay Pet Company's Kitty Can’t Cope Sacks boggle my mind…Okay, I’m done talkin’ kid, I need a nap. What..., huh? Oh, all right …And they’re totally organic and made in Maine. How's that? Alright? Now go away kid, you’re bothering me.”

And there you have it folks! Another victory for The Zen Master, and a first defeat for Dairy King. You saw it here tonight on Friday Night Fights. We hope you join us again next time.