Cat In A Coat

I don't know about where you live, but baby, it's cold outside. We had snow this morning. Just a little, but if it lands on the car and ground and stays there, you know it's cold enough for a blanket at night.

It's true that animals have fur to keep them warm. According to my understanding, as long as animals are kept outside, they can acclimatize to any weather, as long as they have shelter from the wind. (I do wonder about short-haired animals. I just don't know.)

Our cat Sage loves to crawl into plastic bags...I know, you might wonder about her mental state, and you'd be right...but this time she crawled into Bob's coat. (Do you see her tail?)

All she wants for Christmas is to sleep inside, but she's too spastic for that. She's got a perfectly comfortable padded box on top of the fireplace insert on the porch. There's even residual fireplace heat, and treats...always treats in her comfy quarters when we take her outside for the night.

Maybe she wants a coat now, too...

Do you like the cold? (You can always put more on, but can only take so much off without being arrested!) Or do you prefer hot weather? (It's never too hot for a hottie like you!)

Sticky Cat

When Carolyn changed her bedding, she thought that pulling the blanket off her bed would make the cat hop off.

But something made the cat stick to the blanket even as it slid off the bed.

lt could have been her claws stuck in the blanket.

It could have been static electricity holding her in place.

It could be a huge wad of chewed gum.

Or it could be that this cat loves Carolyn so much she doesn't believe that anything Carolyn does will hurt her.

How often do you change your bed linens?

Sneaky Hiding Place

We have two cats. 

Well, actually, we don't have any cats, our two youngest sons each have a cat that's not allowed to live with them, so the kitties live with us.

They like to be inside, but at night they are too bothersome. They jump on sleeping people's heads, and pat sleeping people's faces, and meow so loud they make nightmares. So it's their own faults they're now nighttime outside cats. 

The problem is, they found hiding places. For a couple of weeks, we could never find Moni when it was time to go outside, until one day we saw her hopping out of the corner of the top closet shelf.

BUSTED!

Now she goes outside every night.

Do you have sneaky pets?

(Or are yours perfectly behaved, as in, perhaps you don't have any?)

Dogs and Cats

When we took our dog, Bibs, for a walk, we were stopped at our neighbor's house by a friendly cat.

(See the little kitty legs just under Bibs' chest? My little sister, Carolyn, who has Down syndrome, acted as our camera girl.

Bibs was lots bigger than the cat...

...who seemed fearless, even though she fit beneath Bibs' belly!

Who says we can't be friends, just because we're not the same?

Carolyn's favorite cat is our son's gray one, Moroni, because she doesn't bite or scratch.

Moroni loves to climb to the highest places she can find. (Bob's shoulders qualify.)

Our white cat, Sage, is not on Carolyn's Good List, because she bit Carolyn.

Since then, the white cat is working on becoming the master of disguise, yet she's better at hiding the identity of others.

What was/is your best pet? 

What did/do you like about him/her?

Home Depot Cat

I saw this cat following an employee through Home Depot.

 I couldn't help wondering if it was some kind of service cat.

Was it possible that this particular employee was deathly afraid of mice?

Are you afraid of mice?
Are you afraid of cats?
Are you afraid of anything?

Christmas Sights You've Never Seen Before!

While going out and about this Christmas season, I encountered some unusual sights. 

For example, while walking through the St. George Lin's store, I saw a family dressed in onesie pajamas belly up to the ice cream bar. When I asked them about their warm and woolly get-up, they explained their Christmas Eve tradition of going out for ice cream. This year, though, the children challenged them to all go out in their NEW CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS!

What did Mom and Dad say?

Why, YES, of course!

(Wouldn't it be fun to be part of the "Onesie" family?)

I only caught a glimpse of this truck decked out in more lights than the Rockefeller Center tree. (I snapped a quick shot through the window, hence, the reflections.) I think this is a marvelous idea, as long as you obey traffic rules.

(On police radio.) Set up a roadblock for a speeding truck covered in multi-colored lights.

Sounds like a sure-fire traffic stop to me.

Have you ever seen SINGING CHRISTMAS TREES? Besides making me laugh out loud for at least five minutes, they even change mouth shapes.

See? From curvy to rectangular...

...to circles! 

After all, you can't make all the vowels by holding your lips in one shape! (Try it... I dare you!)

The sweet thing about seeing a projection of Mrs. Claus through Santa's workshop window is that my little sister who has Down syndrome exclaimed, "She's waving at me to come in! She wants me to visit her!" 

As we drove on by, I told my sister that was so nice of Mrs. Santa, but we'd have to come back later because we had more houses to see, and there were cars waiting behind us.

(I didn't say how much later we'd come back, did I?) 

Besides, how would Carolyn feel if she discovered that the jolly Mrs. Claus was just a projection? Gotta preserve the magic, people.

And for a little Christmas un-magic, I present the small-hearted Grinch, in all his hulking shadowy nefariousness.

I'm convinced that our son's cat took some Grinch lessons, as she stole a gift from beneath our tree and clawed it open on one side. 

Guess whose name was on the gift?

Why, mine, of course.

I leave you with this image of a simple, beautiful white tree on a hillside. 

Christmas is simple, after all. 

It's all about love.

I wish for you peace, happiness, and no stolen presents.

Cat on a Hot Car Roof

There's a movie called "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," based on a book by Tennessee Williams. (I wonder if he's related to Indian Jones?) That cat is a woman who wants an inheritance.

 This blog is about a cat on a hot car roof. This is a real cat with four legs, fur, and whiskers who's after the leftovers in the fast food bag.

Now take a step back and think about this... if you could inherit money or food, which one would you pick?

You can't eat money. You could use it to buy food, if there was food for sale. 

But if food was scarce, who would trade it for rectangles of paper or hard metal circles they can't eat?

I suppose you could always eat the cat...

Overall, which one is better in your opinion? Why?

Cats Suffocating Babies Tale?

Have you ever heard of cats getting into cribs and smothering babies? Have you wondered if it's an Old Wives' Tale?

IT IS!

Here is proof positive that cats smother teenagers, not babies!

(By the way, Michael loves his cat, and his cat is just giving him a hug...on his face...but Michael doesn't care.)

My sister doesn't like cats because she can't stand them rubbing against her legs. My current family likes cats.

How about you? Do you like them or not? If not, I wonder why? Is it learned? Or did you have some anti-cat experience in your life?

Fun Hats

Do you want to blend in with alley cats? Then a Cat Hat is right for you. (Not a cat IN the hat... just a Cat Hat.)

If you happen to be more into food than felines,  the ice cream hat just might be your ticket to warm and woolly paradise. (Just don't wear it in a park filled with small children. You may not make it out with all your hair.)

If you have to wear a hat, you might as well enjoy it.

Cat in a Water Dish

This is our old cat, Slick. As near as we can remember, he's 17 years old. He has a perfectly good cat kennel to sleep in (see background...blue towel...my boys tend to give kitty cats the best treatment they can) yet I found him sitting in his empty water dish. I called him a silly cat and couldn't figure out why he would choose the hard plastic bowl instead of the cozy blue towel until one of my boys made a good suggestion.

The water dish is heated.

Now who says you can't teach an old cat new tricks?

Cat in a Tie

          Last year, my son shared his dress-up joy with his cat when he put her in a tie. In spite of her name, Moroni is a female cat. Perhaps that's why she doesn't look as if she enjoys her outfit. I know I wouldn't. It's best left to those macho men/cats who can stand having something tied closely around their necks.
          She makes a good subject for an April Fool's photo, though, doesn't she?
(After I put the camera away, she smiled.) :o)

Don't let the Cat Out!

While I like animals, it was not my idea to have an indoor cat. I prefer my pets outside. But our son promised to take care of a kitten so nicely that we got him one for his 12th birthday. I regretted my decision the night the cat got into my closet, scrabbling around with enough energy to wake me up. She was supposed to be asleep in my son's room, not clawing up my shoes.

Too tired to carry her upstairs, I set her outside my bedroom door, hoping she'd get the hint.

She didn't. She scratched our door with enough intensity that Bob finally carried her upstairs.

What was it with my shoes, anyway? Had I walked through catnip unaware?

When Bob returned, he told me that the dome light in my car was on. I sighed, crawled out of bed, and stuck my foot inside my yellow rubber garden shoe. Startled to feel something inside the toe, I yanked my foot out and stared in horror at a soggy mouse staggering from the shoe.

Shivers of revulsion flowing down my back, I leaped onto the bed, yelling, "There's a mouse in my shoe!"

Rolling over from beneath his cozy covers, Bob peered over the edge of the bed and said, "Well, it's not there now." Then he sunk back onto his pillow.

With dread, I got off the bed and made a much safer choice of flip flops to walk out to my car and turn off the light. The cold doesn't bother me as much as mice do!

Now I sleep with my door open, an invitation for the cat to come in and mouse-free my shoes any time she wants to.

What happened when you misjudged someone, either man or beast?

I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat!

This is my son's kitty cat wanting to come in.    (Is she scared of the Easter Bunny, I wonder?) She is tenacious, that's for sure, hanging on the screen by her toenails, trusting that someone will open the door and let her in.

I heard a cool thing in church yesterday. If we trusted Jesus as our Savior in the life before this one, then why do some of us have such a hard time trusting him now? Considering what he did for us, he obviously loves us all very much. There's no reason He would fail us when we need him the most. 

So let's ramp up our tenacity for faith, for love, and for expanding our talents! (Write away! And judging by the picture, I also need to get my window washing talents in line.)

What is the marvelous, heart-warming talent you want most to expand on?