So adorable; had to share!

 I just love the look on this face!

Sending this to a friend but wanted to share with all my 'Cat Bud's' first!

Larry prepares for Thanksgiving

I'm happy to see he's branching out. 

You can view the rest of his collection here

Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Miss Jenga enjoys a walk

Miss Jengs gets some sun (and a dandelion or two).

 I know that Bengal rescue cats that are in my care aren't supposed to go outside at all.  This is to prevent them from becoming 'door darters'

But just look at her!  The sun was out; it was breezy and she LOVES having the sun all over her furrs.  (and dandylions) and since she's been in my care she has been relegated to one room of the house.  My bedroom.  It's about 10ft x 12ft and not much fun to 'get up speed' for a thundering herd of one. 

I H.A.T.E. having her locked in solitary all the time.  But given the alternative since she's not been adopted yet I guess it's better than nothing.   

Jeng's has been with me for nearly two years now.  Still no takers.  She's an older cat and wouldn't 'do' with other cats so that limits her options.  Since she's at my house, and she gets to see Stella go out in the backyard (occasionally they have ladycat chats over the honeysuckle bush) I have been taking the liberty of letting her out for very brief periods of time if the sun is out and I'm right there with her.  She loves it; her eyes get the most amazing color outdoors and she loves to stalk bugs and stand right next to my legs staring up at me chatting.  Such a good girl!   

Defiance

"she's my hero!"

Saturday shortie

when it's boring pouring outside; I'm staying in.  Wake me when it stops.

Miss Jack...

On the subject of... hair

Shamelessly stolen from LOLCats

Doesn't get funnier than that!

I mean seriously!  Look at those kitteh cheeks!  (and stellar frootbats!)

Then we have the on going dilemma of my own hair.  So last night I went from this

To this...

and I'm quite happy about it.  Neckline needs to grow in some but since I rarely look at the back of my neck, I can deal with it.

And since this really is the 'cat blog' here's a shot of Mr. Larry

yup; that's the ceiling and no... we're not hobbits.   I was standing on a chair to get this.  I had moved a roll of calligraphy paper off that basket and next thing you know, Mr. L has decided it's HIS basket now thank you very much!

Here's  a lovely parting shot of Mr. L in his window that is the sun behind him. The curtain is heavy red velvet.  In the morning he greets the day by warming up and watching the birds.  And yes, telling anyone within earshot about each and every flutter.   (Doesn't wake The Gurl though... thank goodness she's a teen & could very well sleep through the apocolypse) 

I'll need to get a shot when he stands up and just sticks his head around the curtin so all you see in his shadow is a headless body but a tail that goes on for miles!  Darling!

Happy Wednesday!

Baby Bats and Big Cats!

You can't even SEE my beautiful bats!  But looks how tiny my whiskers iz! 

Dis is me too.. I iz soooo widdle and tiny meowiez. 

I'z all big now & my bats are clean as whistles! 

xoxo Mr. Larry

Meet Lucy!

This is a shot of our Beloved 'Big Lu' (short for Lucy or Lucifer!)

She was found abandoned as a kitten and brought to us when The Gurl was 5! 

She quickly grew into a GIANT Ragdoll kitteh.  Her paws are so large just one takes up the entire palm of my hand!    It was fate really, the folks who found Big Lu brought her to us on May 6th; Grandma's birthday.  Grandma had come over because we made her a birthday dinner to celebrate.   Big Lu and her hit it off right from the start but Gram still had her cat Ebeneezer at that time.  After Ebeneezer (a black persian) went on ahead to his next assignment three years ago, Grandma was bereft but Big Lu had always loved her best so we agreed to let her go adn they have been together ever since.     

We are going to visit Grandma for Thanksgiving & will take pix of our Big Lu and post them! 

Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence

"WHAT is that gawd awful noise?"

"Oh, it's you. 

all right; if you must... you may kiss The Paw-

now run along and stop yer whining.  No one really cares that your email was hijacked for a second time forcing you to cancel the email address you've had for 15 years and get a new one...

Really. 

They don't. 

They only care about Me; so make sure all my friends know how to reach me now or I'll give you something to cry about! " 

"we'll never fit your whole body in there...keep digging "

Mancat Monday

Hey, it takes a Mancat comfortable in his own fur to wear pink organdy.  Rock on!

The Other

There is another cat in our household. 

This one is perhaps the most special of all.  

He doesn't soil where he's not supposed to.

He doesn't want treats or need to be fed. 

He is Sylvester, and he was lovingly hand crafted by my grandfather Herbert Lee Hurt. 

From the time I can remember he was a fixture in my grandparents house when they lived in Downey, CA  to their retirement home in Arizona. (then called "Holiday Shores")  I  coveted him.  Strange that my grandparents and father (their only child) always had dogs, BIG dogs; Dalmatians,

(my dad & one of their dalmations)

Rottweilers, Weimeraners, Dobermans (I LOVED their Dobies-such awesome dogs!).  And yet there was Sylvester; a 3 foot tall, perfectly lathed wonderment of all that is feline.  My grandfather and I had a very special bond.  At one time it was even written about in a newspaper article! Not because there was some rare blood or organ donation (other than the original one we shared through genetics) but simply because I answered the reporters question 'What are you going to do this Summer?" And I told him.   I was 11. 

"I'm going to visit my grandpa, and we are going to yell at each other and laugh a lot!" 

dorkyme

On some fundamental level we had complete understanding of one another very early on.  Grandpa was very gruff and didn't have patience with incompetence or ignorance. He could deliver a withering look or remark at one of my brothers & send them running to Grandma.  But me?  I would stand there, in my red headed stiff necked stubbornness & give it right back to him!  His trademark phrase was 'You can't do it like that!' and I would stand there and say, 'Oh Yes I Can!'.  And then his 'mean mouth' would crack ever so slightly; and the spell would be broken and  then he & I would yell at each other all the time and laugh and laugh and laugh.  My grandpa laughed like Smedly the old cartoon character and everyone loved it and him.

Such a handsome man my grandpa

When my dad had returned home one time, he had bought a cat that was maybe a foot and a half tall, that had been carved out of a single tree stump. It was very crudely done but it's slender neck didn't survive long in a house with 3 large boys & two or three large dogs yet it was charming all the same.  He showed it to grandpa who got an idea, and it was then that the idea of Sylvester was born.  

My grandma still has some shots of the work in progress; of grandpa carefully choosing the wood so there was no warp in it; of him gluing all the sections making one giant block 1ft square & 3 feet tall.  Then he placed it on the lathe and carved out the most beautiful, magical, mythical creature I would lay my eyes on.

Somewhere after my 16th birthday I was told by my grandpa that Sylvester would ultimately be mine.  I can't tell you exactly what that meant to me then, and what it means to me today.  I was beside myself.  But the trade off was that Sylvester would only come live with me when my grandfather had gone and when my grandma no longer felt like dusting him.

So much life and death has happened since then.  So many fortunes made and lost and reversals of loyalties in the family (such is the way of family life)  births, deaths, and in some cases, renewed, once broken relationships.

But last year, a year after my father had died & almost 20 years since my grandfathers passing, my grandmother gave me her wedding ring because she wanted me to have it while she was still living

My gram tending bar!

(she celebrates her 92 birthday the end of this month and still plays bingo at the casinos 3 times a week!) and when I went to visit her for the holidays (now with my own teenage daughter) she said it was time for Sylvester to come home too:  and I cried.  

I am now the same age my dad was when he moved to Arizona to be closer to his father because as he said at the time 'We only see the parents at Christmas time, how many more times do you think that is before they are gone?'  Point taken.  I went with him, my step-mom Milli, step brother Eric, Freddie & Misty.   I stayed with them in Arizona for a year.  Long enough to find out that the desert is not even remotely my cuppa.  But this story isn't about that...

It's about Sylvester, and a promise made and kept through all that.  And now he's on my mantle, proudly keeping watch with his lovely green marble button eyes over my little family.  Me, El, & our brood.

Here's some lovely green eyed magic for each of you.  Thanks for reading.



Thinking Thursday

 

Here's Me, Thinking that I'll stay here on my couch until it's time to eat again. Unless the sun comes out; then I'll go find the sun puddles & jump in (well, ok, I won't get that enthusiastic; more like wade in).  OR, unless I hear the brush; then I'll walk to the base of the human holding the magic device and flop over so they can see I'm ready for my all over itch relief session.  OR, unless I hear the treat bag rustle at which time I become 'transporter kitty' and magically appear so quickly they think I've just materialized out of thin air. 

After all, I wouldn't want them to think I can move that quickly, they might require it more often so that I might lose weight or some dumb a** thing!  How absurd!  My sole purpose is to lay here and be waited on  hand and paw! be big and soft and fluffy so all the better to comfort them after a long horrid day at work or school.  I am the sole emitter of snugglyon particles *coined by our friend Val* in such vast quantities that The Gurl succoms daily after school.  You see, once she brings MY blanket out from her room;

She gets under it to do her homework; THEN I find my way down from the top of the couch to her lap area and that's it!  Particles flying she soon is fast asleep and I then have the ENTIRE blanket to myself to sleep on for HOURS.  Yay Me! 

Before that boy came THIS room was MINE!

Doesn't anyone want a free mancat???   I'll make you a deal!!  Call me!