Packages From Near and Far

Happy Sunday efurryone! My Sunday started out perfect. All three of us kitties snuggled in bed with mom for a really long time while she finished a book she was reading. It must have been a big book cause it took hours and hours to read. Plus there were scritches and games of 'chase mom's fingers under the blankie'. It was lovely.

Now for my excitement this weekend. I got two packages - one from nearby and one from very far away. The first package was the one from far away. It came all the way from New Zealand from my furriend @rumblepurr.

See at the top? It says "New Zealand Post" Isn't that pawsome?

Of course I had to inspect the package furry carefully before I let Mom open it for me.

Sniff, Sniff. I can smell Rumblefamily on it. Cool.

Wait 'til you see what was inside. It was a kiwi. It even made kiwi noises. Isn't it cute? There was also a lovely card from @rumblepurr and a little finger puppet.

Getting acquainted.

 The other box was from Nip and Bones. It had the snail and dental chew toys I ordered with my #pawpawty prize gift certificate, and also a surprise!

See the purple, green, and white fringy thing? That's a Go Cat Go Spiky Ball! I didn't buy it, but it's not a present, either. I got it for a furry special reason.  Baby Patches selected me to be one of her toy testers! I'm so excited about that. We get toys to test and right a review about. Of course, I don't get paid to do reviews. I do them because I want to help Baby Patches and Nip and Bones find just the right stuff fur us to buy.

Well Baby Patches knows how much I like to play fetch, so she thought I'd be the purrfect cat to test out the Spiky Ball to see if Nip and Bones should carry it. We have thirty days to play with and review the toys, but I didn't need thirty days. I've hardly stopped playing with since mom took it off the card for me. Candy and EK like it, too.

Here are the pros and cons, pros first:
It flies well when mom throws it.
It's nice and soft to bite into so I can carry it easily.
It's light enough to bat around and toss in the air.
It's big enough to fight with and almost big enough to bunny kick.
It slides really well on the wood floors.

cons:
It doesn't bounce well.
It's too big to go under the door to play door hockey.

As you can see, the con list is really short.

Here's a video of me playing with it:

That's my review of the Spiky Ball. I would highly recommend it for any cat that likes to play fetch or chase, or likes toys they can carry around in their mouth easily.

Even though these aren't toys that were sent for testing, later in the week I'll do a review of the toys we ordered. One we liked, the other we ignored. Check back later in the week to find out which was which. MOL Have a good week efurryone!

Adopt-A-Cat Month®

As you know, June is Adopt-A-Cat Month®. In honor of Adopt-A-Cat Month® I've added a new page to my blog - I Need a Home Please! On it is a widget that features cats from my favorite shelter, Duncan's Place, a Cat Sanctuary. If you click on it, it takes you to Petfinder.com and you can look up pets everywhere. It looks like this:



I hope you'll visit Petfinder.com. You can get a widget like this one for you own blog. Or, you may just find your new best furriend there!

It's Saturday and that means bloghop! Join the fun.

Some fun from Hill's and a giveaway!

I'm so excited I just can't believe it. I got this message from the folks at Hill's:

"We can give 15, 7lb bags of food to your readers. Here’s the info we’d like to share with them as well. Thanks!"

That's right my furriends. 15 winners! Can you believe it! I can't believe they picked my little blog for this. I'm very honored.

Hill's is doing this for a furry impawtant reason. We kitties are prone to hairballs, and we all know how dangerous they can be. A stuck hairball can make a kitty very very sick. I'll let the Hill's folks tell you the rest. 

"Hairballs are serious, but Hill’s has found a fun way to build awareness of the problem of hairballs…Join Hill’s in the battle against hairballs!

Just as Hill’s created the innovation of hairball control cat food (http://www.hillspet.com/cat-care/hairballs-trouble-with-fur-adt.html ), the company is now leading the field with a branded consumer game on Facebook….Hairball Battle. Strategically, this game is an exciting and innovative opportunity to interact with consumers in a new way to build upon hairball awareness.

Playing the game is simple. Choose one of our hilarious hairballs and cough them up on your friends! But watch out, they’ll be able to retaliate! Silly, sloppy and a bit disgusting—it’s the most fun friends of felines can have without leaving Facebook!

Please support our game by clicking the Battle link below. Then fight to the yucky finish as we generate awareness of our hairball control products in a unique way. Watch your step! 

http://apps.facebook.com/hairball_battle

P.S. Dog lovers, don’t be shy—you can play, too!"

Here's how to enter for giveaway - leave a comment telling me you'd like to enter. I know from last time that lots of pals will leave comments that don't want to be in the giveaway, so it's real impawtant you say you want to enter in your comment. I'll take comments for one week and announce the winner on June 5th. One entry per household. Sorry to my international furriends, but recipients must live in the U.S.A.

My First Blogiversary

Today is my first blogiversary. I can’t believe a year has gone by so quickly. And what a year it’s been! Better get comfy because this blog’s gonna be a little on the long side. MOL!

Here’s a partial list:

My sweetie Curzon

1. Joined Twitter, Fursbook, and Facebook and started blogging.
2. Gained over 1,000 Twitter followers, 246 Facebook friends, and almost 100 regular blog readers.
3. Wrote 97 blogs here and a couple over at Anipals Read.
4. Tweeted over 13,5000 tweets. (I’m a real chatterbox, aren’t I?)
5. Met tweeters from all over the world and made tons of amazing friends.
6. Sadly, had a bunch of friends go OTRB.
7. Wrote (well, edited) a book. More about that later.
8. Adopted a shelter to help support (still working on how to do that effectively).
9. Went to Blogpaws West 2010.
10. Stayed in a hotel!
11. Went lots of cool places in my stroller.
12. Met some of my twitter friends live and in person.
13. Went out to dinner at a restaurant. How many kitties can say they’ve been to a restaurant?
14. Been interviewed for Cats Who Twitter and Anipal Times.
15. Adopted two fursibs, Candy & EK.
16. Joined #pinkangels and got a cool Hello Kitty motorcycle.
17. Became a barktender for #nipclub & #pawpawties.
18. Got an even cooler vehicle - a Lamborghini Gallardo.
19. Had a hareem for a while, but now I got a sweetie - Curzon from @UsCoons.
20. Was bridesmaid in a wedding and am going to be in another one.
21. Attended lots of pawties.
22. Won mountains of super cool prizes.
23. Got Toki Poki cards and traded them with my friends.
24. Got to wear lots of cool costumes.
25. Was nominated for an Anipal Academy Award (but didn’t win).



Candy & EK

26. Entered the 2011 Teddy Olympics.

And that’s just what I can think of right now. I know there’s stuff I’m forgetting.

Most of my blogs have been about fun stuff and exciting adventures, but there have been a few serious ones, too. And I’m gonna get serious now for a little bit. As you all know, I keep trying to raise funds to help out Duncan’s Place (http://duncansplace.org/), which is where Candy and EK came from . I’ve put up a chip-in to raise some money for them. They do so much for the cats in their care and for the community and I really want to do whatever I can to help them. If you can see your way clear to donate, even just $1, please do so. 

Another way you can donate is by getting a copy of ‘Summer at the Lake with Petie’. My good pal @BlindMaximus was kind enough to write a blog about it and to put a link to my chip-in on his site. How amazing is that? @Rumblepurr is also helping. He has a link to my book on his blog. If I’ve missed anyone who still has a link up, please let me know. I want to make sure everyone who’s helping me gets mentioned. 

I’m gonna really push the book here for a minute, because of the way the website where I sell the books works. There has to be $25 in my account before they’ll cut a check. What goes in the account is the difference between the cost of the book and how much extra I added on to have to donate to Duncan’s Place. I’m short by about 4 books worth in order to get paid. It was 6 books worth, but @BlindMaximus bought a copy in addition to blogging about it, and @iamDaisyDoo bought a copy to donate for a prize for the next #pawpawty. Anipals really are the best pals. So I’m really hoping that at least 4 of you will order books so I can get one last check to donate.

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for - the Giveaway! A while back I won a wonderful prize package from the folks at Nutro. It was very similar to this one:

It took a while until we actually got to eat the Nutro Natural Choice food that was in the prize because of Candy’s tummy problems, but we finally got to try it a couple weeks ago. We loved it!

Even more important, it doesn’t upset Candy’s tummy. We think the food is soooo good and you know how we love Greenies, so I wanted someone else to have a chance at the same wonderful prize package. I asked @EdnaAtNutro and the wonderful folks at Nutro if it would be possible to arrange one for my blogiversary. The answer was yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So it is my pleasure to offer you a chance at this package full of fun and yum. Here’s the particulars:

1. Anyone is welcome to enter for the drawing, but the prize is a cat prize.
2. Apologies to my pals outside the U.S.A., but the winner has to be in the U.S.A.

Here’s how you enter.

1. Go to the Nutro (www.Nutro.com) site and pick which formula of Nutro Natural Choice you’d like.
2. Go to the Greenies (www.greenies.com) site and pick which flavor of Feline Greenies Dental Treats you’d like
3. Leave a comment saying you want to be in the drawing and telling me which flavors you’d like.

The last step is the most important. I know lots of pals who are not entering will also leave comments, so make sure to tell me you're entering the drawing.

Comments left by April 30th will qualify for the drawing. After the 30th, I’ll throw all the names in a magic internet hat and pull out the winner. The winner be announced May 8th. Good luck!

Pet Carriers

Peek-a-boo! Here I am in my little red tent. I just love love love my little red tent. So do EK and Candy. We love them so much, we have two of them! We play in them, we sleep in them, & we hide in them and jump out to pounce on each other. We have fun every way a kitty can have fun in our tents.

You're probably wondering, "What does this have to do with pet carriers?" Well, I'll tell you. Our magnificent little red tents are actually pet carriers. They have two zippers, so you can arrange them to open front, back or top. There are handles at the top for carrying. We love our tents so much we don't even mind getting in them to go to the v-e-t. That's right. Off to the v-e-t no muss, no fuss, no crying, no hiding. We just get in our tents and go.

We've read about a lot of furriends that have had to visit the v-e-t lately. They dread getting in the PTU (prisoner transport unit). They hide and run away and make it very difficult for their humans to get them in the PTU. Now, none of us, anipal or human,  likes going to the v-e-t. But sometimes you just have to go. So why not make the PTU fun?

Our tents are out all the time. We don't have any warning about being off to the v-e-t since nothing new happens until we get there. Mom scoops us up, puts us in our tents, and off we go. Our first hint that this isn't a new game is when she seatbelts the carrier into the car. And since I've had stroller outings involving the car, for all I know we're going on an outing!

I think everyone should have a fun carrier. I think it would make going to the v-e-t or anywhere else you have to go much less stressful. Don't forget to get nice fleecy beds to put in them. That makes them extra cozy and comfy!

My tent came from Target. I've never seen this type of carrier anywhere else. If any of you know of other fun carriers, post the link in the comments. There's three of us and soon the two little ones will be too big to share and we'll need a third carrier. It would be fun to have a new shape.

Sunday Musings

Happy Sunday everyone! Yesterday was Mom's birthday, so we've been giving her extra cuddles this weekend.

Good news! Okey's Promise passed it's funding goal and @BZTAT can go forward with her project. Congratulations @BZTAT and Okey's Promise!

Pals been asking about my Turbo Track cuz we got two of them arranged together. So here's what it looks like. We love it! We all gather around it with Mom and play with it. We roll the balls to Mom and she rolls them back to us. It's just so much fun.

Speaking of fun, here's a picture of my favorite ball. It's just about an inch or so big and it's my favorite ball for playing fetch. Problem is, because it's little it gets misplaced a lot and I'd like to have more of them. But Mom can't find any in the stores and doesn't remember where she bought this one. So if you see this ball anywhere, DM me on twitter (@pumpkinpuddy) and tell me where so Mom can buy it. EK likes it too, so we need lots of them for sharing.

We recently got a wonderful present from @Staffpurrson. It's one of the Harry & David boxes that @Mulder_cat and @Scully_cat are so fond of. It came with all kinds of surprises in it.

Just look at all the fun in there! We got Temptations treats, and some Luna Tuna, some great toys, a nice fleecy pad and something we've never had before - crinkley paper! We're just loving everything in this box. Or I should say EK & Candy are loving the box and everything in it. I can't get near any of it cuz they're toy hogs. At least I get treats & Luna Tuna. Nommy!

Look how funny EK is. There's not room for both of them in the box so he just climbed right on top of Candy. But she doesn't mind. They bonded at Duncan's Place and just love each other so much that they climb on each other like this all the time.

Here's more pictures of them cuddling. In fact, it's hard to get pictures of them not together.

And here I am in all my floofyliciousness!

Aren't I gorgeous?

Gotta go watch football with Mom now. She's rooting for Green Bay and the Steelers today, but especially the Steelers. Happy Sunday everyone!

Okey's Promise: Art for a Cause

Ok folks. Pay attention cuz this is important. Anipals and their humans know about the link between violence against animals escalating into violence against people. Unfortunately, there's too many people who don't know about it or don't really understand or believe it. Well, @BZTAT is working really hard to do something about it. The details are here: 
Okey's Promise: Art for a Cause
It's really important that you act on this quickly. @BZTAT has to get pledges of $5,000 or no one's pledges count. Unfortunately, she still needs almost $1,000 and has to raise it by noon EST on January 27. That's a lot of money to raise in a really short amount of time. There's an awful lot of us out there that know how important this is. Thousands of us in fact. If each of us gave just $1 we could make that goal. So get over to 
Okey's Promise: Art for a Cause
and donate today. Tell your furriends, your relatives, everyone you know.

Sunday Musings

Lots of news today. First the fursib news. Candy & EK went to the v-e-t yesterday for checkups. They were subjected to the dreaded alien butt probes (shudder) and injections. The poor things. Then today, Candy was trying to get her collar off and made her paw bleed. Mom checked and all her claws are intact and she's ok. Mom put her in the big bathroom and cuddled with her for a while so she'd rest and not play.

Now my news. This weekend was #pawpawty and @I_am_fuzzy's birthday pawty. I won prizes at both pawties! From @I_am_fuzzy I won a beautiful pink bear. This picture was posted in twitpic by @I_am_fuzzy. At #pawpawty I won coffee for Mom donated by @petiethecat. Mom just loves her coffee so she's happy I won something for her. And now the biggest news of all!

Do you see the picture? Do you know what that is? That's right my pals. I was one of the lucky winners of a Pink Kritter Kondo Deluxe from our wonderful friends over at Kritters That Twitter. I hope they don't mind that I borrowed this picture from them for my blog, but it ships tomorrow so I won't have my own pics for a while. I can't stop dancing I'm so happy.

@flicka47

Back to #pawpawty for a bit. Mom had a bunch of really cool holiday stuff in the basement just collecting dust. We don't really celebrate Catmus, but people keep giving her Catmus stuff. We decided some of them would make perfect #pawpawty prizes. Why should they collect dust when someone else might really enjoy having them? Plus, it helps the shelters and makes #pawpawty more fun for everyone. So, concatulations to @flicka47, @sadlovelyheart, @hanseebundee, and @pepismartdog who won the prizes.

@sadlovelyheart

@pepismartdog

@hanseebundee

Sorry the pictures are all over the place. I just couldn't get them where I wanted them no matter what I tried! Anyway, that's it for this weekend. Talk to you next week!

Thankful Thursday

So far I've sold 34 copies of Summer at the Lake with Petie. Today I received my first payment in the amount of $119. I haven't been paid for all the copies yet so there's more money coming (but not until next month)! I took great joy in going to Duncan's Place and clicking on their donate button and donating that money. As both Blurb.com and Duncan's Place both use Paypal, it was very easy.

Ordering is very easy, too. Just click on the picture below and it will take you to the order page!

The deadline for ordering in time for Christmas in the U.S. is December 12. Blurb.com delivers all over the world, so don't think you can't order if you live outside the U.S.

Thank you to everyone who has or is going to order Summer at the Lake with Petie. And Happy Holidays to all!

A Book About Love

We've spent a lot of time in #pawcircles and porchsitting lately. We've seen too many furriends cross the Rainbow Bridge in a very short time. When our furriends cross the bridge, the circles are for love and comfort. But sometimes, the #pawcircles and porchsitting result in a furriend getting better. This book is about a success story. This book is about the miracles that love can work.

As we all know, our pal Petie (@Petethecat) had a difficult summer. When we heard our furriend was sick, we all did what anipals do in times of trouble - we banded together to help Petie get better. And Petie did get better! In fact, he's getting married very soon to the wonderful Pandora (@Pandafur).

@toughteddybear with his copy of
'Summer at the Lake with Petie'

It was just an amazing summer, and I wanted something to remember it by. I thought others might like to have something, too. So I put together a book: 'Summer at the Lake with Petie'. I gathered together stories, poems, pictures, memories, and whatever else pals wanted to submit to the book. There is a link in the sidebar to order the book and you can see sample pages there. The book is getting rave reviews from everyone who has already gotten a copy.

This book is special not just because it's about our love for Petie and the miracles that love can work. The proceeds of this book benefit the cat sanctuary that Candy and EK came from  - Duncan's Place. It's a wonderful group of people who foster cats in their homes, help them find furever homes, and help families down on their luck keep their pets with them. I wrote about them in an earlier blog - Blog the Change - Duncan's Place.

One thing we've all said over and over the last several weeks is how lucky our now lost pals were to have had loving homes. I want all the kitties at Duncan's Place to have that, too. Selling 'Summer at the Lake with Petie' is one of the projects I have going on trying to raise money to help them take care of and find homes for the cats in their care. My goal is to sell 100 copies of the book. So far, 30 copies have been sold, so there's still a long way to go.

I want to thank some pals who have been helping to spread the word about Summer at the Lake with Petie:

Rumblepurr put a link up on his blog: Rumblebum.

Whskr And Dash wrote a blog article about it on their blog and plan on writing another: Dash Kitten's Musings.

Blind Maximus wrote a blog entry and put up a widget for ordering Summer at the Lake with Petie on his blog, Adventures of a Blind Dog in a Big World.

I do have the best furriends! If anyone else is interested in putting a link or a widget on your blog, let me know. I'll send you the code.

I also have a chip-in on my blog for pals who want to donate. Or you can go to Duncan's Place web site and donate there. Whether you order Summer at the Lake with Petie or donate through my chip in or directly on their site, I hope you'll choose to do something, no matter how small, to help Duncan's Place. I want every cat to be as lucky as I've been.

Much love to my furriends,
Pumpkin (@Pumpkinpuddy)

Thankful Thursday

We been losing a lot of pals. The lastest was our pal @Ryker_Tyker. @MaggieTKat wrote a lovely blog about him and you can read it here: Remembering @Ryker_Tyker.

This may seem like an odd way to start a Thankful Thursday post, but all these losses  lately reminded me how grateful I am for all the wonderful friends I've made since I started twittering, blogging, and being on Facebook. Anipals and their humans are amazingly loving, giving, and so supportive of one another. Everyone I've met here works in some way to make life better for anipals and their humans, even if it's just by giving an animal a home.

I'm especially thankful for @Mulder_cat & Scully_Cat and @Staffpurrson. Mom knows @Staffpurrson from a different online community and he introduced Mom & me this wonderful community that we otherwise would never have known existed.

I also want to thank @Rumblepurr. He was the first one to find my blog the very first day I posted it. I don't know how, but he did. And then he wrote a blog introducing me and my new blog, and the rest is history!

So I just want to make sure you all know how much I care about you all and how glad I am I found you all. We sometimes forget to say that and just sort of take each other for granted. I wanted to make sure that my online friends know that I never take you for granted even when I forget to say it. Now I have to make sure I let my offline friends know it, too.

Hugs, purrs, smoochies and lots of love to all of you.

Candy & EK Have Arrived!

My new fursibs have arrived. Mom picked them up on Friday from Duncan's Place.They are very little, and I guess they're cute. But boy have they taken over! They're constantly climbing on Mom and rubbing and purring on her, the little suck-ups. EK's climbing all over her right now while she's trying to type for me. They climb all over my cat tree and have usurped my little red tent. So far they haven't gotten in my stroller, but I bet that's just a matter of time. They haven't slept in Mom's bed yet, either, so that's still all mine, too.

 EK (short for Evel Knievel. And he's definitely evil.)

Candy. She's ok. She's quieter and doesn't bug me as much.










So far they don't seem very interested in toys, so my toys are still all mine! I did get Mom all to myself yesterday for #PPPawty so Mom could type and upload pictures for me. Mom's also been trying to give me special treats just for me, but I didn't eat them. Not sure which squirt wound up with my shrimps.

Speaking of toys, most of my favorite little toys have been missing for a long time. Mom looked all over for them. She even got a friend's kid to help her look under the furniture. She even looked under the fridge. No luck. Well yesterday, we heard all this squeaking and EK wasn't playing with my squeaky mouse on a stick toy. So Mom goes to see what he found and he was reaching under the little wine fridge. Mom moved it and there were all my toys! Over a dozen of them. I was so happy to see all my toys again. I guess squirts are good for something.

Anyway, Mom went crazy with the flashy box. There's lots of pictures and even some video. I'm in some of the pictures, too. Because of the video, I did a link this time to the album. Click on the picture below to see more pictures. Enjoy!

New Kitties

So far we've sold 25 copies of 'Summer at the Lake with Petie'. I'm not sure how much money I've raised because the website keeps some and Paypal takes some, but its around $70 and probably more. Copies are starting to arrive at pals homes. @LilyLuWhoT has gotten her copy. Mine should arrive tomorrow. As you know, my goal is 100 copies sold. If anyone has ideas how to sell more books, please DM me. The kitties at Duncan's Place and the humans caring for them really deserve the help. I did look into Amazon, but that would just make the books more expensive. I guess I need ideas how to publicize it better without being annoying about it.

Speaking of help, my wonderful friends, @whsker and @dashkitten, are not only getting a copy of Summer at the Lake with Petie, but they wrote about it in their blog: Dash Kitten's Mewsings, I was so surprised!. I think that was such a nice thing for them to do. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Dash and his human are always writing about others and are always looking for ways to help everyone. They are some of the most thoughtful pals out there in the Anipal Twitterverse and the Cat Blogoshpere.

The other excitement this last week was Petie and Pandy's shower. The guys went hiking and the girls went shopping, and all kinds of interesting happened while we were out. Everyone had a wonderful time, and a few pals wound up in Twitter jail! That's all I'm gonna tell you. What happens in Twitter stays in Twitter!

*purrs and pawhugs*

News!

All kinds of news this week. The first item is that the book about #lakewithpetie is finished and ready to order. It's called Summer at the Lake with Petie and is available here: Summer at the Lake with Petie. You can see a preview at the right. I was thrilled at how many pals sent stuff for me to put in the book! There are poems, stories, pictures, memories, and even original artwork. We have some very talented anipals in our community. Not only is this a wonderful way to remember the amazing summer we had, but the proceeds are going to Duncan's Place cat sanctuary. It will make a great Crispmouse present for your humans, so buy lots of copies!

Duncan's Place cat sanctuary is also where my brofurs are coming from. Cathy at Duncan's Place cat sanctuary sent me more pictures of them.

I finally have names for them. The cream colored one is gonna be Evel Kneivel and just EK for short. We've been told he's a bit of a daredevil. The grey and white one is gonna be Bandit because he looks like he's wearing a mask. Mom's picking them up Friday night!


Edit: Just found out from Cathy at Duncan's Place - turns out the grey & white one is a girl. So instead of 2 brofurs I'm gonna have a sisfur and a brofur. Cathy called her Babette and I think I'm just gonna call her that and not change her name again. Bad enough everyone thought she was a boy and called her Bob all these weeks. I'm not gonna change her name yet again.

So that's the good news. Now the sad news. We lost our good friend, Gunner, this week. He crossed the bridge on Thursday. PepiSmartDog escorted him across the bridge and arranged a wonderful welcome banquet for him. The banquet was held at Nipclub so that all the anipals could see Gunner off and wish him a good crossing. It was a wonderful banquet for a wonderful pal.

That's if for this week. Next week I'll have lots of news after the brofurs get here. Wish me luck! Smoochies!

The Price of Love

A love letter to my furriends.

I got some news tonight that's making me think really hard about all I've learned in the past year, and especially since I've been on Twitter and blogging. I've made a lot of good friends since I joined the anipal world. I've lost a lot of friends, too. And tonight I heard that another pal, Inigo Flufflebum, may be headed for the Rainbow bridge.

For some reason, this one is hitting me much harder than any of the others, and I don't really know why. Maybe because there have been so many lately. Maybe because Mom and I went through this the same time last year with my sisfur, Sheena. Maybe because it looked like he was going to get better. Maybe because I flirt with him and Rumbles so much. Maybe because the two of them always make me smile. Whatever the reason, the thought of losing Inigo is leaving a big hole in my heart, and my eyes won't stop leaking.

I know it will eventually have to happen. I know that at some point, it will be what's best for Inigo, and he'll let his family now when that is (hopefully not for a while yet). That doesn't make it hurt any less. But I guess that's the price we pay for letting others into our lives. The more we love, the more we have to lose and the more it hurts. The selfish part of us wants to hold on to those we love for as long as possible. When they leave, they leave an emptiness that no one can fill. But eventually, leave they must, just as we will when our time comes.

The pain of loss is a high price to pay. But what's the alternative? Not let others in to out lives? Not ever care about anyone or have anyone care about us? To be lonely and alone so we don't suffer the pain of loss? I think that would be a worse pain and a higher price. So I let others in. I care. I love. And when someone crosses the bridge, I hurt and I get leaky eyes. Yes, it's a high price to pay, but I pay it gladly.

Anipal Photo Hunt #12: All Souls' Day

You've heard me talk about the cats Mom had before I came along. If you read my interview on Cat's Who Twitter you know their story. Well now you get to see their faces.

 This is Beastie. Look at that face and you can tell where the name came from. MOL. She was Mom's first kitty. Mom got her from a neighbor as a kitten and she lived to be 16 1/2. Mom said she actually wasn't a beastie, but was very sweet. Her daddy was a Persian kitty and Beastie inherited her beautiful fluff from him.

This is Sheena. She passed last Thanksgiving at 18 years old! She lived the longest of any cat Mom's had. She came to Mom as a kitten from a coworker. I got to meet this kitty before she went to the bridge. She and Pixie were best friends and she was very lonely when Pixie passed. Mom got me as a playmate for Sheena, but Sheena didn't live very long after I was adopted. I guess I came to Mom just in time to keep her from being lonely without Sheena.

This is Pixie. Someone threw her out of a van. Mom tried to find her that night and couldn't. Six weeks later after a snowstorm, she showed up on Mom's porch. She was all wet, cold, matted, and starving. Mom took her in and it was love at first sight. She lived with Mom for 12 1/2 years before she passed. I look a lot like her except I have a nice floofy tail and Pixie didn't have a tail. Mom thinks she was part Manx.


I'm lucky to have had them as sisfurs, even if I didn't get to meet them. They were the cats that taught Mom how to open her heart and home to kitties. They also taught Mom that cats were meant to be loved and spoiled. And boy am I spoiled!

Please join this week's photo blog hop and tell us about the ones in your life that came before you that you want to honor.

Armarkat Faux Fleece Deluxe Cat Tree

I got the coolest cat tree for my Gotcha Day. My gotcha day was actually last week, but my present didn't come until Friday. It's the Armarkat Faux Fleece Deluxe Cat Tree and Mom got it from Petco. It came in a great big box and Mom had to put it together.

It had so many pieces, I couldn't believe it! It even had the tools to put it together. The tree came with good directions, too.

It actually went together pretty quickly.

Of course I had to inspect all the pieces and snoopervise the construction.

Look at how cool this is. It's got 2 hidey holes for playing and sleeping. It's got ladders for climbing and lots of scratching posts. At the top there are three platforms. I'm getting two brofurs so it's perfect - we each get one!

I wasn't to interested at first. I didn't understand about climbing and how fun high places are. Then Mom rubbed catnip in one of the hidey holes and put treats in the top to make it more interesting for me to check it out. Once I climbed up to get the treats and play in the catnip, I saw how furry cool it was to be up high. Now I go up there without prompting cause I know how much fun it is. I'm a little nipped out in the first picture. MOL!

Look at my floofy tail hanging down. And my toes hanging out. MOL!

So that's my Gotcha Day present. I think it's a present for my brofurs, too, 'cause it's big enough for all three of us. Only two more weeks until they come. I still can't decide what to name them. I think I'm gonna have to live with them for a while first.

Oh, and Happy Howloween!