Snoskred - Life in the Country

Last week Matt Cutts posted about the Kitt Inbox, which is a very plush looking inbox for cats that you can attach to your desk. I sent the link to The Other Half, who thought it was a great idea. This week he discovered a version that cost us.. well.. nothing.. because it is the lid of a 5 ream box of paper. Except it does take up a little desk space.

I don’t know why cats have an obsession with boxes - or even if all cats do, but ours certainly can’t resist a box. They have all manner of comfortable places to sleep yet they will choose a box over any of the comfortable places anytime, even if they don’t quite fit inside it.

And yes, I will post something non-kitty related soon - things are a tad hectic at the moment. I’ve done a couple of new websites for people this week - Artists Blog for Artoholic from the Aussie Bloggers Forum - Cindy made her own header and it is gorgeous. I like the theme with the white on the sides, too.

Kin’s Money for Kin who I knew previous to the Aussie Bloggers Forum and who recently became a moderator there. Kin had found the little piggy which inspired the text in the header - I am crazy about it. Whenever I create a new header for someone it is like a very intoxicating drug - I can’t get enough of looking at it for a little while. I love the texture of the gold text. I tried to make the gold a little darker but then it didn’t quite match the pig and it never looked quite as good as that shade of gold you see there now.

While working on Kin’s Money, I discovered just how lucky I was to find this Freedom Green theme right off the bat because I went looking for a different theme to use. We found one and we tried using it only to find halfway through that the middle sidebar was not widgetized. The same thing had happened to me with a theme that Artoholic Cindy wanted to use only that one was completely non-widgetized.

I’ve done countless websites with the Freedom Green theme now - below you will see links to a few of them - and it never gets old for me - but I think it always looks slightly different and new because I always customise it and change the colors. In this case I changed the text for Kin and I like the different text so I may experiment with a few different fonts here on my blog.

Gemisht (purple nav bar)

LighteningOnline (a gorgeously raspberry color)

The Nutcracker Ski Club (I reversed the nav bar on this one)

Miss Amelia Smith (orange nav bar)

Kin’s Home Of Slightly Cracked Dreams (lovely and orange all over!)

Birdwing Therapies (love the green and gold)

Cherry Blossom Adventures (pink! And then some! I love the pink fade along the white edges)

Aussie Bloggers Blog (I still adore the header I made for this, it never gets old)

I don’t think I missed anyone out who is using this theme but let me know if I did. As you can see by looking at the sites above, the Freedom Green theme is highly customisable. And I know this theme like the back of my hand now - I will always recommend using it to people simply because I know it well enough to be able to trouble shoot.

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One mere hour after the last photos were taken.. Can you spot the difference?

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a) Snow Skiing

b) Bowling

c) Sky Diving

d) Sleeping

And of course, the answer is..

The Big Kitty managed quite a feat before curling up for a nap. This box lid was originally on a box. She managed to take it off the box herself, turn it upside down, and then thought it might be a good place to sleep.

The toy next to her is her much prized penguin, which she brings to us while meowing some kind of kitty Broadway theme every night at bedtime and when we both leave the house she carries it down the stairs and leaves it by the door for us. Only we don’t get the benefit of that Broadway Meow performance as we’re not here. I am quite sure the neighbours enjoy it, though.

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There’s a lot going on in my offline life at the moment but none of it is anything I can really talk about here. And that’s a shame in some ways but it is also a good thing in some ways because I am so tired of the topic it isn’t funny. So I could tell you about the kitties doing a power struggle over the best place to sleep in the house, or that the little kitty has a new bird friend who taunts her daily by flying right up to the windows of The Other Half’s room and catching little bugs but I really wanted to share photos and in the second case a video of the little kitty jumping to get the bird.

Or I could tell you how the Roy Orbison show we went to see last weekend didn’t have the same Roy Orbison as last time and therefore turned the experience into something cringeworthy instead of an amazing experience and in fact we did not stay to hear the rest of the songs. But that is kinda one of those you had to be there moments.

Or I could tell you how The Other Half decided he wanted to replace the stereo in the car. Sometimes it wouldn’t read cd’s and it was intermittent and very annoying, so he chose a new one and he wanted me to get involved in the decision making process and frankly, after having my beautiful car stereo stolen many years ago I really didn’t have the heart for it. And I was feeling a bit annoyed about the whole thing. And I really just wanted to keep the stereo we had. But then he installed it and he called me down there to look at it and I was all *sigh* but when I got down there and he showed me that you could change the colors of the display, I noticed the stereo was actually sparkly! And then I got on board. But I wanted to have photos for that too, and the car isn’t here.

So I’ll just say that it has started to get a little chilly here at night now, and I have washed my big comfortable rugs and I have one on my recliner which I can completely snuggle under. And last night The Other Half went to Sydney for training, and I stayed up a little late watching tv, and both the kitties found a spot on top of my rug that was far enough away from the other kitty that nobody got upset, and they were all warm and furry, and I managed to move around and stay comfortable without disturbing either of them. It was lovely.

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There’s some old thing about putting butter or margarine on your cat when you move which will stop it from running away or getting lost. I don’t believe it is true myself, but we once did it with our Big Cat when she was very young. She now loves both butter and margarine. You can’t make a sandwich without the kitty hanging around under your feet looking all please butter me. In fact she can tell when you’ve taken out the margarine container and immediately runs to the kitchen from any spot in the house.

I spoke to our vet about it and he said that it isn’t a bad thing in moderation, especially as the big kitty seems to keep her weight regulated to the point of looking a bit scrawny. I try to fatten her up with bacon, ham, roast chicken skin and tuna but she never gets bigger than 5 kilos. However if I don’t feed her the bacon, ham, roast chicken skin and tuna, she can drop below 5kg fairly quickly and you start to feel her bones more than I like or feel comfortable with so I regularly keep up the treats.

Once she has eaten a treat, she then runs around the house all happy and kinda freaky like. She’s an odd creature in many ways and this is by no means the oddest of her behaviours.

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And chances are, they will decide to sleep in it.

It has been a long day here, with a quick trip to Wollongong. If you can call 5 hours to do a two hour drive (there and back) quick! The annual migration south for Christmas has begun and traffic is terrible. It is time to burrow at home and keep off the roads. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to write more in the Wordpress Training Wheels series.

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Today the kitties snubbed their usual sleeping places. It is almost like they read this blog! The little kitty said NO to Ironing and yes to a sleeping spot with a view. Remember you can click on the image for a bigger view.

The big kitty did not venture too far from the laptop bag.

I wonder if this means they’ll sleep somewhere else entirely tomorrow?

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Recently I have had to Take Important Preventative Measures. The little kitty has found a new favourite sleeping spot, one that gives her new and interesting ways to furr up our clothes if I am forgetful. She has always loved furring up our clothes and she loves washing baskets with freshly clean clothes to furr up, but this is something completely new. You can click on any of these pictures for a larger image.

Hmm, perhaps that photo doesn’t quite tell the story - but you can see the joy in her eyes. This one might be better.

Yes but it doesn’t quite tell the full story. Still, very cute. Let’s try again.

Ok, now I think you can see the gravity of the problem, and why I now have to put a towel over my ironing board the moment I am finished ironing. Yes, I do have quite a flash looking iron, it is a Laura Star and it is MAGIC. It can do vertical ironing, you only have to iron one side of a pair of pants and it irons right through - the same goes for arm sleeves. It can do any material you can think of without you needing to change a single setting on the iron, and the base it sits on is actually the water reservoir - it steams up a storm.

They sell them on TVSN here in Australia and they often have the lady from Laura Star on to tell you tips and tricks - all of which I am now using and they mean I can do a lot of ironing fast without it looking like I did it fast. They are not cheap but if you have to iron regularly at all you will not regret spending the money to get one - you’ll be spending a lot less time ironing and you’ll be enjoying it instead of hating it. Ironing is now my favourite chore. I have a special half hour put aside to iron every day. And I get really upset if I run out of ironing to do! This from someone who used to do anything to avoid having to iron, including wearing clothes which were creased to the point it would upset my mother.

The big kitty has not found any new places to sleep. She’s content furring up my laptop bag. As you see.

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Note from Snoskred - This week Thomas - Technical Blogger is getting out of his niche, and reading this I am so glad he agreed to do it. I love this post.

I was in my mid thirties before I had a cat.

In 1999 or so I took a contracting job at Microsoft, and my girlfriend at the time and I moved to this cool log cabin in Redmond, WA. My girlfriend had this ornery black cat that I didn’t really like, but for the most part he left me alone, and I left him alone. A couple of days after we moved in, there was this little kitty out on the deck mewing very loudly. It was there for a couple of days mewing. Did I mention this cat was really loud? Finally I told the girlfriend to do something to shut that cat up. She fed it some food that it gobbled right down and became quiet and started purring.

This cat had no desire to come into the house. Whatever room we were in, it would hang out in the corresponding window, so it could see us, but did not want to come in. In October the weather was starting to get rainy and nasty, so we built a little shelter with warm bedding for the kitty in the planter box outside the big window. We feed her and all seemed to be well.

In November it started to snow, and we decided that we needed to bring the little cat indoors. She adjusted to the indoors really well. She was neurotic and a pain in the butt, she hid under furniture 90% of the time. All I could think is how much cats sucked.

We moved, and I said that since we had taken responsibility for the little kitty that we had to take her with us. She did really well in the new place. She was neurotic and a pain in the butt, but she did change, now she hid under furniture 95% of the time. All I could think is how much cats sucked. At this point the girlfriend became an ex-girlfriend. I told her that she had to take both cats, but she would only take hers initially as she was moving back to the Bay Area and left me with that damned little cat.

Two days after the ex-girlfriend and her cat had gone, I started seeing the little kitty out and about. I used to say she was a little bit of a cat, and the name stuck. Little Bit. It just being the cat and I, Little mellowed out within a week.

One day I was working in my office at home, and I heard Little meowing from another part of the house so I told her where I was. I then heard meowing closer. This happened a couple of times, and then I heard a meow outside my office. I looked at her and told her she could come in, and she did. She settled down by me and seemed to be happy. She seemed to like to play this game, as she played it frequently. I played along because it made me laugh.

Moving to the Bay Area

I got contract work in the Bay Area, so we moved. Initially We stayed in corporate housing and I wasn’t supposed to have a cat. I told the Little to stay out of sight, and she seemed to understand. At this point you might say - Thomas you are deluding yourself if you think your cat had the power of speech, I don’t think she had the power of speech, but she seemed very intuitive and appeared to understand what I told her. She would sometimes wait in the window for me to come home, and when she saw I noticed her, I would waggle my finger at her and she would jump down and hide. She was a great cat. Having just moved from Seattle to the Bay Area, I had few friends and although I was happy the girlfriend was gone, I was depressed about my general state of relationships.

Little started sleeping on my chest. I would sometimes wake with her cheek on mine. If I came home late, she would wait by the door, and would let me have it, with a barrage of meows. If I came home after being in a bar, I would have to shower before I got into bed or she would snore and wheeze all night keeping me up and expressing her displeasure. I took care of her and she took care of me.

We moved out of corporate housing and got a loft in East Side Oakland. It was the Little and I, and we had a great time. If I sat down for more than 5 minutes she was in my lap. When it was time for bed, she would get up, go to the bedroom and meow on the bed waiting. When I got in bed, she would crawl on my chest and fall asleep. She was trusting, sweet, and gave love unconditionally. She watched over me, and when things got tough, was always there for me.

Little was an excellent barometer at reading people. I never mentioned to dates that I had a cat. Some women would come in, and the Little was not to be seen, for others she would come out and say hi. It may sound weird, but I always listened to the Little. Interestingly enough, when the ex did show up from time to time the Little was never to be found. Considering Little always met me at the door when I came home, I found it interesting that she would disappear if I brought someone else home.

The Little had an electronic litter box. One afternoon, the box was going off, every 15 minutes for a couple of hours. I thought it was broken. When I investigated, I realized Little was playing with her litter box. She would go in and let out about a marble’s worth of urine and then jump out. She would walk around and when the box would start she would run over and watch it. A couple minutes after it stopped, she would jump in to start the process again. She would take frequent trips to her water dish to ensure she was probably hydrated and had enough ammunitions to continue the game. This was a game she would play periodically. Goofy little cat.

I raised my voice to the Little once. She was playing with the sheer curtains in my rented loft. I just looked at Little and said No sharply. She disappeared and I did not see her for the rest of the evening. I looked for her and she was not to be found. At bedtime, I got in bed and called, and there she was. I have no idea where she went, but I never had to raise my voice to her again.

I traveled periodically for my job and my buddy Tim would stay at my place to hang out with the Little. Little loved Tim, and Tim loved the Little. In early 2000, I took a work oriented trip to Cairo, Egypt for a little over two weeks. Tim was unable to stay at my place the whole time but stayed there off and on to ensure the Little was doing ok.

When I got back, Little and I fell back into our normal routine. Not long after that I met my wife Shannon in Portland, OR. When the Little met Shannon in August, it was love at first sight.

In October of that year, the Little started to get sick. I noticed her walking around wheezing. When I took her to the vet, they removed almost two pints of fluid from her body cavity. Apparently her body cavity was filling up with fluid, squeezing her lungs and she was having difficulty breathing. I had her tested, but we could not figure out what was wrong, she was not getting better, and she wouldn’t eat.

When Shannon came to visit, the Little crawled on Shannon’s lap, and gave her a long hard look. I could see the Little sizing Shannon up. The Little put her paw out, and Shannon took it in her hand. The hung out like that for a couple of minutes, and then Little curled up in Shannon’s lap and went to sleep.

That next week, I could tell the Little was getting worse. One evening I had to take her to the emergency vet to get her drained again. A few nights later, Little crawled off a couple of times to find a secluded spot. I told her I found this unacceptable, as her friend I would help her and wouldn’t let her die alone. That was a really long night, hanging out with my sick friend. I took her to the vet first thing that morning and was told she was rapidly getting worse. The vet said she was just going to keep filling up with fluid and there was nothing they could do. Apparently if she hadn’t received good nutrition when she was younger she might not have formed properly internally. Considering that we found her outside, this seemed reasonable. Under these conditions it is possible for stress to initiate the onset of these types of problems.

The vet suggested the best course of action was to put her to sleep. They explained the procedure and how it would work. I shouldn’t be alarmed if the cat should evacuate its bowels after it had passed. All I could think is that Little is way too dainty and too much of a princess to let something like that occur.

I called Shannon for support, this was one of the hardest decision I ever had to make. I knew Little was in pain, but I didn’t want to give up too early. What if the tests taken the week before found something, but results weren’t expected for another couple of days. I tried to be realistic about the current quality of her life.

I talked to the Little about it, I knew she was in pain and she was wheezing again. She sat in my lap for a while, and then got in her carrier for a minute. I put her on the table and petted her while she was put to sleep. The vet said something about being amazed that Little did not make a mess when she passed, but knowing her that did not surprise me.

The next couple of weeks were kind of a blur. But here are some things I realized later.

- A couple of days later, I noticed that her carrier smelled. I looked in and found she had used her carrier as a litter box. I have heard that a cat will not mess in a carrier that they expect to get back in, I think she understood what was going to happen and wasn’t going to go out leaving a mess.
- When I thought about it, I realized that Little had passed the baton on to Shannon for my care and well being. She wasn’t going to leave without knowing I was taking care of, Little was like that.
- The Little and I only had a couple of years together, and I hope she was happy enough to balance out such a short life and time we had together.
- To this day I think my being gone for the couple of weeks while I was in Egypt stressed Little out, and initiated these problems. I am not sure that there was anything I could have done differently to create a different outcome, but I do blame myself . . .

It would be a couple of years before I could get another cat. It has been almost seven years, and honestyly I tears roll down my checks as I write this, although in my defense my allergies have been acting up as my eyes have been kind of watery.

Enter Mr Pants

As I said, it was a couple of years before I could bring myself to get another cat. Shannon and I started visiting the humane society. I figured it would honor the memory of Little to give another cat a break. At the humane society I told them I wanted to see the cat that had been their the longest. We were shown some cat named Diego. When we got to the cage, the cat charged the bars of his cage and starts meowing loudly.

A sophisticated cat, said the tag, wow he smells and looks horrible said Shannon, I want to see him, says I.

We went into the visiting room with Diego. He was flea bitten, he smelled, he was mangy and weighed 10 lbs. His head was the biggest part of his body. I talked to Shannon and we decided to think it over. Diego was taken back to his cage. When we went back to look at him in his cage he hissed at us. He had thought we had a deal, and it appears we had reneged.

We went back two days later to get Diego. When we go to his cage, he is laying listlessly on the floor, he picks his head up and blows a big snot bubble out his nose. Dude, that is no way to get adopted I tell him, you need to try and put your best foot forward.

Shannon calls a tech over.

Shannon - Excuse me . .

Tech - Can I help you

Shannon - Is this cat going to die, it looks sick. We like him, but we aren’t going to adopt him if he is just going die.

Tech - Uh, ma’am we can’t guarantee the pet will live, but . . .

Shannon - I’m serious, we don’t want this cat if it is going to die.

Tech - Well we can’t guarantee, he just has URI which is common for cats in a situation like this. If anything does happen to the cat, we can get you a new . . .

Shannon - I’m serious, we don’t want this cat if it is going to die. My husband is a big guy, but he is sensitive. He already lost one cat, and I am not going through that again any time soon, this cat better not die.

Me - Hey, I’m not that sensitive.

Shannon - Yes he is, I’m not going through that again any time soon.

Tech - Ma’am the cat should be fine, but I can’t guarantee. I see no indication of ill health.

Shannon - better not die . . .

So we took him. Diego was neither sophisticated or worldly so that name got dropped. Apparently he was found as a stray just a couple of blocks from where we lived.

Side Note: I don’t swear. Shannon has worked in the bar industry most of her life, and knows how to swear real well. When were first dating, she and I were bickering about something. She looks at me and says, you’re a . . ., you’re a. . . ., Mr Pants. To this day I have no idea what that meant, but I knew if we had a pet what its name would be, and Mr Pants it was.

We have had Mr Pants for over 5 years now. He has been a great cat. He is a 22 lb Maine Coon. He is sometimes referred to as Little Brudder, or Chubba Brudder. He doesn’t care as long as you don’t call him late for his food.

When we first brought him home, he was watching a bird, and jumped off the back of the couch, into the window. He smacked his head and fell to the floor. He would stare out the window for hours. There was a neighborhood outdoor cat that he would see, and cry and cry. It was then that we realized we would some day need to get Mr Pants a friend.

When Nicole was about 10, I was coming down the stairs to see Nicole with Mr Pants in her hands. Nicole then proceeds to toss him over her head to let him land in her bean bag chair. I have never seen his eyes so wide. Nicole looks at me and says, look he likes it. Don’t confuse fear with fun and don’t ever do that again I told Nicole.

Mr Pants is the kind of cat that will play with toys, but not if your watching. He likes to be close to you, but don’t bother him or he’ll move. He is always willing to befriend a cat out the window.

A Friend for Mr Pants, Me Too

Three years ago we decide to get a friend for Mr Pants. I want a Bengal, but Shannon is against getting a cat smart enough to do math. A friend had one, and it used to open doors, drawers, and turn lights on and off.

Time to go back to the humane society. This time we found a Manx, named Taylor. She is a cute little fireball. When we first got her Mr Pants was very excited. She was neurotic and a pain in the butt, and she hid under furniture 95% of the time. Initially we joked her name was Maybe, because she wasn’t getting along with Mr Pants, but was changed to Me Too when we noticed she followed me everywhere. She was surrendered from a household that had too many cats, so she tends to be a little territorial, and has space issues.

One of the first days we had her, I woke up one morning to find the stick feather string thing in the bedroom. I asked Shannon why she had brought that up from downstairs, and she mentioned she hadn’t. A couple of days later, I noticed Me Too running around the house with the feather in her mouth with the stick trailing after her.

Me Too is a goofy little cat. She doesn’t meow, she chirps and warbles. She loves to bird watch and is a great jumper. Her hind legs are powerfully built like a rabbit. We have found her on top of the refrigerator. She loves to take skitter toys in the master bathtub, which is a big soaker tub, and use it as her personal skitter rink. She tends to be pretty vocal as she plays with her toys.

Me Too now sleeps on my chest. She is on the skittish side, but in the last year she actually comes out when we have company. She is a sweet little cat, and will sit on Shannon or Nicole’s lap. Me Too has her own set of stories, but the post is getting a bit long.
At this point I can’t imagine not having a cat. They have been great additions to the family, and are a constant source of amusement.

Thanks to Snoskred for the opportunity to get out of my technical niche, and try a different bit of writing.

Thomas, this was a most incredible piece of writing - the best I have seen for a long time. I hate to tell you but I must be suffering from allergies too because I suffered that same side effect at almost exactly the same moment. Did anyone reading this find the same happened to them?

Many of us humans have had pets that have touched our lives in ways we could not possibly have imagined. I don’t know why but in Australia some men feel like it’s not “manly” to have a relationship with a cat. They are missing out on something special.

Thomas can be found at Thomas - Technical Blogger where he says - I don’t normally write sensitive cat pieces, more often I write “manly” technical content - and the manly content is also excellent and worth reading.

I love that picture of Little hiding. Mr Pants looks so relaxed and happy. Me Too looks like a real character. To me a house is not a home unless there is at least one cat. Two is even better!

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Hi Humans! Hi Cows! The Humans think I am an airhead. I’m not really an airhead but they seem to like it if I act like one and feed me more treats when I’m being funny like the robot they named me after. Here is a clip where you can see my name and some of the other funny things that robot does.

The Humans love that cartoon. It’s not bad but I prefer Animal Precinct and Cops. I like seeing bad humans locked up. The humans who get locked up on Animal Precinct are extra bad because they are mean to animals! Here is a photo of me sitting on Mommy’s desk. Near where my foots is, is where the mouse is. I don’t know why they call it a mouse. I have watched it. I have batted it with my paw, and it doesn’t run away. It isn’t afraid of me and I can’t stick my claws into it. It’s not a real mouse at all! But when Mommy uses the mouse it tickles my foots and I have to swipe at her with my claw. After all, I’m trying to sleep here! The Big Kitty is sometimes mean to me. Here you can see her stealing the Good Spot to sit in. As you may be able to tell, I am Not Impressed. There are times when I get the Good Spot to sit in. This is one of them. The big thing I am sitting next to is a ceramic heater. It’s WARM! I *like* it! This is another time when I got the Good Spot. I am sleeping in this photo. For some reason when I sleep like this the Humans go “Awwww” a lot. I don’t mind it. It’s just noisy, and I’m trying to sleep. Humans should be quiet when I am trying to sleep. They get upset when I play with my Jingle Ball when they are sleeping! This is another Good Spot. The Humans get upset when I sleep on soft things. They say “Bad Kitty! Don’t fur up my clothes!”. I don’t know who they are talking to because I am not named “Bad Kitty”. My name is Gir. I also answer to Dainty Foots. That’s because I have cute, Dainty Foots. See? I better get off the keyboard now because Mommy Human seems to be finished making the floors wet and hot with that steamy thing and she will be upset that I furred up her keyboard. Bye for now from Gir!

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Warning, cute kitty photos ahead! After a few days of panic, hiding under the bed anytime they heard a noise, and treading cautiously around the house, the kitties are now happily queens of their domain. No longer scared and hiding, but exploring, napping and relaxing. As you see.

Interestingly there have been some changes with the Big Kitty’s behaviour. She is now growling like a dog. The Little Kitty has done this since she first arrived at our house, and it seems the Big Kitty thought it was a good idea. Also the big kitty is thrilled to have her stairs back!

This is the first time the little kitty has ever had stairs, and she’s not too sure about it. She cautiously walks down one at a time with a scared look on her face. I’m sure she’ll get used to them soon - and they might be good exercise for her seeing as she is getting a little.. rotund. Yes, that is her belly hanging through the hole in the kitty tower!

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Anyone walking into our house would think our kitties are terribly spoilt. There are not one, not two, but THREE cat towers in this house. The very first one we bought from a pet shop many years ago. It cost us big money - over $500. At the time, both of us were working and we felt like it was a fair amount to spend on an indoor cat we loved very much - and we wanted to encourage her to scratch the tower rather than our furniture.. This was back in the days when we only had the Big Kitty. The cat tower was very tall, extremely solid, and covered in carpet. The Big Kitty loved it as you can see from the above and below pics. Cats love to be up high. When we got the smaller kitty, there was suddenly competition to be top of the tower. If the little kitty could not be top of the tower she would sit on top of my desk - and playfully push things down onto my head. This was great fun for her, but not so much fun for me. I’d be in the middle of something and a stack of papers would fall down on me and my keyboard. I lost an entire page worth of writing when I hadn’t saved a file before walking away from my desk and she took an opportunity to do a keyboard dance because the big kitty was on the tower and she wanted to get up there!

So the hunt was on for more cat towers. Surprisingly the prices had gone *up* at the pet stores since we bought the last one, and at the time I wasn’t working, I was in the middle of my three months of unpaid volunteer work at Fraudwatchers. We couldn’t afford it. The kitties would just have to fight it out, and I would have to remember to save things before walking away! Soon after we moved to NSW from Adelaide, I found the Deals Direct website. They had some cat towers at what seemed like crazy prices - as cheap as $39.95 for some of them. We ended up choosing two - the multi level cat tree with a mouse attached for $69.95 (seen above, in gray) and the cat tree with a hammock for $89.95 (seen below, in tiger yellow and black). Shipping was only $9.95 and when I went to pick these things up at the post office they were in huge boxes! I was surprised shipping was so cheap for such big items. One of the boxes I used to pack some stuff in during our move, here it is sitting on my pool table with a little kitty napping on it.. Yes, I am one of those people who never throws out a box - they always come in handy later. We unpacked the boxes and The Other Half happily (he loves anything he has to build) sat down to build the towers. They are mostly flat when you receive them, except for the cat rooms which were fully built and covered in carpet. The kitties investigated the towers immediately and within a short amount of time were happily hanging out in a cat room each. I grabbed the camera as always. As you see. You can see things are still in bubble wrap - these photos were taken on the 23rd of February 2006, we moved into this house on the 9th of February. We still have the towers today and the kitties still make use of them constantly. In fact as I was writing this I went out to take a few photos of the towers and caught the big kitty taking a nap in the cat box of the gray one, as seen above. They are solid towers and unlike the expensive one we bought, which the kitties have scratched a lot of the carpet off (see photo below) they still retain all of their carpet. The kitties have clawed the heck out of them and they remain amazingly intact. The mouse is still attached to the tower even after hours of play. All I had to do was give them a quick vacuum when we moved. I like that all the screws are covered by plastic covers. I love the tiger themed carpet. I love that the kitties love them and use them all the time. When we move to our new house I would like to put at least one cat tower into each room and I’ll be buying a couple more cat towers from Deals Direct. I have my eye on this one.

Do your kitties deserve spoiling? If yes, check out these very reasonably priced cat towers. Your feline friends will love them.

We have bought many products from Deals Direct since February 06, .I receive their daily newsletter which is full of bargains, and I love their site, it is well laid out and easy to navigate. If I want to buy something it’s the first place I check, their prices are always excellent and they often have special offers on shipping, too.

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Hi, this is the Big Kitty typing. The Little Kitty has the attention span of a goldfish and is too busy stealing my Tuna and the warmest spot next to the heater so don’t expect her to be posting anytime soon. The Humans are busy looking at this funny website they found - Daisy the Curly Cat. I laughed at that funny cat too, but I was inspired to say something myself! Here’s what I look like, in case you forgot. If you Humans reading this want a bigger view you can click your mouse on the photo. I like mouses, too. I have to tell you something. Our Humans are going out more and more, and leaving us at home without the heating on. Ever since they got that new car they take off for hours at a time. When they found out we could turn the airconditioner on from the remote control with our paws they hid the remote in a drawer. Now we’re having to find warm places to curl up instead of hanging out on our cat towers, which is where we really want to be.. People say we’re spoilt kitties to have so many cat towers - these are only two of them. We have more in other rooms. Today when they got home I found these photos from when they were out and I thought I would post them so you can see what kind of fun those Humans are having while they leave us kitties alone.. cold.. with no laps to sit on. What side of the road are you supposed to drive on in Australia? Or doesn’t it matter, can you just drive in the middle? I think that is really dangerous and my Humans should keep away from cars like that, right? Do you agree? Maybe you can change sides as long as there’s nobody on the other side, I don’t know. This driving stuff looks confusing. I don’t like cars. I don’t like those cat carrier things the Humans always put us in when it’s time to go in the car either. Why can’t we just roam around the car and find a nice warm spot to sit? My Humans are smart. It looks like they pulled over in order to get away from the scary drive all over the road Holden car. My Dad Human has a joke about Holdens - they’re just holden together. But I seem to remember he drove one once. That was a long time ago. My Mom Human likes cows. I remember when they took us to see the EVIL Human with the BIG NEEDLE and we drove past some cows, and she was yelling “Hi Cows! Hi Cows!” at them. The Dad Human tells me she does this anytime she sees cows. I told him I know where the earplugs are and maybe he should use those in order to concentrate on the road better. But look at the view these cows have from their field? I don’t have much of a view here. This house only has one level so I can’t sit in an upstairs window and survey my kingdom. Wow, it looks like those Humans were going fast! The Humans keep the car in the Garage. I like the Garage. It’s the only room in the house we’re not allowed to go into but I can’t understand why. Whenever I get in there they say GET OUT to me. I like to hide in between the boxes so they can’t pick me up and carry me out. These cars look like that car they keep in the Garage, and look, they have that XR5 Turbo thing written on them too, just like that one in the garage but I don’t think these are theirs even though it is hard to tell what color the car is when it is inside. Is it possible that three of the five XR5 Turbos within a 50km radius were all parked in the same car park today? Wow, look at that! Why can’t the Humans get a house with that kind of view where I could look out and dream of catching fish out of the water with my claws all day, and lazily watch the Humans on the beach with one half closed eye? I’m not a beach cat. I don’t like sand in my paws. But if you could make me a special pair of kitty socks that keep the sand out, I’d like to roam around this beach and put my paw prints everywhere. Do cats have to be on a leash at the beach? I don’t do leashes. Those are for dogs. Intelligent animals who can bury their doings don’t need to be on a leash, but I wouldn’t want any dogs to chase me. That silly dog next door, he barks all the time at nothing. He just stares off into space saying woof, woof woof, woof and disturbs my napping. I have to go sit on the windowsill and look down at him all superior like. When the Humans got home, they put all this stuff on the pool table so we could sniff it and check it out. I think they should give the money cards to us. Clearly they can’t be trusted. They go out for a drive and bring home a new car, and then they go out in the new car and bring home.. stuff. What is this stuff useful for? It’s not tuna, cat towers, toys for us to play with or kitty safe milk. We don’t need it! The Humans tried to get us Kitties to stand on those scales but we refused to put all four paws on at once. We don’t want them to take our Tuna away. Even though that Little Kitty could be considered plump, I keep telling the Humans she is just fluffy. Bye for now from the Big Kitty!

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I know I don’t normally talk about my health here on the blog but on Friday last week we drove almost to Sydney to get some cold and flu tablets. Why on earth would anyone go so far? It turns out that there’s a pharmacist who makes his *own* cold and flu tablets. We found out by accident one time, when my Dad had the flu and I felt like I was coming down with it too and we stopped on the way to Sydney to get something to help with that, and these tablets were incredible. So last Thursday when the other half and I both felt like we were getting the flu, I said tomorrow let’s go and get the good tablets. Of course, when we got there, they were out. ;( So this past week I have been feeling pretty blah really. Then last night before I went to bed I felt a nasty headache was on its way to me as a surprise. I wandered into the bedroom considering going to bed early, and I found this. Yes, the little kitty has a habit of sleeping on any clothes I might leave on the bed. She likes to fur things up. So I went to bed early and when the other half woke me this morning, I still had the headache. I rolled over and went back to sleep, and dreamed about my sister throwing bread dough at me. Around mid-day I was woken by the sound of a truck reversing and builders talking. Today they laid the foundations for the new house across the road a few doors up. So I got up and stumbled in here, where I visited a few blogs, left a couple of comments, drank a couple of glasses of water, said hi to Sephy on Skype, posted the thought for the day and started thinking about what I would blog about today. I still had the headache but I also had a couple of blog topics I’ve been wanting to write about for a little bit, one being what we can learn from the “make money online” and “search engine optimization (SEO) type of blogs. I just wasn’t up to writing those today and decided to go have a shower and eat lunch instead. After I had my shower, I heard the dog next door barking at the builders and I decided to open the window for a bit. The kitties have a love affair with the windowsill. Anytime they have a chance they’ll sit there and look out the window. This time the dog saw the cat jump up there and he ran towards the fence barking and growling. The little kitty knew that the big dog couldn’t get her, so she ignored him and tried to watch the builders instead. I wondered where the big kitty was, and I didn’t have to go far to find her. By this time the headache was really starting to set in, so I sat down and ate lunch and watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. By the time it finished, I didn’t feel any better, so I watched another one. When that one finished, I felt more human so I ventured back to the computer and discovered an email from a very good friend of mine which I found very exciting - but thunder and lightning was going on. So I quickly replied to the email and turned the computer off. And then something truly horrible happened! Hail! Now normally I don’t mind a bit of hail, in fact normally I adore it. However at this time my brand new car was not sitting safely in the garage. No. It was sitting in the carpark at the other half’s workplace. A good friend of mine once had a car written off by hail damage. I began to panic and went looking for the phone to call the other half. When I got to the phone I thought, what am I going to say? Drive the car home? There might not even be hail over there. So I went outside to take some photos and tried to calm down. When I had finished there was still lightning, so I had to watch more Desperate Housewives. Well, I couldn’t use the computer, what else was I supposed to do?

When I could turn the computer back on I had a reply from my good friend who has started a blog of his own. He’s someone I greatly respect and adore. So you might want to check him and his blog out. It’s only new but we’re going to explore some topics and I’m hopeful he will get involved with the hump day hmmm’s because he is also very interesting. Check Cugat out at Persistent Vegetative State.

One blog post I do want to write is about writing. I have seen many people I think of as excellent writers recently claim to be not good writers. This shocks me somewhat. Cugat is someone who helped me to think more about my writing, and to learn how to edit better. I am hopeful he will share a bit of his knowledge on these topics with his blog readers.

So by the time the day was over, I had finished season 2 of Desperate Housewives, the last 4 episodes watched when I had taken more headache tablets and was hoping the headache would go away if I sat quietly and watched tv. It didn’t work. I still feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head, and I want to read blogs but at the same time my eyes hurt. So I think I’m going to call it a day, for today. If I didn’t drop by your blog I’m sorry - hopefully tomorrow I’ll be all better.

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You remember the old myth that when you move house you should put butter on the cat’s paws? Here’s a tip - this can lead to experiences you were not exactly expecting. My jaw is on the ground right now, I do not joke.

The Big Kitty LOVES butter or margarine to the point that if you take the container out of the fridge she can hear it from anywhere in the house, and she appears like magic.

You cannot leave bread buttered around here. If you turn away, when you turn back she’ll be licking the butter off the bread. You need eyes in the back of your head, ya’all.

So the other day I made myself a tasty sandwich snack and I mistakenly left the margarine container out on the counter. While I was in here reading blogs and doing stuff, I heard some funny noises out there in the kitchen. I just figured those kitties were chasing each other around. As they do.

When I eventually made my way into the kitchen, I found the big kitty had knocked the margarine container onto the ground, at which point the lid came off. What happened next I cannot be sure as I wasn’t there and no video camera was recording, but there was margarine *everywhere*. On the floor, on the cupboards, on the dishwasher, and there were these buttery kitty paw prints that went from room to room. And, the big kitty was wearing what can only be described as butter socks. Only they went way up past her knees. More like butter stockings, really.

I cleaned up the mess (do not ask how long this took) and threw the margarine out. When The Other Half got home he was looking for the butter and came in to ask me for it, at which point, I lied. Because I was busy! I was in the middle of stuff and I didn’t want to get into the whole sordid buttery tale. And I knew she’d be in trouble. So I said I didn’t know where it was and he should use cream cheese instead. He turned the fridge upside down looking for the butter and I came out just as he was replacing the last items in there.. at which point I broke down laughing and had to tell the truth.

Now, today, he asked me to make him a cake. Now that big kitty is really in for trouble. It said grease and flour the cake tin, which I did.. I left it on one counter while I got on with making the cake. I turned around to find that big kitty attacking that cake tin with gusto and her little pink tongue.. it’s so cute, there’s little tongue marks all over the place..

I’ll be in trouble too, because instead of making his cake I couldn’t resist coming in here to blog about it..

We get our car tomorrow..

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Would it surprise you to know that for the last hour and a half, I have been sitting here, reading blogs, but at the same time vacuuming my bathroom and bedroom? How is this possible? Am I a witch? Is it a kind of magic? Oh yes. Roomba magic. Click on any of these images for a larger view. To some this might seem like the ultimate in laziness, but if you stop and think for a minute nobody likes to vacuum and there are those among us who are physically not able. When I used to work in retail I sold a lot of these to people with arthritis, people in wheelchairs and elderly people. I also sold several to local businesses who wanted to be able to keep on top of their vacuuming without having to be a slave to the vacuum.
Me, I have two cats. Until you have lived in a house with two cats you really have no idea just how much hair they leave around. Roomba is my salvation, especially at moulting time. Many people with pets bought these and came back to let me know how much they love their Roomba. You can work it however you want. How it works here is every morning I put Roomba in a room, hit the “max” button and shut the door. Max means, he cleans until he runs out of power. When he’s done, he makes this sad little beep, it sounds sort of like an electronic “uh oh”. When I hear it I go clean him and put him back on the base station so he can get recharged. He leaves little trails so you can see where he has been. Over the course of an hour in a room, he generally hits every spot on the floor and cleans it. These pics are from a room he was in for about half that time, he’s not done there yet, but I wanted you to be able to see the trails. When he’s done, I usually take him to where the large vacuum cleaner is sitting (always plugged into the wall) and give him a quick clean out. You only need to clean two spots - the little dust chamber, and the pull out filter. It’s easy and painless. This is what he picked up this morning. He generally picks up this much each day from whatever room I put him into. So you can imagine how much dirtier the house would be without him. I refer to Roomba as a he, The Other Half calls him a She. How interesting! If you don’t have doors, Roomba comes with two “virtual walls” where a signal is transmitted to him and he thinks there’s a wall there, so he won’t go past the doorway. He works on tiled floors and carpets as well as lino/vinyl and wood floors - without scratching. He does carpets especially well because he has the little carpet brush on the bottom. I adore him. The kitties are not so sure, after an unfortunate incident where he stole their tuna. And put it all over the kitchen floor. Note to all - make sure any cat or dog or other animal food is NOT left on the floor while Roomba-ing. Just a handy tip to prevent you having tuna all over the place. As apparent by the tuna incident, Roomba is not perfect. You will still need a normal vacuum to make it easier to clean Roomba when he comes back to base. Once every 4 weeks or so you’ll have to drag the unwieldy big vacuum out to do the corners and skirting boards. You need to roomba-proof your rooms, make sure he can’t suck up any cords.

On the other hand there are so many good things about Roomba that outweigh the not good. He is also quite short so he can clean under things you wouldn’t normally get to with your vacuum. Roomba is not cheap - in Australia you can generally pick one up for between $350-400. You can pick one up in the US from Best Buy for just under $190. Do you need one? That depends. How much is your time worth? Would your house be cleaner if you vacuumed it for an hour a day? Do you want to spend that kind of time vacuuming or would you like a robot to do it for you? Do you ever wish for a genie to do your housework for you?

I should mention, this is NOT a sponsored post, this is just me telling you about something I love. If and when I ever do write a sponsored post, I will make that VERY clear to ya’all.

I leave you with a lovely piece of music which was often played on Saturday housework mornings in the house I grew up in.

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The kitties have killed a few spiders over the last couple of days. It’s been raining a lot and these spiders, which I call lawn spiders because they live in the lawn currently can’t live in the lawn due to its being flooded. It’s a bit like a swimming pool in our backyard. The spiders aren’t poisonous but they are freaky and they jump around a lot. The little kitty likes to trap them under her paw.

Yesterday morning we got up early and went to get the kitty kibble. It’s the older cat who I’m not about to deny food to because she was a bit stick thin back in summer and ever since then I have been tempting her with bacon and various other treats. Her favorite is roast chicken skin. If we go shopping on a Wednesday night we usually bring home a hot roast chicken because the supermarket sells them cheap. Now, if the big kitty sees shopping bags she assumes there’s going to be a chicken and she gets all excited. You can’t just take the skin off the chicken and put it in a bowl, she wants to be hand fed a little piece at a time. Yep, she has us trained.

Over the past week or so I’ve watched all of season 5 of the West Wing in preparation for season 6. Sephy is also up to season 6 now and we’re going to watch it together and blog about it on a testing blog we made a while back. It’ll be cool to be able to discuss the episodes having both seen them fresh, for the first time.

Today we did a bit of cooking and reorganized the kitchen, all to the sounds of The Cure, who are touring Australia soon. I’m tempted to go see them. But for now I leave you with one of my favorite Cure songs..

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

I often wonder about the choices I have made during my lifetime. I am pondering on a few different topics at the moment, but I have a cat here who thinks someone has cut her throat because there’s none of her favorite kibble in the house. She’s going around giving me the evil eye. The Other Half has two days off and is fast asleep in bed. I wanted to get up and going early today - to get the kibble which is apparently desperately needed! before the shops get over-run with zillions of people looking to get out of the rain by going shopping - but he had a long day at work yesterday. So today I leave you with a couple of kitty photos from The Other Half’s phone - I like to take pictures of the kitties with it when he’s not looking - while I try to get The Other Half out of bed and to the shops to satisfy a very upset kitty. I may be back later today with something I’ve been writing, if it comes to me as a surprise. In the meantime, after our discussion the other day re swearing, I have a little video by the Doug Anthony AllStars, a very offensive Australian comedy group from years ago. Don’t watch it if you can’t handle the F word - but the question is, which F word? What are they really singing?

Note, the song is very catchy.. you have been warned..

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I’m about to go on a cleaning spree here in the home office, as well as on the blog. One thing I am wanting to do this weekend is go back and label old posts. Sometimes when I have done that in the past they have turned up on the RSS feed as a new post. I’m hoping they won’t but if they do, I’m sorry. It shouldn’t last too long.

Those of you who know me well know that I am one of the world’s most disorganized people. Even my computer desktop ends up with a zillion files on it that I have to go through and sort out every so often. But I think I’ve finally cracked the blogging organization jackpot.

When I add a blog to my google reader now, it sets off a chain of events that include - adding that blog to the sidebar, pasting the URL into the blogs I added to the sidebar this week text file and adding that blog to my Technorati favourites. I do this all at once and all on the spot, or else I might forget.

I have a massive weekly wrap up coming to you as a surprise this Sunday so look out for that.

For those who are fans of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, filming has started on part 4 at long last. It is still a long wait before the movie arrives on screens but check out The Man With The Hat Is Back over at indianajones.com for a pic of Indy today.

Also, what does a cat really do when let loose all on their own? Mr Lee’s CatCam delves into the world of cats through technology.. I loved it!

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or is it..

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