Saturday, December 31, 2011

Ringing in 2012

We wish you a 2012 filled with blessings, health and happiness. 

Celebrate hearty but if you cats have too much nip or you dogs have too many beef daiquiris, be sure to ride home with your designated sober human or call a cab and let your human pay the bill.

See you next year.

PS - If you haven't seen the slideshow Mom Paula put together of blogging kitties who left for the bridge during 2011, do stop by and take a few minutes to watch Remembering Our Furriends.  Mom Paula lost Sweet Praline and then little Beignet.  There are only a few woofies included because not many dogs frequent the Cat Blogosphere.  (Our Buddy, Merci and Sam do.)  

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Buddy and Sam in Doghouse

Hey, it's me, Cameron.  I have a fun video for you today.  Jan's ability to type is rather restricted again and that affects our computer time, so this post will be short on news.

Jan came home yesterday from running errands and got a good whiff of Rusty smoking again.  Merci will stand and fan the pilot with her wagging tail, which sets Jan to yelling at her because even though she hasn't set her tail on fire, she has put out the pilot light and it's too hard for Jan to relight the heaters, and the cats sometimes get too close and char their tails.  Last winter it was Percy who kept kept warming his tail. 

Buddy and Sam are in the doghouse - not literally, since they're afraid to go inside it - but in Jan's mind.  The big dogs took Merci's bed last year, de-stuffed the middle and stretched the round outside to fit their size bodies.  They argue over which one gets to sleep in it.

So Jan bought Merci a new bed on December 19th.  And threw it out the door last night to toss in the trash today..  Notice it only took the guys from the 19th to the 28th to DESTROY the new bed.  The seams were ripped open and there is stuffing all over the living room.  Jan told the guys they have to vacuum it up but we doubt this will ever happen.  And she's been wandering around muttering something about the next bed they get is going to be made out of stainless steel! 

We think you'll like this video of Ormi the pig and the elusive cookies.  It even made achy, grumpy Jan laugh.  And all of us hungry for cookies too.


If the video doesn't play, click here.


We're very sad Marg  had to help her sweet cat of 10 years,  BB, to the bridge yesterday.  You can visit and leave Marg a comment on her post Our BB, if you haven't already. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Rusty Smoking


We hope you all had a nice Christmas.  We did.  Until Jan's cousin called late Christmas night to let her know her cousin's younger sister died unexpectedly at their extended family gathering.  That does put a damper on a celebration!

And then yesterday, Jan learned we have not only a cat hater but a cat killer living too close for comfort.  She is so relieved none of us go outside, but sad for anyone who has lost a cat or cats to him, especially the neighbor who confronted him and was angrily told he'd kill any *&^# cat coming on his property and had already killed 44.  We're not sure whether that number includes the ones he had city animal control trap and take to the shelter to kill a few months ago or that's the number he's trapped and killed on his own.  Either way, that man is evil!  And breaking the law.  We will see what comes of this.

Recently Jan smelled something burning and couldn't find what it was.  Until Rusty came strolling through the room with his floofy, ginger and white tail black on one side.  (This is why Jan HATES these gas space heaters, which sit on the floor.) She grabbed a cold wet cloth and a camera.  These are the best photos she could manage while trying to hold a squirming dog-size cat with one hand and take photos with the other. 


And this picture with flash..

We all laughed at the look on Jan's face when she wiped Rusty's tail with the wet cloth a few times.  All the black came off and his tail was fine. 

And lastly, this is why Jan rarely shares her food with any of us.  (Or so she says.  We think she just wants to eat it all herself.)  Not that we don't manage to steal some once in a while.  Like the raisin bran muffin Jan brought home last week and set on the table for a few minutes.  Neither Buddy nor Sam will admit to stealing and eating the muffin, paper and all.  Not even a burp for a hint. But this is the story of a dog named Buddy and the $10,000 burrito

Oh, and PS - regarding the question we asked about Blogger and Picasa in our last post.  We have had to resort to uploading these photos to an album of OUR choice in Picasa.  This is not our idea of a solution but it's the only way we can post photos now. 

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas 2011

 Merry Christmas to all ...  
furry and human!  May your celebration be filled with peace, love and blessings.

If you haven't already, please grab a copy of our Christmas card. It's for all of you - old friends as well as new. We appreciate each of you.


Thank you, Ann of Zoolatry, for this lovely ornament graphic of our Crystal.  He'll be gone 2 years in January and we still  miss him!  But he's still here with us in spirit as a part of this blog.

We would like to share a Christmas video. Many of you know the song "Mary Did You Know." We've heard it so many times over the last few years. What many don't know is that the lyrics were written by Mark Lowry and the music by Buddy Greene. Jan was searching for a good recording of the song and was delighted to find a video of the two writers performing the song together. The video visual isn't the greatest but the music is. So enjoy.

If the video doesn't play, click here.

PS -- We had this in a box above the post but we're going to post it here instead, in case anyone can help us.If you don't know what we're talking about, be glad.

Last night Blogger suddenly made a new Picasa album for the Christmas card photos we posted.  Not a jff  blog album, a new album with yesterday's date on it, and put all our Christmas cards in it, which was okay because there were a lot of them.  But  today when we tried to add a graphic to this post, it made an entirely NEW dated  album with just the one graphic in it.  We tried adding other pictures and the  same thing - every single picture added created a NEW Picasa dated album.  So we had to delete everything we tried to add today.  We have no idea what is going on or why.  So we need your help.  Anyone else  having this problem?  Anyone know how to resolve it?  We didn't change  any settings, can't even find anything related to this when we google  it. We can't post pictures again until this is resolved. So ... help!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Furry Faces of Christmas

We've had Jan working on this post for hours.  It's a Christmas memory post.  For our memory - we're forgetful like Jan, you know.  First we had her tack all our postal Christmas cards to the bulletin board so she could photograph them.  We wanted to show them individually but there just isn't time..  If you sent us a card and it isn't posted here, let us know so we can correct our post.  And finally we are ready for the REALLY hard part - getting Blogger to cooperate with us so we can post them all in less than a week. 

We have never participated in the card exchange before because we felt guilty about only sending ecards.  But this year Huffle Mawson explained some send postal and some send ecards and some send both.  So we joined in and had fun. Thanks, Huffle, you did a great job coordinating the list.

These are our postal cards. 


Obviously, these aren't cards.  They are baked holiday decorations by Us 4 Cats.  One has our name on the back.  (Unfortunately the hole broke so we hung/tacked it with the string wrapped around it.)  We don't have a tree to hang them on but we like them fine on our bulletin board.  And they smell good enough to eat.  We want to thank the sweet person who bought them for us and also Us 4 Cats for making them.  Last year we enjoyed the lovely scent of their homemade candle tarts.

We would like to add a word of caution Us 4 Cats left in our comments to those who have purchased the baked ornaments:   While they are basically edible, all cupboard ingredients, the last step was an apple/cinnamon Glaze added to the outsides. so, please do not feed them to your pets : ) While they smell yum yum and would taste nom nom, and could be nom nom without the Glaze, I dont recommend letting woofies get a hold of em cuz the Glaze may upset their bellies.

We're just going to post the graphics in somewhat alphabetical order.Most have the names on them.. It used to be we could click on a photo and view it in a larger size.  Does that still work?  Try it and find out.





Cat's Cats






Fui, Suey & Lishi



Momma Grace & Company (Audace & Ruse)



Jake & Fergi










The Op Pack

We have really enjoyed seeing all the furry faces and hope you have too.  They make a great memory post to come back and visit now and again.

We received some ecards we weren't able to post here because we they are from the web.  But we enjoyed them too.  Thanks for including us in your Christmas..

It's nearly midnight now so Jan says we have to hurry and finish so she can shut down the computer for the night.  (She doesn't trust us to for some reason.)  We're ready for some zzzzzs too.  And it's been slowly growing colder, so move over Jan and make room for us.  If you move too far and fall out ... well, there's a mess of our bedding spread around the living room.  Feel free to help yourself.  Night.

Cameron Sings Zzzzzzs

Hey, Cameron here to continue with our never-to-be-caught-up posts.  This is my photo that tied for 2nd place in Kat's Kats 2nd Annual Everycat Sleeping Contest.  Like Tober's poster contest, it happened in November and we're just posting about it.  **sigh**  Jan really needs to get a life so we can access the computer more often.

Anyway, this is my award.  Thanks, Kat & the Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitty Horde. 




As soon as I finish this post, I intend to begin practicing for next year's contest.  But I think something soft and warm would be more appropriate for sleeping in winter.

I also have a season appropriate video for you.  This is a Christmas Flash Mob performance by Journey of Faith at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach.  .Feel free to sing along.  We all did.  


If the video doesn't play, click here.

And now, I'm off to practice sleeping.   **Big yawn.  Slow stretch.  Zzzzzzz.**

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Cyndi is 8

We can't believe our lovely furry sister Cyndi is 8 today.  She's as sassy as ever. 

Again, Jan forgot to read the calendar in time and was reminded when she saw Cyudi's birthday listed on the Cat Blogosphere.  **sigh**  Oh, Jan, you're supposed to set a good example for us! **bigger sigh**


Monday, December 19, 2011

Tober Treats Funny Farmers

In case any of you think we're joking when we say we're waaaaaaay behind in everything, we won Tober the Thorntown Library cat's poster contest a month ago and we are finally doing our prize post. Jan's excuse is that it took a while for the prize to arrive. Our explanation is that it took Jan forever to take photos of the prize and finally download them from the camera.

This is our winning poster.

We were quite excited when Tober said his Assistant Bosses would donate $50 to a charity of our choice.  Since Jan helped us, we let her choose and she picked All Creatures Are Truly Special (All C.A.T.S.)

We also got a box of goodies. Jan left the Certificate of Awesomeness lying on top of the open box and Percy smelled the treats and left fang marks when he tasted the paper.  Did she take photos then?  No, she stuck our Certificate inside a plastic protector and made us wait even longer.


Percy checked to make sure everything was there when Jan opened the box again.

And then San moved in to check out the contents. 

Percy got a whiff of the Kong Kickeroo and moved in for the attack.

See the blur of his head as he executes the kill.

Uh-oh, Percy pretty much cleared the footrest when he attacked.

Percy:  Oh, well, if the KK is dead, I might as well check out the box.
Rusty:  I don't know.  That KK doesn't look quite dead to me.

Rusty: Nope, I still hear a heartbeat

Rusty:  I'm not sure whether to kill it or perform CPR..   

Cyndi:  Well, the guys are obviously incompetent hunters.  I'll have to dispatch this KK myself.  . 

Sam:  Is it treat time now?  I'm first.  I'm first.  I'm first.  ** Keeps licking his chops as he slides his butt  and head an inch per move closer to Jan and the bag of Natural Duck Tenders she's opening so she can't get a photo cause his face is right in the camera lens**

Merci:  Is it my turn now?

Sam:  It's my turn.  I'm next.
Buddy:  Don't you dare give my treat to Sam!  He's been first, second and third.in line, and I haven't had one yet.
(Jan says not to pay any attention to the mess in the living room.  We drag our beds around the room.  Jan calls it messy.  We call if homey.)

Merci:  These are the duck tenders treats Jan was so stingy with.  They are yummy.  She tried to get photos of the cats enjoying their treats but they won't beg like we dogs do.  We tried begging for them too but Jan wouldn't let us have any.  But rest assured, Tober, the kitties are enjoying their prize treats


Please continue to pray for Sandra and her family after losing their home and 5 of her 7 Houston Pittie Pack dogs in a house fire early Friday morning.  The two weekend commentathons  we posted on Saturday did well.  And the Chip In started by Mayzie's mom (the Chip In button will remain in our sidebar until the Chip In closes) has raised over $6500.00 so far. 

If any of you would like to send a Walmart or a Target gift card to help the family, email us for the address. Gift cards would be more welcome than gifts, as they can purchase what they need.

Two Pitties in the City wrote a lovely post on the dogs and how loved they were. Worth a couple minutes of your time.