Thanks From Angel Rusty

Cyndi:  We want to thank all of you who have left a message regarding Rusty - on our blog, on Facebook or in an email.  We appreciate each one.  We want to respond but haven't accomplished much this last week.  

Percy:  Last week we posted that Rusty left us on Wednesday.  (Farewell Rusty)  Two days short of a year since Buddy passed and three days short of three months since we lost Merci, and later we realized it was almost to the day when Rusty came to live with us twelve years ago. 

Cyndi:  His death has sobered things up around here.  The other day devoted enemies Percy and Micah met at the kibble bowl and touched noses instead of trying to kill each other. 

Percy:  It has sent Marcus deeper into separation anxiety.  We're not sure if he's afraid he is going to disappear next or if Jan will, but he is not just "under her feet" and tripping her any more, he is actually under her feet and walking under her feet.  When she sits down, he crawls between the chair and her feet and when she walks she can't always avoid stepping on his paws..  He will not go outside by himself and Jan has to go with him. 

Cyndi:  I can't blame him.  He will turn 5 years old in November.  In the past 3 1/2 years of his life, five of our crew have left - Cameron, Sam, Buddy, Merci and Rusty.  He wasn't around for the other past members.

Percy:  That's what happens when nearly all the crew grows old at the same time.  It means extra  work for Jan.  You and I are the last of the old timers and we've slowed down.  Oh, and Jan.  She's an old timer too. 

Cyndi:  I hope if something happens to Jan, we won't be expected to bury her.  She couldn't even make a dent in the dry ground and she has opposing thumbs to handle the tools.  Mr. Doug offered to take care of the burial (THANK YOU, Mr. Doug!) and Rusty now rests near Merci.

  Percy:  This card is from Mom Ingrid, Pipo & Dalton.

 Cyndi:  And this graphic was made by Ann of Zoolatry. 

Percy:  The Eastside Cats honored him with a post.   (https://eastsidecats.blogspot.com/2018/09/farewell-angel-rusty.html)

Cyndi:  As did Loulou.   (https://www.livingwithloulou.com/adieu-rusty/)

Percy:  Thank you, dear friends.  We'll return soon.

Cyndi:  I hear Jan trying to coax Marcus outside again.  Let's go watch the show.

Percy:  No, I'll pass.  I hate re-runs. 

Celebrating Micah

Cyndi:  As we've already posted, Jan has been having Scattered Brains lately, so it should come as no surprise she forgot to read the calendar again. Today is Micah's 6th Gotcha Day/(assigned) 8th Birthday.  We are so happy to have him as a sibling.

Percy:  Speak for yourselves.  Just because we're trying to tolerate each other doesn't mean we're happy about it.

Cyndi:  Of course you are.  You two just don't want to admit it.

Taylor:  Jan says we should have a quiet celebration so we don't disturb her nap.

Percy:  Oh, good, a chance to get even with Jan for waking me from a nap the other day.  Let's all sing.  At the top of our lungs.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy gotcha day to you,

Happy gotcha birthday, dear Micah.

Happy special day to you!

Cyndi:  **sniff, sniff**  Buddy always howled  the owoooohs like a hound.  None of us can sing like he could.

Taylor:  I thought Buddy was a hound.

Cyndi:  Yes, he was.  That's why he sang like one.

Micah:   Thank you.  That was great, guys.  I'm sure Jan heard every note. 

Taylor:  We would like to thank Pipo, Dalton and mom Ingrid for the lovely card they sent Micah.  It arrived just as Jan was about to shut down last night.  We don't post on Monday any more, so there was a debate and Jan lost.  She had to stay up and wait for us to post this, hence her need for a nap today.   

Cyndi:  Pipo and Dalton are so good about sending occasion cards to bloggers.  It's always such a treat to receive one.  This one arrived in the nick of time or poor Micah wouldn't have anything to celebrate today because we would be offline and oblivious to the occasion.

Awww, Micah, have a happy, happy special day!  We love you.

  We are joining Awww Mondays at Comedy Plus.

Merry Christmas 2017

We hope all who celebrate have a fun family and friends Christmas, but please don't forget the reason for the season.

 

Cyndi turned 14 Thursday and Pipo, Angel Minko, Dalton and Mr. Jack Freckles sent Cyndi this lovely card.  Thank you, Mom Ingrid, for helping them.

Jan has been sick the past few days.  The good part of that is she can't yell at Marcus since she has laryngitis.  (You won't believe this, but Marcus is being good.)  The bad part is poor blind, almost deaf  Merci can't hear Jan calling her to meals.  It's been interesting around here.  And noisy.  If Jan isn't sneezing, she's coughing.  We hope you all stay healthy for your celebration.

Happy Gotcha Birthday Micah

We are so out of touch with everything these past 5, almost 6 weeks, we forgot today is Micah's 5th Gotcha Day and 6 or 7th /assigned Birthday.  We remember him coming to live here as ML, the dear lady who used to run the Cat Blogosphere was preparing to move across country with her cats.  (We still miss her. as do many of you, and hope she is doing well.)

Happy Gotcha Birthday,Micah.  Is there a particular present you would like for your special day?

Micah:  You mean I can have anything I want?

Yes.

Micah: I'll pack his bags and a tuna sandwich if Percy will move out!

Sorry, not that.

Micah:  Then can I rub my tummy and wish Percy elsewhere?

No.  Percy was here first.  How about if you two call a truce and enjoy your day?

Micah:  Can I have an extra piece of chicken and birthday cake if I let him stay and don't push him off the desk?

Yes.

Micah:  Okay, then Percy can stay.  For now.

Micah:  Hey, Pipo and Mr. Jack Freckles (and their mom) made me a birthday card.  Thank you!

(Alasandra the Cats and the Dogs left a comment on our last post today or Micah's day would have gone unnoticed.)

Merci Turns 16

A special Saturday birthday post for our lovely Merci.  She was adopted on this date from the local shelter in 2003, possibly age 2 at the time, so Jan made this her official birthday.  That would make her about 16.. 

This is a more recent photo of her, probably within the last year.  She is showing her age even more today.

Merci:  Thank you for this lovely card Pipo, Mr Jack Freckles and Mom Ingrid.)

Merci:  And thank you Alasandra the Cats and Dogs.

What pretty cards.  I can't wait to open the presents you guys got me.  There are presents, aren't there!

Rusty:  Um ... I don't see any. Doe anyone know if we bought Merci a present?

Taylor:  Actually, we didn't have any money to buy her anything.

Micah:  I thought we were going to steal .. er, borrow some from Jan's purse.

Marcus:  We shook it and all that fell out were three pennies.  Amazon didn't have anything on sale for three cents.

Rusty:  But there's cake.  Surely there's cake. Noooo?  Cyndi is shaking her head.  Cyndi, weren't you in charge of baking Merci a cake?

Cyndi:   I was but when I tried to get eggs out of the refrigerator yesterday, a pineapple fell on my head and Jan yelled at me to stop bruising the fruit. What about the bruise on my head?  My ears were ringing for hours. 

Micah:  It seems we've failed to make your birthday a happy one, Merci.  We're sorry.

Buddy:  If I were you, Merci, I would refuse to turn another year older until Jan gets on the ball and gets you something worth celebrating!  After all, you only turn 16 once.

Merci:  It's okay, guys. You tried.  I don't really need anything except my family and you're all here. Except Jan.  Where is she?

Buddy:  I think that was Jan that just yelled "ow".  I wonder what happened?

Percy:  *cranes his neck to see into the kitchen*  I think the pineapple that attacked Cyndi yesterday just fell out of the refrigerator onto Jan's bare foot.

As long as we're posting on Saturday, we would like to join Athena's Caturday Art blog hop.  The first picture is a sketch.  Unfortunately, we don't remember what we used for the second.

See Ya Thursday

Merci:  Excuse my back but I don't have the energy to get up and turn around.  This heat and humidity has been a bit much for us old fogies.  And it didn't help that Jan spent yesterday trimming bushes and cleaning up the mess.  It was exhausting just to watch!!!!

Hopefully, Jan will behave herself and stop working in the yard so we can recover.  We didn't get a post up yesterday and we're going to take a couple more days off.  We plan to be back Thursday.

Percy:  Wait, don't hit publish yet, Merci.  I want to thank Pipo, Mr. Jack Freckles and their Petcretary for the lovely card they made for my birthday Sunday.

What do you think we should do with our time off, Merci?

Merci:  Zzzzzzzz.

Percy Turns 13

Buddy:  ♬ Happy birthday to you.
                  Happy birthday to you.
                  Happy birthday, dear what's your name.

Rusty:  Stop!  There is no "what's your name" here, dear or otherwise!  Why are you singing that?

Buddy:  Because Cyndi told me to get in here right away and lead the singing, but she forgot to tell me whose birthday it is.

Rusty:  Percy's.  It's Percy's birthday.

Buddy:  Okay.

            ♬  Happy birthday, dear Percival.

Rusty:  No, no, no!  His name is not Percival.  It's Perseverance.  Everyone knows him as Percy, though.

Buddy:  One more time!
         
             ♬  Happy birthday, dear Persevering Percy.
                  Happy birthday to you.   Aa-ooooh, urp urp!

Rusty:  *sigh*  Why can't you ever sing without howling, Buddy?

Buddy:  It's in the genes.  And, Percy, our sweet friends over at ATCAD (Alasandra the cats and dogs) sent you this lovely card. 

Percy:  Hey, thank you guys.  I appreciate the song.  I think.  And I love the card from ATCAD.  I thought we don't post on the weekend any more, though.

Rusty:  It's a special occasion.  How many times do you get to turn 13?

Percy:   I'm a cat.  We have 9 lives.  So, I'm guessing - nine?

Funny Farmer Felines Return

Percy:  Yes, you are reading this correctly.  We felines are coming out of retirement and resuming the Mousebreath interviews. 

Cyndi:  We have the material for the first three and are looking for cats who would like to sit down with us and spill their guts.

Micah:  I think "spill your guts" might scare off the shy kitties.  How about this -  we're looking for some cats who would like to sit down with us, talk about themselves and share some photos.

Cyndi:  Okay.  Whatever works.  But I was hoping they would spill their guts.  You know, their deep, dark secrets.

Rusty:  They will when they answer our questions.  We interviewed such a wide variety of cats.  Some were funny, some were quiet, there were some involved with fostering, and ... The variety is endless.

Taylor:  The interviews were before my time.  My picture isn't even on our ID badge. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Micah:  Don't worry.  We'll all help you and you'll pick up the skills in no time.

Percy:  If you are a Cat Scout, a cat with a blog or on social media, or a cat with a special story, email us to get on the list.  Or you can use the contact form in the left sidebar.  The first interview of the new series will post next Friday on Mousebreath.

Rusty:  I would like to thank all of you for the birthday wishes Wednesday (Rusty is 13).  And thanks to Pipo, Minko & Mr. Jack Freckles who sent me this lovely card yesterday.


We are joining the Pet Parade hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Basil the Bionic Cat, Barking from the Bayou and Owned by a husky.

Kangaroo Cards

PERCY:  It's Thankful Thursday so we want to share something beautiful we received from Australia. 

MERCI:  This is what was inside the cardboard mailing envelope.  Even though the package came from far away, everything was well packed and protected.

CYNDI:  Look how pretty it's wrapped with the little clothespin holding the card and note.

SAM:  We entered Fozziemum's giveaway of her kangaroo photograph cards and were among several who received a set of twelve. 

RUSTY:  Jan tried to take a photo of some of them but it was such a dark, dreary day (one of many lately) that the cards are not done justice!

MARCUS:  You can see the pictures better in Fozziemum's post.   Fozziemum has opened Opshots Photography and will be making up batches of Christmas and other cards for sale.

MICAH:  They are not cheaply made.  They are thick, high quality card paper.  The inside is blank so you can write your own message, which is really the best type of card to receive according to Jan. 

BUDDY:  We're not doing a review.  We just love the 'roo photos Fozziemum took and made into cards and wanted to say thank you.

Stop by Pepi Smart Dog for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.  (There is always something to be thankful for!)

And stop by Ruckus the Eskie, Love is being owned by a husky, and Barking from the bayou for the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop. 

Shot in Butt Present

CYNDI:  Hey, Merci, come see what came Special Delivery for you yesterday.

MARCUS:  You wanted a birthday cake yesterday (Merci is 13 or 14) and the Love is being owned by a husky crew sent one over.  But Jan is just telling us about it now.

MICAH:  You're lucky Jan was out with friends much of the day stuffing her face with pizza or there might not be any left for you.

MERCI:  Hey, this is great.  I've never had such a tall cake before.  There's enough for all of us and our readers to have some.

SAM:  So what was the best present you received?  A day of peace and quiet without Jan?  A new ... hey, she did give you a present, didn't she?

MERCI:  Thank you for the lovely cake and card, Jenna and crew.  I got my best present Monday when I went to the vet.

BUDDY:  But you went to get a shot in the butt.  What was so great about that?

MERCI:  *dreamily*  Mr. Doug. He carried me to the car and put me in the back seat himself.

CYNDI:  Yeah, he left Jan to haul my carrier on her lap.  Merci crawled up between the seats so she could be closer to Mr. Doug.

PERCY:  Cyndi, did he carry you when you reached the vet's office?

CYNDI:  Are you kidding?  He picked up Merci and left Jan to figure out how to get out of the van with a cat carrier.

MERCI:  And he held me while the vet poked a hole in my butt.  Jan said something about not letting me see the needle or I'd pee and poop in panic.  That wasn't a very nice thing to say in front of Mr. Doug.  Just because the vet suddenly appeared once with a gigantic needle in his hand and scared the ... um, crap and pee out of me, doesn't mean it's my normal reaction.

CYNDI:  Then the tech scooped up my carrier and ran off with me.  I was all alone when the vet poked me.

BUDDY:  I heard you hid under the bedding in the back of the carrier, Cyndi, and didn't come out until you were safely home.

CYNDI:  Jan put me in the back seat for the trip home and Merci sat on her lap.  Merci didn't take her eyes off of Mr. Doug.  In fact, when he parked and walked around the front of the van, Merci turned her body to keep her eyes on him.  She turned just a bit too far and fell off Jan's lap.

MERCI:  You couldn't see anything from under your bed in the back seat.

CYNDI:  I saw everything with one eye peeking out from beneath my cave.

MERCI:  At least Mr. Doug carried ME to the house.  He should have stayed.  We don't get to see him very often.

PERCY:  Cyndi has a birthday and is gifted with a cake and she's thankful for a shot in the butt?  I wonder what Sigmund Freud would make of this?

Stop by Pepi Smart Dog for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.  (There is always something to be thankful for!)

And stop by Ruckus the Eskie, Love is being owned by a husky, and Barking from the bayou for the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop. 

Merry Christmas 2014

 SAM:  Merry Christmas from all of us here on the Funny Farm. We hope your day will be special.

MERCI:  We signed up for the card exchange and expected mostly ecards since that is all we could send, but we were amazed at the generous response.

CYNDI:  We received 53 snail mail cards from cat and dog bloggers.

MICAH:  They wouldn't all fit on the kitchen table at once, so Jan had to take two shots.

PERCY:  Look at those creative cards. So much talent among the bloggers.

BUDDY:  Jan is a bit jealous.  She only received 13 cards.  Do you think we should share with her?

SAM:  And we had so many homemade ecards, as well as lots of ecards from online card sites.  We thank you for each and every one of them.  Jan usually gets down before holidays but the outpouring of cards shared among the bloggers helped keep her spirits bright.

CYNDI:  Not that we could have used her spirits for a night light or anything, but you know what we mean.

RUSTY:  Angel Ginger Jasper's mom Carol sent us the Cat Blogosphere 2015 CB Calendar that was put together by Sweet Purrfections' Mom Paula.  We're very thankful to have a copy.  We felines are pictured in October.

CAMERON:  And we are also grateful for the box of cat goodies sent to us by Manx Mnews' Mom Debra.  A little of this, that and something else.

PERCY:  If you notice, Marcus is photobombing on the right while checking the floor in case any crumbs escaped their packaging. 

MARCUS: This video is actually an ad but we thought we would show you how we wish it would be around here today. Look at all that food.  Doesn't that look like such fun!



If the video doesn't play, click here.

BUDDY:  Can you believe Jan isn't cooking for us today?  Isn't there a law that all humans have to cook for their furries on a holiday?  No?  Well, there should be!

Pepi Smart Dog hosts the Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Ruckus the Eskie, Love is being owned by a husky and Barking From the Bayou co-host the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop. 

Miss Pat is Having a Party

Merci:  Today we have a special post.

Percy:  Yes, we have a surprise for a special human.

Cameron:  We do?  How come I wasn't notified?

Sam:  You were.  Didn't you read the memo Jan wrote last week?

Cameron:  No, Cyndi deposited a big hairball on my copy.  I couldn't read it.

Cyndi:  Sorry about that, Cameron.  You could have borrowed my copy.  I left it ... hmmm, where did I leave it?

Micah:  You left it beside the telephone and it fell into the water bowl below.  Jan threw it away.

Rusty:  Mine must have fallen behind the desk while I was napping.  What did it say?

Buddy:  It said: We will be having a special post on Saturday, September 14, in honor of our friend Miss Pat's houseguest, an exchange student from Brazil.  It will be Maria's 16th birthday and Miss Pat is having a party for her.

Sam:  So why weren't we invited to the party?

Micah:  Miss Pat is probably afraid you'd eat all the food.

Sam:  But I'd never!  Oh, maybe I did once when I was a pup but I have willpower now.

Percy:  And you've been hiding that willpower where?

Rusty: Stop arguing.  The question is, why weren't we invited?

Merci:  Because it's in Arizona and  Jan couldn't afford to ship us across the country?

Cameron:  No, that's why we would have had to decline, not why we weren't invited.

Cyndi:  Maybe Miss Pat doesn't have enough room in her house for all of us plus all those teenagers coming to Maria's party.

Buddy:  Teenagers?  Miss Pat is having a houseful of teenagers to the party?  Good thing we weren't invited.  We would never be able to get in our Saturday naps.  Thank you for not inviting us, Miss Pat.  We'll just send the card Jan made for us. 

Mother's Day 2013

We made you this card with our own little paws.  And a few extra large ones (Sam, Buddy, Rusty).

Okay, truth be told, Jan made this card but we asked her to.  That's the same as making it ourselves, isn't it!  If we hadn't asked, she wouldn't have thought of it till after Memorial Day.  So it's our card to all mothers - birth mothers, adopters, hu-moms of furries - from all of us.

Happy Mother's Day!

Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty, Sam & Micah
and Jan too

Easter Card

Sam: Someone who doesn't have a computer or a blog asked Jan how she got us to pose so nicely together.  She blinked hard with one eye and said, " What can I say? I just asked them to get together for a family portrait and they did. They're just the perfect furry family, an inspiration to human furry lovers everywhere."  That really made our day!  How nice to know we're really appreciated.

Cyndi:  Uh, Sam, Jan was winking, not blinking hard with one eye. 

Sam: So what's the difference?

Cyndi:  Well, if she blinks hard, she has something in her eye.  But a wink means she's ly- uh, she's not telling the tru-  um, how can I put this?  It means she's making a joke at our expense. 

Sam:  Oh, I like a good joke.  What's the punch line?  

Cyndi: We are, Sam.  Think about it. 

Have A Blessed Easter

A Happy Easter or Resurrection Day. to all of our friends, blogging or non-blogging.

 Jan has barely let us on the computer since we fired her Wednesday, so we didn't have a chance to make a card.  But sweet Gracie surprised us with some decorations added to our header.  Can we pretend it says Happy Easter and this is our card?  Good!  Cause otherwise we wouldn't have anything for you and we'd hate to be caught empty-pawed.

We received a a few email cards (and a couple of e-cards).

Gracie

Socks, Scylla, Artemisia & Fenris

 

Asta

Ginger Jasper

He's keeping his eye on the Easter bunnies.

Now we're going to go collapse for the night.  Doing all these pages of typing (what do you mean this is a short post?) after days of inactivity has made our paws tired.  And if our paws are tired, so is our brain.  Or is that our brains?  We're too tired to figure out how many brains we have between us, so we'll just say Good Night.

Have a blessed day! 

Pillars of Strength 4 Valentines

Okay, we realize the title probably doesn't make any sense, but hang in with us and it will.

First we'd like to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day with our homemade card.  We worked very hard on motivating Jan to make it.  It was a losing battle until we received a few ecards from friends.

The lovely Miss Asta whose family recently moved to Budapest. 

And sweet Miss Gracie. We just know there is at least one mancat who would love to be her Valentine.

And the happy quartet Scylla, Socks, Artemisia & Fenris.

Now for the strange post title. 

We are dedicating our Valentine post to KB (the human) and K (a canine) of the blog Romping and Rolling in the Rockies. KB posts beautiful scenes of hikes, bike rides, wildlife and life in general in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. One of her favorite subjects is K, her gorgeous "unofficial service dog" (KB has spinal problems), heart dog and best trail buddy.

K is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments for osteosarcoma. Her next treatment will be Friday the 17th.  They are on a scary journey as some of you who have traveled it with a beloved furry or human already know.  So a group of KB's friends conspired to be KB's Pillars of Strength and we join with them as well as others worldwide today to offer our love and support..

KB and K,  we admire how you continue to live life to the fullest measure K's illness allows.  We are hopeful of many happy and adventurous tomorrows.  And thank you for sharing K's journey with us.

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.