New Year's Eve

Abby: We are here to report about our doings over the past few days -- Ms. C and Mr. R left us alone to go visit Mr. R's mom! Indignant as we tried to be, how can we argue with anyone visiting their mom? We just can't.

Anyway, Ms. C says while she was there, she met Mr. R's mom's D-O-G, and (here is the part we cannot understand) it took a disliking to her. This part-chihuahua/part-terrier named Kokomo does not like much of anyone except Mr. R's mom! In fact, it disliked Ms. C so much that it launched itself at her right calf four different times and BIT her! So we are sad to report that yes, there are some mean dogs in the world, because we think anyone is mean who does not love our mom.

Stygia: Now while the rest of you are relaxing happily in anticipation of the new year, we are celebrating it in our usual playful fashion:

I try to defend with the stop, drop, and kick technique, but I forgot that it rarely stops Abby from trying to get a bite in on my foot anyway:

She is not a very fair cat! My previous owners declawed me, and look what she does?! However, we are sisters, and it is more of a "menacing" technique. She never hurts me.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

PS. When we updated our template, we somehow deleted our widgets including our favorite blogs lists! Ms. C is so silly to do that. She is working to find all of our favorites as soon as she can.

Merry Christmas!

Abby, Stygia, and Ms. C: We would like to wish each and every one of you a very merry Christmas!

Sen-Chan, Tama-Chan, and Tom-Kun of The Poupounette sent us some beautiful ornaments to help us celebrate our first Christmas together.  They also send us some toys, but we'll be showing you how we play with them in a few days. Here are the ornaments:

Merry Christmas from Abby!

Merry Christmas from Stygia!

Get the intruder!

Abby: Maybe you remember seeing me sleeping with this frog before, but today, I'm having none of it! Today, it's an intruder! I am in my fighting-ready pose!

The bitey will teach this fluffy amphibian a lesson!

And a good position for bunnykicking is always essential! I'll show it who the boss is in this chair!

Stygia: We did have some very bright sun again today, and even though it was still very chilly, it was not quite as bad as yesterday. Ms. C says I really know how to relax.

1 degree

Stygia: One degree Fahrenheit, that's what the temperature was this morning when we woke up. That's pretty close to -17 Celsius. Brrr! In spite of the chill (and it's windy, too!), the sun was out as well, nice and bright. And as you know, we cats know how to take advantage of that sun.
Abby: I've been a very busy cat this morning. I made many, many requests for Ms. C to feed me, even though my bowl was right there and full. Maybe she just doesn't get the idea that I need company when I feed sometimes? So I was a little late to the sunbathing area, but I also bathed in it, launched myself at my mouse, and Styggie too. Fun!

Ms. C feels that all the chilly kitties, humans, and other friends would like to see more pictures of us cuddling yesterday evening. If you don't feel warm from looking at the sunny pics already, surely the next few pics will help:



Keep cozy!

Sisterly Sunday

Ms. C: Beside my desk, there is another office chair especially reserved for cats. Usually, Abby is the one who exclusively occupies this chair. She adopted it as her own as soon as it was available as an extra chair, and it's her favorite place to snooze/snoopervise me closely throughout the day:
However, this week, Stygia has dared to get into the chair as well, for which she of course receives a lot of patting and praise (from me). I love having her close by! Abby was not so sure about this kind of arrangement, though, and there were a few times that poor Styggie was chased out of the chair. Abby wasn't very mean about it though, and Styggie kept returning when it was available.

Now, as you can see, Abby has given up on the idea of chasing Styggie away and decided to enjoy the benefits of sisterly warmth! They are still there even as I type. I was very lucky to get this photo before my camera battery ran out:

Finally, I wanted to include this picture just because I liked the colors:

What a fun day! It makes me feel so cozy inside to see them finally sleeping together like that.

When it snows...

Abby: Look at this! And it is still snowing! What's a cat to do on a day like this??

Well, I have the perfect solution. I have this shoebox with a fleece lining, and I am just going to have a little snooze in it. I wish it were a little smaller, but it is cozy enough. Best of all, I can still keep an eye on Ms. C and Mr. R from here very easily. Nothing escapes my notice because I will NOT be left out of anything!

Stygia: My solution to this weather is to snooze in the middle of the couch. From here, I can easily keep an eye on everyone as well. Usually, I am left in peace to have a luxurious nap, but I really don't mind the times like these when Abby comes along and washes my head. She even gets deep into my ears, which feels really good:

Hey! Wait a minute Abby! You are supposed to be helping me groom, not starting a wrestling match! Arrrrgh! (thundering follows)

.... Well, at least we are keeping warm, and we hope you are, too!

Hiding.... or not!

Stygia: Yesterday was Abby's special day! Mine is not until August, but I had a good time celebrating it with her. Today, however, I am busy snoopervising from high places. I can't always find Abby, but I always want to know where she is.

Do you see her anywhere? I am really having a hard time finding my sister.

Abby: That was quite a birthday party we all had together yesterday! Thank you so much for coming and all the birthday wishes. Now I really need to relax.

Happy First Birthday, Abby!

Welcome to Abby's first birthday party! We are so glad you could make it!

The best way to celebrate at any party is with FOOD. Please, have a bite of this wonderful tuna and prawn cakelet, garnished delicately with potent organic catnip.

The candle had to be extinguished and removed before Abby could approach the food. Since it's not in the usual location where she receives food, she cautiously checked it out from a corner, making sure it was safe to approach:

Of course, you guessed already that it did not take long at all for Abby to move in and begin her birthday feast! Mmm-MMM!! The whole house filled with the . . . fragrance . . . of tuna. After the feast, it's only natural to follow the gorging with a catnip extravaganza! Everybody roll!

Here is a collage in celebration of Abby Normal! She arrived to her home with us on June 15th, 2008, right before she turned six months old, and she settled right in without fear or hiding, as if she knew this really was her forever home, all for her! We have watched her grow from a 5.5 pound kitten to an athletic and frisky 10 pound cat.

Abby is truly a gift and a joy to everyone here at home, a girl who loves equally to play wild thundering games, or to sleep cozily beside the legs of her people.

Big thanks to the most handsome cat Tristan of Tabbylicious and to Zoolatry for the beautiful birthday graphics featured at the top of today's entry!

Happy birthday, Abby -- we love you.

Preparations.....

Stygia: Shhhh . . . tomorrow is a very important day in the life of Abby Normal, so we are getting our beauty rest. I even let her rest her head really close to my paws. Anyway, don't tell her, but we're going to be having a party for her and you are ALL invited!!

Abby: Beauty rest? Hah! You knew that wouldn't last:

Sunday Fun

Abby: Snoopervising Ms. C is always top on the list on my priorities. I need to check out every corner of her desk, even her foot-rest. As you can see here, I am assisting her by cleaning the corners of that foot-rest. Not only does it help Ms. C, but it's very exciting for me!

In addition to checkout out the under-regions of her desk, there are also a lot of really fun things to take care of on the top of her desk, like this snake that recently appeared on her lamp! I bite it daily to make sure it behaves!

Stygia: Sunday is a great day of the week to roll around and practice my singing. That's what I am doing here. It feels really good, and I like to sing:

The picture is not the greatest ... Ms. C still needs practice, I guess, but I thought you would enjoy a close-up of my vocalizing:

We have winter coats

Abby: I have developed a winter coat. Ms. C says I don't quite qualify as a truly short-haired cat anymore, although I am certainly no Persian. It has been very cold around here, about 9 degrees Fahrenheit, so I really need my winter coat! I am pretty sure Stygia has one too, because her fur is a lot thicker than it was, but you can hardly tell just by looking.

Do you like my new frog pet? He seems to like me quite a bit, since I find him with me when I am sleeping. He doesn't have a name, it seems.

Stygia: The sun has not been out for any steady amount of time lately, but when it is, we take advantage of it as much as possible. It usually begins with some peaceable washing, which naturally leads to wrestling. Look at Abby's "innocent" look, I think she looks totally caught, don't you agree?
I thought you might enjoy this close up of our faces, I especially want you to notice my ferocious ears, eyes, and teeth:

Sixth Photo Meme + Award!

Abby: The awesome cats over at The Cat Street Boyz tagged us for a meme! The directions are as such:

Go to your picture folder on your computer, or wherever you store your pictures. Go to the sixth folder and then pick the sixth picture. Post it on your Bloggy and tell the story that goes with the picture . . .

We made Ms. C do the work of finding the picture. Coincidentally, a detail of this picture is currently our blogger icon!

There are a lot of "out takes" in the folders we selected from, but in another coincidence, the 6th photo in the 6th folder was one that has made it on to this blog before! You see, I am a very helpful cat, and when Ms. C's parents visited, I assisted her dad in putting together some new catcases, I mean bookcases, that they got for Mr. R and her. As you can tell from my expression, putting together catcases is very exciting work:

We are tagging the gorgeous Tristan of Tabbylicious, our friends at The Poupounette, and the losers (weight! weight losers!) at Smudge & Zoe's blog!

We received this lovely award from Samantha & Mr. Tigger! Thank you so much, friends. We are nominating all the wonderful friends we have already mentioned in this post for this award.

Return!

Abby: We waited. And we waited . . . And we waited. And finally it happened, Ms. C is home! Oh, we were so excited. We realize that some of you other cats may not approve of our uninhibited approval and joy at Ms. C's return . . . but we were so happy that we ran to the door, never turning our backs on her, and we've been following her night and day ever since. Yes, she has been home for a couple of days now, and we demanded undivided attention, which is another reason we have not blogged. But now we're all back!

Here is a picture of us from last evening, we were keeping an eye on Ms. C while she was at her desk. This is also as close as we ever come to cuddling, sharing the same piece of furniture:

Of course, when Ms. C is at her desk, I often like to be there too. It's a great place to chill out and nap. Here I am, I'm feeling so lazy that I don't bother to open my sleepy eyes while I am talking to Ms. C:

Here is one of the places I searched for Ms. C while she was away. I just could not quite believe that she was not here to cuddle and feed me. I can get a good view of this place from my usual spot on Ms. C's desk, but she wasn't there:


Stygia: I couldn't quite believe it myself when Ms. C walked in the door the other afternoon. My tail went straight up and I got to her as fast as I could, so I could sniff her and give her a good leg-rub!

Speaking of things we hadn't seen in days, with Ms. C's return, the sun also returned! It was a totally blissful experience. In fact, in the sunlight, Ms. C was able to get a nice photo of my whiskers, which are notoriously hard to photograph because they are so dark:

Last but not least, a happy belated birthday to Ms. C from us, the cats! We even sent her a birthday card (which she was not expecting!). Please have a piece of the wonderful cake that Ms. C's own mom made for her. We don't eat chocolate, but if we did we would want some of this cake:

Frisky

Stygia: I see you down there, Abby. Folding your ears back will not make you disappear. Look, I am very relaxed up here. This spot is mine.

Abby: But Styggie, can't you see how prone and defenseless I am down here? Maybe if you just drop down here . . . (thundering follows)

Mr. R just got himself a new car. Well, it is new to him, but used by someone else. Ms. C bought him a big snow and ice remover, but I'm quite sure this is a cat-dental-device.

Stygia: Ms. C got an early birthday present from #1 of The Poupounette today! We are sure it is a really cool, wonderful present, but to be honest, the box is much more interesting to us. Personally, I liked the tape and the label the best, I bit them both a few times:

Abby: I am a TIGER!

Ms. C says she hopes to be going to visit her parents for the rest of the week, as long as the weather holds out! We don't want her to go, but since she is OUR mom, we understand that she needs to see HER mom too.