Moving Spring Things!

Abby & Stygia: Our mom has still not managed to upload Abby chattering at the birds, but in the meantime we thought you might enjoy this video:

We find it quite exciting, ourselves!

PS. Ms. C claims these birds are much bigger than WE are. We just can't believe that! We are sure we could GET one if only we were allowed!

Oh, oh, and we still have a meme to do, we meant to do it today but got distracted by birds again. Can you blame us?

Frantically Flat

Abby: We got some snow here yesterday morning, but evidently that does not stop the birds from the south from beginning their migrations! The trees outside our home were previoiusly empty and silent, but in the past couple of days they have been filled with all kinds of birds.

This is a really exciting time of year! We saw grackles, blue jays, Canadian geese, and mourning doves all roosting in the birch tree just beyond our deck. I could not stop chattering at them! I wanted to get right out there with them, but there is this big pane of glass between me and them! What to do?! I got as flat as I could for the viewing. At least they did not fly away just because I was sitting in the window.

Ms. C wanted to post a video of me chattering at the birds, but is having some technical problems getting the video from her cell-phone to the computer, so that will have to wait until a later date.

Ms. C would like to remind anyone who is interested that March 1st is the last day she will be accepting photos for her free pet-portrait portfolio project. She really appreciates all of the response so far, and will be getting back to each of you on the status of the project. If you'd like to submit photos to the project, check out the second half of this blog entry for details. You can email your photos to tabbynormal at gmail dot com, or read the link for other options. Thanks!

Whacky Weed Wednesday

Stygia: A phrase that's often heard around this household is, "Silly cats!" I am not sure why this phrase is referring to plural cats, because look at me: I am not silly! I am quite seriously beautiful.

There is another member of this household, however, whom could possibly be considered to be totally silly. Can you guess who that might be?

I knew you were smart, cause you guessed correctly: it's ABBY NORMAL. My Tabby step-sister. Here is a little bit of evidence of her silly ways.

Yesterday she hopped up on the couch where I was having a nice afternoon snooze. At first, it was nice. She is warm, and she even helped me bathe my tail a little bit. But of course, she turned silly after a little bit and started biting me in the butt. We wrestled on the couch for a little bit, which was okay too, but finally I had to give her a good whap and find some other place to relax. Like in my cat-condo, where I can protect my butt.


Abby is a total catnip-junkie. You know how most cats pose all nice and neat and point their legs up towards the sky when they are washing their legs or feet? Well, for some reason, Abby does not do this when she is on a 'nip bender. As you can see from this incriminating photo, her method is to chase/attack her legs and then wash them once she has "captured" them. SILLY.

Couch Bandit

Abby: There is no cat to see here. This is just a couch. This couch is the seeing-eye of the household, so BEWARE all ye who decide to sit here, or do anything in its presence!

Hobbies

Abby: We are cats, and we have many hobbies. Like humans and other creatures, we enjoy the pursuit of happiness, but even more so, we enjoy the pursuit of each other! As you can see, Stygia is very tempted by my posture to make her next ninja-move as I dangle my ears and whiskers precariously over Mr. R's chair-seat:

When I clean, I spend a lot of time biting at this paw-pad:

Right after anyone takes a shower, I love to hop right into the tub and sit right down. Part of the fun is watching the water-droplets move like little living bugs down the side of the sliding doors and the sides of the tub. Also, the floor of the tub is always nice and warm! One of her friends told Ms. C that I am "a bathroom monster in training." What does that mean?

Stygia: No one is going to admit to doing this. We both love to play with mice, we both carry them all over the house, so I can't tell you who did this. And even if I could, I would not! Cat's honor.

Finally, we have a lot of sun here, and as it moves through the living room, I move with it, even squishing ears if necessary, to get the most out of it:

Short, Sweet Surprise!

Abby: Our mom is still feeling really miserable, so we will not make her write a novel about us today. When she gets better, though . . .

For now, we will present you with this lovely video of what can happen when we get our paws into some tissue paper!

TY + TC

Stygia: Thanks to all of you generous kitties, woofies, and people who have sent your pictures to Ms. C so she can practice and build her art portfolio. We promise to keep everyone up to date on her progress. If you missed out on the original request for pictures, we are still accepting them! See the latter half of this post for details.

Abby: I have been inducted into Cliff and Olivia's Tail Chasers Club! Isn't that a cool logo? You can also click on their header to read the rest of their blog -- Olivia looks remarkably like Stygia. I would have to chase her as well as my tail AND Stygia! Whew!


Just in case you need some proof that I love to chase my own tail, here it is:


Hope you are all having a good week. Poor Ms. C is under the weather with the 'flu but she has some good books and US to keep her company, so don't feel too bad for her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Abby:

There's nothing that rhymes with Tristan,
and that is as it should be,
for there's no other cat like my Tristan,
my beautiful, long-tailed Tabby.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

An award/meme & call for pictures!

Abby: We received this award/meme from Tama-Chan and Tom of The Poupounette! Thank you, friends.

The "rules" for this award and meme are as follows:

"When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on! "

So, keeping in the tradition of Tama-Chan and Tom, I shall first post an "honest" picture of myself before telling you some more about myself:

1. I really like tissue paper. I like the way it sounds, the way it crackles. I love it when Mr. R brings out the cat toys and dangles them around, because I will make sure I dive under the paper as loudly as possible before staging my attack on the toy.
2. I do NOT like having my tail touched. I do NOT like being scratched above the tail. Don't do it. Just don't go there.
3. I don't like treats of any flavor anymore. Not even Temptations. I used to gobble them up when I saw Styggie getting some, but I'm older and more selective now about what I eat.
4. I will not sit in anyone's lap.
5. I'm really a coward. Even though I may end up initiating play and wrestling with Stygia, I am usually the one who is on the run by the end of the game.
6. I get really concerned for Ms. C when she is doing that thing she calls "singing." I show this by getting close to her face and trying to touch it. The louder she sings, the faster this happens.
7. I do not like being brushed.
8. My purr is frequent but so quiet, you'd have to touch my throat to know that I am doing it.
9. I am allowed to sniff anyone, anywhere, anytime. However, you are not welcome to sniff me.
10. Ms. C is my favorite.

Stygia: Now it's my turn! Here's a picture of me:

1. I am not completely a black cat. I have a very few white furs on my chest, like a tuxie, and a little white spot on my lower belly. Shhh!
2. I want to eat whatever food Abby eats except for that gross moist tuna stuff she gets at 4pm every day. After she gets that, I follow either Ms. C or Mr. R and get 5 chicken Temptations instead! Yum!
3. I weigh 11.1 pounds according to the vet, who weighed me yesterday.
4. I only weighed 7 pounds when I first came to live at my new forever home.
5. It's a good thing I have gained this weight, because I need to hold my own against Abby, who weighs about a pound less than I do. You see, I don't have front claws. Ms. C and Mr. R would never declaw a kitty, my previous owners did, but I need the weight to intimidate Abby.
6. When my tail fluffs up, it looks like a pipe-cleaner.
7. Sometimes I like to sit right behind the tower of Ms. C's computer because the fans blow out that nice warm air, and it feels so good.
8. I get more hairballs than Abby even thogh her hair is longer than mine, because I refuse to consume that malt hairball solution they offer to me. Yuck.
9. I roll repeatedly to show my love for Ms. C and Mr. R.
10. I love butt-scratchings and brushings!

Now we must nominate 7 blogs. This is always the tough part! Today we are going to nominate:

Tristan of Tabbylicious
Siena and Chilli of Cat with a Garden
Poppy Q
Angus Mhor
Mr. Black and Elvis of The Kittini Boys
Rosie of Louche Tabby
Gandalf and Grayson's Mom

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Ms. C: I am attempting to build my portfolio of pet portraits. And I could use your help. Here are two I've done:

This is a watercolor portrait I did of IKKYU, who has since passed over the bridge.


This is a pen and ink drawing I did of Abby:
I am trying to build my portfolio of pet-portraits so that in the future, I can someday create them professionally. What I am hoping is that some of you will be generous enough to allow me to draw or paint your pets. I work in a variety of media, including those you see above, acrylic, and digital work.

What I need from you is a clear picture or pictures of your pet that you took yourself. I cannot work with professionally taken or otherwise copyrighted works unless you own that copyright yourself. You must give me permission to use your photo as part of a portfolio that I can share with prospective clients. I agree not to use your photo and resulting artwork for anything other than advertising my services.

I will be accepting photos for this project until March 1st, 2009. I cannot guarantee I'll use every photo I receive; I will be selecting the ones I feel the most comfortable with for the artwork.

Please email your photos to tabbynormal at gmail.com ... If you do not have a digital copy, please contact me at that email address to make other arrangements.

In return, if I select your picture, I will provide you free of charge with a fine digital copy of the artwork that you may use however you wish as long as I get credit for the creation of the original artwork. You can use it on your blog, print out cards or posters with it, alter it, and so forth. No one else is allowed to use the artwork without the permission of both of us. I will also send you the original drawing/painting if it's done in physical (non-digital) media such as watercolor or acrylic, provided that you pay the postage.

I don't know how long it will take me to complete this project, and I don't know how many pictures I will be able to select. I estimate that it is a project that I will continue work on throughout the rest of 2009. Part of the idea of this project is for me to get some practice, so if you submit a picture to me, please have some patience with me! =)

Thanks so much in advance for your support, and I look forward to working with you.

PS. ANY kind of pet is welcome: cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, ferrets, snakes, and so forth (no pet rocks!) If you are not sure about it, just send me an email and ask. Unlike Abby, I don't bite.

Springy Sunday

Stygia: It's Sunday. I've decided to take it easy on this very nice, warm, spring-like afternoon. I've been spending a lot more time in my people's laps, and I think they enjoy it as much as I do! It was so warm today, Mr. R actually opened the screen door to the balcony because it was getting too warm inside the house!

Abby: I don't know how she can stay relaxed on a day like today. The sounds and scents coming in through the screen have me quite excited. I was a bit nervous at first, about approaching the smells and sounds (it's very windy outside as well), but now I just can't help running around and stopping by to investigate this exciting thing! Wow!!!


PS. We have a meme/award from Tama-Chan and Tom, and plan to tackle it tomorrow, Ms. C says we have to put on our thinking caps before we try it . . . and that's rather tough for us at the moment!

Thankful Thursday

Abby: There are always things to be thankful for. One thing we are always the most thankful for are our friends. Today is the last day to cast your vote for the "Best Fur Sibling of the Year Contest." We are thankful to know Sen-Chan, so please click on the image below and cast your vote for him too, if you haven't already! All you need to do is leave a comment in that post.

You know, I was just sitting here innocently snoopervising on Ms. C's early-morning activities, and all of a sudden the thing I am sitting on started to make sounds and shoot out pieces of paper! I am not quite sure what to think of this.

We have another very sunny but very cold morning here, so we are thankful that we are cozy indoors today. I think we mentioned before how much we love the sun! Ms. C especially loves this close-up profile of me:


Stygia: Right now I am helping Ms. C blog for us by sitting in her lap. It's almost as, if not even cozier than the sun. We are both really happy right now. A little earlier, though, I was not sure if I was happy or not. I was curled up in the cat-condo, when she-who-shall-not-be-named also seemed to think she needed to be inside as well:

After that, I decided that it would probably be best if I moved on, and you can see from the evidence that thankfully I was just in time: