Christmas - Fur Ball Style

Not a kitty was stirring, not even a mouse

Christmas Camouflage

Christmas Lights Mishap

I have this lovely little centerpiece decoration on my coffee table. This centerpiece contains some battery operated lights. I tried to turn the lights on this evening and they wouldn't come on. Nick investigated, thought something was wrong with the switch. Luckily, I had a backup. I told him not to worry about it, I would just put a new strand in. This is what I discovered when I pulled the lights off the garland.

The Culprit

Poor Christmas Lights. I hope the backups do not experience the same fate.

I Spy....

A Gus

Gustopher Columbus

Gus is always exploring and looking for new adventures. The top of the entertainment center has become his most recent conquest. Of course he can't make it to the top without the assistance of mom or dad, but he tries so hard. He will circle the entertainment center and cry until one of us gives in and helps him up.

I do believe our Christmas tree is going to take a beating this year. Stay tuned!

Union Strike

After the downstairs bathroom was completed, contract negotiations stalled and Nick and I had to manage without our helpers. As you can see, they formed a picket line right in the middle of the newest home renovation project. I hope that both sides can come to an agreement before the next project. Rumor has it that the union is holding out for some kitten milk and homemade dog biscuits.

Attention Deprived

Apparently we did not pay enough attention to Gus this evening and he decided to make his point by coming between us and The Amazing Race. Fear not, Gus received lots of lovin' before bed.

24 Hour Cat Diner

I keep food on the front porch for the strays in our neighborhood. We have counted about 5 or 6 different cats that stop by the 24 hour cat diner. I have named them all. The most frequent visitor is Morris. Nick has promised me that if I can make Morris my friend, then we can take him with us when we move. I love my husband so!!!! More on Morris at another date. So tonight we went outside and found a new visitor to the all night diner.

I will now begin taking suggestions for the name of our possum.

Ice Fishing

One of Zander's favorite pastimes is ice fishing. If you leave your cup sitting on the table and walk away, you could return a few minutes later with your ice scattered around the cup. He has always liked to play with stuff in water. Seems he missed a few days in Cat Behavior 101.

SHARK ATTACK!!!

No real animals were harmed in the filming of this video, just the stuffed mechanical one.

Roque really is the sweetest dog but talking and moving toys really drive her crazy. This particular toy is light sensitive, so whenever it senses a change in light, it sets the shark off and it rolls around and laughs. We have to make sure we flip the switch off before bed or we hear it go off while we are sleeping.

Memory Lane

Yes. I do dress my pets up for Halloween!

Wrapping presents sure does take a lot out of Zander.

Counting down the days until Mommy starts decorating for Christmas.

Daddy helping Gus catch a moth.

Look at that face.

Doesn't take much to entertain a cat.

Stick 'em up.


Feeling a little sentimental tonight so I thought I would share some pics from the past with you. Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane!!

DJ Update

DJ and Roque are home. As you can probably tell by this picture, all is not well with DJ. I got home from work around 5:30 and I noticed that DJ was still using the bathroom quite frequently. In the span of 30 minutes, poor DJ used the bathroom 5 times. I think this means that the plumbing still isn't working at 100%. He is using his litterbox again. At least he has stopped using the bathroom on everything in the floor. He still has some medicine to take, but if he isn't better by Thursday, it looks like he will be going back to visit our Vet.

Home Again, but Something is Missing

Some cute little cuddly otters. I wouldn't mind having some of these for pets.

Spider crabs. Yuck! These are creepy.

Beluga whales

Sharks! They had an underwater tunnel you could walk through and look at many different kinds of sharks and fish. I was underneath these sharks. Very cool.

Jellyfish

Nemo's friend. Nemo was in the same tank but he was hiding so
I couldn't get a picture. This was a pretty fishy though.

Nick and I went to Atlanta this weekend to cheer for the Hokies as they attempted to bring down Alabama. Didn't really work out that way, but we still had a good weekend. The pictures above are of our trip to the Aquarium. These aren't pictures of our fur balls, but since they are animals, I thought it would be okay to post them to the blog. The trip to the aquarium was probably the highlight of our trip. We tried to go when we went down in 2006 for the Chick-fil-a Bowl and we couldn't get tickets. So we made sure to get them for this trip and ordered them in advance. We had a really good time and got to see some interesting species. Nick got to touch a stingray, but I chickened out and would move my hand everytime they would swim up close. Oh well, maybe next time. Actually, it will probably be a while before we go back to Atlanta since the Hokies lose every time we go. So sad.

Anyway, we are back at home and two of the fur balls are very happy to have us back. Gus and Zander are loving life right now and have free reign of the entire house. Unfortunately we will not be getting the other two (Roque and DJ) until tomorrow because the Vet's office is closed today. I bought Roque a shark that rolls around on the floor to show her how much we missed her. Hopefully DJ has recovered from his little UTI.

It is weird to be here with just two cats. Things just don't seem right. I will be happy when everyone is back tomorrow and things are back to normal.

Sicky Pooh

Poor DJ gets UTI's a lot. I never even knew it was possible for a cat to get a UTI. Well, the poor guy has another one. When this happens, he uses the bathroom constantly, on anything that is on the floor. Unfortunately, we didn't discover the problem until we got home from work, after the vet's office has already closed. It is going to be a long night for the man.

Please send DJ good thoughts for a speedy recovery and a small bill at the vet's office.

As an aside....I love our vets and I think I am going to make them all a bunch of goodies this year for Christmas.

Help Wanted

Helping set up.

Supervising his staff.

You missed a spot.

You got it.

Good Job! We approve of the new Hokie bathroom.

We painted our downstairs bathroom this weekend and we had so much help. As you can see the little guys were there every step of the way. Gus stayed with us through most of the project. Zander, true to his upper management position, just checked in on our progress throughout the morning. We probably could have finished the project in half the time without all the "distractions", but what fun would that be.

So if you are in need of some help with bathroom updates, I have two guys who will work as fairly cheap labor. I hope you don't mind some cat hair on your freshly painted walls.

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Roque's special Sunday Morning Breakfast.

Roque enjoying her special Sunday Morning Breakfast.

I really don't understand why people tell me that my babies are spoiled. It isn't like Roque wakes up to pancakes every morning. Just on special occasions.

Purrrrrrrrrrrr

Here are a couple of interesting things about how our fur balls purr....

• Gus- For the first couple of months after we found Gus, he would purr when he ate. Tells you something about how hungry the poor guy must have been when we found him. Now the purrs are not as frequent and he no longer does it when he is eating. Typically we only hear them when he is curled up and ready to go to sleep.
• Zander- He can't purr. He has his own rendition of the purr that Nick and I have called Zurring. Zander doesn't purr, he zurrs. The best way I can describe it is very similar to a snore but with a cold thrown into the mix.
  
• DJ- He has the best purr ever. He is so loud and he purrs all the time. You can actually say something to DJ when he is sitting across the room and start walking towards him, and he will start to purr. It is so loud and he likes to head butt you while he is purring.
  
• Roque- Doesn't purr.
  

Happy Gus Day!!

Then

Now

Today is Happy Gus Day! Two years ago (in a few more hours) Nick and I were crouched down in front of a vacant house trying to coax a stray kitten out from under a porch. To fully appreciate how momentous an occasion Happy Gus Day is, I should start at the beginning.

Day 1 - August 18, 2007
Nick and I were walking Roque out near a pretty main road. As we were walking, I heard the very distinct cry of a kitten. We walked towards the sound to see if we could find the source of the cry. We live in townhouses that are all connected and unfortunately, all the houses have porches and the kitten could move quite easily from house to house without being detected by people.

Day 2 - August 19, 2007
Again walking the dog...heard the kitten (around the same place as the night before), couldn't find the kitten. Came back to the house worried about the kitten.

Day 3 - August 20, 2007
Walking Roque, didn't hear the kitten where we have heard it each night before. Round the corner and here the kitten again. Nick takes Roque home so the 70 pound dog doesn't scare the little guy and comes back out to help me find the precious one. We search for quite a bit and walk through quite a few spider webs. Then I got my first glimpse of the kitten. He was orange and white. I announce this information to Nick and he immediately realizes that this means that this kitten will be eventually coming home with us. I have been telling Nick for quite sometime that I wanted an orange cat. However, tonight would not be the night the kitten comes home with me. He got scared of us and ran under another house and then we lost him. I went home and came back out with some food for the little guy. I put it where we last saw him and hoped he would come back and find it.

Day 4 - August 21, 2007
Hear the kitten again, tried to catch him, gosh they are fast, still no luck, put out more food.

Day 5 - August 22, 2007
Nick leaves for Northern Virginia for a few nights. Walk the dog myself. Call Nick crying because I can no longer hear the kitten crying and I am convinced that something bad has happened to him.

Day 6 - August 23, 2007
I enlisted the help of my wonderful neighbor, GI Joe. His name isn't Joe but he is in the army and actually sets up surveillence cameras to catch graffati artists, so we dubbed him GI Joe. Super cool neighbor! He helps. We walk around and spot the kitten under a back porch. He crawls under the house. GI Joe and I set out a trap and wait for the kitten to come out. Meanwhile, the neighbors of the house come home and scare the kitten out and we lose him again.

I call Nick crying for the second night in a row. Poor scared kitten.

Day 7 - August 24, 2007
Nick comes home from Northern Virginia. Yay. Super tired after a long weekend of classes but still went to a friends party with me. Such a good guy. Driving home from the party and guess what runs out in the road. The little orange and white kitten. I jump out of the car before it had even come to a complete stop. I didn't even have shoes on. Yuck! If you knew where we lived, you would understand this is not something you should do. Trapped the little kitten under the porch of a vacant house. Sat there for 2 hours with the kitten. I could get him to eat out of my hand, but everytime I would go to grab him, he would jump off the ledge. Finally, Nick looked like he wasn't going to last much longer, so we realized we had to do something to get him out. I suggested he start throwing some mulch at him. Nick throws a piece. Nothing happens. He throws another piece and hits him right between the eyes. The kitten runs out and down the little alley between two houses. Nick takes off after him and must have run right past him. I get around to the same side and shine the flashlight down the alley in time to see the kitten running right at Nick. Nick, with his quick hands (thanks to college football) scoops the kitten up. Then the kitten bites him. Ouch. I am sure that the little kitten doesn't have any diseases or anything (I hope). Then he comes home to live with us.

When Gus came home he weighed barely 1 pound. Now that little orange and white kitten weighs in at 14 pounds. You will be happy to know that Nick did not catch any horrible disease from the bite either.

So after all that trouble, you can see why we celebrate Happy Gus Day!

And how did Gus celebrate Happy Gus Day? With Baked Doritos!

Puppies!!!

Unfortunately these puppies will not be coming home with me. Luckily, one (maybe two if I can do some persuasive talking) will be coming home to live with my in-laws. My father in-law, the hubs and myself got to go meet the puppies today. Nick's dad can choose between two girls and two boys. I think the best option would be one of each. These are the precious little Scotties. I am glad that I don't have to make the decision because they would all be coming home with me. These guys are 6 weeks old and they will be coming home in another 6 to 8 weeks. Can't wait to puppy sit. I will keep you posted on which puppy will be super blessed with a wonderful home with my in-laws.

Just cuz

We are a pizza lovin' family. All of us!

Stop and Smell the Roses

Gus loves flowers and plants. Most of the time he just smells, but sometimes he does try to eat them. These particular flowers were for my in-laws 40th Anniversary Party this past Sunday. We thought we stuck the plants somewhere high and out of reach of the fur balls. We did not take into consideration just how determined Gus would be to smell the wonderful aromas. Luckily, the flowers made it to the party unharmed.

Upper Management

We often call Zander "Upper Management" because he likes to find a high perch and supervise his staff. The picture above is Zander watching me while I make some ham salad. He needed to be sure that the food was up to his high standards. I think it passed the test. We really do try to keep the cats off the counter, but as you can see, it doesn't always work.

Take Me With You

Gus helping us pack for our trip.

The Hubs and I went away this past weekend and I can't avoid the guilty feelings I have about leaving my babies at home alone. Nick always makes fun of me for the amount of food and extra water bowls I leave out for them while we were gone. We have an extensive routine to kitty proof the house while we are gone and even though we were only gone one night, I still worried about them. We always buy them a new toy to play with while we are gone. Maybe then they will not realize they have been abandoned.

So the three boys were "roughing it" at the house while Roque had to be boarded. I think the boys handle it much better than Roque. Nick took Roque on Saturday morning. I prefer not to go if I don't have to. I say my goodbyes to her while she is still excited about getting to ride in a car. I don't want to say goodbye to her while they are dragging her across the floor at the Vet's office. Needless to say she was quite excited to see us when we picked her up on Sunday. She has been getting spoiled nonstop since our return. She just got some ham slices. Don't tell our Vet as he has already reprimanded us for her weight.

Can you imagine how bad I am going to be when I have to leave our kids with someone else if I am like this with my pets? It will probably be impossible for us to find a babysitter!

Coming Home

Who doesn't love being greeted at the door by someone who is so happy to see you. I can always count on Roque to meet me at the door. Roque is our pit/lab mix and she never fails to offer lots of hugs and kisses upon our return. Of course it could be because she needs to go to the bathroom really bad, but I choose to believe it is because she loves me so much. Then there is little Gus (2 year old orange and white male cat). Gus typically has to show us his displeasure with being left alone all day for a good 30 to 45 seconds. Then he lets us know he still loves us by rubbing on our legs. Zander (5 year old gray and white male cat) doesn't come to us, he waits for us to come to him. He can be found on our pillows. Such a kind caring little man, he keeps them warm for us while we are not home. DJ (our 12 year old tuxedo male cate) usually can't be bothered much either. He can be found on the back of a couch. Either in the office or downstairs, those are his spots. This is what I get to come home to everyday. How could it get any better. I also have a wonderful husband too, but this blog isn't about him, now is it? Back to the babies.

I have so many stories to share. Right now, I am just going to share some pics of my babies so you can get to know them. Enjoy!