Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Happy birthdays to Freya & Heimdall!

Freya writes:

Today was my birthday and my brother Heimdall's birthday!  It's kind of hard to believe that we're now three years old.  Does that mean we have to act grown-up?  I sure hope not!  Even though I enjoy my role as a little mama to the semi-feral girls, I'm glad I don't have to be their real mama kitty!  Miss Marble still expects me to be her mama, and that's nice, but I'd much rather play and wrestle with her.

Heimdall writes:

But, wait, sis!  You act like my mama, too, and have since we were little!  I would miss if you didn't clean my ears and wash my face.  My "grown-up" role is to make sure that Mommy is doing ok.  Sometimes she needs a reminder to take her nap, so I tell her that it's time to sleep.  I also wake her up when her alarm goes off, although she seems to think that snuggling isn't the best way to make her get up.  What's wrong with that?  Everyone needs a good snuggle in the morning!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

PhotoHunt: Flow

This fountain is in the park by where Tabby goes visiting, so she gets to watch the water flow in the summer.  Right now, it's just brick with holes in it, but in the summertime the water comes up through the pipes under the brick.  It's controlled so it varies in height from bubbling up from the brick to arcing like in the picture.  Portland has a lot of public parks with water features that people can swim in, jump through, bike through, etc.  This is one of Mommy's favorite.

Are you a photohunter?

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Therapy Cat Tales

Tabby writes:

I've missed my friends at H. so much!  I almost didn't get to go today, though.  I was a bad girl this morning.  I waited on the bed until Starla came out from under the bed (where she was sleeping) and jumped on top of her, starting a cat fight.  Mommy clapped and we ran in opposite directions, so no one was hurt.  I got kicked out of the bedroom, so I was a bit pouty to start out when we left the house.

That changed when I got on the bus, because a rainstorm hit just after we boarded!  I fell asleep listening to the rain on the bus roof, nice and warm in my carrier, with my jacket over my back.  At one point, while switching between MAX light rail trains, Mommy answered questions about how to train cats to ride in strollers.  Then, I got sniffed by a nice dog whose person wanted to pet me.  She pulled her dog back, but then Mommy said I was dog-friendly, so the dog got to sniff me.  We also found someone who does trap-neuter-return work and listened to cat socialization stories.  That's always fun!

We managed to miss another huge cloudburst by just two minutes!  Mommy was almost running to get to H., because the sky darkened, the air smelled different, and the temperature dropped considerably.  I sat up in my stroller, noticing the changes, and kept looking at Mommy.  Hurry, please!  I don't want to be in the rain!  We got in the doors, then the hail started!  The wind was blowing so much that the doors thought people were wanting to come in!  The silly doors started opening and closing, but it was just the weather.

R. walked around with us today, which she hasn't done in a while.  She said I'm a miracle cat, because I made a huge difference for three people today.  I visited more people than that, but it was a major visit for those three.

A. was lying on his side taking a nap when we came in, but quickly woke up when he heard that I was there.  He invited me up on the bed with him, then scooped me up close to his chest.  "My kitty!  It's so good to have my kitty here!"  R. told him not to squish me, but I was happily purring in his arms and snuggling.  R. said she wished she had brought her camera to take a picture, because we were so cute together.

M. is from another place nearby, named C., but at H. for a short time before she goes back to C.  R. has known her for a long time, so she knew she would want to see me.  Sure enough, M. told us that having me visit her made her whole day!  I love hearing that!  Her leg didn't feel good, so it was in a cast.  I snuggled with her other leg and let her pet me.  She's going to talk with some people at C. and see if we can come visit there once in a while.  They have dog teams visit, but not cat teams yet, even though many residents have cats of their own at C.

E. was the best visit of the day!  She usually doesn't respond to the dog teams visiting, except to watch them, so R. didn't know how she would do with me.  Turns out, it was the highlight of her day, probably of her week!  She tried to get out of bed when R. told her I was there!  She almost sat up straight on her own.  She usually has choppy speech, taking her time with articulating her thoughts and not saying cohesive sentences.  However, when talking to me, she spoke in complete sentences and remembered most of the words she wanted!  She told me that she had cats when she was younger, but not for a while.  She also talked about my fur and about me snuggling on her blankets.  She tried to talk with R. and Mommy, but she couldn't say what she wanted, so she gave up and talked to me again fluently.  What an amazing experience!  We stayed a longer time with her, because I was helping her so much.

I showed R. how I play tails with P.  R. didn't know that P. could play tails, because P. has low vision, but she does just fine with that game.  I started in right away after I greeted her, and she got my tail a few times before I turned around to let her pet my head and neck.

I was really worn out by all my work today, so I crashed in the stroller in the office while waiting for Mommy to get ready to leave H.  I started snoring!  I slept most of the way home, then woke up for our last transfer and the walk home.  Mommy and I were both very glad to be inside, out of the cold wind!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Happy birthday to Starla!

Starla writes:

Wow!  Thank you, friends, for remembering my birthday!  Mommy didn't write my blog post earlier, because she's in charge of JJ for today, and a 5-year-old playing superheroes takes precedence over writing a blog post, even if it's a birthday blog post.

That's fine, though, because I got my birthday present last night.  I got to be out for a good part of the day yesterday, instead of being out only at night, but then I went into my room for the night.  Turns out, Tabby had snuck in, too!  She and Carbon were supposed to be out, because we used to fight all the time.  All of a sudden, three hours later, Mommy and Erin heard Tabby talking from the bedroom!  They let her out and checked on me, but I was doing fine.  Tabby was being really kind to me!

They talked it over, and decided to let me out and about with everyone else to see how it went.  I walked under the couch when I saw Tabby and stayed under there for a bit, but then I came back out when Mommy sat down in the chair to read.  Carbon saw me, so I went back under the couch.  Tabby, Carbon, and Little Bit all checked on me at various times, and I growled a little at them, but we all were pretty peaceful the rest of the evening.

When Daddy got home, he was pretty impressed with everyone!  I came out to eat, drink, use the box, and socialize.  I was still wary of Carbon, and somewhat of Tabby, but I got to see both of them acting normally instead of chasing me.  That helped to realize that they were acting normal like I act.  Everyone took naps, and I chose a spot behind the bookcase to take my nap.

All of a sudden, Carbon woke up and wanted to play, but no one else was awake.  He smelled me out and surprised me out of my sleep.  It turned into a rolling cat fight, but I won!  I ran away and he didn't follow me!  We ran over Daddy and woke him up, then I ran past Mommy in the hallway.  She got Carbon out from under the couch and put him in the bedroom.  I got to stay out with Tabby for a while longer!