Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to Missy!

Missy writes:

*Opens one eye and then both eyes in amazement*  Oh, hi, everyone!  What a nice surprise to wake up to messages on our bloggie for me!  Yes, today's my Gotcha Day anniversary.  Three years ago, Mommy and Daddy decided to adopt me!  I'd been living with them for a good part of the year by then, but that was my official adoption day.  I first came to live with them in the middle of May, 2011, after walking down the sidewalk outside Mommy's work yelling for food.  Mommy stopped her class to come find me, caught me, then she and Daddy put me in the car.  Later on, when they opened the car to get in after Mommy's class was over, I escaped and hid from them.  It took them 45 minutes to catch me again!  That time, I stayed caught.  I rode home in the space between Daddy's door and his seat while he drove, and he petted me the whole time to help me relax.

I was feral but socialized when I found my purrents, and this year they found out that I'd been spayed somewhere along the line.  I may have had a home as a kitten, or I may have found a kind human who got me spayed but couldn't keep me.  I was fed by the guys at the Franz bakery across the street from where Mommy works, and I caught my food as well.

Tomorrow's my 5th birthday, so double happiness for me!  Stay safe tonight, everyone, and out of the way of fireworks.  Tell your humans to stay safe if they're partying, too!

Happy New Year!  Here's to a great 2014!


Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas!


Merry Christmas from all of us at the PDX pride!

May your Christmas be filled with love, peace, and laughter, and may the new year be bright!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

PhotoHunt: Mellow & Tabby's Therapy Cat Tales

Tabby writes:

Wednesday was a very mellow day, because the snow had melted and the weather warmed up.  We were supposed to go visiting last week, but it was down to freezing by the time we would've been coming back home.  That's too cold for me to be outside!  I'm an inside kitty, so I don't have much of a winter coat!  My fur gets a little thicker for winter and I shed, but I don't grow the very thick coat like outside kitties do.

It was really raining on Wednesday, so Mommy brought my little umbrella along and I wore my raincoat.  I was all nice and warm then!  At one point, I wanted to crawl into my carrier bag instead, while we were going from one inside place to another inside place, but Mommy put my jacket on me instead.  I had fun watching everything go by then, and didn't worry that I was not in the bag.  I had a wet head, but the rest of my fur was dry.  My jacket doesn't have a hat or a hood, but it has a collar that I curl in if I need to.  Sometimes, I end up wearing the jacket over my head and looking out an armhole!

When we got to the Lloyd Center MAX stop and got off the MAX light rail train, we got a surprise!  Some things were lined up along the street, but they didn't look familiar.  I know what most cars look like, but these were shorter than cars and they had branches sticking out from the windows!  What were those?


Mommy laughed and told me they were cars, too, and they had reindeer antlers!  There were three of them lined up, plus some people in blue shirts advertising Car2Go.  One of the people was dressed as Santa, but I didn't get my picture taken with him.  He didn't want to pose with me.  They all wanted to pet me, though, and one of them asked a ton of questions about therapy cats!  I love being an ambassador kitty for all therapy cats!

H. had a decorated Christmas tree with lighted packages around the bottom of it, plus poinsettias on all the little tables in the lobby.  There were Christmas lights in some places, too.  I didn't get my picture taken with any of it, though, because we were running late and didn't want to keep my friends waiting longer than we needed to.  I didn't wear my "Santa Baby" dress like I normally do for my December visit, but I had the mini Christmas lights blinking around my stroller handle, so everyone loved those.  We visited with a lot of ladies named M.  Well, their real names were longer than that, and not all the same name that starts with M., but I can't tell you their real names.

One lady named A.M. loves holding me on her lap and snuggling with me while she talks with Mommy.  I watched her tv while she petted me and snuggled with me (and talked).  She kept saying she wished that she had a camera to take a picture of me.  She didn't have a camera, though, not even a disposable one (which she wants to get).  Our friend S., who walks around with us at H., has a cameraphone, so Mommy asked her if she would take a picture of A.M. and me.  S. said that of course she would!  A.M. almost cried, she was so happy!  She said that was the best Christmas present in the world!  I posed on the arm of the recliner and we both looked at S. for the picture.  It turned out really cute, and I wish I could share it with everyone!  A.M. is going to find a nice frame for it and put it on her table!  *purrs*

Another of my friends, one of the M.'s, talked about a kitty she had when she was young.  Her mom didn't especially like Kate the kitty because Kate was always pregnant or nursing kittens.  At that time, they didn't spay or neuter cats.  M.'s mom didn't let Kate in the house, but would pour some milk into a bowl and set it out for her and the kittens after she milked.  I think that M.'s mom must've liked Kate more than she let on, if she fed her!  M.'s mom was Norwegian, so M. knows some Norwegian.  She and Mommy had a conversation in Norwegian about Christmas and about how Mommy knew how to speak that language!  S. was present and couldn't understand a word of it, but I was listening and could understand a bit.  I used to go to classes, and I pay attention when Mommy teaches her internet class.  She speaks some of it to us around the house, too.  Daddy understands more than he lets on, but only says a few words of it.

My friend who used to be afraid of cats and now loves me was in her room, so we had a nice visit with her.  She's another M.  She, S., and Mommy had a great conversation about traditional Christmas food and desserts.  Mommy was telling about her family and about Great-Grandma coming out west from South Dakota after Great-Grandma married Great-Grandpa.  The rest of the family on that side lives in South Dakota still, and my great-uncle sends cookie boxes back to them every year as their Christmas gift.


This picture was taken at C., where we visit after we visit H.  I get to share this picture because there's no identifying information in it.  I love how their tree looks!  You can see the lights on my stroller in this picture, too, as well as my jacket.

The elevator at C. wasn't working properly.  One side of it was broken, and it was dinnertime, so everyone was using the other side or the service elevator.  We waited and waited for it!  Finally it came, then we got to visit P.  We had a great visit, then we rode the service elevator back downstairs again.  Mommy talked with a couple staff members at C., and we might have more people to visit with next time!  There isn't a regular scheduling person for outside visitors, but the different floors have schedules so we'll be on one of those schedules.


After we got done visiting, we went downtown Portland to see the big Christmas tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square.  We found a funny thing!  This is a bronze statue of a man holding an umbrella, but look what he's wearing!  If that's not mellow, we don't know what is!


Are you a photohunter?

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Snow Day and a Fundraiser Announcement

Tigress writes:

Yesterday, we all woke up to snow!  The first snowfall of the winter!  I was very glad to be inside the warm (and dry) house, but was as hyper as everyone else.  We ran up and down the hallway playing THOE (thundering herd of elephants), woke Mommy up by jumping on the bed, and chittered at the leaves the wind was blowing around in the yard.

After Mommy was fully awake, I let her know I wanted to go out to play in the snow.  I was out for a good two hours before I wanted back in!  I pounced on half-buried leaves, played in the crisp, frozen grass, and made pawprints on the deck.  I hunted for a while, but everything was staying in dens and not out to be hunted.  After it started warming up so the snow was starting to melt, I asked to be let back inside again.

Panther was so jealous!  He wanted out to play in the snow, too, but Mommy wouldn't let him.  He sniffed me all over when I came back in and told me how jealous he was!

Some of you kitties who are world travelers might know that there are two cities called Vancouver on the west coast of North America.  We live in the south Vancouver, which is Vancouver, Washington, USA.  The other Vancouver is Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and it's only about 8 hours away, almost directly north of us.  They are having the same cold weather and starting to have snow.  The kitties up there could really use some help right now, so we'd like to tell you about a fundraiser to help them.

Amy Lowry, a Vancouver, BC, graphics designer, is donating $1 for each item purchased in her Etsy store to the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association.  VOKRA is a unique no-kill, cats-only rescue that is based around foster homes rather than a brick-and-mortar shelter building.  It was started 13 years ago and, according to the website, helped find homes for almost 2,000 cats last year!  VOKRA also has a T-N-R program.  If you would like more information about VOKRA, their website is here.  If you would like more information about the fundraiser, including some stores that carry Amy Lowry's products, her infographic is here.  Thank you!