Therapy Cat Tales from Yesterday

Tabby writes:

Whoa, you mean I actually got the letter T on the right day?  Cool!  T is for Therapy, and for Tabby, and for Tale, and even for Thursday!  Paws up!

Yesterday, Mommy took me to visit my friends at H.  This means I got three outings in one week, two to the pet fair and one to H.!  When Mommy and Daddy said that I was going to visit my friends, I didn't really think they were telling the truth, but they were!  I'm way luckier than any of the other kitties in the household.

There was a little dog at the MAX light rail station.  She knew I was in the stroller, but couldn't see me because she was too little to look up that far.  She sniffed my carrier bag, which was on the ground, but I wasn't in that, either.  Her person asked if it was ok if she said hi to me, and Mommy told the person it would be ok.  The doggie grew up with a kitty and still looks for him every so often, but no other kitties want to play with her.  Other kitties run or swat.  I wouldn't do that to a friendly woofie!  She was very friendly, and even stepped around my tail instead of on it when she put her front paws in the stroller to sniff me.  We exchanged sniffs and I even let her snuffle in my shoulder fur!  Then her person said she had to get down again.  You're a nice woofie, Jessie doggie!

We had some extra time once we got to H., so Mommy sat with me on my favorite brown couch for a few minutes.  I was so happy to be there, I kept on giving Mommy leaning-hugs and asking for more pets!  She didn't take any pictures this time, because she wanted to be sure I knew what a good girl I was being.  Besides, she didn't think I would hold still for any pictures!

S. walked around with us for a little while this time, but then she had to go put up some flyers on a few of the other floors (and in the other building).  That was fine, because we can go visiting by ourselves.  S. did tell us about a toy poodle who goes visiting totally by itself in another facility!  That's pretty amazing!  I don't think I'd be brave enough to do that all by myself.  I'd much rather have someone on the other end of the leash!

We visited 6 or 7 friends, and some family members of those friends.  Two of them were new friends!  I always like seeing everyone, whether they are old friends, new friends, family members, or staff.  They're all friends to me!  We were coming out of one room when we got flagged down by the daughter of the neighbor.  Her mom loves all animals, so she wanted us to visit with her.  Yay!  At each of those rooms, I checked out the hurt knee (the opposite one for each of them) and purred for them.  All the humans said I was running my own CAT scan, because we kitties purr at the same frequency as a deep muscle tissue healing machine!  The ladies thanked me for purring for them.  I heard about Oscar the therapy cat, who's pretty amazing.  I'd heard about him before, and I still think he's amazing every time I hear about him sitting with people who are dying.  He's in another part of the country, but I follow his page on Facebook.

After those two ladies, I went to see some of my friends I've visited with before.  Some were there and some weren't.  Two friends were sleeping.  M. was sleeping also, but we woke her up because we knew that she wanted us to.  That's what she tells us to do, so we do it.  If they don't tell us it's ok, we let them sleep.  At A.M.'s room, there was a giraffe stuffed animal!  It was staring at me from beside her chair, so I stared back.  A.M. asked me if I wanted to say hi to it, so Mommy got it down and had it say hi to me.  I sniffed its face, then nosed it and gave it whisker kisses.  I looked down at its paws and saw that it had hooves instead!  I looked at Mommy and at A.M., and they said that giraffes don't have paws like kitties do.  I guess that makes sense, but I still think it should've had paws.  Even humans kind of have paws!

The little boy feral kitty was waiting for his dinner when we got back to the house.  He was lying on the deck with Tigress, but got up when Mommy opened the door to put food out.  I'm glad we got home in time to give him his dinner at the usual time!  I got to sniff at the door when it was open, put I sneezed in the little one's face.  I hope he doesn't hold that against me!

Sockies!

I love when Mommy Erin pets me.

What?  Wait!  Where do you think you're going with MY sockie?

You'd BETTER be giving that back!

Freya writes:

Yep, I'm Freya, and I'm a proud sock-a-holic!  EVERY fuzzy sockie (and some that aren't so fuzzy) in this house is MINE!  I let my brother borrow them sometimes, but they belong to ME!  In the pictures above, Mommy Erin discovered that I'd brought my sockie up with me onto the bed while she was tucking JJ in for night-night time.  These were from a few years ago; he's now 7 years old.  Anyway, I was on my sockie, trying to hide it but wanting her to play with me with it.  She got it and we had a great game of tug-of-war!  As you can see, JJ thoroughly enjoyed it, too!

That's my second-favorite sockie.  I have two of them, both the same.  Sockies come two at a time from the store, you know, because humans have two feet that they wear sockies on.  They don't wear sockies on their hands.  If there were fuzzy sockies specifically for kitties, they would come four at a time, but they wouldn't be as big.  Anyway, my favorite sockie of all time is bright pink and has a kitty face and ears on it!  The eyes, nose, and mouth are embroidered on, but the ears are actually little extra pieces of the same fuzzy cloth and are sewn on, then embroidered with detail!  I love it so much!  I talk to it, like my friend Cory does to her sockie babies, and carry it down the hallway.  I throw it for myself and jump to catch it!  My brother tries to take it away from me, just because he thinks he can, but I run with it down the hall and away from him.  Of course, I do that will all my other fuzzies, too, but especially with my favorite!

What's your favorite toy?

Daddy's Riding Lawnmower Monster

Tigress writes:

Yesterday, Daddy took that riding lawnmower monster out into the backyard and made it eat the grass all up!  At first, we were afraid that it would eat him, but then we realized that he was in control of it.  Now, it's just interesting to watch from a safe distance.

Yesterday, I wasn't right nearby when the riding lawnmower started up, because I was napping in the trees in the next yard over.  That's where I was born, and it's always nice and cool on a hot day.  It actually got up to 77 degrees, Mommy said!  Anyway, I heard the riding lawnmower monster, but I wasn't worried about it like I am if I'm in the same yard as it.  Daddy rode it around, telling it where to chomp the grass.  Then he went inside.  That's usually my cue to go hunting in the freshly stirred-up mouse nests, but I didn't appear this time.  I was fast asleep!  When I woke up, it was getting dark.  I stretched, then realized I was hungry.  I went to my backyard and got a few nice mice for dinner, then went inside to eat some cat food and socialize with everyone.

Thank you, Daddy, and the riding lawnmower monster, for my nice dinner!  I brought one for you, but I left it on the deck.

Still Doin' the Q, and Answering Questions at the Pet Fair!

Carbon's still doin' the Q, just like our friend Monty Q!  A few years ago, Carbon joined many of our fellow cat bloggers to honor Monty with a "Doin' the Q" contest!  It was a lot of fun.  This picture from yesterday shows that Carbon's still in fine form, even at almost 10 years old.

Tabby writes:

I had a blast at the NW Pet and Companion Fair on Saturday and yesterday!  I saw many of my friends and family, and met some new friends.  I even got a new outfit from WildChild!  Mommy and I did a stage presentation about feline-assisted therapy and how to get started in animal-assisted therapy.  Mommy talked about how she trained me, and I demostrated how calm I am (by falling asleep on stage!) and showed off how I hug when being carried.  It was really fun!

There was a not-so-fun part, though.  A husky bit me when we first got there on Saturday!  It actually was going to carry me off somewhere, with a not-good ending.  *shivers*  The owner, who was on the other end of the leash, was 3 feet away and looking the other way, not paying attention to the tugging on the leash.  Mommy was pushing me in my stroller, and the husky charged the stroller, grabbed me behind the shoulderblades, and lifted me up a few inches!  Mommy charged the dog with a "Drop it now!" command, which the dog luckily obeyed the first time!  I was not hurt physically, and the bite did not break the skin.  The lady's comment when Mommy Cai confronted her?  "I didn't think anyone would bring a cat to a dog show!"  Mommy Cai responded, "It's a pet fair!" and pointed to the sign.  The organizers went after the lady after Mommy made sure that her dog had the proper vaccinations.  I was ok after about a half hour of snuggling and being petted.

One lady who attended our presentation may want to adopt Autumn!  And, if that weren't enough of a highlight, Jennifer at Spot Magazine wants to interview us later on this year about our work in animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities!  Very cool!

Here's a video slideshow of our weekend!  We met up with Panther's Mommy Cai, Mommy Erin, Coriel, JJ, Erin's friend Amanda and her son Matthew, and Auntie Michelle McClintock and her brother on Saturday.  We also saw my birdie friend Athena from last year's fashion show!  On Sunday, we saw human Athena and her family, who are friends we know from Grammy's kitty blankets for the Humane Society for Southwest Washington.

Pet Fair!

Tabby writes:

I'm going to the pet fair today!!!  It's the NW Pet and Companion Fair, and I've gone with Mommy, Mommy Erin, and JJ for the last few years.  It's a lot of fun, and this year will be the best ever!  Mommy and I are going to do a stage presentation like we did last year.  We'll be doing that today and tomorrow, from 11:00 to 11:30 am on both days.  If you're in the area, we'd love to see you!  Last year, we met up with Mommy Erin's sister Anna and our Catster friend Bitu's mommy Michelle (and Michelle's brother).

Our talk is going to be on feline-assisted therapy.  I'll probably hang out on stage on a chair, like I did last year.  Since I did this last year, I probably won't want to dive for my carrier bag during the presentation, at least I hope I won't!  That was kind of embarrassing for me last year, but Mommy took it in stride and explained that it was my first time doing a presentation there.  We were also first on the schedule, so that made a difference.  This year, we have a reptile show before us one day and a training class before us the next, so I get to hang out in the audience and watch those before it's my turn.

After my presentation, I get to ride in my stroller and look at all the doggies, some kitties, and lots of humans.  There may be some other animals to sniff, but I'm not allowed to sniff the reptiles or the small animals.  Too much temptation, even though I only go after bugs and froggies!  I sure watch everything, though!  I'm really looking forward to it!

Feral Friday: Orangies Rule!

Sherbet writes:

Orangies rule!  At least I think so, because I'm one!  I rule my box, at least.  I love my carrier box, and I don't let anyone else poke their head or paws inside it.  If they do, they get hissed at or growled at.

I'm getting much braver now, too!  See me peeking out at Mommy?  She came to check on me, and I was watching her like this.  I hiss when she gets almost to the food, though, unless she has the food scoop.  I hiss at Daddy, too, when he gets close.  That doesn't stop them from coming in to talk to me, though, and I'm glad about that.  Grandpa was here last night, and I thought it was interesting that someone else was here!  I kept looking and looking at him while he was talking to me from the hallway!

I've even gotten brave enough now to come out of my carrier to eat, drink, and even use the litter box when the door is open!  Mommy surprised me the other day when she walked down the hallway.  I was out of the carrier, sitting on my side of the food plate, eating!  I ran back into my carrier when I saw her, though.  If the door's closed, I walk all around the room and even lie down in some places.  Mommy and Daddy can tell because I'm shedding, so they see orange fur where I've been!

A very scary but very funny thing happened earlier this week.  Mommy was getting some people fur from the top of the dressers next to me, when all of a sudden something black came flying off the dresser toward me!  I was watching her, and I hissed at the flying thing a few times, especially when it landed in my food plate!  Mommy was surprised, too, but then she started laughing.  It was one of Daddy's socks!  Freya came to investigate and wanted to take off with it, but it wasn't one of her socks so she couldn't have it.  Mommy got it off the plate and put it in the laundry hamper.  I'm glad it wasn't really a monster, but I'm glad to have hissed at it anyway!

Our Norwegian Words

Tabby writes:

Today, I'm going to teach you a little of our other language:  Norwegian!  Mommy grew up in a trilingual household, learning English and Norwegian right away and German in high school.  Grandpa and Grammy speak/spoke all three.  Mommy now is a Norwegian language teacher for her job.  Heimdall regularly sits in on her Skype lessons, and I used to go with her to her in-person classes once in a while before the building said I couldn't.

Mommy and Daddy speak Norwegian to us regularly as some of our commands, and that's what I'll be teaching you today!  If you want, you can teach your purrents and use these at home, too.  It's fun to know a second human language!  When Grandpa comes over, he speaks Norwegian to us sometimes, too.

"Don't" is "ikke", and it's pronounced ick-uh.  This is used as a "no" command.
"Must not" is "må ikke" or "må'kke", and it's pronounced mow-ick-uh or mow-k-uh.
"You" is "du", and it's pronounced do.
"Lie down" is "legge deg", and it's pronounced leg-uh day.
"Sit" is "sitte", and it's pronounced sit-uh.
"Down" is "ned", and it's prounounced ned.
"Up" is "opp", and it's prononounced o-p.
"Come here" is "kom hit", and it's pronounced comb-heat.

So there's your Norwegian lesson for today, kitties!

Almost-Wordless Wednesday: Maniacs!

Carbon vs. pipe cleaners

Tabby chillaxin'

Skylar stealing Mommy Erin's jerky

Rori tackling Tabby to play (while Tabby was trying to sleep)

Squishy (one of Little Bit's kittens) falling asleep in his "flying saucer" (aka crazy circle)

Daddy put a straw wrapper on Skylar's head

Freya putting a yarn ball in Daddy's shoe

Mommy Erin playing fuzzy sockie with Freya while JJ watches

Heimdall and Freya playing with the laundry hamper

Heimdall getting the camera strap

Somebody put ribbons in the tub

Hemming (Tigress' brother) insisting that's the way into the trap

Tabby tried to play with Mommy's coffee cup sleeve

Panther sleeping upside-down

Love

Rori and her brother Knut as kittens

Tabby with baby Rori

Baby Rori and Lydia

Skylar and Starla

Skylar and Lydia

Tabby and Spooky 1

Skylar and Cloud (one of Little Bit's kittens)

Rori and Little Guy (one of Little Bit's kittens)

Carbon, Rori, and Smokey (Little Bit's sister)

Spooky 2

Freya and Heimdall

Heimdall and Hemming (Tigress' brother)

The Kitty with No Name

Tigress writes:

I have a new friend!  Well, we've known about him for about three months, but he's relatively new as a regular.  He's not telling us his name yet, though.  He's a young boykit, definitely a "teenager" or very young adult.  Daddy says the boykit's probably between 10 months and a year old.  He's not fixed, so we've all been trying to get him to come eat on a regular schedule so that he'll go have surgery like the other boys did.  He'll probably even get an eartip like Sherbet and I have!

So far, he's been coming every evening between 6:30 and 7 pm, and sometimes throughout the day when I run into him while I'm hunting and bring him by.  The first time I brought him by in the evening, I came up first then talked to Daddy when he opened the door.  I told him that he'd better put food out even though I was coming inside to eat, then I went in and out a few times.  Daddy listened and did what I asked, then the boykit came up to eat after Daddy closed the door.

He doesn't come when called yet, but he will stop what he's doing and come toward the door when our purrents call, "Kitty!"  At least he knows something to be called at this point!  I've been trying to show him that it's ok to come inside, but he's not ready for that yet.  He'll eat even when the door's cracked open a bit, and even when one of the inside kitties pokes their nose out to sniff.  He hasn't touched noses with anyone else from inside yet, and hisses at our purrents if they put their hands out.

He's making a lot of progress, though!  Here's a picture that Daddy took of him.

Jockeying for Position

Heimdall:  Hey, Sis, that's my spot!

Freya:  You always get it!  It's my turn to sit here while Mommy types!

Heimdall:  If you're up there, you have to lie down.  Here, let me show you!

Freya:  No, I said it's my turn!

*The twins swat each other lightly for a few minutes while Mommy tries to see around them, until she finally gives up and waits until Heimdall steps all the way from her lap to the desk.  Freya gives her brother one final swat, then claims Mommy's lap.  Heimdall lies down with one back paw on Freya's back.*

Heimdall:  See, this is the way you do it!  My spot!  My person, so my spot!

Freya's expression says it all!

What inspires us to blog?

You may be wondering what exactly inspires cats to blog?  Well, for each of us it's different, because we are all different.  Sometimes, it's something new we've found in the house to play with.  Sometimes, it's something (or someone) we see out the windows.  At other times, it's an experience we have, such as when Tabby blogs about her animal-assisted therapy visits or when we write about the froggies coming inside.

Our blog doesn't really have one theme, besides our day-to-day experiences as a clowder and two humans.  We have threads that run through our blog, such as animal-assisted therapy, feral cats, and fostering.  If you are interested in seeing what we've written on a topic, just use the search bar up at the top left of the page.  There are all sorts of things you can find that way!  We also have included tags on each post so that you can click on the tag to find related posts.

Have fun!  We sure are, with this blogging challenge!

Heimdall's Phone Conversations

Heimdall writes:

Two years ago, when Mommy was talking with Grammy on the phone, I asked to purr my motorboat purr for her, and then hung up on her by pawing the phone!  I've only done that one time since, and it was when I was purring for Great-Grandma (Mommy's dad's mom).  She heard my purrs, and all of a sudden she was listening to the dial tone!  Mommy called her right back and explained what happened, and everyone got a good laugh out of it.

I love to purr for everyone on the phone!  If Mommy's talking with someone, I immediately hop up onto the desk and start purring, then reach for Mommy's hand or for the phone itself.  She holds it for me and I purr, sometimes listening to the person on the other end talk to me.  When I'm listening to the person talk, I stop purring, then I start again when it's my turn to "talk".

Sometimes, if it's Mommy's dad, he talks in Norwegian to me.  I don't understand many of the words he uses, but I understand his meaning.  Then he purrs back to me!  I back away from the phone and look at Mommy, telling her that he's making that weird noise again!  I guess it's purring, of some sort, but he's a human so he shouldn't be purring.  That's my sound to make to him!

Geese!

Tigress writes:

There are big birds across the street!  When my brother, sister, and I were younger, we would ask our dad-cat if we could go hunt them.  He told us that they were too big for us to hunt, even if we all worked together and hunted as a pack.  I bet they would be tasty if I ever could get one, though!  Mommy and Daddy wouldn't approve, although I'm much more of a catch-and-release hunter than a hunter for real.

Right now, they are starting to have baby geese.  I see the little ones sometimes in the marsh next to our yard, because there's one family of geese that lives there.  They make a very strange sound, and sometimes I surprise them when I'm hunting mice next to the edge of the marsh.  HONK!  Baby honks!

Here's a picture of the gathering across the street.  Every day around noon, three or four flocks of them go to eat a few yards away.  A lady feeds them there!  Then the flocks settle down where this picture is, all of them together, and nap for a while!

And here's one closer in, of the same area, showing the geese!

The "F" twins

Freya writes:

Many people don't know this, but my brother Heimdall and I had different names when we were baby kittens.  We were part of a litter that had all "F" names!  My original name was Furkins, and Heimdall's original name was Fonz!

Heimdall writes:

There's no way I was a Fonz!  I don't even act like the Fonz!  I'm so glad my name got changed by our purrents.  Our two siblings, who were also tuxies like us, were named Fink and Fizz.  We all were adopted out to our forever homes through Salem Friends of Felines in Salem, OR.

Here are our baby pictures from Salem Friends of Felines!

And, here are pictures of us now!

Heimdall supervising Mommy's crafting time.

Freya's need to knead at bedtime.