How do you sleep?

Today one of my Plurk friends (hey, I am the social networking cat, right?) posted this link (which is not valid anymore, sorry, but you can imagine how wonderful cats look when sleeping)
Sleeping as an art form

I am not sure what the humans find so funny about that. They are probably jealous because they are not as flexible and elegant as us felines.

It inspired me to post a few pictures of my own. Enjoy.

Dude, the foreign exchange kitty, on the couch - he came from the USA to Germany and was the first cat in this house

Gandalf hanging on to a little phone table, that was one of his favorite spots

Mim hardly ever relaxed while sleeping - bad experiences in earlier years

Esme when she was still almost a baby - with silly fuzzy hairties hanging over her ears

Greebo: "Go away, I am trying to sleep!!"

Meffi looks so much bigger rolled up into a ball

Poor neglected me, I have to sleep in a carton I have grown out of!

Merlin and Greebo - it's not the same without Merlin anymore

My favorite picture. Merlin in one of the Spongebob slippers Mom got from a friend *lol*

Are you sleepy now? ;-)

I need space!

So she has decluttered and cleaned her desk to give me more space. Does she really think that's enough? This place is mine and I take up as much space as I need!

See? Hehe. Especially if there is sun.

The sound

I'm a loud cat. I don't mind admitting that. It's my Siamese heritage (even if no one knows if I really have one, but I like the story and it's the one I'll stick with).
Name a sound, I might have it in my repertoire already. If not, I'm happy to add it, especially if it's one which gets me everything I want.
My biggest success is the sound I learned a few months ago. It's hard to describe. It's some kind of high-pitched whine which clearly shows I am the poorest cat in the whole wide world and I need immediate feeding/play time/light love (desk sitting with being talked to)/medium love (lap sitting with light petting)/heavy-duty love (shoulder sitting with arms around me and a face in my fur plus being told how wonderful and unique I am). The fun thing is that Mom and Dad never know what it is that I want. Sometimes I do it just to taunt them. Why should they sleep when I am wide awake? Of course once Mom gives up (it's usually her as she likes to keep the peace), I usually go to sleep.
Sometimes I also do it when they are both at the computer. Then it means "Pet me. Now!" To make things a little more difficult for them, I stay on the floor, never in reach, and when they get up, I run away.
Now Mom found a method that works for us both, though - a folding rule! She can reach me without her running after me or almost falling out of the computer chair, and not only do I love when she carefully pets me with it, not too hard, not too soft, but when I'm getting tired of petting, I can catch it and play with it!
Hm. She is not as stupid as I thought her to be although she's a human.

Sleepy Sunday

When Mom calls me the most annoying cat on Earth the next time and says with a sigh that she wished she had only some of my energy, I'll show her this picture and remind her of sleepy Sundays.
I was on the bed for hours sleeping peacefully, Meffi lying not that far from me and we didn't even get into a fight. I didn't try to steal anything and I wasn't nagging.
Now I'm in my hammock (aka the blanket over Mom's knees), sleeping again, holding to her old "Chicken Run" t-shirt. Sometimes I don't understand her. You would never catch me in a worn, old t-shirt. I walk in style all the time. Black suit, I know what I owe my reputation. That is why I always look good, even in my sleep.

The main characters - Meffi

Ah, Meffi .... I am not ashamed to say it. I have been in love with Meffi since I first set eyes on her. The tiger stripes, the cute little face, the way her hips are swinging when she walks or the way her tail fluffs up when she is really mad at me - although she is the smallest one around here with her ca. 8.5 lbs, she is cat through and through. AND through.
I followed her everywhere, but I couldn't compete against her boyfriend Merlin. And after Merlin was gone (much too early), she still didn't like me. She treats me like the guy from the bad neighborhood while she is playing the queen, a game she is great at.
Meffi has the same parents as Greebo, but is a year older than him. She was the only tiger in a litter of black and white kittens which is why Dad chose to take her home. When she was growing up, she fell in love with Merlin. This is no joke, until the end those two were a dream couple. Have a look and tell me you don't know what I mean. See?

Now she likes to sleep on Mom's head in bed or snuggle up to Dad on the couch, but only to her conditions. You are allowed to touch her, just like her little brother she also likes to lick your arm, but don't even think about picking her up and if you do, well, you better prepare for some nice new scars. She has always been that way and I doubt she will ever change. Mom calls her "kleine Zicke" a lot, that's "little goat". I have no idea why, Meffi neither looks nor sounds like a goat. I wonder if that word can also mean something else ...

Something else to mention about her is her great voice. I know what I am talking about, after all I'm a real singing talent. Meffi has the full range, from tiny meows and soft purring, sounding like a birdie all the way to the hissing that would scare a snake off and of course that throaty song of hers telling me that she'll kick my sorry butt from here to the North Pole if I don't stay away from her. Which I don't do. No one can hold me back from trying to be near here. That means sometimes it gets a little loud which does not amuse the human inhabitants, especially at night.
It was really too hard for me to choose my favorite picture of Meff, she's always gorgeous!

P.S. By the way, her real name is Mephista. She was Mephisto for one day, absolutely refusing to drop her pants, so-to-speak. Humans, so easy to fool!

The main characters - Greebo

Ah, where to begin when talking about Greeb? How about the story of how he came to live here? Of course that was way before my time. Greebo will be 10 this year.
He's a real farm kitty and he used to be the most trusty soul there is (nowadays the exception are trips to the vet and pills). So when Mom's sister said "Take home the next kitten who comes out of the bush", there he was. In fact he had been the only one hanging around us all the time. Personally I don't think Greeb was made to live on a farm. He loves couches and beds and the sweet life. He loves good food and he loves to be loved. He and Mom have a few rituals. When she comes home, he hops up on the table, she bends down a little and there he is on her shoulder, ready to be carried to wherever ... preferrably the food dish of course.
The other thing he likes is stretching. Being held like a baby he just streeeeeeeetches out.

Everyone thinks Greebo is such a harmless little baby, but don't be fooled. He can be pretty tough. Like all of us he doesn't believe in playing without claws. If he reaches out for something, may it be a toy or a nose, he's all claws. And he's quick although he doesn't look that way. You should see him fetch. Yes, unfortunately my friend is a little delusional sometimes. Don't ask how often I have told him that he is not a dog and that he is humiliating his whole race, but I guess he can't help it. Ever since he had his first big asthma attack, he had to cut down on it.

Poor Greebo. That asthma thing is no fun. Sometimes you hardly notice, but I can tell sometimes Mom is really concerned. Not just about him, but also about her own safety. Greeb may be a snuggle butt, but he hates to go to the vet's, the trip there, that is. Once he's there, he is sucking up to everyone big time, purring, licking their hands. Licking ... that's another one of his weird obsessions. Don't let him into your face or he'll try to lick your nose off while clawing into your hair - if you are a human. He doesn't try it with me, he knows I can't sit still through something like that for very long. If he tries, it usually ends up in a little friendly fight really fast.

There is more I could tell you, but I think we have plenty of time, so instead I'll show you Mom's favorite picture of Greebo now.
See you soon!

The main characters - Esme

I think it's time to introduce the main characters.
Let's start with Esme because we have a brand new picture of her. Esme is five and a half years old, just like me. I call her my little sister because she doesn't have my long runner's legs. Instead she has a little couch potato belly. Right now she is sleeping on the window sill, the part where the blinds are down. She doesn't like too much sun on her fur.
We are not sure where we come from, but Mom is convinced we are part Siamese, part Persian and part crazy black devil cats. I doubt it's for the love of exotic, but there are a few things that make her think that. The Siamese part would mainly be mine, so I'll tell you about that when it's my turn to introduce myself.
When Esme is very concentrated, staring at food in the hand of a human for example, she starts squinting. It looks very funny as she has big round baby eyes. In fact all of her face cries out "baby" which she always uses to her advantage. Baby ears, a round baby face, a sweet little mouth and a snub nose tell the world how innocent she is. Innocent my foot!
She is all black except for a few stray white hairs and she has a funny little tail. Her looks and the squeaky sounds she makes - poor lost kitten style - make people think she is as sweet as they come. I'm not fooled, I have felt her claws more than once. She's an awesome fighter once she gets up of her sill!
When she was younger, she used to have what Mom calls "her five minutes". She'd suddenly go nuts about whatever and worked herself up about it so badly that she finally had to bite Mom's arm, not to draw blood, more like a sign of deep frustration. Either she has grown out of that or she's just taking a break right now.
Something she really hates is people whistling (maybe her name should have been Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory who hates that, too). She'll come running from wherever she is at the moment and scold you like crazy!
Here you see two pictures of her that speak of her addiction. Esme is the dairy queen of his house. Yoghurt,  milk, cream, you name it, she'll eat it.

A new kid in the blog world

Yes, you might think it's just another cat out there, but let me tell you, I am not an ordinary cat and neither are my pals. As they don't hang out on Mom's desk all the time, it's my job now to tell you stories of our life.

First let me introduce myself.
I'm Ponder Stibbons. Then there is Mephista, called Meffi, the love of my life who unfortunately doesn't love me back, Greebo, the cow cat, and Esmeralda Weatherwax, called Esme, my little sister.
Oh, and the humans of course. Can't live without the opposable thumb people, especially if you have to live inside. Fortunately we have trained them well as have our predecessors. You might hear about them from time to time as well although I have only known two of them myself, Gandalf and Merlin.

Can you tell that the humans not only think that we are magic (just look at the names), but that they are also big fans of Terry Pratchett?
They couldn't have been more wrong about my name. I'm more the energetic type, not a computer nerd. It's okay, though. How could they have known after I broke out of my quarantine room about five minutes after they locked me up there when I came to live in this house? After all they are only humans.

I'd be happy if you joined this little ride. I'm not sure myself what to expect from it yet, but I'm curious. I'm a cat.