Orange.

Gee, it has been a month since I last posted. Sorry. We have been pretty lazy around here the last weeks ...
Well, this month's topic at JAC is "Orange". Make something with the color orange. Well, I don't "make". So I thought I'd show you a picture of Buster eating an orange carrot instead.
Much more interesting anyway ...

If you want to read some serious posts about orange, you can find them here:
N Valentine Studio
Jewelry Art by Dawn
Cat's Wire

Mother's Day

Mother's Day? That's this month's topic for the JAC forum blog carnival?
Could you make it any more difficult for me? I don't know where Esme's and my Mom is. Human Mom doesn't even know who she is or was. She does have an image in her head, yes, but I can't tell her if it's true. It's a bit of a sore subject between us, but it's no my fault the lady can't speak cat very well.
She did meet Meffi's and Greebo's mother at the farm. Seriously though, who cares? We are all stuck with her now. Do I sound a bit miffed? That's because I am. She trimmed my claws this morning while all I wanted to do was snuggle with her. I can't help the skin on her knee being so thin obviously. The food she served today was a cruel joke, we didn't touch it (Mom: "It wasn't junk food, but that doesn't make it a cruel joke!! You ate it just fine off Meffi's plate yesterday, you hypocrite!"). Yesterday she kept telling me I was too heavy to lie on her arm while she was typing. Oh, now I'm fat, too? Huh? Is that what you are trying to tell me?

I'm not sure if things will look up until Mother's Day. She might get a gift after all. I'm just not sure yet if it will be love and hugs or an agreement not to provoke Meffi that day or if it will be something on the carpet that makes her eyes roll.

For some human Mother's Day please have a look at these posts. I'll add more links as I receive them.

Cat's Wire
Bead Sophisticate
Jewelry Art by Dawn
Jeanne's Jems and Jewels 

It's been a hard day's night

Or maybe it has been a hard night's day. Or a hard morning's afternoon. Or maybe a cat's hard life's break?
Poor little sister. Mom should be ashamed of herself, making Esme work like a dog. A cat should never have to work like a dog.

It started with having to wake up Mom. Cats do not have a snooze button, and still we keep coming back, playing every dirty trick in the house. Not because we want to, but because we have to. Can't we be hungry, only because it's 4 am in the morning? At least today she gave in at 6 ... but then we didn't like the food. Esme is close to starving anyway, can't you tell? Shame on you, Mom.

As our human is not ready or able to learn, we had to repeat the protests at 11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm and 6.45 pm. Esme is invaluable during these actions, not only because she can use her most annoying voice, the one that goes like a drill right into a human's brain, but also because she definitely is the expert headbutter in this house. She has the neck of a full grown bull and she's not afraid to use that head.
She also uses it to help let out Buster, to try and knock the laptop off the desk when more important things need to be done (like feeding or brushing or feeding ... did I mention feeding?).

Of course in between there are the little tasks like getting into Mom's way and almost make her trip, walk on her ribs - which always works best when she wants to sleep - everyday stuff like that.

It can wear the toughest cat out.

Mom got a new loom

She did get it just so I could have a new box! Well done, Mom!
Let me demonstrate how this rather flat box can be used. (It does remind a bit of a pizza box, doesn't it? I'm never allowed to take a nap in a pizza box, though.)

 

The Ultimate Beadloom. Who cares. It should say The Ultimate Beadloom BOX!

Are you ready? Watch.

A very classic position. As you can tell, the box holds almost all of my length, and believe me, I was not the runt of the litter.

Relaxed on my side. I call this my orgy position even if I don't have one of those old Roman couches. I also don't eat nightingale tongues.

It doesn't make a half bad bed, either. I've been told I passed out from one second to the next and didn't wake up until half an hour later ...

P.S. I know I didn't show the sitting up position. Well, do forgive me for being a bit lazy every, now and then. You know what a hard worker I usually am!

P.P.S. You can even use this box to puke on. I'm not going to show a picture of that one, though. Mom was not happy that I hit the carpet first and she was doing a lot of grumbling while cleaning up instead of pitying me for stuffing my face too much after she refused to get up at 3, 4, 5 and 6 am to feed us. I was hungry, geez ... and when I'm hungry, I tend to overdo it sometimes.

P.P.P.S. Of course the others are also allowed to use it after it has been cleaned up. Mom tried to get a picture of Esme and her yellow ball in the box, but she was too slow. Maybe she should have gotten her pick-her-up morning chai earlier!

You've got a friend

Hum along if you know the song while reading another tale of crime, catastrophes and friendship.

Let's start with the catastrophes. Both Mom and I have been terribly lazy bloggers lately. There are several things that kept us - lack of motivation, laziness and general headdesking (is that a word?).
To be open about it, Mom was the one who mostly did the last one while I supervised it to make sure she didn't put any big dents in one of my favorite napping spots.
I'll spare you the whole story of blocked sinks, pipe cleaning guys, water under the sink, home remedies, plumber cracks, lying around on the kitchen floor, using up a lot of kitchen roll ... let me just say we knock on as much wood as we can find to make sure that is over now. Meffi is tired of having to vacate her kitchen spots, Esme is tired of having to hide under the duvet while Greebo is sitting under the bed ... and I'm tired of Mom whining. If someone is allowed to whine here, it's me, if only because it's fun to drive Mom nuts while she is trying to find out what I want, hehe.

And now to the crime section. All I'll say is Swedish chicken and a hungry cow cat. When will Mom learn to put the complete food order away? She got up because she suspected Buster was nibbling on the last box in his room, instead she found Greebo in the box outside of Buster's room.
The funny part about it is that from that moment on Greebo has been refusing to touch the Swedish chicken mostly.

You know that Buster is free to run again, do you? The cage you see in the picture is just the place where he has his food, water, some of his toys and the spot where he can read his morning paper, ehem. He really seems to love his room, and we visit him a lot, even Meffi has taken up the habit to stay with him.
If you need proof of a beautiful friendship, here it is - Esme, Buster and Greebo.
Unfortunately Mom was too slow to get the camera and I still have that opposable thumb problem meaning I don't have one. If she was quicker, you would have seen pictures of Buster trying to get up on Esme's back. It was adorable, I guess. At least I Mom said awwww a lot.

See you around soon for this month's JAC blog ring, and who knows, maybe I'll share some pictures with you before that. I do have a load in my special cat folder that need editing.
Have a good time until then!

Plans for the new year

Wow, it has been a long time, but seriously, guys, I had a LOT on my plate. You wouldn't believe the things that are going on here.

We are very slowly trying to find back to a normal life now. Buster has his freedom back and is doing his best to adjust to the new, slippery floor. Esme is feeling better and still fighting Mom every other day about taking her medication. Greebo has been all the way up on the stairs today and had the same confused look on his face as I did the first time. Unfortunately the picture got all blurry. Meffi is sleeping in her basket on the fridge right now, and I'm just about to settle on the table in a few minutes if the vacuum is already reserved (it's not packed away because there's a big session has been going on over the last few days).

You remember the Jewelry Artisans Community? They are trying to get back into the groove and had another blog ring with the topic "Plans for the new year".
To be honest, I feel the year is pretty used already. It has one or the other scratch. Just like Mom, hehe. Can you believe that earlier this evening she started trimming my claws? We have had a seriously heated discussion about that.

And that brings me to my main plan.
Mom needs to learn respect again. She needs to see that we are the bosses around here, and that I'm Mr Ponder Stibbons, the male in the house. The numero uno honcho. Mr Wonderful. The Chief of Chief and the King of Kings. The Ruler. The Only One. PONDER. In big and bold letters.
I have spoken.

Wanna know what plans the others have got? Check it out!
Cat's Wire (I am missing plans to spoil the felines in this one)
Bead Sophisticate
N Valentine Studio
Jewelry Art by Dawn

Stairway to .... huh???

What the??? Seriously, I mean, I'm ... Sorry, guys, but I'm still a bit confused about what I saw today.
We have had the contractor in house for weeks now, and finally even I got annoyed and didn't try to play with him anymore. At first he fixed up Buster's room, then he kept disappearing behind the door to the dining room, the room with the stairs going up.
Today the door finally opened again, and it didn't take long before I went to check out what had happened. I'm not sure what I had expected, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that!!

The first check

"Mom, something is very wrong here, there used to be a hole to walk through!"

"Ok, Ponder, let me explain to you what happened ...."

"I think it's still a little dusty up here, I'll need to clean myself."

"You know, it is kind of weird for a big cat like me, but I guess I could get used to it."

"Esme, Greebo, Meffi!!! You'll have to see this!!!"

"Oh come on, you cowards, that'll be a great hiding spot, come and check it out!"

"It's still weird, though."

The other three haven't checked it out yet and I still like to sit up there and yell hoping the hole will open back up again. Mom says that won't happen, but that we'll try to get creative soon and add some fun stuff like a spider web for the Steiff spiders, maybe a curtain - I vote for beaded, that would be sooo much fun to play with! - and who knows what.
Maybe it'll become the stairway to cat heaven after all? ;-)