Friendly Fill-Ins

First, I want to send my most heartfelt condolences to my Friendly Fill-Ins co-host, Ellen of 15andmeowing. She recently said goodbye to yet another one of her beloved kitties. Her sweet kitty Polar Bear gained his angel wings.

Run free and fly high, Polar Bear. My thoughts and prayers are with Ellen.

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Ellen is taking a few days off from blogging, more than understandably, so the Friendly Fill-Ins challenge will be hosted only on my blog this week. In case you missed the fill-in statements yesterday, I'll share them again below. Ellen came up with the first two, and I came up with the second two.

1. To _________ or not to _________? is a question I ask myself.

2. I wish _________ would _________.

3. I'm on the fence about _________.

4. If you don't _________, you won't _________.

My answers are below in bold. I made them all about the furbabies this week.

1. To pet the kitty belly or not to pet the kitty belly? is a question I ask myself.

(Has a kitty ever rolled its adorably fluffy belly up to you and so you pet it, only to painfully realize the belly was a trap? The only kitties in my house who don't regularly do this are Thimble and Tonks. They both truly love belly rubs. On the other side of this coin is Eddy, who is probably the most criminal in her come-pet-my-belly-so-that-I-can-bite-the-hand-that-feeds-me traps. I usually fall for the trap, though, because I've got a thing for fuzzy kitty bellies.)

2. I wish more of my kitties would sit on my lap.

(There are 6 cats living at my house, and only 2 of them regularly humor the idea of sitting on my lap. These would be Eddy and Tonks. The other kitties will sit next to me and will even happily cuddle up to me, but my lap simply isn't their favorite thing. Even when we're in the dead cold of winter, my kitties don't flock to my lap. I find this devastating.)

3. I'm on the fence about replacing my kitties' oldest cat tree.

(The poor thing looks like it's seen a thousand better days. But, the kitties love it so much. They still use it every day. And, though it looks horrendous, it's still somehow pretty darn sturdy. It's torn, it's ripped, its all out of sisal rope, it's stained, and it looks like an absolute mess, but it has never once fallen over or lost any big parts or pieces. I was going to replace it, but since I so often see my kitties still enjoying it, I'm thinking I'll probably end up just adding another cat tree to the mix and only getting rid of the poor ancient and abused one when it truly tells me it has no last legs left to stand on.)

4. If you don't appreciate the unconditional love furry friends have to offer, you won't ever deserve it.

(This might sound harsh, but it's how I feel. People who reject or abuse the unconditional love an animal offers them, those people make me sick. It's as simple as that.)

Now it's your turn!

To add your link to the Friendly Fill-Ins Linky list, just click HERE!

You can also click on the badge below to add your link.

You are also welcome to complete the fill-ins in the comments below,

or in the comments on Ellen's blog, 15andmeowing.

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Who's ready for their Friday Eddy fix? Today we have a photo that Eddy actually sort of sat still for. She's off-center, but that's because she wanted to show off her beloved hoard of blankets behind her.

Eddy loves blankets. The ones to the right of her in this photo are clean ones haphazardly thrown into a basket, and Eddy loves pulling them out of there, hiding in them, playing in them, and just all around claiming them as hers. Sometimes blankets are a girl's best friend.

Happy Friday, friends!

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Flashback Doodle of the Day

I love scribbling up autumnal doodles as soon as September hits. That being said, the illustration we shared for our poem yesterday was a bit summery, and the doodle I'll be sharing tomorrow is a summery one (since I only just recently finally got the necessary marker to finish it). That summery doodle I'll be sharing tomorrow will be the last non-autumnal one, I believe. To go alone with these final days of summery doodles, for today I chose a flashback doodle that I created last summer, but it was also inspired by the autumnal holiday of Halloween.

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Did you know?

Why do some cats roll their bellies up to humans, and then bite the hand that pets it? The answer to this might be quite simple. The stomach is a vulnerable place on a cat's body, on any individual's body. It's where vital organs can be found. In the wild, cats rarely expose their belly, as that would expose a vulnerable and vital part of them to predators or enemies. If a wild cat does roll up their belly and expose it, it will very likely only be when they're somewhere they feel safe, and around other animals or potentially humans with whom they feel safe. The same essentially goes for our house kitties. If your feline friend exposes his or her belly to you, it's a symbol that they feel safe around you. For some kitties, though, this is only a symbol of their love, not an invitation. Some cats simply still have that instinct to attack whatever might be touching their belly, where their vital organs are. There are obviously some cats out there who love belly rubs and won't attack the hand that pets it. For other kitties, though, the wild instinct kicks in, and so a hand touching the belly becomes a target. When it comes to belly rubs, or any type of petting, try to keep an eye on a cat's body language. What's more, for your own good as well as theirs, respect a cat's preferred boundaries and space.