Friendly Fill-Ins

Hello and happy Friday! We're ready for the Friendly Fill-Ins challenge. Are you? If you'd like to join us but missed the fill-in statements yesterday, we'll share them again now. Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two, and I came up with the second two.


1. I might _________.

2. I want to _________ before fall is over.

3. If my house were haunted, _________.

4. _________ is the scariest thing that's ever happened to me.

My answers are below in bold, accompanied yet again by far-too-long explanations.

1. I might dress up for Halloween this year.

(As much as I love Halloween, I actually don't usually dress up in a costume. I have some festive Halloween shirts, and each year I wear one of those on Halloween when handing out candy. This year, though, I'm actually dressing up in a costume. So what if I'm a grown adult? And can you guess what I'm planning to dress up as? A black cat, of course! I dressed up as a black cat as a child, and I believe I'll do it again. It's really quite easy. I ordered a giant black cat onesie on Amazon, complete with a hood that even has kitty ears. And since we're in pandemic mode, my mom is sewing me a black mask that will have a cat nose, mouth, and whiskers.)

2. I want to make a haunted gingerbread house before fall is over.

(Has anyone ever heard of or seen the baking competition called the Haunted Gingerbread Showdown? Or am I the only one obsessed with Halloween baking shows? I'm probably the only one, and that's totally. Either way, I watched that show and decided that this year I'll be making a haunted gingerbread house to celebrate the Halloween season. Except, since my family is full of chocoholics, I'll actually be making the house out of chocolate cookie parts and pieces rather than gingerbread. I'll be using royal icing to decorate it with spider webs and all sorts of other spooky goodies.)

3. If my house were haunted, Thimble would befriend whatever paranormal entity joined us.

(Thimble is known not only as the most social and friendly cat at our house, but also for walking around the house talking to walls, closet doors, corners, and all that jazz. Sometimes I wonder who or what she's talking to, and my family and I have before joked that she chats with beings in other dimensions. So, if my house were haunted, Thimble would have a new friend.)

4. Angel Rosie falling out of a window is the scariest thing that's ever happened to me.

(Most of the scariest things in my life have involved something unfortunate happening to one of my furbabies. I've had my kitties and pups fall ill, get diagnosed with scary diseases, and of course I've had to say goodbyes to beloved cats and dogs. For some reason, though, perhaps because of just how unexpected and sudden it was, Rosie falling out of a window and briefly disappearing is what first came to my mind for this answer. It was when I was a teenager that my calico angel Rosie, who many of you might remember, indeed fell through the screen of a window. My family and I didn't even know this had occurred at the time it happened. I remember walking into the room in which Rosie had been relaxing in the window earlier in the day, feeling more breeze in there than usual, and then noticing the screen of Rosie's window flapping all about in the wind. I panicked. My mom panicked. We all panicked. It was about to storm, the wind was picking up, the temperature was dropping, and Rosie was not in the house. We looked outside, and luckily it actually didn't take long for us to spot her crouched near a corner of the house, hiding behind a gutter downspout. I've been lucky in that none of my other furbabies have ever escaped the house or gone missing, so this one event with Rosie really sticks out for me.)

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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Flashback Doodle of the Day

We'll be sharing all brand new Halloween doodles for the entirety of next week. Today, though, we're sharing a furry little trick-or-treater from last year. Who remembers this kitty hunting for candy?

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Ready for a fix of Eddy? Last week, Eddy revealed that she had added both of reading teacher Evan's Halloween book suggestions to her personal little library. Eddy trusts her beloved Evan's opinion, so she found herself a copy of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree. This week, Eddy promised to let you all know which of the two she decided to read first.

There was much deliberation. Picking a book to read can be a real debacle sometimes.

Did you catch that? It was with much consideration and a cheek rub that Eddy chose to read The Halloween Tree first. Perhaps she heard from Tonks how scary "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is, and how it stars far too few cats.

Eddy hopes you all have a happy Friday filled with good reads!

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Tip of the Day

Today's tips is another one to help keep anxious or excitable furbabies calm and safe on Halloween night. This tip involves a couple more things you can do in order to help your kitty or pup from becoming scared or agitated when trick-or-treaters are active. For example, if your cat or dog is scared or becomes excited at the sound of the doorbell, then one option is to disconnect it on Halloween night. If you hand out candy on Halloween, you can also use options such as placing the candy dish outside for trick-or-treaters to grab some loot themselves, sitting outside to hand out candy, or simply staying near the door and watching for trick-or-treaters so that they won't need to knock or ring the doorbell. During this year of the pandemic, leaving candy outside and thereby reducing contact with others might even be the recommended form of trick-or-treating in some areas. As we've mentioned in previous tips, there are still ways to enjoy Halloween and its festivities while also keeping your kitty or pup as calm and safe as possible. This might mean taking some extra precautions and finding a method that works for you and your furbaby.