Merry Twelfth Day of Christmas!

Today, on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, we of course have some festive gratitude to share for Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

You better believe our Christmas trees are still up, and you better believe that's what little Thimble is thankful for on this Twelfth Day of Christmas.

That shot is a bit blurry, but Thimble just couldn't contain her excitement for the continued festive season. This next shot is probably blurry as well, but even so, it's Thimble modeling Eddy's year round Christmas tree in the human's Eddy's bedroom.

Thimble and all of us here wish you a Merry Twelfth Day of Christmas!

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Now we of course have for you the fill-in statements for tomorrow's Friendly Fill-Ins challenge. My amazing co-host Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two, and I came up with the second two.

1. January is a good month to _________.

2. My favorite kind of pizza is _________.

3. The new year just began and I'm already _________.

4. My typical weekend involves _________.

We'll see you tomorrow, friends!

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Festive Flashback Doodles of the Day

I had hoped to have my scanner up and going before this Twelfth Day of Christmas so as to properly share at least one of our new festive doodles for the occasion, but that didn't get accomplished yet. If everything goes to plan today, I (or someone far more tech savvy than myself) will have the scanner back up and running today and will likely be sharing two new doodles tomorrow, which is Three Kings Day. And, as I mentioned before, I'll be extending our Christmas festivities at least through this weekend so that we can share a couple more of our severely neglected new doodles.

All that said, since I don't have a new doodle for the Twelfth Day of Christmas, I thought I'd share a number of flashback doodles. This first one is so old that it pre-dates 4-year-old Tonks and Winky, which is why they are absent from it.

The next two are both about 3 years old and don't have too much explanation to them, except that my love for the festive red truck showed up in the windows of both of them.

The next two are a bit more odd, I guess you could say. I believe they were both illustrations for poems I scribbled up for some of Angel Sammy's past Thoroughly Poetic Thursday challenges (which I plan on finally starting to participate in again this month).

Again, Merry Twelfth Day of Christmas! We'll see you tomorrow for Three Kings Day and yet more festiveness.

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Tip of the Day

We are still working through our series of tips on caring for outdoor feral and stray cats in the cold winter months, and we're currently still on the topic of shelters. If you do care for feral or other outdoor cats, if possible, try to offer more than one shelter. These could even be just multiple plain and simple shelters, and even makeshift ones that allow cats to find some form of respite from direct exposure to the elements. Having multiple shelter areas can allow for more cats to find a potentially safe and warm place to spend a cold day or night. Multiple shelters can especially, of course, help reduce competition, especially amongst cats who might not get along and therefore might not readily share shelter space. Putting shelters in multiple locations is also a way to reduce competition and to allow more outdoor cats to find a safe place to stay in the winter. You can also offer varying shelter types, such as those made from different construction materials and those with different internal layouts. This could help cater to feral or other outdoor cats who might be picky about where they are comfortable staying. Offering any shelter at all, even just one, is of course incredibly beneficial to outdoor cats in the cold winter. If you are able to offer more than one shelter, though, do consider this as a way to enable more cats to be safe and warm in the winter.