Friendly Fill-Ins and Festive Eddy in the Tree

Hello, friends! We hope all of you in the US had a blessed Thanksgiving yesterday, and that everyone else had a wonderful Thursday. Now it's Friday, and we're ready for the Friendly Fill-Ins challenge. My amazing co-host Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two fill-in statements, and I came up with the second two.


1. My Christmas tree goes up on _________.

2. I am thankful for _________, _________, and _________.

3. I _________ by the time December rolls around.

4. I'll be spending a lot of time _________ this holiday season.


My answers are below in bold.

1. My Christmas tree goes up on Black Friday.
(It's a longtime family tradition that our trees go up on Black Friday. This was to make sure Thanksgiving got its fair time. That said, I often start putting up all non-tree Christmas decor before or on Thanksgiving, and then the trees at my house go up on Black Friday. All that to say, my Christmas trees are indeed going up today, and I can't wait.)

2. I am thankful for my human family, my furry family, and my angels.
(I'm truly grateful for my parents, sister, and my kitties, as well as my angels of all kinds. I'm so thankful for the years I had with my sweet pup Astrid, whom I just lost in September. I'm missing her this holiday season, my first without her, but I am so glad for all of the holidays I did get to celebrate with her.)

3. I like to have all of my Christmas shopping done by the time December rolls around.
(I am so close to being done with my Christmas shopping this year. I don't know if I'll be completely done by December 1st, but I only have a couple gift cards and stocking stuffers to get at this point. I've eaten gotten all of the kitties' gifts already.)

4. I'll be spending a lot of time putting my Christmas trees back together this holiday season.
(I have a couple of tree climbers at my house, those being Eddy and Tonks. Sometimes these girls toss the actual limbs of the Christmas trees to the ground, which is so fun. The last time I ever put ornaments on a Christmas tree was Eddy's first or possibly second Christmas. She was my first ever tree climber, and I have never again risked ornaments on a tree. They now all get hung from garland high on the wall. I do still put cloth ribbons and lights on the trees, though, and I do often have to reattach those abused ribbons and straighten the light strands.) 

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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Since I'm putting up our trees today and of course mentioned Eddy's love for them, how about some of my favorite flashbacks of Eddy at Christmastime?

These were actually snapped way back when I still attempted to put ornaments on the tree. Which means some of the ornaments didn't survive the season.

Eddy and all of us here wish you a festive Friday!

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Festive Flashback Doodle of the Day

Since Eddy got to share her flashback Christmas tree photo shoot above, my other tree-loving kitty Tonks wanted me to share a flashback doodle starring her and her love for the festive tree. So, here's an old one of those.

That there is yet another doodle I'd love to recreate with my somewhat updated drawing style. I don't deem that one there awful or anything like that, but I see parts of it that I would improve or change given how I prefer to draw these days.

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Tip of the Day

November is National Pet Diabetes Awareness Month. That's why today we're giving a quick tip related to this disease. This tip is one that you all certainly know, and that is to be very vigilant with regard to your furbaby's behavior and appearance, keeping an eye out for signs of diabetes, and of course for signs of any disease. How often is your kitty or pup drinking? How often are they urinating? What is the volume of their urine? The color of it? Has their appetite increased? Has it decreased? Does their fur look dry and dull? Are they less active than usual? Have any of these things changed recently? How recently? These are just some of the questions that, as a pet parent, you have to ask yourself on a regular basis. Regularly observe and check your kitty or pup for any changes in their behavior and appearance. What's more, as always, if you have any concerns, consult your veterinarian.

Given that my family has experience with it thanks to my parents' diabetic kitty Trapper and my sister's equally diabetic kitty Toby, I also wanted to mention the feline diabetes medication Bexacat. This medication is said to more likely work in cases where diabetes is the result of a kitty being overweight, which was the case for both Trapper and Toby. But, it also worked for my parents' angel kitty Talon, who was not overweight and instead developed diabetes as a result of steroid treatments. All that said, Bexacat is a once-a-day pill that redirects excess blood sugar to the urine. This means a kitty on it will always have high sugar in their urine, but it helps them excrete it from their blood that way. If a veterinary-assisted test run of Bexacat proves to work for a kitty, without any issues like ketoacidosis, then they can take that instead of insulin. It is my understanding that it only works in kitties who have never before been treated long-term with insulin, and so it's often prescribed for newly diagnosed kitties. It has kept the aforementioned boy Trapper's diabetes successfully regulated for multiple years now, and it's also worked for Toby for many months. Those two boys are honestly now healthier and more fit than they've been in a long time. So, we just wanted to mention this Bexacat in case your kitty is diagnosed with diabetes and this might be an option.