Birthday Girls and the Letter H

Hello, friends! It's time for H in the April A to Z Challenge.

Our alphabetical theme is All Things Cat, which means this month I'm sharing doodles of items shaped like cats. And today, for the letter H, we went a bit vague with the term heart health.

This stethoscope is another example of an item I just couldn't make work for S, given what S will actually stand for. So, it indeed got to stand for heart health.

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Tuesday is usually Tonks Tuesday around here. Today, though, my little calico decided to let me share a couple of other ladies here on our blog. After all, my parents' calico Gemma and their tortie Freya are celebrating their 9th birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Gemma and Freya! These little ladies are, well, not so little. They're both something like 18 lbs, two of the biggest cats in the family, but they sure are sweet and gorgeous. Here's to many more birthdays with these pretty ladies!

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Tip of the Day

We're in the midst of tips regarding parasites and their prevention. We have so far covered heartworms, fleas, tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms. Now, today, it's all about those ear mites.

As is probably obvious, ear mites affect the ears, living primary in the ear canal. For what it's worth, ear mites are more commonly seen in cats, making dogs the luckier, less typical victims of these buggers. Ear mites can be spread directly from cat to cat.

Now, what will you notice if your cat, or dog, has an ear mite infestation? Your furbaby's ears will itch, they will scratch at them, there can therefore be inflammation in the area, and they may even shake their heads or hold their ears low due to the irritation. You also may see dark, brownish debris in the ears, which is commonly described as resembling coffee grounds.

If you do see any of the above symptoms in your kitty or pup, have them seen by a veterinarian. Ear mites can ultimately lead to secondary ear infections and other similar issues, so taking care of them is of course best for your furbaby's health and happiness. Your veterinarian can test for ear mites by swabbing the ears and looking at the debris under a microscope.

When it comes to treatment, it is of course best to use medications prescribed directly by your veterinarian. There are drops or other treatments that can offer a relatively fast-acting eradication of the ear mites. In addition, there are monthly preventatives that cover ear mites. These can typically help take care of existing mites, as well as prevent a future ear mite infestation. Discuss any and all such options with your veterinarian, especially if your furbaby is largely outdoors and potentially more susceptible to such infestations.

Guest Sunday Selfies

We have some guest selfies for you again this Sunday. We've started a bit of series of posts starring my parents' 12 cats, since multiple of you friends of ours mentioned that you'd like to meet this clowder of a dozen. So far you've met my parents' kitties Trapper and Talon, who are the litter mates to my girl Thimble and our housemate Toby. Today, we have two lady cats for you. These girls are Gemma and Freya, and they began living with my parents in July of 2015. We'll start with Gemma.

As you can see, Gemma is a gorgeous dilute calico. Gemma was the first calico to join the family after we lost our 21-year-old calico angel Rosie. My mom knew she wanted another calico at some point after losing Rosie, since Rosie gave gorgeous calicoes such a good name. My mom knew a calico would someday enter her life when it was meant to be, but she also mentioned how wonderful it would be if one revealed itself for her birthday.

My mom's birthday is smack dab in the middle of July. So, one day smack dab in the middle of July 2015, I went to the pet store for cat litter. This pet store showcases kitties who are part of one of our local cat rescue groups, to help them get adopted. I walked in that day, and the first thing I saw was a dilute calico kitten face staring at me from one of the cages. My dad was actually with me that day, but he was in the car. So, I of course said hello to all the kitties, got a good look at the gorgeous calico kitten, checked out my cat litter, and went out to the car. I told my dad about the calico kitten, and he immediately wanted to see it. He went in, saw the gorgeous calico kitten for himself, and within 30 minutes he had gone home, gotten my mom, taken her to the pet store, and they were filling out an adoption application.

Guess what, though? Calico kitty had a sister in the cage with her. This kitty was a dilute tortie. Of course, my parents could not allow the sisters to be separated, so there they were filling out two adoption application, one for the calico now named Gemma, and one for the tortie now named Freya.

That photo of Freya right there does absolutely no justice to how gorgeous she is. It does, however, give an indication of her personality. You can actually see in both Gemma and Freya's above selfies that they aren't too keen on having a camera shoved in their faces. Actually, they're not too keen on having anything in their faces, not even the faces or hands of the humans they like.

The cat rescue group from which my parents adopted Gemma and Freya were open and honest about the fact that these girls were semi-feral and skittish little ladies trapped out in the country. My parents understood that and were perfectly fine with it. It indeed took a long time for these two little ladies to come out of their shells, especially Freya. Freya actually had to be put on anti-anxiety medications when she was barely a year old because she just needed a little extra help feeling secure. She no longer needs those medications, though, because though she is still a skittish girl on occasion, she is really very happy in her home and loves spending time with her humans. So does Gemma.

In case you're wondering, though these girls were more or less birthday gifts for my mom, they are both complete and total daddy's girls. They love my dad so much. Though they started out semi-feral, they both now enjoy sitting with their humans, but most especially with the leading man in their life. Gemma has actually become quite a lap cat, and you'll often find her sitting on my dad's legs when he's watching TV in the evening. Freya is more likely to sit next to you rather than on you, but you will indeed often find her curled up next to my dad. These girls also both love food, and they're always both first in line to get the daily canned food feedings.

Now, how about a couple of fun facts? When my parents brought Gemma and Freya home, at that time they only had two other cats, those being the boys Trapper and Talon we've already introduced. We mentioned in Talon's post that he loves anything and everything that lives and breathes and moves. Needless to say, when my parents brought Gemma and Freya home, Talon took to them immediately and thoroughly enjoyed showing them around the house. I honestly believe that it was Talon's attentiveness that really helped these semi-feral girls come out of their shells.

Second fun fact? Though it was Talon who showed them the ropes of living in their forever home, Gemma ended up forming a crush on Trapper. She still constantly seeks him out and forces him to cuddle with her. He's given up fighting it, because she is relentless in her pursuit of his love.

And how about a third fun fact? My dad named Gemma and Freya. His main goal in naming was them was to give them pretty names. Why? Because, obviously, they're pretty girls, and my dad knew their names had to reflect that. The cat rescue organization from which they were adopted had given Gemma the name of Mia and Freya the name of Dawn. But, as you can tell, they didn't keep those, and they have been known as Gemma and Freya since they were 10 weeks old.

Oh, one more fun fact? My girl Eddy is from the same rescue group as Gemma and Freya. In fact, it was when my mom and dad were adopting Gemma and Freya that I met Eddy, and I adopted her 3 days after my parents adopted Gemma and Freya.

Okay, that's all the fun facts we have for now. We hoped you enjoyed meeting Gemma and Freya! It's not exactly easy to get selfies of these girls, because anything being shoved in their face is a big no-no, so I don't do it often. But, we managed a selfie of each, and though they look thoroughly annoyed in them, we hope you can also see just how gorgeous they are.

Happy Sunday, friends!

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Doodle of the Day: Flashback Sunday

I usually share a new doodle rather than a flashback doodle on Sunday. I even have a doodle all planned out for today. That being said, between fun Halloween activities, followed immediately by a really early Thanksgiving family gathering for which I spent an entire day baking pies and an entire day visiting with said family, I didn't get today's doodle done in time to post it today. So, I went through my doodles from last November, in search of one that caught my eye. I ultimately saw one that I'd completely forgotten I'd doodled, but that gave off what I hope might be cozy autumn vibes. I figured that was a good enough one to share today.

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Tip of the Day

Our pet cancer prevention tip for today is about food. Quality food, that is as natural and nutrient-dense as possible, is important for our furbabies for a variety of reasons. One such reason is to promote a healthy immune system that can sufficiently ward away diseases, including cancer. Foods of poorer quality not only put a kitty or pup at risk of an unhealthy immune and other systems, but can also potentially contain ingredients that are less than beneficial to their health overall. For both our furbabies and ourselves, some artificial ingredients and preservatives in certain foods have even been found to be potentially carcinogenic. For this reason and others, if possible, please do consider a high quality diet for your furbaby. Foods with natural ingredients are most ideal, as these will of course provide natural nutrients that can help keep your furbaby healthy and happy all around. As most of you already know, food plays a large role in life for a vast number of reasons.

Caturday Art

For today's Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by our furiend Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty, I felt compelled to create something to honor all of the furbabies who have helped shape me into the person I am today. I have wanted to do something like this for a while, and just now got around to a first attempt.

All the way from childhood and now into my adulthood, I have been lucky enough to share my life with a number of furry best friends. That being said, fitting all of the furbabies I've loved into one drawing would take lots and lots of time and ink. So, for now, I've tried to create a piece that combines all of them and their wonderful attributes into a communal representation. I hope this piece properly honors each and every one of my past and present furbabies in their own way, because each and every one of them has impacted and inspired me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I was going to use this post to give you all a proper introduction to the furbabies that played such significant roles in my childhood. However, I'm going to hold off on that for just a little longer, because I have another drawing in the works that focuses a little more heavily on those furbabies. So, you will soon enough learn more about these gone but never forgotten furbabies of mine.

My furbabies and I want to wish everybuddy a beautiful Caturday! We hope it's filled with lots of family, friends, and fun!

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Our Tip of the Day:
Never forget the benefits a pet can have on a child and his or her development. A pet, such as a dog or cat, can serve as a child's best friend as well as a teacher and mentor for the child. Pets not only give children playmates and help keep children active, but they also teach children skills in responsibility, compassion, and even social interaction. This all being said, always be sure to consider the individual child's personality, family dynamic, and overall lifestyle before making the commitment of adding a pet to a child's life. If a pet is indeed brought into the family, be sure the child understands the importance of proper and humane treatment of animals.

Friday Fun

It's Friday! And today is an especially fun one! Today is The Pet Blogger Bloopers Round-Up, hosted by The Lazy Pit Bull. That's not all, though. Today is also the first Friendly Fill-Ins challenge, hosted by our furiends over at 15andmeowing and McGuffy's Reader.

I'll start with the Fill-In challenge today. For this challenge, the hosts will give the challengers fill-in-the-blank sentences to complete. This is my first time doing this sort of challenge, so I'll apologize in advance for any lack of creativity or skill on my part. That all being said, these are the fill-ins given this week:

1. I want to stop _________ and start _________.
2. I haven't _________ in _________.
3. I believe _________.
4. My earliest memory is _________.

And now, here's where I fill them in:

1. I want to stop being lazy and start getting more organized.
2. I haven't stepped foot in a library in over a year. (How horrible! I read all the time, but I get most of my books online now.)
3. I believe that knowledge is power.
4. My earliest memory is when I was roughly 3 years old and my childhood budgie bird named Pippin escaped from our house and went missing for roughly 30 minutes. (He ended up in a neighbor's yard. We caught him, took him home, and had creamy garlic pasta for supper. Isn't it strange what details we remember sometimes?)

I look forward to participating in the Friendly Fill-In challenge each week! I love challenges such as this, as they allow us to get to know all of our blogging furiends even better.

Now, we'll move on to our bloopers. This time around, the furbabies offered lots of close-up photo fails. So, I figured why not feature some of those shots today...

Thimble may love to pose for the camera, but that doesn't mean she doesn't like to give the lens a good ol' smudging every once in a while. 

Evan often asks, "What is with this thing that you keep shoving in my face, Mom?"

Eddy wanted to make sure that everyone got a real good, closeup view of her Elvis snarl.

Sometimes, when I ask Astrid to smile, she turns into a phantom instead.

This momma was glad to find out that it's not just my furbabies who offer up plenty of bloopers. The other furbabies in the family participated as well...

Toby is really, really proud of his whiskers.

Trapper, like my boy Evan, really wants to know why this flashy box thing keeps getting all up in his business.

Talon decided to photobomb his little sister Gemma by, well, squashing her with his face. (Do you see poor Gemma there in the bottom right corner?)

Gemma recovered from being squashed, though, only to be distracted by the flashy box during snack time. (Do you like Freya's lip-licking photobomb?)

Finished with her snack, Freya thought she'd take a turn to offer the camera lens a good ol' nose painting.

Wishing all of our furiends a happy and fun Friday!

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Our Tip of the Day:

As disheartening or morbid as it may seem, it is important to always remember to account for the fate of your furbabies should anything happen to you. Be sure that you have a person and/or place lined up to take in your furbabies should you become injured or incapacitated and unable to care for them. Similarly, include your furbabies in your will. Talk to family and friends and inquire as to whom might be willing to take in your furbabies should it come to that. This way, if the unthinkable happens, your furbabies' fate will not be an unknown.

Sunday Selfies

For today's Sunday Selfie blog hop, hosted by our furiends over at The Cat on My Head, my furbabies wanted to debut some of the first photos taken with their momma's new camera! A creature of habit, this human had always just kept to her same ol', perhaps slightly outdated camera. But now, for the first time in over a decade, I have a new camera. This is thanks to my furbabies' auntie (aka, my sister), who thought I was too far behind the times and so got me a pawesome new camera for my birthday last week. Thanks, sis!

As I've noted before, I'm far from a professional photographer, but I love this new camera. I'm slowly learning how to adjust these things called white balance and exposure, in order to take acceptable photos in any lighting. I'm still far from an expert, but I'm starting to get the hang of it...

Astrid with one of her obligatory window selfies.

And Evan, another guilty member of the obligatory window selfie party.

Thimble just loves to help her mommy experiment with perspective and angles..."Is this my good side, Mom?"

Eddy!

And here's housemate Toby. This boy and his black fur will be the death of the photographer inside of me.

Our selfies aren't done there, though! I was perhaps most excited to go visit my parents' kitties with my new flashy box in hand. This is because I often visit my parents and their kitties in the evening, which means that photo shoots with them tend to be after sundown. With my older, overworked camera, lack of natural sunlight typically always meant less than successful results. However, after getting my new camera, I headed over to my parents' house for an evening visit with their furbabies, and managed to snap shots of all four of their furbabies with not too terrible of results. Keeping in mind that my less than technologically inclined mind is still trying to grasp the full concept of white balance, exposure, and all those fun things, here are some long overdue selfies of the other furbabies in my life:

Here's Thimble's giant-sized twin brother, Trapper.

Another of Thimble's brothers, Talon, is Mr. Active and gave me just this one barely successful selfie.

Pretty tabby/tortie Freya so kindly posed in front of one of my dad's awesome fish tanks. But, she preferred a closed-eye selfie.

Freya's sister Gemma, a pretty calico, is not a big fan of the camera. Can you tell?

And so there you have it. Nine selfies. Whew. Thanks, sis, for the new toy that made this possible!

A very happy Sunday to all of our furiends!

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Our Tip of the Day:

I've given tips on keeping a pet-friendy kitchen, bathroom, and study. Now, today, how about a couple of tips to ensure that your bedroom is pet-friendly? If you keep your shoes in your bedroom, keep them hidden away so as to keep your dogs, or even your cats, from chewing on them and getting themselves in trouble or in danger of intestinal blockage. The same would of course go for socks and any other potentially tempting items of clothing. Also be sure to keep small hair accessories and jewelry in a hidden location, so that curious paws and mouths can't play with or ingest them. Safety first!

Abracadabra Caturday Art

My contribution for today's Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the lovely Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty, was inspired by a comment I recently stumbled upon online. In this comment, someone mentioned drawing characters from Harry Potter as - guess what? - none other than kittens.

I don't know if any of you share this sentiment with me, but I'm a bit of a fan of Harry Potter. I was in grade school when the books first came out, and so I was one of those who grew up reading them. And of course there's also the fact that fantasy has always been my favorite genre to read. (Want a fun little tidbit? I can largely thank my dad, an avid reader himself, for my love of the fantasy genre. After all, he read The Hobbit to me and my sister as a bedtime story when we were just barely school age. And I loved every second of it. But I digress.)

So, back to Caturday Art. Long story short, I stumbled upon that comment about drawing Harry Potter characters as kittens, and then this happened:

I had a lot of fun with this one. But, I do apologize to those who are not familiar with Harry Potter, as the details of this drawing probably make little to no sense to you. Just keep in mind that Harry Potter is full of all sorts of fantastical fun, including a school in a magical castle, as well as a magical car, a lightning bolt scar, lots of books, and even a pink umbrella.

I felt compelled to include all the furbabies in my life in this one. You can see my Evan, Eddy, Thimble, and Astrid up close and personal, but if you look in the background you'll also see little appearances from the other kitties in my family. I even included an homage to my angel Rosie.

So, am I the only Harry Potter fan here? Or are there others out there?

Happy Caturday to all of our furiends!

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Our Tip of the Day:

Continuing with our household safety tips, let's move on to your study or work area. To keep the area pet-friendly, keep all small objects tucked away in a drawer or somewhere safe. This includes pens and pencils, paper clips, rubber bands, flash drives, and any and all other such items. Also be sure that all cords, such as those belonging to your computer, are tucked up and hidden away from curious paws and teeth. Another helpful hint? If your furbabies prove a little too eager to help you in your work area, be sure that they are provided with plenty of their own toys and resting places in the room, so that they won't be so tempted by you and your work at hand.

Sunday Selfies: Lady Cats

For today's Sunday Selfie blog hop, hosted by the always pawesome The Cat on My Head, my lady cats were the most willing participants. Well, sort of.

My girl Thimble went for a look of shock and awe:

My girl Eddy, well, she tried so hard to sit still. How'd that go? Not so great.

She did make a second attempt, though, which showed some improvement:.

Two other lady cats in my life are my parents' lovely calico and tortie girls, Gemma nd Freya. Although they certainly aren't all that keen on having their pictures taken, they still get to participate in today's post in the form of my last piece of Valentine art. Because of the saying I chose to use, this Valentine is, I'll admit, as much for us cat-loving humans as it is for the little lady cats starring in it.

Happy Valentine's Day and lots of love to all of our furiends and friends!

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Our Tip of the Day:

Although some cats and dogs may not care or show any concern for such things, always keep in mind the heightened sense of smell that our furbabies possess. Everything smells far more potent to them than it does to us. Keeping that in mind, be careful what all fragranced items you choose to use, as our furbabies may not appreciate having to smell a fragrance just because we do. For example, take into consideration the scent of laundry detergent you use to wash their bedding, and consider the potential effects of choosing litter with a fragrance (many cats do not like fragranced litter - this sort of thing is on the market more for us humans than for the animals' sake), Also, you may even want to be aware of what perfume or cologne you wear, as even some such scents can ward our furbabies away from us.

Happy New Year!

From our entire family to yours, we wish you a happy and healthy 2016, and we hope that it is filled with many blessings and family, friends, and fun!

Happy New Year (and Merry Eighth Day of Christmas)!

Sunday Selfies: Christmas Style

For this week's Sunday Selfie blog hop, hosted by the wonderful The Cat on My Head, my furbabies wanted to give a bit of a review of our Christmas festivities. Before we get to the actual selfies, let's start with Christmas Eve, when we were anxiously awaiting Santa Paws...

Astrid and Evan were determined to see the man in red. But, alas, their vigil lasted only shortly before the snoozies kicked in.

My girls Thimble and Eddy were all excitement and bundled up energy. They even insisted on helping me make Santa's gingerbread men cookies. Obviously, we're still working on the "no furbabies on the counter" rule. (As always, excited Thibnle and Eddy = blurry Thimble and Eddy.)

Once all the furbabies finally wore themselves out and fell asleep, Christmas morning was soon upon us. And Santa Paws had come! A couple weeks back the kitties got an early gift in the form of their new cat tree (which was perhaps more of a gift to the poor, ravaged Christmas tree), but that didn't mean Santa didn't visit them on Christmas morning as well...

Santa left the kitties some yummy new food to try and new catnip toys specially selected for each of them (he even left enough for us to share with Thimble's brothers and Pawpaw and Gammy's two little ladycats)!

And of course Santa never forgets the doggie...

For Astrid, Santa left two new chew bones and two packs of moist food. (Astrid doesn't get much moist food because of her picky stomach, so she was thrilled!)

After waiting (not so patiently) for their mom to photograph all the goodies, the furbabies finally got to have their way with Santa's gifts.

The kitties were all over the house with their new catnip toys. Evan was the first to decide on taking a selfie, when he stopped to take a moment to show off his new red heart toy:

Toby wanted to show off his new toy - a black mustache! - but decided he wanted his selfie in the form of a video:

Before we knew it, the furbabies' pawpaw and gammy (my parents) arrived at our house to join the Christmas festivities. (Astrid thought seeing Pawpaw was about just as good of a gift as her new chew bones and moist food. After all, it had been a whole roughly 12 hours since she's last seen him!) Well, Pawpaw and Gammy certainly didn't come empty-handed. Gammy had made new fleece blankies for all of the furbabies!

Thimble immediately decided that her selfie of the week had to include her cozy new pink blankie:

Thimble says, "Thanks, Gammy! I've been taking all of my naps on my pretty pink blankie!"

Astrid wanted her selfie to show off her new pink blankie, too. She also wanted it to show off her new chew bones. She got all ready, and then the excitement of the day caught up with her. So I helped her out with her (snoozie) selfie:

We ate lots of food and watched lots of festive movies throughout Christmas afternoon. Then, for the evening festivities, we headed over to Pawpaw and Gammy's house and spent some time with their furbabies. I gave their kitties the catnip toys Santa wanted us to share with them. Thimble's brother Trapper wanted to pose with his for a selfie:

This big boy got the toy shaped like a slice of pizza. I wonder why?

So Trapper and his brother Talon, and their adopted little sisters Gemma and Freya, played with their new toys, and of course got some Christmas dinner. Then we all settled in for some more festive Christmas movies. After lots and lots of rolling and flipping around with his catnip toy, active boy Talon decided to take a selfie to show that even he was ready to settle in for a movie...

...if only Rudolph would have stopped creeping on him.

Ladycats Gemma and Freya were all excited with the Christmas hype, too, but the camera shy girls didn't allow me to catch any shots of them. I'll have to try again soon, so that you all can see how the pretty girls have grown up.

Before we knew it, Christmas night was growing late. My sister and I headed back home to our furbabies, for some more Christmas cuddles. My girl Eddy asked for a little help taking her Christmas selfie from her favorite snoozie spot - Mommy's lap:

(Did you notice Eddy's absence from the photos during the Christmas festivities? That's because, although I'm trying to work on this with her, Eddy is terrified of any visitors who come over. Soon after I adopted her, she decided that Mommy was the only person for her. Even for my parents, who come over nearly every day, she runs and hides under my bed. This makes me sad, because she is my only furbaby who doesn't greet Pawpaw and Gammy with utter excitement. But, she does love her blankie her Gammy made for her! And she did enjoy playing with her new catnip toy before and after our visitors arrived.)

We hope everybuddy had as fun and festive of a Christmas as we did!

Did you know that Christmas Day is actually just the First Day of Christmas? That being said, Merry Third Day of Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!

To all of you dear friends and furiends of ours, we wish you a very merry, blessed Christmas! We hope that it is filled with family, friends, and festivities!

With love,
Angel Rosie, Astrid, Evan, Thimble, Eddy, and The Menagerie Mom
(and also from our extended family, including furbabies Toby, Trapper, Talon, Gemma, and Freya)