Two legs are just as good as four.

Since Evan's Mancat Monday post was sabotaged by Toby's whiskers yesterday, I told Evan that he could instead take the lead in today's post. Evan thought long and hard about what he wanted to show you all today, and he decided that he's long overdue to show off his mad skills and overall awesomeness.

For those who don't know or don't remember, Evan's hind legs are paralyzed. This is the result of a coyote attack that killed Evan's mom-cat and litter mates when he was roughly 6 weeks old, not long before I met him.

Although I try to be socially acceptable and not spew doting praises about my furbabies every second that I'm out in public, I will happily discuss them when the opportunity arises. Needless to say, I am very proud of my boy Evan and how he handles his situation in life, which is why I always just write off the sad or pitiful looks that some family and friends send my way when hearing about my paralyzed cat. I am often asked questions like, "How does he get around?", "Can he play?", "Is he happy?" I sometimes wonder what people picture when I tell them about Evan. Granted, a paralyzed cat is not something you see every day. So I can't help but wonder, do people think that Evan can only lie around all day, looking sad and pathetic, unable to get up and go like a "normal" cat?

Let me tell you, Evan can get up and go just fine. He can certainly outrun his mom when he knows she's about to give him a wash down, or when he thinks that it's his turn to get shoved into that dank cell of a PTU. The boy is like greased lightning when he wants to be. He runs, he plays, he has fun, lots and lots and lots of fun.

So, to prove this, Evan has decided to share a video of himself today. Let this mom interject for another moment, though, and admit on his behalf that Evan was a bit shy at being recorded at first and chose to stay coy and far more stationary than typical in the first part of the video. So, in case you want to fast forward to just a small example of Evan's mad skills in athleticism, he gives a demo right around the 1:20 mark. (Oh, and just a little FYI, Evan is playing with a broken off piece of an egg carton in this video. Because, well, who doesn't give their kids trash to play with?)

Certainly not something you see every day, huh? When I try to step back and watch Evan from the perspective of someone who doesn't see that every day, I think, Yeah, that must be kind of weird to witness. At the same time, though, I am so used to it that I can't even imagine Evan up and walking on four legs. Honestly, what would that even look like? I don't know, because I've never seen it. And I'm okay with that, because the Evan you saw above is the Evan I've always known. What's more, he loves life, and so all is well with me.

Can you tell I'm just a tad bit of a proud momma? Probably a little too much so. But what can I say? Evan is, after all, my shameless momma's boy.

Have a beautiful Tuesday, everybuddy!

***

Our Tip of the Day:

Today's tip is simple, and also a repeat at least once over now, and that is to please consider rescuing or adopting a special needs animal at some point in your life. Special needs animals can enjoy life just as much as any other, and they also have just as much love and happiness to give. Because of the special considerations that go into their care and even because of their appearances, animals with special needs are often overlooked by people looking to adopt, and so many of these sweet and happy and loving animals never make it to a forever home. So, please don't overlook a cat or dog or any animal simply because it is "different". You never know, that three-legged or one-eyed furbaby could be your furry soul mate!

An evening with cats.

I recently learned that the video feature on my new camera is much better than that of my old one. (Don't get too excited, though, because I'm certainly no film producer, and I have zero skills in proper movie lighting or directing wayward actors.)

Now, I intended for this to be Eddy's post for the week.

I thought I'd get a video of little Eddy playing with her beloved track ball toy. But I thought wrong. She was just as coy for video as she was for this picture.

So, I instead parked myself on the floor after dinner and just started taking video of what a night in with my kitties is like, in hopes that they'd all provide sightings of themselves and their escapades. They obliged.

(Be careful with your volume at the end of this one. Although I managed to spare you the sound of my voice by keeping from talking in this, I couldn't keep my cell phone from ringing in the last couple seconds. If you're not expecting it, and if you have the volume up, it could be a cruel joke.)

I know that life can get pretty busy, and this video is a lengthy six and a half minutes. If you don't have time to watch it all, I completely understand. But feel free to watch as much as you'd like to get a taste of my kitties' shenanigans.

Oh, and you'll see in this video that I did after all get evidence of Eddy's love for the track ball toy. If you want to zoom to where Eddy gives a preview of the concert she puts on for me every night at 3 o'clock in the morning, go to the 3:45 mark of the video, with an enthusiastic encore at 4:15.

Wishing all of our furiends a terrific Tuesday!

***

Our Tip of the Day:

In the wild, cats are nocturnal. They hunt at night. Many of our domesticated kitties may carry this nocturnal behavior with them. That's why you may know your cat to prowl the house at night, attack your feet under the covers while you try to sleep (there's nothing like a good hunt under the cover of darkness!). and perhaps beg for food and attention in the wee hours of the morning. If you hope to curb some of your kitty's nocturnal behavior, try promoting nighttime snoozies by putting out additional warm and cozy sleep areas for them before you go to bed. Also try playing with kitty before bedtime, to help tire them out as well as to hopefully satiate their hunting fix for the night. And perhaps your kitty would benefit from eating its biggest meal just before bed, rather than first thing in the morning, which can put kitty in the habit of waking you up earlier and earlier for food each morning.

Upsy Daisy

On this past Mancat Monday, I showed you how pretty my boy Evan is in pink. Remember?

And because I just can't help myself, here are a couple more shots you haven't seen yet from that pink photo shoot:

What I didn't show you on Monday, though, was how my boy made his way into that gloriously pink bed. Those of you familiar with Evan's story know that he is paralyzed in his hind legs. That means he can't just jump up onto the couch like any other cat would. But, that pink bed is on the couch, so how did Evan get up there? Well, here's a little hint:

Foot stools in my house are not just foot stools. Rather, they're strategically placed stepping stools for Evan. Evan may not be able to jump, but that doesn't mean he can't climb. His upper body strength is quite impressive, and he can pull himself up onto stools and then onto furniture like a pro.

***EDIT: I had a video here of Evan pulling himself onto a stool beside my bed. The video was only inconsistently working at best, though. Multiple of you mentioned being unable to see it, and ultimately I couldn't view it here at all, no matter what I tried. I had previously mentioned that, if need be, I would jump on the YouTube bandwagon and share videos that way. And so I have. At this exact moment I don't have access to the video I originally shared here. But, until I can get home this evening and post that video through YouTube, here are a couple of other videos of my boy Evan doing his thing:

***EDIT II: Finally, below is the short and simple video I've been trying to share with you all day. It shows Evan pulling himself up onto a stool beside my bed. Evan loves to snuggle with me at night, and this is how he climbs into bed.

(Would you look at that. I joined the 21st century and sort of figured out how to use YouTube. The only thing I need now is an actual video camera so that you all don't have to watch such grainy, low quality videos.)

Well, it's finally Friday, furiends! Are you ready for the weekend?

***

Our Tip of the Day:

Today's tip is simple and has probably already made itself evident in this post...If you have an aging, arthritic, or in some way special needs animal that is unable to jump up onto furniture, provide steps for him or her. This can be done easily by strategically placing stools, boxes, low chairs, or other similarly makeshift steps beside furniture. There are also pet steps and ramps specifically made and sold for this exact purpose. It may take some experimentation, as some animals may have pickier preferences for what types of surfaces they feel safe using as steps. But, with time and patience, you can find a system that works for your aging, arthritic, or special needs animal.

Lap Time Trickery

Those of you who know my girl Eddy know that she likes to give me a hard time during our photo shoots. She treats sitting still like it's the plague. Most of my pictures of her are blurry, and some are just really really really blurry. I should have named her The Flash.

Every so often, though, I get the upper hand on my kitties. (But let's be honest, this is extremely rare. And when it does happen, it's very short-lived.) Well, anyway, Eddy is a devout lap kitty. What's more, I've learned that during maybe an entire 2% of Eddy's lap time, she actually sits still! So, this weekend I decided to set up a lap trap for Eddy. I used my lap as bait, as you can see here:

And then, with her on my lap, I got a non-blurry photo of Eddy! Here's the evidence:

So what if her ears got cut off? I consider any non-blurry picture of Eddy a win. What's more, I love getting shots of Eddy from her right side. This is because my special girl has a head tilt to the right and right-sided facial nerve paralysis, and I love catching these special traits in photos of her.

Happy Tuesday, everybuddy!

***

Our Tip of the Day:

Today's tip is quick and easy...If your cat blinks slowly at you, it's a sign of contentment and love. In other words, your kitty is kissing you with his or her eyes. So, be sure to blink slowly at your kitty to tell him or her that you love them back!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

I'm going wordy on this Wednesday, and for good reason.

Last week, kind Ellen over at 15andmeowing hosted a flash sale to benefit a couple of our fellow bloggers and their felines in need. Before I continue with that, let me stop and say that this week Ellen is hosting another flash sale, for more great causes! So please stop by and visit Ellen and her kitties at 15andmeowing and have a look at what she's selling this week to benefit more of our fellow bloggers!

Now, one of the items in last week's flash sale hosted by Ellen was a beautiful black cat necklace being sold for the price of a donation to kind Kiril and his kitties over at The Opinionated Pussycat. I donated to his cause, and yesterday I came home to find this little lovely in the mail:

I've always been a bit of a jewelry fanatic, and if it's kitty jewelry even better! Needless to say, I was very excited when I found this in the mail! What's more, Ellen threw in some of her lovely crocheted cat toys for my kitties:

 It was like an early Christmas for all of us!

My kitties must have known there were goodies waiting for them, because I barely even managed to get the above photos taken before my kitties hunted down their new toys. And they love them!

My kitties, myself, and I'm sure so many others out there thank you, Ellen, for being the kind, caring, giving person that you are!

I encourage everybuddy to stop by and visit Ellen and her kitties over at 15andmeowing. They're great hosts, and their blog is a great place to be!

Purrs!

Fruity Fun Friday

My sister's cat Toby is, for lack of a better term, the resident class clown. When he's not being ridiculously laid-back, he's being one goofball of a cat. He is the source of much comic relief, and he puts on plenty of comedy skits for the rest of us in the house. Some of his favorite props during these skits are his favorite humans' clothing, sinks, olives, and, most recently, strawberries:

I hope you enjoyed Toby's fruity little skit! I know I did!

Have a pawesome Friday, everybuddy!

More Film Fun

I just wanted to pop in with this quick video that gives a glimpse of how much help I get when putting fresh sheets on my bed. The whole process only took a couple hours this time, which is somewhat of a record for me and my little helpers!

Happy Friday, everybuddy!

Weekend Fun

My furbabies and I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and, for those in the US and Canada, a happy Labor Day! My furbabies certainly love when I stay home from work (and I certainly do, too), even if they spend much of the day sleeping.

Believe it or not, I even caught Eddy taking a long, deep snoozie, so I snatched up  my camera in hopes of catching an ever elusive shot of her. Alas, it was not meant to be! She knew what I was up to and awoke immediately. Then it was time to cuddle and play. So, as usual, I was only able to catch the active little lady in the form of video. Here are a couple short videos of the baby girl playing (with a piece of debris on the exterior of a window) and cuddling:

Special little Eddy may have a head tilt and facial nerve paralysis, but she owns it!

Have a purrfect week, bloggers!

Active Eddy

Here's yet another video (of yet again less than ideal quality). I wanted to show you all how Eddy's doing, but since her lowest speed these days is roughly that of lightning, I have better luck getting video of her than trying (and usually failing) to coerce her to sit still for a photo shoot. In the video below I believe you can see how Eddy's head tilt is still present, more prevalent at certain times than others. But, that certainly doesn't keep her from being a perfectly active kitty! She also still has the right-sided facial nerve paralysis, which I personally think she owns and uses to her adorable advantage.

So, here's a quick video of Eddy, with an if-you-blink-you'll-miss-it cameo from Evan at the end!

 

Happy Monday and have a great week, bloggers!

Art Time with Thimble

I love me some arts and craft time in the evening, especially when it involves some cuteness like this:

More often than not, the cuteness wins, and then arts and craft time is over. Well, it's over for me at least...

Happy Friday, bloggers!

Film Fun

Things are starting to slow down a bit over here in my corner of the world, so I hope to get back to making more regular posts again. I did recently manage to get another short video of Evan, this time showing him playing with (taunting, torturing, etc.) his favorite toy - my hair tie! Again, it's by no means a high def video, but it lets you see how the little guy makes do just fine with what he's got.

A little over halfway through the video another star takes the lead in the film. Watch to find out who stole the scene...

I hope you're all having as much fun as Evan this week!

Evan's Adventures

After owning it for nearly a decade, I just recently started experimenting with my digital camera's video recording abilities. I'm far from technologically savvy and tend to keep to the basics when it comes to such gadgets, which is why I've never owned a video recorder itself. Nevertheless, I've always wanted to share a video of Evan's means of ambulation and overall getting around. Now I can.

For anyone who is new to my blog and does not know, or for anyone who has simply forgotten, Evan does not have the use of his back legs. This is the result of a coyote attack that occurred just days before I met him at the age of 6 weeks. In the past two years Evan has gone from a more or less semi-feral barn kitten traumatized by a coyote attack that killed his mother and littermates and paralyzed him, to a (almost always) sweet and loving momma's boy. (His momma is perfectly content with this, by the way.)

The video is not high def by any means, but it does the job. In it, you'll see Evan start out on the furbabies' beloved Barney sleeping bag and then go into my bedroom and onto my bed. This is how the tough boy does his thing:

That's my boy!   >^..^<