Christmas Angel Caturday Art

For this Caturday Art blog hop hosted by the pawesome Athena and Marie, I was inspired to create some Christmas art for my sweet angel Rosie.

I was blessed with the gift of 21 Christmases with my dear old girl, and although this year she may not be here with me physically, her memory will always be alive and well with me. Merry Christmas, Angel Rosie!

And have a happy Caturday, everybuddy!

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A Friday Foot Update

I realized that I haven't given any recent updates on the benign (yet meddlesome) tumor on my sister's and my pup Astrid's paw pad.

Well, as a briefer refresher, Astrid's vet had said that such a tumor (called a histiocytoma) usually goes away on its own. The thing is, that can take 14-16 weeks. We have roughly three weeks under our belt since were were told that, and the tumor is indeed still present. On most days, it looks healthier and far less raw than it did when we took her to the vet. But, at the same time, the tumor is still at least the same size as it was when Astrid was seen by her vet. And, if aggravated, the tumor will occasionally still open up and bleed a bit (although nowhere nearly as badly as it did a few weeks ago).

That being said, as per her vet's recommendation, so as to keep the tumor on her paw pad from becoming aggravated during the healing process, poor active Astrid is not getting many walks. My sister and I had discussed with the vet getting booties for Astrid to wear, if she would tolerate them, so that she could go on walks. And so we did indeed get booties. But, our slight drama queen of a pup does a sad little tarantella each time the booties are put on. She usually ends up with either no booties on, or bootied but hopping along on only two or three legs.

So, unfortunately, the booties are not proving all that useful, and so Astrid is still not getting many walks. Being a young and active dog, Astrid understandably gets a bit restless without her usual exercise regimen. So, for now, Astrid gets lots of car rides to give her something to do. She also loves to visit her pawpaw and gammy (my parents), which gives her something fun and exciting to do (because Pawpaw and Gammy are two of the most pawesome people in Astrid's world!). We've also been getting her new chew bones and toys to keep her busy inside the house.

All in all, Astrid is doing well. She's still her happy, buoyant self (which, mixed with her puppy bed rest, makes for some interesting days here at our house). She loves going on her car rides and chewing on her new bones. And, once she finally does settle down, she also loves having an excuse to put her feet up and relax.

Wish us continued luck in keeping this young little lady calm and collected during the healing of her poor little paw!

And, of course, Happy Friday, everybuddy!

Christmas Greetings

In the unlikely case that you missed our new banner, I'll now announce that I have (finally!) finished creating our Christmas greeting to all of you pawesome blogger friends of ours. That's it there at the top of our blog. And, here it is again:

My furbabies and I want to wish everybuddy a very merry, happy, and healthy Christmas season! This blogging community is truly a blessing, thanks to all of you.

Warm wishes, purrs, and barks from all of us here at Four-Legged Furballs.

With love, Astrid, Evan, Thimble, Eddy, my sweet angel Rosie, and myself

(And, of course, Christmas wishes are also being sent to you by our extended furry family who have made appearances on our blog

Sincerely, Toby, Trapper, Talon, Gemma, and Freya)

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!

Outtake Tuesday

I thought today was as good a day as any to share just some of the plentiful outtakes from some of the recent photo ops with my furbabies.

Astrid showing off  her derriere on our road trip back in November. And the photobomber you see in the background is my sister.

"It's right behind me, isn't it?"...Thimble wasn't sure she could trust our first snowfall to not sneak up on her.

This was more or less the beginning of the end, back when Eddy discovered she could climb the Christmas tree. The tree hasn't been the same since.

Although not the expert Eddy is, Thimble thought she'd give a shot at climbing the tree as well.

Streeetch! One of the many lovely poses Thimble blurrily gave me when I asked her to model the new cat tree.

When I asked Evan what he thought of the new cat tree, he said it was head-spinningly good.

Astrid thought she'd give Toby a hand nose up onto the cat tree with Evan.

When my boy Evan made it all the way to the top of the cat tree, he granted me this shot of his mighty feat feet.

And then Eddy wanted to give me a nice foot shot as well. She even sat still for it!

Have a great Tuesday, our blogging buddies!

Mancat Monday

This Mancat Monday post is brought to you by my one and only mancat furbaby - Evan!

This Momma's Boy loves to snuggle his mom at night, and I often awake to find this by my side. Best alarm clock ever.

Happy Monday, everybuddy!

A Special Girl's Sunday Selfie

As some of you may know, my girl Eddy is a rescue kitty who came to me with a head tilt and right-sided facial nerve paralysis. Although they have improved some in the five months that I've had her, both the head tilt and facial nerve paralysis are still present.

Eddy wears her special traits with pride, as she would like you all to see in her picture for today's Sunday Selfie blog hop, hosted by The Cat on My Head.

Eddy's right eye never really closes all the way, and more often than not that cute little tooth is sticking out. I call it her Elvis snarl.

Happy Sunday, everybuddy!

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