Soon to be abandoned

I am about to be abandoned again soon. Can you guess where my SS is heading off to this time?

Hints:

She will be off in 2 weeks and won't be back until Christmas. I will be looked after by her sister who is a very nice lady and shares her cheese and milk with me.

PS Looks like I am NOT going to get another post in before that SS of mine heads off to Vietnam. Yes, it does looks like China because the Chinese had been there for 1000 years and left their indelible marks.

Have a good and safe Christmas, efurryone! I will miss you all but I'll back. Please don't forget me!

Introducing Pomelo

I am very excited today. A family friend has adopted this really adorable kitty, Pomelo. I know you would say, what's so special about kitty adoption. Well, this friend used to be scared of kitties (yes, it's hard to imagine, but there it was). SS and her niece have been working hard over the years to cure her of this irrational fear. AND WE HAVE SUCCEEDED!!!!

Yay for Pomelo!!!! He is a little kitten that the local vet had rescued and put up for adoption. Really tiny, cute, active, playful and absolutely loves being made a fuss of.

Cat in the Manger

Now that spring and the warmer weather have arrived, we are having more birdie visitors to our yard. SS sometimes put out food for them. Although I don't eat the grains, I guard them so that no birdies would dare to approach them without inciting my wrath.

My SS says that I am not a very nice kitty. Wouldn't you have done the same?

My Spring Garden

October has been cooler and wetter than average, so that's good news for my garden. We have been conscious of the fact that much of Australia are under drought condition and therefore try to conserve as much water as possible by switching to plants that do not need so much watering.

Here you see the beautiful Jacaranda in its lilac bloom and the red Bottle-brush. In the left foreground is the Jasmine tree whose little fragrant flowers are just coming through.


You can barely see them but these grow in a circular patch under the jacaranda tree...


Does any gardening cat know what they are? This is a special corner in our garden as my doggie predecessor is buried here. As for the fountain, it no longer functions, but remains my favourite place to hang out...

Tummy Toosday

Since SS had jumped the queue by posting my toesies on Saturday, I'll just have to show my tummy today. The trials of a blogging kitty are never ending.....

Happy Halloween to All

I know it's NOT Toesie Toosday, but just to be a bit different for this Halloween, my cute toesies have pride of place

Thankyou to the Zoolatry for this very special presentation.

Happy Halloween Efurryone!!!!!

We are still having some health and other issues but we hope to return to blogging and visiting soon. Thankyou efurryone for your kind purrs, thoughts and visits. We appreciate your furriendship and miss you all!

Thankyou, Zoolatry!

Some of you may have heard that I am ill. It is true. Hence, I haven't been in the mood for picture taking, blogging or visiting, although I do think of my furriends and miss them.

The Zoolatry girls, however, have very thoughtfully sent this to cheer me and SS up. Thankyou!!!! Furriends are precious.

Sassy is retiring

photo by Karl

It is with sadness in my heart that I am accepting the retirement of my sissie, Sassy.

Sassy, whom many would remember as the CCSI executive director and founder, is announcing her retirement from blogging and her position in the CCSI. Please all, especially those with past association with the CCSI, head over to her blog and wish her a happy and safe retirement

Contemplation

Mieow to all my furriends. I miss you all but what with SS being busy with work and then falling victim to the 'flu we have not been able to blog or visit much.

Do you know what is occupying my attention in this photo? Hint: I am up on the garage roof.

Nostalgia

Things are getting from bad to worse. Not only do I not get help with blogging and visiting, I don't even get my pictures taken lately, no matter how cutely I pose. Where is JUSTICE?

What you are seeing today is me from pre-digital camera era...

and my son, Ban, who has sadly left us.....

We miss him terribly, even now, as he was a most gentle cat.

Purrs to all who have not forgotten us and kept up the visit. We will one day resume our activities.

Another surprise party

Just when you think we are partied out, there is another one on. It's Asta's Birthday today!!!!

With no time to change, we head to the Big Apple to prepare for her party. So here we are at Times Square, still in our Roman gear. We even manage to hire a hunky cowboy for the occasion.

Happy Birthday sissy Asta!!!!!!!!

Please all go and wish her the happiest of birthdays!!!!

Photos by Karl

Surprise Birthday Party for Opus in Rome

Opus is sweet fourteen today. He has been a bit down in the dumps lately because his twin brother Roscoe went to the Bridge one year ago and their blogoversary is coming up on their birthday.

To cheer him up a Surprise Party has been arranged in Rome at THE Colosseum, no less!!!

photos by Karl, Sassy and Asta respectively

Please all head to his home in Italy to wish him a Happy Birthday!!!!

Easy like Sunday

I am very annoyed that I am missing out on all the fun in the CB lately, just because my SS is busy. No visiting, no posting! I am thinking of advertising for a new SS. Know of any good ones?

Spring is early this year. The days are warm and bright and the flowers are all out in force.

Here I am, relaxing in my garden....

When it gets too warm I retire to the shade...

Have a great weekend, efurryone!

Party Post

As you may know, I was a stray who adopted SS’s family back in 1998. Therefore, my birthday is unclear and even my exact Gotcha Day has been lost in the mist of time. SS’s mother traced it to early September. So we have adopted September 2 as my Gotcha Day/Birthday, the same day as the birthday of my NOMS sissy Momo, who lives in Toronto (we found each other through the internet)…


This year, my SS has been extra busy and did not have time to organize a party. So my lovely mancat, Socks, is giving one in my honour….


graphic by the Zoolatry

and Asta, my other NOMS sissy, who lives in New York and whose birthday is also in September, is celebrating it with me jointly…


graphic of Asta and me by the Zoolatry

Please come along to the party at Socks’s, where you can play in his beautiful, sunny garden


Before you go, please take a little present that SS has prepared …..




Thank you so much for coming by. See you all at the party.

Look what my lovely sissy, Sassy sent me...

And of course, from my good friend Karl....

and in view of my recent illness and anticipating the yaking of spring furballs...

Thanks Karl! You are ever the thoughtful kitty!!!

My Italian furriends, Opus and Ollie, sent me these...

Properties and pets

Being a kitty, I generally do not pay much attention to silly, ignorant politicians, demographers and reporters. However, not being well this weekend and therefore confined indoors, I happened to glance at the newspaper that SS had been reading. This article caught my eyes and had me fuming:

Properties and pets

Dogs and cats - also known as Fur Kids - are changing what we look for in a property and even a suburb. While it might seem over the top for Paris Hilton to hire an interior designer to craft a luxury doghouse for her Fur Kids, more Australians are preferring to pamper their pets. [Now, what’s wrong with that, I ask you! It is as it should be.]

"I've had clients who moved house so their cat would have a bigger backyard," says prestige agent Jennine Leonarder-Collins, saying most pet owners no longer banish their beloved animals to the backyard but allow them to sleep in bed with them. [This woman is obviously behind time. Where else would we sleep? Of course we need bigger (and safer) backyards to stretch our legs and sun our bellies!]

Politicians like Clover Moore say pet-friendliness is the hallmark of quality suburbs, in much the same way that good schools, playgrounds and parks with councils supporting pet ownership, dedicating more off-leash areas and even free obedience classes and supported vet services. [This is more like it. I do think this lady, who happens to be the mayor of Sydney, is the only politician around with her head screwed on right.]

"Humans have a whole lot of love to give, and if they don't have kids, they give it to their pets," says demographer Bernard Salt, who says the importance of pets is only going to grow in the next decade. "For now, people might laugh and just think it's the gays or the very rich that treat their animals like children, but by the 2020s it will hit the middle market in a big way," he says. [Another stupid human who is grossly out of touch. He needs to visit the CB to get educated and be brought up to date. Methinks he lives in the 19th century. Wake up, man, 2020 is here and now! Laugh, indeed!]

So what makes a property pet-friendly? Urban planning specialist Virginia Jackson, a director of Harlock Jackson, says there are easy ways to improve your home to make it more enjoyable for pets, including:
* making sure cats have window sills wide enough to sit on or areas high off the ground for cats to climb. [Hear, hear! Now you are talking.]
* people like Cat Walk City founder Steve Tarrant build secured outdoor cat runs for pet owners that want to confine their cats yet give them outdoor space to exercise. [Some humans do use their brains sometimes; that’s what they are there for.]
* adding pull-down screens that can be secured to the ground around al fresco dining areas can also create a low-cost confined cat run, which prevents cats escaping into neighbours' homes or attacking wildlife. [Should be a compulsory feature in all homes]

The biggest problem with being pet-friendly is that it causes problems in apartments -- not all buildings are happy to allow barking dogs or screechy cats into their hallowed halls. [screechy??? hallowed?? What’d ya mean???? Irreverent biped!!]

But real estate agent says pet-friendly apartment buildings are worth more than those that prohibit pets. "Any small apartment block that doesn't allow pets is crazy," Leonarder Collins says. "Owners are just doing themselves out of money." [That’s more like it!! Of course they are!]

Australia's strata rules governing apartments vary from state to state, but most apartments create their own regulations about pets with some allowing cats or dogs. [:sigh:]

It can take a lot of work to fight a strata and have rules changed to allow pets but some of the best tips to beg apartment buildings to allow pets include: [more sighs]
- writing a letter to the board or executive committee in charge of the strata body corporate to ask what the current rules are governing pet ownership.
- propose changes that allow the keeping of pets with the board or committee's approval.
Pet-loving apartment dwellers are then advised to compile a 'pet resume' in their letter of permission outlining:
- a description of the pet, including size, age and appearance
- the pet's disposition and whether it has had obedience or other behavioural training
- attaching details of registration, microchipping and vet records to prove responsible ownership
- references from previous landlords, neighbours or other strata schemes vouching for the behaviour of the pet.

If this is not overt discrimination, I don’t know what is! At this point, I was too incensed to read further and the only reason I didn’t yak furballs or pooh on it was that the paper happened to be on SS’s bed.

Australia really needs to get itself up to par with the rest of the world in this aspect. Discrimination against furries is NOT to be tolerated. We furries are entitled to have some basic rights and we demand them!

Sorry, no pic of me in this post. I refuse to pose as I have been sick and don't look my best.

Wordless Wednesday Quiz

Now, what do you think is attracting my attention:

a. Temptation

b. Cheese

c. New mousie toy

d. Being scolded by SS?

Answer - Cheese!!! I love cheese. SS's sister always dangles a piece in front of me whenever she is having some. Oh yes, she does give it to me. Scolding? Do you think I would just sit there and listen to scolding so attentively? No way! I clear out asap and keep doing what I please, as cats do.

Floofy Friday

Look for the whiskers to tell the front end of the cat, biggify the picture if necessary :) ....

Poses

Now that I am a granny cat I am not nearly as active as before but that doesn't mean I have bidden adieu to my modelling career. Here are some of the perennial poses...

This is my regal, serious look...


Then my sweet, innocent look.....


Invitation to play and chin-scritchie pose....


The belly-up....


And finally, the take-away-the-clicky-box-I-have-had-enough look...

Day of freedom

It has been quite sunny and 'warm' these few days despite the fact that we are officially in mid- winter. Hence I can indulge in my favourite activites in my little garden like walking the fence .....

Climbing trees....

Watching the high-flying birdies from the roof....

Ah, life is good!!!

BTW, things are happening at the headquarters of Little Productions (aka CCSI). Please head over and see what's going on there.

World Cat Day

Today is World Cat Day - a day to celebrate our kitties and remember the less fortunate ones.





I am taking this day to pay tribute to my kitty MoMo who joined the family in 1998 as a stray.
Since then, MoMo has been my study pal and de-stressor throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, keeping me company in the cold dark nights in my little backyard study and providing kitty antics to cheer me up when I was tired and depressed.

This is one of her early pictures, when we first started blogging in 2007. Doesn't she look serious?

And this is a more recent one....

Thankyou for coming into my life, Momo!!