The Invisible String

Well hello there! If you haven’t seen us in a while, it’s because we went off and tried hosting on our own and we lost some of our subscribers. We missed the WordPress community, though, so we’re back. If you didn’t follow us to the new location, the last several months of posts have moved with us so you don’t have to miss a thing.

And on with the show:

Oliver was doing a full-press cute this afternoon.

So much cuteness, jammed into 14 pounds of fluffy. It was almost painful.

I was down on the floor taking pictures because he’d been attacking the rug. Darting. Dodging. Leaping. Skittering. At…nothing. “Ooh, you get that floor!” I cheered.

Obi looked at me like I was stupid.

Last night, while transferring new beads into the organizer, I must have dropped the plastic string they were on. Invisible strings are wily.

It’s the best toy ever today.

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The New Digs

Hi! So, how do you like the new digs? Kind of look just like the old ones, right?

 

I am actually in Rock Springs right now, on the last leg of the great Christmas shopping extravaganza. I can’t wait to get home tomorrow. Not that Cousin Spade didn’t do his part as a host. On Thursday night he dutifully slept on my feet.

And right this moment, Cousin Gracie is laying next to me on the couch.

Cousin Jigger hasn’t done anything cat-like, but he has been super cute. My mom bought him a hedgehog chewy toy – meant to clean his teeth – on the way home from Salt Lake City today. Jigger liked it. No, Jigger LOVED it. He chewed it nonstop from the moment he got it. We didn’t realize when we bought it that it was something that was consumable. But after an hour, the hedgehog was headless.

The next time I checked on him, Jigger had a headless hedgehog and a pile of nubs on the floor next to him. It seems the spikes on the hedgehog are the best part and he was saving them until last.

Last wasn’t far away. The hedgehog is gone.

Nubs and all.

Picture Perfect

What are you doing, Girl?

“I’m trying to take your picture. Sit down.”

How’s this?

“Hey, Obers, whatcha doing?”

Hey look, a miller!

This is why there aren’t more pictures in this blog.

***

When I’m not on here writing about my cats, I own a social media company. That’s right, when I’m not on the interwebs talking about the kittehs I’m on the interwebs talking about other things. And on rare, fantastic, occasions I get to get off the interwebs and teach others about it.

Last Friday I was given the opportunity to talk to people in the mental health industry about advocacy through social media. It was interesting to research and a lot of fun during the session – these folks asked great questions and had me hopping for the full time. At the end of the day, one of the attendees – a peer support specialist – went home and started a blog.

That’s so much more satisfying than the generous check I received for my time (but I’m not giving it back). So check out this up and coming blogger – she’s doing great AND she is incorporating cats!

I’m not at BlogHer

Last year at this time I was just dying of jealousy because there were so many of my bloggy friends going to BlogHer. I vowed to go this year. But then they announced that it would be in New York City. I changed my mind about going because a) New York is MAD expensive and b) New York is not the kind of place where I could wander off on my own. And I like to wander off on my own.

Plus, I don’t know how I’d react to being in a place where you have to look up to see the sky.

I didn’t give BlogHer any more thought until last week when all my bloggy friends started talking about going. I still don’t want to go to New York, but I really want to meet these people!

But no. No BlogHer for me. Instead, I’m finally going to respond to Thoughtsy‘s nomination of this blog for The Versatile Blogger award.

Here are the rules.

1. Thank the award giver.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to some of your favorite bloggers.

So…

1. Thank you, Thoughtsy.

2. Seven things? Here goes.

1. Favorite foods: Oliver – tuna; Obi – shredded cheese; Zensai – freeze dried mealworms; The Girl – hot dogs; The Boy – Is not available for consultation.
2. Favorite pastime: Oliver – napping with The Girl; Obi – watching Smell-o-vision; Zensai – rearranging his tank; The Girl – watching TV; The Boy – reading.
3. Favorite day of the week: Oliver – Saturday (because The Boy gets up early to feed him, but The Girl stays in bed for post-breakfast snuggling); Obi – works like a slave every day so what does it matter? ; Zensai – Tuesday; The Girl – Wednesday (beer night); The Boy – again, not available but it’s probably a toss up between Wednesday with me and Thursday or Saturday when he has train club.
4. Favorite room in the house: Oliver – the bedroom; Obi – the living room; Zensai – has only been in one room; The Girl – my office; The Boy – the train room.
5. Pet peeve: Oliver – less than perfectly clean litter boxes; Obi – getting kisses all the time because he’s too cute; Zensai – being touched when he’s shedding; The Girl – senselessly mean people; The Boy – I’m going to say people who do things for the wrong reasons.
6. Favorite word: Oliver – breakfast (seriously, this word will make him purr at any time of day, even if he’s not getting fed); Obi – belly rub; Zensai – prefers silence; The Girl – persnickety; The Boy is unavailable to give his answer.
7. Favorite part of the day: Oliver – breakfast; Obi – belly rub time; Zensai – when no one else is in the living room; The Girl – when The Boy comes home; The Boy remains unavailable for consultation.

3. Some bloggers who should also get this award? Honestly, I’ve lost track of who has gotten this award already. If you haven’t, and you need a topic for you blog this week, ALL of my bloggy friends are worthy.

***

It’s Thunder Thursday! Today I bring you a video of Otis, from The Cult of Otis. This clever kitten has trained his people to do tricks. He does an action and they make a clicking sound and give him food. Oliver would very much like to train me to do this – though the clicking disturbed his nap this afternoon.

We provide our own siren.

Just like parents, it is hard for a cat’s people to hear him/her in pain or discomfort. Poco had asthma for over 20 years, but every attack made me stop and listen. I hoped it would be short. I hoped it would pass without too much pain. I hoped it would be only one attack.

Oliver has inverted sneeze, which sounds even worse than asthma when an attack comes. And since he can go months between them you can tell that Oliver is unsure what is happening. They are horrible. But they pass quickly.

Usually, they pass quickly.

"This is the face of discomfort."

On Sunday, Oliver had an inverted sneeze. It didn’t last long. A while later he was in the condo and I went to take his picture. I noticed he was a little wheezy. Then, later that night, he started to cough.

The coughing came in spurts – one cough every 40 seconds or so for several minutes. Then he’s put his head back down and nap. By bedtime he was still coughing but between he was having trouble swallowing. Neither of us slept well.

I did the math and realized it’s been several months since we’ve been to the vet.

So we were due.

Oliver wanted to eat on Monday morning. This is a good sign. When he doesn’t want to eat we throw him in the carrier and call the vet on the way there. The grey kitten loves his food. Unfortunately, his throat hurt so bad that when I went back to the kitchen to check on him he was just licking the gravy off the food.

I dialed the phone. The vet had an appointment at 2:30 p.m., which I took and I thought in relief about how much cheaper that was going to be that squeezing him in on a “same day” visit.

I hung up.

I saw Oli gag.

I called back and told them we were on our way in. Oliver wasn’t so sick that he couldn’t scream his fool head off the entire way there.

They have another new doctor – he’s tall and seems to “get” cats. Oliver would have liked him had the new doctor not been trying to pry open his mouth to examine his throat. Next time, maybe.

And the verdict? Allergies.

Good grief, kid.

He’s on his way back to fine. Prednisone, our drug of choice, for the allergies. An antibiotic just in case because he had a mild fever.

"Beware the dragon, for you are tasty and about to disturb the kitten's nap."

Why this picture? Because no blog is complete without Obi, right?