CupTeaLuv?

from www.icanhascheezburger.com

so much for it being *my* christmas present eh?? lol nevermind…. it’s ok — I don’t mind sharing… and the cool thing is that it’s big enough for me and at least one kitty…

you should see me right now.
i can barely type because just now Baz decided that he needed cuddles… NOW.
So he jumps up on the chair next to me — which is really there for that purpose — so he and Frankie and Winston can sit with me when I’m working on the pc — and he starts to chirp and purr and head-butt my elbow… so I begin to pet him — only that isn’t enough…. he kind of throws himself forward with his front paws up, so that he’s half-climbing me (owwwwwch).
So I then have to either pick him up and let him sit where he likes to sit (up on my shoulder, with his front paws hanging over onto my back and this body being held up by my left arm — (imagine how babies like to be held, so they can see over your shoulder) — and if my left arm gets tired (which it inevitably does, because he weighs a TON) and lowers even just a touch, his claws dig in and he tries to pull himself up higher. owwwwwwww!!
The funniest thing is that he’d sit up there all day if I let him (if I could hold his weight up that long!!)… crazy cat.

Today I called around to the local hardware stores to find out if they sell “sisal” rope — the rope that is what cat’s scratching posts are made of.
After a pretty funny phone call with Manuel (Faulty Towers style) from Home Depot, I discovered that they do indeed sell it — for $6.44 (a 50ft. coil) — Lowe’s would have been cheaper ($5.97 per 50ft. coil) but we have to get rid of this Home Depot gift card, and that was enough to take care of it!
Andy and I had my parents over for dinner tonight (another funny story about purchasing “partially frozen” shrimp at Sam’s club and then learning that I can’t re-freeze it — so had to come up with a different dinner plan!! it was actually delicious) — anyhoo — after my folks left at 8:45, we decided to tackle the cat stand re-sisaling.
I had purchased some roofing nails to attach the sisal with, and began by attaching the end and wrapping it from the bottom upwards. We discovered that 50 feet is just shy of what you need to cover the particular stand that we have — so we re-used some of the old sisal that was in decent shape. Hindsight being the wonderful thing that it is — we realized that we should have begun with the new sisal at the top of the stand and then finished with the older sisal at the bottom (because of the way the cats stand and scratch, the top half of the post is always taking the worst of the beating). Nevermind… I’m sure there will be other re-sisaling of this stand… and if not, then we’ll be building our own stands next time — no more pre-made, el cheapo, $50 cat scratching stands for us!!!!
GO us!!
The funniest part was when the stand was done and the mess cleaned up, we called the cats over and they all immediately went at the stand vigorously — they obviously have missed it!! Frankie and Winston especially — they were very very very happy to have the stand back!

swine cat.

I woke up this morning and was sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes when Andy came into the room. He was all ready and dressed for work.
“I am so ready to kill Winston right now!” he says.
“Huh? What? Why? What’d he do?” I ask. I’m still half-asleep.
Andy says nothing, just holds out his hand, in which lay 3 cute little back keyboard keys.
Now, if I was more awake, I’d have instantly recognized them to NOT be from our computer keyboard, but rather to be from a LAPTOP keyboard… i.e. the laptop that Andy just got yesterday or the day before from work keyboard……
so in my dozy state, I try to calm him down and assure him that I can buy him a new keyboard today — no problem…
He starts in about he can’t work today etc. and that it’s going to have to be sent off for repairs and work is going to be angry…
Right about then my brain woke up and it all clicked and I can see why he is so angry…. poor guy.
I still don’t know how it happened (whether Winston was on his lap when he was using it and launched himself off or if Winston was playing with the keyboard and pulled the keys up with his paws/claws).

did you ever have a funny story but you weren’t sure how to tell it?
here am i.
The other day the most hilarious thing happened…
It was about 5:15pm, Andy had just gotten home from work and we were relaxing on the screened in porch with the cats. Alpine (the dog) was inside lying down.
Earlier that day I’d given the cats 2 plastic milk jug rings to play with (in America the rings are a circle, and they stay intact when you go to open the milk — in Britain they are a C-shaped ring that you take on end of and pull it from around the milk cap until the other end comes free). Winston and Frankie had spent most of their time on the porch entertaining us by chasing and tossing these rings around. Winston obviously prefers his ring off the big rug in the middle of the porch– on the bare wood where it scoots quickly and he scampers after it. Frankie on the other hand is a bit of a freak (always has been always will be!) and whenever his ring went onto the wooden boards of the porch, he would retrieve it and carry it in his mouth back onto the rug (but only by about 6-8 inches on) and drop it and start playing again.
Alpine started taking notice of the cats while they play, and he got rather excited — he really wanted to be out there chasing them (his way of playing) and joining in. So occasionally you could hear him inside whining or even rarely a single bark would come out of his excited lil face.
Well, the first time he did the bark thing, all the cats went flying to places of safety — Frankie and Winston both went up onto the ledge of the porch and Basil went cowering underneath something hidden.
At this point, Alpine is starting to get all wound up again, and Andy got up to go get a drink. He walked past Winston playing with the ring, opened the sliding screen door and went inside. Alpine was dancing around him so I said something about how to play with Alpine — he likes to run back and forth from the family room through the kitchen and into the dining room. So Andy started doing that and Alpine began to run.
Okay up to this point — not so funny…
When Winston and Frankie heard Alpine galloping (and he does make a RACKET when he gallops back and forth full throttle), they absolutely FREAKED OUT — and bolted. Frankie bolted to the corner of the porch where the fountain was…. and Winston bolted for the porch couch, went straight underneath and continued bolting RIGHT THROUGH THE SCREEN — OUT INTO THE YARD!
all I heard was a little comical “zzzzip!” sound and the next thing I realize, Winston is trotting around the corner of the porch through the back garden!!
I’m barefoot, but I run out the door onto the deck and down the brick path to the gate that is nearby (there is a small fenced in area for Alpine to go out into) and I call to Winston. His tail is the size of a baseball bat and he doesn’t even see or hear me — just trots right past me.
So I run back into the house and call to Andy to tell him to go out the front door and around the side of the house, all the while I’m trying to catch a very freaked out Frankie, whose tail is about the size of my calf. (okay I’m exaggerating a little bit, but his tail was HUGE all puffed out) I finally am about to grab him and remember what happened the last time I grabbed him when he was freaking out (he bit me twice) and decide to let him run into the basement.
Meanwhile Alpine had been watching Andy from the front door — just as I let Frankie inside, he comes trotting back to where the basement door is and gives Frankie another scare. Fortunately Frankie decides to stand his ground and hiss and Alpine makes a wide circle and I can get the door open and Frankie downstairs before any other incidents occur!!
Andy shouts to me to go round the other side in case Winston doubles back, so I go out the door and round the other side, passing the screen (which I really SHOULD have taking a picture of — because it was almost like in cartoons when a character runs into something and you can see the outline of them imbedded in whatever they ran into — except there is a winston sized hole in this screen.
Andy catches him and takes him inside and downstairs — I call to Andy to come have a look at the screen — we both stand in awe for a moment or two (okay — my awe was desperately fighting some serious giggles) and then we laugh.
Winston is fine — didn’t even get a scratch or anything on his face or anywhere — which is amazing. We have tried to reason out how he made it through the screen (which is thin woven metal!). Mom offered the idea that he put his paw in front of him and cut through with claws, but there’s no sign of that — it just looks like a single point gave way and broke in a T shape, with the edges of the opening curling outwards.
Again, I really rue the fact that I didn’t take a single pic of that screen. It’s been replaced now (Dad did it — I helped!).
The thing that sticks with me is the lil zzzzzzip sound…….

when we’re out together snoozing cheek to cheek….

Aww bless!

How fabulous is this picture??!

Completely staged, I admit it, but really cute, eh??