kitties

The Little Kitty Is HERE!

10 Comments Posted on September 29, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Hi Humans! Hi Cows! The Humans think I am an airhead. I’m not really an airhead but they seem to like it if I act like one and feed me more treats when I’m being funny like the robot they nick-named me after. Here is a clip where you can see my name and some of the other funny things that robot does.

The Humans love that cartoon. It’s not bad but I prefer Animal Precinct and Cops. I like seeing bad humans locked up. The humans who get locked up on Animal Precinct are extra bad because they are mean to animals!

Here is a photo of me sitting on Mommy’s desk. Near where my foots is, is where the mouse is. I don’t know why they call it a mouse. I have watched it. I have batted it with my paw, and it doesn’t run away. It isn’t afraid of me and I can’t stick my claws into it. It’s not a real mouse at all! But when Mommy uses the mouse it tickles my foots and I have to swipe at her with my claw. After all, I’m trying to sleep here!

The Big Kitty is sometimes mean to me. Here you can see her stealing the Good Spot to sit in. As you may be able to tell, I am Not Impressed.

There are times when I get the Good Spot to sit in. This is one of them. The big thing I am sitting next to is a ceramic heater. It’s WARM! I *like* it!

This is another time when I got the Good Spot. I am sleeping in this photo. For some reason when I sleep like this the Humans go “Awwww” a lot. I don’t mind it. It’s just noisy, and I’m trying to sleep. Humans should be quiet when I am trying to sleep. They get upset when I play with my Jingle Ball when they are sleeping!

This is another Good Spot. The Humans get upset when I sleep on soft things. They say “Bad Kitty! Don’t fur up my clothes!”. I don’t know who they are talking to because I am not named “Bad Kitty”. My name is Grumpy. I also answer to Dainty Foots. That’s because I have cute, Dainty Foots. See?

I better get off the keyboard now because Mommy Human seems to be finished making the floors wet and hot with that steamy thing and she will be upset that I furred up her keyboard. Bye for now from Grumpy!

kitties

The Kitties Are Settled In Now.

9 Comments Posted on September 14, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Warning, cute kitty photos ahead! After a few days of panic, hiding under the bed anytime they heard a noise, and treading cautiously around the house, the kitties are now happily queens of their domain. No longer scared and hiding, but exploring, napping and relaxing. As you see.

The Big Kitty checking out the view.

Interestingly there have been some changes with the Big Kitty’s behaviour. She is now growling like a dog. The Little Kitty has done this since she first arrived at our house, and it seems the Big Kitty thought it was a good idea. Also the big kitty is thrilled to have her stairs back!

The Not So Little Kitty.

This is the first time the little kitty has ever had stairs, and she’s not too sure about it. She cautiously walks down one at a time with a scared look on her face. I’m sure she’ll get used to them soon – and they might be good exercise for her seeing as she is getting a little.. rotund. Yes, that is her belly hanging through the hole in the kitty tower!

kitties, move to the beach

Aussie Cat Lovers – You’ll Love This Post.

5 Comments Posted on September 14, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Anyone walking into our house would think our kitties are terribly spoilt. There are not one, not two, but THREE cat towers in this house.

The very first one we bought from a pet shop many years ago. It cost us big money – over $500. At the time, both of us were working and we felt like it was a fair amount to spend on an indoor cat we loved very much – and we wanted to encourage her to scratch the tower rather than our furniture.. This was back in the days when we only had the Big Kitty. The cat tower was very tall, extremely solid, and covered in carpet. The Big Kitty loved it as you can see from the above and below pics. Cats love to be up high.

When we got the smaller kitty, there was suddenly competition to be top of the tower. If the little kitty could not be top of the tower she would sit on top of my desk – and playfully push things down onto my head. This was great fun for her, but not so much fun for me. I’d be in the middle of something and a stack of papers would fall down on me and my keyboard. I lost an entire page worth of writing when I hadn’t saved a file before walking away from my desk and she took an opportunity to do a keyboard dance because the big kitty was on the tower and she wanted to get up there!

So the hunt was on for more cat towers. Surprisingly the prices had gone *up* at the pet stores since we bought the last one, and at the time I wasn’t working, I was in the middle of my three months of unpaid volunteer work at Fraudwatchers. We couldn’t afford it. The kitties would just have to fight it out, and I would have to remember to save things before walking away!

Soon after we moved to NSW from Adelaide, I found the Deals Direct website. They had some cat towers at what seemed like crazy prices – as cheap as $39.95 for some of them. We ended up choosing two – they have a large range which you can see here – the ones we bought are no longer available.

Shipping was only $9.95 and when I went to pick these things up at the post office they were in huge boxes! I was surprised shipping was so cheap for such big items. One of the boxes I used to pack some stuff in during our move, here it is sitting on my pool table with a little kitty napping on it.. Yes, I am one of those people who never throws out a box – they always come in handy later.

We unpacked the boxes and The Other Half happily (he loves anything he has to build) sat down to build the towers. They are mostly flat when you receive them, except for the cat rooms which were fully built and covered in carpet. The kitties investigated the towers immediately and within a short amount of time were happily hanging out in a cat room each. I grabbed the camera as always. As you see.

You can see things are still in bubble wrap – these photos were taken on the 23rd of February 2006, we moved into this house on the 9th of February.

We still have the towers today and the kitties still make use of them constantly. In fact as I was writing this I went out to take a few photos of the towers and caught the big kitty taking a nap in the cat box of the gray one, as seen above. They are solid towers and unlike the expensive one we bought, which the kitties have scratched a lot of the carpet off (see photo below) they still retain all of their carpet.

The kitties have clawed the heck out of them and they remain amazingly intact. The mouse is still attached to the tower even after hours of play. All I had to do was give them a quick vacuum when we moved.

I like that all the screws are covered by plastic covers. I love the tiger themed carpet. I love that the kitties love them and use them all the time.

Do your kitties deserve spoiling? If yes, check out these very reasonably priced cat towers. Your feline friends will love them. :)

We have bought many products from Deals Direct since February 06, .I receive their daily newsletter which is full of bargains, and I love their site, it is well laid out and easy to navigate. If I want to buy something it’s the first place I check, their prices are always excellent and they often have special offers on shipping, too.

kitties

Our Humans went out today..

7 Comments Posted on July 30, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Hi, this is the Big Kitty typing. The Little Kitty has the attention span of a goldfish and is too busy stealing my Tuna and the warmest spot next to the heater so don’t expect her to be posting anytime soon. The Humans are busy looking at this funny website they found – Daisy the Curly Cat. I laughed at that funny cat too, but I was inspired to say something myself! Here’s what I look like, in case you forgot. If you Humans reading this want a bigger view you can click your mouse on the photo. I like mouses, too.

I have to tell you something. Our Humans are going out more and more, and leaving us at home without the heating on. Ever since they got that new car they take off for hours at a time. When they found out we could turn the airconditioner on from the remote control with our paws they hid the remote in a drawer. Now we’re having to find warm places to curl up instead of hanging out on our cat towers, which is where we really want to be..

People say we’re spoilt kitties to have so many cat towers – these are only two of them. We have more in other rooms. Today when they got home I found these photos from when they were out and I thought I would post them so you can see what kind of fun those Humans are having while they leave us kitties alone.. cold.. with no laps to sit on.

What side of the road are you supposed to drive on in Australia? Or doesn’t it matter, can you just drive in the middle? I think that is really dangerous and my Humans should keep away from cars like that, right? Do you agree?

Maybe you can change sides as long as there’s nobody on the other side, I don’t know. This driving stuff looks confusing. I don’t like cars. I don’t like those cat carrier things the Humans always put us in when it’s time to go in the car either. Why can’t we just roam around the car and find a nice warm spot to sit?

My Humans are smart. It looks like they pulled over in order to get away from the scary drive all over the road Holden car. My Dad Human has a joke about Holdens – they’re just holden together. But I seem to remember he drove one once. That was a long time ago.

My Mom Human likes cows. I remember when they took us to see the EVIL Human with the BIG NEEDLE and we drove past some cows, and she was yelling “Hi Cows! Hi Cows!” at them. The Dad Human tells me she does this anytime she sees cows. I told him I know where the earplugs are and maybe he should use those in order to concentrate on the road better. But look at the view these cows have from their field? I don’t have much of a view here. This house only has one level so I can’t sit in an upstairs window and survey my kingdom.

Wow, it looks like those Humans were going fast!

The Humans keep the car in the Garage. I like the Garage. It’s the only room in the house we’re not allowed to go into but I can’t understand why. Whenever I get in there they say GET OUT to me. I like to hide in between the boxes so they can’t pick me up and carry me out. These cars look like that car they keep in the Garage, and look, they have that XR5 Turbo thing written on them too, just like that one in the garage but I don’t think these are theirs even though it is hard to tell what color the car is when it is inside. Is it possible that three of the five XR5 Turbos within a 50km radius were all parked in the same car park today?

Wow, look at that! Why can’t the Humans get a house with that kind of view where I could look out and dream of catching fish out of the water with my claws all day, and lazily watch the Humans on the beach with one half closed eye?

I’m not a beach cat. I don’t like sand in my paws. But if you could make me a special pair of kitty socks that keep the sand out, I’d like to roam around this beach and put my paw prints everywhere.

Do cats have to be on a leash at the beach? I don’t do leashes. Those are for dogs. Intelligent animals who can bury their doings don’t need to be on a leash, but I wouldn’t want any dogs to chase me. That silly dog next door, he barks all the time at nothing. He just stares off into space saying woof, woof woof, woof and disturbs my napping. I have to go sit on the windowsill and look down at him all superior like.

When the Humans got home, they put all this stuff on the pool table so we could sniff it and check it out. I think they should give the money cards to us. Clearly they can’t be trusted. They go out for a drive and bring home a new car, and then they go out in the new car and bring home.. stuff.

What is this stuff useful for? It’s not tuna, cat towers, toys for us to play with or kitty safe milk. We don’t need it! The Humans tried to get us Kitties to stand on those scales but we refused to put all four paws on at once. We don’t want them to take our Tuna away. Even though that Little Kitty could be considered plump, I keep telling the Humans she is just fluffy. Bye for now from the Big Kitty!

Australia, beach walk, kitties, photo blog country NSW, photos

The story of my day – with photos!

8 Comments Posted on July 27, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

I know I don’t normally talk about my health here on the blog but on Friday last week we drove almost to Sydney to get some cold and flu tablets. Why on earth would anyone go so far? It turns out that there’s a pharmacist who makes his *own* cold and flu tablets. We found out by accident one time, when my Dad had the flu and I felt like I was coming down with it too and we stopped on the way to Sydney to get something to help with that, and these tablets were incredible. So last Thursday when the other half and I both felt like we were getting the flu, I said tomorrow let’s go and get the good tablets. Of course, when we got there, they were out. ;(

So this past week I have been feeling pretty blah really. Then last night before I went to bed I felt a nasty headache was on its way to me as a surprise. I wandered into the bedroom considering going to bed early, and I found this.

Yes, the little kitty has a habit of sleeping on any clothes I might leave on the bed. She likes to fur things up. So I went to bed early and when the other half woke me this morning, I still had the headache. I rolled over and went back to sleep, and dreamed about my sister throwing bread dough at me.

Around mid-day I was woken by the sound of a truck reversing and builders talking. Today they laid the foundations for the new house across the road a few doors up. So I got up and stumbled in here, where I visited a few blogs, left a couple of comments, drank a couple of glasses of water, said hi to Sephy on Skype, posted the thought for the day and started thinking about what I would blog about today. I still had the headache but I also had a couple of blog topics I’ve been wanting to write about for a little bit, one being what we can learn from the “make money online” and “search engine optimization (SEO) type of blogs. I just wasn’t up to writing those today and decided to go have a shower and eat lunch instead.

After I had my shower, I heard the dog next door barking at the builders and I decided to open the window for a bit. The kitties have a love affair with the windowsill. Anytime they have a chance they’ll sit there and look out the window. This time the dog saw the cat jump up there and he ran towards the fence barking and growling. The little kitty knew that the big dog couldn’t get her, so she ignored him and tried to watch the builders instead. I wondered where the big kitty was, and I didn’t have to go far to find her.

By this time the headache was really starting to set in, so I sat down and ate lunch and watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. By the time it finished, I didn’t feel any better, so I watched another one. When that one finished, I felt more human so I ventured back to the computer and discovered an email from a very good friend of mine which I found very exciting – but thunder and lightning was going on. So I quickly replied to the email and turned the computer off. And then something truly horrible happened!

Hail! Now normally I don’t mind a bit of hail, in fact normally I adore it. However at this time my brand new car was not sitting safely in the garage. No. It was sitting in the carpark at the other half’s workplace. A good friend of mine once had a car written off by hail damage. I began to panic and went looking for the phone to call the other half. When I got to the phone I thought, what am I going to say? Drive the car home? There might not even be hail over there. So I went outside to take some photos and tried to calm down. When I had finished there was still lightning, so I had to watch more Desperate Housewives. Well, I couldn’t use the computer, what else was I supposed to do?

When I could turn the computer back on I had a reply from my good friend who has started a blog of his own. He’s someone I greatly respect and adore.

One blog post I do want to write is about writing. I have seen many people I think of as excellent writers recently claim to be not good writers. This shocks me somewhat. Cugat is someone who helped me to think more about my writing, and to learn how to edit better. I am hopeful he will share a bit of his knowledge on these topics with his blog readers. ;)

So by the time the day was over, I had finished season 2 of Desperate Housewives, the last 4 episodes watched when I had taken more headache tablets and was hoping the headache would go away if I sat quietly and watched tv. It didn’t work. I still feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head, and I want to read blogs but at the same time my eyes hurt. So I think I’m going to call it a day, for today. If I didn’t drop by your blog I’m sorry – hopefully tomorrow I’ll be all better. ;)

desperate housewives, health, kitties

The big kitty – post 450

10 Comments Posted on July 12, 2007 by Snoskred

You remember the old myth that when you move house you should put butter on the cat’s paws? Here’s a tip – this can lead to experiences you were not exactly expecting. My jaw is on the ground right now, I do not joke.

The Big Kitty LOVES butter or margarine to the point that if you take the container out of the fridge she can hear it from anywhere in the house, and she appears like magic.

You cannot leave bread buttered around here. If you turn away, when you turn back she’ll be licking the butter off the bread. You need eyes in the back of your head, ya’all.

So the other day I made myself a tasty sandwich snack and I mistakenly left the margarine container out on the counter. While I was in here reading blogs and doing stuff, I heard some funny noises out there in the kitchen. I just figured those kitties were chasing each other around. As they do.

When I eventually made my way into the kitchen, I found the big kitty had knocked the margarine container onto the ground, at which point the lid came off. What happened next I cannot be sure as I wasn’t there and no video camera was recording, but there was margarine *everywhere*. On the floor, on the cupboards, on the dishwasher, and there were these buttery kitty paw prints that went from room to room. And, the big kitty was wearing what can only be described as butter socks. Only they went way up past her knees. More like butter stockings, really.

I cleaned up the mess (do not ask how long this took) and threw the margarine out. When The Other Half got home he was looking for the butter and came in to ask me for it, at which point, I lied. Because I was busy! I was in the middle of stuff and I didn’t want to get into the whole sordid buttery tale. And I knew she’d be in trouble. So I said I didn’t know where it was and he should use cream cheese instead. He turned the fridge upside down looking for the butter and I came out just as he was replacing the last items in there.. at which point I broke down laughing and had to tell the truth.

Now, today, he asked me to make him a cake. Now that big kitty is really in for trouble. It said grease and flour the cake tin, which I did.. I left it on one counter while I got on with making the cake. I turned around to find that big kitty attacking that cake tin with gusto and her little pink tongue.. it’s so cute, there’s little tongue marks all over the place..

I’ll be in trouble too, because instead of making his cake I couldn’t resist coming in here to blog about it.. ;)

We get our car tomorrow.. ;)

cooking, kitties, what not to do

Do you really want to vacuum?

5 Comments Posted on June 30, 2007February 27, 2015 by Snoskred

Would it surprise you to know that for the last hour and a half, I have been sitting here, reading blogs, but at the same time vacuuming my bathroom and bedroom? How is this possible? Am I a witch? Is it a kind of magic? Oh yes. Roomba magic. Click on any of these images for a larger view.

To some this might seem like the ultimate in laziness, but if you stop and think for a minute nobody likes to vacuum and there are those among us who are physically not able. When I used to work in retail I sold a lot of these to people with arthritis, people in wheelchairs and elderly people. I also sold several to local businesses who wanted to be able to keep on top of their vacuuming without having to be a slave to the vacuum.

Me, I have two cats. Until you have lived in a house with two cats you really have no idea just how much hair they leave around. Roomba is my salvation, especially at moulting time. Many people with pets bought these and came back to let me know how much they love their Roomba.

You can work it however you want. How it works here is every morning I put Roomba in a room, hit the “max” button and shut the door. Max means, he cleans until he runs out of power. When he’s done, he makes this sad little beep, it sounds sort of like an electronic “uh oh”. When I hear it I go clean him and put him back on the base station so he can get recharged. He leaves little trails so you can see where he has been. Over the course of an hour in a room, he generally hits every spot on the floor and cleans it. These pics are from a room he was in for about half that time, he’s not done there yet, but I wanted you to be able to see the trails.

When he’s done, I usually take him to where the large vacuum cleaner is sitting (always plugged into the wall) and give him a quick clean out. You only need to clean two spots – the little dust chamber, and the pull out filter. It’s easy and painless.

This is what he picked up this morning. He generally picks up this much each day from whatever room I put him into. So you can imagine how much dirtier the house would be without him. I refer to Roomba as a he, The Other Half calls him a She. How interesting! ;) If you don’t have doors, Roomba comes with two “virtual walls” where a signal is transmitted to him and he thinks there’s a wall there, so he won’t go past the doorway.

He works on tiled floors and carpets as well as lino/vinyl and wood floors – without scratching. He does carpets especially well because he has the little carpet brush on the bottom. I adore him. The kitties are not so sure, after an unfortunate incident where he stole their tuna. And put it all over the kitchen floor. Note to all – make sure any cat or dog or other animal food is NOT left on the floor while Roomba-ing. Just a handy tip to prevent you having tuna all over the place.

As apparent by the tuna incident, Roomba is not perfect. You will still need a normal vacuum to make it easier to clean Roomba when he comes back to base. Once every 4 weeks or so you’ll have to drag the unwieldy big vacuum out to do the corners and skirting boards. You need to roomba-proof your rooms, make sure he can’t suck up any cords.

On the other hand there are so many good things about Roomba that outweigh the not good. He is also quite short so he can clean under things you wouldn’t normally get to with your vacuum. Roomba is not cheap – in Australia you can generally pick one up for between $350-400.

Do you need one? That depends. How much is your time worth? Would your house be cleaner if you vacuumed it for an hour a day? Do you want to spend that kind of time vacuuming or would you like a robot to do it for you? Do you ever wish for a genie to do your housework for you? ;)

I should mention, this is NOT a sponsored post, this is just me telling you about something I love. If and when I ever do write a sponsored post, I will make that VERY clear to ya’all. ;)

Home, kitties, yay

The spiderman is always hungry..

Leave a comment Posted on June 28, 2007February 27, 2015 by Snoskred

The kitties have killed a few spiders over the last couple of days. It’s been raining a lot and these spiders, which I call lawn spiders because they live in the lawn currently can’t live in the lawn due to its being flooded. It’s a bit like a swimming pool in our backyard. The spiders aren’t poisonous but they are freaky and they jump around a lot. The little kitty likes to trap them under her paw.

Yesterday morning we got up early and went to get the kitty kibble. It’s the older cat who I’m not about to deny food to because she was a bit stick thin back in summer and ever since then I have been tempting her with bacon and various other treats. Her favorite is roast chicken skin. If we go shopping on a Wednesday night we usually bring home a hot roast chicken because the supermarket sells them cheap. Now, if the big kitty sees shopping bags she assumes there’s going to be a chicken and she gets all excited. You can’t just take the skin off the chicken and put it in a bowl, she wants to be hand fed a little piece at a time. Yep, she has us trained.

Over the past week or so I’ve watched all of season 5 of the West Wing in preparation for season 6. Sephy is also up to season 6 now and we’re going to watch it together and blog about it on a testing blog we made a while back. It’ll be cool to be able to discuss the episodes having both seen them fresh, for the first time. ;)

Today we did a bit of cooking and reorganized the kitchen, all to the sounds of The Cure, who are touring Australia soon. I’m tempted to go see them.

kitties, music, The West Wing

The road not taken

4 Comments Posted on June 27, 2007February 27, 2015 by Snoskred

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

I often wonder about the choices I have made during my lifetime. I am pondering on a few different topics at the moment, but I have a cat here who thinks someone has cut her throat because there’s none of her favorite kibble in the house. She’s going around giving me the evil eye.

The Other Half has two days off and is fast asleep in bed. I wanted to get up and going early today – to get the kibble which is apparently desperately needed! before the shops get over-run with zillions of people looking to get out of the rain by going shopping – but he had a long day at work yesterday. So today I leave you with a couple of kitty photos from The Other Half’s phone – I like to take pictures of the kitties with it when he’s not looking – while I try to get The Other Half out of bed and to the shops to satisfy a very upset kitty.

I may be back later today with something I’ve been writing, if it comes to me as a surprise.

kitties

Housekeeping for today 23 June

3 Comments Posted on June 23, 2007February 27, 2015 by Snoskred

I’m about to go on a cleaning spree here in the home office, as well as on the blog. One thing I am wanting to do this weekend is go back and label old posts. Sometimes when I have done that in the past they have turned up on the RSS feed as a new post. I’m hoping they won’t but if they do, I’m sorry. It shouldn’t last too long.

Those of you who know me well know that I am one of the world’s most disorganized people. Even my computer desktop ends up with a zillion files on it that I have to go through and sort out every so often. But I think I’ve finally cracked the blogging organization jackpot.

I have a massive weekly wrap up coming to you as a surprise this Sunday so look out for that.

blog housekeeping, kitties