Cats!

This time of year has me thinking about cats. Not that I don't think about cats at other times of the year, but just before the holidays I think about cats even more. We adopted our two cats, Ernie and Bert, three years ago at this time of year. I was the kitten scout. I was at the shelter nearly every day, petting cats and kittens. Once I'd chosen an orange kitten (after several interviews and cuddle sessions), I brought my husband to the shelter to meet him. Bob and the kitten took to each other right away, so while they were bonding I opened another kitten cage and took out a little black kitty. When we put both kitties on the floor, they started running around together and I think they might have fallen in love. Or maybe that was me. That's when Bob said "We could get two . . ." Um, ok! So we signed the papers and paid the adoption fee, but we weren't allowed to take the kitties home just yet. The orange kitten had an eye infection and that needed to clear up before they would release him. They put the two kitties together in the same cage and we went home and waited. And waited. I went to the shelter with our cat carrier, ready to take them home, but they still would not release them and I left with my empty cat carrier. I understood. But boy did I want to bring those kitties home! Finally, on Christmas Eve, the kittens were cleared to come home. We picked them up and put them in a wrapped box (you know, the kind they have on soap operas where the box top is wrapped separately so all you have to do is pull off the top) and presented the box to our kids. They were stunned. It was one of those awesome moments - we had kittens! Our kids had never had kittens before. The three cats we had had during their life were all grown, so they had never known the wonder of little kittens. It was so much fun! Ernie and Bert are now "cats," but we still call them "the kittens." They became best friends right away and they play and sleep together. They are wonderful. :)

So it's no wonder that I want to shop for cats this time of year. But we're at our limit now with these two fur balls, and that's ok. We love them. But in my cat-obsessed state I've been favoriting a lot of cat items on Etsy and I even made a holiday cat treasury. I can't seem to get cats off my mind. 

Then my glassy friend Lori of loribeads posted this glorious picture of the cat beads she's been making. Aren't they wonderful??? I love group shots of critter beads - and these kitties all get along so nicely, no hissing. :) I didn't see any cat beads in her shop yet, but that's what she's been up to, so hopefully they'll be sneaking in there soon. 

My glassy friend Nikki has a whole litter of kitty cats in her shop, nlcbeads. I own a couple of her cat beads and they are even better in person. Their itty bitty paw pads are my favorite little adorable detail. 

These little tipsy cats by Min of minfidler are a new obsession of mine. I just love the design and all the little details on each kitty cat. I own one of her upright cat beads that I just adore. She has both designs in her shop now, but I've noticed that the tipsy cats go fast! Find her cat beads here.

Another shop that's under the influence of cats is RCTees. Shop owner Toni just had her 8,000 sale! So you know there are happy customers all over the globe sporting her fabulous shirts. I'm one of them - I have two RC t-shirts and I love them. The fit is just right, and the graphics are outstanding. Not all the shirts and bags at RCTees are cat-related - there's something for everyone there. 

So if you're like me and are a little cat-obsessed at this time of year (or any time of year), check out  all the wonderful cat items from the shops I featured. Then head to your local shelter and pet some cats. Or if you can, try volunteering at a shelter. Two of my kids have been helping out as Junior Volunteers at Save-A-Pet. They were there last weekend and two kittens were adopted during their shift. So I'm guessing the new owner of those kittens might feel like me at this time of year in years to come - thinking about cats. :)

Critter Visit from NLC Beads

Looky what came in the mail yesterday! An adorable kitty cat (with beautiful scrollwork that's hard to see in the picture), a 3-eyed alien with murrini, AND a screaming alien, cyclops-style. They are all from Nikki at NLC Beads. 

It's ok to be jealous. It's a perfectly natural emotion to feel when you see someone else with a handful of Nikki's beads. I'm lucky enough to own several of Nikki's awesome critters. My other screaming alien serves as the best fan-pull ever, right over our kitchen table, screaming his little head off. This new screaming alien has been a little, shall we say, nervous, since he's hopped out of the mailing envelope.  And it doesn't help that his travel companions aren't very compassionate to his anxiety. After all, he screamed the entire way here from Ohio.

The critters were checking out their new surroundings and they talked the screaming alien into trying out the playpen. He didn't like it.

Then they put him in the baby buggy. He was not amused.

They had to pry him away from the mirror. He kept scaring himself.

He finally relaxed a little when they sang Happy Birthday to him. And it's not even his birthday.

Some of my other NLC critters agreed to a group picture with the the newbie beads. I think they're all going to get along very well. :)

Thank you, Nikki!!!

Happy Catterday!

This is our living room. You're probably wondering why there is a teepee in our living room. It used to be in our basement for the kids to play in when they were little. It folds up nicely and doesn't take up a whole lot of room unless it's set up. Well, the kids don't use it a whole lot anymore, but Ernie and Bert love it! One of the kids set it up in the living room and the cats play in it all the time.

Ernie (the ginger cat) is obsessed with the teepee. He hides in it and springs out at anyone (dog, cat, person) walking by. I think he meditates in there, too.

If we can't find Ernie, he's usually in the teepee.

This is a classic teepee situation. Ernie "hiding" on the inside while Bert innocently walks by. But I think Bert is catching on. 

Happy Catterday!

Saturday is Catterday

My son runs high school cross country. Before a meet or a long run, he makes sure to get his carbs. One of his favorite ways to carb up is with a nice big bowl of cat - delicious and full of those important vitamins and long-acting carbohydrates.

       

See how fast he runs? Like a panther.

 Now he's sweatin' like a dog.

         

Happy Catterday!

Saturday is Catterday

This is my boy, pretending to be unfazed by me taking a picture of him in a restaurant. Little does he know that while he's staring me down, the cat on his shirt is taking a lick of his pizza. 

Saturday is Catterday!

Today I'm introducing a new feature - Saturday is Caturday! But I probably should spell it Catterday, or it could be read as "cat turd day" and that's just not what this will be about. I hope. What it will be about is cats! We have two cats - Ernie and Bert. We still call them "the kittens" and they are almost 3 years old. But we got them when we had an older cat, so they were and still are the kittens. They still act like kittens anyway. So on Catterdays I'll post an adorable picture of one or both of our cats or I'll post some cat bead pictures. This being the very first Catterday, I've got both! Bonus! 

Here we have Ernie (the ginger) and Bert sitting on the kitchen table watching a little bird on the back patio. I'm no cat mind-reader, but I can guess that they're thinking mmmmmmm. 

 Here is Bert, again on the table, demonstrating that he can sit in the weirdest positions and still act like he's comfortable. He looks like he has elbows. 

And looky here! Cat beads! I put a group of my cat beads together (they all behaved for the picture, but you don't want to know what went down afterward. Lots of hissing). I've been experimenting a lot with cat bead design and I'm still trying to figure out my cat style. The two kitties on the left in the picture are standing, and notice they both have those classic cat "cheeks." The two on the right are a little more artsy(?) - just the cat face and body and tail - no cheeks or even feet. They can't go anywhere or even mew. They've even been mistaken for owls (with tails). Poor things. The kitty in the middle is sitting and seems to have it all - the cat cheeks and all four legs. 

What style of cat do you like best? Cheeks or no cheeks? Do you like the little spots on the orange cat's cheeks? 

Thanks for your input! 

Happy Catterday!

Therapy Thursday

I'm bringing back one of my old blog features ~ Therapy Thursdays. Every Thursday I'll post something therapeutic - a day brightener or mood lifter. So if you don't have time for therapy, stop by here on Thursdays for some good news or something fun. And it's free! =)

Today's therapy is a sweet video about a guy who builds his cat Rufus (that was my childhood dog's name) the most awesome box castle ever. My cats would love this!

Have a wonderful day! See you next Thursday!

Skunked

Skunks have been on my list of beads to try for a while, but I just never got around to it. Then just recently I had a customer request one (apparently she has a friend with a pet skunk), so I gave it a try:

I was happy with how it turned out, and so was my customer, who also ordered a couple cat beads. The skunk and this kitty seem to be getting along well:

Oh no - I spoke too soon - run, kitty, run!

Too late. :(

Wordless Wednesday

My Cat Newman

Newman in all his fluffy goodness, a favorite lounging position of his.

My cat died yesterday. His name was Newman. He was old and very sick, and it was time. But that doesn't make it any easier. He was my baby before I had babies.

We got Newman when I was newly pregnant with our first child. We already had two cats - Fonz and Buzz. Fonz, who was a girl despite the name I gave her, was my cat from college. She had extra digits on her paws, which made it look like she had thumbs. So I called her The Fonz or Fonzie. After college I moved into a one-bedroom townhouse with Fonzie. Stupidly, my then-boyfriend (now my husband, Bob) and I decided she needed another cat to keep her company while I was at work. She had lived with other cats in college and didn't particularly enjoy it, but we went ahead and got Buzz, a boy kitty. Buzz chased Fonz and tormented her, and she took to living outside for part of the day. So Bob and I decided what we needed was a third cat in our one-bedroom, one-floor little home home. You know, to take the pressure off of Fonz.

For fun back in those days, we would visit a local pet store. One day there was a litter of fluffy gray kitties. We asked to hold one and fell in love on the spot. But one more kitty in that small home? What were we thinking? Plus, I was newly pregnant and we didn't have maternity insurance. Oh, and we had to buy me a car because mine had conked out. It was not the ideal time to get a cat. And I was all about getting a cat from a shelter, like we did with Buzz, or a litter from someone's house, like I had done with Fonz. So we left the little gray kitty at the pet store.

But we couldn't get him off our minds. He was just so sweet and absolutely adorable. Our other two cats had short hair, and now we could have one of those luscious fluffy cats. Plus, we already had a name picked out - Newman. Yes, we were Seinfeld fans. So every day Bob would mention little Newman from the pet store, until I (happily) gave in. We went to pick him up, and he was less money than I had expected. Apparently my husband had already put a deposit down on him, just in case.

We brought our ball of fluff home and he was the cutest, sweetest thing ever. He and Buzz became best buds almost instantly. They'd cuddle and they'd play. Newman took to grooming Buzz. When Buzz wanted the top of his head licked, he'd hold it just so under Newman and Newman would take care of him. Fonz was relieved, unless they both decided to target her. Our plan had worked.

A few months later I had our first child, a boy. Once he was walking, he'd toddle over to the dresser where Newman would be sitting, and Newman would whap him on the head. Sometimes pretty hard. We told our son he was trying to give him a high five, and he believed us. Once our son was taller than the dresser, Newman softened and became his pal. But he never was too fond of the toddler stage. Newman gave lots of high fives over the years that ended in tears. Both our daughters got whapped until they grew taller than the dresser.

Newman's kitten stage was was a lot of fun, and unfortunately our kids never knew him as a kitten. Or else they would have seen him get his little head stuck in a ball jar trying to get the last bits of milk. Bob called for me to get a hammer and I showed up with a rubber mallet (shows what I know). Once I located the hammer, my husband broke the jar and saved Newman. And Once, when Bob took Newman to the vet, he let him ride on the top of the headrest in his little car. He's riding along with this little ball of gray fluff on his shoulder, and a guy pulls up next to him in a big truck with two big dogs in the back. The guy looks down at Bob and his little friend and busts out laughing.

None of our kids are really old enough to get why we named our cat Newman. They'll find out after they watch some reruns, and they'll think it's a funny coincidence that the annoying letter carrier on Seinfeld has the same name as their cat. His name came in handy - when Newman did something bad, like knock over one of the kid's milk cups and we'd walk in the kitchen and see milk dripping over the side of the table, we could do a good Jerry Seinfeld imitation and say, through clenched teeth, "Newman!"

Newman was the kind of cat who would bombard you with affection. He'd rub his head on you forcefully, whether you were trying to sleep or reading a book. When he wanted love, he made sure he got it. His purr was loud and sweet, and he purred up until the very end.

We miss you, Newman.