Thursday, July 27, 2006
Taking A "Holiday" From Blogging
It looks like we are going on holiday tomorrow. The suitcases are out...and so is The Evil Cat Carrier! Unfortunately, I don't get to go on holiday with my humans, but we are all escaping from the horrible sticky heat and humidity which has been making London unbearable for days.
The humans are heading north to the Lake District, where it is rumoured to be cooler. They get to chill out next to a lake and unwind in a comfy hotel here. Lucky humans.
I suggested that they might like me to come with them to the Lake District, but my mum said that as I am not that keen on water I might not feel safe being right next to a great big lake. She does have a point. However, I am off to the countryside too. I am off to the kitty jail holiday camp, which is on a farm out in Essex. I've been there before and it's not too bad as kitty jails holiday camps go - it has countryside all round it and a big aviary full of birds as a form of Kitty TV for us to watch. Plus the people there really like me and comb me so that my long fur stays nice and tangle-free. And I get to take my friend Scratchy Mouse with me, and my blanket, and my comb and a couple of other toys. But I would rather be at home!!!
I shall mark off the days on the walls of my jail cell luxury cat chalet and spend the time bird-watching, napping and composing songs - some of my kitty friends have come up with such great compositions lately!
I get home on August 6th, so farewell to blogging until then. I'll be back to tell the story of my adventures...*
*and if I don't get freed on August 6th, I've asked Zeus to organise the prison break to get me out...OK?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
More Blogging BritCats
I am happy to announce the arrival of another new kitty blog. And this one is British. There aren't that many of us British cats blogging - although of course there are Pandora & Charlie, and Arty & Velvet, and me (any more British kitties out there blogging, let me know!).
Back in April, I posted about how I had had e-mail from another kitty called Eric. Big Eric, to be exact, a handsome ginger 20-pounder living in Devon with his brother Flynn. Eric and Flynn were hoping to get their own blog and now, they have! You can find their life stories and some great pictures of them at their page here. They would love to have some visitors to their new blog so I hope all my friends will pop over and say hello!
Today is quite a good day. My mum finally finished school for the summer yesterday; she came home all sweaty and tired with 6 bottles of wine, 12 boxes of rather melted chocolates and a mug that said "World's Best Teacher". Strangely, her class failed to give her any cat treats to pass on to me - she will have to train the next lot better!
Today my dad has gone to the Motor Show to see shiny cars. My mum and I are tired so we are having a quiet day at home. We had a rain shower this morning which made us feel cooler for about ten minutes, but it is still pretty humid and sweaty. We hung out on the patio while it was in shade this morning, my mum read the paper and I used one of her flowerbeds as a litter box but she caught me...oops. It has cooled down to around 85F today but is supposed to get back up to about 94F by Wednesday...not so good!
Missy is about to get a new little sister, KC - who is flying from Los Angeles to Houston at this very moment. What an exciting way to get a new sibling! You can check on KC's progress at Missy's blog, she is flying right now!
Hope all kitties have a good weekend.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
I'm Melting, I'm Melting...!
IT'S SOOOOO HOT!
And yes, I know some kitties live in places where it is often hotter than this, but those kitties are used to it! I am not! This heatwave is getting ridiculous. Today the record was broken for the hottest July day ever in the UK, the previous July record was back in 1911. Someone measured the temperature in Trafalgar Square to be 100F. It certainly feels like it!
My days are getting very monotonous. I get up, feel too hot to climb the stairs to wake my humans, and have to wait for my mum to come down and feed me. Then I go out and lie in the garden while it's not so hot yet. Then my humans go off to work and I have to come inside and I have a choice of two places to lie - on the kitchen floor next to the fridge, with my ice bottle, or in the living room next to the fan, which is left on all day for me. It's so hot I just lie there and snooze all day until my mum comes home. Thankfully I have not lost my appetite! Then I go out in the garden where it is still boiling, and crawl under my favourite shady bush. When it gets dark it gets nice and cool outside and I lie by the pond talking to the frogs until I am forced to come into the hot house for the night. Then it starts all over again...can't wait till the heatwave is over.
My humans are not a pretty sight when they get home each day, dripping with sweat. There was an ugly scene yesterday because the water company are digging up our road, and they had turned the water off. So when the sweaty humans got home there was no water and they couldn't have a shower, they had to stay sweaty and disgusting for another four hours until the water was turned back on...they were not happy! (Nor was I, it made the house very smelly!)
Some of the schools in London were shut today because it was too hot in the classrooms. My mum's school is still open and they are trying to cope with the heat. Only two days to go till school finishes for the summer, my mum says they aren't even doing any real work, so I say, what's the point of her going in there and leaving me? Her class spent all afternoon having a table football World Cup tournament (Poland beat Germany in the final, she says, but England got knocked out early, just like the real World Cup then!)
I seem to have upset a few kitties' mums by giving Johnny Depp to the Empress Kukka-Maria. I didn't realise so many humans would get jealous! Zeus's mum seemed particularly upset. Maybe I acted a little hastily in choosing my present for Kukka...As it happens, I have now stumbled across something else which an Empress would surely love...
"Our Red Royal cat bed is designed as a throne to suit its aristocratic feline owner. Covered in luxurious red velvet on a sturdy wooden frame. A stylish, elegant and very comfortable piece of cat furniture to enhance any room...only £195!"
They make it in blue, too...and some other very fancy cat furniture...anyone want a leopard-print kitty chaise-lounge?? Have a look on this page but you have to scroll down quite a bit to see the furniture pictures...
What do you think? Can you picture the Empress relaxing on one of these?
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Here Be Pirates!
This evening I had great fun over at Timothy Dickens' chat page. Because of the time difference, I usually get there earlier than the Mericky kitties do, so I don't often find anyone else waiting to chat there. But tonight I found both my good friend Derby and the lovely Fiona Bun were there! We had a great time chatting and we even staged a virtual kitty pirate battle, which was very exciting.
Chatting with Derby and Fiona helped me to work out a solution to the problem of what to give the incomparable Empress Kukka-Maria for a blogiversary present. Some of the presents she has already been given are amazing, and what do you give to the feline who seemingly already has efurrything?
Sticking to a pirate theme, I decided she might like to have her own pirate/slave/eye-candy. So here you are, Empress, my gift to you...
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Rainbow Kitties
We are sad today. Two more kitties we know have gone to the Rainbow Bridge.
Hara of Hara and Lulu has gone to the Bridge. She was 8 years old and lived in Montana. We send our sympathies to Lulu and her humans.
Also, we are sad because one of my mum's good friends here has had a very bad week. Until this week, she and her family had three lovely kitties; Nessie, Lulu (another Lulu!) and Fluffy. A week ago, Fluffy disappeared from their garden and he has not been seen since. He has their phone number on his collar but nothing has been heard about him at all, so they are very worried about him. Then today, they had to help Nessie go to the Rainbow Bridge. She was 15 and was very ill with renal failure. So now her family are very sad, and Lulu is missing her brother and sister. We send them all our sympathies too, and we are still hoping that they may find Fluffy again.
Purrs to anyone who is feeling sad today...
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Things We Have Been Doing Lately
Blimey. I've just realised it's 8 days since I updated my blog. I've been really slack about reading my friends' blogs this week too, but it's been a bit of a hectic week. We've had some very hot weather and I haven't enjoyed that - with my long, double-layered coat of hair I've been most uncomfortable. All I wanted to do on those hot days was to drink water and find a cool place to sleep. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen lying up against the fridge door. My mum gave me a frozen bottle of water to lie against and that helped a bit. She also left an electric fan on for me to lie in front of and put ice cubes in my drinking bowl. Wish we had air-conditioning like some Mericky kitties do.
The weather's cooled down a bit now, although it is very windy today. My mum has been cursing because all her plant pots keep blowing over. She's been really busy at work this week too, some of the computers at school got broken and she was stressed out about that. It made her forget to turn on the home computer so that I could blog. And some of her little monsters at school have been misbehaving and giving her a hard time because they are over-excited that there are only 2 weeks of term left until the summer holidays (...they're excited? - my mum is counting the days!) Plus, at home, the microwave and combi oven broke so the humans had to go and buy a new one at great expense. It's been that sort of week.
I got a postcard from Zeus! All the way from Texas! It has a picture of a cow with long horns on it. I would post a picture of it but my dad's camera is playing up (it must have caught something from the faulty microwave). Thanks Zeus! Strangely, I got another Mericky postcard this week - my Auntie Jan has been at a library conference in New Orleans and she sent us one. It's so interesting finding out about other places.
My mum bought me a Zoom Groom, because she'd found out about them on other kitties' blogs. You can't find them in pet shops here but she found one on eBay. I quite like it - I love being groomed anyway. It's fun being Zoom Groomed but it doesn't get the tangles out as well as my comb does, so my mum says she will use a combination of the two.
Here's my mum Zoom-Grooming me while I wash my face. By the way, can you see my little Snacky Mouse in this picture? I must tell you about my Snacky Mouse some time, it's another of my favourite toys. Hope all kitties have a good week.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Mandy In The Sunshine
Hi, it's Mandarin here. Fat Eric said I could blog for him today because he was too hot to blog. Poor Eric, it was over 90 degrees F in London today and much too hot for a kitty with an enormous fur coat like him. He has spent most of the day pressed up against the door of the fridge, and the rest of the day lying in front of the electric fan the kind humans set up for him. Now it has cooled down this evening he is out lying by the pond watching the frogs and newts. I told him that Princess Mia had let my sister Mango do some blogging on her behalf so Eric said, "Why don't you have a turn?"
The humans have promised to leave the fan running for Eric tomorrow as they are going out all day to see old planes. Funny things these humans are interested in. They have been quite emotional today, something to do with football again. Apparently most of the humans in England spent this afternoon watching TV tensely and shouting "Oh no, not penalties again!" Unfortunately, this happened and the nation is now officially in mourning. As a newly-registered British catizen I have tried to show my sympathy.
Eric says I have to tell you that his friends Finny and Buddy have got a new friend called Sully. He is a Gorgeous Ginger too.
Eric was very upset this evening when his mum started talking to two Evil Intruder Kitties who were sitting on the garden fence. They were small, black, skinny and looked just like twins. They were quite shy and wouldn't let her touch them, but one of them let her get close. What Eric was really upset about was that his mum gave one of the Evil Intruder Kitties a couple of his Merican cat treats. He doesn't like sharing his food!
I didn't see the little black kitties because I was busy admiring the new poppies Eric's mum bought the other week. They are called Ladybird poppies because they are red with black spots like a ladybird. Pretty, aren't they?
