Gecko Bath Salts

You know how they say things happen in 'threes'? Oh, dear. I am worried already. Remember how I said I always keep the bathroom door closed? That also includes when I am in there. Okay, where to begin? The beginning, I suppose.

Often when it is stifling hot as it is, I take a bath in the evening to cool myself down some. Tonight, I did just that. After returning home late tonight from visiting my mom, I went in and drew up a nice, cool bath. I was in there relaxing and enjoying the cool water applying some body scrubs, putting a mask on my face. The bathroom door was almost closed but not quite. The catch was not completely in the lock. A slight push would have flung it wide. As I said, I was relaxing, enjoying the coolness when suddenly I hear some cat(s) barreling down the hallway like a run-a-way train. With a major shove, the door flies open and in tears Ollie as if he was running to a fire! He had something in his mouth. Oh no, on closer inspection I see he has caught one of those geckos!! He runs up to the bath tub and throws it in on me as if he is attempting to drown it! His plan must have worked because it was just lying there in the water lifeless and floating upside down. Ollie with his front paws up on the edge of the tub stared at me as if he was saying "Close call but fast thinking was the answer." Needless to say, my relaxing bath was over. Let's hope things do not really happen in 'threes'. I say that is just an old wives tale.

Ollie Wants a Toothbrush

Usually I keep my bathroom door shut all of the time because there are too many tempting baubles in there for little curious paws to confiscate. For example, I had a beautiful, plush make up brush that was almost brand new only having used it a few times. Once, I forgot to close the bathroom door and went off to work. I came home to find my beautiful make up brush all spit covered and extremely dirty with lots of hair torn out of it. I washed it and still use it but not for its original, intended purpose.

The other day, I came out of the bathroom and left the door open...again. I was planning on going back in there shortly so I thought it might be safe to leave the door open for a short time. Wrong! In no time at all, I heard 'goings on' in there...little, tinkling sounds, moving, scraping...something falling. I had left a pair of earrings in there that I am particularly fond of so I immediately went to check on them thinking I would probably find them missing perhaps permanently. When I arrived into the bathroom, my earrings were right where I had left them. Good. But what was that noise I had heard? What was missing? I saw my toothbrush laying on the base of the toilet. Ooogey!!! No way was I going to use that again. Fortunately, I always keep a spare. (Note to self: buy another spare toothbrush.)

There have been times when the vet has told me that I needed to brush my cats teeth. I have tried and well, to say it is not an easy thing is a bit of an under statement. I suppose there is hope they can brush their own teeth now.Apparently, there is at least an interest in the possibility.

When Tornados Happen, Find a Bed

Have you ever washed a bath mat just to dry it in the dryer and find that the backing on the mat begins to loosen and fall off? All of these little rubber pieces will be caught in your lint trap. It turns into a real mess not to mention ruining your mat. Therefore, now when I wash a bath mat, I lay it out to dry. It really does not take long just a couple of hours. What does this have to do with anything you might be wondering?

When my kittens were small before they came to me and turned into mine, they all lived out of doors. Therefore as little scuddlers, they became very 'weather savy'. To this day when they hear thunder, they will get under something. They know rain or possibly hail will soon follow a clap of thunder. They will either get under the dining table, the bed or as Nigel likes to do, burrow inside the sofa. Nigel is very frightened by storms. The poor boy must have had a really super bad experience. In fact, it was a rain storm that brought that little pistol to me in the first place. Again, what does any of this have to do with anything you might be wondering?

Yesterday as I was leaving work, I really think I saw a tornado. At least, it looked like a tornado to my mind. What say you?

It looks like it might turn into one of those big super duper things. So what do I do? I rush home thinking I can outrun a tornado, the very thing they tell you NOT to do. Well, I have never been one too much for following the rules anyway.

While I was speeding home, once when I had to go over a bridge, a big strong gust of wind felt like it was going to lift my little car right off the road and I might end up in Oz or Kansas or somewhere far way but not here.

As soon as I got home as always do,  I began checking on those cats. Yep, Nigel is inside the sofa. Henry is under the bed. Where is my Ollie? I cannot find him anywhere. Finally, the last place I look is the laundry room. There he is! Boy has made a bed out of my dishpan and the drying bath mat. Okay, now he loves it and I have to leave it like that. Good thing bath mats are not expensive, right? This looks like a pretty safe place to hang out during a tornado to me. What say you?

I Am Oliver's Secretary Now

Okaaaaay, now I am Ollie's secretary and he is getting his own phone messages....

It is Hard Being a Cat

This is my Oliver. When he was a tiny boy, he had to live outside between two fences with his birth mother, Emily. Emily was a very good mother. Emily would only ever have one kitten at a time. She was the mother to both my Oliver and my Nigel. When it was time to have another baby, she would very quickly extricate herself from her oldest child. That is where I came in. Emily had determined that I should take care of Oliver. She brought him over to my patio then, left the infant. Poor child was very small and frightened. He stayed out there by himself for a couple of weeks until I could not take it anymore. I would see him eating birdseed and crackers I had thrown for the birds. When I would open my back door after being at work all day, little Ollie would quickly pop his tiny head up over the fence then, he would come running to his girl. This is Oliver today. I could not resist grabbing his picture today as he lazily looked out the window at his old stomping grounds. Life is very different for him now. He no longer worries about where he is going to sleep or what he is going to eat. He has his very own Cindy now.

Remember "This Boy"?

It isn't all about Nigel around here. Remember Ollie whose theme song is "This Boy"? He is still "this boy" but he likes to sport different looks trying to be "that boy". Here he is trying out his pirate look. Don't you love it when cats do this? No matter how many times I see it, I still love it. Now, when they get both ears turned over like that, I really love it! Cats just make me crazy with a warm, fuzzy feeling on my insides and I must admit with a furry look on my outside at times. However, I love 'em anyway. Bet you couldn't tell. ;)

Nigel Gets Sirius...Black

Have you ever watched one of those National Geographic type programs where a pride of lions attack a poor, loner gazelle? Then later, it shows a lion feeding off of the gazelle kind of like how Nigel looks with Sirius in this picture? Well, actually, he has not hurt Sirius and his motives are completely harmless. He is using Sirius like a 'bunker' and he is lying in wait for Oliver to walk by so he can leap out and scare the bejeepers out of him. Those crazy cats! I love 'em.

Oliver Blaze - Book Worm Extraordinaire

Ollie and I have the same hero...Ben Franklin. However for me, I respect Mr. Franklin due to his service to our country in a statesman capacity. Ollie respects Mr. Franklin for his foresight and inititiative in creating the first lending library. Can you see why Ollie might value this trait? There has been so much talk of Ollie around here lately...where is Nigel? Nigel is busy. Nigel is more of the athlete of the family while Ollie is the intellect.

Pin Cushion Takes Its Whipping

Ollie cannot seem to understand that this pin cushion is not a toy. Fortunately, I do not have any pins stored in it. Everytime I open the door to the craft room, Ollie immediately makes a bee line to this pin cushion and proceeds to give it a whipping. He must think this thing has been very bad indeed!

Gekko Hunting Friday Night Doo Da, Doo Da

We had a big gekko hunt last night, all night and most of the day. Let me tell you, when those two boys get something in their minds (like gekkos), they do not forget. They are both asleep right now because they literally not figuratively climbed the walls last night when we had another gekko in that same area. There is a cable connection in the corner of the room that is small enough for a tiny gekko to mistakenly and regretfully find his way into the "Land of Feline Hating Gekkos". The ceiling is very tall so it requires much feline patience to await the gekko's descent. So sometimes an impatient kitten decides to 'climb for it' or go for the gold in other words. That is what we have happening in this picture. Plus, this is a pretty good picture of Nigel's little short tail. Nigel got pretty far up on those spindles before sliding down. The spindles are damaged now as you can see but hey, why get upset about that, right? If I became upset about everything that I owned that had been damaged by a cat in my lifetime, well, I would be pretty upset. But I am not upset. I just keep right on loving the kittens in spite of and because of their antics.
This is how a kitten looks after too much gekko hunting.

Wrongfully Accused?

Okay, my next time out of the craft room, look what I find. Now, Oliver has taken up post by the lamp. There is obviously gekko activity in this area. Nigel may not have been the guilty party. I am fairly sure Max and Claude are not involved. That would require too much effort.

Call Jason and Grant

It is time to call Ghost Hunters. I think I have a ghost. This lamp was not left in this condition when I left home today. I return to find it this way. Could it be a ghost? Of course, there is the possibility it could be Nigel chasing an interloping gekko. When those gekkos manage to get inside, I bet at some point, they really regret it.

RosietheCat

RosietheCat just got added to Oliver's Myspace account. The weird dude 'Tom' has been sending Oliver some cryptic messages.

Masked Marauder

As you can tell from a couple of posts below this one, Oliver loves to sleep on the windowsill. This is his favorite place to sleep. Tonight, he had his sleep disturbed. I heard some bumbling and banging on the patio. I figured it was another one of our 'possum visitors or maybe even a hungry cat (go figure). I switched on the patio light and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a new type visitor!! We have never had a visitor such as this one. When the light hit him and he was standing looking in that window where Ollie was by now sitting up trying to peer out at our visitor, I thought Ollie was going to jump out of his skin! He could not leave that windowsill fast enough. He ran and never looked back! Straight for underneath the bed, he tore out! The last I saw of Oliver, his tail looked like a wire bottle brush! However, Nigel immediately wanted to check out the goings on of the patio. When he saw our masked friend, he was very curious but the site of me and Nigel were too much for the little raccoon and he scurried off into the darkness. And I hope that is where he stays. Nature is nice but I do not like it when nature and my house collide like when the squirrel came down the chimney. ;)

This Boy

Remember that really great Beatles song "This Boy"? This boy would deny the pain and all of that? I love that song. Well, this boy in this picture (Oliver) is not into pain. He is all into comfort. He is suffering with comfort in this picture. Another thing about this boy; he loves to craft. You have never seen such a craft loving kitten before in all of your life. He can be completely sound asleep, totally dead to the world and I can open the door to the craft room and this boy will have awakened, ran and be in the craft room before I can get in there. This boy thinks crafting is fun because crafting involves a lot of fun things that cats love but that their Moms have to be ever vigilant. ;) Future post will be about more songs I associate with my cats. I like for all of my cats to have a theme song.

Ollie-The Little Helper

Tonight, I decided I was going to make some jewelry. I had lots of help.