Sometimes I Really Impress Myself ^..^

So, my plan was to wake my Mom at 4AM to see if she would play again this morning. About 4AM on the dot I start screaming.  We did not play but my Mom did get up to give me food! I had spent part of the nite picking the new food out of the bowl and eating it, leaving the old food.  Mom seemed pretty amazed (and a tad dismayed) by this!  I sat and stared at the bowl with my lethal weapon flipping back and forth, while I cried loudly, until I got more new food mixed in...then I picked that out and ate some more :) At 6AM we were both still awake and my Mom kept poking me - She said if she could not sleep I was not going to sleep either.  Right now I am getting ready to hide under a chair because when I tried to sleep before my Mom took my picture. I do not mind getting my picture taken but I do not like the flash. Here I am about 7AM this morning "not sleeping:"

Tell me after reading all of these posts, who do you think runs things in our condo?  I am pretty sure it is me.  I have really trained my Mom well. I am also learning how to tell time even without making a clock out of a paper plate and construction paper hands! Perhaps the digital clock makes it easier.  I think being a well-rounded cat who can write, tell time and be conversant is very important. Have a nice Saturday! 

My Food Keeps Changing!!!!

It has been a very very strange week. My Mom went to the veterinarian's office to pick up my food but when she brought it home it was not the same. It is "new and improved." It looks like tiny pieces of butterscotch, which really did not appeal to me. I must admit after all these years of the same hypo-allergenic food I was excited at first but the food did not look or taste good. I started just spitting it out and I have been HUNGRY. This morning at 4AM I started that screaming I do and that was fun because we were able to play at about 4:30AM. I may try that again tomorrow morning too!  My Mom called Hill's about the change this AM and they told her to put oregano on top of my food - YUCK! My Mom has jokingly been saying something about brownies and a pot that everyone finds funny, but I don't understand the joke. Honestly, sometimes people think they are funny and they really are not. Cats are much funnier and so are dogs.

Today, my Mom put the food back in the bag and returned it. She came home with another bag of food - the veterinarian and her tech, Robin (I love both of them if they don't act like vampires when they visit!) went to a store in Annapolis and brought a bag of food back up to the office for my Mom to pick up. That was just the nicest thing for them to do. It is venison but I hear that if I can eat this it will be better than the Hill's hypo-allergenic food because it won't make me fat - the way I understand that, I can just eat more, correct?  My Mom opened the bag but she counted out only a few little pieces and then sealed it up and put it away.  I ate those little pieces and liked the food. Out came a little bowl of my old food. Well, I don't really want that; I have decided that I want the new food but Mom won't let me have anymore...are you all impressed that I know how to properly insert a semi-colon??? Not every cat knows that! Below is a picture of me during grammar and English class. I am very atttentive as you can see. I believe this was the lesson on capitalization and quite frankly I was a bit bored :)

Happy Weekend to all!  We are going to finish painting the bedroom we hope this weekend. My Mom was sliding the bed around  before so I helped by jumping on top and taking a spin around the room.

Christmas in July!

We had a very nice weekend pretending it was not 110 degrees in the shade.  My Mom wished I would stop shedding but at least she has finally learned not to comb me with the ceiling fan whirling around!  Friday nite my Mom came home with the same color hair she had when she left. I am not sure what happened there but I still see gray ^..^

Saturday, we did not do anything during the day but watch Christmas shows and listen to Christmas music. It sure did not feel like Christmas - it was very HOT!  Saturday nite my Mom rushed around and out the door she went to a quarter auction. She came home (very broke!) with Christmas goodies she had won and took my picture.  I thought she was gone just a tad too long so if you look closely you will see that while I am excited about the Christmas prizes my nostrils are flaring! I was just a bit perturbed, particularly as I won't get any of the ice cream from the gift card...

My Mom says the best part was for sure not dinner. Her nachos had bacon in them but she had the best dinner of all - everyone else had even worse food. Next time they will eat at the church. The best part was my Mom's best friend and husband met them for dinner and then all four sweated it out in the church hall! I have forgiven my Mom for coming home late because I very much love my Aunt Marilyn and I would stay out late with her also!!!

See my nostrils flaring - I am impressed because really I have never seen this before. I look both mean and cute!

Chessie Did a Great Job Training my Mom to be my Mom!

In 1988 when my Mom was two she travelled to Richmond to see Robert Goulet in "South Pacific."  My Mom says it was brutally cold for the fall and her friend Jeannie's daughter brought home a kitten that nite who was so tiny she fit in my Mom's hand.  She had the tiniest blue eyes and a Nike swish under her eye. My Mom did not want another cat but Jeannie said if she did not bring the kitten home then the kitten had to go back out into the cold parking lot where the mother-cat and human-family had abandoned the kittens. My Mom brought Chesterfield home in the car with her at the end of the weekend. Mom called her that because she was found in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was much simpler to call her "Chessie," and so my Mom did until five years ago today when she was very ill and had to be put to sleep. Like me, Chessie had a lot of health problems from the time she came home until she died. She was not socialized like me and did not like anyone but my Mom - she would hiss at everyone else and hide inside the sofa bed my Mom moved three times so Chessie would have it. But Mom says Chessie was always very happy and content and loved her life. She taught my Mom to be happy, find time to play, and ultimately, how to die with dignity. It was a hard lesson in 2005 but one that would be a blessing and a huge help because 2005 was not a good year for anyone in our family.

My Mom honored Chessie's memory by finding another little homeless kitten - me! - and by continuing to serve with two great friends as moderators of a feline chronic renal insufficiency group.  My Mom is blessed to have had great advice from that group and has two great friends - Donna and Joy. I have cousins - Callie, Bat and Emerald. Catalina, my other cousin, lives with Chessie until we see her again...

But here's the thing - I think Chessie was a goody-two-shoes!!! Apparently, she did not flare her nostrils, her tail was not a lethal weapon and she did not have a temper. I have overheard my Mom commiserate about trying to give me pills and remembering that no matter what the pill was if she put it on the counter and asked Chessie would simply eat it for her. I just think that is very odd behavior for a cat, even if it was a Southern cat with nice Southern manners! My Mom says I am her "payback cat," for having such an easy-going cat ^..^ She always laughs when she says it so I know it is okay that we are different and that she loves us both very very much!

Can Someone Help me PLEASE?

Today has not been a good day. I was locked in a room this morning with my Mom. My Mom was working - people kept talking out of the phone and computer but I could not see them. She said they were in a webinar so I think that they may have actually been talking spiders.

Anyhow, I had to stay in the room with her because there were carpenters here and my Mom did not want me to get out. No matter how long I stared at the doorknob it would not turn and no matter how much scratching I did I could not get out. Eventually my Mom let me out and I am now sitting in the master bedroom watching the carpenter. There is a very large nail gun in here with me. My Mom locked it in the closet so I could not step on it. I don't ever know why my Mom tries to lock me in rooms; it never works! I am always able to get out if I cry enough...I am happy to see that skill moved with me to our new home!

My Mom bought paint yesterday for the bedroom under the chairrail - it is called lime granita. It is a very pretty color and will look nice and cheerful!  The curtains arrived for the awful room I was locked in this morning. My Mom said we were hanging those later tonite after she got her hair highlighted to hide the gray...well she did not mention the gray but I am not in a good mood so I will - last laugh and all of that!

Here I am staring with my evil eye and still the door would not open!

Can Someone Tell Me If "Annoying" is a Good Thing?

Today is my Grandmother's Birthday - tomorrow everyone but me gets to go out to dinner and then come back to the condo and have cake and ice cream!  I will jump on the table and otherwise try to disrupt but still I will not get any cake or ice cream. Happy Birthday!!!


This morning about 5AM I started my daily howling. My Mom did not seem to be in the mood to get out of bed or for me to be scratching all of the furniture. She called me "annoying." I do not know what that means but it does not sound like a good thing! But she did get up and tried to get me to play. I have her well-trained - she plays and I sit and watch. My Mom says now that we do not have steps, and since I will not use the Pilates machine, I will either have to exercise or stop eating so much because I was overweight  before we moved and now even more so.  Right now I am curled up in a ball inside the new sheets my Mom just washed getting hair all over them so I am thinking today is not the day I will have to play or exercise.



We did get the new faucets - I love them!  Look how comfortable I look drinking yesterday! My Mom says if I keep getting her up in the middle of the nite she is going to drink more than water...

I feel the Earth move under my paws...

This morning we were wandering around the condo about 5AM and I felt the floor moving underneath me when I walked. My Mom said she thought we were having an earthquake! I think I should just stay in bed all day and sleep so I don't have to feel that again - I did not like it. I was in the sink getting a drink of water but got down really quickly and went back to bed. My Mom says today is a good day for me - we are finally getting the new faucets installed! While she seems concerned about matching metals and hating chrome I will be happy to be able to get a drink more easily...and really, that is why my Mom bought them. So far, I have gotten a lot of new stuff - a water filter because I would not drink out of the sink at all with the smell of chlorine, a ceiling fan because I did not like the fan blowing on me, two new faucets and some other stuff...but still, I miss the front door and I worry my boyfriend in the Navy will come home and not know where I am.

Hugs and Love to Kelly

Last July my Mom was very very excited (more dancing around!) because her friends visited from California - Kevin, Kathy, Megan, Kelly and Shannon (that's Shannon with me!) came to visit. First everyone spent the day in DC and then the following weekend they visited us at the house.  I was super happy too because they are very special and nice people. Kathy is my personal favorite because sometimes she and my Mom IM late at nite here on the East Coast so I get to sprawl all over the entire bed!!!

As many of you know, Kelly has been battling a brain tumor since she was 14 years old. Kelly still goes for chemo every three weeks. This is her chemo week and on those days we send extra-special thoughts and prayers to Kelly so that she is quickly back home with her pets and parents - I am sorry to say more dogs - Murphy and Sadie. My Mom seems to confuse Sadie with Sophie the dancing moose a lot.

I thought I was a cat but now they say I am an ant!

On Saturday my Mom started dancing all around the condo and swinging me around - she was very excited and happy and said I was going to be an ant. I have seen ants - they get in my food and I don't like them. They make the floor look like it is moving and I don't want to be an ant. I was happy being a cat. Ants seem to do a lot of work and I don't really do anything. I have staff here so in order to be an ant I would have to be that queen they always talk about so the other ants would scurry around and eat poison for me.

Anyhow, eventually I learned that I am to be an AUNT - and actually I am now officially Aunt Gabby to a wonderful baby boy named Rylan born on July 10, 2010 to my Mom's best friend's daughter. I am as excited as my Mom and cannot wait to see a picture. Rylan is 21 inches long and weighed 7.6 pounds. We love you Whitney, Gary, Sammy and Rylan!

Oh Deer!

I used to be able to see a lot of things out the front door and now see birds and other animals outside the windows. I like the birds and talk to them. I dislike the squirrels and flare my nostrils at those and my tail, which is registered as a lethal weapon, seems to move on its own!  We used to have a bunny - Esther Bunny - out front. I was never sure about her. She would sit there and no matter how agitated I was all I would see is a nose moving up and down.  I have also seen dogs - you know, those silly animals that are always yipping, yapping or barking?  Last nite I saw something that looked like a big dog but I did not know what it was. I stretched my neck out like a giraffe for a closer look but still did not know. I looked at my Mom and she must have noticed something outside had caught my attention. She looked and said they were deer - two of them frollicking out back. One was very large, the other smaller. They were hopping about and looked happy.  The smaller of the two flew up in the air and back into the woods. We did take a (rather poor quality) picture of the larger deer.

Last week my Mom showed me the two beavers that live out back. I thought they were rather creepy and ugly slinking about. The deer were very cute and my Mom says we may see them at dusk a lot. No clue what dusk is but I will have to find out...rain this AM so I am snuggled in bed!

I used to be royalty

Today I thought I would help my Mom by typing a post...I was born royalty. My name was Dutchess until my Mom brought me home. She said that my name would be "Gabby." I like my name but don't think it has quite the royal ring to it as Dutchess. Though I no longer wear a crown I do expect that people will treat me like I am very special!  I also don't talk to much - she named me Gabby because when I came home to live I screamed and clawed from inside the carrier the entire way home.  I am royalty and did not belong in a carrier.

I came from a shelter. I was in a cage with two other kittens; they looked nothing like me and the shelter worker said they were my brothers. I do not think they were - I had never seen them before and have not seen them since!  One day a woman came and walked around and around and I decided she should be my Mom so I nudged past those two "brothers" and sat right at the front of the cage. My Mom saw me and was so excited and happy. Since then I have learned that she is really not my Mom - I am adopted!  

Gabby and Morris ^..^

Hello!  Since I was a kitten everyone says that my Mom should write a book about my life.  Really she did not pay much attention to that but then saw "Julia and Julie" and thought maybe my life should be memorialized - really I am much cuter than Morris, I too came from a shelter and I am very entertaining during the 1/2 hour each day I am awake!

My life during the past month has been rather awful. For a month or so there were boxes everywhere. Then one day I was locked in a room and brought out and put unceremoniously in my carrier. We moved from a house where I had a front door to look out of to where we live now - in a brand new condo. It has a lot of big windows but not so many birds. My Mom keeps sliding across the hardwood floor in her socks and I know she will fall on me one day and smash me!  So the first days we were here I just decided I would not eat! If you ever saw me you would understand what a sacrifice that was. I love to eat!

We have gotten settled and I learned a new trick. I am, on a daily basis, learning to walk on the window sills and destroy the curtains. Did I mention that I have my claws and like them a lot? The good thing is that my Mom has never yelled at me or hit me. People say I am spoiled :)