My friend Dusty sent me for Christmas two joke gifts that I just loved; cat food scented soap and bubble gum hairballs.
They are both “crazy cat lady approved.”

I had the package with me on my way to work, so once I arrived, I opened up the package and burst out laughing.

I showed the bubble gum tin to one of my co-workers she thought it was “nasty.” Then she bolted for the bathroom! i mean come on, did she really think they were real hairballs? It was a joke.

So I waited until she got out and then I popped open the tin and popped one in my mouth in front of her! LOL She bolts again for the bathroom.

Giving up, I walked away just doing my job. I was clear on the other side of the shop when I saw her emerge looking a bit green behind the gills. The store was packed with people and so I just shouted really loud- “EWWWWWW!” Everyone turned to look at me and so I just smiled and said “I think I have SOMETHING in my bubble gum!” Then, I hear the bathroom door slam shut!

I believe the year has just caught up to me and yesterday I just melted. I sat on the couch and either slept or didn’t move almost the entire day. I had cats hopping up and down on me all day. When one would leave two more would come. They knew that I had reached the end of my energy reserve and in their way they kept me comforted.

I received a nice surprise in the mail- several cat perches from felinefurniture. They are all made in the USA very nicely constructed and best of all, there is no drilling holes in your window sill. It is all done with strong adhesive (velcro) Nice, soft, strong padding helps entice kitties to lay down. I did manage to put one up yesterday before once again melting on the couch.

Christmas is just around the corner, and I have so much to be grateful for in my life. Mike is still with me- we are coming up on our 27th wedding anniversary soon. I have my health, I have a job, and we have a roof over our heads. My kitties are healthy and safe and Brook is my constant companion loving to go with me around town. I have taken her off the conventional meds because the previcot makes her vomit and I have put her on a holistic blend. She is getting Papaya enzyme, a joint supplement tablet, some bromelain, fish oil and msm. I just make a huge pill ball out of cream cheese or braunswager and toss it to her. She gobbles it right down. She was 123 pounds when she first arrived, she is down to 103 pounds now.

Well, I hear Mike stirring- he has slept in. I need to go and make breakfast and get everyone fed. Today is clean litter box day- so my melting yesterday was a good thing. Now, I have some energy.

3:00 a.m.
“Tap…tap…tap” on my cheek, no claws, they are sheathed because Gideon is very much a gentleman.

I brush away the distraction and turn back into my sleep mode…
“Tap…tap…tap.” He is persistent. But, what he wants lies in mystery. Prior offerings have been ignored on other winter mornings. He is not hungry, he doesn’t want the Drinkwell filled. He isn’t interested in play. He simply wishes to disturb my sleep.

If I ignore this sleek black prince, he becomes a bit more aggressive, tapping the wool blanket wrapped around me to cut down the chill in the room. His claws are unsheathed now and he taps the blanket with unusual vigor, snaring the end of it with his claw and lifting it so that some of the chill seeps in underneath.

Fully awake now, I turn on the light and glare at him. Intimidation does not work, he yawns and turns away. The game is no longer interesting. I flip the light back out and welcome sleep again. After a busy day at work, my body is tired, I must rest.

“Tap…Tap..Tap..SNAG!” Again the blanket is being lifted and swirls of cold air invade. Our heat register is old and doesn’t do the best job of keeping the house warm all night. I loosen his claws which are caught and open the blanket up inviting him into the warmth. Gideon looks at me as if to say “Are you nuts?” He yawns and turns his head. Hoping his interest is waning, I again wrap the blankets around me tighter this time and snuggle back to embrace sleep.

“Tap..tap…tap…SNAG!” By now it is 4:00 a.m. the game has lasted for his amusement. I surrender and get up, get dressed and go make coffee. Time for another day.

Would anyone like a furry, black alarm clock? I’m having a Winter Sale!

Tonight, Puzzle ate a piece of chicken out of my hand. I was working with dry kibble, but she is sly and would gently bat the kibble out of my hand then slide it over to where she was partially concealed. The little sneak! So I switched to chicken which she couldn’t quite get it to roll. I averted my eyes and she finally came up and ate a piece that was in the center of my palm. When I moved my hand, she darted back into the cage where she feels safe.

it is a small step, but I will take it.

I have been playing the Harp of Hope CD most of the day in the bedroom. I have seen the kittens laying on the bed- they jump down the minute I walk in and once I started just cleaning up a bit, they came out to watch me and see what was going on.

They are more relaxed and instead of hiding completely out of sight, parts of them stick out exposed. It is a wonderful change from before.

Speaking of change, I have changed their names. The dilute orange mackeral tabby girl is Puzzle and her brother I now call Riddle.

I swear by this CD to calm stressed out kittens and cats harp of hope. If you have a shy or traumatized kitten or a cat recovering from an illness- this CD should be playing.

Today, two of my older cats; Slim and Sharkey went to a new home in LaComb. The farm is on 11 acres, they have goats and ducks and few dogs. They do dog obedience as their main source of income. They are situated off the beaten track miles away from major roads. Recently, they lost their 18 year old barn cat and their 12 year old orange barn cat seems to miss his buddy.

The gal feeds dry in the morning, wet at night, keeps the vaccinations current and because the barn is overun with mice, she worms the cats every 6 months, this exceptional care towards barn cats (most people just toss them in the barn and figure the mice will sustain them) leads me to believe these two cats will have a wonderful, long life.

Although I am not thrilled at how these two cats will be spending the next 48 hours (in a rabbit hutch) that was set up- I know they won’t be in it long. With the lady’s permission, I set up the hutch to be more cat-friendly and left behind my snuggles sleeper (I will miss that warm robe) and another rug from here so they have familiar scents to cling to.

Then tonight, two of the newly arrived kittens went off to another home. Four unsocialized kittens are a bit overwhelming for one person without help. Mike’s days of helping are long over, so another rescuer (Bless her heart) said she would take two of them. They have bonded in pairs, so she took the muted tortie girl and the bright orange mackeral tabby. I kept the muted orange tabby girl and the striking grey tabby. Now the cage is a bit bigger. My concern rested in whether or not all the kittens were eating- or if the one alpha was eating all the food on his own.

Now it is time to let them decompress yet again as I have just rocked their world.

Received in the mail today the Harp of Hope Therapy Edition for stressed and convalescing animals by Dr. Diane Schnieder and her newest Christmas CD as well. A timely arrival-t he music is playing softly next to the cage where the two kittens are wondering where in the world their littermates vanished to.

Well, after a bit of a rough start- an escape from kitty alcatraz, the kittens have been put in a better cage and with the help of my talented husband, they have several levels inside to hide out in. The cage is large enough for a full-grown German Shepherd to lie down in. It now contains a carpet pad, one litter box, two carriers for the kittens to hide in and a small cat condo (one level)

because there are four kittens, I didn’t want territorial wars, so we built another elevated platform that slides in and secured a comfy cat bed on top. Another shelf in the front contains the new blue jay litter pan from Sturdi products, but instead of using it for a litter pan, it is providing a nice dark bed for them to hide them.

They were pulled out from under a house and honestly, even after being told they were “feral” they aren’t. They are just really scared and the escape from the other cage didn’t help matters. They couldn’t get out of the bedroom and I tore apart the bedroom looking for two of them. I found one laying on the top of my clothes hanging on the hangar and the other one inside the pillowcase of one of the pillows.

So now they have an elite hideaway and I am having to feed them with a syringe because they aren’t eating.

“Mom…Mom…Mom.. MOM! Wake-up!” I woke up to Merlin digging is claws frantically into my arm. Minutes later, kitties came bombing out of the darkeness, landing on my chest, tummy and feet. I groaned “What time is it?” I mumbled. With a long and busy shift at work, I didn’t get home until midnight. More kitties converged until I was covered with them.

“What in the world?” I grumbled. Then a loud “SNAP, POP and a heavy THUD, followed by a stray cat scramble where the kitties fled the room and then complete blackness and silence.

The lights didn’t come back on until 7:00 a.m. A car had hit a transformer and at the same time, one of our trees came down in the heavy wind. Thankfully, it was a small free standing tree by the creek, but loud enough to scare everyone in the house.

How do they know about disasters either man-made or otherwise before they happen? I’m not sure, but their alarm has left some pretty deep scratches on my chest, arms and legs- and remind me…it was not a dream!

Who is this gold-and-white boy, who laid stretched out on the vet’s table on his back, playfully batting the vet’s kind hands away? Who is this male kitty who accepted all the annoying treatments and examinations without once fighting back? I don’t know where Cyclone went, but the vet after hearing his story seemed just amazed that this cat once destroyed a whole room! He laughed and told me that Cyclone needs a new name, but I don’t think so. He earned that name long-ago. I’ll keep it as a reminder that there is hope for the “unsociable ones.”

Cyclone tested negative for all the nasty stuff and he doesn’t have cancer. Thank You God, but instead, the vet surmises that years ago, he either ran into a car, a hoof, or a bicycle and hurt himself pretty badly. He tenses up when he is being touched because of the pain. It is the body’s defense. Vet suggests that the broken canines likely hurt him more. So I am going to start treating his gum disease holisitically, until such a time that the gums calm down and I can afford to get him in for a tooth extraction.

He is back in his cage right now, and in a few days, I will let him out into general population and see how that goes.

Fiona who also went to the vet (she has a growth in her ear) does not have an ear tumor, but she does have a bad yeast infection and the overgrowth is the result of her always scratching. I have been treating (almost endlessly) for ear mites and the vet said I can stop torturing her now because she has a yeast infection! Sorry Kitty, my other vet told me it was ear mites. So that is why the gunk kept forming and the ear stayed inflamed. He put her on Synotic Otic Solution and DMSO. She’s hiding right at the moment, she dislikes going to the vet.

The good news is I got paid today (such as it is) but the bad news is after paying today’s charges, I have twenty dollars left from my check!

Well in true cyclone style, he got out last night. When I went in to feed the cats this morning, there he was lying on the couch looking quite pleased with himself. I had to work a long shift yesterday so I wasn’t home much of the day. Sadly, Mike’s illness has progressed to the point that he can’t even walk out to the enclosure to check on things, so Cyclone probably felt pretty left out.

I put him back in and screwed a board over his escape hole. My concern is he hasn’t been to the vet, and his stomach on both sides is rock hard. No squish room there. My regular vet is on an early vacation and won’t be home till right before Christmas. The feline specialist is in PA right now.