Big Kitty!

There are kitties who are substantial in size, like Happy:

And there are kitties who are quite big for a....well, for a kitty, in fact:

And then there are kitties who are just too big for woofs:



Maybe Franklin would like a kitty like that. He's still trying to get the normal sized ones we have to play and they absolutely will not. (In fact, Simone has moved upstairs, but that's a story for another day.) This Very Huge Kitty appears to take doggies in stride.

Fabulous Feline Friday with Schooner

It's been a long time since we've posted any pictures of our friend, Schooner. He's been very busy growing.

He's quite handsome for someone who is not a dog, isn't he?

The Story of Us or Why We're Thankful Every Day

First I want to thank Minna Krebs and Frankie Furter for starting this wonderful event. What with all the doings it's going to take a few days to catch up with everydoggy and kitty's stories but we look forward to it lots and lots. Now, onto ours.

It's my blog and I'm a dog so we'll do the doggies first, but there are also two kitties living here. In fact, they were here first, so we're including everyone in this post. Upon thinking it over, it's really only fair. But I'm first. 'Cause it's mainly my blog.

Me, Lola
I was surrendered, along with my last ever puppy and Puppy Daddy, to NYC Animal Care and Control in January of 2009 at about age 6. Or so they claim.  Is that a fine how do you do, or what? Take the best years of my life and then it's all "Thanks, bye!"  We were pulled right out of there by the wonderful Sean Casey Animal Rescue, located in Brooklyn, NY. Puppy had to be weaned and Puppy Daddy had to be neutered. Once that was accomplished they were adopted and then there was only me, Lola. I had to recover from birthing and nursing and then be spayed and then, of course, recover from that, so I wasn't available for adoption for a while.

Meanwhile, out in the wilds of Long Island, where the Dim Sum is not as good as in Brookyn, my future forever family was without a doggie for the first time in like forever. They'd been down to just one doggie and that was Alpha Mom's Shar Pei mix. He went to the Rainbow Bridge at age 15 in the Fall of '09. What was keeping them from finding a new doggie was that at the time there were three kitties and the oldest one was very, very sick. He'd had surgery for cancer, but the prognosis was that it wasn't all that successful and he had one paw on the Bridge. No one wanted to give him new challenges at that point in his life. But Blog Mom is just one of those Windows Shoppers, always poking around online and she was looking at Petfinder when she came across....no, not me. Violet. Violet was another Shar Pei who was at Sean Casey at the time. She was a beautiful leggy blonde of about two and a half. I won't lie. She was gorgeous. Blog Mom showed Alpha Mom and they both decided that they needed to go see how this amazing Pei would be with kitties. Here is a video of Violet and my good friend Mr. Casey. I do have to admit, it doesn't do her beauty justice.



Well, the Moms headed to Brooklyn the very next day and met Violet, who was everything her Petfinder listing claimed and more. BUT, Mr. Casey also told them about me, Lola. They met both of us and took us both for test walks. Blog Mom just could not make up her mind what to do. Luckily for me, Alpha Mom was more decisive. She thought that I, Lola, would be the right doggie for them. How right she was, too. Now, don't worry about Violet. She got adopted within mere days of that meeting and I moved out to Long Island, where they have big backyards but are short on sidewalks in some areas, seems to me. I met the rest of my new family, most especially Daddy, and settled right into my new home. My family thinks they are the luckiest people in the world to have found, me, Lola. It's worked out awfully well all around, don't you think?

My Little Brother, Franklin

Here's the part is about you, Franklin.

 Life was good being the center of the universe at my new, most perfect forever home. No one could really get over what a perfect dog and wonderful companion I was - and am, I might add. Still, Blog Mom worried that I missed the companionship of other doggies. She'd see me talking to my through-the-fence neighbors and wonder if I missed having another Shar Pei in the house, since I'd always been part of a multi-Pei pack. From where I sit and stay it's a trade-off. Being the only doggie can get a little lonesome once in a while but there are lots of perks to the situation, too. Still, Blog Mom couldn't keep away from Petfinder, although she and Alpha Mom talked themselves out of every doggie they considered for a long time. They did call on one but were told absolutely no kitties for that one, no way, no how. Sadly, that guy is still up for adoption months later.

Last July, however, Blog Mom saw one Shar Pei listed at our local town shelter and for some reason she couldn't talk herself out of this one. Why, I couldn't tell you. He was a most unpreopossessing Pei  in his photos and in pawson. He was too young. They were looking for a doggie who was around four years old, give or take and Franklin was under two and way too hyper. He was skinny and gangly and looked as if he'd been made up of spare parts from at least two different types of Shar Pei.  He hadn't had treatment for his Entropion eye problems when he was a puppy and it had become so advanced that the surgery he got at the shelter made his eyes....well...just not good looking. He was so much not what they were looking for that of course we adopted him the day we met him.

He had been surrendered too, like me. His family said they were forced to move and couldn't take the dog with them. He, like me, had been at the shelter for several months and he was so very happy to have a forever home again. I had to teach him about dog beds and playing with other doggies. Only in the last week or so has  he finally come to understand that if he gets up on the furniture, no one really minds. It took some time to undo his training in that area, but he finally gets it. He adores me, of course, and he loves the family and it really didn't take him long to settle right in and become a part of the pack. One thing that was interesting right away about Franklin is that he's a bit of a marker. Take him to the groomer, the vet, the pet supply place and he is very likely to lift his leg once. Then you tell him no and he usually gets that. But never once, even the first day, in this house. It's like he knew right away that this was his home.

 Kitties!

They say that you don't choose your kitty. Your kitty choose you. That was certainly true in the case of Happy and Simone. They were both here before I arrived. Simone is the most senior pet in the household. Stevie, the sick kitty went to the bridge a few months after I arrived. Simone is the tortie in the photo and is about 12 or so. Simone started out life living with other relatives, including a doggy and another kitty. They had to move in here for a while, also long before I arrived on the scene. Simone, for reasons best known to herself, but possibly including the bulldog she lived with, decided that she preferred our family and when her family moved on she made an independent decision to stay here. Not up for negotiation, either.

Happy, the gray guy in the background was abandoned when tenants in the house next door moved away. He was sooo upset, I'm told. He wouldn't come in the house for the longest time. He was scared to death of the other animals. My humans fed him in the garage, but other neighborhood cats would come and eat his food and he was getting awfully skinny. Finally the family insisted that he move inside the house and he just had to get used to it. He certainly put the weight back on. That was several years ago. No one really knows how old Happy is either, but probably around seven or so. He's a very nice kitty, but a big scaredy cat and not too bright. We don't mention that in front of him, of course.

Now, I'm sure you realize that it's against the kitty code to be thankful. They'd get drummed out of....something...if they expressed gratitude, but I think they're both pretty happy to be part of our family. Except they'd both like to be rid of Franklin, but you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. Not that Franklin is bad, exactly, but he has not accepted that they're not going to play with him. Actually, Simone does kind of play with him in a claws out, hissing and yowling kind of way.

That concludes the condensed version of the story of all the four leggers currently residing at Chez Lola. We hope you enjoyed and now we are going to try to get out there and learn more about your homecoming stories.

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

I want to apologize for not getting around to many furiends yesterday and today so far. There were a lot of things here that required Blog Mom's immediate attention. We'll be working on getting everywhere just as soon as we can, but tonight looks a little iffy as things stand.

Wordless Wednesday - Kitty Style

 

Happy World Cat Day to all our Kitty Furiends

Actually, I just found out about World Cat Day from Tama-Chan.  I knew it was something I could not let pass, so first I went to wish Happy a Happy World Cat Day.

But I AM celebrating!

Happy was totally busy working on becoming one with his basket. He's doing rather well at it. having managed to become rectangular. He said to put a little something special in his supper dish and he'd see us around 6 PM or so. So, down the hall to alert Simone.

ZZZZZZZ

She was going to miss the whole day if I let her sleep, so I took my life in my paws and called to her to wake up.

Honey, every day is World Cat Day - if you're me.

She was most grateful to me for waking her up and wishing her a happy holiday. She didn't say so, but I could tell. She didn't take a swipe at me for one thing.

This being a special day for kitties it seemed like a good time to post a couple of  the numerous pictures we have of Schooner. I think Blog Mom is trying to experience having a Maine Coon in the family vicariously. She saves all the photos of Schooner she can get. I don't mind. I think he's a pretty pawsome kitty, too.

Winning over an adopted sibling

His Mom says he's doing great, making friends and infuencing people and other kitties all over the place. This one was from a while ago. He's grown since this one was taken.

I am SOOOO big.

He's going to be a very big kitty when he grows up. He'll keep growing for the longest time and eventually he'll probably have a mane like a lion. His kitty daddy does.

Cuteness - I haz it.

For now, though, he's still just a kid and a pretty adorable one. Go ahead - You know you want to say, "SQUEE!".

I need to post about going to PetSmart and I am considering....considering, mind you....letting Franklin contribute to a post on his one month Gotcha anniversary, which I believe is Tuesday. We are going to have to work to get that together, but in the meantime here's one of us doing what we usually do:

I know Franklin has a tendency to look a teensy bit demonic, with those unfortunate eye. He's not, though. Not a sign of being a demon so far at all. He's just a little annoying at the absolute worst.

Sofa Tortitude

Well, Simone just had a hissy fit when Happy was featured in a post and she was not, so tonight is for her. Here she is, having tortitude on the back of the sofa.

OK, happy now, Simone? But hey, watch this space. The next post will have real news. Big news. I hope we'll have it up tomorrow. There's quite a lot going on here so it's hard to be sure. But it's big, I tell you.

Grey Pei Hits The Stage

What do you get when you cross a Greyhound with a Shar Pei? Acting! This beauty is playing Sandy in a Sioux City production of Annie, after which she'll be available for adoption. I bet she won't have any trouble finding a furever home. The question is, will she be content to be a stay-at-home dog after this, or will she long to try her luck among the bright lights of Broadway. My advice would be "Stay!". It's ruff out there. But with a smile like that she's going to get offers, I bet. Do you think she's wearing eye liner or is that just natural beauty?

While I'm here, I want to apologize for spotty visiting and very light commenting the last day or so. My assistant is having a lot of trouble with her sinuses  and pain and up half the night and all that and while I've been reading as many blogs as I can without much help from her, she keeps whining instead of typing the comments I've been dictating to her. If we can get her fixed up, we should be back in decent form over the weekend. She better hurry. Simone says it's her turn to have her picture up. I don't know where Simone got the idea that this is in any way a group blog, but I'm a little afraid to set her straight.

Dining With Kitties

One thing that kind of drives Blog Mom crazy is that the kitties' dishes have to live on the kitchen table most of the time. That's because if they put them on anything lower the dog eats the cat food. Oh, wait a minute! The dog would be me, Lola. All right. I guess I do that. Why is it that cat food tastes so much better than dog food? I even like it better than most human food, except cheese, of course. I even like the dry cat food. Won't touch the dry dog food. Anyway, my humans insist that unlike the goose vs gander situation, what's good for the kitty is not good for the doggy. Too much protein or something. So it goes up on the table. But I digress. Blog Mom thought of putting the dishes on trays or something so they wouldn't be right on the table and could more easily be whisked away. She had a sort of basket tray thingy handy when she thought of it so she used that.  A little later she found that Happy seemed to approve. But not in the way she had in mind.

She'd forgotten that Happy loves baskets and his favorite baskets are ones that are too small for him. So now the dishes still live on the kitchen table and Happy's been spending his days like this:

But the basket has turned out to be useful for one kitty's dining comfort:

Score this one Happy 1, Blog Mom 0.

Etcetera

Correction - I guess even canine journalists get names wrong sometimes. It turns out that CoCo is the right name of the lovely Dane who appeared in my Doggy Day Afternoon posts. I had spelled it as Cocoa - as in chocolate, but she's really CoCo as in CoCo Chanel.

Chabela - I just wanted to say I got a lovely e-mail from Chabela and she plans to be at some of the same horse shows I'm going to this season. If we are able to connect expect to see more of her in this space.

Eye Candy - Oh, what the hey. Let's have one more photo of Schooner just for woofs and giggles and because he's just so cute.

Say Hi to Schooner!

We want to give a woof-out to Schooner, a Maine Coon kitten who has just moved into his forever home with a good friend of ours. Schooner has no plans to blog so I can't send you over to say hello, but his new Mom does check in here once in a while.

Here is Schooner suggesting a nice composition for a portrait in oils - in case his Mom should want to commission one.

And here he is in a more casual mode, just ready to have a bit of a chat. I really want to wish Schooner all the best in his new position. It seemed as though he was going to face some challenges in the form of two established adult kitties, neither of whom were thinking, "Oh, it would be so great if Mom brought home a kitten." In fact, they don't even speak to each other much from what I've heard. Schooner, however, is working his charms and making good headway in worming his way into the affections of the senior kitties.  It seems he's going to do just fine.

All About Us

Lots and lots of furiends have done this quiz by now. Too many to list here, I think. I figured I'd better get on it now, and then there was some discussion as to whether the cats were going to do it, too. The blog is called Pei Days, not Pei and Kitteh Days, but the majority ruled in this case and we're all doing it at once.

This is our life

THE BASICS

Name and Age: 
Lola, 7ish years old. I could definitely pass for 5.

Simone: 12 or 13, we think

Happy: Could be about 7. No one really knows.

Breed: 
 Lola: Chinese Shar Pei

Simone: Domestic Short Hair mix of some sort

Happy: Domestic Short Hair mix of some slightly fluffier sort

Nickname(s):
Lola: Good Girl, Baby, Sweetie, Sweetie Pei, Beautiful Girl, Woojy Boojy Boo Boo Lovey Doggy, assorted others

Simone: Simoney Woney (Daddy only), Psycho Cat, The Evil One - Those last two aren't used quite so much lately, as she's either mellowed, stabilized or is just getting old, but are listed here for historical value.

Happy: Hapster, Captain Happy, Happles, Hapless, Doofus

The picture of feline grace - not so much

 Where’d ya come from?

Lola: Brooklyn, most recently graduating from the Sean Casey Animal Rescue

Simone: The people with the bouncy bulldogs

Happy: The eviction next door

Favorites 

Toy 

Lola: Right now I'm enjoying working with a rawhide chewy. I chase it around a bit, capture it and only chew it briefly, so it  lasts quite some time. Of course, you can't go wrong with a tennis ball either.

Simone: She likes to play with things that are dangled for her, except for anything that's purchased for that express purpose. Those things, she just ignores. Also likes long stringy things that pose a danger to her insides.

Happy: Not big on toys. Eat. Sleep.Eat. Go in and out. Eat.

Snack:

Lola: Cheese!!!

Simone: Whipped cream

Happy: Whipped cream with a salmon chaser

Human Person:


Lola: What an undiplomatic question. Well, if I must. Alpha Mom is called "Alpha" for a reason. 'Nuff said? I do have very close and individual  relationships with each of my humans. There's plenty of Lola love to go around.

Simone: Daddy

Happy: Daddy.

We call Daddy the cat whisperer.

FUNNY STUFF

Worst Habit: 
Lola: I don't have bad habits. There are a couple of areas of legitimate disagreement between the humans and myself, such as the optimal speed for a walkie, but my speed towing is not a habit. It's a choice. Same goes for my early rising. That's a lifestyle choice that I make for myself and Alpha Mom. And the picky eating thing? Just being a matter of taste is all. Nope, no bad habits that I can think of.

Simone: Shredding. Furniture and occasionally flesh. Thank Dog her aim is getting worse and she's slowing down a bit. Doesn't help the furniture, which is a lost cause anyway, but it's much safer for the rest of us.

Tortitude - she's got it.

Happy: Well that in and out and out and in thing that he does every night is a bit annoying to everyone, but get this - after he's asked to out for the zillionth time the humans kind of stop jumping right up when he meows. So, he starts scratching. We all assumed he was scratching at the door and no harm seemed to be done. After all, who doesn't scratch at the door once in a while? I think we all do that sometimes. Well, they just recently noticed that it wasn't the door at all. It was molding around a doorway NEAR the door and he's just about destroyed it. Everyone was pretty surprised that a cat could even do that.

Most Embarassing Moment

Lola: I don't really have a lot of those. I'm not what you'd call a goofy doggie. But there was that time when I yelled at a doggie (in retrospect, a rather small doggie) who I assumed was bothering my neighbor Sambuca. It turned out that he was a friend of hers. A quite barky friend, but there was no threat. Go know.

Simone: She doesn't do embarrassment. She's got tortitude.

Happy: Well, just off the top of my head, there was the time last week when he fell off the kitchen table. For no apparent reason. And then he did it again the next day. You know what? They don't always land on all fours after all.


Family dynamic (this is a question for those of you with more than one animal in the house. i.e. who is alpha? who is the cuddler? who is the naughty one? etc. I just want to know how you fit into the family!)

We are all alphas in our own minds. We're a bit cautious about each of the others, too. I'm the only dog at the moment and I'm not terribly hierarchical anyway. It's live and let live as far as I'm concerned. Simone is a tortie. She feels she was born to be an alpha. Then there's Happy. He doesn't care about being alpha, I don't think, but like anyone, he's not crazy about being pushed around. As he's entered the prime of his life and Simone has gotten her AARP card, he's getting to be the one who stays on the table with the food on those days when they aren't into sharing space. She probably should have been nicer to him when he joined the family. On the other paw, she still rules Daddy and Blog Mom's bed.

Now I have to say that we're all cuddlers in our different ways, but never, ever with each other. We cuddle with humans. I'm never naughty. As to the kitties, I'll let the shredded furniture and molding speak for itself

Your humans’ FAVORITE thing about you!:

Lola: Well, that's hard to say. Is it my impeccable house manners and the peace of mind that my humans enjoy because of them? Or is it my sweet and loving disposition and mostly calm temperment? Or could it be the intelligence that helps me to be a true companion so they  know they can not only tell me anything, I'll give them good advice, too? I think it's the disposition that they love best, although really I'm a total package, so it's hard to say.

Simone:  Blog Mom and Daddy like the way she snuggles, especially when she sleeps with them at night. She licks their hands, too. They like that and after all, I can't be everywhere at once.

Happy: He might not be the Einstein of the feline world, but he's really quite a nice cat. Blog Mom also thinks he has a pawticularly pretty face and handsome whiskers, but that's kind of superficial, isn't it?

Cats! Part Deaux

It's about time I finished introducing my cats. When we left the subject of our family felines Simone was living happily ever after with Stevie, and only incidentally, Blog Mom and Daddy. The only fly in that ointment is that there is no "ever after" in real life. Things change in good ways and bad ways and just in ways, all the time. One way that things changed was that Happy joined the family. He had already been named. He certainly wasn't happy when he joined this family.

Happy in a more characteristic pose

Happy was a victim of a landlord/tenant problem. One of the neighbors had been renting an apartment in his house and then he had to sell in a hurry and the tenants had to go, also in a hurry. Seems they forgot to pack the cat and Happy was left behind and considerably traumatized by this abandonment. That's not hard to understand.

Of course, once my family found out about it Happy was invited to stay with us. Or ,rather, them. These events predate my arrival by a couple of years, at least. He didn't want to come in for the longest time. He liked people, but was terrified by other four leggers of all types. If Happy had been listed on Petfinders it would have said that he'd prefer to be an only pet. The only thing is, with the number of cats available for adoption at any given time, and Happy being a gray tabby - not exactly a rarity - it was thought that he might be better off learning to adjust than to take his chances at the local shelter.

They let him stay in the garage and fed him there for a while, but Alpha Mom took him to the Vet for a check-up, shots and a neutering right away. Seems his original people had forgotten to do that, too, and he was left free to roam around the neighborhood creating more homeless kitties. After a time the humans here decided that the garage thing wasn't working out so well. It was constantly filled with other cats, most of whom had homes of their own, and they were eating Happy's food up. He was getting skinnier and skinnier. They insisted that he had to at least eat inside. He did and gradually got used to things like soft furniture and warmth on cold days and such and got big and plump and healthy.

Here's what Happy is -confused. Since he was outside for a long time he's allowed out when he asks. He just pretty much stays around the yard anyway. He has a strong urge to go out at night, too. As soon as it's dark he starts asking to go and will get kind of crazy if someone doesn't let him right out. The thing is, he's neutered. He doesn't need to hunt. He doesn't really know why he's out there once he's let out. So as soon as the door is opened again he comes back and has a bite to eat. And then he starts yowling and insisting that he must go out again. With the amount of coming and going in this house that whole process gets repeated at least five different times during the evening.  It's fairly entertaining, actually.

 Simone, of course, wasn't happy about Happy joining the household. She isn't exactly a "more the merrier' type. She tried to say she wasn't having it, but found out that she didn't quite have that kind of authority. She had to adjust, of course, but she's still probably less than thrilled about the whole thing. Stevie didn't mind. He never really minded anything. He didn't mind my arrival either. The others did, of course. But they had to adjust to that, too. Now, with the exception of an occasional brutal attempted attack on me, we're rubbing along all right, I think.

A Sad and a Happy

First The Sad: Like quite a lot of us, I first heard of Digby when Booker urged us to go visit because he was very ill. He fought long enough to get to know him a little and what a courageous little fighter he was. When it comes to us dogs, it's not the quantity but the quality of our days on earth that matters. (That's a thing we Shar Pei have to keep in mind all the time.) It sure seems like Digby got a lot out of life, but our hearts go out to the family that will miss him most.

The Happy is that it's Madi's Gotcha Day. Always a reason for celebration. Being that Madi is a cat, I wanted to show some solidarity with her in this post and conjure up one of her own pawple to convey my congratulations.

I hope it was a great Gotcha Day, Madi. And many, many happy returns of the day.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms - Whether you're Human, Doggie, Kitty, Bunny, Gecko or even Squirrels - Here's to Moms of all species!

Oh, and speaking of Moms, Simone is so on Blog Mom's list - and not a good list, either if you get my drift. Blog Mom has been saying to everyone how Simone has mellowed lately and become such a nice, mentally stable kitty. And it's true, she has been much more pleasant. Except this morning she was sitting on Blog Mom's lap while they checked e-mail and I was just passing by on the way to my bed. It was time for my morning nap, you see. I didn't even glance Simone's way. I wish we could all be closer, but the truth is the cats and I generally confine ourselves to a stiff nod if we must pass in the hall or on the stairs. Otherwise we just ignore each other. That's their choice and not my idea of how families should interact. So I was just passing by, thinking no thoughts about a pussycat whatever. Simone got all stiff and hissy and Blog Mom told her to knock it off, but she paid no attention and took a swipe at me, claws out, too. Attacked me, in other words. She missed, but Blog Mom is so disappointed in her she said. That's the worst - when they're disappointed in you. Simone knows it, too, because she's been sitting on Blog Mom most evenings since this big personality improvement she was supposed to have had. Not tonight. She's over on Daddy who wasn't in the room for the brutal attempted assault.

Blog Mom says if Simone keeps it up she just might reconsider the idea of getting me a little brother. She says that one of the reasons they, so far, have decided not to is because these cats are not fond of dogs and I don't bother them. I think Blog Mom's thinking is along the lines of "If you're going to hiss and scratch maybe you need something to hiss and scratch about."  I doubt if Blog Mom will go through with it. I'm pretty much using up the canine portion of the family budget very nicely, for one thing. I'm not sure how I feel about it myself. I like company, but I have it awfully good being the one and only dog, but I think it's good if Simone contemplates the possibility and develops a little appreciation of....well....of me, Lola.

Cats! Simone, An Introduction

I think it must be Caturday on Monday. Mayzie has a hilarious and adorable post up about her bonding process with her other brudder, Ripley who is a pirate cat, I believe. Meantime, I've been working on a couple of posts about my sister and brother cats here. I have to admit I've given them short shrift in this space. There's a reason for that. They don't really like me. They might feel they have their reasons, but they're rooted in prejudice and stereotyping. I have certainly been nothing but pleasant to them. Pleasant and a little careful. Still, we're all family now, and they don't really ever hiss at me anymore, so I guess they are entitled to be featured on my blog from time to time. Tonight is all about Simone, who is the senior pet in the house, both in age and years on the job. She is, however, not the boss of me. Let's keep that straight.

Most of the four leggers (and a few of the two leggers, as well) who have lived in this house have been rescue animals of one sort or another. No one here can recall ever going to a store or a breeder and buying a pet. Even taking the step of going out to a rescue organization and formally adopting, as in my case, was an exception.  Blog Mom says that if she ever feels a cat shortage coming on she can just leave the door open for a while and a new cat will appear.  Simone, however, was a rescue cat only in her own mind. Most of her story took place before my time here. Some of it even took place before I was ever born. Simone is about 12 years old now.

Her first home was with another branch of the family and if things had worked out differently she'd have been my kitty cousin or something like that. She went to live with her first humans as a small kitten, at a time when they were in an apartment where it was impractical for them to have a dog. They adopted a second cat after her and the two of them got on just fine and all was well because they didn't know a thing about their other sister.

 The other sister was Rosie. Rosie was living with Blog Mom and Daddy, temporarily (3 years) until such time as it was once again possible for her to live with her own humans. That day finally came and boy was Simone suprised. And pissed off. The other kitty was more able to roll with the punches, but Simone got all stressed out. Part of the problem was that, being an English Bulldog, Rosie wasn't easily discouraged from things. So if Simone didn't want to get acquainted, Rosie wasn't going to take a hint. She was also almost impervious to pain, so the fact that Simone had all her claws didn't even slow her down. Not that she was real fast anyway. By the time Rosie went to live with Simone she was pretty old for a bulldog and it wasn't all that long before she went to the Rainbow Bridge. Rosie, I'm told, was very sweet and had not a mean bone in her whole body and everyone was very sad to lose her. Except for Simone, who was doing the happy dance, practically on poor Rosie's grave. It was in poor taste is what it was. It also indicated a certain lack of imagination because apparently what happened next was something Simone never thought of. What happened next was Roxie:

Yes, there was a new arrival at Simone's place and it was a bouncing baby bulldog. And when they said bouncing, they meant it. I supposed Simone would have given a few important teeth to have old Rosie back after a few  months of Roxie. The other kitty continued go with the flow while seeking and finding higher and higher ground. Simone lost a few small patches of fur due to stress. Finally, fate intervened in the guise of yet another housing dilemma for Simone's humans. This one brought the entire menagerie, humans included, to stay here at this house for a little while. (5 years). When that happened, Simone's  heretofore tolerant sister kitty finally found an animal so frightening and monstrous that she simply could not co-exist with him. Who was this beast, you ask?

It was Stevie Ray Cat, beloved by all my humans and a buddy of Daddy in pawticular. My human brother found Stevie as a tiny kitten, seeking refuge in our garage. Eventually Daddy coaxed him into moving into the house and he and Daddy hung out together for the rest of Stevie's life, which was about 14 years. Stevie was still here when I moved in. In fact, it was partly because of Stevie that I got chosen instead of the younger Shar Pei that the Moms met when they got me. Stevie had cancer and the vet said he only had a few more months and they wanted to be sure that the new dog would not be a trouble to him. I didn't disappoint. If he'd lived, I'm pretty sure we would have been friends. He didn't seem to mind dogs, or much of anything. They said he was always that way. If a dog or other cat got up in his face (which I never would, by the way) he'd just go all Zen and stare back, but in a peaceful, non-confrontational sort of way. He didn't run away and he didn't fight or get mad either. And it usually worked, but not with Simone's sis. It just got worse and worse and it got so Stevie couldn't even walk into his own kitchen to have dinner without being attacked by psycho cat. To make matters worse from angry kitty's point of view, Simone thought Stevie was great. They hit it off extremely well.

Well, Daddy and Blog Mom couldn't see Stevie being persecuted in his own home and eventually a decision was made to separate the animals. Simone saw her big chance and without much of a backwards glance, chose to consider herself a member of Stevie's family group rather than the one she'd arrived with. And that's the way it stayed. For years, Simone and Stevie hung out together and developed a routine. They'd play really early in the morning, running around like wildcats. That was all Simone's idea. Stevie had never been much for playing, even as a kitten, perhaps due to his traumatic start in life. But Simone brought out his inner kitten in the wee hours of the morning and then they napped and hung around thinking kitty thoughts for the rest of the day, very happily. Oh, and Simone's bare spots filled in very nicely.

Coming soon: Even Simone has to make adjustments.

Sunny Sunday

It was a quiet day here today. For me, anyway. Blog Mom and Daddy have been struggling with a clogged toilet on and off all day. Blog Mom says it's the most stubborn clog she's ever encountered but she thinks she's winning. I'm not sure if I'm rooting for her or the clog. If the clog wins we can expect a visit from my friend the plumber in a day or so. The rest of us took advantage of the warmest, sunniest weekend we've had all year.

The window sill is open for business at last.

Mom, you're blocking the sun!

That's better!

Ahhhh