This is what my lap looks like most of the time these days…
Lap Buddies
Category Archives: Charlie & Bella
Smoothie Straw Stealer
I am drinking a smoothie this morning and Charlie is sitting next to me, patiently waiting for me to not be paying attention so she can snag the straw.
So cute.
Christmas Eve Dinner
So, funny story.
I am eating my Christmas Eve dinner at the computer. Exciting, right? |-|
It’s frozen crab rangoon, from Sam’s, totally nothing to write home about, but it’s somewhat tradition to eat hors d’ ouevres on Christmas Eve (mom and I started it a long time ago), and this was all I had in the freezer. (Tradition also includes a bottle of Tosti d’ Asti, which I forgot to chill, so I am drinking the next best, our favorite Moscato d’ Asti.)
So, I have eaten one or two rangoons with no issue. Then I bite into one and the thing splits open and crab rangoon innards go shooting across the desk and land—are you ready?—ON THE CAT. Oh my god, I thought I was going to die laughing between the actual sight of innards shooting out of the rangoon and the look of surprise? terror? on the cat’s face. Of course she didn’t want to lick it off, and made to leap away to try and run from it, so I had to grab her and clean her (okay, wipe most if it off and then let her do the rest).
There’s nothing like crab catgoon? cat rangoon? crab rangcat? for Christmas. 😀
My mornings on the computer…
Charlie waits for me at the door to the living room (same exact spot every morning) and when she sees me coming, she starts talking and runs into the office and up into the bed, walking around and around, talking at me, bumping into me and my hand wanting me to pet her. However, that is short-lived as Maggie follows closely behind (having just come in from outside) and wants up in the bed, so I lift her up and put her in—which kicks Charlie out because Charlie doesn’t much like to share, but Charlie still wants attention so she hangs around and sits right there. I managed to snap some pics this morning. It’s the same thing every morning!
Nothing is safe with these cats!
So we all know that cats love grass and plants—which is precisely why we don’t have any in our house (I got sick of seeing chewed leaves and vomit piles with leaves in them). So guess what I found when I got home the other day? If you’re squeamish, you may want to look away. :>
Yes, friends. That is a leaf from our FAKE topiary in the middle of a vomit pile! 88| Of course there was also a huge hairball, but I am used to those. But a fake leaf? :crazy:
Talk about instant heart failure!
My routine rarely varies.
I come home, let Maggie out and play with her, bring her inside, feed her dinner, go out to get the mail through the front door, come back inside through the garage, shut the garage door, then go upstairs to relax for a bit and watch TV.
And today was no different.
So I was upstairs watching an hour-long show (so, with Tivo, it was maybe 40 minutes). Then I splurged and watched a half hour show (so, another 20 minutes). Then I realized I was hungry, so went downstairs to eat dinner, with Maggie bounding ahead of me as usual. As I rounded the corner and headed into the kitchen, I am not sure whether I actually saw what I was seeing or whether my brain just sensed that it was too bright at the front of the house (where normally it would be dark)—but I do know that the next few moments were a blur and I think my heart actually stopped for a brief moment…until it started pounding so hard and so loud I almost couldn’t breathe.
What was so wrong?
THE FRONT DOOR WAS WIDE OPEN! 88| 88| 88| 88| 88| 88|
For a split second, I had thought we had a glass storm door (which of course we don’t), but why else would there be light coming in?
I didn’t even have time to think why the door would even be open—but if that fact weren’t scary (freaky) enough, Maggie was sitting at the threshhold, ears raised, as if she was mere microseconds from bounding outside. I yelled for her to stay and tried to get her to come to me. Luckily she didn’t move, and I was to her in about three strides and grabbing her collar. As I did so, I noticed a cat outside on the lawn (one of the neighborhood cats that is always roaming about) which is what had drawn Maggie’s attention. But what scared me even more?
BELLA WAS ON THE PORCH! 88| 88| 88| 88| 88| 88|
It actually took a good two seconds (I’m guessing) for it to register that yes, this was MY cat on the porch (and not another neighborhood cat). I pulled the door shut behind me and instinctively yelled Bella’s name, even though I was sure it would be pointless. The other cat was slinking away, and I prayed that Bella didn’t decide to be adventurous and chase after her. I made a grab for her and she darted away—thankfully just to the other side of the porch (and not out into the yard) but I knew she could still easily run away. I gently knelt down and she was crouched against the side of the house and as she tried to get past me, I grabbed her and got back in the house.
Then I had another scary thought: OH MY GOD. Where is Charlie? I shook the treat container and thankfully heard a THUNK upstairs, which signalled that she had jumped down off the entertainment center. It was at this point that I think I started breathing again.
I tried to piece together how on earth the door could have come open, and I just cannot fathom it. I always shut the door behind me—and make sure it’s shut—for this very reason, as I am paranoid about the animals getting out. I briefly thought that someone HAD to have opened it—but I can’t imagine anyone opening the door for the hell of it (or left it open if they had snuck in or ran out when they heard me coming) but I did a cursory look around the house anyway (although, thinking back, I probably should have called someone to come look with me, just in case). And how long was it open? I was upstairs for just about an hour—was it open the whole time? The only thing that makes sense is the door didn’t latch and was just lightly pushed shut…but even then, it would have taken QUITE a gust of wind to blow it open (and it wasn’t windy). In my stupor, I thought maybe the animals saw it partially open and pushed it the rest of the way—except when clearer thought prevailed, I realized the door opened inward so they would have had to PULL the door open. Now, I know they’re intelligent, but I doubt Bella could do that on her own.
I am still just in complete shock. And you can bet your ass from now on I will be double- and triple-checking every door, every time.
A new one this morning!
So as I’m sure you can imagine with four cats, we tend to get little surprises around the house—we think Bella has gastrointestinal problems that make her vomit for no reason and Fuzzy is renowned for hairballs. (I’m sure the other two have contributed at times, but Bella and Fuzzy are the most well-known culprits—i.e. we physically see them do it.) And of course it’s always a nice surprise when we find one of their deposits…hopefully not by stepping in it first! Sometimes Maggie gets to them before we do, which is gross—but we’ve grown to accept because 1) it’s just food and 2) it’s less for us to clean up. :>>
So after many years of this, I wouldn’t think much would surprise me. I mean, we’ve found piles on the kitchen table, under furniture, on the bed, under the bed, in their beds, on the desk, on the printer, on windowsills—in other words, pretty much everywhere.
But this morning was something entirely new and surprising.
The cats were all whining like crazy, which usually means their food bowl is empty. Except it wasn’t. So what was it? Oh my. Someone (my guess is Fuzzy since it was a hairball) had actually thrown up a hairball in the water dish! 88| Talk about gross—all the food pieces were bloated and had turned to mush, turning the water a disgusting, cloudy shade of tan. Blech!
As soon as I refilled it, everyone was happy!
We have stupid, stupid cats.
So this morning there was a pile of vomit on the table. Gross, yes, but something you get used to with four cats. But what was IN the vomit pile, you ask? A leaf. Now, normally a leaf would be nothing unusual…because cats like to eat grass and plants and whatnot. Except that we have no LIVE plants in our house because I kill them. So we have plastic plants. So the stupid cat ate a leaf off the topiary and then barfed it up. :crazy:
Like I said: stupid.
Did we create a monster?
So for almost as long as I’ve had Fuzzy, he has slept with me at night. Most of the time, right next to my head, in fact. Until probably six months ago, when he stopped coming in to sleep with us and Bella took his place. Then Charlie took her place. Then, Bella started coming in again. It was like there was some rotation they were on that only they were privy to!
Well, I had started to miss Fuzzy—he rarely even came upstairs anymore! We thought it was because he was getting old and maybe he had arthritis and didn’t like climbing the stairs….but he would come up every so often when his food bowl was empty! And over the past month or so, he has started coming upstairs more and more often. So last night, I grabbed him and took him to bed with me…and he stayed! (I had tried this in months past, but he left as soon as I sent him down.)
To my surprise, he stayed until the middle of the night and then he hopped down. But then hours later, he was back! (Of course, it was at this point that I remembered why I didn’t like him sleeping next to me—the loud purring and meowing and pawing at my face in the middle of the night keeps me awake and makes it really hard to fall back asleep). But he was LOVING IT! Purring to beat the band. And it was a weekend so I didn’t mind too much!
Amazingly, he stayed until morning. But I may have created a monster….
I think my heart stopped this morning.
So Tom and I were getting ready this morning (he doesn’t have to be in until 9am this week) and as usual, Maggie was running loose. Well, I was downstairs getting stuff out of the dryer and I heard racing around upstairs (Maggie and the cats sound like a herd of elephants, I swear!) and as I was walking through the living room, I noticed a blur of movement in my peripheral vision—as Charlie came flying down over the balcony and landed in the foyer with a THUNK!
HOLY SHIT!
I think my heart either skipped a few beats or just stopped completely.
She didn’t seem any worse for the wear and she wasn’t making any noise like she was in pain—but she wasn’t moving, either—she was just sitting there (like normal). I went over to her and she ran away from me (like normal) and when I was finally able to pick her up, she was squirmy (like normal) so I guessed she was just fine.
But it was a good five minutes before my now-racing heart was back to normal.
I think hell just froze over.
So I was downstairs and all the cats were congregating around the food bowl, whining (not entirely sure why, as they had plenty of food). Surprisingly, Boots was right in the middle of them all…and there was NO hissing, NO swatting, NO stalking—NOTHING. An amazing feat in itself, as they typically hate each other. Or so I thought…
Because then I saw something that made me rub my eyes and shake my head in disbelief.
Charlie was…are you ready?
Charlie was LICKING Boots on the head. And Boots was letting her. And this went on for a good 20 seconds. Then Boots rubbed up against Fuzzy and wandered off.
Oh my.
I think they’re finally friends. And it only took seven months.
Happy Birthday, Kids!
Today Charlie and Bella turn three! I can’t believe we’ve had them that long—it feels like just yesterday we brought them home…
This is why we can’t leave treats unlocked.
My Friday Morning
5:45am—I wake up because Boots is throwing up somewhere in the room. I can see it’s not on the bed so I’m not immediately worried.
5:46am—Debate getting up to find it and clean it up…or sleep until my alarm goes off in half an hour.
6:15am—Alarm goes off. (I normally sleep in until about 7:30 but I’m going to work early so I can get out early!)
6:30am—Drag myself out of bed. The dog is stirring and I need to take her out (normally Tom does this, but he had duty last night).
6:31am—Hope it’s not cold out, as I am in my robe and slippers. (Normally I’m showered and fully dressed when it’s my turn to take her out.)
6:35am—Feed Maggie and take her out. Not cold—yea! And she pees and poops—good girl!! (It’s so pathetic to be excited about this.)
6:37am—Make sure there’s food in the cats’ bowl for when I let them out (see 6:43am).
6:40am—Barricade Maggie upstairs (so she can’t sneak down and eat the cat food) while I take my shower and get ready. I feel safe doing this because she did pee and poop (otherwise, she’d be back in her crate).
6:41am—Step in Boots’ liquid frothy upchuck. Five large piles of dirty clothes on the floor (laundry tonight!) and she manages to vomit on the sliver of carpet between them.
6:43am—Let Fuzzy, Charlie, and Bella out of the living room (they get locked up at night). They barrel me over to get downstairs to their food.
6:55am—Exit shower and Maggie goes in to lick the water.
7:00am—Give Maggie some lovin’. I feel guilty because she was in the crate so long last night since Tom and I were both gone.
7:10am—Find something else to wear, as the pants I planned to wear were dirty.
7:12am—Dig out a pair of sandals, as it’s 62 degrees already—with a supposed high of 74.
7:15am—Fuzzy is whining at me—loudly—while sitting at the food bowl. There’s food there, so I’m not sure what his problem is. I think maybe he doesn’t like their new food (Boots needs special urinary tract health food so they’re all eating it because it can’t hurt) but he’s been eating it for a few days. So I put a second scoop of food in and…now he’s happy. Stupid cat.
7:17am—Make scrambled eggs for breakfast. Six of them. Ugh—I went to put a touch of milk in the first batch and it was, um, clumpy. EWWWWWWWWWWW!!! So those went down the sink and I made sure to use the fresh (unopened) heavy cream for the next batch (which ended up being REALLY yummy).
7:20am—Take Maggie out again while eggs are cooling. Just pee this time, but it’s okay since Tom will be home from duty around noon.
7:22am—Eat breakfast while keeping an eye on Maggie. It makes me nervous when she hasn’t pooped.
7:30am—Crate Maggie.
7:35am—Pack my lunch. While filling a jug with kool-aid, it overfills and spills into the sink. I thank my lucky stars it A) was in the sink and B) didn’t get on my white shirt. (Ironically, see 8:45am.)
7:50am—Arrive at work. Hmmm, boss isn’t here as she said she would be. That means I get to play instead of getting straight to work!
8:45am—While I am typing the 7:35 comment about the kool-aid, I take a moment to grab the kool-aid jug (with the cap on, mind you), and give it a quick tip upside down and back out of habit (to make sure it’s mixed—I hate it when stuff settles on the bottom), take the top off and…kool-aid splashes ALL over the desk. Obviously the cap held quite a bit of kool-aid after my quick tip. But, again, I thank my lucky stars because A) none got on the carpet and B) none got on my white shirt!
8:51am—The boss rolls in. Time to go to work!
GRRR—sleeplessness
I can’t believe I’m not exhausted—I only had five hours of sleep last night! I went to bed the first time at 10, tossed and turned wide awake—so got up around 11 and was on the computer until 1:30 (the time just flew!), then went to bed for the second time at 1:30. Then the cats were making noise (Bella found a twistie to play with, Fuzzy was purring crazy-loud next to me, and Boots was meowing downstairs) and Tom was snoring as well. Argh! The last time I looked at the clock it was just after 2… So I suppose the sleepiness will hit me later in the day.
Guess who leaned against a wet wall?
One of the living room walls. Eagle eyes will notice something odd towards the bottom left…
ARGH! Someone leaned against the wall while it was wet! LOL! We later learned it was Charlie. I told Tom we had to leave it there for awhile because it’s hilarious.
Pictures are online!
You would think with ALL the work we’ve done and ALL the painting we’ve been doing (two rooms just this weekend!) I would have more pictures…but of course I’m only showing you the best ones!
The cats exploring and getting comfy in their new house:
The office, which is just off the fourth bedroom–or our living (tv) room. It’s much more cluttered now!
The living room / sitting room / fireplace room! We have curtains to match the furniture and blinds for the center section.
Don’t mind the mess in the kitchen…
The blue paint, depending on the light, can look anything from gray to blue to periwinkle.
I LOVE THE BEDROOM! I’ve wanted that quilt for over a year, so it was the inspiration for the color scheme (the bath is purple). We saw the idea for the color block wall on HGTV (for someone who didn’t have a headboard, as we don’t) and thought it would be perfect. I didn’t realize until AFTER we decided that it would be perfect with the quilt design, as well!
The master bath. We took down the big wall mirror and put up the medicine cabinets. We still have some tweaking to do (i.e. a shelf for some of the clutter). I LOVE HAVING TWO SINKS!
The jacuzzi tub on the left…and my lilac shower curtain!!
The dining room. The chair rail and crown molding look great…but are a PITA to tape/paint!
Notice the peeled paint on the tray ceiling…thanks to the bad paint job (dust not cleaned off before the builder painted), our paint peeled right off. So much for the hour or so of work it took both of us…and the hour or so it will take Tom to fix it. We plan on putting a large mirror (that used to be over our fireplace) on that back wall.
Happy Birthday Kittens
Charlie and Bella are two years old today…so I guess they really aren’t kittens anymore (but they’ll always be kittens to me!). We aren’t sure what we will do to celebrate, although I’m sure there will be kitty treats involved somehow!
Stupid kittens…or are they?
So I said to Tom last night, “When we move into the new house, we should lock the cats out of our room so we can sleep better.” I mean, I love nothing better than seeing a cat curled up on our bed, but at night…well, they walk on you and wake you up (those little kitty feet, although small, can really hurt), they start crying and nudging you at 6:30am (weekday or not), and they often fight and/or play with each other at the most inopportune times. And the previous night, I had been rudely awakened by a kitten actually jumping on the bed and landing square on my back—not how you really want to be woken up. So I wanted to try locking them out at the new house—figuring a new place, a new routine. Well, Tom suggested we just try it right then. So we did. (Well, we left Fuzzy in because he was under the bed and he’s usually good for the whole night.) I didn’t have high hopes, because we’d tried it before a few times and they always (ALWAYS) end up crying in the middle of the night. It wakes me up but Tom generally sleeps through it, so he thinks it was successful… But I was game to give it another try.
As always, the first few hours went fine…and then in the middle of the night, you start to hear the whining. And the crying. And then you hear the door handle jiggling (seriously) so you know someone is up on their hind feet trying to get in. AND THEN (and this is the most hilarious of all), you hear them actually running headlong into (INTO!) the door. By this time, Tom and I are both (yes, BOTH!) awake and laughing at our stupid cats trying to get into our room by butting their heads into the door. It’s 2am. So we try to ignore it (very hard for me) and then we hear the ultimate in can’t-sleep-through-it noise: Fuzzy getting ready to puke. If you’ve heard it, it’s UNMISTAKABLE. And then we hear him actually hack something up. Well, now we’ve GOT to get up to find it and clean it so we don’t step in it (having forgotten about it by morning). Well, this means we have to open our door and now, yep, the kittens rush in and Fuzzy rushes out. The kittens curled up on the bed, totally content, and fell right asleep. Tom and I laid awake for probably an hour. After finally falling asleep, Charlie—right on schedule at 6:30am—starts crying and nudging me. ARGH! About that time, Tom got up and chased the cats out so I could sleep in peace awhile longer.
Like I said…new house, new routine. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
My Lap Cat
Charlie is such a lap cat…especially when she knows it’s time to eat (or when we should be eating). We typically eat dinner on the couch, and she can tell when we’re ready, because she runs out ahead of us and waits for me to sit down so she can sit on my lap. She’s not trying to get my food or anything, she just wants to be ON me. Sometimes in the morning I eat breakfast on the couch and she sits with me then, as well. It’s so sad when I don’t, though, because as I walk to the door to leave, she’s up on the couch crying at me. (This happened this morning.) So I usually go over and give her a good butt scratch or belly rub and she is all purrs. I swear, I could just sit with her all day and be content.
Major Brain Fart (a.k.a. CRS)
So yesterday someone asked Tom how long we had lived here and he said three years. It sounded plausible, but it seemed too long. So I started thinking about it. Then my mind wandered and I forgot about it until today, LOL, when someone else asked how long we’d been here and he said three years (again). I started thinking about it tonight, and came to the conclusion that it has been almost TWO years, not three. We were married in 2001 and were in Virginia for 1.5 years which would put us moving to NC in 2003. I even checked our HOUSE site and pulled out our contracts to make sure!
At the same time, I needed to know how old the “kittens” were. My immediate answer was…pure confusion. I could have sworn they were “just over a year” because it seems we haven’t had them that long—since last summer. The more I started thinking about it the more confused I got. I pulled up our CATS site and that implied 2003 but I thought maybe I had made a mistake. (I tell you, I was really confused.) Then I looked at actual dates of digital pics I took, and that said 2003 as well. I still couldn’t believe it, so I went to the filing cabinet and pulled out the receipt and…yep, September 2003. It just didn’t seem that we got them so soon [a few months] after moving here…
Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind. The sad thing is, Tom was at a complete loss, too…
Sneaky Cat!
JUST LOOK WHAT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH! LOL!
The closet door was not left open for more than a few minutes while I was getting the next batch of clean towels to put away…and what do I see?? Charlie resting nicely about half way up the closet. DAMN GIBLETS! But they’re so cute you can’t help but laugh and run to get the camera! 🙂
A visit….and alone again!
Dad and Linda left this morning after an 8-day stay with us. It was really nice FINALLY being able to show them our house! They brought Sassea, so that was interesting with the cats…we had originally thought she would just stay on the porch for the most part, but after a few hours, we let her in and eventually, the cats got used to her. It was hilarious watching, though. The cats LOVED Sassea’s bed and slept in it more than the dog! They also loved her water bucket and often drank from it instead of their own bowl. Of course, Sass retaliated by eating their food when we weren’t watching (or when we forgot to block it off). There was some growling, hissing, and snapping, but overall it went well.
Dad and Tom also worked on a wood project. Originally, way back when, it was supposed to be a shed. Then it was dressers. Then it turned into…a cabinet to showcase my grandma’s eggs (plus, eventually, some of my mom’s and some of my own)! I am so excited about it—-it’s gorgeous…complete with a glass door, hanging rack (for those on pipe cleaners), and mirror back (which makes it hard to take pics)! There’s even enough room at the bottom, depending on how many shelves we use, for an ostrich egg and maybe a kistka and some wax as a display! This will be SO much better than the tupperware box they were in before! I will take more pics when it’s fully done and cleaned up!
Dad also helped with some small projects around the house, including installing blinds on our kitchen door and staking up our willow that was getting quite sad.
As usual with family tourists, LOL, we took them on a tour of the base and surrounding areas, including a stop at the beach. The weather was a little cool, but it was nice for Dad who whines at anything above 70! 🙂 Dad and Lin took a few day trips by themselves to Wilmington and New Bern—-with a few stops to beaches along the way so Lin could collect shells. Dad had his new digital camera shipped to us, so we got to play with that all week, as well.
Meals were a bit harder to plan as compared to other guests…let’s just say Dad is a little picky. Let’s just say he’s a Vanilla guy, while most of our family is Rocky Road. (hehe) I’m not sure he could have survived the week without his PB&J! Tom and I still can’t get over the fact that neither Dad nor Lin really like steak. I mean, who doesn’t like steak? LOL But we all managed not to starve while they were here. One special treat was dad’s favorite carrot cake with extra cream cheese frosting. That certainly didn’t last long! We did drag Dad to a hibachi place, saying “You like chicken and shrimp, you like mushrooms, and you like rice—-how can you not like this?” Well, he ate it, but he wasn’t thrilled—-too many fancy ingredients like soy sauce and sesame seeds. Hoo boy. You gotta love him! The funniest thing is he kept saying “But I’m not picky! I’m easy!” HA! Poor Linda!
Dad and Lin enjoyed the cats and we enjoyed having a dog temporarily. We watched a few movies during which Linda entertained us with her, um, shreiking (we still can’t figure out how someone can be so nervous, LOL!). The weather was great—-not too hot and not too cool (although Dad pretty much wore shorts the whole time). Overall, it was a nice time!
My Little Helpers
See what happens when I try to fold sheets?
Or when I try to make the bed?
Or when I try to clean out Tom’s closet?
Or when I clean out my dresser?
Or when I try to pack?
Damn Sneaky Giblets
So this morning I go to put on my shoes and EEEEEK! I got a wet foot! Damn giblets…I gave them some ice cubes before I went to bed last night (one of their favorite things to play with on the vinyl kitchen floor—they come running when they hear me getting ice from the refrigerator)…and they generously left me a present! This isn’t the first time it’s happened!! I’ve actually seen them carry around an ice cube in their mouth.
Gluttons!
This is what happens EVERY time I bring a new bag of food home! It doesn’t even matter if they still have food in their bowl! Gluttons!
