Mancat Monday - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everyone! And Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to my lovely girlfriend cat DaisyMae Maus!

Big man cats start the new year with an excellent credit rating. Mine is so good that I am receiving credit card offers in the mail!
Look! Zero percent APR!

And no annual fee! Just think of all the great gifts I could order on the Internet for my beautiful DaisyMae! Now I just need that secretary of mine to verify my income and I'll be all set.

My friends Rosie and Cheeto made some word puzzles of some of our cat friends' names including my grumpy sister Bathsheba. See if you can guess this one:

plus

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~Jake

I'm not grumpy, and I wish everyone a Happy New Year, too!

~Bathsheba

Holiday Roadtrip

We're on our first long distance roadtrip! Mom didn't want to spend Christmas without us so she decided to take us along with her.
I got to sit in the front seat because I'm the oldest . . .

and Jake had to sit in the back seat with the Grinch. Mom told us that we were very good because we didn't cry much at all.

First we went to the Richmond area to visit Mom's brother and family. Here we are in the house with our cousin Sophie giving us the laser beam eyes.

Then we went to Mom's sister's house in North Carolina. We crossed state lines! We have a nice suite here, but I stayed under this table except to come out to eat.

Jake hid under the bed, then under the chair. He came out just enough to reach his dinner. We're getting more accustomed to our surroundings now, though we didn't start out well. Our tabby cousin Sugar Magnolia greeted us at the front door with a hiss, and Freckles the Bengal cat come into our room and stole some of Jake's food when Mom left the door cracked. I'm not so sure about whether it's a good thing to spend the holidays with your relatives, but I'll give it a go this year to humor Mom. It's almost Christmas!

~Bathsheba

Secret Paws Gifts

We haven't been able to blog or visit much lately because Mom has had to "schmooze" at a bunch of office parties and receptions.

But last night was very exciting for us! We finally got to open our Secret Paws gifts from Mr. Chen and Ollie!
I laid first claim to the box and told Bathsheba to back off.


I got first crack at the toys. Look at this cool Tail Chaser toy! And we even got a card-with photos of Mr. Chen and Ollie!

Mmm, this sure smells good.

Mom made me give Bathsheba a crack at the loot.

But I told Bathsheba that most of it was MINE since she's old and doesn't play much anymore.

Mom caught me with my tongue hanging out while playing with the Tail Chaser!

There was a bag of these cool balls called Catnip Puffs, and I batted a couple all over the floor. What fun!

We both love the yummy treats. And there's such a wide variety. We got some at bedtime last night. We are two very lucky cats. Thank you, Mr. Chen and Ollie! And Happy Birthday to your mom today.

~Jake

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Here we are relaxing on the bed while Mom reads the Sunday newspaper.

(Note from the Mom: This lasted all of five minutes. Bathsheba was on the bed with me as she often is, then Jake jumped up and made himself comfortable on top of me. Even though there was plenty of room, and no touching involved between the cats, Bathsheba got mad and left. I'm just glad I had the camera within reach to capture the moment-literally.)

Present from My Girlfriend DaisyMae Maus

Oh, look, I got a package in the mail from my beautiful girlfriend DaisyMae Maus!

~Jake

Hey, Jake! I see that it's addressed to ME too!

Mom made us wait till tonight to help us open the box. It had a lot of tape on it. (Please excuse the date; Mom had a problem with the batteries, and the camera defaulted to 1/1/05.)

Look at what was inside the heavy box! Ceramic cats! Aren't they beautiful!

~Bathsheba

Not as beautiful as DaisyMae.

~Jake

Well, Mom LOVES them! She is especially fond of the sitting tabby because it reminds her of Precious, our long ago sister who was a torbie Maine coon.

Thank you, DMM and the Feline Americans! What wonderful gifts.

~Bathsheba

Mailing Our Secret Paws

Last week Mom crocheted some funky catnip mice as part of our Secret Paws gifts.

She made them freeform and they're way too long, but they might be better for bunny kicking that way. I did give them my seal of approval.

~Bathsheba
Though Mom had everything ready to go for the box last week, she procrastinated about packaging it up so she didn't have it ready for the post office on Saturday morning. Our PO has evening hours so she put it in the mail tonight after my final inspection. This is our first time at participating with Secret Paws. We hope our recipients like their gifts!

~Jake

A Little Bit of SNOW!

A few days ago we had our first snowfall of the season. It was only about two inches or less.

I HAD to go out in it after my dinner.

I think that I'm going to venture off my deck and go play.

I'm off to explore the jungle in winter!

I only stayed outside about a half hour, but later that night, about 3:30 a.m., I started my "scratching on the bedroom full length mirror" routine. That's usually my signal to Mom that I want to go outside or have my breakfast. Mom yelled at me for about 30 minutes to go back to sleep, but I was persistent. Because she knows that I sometimes punish her by doing something "inappropriately" in the house, she decided to get up and let me out despite the cold. I got to stay out for several hours until breakfast! I love my freedom and my fur coat kept me warm.

~Jake

Tabby and Tortie's Tongues on Tuesday

Thank you for visiting us today. We are mad at our secretary because she is not giving us time to visit our friends. She claims to be "busy" or working late at her "paying job." We are sticking our tongues out at her.

~J&B

Man Cat Monday

Hey, "Man Cat!" The sunbeam has passed you by!

Serves you right for hogging the top of the stairs and not letting me pass!

~Bathsheba

Wednesday Workday

Do any of you know where your people go during the day when they go to work ("go hunting")? Mom has never taken us to her office, but we would often wonder about a place that takes her away from us every day. She finally shared with us some photos that she took there last week.
She said that this is the entrance she uses every day. Unfortunately, this lovely red maple tree is naked this week.

There are lots of red maples around the front parking lot.

Mom is always telling us about the wonderful walks she takes at lunch time. Her office has lots of trails through the woods out back.

With all the leaves on this trail, it looks like our yard!

Mom said that there are two ponds and a stream behind her office building. This is a view of the building from the back. Mom's office is on the front side facing west. She can see awesome sunsets from her fifth floor windows.

This is the view from the lower pond. Beavers have a dam just out of sight on the right. It makes the water flow over the trail a bit. For the first few years after the building was built in 1992, when Mom walked down here she could imagine that she was way off in the country. Unfortunately, a few years ago, a road, townhouses, and condos were built near this end. It's still rather peaceful, but there is no escaping the fact that development surrounds the area.

This is the view coming around the side of the building. The trail away from the building leads to a shopping complex that bills itself as an urban town center. There are many good chain restaurants, such as PF Chang, and fancy stores like Ann Taylor, that are just a short walk away.

We will begrudging admit that Mom works in a pretty campus setting, but we'd still rather have her home with us all day.

~J&B

Man Cat Monday - Leaves

Mom went away for Thanksgiving, and while she was gone, the weather turned sharply colder and most of our trees finally lost their leaves.
Just look at my side yard! You can hardy see the grass underneath all those maple leaves. Somebody's got a lot of work ahead.

But it's not me. Being a MAN cat, I think I hear a football game calling to me on the TV. I'll let Mom work on these leaves.

~Jake

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We are very thankful to have a mom who loves us so very much. We are thankful for our warm home and regular meals. We are also thankful for all the wonderful friends we have made through the cat blogosphere.

Last year at this time, our dear friend Skeezix held a contest where our people wrote "Tales of Devotion" to us. Mom recently returned to that site, reread the heartwarming tales, and shed some tears. Some of you were not blogging at the time so your people missed this opportunity to write about how much they love you. We highly recommend giving this site a read as we give thanks this time of year.

Mom will be spending Thanksgiving with family in North Carolina and will be driving down on Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately for us, that means no big turkey at our house for us, but she promised to return quickly and give us lots of Temptations and other treats to compensate. Again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,

~J&B

Man Cat Monday Adventure

When I'm outside, I don't like to be coddled by Mom. I have my Man Cat image to uphold after all. She followed me down to the bottom of the yard hoping to snatch me up and cuddle.
I jumped into the empty firewood stand (Mom doesn't feel like bothering with firewood and fires now that Dad is gone).

From there I decided to hop the fence into Mr. Stuff's yard. He has something called a "catch basin" in the easement between his yard and mine.

I like to explore around the catch basin.

And sometimes I like to jump in there! If it hasn't been rainy, it's not TOO wet down there. I can follow the sewer down to the creek, or I can go in the other direction and end up at the street gutter. I'm not going to let Mom baby me; a man cat's gotta have his independence.

~Jake

Saturday Scavenging

Mom worked in the yard this afternoon. Before she tackled the leaves, she replenished the suet for the birds. She set the empty plastic container down on the edge of the deck, and I spied it.

Mmm, this suet stuff isn't half bad. 'Tis a pity there isn't more for me.

Mom decided to use her mulching lawn mower for the leaves, so it was noisy outside. She used the bagger attachment and emptied it onto a big tarp she put on the driveway. She has a big shredder machine, but decided not to use it because it is very hard for her to start. She likes to compost all our leaves, but the compost area is way at the bottom of the yard. She drags the big tarp down there and dumps it.

Daisy had asked if we could just wait for the leaves to blow away. Unfortunately, the answer is no. We live downwind from neighbors with many big trees and all of their leaves blow our way since they almost NEVER rake. We have lots of plantings, rocks, and shrubs in our front yard so they catch the leaves that fall. Most of the trees are oaks and they continue to drop their leaves all winter long. Leaf-raking and collection is a long-term activity in our yard.

Tonight Mom had phone calls from her two bestest friends. She was going to help us blog more, but we know that those long phone conversations were important for her.

~Jake

Foliage Friday

The weather has turned sharply colder and we've had some brisk winds. The leaves are falling fast now. We haven't been able to blog much lately because Mom has been very busy with work. Last night she didn't get home until 10:30 p.m. While I miss her when she works late, I think that it's good for her to stay busy right now.
Before the leaves are all gone with the wind, I thought that I'd share some of our fall foliage. Here's a shot of our dogwood tree as I can view it from the chair at the front window.

And here's a view of it from the street.

This is a view from the small upstairs bathroom window. It's the only window on this side of the house. The yellow leaves belonged to a hickory tree a few days ago, but by now it has lost most of its leaves.

This is from the same window slightly panned to the left because the hickory is nearly bare today. The brightly colored leaves belong to an amelanchier, known as a juneberry or serviceberry tree. The color is slightly off in this photo since the leaves are more orange than red in real life.

Mom will have to get busy this weekend and rake leaves. If it is not too windy, I think that I will join her as I did last weekend. Unless she gets out some noisy power equipment, I like to be with Mom when she gardens.

Jake and I both are purring for Mr. TF because we really need him to get better.

Purrs,

~Bathsheba