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

Tall-Tailed Tabby versus Tortie for Toesday

Bathsheba: After a dreary morning, it cleared up a bit yesterday afternoon and I went out on the deck to look around.



Jake: Oh, Bathsheba, you don't know how to patrol and guard my deck.

Let me show you how it's done.

Bathsheba: This deck isn't big enough for the two of us. (Note from Mom: It's 20x24'.) I'm going back inside. I'm moving so fast, my face is a blur.

P.S. Mom says thank you to the Castro Valley
boys. They're lovely.

Jake's Man Cat Monday

Enough sadness! It's Man Cat Monday and it's all about ME!
Look where I am. On THE BED! It used to be strictly off limits to me as was the whole room. Now Mom actually invites me in with Temptation treats at night. Usually I vanish as soon as I've had my Temptations, but I've done some sleeping there with Mom, much to Bathsheba's chagrin. Last night I slept snuggled next to Mom all night.

Bathsheba used to have exclusive rights to the bed as long as she left when Dad came to bed. Now she's all mad that I'm invited too and she'll usually go off in a hissy fit when I join Mom. Heck, it's a big bed, and Mom says there's room for all of us, but don't tell Bathsheba that.

In other bedroom news, this is the view from the window. The leaves are falling fast in our backyard, but the colors have been muted. I haven't been in this window much since I was a kitten and scratched up the screen. Maybe I'll check out the windowsill in the spring when the warm air returns. It's cold and dreary today and I'm probably going to nap on my favorite loveseat.

~Jake

RIP Chelsea

Farewell, dear cousin Chelsea.

Sad news. Mom's brother called her today, and one of the things he told her was that poor cousin Chelsea was "put to sleep" last week. She wouldn't eat, wanted to stay under the bed, was down to less than five pounds, and was extremely weak.

Here is an undated photo of floofy Chelsea that Mom used for a "Widebody Wednesday" post last year.

This photo was from a visit a year ago.
Mom took this photo when she last visited. At that time Chelsea was just a shadow of herself.

She and Mom shared the same March birthday. Chelsea was well loved and lived to the age of 15.

Good bye,

Love,

~J&B

Sad on Saturday

Mom continues to feel sad and mopey. She says that she feels the way these impatiens look.


We've been visiting our friends, but not leaving comments since we need Mom's help with writing them.

~J&B

Dona Nobis Pacem

Tolerant Tortie on Toesday

I was napping peacefully on the bed when Mom rudely starting snapping my photograph.
It's hard to sleep when there's a flash going off in my face. But I endured.

She found me irresistible and had to pick me up and hug me. I DON'T like to be picked up, but I do try to be a tolerant cat sometimes. I know that Mom needs lots of comforting lately so I put up with more than my usual limit for hugging. My annoying brother doesn't mind hugs at all, so I realize that I need to step out of my comfort zone, so to speak, to compete with him. He's been trying very hard to charm himself into first place in her heart. At least I have history on my side because I've known Mom longer.

~Bathsheba

Anastasia's Dare: DUYS

Anastasia returned to issue her final dare and we were eager to participate.

Here is Anastasia’s last Dare in her own words:“I Dare You All to Dress Up Your Staff. Dress up your humans in the most ridiculous, silly, weird, comical, insane, funny, humiliating, splendid, outrageous outfit you can imagine, post their picture on your blog.”

As some of you may remember, Mom went to New Orleans in May. She bought some Mardi Gras masks there. You may also recall that she has a pink wig because she made us wear it for the Pink Wig Challenge.
I made her dig deeply into her drawers to find an old T-shirt from the 1970s. (She keeps things forever.) So here she is in blue and pink.

I decided that she should try on some other masks too. Here's a green feathery one. Green is her favorite color.

And here's a bright orangey/red one!

And get a load of this animal mask.

Unfortunately, I think that the point of this exercise was lost on Mom. We were supposed to humiliate her, but I think she was having entirely too much fun.

Which one do you like the best?

~Bathsheba

Better Than an Official Toy

The other day, Mom flung her suit jacket over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.


It just happened to have a skinny dangly thing called a belt hanging from it.




It taunted me.

I must get into position

and attack!

~Jake