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