One Day Blog Silence

Snapshot Saturday

I was sleeping peacefully in my cat TV room, when Mom invited me outside.

I should have known something was up when she wanted me to go in the front yard because she usually wants me to stay out back.

My normally nice mom turned into a stalking paparazzi! Every few steps and it was click, click, click!

Maybe if I take this shortcut, I can get away from her.

No such luck!

How do those celebrities cope?

Maybe if I escape to the back yard . . .

But, no! Not even the clover brought me any luck in shaking this stalker.

I hoped that leaving the garden and retreating to my deck would do the trick, but she was persistent.

Maybe I should just cooperate and give her a good pose.

NOW, will you leave me alone!

~Jake

P.S. Mom hasn't let us blog much lately. She was feeling under the weather for a few days (too much pollen and not enough rain), plus she had more of her projects. She just can't get her priorities straight! We need more time to visit our dear friends since we're so behind. We appreciate your visits and comments and intend to reciprocate.

Here is a sorry excuse for a limerick in honor of Karen Jo. We hope she is feeling better.

There once was a lady named Karen Jo
Who all of the cats have come to know
She writes really good lines
And they’re all about felines
Now she needs some time to nurse her toe.

~J&B

Keep Our Pets Safe Day

Wednesday Welcome

Hi, Mom! Welcome home from your long day at work.

I need dinner - now!

~Jake

P.S. Dudes! Don't listen to Bathsheba. She's just a crabby old lady cat, even if she does have interesting colors and extra freaky toes.

Bathsheba's Tortie Tuesday

I can't help it. I get jealous of Jake. I know he's handsome, but the trouble is, he knows it and uses it to his advantage especially around Dad. He may be a Man Cat, but he's not a great BIG Man Cat. I need to assert my tough a** tortie reputation and show him who's boss. At 15, I am the eldest cat in this household. He's just the baby.

~Bathsheba

Mancat Monday with Jake

Here I am surveying my kingdom. I've posted a similar pose before, but this time the flowers are in bloom in the background.

~Jake

Strolling Sunday with Bathsheba

It was a beautiful warm day today-temps in the 80s. It seems that we've gone from winter to summer in just a few short days.

Here I am walking through our lower garden. This time of year it's filled with Virginia bluebells and wood poppies. You can see a few trilliums (T. grandiflorum), the white flowers on the left. Cream violets (v. striata) are visible at the bottom of the photos. There is also some Greek valerian just below and to the right of the trilliums, but they resemble the bluebells unless you biggify the photo. Mom makes us learn the names of all these flowers!

Happy Earth Day!

~Bathsheba

Mom's Report to Us

Mom returned home late last night, and we required a full report. She showed us lots of pictures from her trip, but we still think that her time would have been better spent with us here at home. You be the judge.

The conference was held in Williamsburg.

Early Thursday morning, before the conference sessions, Mom went for a walk down to Colonial Williamsburg, where she saw some sheep with blue rear ends!

As part of the conference, the group toured the Jamestown settlement. This year marks its 400th anniversary, and a major celebration, complete with respective appearances by Queen Elizabeth II and President Bush, will take place May 11-13. (Click to biggify to read the sign.)

This is a reproduction of the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships that made the voyage.

Here is one of the buildings inside the Jamestown fort. A man is repairing the roof.

Once the conference, complete with classes, a business meeting, and a big banquet, was over, Mom went for a walk around her old college campus. (One of Caesar and Prinnie's girls is a current student.) This was Friday, the day of mourning for the Va. Tech massacre, and VT emblems were posted over W&M's signs.

This is Crim Dell pond, where there was a banner for Va. Tech as well as one for Project Hope relating to Honduras.

Mom doesn't know any current Va. Tech students, but her oldest niece and fiance went there, and they still live in Blacksburg. Mom also knows someone whose daughters recently graduated from Westfield High School, and Centreville is a town right next to ours. Westfield is considered an excellent high school.

After her stroll around campus, Mom went to CW ("Colonial Williamsburg"), but couldn't proceed very far down DOG ("Duke of Gloucester" not a real d-o-g) Street because of some movie-making. Mom didn't ask for details, but she took a couple of photos.

The smells from the catering trailers were yummy. Too bad we couldn't have explored THAT.

Mom made a brief stop at the Edgar Allen Poe Museum in Richmond where her brother works part-time. Her next stop was in Midlothian, a suburb of Richmond, where her brother and family live.










Mom's brother and family have four* cats and one dog. Rags, the dog, got in front of the camera just as Mom pushed the button to take a picture of one of the cats. We think this is a funny picture.

Here is Mom's youngest niece, who is 12. She just got braces for her teeth that day, and her mouth was sore. She's holding Sophie, the youngest cat in the household.

*ALERT: The calico cat, Juni-Purr, is missing! View her here. She went outside on Wednesday and has not come home. The family posted some signs and searched the neighborhood. They are heartened by the fact that I ran away a few times (once for two weeks), and I eventually came home. Mom called her sister-in-law tonight for an update, but Juni is still not home.

Today Mom and Dad went to Manassas National Battlefield Park where they like to regularly go for walks and short hikes. The Virginia bluebells are in bloom down by Bull Run. Mom says that it is hard to capture their beauty on film, so we'll just have to take her word for it that there was a carpet of blue. We might post some more pictures of our own garden in the next few days.

We are saddened that Gizzy passed away while Mom was gone. We continue to send pawsitive thoughts to Lilly Lu and hope that she gets well.

~Bathsheba

In Remembrance

Lilly Lu

Jake and Bathsheba don't have access to a computer while I'm away at this conference, but we all send our best healing wishes and purrs to dear Lilly Lu. We salute Tara for holding a commentathon on her blog to raise funds for vet bills.

~J&B's Mom

Time for Tortie Tuesday

Watch out, Jake, here I come!

~Bathsheba

We may not be able to visit or blog much in the next few days because Mom is working on a project, and then she is going away to a conference. We'll be thinking about everyone, though!

~J&B

Sleepy Sunday

Oh, it was a day for sleeping! Cold and rainy outside, it was warm and snuggly inside. Here I am on my loveseat. I even have my catnip banana with me.

And Bathsheba slept on her favorite kitchen chair, except that she's not truly asleep in this picture. I think the flash made her open her eye a crack.

Bathsheba told everyone about my little indiscretion yesterday. I just can't help it! Anyway, I didn't mind being out on the deck despite the chill. I could keep my eye on the bird feeders. If you biggify this picture and look at the middle feeder, you can see a white-breasted nuthatch. They're cool little birds that descend upside down from trees. Here he is hanging onto the wire mesh that holds a cake of suet on the bottom of this feeder. Dad made it to try to keep the starlings out of it. The other suet feeder to the right does a pretty good job at that too.

Mom made me include another photo of the garden, and since she is helping me blog, I thought that I'd indulge her. There are mostly Virginia bluebells in this bed, and the yellow blooms are wood poppies.

The winds are starting to howl tonight. I'm glad I'm toasty and warm in the house.

~Jake

Thomasina!

Last night we didn't get to blog because Mom decided that she wanted to watch the DVD The Three Lives of Thomasina with me instead. Skeezix's Food Lady sent it to Mom, who hadn't seen it since she was a little girl.













Isn't Thomasina a beautiful ginger kitty? Gingers are rarely females; maybe that's why she was originally named Thomas.





Anyway, Mom and I snuggled in and watched the movie. Mom got those leaky eyes that everyone always talks about, but she had a box of tissues at the ready. I did my best to console her because I knew that everything would turn out well for Thomasina. Why? Well, because she's a CAT.


Today we hung around the house. Jake got in a bit of trouble this morning because Mom found something that he had peed on. She tried to clean it up with vinegar before Dad found out, but he smelled the vinegar so she told him. Jake had to go and stay out on the deck for a few hours, but was back in the house soon thereafter because he's a craftly little charmer.


It was another cold spring day, and there was a bit of rain. Mom and Dad had wanted to go on a wildflower walk, but with the overcast weather and forecast for rain, they stayed home. The beautiful little spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) that complement the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) along the banks of the Bull Run only open their petals in full sunshine.

Later tonight and tomorrow, it is supposed to rain hard, and wind will follow for the next couple of days. Despite the low temperatures, the flowers in our yard look beautiful.



In the foreground are Phlox stolonifera (sherwood purple) and the blue clump behind contains Virginia bluebells.




These are non-native trout lilies, aka dogtooth violets. The native variety is difficult to cultivate in a garden.


Mom likes to garden, and I like to help her by just keeping her company out there--when the weather is nice.


~Bathsheba

Thursday Thirteen-Siamese Rescue Prize Pack!

Mom has been working late this week, and we haven't been able to blog or visit our friends. Last night she got home after midnight, and Dad was already asleep. She found a package addressed to us on the kitchen table. It was from the Siamese Rescue Store and contained prizes that Skeezix sent to us for finishing second in his 800th post contest. Mom opened it and put the contents on the floor for me to examine. There were catnip toys, a banana and a heart, and a bag of primo catnip! Thus, today's Thursday Thirteen is a collection of 13 photos of us with our new toys. Thanks, Skeezix!

I'm so glad that Jake is outside snoozing on the deck so I can check out these toys first!












This nip is the best!

Ahh, I'm feeling no pain!

So why did Mom have to invite Jake inside?

He proceeded to tear up the bag of catnip so Mom confiscated that for the time being.

Since Mom had downed a diet cola before leaving the office, she was well-caffeinated and ready to play with us for a while. While Jake was getting high on the 'nip, she played Whirly-bird with me. We don't have photos, but I had a great time and felt like a kitten again. I think I like that toy better than Jake does, and he's the one who received it as a birthday present.

Anyway, thanks again, Skeezix! We love nip toys.

~Bathsheba