We're Still Here

Hi, everyone! Yes, we're still here, but as you can see, Mom won't let us blog much. We try to visit when we can, but don't leave many comments.

We had big excitement at our house for the Ides of March. Mom had a HUGE party - 59 guests came. She called it an "Open House in Celebration of 50 Years." She didn't want to call it a birthday party, though that's what it was. With all the things that have gone on in her life over the last year, she decided that she should truly celebrate the big 5-oh.
Mom baked and prepared foods for several days leading up to the party. I, Jake, had to supervise the preparations. Despite the fact that we have lots of daffodils in our garden, Mom bought 200 daffodils to decorate the house.

I, Bathsheba, also supervised. Here are two of the three cakes that Mom baked: a German Chocolate cake (her favorite) and an angel food cake, another favorite. (She also baked a sheet cake.) These photos were taken in the wee hours of March 15. The party started at 2 p.m. and, with the help of her sister who came up from North Carolina, the kitchen and the rest of the house were transformed in time. Mom, however, was too busy to take any photos once the party started. Jake stayed outside for the party because Mom knew that he would get into trouble, and she put me in the cat/computer room. She came up to check on me midway through the party, and I told her that I was willing to socialize. I was quite popular until I decided to jump on the food table. Mom didn't think that I would be able to do that because it's too high for me, but I hopped on the chair by the bay window, then leaped from the window onto the table. Mom was down in the foyer greeting guests at the time. She heard me let out a terrible "mmRRROOOOWWW!" She thought that someone had stepped on me, but really it was just my expression of indignity when someone immediately picked me up and removed me from the table. I do NOT like to be picked up. Good grief! It's MY house; who are they to keep me off my own table?

Mom's actual birthday was March 19 and she had a nice time taking a day off and relaxing.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. Mom had to go to work in the morning, but we spent the afternoon in the garden. I love to walk along the garden timbers. The wall here is part of the side of the sheltered part of our deck. It had been covered with (native, not Japanese) trumpet honeysuckle until last fall when Mom had to cut it back in preparation of the staining by the painters. The honeysuckle is returning (see plant on left), but she needs to replace the nylon mesh support that she used to have for it. The lattice on the right supports clematis.

Mom likes her little blue scilla, so despite the fact that I did not pose in it, she asked us to include a photo. I would have been happy to pose if she had remembered to bring Temptations out with her.

Here are some of our hellebores, or Lenten rose, in bloom with some later blooming daffodils in bud in the foreground.

Now here's a good photo of ME. And I posed without receiving a treat.
I, Bathsheba, did not feel like venturing out into the garden and chose to rest on this comfy deck chair.

We have been meaning to participate in the Seven Weird Things meme that our friends Rosie and Cheeto invited us to complete, but we have been sadly negligent. We helped Mom to compile a list a while back, but it was challenging because we aren't very weird. And Mom misplaced the list that we developed. Sigh. So, this is what we submit off the top of our heads:

1. Jake: I like to slam dunk 'Sheba before dinner. I get rather frisky, and it's a way to pass the time as Mom prepares our dinners.
2. Bathsheba: Everyone knows that I have extra toes. Those extra toes on my front paws don't fully retract so I make a clicking sound when I walk on bare floor. At least this never interfered with my stealth in my hunting days.
3. Jake: I sometimes like to jump into our large compost pile and help myself to leftover cantaloupe or avocado. Mom gets mad at me when I do that and tries to remember to bury table scraps like that.
4. Bathsheba: The water that I drink must be moving. Usually I insist that Mom turn on the water from her bathroom sink, but I will drink out of my water bowl once I have moved it a little so that it sloshes around. I do NOT, however, like those water fountains they make for cats. Mom (um, Santa) bought one for me, but I refused to use it. I ended up sending it to my friend Kismet.
5. Jake and Bathsheba: We CANNOT share Mom's queen-sized bed. If one of us is there and the other jumps up, one of us (usually Bathsheba) will leave. Mom did capture on film a moment when the two of us were on the bed together with her, but it was only a MOMENT.
6. Jake: I don't think this is weird, but I have a VERY long tail and very long whiskers.
7. Bathsheba: And now for the confession to which we alluded in a previous post. It's really not so much a confession as a revelation. A confession implies that I did something wrong, but that is NOT the case. I just hope that none of you cats thinks less of me for this. Okay, here goes: I am deaf. Pretty much totally. I tried to cover it up for some time, but my secret came out early this year. Once I realized that my hearing was declining, I knew that my outdoor hunting days were over. I decided I'd stay closer to home and indoors more. I used to always come when Mom called, but last fall I couldn't hear her unless she was in the same room. She thought that maybe I didn't love her as much because I didn't come, but that was NOT the case. What ultimately gave my secret away was my lack of a reaction to the ringing telephone. Mom has a telephone on the nightstand next to her bed. Mom keeps Temptations in the nightstand drawer and I often sit on it in anticipation of a treat. Despite the fact that the ringer was on LOUD, I did not even twitch when the phone rang. It used to be that Jake and I would scatter when the phone rang no matter where we were at the time. After seeing my non-reaction, Mom did some other "tests" on me and concluded that I am deaf. She has not taken me to the vet about this and just thinks that it is age related.

It's okay being deaf. I'm a smart kitty and know that the outdoors is not a safe place for me without all my senses. I do startle when Mom touches me when I am asleep because I cannot hear her address me. That is unfortunate. But life is good inside the house. I love to sleep; I have some great cat TVs (windows), and the food tastes great.

That's the news from us here in Manassas, Virginia. We love you all and will try to visit when we can.

Love,

~J&B