Tigers Second Birthday

 HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TIGER!

My little queen turns 2 years old this weekend. So, since I never have any excuse for a party, not even my own, we just celebrate it here, even the animals birthdays. Any excuse is good enough to party. But celebrating the birthday of your plants is silly, as well is celebrating the anniversary of your fridge, cupboard, toilet, house spider or whatever. So there comes in the cats. Call me insane, but I am human and I too love to party, but if it is only my animals that company my life, I have not really another choice (well to continue live a life without party would be). Tiger agrees.
Let her tell the story by the Queen herself:

Yeah it is the first time that my birthday is celebrated. I believe it should be a national holiday, because no one can't deny my existence.
Oh well, mommy got the brilliant idea to celebrate it one day earlier. How dare she! She thought it was nice and all that, not have to work the day or day after and she was in the mood for a birthday moment. You should have seen the grinn on her face. And also the grinn on mine. I was of course not planning to join in this party. It is MY birthday and no one elses. And most of all celebrated on the day itself.

So... after mommy had her dinner, and simply forgot our oops my grilled salmon (ah well I am not so mean, let Grey also have a bit, and that furry black thing mom brought in recently as well), she prepared our celebration. She put the ribbons and confetties on the table. I ignored it. Grey ignored it....
All I did during the evening was making a belly slide across the table, making it fall on the floor. And she thought I would be ready now. How silly human....

Not interested yet....

I snuggled up on her lap while she watched a movie. Ah well she fell asleep and I had to wake her up to go to bed. Finaly we prepared for the next day.... but first she went outdoors with that furry black thing. Why does she do that? Why do we have to stay in and that thing not?
Ah well... time to sleep. At least that furry thing stays out of the bedroom at night. Mommy is all ours :-)

The next morning, about 4.30am

Goodmorning mommy!!!! I nibbled her toe, and was searching through the pile of books and papers laying next to her. I wanted the pencil, but it was fetched to a book. Tried hard to get it separated but no.... You can imagine I woke her up quite well this way, and it was so early!!! And Grey of course is kibble alarm pur sang, when mom wakes, he demands kibbles. She woke up happy!

The morning ritual of course is that computer. I managed to get on my throne. Simply be charming, purring, be nice, walking circles and when the chance is there, run for the keyboard. Ah heaven, I managed 3 times! Mom calls it 'stoelendans' and I always win! Most of the time she throws me off instantly.

Finaly the door to the  livingroom opened and it was my time! All this time waiting for this moment, to snuggle, attack, catch, chew, tear, drag, wear, knot, tie and throw the paperthingies!
With a huge slide I attacked the 'enemy' from the back all over the table. We tumbled over the floor, but with a firm bite I could take the prey back on the couch. Rolling over KILL MAIM FIGHT SLAY.... die (ok the last one is impossible as paper is dead but you get the point). If you think what is this horror curse? I hear mommy sing it sometimes when she is angry. And sometimes she plays music like that. It is not an evil song she told me, honest, she is no barbarian.

The prey fought back few times, wrapping itself around my legs and tail. But I just run, run and run... sometimes tumble or jump.
Along I took my prey around the couch, to the windowseal, wove it through the window shutters, over the floor and tried to hide it under the 'dead' sheep.
And then ohhhh I got so tired after all this hunting and killing, mommy went out with the furry black thing. Grey is so jealous.... he freaks out, he thinks it is not fair that that furry black thing goes out few times a day. But he is too stupid to understand that if you let a harnass be put on, mommy will take him out. But no... Grey hisses and bites when she willingly wants to try learn him. He should not complain. They can't all be like me. I wouldn't need a harnass. But mommy is too stupid to understand that. I can find my way back home. But also for me I can only go out with a harnas. I have my pride (I have many as you know).

So well, she and the furry black thing went off, and I decided to decorate the house while they were off. Did I have fun???? Now there were paper ribbons all over the place.

And then I went to sleep again.... for the rest of the day I will. Life is good. Oh... later we have our birthday dinner of course :-)

But first sleep... they saw my eyes closing slowely, my tiny head too heavy to keep up. I need sleep.... 

Grey's Third Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet Grey!

On Liberation Day here in Holland, we celebrate much more than the liberation of our country. It remarks also the day that I liberated those two precious souls from a life without a loving home of their own. One year ago I signed to take Tiger and Grey within my life.

Grey has also his birthday put on this day. We can't be sure since he was born on the streets of Alexandria, but it cannot miss a lot of days, since the one who rescued him, saw all the cats very regular. I think it is a nice symbolic day and keep it like this.

I decided to celebrate it, thinking they would enjoy playing with birthday ribbons and decorations. In fact I just bought all this for just a picture. But it ended up a whole new tradition. Along with it, there is something called a confetti frisbee. You have to remove the outer paper and just throw it in the air like a frisbee and it will all shatter in thousands of colored pieces of paper. Very nice to see, and lovely to see the cats trying to catch the papers from the air. Sadly it all goes too fast but love the idea.

So here are a few pictures of this. I could not take photo's of the frisbee however as I had no hand free and didn't want to miss the moment.

Here are a few pictures taken :-)

Tiger getting caught up

What the heck is this thing????

Just some pictures :-)

It going to look a lot like christmas.... or not?

I didn't expect anything else. But this year there probably won't be a christmas tree for me. Maybe I have been concerning too much, and have been too sure that crazy Tiger would more than love the christmastree.

In the first place, of course the packaging. Why is it packed in cardboard.... one of Tigers biggest loves. One of the biggest loves of many cats by the way. When I put the box on the floor to open it, Tiger is there first to annoy me with pulling the cord that keeps the cardbox closed. That cord is of course also irresistable. I was hoping Tiger would entertain herself with this cord for some time.

But no... that cardbox... you can go in and out of it. FUUUUNTIME!

So, after Tiger got serious with making holes in the box, I removed the box out of her reach. Of course leaving behind a slightly pissed off Tiger. But... then she saw that the tree was forming and decided to take her chance on this one.

 It didn't take long before the tree ended up in 2 pieces on the floor. And Tiger chewing on it.

Too bad for her, I got the tree back up. Without anything in it, I decided to let the tree just be, she couldn't do a lot of harm to it now. And, to be honest, this tree is too heavy for the base it is standing on. I need to work on that one next year, so it won't fall so easily. I mean, even when I put the lights on, and I pull very slightly on the electricity cable, it falls.

After a week I bought myself some decent looking plastic balls. Not this ordinary red and silver shiny ones with sometimes squares on it. No, pretty turquoise ones, with glitter and not shining. Just how I like. And I bought the silver and chocolate ones too. I am very traditional, I would not easily change from the common red, gold, silver and green. But for me there is somehow this weird feeling that turquiose, bright blue, silver, grey and even lilac are colors of this season. Maybe in feeling more for the New Year, but I am very happy with my tree this year :-)

It could not happen that both cats could resist gently tipping the balls in the tree, trying to invoke a new kind of toy. Mainly Tiger was very obsessed with the tree, but after a time, it was common, and I started to 'punish' her in cat language whenever she tried to molestate (play) with the tree. Eventualy the tree stands here now for a week without being touched. Well, Grey tried once, but he is very sensitive to my voice. Don't need impress to get the message clear to him, so easily scared. Tiger on the other hand, is very commited to everything she does, and especially to what she wants. Not easy to punish with for example water, she loves it and thinks it is a game when I use a syringe to scare her off.

HURRAY! Tiger is fully recovered!

Just a short message, because I want to scream out loud....

In one of the last blogs, I mentioned Tigers progress. And... I can tell you the biggest miracle has happened. Tiger is fully recovered! Last week I noticed her reflexes had returned. Today I found out all her senses are back! She is aware of everything now, resulting in the motion cats make when their paw get dirty or wet... trying to shake of the dirt! She does whenever her toes touch something unexpectedly. Also I can no longer touch it unnoticed, no more squeesing, unless I want to get hurt. And.... she walked backwards! I tried to trick her with the laser light, and she did walk backwards perfectly! She could not have done if she didn't have full control over her motion.

This morning I was woken up by her and Grey. It can make me so happy, to have these two in my life! And I just got emotional about Tiger's miracle, and like she can do so well, she came snuggle up in my arms, and licked away the tears. Can I have this moment forever? 

My little girl!!! So proud of her :-)

To buy a cat in the bag...

It is a Dutch saying. Maybe it is quite simular in English,  but we say this when we bought something that is in the end quite useless or even one big mistake.
Of course, I took this saying not literally because I love my kitties to death and never ever considered them to be a mistake. But... Grey in the end found a new hobby which makes him for a change star of a blog!


Grey is very very attached to this particular bag. Though I have many of this big shoppers laying around the house, this yellow one is his favorite. He now spends a lot of his time exploring the wonders of it in and out. First time I caught him, it was filled with paper, since I use this one to collect paper waste. As you can imagine, the paper was shattered all over the floor. Before I knew it, I noticed this bag to be moving around the house. I expected Tiger to be in it, but a grey tail revealed the truth. It was Grey.

I really got a bit nervous when he managed to put his head through the handle. Because if I would come up to help him out, he would be scared he did something not allowed (he usualy is, because he has probably been chased off so many times in his past he is so easily being cleared out of the place). And if he was running away it would seriously be hazardous standing on the bag that strapped his neck. On the other hand, it was a matter of time for Tiger to arrive and terrorise him as well.

I decided to watch it from a distance, and take pictures. Luckily he took his head out of the handle. And then the bronze monster arrived on the scene. With a huge leap she jumped up on the bag, making Grey come out of it.

Together they explored the bag a bit more. Then Tiger left, she had some more management jobs to do. For she is Queen of the House, some rather important jobs have to be done and contact being kept.

Grey on the other hand, decided to have some good sleep on this new love... the yellow bag.
No picture of this available :-(

Tiger's progress

So much good news about Tiger's progress!
She had her last acupuncture treatment 2 weeks ago, the vet told me that now it is matter of waiting. She gave her treatment to develop her muscles more, because clearly she is on her way to full recover. But after we got back home I was so afraid things got worse. Because now Tiger was walking on her folded paw. But luckily the skin never got open. But it didn't look nice to see her walk this way.
Good news was that she only did this on the carpet. And I am planning to remove the carpet as soon as I can afford it and it suits in my plans.

But now, 2 weeks later I quited her medication. After 8 weeks the progress was not getting better, and for the problems I gave it, it had finished working. The medication was not really for long term using. But I can proudly tell you now, that since a few days I noticed Tiger to walk normal, also on carpet and today... today she showed reaction when I touch her toes! I guess my sweet has almost come to full recovery! I am soooo soooo extremely happy about this! You have no idea. My little girl, she healed after keep on believing in miracles. Now for 3 days I haven't seen her walking on a double paw, and from the way of walking I can no longer hear a lot of difference between her and Grey. Of course Grey is heavier, he is much more a sort of a tank moving through the house, but Tiger usually had a slight sound of dragging her injured paw. And, she is once more capable to scratch her head with her right paw again, with good force.

Since this is just a little blog about some happy and very good news, I decided to let you update on more little stories and pictures you may have seen already on FaceBook. I didn't take a lot of pictures lately.I may do so later today.

Grey has discovered that my bed is a very wonderfull place to sleep at night. Now most nights he sleeps besides me, and as long as Tiger is not aware, he wakes up with a very extremely cuddly mood I had never seen in him so far. He comes lay close to me, purring and giving heads, really looking very very happy. But he has to do before 5.30 because that is usually the time Tiger comes to wake me up. Tiger is no longer sleeping with me now for some reason. Usually her ritual starts with removing Grey from my bed. Very very sometimes I will find them sleeping together next to me, but usually it is a bed fight to wake me up. And then comes 'her Annoyance' to tease me, she makes me pet and cuddle her, she demands, there is no chance to get away with ignoring her! Walking up and over me, chirping in my ear, scratching my hand. I have no choice... but to obbey the Queen of the Houses demands.

Also, Grey found out water in the sink is quite cool. Now I have two cats annoying me while I am doing the dishes (no people, I am one of the rare ones not having a dishwashing machine...). I can tell even worse, I had to remove a plate to my closet to prepare food out of reach of the cats. Isn't that a silly world? Really I cannot take anything out without 2 furballs investigating.
Yes I know I could lock them out, but have you ever imagined how fast and dangerous the race back into the kitchen when I open the door again? Really they almost faced death with doing this when there is instable stuff on the table, like pots, pans, books etc.

Last week I had some home make over. I got a new desk, since my old one was giving too much freedom to collect useless stuff, and made me depressed because it was a corner model, making me sit and stare in the corner. I feel more happy now with my new one, overlooking the cats and outside. And, with plenty of space, usually Tiger is sitting beside me. But... I have no place for all my collected useless muck. It is piled up in other places, the floor, the old desk. Which means the cats cannot be free in the livingroom while I am gone. Simply because Tiger is making a mess of all this things. She LOVES cardboard, and when hungry she also eats it (she gets too less food she thinks... but that is not true of course, I just don't want overweighted cats).

Tiger helped me with constructing the desk (and the bookcase 2 weeks ago). Grey misses his hideout on top of this bookcase. I will restore it somehow, my project is by far not finished yet.

And of course she is very tired after a long day of hard working.... (I would not dare to say I took this picture very early in the morning though... ;-) )

And now, after publishing, I will go make muffins. Curious to the input of the cats, I can almost be sure to have new inspiration for a blog after finishing (I have no idea how 'easy' making muffins is with two curious cats around....)