Sunny mornings at our house...

look like this.

My (almost) constant companion strikes a pose in the sunshine.    =^. .^=

So I already broke a resolution

Not good.
I actually broke several. I resolved to post every day, get organized, read more books, and more.

Yesterday wasn't the day for any of the above.

Who came up with this (silly) resolution stuff anyhow? I know it wasn't kitty cats.

When I stress about anything all I have to do is turn around and peek at Linus. Pet therapy is the best.

 

Getting ready to be 'spellbound' Saturday

Tomorrow night is an opening reception for the Valley Arts Council's 'Spellbound' Halloween show. This year I'm entering this photo, which is near and dear to my heart. 


It features the feline members of our family. Sadly our loopy guy Rigby, on the left, is no longer with us; Linus, on the other hand, is usually no more than a few feet away from me.  =^. .^=  

He stays close, that's for sure. Ralph thinks Linus needs a kitty playmate. We'll see..

For local readers, the Valley Arts Council's Gallery@37 is at 37 Elizabeth St., Derby, Ct. The reception is from 6-9 p.m. and the show runs through Nov. 19.

UPDATE: The reception has been postponed to 2 p.m. Sunday, due to the Halloween weekend snow that is falling. Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be more cooperative.

See you there!

Dreamy

Happy memories from September 2009, when we still had two cats. Our Rigby (black and white guy) passed away in March. We may be getting a feline pal for Linus before the year is over.

We'll see.

=^. .^=

Love ya Linus

There's nothing like being dissed by your kitty cat first thing in the morning. After he spent the night on the bed with us (per usual) now Linus won't even look at me.

So I'm giving him his space.

Thursday afternoon at our house

Linus jumped out from under this tunnel plaything right after I took the photo. He uses his imagination and amuses himself....when he's not napping, that is.

Soon he will be ready for preschool, don't you think?

Spoiled kitty?

Ever since his little brother Rigby died March 6, we have been showering our loopy Linus with scads of attention. Naturally he loves it, and increasingly he demands it.

Well sometimes he does.

Are we being bad kitty parents? Or is it OK to spoil Linus because he is and always will be a baby? They don't grow up like the human ones do, I've discovered. ;-)

Linus (seen here on the right) has taken to putting his favorite soft catnip toys in or next to his food bowls for safe keeping. I think it's adorable that he does that. I guess he figures he knows where to find them if he needs them.

When I clean up the area I'll take a photo and show you. ha ha

Have a great Thursday all!

Another day, another cat nap

Gotta put that tail somewhere!

I guess I should wash his bed. Lots of shedding going on.

Lonely Linus

He misses his brother, Rigby, who passed away Saturday. I wrote about it here.

The good thing is Linus seems to like his new bed I got him Saturday. He wouldn't go near it until this morning. He's a big guy, but he fits!

Maybe someday Linus will have another feline companion. I wonder about territory issues and feelings of jealousy. He is completely stuck onto yours truly. He was before, now he is more than ever.

I'll have to consult some cat experts as to what to do.

R.I.P., Rigby (the little one)

It's times like these that it really helps to have a blog.

Bloggers are able to go to the computer and talk about whatever is going on at the moment. It is truly therapeutic to get the words out and onto the screen , even if we can barely see the monitor as tears well up in our eyes.

Today we lost our little Rigby kitty. A sweet little cat was he.

He was acting fine earlier this morning. But as I was visiting fellow bloggers and Shadow Shot Sunday participants Ralph suddenly yelled to me that Rigby couldn't walk. Rigby was lying on our son's bedroom floor and his legs wouldn't move. And he was meowing. Loudly.

It was so difficult to see him incapacitated like that, when an hour earlier he was running with his brother, Linus, from the front window to the back window to look at an interloper cat they had spotted on the driveway.

I called the vet, expecting an answering service. Luckily someone in the office answered, and, long story short she made an appointment for me at an emergency veterinary clinic about seven miles away. I threw on my clothes, scooped Rigby into the soft cat bed to try to comfort him and put him in the back seat.

He meowed and cried all the way there. I was talking to him and I had my right hand on him about half the time I was driving, trying my best to soothe him.

The doctor explained that what had happened was he had thrown a clot, which cut off the circulation to his hind legs. It turns out Rigby had heart disease, she said, after looking at a picture of his enlarged heart.

It's so sad to say good-bye to a little guy who wasn't very old. We thought we had many more years ahead to enjoy his antics.

Ralph and I have comforted ourselves in the knowledge that we gave Rigby a wonderful life in loving home, and we did all we could to make him happy.

He occasionally enjoyed using the computer, I know that.

He may have known how to read, who really knows?

And he liked plants.

We are concerned about his brother, Linus. We adopted them together in January of 2008 and they were never far apart. They had been in a bad environment, but fortunately for them they were rescued and placed in a foster home. Their rescuer, Cindy, brought us to the foster home one Saturday where we met them, in a room full of kitties waiting for someone to take them home.

Linus, the bigger brother, was Rigby's protector, but eventually they felt safe enough here that he would leave Rigby's side and do his own thing.

By his own thing, I guess I mean nap by himself!

I took this photo during the Superbowl. I don't think they were interested in the game. But I'm glad now that I captured this pose. = ^ . ^ =

Sometimes you just have to get away from it all

... and Rigby is an expert at it.

He likes to put his nose straight into the arm of the chair when he is napping. I don't know how he breathes in this position. But he does.

Tuesday thoughts

"Thinking? What's that? I'm just waiting for that squirrel to come back." ~ Linus

I usually try to keep things light and breezy on my blog, to amuse myself if nothing else. There's so much heavy stuff in the world and this is my small way of keeping things upbeat.

Today I veer toward the serious. Last week I wrote a story about the increasing need for donations at local food banks, a trend that seems to be happening in many states.

A local non-profit organization saw a drop in its collection at its annual Valentine's Day "Valley Has a Heart" food drive. You can read the story here.

Those of us who are blessed to be able to buy whatever we want at the grocery store should think about buying a little extra to donate to a food pantry. It will make a difference in someone's life.

Another use found for TV remote

Linus didn't mind getting a skritch from Ralph with the help of the TV remote control.

It did the trick!

Aren't kitty cats cute?

Sepia scenes

I snapped this the other day when the sun was shining. You can see remnants of snow in the background. Today in Connecticut we are having STEADY snow coming down. All I see is white as I look out the slider at the patio and nearby forsythia bushes.

Ralph and I are snowbound with our two kitty cats ... such as the one you see below:

It's Rigby! One of my favorite photo subjects. He and his brother, Linus, love cardboard boxes.

I tried to sepia-fy most of the photo yet keep his signature black and white fur. Ha!

I don't have any technical explanations for what I did; it was just trial and error using iPhoto.

So that's about it from snowy-land. Stay safe and warm!

See many more sepia photos here, at Mary T's blog of the same name.

Super snooze

This was what our cats were doing Sunday during the Superbowl. Apparently they don't care too much about football.

= ^. .^ =

This is what the cats do while I work ~ not much

The Brothers Furr from left: Rigby and Linus.

Sepia scenes ~ snoozing

I liked the original photo, and thought I'd try giving it the look of sepia.

Linus likes laundry, or at least snoozing on it. What a good kitty. = ^. .^ =

Visit our hostess, Mary T, The Teach, to see lots more sepia-fied photos.

Lucky capture

Yesterday Linus was watching me work (as usual) and when I turned around he seemed to be posing. Lucky for me the camera was on the desk, with charged batteries and everything, and he stayed there long enough for me to get a photo.

In the background you can see a sleeping (ceramic) cat that just happened to get in the picture.

Have a great Thursday. I know Linus will!

How does one get any work done...

when lumps of fur prevent access to one's computer and phone?

=^. .^=

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ snowy edition

* There's snow place like inside when it's cold outside *

I had to dig back into the February 2008 archives to find this semi-shadow shot. I hope it passes the shadow test! The black and white fur in the window belongs to our kitty cat Rigby.

Visit our hostess, Tracy, at Hey Harriet to join the shadowy fun.