Monterrey, MX

A few final pictures from mum's trip. Yes it was a business trip, furry little time to play. Lots of work to get done in a few days, no time for siestas. Mum asked about that tradition, most businesses don't do it anymore. She says you might get time off during the day, but you end up working late into the evening. She doesn't like hats, so no somberos either.

Sunset from her hotel room

The mountains reflected in the windows of the hotel.

The main part of the hotel.Mum's room was in this section of the hotel. The third vertical set of windows from the left just over the palm tree.

The pool, mum says she never saw anyone use either the outdoor or even the indoor pools.
The view from the room at the office where she was training. The group she worked with was part of a factory.
Butterflys on a shrub outside the office. Both white and yellow little guys.

Pressie from Mum

Helping mum unpack and checking out the shopping bags inside. What did you bring me mum? You did remember to bring me something, you better have!
OK, what is in this bag? No, lets check this other bag too.
Two fuzzy little critters, one for mum, one for me.
So the little one is mine, it isn't a bear, but a raccoon. Now we have to pick a name.

South of the border

Since we are in a cycle of song, I can sing about where mum went.

South of the border - down Mexico way
That's where mummy went to work all the day
And now as I wander in the house each day- my thoughts ever stray
South of the border - down Mexico way

She was a working - in old Monterrey
It was no fiesta- furry hot every day
no siestas and little time to play
South of the border - down Mexico way
Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!Ay! Ay! Ay! Ay!

So here are some pictures she took.

Saddleback Mountain

Mum's hotel room.

This is one gignormous bed. This would sleep squillians of kitties.

The view from mum's hotel room. Hehe, you can see mum in the reflection of the window.

More pictures later.

So that is where mum wented this past week. She did say she bye before she lefted, but I haven't ever had her be gone that long, and leave me at home. Last time she wented somewhere she took me to the kittie spa. She wanted to see how I would do staying by myself with Miss Lynn coming in to take care of me once a day.

Miss Lynn did a furry good job. I gotted my food, water and box taken care of. Plus she would stay and play. But she couldn't stay all the time, so I talked a lot to her, told her I missed mum. She kept saying mum would be home soon.

But mum had problems getting home. She gotted from Mexico to Chicago OK, but then the air thingy got delayed, then cancelled to Milwaukee. Thankfully it is close enough, they air people gave them a ticket to get a bus ride back to the Milwaukee airport. So she got home, but much later than she expected.

And she was furry good to me once she gotted home. I got loads and loads of scritches, treats and just general lovin'. Even this morning, we spent lots of time together. I jumped on the bed and gots my hugs, pets and scritches.

So things are getting back to normal.

SHE IS HOME!!!!

PURR, PURR, PURR, PURR, PURR, PURR, PURR, PURR

Mum is home, yipee. She looks furry tired. No she wasn't hiding in the house. Where did she go? Well, lets just say she was closer to my sweetie Princess Mia, Zeus and Turtle, Moose and Nala of Les Trois Chats. Details, plus pictures, to follow.

Gotta go hang with mum. See ya!

I've Got Another Song

Oh, where, oh where has my mummy gone.

Oh where, oh where can she be.

With her hair cut short

And her legs so long.

Oh where, oh where can she be.

::Sigh::

I like Miss Lynn coming over to take care of me, but I sure miss mum. ::SIGH::

The Tuxie Cat of Texas

Can you come up with a song about yourself or a favorite? I can!

The Tuxie Cat of Texas

(sung to the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas)

There's a Tuxie cat in Texas, that I am going to see,
Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.

She's the sweetest little Princess that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, her tail is floofy too;
You may talk about your Kukka-Maria, and sing of Buzzerbee,
But the Tuxie Cat of Texas is the only cat for me.

When the Rio Grande is flowing, the starry skies are bright,
She walks along the river in the quiet summer night:
I know that she remembers, when we parted long ago,
I promise to return again, and not to leave her so.

She's the sweetest little Princess that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, her tail is floofy too;
You may talk about your Kukka-Maria, and sing of Buzzerbee,
But the Tuxie Cat of Texas is the only cat for me.

Oh now I'm going to find her, for my heart is full of hope,
And we'll meow the songs together, that we meowed so long ago
We'll play the bango gaily, and we'll meow the songs of yore,
And the Tuxie Cat of Texas shall be mine forevermore.

She's the sweetest little Princess that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, her tail is floofy too;

You may talk about your Kukka-Maria, and sing of Buzzerbee,
But the Tuxie Cat of Texas is the only cat for me.

I am issuing a challenge to my fellow bloggers, feline, woofie, bun or other critter. So I want you to try this too. The gang at And Then There Were Four...Eh have a nice song for Dolce. So I know you can do this.

I will give you a few days to think and work on your song, then post it. You can base it on a song that already exists, or make up your own lyrics, just let us know what tune to sing it by. You must mention at least one of our fellow blogging buddies in the lyrics, by name or nickname. But the more names, the better.

Let's see what you can do!

Party Plans

According to the Purrthday list that Ms. Mia has put together the following kitties have either their purrthday or gotcha day in October. I would like to host a weekend celebration for all of us and our blogging buddies.

10/96 - Punkin's Purrthday
10/8/1997 - Patches
10/8/1995 - Mittens
10/8 - Mistrie
10/15/2004 - Tyler and Jagger's Purrthday
10/20/03 - Derby's Purrthday
10/26 - Fat Eric
10/29/2005 - Victor Tabbycat's Gotcha Day

Tentative Activities

Friday Oct 20 -
Kick off, kitties can start arriving afternoon my time. Meet and greet with buffet supper. Tours of the house including the dungeon.

Saturday Oct 21 -
Morning-Pre-season tub hockey games, cheer practice clinic
Afternoon - games outside, jumping, running etc. Mum says we can use the neighbors trampoline too. Or just hanging out with our furiends.
Evening - a banquet to honor all of the October kitties with purrthdays or gotcha days.

Sunday Oct 22 - buffet breakfast, kitties can teleport home as needed. Otherwise, just a general time to visit.

All kitties are welcome to stay the entire weekend or just drop in for part of the event. I know that not everyone will be able to come for the entire weekend.

I haven't put specific times yet on the activities. That will come later. But if the international kitties want to work out the time. Try this link mum uses this all the time at work to figure out what time it is around the world. Where we live in the Central Time Zone in the United States.

Mum says that we are considered to be -6 hours of GMT, whatever that is, but that some kitties might recognized this. An example is if it is 6 PM here, it would be 7 AM in Singapore where Bombay lives.

Also, if there are kitties who are not yet listed on the purrthday list, follow the link and get added to the list. If there are other October kitties, you will be welcomed as an honoree of the event.

July 22 - P.S. All kitties will be welcomed to attend the party. Seems that there is some confusion that only October kitties could come. NOT TRUE. The October kitties will be the guest of honor if your Gotcha Day or Purrthday is in October. But all kitties are welcomes to attend.

Blogs of Summer

Bloggin Outloud is hosting the Blogs of Summer Awards. The categories are

The Best of the . . .
1) Chick & Mommy Blogs
2) Humor & Satire Blogs
3) Milblogs and Military Support Blogs
4) Random Blogs That Don't Fit a Category
5) Kitty Kat Blogs (And Other Assorted Pets)

Nominations will be taken July 20 through July 23; voting July 24 - 27; Winners announced on July 28.

So get over and nominate your favorite kitties! I supposed you could nominate dogs, bunnies, etc. but kittie blogs are bestest.

You can nominate a maximum of 5 blogs per category (including your own).

Royal Mail

No, nothing from Empress Kukka-Maria, Princess Mia Bella or Musette, Empress of the Universe, but from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II postal service. So something from the United Kingdom, specifically from by fellow Gorgeous Ginger, Fat Eric.

Fat Eric had alerted me to watch the post for a little package and we have been checking the box outside every day and it finally arrived.
So I checked out the package and could smell Mandy and a new kittie scent, which must be Eric. Mum helped me open the package and pulled out a cute little bear, dressed in a furry funny suit. Mum readed the card and they had sent me a Beefeater. Well mum says officially they are called Yeoman Warders. They are special people who guard Her Majesty's fancy jewels at The Tower of London.

But what is fun is that mum has a slightly bigger version of a teddy Yeoman Warder as well. She bought hers at the Tower of London itself last time she was there. Her bear is a small version of a really huge bear dressed up as a Yeoman Warder. See below for picture.
So a big THANK YOU to Fat Eric and his mum for this. Now I have a small collection of bears myself. Not nearly as many as mum, but special none the less.

From left to right, Tex, Eric and Ethan.

Mum and HUGE Eric

This is mum and the original Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London. She wanted to bring him home, but couldn't afford him, let alone the plane ticket home for the big guy.

Flowers

I think Fat Eric's mum and the Calico Girls mum wanted to see flower pictures. So tonight I will share some of the pictures of mum's garden. This is some what we have had so far this year.

Columbines
Coneflowers
Allium
Trumpet Vine
Climbing Roses
Moss Roses
Iris
Ascelpias
Ornamental Thistle

The back garden

That is all for now. Hope you enjoyed the flowers. It keeps mum buzy, she calls it therapy.

HOT, HOT, HOT

Hope every cat is keeping cool. Thankfully we have AC and fans, so things are just fine for me. Don't need to worry about taking off the fur coat. But even mum says it is too hot to do much, so she has given me lots of 'puter time. Even Vir-ginger came inside to cool off and nap.
Kukka-Maria had a very successful blogoversary. She received lots of gifts truly fit for an Empress.

I have been remiss in sending a thank you too Zeus, Isis and mom. They sent a very nice book, it will make a nice bedtime story book.
I have my assignment for Secret Paws, so I have started to think of good things to send. Plus I wonder who got me and what I might get from them. A big THANK YOU to DivaKittyMom for doing all of the matching.

Also, if you have not heard about it, Timothy Dickens has set up a chat room for all of us blogging cats and other creatures. It is furry cool. Anycat can open it up, so we don't need TD around to use it. I have had several chats with TD and his cousin, the woofie Riley, Fiona Bun and Fat Eric.

It was wild as both Eric and I logged in at the same time, so we both popped in and started chatting. Since he is 6 hours ahead of me it was 10 PM his time and 4 PM my time. So since we have blogging cats all over the world, you could find a cat on the chat line at any given point. So if you can't sleep, check in and see what is happening. Check the post of Sunday July 9 on Timothy Dicken's blog for details.

Since it was hot outside, mum stayed inside too. So I had her update my links. We have lots of new blogging kitties so our community continues to grow. With our links to kittie blogs, the various group sites, mum figures we know have about 120 links. WOW. Plus we have other blogs we are still checking out to see if they are good kittie blogs to add. Some blogs that supposedly are by kitties sure don't say much about their kittie lives. So they aren't fun to read.

I also had another chat with Fat Eric and VictorTabbycat, including a virtual pirate fight. We sunk the ship!

The newsy paper today had a story on what to do to keep kittie cool during the hot days. One suggestion was to shave our fur off. Also if you are an outside kittie to use sunscreen. Here is the linky to the story. Evefurry one stay cool.

Cats Bearing Gifts

Our lovely blogoshpering Empress, Kukka-Maria is celebrating an anniversary this weekend. She is celebrating one year of blogging by throwing herself a party, a party with a gift registry.

Well, what to get the Empress who has everything, including a domineerring mother? MONEY. Pure and simple. Whatever you don't have, you can buy.
Plus a small bauble, a tiara fit for an Empress.

Ancestors?

According to a Chinese tale, the domestic cat is the result of crossing a lion with a monkey. Kitty got the best of both: the lion's muscular grace and the monkey's mischievous sense of play.

What do you think?

Summertime Secret Paws

A reminder that any of our blogging buddies want to participate, you need to sign up by this Friday, July 14 at 1 PM. I know lots of you have already signed up.

All the details at Secret Paws.

Now about my weekend. It was furry nice. Mum and I had lots of time to just be 'alaxed and have fun. Plus mum wented to a thingy yesterday for people who have been married to each other for 50 years! Mum says that is rare these days. One friend joked that even if she added up all of her married years to all her husbands it wouldn't be 50 years. But I was bummed as she gotted home late yesterday. She hadded to park the car under the freeway until all of the nasty storm passed with hail. She didn't want the metal monster to get dented. It didn't storm by where we live or even rain.

Also, Blackie is having way to much fun with Zeus. Seems he is at risk of becoming a peeping TomCat. Or maybe Zeus is teaching him bad habits. HEHEHE.

My poor buddy Fat Eric is having issues with it being hotter than normal in the UK where he lives. So his nice fluffy coat is way to warm. Thankfully it gets hot here for a few days, then like today it is only in the 60's. But mum says it will be furry hot again in a few days.

Peek a Boo, I see you

Just waiting for mum to come in the door from work. Time to ambush her for scritches and play time for the weekend. Even more time to be with mum 'cuz she gotted home early today.Yipee.

Blackie finally made it to Zeus and Isis's house. Seems the guy didn't read his ticket properly at the station down there. So poor Blackie had to wait until they gotted there and picked him up. He was supposed to have been personally escorted to their door. But Vir-ginger says he was alway a little absent minded, so he probably didn't think to speak up about the wait.

Since I gots extra time with mum this weekend, guess we will take extra advantage of it. Which for mum means no 'puter, which means no 'puter for me either. Have fun everyone.

Update: Mum gotted the carpet fixed tonight. Part of the reason she was home early. So no more bumps in the carpet now, so maybe I earned my life back after breaking her Galileo thermometer.

Another Day, Another Box

The letter delivery guy must wonder who moved in here. I gotted another package, this time from Abby and the gang for sending them Ashes. I was just so happy to find all these little guys a good home. I wasn't expecting anything in return.

Mum liked the card that they sent. We must have our priorities, the beans watch the box with moving pictures. We look for little mousies.Thanks guys, I wasn't expecting this, you really didn't need to do this. The toy has been filled with nip. So time to get mellow.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day to all of my fellow Meriky poodins. Hope all celebrate safely. If you don't like fireworks, go and hide. I am about to set off a few here!

Double Your Pleasure

Mum worked from home for a while today, which was nice. No you are not seeing double. She gets two of me. The real me and the screensaver me. Mum says by having my picture on her work 'puter she misses me less while at work. She has other pictures of me at work too, on her desk. She is furry proud of me and likes to show me off.

Derby, You've Got (A Box in the) Mail

Hi all. I didn't expect to be posting today. I had to wait furrever for mum to get home from seeing something about a Code. I gotted a wonderful surprise late yesterday and I wanted to share.

Mum and Grampie worked furry hard yesterday morning trimming trees outside and hauling some of the stuff away. After lunch mum had to help Grampie with a project in the dungeon. They were making a mess, drilling and sawing.

When Grampie lefted mum tooked a shower and sat down to wait for her furriend to come over. They were going to go out to eat. When her furriend got here, she said there was a little box outside addressed to ME.

I wasn't expecting anything as our Secret Paws exchange we don't have our partners yet. So mum readed the box and it was from my very special Princess Mia Bella in Texas. I sniffed the box, I could make out Mango and now a new kittie scent that must be of the dear Princess. I was so excited and mum helped me get the box open.
On top was a furry nice card address to me. Look at what PMB calls me. "Derby SweetHeart Cat"

Then there was some furry purrty paper with a girl and her kittie. I bet PMB and her bean mom probably posed for this. I started to play with the paper and mum's furiend played with me. But inside was a cute little bear holding the yellow roses of Texas.
Wow, mum has lots of bears, so now I have a collection too. One from Vermont and this furry special one from Texas and my Sweetie Princess Mia Bella. ::sigh:: Purrs to you and many thanks.