Almost Gone

This is a picture of the back yard tonight. The snow is almost gone!
The front of the house, this was all covered in snow less than two weeks ago.
Look at the tulips, pushing up out of the ground. Soon it will be purrty again with lots of flowers.
You can check back here and here for what it looked like less than two weeks ago. It is starting to cool off tonight. But Sunday it was in the 50's, Monday the 60's and yesterday it made it into the 70's. So nice, mum could come home and open windows. More fresh air for me to breathe. I think spring is ready to be sprung!

Brackets

Mum has been studying the back of the sports page tonight. It has all sorts of lines that pair up and then meet, getting reduced by half each time. Something about being mad for March.

Anyway, if you are into brackets, please pick our local team. The Badgers, ok? Thank you.

The sun was nice and sunny again. Our snow is going away and we can begin to see the grass again in lots of places. Mr. TV weather guy says it might be 60 degrees tomorrow. Wow, heat wave. Mum went outside when she got home and looked at the top of the house. Guess not all of the snow is gone from on top of the house. Mum is guessing in one more day.

And yes, I got treats. I just come and stare at mum sometimes and she gives me treats. She feels guilty I am sure. But I get them one at a time, she won't shovel them in my mouth. Doesn't want me to choke on them. Eat slowly and savor them she says. Just gimme the treat mum!

ManCat Monday - Gimme

"Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want." Joseph Wood Krutch.
I am probably asking for treats! See this big empty mouth, fill it with treats. NOW!

Plus mum said she saw a robin yesterday as she wented over to get Grampie to go to church. But no robins in our yard, at least not yet. But lots of snow going away as we had another bright and sunny day.

The snow is melting and we can begin to see little patches of grass. Plus mum wented outside and can see the tulips and daffs starting to push up out of the ground on the front side of the house which faces south. Hurry up spring!

Fresh Air

Yes, it finally gotted nice enough that mum opened the window in the kitchen. I was so excited I jumped up and smelled the outside. It was so nice, plus you could hear the birdies singing too.

Plus a few pictures from a week ago. See how deep the snow was! Mum had to walk through all of that white stuff to put food out for the fevvers. But since it is warmer, the snow is going away. Maybe we will see the grass soon.
And mum found some kitties out wandering the streets last night. She was driving home and was getting ready to turn on our street. The road is curvy, but she could tell from the street light that two small objects were right in the middle of the road. She though someone had just thrown a couple of large drinking cups or bottles in the road. But when the car lights gotted on the objects, it was two kitties! A black one and a ginger and white cat. Mum braked the car and the kitties ran off. They better be careful. The next driver might not be so careful.

The sun is out, the clocks are changed and things are good. Everyone have a good Sunday.

Back in Business

I had mum home yesterday and she wasn't working either. She gotted up late, for her, anyway. Said it was nice to snuggle in a bit.

She lefted for a while and came back with some bags. Did some shopping and also took away the library books she had. Plus she didn't bring any back! That means she has more time to play with me, instead of sticking her nose in a book.
After she came home she worked on the 'puter and gotted all the programs put back on. Says we have to practice 'safe computing'. Then she copied over the files that Mr. Geek saved for her. We had 4,577 picture files! Now not all of them were of me, but lots of them are. The she copied over the next disc with other boring stuff on it like letters and such.

The she updated all of the linkies to my furiends. We think we got everyone, but will have to check as we see comments. We put back over 150 linkies and some we didn't add as the kitties haven't blogged since 6 months or more ago. So I made it around the CatBlogoshpere and checked out everything that happend. Didn't leave many comments, maybe things can get back to normal now. We hope anyway.

But mum had time to find the pictures of me and the indoor windchimes. Actually we have two of them. The one by the front door, that is purrty glass that sounds nice. It is on the left of the Galileo therm-o-meter.
And the one in the opening between the kitchen and dining room. I set that one off everytime I go through! Mum has another inside wind chime that rings sometimes when the furnance blows. Plus the one that is outside. Do you think we have enough of these?

Fang Shui Friday

The pleasant tinkling of wind chimes invigorates the soul.

Batting the wind chimes around at 4 A.M. will invigorate the soul optimally.

From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.

Update on the 'puter. It is back and pretty much working. Plus Mr. Geek did rescue the pictures and such. But mum did have a bit of a problem. At first the silver thingy wouldn't work in the drive. So she took it and the 'puter to Mr. Geek. They had put it on a disc that our drive wouldn't work with. Another hour out of her life. So they had to move the data to ones we could use. SUCCESS. Our pictures and such do still exist. YAY.

But mum didn't have time to find the picture of me playing with the windchime. So just imagine me, jumping around and making noise in the middle of the night. Mum doesn't have to imagine, I do it all the time.

Technical Difficulties

::SIGH:: Will it ever end? Mum computer started, but then just hung up, didn't really start at all on Saturday. So she call the fun helping people and they tried to fix it by running the operating system repair. No luck.

So then they said they could wipe everything away and start over. But mum said not so fast, she wanted to do "data recovery" from the hard drive. So she took it to Mr. Geek and they recovered the stuff. Like all of my purrty pictures!!! At least we hope it worked. If not, well we were going to lose it anyway.

Then last night and tonight she spent more time on the phone getting everything redone. From scratch. So now she has to put all over her stuff on the 'puter. But one of the first things she did was to get the e-mail up. So at least we can see our messages again, the easy way.

But we losted everyone's e-mail that we had. So little by little we will have to get them all back. ::SIGH::

Tuesday, Snow Day

Yes, it is snowing again. We managed to get some sun late Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Today it is snowing again. I WANT SPRING!

Plus mum went to the Green Walls Shelter on Sunday. She said she didn't see any Squillions or even anything that looked summery or for the garden. Maybe they are slow in getting the stuff out, but no kitties looking for homes. Mum said they had lots of candy for Easter.

Has anyone else checked their Green Walls Shelter lately?

Man Cat Monday

For ManCat Monday, a simple post. Remember the Golden Rule:

Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.

We had a furry sunny Sunday and I spent the day napping in the widnows, catching as many sunbeams as I could. It had been a long time since we has such a wonderful sunny day. It made both mum and I happy.

Fun, Sun and Hugs

Happy Caturday everyone, or Saturday to the beans.

Fun
When I started doing this I was doing if for fun, meeting other kitties and making furiends. We had the occasional 'contest', when a blog would reach its "X" visitor. Lately the contest have been more over the top, with fancy pictures and stuff. Maybe some kitties like this, mum and I don't have time to do all of this, so we don't compete. Mum says I have enough toys and treats, plus I don't want to win clothes I won't wear. It is interesting to see the pictures that people come up with however.

If everyone is having fun with these contests, then great. But when it stops being fun, and kitties and their beans get their feelings hurt, then I think it is time to step back and think about things. There are two philospohies here.

One: "Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing"

Two: "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game."

I much prefer option two. I think back to the Catolympics. I tried my bestest in my events but I didn't win. But I sure had fun being with my furiends and competing. I won't like you any more or less if you win or not.

I enjoy all of my furiends blogs and don't want anyone to quit blogging because of this, but let us remember sportmanship.

Sun
My picture yesterday for Fang Shui was not one we have taken in the past week. It has been cloudy and snowy here since last Friday. The sun was out early this morning, very briefly and still is peaking out now and then. Mum has gone outside again to work with the snow eating machine. Here are some of the fancy snow drifts coming off the roof of the house. Mum took pictures and then knocked them down.





This is how the front of the house looks right now. Below is how we can't wait for it to look with flowers and green grass and all.
Hugs
MuShue has started a hugs campaign, guess that is something we could use about now to reconnect with our furiends. I have been tagged by both Gemini and DaisyMae Maus, so here are my hugs

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Ms. Princess Mia Bella}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

{{{{{Skittles}}}}}

{{{{{George, Max, Tipper and Misty of Crew's Views}}}}}

{{{{{Patches, Mittens, Mistrie, Precious and Calico Mom Toni of the Big Piney Woods Cats}}}}}

{{{{{Zeus}}}}}

{{{{{Kukka-Maria}}}}}

{{{{{Skeezix}}}}}

{{{{{Beau}}}}}

I can't list everyone in the blogosphere. {{{{{Consider yourself hugged}}}}}. Pass it on.

Fang Shui Friday

The most powerful place to sit in any room is in the exact center of the floor, where you can absorb all the energy flowing around you.

From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.
A little sunshine doesn't hurt either. Just soaking up energy, so I can chase around after my naps.

Vir-ginger was so happy to hear from so many of her litter mates on Squillion Day. So may of you open your hearts and homes to them, giving them a furrever home. I know Vir-ginger was happy to come here from the Green Walls Shelter. I told mum she needs to go look to see if they have a new litter for this year. She said she would try. And if you didn't get a for real Squillion you can adopt a virtual Squillion at the Blogosphere, and it won't cost you anything!

Plus we had a furry messy day. Sleet, freezing rain, snow, rain. When or when will spring come? I want to sit with the windows open, breathe the fresh air, listen to the birdies singing. Please come soon spring, we need you.

Squillion Day is Here

It was one year ago today, that mum and I introduced Vir-ginger you all of you. Above is the firsted picture we showed. Mum liked the picture of me looking over her head.

Little did we know at that time what a phenomonon these guys would become. They are now all around the world. Mum actually gotted Vir-ginger on February 26, a Sunday, but we didn't post our firsted pictures until February 28th. So to Cellybrate the day for Vir-ginger and all of her brofurs and sisfur from the little of Squillions, we have SQUILLION DAY.

So to honor Vir-ginger and the rest of her litter, we are posting pictures that we have of our little sweetie.

Vir-ginger outside in the snow recently.

Vir-ginger, me and some of the other little kittie statues that mum has.

Vir-ginger and I enjoying the outside on the patio. Me in my screen porch, Vir-ginger sitting in the plant stand.

Me inside, Vir-ginger and Phat Flower Eric (PFE) on the windowsill outside.

Vir-ginger up in the crab apple tree.

Chatting with mum and Vir-ginger through the window screen.

Sitting outside waiting for the daffodils to bloom.

Vir-ginger checking out the grapevine and all of the grapes growing.

Plus the six Squillions that we fostered out, who now have happy homes all around the blogoshpere. From left to right

Mandy emigrated to the UK and lives with Fat Eric
Mango lives with my sweetie, Princess Mia
Inky joined the mob, well the Tower Hill Mob
Blackie is being schooled by Zeus
Ashes now hangs out with Abby at Manx Mnews in Floriday
Storm Cloud lives with a bunch of Texcats at Le Trois Chats

So break out the champage, let's give to toast to the Squillions.

Tuesday Update

I missed ManCat Monday. Mum, after moving snow around all weekend, kept falling asleep on me on Sunday night. Mr. Oscar had to go on without her. So no posts etc. Today when she gotted up, her head didn't feel well so stayed home from work and stayed in bed. So I had to be by her, doing my duty as Dr. Derby. Sending her lots of purrs.

We have our first members of the DreamCats. More DreamBoats than DreamGirls so far. No button yet for the sidebars for our members. I will have to have mum work on that when she has time and her head doesn't hurt.

Plus, Diva Kitty sented my post of the hawk to someone who really know about fevvers, BirdChick. She said the hawk is a Cooper's Hawk, not a Sharp-shinned hawk. Either way mum gotted some furry good pictures.

Princess Mia and I are going steady, we have an exclusive relationship. So no engagement or wedding. Kitties don't get married.

Mum found an interesting article on kitties who are helping with research into eye problems, both in kitties and humans. Bionic kittie eyes.

Lastly, in our local paper, some cemeteries are making room for pets. Humans in one area, pets in another. Except if you get buried in a Catholic cemetery.

ATTACK

OH MY! You won't believe what happend in my very own back yard. Right by the fevver feeders. If you are faint of heart or have really soft spot for fevvers, proceed with caution.

It had snowed overnight (Friday to Saturday) and mum cleared the snow and wented outside to make sure the fevvers could get their eats. They were doing just fine, but we noticed that lots of times they would all just fly away furry quickly.

Mum wented to get some house work stuff done, she pulled out the big sucking machine. When she gotted done she needed a bag to dump out the canister. She walked by the big windows that go to the floor and just stopped and said. "OH MY!. Come look Derby".

What did we see? A Sharp-shinned hawk, but a hawk that had caughted a mourning dove who was feeding. Mum keeps the wire over the feeder to keep the squirrels out. But the dove could not get out fast enough and Mr. Hawk caught it. You can make out the lighter tan/brown of the dove along the lower breast of the hawk. Click on the pictures to biggify.
Mr, Hawk finally gotted the dove free of the feeder and landed with it on the snow by the back gate. He pounced on it a few times to probably finish killing it. You can see the extra feathers down by the snow, that is the dove.
After 30 seconds or so, Mr. Hawk flew off with the dove in his claws. He flew way up high into the neighbor's evergreen tree. Mum was refilling the feeder today and found feathers stuck to the wire and BLOOD in the snow!. Yikes. I feel sorry for the dove, but understand that Mr. Hawk has gotta eat too and he doesn't eat seeds. He could eat one of the squirrels and leave the fevvers alone.

Mum says Mr. Hawk is why I am not let outside. He might want me for lunch! I don't want to be Mr. Hawk's lunch, so I guess I am OK with staying inside.

It snowed again overnight and lots of wind. Guess this is the 'lizzard they were talking about. It stopped for a while and Mum moved the snow off the driveway and away from the doors. She has gotten help from the neighbors with their bigger snow eating machines. But is looks like it is starting to snow again.

Mum can't really say how much we gotted as it is drifted so bad. The drift in the back of the house is around 3 feet high and the snow pile at the end of the driveway is about 4 feet deep from all the plowing and shovelling. Mum's guess is we gotted around 12 inches of snow since Friday night. Hope all of my buddies are safe, warm and dry

My Decision

I have been pacing the floor for many days. Mum is getting worried about me. After much thinking on my own, plus discussing with Vir-ginger, I have arrived at my decision in regards to the attention that Skittles has been giving me, wanting to be my girlcat furiend.

It is my intention to remain a one girlcat ManCat. I am staying with my beloved Ms. Princess Mia Bella. My heart belongs to the Princess.

Skittles is a furry nice kittie and I wish her all the best. Maybe I can hook her up with some other blogging mancat? At first I was tempted, but my heart has told me to be with Mia.

I understand that Skittles will be unavailable for comment for a few weeks. She is moving with her beanmom to someplace new in Catifornia. So the rest of you will know before she does. Please be kind to her. If I hadn't had Mia as my sweetie already, this might have worked out.

Plus I must keep in mind my potential position as Vice Presidential candidate with Cheysuli. I don't want to have a scandal that might affect our chances at election.

Skittles said my relationship is not official since I haven't given Mia a ring. So I will do so. Matter of fact, I will give her two. I couldn't make up my mind so she will get them both. Mia, if you would like something else, a different stone cut, a different stone type, let me know. I will see what I can find for you.

But because I seem to have a lot of special furiends, both girlcat and mancat, I am starting a new site. Derby's DreamCats. There will be two divisions one for the ladies, the DreamGirls. And for my ManCat furiends, DreamBoats

Fang Shui Friday

Mirrors should always be framed to contain their active energy. Unframed mirrors creat dangerous energy.

The cat reflected in an unframed mirror is an evil doppelganger. Attack it immediately.

From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.
I don't attack the kitties in the mirror. I know it is me, I will just admire me and Vir-ginger too.
And then me and some of the squillions that we fostered last year. Remember Feb 28 is Squillion Day.

Lastly, I will announce my decision in regards to the ladies tomorrow.

Squillion Day is Coming

Get ready to celebrate next week.

February 28.

Still deciding on what to do with the ladies. Vir-ginger has given me an idea. But I have to decide for sure.

Man Cat Monday

Even a Man Cat can have a softer side and enjoy the comforts of life. Like a nice soft, warm and fuzzy teddy bear to curl up with.

Still pondering on my dilema. So many girl kitties, just one of me. ::sigh:: What to do?

My Dilema

First, mum says thank you for your greetings on her birthday. She had a good day, worked from home and was very nice to share her special dinner with me.

But on to my dilema. I have another admirer. I got a comment from Skittles yesterday.

I am heartbroken.

I have fallen in love with you from afar.

You are sooooooo handsome.

I don't normally like boy cats.

But you seem really cool.

Life is good here in California. No snow.

Forget the princess. I am all you need.

Luv, Skittles, The Cat http://kaboodlecats.blogspot.com

Now I know some of my fellow kitties have kidded me about being a chick magnet, but I never expected this! I know Chase has his Charmers, Rocky has the Spicey Vixens. But me, I never even expected to have one girlcatfuriend, now I have two. Princess Mia and Skittles who wants me too. What to do? Guess I need to think on this for a bit. Talk things over with Vir-ginger. Oh dear, what to do?!

Fang Shui Friday

Energy exits the home through an open window.

The wise cat will lie in the open window to absorb the energy before it leaves.


From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.

It is a little cold to have open windows these days. But when they are open I loves to sit in the windows, and absorb the energy, thus keeping our house in harmony.

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. I teleported down to be with my Princess. We had a nice day, just chatting and snuggling etc. It is strange, last year, I gotted my sweetheart, but no other kitties really paired up. But this year, love was definitely in the air. AAAACHOOO.

Plus, and a big drum roll here please. DRRRRRRDRRRRRRRDDRRRRRRRRR.

HAPPY PURRTHDAY MUM

My Wonderful Valentine

It was just a year ago today that I posted for Valentine's Day. Just a picture of a card that we gave to Grampie.

But I gotted a comment that day on my post
Anonymous said...

Happy Valentine's Day, Derby. purrrrr

xx
Your Secret Admirer
PMB

February 14, 2006 9:15 AM

So began a few days of trying to figure it out, which I did with a hint from Bonnie Underfoot, I finally figured it out. It was our own darling Princess Mia Bella.

So this year, I want to shower my Princess with roses. Happy Valentine's Day!

Plus Happy Valentine's Day to Mum, Grampie and all of my fellow blogging kitties.

Man Cat Monday

Don't mess with me and my toy.

Here Kittie, Kittie

This is something mum read recently.

"Have you noticed that sometimes kitty answers to his name and other times acts like he doesn't hear you? The general belief amoung behaviorisst is that cats do recognize their names, but come running only if they think it's work their while."

True, you have treats and such for me and call me I will come. If I think you are calling me for something else that I don't want to do, I will ignore you. Here I am coming to get one of my treats.
Do you respond to your name?


Now that we gotted the 'puter back, I think I have caught up on all that is happening on the Cat Blogoshpere. I made the Valentine's party last night, but missed Skeezix's 'incident'. Seems he had a bit of a malfunction. hehehehe

And, I almost missed Appreciation Day for Mom Robyn. I would have been furry sorry if I had.

In Appreciation

For Mom Robyn of Hot(M)BC, for all you do for the cat blogoshpere. Mum and I send lots of love your way. Purrs and headbutts.

Fang Shui Friday

Harmony in relationship with humans is essential.

Tell them how much you appreciate them - loudly - at 3 A.M.


From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.

Most of us are furry good about appreciating our humans. Sadly our humans do not always appreciate us, at 3 A.M. When we want to play, get fed or otherwise interact with you. Or when I break your Galileo thermometer at Oh Dark Thirty.
But you love me anyway, don't you?
'Puter update. It is back. Yes, already. Mum says it came back much faster than she was told originally, which was 10-14 days. It was only gone 2. Mum came home and the box was waiting for her on the porch. It was a furry nice surprise.

So we did some catching up on our furiends tonight and will finish up this weekend. Plus I have to squire my pretty Princess to the Valentine's Party tonight. Hope to see you there.

Quick Update

Thanks for your comments on my tribute pictures. Mum says the frame was custom made to fit the mat AND the metal frame that she picked it purrfectly matched the mat. It hangs in the house here, it is too nice for mum to take to work. She says she doesn't have a good spot to hang it at work either.

Plus we gotted a message on the talky thing that the 'puter has made it to the repair shop, so guess we just have to wait. It had to get flown to the repair place out of town.

Mum let me use her work 'puter here. So I did a quick trip around the blogosphere and checked up on stuff. Sounds like we have lots of romancing and match making goin on for Valentine's Day. I got my sweetie last year on Valentine's Day, maybe you could meet yours this year.

Man Cat Monday

A Tribute to ME

A long time ago mum got a cute picture mat at the sheter where she got me. She finally worked on this, taking lots of pictures of me, getting real pictures made, cutting them down. Then arranging and re-arranging them until she had the look she wanted.
Here I am inspecting the finished product, I think it turned out furry well. Now everyone who comes to visit can see how much mum loves me, her very own ManCat.
I had fun at the SuperBowl parties last night. I was teleporting between Opus and Roscoe's in Italy and Hank's party here in the U.S.

Plus we may not be around the blogoshpere much. Mum's home laptop 'puter died. We went to turn it on Saturday and it wouldn't work. Mum did all of the obvious things to see what was wrong, then we called the help desk. We have to send it in and get it fixed. While mum will let me use her work 'puter, it doesn't have all of my pictures and such.

So, what I was working on to enter Skeezix's Valentine's contest, can't get at that. Guess I won't be entering that contest. Bummer.

Stay warm everyone. It has been furry cold here is Whiskerconsin. Doing lots of snuggling with mum to keep her warm.

Fang Shui Friday

Leaking faucets in the home represent money and energy flow away.

To keep money and energy in the home, drink from leaking faucets. Approach the faucet from the southwest, taking care not to dampen your spirit.


From Fang Shui by Catfucious, Peter Pauper Press, 2002.