Twofur Tuesday

A bit of a fussy broke out...

 

The State Of The Mews

 TBT:  Time to discuss the behaviors and relations among The Mews...

Marley remains amazingly tolerant.  But lately, when Loki and Lori get into a fuss, he wants to hide.  In his prime, he would have gotten in between them.  He is 14+ now and is less willing to get between other cats as much as he used to.  But he still loves The Lap.  And he can just relax all day if things stay calm.  And he stays on the deck more often lately.

Lori is actually an instigator of fusses.  She will walk past Loki or Binq and just make a simple butt-whap as she goes.  I never expected that of her.  And she is really pushy!  The other day, Marley was napping on The Lap and she got up and sat next to him.  Next thing I saw, she was slowly wedging under him until he left.  

Lori demands attention, especially at night.  She complains if I keep the bedroom door closed.  But if I let her in, she wants to nap under the covers with her paws against me.  And let her claws relax out.  She has claws like fish-hooks and purrs very loudly.  So eventually, I have to pull her out to nap on the blanket.  Which gives my skin enough protection.  But she is actually trying to dominate me.  I smile at her ambitions.

Loki doesn't put up with Lori's whaps very well, and I don't blame him.  So sometimes she yells when he whaps back.  I am beginning to just ignore it.  Loki has some bad habits, though.  He fire-hoses when he pees.  High-sided litter boxes help with that.  And he wants to pee on the bed.  So I have a plastic tarp covered with an old sheet on the bed that I can roll up and down with a large cardboard tube.  I don't let him into the bedroom at night generally.  Sometimes I do, but it means I have to sleep under the tarp.  I sure wish he would stop that peeing habit.

Binq is becoming a joy.  She was standoffish and aloof at first.  When near me after a few weeks, she grabbed at my hands and pants with her claws.  But I've been working on discouraging that and she has responded gradually.  Now she loves my attention (as long as I don't touch her tummy).  She hasn't tried The Lap yet, but she is often on the arm of the chair and seems happy to be that close to me.  Sometimes you take what you can get.  She will not be picked up.

Loki and Binq get along great.  Not that they nap together, but they are often in the same place, and they never fuss with each other.  They eat together.  And they both like Marley.

The 3 always eat together.  Actually, this was kibbles scattered over the floor for a change in mealtime, but they always eat together from the bowls too mostly.  Lori likes to eat in the bedroom.  Sometimes with the others if she is hungry enough.  But mostly it is The 3 eating together.

All's Well

MARLEY:  Actually, yesserdays picture wasnt as bad as it looked.  Yeah, Iza was trying ta intimidate me, but she tries that every week or so.  It doesnt do her anny good.

As ya can see, all I did was decide ta stop and groom.  I wasnt even lookin at her.  She hates it when I do that.

But when Iza does that ta poor Ayla, Ayla has ta go run up something high where she can glare in safety.  Oddly enough, though, Iza and Ayla wrassle evenly when TBT opens our food cans (but only in the evening).  *I* cant figure either of them out sometimes...

Saturday Caturday - Three Kitties

AYLA:  OK, sometimes we don't stay all this close.  And sometimes when we do there are some face-offs.  And it is usually Iza and Me.  We confront each other sometimes, and it is innerestin.  Iza is bigger, but I am faster with the paws.  Purrsonally, I like to think of it as Me being a BIG LEOPARD and Iza bein a small lioness.

And as as you can see, Marley is ready to go run unner the bed.  He knows when to get out of the way...  He would smooth things over after or stop annything serious if TBT dint, but hes not sure what ta do right there.  Boycats, MOL!

 But then we just stopped.  La-La-La, friends again.  Well, sometimes we just like to test each other. 

Well, we all wanted to go out.  Never mind it was dark.  We wanted to.  But TBT wouldn't let us.  He never does.  It never hurts ta ask though,

I held the door area while Iza left.  I won... Ya can tell I won cuz my tail is curled around me and Iza's tail is lowish.

 You can tell it was all calm again cuz Marley is just sitting there...

Not our typical evening, but all was resolved with TBT tossing kibbles around fer us to chase.  There aren't many hissies that a few tossed kibbles won't solve. 

Easy Like Sunday (Mostly)

IZA:  When TBT got up this morning (which is why the drapes were still closed), he found us all on the cat trees.  Well, it was kinna cloudy here so there werent anny morning sunpuddles.

I allus stare at TBT ta see if he is carryin anny food cans.  Aya looks around fer danger, Marley sleeps.

He wasnt carryin food cans, so I watched the kitchen door,  Ayla looked around fer dangers, Marley kept sleepin.

But I knew TBT was gonna get food cans cuz he allus does when he gets up.  So I got up, Ayla stared around vacantly (hey, this is MY post, not hers), and Marley roused himself.

I saw TBT with food cans, so I made the little chittering noises for food-seein.  

Marley dint appreciate the sight like I did.  He said stuff like "What are ya goin on about, that's not live food", "Why did ya wake me up before the cans were opened", 

"Did ya notice Im ABOVE YOU?  I'll pounce ya if ya make more noise"...

Well, he did have the drop on me, so I left for the kitchen.   The LOOONG way around so I had platforms bewteen us.  He does get a bit cranked when awakened too suddenly... 

I went into the kitchen ta wait fer breakfast.  I hope TBT gets his furs on an does the rest of his morning stuff soon.  Im hungry!


You would think Id be treated better on my BIRFDAY!  (I'm 6 today)



(Thanks, Ann...)

Not Enough Room!

MARLEY: Ah the silly girls sometimes...

Ayla:  Hey! MY nappin spot.  I was here first!  Besides, all BLOO spots belong ta ME.

Iza:  Fine, I'll just go sleep with TBT!  So THERE...  I like the RED blankies better annyway. 

Ayla:  Wait, ya can stay here, I want TBT.

Iza:  Too late, I claimed him!

Ayla: Oh no you dont!

Iza:  Yes I do!

No ya dont, yes I do, no ya dont. yes I do...

MARLEY:  Normally, I would get between them at this point.  But tonight, I think I will just crawl unner the covers and enjoy a quiet night sleepin against TBT legs while the sisters fuss about it...

SOMETIMES a wise mancat just stays out of the fussin.  Ya know?

Mussy, Wriggly Marley

IZA:  Im getting used ta sharin The Big Thing's lap with Marley, but there ARE some problems.  He musses up my furs, fer example.

See what happens when he uses his paws?

Heres a close-up...

TBT seems ta encourage him!

Now hes shiftin positions again...

I tell him ta jus settle down an nap!

He says hes TRYIN ta get comfy...

But see?  Hes completely turned around.  ON me...

Mebbe I'll jus go join Ayla.  SHE sits still...

Laser Eyes Battle

IZA:  Ayla an I are havin a Laser Eyes Battle!  We both been kinna hissy all day.  Its all about yesterday's lap time.  Ayla got on him first and stayed there until he got up.  So I dint get my turn.

So I nibbled her toes in bed last night and she whapped me hard.  We slept on opposite sides of The Big Thing (who thinks the whole thing is very amusin) the whole night.

Then this aftternoon, Ayla headed down ta the basement.  I know her favrit spot down there is up on the frigerator an I ran past her an got up first!  That made her upset (turnabout is fair play). She dint run cuz she dint know I could even get up there.  Well, I had been practicin when she wasnt around!!!

So there I was...

An there SHE was...

We glared at each other fer almost a hour.  TBT finally put a stop to it though.  He said we either make up or he would put our food bowls together for dinner. * GASP*  We dont like that at all!

We made up...

Our food bowls better not be touchin at dinnertime!

Bye, Bye Bloglines...

We are seriously annoyed!  Our RSS feeder, Bloglines, is shutting down Oct 1st.  We got 97teen blogs we follow, an Bloglines is the only one we efer used.

That means we gotta learn a new one, an we hate that!  The computer stuff is REALLY hard fer us, an half the time, we gotta get The Big Thing ta help us.  That means a lotta werds, a lotta sittin at the computer watchin him show us new stuff (gives us a headachy), and sometimes he isnt always very good at it hisself!

So, we're asking fer recommendations of which new RSS feeder we should use.  We know Blogger has one, but it seems we gotta do a lot of werk and enter all the blogs one atta time.  PFFT on that!  Are there any we can just export our bloglist to like "all at once"?  What is yer favrit blog reader?

Let Me In - NOW!

IZA:  Sometimes Im out on the deck an I wanna come in.  Like here, from last week.  It was REAL hot outside.  But The Big Thing jus wanned ta take pictures.   GRR!

Look, I wanna come in, OK?

OPEN THE DOOR...  NOW!  Dont make me haf ta use this...

 Ahhhh...  Coolth!

Drawer Wars

IZA:  Ayla is so proud of the way she is UP on stuff.  Well, we do act in differnt ways.  She dares me ta get inta her territory sometimes.

Like yesserday, I was on the floor an she was up on the smaller where the socks live.  She calls down "I got soft socks up here an you dont.  Ha Ha..."!

So I told her "You better be careful.  Even I can jump THAT high".

She looked around an realized she was on the small dresser...

OOPSIES!

I jumped up an pushed her away.

An settled down ta lie on the soft socks ta annoy her.  I dint really wanna nap then, but she kinna dared me, so I did.  Just ta remind her who is biggest around here.

[THE BIG THING:  ???]

Er, I mean, "the biggest CAT around here".

Fat/Skinny

IZA:  Fer both bein Meezers, we sure are differnt!  I feel so FAT sittin next ta Ayla sometimes...

She just "levitates" onto bookshelves, tree branches, windowsills etc, and she fits into tiny spaces with ease. 

The Big Thing says not ta worry about it.  He says "we all are what we are".  But HES not the one watching Ayla do things what I cant alla time.  And ya know, she tells me that at night.  An TBT thinks IM the mean one... 

A Straightenin up of Our Email Accounts

We are pleased to say that our "Markmews" email account, which has been fritzy since April has finally been fixed. 

We made The Big Thing sit down and call Comcast 3 days ago and ask for HELP like kiten. Cuz he had managed to arrange for our emails to be forwarded to the old skeeterandlc account back then, but it was makin us feel awkward seein skeeter's name on all the emails an he wouldn't fix the problem. An we were sending emails (sometimes) usin his or skeeter's name by accidenty.

So we were gettin kinna upset about it.

So Weds, we made him brave the long wait times gettin to the Comcast ISP help people. They DID get the marksmews account ta show up on the email list again, but they couldn't get our marksmews account ta stop forwardin ta the old skeeterandlc email account even wif TWO senior techs werkin on it. But they gave hims a ticket number ta call back on in 3 days.

So he did. This time, everything werked fine and (after waiting 30 minutes on the phone, while we all got bored an fell asleep), they got it to change just fine back to direct-to-marksmews when they woke us up.  That was cool.

We are happy that we are using marksmews again all direct-like, and The Big Thing is pleased to find that it wasnt his fault he couldn't make the changes cuz the techs couldnt either until today when they redid his primary account an weerd stuff like that.

Now it is something called "backed up". Is that like havin a puffy tail? We hope not.Annyway, we think our email account are werking like they should.  TBT even managed ta move all the forwarded emails back to marksmews like they shouldda been.  We think he should getta steak fer that (cauz he doesn't much like our treats an toys.  So he is thawin out some "filett" thing fer tonight an says that will do just fine.

Whatever...  We all agree that "fixed" is good (when it comes ta computers).

Now it is 6 am, we got fresh warm sheets on the waterbed, and we are all gonna pile on him just as soon as we can get him unner the blankies there.

Lost Access To the Posting Icons

We are sad to say that we're not posting again until we get back our posting icons. We have lost most of them. We have searched, tried Blogger help, Blogger forums, internet help sites, and asked for help, etc. No luck. If we can't fix it, we're gone...

We can barely post pictures the old html way on one blog but not colors or fonts, and nothing at all on another blog. We don't know why and we have tried everything we know. We have been struggling with it for over a week. We are giving up unless someone can help us with this...

We have a Mac Pro and use Firefox the most up-to-date.

If you can help us, please do!

LC, Ayla, Iza
and The Big Thing

Excess Fur

LC: Wow, The Big Thing really knows how ta get excess fur off! I had developed clumps on my back legs an he got those off! Well, its my fault. I don't like being picked up or grabbed or anything like that.

But I have ta get a thyroid medicine twice a day. He useta just hide it it cream cheese and make me eat it, but lately he has some wet stuff he squirts down my throat. I don't like that, but I don't get ta choose.

So annyway, holding me for the liquid stuff, he noticed I had REALLY clumpy fur.

O Drat...

He held me in his lap and tried to brush them out. That dint werk cause they were really tight. So he used a comb. I dint like that. No, not at all. I even mewled a few times.



So then he got some Bein-quality little snips. That din't hurt anny, but I dint like it. an fought a lot. Let's just say it took 3 whole days ta get the furclumps out.


And he got better at brushing (holding the fur before he combed it so it din't pull the skin, ya know)? Well, I DID tell him ta do that...

But I feel SO MUCH BETTER now, and I'm glad he did it. I can lick my leg furs easily an they stay nice an smooth. I think iffen it happens again, I will not fight it so much.

Well, some, just for respect, but you know what I mean.

The cool thing is that all my lost furs go out in the compost ta go inna garden. So I become part of the garden. Neat!

Peace an Togetherness? Not! Or Mebbe...

We been all gettin on each other's furs lately...

1. Ayla is in heat again after only a week off.
2. Iza has decided that LC's tail is a great toy.
3. LC is tired of takin her medicine.
4. Ayla is sprayin around the house.
5. Iza decided that the bafroom mat is a good place ta pee.
6. LC is whappin efrybody.
7. Ayla keeps stickin her butt in efryone's face.
8. Iza insists on sittin on The Big Thing's newspaper and then bunny-kicks The Big Thing's hand - with all claws!
9. LC doesn't eat her breakfast annymore.
10. Ayla is LOUD an desperit ta get outside, an she isnt eatin much either.
11. Iza eats all the food, of course.
12. LC sleeps most all day now, except when she goes outside.
13. It is COLD outside...

But there are good things too...

1. Iza purrs a lot.
2. LC likes ta sit near The Big Thing quietly.
3. Ayla is mostly quiet at night.

And...

We do get along at dinner.

Our New Header Photo...

LC: We got a coupla comments about how nicely we seem ta be getting along in the photo at the top. We must confess it was a rare event that lasted only a minute. We were both making snarky comments ta each other under our breath from the start (She called me "froggie-breath" so I called her "squirrel-stoopid". Then she called me "fat hips" and I called her a "loudmouf").

So then Ayla started battin me wif her tail, so I whapped her head an bit her ear, and we both jumped off the ottoman in separate directions...

The Big Thing laffed, but he is sneaky. He put our dinner bowls RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER, so we couldn't avoid being quietly nose-to-nose.

We need a mancat around ta keep the peace (just as 2 mancats would need a girlcat around for the same reason)...

.