Remembrance Day

We dint know about Remembrance Day, but we unnerstand what it is for. So we are postin the piciature and addin our little something below it...



To The-Cats-Who-Came-Before:

We were kittens when we met you
And you taught us all we know.
Like the one who came before you
and all those who came before.

In an endless line of kitties
Stretching back to days of yore,
You were always passing to us
All the ancient hidden lore.

When we sometimes gaze behind us,
The unbroken chain to see.
We know that we are just a link
Into eternity.

Skeeter and LC

Found a Possum!

We caught a "possum" in the cage. We're gettin tired of those possums an groundhoggies and rabbits and things. The Big Thing hadda drive our kitty litter to a dump place, so he brought the possum an let it out at a swampy place on the way. He says it is way too far away for it to find our yard again, so "OK". We don't like things gettin into our yard.

An he says we sure wouldn't want to eat it, so that makes it OK that he let it go somewhere far away. We mean, we like fishy and birdie flavor food and we haven't seen any "possum" flavored kitty food. So maybe they just taste yucky!

Hornet Buggies

Skeeter and LC: Yikes, we were out and heard some serious buzzy noises, so we went to look. It even attracted the attention of The Big Thing! We found a hornet attackin a cicada. An that was amazin, cause the cicada was way bigger than the hornet! They thrashed around together buzzin against all the plants.

The Big Thing went inna the cave to grab the camera, but he couldn't take any piciatures. The camera was dead. So then he ran inside and pulled batteries outa other stuff and took some piciatures. The cicada wasnt all that active then, but we liked thast he was takin the piciastures so we could study them later.



When the hornet started flyin around, we all backed away (it seemed kinda mean) an The Big Thing took the camera back inside. But we went out a little later to collect the cicada and see if it would have a hornet baby inna covered glass bowl, an it was GONE!

We cant 'magine the hornet could take that big cicada away, but maybe it did. At least, something did. Whatever, it was real amazin! We watch those waspies and hornetses real close sometimes (they never seem to bother us), but we have sure never seen one doing that before.

Anastasia of The Cat Realm

Our hearts go out to the friends and Beins of Anastasia, of the Cat Realm. We are very sad to hear that she has gone over the Bridge.

We hardly know what to say. Surely she was loved, and that is a good thing. Surely she will be missed. Surely, she will be remembered. Surely there will be a day when the Beins and Anastasia will be reunited.

Still, this is a sad dark...

We want to go curl up next to The Big Thing for a while...

New Meme!

Skeeter & LC:

Cool, DaisyMae Maus found a new meme. You can visit her site for the origins. But basically, you take your first initial and answer the following questions… (You can’t use your own name for the boy/girl question).

Try not to repeat answers…

S IS FOR SKEETER:

4 letter word: Spam
Vehicle: Shelby Mustang
TV Show: Star Trek
City: CAThedral City, CA
Boy Name: Sam (as in “and Frodo”)
Girl Name: Salome
Alcoholic Drink: Sea Beer (Shrimpsies fermented with a wave of ham juice)
Occupation: Scientist
Something you wear: Sari
Celebrity: Steffi Graf
Food: Shrimpsies!
Something found in a bathroom: Soap
Reason for being late: Shrimpies on the floor
Cartoon Character: Snaglepuss
Something You Shout: Shrimpsies!


L IS FOR LC:

4 letter word: Luck
Vehicle: Lotus
TV Show: La Femme Nakita
City: LaPlace, LA
Boy Name: Lazarus Long
Girl Name: Leila
Alcoholic Drink: Lobster Juice (distilled), with catnip leaf
Occupation: Librarian
Something you wear: Lei
Celebrity: Lucy Lawless (cause I don’t pay any ‘tention to the law)
Food: Lotsa Tuna!
Something found in a bathroom: Luxurious Towels
Reason for being late: Lapping up the Last of the Tuna
Cartoon Character: Leela
Something You Shout: LC RULES!

ITS OUR BLOGIVERSARY!

SKEETER & LC: The Big Thing surprised us today! He asked if we 'membered how he's told us we have "years" of "age. Well, we do, sorta. It means the seasons come around in a pattern and repeat themselves, so when the weather is mostly like it was many Big Moons ago, that is a "year".

And when a year has passed since you were born, you have a "birthday". OK, we get that. We know we are 14 and 15 "years" old now. Well, he said Blogs have birthdays too. We dint know that!!!

Our bloggie is a year old TODAY! Yurrah, but so what, do you feed it fancy stuff or something? Do you give it treats? Apparently you do. You give it what a bloggie likes best - PICIATURES. Bloggies like piciatures like we like bein scratched.

So he set up chairs (with pillows) next to the puter, an we spent some time finding the ones we liked best from the past year...

1. In September, we got new FOOD BOWLS. Finally we dint hafta both push our heads into a little plastic double thing. We could both stand on our own and eat more relaxed. They were pretty, too. We still like them.

2. November brought a terrible FLOOD! It rained for a light anna dark anna light. We had water inna bottom of the cave (even around our litterboxes) and everything outside was fulla water. The old car was surrounded an it seems to have drowned. It was several lights before the ground didnt squish unner our paws.

3. Before it got too cold, we watched the fishies inna pond.


4. We watched Kitty TV (the fishie pond it the cave).


5. When it was really cold outside, we napped a lot.


6. We got treats (and a lot of tossed toys).


7. We had lotsa food!


8. As nicer weather returned, we got more active again. We got SHRIMPSIES and HAM.

9. We took funny piciatures.


10. In March, The Big Thing builded us a Kitty Condo!


11. In May, we got our first PREZZIE PACKAGE from another kitty. That was such a surprise and it was so cool. This piciature is jus an example and we have been thrilled to get a couple others.

12. And we specially had lotsa fun playin with each other ALL YEAR!

We're Bored!

LC: Well, it's all rainy the past few darks. Even I doesn't want to go out. It's raining in the dark, so its not like I would get wetted from above, but the grass is all wet an who likes to get wetted from below? That's just icky!

The Big Thing is mostly happy about the rain cause it means his yucky plant foods (and the sniffy flowers) like it, but we notice he isn't goin out too much either.


An its kinna funny cause he jus got the grass chopper fixed an cant use it.

Hmmm, if he used the grass chopper, we could walk around without our tummies gettin all wet.

I'm spendin most of my time waitin on the warmy bed.

Skeeter is mostly hidin unner the bed, but I did catch him on the mat by the hard clear thing The Big Thing hasta open for us to get out.


Ooh, The Big Thing even took a piciature (which is why it is so bad). Skeeter is demanding laptime early in the light. Now that means "bored"! I mean, really, the sparkly box isnt even ON!

You wanna know how bored I am? I bit Skeeter's ear just to start a tussle an he was so bored he jus rolled over an stuck his head unner a pillow. Im drinkin water just so I can pee later... I pushed alla toys on the floor unner a chair jus to watch The Big Thing get them out aain. An I dint even wanna play with them!

PhotoHunter Saturday

We joined PhotoHunter, but we haven't figured out how to connect to it yet. That Sidebar place really confooses us. But we figured we might as well try it out anyway even if no PhotoHunters sees ours! :(

The theme was "Twosies" an we found a bunch in the cave, so here they are! And, of course, we are a "twosie", so our Bloggie "snugglypic" counts also. Ooh, ooh, we ordered a better piciature-doing program onna web, but it hasn't arrived yet. We can't wait for it cause it will do all kindsa neat stuff we cant do now.

But the PhotoHunter "Two"; piciatures. Cool, we can count to "two". Heck, we can count to "5". 10 is less certain even when we use our toesies, but sometimes we even get that right...

We found everythin we could in the cave that was a "two". Well, we tried for the squirrelies outside, but they wouldnt stay still long enough close together (we'll get them for that) But we did find a lotta stuff in "twoes"!


We made a little happy family of "twos" here. A Granpa and Gramma "two", a Mommy an Daddy "two", an "two" baby kitties, and some toys to bat around onna floor.


We tried for some balance between "lotsa stuff" and some inneresting ones. We think it means somethin, but we isnt sure what. We liked the look of of it though.

We like the middle piciature best. It just seems "happier. Too much stuff gets confoosin!. Ya know?

वी'रे हवं अ Problem

We're Havin a Problem!

Both the Title Bar and the 1st line above are the same characters, but you see the Title Bar is all, like, weird. We cant figure out why. An it is the same in Netscape, IE, and Mozilla FireFox. So we don't think it can be any settings we set.

We've tried playin with the "fonts" an other stuff, an we can't stop it from happenin. Even The Big Thing can't figure out the problem an he is smarter than us (in some things)! We sent emails to Skeezix but his mailbox stays full, so he must be terrible busy and needs some catnaptime!

Any otherkitty know what is causin this? We can type the Title in the Body an then paste it above, so it isn't like a toothy death onna sock, but it is really annoyin.



Skeeter and LC

Food Day WhooHoo!

We were gettin worried cause we couldnt see any more cans of our stuff on our shelfs. So it was a relief to see The Big Thg bring back a squillion cans an some bags of dry crunchies for us today. Wow, he even went out in the rain to hunt for them!

First, he opened all the, um, carrying cases, and stacked them up to arrange them. So we started takin pictures! We dont see so much food at one time, so we wernt gonna miss the chance... Hey wait, he pulled a sneaky on us, There are some of his yukky plant eats there. Oooohhhhh...

This is what the piciature was SUPPOSED to look like...

He plays sneaky little tricksies like that on us alla time. We should bite his toesies for that...

When he saw we were takin piciatures, he arranged them all real nice so we could even read the names of the flavors of the cans. He is so considerate!

Then he set it up so we could see them all an even try to count them (we couldnt, so he told us it was a huunert and ninety an two cans). So that means it was a squillion plus a few. So, even if he gets lost some day, we have a lotta food! And this piciature is for Max... ;)

There was one can that had no label, so it might be a SURPRISE! But it was with all the cans of TUNA an we hope that's what it is. Maybe it is mousies though, wouldnt that be great?

I (LC) took a run-by past the cans to check them out up close, but I was too 'cited to stay up there. Skeeter was OK jus sittin on the floor (droolin on his paw, of course), which he cleaned up quickly (WHEN I POINTED IT OUT TO HIM).

Then The Big Thing put alla cans up on the shelf where we can see it best (but not reach).

That stuff above an below an to the side isnt important, cause we dont eat it or play with it. But The Big Thing does eat that weird stuff and use the "toolses" to keep stuff werkin, so we decided to leave it in the piciature. That paper pad above is where he keeps track track of stuuff he needs to eat. Why cant he just go hunt it every many Big Moons like our food we dont know! He is weird!

Thursday Thirteen Random Thoughts...

1. If we eat those flashy night buggies, will we start to blink too?

2. Why is the proposed National Cat Day (Aug 15) during the Dog Days of August?

3. If we just sat on our food wouldnt that make the whole process faster?

4. We have birthdays, other Beins have birthdays. The Big Thing never seems to have a birthday…

5. If you get lost, an then get lost lost from there, are you home again if a different Bein takes care of you?

6. How can a perfectly healthy froggie make you sick when you eat it?

7. If I get all wet, and lick myself with my wet tongue, why do I get dry?

8. We saw a big birdie grab a little birdie, and we saw a bigger birdie grab a mousie. Is there a birdie big enough to grab us?

9. Why are there stairs? We climb higher on them, but we are still on the floor!

10. Why does The Big Thing watch the sparkly box? Sometimes we can see animals, but mostly it is just sparkly patches and gray stuff.

11. Why does The Big Thing sometimes turn around suddenly an almost step on us. Cant he smell that we’re there?

12. Where does all the used litter go?

13. We see The Big Thing take food offa plants and eat them, but we can’t find the ones that grow our cans. He must grow those outside the fence so we cant find them. But why?

Nose/Chin Twins!

LC: I have a Nose/Chin Twin! Harlie at http://mattinglycat.blogspot.com/ looks so much like me! An since I have no idea what became of my litter siblings, maybe she is one!

Seriously, dont we look a lot a like. That's me above and her below!

We both have a white bridge over our nosies, an a black spot unner the chin, the same bandit eyemasks, an even a black spot unner our nosies!

Cool.

Wow, Big Birdies Up Close

Skeeter: Yikes, first, we are all just sitting watchin the sparkly box and some huge shadow crosses superfast across the clear hard thing, an then this big birdie land ON THE DECK RAIL not 2 jumps from us, an we all (yeah, even The Big Thing) stopped dead still and stared at it. The Big Thing said to look at it carefully and not move cause thats a "hawk"!

I couldn't help doin the "I want that" mouth chatter cause that's more birdie than I ever seed before. But it dint see me even a bit. But LC couldnt help tried to slink nearer the hard clear thing for a better look an maybe a pounce. I gotta admit, she only moved when it wasn't lookin at her.

But, an I say true, those things seem to have eyes on the sides of their heads! It hadda! It was looking away an LC slunk closer and it snapped its headie right at her an caught her in mid slink. She tried to stay still, but it wouldnt look away and she finally flopped on the floor an it flew away.

But we got a real good long look at it to. LC an I agreed later that that birdie looked like a real feast. But The Big Thing said we better be very careful of that birdie cause it has claws bigger than our teeth an it eats rabbits. Hmm, rabbits are almost our size...

AND THEN, not a nap later, we were all out on the deck when it was almost-dark and a shadow went over us. Even The Big Thing jerked an looked up. An even bigger birdie had flown right over our heads (we had all been sitting very still). It flopped at the ground an we could hear a mousie squeeling as it flew away! It took one of our mousies... We were mad about that.

We were annoyed, but The Big Thing said to be even more careful around that one cause it flies even quieter than we walk and we could be all hurt an taken away before he even knew we were gone. LC said she would jus bite it real bad, but The Big Thing jus looked at her sadly. That's when I knew we hadda start watching the sky when we were out and listen for the birdies to go quiet an stuff.

But The Big Thing also said it would be very unusual for a Big Birdie to grab a kitty (an he's never heard of it happening) but you never know. An we have to jus keep livin our lives cause there is danger sometimes an that's jus the way it is. He even says that sometimes, even Beins sometimes get killed or eated by bigger animals. We think he's jus tryin to scare us on that part cause no animal could put the serious bitey on a Bein.

Well, maybe. We saw a "elphant" on the sparkly box, and it WAS way bigger than the Bein. So maybe...

But we havent seen one of those around here. But maybe its a good idea to look up sometimes and stay near The Big Thing!

I Felt Terrible Last Dark

LC: I feel OK now, but it was like I had a hairball all last dark and couldnt get rid of it. I sure tried enough times! Skeeter told me not to eat that second froggie, but I like them so much I jus hadda.

The Big Thing was all worried, but I was playin with toys and asking for chin skritches like normal. He thinks maybe Skeeter was right about that extra froggie. I hate it when they gang up on me like that! He kept me in the cave most of the light, but he let me out for a few minutes an I ran right for the pond.

You wont believe what The Big Thing did! He went right out there with me AND CHASED ALLA FROGGIES INTO THE POND. Yes he did, really. That was mean... So I hadda bad froggie before. That doesnt mean the others are bad. An Im willin to find out!

I hope Skeeter eats a dirt froggie. Thatll make HIM sick all dark for sure!

Camera Day

LC: The Big Thing brought the camera outside today so Skeeter an I could take piciatures of each other. We like that. We take turns and think about things we like doing.

I started first cause Skeeter mostly wants to just get inside when there is any noises outside (and I have to get what I can get real fast).



I got him in his favorite hidey place (unner the low deck).



And then (of course), he wanted to go back inside real quick jus because some bein started a noisy machine a few caves away...

But he did come back out later an took some good pictures of me.




Yikes, I dint know I had a black spot unner my chin. Well, duh, I cant see it.





I did enjoy sleepin in the shade with the warm air all round me.




oh, a hummer fly-by. Those birdies sure move fast!

By the way, I'm all annoyed with Skeeter cause I always have those bitey itchy mosquitos around my ears and he never does. He says its cause he is such a handsome mancat but The Big Thing says it is cause I 'plore wilder places and have some black fur. Personally, I think it is cause I smell better; you know, like "more alive". Maybe I should grab one of those skeeters and bring them to Skeeter. LOL!

Buggy Pics

OK, using Mozilla we get the picture-showing thingy, with IE, we don't. So we are over at Mozilla right now.

We saw th coolest buggies. They were eating holes inna dirt and bringing other buggies to the holes. An the waspies drageded the limp buggies into the holes and all. No really! We saw them doin that. We sniffed up close to the holes when the buggies were away.

The Big Thing says he knows what the wasps are doing an we saw it last year but forgot.

He says (Oh mousedroppings) they bring live stunned buggies under the dirt to feed their eggs alive! And some people complain that we kill mousies?)

Well, at least we can show the piciatures we took. It was scarey with the waspies flyin all round us but we held our paws still and didn't move an they dint bother us.

So here are our waspie piciatures...



We assume it is a girl wasp. We think we is pushing sand grains away from the borrow. And when she has a hole in the dirt ready, she flys aways to find another bugie to use as as food.

We think the girl waspie has buried the caught buggie and some eggs in the hole. So then she covers the hole with the dirt she brought out before.

Ooh, here's the waspie bug food. We sniffed it real careful (cause we didn't want to get bited) and it was alive but couldn't move. We think the waspie thing causes that!

Wow, we've never even seen one of those little food buggies before. An neither has The Big Thing an he knows almost Everything!

The next 3 pics are just the little girl wasp movin around on her patch of dirt. She head-butts dirt back into the hole when shes done. Then she walks all round lokkin for a nother place to dig a hole. She must be really fussy cause she walks round a lot before choozin another spot.

Sometimes they get in a tussle with other wasps. We cant figure out if they is boy and girl wasps making babies or if they is all girl waspies fighti over good dirt. But they sure are active right now an they sure is innerestin!





An we dint get stung even once, though they were flyin all araoun us. Neat!

The Puter Was Away for 3 Days!

But it is back, yay yay yay!!! We are on again and we we have SOUNDS! The Big Thing dragged the puter out and when it came back it made noises! But we were wonderin when it would return...

Cause we wanted to show more piciatures! We found waspeses outside! Not mean stingy wasps, but happy dirt-digging wasps. So when The Big Thing said the Puter was working again, we couldn't wait.

Wow, we had to get The Big Thing to bring the camera out into the yard, but we took it from there. We found these little waspies all round the yard and that was real thrrillin! It seems they dig holes inna ground and plant buggies in them. That is SO COOL!

The Big Thing saw we were so innerested in them that he brought out the stepladder so we could get up to the camera onna tripod! We tok piciatures of the waspies! Oh they are so cool.

How To Take Pictures...

Perfectly Parker asked how we take piciatures without an opposable thumb.

A reasonable question. The answer is that The Big Thing helped us. No, didn't TAKE te piciatures, just helped us do it ourselfs. He has all sorts of really weird stuff allover the cave. Metal things, wood things, odd pieces of stuff, things only he can use called "tools", etc. So, when he wants to solve some problem he jus stares at the walls of hangin tools and bits&pieces until he sees somethin that will work.

So when we started bloggin and told him that we wanted to take piciatures, he looked at the camera, thought about our paws, then looked at the "stuff" he had. For a long while. It took several dinners for him to find a solution, but he DID!

He saw that the camera "pic-takin" button was flush to the top of the camera and found some little wood thingie that was the same size as the camera button and he made it stick to the top of the button! So now it sticks up an we can push on it (hard) and get the camera to take a piciature! WOW, we are so happy with that.

He said that "fair was fair" an if he got to take piciatures of us by surprise, we should be able to do the same to him. Is that not cool or what? He even leaves the camera on the tripod thingie near tables and chair so we can get at it.

Sometimes we hit the camera button too hard an the piciatures come out a bit blurry, but he says we take pretty good piciatures an he has known beins that dided worse! So we are prety proud of that.

So that's how we take the piciatures...

Hummers

Well, as we said, we were real surprised to learn that "hummers" were birdies rather than superfast buggies. An some kitties have asked about those hummers...

So we asked The Big Thing about them, and this is what he said (speakin slowly so we could type it right).

"There are 3 things to consider. The feeder, the food, and the location.

"The feeder should come all apart for easy cleaning. I like the Audubon hummer station (http://audubonworkshop.com/product.asp?pn=0219&bhcd2=1186097525). The top is glass (easy to keep clean) and te bottom part comes in 2 pieces which are also easy to clean. Most times, I just rinse the parts and refill them every few days (cause the hummers drink them dry in a few days).

"Hummer food is super easy to prepare. Just have a rinsed container (soap harms the hummers) and add 1 cup of tapwater. Add 1/4 cup of regular refined sugar. Stir it to dissolve the sugar. Pour it into the hummer feeder.

"Ants love sugar water, too, so you do have to stop them from getting at it. It isn't hard. Hang the feeder from a string or wire and smear something sticky on the hanger. I have a garden product called "tanglefoot", but honey or even tape (stickyside out) would work for a month or so.

Well, he says he would be happy to provide more details if anyone wants them, but that is the basics.

Skeeter and LC

Thursday Thirteen - Pics of The Big Thing!

We are proud of this one. Weve been sneaky with the camera for a whole Big Moon, takin pics when he wasnt lookin or was 'stracted. An we bet he is surprised at some of them. Like he never noticed his pant legs were too long and such. But it's our blog an we get to show pics! Pffft!

It was't easy. Most times, we cant reach the camera way up on that standy thing it is on. But there were enough times it was near a table or chair, an we knocked it over once to get some pics from our point-of-view (an that was the important part).

Here he is pouring some treats inna bowl. Theyre for Skeeter cause I don't like them much. But Skeeter just goes crazy for them.

Wow! A toy flood! That's for me, cause Skeeter doesn't like toys very much. I love them! He moves them around to see what attracts my attention an then we play with those.

He is movin the kittie tent to a new spot. We like that! Differnt views, an sometimes Skeeter doesn't notice I'm init, so I can bop him when he walks past.

We used to worry about that big hand comin down at us when we were kittens, caused it seemed scary. And even now, I worry that he is gonna pick me up offa the floor an I hate that. But it normally means scratches an scritches an we both LOVE those!
Ooh, here you see him offerrin the really colorful mousie that Quincy send. Its one of my favorites. He tosses it an I hit it back. Sometimes I hit it unner the low chair an he has to scrape unner the chair to get it out. Its funny seein him ent all over with his butt up in the air (we tried to get a pic of that, but couldn't). Sometimes he just lifts the whole chair up an moves it an that is jus AWESOME!

We like watchin him clean our litterboxes. Well, that's part of his job of course, but we still like watchin it. An we usually feel an urge to use them as soon as they are clean. The Big Thing jus laffs and goes about his work. Man, it is hard to find staff like that these days!

Skeeter's favorite spot! And you can barely see that The Big Thing was motioning him up with a paw. But Skeeter knew I was takin a piciture, so he was reluctant to jump up. Maybe I'll get them both in a pic sometime. But not now, I guess.


Since we learned that the superfast flying things were birdies, we are much more innerested in the feeder thing he hangs outside in several places! We arent even gonna TRY an catch them, but they are more fun to watch now we know they are birds...

He has lower paws that he stand on only. Big deal? Yeah, we cant do it for more than a few breathes. Weve tried! Skeeter can stand on his bottom paws way longer than I can, so I've decided that that is a dumb thing to do. I mean, "really", if I cant do it, it must not be a good thing to do...

The Big Thing walked into the food room singing the "Dinnertime Song". So that was worth takin a piciature of! We love that song. Seriously, its the best sound of the whole day.

We see this a lot. The Big Thing at the computer. Sometimes we get bored watching and go paw at him. Sometimes we get some stritches, but too often he forgets we are there an we just go wander away to look out the hard clear things or take a nap. If we didn't also use the compouter sometimes, we would really hate it!

Ooh, one of my favorite toys. It has catnip in it. I pounce it, sniff it, lay on it, pound it (to get more sniffs out), an I think I am getting too innerested init... But life is too short to deny nip, so whatthehell!

Skeeter favorite shot (next to "The Lap"). Hes always hungry, though he gets as much to eat as he wants. I think he just loves the new flavor of the day an the attention. I eat some sometimes, but it isn't a big deal to me.