[Our Magical Creatures]

[fangsfan1]

I never did either. We also have lots of fireflies this time of year. On the way home from work they'll be clustered around a light and it looks like sparks from a fire going off. I think some people also call them lightening bugs?

[grandpalovegood]

Jul 23, 2012 19:19:35 GMT -6 fangsfan1 said:

I never did either. We also have lots of fireflies this time of year. On the way home from work they'll be clustered around a light and it looks like sparks from a fire going off. I think some people also call them lightening bugs?

Funny... we called them lightening bugs when we were growing up. Then when I was about ten, someone had a book about fireflies. That was about the first time I heard them called that. ;D

[rin68nyr]

Isn't it funny how things have different names in different areas of the country? I've always called them fireflies, but was aware of the name lightning bug.

Erin

[grandpalovegood]

Maybe it's a country hick thang. ;D

Or.... Really it sounds possible that it's simply something southern.

[misscharlotte]

I've so much to post here.. It's been a long time coming.

First, our humming bird feeders might have taken a while to be noticed by the birds, but they took off once they did. They keep the cats busy watching them all of the time. Turns out our newest neighbors put some out as well. That is good. Maybe next year they will return earlier than this year to feed.

I feel sad for those baby birds who lived in our front porch light. Hubby cleaned out the nest when they began to fly, then covered it up again with the little window pane that was supposed to go up there. I see them every day. They peep and look up there all of these months but it's still covered.

I plan on posting pictures of my cats soon. Now that Hermione passed, Mattie is the oldest. She's only a couple of years old too. It feels strange that I posted images on here from when we first brought her home. She hardly looks like that itty bitty kitten. LOL. She's a real sweetie too. I have always said that our pets claim us, not the other way around. She is the first pet I've had that chose TWO people to be hers. She is the perfect momma cat... well, to me and my hubby. She tucks us in every night. Then whomever it is that is up last, she will sit there on the floor, staring at us quietly. When we look in her direction, she will point her face towards the bedroom to tell us it's time to go to bed. No kidding. She keeps trying to lead us in there if we are up walking around. Then once we are in bed... she will get up there and plop down hard in between us... ON ME. For some reason how she simply falls down, if funny. We have to laugh. Anyway, when she has been there a short while... and she knows we have been there and are staying put. She will get up and go lay down on her bed, satisfied that we have been tucked in.

.....

LOKI! She's the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Skinny... short, shiny and black. She has orange eyes so round that they look like fish eyes. A permanent surprised look. When she closes her eyes, her whole face dissappears. Basically, she looks like the perfect witches Halloween cat. And she's true to her namesake... VERY mischievious! ;D She likes to go smack Mattie when Mattie is just laying there, then Loki will run screaming like a banshee!... Mattie has not lifted a finger to cause anything.

Have you ever heard of a double jointed cat? Well, she has a short body with long legs. She will be standing there then suddenly, while her body does not move or curve an inch, she will pick up her hind leg and stick it straight up in the air before scratching her back. She also likes to fly.. I mean it! FLY! She does high flips in the living room while playing with the cat fishing pole. Then the other day, we were just sitting there watching tv when we saw her run through the house and pounce off the arm of the couch, causing her to go airborne in the middle of the living room.. ALL LEGS OUTWARD! Like she was doing a double swan dive into the air. NO KIDDING! ;D How does she do these things? Her bones should not go in those positions. She is beautiful, but we don't know what to expect next. She is claustrophic. I attribute that to the fact she spent about 3-4 months in a cage at the local animal shelter. She is so glad to be out and you can tell she's glad to have a home. Mattie does not like her too much, but she gets along great with my daughter's cat Baby.

[fangsfan1]

Our humming birds have stopped coming but this was one of the best years ever for them. I enjoyed watching them, they would come in twos and threes and chase each other around the feeder.
I would love to see pictures of your cats. Loki sounds great, she reminds me of our black cat velvet who was always full of it. She used to run and bounce herself off the covers of my CD players.

[misscharlotte]

I think we might still have them humming around here. We just need to refill the feeder. I"m just glad that they found us. This means next year we should have more. YAY!

As for pictures of Loki-cat... I'd love to get one of her hanging upside down looking around at the world. We have an old couch that my daughter will not let us get rid of. It was used before we bought it several years ago. It's a bit scuffed up and lived on. Anyway, the cats use it as a playground. Loki does this wierd thing. She hangs on with her front arms, then completely throws her head back as far as her arms would let her, then looks at the world. Right now, she and Baby-cat are watching a squirrell doing the same thing on the tree right outside of the front living room window.

[fangsfan1]

When I did my decorating, I had the sofa covered with stuff. I have an old Avon box with three little black cat soaps. I saw Andy with something in his mouth, went to check and it was one of those soaps and he ate it right down. Wouldn't even take a rawhide treat and spit it out, evidently that soap was delicious. I never even dreamed a dog would like that or I would never have left it out, but luckily there were no ill effects at all.

[misscharlotte]

That is so weird... well beyond weird. I do hope will won't get sick later on. Update us how that turned out.

However, my cats like to eat the soap bubbles when I take a bubble bath. To me, that is just gross.

OH...

Here is my new Loki-cat. It's a large picture. I'm just being lazy right now and does not want to resize it. Maybe later? Anyway, her eyes are really that color. So is that pink blanket of my daughter's. However, that blue blanket is supposed to be more teal... more green than this. It's just hard to get a good picture of her because once she closes her eyes, her whole face disappears.

i48.TP .com/33f8abl.jpg

[rin68nyr]

Awwwww! Pretty kitty!

Erin

[fangsfan1]

I love that name Loki. A neighbor down the street had a dog with that name who was great friends with my sheepdog Theo. Theo lived to be 12, and quite a few year after that I walked by that house and there was Loki still going strong. That dog was ancient and still looked great and very healthy.
My little soap bubble is just fine Miss Charlotte, no ill effects from that black cat soap.

[fangsfan1]

My Kneazle Duke has been feeling his oats lately. Last night he woke me up at 4 AM, crying at the dog and trying to get him to wake up and play-not the first time this has happened! Then I just get back to sleep and he starts batting something around on the floor and wakes me up again.
He also was caught EATING the egg crate mattress in my dog's crate. He just turned 10 but I don't think it slowed him down any, I think he likes the fall weather too.

[misscharlotte]

Oh that is so cute. I wonder what Andy thinks of him? LOL.

OK..... let me think for a minute. There was something goofy mine have been doing.. OK.. that is it.

I give my cats a clean bowl of water each day. Sometimes when I notice they are extra thirsty I'll have to refill the bowl again before bedtime. Well, I've noticed how Baby (our middle cat who is gray striped with perfect symetry. Oh and she has the most beautiful green blue eyes. She looks like an artist painted her.) Well, she likes to get in the shower with me. I have to watch it because I don't want to spook her. That would be bad. Well, when I'm done, she likes to stay in there licking the water from the tub. I decided about a week ago, to rinse the tub and put the stopper in. I will run and leave just a bit of water for one end of the tub. A puddle's worth. This bathroom is the master bathroom where my son's bedroom is. So, I'm in there tending to him, I think it's funny to hear Baby in there splashing around. No kidding, she is loud. I have to tell the rest of the family not to worry if they notice that all four of her feet are ice cold and wet.... then I told them what her new favorite thing to do is. Goofy cat. And now I've noticed how she's begun to follow me around during the day. We've had her a year and this is new. I guess she has a new best friend.

[fangsfan1]

That's a riot, Baby sounds like quite a character. My sister was home over Thanksgiving, she said one night Dukie woke her up three times running around getting into things. The next night he was better, only twice!

[misscharlotte]

LOL. Sometimes it amazes me that when my pets would get into things.. they would be things I would not expect them to.

However. We have our Christmas tree set up. It's all lit. We still need to put on the decorations. I remember when my daughter was a toddler, she had a cat named Frostie. She never was one to ever get into things unless my daughter and here were doing the snooping together. One day during Christmas time, we came home only to find Frostie was sitting a little over half way up IN the tree, just looking at us. She looked so comfy. I expected that from the other cats but not her.

NOW I have no doubt that Baby or Loki will be in this tree. It's Loki's first Christmas and she's as mischievious as can be. I would not put it past her to knock off an ornament and try to blame it on Mattie. Ahhhhhh. This will be a long December alright, but worth it. LOL

[fangsfan1]

Just put our Christmas tree up. For any of you who have cats do thay love your tree? My Duke is just crazy about the Christmas trees, he hides under them and bats at the ornaments and just investigates every inch. He's indoor cat, although he does escape sometimes. I think indoor cats tend to love the trees the most.

[misscharlotte]

In my house, I've always taught my cats in a very low key sort of way. Hand signals, finger snaps, and a simple softly spoken "Hey" and they know what I mean. I've never been one to use loud clapping or yelling one of my least favorite words in the world, "NO!" That gets on my nerves. Sadly, my family does not see that their efforts don't work.

Baby LOVES the tree and pushes her boundaries more than the other two. She's being so stubborn too, to the point I can't help but laugh. The other day she stood on her hind legs close to the trunk of the tree, with her upper body as far up the tree as she could. She was peeking out at everyone from a gap in the branches. She would not mind me when I told her to get down. I had to litterally pull her out. When she was down from the tree, she tried hard to make herself heavy, stiffening her body so I could not get her out from under it. I could not help but laugh.

Other than that, each of them do as cats normally do a couple of times a day.. Randomly they all want to run crazy alll around that house. The tree is part of their hiding places before jumping out from behind it to attack the other cat who was chasing them.

As for the decorations, normally we put plastic ones down at the bottom. They are painted shiny colors. Of course these are good to put there to teach them not to get the rest. I think one years there was only one broken the whole season, and that is for a house of two adult cats and a kitten. The ones I value most are much higer up even hard for people to knock off.

[fangsfan1]

That's what I do with my ornaments too. I liked hearing about your way of teaching your cats Miss Charlotte. Besides Duke I had one cat who climbed the tree and knocked it right over (my cousin caught it in time) and one who ate the icycles and had to have surgery. Most of my dogs have left the ornaments alone. Except for my first sheepdog Theo who was so naughty we didn't dare put anything breakable on. We made all homemade things that year, paper chains ornaments made out of old Christmas cards. That tree was actually pretty cool and old fashioned looking.

[misscharlotte]

Dec 9, 2012 12:57:58 GMT -6 fangsfan1 said:

That's what I do with my ornaments too. I liked hearing about your way of teaching your cats Miss Charlotte. Besides Duke I had one cat who climbed the tree and knocked it right over (my cousin caught it in time) and one who ate the icycles and had to have surgery. Most of my dogs have left the ornaments alone. Except for my first sheepdog Theo who was so naughty we didn't dare put anything breakable on. We made all homemade things that year, paper chains ornaments made out of old Christmas cards. That tree was actually pretty cool and old fashioned looking.

I guess I spoke too soon about my finger snap command trick. The other night Baby climbed a table top Christmas tree right up the center and refused to let go. She was wrapped in the lights that went around the tree. It was so funny. She clinged to it for dear life.

Then I have to say this... It's been warm off and on a lot lately. So, we try to help keep bills down by not turning on the air conditioner again this late in the year. Our windows are open just to let the mild to cool air blow through. OK... There was Baby sitting peacefully in the front window.. with it open, enjoying the nice weather. It was also late but I had not turned in for bed just yet. Then there comes my neighbor's cat outside. She snuck up under the window where Baby was then she smacked the screen pretty hard. Baby flew about four feet up into the air missing the window sill on the way down. I had to go get her. She nearly had a heart attack and was under the couch right there.. It honestly sounded like she was hyperventalating. Poor girl. She did hiss and still the cat was out there waiting for Baby to get back up in the window. I shooed it off and shut the windows. I had to cuddle Baby to make her feel safe again. Still, it was so funny. ;D

[Duddahs]

C.J. was so thrilled about all the wrappings that covered the floor upon our Christmas Present exchange, that is until he found a tin of William Sonoma Peppermint Bark that I was given. He lay his head down on top of the tin and just fell asleep...

I wonder if pups have dreams of sugar plums and peppermint bark dancing through their heads on Christmas too.