By Gentle Mousie, blogger of the mundane and the spectacular.

Good morning dear friends.  Here we are at the last Monday of 2020.  Most people are thrilled to be seeing the end to this year of misery.  It has been a challenging year at best.  Of course, like most years there has been a mixture of good and bad.   For us, the good has been having Grammy home with us almost 24/7/366. 

That part has been great.  The old girl ensconced in her chair, knitting or napping or better yet, cuddling and snuggling with us.  We have loved that.  In fact, I've actually braved spending more time with Grammy and the cow kitties than ever before.  

The not so good parts have been Grammy's illness coupled with having to isolate, then losing my mommy, Whiskers, and a month later Grammy's fall followed by Etude's PTSD.  Well, we have weathered it all.   We may not look or be quite the same but we've come through. 

Etude's coat is a little shabby... His plucked belly glows pink when he does his prairiedog routine... and his legs are a little moth-eaten... well, maybe not moth-eaten, more like Etude-eaten.  Grammy puts the blue collar of shame on him but only when absolutely necessary.  Usually just distracting him when he starts to chew is sufficient to stop the chomping for a while.  He curls up into a ball and naps until the next meal. 

Rondo, while looking dapper, is more vocally annoying than ever.  He starts calling for breakfast around 6:30 and refuses to let up until Grammy has fed his ever-needy tummy.  It seems to be a bottomless pit.  A half hour after that first meal he seeks a second breakfast, then a pre-lunch snack, then lunch, mid-afternoon nibbles, dinner, apres-dinner nosh, pre-bedtime sustenance and midnight chowdown.  Otherwise, he is about the same - he whines.  At least, when he's napping we get some relief.  *giggles*  He's more like a chow-hound than a kitty.

Sweetie has been a trouper through it all.  She still seeks out Grammy's lap for naps,  sleeps most of the day on the sofa or in her ivory tower then roams the house at night, checking for intruders and making sure we are all safe in our wee beds.  She is our intrepid guardian and we love her for it.

Me? Well, I miss my mommy but Grammy has been my go to for cuddles and kisses and snuggles and when I'm not with her I curl up on my pedestal or in my nice warm marshmallow bed.  Last night Grammy joined me in my bed.  No, not her whole body, silly.  She curled up on the big bed and used the rim of the marshmallow as a pillow.

So, where do we go from here?  Well, it looks like the next few months at least are going to be more of the same.  Grammy's not been given the go-ahead to resume her pre-2020 life and as long as that bug COVID is out there isolation will be paramount and knitting and cuddles will prevail.  Yahoo!

And here is our year in review...  Kitties and Knitties.  *giggles*   Hope you enjoy it.

Comments are most welcome.

From all of us at Mischief and Mayhem Central,

We wish you a

Merry Christmas and a Happy,

Healthy,

Love-filled New Year. 

Love and Whisker kisses,
Whiskers (2008 - 2020), Gentle Mouse, Sweetie, Etude & Rondo
oh, and Grammy too.

by Mousie, blogger of gentle, sweet memories.

Good morning, dear friends.  Brrrr.  It's cold outside.  Glad we have a fire in the fireplace.  So, Grammy, where's the hot cocoa, huh?  Okay, now onto the blog. 

Here we are at 11 days to Christmas.  This is a time of year when memories can be sad, or sweet. For Grammy they are the latter with just a scintilla of the former. 

I told the cow kitties that we should remember our fur family members who have passed on.  As they scampered to their heated beds they shouted, "What a great idea, Mousie!  Have at it!"

So, it looks like it is up to me once again.  Those scamps!

For those of you who are new to our page, we are now a four kitty household having lost my mummy Whiskers this past summer.  She was our Matriarch and taught us a lot of mischief, created even more mayhem (especially with Grammy), and kept us all spotlessly clean and well-groomed.  While we miss her lots we are happy she isn't ill or in pain anymore.  Our first blog is a great example of how mischievous she could be.  Check it out and further blogs.  You might like the Austria series... Whiskers at her most adventurous.  As Grammy says, "She was a caution!"

Before Whiskers Grammy had three other kitties... PussPuss, Malcolm and Montague (aka. Monty).  PussPuss, like Whiskers, was a Matriarch and ruled the roost.  She was a Maven of Mischief too.  Oh my, the stories we've heard.  You may want to check them out in our Into the Archives series.  Here's one of the early blogs.

Now, you must know, PussPuss, like Etude and Rondo, loved her food and supplemented her diet with the never-ending supply from Grammy's fish tanks.  *giggles*.  Boy, what I'd give to have seen Grammy's face when she found out.  

PussPuss had a love-tolerate relationship with Malcolm.  Grammy adopted the little scamp to be company for PussPuss when she'd be away for her job...overnight or sometimes longer.  Well, that backfired big time, or so it looked. Here's what happened. 

On the drive home from the adoption agency Malcolm scratched and chewed until his head popped through a hole in the cardboard carrier and yapped at Grammy, "Let me outta here!"  She managed to contain him from the car to and through the apartment door.  Not an easy task, so I hear. 

Thinking she'd introduce them slowly Grammy kept Malcolm in the carrier, set it on the floor and called PussPuss. 

While Puss often met her at the door this time she was caught napping.  Bleary eyed she sauntered out of the bedroom, over to Grammy and leaned in for a head scratch.  Suddenly, the impatient kitten popped open the lid of the carrier, startled and annoyed the sleepy girl. How dare he! She chased him into the kitchen.  Fortunately for Malcolm he scampered out of reach, to the top of the kitchen cupboards and the chubby girl was left behind.   He lived there for three days until he decided to brave her wrath. 
 
Long story short, for the rest of their lives together he loved her; she tolerated him... when Grammy was around.  BUT, to Grammy's surprise, one evening when she returned from a business trip, they didn't hear her come in the door and there they were, curled up together on the bed.  But not for long. Jumping apart and looking chagrined, Puss glowered at Malcolm AND Grammy and the love/tolerate relationship resumed.

After PussPuss passed Grammy and Malcolm grew closer than ever but both were sad until a friend mentioned a kitty who needed a home.  He was going to be euthanized as his family didn't want him anymore and already he'd been in a cage for a few months at the vet clinic.  He had behavioural issues and would require patience from his new family to overcome them.  Well, Grammy fell in love IMMEDIATELY, brought him home and introduced him to Malcolm.  It was a match made in heaven and the best medicine for all.

Montague, his new name,  brought sparkle back into the eyes of  both Grammy and the old-by-now geezer, Malcolm.   This little guy (14 months old) was full of life, mischief and silliness.  For 18 months they gave him the space he needed to adjust and overcome his issues. In return. he entertained them with his mischievous antics until one day his heart gave out.  Unbeknownst to anyone, former family, vet and Grammy he had health issues.  What a blow! Such a sweet boy, he is still missed. 

From then until he passed 4.5 years later Malcolm and Grammy lived a quiet life together. It wouldn't be fair to introduce another kitty.  The old boy was now blind, arthritic from his days of living outdoors mid-winter and for the last few years, senile.   He'd howl, disoriented, startling Grammy.  She would jump out of bed, speak quietly, pick him up then cuddle him into bed with her,  Contented and toasty warm, he'd purr them to sleep for the remainder of the night.

It was only a few months later that Grammy got into rescue work and mummy Whiskers and I became her first fosters, then a few years later, foster failures.  We were soon followed by the boys and a year later, Sweetie.   Over a few years others came through the revolving doors, staying a few days, weeks, months before being adopted... but once we 5 were adopted the rescuing had to end.  We were at our adoption limit and Grammy's soft heart couldn't be allowed the temptation anymore. 

There it is.... and here are a few photos to enjoy.

by Rondo, blogger and mischief maker

Good morning, Friends. 

Well, Grammy has definitely been visiting the land of nod or more correctly the land of odd.  You may have read on our page... her odd behaviour this morning.  If not, then read it here...

She looked out the window from her comfy armchair and said, 'Oh my!  We are living in the jungle! Check out the giraffes!'   We all scampered to the window to see what she was nattering on about.  Nothing!
 
We couldn't see anything unusual.  A bunch of condos, apartment buildings, office towers, the police station we supervise, the daycare and alternative school below us.  Same old, same old. What is she talking about?

Then between the apartment building and a condo through a gap is a construction site... a new group of condos  is in early stages of construction and in there are two cranes working the site.    Now, we might think they look like whooping cranes but giraffes?  Nah!

A beautiful white momma and her dusky orange baby swaying back and forth across the site.    So, while we think she must be loopy, we must be too... since while  we could see what she was looking at we had our own ideas about what they were.

Now back to a little sanity.  Here are a few winter photos for you to enjoy of us when we were younger.

Comments are welcomed.