by Etude, Mr Attitude. Oh brother! Hi friends. Can you believe it? We almost had to rush Grammy into the emergency room this week. Well, not really! I'm exaggerating a bit but that wee Mousie has been so darned cute this past week. And cute interprets into sweet, thus the sugar overload. Here's what's been happening... Mousie spends most of her time in the bedroom and only joins us in the livingroom occasionally - usually when meals are due or overdue, which happens a lot, let me tell you. (Cheap help! What more need we say?) But if Mousie comes snuffling around Grammy responds. We don't understand that. Of course, the tail tickling the back of Grammy's neck might be a clue to her moving but otherwise... When we ask for food she ignores us and says things like, 'you just ate an hour ago!' or 'it's 45 minutes until your next feeding time!' For goodness sake, we're cats. We don't have watches, only tummies that grumble. They are our time pieces. But, while the old girl ignores us she won't ignore the little mouse. Up she jumps and heads to the kitchen! Okay so, back to Mousie and sugar. Grammy has been going into the bedroom more regularly to interact with the wee Mouser (part of her get up and move frequently throughout the day exercise). Lately, whenever she does she leans over the bed and rubs foreheads with Mousie as she reclines in her marshmallow bed and that activates the 'purr machine'. That purring is louder and bigger than the little puss, by far. It is the loudest motor we've ever heard. Louder than mine and even louder than our vocal Rondo. Well, when Grammy hears the motor going she melts. Yes, she becomes a soppy puddle of goohs and gahs. 'Oh Mousie, you are just so adorable! I want to pick you up and cuddle you!' and then the sugar rush begins. Mousie seems to like the attention because now she does it every time Grammy visits the bedroom and the glucose levels are rising further and further. Pretty soon we'll need to get insulin for the old dear. Women! The other thing the little Mouser does is pose for Grammy in the cutest ways. These cause further sugar rushes. It's so disgusting! Of course, it isn't disgusting when we do. (Well, don't tell Grammy but we think Mousie's a cutiepie too BUT, so are the rest of us!) Pictures of Mousie (and us) to follow.
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by Sweetie, motivator and fitness trainer. Good morning, dear friends. Not sure if you have made resolutions for 2021. If not, I'd be happy to help you with some. Grammy, as usual, hasn't made any... so I've put together a few for her. 1. Feed us on demand... ours... not hers, 2. Play with us every day at least 5 times a day, 3. Share the bed - not take it over, 4. Cuddles.... give us lots and lots of cuddles, snuggles and kisses, 5. Groom us daily, 6. Feed us on demand... ours... not hers. And the resolutions we furballs have set for ourselves ... 1. Do our daily fitness routine: examples of a fitness routine specifically designed for the M&M crew shown in slideshow below. 2. Accept all pampering with grace and equanimity. Yes, that's it for us. *giggles* Comments are welcomed. 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. 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. By Etude, Mischief Extraordinaire. Good morning dear friends, Not much to say today. Grammy's meds are still bugging her tummy and making her feel miserable. We know this because her coffee consumption is decreased substantially and she has no appetite. Subsisting on chicken noodle Cup-a-Soup and crackers and the odd meal she gets her nourishment but it leaves her with little energy. Yuck. The good thing is that she knits to distract herself and she sleeps a lot. We like that part. If she sleeps then we are free to either sleep or get into mischief. Well, 30% of the time we opt for mischief and the other 70% is split between eating and sleeping. When Grammy knits I snuggle in on the arm of her chair and keep her right hip warm and alternate between staring at her with adoration and napping. When she sleeps I cuddle up under the duvet on the bed or nearby. Being the good boy I am, I like to keep a close eye on her. *adjusts halo* Sweetie is the cheekiest mischief. She bounces on Grammy's wobbly bits when she's sitting or the middle of her back when she's napping, then takes a flying leap and runs a marathon around the condo. When Grammy knits she nips at her yarn and needles and drives her to distraction. *giggles* We love her spunk - Sweeties', not Grammy's. Rondo has decided that Whiskers' former carrier is a perfect bed and hunkers down in it to sleep. The toy box is above it on the cat tree. He and I take turns taking toys out of the box and tossing them around the condo meowing at full volume to be sure Grammy wakes up. Sometimes it works. Other times she finds the toys in the morning scattered all around the livingroom and bedroom. *giggles* Mousie is the only one who behaves herself at night. She either curls up on Grammy's pillow or in her marshmallow bed and naps until Grammy wakes up, then demands lots of kisses for being a good girl all night long. Such a little grammy's girl! But then, she's old and frail and deserves all the kisses she can get. It's the good life, for sure. Comments are welcomed. By Mousie, chronicler of mischief and mayhem. Hello dear friends. I'm not going to mention what happened to everyone's lives this year... but just touch on our summer and up to now. First and foremost, spring for us was not nice. Grammy, the old dear, had been battling fatigue since the previous October and finally they had a diagnosis. Along with it came a need to isolate since it was another autoimmune issue and with meds she would be further immune compromised. Little did we realize this would last for months and is still on-going due to these other 'issues'. For us it would be great. We had Grammy home 24/7 except for medical appointments, bloodwork and visits to the pharmacy for meds. How delightful. Grammy would rub our tummies, brush us, feed us meals and treats and totally pamper us. Little did we realize that she'd knit more than mollycoddle us. Yes, that's what the old dear did. When she was tired she slept and when she was up she knitted. Bah humbug! That wasn't the plan we had in mind. But knit she did. And care for Whiskers until she passed in July, of course. This went on through spring and into August. Then one day she got a brilliant idea. She decided to hammer the floor with her body. Why? No idea! How her brain works, or doesn't is another question we cannot answer. Silly woman. So, the floor won. No more knitting for a while! Yahoo! More cuddles for us, we thought. Nope!!! The old dear started reading borrowed ebooks from her local library. Well, that took care of that! At least she would pet us in between page changes on the iPad. All was not lost... just not as perfect as we'd anticipated. Well, the broken bone has healed but it will take a while to get the use of her shoulder back. That's okay. She can still pet us. But unfortunately, she's back to knitting. Grrrr! Oh, and just so you know... Sweetie isn't allowed to assist with the knitting so she's a grumpy puss. The boys are still big bullies. Lucky for Grammy I'm perfectly sweet. Comments are welcomed. by Gentle Mousie, cutiepie and tail chaser. Good morning, friends. We'll keep this short since it is hard for Grammy to use the keyboard. The old girl's arm is purple from shoulder to wrist and has a long way to go before the broken humerus bone heals. Her wrist has to rest on the keyboard to allow her fingers to type... tiring and somewhat painful. BUT, she insisted I tell you she watched me chasing my tail again the other day. I like chasing it. It teases me as it wiggles and wafts elusively past my paws. I cannot help it. Grammy laughs because when I do finally catch it and bite it I yelp! I keep forgetting it is attached to me. *giggles* Enjoy the photos... and hopefully we'll be back next week with another short blog. Comments are welcomed. Keep them cute like Sweetie and me or funny like Etude and Rondo. Sweetie, chronicler of Important Dates and especially Mischief. Good morning, friends. We've been gone most of the summer... but we're back. We cannot promise to be back weekly but we'll do our best to keep Grammy in line. She is still knitting like crazy... nothing new there but in addition she's been busy with us. Firstly, Mousie had her birthday... August 10th is her designated date and this year she turned 10 years young. She's such a precious little mischief. We love her and hope despite her many health challenges she'll be with us for a long while yet. And I'm sure you all know that we lost our dear matriarch, Whiskers, 5 weeks ago. We do miss her terribly but are happy she isn't in pain anymore. Mousie is adjusting to life without her mummy... and has decided that Grammy is her new go-to for comfort, attention and cuddles. Grammy is over-the-moon happy about this - even when it means Mousie disturbs her sleep in the night for kisses and head butt or sits paws on her arm so she cannot knit. The old 'pay attention to me' trick and with that adorable face how can Grammy refuse? That's right. she cannot. And since we are on the subject of Mousie... Well, she is now our eldest kitty and should take on the title of Matriarch of Mischief but she is so tiny and so frail the crown seems a little heavy for her head. She is happy to pass it on but to whom? Me? No thank you. I'm the youngest... and am not quite ready for it. So should it be passed to one of the boys... Patriarch of Mischief? Heaven forbid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe we ought to go to a democratic system. What do you think? Maybe we'll retire the 'ruler over all' society and just go with our group name... Mischief and Mayhem Central. Members all in equal standing/sitting/lying down... whatever position we are in. Yes, I think that's it. Of course that makes for a problem when we come to a vote - 4 members / 4 votes / 2 girls / 2 boys. So.... what do we do to break a tie should there be one? Pass it to Grammy? *grimaces and groans all round* What's that, Rondo? You don't think we'll ever have fun again if Grammy makes the decisions?? Well, it hasn't stopped us in the past. Even when she squashed our plans we ignored her and went ahead with the mischief without her consent. Etude? You have something to contribute? We should rotate monthly as Group Leader - and during our tenure as GL we get 2 votes? That sounds ominous - especially if you boys hang together... You'll outweigh us every time. Oh, what am I saying? You boys outweigh us anyway. In fact, you outweighed us when there were three girls and only two of you. Well, I guess we'll have to toss this around for a while... but the day is moving on and Grammy wants to too. Yes, that infernal knitting!!!! Will it ever end? Not likely! But it keeps her happy and out of our hair when Mischief and Mayhem are on the menu. Have a happy day, week.... dear friends... We are thrilled to be back. P.S. And before we close .... Happy Birthday, Aunty Mommy Person, aka Aunty Maron, Virgin Islands. Comments are welcome. Especially if they are funny, punny or just plain adorable. by Whiskers, Matriarch of Mischief. Happy Monday, dear friends. We have decided to take it easy on Grammy today. She is on a roll with her knitting and we wish to support this. Maybe if we do she'll make us some nippy mice to play with or give us extra treats. What do you think? So instead of a long blog we are going to cut it short and give you a video slideshow to watch... it is a repeat but from a while ago so hopefully it'll feel new again. As you know, Grammy loves living in the city. It is close to amenities, has great health care, and has a vibrancy that energizes her. This video is from Grammy's many walks around her neighbourhood and to and from appointments. So without more ado, here is the link to our Youtube video Toodling around Toronto. Have a wonderful day. Comments are always welcomed. Good morning, dear friends. This post is coming from all of us.... and will be brief. There are things going on at Mischief and Mayhem Central and poor old Grammy is doing her best but as a result our page is very close to the bottom of her list at the moment. We wish you all a very happy, healthy and fun-filled week. Whisker, Mouse, Sweetie, Etude & Rondo. We love you. |
AuthorFive Cats, Five Personalities, One Goal - Mischief & Mayhem. Archives
August 2023
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