by Mousie, Chronicler of Mischief and Mayhem Good morning, Friends. Well, let me see... not much to talk about this week but here goes... Unlike Buffalo and surround into Canada at Niagara and across lake Ontario to Kingston and the Eastern townships - areas outside of and surrounding Toronto - we only got a dusting of snow. Oh, it is cold. That's for sure. In fact, it is bitter cold. We are hunkered down in our beds, under blankets, on Grammy's lap anywhere there is a modicum of warmth. I even have my SnuggleSafe warming my bed. Grammy is bundled up, under her blanket, warm socks on her toesies , a heating pad at her back and a hand warmer on the arm of the chair. The scary part is that it is still autumn. It isn't even Winter yet! What's it going to be like when winter gets serious? We shudder just thinking about it. Time to go on-line and look for fleece-lined onsies for all of us kitties and ask/tell Grammy to knit everyone hats, mittens and booties. Yep, that's the ticket. "Ohhhhh Grammy! Get knitting... and where have you hidden that plastic money card? Grammy? Now, where'd she get to?" Well, folks, that's it for today. See you next week.
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And what might that have to do with today's topic?By Rondo, bothered and bewildered. Good morning, friends. Just a week ago Mousie was musing on a snowy day. Today we are looking at rain. Yes, you heard me right. RAIN! Here it is December 6th, a week later and the temperature is 11 degrees Celsius. That's 52 degrees for those using the Fahrenheit scale. This is totally unacceptable for December in my books. Especially since it is overcast and rainy. At temperatures like that we should have windows open and sun puddles pouring into the living-room. How else are we to get our Vitamin D levels up to acceptable levels? Etude: Hey! Stop a minute, Rondo, my boy. Didn't you just hear the 10 AM weather forecast? Temperature is dropping to below 0 Celsius (32 F) and rain changing to freezing rain, with slick, slippery roads for the evening commute. Well!!! That's more like it. Not the freezing stuff and slippery roads part, but December ought to be cold and spent snuggling in warm beds, in front of a crackling fire enjoying hot apple cider and ginger cookies. So what ought we to do on such a discombobulated day? Well, I don't know about you but I'm going to go crawl into my fuzzy, though extremely small daytime cat bed. Hint! Hint! Grammy!!!!!!!!!!!! Extremely SMALL! GRAMMY?? Now, where did she go? Then, after my nap I plan to make a list for the old GAL and at the top of the list: 1 LARGE, FLUFFY, SHEARLING-lined CAT BED heater included. I think I might write it in GREEN ink and underline it in RED and BOLD the whole thing. Yes, that's what I plan to do. I don't understand how Mousie can have a bed, NO, make that TWO beds that are big enough for three of her and I get a puny chipmunk-sized bed. AND imagine how ETUDE must feel. He's bigger than I - like 20% bigger than this handsome fellow (that's me!). His fluffbutt hangs out of all beds even one that is big enough for three Mousies. Imagine him trying to fit into my skimpy bed? In all situations the poor guy is bound to get a chill in his nether-regions. In fact, if not careful those nether regions might freeze and drop off. Horrors! GRAMMY! make that 2 Shearling-lined CAT BEDS. 1 Large and 1 Great Dane-sized for Etude. Friends, I've decided to show how utterly deprived we are.... Warning, be prepared for the shocking photos below. Editor Comment: As I post this for the vociferous complainant, let me clarify... There are more cozy beds for kitties - even Great Dane-sized kitties - than you can imagine. More shearling-lined toasty resting spots for them than for the one who pays the bills. AND if that isn't enough there are heated SNUGGLE-SAFES and MAGIC BAGS warmed up and put into those beds morning and evening through each month with the letter R in it. Comments are encouraged. We love the humorous ones especially. Hugs! by Mousie, frozen furball. Good morning, friends. Brrrrr!!! Snow accompanied November as it arrived yesterday. Yuck. That means, winter woollens, long johns and all the paraphernalia to stay warm are needed. It's time for Grammy to set aside her sweater and start knitting, blankets, tuques and mittens for us. Sweetie put in an order for a sleeping bag. The boys want blankets. Etude ordered pink; Rondo wants Rosy Red. As if I couldn't guess. We girls are just happy to get whatever Grammy makes though we won't hold our breaths. Well, that's it for this week. Stay warm, stay safe and bundle up masks and all if you go out. Cuddles for everyone. Comments are welcomed. By Whisker, Matriarch of Mischief and Mayhem Well dear friends, this one is going to be short. Why? Well, as you know we've been on hiatus for a few days. To put it mildly, Grammy is lacking energy. Sounds like she just wants a time out, don't you think? Slacker, Grammy! Oh Mousieeeee! Any chance you'll take dictation for me? Silence! Guess she's sleeping. Okay, Brrr! If I must I'll take off my mittens and do my best on the keyboard. OH WOW! It's actually quite mild. Who knew? The boys said it was a delightful day yesterday - low to mid 40s - and said I could remove my ear tuques. I'm not quite there yet. They look at me like I'm nutso! Did you notice how warm it was, friends? I thought not! But, it is interesting how low 40s is quite chilly in the autumn but delightfully warm leading into spring. Funny that! But I don't trust those boys. No, I don't. Now we hear from Aunty L that today might reach mid to high 50s. Well, actually she said the temperature could rise to 15 C. Same thing! Can you imagine? This is amazing and welcomed if true. But if so, I might require a grooming to remove excess fur so I don't overheat. Oh Grammyyyyyyyy! Where is she? Oh, there you are. GRAMMY! Put the Furminator, Comb, Static Brush and Wire Rake on standby! I may need a good going over! *shivers with delight* I do love a good groom. Oh, that Grammy! She's such a downer! She told me not today, and maybe not until next week. And... don't pack away those earmuffs yet... that this is just Spring teasing us. Soon the temperature will drop once again. Like I said, Grammy's such a downer! We were so looking forward to windows open, bird song filtering in and the beginning of blossoms budding on the trees. Well, time will tell. Oh, speaking of such things you may want to check out Rondo's poetry. It is under the category Poetry Etc. by Rondo. Or you can just click on the blog here Spring! Oh how I long for it! And one last thing... this week we'll get to see the full moon. Last night, 5 days before,we took a snap of the moon. Looks pretty full to me. Check it out below. On that note, this old girl is going to stop typing. Time to crawl into my fluffy, soft, marshmallow bed for a nap! Move over Mousie! Make room for Mummy. See you around friends. Comments are welcomed. Make them funny, won't you? by Gentle Mousie, mini-investigator and chilly kitten looking for warmth Hello, dear friends. Here we are just barely one week into September and it is a gazillion degrees below zero....Brrrrr! We don't have heat yet at the condo. They won't switch us over from air conditioning until later in the month. Last year at this time it was still toasty and delightful and we were grateful that the heat wasn't turned on. Not so, this year. Tonight Grammy despite warm blankets is shaking the whole condo with her shivering and I'm huddled under a blanket, mittens on my kittenpaws, a toque on my head, a warming disc under my tummy and a heater trying to warm my butt. Still I'm cold. BRRRRRR. I, Gentle Mousie, the furry popsicle despite all the additions to my wardrobe and furnishings am braving the cold to find out what happened. I have a few theories. Let's look at them. That nasty hurricane that hit the east coast of North America this past weekend sucked all our heat into it's vortex leaving hardworking kittizens cold. Is this possible? It seems logical when we hear the weather reports. Maybe that is what happened. OR.... Grammy forgot to pay the heating bill. Could be, but not likely. She assures me it's paid. OR more likely.... Those overheated cowkitty blubber brothers of mine blocked out the sun. It was cloudy and overcast all day yesterday and worse today ... a pretty good indicator that this is a viable possibility. Or maybe those big duffers are soaking up all the heat from the sun as it penetrates the atmosphere. Think maybe we should blame them, don't you? Well, I'm too cold to think up anymore theories tonight. Think I'll hunker down with Grammy under the duvet until morning and return to the blog then. So this morning isn't much better but at least we all had a toasty night curled up together under the duvet or snuggling with our friends on sofa, chairs, cat beds, on pillows and wherever else we could find warmth. Everyone was huddled and snuggled in tight. Not sure Grammy got much sleep with all our giggling, though at one point we did hear her purring. Now to tell you about our afternoon yesterday before it got so cold. We had visits from lots of friends while Grammy was out. Darcy and Aunties Phyllis, Diane and Debbie, the Hartwig mischiefs, the Muddy Waters crew, Virgin Island girls and Frodo, RAINA, of course and many others. RAINA and I had such fun scaring Etude. There he was standing on the balcony watching for the arrival of his sweet 'Songbird'... oblivious to what was going on behind him. I, Mousie, went across the hall to the neighbour and got permission for RAINA to land on their balcony ... then we crept across the hall, over to the balcony door and behind Etude. A sudden 'BOO!' and the poor fellow just about went over the balcony. Luckily he has substantial love handles which we grabbed on time. *giggles* It was the greatest fun. We had hoped to scare a few pounds off him but, no! Whiskers wasn't amused and gave us both a time out... but that's okay. We giggled and planned more mischief while in our penalty box. Darcy and the Hartwig mischiefs each brought their favourite games with them. We played Twister and then a rousing game of Trivial Purrsuit - Feline Edition. Wow! Should have seen Darcy.... she won at Twister... a veritable extendible, bendible girl. No wonder it's her favourite game. Of course, Rondo was knocked off the 'board' in the first round but then, maybe that was the plan. Rosamund and Grizabella had just arrived and he is smitten with the two beauties. As he left the floor we heard the girls sighing as he started reciting his poetry. *giggles* Wow, those Hartwig mischiefs are truly smart little kitties. They started off the game of Trivial Purrsuit but let us all play and only threw out hints for us. Such sportscatship. The three aunties were pretty amazing at the game too. My oh my, the things we learned about Felis Felidae. Won't go into it at the moment, but we are an interesting species. Well, we sure worked up an appetite with all the gaming and joke telling and teasing. Luckily Grammy had filled the fridge with delicious treats. Of course, she thought that was for the next couple of weeks but hey! No lock on the fridge door suggests the contents are free to all. Turkey slices, chicken nuggets, mackerel, salmon and tuna, platters of seafood, and piles of tater salad and the amazing southern comfort baskets brought by RAINA. To top it all off there was an wondrous array of sweets baked by our Muddy Waters crew under the watchful eye of my sweet Cheffy. Well, dear friends. that's it for this week. I need a nap while this full belly digests its contents. Comments welcomed. Especially if they are fun and/or silly. by Mousie, Reporter of terrible, horrible stuffs Happy Monday, friends. I have to tell you about our terrible horrible day. It was terrible and horrible. Really it was. Okay you need a little background first. It all started a gazillion days ago... like in the middle of winter when we had lots of snow. Do you all remember we reported on Facebook that Grammy had a leak where melted snow seeped in from the balcony under the new kitchen floor tiles and into the diningroom lifting the newly finished hardwood floor? Well, the maintenance superintendent was worried. So worried he investigated immediately. Long story short, he identified where the water was seeping in. He advised Grammy to keep that side of the balcony shoveled and came back with his spade to clear the area that night. Yes, he's a super super! Teehee. Next morning he returned to make sure everything was drying up. On inspecting the balcony further he noticed where the caulking had come loose and said he'd arrange for someone to come in spring to recaulk the balcony floor where the leak was. In the meantime in the diningroom Grammy put down towels and weighed them down with tool boxes and anything else that would keep the hardwood from warping. By morning the worst of the wet had dried and fresh towels put down remained dry. Phew! The new floor was saved. Well, next day Grammy went out and bought the same shovel (seeing as how it was super too, just like the super super) and kept the balcony clear for the rest of the winter and spring - right up to the last snowfall a month ago. CRAZY right? Almost the end of April and we had more snow. True to his word, Bill, the superintendent arranged for the caulking repair for early May. So that is the background and brings me to the terrible horrible day. Grammy was advised that the repair work would be done Wednesday and/or Thursday and to be sure that we were safe in the bedroom. The workmen would not do the work if we were loose in the hoose. *Giggle* Well, Grammy got up, had her shower and got ready to go to her volunteer work after feeding us. THEN when she was ready to go she put out a big bowl of water on a boot tray IN THE BEDROOM. Something she never does because the boys splash the water all over the floor. Woohoo! Something new to entertain us! AND she set up a large bowl of kibble in there too. Now, you know normally we are separated during meal times... boys in the kitchen and diningroom and the girls in the bedroom. This joint meal was going to be a bonus for the boys since they aren't normally free fed while we are. That's because we girls aren't gluttons. Woohoo! The boys were dancing for joy! And how does she manage this separation? With a cat flap in the bedroom door. We girls are allowed to come and go as we please but the boys are too chubby to get through the door flap. The boys were dancing for joy as I just said. Free feeding. Woohoo! Little did we know what was coming. Oh... a little aside here..... Etude tried to go through the cat flap once and got stuck. Grammy had to rescue him as he straddled head and front paws hanging on the bedroom side while butt, hind legs and tail hung on the hall side. It was too funny! Just picture Winnie the Pooh stuck in Rabbit's hole. That was our Etude. Bulging in the middle of his tummy. Teehee. Luckily we didn't need to leave him there until he lost weight like Pooh. No! Grammy braced his hind feet and pushed his butt through to the bedroom side with a sluuurp, kerplunk. Embarrassed, he slunk into the diningroom after Grammy opened the door and headed straight for his feed bowl. Yep! That's our Etude. But he's never tried to go through the cat flap again and Rondo, quick learner that he is, decided he wouldn't bother embarrassing himself. Teehee. So back to our terrible horrible day... Once Grammy put out the food we all gathered around for a chow and she sneaked out of the bedroom and closed the door trapping us inside. She'd even latched the flap so we girls couldn't escape. NASTY GRAMMY! We rattled the door and called to her to let us out, sang the song of our people to alert the neighbours of the abuse, but she ignored us, the neighbours ignored us and Grammy left for her volunteer work with our plaintive howls in her ears. To no avail! We were ignored! Boohoo! THEN the noisy man arrived, let himself in, tromped to the balcony and proceeded to scrape and bump around out there. We could hear him and called to him that we were trapped. We rattled the cat flap and meowed as loud as we could. Please let us out! PLEASE! But he ignored our thrashing and wailing while he worked. When he was done though, he did open our door. Grammy had left a note to ask him to release us. Phew. Finally we were free. What a terrible, horrible day! But there's more. Grammy arrived home and we were scattered around the livingroom enjoying our freedom. NASTY Grammy for locking us up. The good thing is that the balcony floor against the wall is recaulked and should be leak free next winter. Yahoo. No, that's not the end of or Terrible Horrible Day. Grammy ignored us, didn't give us any treats or special food and wouldn't pet us when she arrived home. She said she was exhausted, needed a nap and proceeded to stretch out on her bed for a gazillion hours. No play time for us. That's just mean, abusive, don't you think? THEN!!!! At bedtime Grammy closed the balcony doors so we couldn't enjoy the fresh night air. She said there were raccoons fighting in the courtyard and it wasn't safe because they could climb walls and might come onto our balcony and screens could be torn. Well, we thought we could have a party with them since we'd had such a terrible, horrible day but she said, NO PARTY!!! Yes, with three exclamation marks. Party pooper!!! We can do three exclamation marks too. So there! She said if they were fighting it was probably mating season or they had babies and they would be aggressive. And we fluffballs were no match for a bunch of masked marauders. Harrumph! *giggle* Etude says the harrumph sounds funny coming from a little mousie girl. Harrumph, Etude! *giggles again* So we were trapped all day, no playtime with Grammy and then suffocated all night. She's so mean. Maybe we need to search for a new Can Opener/Pooper Scooper/Wand Wielder. Any takers? We pay well! What, Sweetie? CO/PS/WW pays us? Oh! So friends, you would pay us with treats. Yes, treats! Oh! That sounds great. Bring treats if you want the job. Oh, and when Grammy was napping, we inspected her knitting. Teehee... someone, name not disclosed but starts with a squiggly capital letter, SHE nibbled through an exposed bit of yarn.... on a seamless, supposedly one ball, single strand sweater that then required a join... But that's a story for another time. Yikes! Maybe things were not so terribly horrible after-all - at least not as terribly horrible as when Grammy sees the sweater, that is. Yikes. What do you think? Friends, comments are welcomed. AND the site is supposedly fixed. So please leave comments, we love to hear from you, our readers. Keep it light and fun. By Gentle Mouse, aka Mousie To begin with, dear friends, you have probably noticed that our page has changed. Yes, we had some problems with the old template and since it was no longer supported we were forced to change. We hope you like the new look. Now! To the crux of our misadventure... Grammy and I were almost swept into Lake Ontario. Yes we were. I was being dragged to see Dr WhiteCoat for a goopy eye that didn't get better with L-Lysine. First clue that something worse was going on. As you all know, Grammy has been fighting the flu followed by another virus and a cold then shoulder pain and more. Because of this she didn't notice when mummy Whiskers had more teary discharge from her eyes than usual and I had a lot too. Well, as soon as she did she added the L-Lysine to our wet food and Mummy's eyes cleared right up but mine didn't. SO two days later it was off to vettieland for me. YUCK! Grammy is getting quite adept at scooping me into the carrier.... She's a sneaky one. She put the carrier on the dresser and left the room for hours and I let my guard down and crawled into my blankie for a wee nap. Mid-afternoon there she was peaking at me like she does and I just blinked and relaxed 'cause she does that now and again. Well, she reached into my blankie and scooped me out and into the lamb fleece lined carrier before I could protest. She is a sneaky poopyhead. I had to tell her what I thought so I screamed at her. (Grammy here – I would not call ‘meep, meep, meep’ screaming. It was hardly audible more like a squeaky mouse. HAHA! Mouse! Definitely not screaming.) Hey, who's telling this story, Grammy. Shush! I screamed, friends and continued to scream all the way down the elevator and into the vehicle. Now the forecast for last Friday was high winds and intermittent short showers and we got caught in it travelling there and back. When we were dropped off to transfer to another vehicle the wind grabbed the cart with me on it and I flew around Grammy like a kite in a zephyr. Woohoo! Such fun! But I don't think Grammy would agree. She was struggling to hang onto me, keep upright against the wind and not hurt her shoulder and hip anymore. And we were being swept closer to the lake! Not a good place to be on a windy day. Well, we finally made it after a few more windy glitches. Grammy had a senior moment and got off the bus at the wrong address... (Same street, just 299, should have been 199, goofy Grammy!) and then had to cart me three blocks further. The whole time the wind whipped against us and sent me sailing again, two or three times. Boy, it almost reminded me of ballooning with Raina, our pal only ballooning wouldn't be allowed in gale force winds. We finally arrived, and none too soon. Grammy was exhausted and I’d almost lost all my fur – blown away on the blustery wind. Dr WhiteCoat checked my eye and took bloodwork, gave Grammy instructions on how to care for the eye and then plunked this big blue collar on me. It was so heavy that I couldn't hold up my head and I couldn't see anywhere except in front of me. GET IT OFF ME! Meep OFF! Meep PLEASE! Meep Phew! Dr WhiteCoat removed it. What a lovely lady. NOT! Know what she did then? She got out garden shears - you know those big ones for trimming hedges... yes, Big, BIg, BIG scissors to cut down the collar and plunked it back on me. Meanie. She said it was so I wouldn't clean off the medicine. WHAT! What medicine? I don't need medicine. Then she jabbed me with a needle in my hip and poked out my eye with her finger and this nasty goop. (Grammy here again - she didn't poke out the eye. She put ointment in it.) SHUSH GRAMMY, this is my story. Now, where was I? Oh yes... The Doctor poked out my eye and scrubbed it with gauze before she put it back and stickied it up with goop. Then she said take the little baby home and I'll call you. I'm NOT A LITTLE BABY! I'm delicate and petite. I scampered back into my carrier annoyed that she’d say I was a baby! Before we could pay POW! Out went the hydro electric. The power was knocked out by the wild winds. Unkie (our driver) had arrived to take us home. Not much else we could do without power but ... Such excitement. Everyone was discombobulated... so we left. And as we stepped outside the door it happened again, the cart flew up in the air again, my blankie blew away and Grammy almost landed on her bum *teehee* I said bum. *giggles behind paws* Well, Unkie ran to get the blanket which was half way down the street to the lake, then helped us into the car while dodging signs and debris as it whipped along the sidewalk. Wow! That was dangerous stuff. Unkie almost got hit a couple of times but he ducked quickly. Finally settled inside the car we felt safe so, we started out for home.... and on the way the car rocked and swayed and trembled in the wind like a giant was playing zoomies with it. Unkie is a great driver so he got us home safe and then skedaddled off to his home before the winds got worse. Thank you Unkie for driving us home! When we came in from our adventure the rest of the crew ran away from me. Rondo said I was an alien while Etude said no, not an alien an iguana (cause of my ruffles, I guess). Mummy hissed at me and Sweetie fluffed up her tail and arched her back. What's wrong with you guys? It's me Mousie, I said. Noooooooooo! You can't be Mousie, she doesn't smell yucky and she doesn't have a big blue thing around her neck. You're an alien iguana something. Well, I showed them. Grammy gave us our dinner and nobody would eat near me so I ate it all - all by myself. Hahaha ! And it was delicious! Comments are welcomed, friends. Let's keep it light and fun. |
AuthorFive Cats, Five Personalities, One Goal - Mischief & Mayhem. Archives
August 2023
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