Trina's page of Blogginess

Even after 8 years, Noe stills finds new ways to surprise us...

update
She stayed/slept in there for 6.5 hours. She just got out. Now, I can do some laundry! :)

Labels: kitties

I like this photo that I just took of Marcel. What a cute kitty. :)

Labels: kitties

I Spy two kitties!

Can you find them both?

Labels: kitties

... Always a traumatic experience for all involved.

Labels: kitties

Yep, I'm still here! I seem to have caught a bit of a chest cold after we got back from vacation. Nothing too serious, but it's been keeping me from running around, and from having the inclination to blog.

So, what does one do when one's a little down with a cold?

Why, one plays with one's camera and takes some fun and goofy cat pictures, of course!

Labels: kitties

Underneath the sink, on top of the heated floor, in the new bathroom.

Labels: kitties

Okay, I just figured out how to edit and compress my videos in iMovie. (I heart my Mac!) It's down to a mere 1.2 MB now. Go figure. If only I'd tried that first.

Here we go: Wrestling Kitties, Take 2!

This one is particularly hysterical: Marcel wrestling with Noe.

Every once in a while, the big cat feels the need to prove that he's the Alpha Male Cat in the house.

Poor little Noe. She doesn't stand a chance. He just plops right down on top of her, and weighs her down with his enormous girth.

Here's the thing: Noe has claws. She doesn't know that she can use them.
Marcel doesn't have claws. He's the only cat she's ever known, so she doesn't know she's supposed to use them.

If only she'd figure this out. Everything would change.

Labels: kitties, video

I don't have many videos. Just a few random ones that I take with my little PowerShot camera - mostly of the cats.

This is actually my second attempt now. The first one I tried to upload was of our big cat, Marcel, wrestling with with our little cat, Noe. It's hysterical. Unfortunately, It's 120 MB, and I just figured out that google's upload limit is 100MB.update: I figured it out. I compressed it in iMovie, and was able to upload it to this post.

So, here's my second selection.

This is a video of Dick wrestling with Noe. They do this almost daily. She acts all ferocious - hissing, and growling, but we know she loves it! The two of them have been playing like this since she was a little kitten.

Labels: kitties, video

Marcel is such a good kitty.
He likes to cuddle with me in bed :).

Labels: kitties

what on Earth were they thinking?

Yes, I love my cats. You all know that.

Every once in a while, they do something really bad, and I just can't understand just what was going on inside their little heads.

I bought a couple of new throw pillows for our sofa last week. I didn't think anything of it, and we've had them for more than a full week now.

When I was eating breakfast and watching TV this morning, I smelled that all-too-familiar smell.

Uh-oh.

someone had decided that they didn't like the new pillows, so they pee-ed on it, which also meant that they pee-ed on the sofa! And not just any sofa - the really nice sofa - the one with the fancy material that would stain easier than most.

So I did what I always do in a time of crisis: I called my Mom.
she gave me some good suggestions.

I blotted the sofa with dry towels first, then blotted the with a wet (with water) rage to try to dilute the urine. Then I blotted it again with dry towels. Finally I sprayed an odor-eliminating product that's supposed to be good for pet accidents.

It's all been drying for a few hours now. I won't know how bad the stain is until it's dry.

The topper is that today is Noe's 7th Birthday. I don't know if I'm supposed to sing to her, or fuss at her. :(

Labels: A day in the life, kitties

I just walked into the bedroom and found Dick and Marcel reading a book together. Couldn't resist taking a picture. :)

Dick just started reading Harry Potter Book 4. It's one of Marcel's favorites.

Labels: dick, harry potter, kitties

four eyes, two ears, and a cone

Labels: kitties

stop the madness!

It's been a long week here at His 'n Her Condos. Noe's wound is on the mend, but she still needs to wear the cone over her head most of the time. Poor Marcel doesn't know what's going on. We've been keeping him away from Noe, just in case he decides to pounce on her, or wrestle.

All of this has brought about a lot of crying cats during the past week.

Here's how it goes:

what we hear : our translation

Noe: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr : I can't believe you're making me wear this frickin' cone on my head. This sucks! Take it off! Take it off!

(we take the cone off several times a day to allow her to eat, drink, and clean - while supervised.)

Noe: grumble, grumble, grumble : Stop following me around the house. Leave me alone!

Noe: MEOW! YOW! : No! Don't put that thing back on! Don't do it! I'll be good! I'll be good!

Noe: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr : I hate this thing. You guys suck.

Marcel: MEOW! MEOW! : Hey! What are you guys doing to the kitten? What's wrong? Why is she crying?

Marcel: MEOW! MEOW! : HEY! I'm hungry! When's the last time I ate? FEED ME!

Marcel: MEOW! MEOW! : Noe is still crying a lot! Maybe I should cry now, too!

*sigh*
This should last for another week or so...

Labels: A day in the life, kitties

A couple of months ago, I realized that our "big cat", Marcel, would be turning 13 years old later this year.

This made me a little sad, as this means that Marcel is slowly but surely becoming an "older cat".

One thing that occurred to me is that several times a day, Marcel jumps up to and down from our bed. Our be has a pillow-top mattress, and is pretty high off the ground. Marcel is usually able to jump high enough to make it, but every once in a while, the poor guy misses.

Also, whenever he jumps down from our bed to the hardwood floors, you always hear a loud "Ker-Plunk!" when he lands. I worry that someday he might injure himself by falling or landing wrong. He's a hefty little guy, and I don't know what kind of strain his little legs are under when he lands.

I brought up my concerns to Dick, and suggested that we should be pro-active in keeping Marcel safe from injuries caused by a fall by investing in some kitty stairs for him. Dick agreed that it was a good idea.

We found several sets of stairs on the web, but decided on this one.

This was the perfect height to allow Marcel easy access to the top of our bed, plus it was more narrow than other models (usually made for larger dogs) so it wouldn't take up too much space in our small bedroom.

Bonus: we were able to order it in a leopard print, which makes us laugh.

We were a little concerned that Marcel wouldn't take to the stairs, and wouldn't use them.

When the stairs were delivered, Dick enticed Marcel with a couple of treats and voila! He got it instantly, and has been using them ever since!

It's really funny to be lying in bed at night or in the morning, and seeing Marcel climb up and down his stairs. I think he really likes them.


In my mind, Marcel is saying, "Hey, guys! This is cool! Thanks for the stairs!"

Labels: kitties

It's been awfully cold here lately. In order to warm up, our kitties have been parking themselves in front of the heater vents. Their favorite is the vent in the dining room.


chilly kitties

Labels: kitties

It's practically a Christmas Miracle!

After several years of having problems with our kitties peeing underneath the Christmas Tree, I'm happy to announce that we've officially had our first pee-free Christmas!

We just finished putting away the Artificial Christmas Tree and all of our decorations. I'm so proud my kitties! We didn't have a single "situation" this year!

Last year, we bought our first artificial tree, assuming that our kitties were being territorial because of the "outside smells" that the fresh trees brought with them. That didn't work.

The year before, we thought we were safe because we assumed that Claude had been the one who started all the problems, and he wouldn't be visiting. That didn't work either.

I think we finally came to an understanding:

This year, I continued to place a plastic liner underneath the tree (in case we had a mishap), but I decided not to put the white sheets underneath the tree until we had all of the gifts underneath. It occurred to me that in years past, we only had problems with the kitties when there weren't any gifts under the tree yet (before or after Xmas). Dick and I also realized that our kitties have a history of peeing on any type of cloth (towels, laundry, etc.,) that's been left on the floor. For some reason, they think material left on the ground needs to be marked.

So, I didn't put the sheet under the tree until it was filled with gifts, and I took the sheet out from under the tree immediately after the gifts were opened.

That seemed to have done the job! It wasn't terribly pretty (plastic sheet under the tree..) but at least we didn't have a Xmas-Tree-Peeing blog post this Christmas! (My kitties were relieved!) I'm so glad we've finally come to an understanding.


Happy Christmas Tree

Labels: kitties

Marcel, our big cat, has taken to sleeping with me in the morning.

Every evening, when we feed Marcel his dinner, we also set his timer on his feeder to open up at 6:00am for his breakfast. (this prevents us from having to wake up early everyday from his cries of hunger - it only took us about 4 years to figure this out!)

Two times over the past week, I've noticed that Marcel has slept with me, and left the bed promptly at 6:00am. The first time it happened, I heard the Grandfather clock downstairs chime to 6, then watched as Marcel left the bed to go eat.

"Hmmmm...", I thought. Good timing!

This morning, I woke up early, but stayed in bed because I was cold, and I had a big, cuddly cat snuggling with me. I watched as the clock on my nightstand turned to 6:00, and sure enough, Marcel promptly hopped off the bed.

I thought, "Surely, this is more than just a coincidence. His internal clock can't be that accurate. Perhaps he's hearing the sound of his feeder opening up?"

I was awake, and wanted to turn up the heater anyhow, so I thought I'd follow Marcel to his feeder. He was staring at it, as it was mere minutes away from opening. I turned the knob a bit and opened it for him.

Since it hadn't opened on it's own, I know that Marcel did not hear the feeder open before leaving the bed.

Perhaps he's learned how to tell time!
The clock on my nightstand is digital, after all! ;)

When Dick woke up this morning, I informed him that we have a very intelligent kitty!
Maybe he'll teach Noe how to tell time, too!

Labels: kitties

As I write this, I am again laying in bed in my old room at my parent's house.

I'm very happy to because my kitty Claude has decided to spend some good quality time with me. He's sleeping at the foot of my bed, making me feel very much at home.

What a nice Host-Kitty!

Labels: kitties

With all of the excitement surrounding the impending arrival of Omar & Lora's baby, my parents wanted to make sure that their first "child" didn't feel left out.

They bought Misha (a cat, not actually a baby) this very cute blue cat tent for the Russian Blue kitty (and a distant cousin of Mom & Dad's kitty, Claude).

Misha seemed to like it a lot, and hopped right in!

Labels: kitties

It's tough being a kitty in this house...

Labels: kitties