Tropical Storm Thundering Thursday

No pictures today. We are having a tropical storm with quite a lot of rain and thunder. Anyway, our whole garden appreciates the rain, but maybe not so much all at once.

Wordless Wednesday

Random Tuesday

In keeping with my plan to post a "random" picture on Tuesdays, I wanted to show you these pretty orchids from Mom and Dad's visit to the Orchid Show this past spring. I chose the yellow ones because I am thinking about my post for October 2nd, Livestrong Day. Are all of you going to do something special on your blogs for Livestrong Day?

Manly Blogoversary

Today is the one year anniversary of when I started my blog! It has been such a fun experience, because of all the great friends I have made all over the world. Thanks to everybody who reads my blog, especially those friends who comment often. I love reading your comments!

I plan to celebrate quietly, hopefully with some deck time: Dad spent the whole weekend getting it stained (two coats) and it really looks fabulous. I know he did it just for me. (Mom said it needed protection from the winter elements, but I know better).

Happy Monday, and purrs to anybody who is sad, or not feeling good today.

Sadness on Sunday

After a week when both Sniffie and Molly had to be helped to the Rainbow Bridge, we were so sad to learn yesterday that little Yuu-Chan had gotten his angel wings as well. Purrs go out to his dear #1, who we know is heartbroken to have lost her little boy at such a young age. Yuu was only just a little over a year old. The house in Perche will still be full with Tommy, Tama-Chan, Sei-Chan and Bibi-Chan there, but we know all of them keenly feel the loss of their little boy.

Mom helped me borrow the pictures here of Yuu-Chan - we hope #1 doesn't mind! We love them, each showing his handsomeness in a different way. He had such wonderful frootbat ears, and looked so handsome in the sunshine, and indoors as well. His coloring was always so magnificent.


As well as being a tribute to Yuu-Chan's short little life, I would like to dedicate this post to all the humans who have lost beloved pets this year, especially if they had to make the hard decision to help their dear ones to the Rainbow Bridge. In doing so, they gave their fur darlings the ultimate gift of love, to end their suffering and allow them to run and fly free.

PhotoHunt - Natural

Of course I could post a photo of myself for the theme "Natural" because I am naturally handsome, and a natural thing, being an animal and all. I am naturally floofy, have naturally long whiskers, etc etc. But I asked Mom to look through her photos for an interesting photo of something else natural, that was more scenic. We chose this photo taken when she and Dad were in Alaska and took a boat ride to Endicott Arm near Juneau. There were lots of small and larger icebergs from the glacier, and this one was especially interesting to look at. When icebergs are 'young" they can be especially blue, due to the pressure of the glacier compacting the ice. The water in this part was an unusual green color too.

Farewell and Floof on Friday

More sadness in the cat blogosphere today. Sweet Molly had to be helped to the Rainbow Bridge yesterday. She had been getting very weak, and her Mom realized that the kindest thing to do for her Dowager Queen was to help her not to suffer. Although it was very sad for her Mom to have to do this and let her go, Molly lived almost 19 years, which is a wonderfully long life. Purrs go out to Molly's family. If you want to go over to her blog, click on her picture on the right side here.

Since I am sad about Molly, here 's a somewhat serious picture of me out on the deck, before Dad started his staining. Oh, and by the way, it seems even though the stain was not dry when the rain started, all looks okay. He is planning to do a second coat anyway. So, in this picture you can get an idea of how much of a ruff I have around my neck. Dad says it is a mane, and I am a lion. So Simba is an appropriate name for me.

Thursday in the Garden with Simba - a Mishap

Dad has rearranged everything on my deck in order to clean and stain it so I don't have any new pictures of my deck "garden". In fact, yesterday evening Dad got about half the floor stained after work, which was really terrific. After dinner a sudden storm came up and RAINED on the wet stain! Then a gust of wind blew down my favorite Swedish Ivy plant and smashed it and the pot all over the deck! Here is what it looked like last week, but I think now it will only be good for the compost pile. Maybe Mom can take cuttings and root them and start it again:


When Mom supervises me in the yard, I usually stick close to the foundation and go behind the bushes. A bonus is that it makes it harder for her to pick me up and bring me back inside, until *I* am ready. I look more accessible in this picture than I actually was:


Happy gardening, kitties! Please visit Jonesie the Founder of the Society of Feline Gardeners. She has a new WOOFIE in her garden!

Wordless Wednesday, a little blurry

Random Tuesday

I have promised you a random photo on Tuesdays, not necessarily of me. This is an OLD photo, taken by my Grandpa more than 30 years ago, maybe even 40! I never did meet my Grandpa but my Mom has taken some of his slides and scanned them, and this is one of those pictures. Mom actually thinks this photo is from closer to 1970 than 1980. Grandpa enjoyed doing his own enlarging of his favorite photos and this is one of the ones he enlarged once he had retired. Mom has some of his slides from even the 1950s! If Grandpa was still alive he would be 97 now. Next week we will show you a really really old one.

We have had some hummingbirds at our feeders this summer - we believe just two females. Dad thought they had migrated south and took down the feeders, and then Mom saw one at the impatiens boxes on Sunday evening, so the feeders went back up. He says that one may have been a transient, not one of our residents. They are very nice to watch, but rather skittish and hard to get good photos of.

Manly Monday - Outdoor Litterbox

One of the most Manly things to do is to do your "business" outside. Here I am preparing to do my thing in the soft dirt:


All done - Ah! That feels good!

Meow Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy there, Mateys! Captain Simbad here. Aboard my pirate ship the Sea Dragon.

Ready to make all my captives walk the plank. Then we will stash the loot, swab the decks, and batten down the hatches.

Swig a glass of rum! Ye landlubbers, ye'll find yer sea legs soon.

Let's haul wind into the sunset. Arrrrr!

Write a Post, Help a Dog

Because Mom has let it get down to the wire, we have copied the following from an article on Yahoo:

"Pedigree's "Write a Post, Help a Dog" promotion is simple: Write a blog post about its adoption program between now and September 19, and the company will donate a twenty-pound bag of dog food to a shelter. (If you do write a post, make sure to add it to the I Love Rescue Animals page so that Pedigree will see it.)

In addition, Pedigree will donate one bowl of dog food for every "Like" it receives on its Facebook Page."

This post is done in honor of my cousin Josie, my human brother's dog, who was a shelter puppy. She was adopted nearly 3 years ago, and what a sweet dog she is!!! We are so glad my brother chose to give a home to a puppy from a shelter. Don't you love this little face?

Obvious?

Do you think they will understand what I want?

Thursday in the Garden with Simba

Since the past few weeks have been less hot, and even "just right", everything on the deck is thriving. Mom has had a Swedish Ivy plant for oodles of years, and just keeps making new cuttings and planting them in fresh soil in a hanging basket. This is one of our two current plants:

As I said the other day, our Ficus tree has grown quite a bit - it spends winters inside and summers on the deck. I think Dad will have to prune it again before it comes back in this Fall:

Our Spider plant had no little "babies" before the summer - now there are quite a few. Most likely a couple will get rooted during the winter and made into new hanging plants next spring:

Cherry tomatoes continue to ripen - I liked the look of this bunch:

Catnip was suffering in the very hot weather, but it looks good now:
And the Imaptiens boxes are full and thriving as well (Dad does a good job of watering and fertilizer with these).

Guess who?! I had a little supervised time outside with Mom yesterday. It was beautiful weather and I spent quite a lot of time just sitting in this spot, looking and listening.

Wordless Wednesday - WhatCHOO Looking At?

Random Tuesday

On Random Tuesdays I will post a photo of something "random" from the computer.

Just so we do not forget to appreciate the weather this September (it is probably quite nice almost everywhere I have cat-blogging friends), this photo was from last February 25th!

Manly Corner

This weekend went FAST! How about yours?
It rained yesterday so no deck time, but on Saturday I got a little. It was a beautiful day - sadly reminding Mom of the clear beautiful weather on 9/11/01.
Our deck is quite long, but I like the corners best. That is where Mom and Dad have placed my towels, so of course that now makes my favorite corners even more favorite. One of the towels is in my Funhouse to the north end, and the other is behind a potted ficus tree to the south end. Pretty soon the ficus is going to have to come back inside, and it has grown so tall it may not fit!
Have a wonderful week, friends!

Easy Sunday

I have taken up a new spot for sleeping, which amuses Mom because I am lying all in among the power strips and power cords for the computer stuff and the music stuff in the corner of the family room. She can't imagine how it can be comfy but she finds me there frequently.

Have a wonderful, restful Sunday.

PhotoHunt - Anniversary

If it were not for the tragedy of 9/11/01, this picture of the Manhattan skyline would include the Twin Towers of the World Trade center. That day is burned in Mom's memory forever.

Today, let us remember all those who died on that day, and as a result of the attack, as well as their loved ones. Never forget.

Mo(re) Cats Day 9/9

Derby started the first Mo Cats Day last year, a couple of weeks before I started blogging. Now we are all going to be sure it is an annual event on 9/9. In honor of Mo Cats Day, I am doing TWO posts today! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, Mr or Ms "No Cats Day" person!

Thanks for these wonderful graphics, Derby and Derby's Mum (and Ducky too)!

Extra Dextra Special Gardening with Simba

This is my 250th post! Can you believe it? So this is a special gardening post for that reason.

Today I thought I would show you my new catgrass plant. I haven't had any over the summer, because it has been so very hot. But with a few cooler days, Dad planted some of the seeds for me and within a few days they had sprouted and started coming up. It is very nommable. Yesterday, I went onto the deck with Mom and immediately ate some. A few minutes later I meowed at the door to go in, and I ran onto the basement staircase landing (carpeted), and barfed it all up. Don't you think it was considerate of me not to want to barf on the deck and instead to go to the comfort of inside first?

Th other reason this is a special day, is that it is Mo Cats Day. In honor of Mo Cats Day, I am going to do TWO posts, so look later for the second one! That way, I will be helping to INCREASE the amount of catblogging on the internet!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Not me, it's my cousin Audrey. Mom took the photo in the almost dark, so her eyes were very dilated. I think it's COOL! Mom says she is Little Orphan Audrey in this picture.

Random Tuesday

Mom and I have decided to try to post a random picture on Tuesdays. it might be of me, or something else she has on her computer. Today's picture is interesting because it was taken with a flash and had huge laser eyes. As my friends and their humans have probably found out, "red eye correction" doesn't work on yellow cat eyes. So my Mom used Photoshop Elements to make my eyes black. But they look kind of weird still don't you think? Anyway, this picture was taken during the winter, when I wanted to laze and snuggle on my favorite blanket on the couch. I even have a human pillow too! (no, not a human as a pillow, but a pillow for humans!)

Mancat Monday

Although this picture was taken a few weeks ago, before I got my Funhouse, I think it is good for a Mancat Monday post, because I think I look pretty manly and brave in it. Sometimes I am focused on the nearby smells when I am outside, and sometimes on the distant noises. Here I am most likely hearing something from the houses behind ours, or even the road behind them.

I am already agitating to have outside deck time today, and Mom thinks I have it in my heart and mind to get into the garden for an explore. She wishes I would just be willing to walk on a harness and leash, but I won't walk at all under those circumstances. I just lie down in the grass and won't move. Which of course is good in another way.

Our weather here today is close to perfect. We hope all my furry friends and their humans have a great Labor Day. And for sure, don't do any labor! Because it will all be waiting for you tomorrow anyway!

Easy on Sunday

Please refer to yesterday's post. More of the same today.

I KNOW. What a lazy post! But you have to admit, yesterday's picture can't be beat for a Easy on Sunday one. And I can get a whole nother day of belly snorgles from my friends out of it!

Photohunt - Hot

Thursday in the Gardens

Dad is conscientious about watering and fertilizing my plants, and you can see here how the pots of cherry tomatoes, and basil and other herbs are clustered together to make that job a little easier. However, while Mom was in St Louis, we had a lot of rain, and my biggest basil plant (seen here in happier times) actually suffered from a waterlogged pot. We are trying to resurrect it now.


We have a steady stream of small cherry tomatoes, that usually don't even make it into the kitchen, but are eaten right off the plant!


I am going to let Mom post some pictures from the gardens she visited in St Louis. This first one was taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden, in the Japanese Garden:

Outside the Conservatory at the Butterfly House there was a small garden, that included this pond and statue of a little girl with a butterfly:

And Mom got to take several walks in Forest Park, which has a beautiful Grand Basin with lovely fountains:

as well as lots of other lovely areas. These pretty foliage plants are outside The Boathouse:



and this the a zoomed view of the World Pavilion looking back from the Grand Basin area.


Okay, Mom, now can I have my blog back?