Mancat Monday and Mackerel Monday

Mom has being going nuts using the Mackerel (Macro) setting on the (point and shoot) camera.    You can even see the slight drops of purr drool in this picture of my face:

Two more butterflies emerged yesterday.  Both were females.     The first flew off very quickly.  The second seemed to need to dry her wings, and also it was evening.   So she was placed on the impatiens flowers, where she stayed all night.   She is still there (8:45 am) which has the humans a bit mystified, because she doesn't seem injured or anything.    Perhaps she just really likes it there.

The way to tell the difference between the male and the female is the relative amounts of yellow and blue.    Much more yellow and less blue on the male.

Easy Like Sunday

This blogging is hard stuff.  Let me just put my head down for a second .....................

Only 10 days!!

Kitties, our first butterfly emerged!     Simba discovered it fluttering in the box this morning, and so Mom and Dad took it outside to release it.     Mom was able to use the "Mackerel" setting CK told us about to get these close up shots.  Mom is so glad she was reading CK's blog in the middle of the night!!

Underside

We think this is a male.     It stayed for a while before flying off over the house.    So pretty to see it do that!

We had expected it to take 14 to 20 days, not just ten.  Now we will watch for the others each day.

And considering the Photo Hunt theme for today is "Swanky", we think this butterfly sure is pretty swanky!

Helping Out Smoke and Joe

If you haven't already learned about it, please click on the link under the badge below to go to Zoolatry's post from August 14th.   This is an opportunity to make a donation to all the critters at Margs Animals, but especially for the donkeys and their feet.  

For Smoke and Joe

Rest in Peace, Abby

Today we are remembering sweet Abby, of Manx Mnews.      Soft purrs and nosekisses for her human parents and her fur siblings.     Run and fly free, Abby.

Manly Cat Monday and Caterpillar Update

Mom said just yesterday that Audrey provides more cute photo ops than Simba, and then Simba came up next to Mom on the couch last night while she had the camera.

All the remaining caterpillars ate up all the parsley and either wandered away (Dad caught about 3 more of them and put them in the box) or formed the chrysali right on the parsley stems.      What is so interesting is the way they match their environment's color:   Look at this:

There are THREE like that!     Mother Nature is pretty interesting.    

Hummingbird

Kitties, after a LONG summer without sightings, we finally have a frequent visitor, a female ruby throated hummingbird.   

She has been drinking such a lot that Dad at one point thought she was TWO, but we have never seen them around together so we are fairly sure there is only one thirsty one.

Our feeder has test tube style tubes with red caps, and in this first, longer video, you can see her going to both of the tubes of sugar water.      Due to so much zooming, the picture is not super clear, but we think you will get to see enough.

   

In this second short video, she is feeding from the red bee balm flowers.      Excuse our comfiness towels across the deck railing to dry after the rain!

Audrey thinks she would be very nommy if only she could catch her, but we know that would make Dad very very upset.  However, GJ threw down the gauntlet by catching a sparrow the other day, so Audrey doesn't want to be outdone.

Our Prize from Glogirly and Photo Hunt Blue

Kitties, you probably remember that a couple of weeks ago, Katie and Waffles'  Glogirly had a VERY SPECIAL NUMBER BIRTHDAY and she had a contest to win a Glogirly Bag full of Glogirly Stuff. Well, we were very excited to end up being the winners, and at the end of last week, our prize arrived in the mail.     It took until today for Mom to take pictures of us with it, because usually one of us is asleep, and also because, as you know, the humans here have been busy with painting and preoccupied with caterpillars!

So here are a few pictures.  

In addition to the Glogirly themed items, there was a vial of high quality catnip, which Simba discovered right away - he has just batted it across the Glogirly bag:

Feeling the Love from the scent of nip, he sidled up to the Glogirly Cowbell:

Audrey found the Glogirly Bag very comfy, and also liked the catnip - she moved too fast to get a good picture when she was batting at the vial of nip.

Setting things up in a more organized fashion, you can see that we got the bag (Mom's favorite pink color), the Cowbell, Glogirly pen, magnet, one of the Katie is Accused cards showing the full cast, Katie is Accused pin, the catnip and a deck of Amazecats Next Top Cat cards - the 2 of hearts is ALLIE, of A Tonk's Tail!

Audrey checks out the full package:

and here is a closeup of Allie on the cards, Simba making sure to be partly in the picture.

Katie, Waffles and Glogirly, thank you SO MUCH!     We love everything!

AND today's Photo Hunt theme is Blue, and our carpet is BLUE-gray!!  

World Cat Day

We hope your humans treat you extra well today, kitties.  Sadly, we don't expect anything out of the ordinary around here.    But we do appreciate our safe home and our fuds, things many kitties don't really have.

Sparkle's posts from 2010 and 2011 are great - you can get to the link to them here.

At chez Simba and Audrey we continue on our caterpillar watch - the second chrysalis formed overnight, and we have another caterpillar on its way in the plexiglass box.     We think it takes about 14-20 days for the transformation to the butterfly.