TP Thursday - NOT!

The Lady says neither Gizzy nor Jasmine has ever played with toilet paper. She says she isn't willing to tempt me with the it just to get a picture of me looking cute to post here on TP Thursday.

On the other hand...






And if you can believe it, while the Lady was bribing Gizzy and I with Temptations treats (see some on the tp in the picture above) to get us to pose, I was running all over the place. Next thing she knew, I was peeing in the sink. While the water was running.

Really.

Truly.

She was so surprised, she didn't have a chance to yell at me.

I think I might be in trouble.

Red Balls

The Lady has a big bag of little red balls. They are tiny. They bounce. She spears them with a thin piece of silver and puts them on a long string. Then she has been hanging them in different places around the house. The little balls are fun. They are just the right size to play with.

She's bringing up stuff from the cave downstairs.... (oh, Gizzy says it's the basement...) like this guy next to me. I've checked him out and he's ok. Weird stuff is going on around here. I got my Secret Paws assignment last night, and I'm working on a plan... but it's a secret!

Tough A*s Tortie Tuesday

In support of KC, the tough Tortie, I'm posting on Tough A*s Tortie Tuesday, even though I'm really a Tough A*s Tuxie. As everybody knows, I have my own experience with tragedy and good v-e-t-s.

Go KC!

Monday

The Lady is thinking about how she's gonna make me a nice soft fluffy warm bed. I'm not seeing her doing anything. So I'll believe it when I see it.

In the meantime, here's me teasing Jasmine this morning while we were both on the big table in the table room. She wanted me to go away, and I wanted to stay where I was. One of my goals is to make her stop hissing at me whenever she sees me. It's gonna take a l-o-n-g time, but I know I'm gonna win.

La Girlfriend

Mr Karate has a Girlfriend! And he brought her here last night for dinner. She is tall, like him, and pretty. I know she has cats of her own.

La Girlfriend is very nice, and I was not scared around her. I even sniffed her fingers a few times, but I wasn't ready to let her pet me. Maybe next time. (I hope there is a next time.)

Mr Karate made dinner (La Girlfriend helped, even though Mr Karate wanted to do all the cooking), and it had Tuna in it. They left some Tuna for us, but as you know, I do not care for Tuna, so I let Gizzy have mine. They had avo-ca-dos with something they called dressing in it. Sounds really weird to me. I was definitely NOT interested in that.

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The secret is out. The Lady was making a "Christmas Tree Skirt" for Mr Karate. This is confusing (as the Lady says) "on so many levels." First, I never heard of a Christmas Tree. What IS a Christmas Tree anyway? Secondly, why does a Christmas Tree need a skirt? Third, why does Mr Karate get a Christmas Tree Skirt before Christmas? Mr Karate sure doesn't need a skirt. And this skirt is BIG but the opening is -little-.

Here's a picture: (you can click the pictures to biggify)

and here is what I think this thing is good for:

Then again, what do I know? I'm just a cat. Thank goodness.

Nip and Claws

The Lady trimmed my claws, but she made up for it by getting me this scratching thing. I know it's got nip in it, I can smell it. It's wonderful. I have been rolling all over it.

And even though she trimmed my claws and tried to hold me tight, I still like the Lady. Yesterday's Total Petting Time went over 4 minutes, though not all at once.

The Indignity!

Today I was in the cat hammock and the Lady was working in the sewing room. She closed the door. Then she tried to catch me. I did my best to avoid her, but she caught me. She kept saying it was going to be OK, but I didn't like it much. She trimmed my claws. Which was bad enough, but then she tried to pick me up. Well, she's done that exactly twice before, and I didn't like it those times either. She wanted to find out how much I weighed. I wrestled around so much that she was practically holding me upside down by my back legs when we got on the scale together. I hope she's happy. I gather I weigh about six or six and a half pounds. I didn't let her hang on to me long enough for the numbers to stop moving.

Formerly Feral Friday

Today's Petting Time: 2 minutes

Yesterday was kinda scary for me. I know the Lady and her Mom and Mr Karate, but there were a couple big guys here I didn't know. So I avoided the noise and found someplace quiet to nap. Later, the Lady gave us turkey and pumpkin. I liked the turkey, but none of us liked the pumpkin. (Sorry, Kimo & Sabe)

This morning I was birdwatching.
Can you see the birdies in the bushes outside the window? I was watching them for a long time before the Lady figured out where they were. I may be formerly feral, but I am still a Cat, and that means I am a Hunter at heart.

Thankful

When the Lady and her fambly sit down around the table later to eat turkey, they will each tell what they are thankful for. I may be only a cat, but I have many things to be thankful for:

1. I am thankful for Malcolm, for not letting me die.
2. I am thankful for the v-e-t-s for fixing my broken body and offering their services for free.
3. I am thankful for all the cat lovers all over the world who helped pay the very big bill to make me whole again.
4. I am thankful for Malcolm and Jillian, who put up with me screaming while I was recovering.
5. I am thankful for Dan and Maggie for taking care of me when there wasn't anybody else.
6. I am thankful for the Lady, who took me in, even though she already had two older cats of her own.
7. I am thankful for the nice home I have here with the Lady and Gizzy and Jasmine.
8. I am thankful for Gizzy, for being my bestest pal, and for letting me cuddle next to him.
9. I am thankful for all the furry friends I have made all over the world, from the UK to New Zealand, from Canada to Florida, California and Hawaii in the US.
10. I am thankful for all the people who have made this little blog a part of their lives; who have offered help, advice and support. They come from all over the world, including Mexico. I have a soft spot for Mexico.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Now, pass the turkey. Please.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie Tuesday

Surprise! This is Gizzy, napping. Isn't he handsome? You all have seen about a gazillion pictures of me, so I thought you might like to look at a picture of my favorite pal. Will there be a picture of me tomorrow? You'll have to come back to find out!

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I understand that many cat's people are traveling in the next few days for a day the people call Thanksgiving. My Lady isn't going anywhere. Her Mom and Dad and Mr Karate and the other brother SnakeMan (don't ask me, I don't want to know) are coming here. Along with two woofies, Missy and Mert. So there will be five peoples and five animals here on Turkey Day.


Another Biscotti Recipe!

A Biscotti Detour

Millie's Lady here:
Biscotti are "twice baked cookies." The dough is shaped into logs and baked, then cut into slices and baked again. They are generally less sweet than traditional cookies. They are very crunchy. They are dipped into wine or coffee. As an added bonus, they keep for weeks in a tin or when tightly covered. You can find them in expensive restaurants or in bakeries where they usually sell for about $1 each. They are a bit more work as the dough is usually very stiff (but I have a big heavy duty mixer so that isn't a problem for me). Yes, they make excellent gifts.

I have been baking my "Chocolate Pecan Mandlebrot" for several years now and they are always a hit. I have never found any anywhere that can compare.

I usually make four kinds of biscotti:
Chocolate Pecan Mandelbrot
Lemon Pistachio Biscotti
White Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti
Harvest's Black Pepper Biscotti

Here's Gizzy sitting next to a morning's work.

Find the Biscotti recipes here. You just have to give me a day or two to get them all in html for you.

Enjoy!

a Sunday of sewing and cooking

If you asked the Lady, she'd say she spent the day doing creative things. She worked in the sewing room, on something that is a secret, and I can't tell you anything about it. When it's not a secret anymore, I will be able to tell you, but that won't be for a few weeks. This is very hard for me, because as a blogging cat, I want to tell all my stories.

She also cooked something in the hot-as-hell box again today, but it smelled compeletely different than what was cooking yesterday. The Lady said two words that I do not understand: Chocolate and Biscotti. She says that everybody likes her recipe for chocolate biscotti, and they are better than anything. If enough of you want, I might be able to convince her to post the recipe.

This picture is me eating from the big cat's food dishes. Jasmine likes my crunchies, so I decided to try her food. Of course this probably won't improve our relationship.

A bag of Millie

The Lady went out this morning and came back with a lot of bags. She emptied them all out, and put the stuff away. But she left this paper bag on the floor for me. (She brings canvas bags to the store with her. But she musn't have brought enough today so they gave her one of these.) And after looking at it for a long time, I decided to investigate. I didn't stay inside it for long, but I think I'll play with it some more later.

The Lady did a lot of stuff in the kitchen. She cooked up something with apples and cranberries. Whatever it was spent a lot of time in the hot-as-hell box, but smelled very different from the smells that usually come out of there.

She made something good for her dinner tonight. It was pork. It smelled good. All three of us cats jumped on the table to get some, but she shooed us all away. When she was done, she gave us each a little bit. It was good, but not as good as beef.

Formerly Feral Friday

When the Lady comes home after hunting, I follow her around, and she pets me. I let her rub my head, and give me sctritches behind my ears. Yeah, I know I said I was NEVER gonna ask for this kind of attention. So I was wrong on both counts. I like it and I'll ask for it.

Pfft.

Jasmine Speaks Out

Jasmine here. I decided that you all need a break from miss fancypants. Well, maybe you just need to hear from somebody else in this house.

I wasn't feral like Millie, and I wasn't a stray like Gizzy. I was born into a family and when I was big enough a lady and her little sticky person came to visit. They selected me instead of my rowdier brother. When I was ready a couple of weeks later, I went to their home, and I have been living here ever since.

Gizzy wasn't happy to see me at first, but we became good pals. We had a lot of fun together, wrestling and playing. Gizzy was really Mr Karate's cat; sleeping on his bed with him and hanging out with him. I slept on the Lady's bed, and I was the Lady's special cat. This worked out well until Mr Karate went away for a summer. All of a sudden, Gizzy was alone and he had to fight me for attention from the Lady and the right to sleep on the Lady's bed at night.

Mr Karate came back, but a year later he left again. He came back for a little while, but left again. He did that for a long time, and finally he left for good. Gizzy had taken to sitting in the Lady's lap every night, something he hadn't done for years and years. He wasn't Mr Karate's anymore. We both belonged to the Lady, and took turns sitting in her lap every day and sleeping on her bed at night.

So that was Life around here until little miss fancypants moved in. Now Gizzy and I have to fight just to find a quiet place to nap.

If Millie thinks she's going to be the boss of this place just because she can run faster and jump higher, she's mistaken. The Lady is MY person, and I'm not going to let Millie take over my spot. I'm not a cranky old grouchy cat. I'm a shy cat and I like my quiet life. I don't want to be pushed out. And I'll fight for it if I have to. Don't any of you cats tell me you'd act any differently.

What's this?

The Lady started putting her pencils in a cup to keep me from pushing them off the table. I was sniffing around and found one of these things that Gizzy loves. He comes running whenever the Lady runs one over her fingernails. I had to try it. So when I found one in this cup, I was excited. I separated it from all the other stuff, dragged it out and started chewing it. The Lady took it away, so I really can't tell what was wonderful about it, but Gizzy was proud of me for finding it on my own.

Tummy Tuxie Tuesday

While I happen to think this picture is pretty silly, the Lady likes it. It's not your usual tummy shot, but it's me tossing my nip-filled mousie around. I throw that little sucker everywhere. The Lady was emptying the wastebaskets last week and found it in one of them. Another time she found it in one of the water dishes, soaking wet, of course. I carry it around in my mouth, too. But mostly I like to bat it all over the house. Heh.

A dull day

Today's petting time: two minutes, 15 seconds.

It was rainy and gray all day long. Even the birds found shelter somewhere. There wasn't much to watch outside (except the rain) and with two sleepy elder cats, there wasn't much fun to be had. So it was a pretty dull day.

The Lady came home, and I was so excited that I followed her all around while she closed the window sticks, turned on lights, and all that other stuff. She kept petting me as I moved with her from place to place. And I let her. I got scritches under my chin, I got my ears scratched, I got my butt (just above my tail) scratched, I got my head rubbed, and each of my cheeks got attention. She petted my back, and my sides. While I was eating she pet me some more.

She filled my new mousie with fresh nip. I've got her trained real good.

Rain, rain, rain

I'm glad I'm an indoor kitty. It is raining hard outside. I am nice and warm, and I have been playing and napping in my spot under the couch where no cat bothers me.

The Lady dragged the Rug Sucking Monster around a little bit today, but I didn't let it scare me.

Birdwatching

Here I am on the back of the recliner, watching the birds outside. While we live in the city, there are lots of birds around for us cats to watch. There is a regular family of birds that live on the building next door.

You can also see how much I have grown since I was a tiny kitty.

Total petting time so far today (and it isn't even 9:30 AM yet) 1 minute 20 seconds.
(The Lady said I had to put that in.)

Formerly Feral Friday #4

This is me on the big table. The Lady was eating her breakfast and working on a number puzzle like she does every morning. You all know how big these tissue boxes are, so you can tell how big I am. If you biggify the picture, you can see Jasmine on the big chair in the room behind me.

Did you know that when the Lady told her Mom that she was going to adopt a kitty she discovered on the internet, her Mom told her not to do it; that it was a scam. That a bad man wanted to hurt her and was using a story of a kitty as some kind of bait. The Lady told her Mom and Dad about Malcolm, and sent them all the links to my story. The Lady's Dad called the V-E-T in Connect-a-dot and found out that I wasn't a story, that I was real. Then the Lady's Mom said, You can get a kitty at a shelter here in town, why do you want to drive so far away to get a kitty you don't even know?

The Lady said, "I want Millie."

The Lady's Mom kept trying to talk her out of it, but the Lady didn't listen.

She kept saying, "I want Millie."

I'm glad.

This Petting Business...

OK, here's what's going on. I greet the Lady every day when she gets back from hunting. I follow her around while she closes the window sticks, puts her big coat away, and gets the papers from the hallway. She also wakes up the heat monster. Then I remind her that she has to feed me. I watch as she empties our food bowls, fills our water bowls with fresh water, then puts fresh crunchies in our bowls. She puts mine on the counter. She taps on the counter with her fingernail and makes a special noise. That's how I know she's got stuff up there for me. I jump right up. Sometimes I get to eating right away, and sometimes I let her pet me on the head, on the cheeks, under my neck, and across my back, right up to my tail. Then I eat. She pets me a little. I'm getting used to this petting business a little bit at a time.

I'm not like Gizzy, however. He lets her pet him with both hands at once. He lets her pick him up. He goes over to her and sits right next to her and lets her touch him anywhere she wants, practically. He just loves it. Look at this:


Gizzy was just purring away a mile a minute as she was doing this. He moved his head all over so she could get to all the places he wanted to be scratched. His eyes were closed, and he was practically drooling he was so happy. She stopped, and he actually headbutted her to tell her he wanted more. MORE! I think the Lady is petting me a LOT and it isn't even for two whole minutes, but Gizzy... oh no, two minutes and he was just getting started. She must have petted him for a whole FIVE minutes. Then he put his head down on her leg and purred and she petted his whole head and back for, geez, I dunno... A really long time. He didn't move. He didn't budge. I even tried to go up there and get him to play with me and he said, Nah, he was comfy.

I just do not understand. Yeah, okay, the Lady likes to pet me. I can put up with it a little bit if that makes her happy and then she leaves me alone. But just going over to her and asking for it? I'm never gonna do that. Not me. Unh uh. Never. No way. Not gonna happen. Mark my words.

Widebody Wednesday

I don't have a widebody, but Gizzy does. So here's one of his. There's a better one somewhere, and I am looking for it. Check back later for another view. I don't think there are any widebody photos of Jasmine.

added a little later...

Goodie! I knew there was a nice B-I-G shot of my favorite widebody.

You can click the pictures to biggify.

Dona Nobis Pacem

All you people in the US, go out and vote. Remember that people all over the world would dearly love to be able to do this one simple thing which some US citizens take so for granted.

Temptation

What does a person get when she cooks herself a steak?

When there are three cats in the house?

What do you think?

Let's just say the Lady got herself a lot of attention.

And each of us got ourselves a little bit of that nice juicy red beef steak.

(From left to right, that's Jasmine, Gizzy and me.

3 Month Gotcha Day

Wow! I've been here three whole months. I'm so used to the Lady that when she comes around with the little flashbox I don't even try to get away. Here she was trying to get me to pose for her, and I just wanted to take a nap. Guess who won?

I haven't let her pick me up, or trim my claws for two whole months. She doesn't know how much I weigh, but I am a lot bigger now. I'm still a nice svelte kitty. I still like my beef stinky goodness. I love Gizzy. I am liking the Lady a lot. If I ask politely, she will give me treats. Yesterday I sat on the chair next to hers as she worked on her silver lapbox in the table room. I let her pet me when I am not eating, and even when I am not near food. She rubs my neck and cheeks, and I like that.

Sunny Saturday

[Sheesh! Blogger sure was being stubborn today.]

Here's how I start most days, on the cat hammock with Gizzy. The sun makes this spot nice and warm. We can watch the leaves blow around and we can watch the birds and squirrels. After a while Gizzy will go find another place to nap.

The Lady's already been on the moving sidewalk she calls the treadmill, and she's doing something she calls the "Washing Machine Shuffle." She says she'll be working on my website later, and she may drag the Rug Sucking Monster out.

I'm so glad I'm a cat.

Formerly Feral Friday # 3

How lucky am I to have found such a great place to live. I have a bestest cat friend, Gizzy; an older cat (Jasmine) to teach me The Rules, and a nice Lady to take care of me and give me special Beef Treats. This place has lots of great places to hide and nice places to climb and warm places to nap. It is also big enough for me to run around at top speed.

You can see my bowl of crunchies and my very special new favorite toy from my friends Bubbles and Mrs B. And yeah, you can see me eating my treats right out of the Lady's hand.

Isn't that special.

Up on the Counter

Today's petting time: 1 minute 20 seconds

It's fun being up higher than the big cats. The Lady puts my food dish up there so the big cats can't eat my food. I like to jump to the window and watch the birds in the trees outside. I also like to watch the water in the sink when the Lady hooks up that machine that makes lots of noise and soapsuds. It's interesting to see the different things she takes out of the cold box. Some of them smell enticing. Some smell yukky. Some just are yukky. Now don't you worry, just because it looks like I'm close to the stove in this picture, I have learned my lesson. I stay AWAY from the stove.

Oh yeah, now that I'm up on the counter, I'm a lot easier for the Lady to reach.

So she pets me.

So I let her.

So what.

Nip!

Today's Petting Time: 1 minute

The Lady refreshed the Nip in my new mink mouse. Oh, it is so much fun now. I play with it, I bat it in the air, I jump up and down, run around the house with it. The Lady tries to take my picture with it, but I move too fast. Oh well!

When the Lady went to bed last night, she propped the door open just enough for me to fit through. Which I thought was pretty cool. Finally, I could get a chance to sleep someplace without some cat bothering me. But Gizzy pushed his way into the bedroom. That was even better!

He sleeps right in the middle of the Lady's bed. Right in the exact middle! When she can't move, she sits up, slides her hands under him and just MOVES him over to one side. Wanna know what Gizzy does then? Nothing. He just yawns and goes back to sleep.

I was pretty nipped out, and didn't stay in the Lady's room all night.

This picture is of me and Jasmine, about as close as we ever get. She's on the desk.