It was a very Meowy Christmas.... and a Catnip Mew Year!

"Yes, WE know Catmas was DAYS ago. But considering that it's my Mama Lady writing this? You're lucky this posts before NEXT Christmas."

Mama Lady edits to comment, not about the tardiness of my post but to wonder what in the heck Roo is doing back there.

"And read that title again. Can you hear the song? Roo can because the Mama Lady is singing it over and over and over and over. She strikes again!"

Christmas came early to Teeny Tiny Tabby Town with the arrival of a ginormous cat tree for our dining room sunny spot. 

"Hey! Who moved the old one in here? They should be commended. The view is a-maz-ing!"

Actually, Roo wasn't in the old cat tree to enjoy the view. You know and I know that she was there because the new one made her nervous. But let's humor her and keep it among ourselves.

Eventually, Ruby decided to be brave and join Mr. Simba in the dining room.

"She's thinking about challenging my authority, isn't she? She had BEST not be thinking about challenging my authority if she knows what's good for her!"

THWACK! thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack!

**low whistling heard here... because Ruby is minding her own business... yeah, right**

"Soon, Mr. Simba. Very soon and when you least expect it, that perch will be MINE!"

"That's what SHE thinks. It will be hers for about 15 seconds until Max takes it from her!"

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Since the secret of their big gift was long since blown, I saved a very special package or two for Christmas morning. ((In actuality, they opened their package on Christmas evening because, in true Ruby fashion, Roo was afraid of Christmas morning.))

The packages were a very special delivery from our blogging Secret Santa Paws, Miss Marjorie from DashKitten.com.  I hid the boxes in my closet, but Simba clued me in pretty quickly that there was catnip of the best variety in at least one of them... and he was a PEST of epic proportions until he was finally allowed to investigate what was inside.

"Dude! I knew I smelled the good stuff!"

"I looooooooove it!"

"You're darn lucky that there's two of these, young whippersnapper."

 "Because this one's mine."

 "All mine."

"Oh my.... Am I high?"

"Yes. Quite high. Do we have any Cheetos?"

"Yo, Mama Lady! We're going to let you finish, but we want to let Miss Marjorie know that the Big Ol' Catnip Sack is the best cat toy of all time!"

Ruby was content to let Max and Simba fight it out over the Big Ol' Catnip Sacks...

Especially when she found there were toys much more to her liking in the box (like these sparkly ones)

 And these furry ones too.

She did eventually even get a turn with the the prized Big Ol' Catnip Sack, but gave it up rather quickly in order to lay claim to her favorite new Christmas toy...

And you'll always know it's her favorite because she takes it into the master bathroom to toss around while she trills.

Another package contained a very pretty kitty scarf for me. If my clients don't already know that I'm a crazy cat lady, I'm guessing they'll figure it out when I wear this to the office :)

Thank you so much, Marjorie. I hope you can tell that the gang here at Teeny Tiny Tabby Town very much appreciated your kindness this year.

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I may have been five days late to wish you a Merry Christmas, but at least I'm one day early to wish you the happiest of New Years. Hopefully we'll see more of each other here in 2015, but just in case you haven't found me on Facebook yet... you might want to check the link. I manage to sneak there more often to give brief snippets in my long breaks between blog posts. 

Kind of a Throwback Thursday... The Alumni Edition

Remember this girl?

Well, I guess it would be hard not to recognize her since she looks exactly the same...

GORGEOUS!

If you can't remember all the way back to the winter of 2013 (and it's been awhile), Mama Clarice Madison moved into Teeny Tiny Tabby Town with her four bouncing babies. 

Bear

Grizzly

Levi

and Misty

Mama was diagnosed as FIV+, so she and her kits extended their stay while the munchkins awaited their second rounds of testing. If the anxiety of their unknown status wasn't enough, we also fought a round with the dreaded ringworm with these kittens. Well actually, it was only one kitten but they all experienced the joy of the treatment.  (Go ahead and click that link. It might have been my favorite post EVER. And if you like wet kitten posts, there are plenty around that date.)

Mama Clarice stayed with us for another few months while we waited patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for her forever family to arrive. When we heard from Heidi, we knew the perfect match had been made. Clarice packed her bags, changed her name to Clara, and moved off to the Windy City for her happily ever after.

We received an amazing update from mom Heidi for her Clara-versary (the anniversary of her adoption). If you remember, she was adopted last year on the 5th of July. Heidi might have been just a teeny tiny late in sending the e-mail update, but I am WAY late in passing along the glad tidings to all of you. Instead of paraphrasing, I'm just going to take the lazy way out and copy and paste her message for you:

As you know, July 5 was actually a VERY IMPORTANT milestone... because of course it was on July 5 ONE YEAR ago that I brought Clara home!!!

Well, Clara is doing really great!! She's healthy, very energetic, gorgeous, fluffy, sweet, affectionate and... what other adjectives can I use to describe her wonderful self?! :) She has brought me so much joy!!! She is SUCH a snugglebug, and such a gentle, loving girl (and I know you know!) :)

Health-wise, we've had a few developments (nothing bad). In October of last year the vet pulled out that cracked lower canine tooth -- and apparently it didn't want to be there anyway, because the vet said it popped right out. The gum healed over nicely and Clara doesn't seem to miss that rotten old tooth one bit. Then in November at the vet's suggestion I switched her over to a limited-ingredient diet, and did THAT ever seem to make her feel great. Things started looking like they should in the litter box, and I think her energy quadrupled. It was really amazing! She hasn't had any respiratory or other issues, and so far, if I didn't know she was FIV+, I wouldn't know!!

By several months in, she had noticeably relaxed too... she was always sweet and affectionate, but it wasn't until she'd been home for a while that she really started running around all crazy-like and playing with her toys with serious abandon. Of course it was a gradual process, but at some point I realized that she was visibly less tense and just had a relaxed air about her, which of course made me so very happy!!

Most nights when I come home, she's on her perch looking out of a large bedroom window, and as I'm walking from the garage, I stop and look up at her sweet face peering down at me (I live in a condo on the 2nd floor), and then once she sees that it's me, all I see is a white-ish flash of color--- which is the cream-colored underside of her tail as she "high tails" it to the unit's door to meet me :)

She's overall still quite a quiet cat, but once in a while she gets in the mood to talk, and then she'll tell me all about it!

One funny thing is that she does NOT like it when I'm on the phone-- which really isn't all that often, but every not and then it must be done. She'll make this funny high-pitched chirp that she doesn't make at any other time, and if she's been on my lap, she'll jump off-- the better to express her disapproval. The first time it happened, I thought that something was actually wrong, and I got all worried-- not yet having become aware of her dislike of this particular activity :)

I've attached a few pictures! (One might be a repeat?) And at some point I need to get some video too when we're playing with her Neko Flies toys... her leaps are truly astounding! :) (Kelly's note... YES, you do!)

Honestly, every single day I think about how blessed I am to have her here with me!!! Thank you so much for entrusting her to me. 

PS... She still has her "toe-hawks"!! :)

(It's me again...) No, Heidi... Thank YOU for making room in your home and your heart for our very special girl. Thank you for keeping us updated and sending the pictures. And thank you for only giving me a teeny tiny bit of crap for not updating the blog in months. I might do it again if someone sends me updates ;)

Wait, what? I have two Teeny Tiny Tabby Town alumnae living here that I could blog about? Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Sunny Sunday

"Hellooooooooo. What's new?"

"Max is just laying here... looking at the big warm light bulb thingy in the sky..."

"And waiting for the Mama Lady to finish watching basketball..."

"Sigh... Max is bored with basketball."

"Let's destroy something while discussing the awesomeness of Max's whiskers."

So We've Been a Little Busy...

It hasn't escaped our notice that an entire month has passed since our last update. To be fair, it was February. That month is shorter than any other. So it really hasn't been that long, has it?

To be very honest, Mae's adoption and flight to Texas came at the very best time for me. I'm not sure that I could foster right now if I tried. Basically I blinked in February and now it's nearly April.

My business took off at a level that I had never expected. I never dreamed that a job that I completely made up in order to call myself employed would have the kind of short-term return that it has. It's doing so well that I'm either going to have to hire help, turn away clients, or give up sleeping. I've already given up eating a true mid-day meal (and sometimes dinner too). On various days, I've worked 15+ hours or walked 15+ miles or both between breakfast and bedtime. And in a wonderful number synchronicity, I've lost 15+ pounds in the past 9 months.

As if that weren't enough, I've been taking classes at night which means homework, studying, and test taking. The end result is that I now have two jobs (AGAIN!). In addition to my wonderfully satisfying pet business, I am now one of the newest licensed realtors in the state of Michigan. Why would I want to work two jobs and add busyness to busyness? Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly certain why I'm doing it ALL right now. But each of these businesses that I dream to build have several things in common... I work for myself. I work on my own schedule (give or take). I work with helping people with some of the most important things in their lives. I work in businesses which are seasonal and cyclical, so having a back-up (at least in the beginning) is an excellent idea. I have three children who will all be leaving for college within the next 5 years (sigh.............................) so the double paychecks will definitely come in handy.

And speaking of the kids...

Did I mention that child number one was in the school musical at the beginning of the month? That she's taking driver's training and will get her driver's license (Lord help me) during the first week of April? That she has a part time job and has needed a ride to work 3 or 4 days per week for the past several months (Thank God THAT's almost coming to an end... the ride, not the job). That she's starting the process of arranging college visits? Did you hear me scream at any of that?

Have I mentioned that child number two is a project away from attaining Eagle Scout and he hasn't even reached his 15th birthday yet? That he's an aspiring drummer in the marching band? That he attends a special honors high school and needs a ride daily because the regular bus won't get him there? (Are you seeing a connection between child number one's activities and child number two's needs? I AM TOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) Did you know that he is old enough to take driver's training now too? Did you know that I'm THAT old????

Did I tell you that child number three is 12 going on 22? That she is a lovely young lady who has discovered snark? That she is the reason for every single gray hair on my head? That she's a brilliant young lady who is taking 8th and 9th grade classes while her body remains parked in 7th grade? That I cannot help her in math because she has passed me by? That she and her sister have cooked more dinners than I have in the past month? That she is my social butterfly who requires rides to meet her friends whenever they are not on the phone with one another? (AGAIN with the rides!!)

Have I told you that their father, my husband, lives in Washington DC?

I'm tired. And I'm car shopping. Did I mention that I get the new car and will be passing down my old one to the kids? Life is about to get a little bit easier.

None of this has anything to do with cats or fostering. But then again, neither has my life in the past month or so. I'm not ignoring you. It's just that I've not had much of interest to say (at least on anything having to do with the topic of this blog), Fostering isn't over forever, but I am taking a much needed break. I wouldn't be much good at it at the present time anyway. I have definite ideas for the next residents of that front room. I don't know exactly WHO it will be yet. But I do know the direction in which I will travel... and I'll have something to say on that soon. Just not yet.

In the meantime, I will do my best to check in from time to time with stories from the permanent residents. I cannot promise an exact timetable. Well, I can but I'd have a hard time sticking to it. When I do show up here, I want to make it worth your while to read. I don't want to throw something out there for the sake of putting out content. I don't like "phoning it in". I'd rather give you one fantastic Les Mis parody post than 50 random posts that I threw together without much thought or effort. It's who I am and I hope you can understand that.

For those of you who have checked in on me... who have worried about me during my disappearance, who expressed missing me (or Ruby or Max or all of us), who have encouraged me reappearance here... I thank you and I bring you a gift. Max consented to a Glamour Shots session for you.

Behold, the first photos that I took during the month of March:

Max would like you to know that Ruby-the-Feather-Queen refused to pose for you. She was too busy trying to steal Max's feathers to care.

I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm not done telling my story. 

Ruby Tuesday

Meet my constant bathroom companion. 

Who needs an ugly metal towel warmer in their bathroom when they have a Ruby Roo?

"Lady, you know you're showing your bathroom clutter to the entire world. Don't you?"

"Do these stripes make Ruby look fat?"

"Well, DO they?"

Update Central

For those of you who are not on Facebook, we have been receiving Emmy (Mae) updates throughout the weekend.

From Saturday:

"I'm just hanging out with my Mom, making biscuits, watching The West Wing on Netflix."

And in the comments under the photo: "Shortly after this photo, she moved over to the cat tree in front of the window, took a bath, stood on her hind legs to get a closer look at some bug friends on the other side of the window and kept watch on the goings on out front."

From Sunday:

"This ribbon is really fun!!"

And again from the comments: "Girlfriend was chilling on the cat perch in the window when I came home from the market. She's definitely feeling comfortable in her room. I think she knows she's home."

Gee.... Ya think? Love love love love love :-)

Additional updates from an alumnus not named Emmy:

It seems that someone has discovered the top of the kitchen cabinets at his house.

Get a load of that tail!

"WHAT? I should not be up here?"

I guess it's only fitting that our boy Grizzly found his way up to the highest place in the kitchen.

His mama was pretty fond of the view from on top of my cabinets too.