Get to Know Nilla Bean

Introducing...

Nilla Bean right after we got her. Approx 9 mos old

This jewel is Nilla Bean. Her friends and family call her Bean. Bean is another rescue from Feline Friends of Destin. I really need to unfollow/unfriend these people before I truly become The Crazy Cat Lady. We got her around March 1st of this year. She's about a year old and is a lynx point Siamese cat.

A Little About Bean

Sweet Sisters

Bean is, by far, the most affectionate cat I have ever been around. She jumps in your arms for hugs, lays in your lap for naps, puts her paws around your neck and kneads your shoulders/neck while rubbing her face on yours, and happily drools her affection all over the place. She's also the most vocal and mischievous cat I've ever seen. She claws open cabinets and drawers to steal food. She pops open the lid to Bailey's food and goes dog food diving. When you give her a treat, you have to do so with speed and agility or she'll bite your fingers. I mean, she's drawn blood multiple times. At dinner time, she meows at the top of her lungs for her food. I totally understand where the term "CATerwaul" came from now. But, she's playful and likes to chase the other cats and be chased by them. She's truly a unique cat.

In a Nutshell

Showing her attitude

Bean's hobbies are frog hunting and catching, giving neck and shoulder massages, scavenging for unhealthy food, and hiding her evilness behind her utter sweetness. Her favorite toy is her pink striped mouse that came with her from the shelter. You can find her on Instagram at Kitten & Winnie & Bean. Yes, the cats have their own Instagram account and no, I don't manage it.

Cuddling with me

Get to Know Winnie

Introducing...

Say hello to Winnie. We're not entirely sure how old Winnie is. She was a rescue cat from a local cat rescue, Feline Friends of Destin. We adopted her in October 2013. They estimated she was about six months old so she's approximately 1 year 3 months old. She's a tuxedo cat.

A Little About Winnie

Winnie is super shy but one of the most affectionate cats I've ever known. She loves her family and her feline brother and sister, but is terrified of strangers and only tolerates Bailey's presence. When I was picking out a cat at the rescue, I had first said I was interested in a white and gray cat because he looked super playful. I went into the room with all the free-roaming cats to observe them playing. Winnie jumped on the bench next to me and proceeded to lick my hand. That was it. I was in love and she came home with us.

Out of all of our pets, Winnie is the most energetic and playful. She is always ready for a game of Chase the Feather Toy or Attack the Catnip Toy or Chase with her cat siblings. Winnie is also the most darling of all our cats. She has such sweet and gentle ways about her. She also loves curling up against your side when sleeping at night and cozying up in your lap while loafing on the sofa. She also has a powerful purr which is in evidence quite often.

TNR

Winnie was a TNR cat. This means Trap, Neuter, Return. This is a practice that's done to feral cat colonies. Volunteers trap feral cats, have them neutered, vaccinated, and sometimes microchipped, and then returned to their original location. This allows ferals to live out their lives while curbing their need to spray and their ability to add to the problem feral cat population. TNR is something that I support and I actually volunteer for a nonprofit that promotes and raises awareness of TNR. 

In a Nutshell

Chilling with her Brother

Winnie's hobbies are hiding, cat games, licking fingers, and killing her feather toy. Her best friend is the Oldest Child, and she hates having her belly rubbed. You can find her on Instagram at Kitten & Winnie & Bean. Yes, the cats have their own Instagram account and no, I don't manage it.

Stalking from the camouflage of the Oldest Child's pig sty room.

Get to Know Leo

Introducing...

This is Leo. He will be three years old in September and is a tabby. We've often wondered if he has some Maine coon in him somewhere because of how thick his fur is but who knows.

Leo came to us from a woman that the Mister used to work with. She got him from someone else who found him in a parking lot. Or something to that effect. We saved him from going to a shelter. As a kitten, he was quite energetic and rambunctious. He acted more like a puppy than a kitten. That's why we figured he went through so many temporary homes before finding his furrever home with us.

Leo at approx 3 mos old

A Little About Leo

We got Leo when he was approximately three months old. Kittens can sometimes be hard to determine their sex, so we were told he was a girl, which had been verified by a vet. Turns out, not so much. As a result, his name went from Sophie, to Kit-ten, to Leo. I settled on Leo because I always tell him that he's "my lion". He ruffles up his neck fur like a lion's mane sometimes.

I love how distinctive his stripes are. He's beautiful.

Out of all of our cats, Leo is the most cat-like. He loves attention and sitting on your lap for pets and scratches, but only on his terms. If you scratch him "wrong" or try to hug him too tight, he'll give you his backside and leave. He's pretty lazy too. Out of our three cats, he's the least playful. Considering what a terror he was as a kitten, this is a complete evolution in his behavior. He also talks back. The other day, he stole my chair while I was grabbing a drink from the fridge. While I was explaining how this is bad cat behavior, he looked me in the eye, meowed with attitude, then stretched out and made himself more comfortable. I love his cattitude.

In a Nutshell

His hobbies are cat napping, exploring boxes, frog hunting, and window sitting. His favorite color is green (Yes. He has a favorite color.). His best friend is Bailey the dog and he's a mommy's boy. You can find him on Instagram at Kitten & Winnie & Bean. Yes, the cats have their own Instagram account and no, I don't manage it.

Leo and Bailey Napping Together

Going for Normal Today

The Escape Artist

Because yesterday was just weird. 

Last weekend, we swapped the Youngest child's room with the office. The original office was bigger and had a bigger closet. Now that I'm not working from home, it barely gets used. It only seemed right and fair that the Youngest get a bigger room because, frankly, this room, the new office, is a glorified closet. 

Yesterday,  I was in the new office gaming it up (Yep. This is how I'm spending my time until my semester starts next month. Go ahead and judge, fat head.). I hear this crash behind me and look over only to see the cat on the freaking roof (I had the window open because our heating/AC is stupid. My bedroom is a stifling furnace every night while the new office and downstairs bathroom feel like a walk in freezer. So I opened the window to let some heat in because I was freezing my butt off.). I panic and try coaxing him back in the window but he was having none of it and disappeared over the top and onto the neighbor's half. I run downstairs, out the door, and over to the neighbor's, and he's up on their roof meowing his head off. He was scared and trying to figure out how to get down. If I was just a few inches taller, I could've grabbed him, but alas, I'm short. I finally remember that we have a ladder in the garage and run in the house to open the garage door. By this time, Kit-ten had wandered back to our half of the roof and was still meowing very loudly. I set up the ladder and kick off my shoes (I was wearing wedge sandals. Not the shoes for climbing ladders) and climbed up. At this point, he was beginning to enjoy the view and was chasing birds and flies up on the roof, completely ignoring me. I was edging away from panic and towards angry. I went back in the house and grabbed his cat treats and a can of food and a pair of flip flops because the treads on the ladder hurt my bare feet. Back on the roof, the cat had disappeared over the top again. I rattled his cat treat bag to get his attention and he came back to see if I was faking. I threw a treat at him and he chased it across the roof but still wouldn't come near enough to me to reach. I cracked open his can of food and he ran right over and started sniffing the can. I grabbed him and descended the ladder, food and treats left on the roof, lol. I tossed the escape artist into the laundry room, ran upstairs to finish ripping out the screen and shut the window, and then I had to clean up my rescue tools outside. Grrr! He so did not get the can of food. He had dry food instead. He and I were not friends yesterday but we made up last night. 

Also yesterday, I had to take the Oldest for an interview after she got a message on a Facebook page that I made up more or less as an example ages ago. I made a dog walking and grooming page for her as a way of showing her how easy it would be to start making her own money. We never really did anything with it and it sat stagnant for about a year. Then on Monday, a woman sent her a message asking if she was available to walk her dogs four times a week. So, we met up with her at the local dog park (I had no idea that park even existed. It's about a ten minute walk from our house), met her dogs, went over the details, and now her dog walking business is a real thing. The Oldest is very excited and is probably already mentally spending her money, lol. The lady told us that the Oldest's page is the only FB page in our immediate area offering dog walking services. She could really clean up if she actually started looking for more customers. 

THEN, the Mister came home from work yesterday saying that his right eye felt like someone had punched him. It didn't look like anything but he said it was very sore to the touch. By the time we went to bed last night, it was noticeably swollen. This morning when he got up for work, it was almost swollen shut. He insisted he was alright to drive to work (men!!) and he has an appointment in about five minutes at the clinic on base. We'll see how that goes. 

And all day yesterday, I felt like it was a Friday. Sincerely disappointing to realize I was getting up to Wednesday this morning, lol. Aside from the Mister's eye, I'm hoping nothing else out of the ordinary happens today. 

You Can Love Your Cat...

...but just don't love your cat. Know what movie that's from?

Anyway, after yesterday's rather intense post, I thought I'd lighten things up a bit with a post about my cat. I kinda got the feeling that nobody knows what to do with yesterday's post anyway. I had an enormous spike in page views but only one comment. Wondering if people are going to be afraid to be around me now...

Bailey and Kit-ten snoozing together

I have morning "Scratch and Purr" sessions with my cat. It's not dirty, you filthy-minded people. This is where he...Wait a minute. I never told you about how she is a he.

::Side Story::

We sorta rescued this cat from a shelter, meaning, we took him before his previous owner gave him up for various reasons. She had taken him to the vet for his kitten checkup and was told he was a female. If you didn't know this, it can be hard to tell the sex of a kitten. So, we got "Sophie" thinking he was female and he even came with a pink bed. The pink bed plus assurances from a vet, we never thought to question the cat's femininity.

Fast forward a few weeks and we started noticing changes. "She" was definitely not a she. So, Sophie became Shelly (named after Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory) and we still have a hard time with the pronouns because we were calling him a her for so long. To save us the grief, we call the cat Kit-ten and all is good.

::End Side Story::

...he jumps in my lap and stands on my stomach or chest or neck (breathing isn't as important as a good chin scratch) and wants to be scratched every morning all the while purring like an engine and drooling. Yes, he drools. And you have to scratch him with both hands. If I try to check my e-mail or Facebook on my phone with one hand and scratch his chin with the other, he gets pissy and tries to knock my phone out of my hand. Eventually, he'll settle down and lay on me for a while. This has become my favorite time of the day.

He is just the best cat ever. I know a lot of people don't like cats because they assume they're all standoffish, but Kit-ten isn't like that at all. He loves to be around people and he's just funny to boot.

Yesterday, he got in the living room window, stood up on his hind legs, and started clawing at the glass. Turns out there was a bunny in the yard and it was just driving him crazy. I also found him lying in Plantweed's pot yesterday afternoon. I had to evict Kit-ten from the window cubby to make room for the plant and he's not having it at all. Also, every time we go to the freezer to get ice for a drink, he comes and stands up at the fridge. This is because he expects you to drop him a piece of ice so that he can play with it. And I mean every time he hears us getting ice. He also likes to splash in his water dish and steal stuffed animals and "kill" them. One of his other favorite things is to hide and blankets and then attack Bailey. He's a riot. Here's a short video of him killing the Oldest Child's monkey that he stole out of her room.

Thanks, I Kneaded That

The Mister had duty last night so I let the cat sleep in my room to keep me company. She sleeps soundly for most of the night but usually wakes up once and wants to be all affectionate. It's hard to get mad at her for waking you up in the middle of the night when she's purring and laying on you wanting to be petted. Still, when she gets to the point where she starts kneading her claws and it's three in the morning, patience can get a little short. These are the places on me that she kneaded her claws:

• My eye. That was the most painful.
• My cheek
• My chin
• My neck
• My shoulder

Then, she laid her chin on mine and went to sleep.

You People Are No Fun

A summary of my most awesome weekend...

Friday was the last day of school for the kids. They have the next two weeks or so off of school for Winter Break. I'm so looking forward to not driving kids to and from school every day. Friday night, the Youngest child had a new friend spend the night at our house. She was an...interesting kid. We had a Christmas event planned for Friday night but with the nasty weather we had, we nixed that and went to iHop for dinner instead.

Saturday, both the girls managed to make plans to spend the night at friends' houses so the Mister and I had the night to ourselves. It's the first night we've had alone since our anniversary vacation back in May. Because the girls made these plans on the fly, we didn't have a chance to plan a special night so we just went out to dinner and then did some shopping. It was just nice knowing that we could do what we wanted to do without worrying about having to get home to the kids.

Today, we vegged. The Mister had two papers to finish up for his classes and the girls were both tired from their nights out. I think that I might be coming down with a cold (my throat is scratchy and I'm tired beyond all belief), so I took a pajama day and watched Netflix on the couch all day. I also played Tiny Tower on my phone too, heheh. My Bitizens are prosperous just in case you were wondering.

We did have a couple of hiccups in the weekend. Bailey peed on our brand new couch. I'm pretty sure this is a jealous reaction to the cat. She used to pee in our bed when she got mad but our bed is so high now that I can barely get into it, lol. Bailey won't even jump into the back of our SUV anymore. As for the couch, we got Lazy Boy's maintenance coverage or whatever they call it so all I have to do is schedule someone to come out and clean it. If they can't clean and remove the smell, they have to give us a new couch. Even so, the Mister and I were very upset by this behavior. Not to mention, the house smells like dog pee. Bailey has also taken to eating cat cookies if you know what I mean. Besides the fact that this is totally, completely, and utterly disgusting, and she's making a mess throughout the house with kitty litter, we have the clumping litter which could make her sick. I have what I hope is a solution to this problem but we haven't tried it out yet, so we'll see. Since Friday, I've vacuumed the house, upstairs and down, four times.

All in all, and in spite of the dog, we had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks. Woot!

Herrrre Kitteh, Kitteh, Kitteh

We have a new addition to our family. The Mister brought home a kitten Friday afternoon. A single mother that he works with couldn't keep her because her daughter is allergic and the mom is pregnant and pregnant women aren't supposed to change kitty litter boxes. She was getting ready to take her to the pound over the weekend if she couldn't find a home for the kitty by Friday so we took her. The kitty came with everything a cat needs:  cat bed, litter box, tub of litter, food dishes, food, cat carrier, and toys. The woman also said she'd split the first vet bill with us too. Considering that we're in love with the kitty, we got an awesome deal and we saved her from going to the pound.

She is absolutley the most adorable kitteh ever. She's so much fun and very personable. Right now, as I type this, she's playing in a spare strand of Christmas garland we left laying on the floor. She's having a blast. We also got her one of those cat toys that has a wand with a toy on the end. She loves that and likes to "kill" it on a daily basis. Then she carries it proudly around the living room before abandoning it for another toy.

We thought we had a name picked out for her Sunday night. We had gotten many, many suggestions from friends and family but we decided to call her Sophie. Then last night, we were watching TV when the Mister became inspired and said we should name her Zazzy. Now we can't decide between the two. She is very zazzy and I think that name might suit her better than Sophie. Opinions?

I'm pretty sleep deprived due to the fact that she sleeps with the Mister and I. The first night, she got us up every four hours. The second night, she got us up at 1:30 and 4 am. Sunday night, she got me up around 4:30-5'ish. Last night she only got up about 5 this morning so we're getting better each night. I'm not comfortable leaving her to her own devices because she's really fascinated with the Christmas tree and the tree isn't very stable in the stand. (We got a tree with a very thin trunk and had to augment it with some shims from Lowes but I still don't trust it to a kitten.) Yesterday, I took some "new mom" advice and napped when the kitty napped. It was the only way I was getting through the day.

As for socialization, she has daily staring contests with the rabbit but other than that, they don't interact too much. The rabbit would kick her butt. She and Bailey coexist but they're not friends yet. Bailey wants to play with her very badly but barking scares the kitty and then she starts spitting and hissing at Bailey. They have played a couple times but they're still not 100% easy with each other yet. And Bailey is very jealous.

Did you know that an indoor cat can live up to 30 years?!? I talked to a lady in the Albertson's Saturday night who had just inherited a 27 year old cat. Did you also know that an indoor/outdoor cat's average life span is only four years? 

Here is a video of the kitteh chasing a mouse:

Lastly, if you can guess why the name Zazzy came up, leave me a comment. ;)