Cat-urday! - Christmas Cats 1

Yes, it's...

'Tis the season...

Cat vs.Washing Machine

Another funny cat adventure!

Cat vs.Printer

I don't know how many times I've seen this clip but I do know I can't play it just once.

I laugh and laugh and end up with tears in my eyes.

Day in the Life of a Cat

Being a little snowed under with writing at the moment, this is an easy topic to cover. So, you're get a something on cats. Self-indulgent (but hey, doesn't that suit a feline?) and more than a bit cutesy (my cats have now hidden my digital camera somewhere as they got sick of me stalking them - sigh).

Ever wondered what the moggies do while you're away?

Well, I had bird-cam, corner of the house-cam, plant-cam, door-cam and room-cam snap some of the things my 3 cats did during the course of a day.

Watching the world go by...

What? You mean this isn't a cat hammock?

Is that a bird I see perched at the top of that tree?

Why do things standing up when you can lie down?

What do you mean this is a road for cars? It's my rolling around and get dusty spot!

I TOLD you there was something on top of the roof!

Hanging out together...

Lick one, spit algae, lick two, spit algae...

Yes, I AM Kylie Griffin-look at my awards!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Nice

It's that time of year again when chaos begins creeping up on us all.

Is anyone else feeling a bit like the (stuffed) Christmas turkey at the thought that Christmas is only 2 weeks away?

To alleviate the stress I thought I'd write a light-hearted list of 12 things to do in the lead up to Christmas.

12 hunky guys to oogle in their Santa suits
11 Chrissy cakes to bake (with the hunky guys' assisting)
10 Telstra calls to make on Christmas Day
9 TBR books to get through
8 mins to finish this list before my self imposed internet time limit is reached
7 Christmas lights to string outside (with the hunky guys' help again)
6 cupboards to search for missing decorations
5 new tinsel bits to buy (to replace the ones my cats shredded)

Naughty

4 garden beds to weed (with the hunky guys, so the house looks good for Christmas)
3 cats to brush (so they don't shed too badly in clean house)
2 books to write (with hunky guys in them)
1 new Christmas tree to resurrect (after the cats try to climb it - again - for the 3rd year in a row)

What's on your list this year? Are they naughty or nice? ;-)

Spring Fever!

Well, my cats are enjoying the warmer weather but with it comes Spring Fever.

Every year the three of them revert back to kittenhood and tear round the garden chasing each other, leaping after insects, ferreting under bushes, acting as "great hunters" as they pursue lizards through the mulch, lose their winter coats (usually all over me or the lounge) and stare up into the shrubs as birds feast on the pollen in the flowers.

Furball - on the carport lattice wall

 Furball's favourite spot is parking his furry butt in the shade near the carport to watch the world go by from there.

But he's always within safe fleeing distance of under the house in case something strange frightens him - yes, he's the wuss of the feline family.

Panda loves heights

Panda prefers any good fence post so she can stare into the grass and listen to the mysterious rustlings below her. She's the Indiana Jones cat - always out and about looking for adventure, exploring the gully, the sheep paddock across the laneway, the house across the road, the abandoned chicken pen next door...

Splat the guard cat

While Splat wanders through the laneway and back yard playing sentinel, making sure no intruder slips by her vigiliant watch - she can often be found curled up asleep on the mulch at various places around the garden. Great guard cat!


Do you have a pet with personality? What's their favourite pasttime?

Favourite Things

A light-hearted post today with lists of my favourite things.

Favourite Romance Authors/Book
Nalini Singh - Caressed By Ice
Lora Leigh - Forbidden Pleasure
JRWard - Lover Awakened
Lori Foster - Too Much Temptation
Sherrilyn Kenyon - Night Play
Angela Knight - Jane's Warlord
Christine Feehan - Shadow Game
Marjorie M.Lui - Shadow Touch
Larissa Ione - Pleasure Unbound
Sydney Croft - Unleashing the Storm
Eve Kenin - Driven

Favourite SF/F Authors/Series
Cory Daniells - The Last T'en series
Anne McCaffrey - The Dragons of Pern + The Ship Who Sang series (couldn't split them)
Andre Norton - Witch World series
Mercedes Lackey - The Heralds of Valdemar series
David Eddings - The Belgariad series



Favourite Destinations
New Zealand
Scotland
Egypt
Tasmania
Samoa

Favourite Movies
Avatar
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Terminator series
Star Trek - all of them
Star Wars - all of them
Underworld series
Pitch Black
The Chronicles of Riddick
The Matrix trilogy
Serenity
The X-Men series
Pathfinder
Batman Begins
A Knights Tale
Silverado
The Sting
Dances With Wolves

Favourite Ways to Relax
Read
Play computer roleplaying games
Fishing
Sitting beside a river
Watching a storm
Vege out on the lounge with a good movie

Favourite TV shows
Star Trek
Farscape
Firefly
Dark Angel
Jericho
NCIS
Stingers
Police Rescue
Law and Order:SVU
America's/Australia's/NZ's Top Model
Lonesome Dove
North & South

Favourite Bands/Singers
John Farnham
The Corrs
Michael Jackson
Clannad
Shania Twain
Faith Hill
Amici

Favourite Animals
Cats - all sorts but particularly domestic cats, panthers, jaguars
Peregrine Hawk
Dragon (mythical)



Favourite Drinks
Coffee
Bailey's
Mango smoothie

Favourite Fruits
Mango
Watermelon
Lychees
Cherries

A Helping Paw

I have three cats who keep me company...let me rephrase that...My three cats have a human who keeps them company.
Splat, Pandamonium and Furball. Two females and one male (who's a bit of a wuss, but don't mention that to him as he thinks he's the he-man of the house :-) ). There's a picture of each of them on my website.
When I write each of them have their own way of helping me out (or should that read annoy and distract me???).
Furball likes to perch himself on top of the stack of plastic crates near my office desk. From there he supervises all that happens in the office, including watching me write. It's a great pozzie - the split cycle A/C blows right over this spot, so in winter he's warm, in summer he's cool. Smart boy.
He leaps onto my desk from that vantage point and he tends to do that right in the middle of an action scene. It's almost as if the rapid click-clack of my typing has attracted his interest and he's come to see where I'm up to. Most times he just sits beside the lap top and watches the cursor move across the screen and once he's checked out the scene (aka had enough) he returns to his post.
Panda floats through the office, a bit like a black and white ghost, reminding me with her plaintive miaows that a) the food dish is empty, b) it's dinner time, c) she wants to go out - NOW or d) it's time to pay attention to her not the square screen in front of me.
You know she's really serious when she jumps up on the desk, walks in front of the screen and slaps you in your face with her tail. She tends to be the more ambivalent one of the three when it comes to writing. Plot and character come second to all of the above.
Splat is my furry protege. Out of all the felines I've owned she's the one who loves the laptop and shares her ideas on where the story should head. She spends a lot of her time on the office desk - lying beside the keyboard, walking across the keyboard, sitting near the laptop, walking across the keyboard, rubbing her head on the corner of the screen (she's doing that right now), walking in front of the screen (she's also doing that right now), sitting in front of the screen, walking across the keyboard, tapping the screen with a paw, walking across the keyboard...
I think you get the idea.
Some of you might think she's only doing it to get my attention. 5% of the time you might be right but, I'm sure other cat owners will agree when I say she's actually pointing out irrelevant flashback narratives and questioning the plausibility of a character's motives. She's an author's cat, after all!
Don't be surprised if you see me mention my furry friends on the dedication page of one of my books once I publish - they've all lent a helping paw to shape my stories. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Photo: Furball, & a typical cat-like pose for the camera.