What we've been up to!

Lily here - Sorry my friends, I know my Mommy is horrible at posting!  The gang at Jan's Funny Farm asked what we were up to, so here I am to tell you.

Even though my time outside is now supervised, I caught a vole.  A couple birdies too.  My Mommy was so surprised, she wasn't sure if I still could.

Jan and I also surprised her by being caught laying together.  I have to join Jan, cause if it's the other way around I leave.

And lastly an announcement.  This is me laying against my Mommy's belly.  Does it look big?  Well that's because there's something in there.  My Mommy says we're going to have a baby bean brother! I'm not sure what to think of this.  I like to use the what my Mommy calls "the baby bump" as a pillow, even though it has moves sometimes.  I got a bump to the head once!  He'll be here around the end of October or so.

So we're hanging out and having fun.  But also wondering about some of the changes around here...

Lily is 4!

Lily here!  I am 4 years old today.  My Mommy says she can't believe that I'm 4 already.  I love that even Google tells me, "Happy Birthday Lily" just like last year!

If you guys want to join me in celebrating, here's what I want to do all day:

Everyone have a Happy Easter Weekend!

Our Interview with the Funny Farmer Felines

We are so excited to say we were interviewed by the Funny Farmer Felines for Mousebreath Magazine!

You can read it here: http://mousebreath.com/2014/04/le-mew-sisters-lily-jan/

Jan of Jan's Funny Farm made this graphic especially for this interview:

Isn't it great?

We'll hope you'll come back tomorrow cause it's Lily's 4th birthday!

Catching Up

The girl's Mommy here.  I want to thank everybody who has stopped by during the special days for my girls!  I am so sorry that I missed two important days for them.

Monday the 17th was St. Patrick's Day but also was Lily's 3rd gotcha Day!  We love our Lily so much!

Lily's 1st Gotcha Day pic by her Daddy

Yesterday, Wednesday the 19th, was Jan's day on the Cat Blogosphere Calendar!

Jan's page of the calendar

Now for the reason I ended up missing such important things.  The girl's Daddy is from Ontario, Canada and that is where all of his family still is.  We got a call around Valentine's Day that his Father was in the hospital and not doing well.  We planned a two week trip up there.  

The girl's were well taken care of by their Grandma and Grandpa here in Utah.  They got visited and fed twice a day.  

While in Canada, we finally found out the girl's Canadian Papa had stomach cancer.  He passed away 6 days after we arrived.  We were able to be at the funeral and make sure we did everything we could do before we left.  We actually ended up staying a day later because of weather and had our flight time doubled because of the route we had to take home. 

The past week has been spent catching up on things at home.  Which of course meant extra snuggles with our girls.

The girls on the evening we got home.  They do not share a lap very often!

Again thanks so much for those who have thought about us and our girls!  We really appreciate it!

I'm So Glad I Keep My Girls Inside

The girls' Mommy here.  I just had to make a little post after today. 

As I was just about to arrive at my parents house I saw something in the road.  Because it is a not very busy residential road, I moved to the other side with my vehicle.  As I pass by I notice it is a cat laying in the road.  After I park I quickly go inside to get something to pick the cat up and run back outside.  I run back to the road to find a handsome brown tabby with a black collar.  I can tell as I pick him up, he's been dead for a while.  He had a collar, but the only thing on it is a tag that says, "I'm an Iams cat."  I ask my parents and some of their neighbors if they know who he belongs to, and no one knows.  My parents are going to have the cat scanned for a chip if they can't find it's owner. 

I came home and hugged my Lily tight.  I told her I loved her so much and about the cat I found.  He obviously had an owner.  I'm so glad I decided to keep my girls in.  I cried enough tears for a cat I didn't even know.

The Joys of After Christmas Sales

Lily and Jan's Mommy here.  Yesterday I went to Petsmart to picked up canned food for the girls when I noticed all the stuff on clearance from Christmas.  I had to pick up a few toys for the girls including the one Jan plays with in this video:

It's a Turbo Scratcher that's normally $16.99 on sale for $8.47!  Jan has been playing with it to the point of panting.  She runs around it in circles, bunny kicks it, and just has a lot of fun.  I also got a replacement laser toy on clearance, since I can't seem to find it.  Seeing my girls have so much fun and saving money on the toys makes me a very happy kitty Mommy!

Jan's Gotcha Day!

Lily and Jan's Mommy here.  One year ago I took this picture:

And today I took this picture:

(on Daddy's lap with lasers focused on Mommy)

Happy Gotcha Day Jan!  We're so glad we got you!

Jan

Hi everybody, Jan here!  My Mommy says I have a very important thing to post about.  Some of you know this, but I got my name from a very special person.  My Mommy knew of her blog, but didn't visit very often.  Her name's Jan Struckhoff and her blog was the Rocky Mountain Meezers.  This past Wednesday was the year mark since her passing.  Mommy and I are sad that the Cat Blogosphere had to lose such a wonderful person.  So this blog is to let you know more about me, where I came from, and how I'm doing for all those who have been wondering about her namesake.

You can see my very first blog post here at my Foster Meowm's blog.  She's the one that found me and gave me my special name.  My Mommy saw me there and decided I could make a good sisfur for Lily.

This is my very first picture when I came to live with Mommy and Daddy.  I have been here for almost a full year now.  On my first night I had my own room and Mommy and Daddy took turns coming to visit me.  Lily knew I was in there and cried during the night while I was locked in.  I was pretty much let loose on the house after that.  Lily and I aren't the best of friends, but we have lots of fun together. She even bathes me sometimes.  I don't reciprocate those baths.  I used to try to nurse on Lily's belly, but she would attack me when I tried.

I am a drooler.  I drool and make happy biscuits.  My Mommy has a video up of me doing it!

I am not very loud.  At first most of my meows were silent.  I started to make the "chattering" noise like you make when you see a birdie outside.  I can meow a little better now, but it's just not loud.  I can purr though!  My Mommy made a video of that the other day.

I love playing with toy mousies, Da Bird, the Cat's Meow, and pretty much any cat toy I see moving.  I don't always like treats.  I love food!  I will get in my Mommy and Daddy's face while they are eating.  I am impatient in the morning for our morning can of food.  I will pester my Mommy until she gets up.

I have an obsession with knocking over my Mommy and Daddy's water cups.  They can't leave a cup anywhere I can get to.  I cannot jump very high though.

I am a pretty good girl for the most part.  I am really lovey and love any pets that you can give me!  I am doing well and not having any problems.  I really hope that I am doing well at living up to my name. 

Tocktober!

Lily tocks!

Jan tocks!

and some changing leaves just because!

Our New Cat House

My Mommy wants to thank everyone again for their condolences for Izzy.  For those not on facebook, she posted about how much Izzy's vet loved her.  Izzy's Momma and Daddy got a personal card from her vet.  Plus there was another from the National Arbor Day Foundation that a tree was being planted in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota in Izzy's name because of a donation from her vet.  Isn't that wonderful?

Now back to seeing us!  My Mommy got us something new and it was only $10.  She got it from an old neighbor looking to sell it.

As you can see, I (Lily) love it!  I prefer the top, but inside is ok too.  Jan gets on it every once in awhile.  Mostly Jan runs in and out or jumps up and down likes it's a jungle gym.

Everybody please be sure to visit the Ladies of Autumn blog today!  We are having a party to celebrate the first day of Autumn!

A Tribute to Izzy

The girls' Mommy here.  This is a tribute to my parents cat Izzy.  It is long and does have a kind of gross thing that happened to her.  You can skip to the last paragraph if you'd just like to see me list a bunch of things about her.

Last Friday I had to help my Mom take her and my Dad's cat Izzy to the vet.  She was 17, diabetic and had not eaten much if anything for about a week.  Her temperature was a little low, but her pulse was normal.  The Dr. noticed she wasn't breathing very well, and wanted to do an x-ray to see what was going on.  When he came back he explained that they could not see her heart at all because it was surrounded by fluid.  She was dehydrated and her kidneys were borderline failing.  He asked if my parents would like an ultrasound done to determine what was going on.  He gave three guesses as to what it could be, but said any would require time spent at the vet and probably take a lot of time and money.  Izzy has had a lot of things go on in her life, and my parents had spent a lot of money on her.  They would have spent the money because they loved her so.  It was agreed though, that that just didn't want her to have to go through any more stressful vet stays and treatment that may not work anyways. You could see she was very tired.  I sat stroking her, telling her what a pretty and good girl she had been and that I was very sorry she had to go, as the vet helped her to the rainbow bridge.

I'm actually going to start with a cat my parents had before Izzy.  His name was Thomas.  It was 1994, I was 16 and my family lived on an small Army depot.  We had just moved there and we had not had a cat for several years.  I noticed there were cats living behind a restaurant, and would go visit them with my brother.  There was a litter of kittens who were so cute.  Unbeknownst to my parents, I took a can of tuna over to lure one home.  I didn't really know which one I wanted, there were tabbies and siamese mixes.  The bravest one was a boy lynx point.  He gladly followed me as I gave him tuna all the way home.  My parents, though exasperated, said ok and my sister named him Thomas. 

After 2 years we moved to the nearest Air Force base because they closed the depot.  It was a lot busier.  Thomas was an inside/outside cat.  On the small depot he could sit in the middle of the road because there wasn't much traffic.  There was a lot more traffic including on of the busiest roads on base very close to our house.  He was hit by a car not too long after moving.  

My Dad was devastated.  He would call out Thomas's name and then remember he was gone.  I told my sister, who had moved out before we had moved to the Air Force base, how sad my Dad was.  At first she would bring her two kittens over to visit.  Then she found a gray tabby and cared for it for a little while, but decided to bring her over for my Dad.  Her name was Ozzy.  She did not like men though(at that time anyways).  

A few weeks later my sister came over with a kitten that I thought at first was her little tuxedo boy, but it was way too small.  It was a little girl tuxedo that my sister had gotten from a lady standing outside a grocery store with a box full of tuxedo kittens.  I got to name her.  Since it was 1996, I named her Izzy after the mascot from the Olympic games that year. Later I sort of regretted the choice since I didn't realize people would call her a "him" because of the name.

She spent her first few nights batting my brothers eyelids as he tried to sleep.  I took her into my room, and she slept with me most of the time until I moved out for awhile.  After that she took to sleeping with my Mom and Dad and her sisfur Ozzy.

Ozzy and Izzy were sometimes really good friends and sometimes not.  They went through 2 moves together, from Salt Lake City, Utah to St. Louis, Missouri and back.  They tag teamed chasing off a neighbor cat by breaking though a window screen at 2 or 3 in the morning.  They were not outside cats, but would go outside supervised every once in awhile.

My parents lost Ozzy in 2008 when she was 12 years old.  She seemed to have had a stroke.  She wouldn't eat and lost function on one side of her body.  She was helped to the rainbow bridge in June of that year.

Izzy seemed to take well to becoming the only cat.  She didn't seem to want to venture outside anymore for supervised outside time though.

Izzy had two big health scares in her lifetime before the end. She seemed to get loose stools a lot.  She was semi long haired, so it meant a lot of baths.  My parents had their grandchildren for a few weeks to visit.  Izzy hid a lot during that time.  They knew she was getting loose stools a lot, but could not get her to give her a bath.  After the grandkids left, I helped my Dad to bathe her.  She had a lot of matts around her hind end.  We decided to try cutting them off.  As my Dad held her and I cut into the matts, maggots started to come out of the matts.  She was rushed to the emergency vet, where the cleaned all the maggots out.  They were not in to deep.  It was after this point it was determined that she couldn't eat any food with shellfish, as that caused the loose stools.  And she got shaved every summer afterwards to prevent bad matts.  The second scare was when she was 15.  She started to have loose stools all the time, would eat very little, and would just hide in a closet.  She was taken to the vet where they figured out she was diabetic.  She did very well, even being off insulin for a few months.

Lily met her, as my husband and I lived in my parents' basement at the time we adopted Lily.  Izzy did not take to Lily at all.  They would play smacky paws quite a bit.  Lily just wanted to play, but Izzy wanted nothing to do with Lily. They lived together for about 8 months.

Izzy was a big girl.  She was overweight at times, with the most she weighed being 18 pounds.  Her paws were huge though.  She had a cute yin yang on the underside of her chin.  She loved to play with milk rings or rubber o rings.  She would play fetch or tennis with anyone who would throw her rings. When she was a kitten she made nests with whatever she could find.  Most of the time it was tissues. She once smacked a bunny she saw outside.  She brought several live birds into my parents house then would release them and leave them for my parents to deal with.  She loved belly, nose and chin rubs. She would only lay on my lap.  She loved to sleep up against peoples feet.  The past few years she had her Daddy wrapped around her paw, and loved to have him just lay on his bed and give her love for as long as she allowed it. She loved to be called pretty, and knew it meant something good.  She hissed at anyone she didn't know or didn't like. She was all hiss and no bite though.

Goodbye my sweet pretty Izzy girl.

Tea Party with the Ladies of Autumn!

I know I really need to get my Mommy to post here again! But I hope you will visit the tea party we have going on over at the Ladies of Autumn.  (My post there will be up after midnight pacific time.)  And if you are a calico, tortie, or torbie, we'd love to have you join us!

Come Visit the Ladies of Autumn for Hat Day!

Come over to the Ladies of Autumn blog to see me and other lovely ladies in our hats!

 -Lily Le Mew

Jan Being "Kneady"

Lily and Jan's Mommy here.  I've been meaning to get a video of this before and show everyone, because it is so cute.  Sorry it's a little dark.  The bed is Lily's, but she really could care less because she prefers the kitchen table or her Daddy's sock drawer.  Jan stands and kneads with two or all four paws while biting / sucking part of the bed in her mouth.  I assume because the bed is kind of wool-like on one side. Anyone else have a kitty that does this?

Lily is 3!

Hey kitties, Lily here!  Today is my 3rd birthday.  Even Google knew it was my birthday!

See the hover text says, "Happy Birthday Lily!"  My Mommy didn't know they did this.  (It was in Google Chrome while logged in to Lily's account.)

I started my day with snuggles with my Mommy in bed.  Then I laid on my bed in the front window.

Mommy brought me breakfast in bed!  Fishy gooshy food, so yummy!

Later I got a brand new box!

I may look unhappy here, but it was because of the paparazzi.

See it's perfectly Lily sized!

Now Mommy go away I'm trying to sleep!

Lily's Mommy here.  Since she's asleep, I thought I'd tell you the other fun thing she did today.  She had supervised outside time!  She was pretty good and patrolled her yard looking for voles.  Once she tried to leave the yard it was time to go back in.  I hope she is having a good birthday.  We are so lucky to have our little girl!

Lily's 2nd Gotcha Day!

Hello everybody!  It's my 2nd gotcha day today.  Last year my Daddy made me this graphic to celebrate:

This year my Mommy made a lame attempt:

This picture is from a time when I actually went and laid  down next to Jan.  Usually she joins me and I leave after a few minutes.  I still enjoy playing with her, but lately I've been getting a little upset at her at times and hissing.  Most of the time though we are fine and just keep our space.

Thank you to everyone who's already sent gotcha day wishes!

Sisfurs

Hi everybody!  My Mommy is very bad and has a lot to catch you guys up on!  

First of all you got to see I got a new sisfur.  But did you know she was brought over from Angel Junior, Orion, and Sammy's Meowm?  My Mommy started thinking about getting me a brofur or sisfur after my walkabout.  When she first saw Jan on their blog she thought maybe that could be my sisfur, but my Daddy wasn't sure yet.  You can read about Jan's beginning starting here.  She has a very special name because she was named after the Rocky Mountian Meezer's Mom.  When Junior got sick Mommy hopped to action in convincing Daddy that we needed to take her to help Junior's Meowm out.    We were very sad that Junior passed away.  It was very nice to meet his Meowm and have her bring me my sisfur.

Now first of all I wasn't too happy about this.  When Jan and I first met, I hissed and growled.  After 2 days though, I was crying that she was stuck in a room and I couldn't see her.  It still wasn't a happy relationship, but oh how fun it is to play with her!  I had trouble explaining to her how I like to play.  You see, I like to be chased.  Jan was too busy playing with all the toys.  We've got it pretty well figured out.  As you can see in the header, Jan tried to lay by me after a little while.  That lasted about 1 minute.  Now my Mommy has new pictures to show.  Mind you this lasted about 5 minutes, but my Mommy is so happy with our progress!

My Mommy also almost forgot that Andrea, Leo and Star of the Celestial Kitties gave us an award!

I'll let my Mommy answer the questions since she is sweet crazy.

Cookies or Cake?  Cake

Chocolate or Vanilla?  I am a weirdo and hate chocolate therefore it's vanilla

What is your favorite sweet treat?  This is hard... probably peach cobbler

When do you crave sweet things the most?  All the time

If you had a sweet nickname what would it be?  My hubby calls me honey and when I was a teenager my friends and I came up with sweet nicknames, mine was milk dud (my best friend was bon bon)

I'm supposed to pass it on, but I know it's been awhile since it was passed around so probably most have gotten it.  If you haven't feel free to take it cause all of you are very sweet!

Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading if you made it this far!

New Little Sisfur

Hi Kitties!  My Mommy says this is just a quick post for today.  Part of my house has been closed off for some reason.  A fellow cat blogger Mommy stopped by today.  This is what she brought.

Meet Jan!

The Story

Hi Kitties!  Sorry my Mommy hasn't updated, she says things were so crazy before I even took a walkabout.  I won't tell my Mommy what happened during the time I was gone, but she wants to tell you from her side since she knows all you Kitties and your Beans want to know what happened.  Take it away Mommy...  

Thanks Lily.  Let me start by letting you know how much Lily would go outside.  When it's warm she sometimes would go out on weekdays as early as 7 am and come back sporadically until dark when we would lock her in.  As it got colder her outside time was less and less, and was always when it was light outside.  Right before she disappeared she barely showed any interest in going out, and we were thinking about starting to make her an inside cat.

So on Saturday December 1st in the afternoon Lily, her Daddy, and I were in our TV room relaxing.    Lily decided around 3 pm that she really wanted out, so I let her out opening her cat flap for her.  I started to get ready for a wedding reception that her Daddy and I were going to that evening.  At 5 pm we had to leave, so I put food in Lily's dish and we left for the reception.

At 8:30 pm that night we came home expecting Lily to be in the house.  I looked in her food dish and noticed she had been inside at some point to eat some food.  We searched all the house, but she was no where to be found.  We called for her outside, but didn't see her.  We weren't too worried at that point because it was a little warmer than normal, so we thought for sure she'd be back before bed time.

I starting to worry as 10 pm approached.  It was also starting to get really windy.  There were high wind warnings all that night, and raining for the next day.  I did not sleep at all that night.  I kept hearing the cat flap open and close, but it was the wind.  I was so worried as Lily had never been gone overnight, and the weather was so bad.

Sunday morning I posted her most recent picture on Facebook asking if anyone had seen her.  I have a lot of my closest neighbors friended there.  By that night I had so many neighbors looking for her with one false positive sighting.  I decided to post on her blog and the CB because I truly believe in the power of purrs, prayers, and positive (or maybe not so positive since I asked you guys to tell her to "get her butt home") thinking.  I also posted on our local free classified site (which is more used than craigslist) and craigslist.

Monday morning still nothing.  My neighbors checked on me to see how the search was going.  I called our local shelter.  I tried on Sunday, but they are closed weekends.  Oh I forgot to add that this whole time my husband and I took turns walking the neighborhood looking for her.  I started to make posters and fliers to hand out.  We actually spent almost $100 getting copies made to blanket our neighborhood with.  I just really felt I needed to focus on the area around us.

Tuesday morning I got a call.  A neighbor saw a cat in her yard, but wasn't sure if it was Lily.  I thought it was another false positive, but decided to check.  The neighbor said she tried to grab the cat, but it did not want to be held.  I walked down by the house, but saw no cat.  I called her name as I walked home.  Just as I got to the bottom of the steps to our home, I see Lily come running towards me.  I grab her as fast as I can and start crying and saying, "Where have you been?  We've missed you so much!"  I get her inside, close her cat flap, then get her some canned food out.  She was very thirsty, but not very hungry.  Her fur was gritty and dry, but otherwise she looked fine.  She spent about 10 minutes running around the house and up and down her cat tree.  Then as it started to rain outside, she settled down and slept on my lap for 5 hours.

Sorry this is so long.  I just knew everyone would like to hear what happened.  I want to thank you guys again for all your purrs, prayers, and thoughts.  Lily is now an inside only cat,  much to her dismay.

LILY IS HOME!!!

Lily came home!!!!  I want to thank you guys all so much for your purrs, prayers, and shouts to Lily!  I will be around a little later to thank everyone personally.  Now to spend a little time hugging my little girl!