They say Fall is coming. I have noticed a slight chill in the air and I don't feel like staying outside all day long anymore.

I spend some time with the last of the blooms, watching for it to arrive.



Can't see anything this way.



Nothing over here.

Must be right around the corner though.

I hear something.
Now I see something.



First raccoons pooping now a squirrel having a picnic!



Enjoy it while you can you little red devil. This meal may be your last.

I couldn't get that fella so I went looking for a mouse for Miss Praline as she had her birthday last week. They must have all been on holiday as there were none to be found.

I did get her a shrew though.



Sorry, Praline. Not enough meat on that wee thing to bother taking a bite. Maybe you can make a necklace out of it for your mom. She would appreciate that I am sure.

I have taken to hiding in the carrot and garlic chives patch.



I am not a fan of the taste though.



I am enjoying this now as the PM said she is digging these up next week.

I may partake in the harvest as these are one of the few things that actually produced anything worth mentioning. They pulled up everything else as there was killer frosts all week.

I won't go on about it, the PM is irked enough as it is.

Next year, we will try again.

We are moving on to our second sign.
This week it is~

Libra

September 23- October 22

Libra pets like company- either other animals or people. They aim to please and are most unhappy when left alone.

I am not sure who this could be. Sounds like most of us!!!

Is anycat a Libra or knows a Libra?

Tune in next week for Scorpio.

First off we got this very pretty award from our friends Skeeter, LC and Ayla and the always sweet Tesla.



Thanks so much!!!! We would like to pass it onto:

• Sweet Ariel for making us laugh last week. Love that Anne Geddes shot!
  
• Pearl for revealing her burr issues.
  
• Poppy Q for her great Spring Study of her New Zealand back garden.
  

You guys probably have this award already but we wanted to give you it too!

Next we were tagged for the "cold box" meme from our buddies  Loa and her babies.


The bottom and sides are pretty much wee one zones and I don't care to have a second display of my "hangin' loose" drawing; so we are going to stick with the grown-up zone. Here is a shot of our fairly boring freezer door.


This is our list of pesticide laden fruits and veg.

This is a sweet magnetic bud vase that the MM gave the PM for Mother's Day a few years ago. It had a flower in it that one day and never again. Don't know why, we have a huge yard of flowers. 

Finally here is a tacky dice magnet that the PM brought back from Vegas when her and the MM got married there in the "Chapel of Love". 

I wanted to take a pic of the PM's target heart rate list but the flash was too bright. Who has that info on their fridge? Maybe by your exercising machines but not on your fridge. Maybe the PM didn't want all the dust to cover it if she had it on her stationary bike or she wants to make sure her heart rate is bang on when she's racing for the ice cream after the wee ones go to bed.  Not sure.

I know a lot of cats had done this meme a few months ago so I am tagging some of you new bloggers who have not!

For those who were asking, the PM did clip the end of my wild whilly whisker and nothing crazy happened. Thanks for the help!

Now, I wanted to share a dilemma with you. The wee lad and I are friends, supposedly.

Here we are hangin' in the grass. See the look of adoration in my face?

Well, a couple of days ago, I heard that he had drew a picture of me. I was so touched. I hurried over to have a gander, wondering if I was going to look more like a tiger or a lion and this is what I saw.

Pretty good, I thought. Goldie climbing a tree is the title. But then I had a question. The PM took the words right out of my mouth when she asked. "What's that hanging between Goldie's legs". No, not what your thinking. He said, "That squishy bit that moves side to side when he runs."

WHAT??????????

That is floof, all floof!!!

Then last night I was sitting on the PM's hip when she was lying down, waiting for the kids to get ready for bed. The wee lad came in and said "Goldie, get down. You are getting bum juice on Mommy."

Again, WHAT???????????

Excuse me, I do not leave a trail of bum juice where ever I go.

Maybe if I was an eldercat or ill, but not on a regular basis.

Sheesh. I don't know about all this business.

Do you think he is just going through a stage?

Our friends at The Cat Realm had another "I Dare You".

They dared us all to come up with one creative, fun, useful way to save the environment and put a picture of yourself doing it on your blog.

Well we do quite a bit for the environment. We have a compost, we garden organically, we use cloth shopping bags, the PM used cloth diapers etc but I wanted to show you this-




The PM really didn't want me doing this one as this looks just like a pile of crap. "Not all organized and sorted". Oh well. To make it sound better than it looks I am calling it "Mount Creativity".

Here I am trying to ascend the mountain, one of my favorite pastimes.



I don't get to tackle it often as the mountain is in a closet.

The mountain is made up of all kinds of unwanted items, boxes, paper, cans, bottles, all types of plastics, milk containers, tops, paper towel inner rolls, broken toys, broken jewellery etc.

The PM and the wee ones then use those items to make some pretty cool things. We have a few books that are just about that.



I especially like the bird feeders as they help the birds get fat... er I mean, stay nice and healthy in the winter.

So we creatively recycle!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

The wee lad got a magazine and in it was Astrology for your pet. He thought it was pretty interesting so we are going to be posting a "star sign" each week. For those of you who know when you were born keep an eye/nicatating membrane out for your sign. We are curious to see how close they are with their personality descriptions.

So we will start with~

Virgo

August 23- September 22

Virgo pets are smart, easy to train and quick to housebreak. They especially like to be groomed.

Praline is that you? Sounds like you my furiend.

Is anycat a Virgo or knows a Virgo?

Tune in next week for Libra.

Just because you unfortunately do not have claws; you can still give the furniture a going over!





I am hoping the stimulation will cause new claws to grow. I know, a long shot, but a ladycat can dream.

As you may have noticed before, I have rather curly whiskers. Well one of the curlicue fellas is getting a wee bit out of control. It has taken to curling itself over my check and into my eye. It doesn't bother me all the time but it gives the PM the heebie jeebies.





My question is how do I tame this wild whisker? The PM heard when she was a little girl that you NEVER cut a cat's whisker. Was that a old wives' tale? She's not prepared to test that theory.

I was thinking some nice moustache wax would be nice. I have always liked the look of handlebar 'staches.

We were very sad to hear that our friend, Pixie, sister to Daisy has gone to the Bridge today.  She fought a battle with feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for years and now needs a rest.  Our purrs go out to Daisy and her Mom and Dad at this sad time.

Pixie is running and leaping now at the Rainbow Bridge with renewed energy. 

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there... I do not sleep.

I am the thousand winds that blow...

I am the diamond glints on snow...

I am the sunlight on ripened grain...

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you waken in the morning's hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of gentle birds in circling flight...

I am the soft star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry—

I am not there... I did not die...

(trad. Celtic prayer)

A Bloom For Lovely Pixie 

First off I want to pass on an award we received. We are very bad at dealing with these in a timely manner. Bad PM!

We were given this award by our friends  The Cat Realm and Tesla. Thanks so much guys!!!



These are the rules that came with~
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours, and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you've nominated

We would like to pass this award to some of our funny friends.  There are so many out there that we love but we finally chose the following eight. (We had to do four each to make it even. Shade was complaining it wasn't even-Steven. I don't even know a Steven.)

• Eric and Flynn
  
• Jasper and family
  
• lovely JB
  
• Sen and Tom
  
• Vampy Victor
  
• Huffle
  
• the witty Fin
  
• Sweet Ariel
  

We also received this award from Loa and her babies
and The Cat Realm. We already received it before but just wanted to say thank you!

Next, I wanted to introduce you to the newest member of my city family.

This is Kitty Girl and she came to live with the Nanny after the PM's Grammie died a month ago. Grammie loved her very much and felt like she was a gift from God. Grammie was having a hard time coping when her beloved dog Bruce went to the Bridge. When she thought that the sadness would swallow her up whole, this little kitty showed up.  They live way out in the country and no one had ever seen her before. She just appeared one day and when asked to come in to Grammie's house, she marched in, went straight to Grammie's bed, jumped up and went to sleep.  
Kitty Girl was Grammie's faithful companion through these last years and laid right beside her right until the end.

She is very pretty and sweet. The Nanny's other cat, Treepie, threw a huge fit when she arrived. Doing his famous Donald Duck talking and swearing like a sailor.  He is the last of five cats that the PM and her family had when she was growing up and he has been alone the last couple of years.  He has calmed down now and I think he'll enjoy having this precious beauty as a friend.

The Grammie had another indoor cat that went to a good home and there are still a couple living outside in the woodshed.  I overheard the PM saying she could take "Emmerson" if they needed her to. 

We will have to see what happens.

This is one of my top resting spots. It is available only once in awhile so I have to keep my eye on the PM. 
Normally there is no camera on hand for a photo op but this time the camera was on the table. The PM was leaned over the table, browsing the newspaper and I knew it was my chance for some "back lounging"

"Stop moving, PM! I'm trying to have a nap here."

Do any of you use your beans in weird ways?

I am getting a little concerned that I may be losing some of my feline sensibilities.

As I have stated before, I am not a hunter and take a pacifist stand on the whole mouser business.  I fear I have inherited more than my dislike of violence from this family. I live with a family of vegetarians and I am afraid I am swinging a little towards their way of eating.

The PM would not have believed this if she hadn't seen me doing it. 

She opened the door and caught me eating this.

Yes, some raw oatmeal flakes and sunflower seeds.  I know, I know. What was I thinking?

See, Goldie had maimed a deer mouse and the PM took Goldie inside so the mouse could recover. She brought out this bowl of food and some water in case the mouse needed some refreshments. The mouse ran away under the roses but she left the food out just in case. A couple of hours later she goes to check and I'm eating the stuff.

I know Goldie will steal the wee ones cooked oatmeal with milk in it but raw? 

Is my family a bad influence on me?

Goldie~ I was checking out the back window, which looks onto the roof of our wood room, when I saw this.

Yes, that is poop on my roof. I think it must be a gang of rogue wild cats, leaving me a message. I am a hunter but not really a fighter. I really don't know what to do next. Shade, the clawless wonder, will be useless if we were attacked. 

Am I hunting too many mice? Does my excess floof annoy them? 

I am feeling a tad bit anxious. I will have to get my sidekick ready for a rumble.  I better...

Shade~ Goldie, how many cats do you know eat choke cherries? None? Right. That poop belongs to coons. Quit the theatrics.

Goldie~ Oh. Sorry.

The PM was told a bizarre story about a meezer and we were wondering if any of you cats had ever heard of such things. Maybe some of you need such treatment. Inquiring minds want to know.

Ok, a friend of the PM's was visiting with someone who had a meezer.  They went into the kitchen and there was the cat. The friend reached down and pet the cat a couple of times, gently and then had to lift his leg up quickly to defend himself as he was about to have 12 lbs of irate  kitty wreak havoc on his body.  The woman screamed for her cat to get down then grabbed him and sat down on the couch.  (the cat not the man, hee hee)

She then proceeded to put him on his back and rub his tummy until he calmed down.  While she was doing this, this is the crazy part, she held a pencil between his teeth. I guess the wood was flying, bits going all over the place. He chewed for a few minutes then was calm again.  She apologized and said he had quite a temper and that was the only way to calm him.

The PM thought this was the craziest thing she had ever heard.  Has anyone heard of such things?  Maybe it is some new Dr. Phil for cats technique. I think we live a sheltered life out here in the woods.

Whatcha think?

UPDATE~ I put this question to  George and he has an answer. You can go over and check out what he thinks! Thanks George!!

The PM said the Nanny had given her something and I didn't really pay any attention. A book, something for the wee ones was what I was thinking.

Then she put this new bed on top of their mattress. What? I was confused. Then I jumped up to investigate.




A nest for me!! How sweet.

It really is quite divine. The first afternoon I did not leave my spot for five hours. The PM thought I was out but no, I was curled up in my new bed. Um... I mean, their new bed.



Just look how squishy it is. See how far my paw sinks.



I wonder if I could get the PM to put my food/water and litter box up here for January and February.

Our friend Texas went to the bridge last night. He gave that cancer a real good fight but he needed to rest.  He was a funny, sweet cat and will be greatly missed.

Some blooms for Texas.