A New Blog Home

To give fair warning to new readers of this blog, it doesn't get updated very often. I have a tendency to forget for months on end that I even have it. To reintroduce my family to those who may not know us, it consists of myself, a full-time Department Digithead for the Exposition Sales department in a major trade association, variously full- or part- time student at a local community college (to get "officially smart" in what I've been doing and teaching myself for the past 20 years), and full-time cat mom; my roommate, a customer service assistant at a nearby grocery store and full-time "cats' favorite auntie"; His Grace, Sir Frederick, Duke of Northern Virginia (affectionately known as Freddie), a Siamese male who rules the roost; Nittany Lion (affectionately known as Mittens), a Siamese female who is very affectionate, but has a very loud soprano voice (especially when she wants something); two of her children (resulting from an adventure she had that was chronicled in the early part of this blog) Wabble, a tabby boy who is shaped like a Siamese, but scaled up to about double size (it's hard to believe that big boy came out of such a little Mother); and Sugar Paws, a cute little black girl with white paws and a white exclamation point on her nose (who looks just like her Mother with a different paint job); Finn Mac Cool, a Tonkinese (we think) whom we found at a local shelter while looking for the missing Mittens, and who is now a big Irish boy with a soft meow and a purr like a Mack truck; Coco Puff, a Siamese mix we also found while looking for Mittens. She looks like a Siamese done large with full Siamese coloring and a voice to match, but she's a real snugglebug when she wants to be; and Romana, a long-haired grey lady with a plumy tail and eyes that are green like springtime. Mittens also had two other kittens from her adventure, a grey-and-white pair now named Jamie and Zoe and living with their adoptive parents in Manassas. Our outside family also includes various birds, squirrels, and chipmunks who come to our feeder. The chipmunks only seem to come one at a time, so for a long time we thought they were all the same one and called them all Chippie (except when one got inside and became temporarily "that bloody rodent" (see "The Great Chipmunk Adventure" for more details on that one)).

Yesterday, Sugar Paws, Wabble, and Puff flushed Chippie out of the corner by the potting soil again when I went out to fill the feeder, but this time he escaped under the door of the utility closet. You should have seen the cats put on the brakes to stop from careening into the door!

As the days dwindle into Fall, the weather is turning colder, especially at night, although the days have still been fairly warm. We see a lot more squirrels out and about as they gather in their winter stores, and the time we have to take the boys out walking is limited -- especially since poisonous snakes have been seen in the area. According to the local news, a dog in the area was bitten and barely survived -- and the dog they were showing was a Golden Retriever. I don't want to risk my boys until we've had a solid frost so all the snakes go into hibernation.

I think Chippie either has a nest or a passage to his nest in the utility closet. I keep seeing him dashing back and forth across the balcony with his cheek pouches full. Most of the cats are asleep right now, except Sugar Paws, who is sitting under the coffee table watching the show outside the sliding door.

The other thing you may notice about these postings is that I never seem to know how to finish one off.