The joy of cats

A site I like, jibjab.com has a setup where you can load your photo into animations and illustrations (think dancing elves). I did this one for Richard in honor of the fact that Libby sometimes likes to gnaw on his head for no good reason. We have long since stopped trying to figure out why Libby does anything, she has wily and mysterious aims.

This is also a fair representation of what we will endure next week as we load Sammy and Libby into cat carriers and take them to the vet for their annual checkups. Well, Sammy's not too bad. Her biggest weapon is a serious bit of silent rage and a bug eyed look of disbelief. To put Libby in a carrier, one must first assemble a first aid kit and put on armor. Oddly enough, Mary's cats are a lot better to take to the vet. Boo and Tilly go right into the carriers. Cleo goes in (she's like a dog and can often be directed) but she doesn't want to stay in. She's sort of claustrophobic. Tilly is so tiny, she's no trouble at all. And our very kind vet gives us a multi-cat discount. By the time we get to the last cat, it's almost free.

Sammy is having a cantakerous day today. Nothing is pleasing her, not us, not our offerings of table food, not the other cats who are constantly doing things to annoy her, like breathing and laying about lazily in odd spots in the house that she wants to inhabit for a few seconds. I think she woke up on the wrong side of the cat bed. Maybe she's just getting older and with that comes some grumpiness. We have various made up songs we sing to the cats (yes, we are weird). Here's the one Richard made up for angsty Sammy (sung to the tune of "Smelly Cat" from the TV show Friends:

Grumpy Cat, Grumpy Cat
Who peed in your gooshy food?
Grumpy Cat, Grumpy Cat
It's not my fault.

In the interest of silliness, here's the other cat song Richard came up with, set to the tune of Hank Williams, Jr.'s "Family Tradition":

Sammy why do you hork?
Why do you regurgitate?
Why must you throw up the food you just ate.
Stop and think it over,
put yourself in my unique position.
It may be rude to throw up your food,
but it's a Sammy tradition.

We survived the World's Greatest Hobby Show

I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures of the experience, but we survived the trip yesterday to the hobby show in Nashville. It was a definite upgrade from previous hobby shows because it was in the Nashville Convention Center, so they had food and drinks and some lady selling homemade donuts (that you could smell everywhere). The convention center also has better bathrooms than the civic auditorium and more seats.

The show itself was about twice the size of a regular show, so Richard was in total sensory overload. I did what I normally do at Train Shows...I looked around at the models and then found a seat and read a book. There was also an interesting show about Walt Disney and his love of trains narrated by the son of one of his original imagineers. That was actually pretty interesting. It was also where the chairs were, so I was compelled to listen. :-)

The place was mobbed with kids and Thomas booths. It's too bad Matt couldn't have gone...I think he would have loved it. After a couple of hours, we hiked back to the truck and went to Corky's for barbecue. Because you just can't have a train show without barbecue :-)

I had the same trouble I always have at train shows with Richard. I try to find him and everyone there looks like him. They all are wearing jeans, sneakers, a plaid shirt and a cap. Some of them were wearing the same shirt as he and the same cap. I told him next year, I'm making him wear a bright pink shirt.

Skiing Geese and a Pile O' Cats

We've been getting some vacation photos back from the geese. Here they are, hitting the slopes. I was musing to Richard that it's really a shame that the geese are more athletic than we are.

Tilly is constantly trying to get the other cats to clean her ears and her head for her. I can see that she is using that tactic here: "I love you Cleo, I'm going to lay down next to you and you can wash my ears." The gigantic black shadow behind them is Boo.