Purring for Moki

Ms. P and Cinza: Moki has been through a lot and deserves our support. Same for his Mom Crystal!

http://savemoki.blogspot.com/

Remembering Bashert

The Divine Ms. P: It was two years ago today that Bashert died.

He was a gentle, loving spirit who chose the woman when she felt she had nothing left to give. (He adopted her a few months after the last of her three kitties died; they had all gone to the Bridge during a difficult one and a half year period.)

Bashert was a street tom; the vet figured he was anywhere between two to four years old when he adopted her, but he looked a lot older because the poor guy was in rough shape. He was FIV+, missing part of his ear and fur along his back and had runny eyes and broken teeth. During their first three weeks of "bonding" she gave him ear drops, eye drops and pills.

The woman promised Bashert that she'd get him healthy again and then find him a loving home. One day while sitting on her bed a few feet away from him she decided that the time had come to consider his future options. While she was thinking about who would be a loving companion for him, Bashert got up and settled down in her lap. It was the first time he did that and she knew right then and there that he was meant to be in her life, hence the name Bashert which is the Yiddish word for "destiny."

The two became best friends and loved to hang out together. Bashert was a snuggle kitty who loved to play as much as he loved to cuddle. Every night he would sleep with her and on chilly mornings she'd wake up to find his head next to her on the pillow, while the rest of him was underneath the covers.

One night the woman had a dream about a sick kitty. The next day she took Bashert to the vet. The test results indicated that his kidneys were going and the vet gave him a month to a year. It was largely because of Bashert's health issues that she learned Reiki so she could help him, and when she heard about a local homoeopath who treated animals as well as people, he started receiving homoeopathic treatments along with the care of his regular vet.

Mr. B lived another two and a half years. Along the way he developed a tumour and a heart murmur, but right up until the week before he died he was a happy kitty who loved hanging out with his bestest pal.

The woman still has a big Bashert sized hole in her heart that no one can fill, but she will always be grateful that this special kitty chose to share his life with her.

Writing this was one of the most difficult challenges ever. How does one capture the essence of anyone, especially someone who had so much personality? One thing is for sure, Bashert will always remain alive in her heart. She's not joking when she says that she'd like to be more like him -- a generous, loving and open spirit who gave with all his heart and soul.

Healing power of purrs

The Divine Ms. P: The woman is feeling sad. It's the fifth anniversary of her mother's death.

We weren't going to post today, but I've been doing my best to comfort her and it seems to be helping.

All day long I've been keeping a close watch on her. Right now I'm sitting on the woman's lap, purring and alternating between gazing lovingly at her and licking her hand as I dictate today's post.

Earlier while she was doing yoga, I would strike a pose whilst sending her healing purrs. She kept coming over to pet me and then I'd come up with a new pose and give her my best "you know you want me" look.

Anyway, the point of today's post is to remind everyone that love works wonders. If you're feeling down because you've got the January blahs, because you're missing someone or for any other reason, spread some love and open your heart to receive all the love coming your way.

It's hard work taking care of humans and now it's time for a kitty nap.

Twelve Step Tuesday -- Step Three

Made a decision to turn our will and our nine lives over to the care of the great black cat goddess as we understood her.

Monday smile -- Feed the cat

Ms. P: I tend to be more subtle in my approach, but even though I'm an older diva kitty, I'm always open to trying something new.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=U_7FiTjS2hg

Cat grass -- paws up or down?

The Divine Ms. P: Well, as you can see from the pictures we did some nibbling here and there.

But that was on the first day. We mostly ignore it; occasionally I'll throw up in the middle of the night and sure enough the servants will find some grass in the mess.

Just to see what would happen, the woman left some lettuce next to the pot of grass. Cinza went for the lettuce.

Later, lettuce was placed next to Cinza's evening meal. She went back and forth between the two!

Unfortunately, the woman can't find the photos, so there goes the evidence.

Cat grass

The Divine Ms. P: Thanks to Whicky Wuudler for suggesting kitty grass for The Princess of Weird.

The fact that our woman didn't think of it all on her own is most perplexing given that she used to buy it for her previous felines.

And as for the man, well, I've been with him for nearly thirteen years. He thinks about bicycles, cameras and jazz -- cat grass is definitely not on his radar.

It's so hard to find good help.

Tomorrow: Cat grass -- paws up or down? We'll share our honest opinion.

Twelve Step Tuesday -- Step Two

Came to believe that a power bigger than ourselves could get in the way of us inhaling all of the lettuce.

Monday smile -- this cat LOVES water

The Divine Ms. P: The woman used to have a cat who would keep her company while she showered. He'd wait for her between the inner and outer shower curtains. Sometimes he would jump into the tub while the water was making its way down the drain.

Hope the following leaves you with a smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXHim3ToQ4&feature=related

Flashback Friday

The Divine Ms. P: This was taken after we moved in with the woman a year and a half ago.

I don't much care for moves and to make things worse, repair guys were constantly coming and going.

I thought I'd found a nice safe spot away from all that nonsense and then the woman found me and had to take a picture.

Do I look happy?

Thankful Thursday

Ms. P: We are sooo glad our heater is working, especially now that the tempera-ture has taken a drastic nosedive!!! Yesterday morning we started out with -21 C, but it felt more like -30 C with the wind.

It's so cold our servant can't open the bedroom window because it is covered with ice and the pipes are making loud banging sounds. (The man kept waking up to the banging. He figured Princess Bam Bam had found a closed cupboard and was sending messages to the mother ship only to find her snoozing next to him.)

We're lucky we're indoor kitties and send special purrs to all animals who don't have homes and hope that anyone with dogs takes special care when they're outside. Our woman gets upset when she sees a dog left outside in the snow while their person is in some store or coffee shop where it's nice and warm.

In other news: Big Paw Blog is looking for guest bloggers to write articles about pets. You can find them at http://www.bigpawblog.com/.

Caught in the act

Step One:

We admitted we were powerless over lettuce -- that our lives had become unmanage-able.

It's time for an intervention

The Divine Ms. P: It seems a certain little grey furball has been stealing lettuce again.

Other news: the woman has met her first goal for 2009 and her photo blog http://seriouslyamused.blogspot.com/ is up and running again since a few days ago.

Also, speaking of green veggies, we came across two more videos on Pugwash (aka the kitty who loves broccoli). Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVdcipZLrms&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IprLfkuAdJU&feature=related

Monday smile -- kitten loves broccoli

The Divine Ms. P: The woman used to have a cat who loved broccoli. He would dive into the fridge and steal the stuff. Must be something about those black and white kitties...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIFNEddeZI4

Yeah for heat!!

Ms. P: Everything is working again as of an hour ago.

A big thank you to all our blogosphere friends for their support.

The man and woman are thinking of celebrating tonight with Vietnamese takeout. Me? I think I'll go for a before dinner nap.

By the way, thank you to Zoolatry for this picture. Don't I look divine?

The gerbil is back in Mom's head

Cinza: The woman is in a hissy mood.

The heater is still not working and she's tired of staying home all day waiting for repair people to show up, especially on sunny days.

The super and someone else came by on Tuesday and they changed the thermostat. After while tinkering with the heater, there was a mini explosion, so again no more heat.

The next day the electrician came by and said the guy from the day before installed the wrong thermostat. The electrician also has to replace various parts because of the damage done by the explosion, but he didn't have the parts he needed because his usual van is in for repairs, so he said he'd likely be back by the end of the week. In other words, still no heat.

Today no one came; the woman kept herself busy working on making some of her New Year's goals come true. She's so determined to make changes she's been too busy to write down her goals.

Meanwhile, she's really tired and barely functioning because we never let the people sleep through the night. They've tried all kinds of things and nothing is working.

For awhile when we started our wake up routine at 4 a.m., the man would get up and sleep on the couch so the woman could sleep. (She has a problem falling back to sleep, while he doesn't.)

He noticed that once he was on the couch, we'd settle down. He spent the next several weeks sleeping on the couch so everyone could catch up on their sleep and they were happy because we were less active during the night.

The last two weeks they've been trying to "normalize" things with both of them sleeping in the bedroom, and we were back to the usual: purring and kneading away on their pillows, scratching on boxes and furniture in the bedroom, meowing and fighting over who gets to sleep on our favourite pillow. (The people put out two pillows for us, but we both want the same one.)

Last night they gave up trying to normalize things. The man is back to sleeping on the couch and the woman is having problems sleeping through the night again. We suspect the gerbil is back in her head, but she claims it's because she's used to us waking her up throughout the night.

They're both frustrated and don't know what to do.

Heater still not working

The Princess Cinza: Today and tomorrow people are supposed to be inspecting our heating system.

The super has admitted he doesn't know why it's PMSing, and so far everything the electrician has done for the last two winters has worked temporarily.

Our castle is absolutely balmy... if you're a polar bear wearing a parka. Fortunately, considering it's January in Toronto, it's a relatively mild day at -7 C, so things could be a lot worse. (We're still relying on the little portable heater to warm things up.)

As you can see, we're snoozing on the sleeping bag the servants are using -- in addition to the comforter and blankets.

We haven't been more cuddly than usual and we haven't been burrowing under the covers (something we'll do when we want to hide from visitors or when we want to cozy up to our servants). We're doing just fine thanks to our diva fur coats.

The Woman is finding different ways to use the oven(s) as much as possible. The other night she heated up leftover homemade falafel and made chips out of a mixture of potato peels, garlic, onions, olives and spices in the big oven, while in the toaster oven she broiled sliced bagels on which she spread coconut oil and a kazillion different herbs.

It's sunny outside and instead of waiting around for repair people to show up, the woman would rather be out and about before it starts to cloud over and snow later this afternoon, but, staying home is giving her a chance to catch up on a few things.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the city is doing emergency repair work today, so we're without water between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

But, this too shall pass and one day this will all be a memory.

Frigid Friday

The Divine Ms. P: I call this my Kitty Cocooning in Her Condo pose.

Today the goal around here is to stay warm.

Let me backtrack a bit. Ever since we moved into this apartment 1 1/2 years ago, we've had heating issues, as in the heater would stop working (even after several visits from the super and the electrician.)

The last few days it's been unusually warm in here, too hot actually, and then the newest plot twist happened in our little soap.

On New Year's Day it smelled weird in here and the smoke detector kept going off even though Mom and Dad kept opening all the windows. The super came to our place several times and the last time he came our little castle was filled with smoke. Dad stayed with us to talk to the super, but Mom had to leave because her asthma was sneaking up and was ready to attack.

The heating system in our place has been shut off and the temporary little heater the super loaned us wasn't working during the night. Mom woke up with one of her "sore throat specials," but fortunately, Dad got the little heater to work this morning before he left for work.

It's finally starting to warm up in here and we're hoping by early next week this will all be a memory.