Happy Birthday!

Today is my cats 6th birthday! The top picture is Pippin, the bottom Mellifera. They are littermates and I've had them since they were 2 months old. My daughter & her boyfriend had a cat who had kittens and somehow I was convinced to take these two. I've never been an animal person but I've become quite attached to these two cats.

Mellifera was born on Jill's (my daughter) arm. We think her mother got scared when she started to give birth and crawled into bed with Jill. Jill woke up because she felt something wet on her arm and it was a kitten! Pippin wasn't born until about 6 hours later. They thought there were no more kittens and went to work and when they came home tripped over a little kitten in the middle of the floor. Apparently their mother was somewhat lacking in kittencare skills.

There were 4 kittens and Pippin was the runt. He was a little teeny thing with big eyes and ears and I just fell in love with him when I saw him. He's no longer a runt - he weighs 14 lbs now! Mellifera, even as a kitten was beautiful and very sweet (except when she's grouchy!).

I'm being extra-nice to them since it's their birthday. Not that I'm ever mean! I bought a little piece of salmon for their dinner. Believe me that was nice, because I hate fish stuff!

This is cute!

Yeah another cat picture. . . .I just thought this was so cute. I spend a fair amount of time sitting at my computer and periodically Mellifera will decide to have a battle of wills with me over the seat. The minute I get up she jumps up on the seat and gets comfortable. When I come back she looks at me with sweet little eyes and mostly I end up not moving her. This pose is guaranteed to let her keep the seat as long as she wants! She goes to a lot of trouble scratching at the throw to get it positioned over her and I just can't bear to make her move. You'll notice she's draped over most of the chair. In the past she'd curl up in a ball at the back of the seat with the throw pulled around her (I'm still not sure how she does it even though I've watched!). She liked feeling hidden but unfortunately if I wasn't paying attention I'd sit down and nearly squish her! She's learned to take up a lot of space on the chair for safety!

Mellifera

A couple of weeks ago I posted about one of my cats, Pippin. I've been meaning to share a couple of pictures about my other cat and am finally getting around to it. Mellifera (her name is from Greek and means honey-bearing) makes me think of that old nursery rhyme about the little girl with the curl, when she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid.

She can be the sweetest, lovingest cat in the world. She'll curl up in my arms and give me kisses and reach her paw up and gently pat my cheek. Then she'll sit on the couch next to me and hiss and scratch me if I move or turn the page of my book! I'm a little prejudiced but I think she's a really beautiful cat and deserves her own blog post!

He Came Out!!!

I was working in the living room this afternoon going through stuff and heard a noise. I looked up and Pippin was standing in the hallway looking at me! I told him how brave he was and then kind of ignored him (watching out of the corner of my eye) and he ventured into the bathroom and then into the living room. Of course I had to take pictures! Once he was out he started exploring the whole place. Now he's back in the bedroom, somebody walked up the stairs outside and scared him. Oh well. I think now that he has explored a little he'll start coming out more. I was getting worried that he'd never leave the bedroom. Oh, he's back out already!



Pippin in the window!


Checking out the TV connection.



Mellifera was not happy. Which is reasonable - how would you feel if someone was being praised for something you'd been doing all along!


Pippin went back into the bedroom once & Mellifera sat in the doorway and hissed to try and keep him from leaving. She thinks the rest of the house belongs to her!



Peeking outside!

Pictures!

I know that I've never posted pictures of my cats! Anyway I just had to share these because they are so cute! Top w/mostly black face is Pippin and the bottom w/mostly white is Mellifera. They are siblings & will be 5 years old August 22nd. I'm their complete & devoted slave!

FYI - Pippin has his own twitter account with 168 followers. Yeah, I know it's weird but it's kind of fun! There are actually a lot of cats on Twitter. I don't know how they use the keyboard - Pippin dictates to me what he wants to tweet. Mellifera doesn't tweet - she thinks it's dumb.

Sleep

Sleep is good for you. Did you all know that? It helps your problem-solving skills. Keeps your blood pressure down. And keeps you thinner. Those are some pretty good reasons to sleep and I, for one, am generally in favor of it. Unfortunately I never seem to get enough and I have three good reasons why: the Web, Pippin and Mellifera.

There's a lot of stuff out there on the web. A Lot. And I'm kind of an information junkie. So I'll get online about 10:00 pm and the next thing I know it's 2:00 in the morning. I have this problem a lot which means I tend to stay up late. So what's the big deal you're thinking - just sleep in late right? That would be where Pippin & Mellifera come in.

Pippin likes to eat on his own schedule. His early schedule is usually about 4:00 am. This means he comes in my room and meows at me to get up and feed him. I could ignore him & try to keep sleeping and I've actually tried that. Do you know what it's like to have a hungry cat walking on your head, biting your hair and nose and scratching at you? It's much easier to get up & feed him. Which is what I do. Staggering dangerously down the steps and to the kitchen where his sweet, trusting little face rewards me with a purr and leg rub. It's hard to be annoyed when he does that. So I feed him and stagger back to bed and what I hope will be 4-5 more hours of sleep. Alas no such luck. (And no, I can't just leave dry food out for him. He refuses to eat it & would do the same wake-up routine to me.)

About 5:30-6:00 Mellifera decides she wants to cuddle with me. It would be fine if she'd get on the bed and snuggle with me. Nope. She wants me in the living room on the couch. And she meows and meows and meows until I get up. If that doesn't work shewalks all over my nightstand and knocks things over. I get up, go to the living room & she jumps up on my lap and cuddles with me. Sweet right? Well not always. At least half the time, she'll walk on me, purr and let me pet her for about 1 minute then decides I've annoyed her, hisses at me, jumps down and disappear. You'd think I'd give up and figure it isn't worth it and stay in bed. Unfortunately the other half she cuddles up by my neck, lays her head on my shoulder, looks up at me and gives me little kisses. Now that's impossible to resist! Which explains why I get up.

By this time I'm pretty well awake, despite only having slept 3-4 hours. So I stay up and then I'm tired and everyone says I should sleep more. Easy to say. Give them my three distractions and see how much they sleep. If anyone has suggestions to mitigate these distractions I'm happy to listen but I kind of doubt they'll be effective. Especially against those kitty kisses!

Silent Sunday

This is Mellifera, the most beautiful cat in the world!

Mellifera

Mellifera was a little upset when she found out that I had posted about Pippin and that this was the last official week. She thinks that Pippin gets all the attention and that I was ignoring her. I really wasn't - it's just that Pippin, well I can't really explain it. Anyway, I thought I'd post some pictures of her because I don't want her feelings to be hurt.

Mellifera is actually a very sweet cat despite sometimes snarling and swiping at people for no reason. Almost every day she climbs onto my lap and cuddles with me. She lays her head down and tilts it to the side and reaches her paw up to pat my face. She'll give kisses also.

Jill & I went to a cat show a couple of times in the past year and we saw some really pretty cats. I think Mellifera is prettier than all of them though!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

The Adventures of Pippin & Mellifera

Cute update: Pippin is so smart! A lot of times after I take a shower he comes in and cuddles with me. Lately he hasn't been doing it, I think he has been a little annoyed because Mellifera has been needing a lot of cuddling. Anyway when I went in to take my shower earlier I told him when I finished he could come and cuddle. When I came out of the bathroom he was standing on the top step looking at me & ran into my room to cuddle! He clearly understood everything I had said! He didn't stay long though - sometimes he'll cuddle with me for 15-20 minutes. While that may not sound like a lot it is a lengthy time for a cat to allow a human to lay their head on their stomach and say goofy weird stuff and sing off-key songs! Ok, back to the movie!

Pippin & Mellifera love to play outside. The other day we were out for quite a while & I took a lot of pictures. Instead of making you look at all the pictures I made a cute movie with them!! There is music so be sure & turn your sound on. I'm thinking that my career as a filmmaker may be taking off. I could be famous someday - probably for making really bad cat movies!

Happy Birthday to Us

Yesterday was our birthday! We are 4 years old now. In case you don't know who we are let me introduce myself. I'm Pippin Texeira, a very handsome 4-year-old cat and my sister is Mellifera Texeira who is also 4-years-old and thinks she is beautiful. (I'm the one who is mostly black, Mellifera is mostly white.) I think she's annoying. She didn't want to write this post so I said I'd do it - I didn't say that I would say nice things about her though!



We had a birthday party last night and got a cool present, special turkey that our Mom cooked for us and cake. I loved the turkey! but the cake I didn't care for. I sniffed at it but it smelled funny. Our present was a scratchy thing that we can lay on and play with. It has a feather underneath it that I'm trying to pull off. It was a pretty good day and our party was nice although a little weird. You have to understand that cats aren't much into parties but our Mom really likes to do stuff like that so we indulge her. She is kind of strange but still a pretty nice Mom and she really loves us so we let her be weird sometimes.

Mellifera's Movie

This is the movie that I made with Mellifera. She had been playing with her spring toy and I wanted to get pictures. Of course as soon as I pointed the camera at her she stopped playing. I risked serious damage to my foot attempting to get her to play but she is very stubborn. Hence the music accompanying the video! I took the pictures & then made a movie in Windows media and uploaded it to YouTube. I'm pretty impressed - I think I have a new career ahead of me.

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Cat Songs

I read a really cool posting on The Way of Cats blog the other day. It was about cats having their own song & you put their name into it & sing it to them. I really liked this idea and felt pretty bad that my cats don't have a song. So . . . after much thought and consideration and consultation, I have come up with songs for my cats.

Pippin: Coming up with his song was pretty easy actually. It is Let Me Call You Sweetheart. Sweetheart, of course, is replaced with Pippin. Thus making the lyrics:

Let me call you "Pippin," I'm in love with you.
Let me hear you Purr that you love me too.
Keep the love-light glowing in your eyes so true.
Let me call you "Pippin," I'm in love with you.

Pippin is pretty pleased with the song although I'm not sure he appreciates my singing. He batted at my nose once but I think he is just a little hot.

Mellifera: This was a little harder but then Jill came up with Dear Prudence by the Beatles. Obviously Mellifera replaces Prudence:

Dear Mellifera, won't you come out to play
Dear Mellifera, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Mellifera won't you come out to play

I'm not sure how happy she is with this. Like Pippin she doesn't seem to appreciate my singing voice.

Anyway now that they each have their own song I'm going to sing it to them everyday. Pretty soon I'll be able to post a little video of them listening to me sing. I warned you folks, POST!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Why I Can't Work

Mellifera was a little upset that Pippin had a posting devoted to him so I told her I'd write something about her also. As I work from home, I spend a lot of time sitting at my computer devoting myself to my job. Oh, Stephen is out of the country I don't have to pretend!

Lately Mellifera has decided that she wants to sit in my desk chair. Being as I'm still working on this weight loss thing, there is just not enough room on the chair for both of us. Consequently we are engaged in an ongoing struggle for rights to the chair. In case you're wondering, Mellifera is winning. The other night I had to stand and check my email.

When I do manage to get the chair she'll jump up onto my desk, knocking things over in the process and sit right in front of the monitor. It is actually pretty cute & I knew you'd all like to see a picture!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Pippin & the Balloons

Last night Jill brought some Mother's Day balloons home from work for me. If I had thought about it in advance I would have assumed the cats would like balloons and try to get them.

Mellifera had no interest, she just ignored them. Pippin, however, pretty much freaked out. He looked at the balloons and took off running up the stairs to hide. A little while later he came down, carefully peeked around until he saw the balloons, looked at me reproachfully and took off running again. He wouldn't come into the living room at all last night - apparently he did come out while I was asleep because he ate some food. This morning he did the same thing though, peeking around & running when he saw them. I finally gave up and put them in my bathroom where he can't see them.

Being a doting cat mother, I thought this was all pretty cute & decided to share with all of you!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress