Decorating for Yule, Cat Style

One of the things I love the most about having a Yule tree is the fact that our cats simply love to lay underneath it. We even have stockings for each of them. Midnight's stocking says, "Prince," Kiki's is "Princess," and Haley's says, "Queen," of course.

Every year, I decorate the house with as much kitty cat paraphernalia I can from cat dish and bathroom towels to cat figurines...

Fenton Glassware "Christmas Cat"

Ginger Cats in wicker sleigh

Handcrafted Cat ornament

Lloyd's of London's "Not a Creature was Stirring"

Yule cookie cutters

HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!!

Wishing everyone a very

 Happy

 Thanksgiving

 and may you enjoy your time with family

 and friends!!! :D

It's a cats life

From ancient Egyptian deity to present day domestic feline, the cat has a very long and rich history indeed. As the story goes, a cat had wondered into Egypt one day and began killing the mice that were eating the stored grain which the Egyptians had saved for the coming year. Because famine was such a serious problem, the people of Egypt welcomed these felines and believed them to be a sacred gift sent from their gods. The once capital city of Am-Khent, then located in lower Egypt, was named Bubastis in honor of the goddess Bast or Bastet. 

In Egyptian mythology, Bast was a daughter of Ra and Isis. She was acknowledged as being associated with music, dancing and anything fun! These people had revered their cats as members of the family and, when they died, they would mummify them and adorn them with various gemstomes and jewels.  Even today, cats are considered to be sacred in the country of Turkey. In fact, harming them in any way is forbidden and against the law.

During the Middle Ages; however, cats endured the most horrific of atrocities! Due to the ignorance of the religious leaders of that time in our history who believed that cats, especially black cats, were linked to witches and therefore must be evil, these beautiful creatures were killed and tortured in any way possible by the masses! This, in effect, allowed the bubonic pleague to spread. Since the disease was caused by rats, the same rats which would have normally been killed by the cats, it is believed that about 25 million people died as a result.

Fortunately for us, cats still live among us, gracing us with their ever-lasting beauty, grace, love, loyalty and equisite presence. I can honestly say that there is nothing that I wouldn't do for my kitties. They are, without a doubt, my best friends and I would be completely lost without them!

Morganna the "Mystickal" Mascot!

This pretty little lady is Morganna, the "Mystickal Tymes" mascot. Mystickal Tymes is a Wiccan/Pagan supply shoppe located in New Hope, PA. My husband and I have been taking yearly trips there since about 1996. The fabulously quaint shoppes at New Hope are mostly all non-commerical and very unique. So unique that you would be hard-pressed to find any items locally which you can buy there.

Morganna is 16 years old and spends most of her time at the store with her owner and the proprietor of Mystickal Tymes, Eric Lee. He said that she is quite at home there and never wonders outside the store. As Eric explains it, "She HATES it out there!" (can't say I blame her very much as New Hope is always a fairly busy place, with cars and horse and buggy carriages heading up and down the main strip throughout the entire day).

The shoppes at New Hope have just about everything you could possibly think of ~ beautiful clothing stores, great places to buy books of all kinds, excellent food (both fine dining and casual), awesome pet supply stores, whatever your looking for! Although my favorite shoppe is undeniably Mystickal Tymes with their huge variety of candles, incense, oils, statues, musical instruments and so on. And, it is always great to see Morganna greeting everyone as they walk in the store!

Cats & Friends: All You Need is Love ...

Through the years, my husband and I have shared our lives with a few bunny rabbits as well as kitties. So far, we have had a black & white Mini Lop named Sir Barney who lived to the average age of 7 years, a gray & white speckled rex named Choloe, and now a brown & white speckled Dwarf bunny named Sam.

Barney was by far my favorite as he would actually give you little bunny hugs by resting his chin on your shoulder and I had such an easy time litterbox training him. Yes, I said "litterbox." There is a great rabbit training book called, "Hop to It" and it teaches you how to train your bunny to use a cat litterbox, how to keep your bunny away from dangerous household items such as wires and cords simply by bunny-proofing and saying  a few simple little words, and much, much more!

Before we rescued our first bunny, Barney, I never knew squat about rabbits. So, I bought a few bunny books and learned a few things such as rabbits do not have the ability to vommit and if they develop a hairball or something they must have it surgically removed. I also found out that un-neutered male bunnies will spray just like male cats do if they are not taken care of. Most interestingly though, they are not stupid. Since they are such sensitive creatures by nature, you can not yell at them if you wish to make them listen.  If you do, all you will suceed at is terrifying him to the point where you have lost any trust you may have had before hand. Instead, you have to pick them up right away if they are misbehaving and repeat the words, "no, no ,no,  (and their name)" several times while placing them gently back into their cage. Trust me, they do not appreciate being confined to their cages after being left out for a spell and so the "dumb bunny" gets smart very quickly!!

Surprisingly, all of our cats have always taken extremely well to our rabbits and they often snuggled and played together ...

The Day in the Life of Winnie (With New Funny Pictures of Winnie)

 Picking What To watch on TV

 Laying in the window

Crashing on his owner's bed .....the day in the life of Winnie ;)

Puss In Boots

Cat lovers be sure not to miss this movie!  The cool cat Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies now has his own movie which is in theaters now. Me (Page) and my friends are going to see it tomorrow :) Here is  the movie trailer Puss In Boots: http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/647791/puss-in-boots.jhtml

Meet Halloween!

Yes, that is actually her real name, but we call her Haley, for short. Haley is what you might call our "middle child" cat. She joined our family in October of 2007 and she is of course a Calico cat. I have heard it said about Calico's that they "are like a piece of chocolate ~ sweet on the outside and nutty on the inside!" This we have certainly found to be true of Haley!

I must admit that we have never shared our lives with a Calico cat before, although I have to say that it has been quite interesting to say the least. First of all, we have to keep her separated from our other cats whenever we are not at home because she likes to "mark" her territory (she is NOT happy about sharing her home or her litterbox with any other cats). Our vet suggested that we keep three litterboxes around the house (one for each cat), but we have no way of keeping the other cats out of what she considers HER toilet. Not to mention, we have a rather small house and simply do not have the room to accomodate this gesture. Secondly, she likes to play ""come and catch me" and then runs right up to you after you walk away from her.

She also has this weird habit of moving her water bowl in front of the doorway so that when you walk out the door, you almost trip over it! Ahh, the joys of being a cat parent, eh? I suppose it could be worse; however, as we would prabably not have been able to keep her (with the peeing thing which we can not have) if we didn't have our closed porch for her to use when we are at work during the day, etc.

With that being said, she is probably the most sweetest, adoreable little female we have ever had. She loves to groom Mr. Midnight (what we like to call "cat kisses") and she is definately our only lap cat which I totally love about her!