A Jim Shore Treasure

I truly love the artist Jim Shore and his magickal creations! I just couldn't resist this beautiful piece today while shopping ...

It is called, appropriately, "Wicked Kitty." Of course it goes without saying that it will adorn my Samhain altar this year! ;)

Me and my (other) shadow?

Ever since we have brought Tabby into the house, she has stuck to us like glue ~ following me from room to room just like Midnight always does and if I am ever out of her sight, she begins to cry like a baby. She seems to be having a bit of a hard time adjusting and the fact that the other cats are being, in my hubby's words "a-holes," is probably not helping the situation much. But, I have faith that in the end things will eventually work themselves out once all parties understand that no one is leaving! LOL!

Under the circumstances though, I think she is doing fairly well, lounging around on our furniture like a real pro. This further solidifies, in my mind anyhow, that she obviously was a house cat before at some point. She has put up with a lot of verbal abuse from our other kitties who like to hiss and growl (but no hitting so far, thank Goddess) at her the minute she gets too close to them when you can see that all she really wants to do is befriend them. Through it all, she has not gotten aggressive with them at all ~ not a once!

She has an appointment this coming month for both her booster shot and her front declawing which I have scheduled the week of my vacation in September. I am hoping that by that time she will have stopped begging at the front door to run outside, but I have a feeling that we will have to be very cautious and not allow ourselves to ever become complacent with her on that issue.

All in all, she is really such a little sweetheart and we just adore her so!

Much Ado About Mr. Gray

 

Are you all ready for the continuing story of what appears to be our home turned catery ~ LOL! Well, it appears that our cat Tabitha (A.K.A. stray cat now turned domestic house princess) had a buddy outside who misses her terribly! The next night after we brought her into our home to begin her new life as a spoiled feline, hubby had asked me to go outside and feed Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray is a lovely solid gray male with what I call a white"beagle face marking" around his mouth and nose and a white bibb on his chest.

Apparently, Tabitha and Mr. Gray had formed quite a very close bond with one another while co-existing outside. As I walked out the front door to give him his nightly dinner, I heard a very loud noise which, at first, I thought was the sound of two cats fighting! Turns out that it was only Mr. Gray literally howling for Tabitha! Talk about pitiful? It actually broke my heart to hear that sad little, but loud, cry.

So what now of Mr. Gray? Well, since we can not possibly take in anymore stray kitties, we have decided that we have two options:

1) We could continue to work with him in an attempt to gain his trust, trap him, immediately get him examined at our vet, and then take him to one of our local No-Kill shelters called, "One By One Cat Rescue" which deals strictly with cats only and placing them in good homes, or,
2) We could choose to continue to take care of him as best we can outside and provide him with shelter by installing a cat door in our tiny shed in back of our house. This would also serve as shelter for other strays in need of protection from the harsh weather conditions.

Surprisingly, since Mr. Gray no longer has his little companian to hang out with, hubby has actually been able to get a bit closer to him ~ feeding him cat treats as we did with Tabitha and allowing him to approach us. We can only do so much; however, and the rest is up to him!

Whoa, how'd I miss that?: Black Cat Appreciation Day

 

"Black Cat Appreciation Day" was last week ~ August 17th to be exact! Good Goddess, how could I have ever forgotten THAT day? LOL!

Midnight 'n' Kiki ~ our little black beauties!

 

 

Anyhow, I love this idea as black cats, of all the cats out there, seem to have gotten somewhat of a bad rap throughout our American history. Between being associated with numerous (and ridiculous) superstitions such as being cast as "evil," and religious persecution these cats have surely paid their dues. And, although this is no longer the 17th century, these beautiful cats are unfortunately still subjected to society's ignorance. Such ignorance has caused many Animal Shelters to refuse allowing black cats to be adopted by prospective cat guardians every year around the holiday of Halloween.

 

Lets face it, these guys deserve a day of their own and suffice it to say they have most certainly earned it!  So, Happy "belated" Black Cat Appreciaton Day everyone!"

 

I  had also come across a wonderful article on the net about this special day and thought perhaps you all might be interested in reading it ... In Celebration of Black Cats.

 

And Tabitha makes four ..

Just a quick update on the newest member of our family. Hubby and I took Tabitha (Tabby) to our vet last night and she has a clean bill of health. The vet told us that she is definitely spayed and it looks as though she was the recipient of the "catch and release" program which is something that many animal organizations such as The Humane Society, ASPCA among others have adopted. This is when they trap a stray animal (cat or dog), spay or neuter them in order to keep the population of unwanted animals down then release them back outside. One of the things they also do, so that they know which strays they have already caught, is clip the tip of the animals left ear. Tabby has such a mark. Our vet also said that she is no more than one year old, if that.

The funny thing about her is that she was purring so loudly that the vet had a very hard time hearing her heartbeat while she was examining her! I must say, we have never had a cat THAT people friendly before! She is a little lovely and when we brought her back from her check-up, we moved the holding cage upstairs into the cat's room (our spare bedroom) since her FeLuk test came back negative.  The idea was to get her adjusted to the other cats until we can get her back into the vet to get her fronts-only declawed.

*SIGH* Well, so far she isn't likin' that too much and, much like any baby, she cries constantly because she so wants to be with us. Unfortunately, the other cats litter box is also in that same room because there is, quite honestly, no other place to put it in our small house and so the problem now is that our other cats are either too afraid to go in that room to use their box or they simply refuse? In any case, we must now figure out what to do with her until we can get her acclimated to the other cats and vice-versa. My main concern now is our other furr babies!

Ahh, the joys of being a cat guardian, eh?

The Sunshine Blogger Award

Today I was honored with the "Sunshine Blogger Award" by the blog, "A Year and a Day Wicca." I feel especially honored because this is actually the first and only blogger award received for Witch Cats Blog. Many thanks from my 'witchy cats" and myself to "A Year and a Day Wicca!"

Now, the rules for accepting this award are as follows:

1.      If you are nominated, you must blog a post linking back    to the person/blog that nominated you.

2.      You must answer some questions, nominate ten fellow bloggers and link their blogs to the post!

   3.      You should comment on your nominees’ blogs to let them know you’ve nominated them.

Here are the questions:
1. Who is your favorite philosopher?
    Aristotle

2. What is your favorite number?  3 because it is a magickal number.
 

3. What is your favorite animal? Most definately a cat! We have  four of them.

4. What are your Facebook and Twitter URLs?
   My blog is my main source for everything.

5. What is your favorite time of day? Nightime

6. What was your favorite vacation? Ontario, Canada

7. What is your favorite physical activity?  Going for long walks

8. Favorite non-alcoholic drink? Mint iced tea

9. What is your favorite flower? Carnation

10. What is your passion? Cats

And here are the blogs which I nominated:

1) Welcome to my World

2) Everyday Domestic Goddess

3) PurrrrSnicKitty

4) The Year of the Cats

5) The Deepest Well

6) Art Sings 1946

7) The Rennaissance Woman

8) The Magickal and the Mundane

9) Ann's Imaginations and Creations .... Because

10) JudysPhotos

*(Please feel free to decline this award if you so wish to as I understand that some bloggers do not choose to participate in any kind of blog awards for their own personal reasons.)

Blessed Be to All!!!

Success!!

Horray!! Hubby and I FINALLY succeeded in bringing Tabby inside the house!!! At first she was a bit scared, but it wasn't very long before she began to make herself at home on the couch! LOL ...

We spent a good hour letting her check things out while our other furr babies temporarily stayed in the bedrooms. When we thought she was relaxed enough, we gently picked her up and took her downstairs to the huge holding cage set up with her own cat box, food and water dish, blanket and toys.  Next, I will make an appointment with our vet for a blood test for FeLuk, a check up and then we will go from there.

WHAT a relief that she is now safe inside the comfort of our cat-friendly home!!!

Sooo close ...

Tonight I was able to get a few more pics of Tabby and hubby during her usual routine for her feeding time...

As you all can see, Tabby is getting much more comfortable around us and often just lies down aside of us while we pet her and feed her her favorite cat treats...

We are slowly and gradually getting closer to our goal of making her an inside kitty ...

I must admit, it really makes me very nervous knowing she is still outside every day and around so many dangers, but unfortunately there is little more that I can do except to be patient and pray! UGH!!

I'm screaming of a black cat Halloween ...

A lunch date this afternoon with my sister, Robin, warranted a little trip to the local Yankee Candle Store. They had just started putting out their new Halloween merchandise and I just couldn't resist this Yankee Candle "Happy Halloween" black cat set ...

Black cat tea light holder, large jar of their new scent "Happy Halloween" with matching holder and black cat luma-lid, and two "Witches' Brew" scented votive candles.

I also picked up another interchangable luma-lid with Jack-o-Lantern's on it (on the far right). If you click on the pic, you can get a better look at the luma-lids.

I so love the celebration of Samhain and can not wait to decorate my home this year with these little goodies! Of course, this cute little ensemble wasn't exactly on sale, so let's just say that I won't be doing anymore holiday shopping for quite a while. LOL!

Just what Sunday afternoons are made for ...

Ahh yes, another all to short weekend coming to an end and another enjoyable Sunday afternoon spending some down time with our beauitful furr babies. Both hubby and I try to spend as much quality time with our beloved kitties as we possibly can.

Sleeping in late ...

A bit of play time ...

Watching a little telly ... ...

Lounging around and taking a cat nap  ...

And then finally winding down from a very hard day ...

Tomorrow it is back to the usual weekly, stressful grind, but as for today ~ we'll all enjoy each other's company if only for a little while!

May everyone's Sunday be as special!! Blessed Be!

Cat-choo!!

Our poor little Kiki. For the past few days she has been sneezing quite a bit! My guess is that she has been lying in front of our air-conditioning vents too much hunting for those creepy crawly things that sometimes come upstairs via the cellar! Kiki is a great little huntress and has captured more than her share of bugs in the house.

Since our cats are never allowed outside of the house, I am afraid she may have caught some kind of respiratory infection of sorts. So on Monday morning, I will call up our vet and make an evening appointment to have her checked out. Better safe than sorry ...

A new use for cat litter?

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago my mother-in-law calls us up and says to my hubby, "Kim's going to think I am crazy, but I would like to know if I could have some used cat litter?"

LOL, "used" cat litter? Now considering the fact that my in-laws do not even have cats, I know she didn't just mean cat litter by mistake. Turns out that the reason she asked us for the litter is because they have a lot of destructive groundhogs burrowing in their yard and my mother-in-law heard on a local radio show that if you spread used cat litter all around the perimeter of your home, it will deter them from coming around. Which, in my opinion, is certainly a much, much better solution than trying to shoot them!

Well, yesterday I spoke to her and asked her if the used cat litter worked. Much to my surprise, she said, "Yes!" So there you have it, my friends ~ have trouble with groundhogs? Try some used cat litter! LOL!

A Tabitha Update

Last night, I went shopping at our local Pet Smart and picked up a couple of things for Tabby. I bought her a box of Advantage II Once-a-Month Topical Flea Prevention and Treatment for cats since we would like to eventually get her in the house flea-free ~ although so far we have had little luck as she has claws and gets scared the minute hubby or I try to pick her up. Luckily though, she did allow hubby to get the flea treatment on her.

I also bought her a pretty pink reflecting cat collar that pulls out fairly easy in the event she gets caught on something she won't hurt herself. I still need to get a name and info tag made up for her yet.

As you can see, we haven't given up on her yet and truly hope that she is on her way to becoming one of our "witchy cats" very soon!

The Goddess Freya

One of my favorite goddesses has got to be Freya. She was a warrier goddess whose consort was the Norse god Od. She was also the goddess of sensual love and is usually depicted as a beautiful red-head who is known for her appreciation of romantic music and stunning flowers.

But this was only part of who she was. She was also the leader of Valkyrie and had the right to claim half the souls of the bravest warriors slain in battle (the other half belonged to Odin). As such, she would gather them all on the battlefield and take them back with her to spend the afterlife in her home in eternal rest and recreation. 

Freya was also called upon to comfort the dying and to help make the transition into the otherworld (known as Valhalla) easier by serving as their guide and comforting companion on their journey.

It is said that when Freya and the Valkyries rode forth on their missions, their armor caused the beauitful flickering light that we know as the Aurora Borealis ~ also called the Northern Lights.

While fishing one day, Od heard a lovely song coming from a nest of cats which seemed to be lulling him to sleep. It was a tom cat singing to his kittens to "sleep, sleep, my dear little ones." When Od very strongly suggested that the male cat stop his singing, the cat replied, "You have no idea how difficult it is to rear children as a single parent" and asked Od if he knew of any women who would be willing to take in his very special kittens as they were blue and deserved the life of royality.

Od immediately thought of Freya, and brought the kittens back home with him to present to her as a gift. Freya was so enchanted with them that she did the kittens honor by allowing them to accompany her on her daily rounds in her golden chariot across the sky.

 

(image credits)

Introducing ... Tabitha!

It looks as if we are getting closer to our goal of getting the Maine Coon kitty into our home with the rest of the family.  Tonight, I get her to eat cat treats out of my hand just as she does with hubby ...

Yup, we have literally gotten her eating out of our hands alright! My hubby has already given her the name of Tabitha ~ which I believe suits her.

 As I said before, she is such a little people cat that I don't think that we should have too much of a problem acclimating her to being an inside cat.  Here's hoping ...

Lughnasadh Blessings from our cat Haley!

A special Lughnasadh Blessing from our calico cat Haley who, by the way, is adorning her new pre-fall fur coat of orange, black and white. Isn't she simply stunning ...

A purrfect first harvest to all!!