The Shine On Blogger Award!

Greetings, my friends! The cats and I are very honored to have been nominated for the Shine On Blogger Award from Marietta at her fantastic blog, "Witchy Words!" Many Thanks, Marietta! Witchy Words is a delightfully wonderful blog with an assortment of really great posts, and, if you are like me and love to read about witches and cats, you simply must check it out!

Now, on to the seven things I must share about me. Hmmm, well, I really had to think hard about these because there probably isn't very much that you do not know about me already, so... here goes!

1) Not only do I collect mermaids of all kinds in a all forms, but I also have begun a sweet little collection of Jim Shore artwork i.e. cat and holiday figurines, etc.

2)  One of my passions other than cats is studying the history of various religions. Not only do I find it fascinating, but it also serves in helping me perform my role as a Pagan and Interfaith Clergy.  :)

3)  I come from a long line of animal lovers. My grandmother on my father's side used to take in any and every single stray animal you could imagine and had family pets from cats and dogs to birds ... and she loved them all dearly.

4)  I am not very much of a cook, (not that I can't cook because I can) but I would much rather clean up the dishes! LOL!

5)  I have only one sibling ~ a brother named Kerry who is almost three years younger than I.

6)  I guess you might also say that I come from a rather musical family as well. I used to sing in a band who performed all around the Berks and Lancaster county, PA areas, my brother has been playing the trumpet since the age of ten and has performed in several orchestras for local musical theatre, and my cousin is an EXCELLENT singer with an absolutely gorgeous falsetto voice.

7)  I have never lived anywhere outside of the Berks County, PA area. I have lived and worked in Reading, PA my whole life. It is where my family, friends and my jobs have always been.  ;)


Now for the 15 nominees to pass this award on to ...

MagicLoveCrow

Cherry City Kitties

Moments in an Eye

Cheapskate Blethering

Rasz Art

Eilis in Wonderland

Stonehouse Cottage

Everyday Domestic Goddess

Judy's Photos

Between the Worlds

Wiccan Writes

For the love of life: Alice's World!

Foxy's World
The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee
Sandy Sandy's Weblog

 

I would also like to thank each and everyone of you who have so thoughtfully and caringly sent their love and condolences to my hubby and I regarding our beloved Mr. Earl Gray. Words can not express how very much we appreciate all of your kindness!

 

Blessed Be!

 

Kim and Brett 

 

Anniversary Weekend

Greetings everyone! First and foremost, I want to thank ALL of  my very dear friends and followers who send their many condolences and caring hugs out to my hubby and I. I can not begin to tell you just how much that meant to us! You are all such a huge blessing!  

This weekend hubby and I were planning on celebrating our 12-year wedding anniversary. However, in light of our recent tragedy we have decided to postpone that for another couple of weeks or so. In the meantime, my hubby, in a good effort to cheer me up and change the overall somber mood in our household, decided to give me my anniversary gift a little early. It was a beautiful Willow Tree piece titled, "Together" ...

And so, I gave him his gift as well. A heart-shaped music box which plays the song, "Unchained Melody" and envgraved with this these words ...

“I give to you my continuing love, friendship, honor and respect.   I shall be there for you always as full partners, each to the other. Should one falter, the other shall pick them up again. Should one despair, the other shall comfort them. Should one lose their way, the other shall see them home again. Happy Anniversary, Love always ~ Kim"

 

These words were supposed to be part of our Handfasting Renewal vows which we would like to hopefully have performed eventually. The vows ring so true, most especially at this time. Nothing is perfect, and our marriage is not any different than anyone else's in that respect. We have weathered many storms and somehow have continued to get through them and be there for one another. I suppose that is the real definition of commitment.

Heartbroken ...

It is with such a heavy heart that I write this post. Last night, we lost Mr. Earl Gray not even 15 minutes after playing with him on our bed where he appeared to be feeling just fine. When I went back into the bedroom to check on him, he was gone! Just passed away for no known reason to us. In fact, "shock" does not even begin to describe what I felt!

We immediately took him to the vet to be privately cremated and the vet told us that she thinks he had a heart attack. Imagine, a two year old cat having a heart attack?? It makes absolutely no sense to us but, unfortunately, we have no other explaination for it. I can't tell you how much both my husband and I have cried so many tears of sorrow last evening for the loss of our beloved boy who came to us only a year ago and had been our sweet little house kitty since then. 

I will miss so many things about him. I will miss how he followed me around the house and snuggled with me at bedtime, I will miss his soft, sweet personality, and I will even miss him waking me up every morning insisting I feed him his breakfast. But most of all, I will miss the fact that he loved me so much. We may have given him a warm, cozy home in which to live and loving care, but he gave us back so much more.

In remembrance of the Fallen ...

 

 

Another Blogger Award!

Wow! I can't believe the cats and I won another cool Blogger Award!!! This one is the "One Lovely Blog" given to me by another wonderful Blogger friend of mine, the beautiful Eilis from her blog, "Eilis in Wonderland."!

As with many other Blogger awards, one of the rules of acceptance is that I share 7 things about myself that you might not know. So, here goes!

1) I used to have very low self-esteem up until the time I sang in a band.
2) I used to be agnostic many many years ago, but have been blessed to find what I truly believe in!
3) I LOVE Bassett Hounds and plan to share my home with a female named "Guinevere" someday. LOL!
4) I have always wanted to work with mentally challenged and/or "handi-capable" children and adults.
5) I have "lazy eye" which basically means that sometime after I was born I developed a weak muscle in my left eye. As annoying as it is on pics, it does not affect my vision at all.
6) I was engaged twice before I met my hubby of 11 years - we lived together for seven years prior so actually I count that as about 20 years. ;)

7)  I have never smoked a cigarette a day in my life because I can't stand the smell of smoke!

Well, now on to the second part of the award rules. I must now nominate seven more Bloggers for this award. If I could, I would nominate you ALL!!  Here are my picks:

Magic Love Crow

Wiccan Writes

Cottage Tails  

Earthen Magic 

Moments in an Eye

For the Love of Life: Alice's World!

The Feral Life Cat Blog

And there you have it, my friends. Here's wishing everyone a great week until next time!!  

Some new stuff!!!

Greetings everyone!!! Hope you all are having a blessed summer. As for me, I am very much looking forward to the Fall season and, of course, MABON!! To help get you into the spirit of things, I have posted my newest cat wreath, "The Four Seasons of the Cat" ...      > ^..^ <

I also added a couple of new items to Haley's catio. Since Mr. Gray no longer needs to "live" downstairs after his tests results came back to us negative for FeLuek, I thought I'd bring up the two pieces of furniture which I had bought for him and give them to Haley. She now has a new bed and kitty condo ...

I think she likes the new look!!!

Speaking of Haley, my hubby found a wonderful little item in, of all places, his Sportsman's Guide magazine! They are sofa/furniture covers with a kind of plastic underneath them. Wanna take a guess why I bought them? Yup, you guessed it, to protect our beautiful new sofa from Haley urinating on it and doing any more damage to it than she already has. The night we put them on, she decided to pee on the couch. Perhaps she felt the need to mark the thing that smelled "different" to her and wasn't there before? Well, after "testing" the new covers we found that THEY WORK WONDERFULLY!!! ...

They are machine washable and come in many different sizes and colors. I highly recommend these for anyone who is having the same problem with a house cat with the same behavior issue.

Wishing ALL a very lovely weeknd!!!! 

HAPPY LABOR DAY ALL!!!!