Dogs In Halloween Costumes

Dear Dog Owner,
Please stop dressing your dog in Halloween costumes. Yes, we know they look cute. That does not matter. The dog does not care, nor think, about the cuteness, or what other people think. Cute costumes are a human concept and designed for the selfish benefit of dog lovers and the greedy pockets of retailers.
I talked to your dog yesterday on the phone and your dog told me. Seriously. Remember when you said "He/She likes it!" No. You were wrong. Just because your dog didn't argue or bite you does not indicate such.
I know you are a good soul who loves your canine companion. However, your dog asked me to write to break it to you gently. Next year, please use Photoshop.
Thank you.

Autumnal Update

So....... It is November already, isn't it? What can I write about today?

Tabitha, Luna & Gem have been playing together and can sit in a room together, Zerena hisses but nobody takes her seriously, she never tries to chase or attack, so that makes four girls nearly getting along, with daily ups an downs. Galahad, being the boy of the house, takes the most work. He wants to play, but he scares the kittens.
The kittens are getting big! My girls, so loveable, they are spoiled housecats who love their human friends. It has been so much work, so many hours of treat and toy therapy. It may take six months to a year before all five are completely comfortable together, but with steady work it will happen. The rewards are so great, this crazy funny life is wonderful.

One great bit of advice to anyone introducing new cats to your cats: BABY GATES! We stacked two on top of each other so they can watch and sniff each other through the gates all day. The safe room is visible at all times, but still safe. This has made our situation improve tenfold.

Incidentally, I think the kittens like Tori Amos.

I looked up The Pirate Queen musical, and as it happens, it is based not just on legend, but the same Morgan Llewellyn book I had mentioned. It is playing in Chicago now and opens on Broadway in February.

Two versions of The Magic Flute playing at The Metropolitan Opera this season; one short version intended for kids and families, one traditional, I would love to see both.

When, oh when, is the last season of Jem coming out on DVD? Such a drag.

I ordered a wedding dress! It is called "The Guinevere." That was an easy decision. We have a date again, in perfect keeping with the Celtic year. It will be lovely, silly and all our own.Five cats in attendance. (Hee hee)

Just finished STEALING HEAVEN by Marion Meade, the only historical fiction (I know of) about Abelard and Heloise. An engrossing read to be sure, muchly true to fact, but O, the suffering! Good grief, we know the true tragedy, why did she have to add so much extra misery?!

Almost finished with ONE KNIGHT ONLY by Peter David (King Arthur as the American President fighting terrorists, the Basilisk and Gilgamesh... no, really.) A quick, silly read with no good female characters.

So there you have it, a few bits of current faerie life. Be well, my friends~ be well. Fight the best fights.

You need a kitten update!

Tabitha is sleeping in my lap, which makes it difficult to type but oh, the preciousness.... the preciousness...
Luna is asleep at my feet, she trusts me more every day, she loves being skritched and skratched, she is sleek and velvety smooth.

The introductions aren't going well. Galahad is curious and annoyed, he keeps trying to barge in the kitten's safe room. Gem is just curious, she wants to inspect but the little girls will have none, or very little of it. Zerena ocassionallly wanders near their door and has hissed at her sightings, but is the least interested (actually a good sign.) We have done sock, toy and bed exchanges, to familiarize scent, but introducing two kittens to three cats, five distinctive personalities, is daunting at best. Such a hard road still, over a week after everyone has been vaccinated, Tabby and Loony (nicknames of the day) are still in their safe room for 95% of the day.

Today I got the book CAT VS. CAT by Pam Johnson-Bennett, I ran through three chapters on the subway already, it is good, useful, insightful... if only Ms. Bennett knew our crazy situtation. I have also ordered Feliway, a product that has been around forever that I knew nothing of! Cat pheremone (synthetic) to calm cats and solve litter/scratching problems. Please let it be the miracle I have read it to be.

If you haven't guessed by now, it looks like we are keeping the kittens. This is my worst (best) rescue yet.

Which Heroine Am I?

What a great way to waste time~ internet quizzes. I liked the results very much.

Your turn:
http://http://www.quizilla.com/users/prettyblondeprincess/quizzes/A%20well%20made%20and%20well%20thought%20out%20Disney%20Princess%20quiz%20(graphic%20included)/

Leg Lift On Ice

Nothing for me to add... I could not do it justice.

Background Music

Funny to listen to the various high pitched "Yeeaaawws" and "Sing it" and "Yea Yea" and other indiscernables in Joy to the World by Three Dog Night. Were they really having that much fun? I'd like to think so.

Tabitha and Luna tested positive for exposure to the FIP virus, just exposed, they don't have it. However, we have to get Gem and Galahad and Zerena tested and probably vaccinated to be safe... which is another six trips to the vet! Yikes! Getting kitties into carriers can be very hard and such stress on them.

Grumble grumble grumble... just more crazy life of animal lovers. This is the latest version of normal. So many steps yet to crazy up.

The Faerie Library

I am now finishing GRANIA by the great Morgan Llewellyn. She has chronicled most of Irish history in so many grand works of fiction that reading one will only make you want to read another. I have read about six of her books thus far, BARD and DRUIDS were most compelling. GRANIA reads more like a romantic adventure (worthy of an embarrassing mass market paperback genre fiction cover) than her other books. GRANIA is about Grainne Mhaille, more commonly known as Grace O'Malley, the infamous "Pirate Queen." It is doubly fascinating that she was a contemporary (and enemy) of Elizabeth I, another historical obsession of mine. Both women of strength, flaws, and many stories.

Now I hear the same Grace O'Malley is coming to Broadway in a new musical, The Pirate Queen. I will have to see this.

Prior to this I was in an obsessive Henry James and Edith Wharton phase. Fun to read the books and then pick at the movies. (Daisy Miller? Oh my...)

Next I decide between THE WHITE RAVEN by Diana Paxton (possibly the only Tristan and Isolde left on earth for me to read) and A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Dickens (we just got a lovely new copy~ rereading old school books is so much fun) or THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker (glad admiration bestowed) or THE DARK HILLS DIVIDE (surpise gift from my true love, he thought the cover looked like something magical I would like... awwwwwwww)

There are at least three other books in the stack, cannot recall but only more fun decisions to make. Be well, you lovers of all tales told.

In Praise of Vegan Lunchbox

Divinely inspired. Fair warning, this will make you hungry.

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/2006/10/tofu-pt-shells.html

Killing them with Cuteness

If I haven't mentioned it before, CUTE OVERLOAD http://cuteoverload.com/ is the greatest website that ever was. So glad to hear that KittenWar is soon to be a book.

How can you not love a site with sections called THE DAILY KITTEN and CATS IN SINKS?

And yes, I have plenty to submit when I get around to it. That picture of Zerena showing off her belly truly belongs there.

Tabitha and Luna

This picture is from a few days ago. The girls have had their E-collars (lampshades) off for over a week. Tabitha put hers back on. How? We don't exactly know. She is so silly I cannot do it justice. She reminds me a lot of Zerena.




I must get some good shots of Luna stretching and showinf her white spotted belly. She is a magical moon cat.




That's right, they have official and final names now. They are still sequestered, still a lot of work, and oh my goodness we LOVE them.

Silly is an art form

for Zerena

Coneheads

The technical name for it is E-Collar. Not to be confused with spinach scare... ha ha! So green, so funny!

Walking the Floors

Mama loves to tell how she walked the floors with us as babies, all night, keeping her from sleep. Socializing feral kittens and trying to give special attention to your own pets to even the balance means little sleep for us, well, mostly me. I do not walk the floors, I sit on them and snuggle the little furballs and give them their medicine and all... More later with photos. Tabitha and Miranda (the Tempest) are doing very well indeed.

Latest incarnation of wedding plans: Midnight Ceremony on New Year's Eve! Everyone loves the idea... Problem: How (and where) to do it outdoors?

Yes, it still has to be outdoors!

In other news, I am very sad about the e colli spinach scare. Of all things, spinach~ one of the greatest foods there is... I can hear the moron contingent now, using this as an excuse to avoid healthy greens ~ the same morons who still don't care that Mad Cow disease and all of the other graphic unhealthy horrors of eating meat are ever present, and slowly killing them, every day.

Checklist: Kitten update, wedding thoughts, short angry vegan rant, yep, I'm done. Good night.

Kitten Return

Kittens home. E-Collars (plastic cones) on their heads. Upset, disoriented. Hiding. Twelve hours later... Blackie let me pet her. Then she got scared again. Grey is in love with me. Amoxicillin twice a day. Stitches out in two weeks. Sequestered room again. Two curled up sleeping now. My turn to pass out.

WE DID IT!!!

I will say it quick because it has been a crazy exhausting week...

4AM Friday tropical storm raging outside, wind rain, wet kittens, I had to lock them inside the apartment~ they lived in this room, rather comfortably, though Blackie still wouldn't be touched, for four days. Litter training only took about five minutes. Finally yesterday after quick trauma we got them into carriers and to the vet, where they are resting after their spaying, they have also received all of their shots and had bloodwork. No fleas, no ear mites. YAY!
Blackie literally climbed the walls at the vet's office. She is a SUPERCAT! She had to be sedated, poor baby. We just went to visit them, poor scared shaky angels. Grey was very woozy and frightened, but still purred like a gravel motor. At least, under sedation, I finally got to pet Blacky and give her kisses. Everyone at the vet's office is in love with their cuteness. We get to bring them home tomorrow, YAY again! Then what?

I may need to sedated next.

Spay and neuter, folks, spay and neuter!!!

p.s. - we are still feeding the other strays (feral mommy, daddy, various neighborhood cats) on the porch and will do so as long as they come.

Everyday Kittens

I could not let them be out in the rain yesterday...

Snuggle sisters

This is just a moment ago, Grey on my green faerie slipper while I type.

So, the little ones come inside (still blocked away from my cats for now) on a very regular basis. In fact, they are in here right now. If you haven't been privy to such supreme silliness as two active kittens, you miss, my friend, you miss grandly.

Unfortunately Blackie still won't let me pet her (but she does bat at my hand, that is progress) and Grey never shows up during daylight hours, when the vet is open.Still, I gain their trust more and more each day, they will be indoor cats in no time. Still have to find doors to put them in.... am I repeating myself? I know I am, I also know my old 2mp camera at nightime does not do them any justice.

Halloween Stuff...

is already appearing in stores! This is the only Holiday I do not mind having thrust in my face a bit early due to the sake of commercialism. I remember the old days when, if you wanted really large and elaborate faerie wings, you had to make your own.
For today's busy faerie on the go, a quick stop at any party store has you glittering across the skies in no time.

I never get personal but...

just this once I have to say...

Cody is a jerk.

Random Cute Attack

Oh, please, somebody stop the cuteness! Too much!

Faerie Fun