Well, good morning, kitteh persons! I’m filling in for Peggy today, as she’s recuperating from some minor medical thingy that requires her to stay horizontal more than vertical for a little while.

That’s cool, I love PUYC, as I’m sure all you regulars know. Please be sure to tell us any interesting stories and news about your own kitteh overlords housemates.

I think bgrothus mentioned last week that she has a story to tell, and I’m sure yellowsnapdragon can update us on Nagi’s adventures.
In less fun news, have you all read the various reports about a new study claiming that using improved methodology, cats actually kill “billions” of birds and small mammals? It’s generated lots of controversy, and the New York Times story has stayed at the top of most-read, most-e-mailed since it was published. The link is here. http://tinyurl.com/bkgm4zg

Honestly, it’s true kittehs are very efficient killers, and they can’t help that. I don’t want to see birds go extinct either, but (naturally) I blame the humans who don’t want to bother with the trouble of keeping their cats indoors, or worse, get tired of them or angry if they spot a flea, and throw their poor pet out to “fend for herself.” Grrrr. That’s where most feral and stray cats come from.
I can’t argue with most of what’s in the article, except they seem to assume that feral cat colonies of TNR’d cats will never shrink in size because “they might encourage owners to abandon their cats,” which ignores the evidence that such colonies do shrink, as they don’t reproduce and re-populate the neighborhood. There’s no evidence at all that the presence of a TNR’d colony has any such effect on owners’ likelihood of abandoning their pets; that’s just made up out of thin air.

Okay, off my soapbox. We should all be aware of this, though, because it may be the start of more cat-hostile local legislation.
As you see, I still can’t do links in an original post, so I put in the tinyurl instead. It’s a mystery. Let’s see what happens with a pic? Here’s an old one of Pushy playing with a catnip toy. He’s been doing this a lot recently:

Well, people, I am trying and failing to post cute pictures outside of my own, admittedly adorable, cats, so…..talk amongst yourselves.  Tell us this week’s kitteh stories from your own family and neighborhood!

Update: experiment:

Good morning, Caturdenizens. How’s everybody? Yes, well, I know. Consider this an open thread for kitteh talk and reminiscences: of our original creator and host, Southern Dragon, real name Richard de Berry. I doubt that we could help ourselves, right? Feel free to include reminiscences of furry loved ones who’ve crossed the bridge, too.

Tell us all your kitteh news. I’m trying to think of any of mine: two are arranged on the recliner now; one on my hip, the other on the footboard. One is on a sofa cushion I put on the floor last week; and the fourth and newest, Big Boy (the less and less feral), is ensconced in his bed in the kitchen.

Still can’t get Big Boy to explore further than the far side of the kitchen. A couple months ago he turned up in the living room, a few feet from my chair, stretched out on one of the cardboard scratching boxes. But that’s the only time he’s ventured so far. Still, he’s come quite a way; I’m sure he’ll make it into the living room eventually.

A link to the videos from Big Cat Rescue, one of Richard’s perennial favorites (one of faves, the annual Pumpkin Massacre):

I know all of us are wondering and worrying about the fate of Richard’s own cats. Several of us have given our contact info to OmAli to pass on to Richard’s best friend or brother in case they need help finding homes, or paying for their care. I know some other folks have mentioned contributing in the remembrance threads of the last week. I hope OmAli will have time to drop by and update us on the kittehs’ status. She’s got to be busy though; her husband is out of the hospital but still sick (they don’t keep you till you’re well, y’know, what a crazy idea!), so he will need her care and time. ((((OmAli)))) And thank you so much for taking on the task of keeping us informed right through to the saddest news.

Y’know, usually I can blather on about anything, certainly about the kitties, but I’m finding it hard this time. Can’t imagine why that should be. Like Peggy said, Southern Dragon has left a hole the size of a Greyhound. How did he do that without our ever having met in “real life?” Yet, everywhere I go, everything reminds me….here there’s a story or a video he’d enjoy for Caturday, there my “bad cat” makes me want to ask his advice…well, you all know what I mean.

Oh, and if we needed any more signs and portents than our great-souled friend departing with a great storm, I got another when I opened my flickr account to look for pictures: it greeted me with “NAMASTE Tejanarusa!”
So, it’s your turn, caturdenizens: Tell us your stories.

UPDATE: Some of us are racking our brains trying to remember the names of all Southern Dragon’s kittehs. I bet among us all, we can name all thirteen. Here are the ones I can think of: Nagi, Sita, Mojo, Shiimsa…so, only nine more to go!

PULL UP A CAT or THE GREAT AND FABULOUS SUNDAY CAT SHOW

Morning, kitteh-loving Firepups!  It’s my pleasure to be hosting today, and crossing my fingers for everything going right.  I’ve got a couple of videos for you, but for copyright reasons, I may have to just link to them.

Things have been pretty good around my little casita de gatitos in Tejas this week.  Only one morning with a peed-on floor, and every evening, the kittehs gather round me …in fact, on top o’ me, all three of them sometimes.  This is a bit unusual.  Smokey is usually a bit aloof, sleeping or hanging out apart from the rest of us, but even he’s been here, on the arm of my chair, or even squeezed onto my lap, next to Squeaky. One night he was sleeping with his head on her shoulder.  I usually only see this in the coldest part of winter.

Maybe they missed me when I was away a couple times recently?

Here’s a video you may have already seen, but I love it so much: a man builds a tower of cardboard boxes for his beloved cat, Rufus. It’s time-lapsed, with Rufus appearing during the building, inspecting the work. Adorable.

There’s also a new Simon’s Cat, which is where I found the above video…Simon’s Cat is about boxes. Hunh. Link gets an error message; but if you haven’t seen it, check back for it.

http://www.viralviralvideos.com/2012/09/11/rufus-tower-man-builds-cat-tower-maze-out-of-boxes/

Big Boy continues to come along as a tentative member of the family.  He comes farther into the kitchen now, and even steals from Smokey’s dish (he eats in the kitchen), but hasn’t gone under the kitchen swinging door to the rest of the place.  He’s even hanging out for longer and longer periods before wanting to go back out.

Smokey, grumpy as usual

And best of all, I had been thinking, with our first cool nights (60’s!), and a heavy rain one night, that soon it would be time for him to need a warm spot to sleep, like the bed I put out for him last year, which my landlord absolutely forbade in the new lease in May.

Surprise!  My newest neighbor put out a chair near her door …not a lawn chair or patio chair, but an old upholstered chair; nice, fuzzy, soft upholstery. A sort of modern club chair with high arms.  The other night I realized Big Boy was curled up in it…perfectly warm and cozy, protected from the wind and rain.  He came to breakfast from there this morning, and was there already when I took out trash late tonight.  Heh heh.  No cat “bedding,” no lease violation…and Big Boy’s taken care of.

But this morning, poor guy…I startled him awake when I came out the backdoor; saw him sit up straight, stare at me, then take off through the pouring rain, making for the top of the wall around the yard.  He disappeared, and I haven’t seen him since.  Hard to take out the feral responses to startle.   (Here he is)

And by the time it gets actually cold here, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s ready to spend the night indoors.  Sometimes, things work out.

My favorite recent LOLCAT:

Familiar look, no?

How has your week in kittehs (and other companion animals) been?  Tell us your kitteh stories

Well…here goes nothin’…(hitting Publish)