Missy's Corner

Boy did 2009 go by fast and this year came plenty of new experiences!   I never, ever thought I'd be living in a house with one cat let alone three, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  There is nothing more enjoyable then rolling over in the middle of the night, only to find you are boxed in on all sides by sleeping kittens, and you'll just have to get used to the fetal position; or abruptly awoken to the feeling of teeth in your toes or claws snatching your feet!  Despite all these obnoxious signs of devotion, I love each cat in their own special way.

I knew my mister Monkey was unique from the start.  His curiosity and cuddliness drew Mister and I to contemplate keeping him; but once that little kitten climbed up onto the couch just to sleep on Mister's lap, we knew he had all ready chosen us!  From then on Monkey has grown into a curious little bugger that always seems to find my hair ties (he must have a super duper tracking device somewhere because he finds them even when I hide them!).  He's even adopted a couple of new nicknames like Bunny, since he's always bunny hopping around the bed, all 10 pounds of him; Buddy, since he'll never leave your side, and "Purrs on Contact" because it just takes one pet to get his motor going!

Savannah was a different story.  The only girl in the bunch, I figured she would be the first to be adopted out.  With that sweet looking demeanor and beautiful colors I was very surprised when she was the last one of the litter left.  At first I was a little apprehensive about keeping her, because that would mean three cats instead of two (more food, more toys, more attention, more money).  Don't get me wrong though, there definitely was a part of me that wanted to hang on to her because it was so hard to watch all the others leave.  In the end, Monkey had really bonded with her and over the last eight months, she has bonded to me and Mister as well.  I don't think I could imagine my life without the savvy little girl.  I enjoy the conversations she and I have: "FOOD!" "Play with me!" "Rub my belly!" "Get up so I can sit in your warm spot on the couch then give you the "What did I do wrong?" look!"  I also love our tender little moments during the night; she has take to sleeping behind my back and sometimes sniffing my face.  Savannah turned out to be a resilient, lovable, mischievous terror, that I absolutely adore.


Kitty was all ready special because she allowed us to take care of her before and after she brought those precious babies into the world.  I know that becoming an indoor cat has stressed her out at times, but now she seems to be relaxing and almost regressing in age!  I love the sounds of her chasing Monkey and Savannah around the house, or coming into the bedroom to see her asleep in the bed.  I'm starting to get jealous though, it seems she's really taken a liking to Mister!

Of course, we have had some setback with cat ownership.  For instance, toilet paper will always be a toy and  automatic isn't really efficient.  When we got back from our last trip, Mister and I started thinking about investing in an automatic litter box cleaner; some other cat owners we know love theirs and it sounded like a nice way to make box cleaning easy.  Two weeks ago, we finally bought a Littermaid box that was supposed to clean every hour or so by running a rake through the litter and dumping the dumps into a little container.  The first problem we had, was trying to understand the directions to put the thing together!  They kept making reference to "five black tabs," that should have been covered if the system was assembled right, but we couldn't find them.  Then, the stupid thing wouldn't stop running!  So, I Googled the system for some trouble-shooting options and got it to stop by pressing a little button seven times; not five or ten, because I tried both, but seven!  After that, once the automatic system kicked in an hour later and scared the living day lights out of the cats and still continuously ran!  We gave it our best, but we are back to doing things by hand.  With that little adventure, we also decided against switching to an "automatic" water system.

Lately, Mister and I have been honing Savvy's hunting skills by using a toy bird we bought to try and get the feral kittens interested in meeting us.  We tied the chirping bird to a long string so we could throw it away from us to get the feral cats' attention.  Since we had no luck, the toy went into storage and didn't come out again till last week.  Now, Savannah can't get enough of it!  She enjoys stalking it while hiding under our bed, while Monkey enjoys playing with the string; even Kitty got into the action!  Mister and I have to be careful to make sure Savannah doesn't see where the bird gets put when we are done playing with it; one time I hid it in Mister's top drawer and she tried to get into the dresser once I left the room!

Well this is it, the last Missy's Corner post of 2009!  Hopefully, everyone will get it just before January and 2010 role through.  I figured the best way to finish out the year would be with an "all kittens" post.  When I started this blog shortly after we were blessed with these little guys, I really didn't think it would last!  In all honesty, I don't think Mister thought it would last!  But I enjoy writing updates about Monkey, Savannah, Kitty, Mister, and Me, as well as other things and may this blog continue to bring smiles to faces everywhere in 2010!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the new addition to my blogging.  With that new template program I learned how to add a menu bar and (with Mister's help) I was able to create a new site devoted to my art work!  I hope you enjoy and have a very happy new year!

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me be the first to welcome you to the newly designed "Missy's Corner"!  I recently got a demo version of a blog editor called "Artisteer 2" and had lots of fun with the program.  It allowed me to change the background, fonts, colors and pictures without any problems.  Look for more updates in the future!

Now to the actual post!  This past Saturday, Mister and I saw the movie "Avatar," and about one hour into the movie I said to myself, "You have got to review this movie on your blog!"  I'm usually skeptical about movies that garner whispers of Oscar nods before they even premier, but this movie deserved them.

Twelve years ago, Mr. James Cameron made a little movie called "Titanic" and he had girls of all ages going crazy; while some of my friends actually paid the money to see "Leo" five times, I had no desire to see it.  Not until "Titanic" showed on HBO, did I realize how amazing a movie it was.  By then, everyone had moved on and I was able to enjoy the movie for the cinematic story it was, not the drool fest the characters were.  When rumors of Cameron's new movie started surfacing I was once again leery.  After all, this new movie was supposed to "change the future of movies forever," and those are pretty big shoes to fill! Then I saw the original previews; with just the smallest of glimpses into Cameron's supposed masterpiece, I was definitely intrigued.  There were no hints into the plot, just peeks at amazing scenery and mysterious characters.  But, once the release date started nearing, new previews were made that dripped in plot and kind of ruined my desire to see "Avatar."  It was starting to look like the "same-old" romance movies like "Dances with Wolves," or one of these new fangled "political opinion" movies; and Mister and I already subjected ourselves to "an eye-popping yet cannily intelligent blast of social commentary" called "District 9."

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote "You don’t feel bamboozled, fooled, or patronized by “District 9,” as you did by most of the summer blockbusters. You feel winded, shaken, and shamed."  While I find part of that statement to be true, Mister and I did walk out of the theater "winded, shaken, and shamed," the rest is for lack of a better phrase, horse-honky!  The summer movie that was supposed to redefine Sci-Fi and make you take a personal look at humanity, made me want to hunt down Mr. Peter Jackson and rip his brain out so he can't direct or produce any more movies!  I should have learned my lesson when I paid good money to sit through his mockery of a remake "King Kong!"  While I laud the director for making the aliens in "District 9" less Disney-like and appealing, he went overboard in their appearance; as well as the political dissonance and the vilification of humans.

Now that I've recovered from this past weekend, I feel its time to let everyone know how our Thanksgiving went!  Welcome to the re-telling of Mister and Missy's Third Annual Thanksgiving Road Trip!  Since 2007, Mister and I have made the long trip down to Central Florida to share the Thanksgiving meal with his family in Micanopy (pronounced "mick-a-no-pee " not "My-canopy" as any resident will promptly tell you); this year we extended the trip farther south to my family, too.  In short, Mister and I spent more hours together on the road then seeing family members, and slept in five different places in five nights; but lets not get ahead of ourselves!  Below is a map of our travels that should be interactive (i.e. its a Google Map that you should be able to zoom in and out of!) so you can see all 1,340 miles in all their glory!



Before Taking Off

Our Wednesday started real early in the morning, when Mister and I packed up the cats for boarding at the vet.  I needed Mister's help since we only have two carriers for three cats, which means someone would have to carry over 15 pounds of cat!  Why bother boarding the cats you might ask?  After all, they are the most independent of domesticated animals; just leave extra food and water, right?  WRONG!  While other cat owners we know can do that, we learned the hard way, if the box isn't cleaned, the cats won't use it.  So, we left them in the care of the wonderful vet.  After dropping the babies off, I went to work in the kitchen.  Last year, I wowed the Shockey's with my ability to make Challah bread, so I volunteered to bake them again.  This year, there was a bigger significance to challah making since we were continuing our trip down to Ft. Lauderdale to have Shabbat dinner with my family and see my Great-Aunt Miriam and Great-Uncle Booney, in town from Israel.  I had all ready made two of the four loaves for the trip and had to bang out another two before we left, as well as pack!

From A to B (205 Miles)

Once Mister got home and got the car packed up, we started our trip from home, with ease.  Barely any traffic heading down southward, unlike earlier in the day.  One of Mister's co-workers said it took over an hour to drive 7 miles that afternoon!  The first year we road tripped to Micanopy, Mister and I did the whole 5-6 hour trip in one night!  We rolled into town somewhere around midnight and had to inconvenience someone to stay awake to let us into the house. After that trip, we decided the next time we'd start out the night before, stop over somewhere along the way, and continue the trip the next morning.  That's where the city of Adel, GA fits in.  Adel is right off Interstate 75 exit 39 and has an IHOP, open on Thanksgiving morning!  Every time we drive south now, we make sure to pit stop in there.

From B to C (138 Miles)

Mister and I rolled into Micanopy Thursday, just in time to help Aunt Anne with giving the dogs a bath.  The first time I went with Mister to his Aunt and Uncle's house, there were two dogs: Hopper, a Jack Russel and Collete, a miniature Poodle that loved belly rubs!  If she was in your lap, your hand better be belly rubbing or she'll give you the sad puppy eyes!  Last year there was a new addition to the brood, Chloe the chocolate miniature Poodle, who didn't have to walk anywhere.  She was so cute and cuddly, everyone wanted to hold her.  This year the new addition was Lily, a miniature Australian Shepherd puppy that came from a litter of nine girls and one boy.  She had amazing bi-colored eyes that were brown on top and blue on bottom.  Her father, who lives with another sister at Joesph's next door, has one brown eye and one blue!

Boy oh boy, these kittens are getting bigger by the day! I just had a vet visit with the Savvy girl and she weighs just as much as Monkey did at his last visit! Just like any lady, she holds her weight in different places. I know the title of this post might get you thinking that Mister and I have a rodent problem in the house, but I assure you, the mice are fake and the birds are outside. The mice that I'm talking about are actually felt covered balls of plaster, sometimes filled with catnip, and are every cat's dream! They fly, bat, scoot, hide, and easily provide hours of fun for both human and cat; once again, its very interesting to see how each kitten plays with them.

Savannah likes to think both of the mice are for her.  When I toss the mice to the kittens initially, she's the first to catch one; then I toss the other one to Monkey, and with her's still in her mouth, Savannah goes running after Monkey's!  And she growls when any of the cats come near her mouse.  Savannah will then take the mouse someplace private and eviscerate the poor thing.  See, that's the fun for the human: trying to find the bits and pieces so they don't eat the plaster!  Lately, Miss Savvy has decided to start drowning her mice. I think she gets thirsty from tossing 'em around and just leaves it in the water bowl when she's done drinking. Another fun part for the humans, to make sure the drowned mice don't get resurrected to be tossed around; unless you want to dye your carpet the color of the wet mouse!

Monkey, on the other hand, loves to wrestle with his mice.  He'll come into the living room and throw the mouse all around the room and chase after it.  I've even seen him throw it into the air and swat it back down.  Mister and I always know when he's done playing with it, because it ends up in the food dish, usually looking like this unfortunate victim (for those with weak stomachs or are against the unethical treatment of felt covered animals look away now!):


I think he's started hiding the mice when he's done playing with them, so Savannah can't get them. This morning, I heard the kittens wresting and found them to be playing with a yellow mouse! I can't remember the last time I gave him a yellow one. Anyways, I know how big a hog Savannah can be so I went and got a purple one for Monkey to enjoy! Good golly, that cat flopped around the living room, until the mouse went under the couch, the first time. I retrieved the poor thing for Monkey and he continued to flop around. Then it got quite, and as I've said in past posts, that usually isn't a good thing.  Well, I found the two of them playing with the same yellow mouse again, and the purple one was nowhere to be seen.  Assuming it was under the couch again, I went and got a big stick and rummaged around under there and out popped a blue mouse!  Now, as you saw, the yellow one is dead and the blue and purple ones are missing!

Last week, during one of the rainier days, I went to check on Kitty, who likes to sleep on the futon in Mister's bedroom, and found Savannah staring at the blinds.  Upon closer inspection, I found she was intently watching a Cardinal sitting on the window sill.  I slowly opened the blinds and the kittens went crazy!  There were cardinals all over the backyard and Monkey and Savannah wanted at them!  I got some really great shots of Monkey looking somberly and longingly out the window.  Don't let the light pouring in through the window fool you, its actually raining pretty hard in this video.

WHOA! Two posts in the same day!? What has gotten into this girl?! Tehehehe! Don't deny you weren't thinking it! This post, is a special post to honor our kittens' 6 month birthday! I got in contact with the families of Belly (now Pippin), Schrodinger, and Socks to see how much their babies have grown, and boy have they!  Along with pictures, I had everyone send a little blurb about life with the kittens and its interesting to see how much they have in common, despite living in separate homes.