LostWoods Blog

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a peaceful, joyous, and loving day. Here at LostWoods the day has been spent cooking, eating, and relaxing with Ken’s parents. Later this evening some of Ken’s cousins and their families are coming over for dessert, games, and conversation. Jeremy is here with us this year. He was supposed to be with his mom, but her plans changed so we’re thrilled to have him for the holiday again. My two kids and my adorable grandson are in Kansas City with their dad, but I talked to them this morning to wish them a merry Christmas. When I’m done writing here, I’m going to give my parents a call as well.

In between dinner preps, I found a few minutes to take 10 week pictures of Rand and Avi. They posed very nicely in front of the Christmas tree. They even consented to pose for a few pictures together. You can see their latest photos on their page on the website.

Basia was threatened several times today with being sent back to Texas, as she thought she should be in the middle of everything that was going on. Her Ken-dad finally sent her to jail (the cat room — with the door closed) because she was a little too much help. The other cats were pesky as well, but Basia takes the prize for getting into the most trouble.

Again, Happy Christmas!

One of my biggest hopes for some time was that Peanut would quit spraying and be able to adjust to living as a beloved pet in the house after he was neutered. I knew it was possible he wouldn’t. Male cats, once they’ve acquired the habit of marking territory, quite often continue that behavior even after they are neutered. It’s one of the reasons that neutering male cats should happen before they become sexually mature — unless you’re intending to purposely breed cats.

Peanut was a big hoser — spraying everything in sight from the time he was about a year and a half old. That meant he couldn’t be free to go wherever he wanted in the house. He could no longer sleep in bed with us at night. He didn’t get to play with teasers much and run after the other cats, playing wild cat games. I tried to make him feel loved as much as I could. Still I knew he wasn’t as happy as he had been as a young cat and I felt terribly sad for him.

His reintroduction to family life has been slow. At first we let him spend time in the cat room, in case he still wanted to spray. Thankfully, he has left that habit behind, even when the girls are in heat. Once that was determined, we started leaving the door to the cat room open so he could come out if he wanted. Shira and Kalispell didn’t approve and they’d guard the door a good part of the day so he couldn’t. But even if they weren’t there, he rarely ventured out.

As time has gone by, Peanut has become more comfortable and my crazy girl cats more tolerant. At first he’d carefully venture into the dining room or the laundry room, running back if he saw anyone — human or feline. Then he started sleeping on top the dryer in a bed I’d put there after I’d washed it. (and had never gotten around to putting it away.) Once in a rare while he’d peak into the living room, but he wouldn’t stay. Just in the last few days, he’s started jumping up on the kitchen counters to check things out up there. THAT I could have done without.

But last night was a big step in Peanut’s change from stud back to pet. He’s come up to our bedroom a couple times recently, but never to visit us. He’d jump up in the window and look outside, then he’d leave. Last night, though, he came in the room while I was reading in bed and jumped up on the bed by me. He rubbed against me, visited Ken, rubbed against the footboard and the headboard, and walked all over the bed.  He would beg me to pet him, then explore a bit more, then come back to me for more attention. He asked Ken to pet him. Before long Peanut was purring like mad. I honestly don’t think I’ve heard him purr in two or three years. I was so, so happy for him!

He spent most of the night in our room — part of it on the bed. At some point he must have left the bed, because when he came back around 5:00, Zeke was on the bed with us. Zeke is still not terribly happy about having Peanut around and he was growling at Peanut when Peanut jumped on the bed. I do hope Zeke and Peanut will eventually be friends again.

I took a couple pictures of Peanut over the weekend. He looks messy — definitely in need of a good combing and a bath, plus some anti-static spray — but he’s still a handsome boy. I’ll try to get them downloaded to my pc and posted here in the next few days.

Instead of the DCSoD, here’s some lyrics from one of my favorite Christmas songs, Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson.

Let it be Christmas everywhere
Let heavenly music fill the air
Let every heart sing let every bell ring
The story of hope and joy and peace
And let it be Christmas everywhere
Let heavenly music fill the air
Let anger and fear and hate disappear
Let there be love that lasts through the year
And let it be Christmas
Christmas everywhere.

I haven’t written much this week — another busy one at home, at work, and with my on call duties. And, I’ll admit, there haven’t been that many adorable or funny stories about the fur kids to share this week — amazingly enough. Maybe that’s a story in itself. My trees are both in fine shape. The packages under the tree are still intact. The only real casualty is the candlescape I had on the kitchen island. It was a large round candle holder/plate with a big blue candle surrounded by the colored (blue, of course) glass pebbles and some blue glass bubbles. The pebbles don’t break that easily, so they were safe. But Polgara took a liking to the bubbles and kept knocking them off the plate and then off the island. They’d break. I’d go get the vacuum so I could be sure I’d picked up all the little glass shards. She’d do it again. So the candlescape has been put away.

I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping. We still need to pick up a few things at the grocery store and I need to purchase a few online gift certificates for my kids (it’s what they asked for — really!) but then I’m done! Whee! For any of you who need a dose of humor about what you have left to do, here’s today’s DCSoD: Christmas Is Almost Here by The Arrogant Worms. http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/t/thearrogantworms305/christmasisalmosthere13301.html

In the past couple days I’ve heard from two kitten owners about their kitten’s antics. One kitten is Keegan, who lives in AZ with her half sister Maggie (Rockatts Coke.) Maggie and Keegan’s mom put up the Christmas tree upstairs. A couple of mornings later Deb woke up to find the tree downstairs, missing a number of its ornaments. Yikes! Then today Beth, Keiran’s mom, posted a comment on the “Cute Christmas Kittens” post about the “master of disaster”. Go read it. I’m still laughing. It’s a good thing Beth and Jeff love him. I’d christen this litter (the Leprechauns) the Second Naughtiest Kittens Ever, but they really weren’t — and I hear from Cati’s family that she’s sweet and cuddly — not naughty at all.

Here at home the trees are still standing with most of the ornaments still attached. Rand and Avi think racing down the upstairs hall and dashing under the tree is great fun. They also love hanging out under the tree in the living room. We don’t have a lot of presents under the tree, so demolishing ribbons and wrapping paper hasn’t been an issue. And since the great tree climbing events of the other morning, I haven’t seen anyone in the tree. I’m surprised.

I spent the evening FINALLY making out all my Christmas cards to my kittens owners. I know that it’s likely some of them won’t arrive until after Christmas, but at least I got them done. I was beginning to think I’d miss mailing them for the first time since I started breeding NFCs. They are stamped and ready to go in the mail tomorrow morning. One more thing checked off my list. Mostly I need to finish up a couple last minute gifts and get my house clean. Ken’s parents are spending Christmas with us here. Ken’s niece, April, and her husband may come over, too, and a couple of his cousins and their families are coming Christmas evening for dessert and general family time. I’m about the only one working on Christmas Eve, so I doubt I’ll be home from work too early for those last few chores, so this weekend is going to be very busy! I hope all of you are winding down with the shopping, wrapping, shipping, getting ready frenzy and are ready to enjoy a happy and peaceful Christmas. Well, we can hope, right?

DCSod: Shopping Mall of Broken Dreams - Joel Kopischke  http://www.igotyulebabe.com/track_12.html

Photo night… Rand and Aviendha consented to pose for some beautiful Christmas pictures and I have updated my home page and their litter page with the new photos. They are getting so big and so much fun. They love teasers and other toys, so photos sessions are much easier. They also are quite taken with wet food — especially Avi, now that she’s decided solid food is good — and come running when I call them to breakfast and supper. Avi sometimes even comes in the kitchen and sits at my feet meowing at me, asking for more wet food. She must think her name is “cutie pie”, though, as every time I say, “hi, cutie pie!” her tail goes straight up in the air and she comes to me. So, so CUTE!

Basia also posed so you can see her new picture on the Cats page.

Not much else going on tonight — and I have several things to do before going to bed. So this isn’t a very long post.

DCSoD: Wreck the Malls by Bob Rivers. I laugh out loud every time at the line about the beagles.

http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=11545

As promised… some pictures of my Christmas village, plus some pictures of Polgara pillaging the village.

First of all, an explanation. My Christmas village is a collection of porcelain buildings, people, and various accessories with a Christmas theme. Mine was made by the Lefton company and is no longer produced, although I sometimes buy more pieces on EBay to add to it. There are a lot of them in the series that I don’t have! But then, I don’t have room right now to really add many anyway. Christmas villages have become a popular part of Christmas decor — I think more so in the last five years or so. You can buy village collections at Michaels, gift shops, and yes, even Wal-Mart. Some people display their villages year round. I don’t, so every year it’s almost new again when I unpack it and arrange it. Here’s what it looks like when it’s undisturbed by Catzilla.

The first photo is of the entire village as I have it displayed this year. The second and third pictures are closer shots each of half of the village.

Now for Polgara… First picture is of her strolling down the upper street of the village.

 Now a picture of her looking at the toppled villagers like, “Huh. Wonder how come they’re lying on the backs?”

Since I’m on a picture mission here tonight, here is a picture of Basia in the Christmas tree from the other morning.

Okay, enough with the pictures. I realized this morning that I’ve been forgetting to post my DCSoD the last few times I’ve written. So today’s is Tree’s On Fire by Cledus T Judd: http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/c/cledustjudd848/treesonfire40337.html 

Enjoy!

I finally took pictures of Rand and Aviendha for their 8 week photos and updated the website with them. I got a cute picture of the two of them together so it is on their litter page.

I’ve been working on getting caught up on email and kitten inquiries and all that other stuff that falls behind while I’m gone. Today I had to run to the post office with my secret santa hippo gifts (I collect hippos and belong to an online groups of collectors like myself. We exchange names at Christmas and send each other gifts) because I was getting very close to not getting them sent in time. In the next few days I’ll post some pictures of the Christmas village — and Polgara in it — and explain what that is. For now, I need to run. Cats to feed. Litter boxes to scoop. Dishes to do…

I considered trying to do a blog post from my new Blackberry Sunday night, but wasn’t brave enough to deal with it… yet. Maybe once I learn how to use it a little better. (that could be years!)

Anyway, here’s the Buzz… (see, Brenda, Buzz can be a good thing!)

Basia, aka Baby Buzz, had a great show for a little four month old wegie girl. She started out her show career in fine fashion with a 4th Best LH Kitten award in her very first ring. The judge told me Basia was going to be “very special” when I thanked her for the award. Buzz went on to final in the other three rings on Saturday and one ring on Sunday for a total of five out of the eight rings. Her highest placing was as 2nd Best AB kitten.  Overall, she ended up as the 6th best kitten at the show. Immature little wegies often have a tough time impressing CFA judges at their first few shows so this was a wonderful showing for our baby girl!

Also impressing the judges — and Smacking Finny’s butt — was our handsome McCoy (aka Smack.) McCoy took BOB in six of the eight rings over Fin and three other wegies. McCoy also got an impressive 2nd Best AB Cat in one ring — a fantastic placing for a “lowly open”. Brenda has McCoy in great condition and he is filling out and growing coat well. I was kicking myself for not taking my good camera with me to get some new pictures of him.

Fin was BOB in two rings and 2nd BOB in the other six, as well as Best NFC Champion in all the rings. He also got a final as 3rd Best LH Champion in one ring, so he earned 28 grand points toward his title. I’m going to work harder at putting some more weight on him. I don’t think he’ll ever be as big as a cat as McCoy is looking to be, but it would definitely help him in the ring to fill out and mature some more. He still looks like such a kitten to me.

The three cats (Fin, Basia, and McCoy) got along pretty well in the hotel room. Fin and McCoy do have the occasional moment of trying to show the other who is boss, but luckily it wasn’t ever violent — no claws or teeth involved — and they spent a good part of the time just co-existing, watching birds and playing with toys. Basia and her future sweetheart got along great and were playing together wildly on Sunday morning. They were chasing back and forth across the room. Basia would jump up on the corner of one of the beds and wait for McCoy to run by then throw herself down on his back. I guess she thought it was the only way to get the advantage considering he is better than twice as big as her. It was fun to watch the two of them playing.

Down in Texas, Cyra the Fish had another good show, with finals in 12 of 16 rings. Go, Fish! Keegan had fun at her show in Phoenix, but didn’t get any finals. However, one of the judges talked to Deb later in the day and said she’d have finalled Keegan if she’d been a little better groomed — something I blame on myself, for not doing a better job of teaching Deb about grooming — so Deb is going to work on it. I haven’t heard from Connie how Magic (Kheldar) did, nor have I yet seen a show report.

I was getting ready to leave for work this morning — hoping for an on time arrival for only the second time in the past two weeks. (Teenagers are a pain in the butt!) Then I hear the frantic sounds of wind chimes — no, wait, CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS! — tinkling from the living room. I say “Get out of the tree!” Taiba sticks her head out from under the tree and I think to myself that I should have known my little wild girl would be first in the tree. But no, the tinkling continues unabated. Again I tell whoever it is to get out of the tree. Ha! Is the little tree climber listening? Maybe listening, but definitely not obeying!

I head over to the tree to search for the furry miscreant. The sound is moving from side to side, progressively up. Finally I spot a bit of white, a bit of red, a bit of brown… Basia! She is intent on going as high as she can and finally stops about two thirds the way up the tree to attack some ornaments. While I should be grabbing her and telling her no, I instead go to the kitchen for my camera. I must capture the brat in the act before removing her from the tree. And so I do. (Pictures this evening.) Then I set her on the floor, give her a lecture, and head out of the room.

Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! I yell, “Basia! Get out of the tree!” The tinkling continues. I go to the back side of the tree where the sounds are originating. I look down and there sits Aviendha on one of the bottom branches.

“Look at me, lisa-mom! I learned how to climb the tree! I watched Basia and now I can do it all by myself! Aren’t I big?”

And so it starts…

Besides pictures of Basia in the tree (none of Avi this time, sorry — I really did need to get to work!) I took pictures of Catzilla Polgara in the village last night. I’ll post them this evening, too. Yes, Jim, the village is on high alert. Several villagers have been mauled, but so far no deaths. LOL!

Other news besides tree climbing antics… I have kitten inquiries from promising homes for both Rand and Taiba. The person who is interested in Taiba may also be interested in Polgara, despite her wheezy breathing. I’ll talk some more with him about it, but it would be nice if Taiba and Polgara could stay together in a loving home.  

This weekend is a chance for some of you to meet the LostWoods family and extended family in the fur at several locations. Brenda and I will be in Monroe, WA for a CFA show at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. We’ll be showing McCoy, Basia, and Fin. Down the road just a bit you should be able to meet Magic (Kheldar) as his Connie-mom was planning to go the the TICA show in Seattle. Hopefully she’ll still be able to make it up from Portland with all the flooding and road closures in southern WA and northern OR. Down south in Corpus Christi, TX you can meet Cyra the Fish, her nephew Treat, and new cousin Lucy at the TICA show there. And Keegan and her big sister Maggie should be at the CFA show in Phoenix this weekend. Whew! A busy show weekend for the LostWoods kids!

Yesterday’s Dysfunctional Christmas Song of the Day (DCSoD) - in honor of my darling daughter: It’s So Chic to Be Pregnant at Christmas by Nancy White

Today’s DCSoD: People Exchange by American Comedy Network (Parody of People Are Strange by the Doors)

Seven week pictures of Rand and Aviendha are on the web site. I felt the need to make them pose on top the entertainment center in the middle of some of my Christmas decor. After I finished with them, I took pictures of Fin, Taiba, Polgara, and Basia, too. Taiba’s all came out horrible. I’ll have to try with her another time.

(Remember to click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

A Taiba story… She is still the silly, wild girl, although she has competition for Baby Buzz and Polgara — who is more and more playful by the day. Taiba loves glitter balls and other toys that roll around. But her favorite place to play with them is not the kitchen/dining room which has lots of wood floor for chasing rolling toys. No, Taiba takes her favorites to my bathtub where she can be found at all hours of the day and night swatting them and dropping them down the sides of the tub to watch them roll. Most mornings Ken finds three to four toys in the tub when he goes to take his shower.

The village is now in place and Catzilla and all of his/her friends have been visiting regularly. I found one of the tree uprooted and living under the dining room table today. Sigh…

Dysfunctional Christmas song of the day… Decorations by Bob Rivers.