Resolutions?

Photo credit: M. Lividini

Behind Dark Eyes

Well it’s the end of the year and Mommy suggested we make a plan for the New Year. Daddy called it “resolutions.” I don’t know what resolution is. Kaline doesn’t even know what resolution is and she graduated obedience school!

Kaline thought it sounded like doing puzzles again. Mommy does that! She solves then again when she knows the answer so she can do it faster and get better scores. But the human dictionary doesn’t have solution and resolution in it together. Resolution is on a different page.

I found it. I know why we don’t know what resolution is. Why would a cat need to know that? Cats don’t need to fix anything!

But maybe we need to make resolutions so Daddy knows what needs to be changed! Kaline told me that maybe I was ready for school in the fall after all because that was pretty smart to know that!


Daddy had some suggestions. He thinks I should not go into the train room with him every time he goes in because I knock things over when I climb. I think that’s a good resolution, so my first resolution is that Daddy should stack things better in the train room so I don’t knock them over when I climb.

Kaline says the best resolution was already done when they moved the loveseat so there was a fresh side for her to scratch on.

Santa Paws brought us a bunch of treats, so we should resolve to eat them all before they get stale. That’s a good resolution.

Oh, and paper balls! I resolve to get more paper balls and remember where I put them so Mommy can find them when she cleans so I don’t run out of room.


I never knew Aunt Azzie, but Kaline tells me stories about her. Papa gave her moist food every night! I think we should resolve to do that! Kaline told me we should wait until I graduate from obedience school because it’s gonna take 2 obedience school graduates to get both Mommy and Daddy to obey together.

We got canned food on Christmas! It was very yummy! After dinner we played chase around the cat-toy tree and played with the catnip mice Santa Paws brought in our stockings.

Um, Kaline tells me I should make a resolution not to get distracted. That’s why I lose my paper balls.

I don’t know why I need to make a resolution to not get distracted I’m I see my catnip mouse. I’m gonna go play!

New TV Show

Okay, maybe it’s not a huge success in the making, but I think it’s pretty exciting. There’s a new movie on Cat TV called Leaf Terminator which is a sequel to Rake Man. It’s exciting because it stars My Uncle Scott and My Daddy!

In the show, the leaves are the bad guys who are trying to hide the grass and the acorns from Chipmunk and Squirrely. Uncle Scott plays the Leaf Terminator, a hero from a distant land who brings a machine that will push the leaves in the street. Daddy plays his sidekick who uses 2 rakes to help Leaf Terminator get all of the leaves away.

I’m not saying anything bad about Daddy or Uncle Scott. They are great actors! But the script is why it’s a Sunday morning show and not a summer sunny day show. To make it work at all they had to get big names like Chipmunk and Squirrely in the show and Chipmunk and Squirrely don’t even make an appearance! They’re just the reason why getting the leaves away is important. And the story is so simple. Last year we tried the Pay-Per-View, Leaf Grinder. It starred an actor I don’t know who is a popular paid actor from another street. It was okay, but Mommy didn’t want to get the Pay-Per-View again because we weren’t that interested.

In the first movie, Rake Man, the leaves are raked into the street, but some of them stay and that’s enough to make more leaves. You knew there was going to be a sequel! You leave some, you get more. Well, duh! We leave dog treats for Santa Paws and he leaves us treats AND toys in our stockings. That’s where that idea came from.

The sequel has a little more action in it, but there was an intermission and an infomercial! It seems Uncle Scott was paid extra to come in from the TV and tell about how you can get a noisy blower just like the Leaf Terminator. I think that would, be scary. But it would scare Carla too. Hmmm… Does the infomercial sell earplugs?

The sad thing is, Daddy is IN the movie and he is thinking about it. Maybe he wants to be the star next time.

Braver

Hi everyone! I’m all better now, really. There is a silver lining to my sore eye. Mommy felt so bad about my eye hurting that she’s afraid to touch my eye dirt! Okay, maybe not afraid, but she actually listens to me when I don’t want her messing with it. I let her clean my eyes when I feel like it and I let her hold me and get really calm. I think she and Daddy feel bad about putting stuff in my eye. They said it was good for it, but how do they know it didn’t just get better and had nothing to do with the goop they put in it?

That’s another thing, silly Carla. When I couldn’t type because the computer light hurt my sore eye, she told everyone my eye had an affection. My eye had an INfection, they put stuff IN it. I still would have liked it better if I had a outfection, so they’d have to stay out of my eye.

Monday was the scariest night of the year again. Why is there an invasion every year? Mommy made more candy bombs than ever this year and they worked, like they always do. Mommy is my hero! The swarms were pretty heavy for a while. I stayed upstairs with Carla and listened to them coming to the door and heard them trying to trick Mommy into letting them in to pull our tails and those awful things they do when they run towards cats. Mommy threw the candy bombs at them. I think people kitten monsters have a candy addiction and when you throw the candy bomb at them the get so crazy about the candy they run off in another direction because they forget the wanted to get a cat.

Candy Zombies trying to come in the Cat TV screen is scary stuff! But I was really brave again this year. That picture is me checking on the extra ammunition. Mommy throws those if she runs out of candy bombs. She sits right in front of the TV screen so the candy zombies can't get in. I stayed behind her. Scary movies are okay once in a while, but the Candy Zombies are just too scary to want to be right by the screen like Carla and I usually like to be.

Thankfully, it’s over for another year and the swarm of candy zombies trying to come through the TV is gone. The scariest night of the year is over!

One last note today – We have officially dedicated our blog to Baggle, Chester and Aunt Azzie. Carla never met Chester or Aunt Azzie, but she would have liked them. Chester was such a sweet brother and Aunt Azzie was the coolest old cat a kitten could know. She taught me so much! Sharing our happy cat world with all of our readers is our tribute to those three great cats!

Kaline's Affection

Behind Dark Eyes

Hi everyone, It’s me, Carla! I know we haven’t written in our blog in a long time, but there’s been lots to get used to here.

First off, I hope everyone reads our Mommy’s blog. It’s over in the column of blogs we like because it’s our Mommy’s blog and there are pictures of us in it sometimes, so it’s a good blog. Anyway, Mommy’s blog told all about our sad news in June. Baggle went to the Rainbow Bridge. He hadn’t been good. He didn’t complain a lot, that wasn’t Baggle’s style. He only complained when someone didn’t give him food and as the cat and people food taster, that was someone getting in the way of his job. But as it turned out, he was very sick. So we’ve been working on dividing up Baggle’s jobs and thinking about what we’d do for is memory.

Now Kaline is sick. She’s not sick like Baggle was, oh no! I don’t think I could put paws to keyboard if she was really sick. She has eye affection and Mommy and Daddy have to put stuff in her eye. She doesn’t like it. I don’t blame her. It doesn’t look like fun. I’m so glad I hid deep enough under the bed so Daddy couldn’t make me go to the doctor. I like my eye affection. It’s just that Kaline’s got so affectionate, it turned her eye pink

I guess I should tell you about eye affection since it’s a cat thing and there are a lot of readers who aren’t cats. I hope I got it right. I don’t start school until next year, so I still have to look stuff up, I don’t just know, yet.

Everyone knows what eyes are. The picture on top of our blog is Kaline’s eyes. Everyone keeps saying it’s her right eye, but I watched them put stuff in the eye on the left. But that’s the eye that’s rosey colored too, so I think Mommy and Daddy are doing it right. Since I know what eye is, I looked up affection. It seems Kaline just likes everything she sees right now. Kaline is a happy cat, but not THAT happy. When your eyes get rose-colored, everything looks really great, even bad stuff. So, I guess I understand why you don’t want to look at the world that way. I just hope they don’t fix Kaline’s eye too much. I don’t want her to stop liking ME! She didn’t like me living in her house when we first met and I like it a lot better now that we can curl up together.


There are going to be some changes at Behind Orange Eyes. Kaline says it will be in tribute to great cats who we’ll meet again one day at The Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge sounds like a fun place and all, but my toys are HERE. I think I’ll just stay here instead. Kaline says I’ll learn more about the Rainbow Bridge in school. She just graduated, so I’ll take her word for it. I’m going to let Kaline tell about the blog changes when her eye is better.

Holiday? Hmmmm...

Every few months, we're all black cats on Friday!

This morning, I woke Mommy up way before her alarm to pet me. You know what she did? That’s right, she pet me! I don’t even know if she really woke up. I just said pet me and she did. I think I have my final project aced for school! Getting done early has given me time to ponder something else that is pretty huge!

I like holidays, I really do. But the holidays I like are the ones we share with EVERYBODY. Thanksgiving and December. There’s something for everyone in December. Opening Day, which is totally an everyone holiday. Baggle says to ask Mommy because he is sure there is baseball in the Jungle Book, just like in Dances With Wolves. It got edited, but it was there! Memorial Day and Labor Day are good because we usually get to see our Grandma, unless the weather is bad and Mommy and Daddy stay home. I like the Fourth of July, but more in the daytime than at night. There are a lot of loud noises at night. There are personal holidays that you get, but they’re better to share too. That’s the important thing about holidays. SHARING.

Carla says she gets a holiday Friday. “It’s a black cat thing,” she says. What? She is gonna have a special holiday that she doesn’t share? That’s so street cat! I decided to do some internet research.

It seems that HUMANS are the ones that made black cats all that on Friday The 13th. Not all cats scare people, just the black ones. That’s just silly! Maybe that’s why they declaw cats, afraid of them. Well, why they’d declaw the black ones anyway. It’s all so dumb. If a human can tie us down and knock us out to declaw us, how scared can they be? Boy some humans are just out there. We are kind and benevolent rulers!

So here’s what I think humans should do on Friday. Wake up on time, have a good breakfast with some milk and share it with your cat. Go out for lunch and bring some salmon home for your cat. Then when you come home, watch a baseball game with your cats and give them extra treats. (Daddy, are you reading this?) And if a black cat crosses your path, give it a scritch behind the ears and send it home to its people. Unless it doesn’t have a home, then you should consider adoption. Feeding cats and giving them good homes to rule is the best way to keep the bad luck away.

So we'll all celebrate on Friday. It’s the day when, just like the people are all Irish in March, we’re all black cats on Friday the 13th.

Have a lucky day!

Happy Birthday to ME

Behind Green Eyes


Was it that long ago that I was a tiny little kitten, born in a barn in rural Virginia? Mom and Dad say it's been 15 years. But just like people say about their own birthdays, time just flies, doesn't it?

Fifteen years. They say that's old for a cat. I don't feel old. Well, OK, a little. I can't jump quite the same as when I was younger, and I can't run as fast. But I can still nudge my crazy sisters away from the food dish any time I like, and tonight that birthday cake is going to be mine, all mine!

Dad says he's a little worried about my health. Yes, I did get sick a few months ago, so sick I lost my appetite for a while (no, really, that actually happened). But Mom and Dad gave me some pills and, while I didn't really like that part, that did make me feel better. So what if I'm lighter than I used to be? Isn't that supposed to be a good thing? And if not me, who's gonna keep Dad's lap warm while he plays poker on his computer?

Give me my daily treats (and Kaline's, and Carla's), some kibbles, some critters to watch on the big cat-TV, and a warm spot to sleep, and I'm sure I'll have a few miles left on the ol' pawdometer.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Spring

Behind Dark Eyes
Spring

Cat TV is getting ready for the new season of all the great shows! I excited because that means we’ll all watch TV together again. Kaline and Baggle don’t watch The White Show. They like the comedies better, I guess. Don’t get me wrong! I like the crazy antics of Wild Birds of Ohio as much as any cat and who doesn’t like Chipmunk? But The White Show is a good show too! I like the drama and suspense as all of the things get covered in white, cars with humans in them creep along and skid and you know it’s cold and wet on TV! It makes me happy I’m warm and dry. There is also a sneaky artist on The White Show called Rabbit. Rabbit comes on and paints paws all over the white. It’s neat when you watch and see his works but even cooler when you look real close to the screen when it’s dark and can see him painting. I guess Kaline and Baggle aren’t in to art as much as me.

Kaline says proud is a human word that means, “you did something, so I get something.” I’m proud of Kaline and how good she’s doing in Obedience School because she’s getting us extra treats all the time! I can’t wait until I’m 4 and get to take Obedience School classes! I haven’t decided if I’m going to let Kaline and Baggle be proud or if I’m going to keep all the treats for me. I’ll probably let them be proud. Kaline says if you do well, there is ALWAYS more treats.

Kaline told me that she was up early with Mommy and heard Cardinals! It would be so cool if I could catch a Cardinal! When Cardinals lose, it’s cat treats for everyone, but if CARLA wins, it’s cat treats for ME! I’m gonna keep watch. If I see that Cardinal, I’m gonna catch him and trade him in for my bounty!

-Carla

Creative Genius

Mommy needed good words to make a scrapbook page of this picture.

That’s what I am, Mommy even says so. She called me a muse. That’s a creative genius person. I helped her make a scrapbook page and we wrote a song, a GREAT song. I think I’m going to make it my theme song.

Here is what we wrote:

Kaline’s Favorite Things

Treats made in Iowa for this whiskered kitten,
Blankets to sleep on and sunshine to sit in
Brown plastic shopping bags, chasing a string.
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream flavored liquid and ham by the oodles,
Catnip filled mice when they mess with my noodle
Chipmunk on TV and when Mommy sings,
These are a few of my favorite things

I told Mommy that I needed to add the cable box in my song. I love to sit and sometimes sleep on the cable box because it’s warm. Note to all my readers who are also cats, I bet you have a cable box. It’s a cat-sized box with cable-strings coming out of it. It’s warm!!

Mommy’s in school again. She’s taking computer classes like me, so she’s on the laptop a lot and doesn’t like me calling attention to important things like, it’s Kaline time! Hmph. While she is learning how to make computers do stuff, she’s messing with my final project in obedience school. She does okay with stopping to pet me, but then she says I have to stop nudging her because she has school work to do. Boy they weren’t kidding about real life obedience being harder that the book learning! I’ve got until May to finish my project. I AM going to get an A!

Well, back to work on that project. I think we need extra treats…