How do you drive your cat crazy who is driving you crazy?

Play bird calls on the computer!! Bird Radio!

*rubs hands and cackles*

My kitty, Livvy, has acquired THE most annoying habit– sitting in front of my computer monitor while I try to work. Grrrr!!! She may even lick the screen or scratch it with her paw. I am not often frustrated with my darling feline, but this nasty new habit makes me quite peevish. I keep moving her, but she insists on sitting there ALL. DAY. LONG.

In case you're wondering, YES, my keyboard and mouse ARE gunked up with cat hair. :-p

SO I found a website that plays bird calls… and LO and BEHOLD, she goes STRAIGHT toward the windows, back and forth, back and forth, and then BEHIND the computer monitor (where the speakers are). Look at that puzzled face!!
MUAHUAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

"Which way did he go, which way did he go, George?" MUAHAHAH!

If you have a cat and want to drive him bananas, go to BirdJam and play some Bird Radio for the cat. It’s pretty entertaining to watch them go crazy, looking out the windows for birds. Hah hah!

The bird songs are so soothing, too. :D

Pet’s Name: Olivia (Livvy is her nickname)
Age: 2
Breed/Type: Tabby-Point Siamese
Dines on: Purina One/Dad’s dry food; Friskies canned food
Favorite treat: Temptations and tuna
Occupation: Following Mom around to make sure she always has a companion
Favorite pastime: Watching the Outdoor Cats; chasing crickets
Best trick: Opens the door (the door handle is an old 1855 iron thumb latch). See this video of Livvy opening the door!!
Shared trait with owner: Sits in front of the computer screen all day :-p
Praise from the owner: I’ve never known such a personable, affectionate cat. She often nuzzles my face.
If you could change one thing about your pet: I wish she would stop trying to sneak outdoors. She’s horribly persistent and has given us some big scares. It ain’t happening, Livvy!

Livvy was a “rescue” kitten. Her mom is a lovely Siamese, but her dad is some roaming tabby cat. Therefore, Livvy and her siblings were cast-offs. I paid $25 for Livvy, two years ago! I’ve never paid for a cat before. After having her, I wish I had taken in her siblings. She is so incredibly affectionate, the sweetest cat I’ve ever known. And she sometimes “talks” to us with pulses of sounds.

10 weeks old.

Livvy is a polydactyl kitty, with six toes. This makes her a little klutzy sometimes.

Livvy's polydactly paw print is on top of one of the Outdoor Cats' paw prints.

You can really see her mittens here. This photo was taken after she dunked her foot in my coffee that was on my desk, shook her leg, and saturated everything. Grrr.

She has nice markings. She was much whiter when she was a baby; she’s darkened up a lot now. I think she looks like a Siberian tiger.

She's a MANIAC about going outside.

When she was little, she played Find the Kitty a lot.

She thinks she is invisible.

She’s a real companion cat. But she doesn’t like to sit on laps. She sits on keyboards. :-p

She's an aspiring writer, apparently.

Thanks for reading about our lovely Livvy!

Then, my dad died this week. My comfort is that he knew that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners; so I know I will see him again. But it’s been tough; we both had tough lives and I know he had a lot of regrets about things he did. I’m so glad we worked them out years ago… thank God for that.

Then, we had a bat in the house (I admit I am terrified of bats); we spent the entire day yesterday filling holes between the studs with scraps of fiberglass and plastic sheeting. And today, Livvy escaped the house through an open door… we found her wandering around outside at the border of the property. All very, very freaky. WHAT a week. I do feel like I’m living in a dream right now. The remodeling itself has thrown us for an emotional loop with half the house totally dismantled and stuff packed away, and now all this… and it sometimes seems like a wave of trials and troubles could threaten to overwhelm me. Yet God is faithful to us, as always. We are getting through, and getting through things with this incredible peacefulness; I am assured that everything will be OK.

When we went out to see my dad one last time before he died, my daughter read a scripture to him, and it spoke volumes to us all:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for oyu. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ~John 14: 1-4

We are also memorizing the Letter of James in the New Testament right now. I find myself constantly going over that verse “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” When we suffer, it’s oftentimes very difficult to raise our heads up over the billowing seas of sorrows. But God tells us there is hope in Him. Hope is an amazing thing. Hope will get us through horrible, difficult times that would sink us if we didn’t have it. I am eternally grateful for the hope Jesus Christ has given me.

Life is pretty fickle. In our fast-paced and selfish way of life, we surround ourselves with gadgets and activities, and it’s easy to forget that we are just a small vulnerable blip, a little vapor in time. We just don’t know what tomorrow brings, despite our technological pride and distractions. And sometimes the pressures rise up and can really squeeze us, like a tube of toothpaste. What comes out when we are squeezed? Anger, filthiness, bitterness? Or eyes turned up to God, and hope? I’ve been on both sides of that fence, and believe me– God and hope are better. Like Aretha Franklin said, “I’ve been poor, and I’ve been rich. Rich is better.”

So today, I go back to my Old Reliable– the scriptures. I love this section of scripture; it’s been my rock during some of the most tragic and despairing times of my life (and my other daughter read this to my dad that day, too):

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory… ~2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 14-17

It’s SO easy to be overwhelmed by troubles, and SO easy to be distracted by all the cares of this life, too. I encourage you to search your own soul, because we just never know what tomorrow brings. God is poised with an open hand, ready to receive your heart. But you can’t think that your good deeds, as good as they may be, will score any points with Him. That’s what is means to “believe” in Jesus– that you are totally unable to earn your way to Him or a place beside Him. He’s too holy, He’s way, way more good than that. He can’t be bribed. He sent His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to pay that debt that you owe to God. And face it: no matter how many charitable contributions or how nice you’ve been, you have blown it a LOT. But you don’t need to climb cathedral steps on your knees over glass to show how sorry you are; you need to realize that GOD did the work, He did everything and wiped all that nasty stuff away. And of course, when someone saves our life, we don’t treat it as a small thing; we devote our attention to that savior. We don’t throw it back in His face and think we’ve now got an excuse to continue to be nasty and use people. It’s an attitude of gratitude that shows how seriously we take His gift, where we’re willing to do things that He wants us to do even when we don’t want to do them.

Life is so short. It’s too short to squander. If you’re not convinced that Jesus was resurrected, maybe you should spend a little time and energy to look at the evidence yourself. I’d think it would be worth it. As for me, it’s been my rock throughout all the difficult, bitter, and tumultuous moments in my life.

I took the Snow Queen outside today. Got sick and tired of her sniveling at the doors and windows! That’s her paw print to the left, partially on top of one of our other “normal” cat’s paw print. I love the blue glow to the snow, although our snow is not really blue! It’s weird how it turned out. You can see more photos of our princess here. :D

In other news, did you WordPress users realize the new version is out, WordPress 2.9? I think I’m starting to get Update Lag. I’m really grateful that WordPress has made it so easy to update now, but I have 10+ blogs.. and I have to go backup the entire database before I update all the blogs… and then I have to update the plugins for each blog! How about you? Have you updated yet? I hear there are some very nice features with this one (like media management), so I’m happy about it… I’m just tired of updating all the time.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE.

She’s been a real hog for attention these days. Not sure why she’s so emotional, but I can barely get anything done!

But isn’t she the most adorable thing you ever seen?! :awe:

Well, what were you expecting?!

There is just something so peaceful and relaxing about watching a kitty bathe. Livvy keeps her ears very clean, and she looks ADORABLE when she cleans them– she delicately licks her big furry paw (I think she’s right-handed, lol) and rubs it over her ear. Her ear flattens a little bit, and she looks so sweet and fuzzy. If we come near to kiss her or cuddle her, she lets out a little contented squeak. It’s just adorable to watch!

OK, that’s your cat break for the day. Back to regular programming….

I wish I could sleep as well as she can. She’s out like a light, beside me on the couch.

We’ve had a bat in the house, sneaking around. Can’t quite find it yet, but it comes out at night and Livvy the Cat watches it all night. I am horrified of bats, I HATE HATE HATE them. Because we have an old house with holes in the walls (I’m still in the process of rewiring the place), the bats come straight down from the attic. IT IS AWFUL! So yesterday, we went through the house, stuffing plastic shopping bags in as many holes as I could find. All that work didn’t do much to assuage my fears about them– I had terrible nightmares about millions of bats all over the house. :S So I’m quite jealous of Livvy’s deep snoozing.

In other cat news, I had to take my oldest kitty, Milo, to the vet today, for emergency care. My poor baby.

One vet had said Milo has allergies, and suggested we give him Benadryl. Hasn’t worked at all. So I took him to a cat specialist vet and she says his problem is probably a bad tooth (?!). Whatever it is, Milo’s eye is bothering him again, and he’s scratching at his cheek enough to tear into it. He’s doing better today– he’s on antibiotics and I have to apply eye salve in his eye a few times a day. He’s a good kitty, but he’s old and grouchy, and doesn’t see any benefit to all this medical attention… plus, he is officially locked in the garage and cannot go outside until his wound is healed, which makes him even grouchier…. durn cat! He should stay outta trouble! Oh well.. he’s 12 years old now, a great cat. But we fear that his Happy Hunting Ground trip may be coming up soon.

That poor, poor kitty. Here she sits, longingly looking at the “free” kitties outside…..

ha! She has no idea how easy she has it, does she? ;)