I just emailed this to a fellow netizen of this newsgroup, but I thought a
subset of that email was good for a post.
*************
I've been reading up on Maine Coon cats and American Bobtails.

Biskit got groomed today. Certainly not for appearances' sake. She
hates to be brushed, her hair is angora-fine, and oily. It's too long
for her groom herself and she was a mess. And she had to be
uncomfortably hot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMikQAhrN-w&search=hockey%20funny
The cats attitude made me laugh. I can barely keep mine away from my
hockey bag! It must be the smell of the gloves.... ;o)
Helen M

I don’t know what it is about cats, that they can just sense things: they
know when it’s chow time; they know that there are squirrels in the yard
before we clumsy two-legs can get a clue, and they know what we need, right
then and there.

Now I will admit that I am not the best of housekeepers. Martha Stewart
definitely does not live under my roof, and glad I am of it; it would have
been a pain in the tuchus keeping her around while she had to shlep that band
around her ankle. So one must be indulgent and forgive the ...

The good news: Snowball came home this afternoon.  It's not unusual
for her to disappear for weeks at a time, but never two days short of
a full month.  She's healthy, happy, and hungry.
The bad news: Spooky did *not* come home today.  He went out yesterday

Louie brought home a nice hunk of Deli Pig the other day, cut up some for
Roxie and gave it to her with a generous scoop of crunchy food. Boy, did she
tear into it! Ham and Hills both were torn into like the victims of a
sabertooth cat after a long fast. It was the first time we ...

New film being shot in upstate NY (Albany area)
http://tinyurl.com/s2u4h

Princess Rita has chewed up her last mousie. I can't find a single
one in the apartment!  So I got out the tin where I keep them, and
she sat on the floor eagerly awaiting the next toy, but all I found
were green, blue, and yellow mousies. I threw a green one and she

I had to take Sugar to the vet yesterday. More GI trouble. It happened
suddenly. Fine one minute, ate lunch and usually she goes poo then. Well,
suddenly she was hiding and when I found her she was half sitting under the
bed and meowing at me frantically. So, called the vet for a ...

She actually horked out three hairballs at one time. And she didn't make
that weird wailing sound beforehand. (That noise must be reserved for when
she's feeling nauseous.)
I rather expected to see Eli spitting out hairballs, since he spends so much

I washed the blankets and the cats bedding today, and when I brought
it all upstairs I sat one of the cushy blankets on my craft table till
I could work out what to do with it... Silver found it and went and
lay there for a nice soft snooze.

Well, Midsummer is drawing near (in Finland, they move the midsummer
holiday to a weekend, but at least it's a three-day weekend; Friday is a
bank holiday) and I', planning of taking the cats to the island. I'll
come back and work for another week after Midsummer, then my ...

Something BIG is coming.
Smokey has a large set of eye whiskers, sort of an Andy Rooney look. Today
two of them were pointing straight up and quivering. She was obviously very
intent on conversing with the Mothership. So whatever is up, it's BIG!