The day I've been dreading for over 4 years came to pass this morning -
when I would realize I needed to take Licky to the vet. I took him
because he kept going into the litter box and just standing there (it's
a covered box so I couldn't see him that well, but his head pokes out

I just have to share.... :o)
I'm currently completing my first year of teaching professional
development in teaching, and as a result of that I have to have a
senior teacher observe my lessons and my teaching several times a

Yep, the last member of the nest turns 21 on Friday.  The gang has
decided to get her as drunk as possible in my dining room.  The booze
is bought the pizza money is stashed and prezzies have already been
given so that she will remember them.  I'm supposed to take car keys,

In fact, he's still purring. Quite loudly. He's still hiding, but
earlier, I stuck my hand down into his hiding place and started petting
him, and he just revved up the motor. Then he started stretching in
pleasure, and rolling around (as best he could - he was underneath a

LOL, tonight I was throwing a ball for Everett. The closet doors in my
bedroom (big floor-to-ceiling sliding doors) are mirrored, and they
really confound him. If the ball lands in front of the mirror, he
stands over it, looking first at the real ball, and then at the reflection

There's this pet food store near my house where I buy cat food,
litter, etc. I always go on Sundays because a local feral-rescue
group has an adoption in front of the store and I like to visit
the kitties.

Jake is 5 and learning to read.
 He points at a picture in a zoo book and says, "Look
 Mama! It's a frickin' Cat!"
 Deep breath .. "What did you call it?"

Some of these are absolutely priceless!  (Click on the picture to see the
larger sized image.)
http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/Ozzy3/

I just got word that a friend of mine and Lees, who by the way just lost a
foot to diabetes and is recovering nicely, one of his cats went to the
bridge last night.  Her name was Bertha and she was 14 or 15.  She had laid
by the front door all day and finally made it all the way ...

I had some sort of epiphany today and cleared out some kitchen cabinets.
Caliban helped, of course:
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o185/frankiennikki/Jan-Jun08/IMG_0631.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o185/frankiennikki/Jan-Jun08/IMG_0632.jpg

I spoke to Charleen last night, and asked about Four. :o)
She appologised for not updating the group, but said that she hadn't
been near the computer all week as RL had been silly hectic and she
hadn't had the chance. But anyway, FOur....

We've just got back from having Muriel put to sleep.  By this morning
she'd got too weak to move about any more and had no interest in food
or water.  She still purred right to the end.
It didn't go very smoothly, she kept pulling her leg away when the

I stumbled across this article about the healing powers of cat purrs.
It appears to be from 2003.
http://www.bksv.com/2798.asp
For those interested in odd, amusing and interesting science news,

I woke up very early this morning and had to go pee. Came out into the
livingroom to find a large swath of *something* all over the livingroom
floor. Looked like some kind of spice. Looked like... hey... there's an
empty plastic bag on the floor, what does it say? OMG, catnip!!

The Stripey Thing is a quiet sort of cat. He has a quiet meow and
wanders around on the bed gently. Unless... he is on the ledge. The
ledge is a half wall that overlooks my stairwell coming up into the
apartment. The half wall overlooks the first half of the stair case