Formerly Forbidden Friday

Rocky: Humans foolishly attempt to convince we cats that certain things are forbidden to us. But with persistent strategic ploys, it's quite simple to turn all forbiddens into formerly forbiddens. A critical element of this strategy is to simply ignore humans when they tell you something is forbidden -- just keep doing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until they realize it's much easier to just let you do what you want to do.

For instance, I'm sure we've all been told that sleeping on the kitchen counter is forbidden. The key is to continually sleep on the kitchen counter until your human realizes it's much easier to just put a comfy leopard print towel up there for you so you'll have your own bed. Trust me ... they'll soon understand that a few furs in their clean dishes is much less trouble than shooing you off the kitchen counter 24/7!

What's Up Wednesday

Callie: Rocky! Look at this empty work table! Look at our empty food bowls! Where are the human artists? Why is nothing happening around here?
Rocky: The human artists need to learn to prioritize! Not only are there Artsy Catsy products to be created, but there is homemade catfood to be made, litter pans to clean, Temptations to be fed, chin scritches to be given .... as you can see, I'm completely disgusted ...... because our human artists are too busy going out of town, fixing broken air conditioning, fixing broken Internet connections and doing all kinds of stuff that is NOT as important as paying attention to the cat staff. Enough is enough! Somebody's getting written up!!

Goodbye sweet Stormie

Storm, the Furry Fighter

Sleep soft, dear friend ...

For Stormie's meowmies and for Castle ...

The years I've worn you,
warm on my shoulder,
ended here ...
surprised to find us older.

And there was nothing
left to do today
but hold you close
and help you on your way.

Be still, my little cat.
Be well; be free.
I know that you're somewhere near,
and loving me.

Wordless Wednesday

Teamwork Tuesday

Rocky: Mother Nature just keeps striking. We had more storms yesterday and my mom had to go out and clean up our front porch again after everything blew away for the third time. Afterwards, I formed a special task force and Fracas, Lucy and I did a quality control check of our porch to make sure everything was back in place ....

Okay, the table is upright and the tree limbs are all off of it ...

Lucy, you check the herb plants and I'll check the chair ...Okay, this planter survived intact ... The rattan table is upright again and tree limbs are off the glider ...

The wastebasket is back on the porch from where it blew into the yard ...Hey, Fracas! Quit trying to sneak off the porch ...Oh no! It's storming again! Better take cover under the table! Lucy! Lucy? Did you blow away?

Mancat Monday

Hmm ... it's Monday ... should I wake up and get to work? ....

Nope.

City Trashing Party

Rocky: Mother Nature has been having a city trashing party here in Indiana, but fortunately I've moved all my staff to high ground on mom's bed (The name of our city, Terre Haute, is French for "high ground") ....But I say, enough is enough, Mother Nature! Thursday you blew down all our trees ... and then last night you blew down more trees and dumped so much rain on us that a state of emergency has been declared in our county and all the highways in and out of our city are under water and closed, just like many of our city streets. Our beans have been told to stay home and not drive.

This is unacceptable!! What if I run out of nip or Temptations???

You can read more about mean old Mother Nature's city trashing party at these links. In the meantime, I'm hoarding an emergency stash of nip and Temptations ...

Terre Haute Tribune Star

WISH TV Indianapolis

MSNBC

Thankful Thursday

We're thankful for so many things this Thursday! First, thank you so much, KC & Missy, for this wonderful award! We think you have a brilliant blog, too, and so do the following kitties -- so we're passing the award on to them: Moki, Adan, and Cheysuli.

Second, we're thankful that we made it through the terrible storm yesterday. Look what it did to our front porch:

And to the park right in front of our house:We're also SO thankful that our friend Mu Shue got a good report after his needle biopsy yesterday! Your purrs and purrayers worked - but keep them coming because Mu Shue has now had an endoscopy and a tissue biopsy, with results coming tomorrow, and he has to see a cardiologist next week for a heart problem.

And we're so very thankful to the anonymous angel who has given Dancer a chance for a good life!

Last, but absolutely not least, we're just too thankful for words for Deb and ML and their good work at Furriends of the Cat Blogosphere. They truly are the best furriends kitties could ever have!

Piggyback Mancat Monday

Humph! When my human artist said, "Hey, Rocky, wanna go for a piggyback ride outside?" ... well ... outside? Of course, I said yes. But I was duped, big time! Just look what happened ....

First, there were actual piggies ...

Then, the "piggyback ride" ...

Humph! To show my disapproval, I gnawed off a piggy ear before my human put them back on our barbeque grill where they belong!Then I gnawed on a stick to further display my displeasure ... Then I took refuge under the peonies to avoid further humiliation ...
Where I plan to remain all day, sticking my tongue out at my doofus human to show her who's boss! Humph!

Synchronized Sunday Sleeping

Rocky: As CEO of a large cat staff, it is my responsibility to coordinate all activities for maximum productivity. Here, my Vice President Fracas and I demonstrate the effectiveness of Synchronized Sunday Sleeping ...