Prize Winners!

I'm finally announcing the "Life of the Party" winners from my human artist's surprise birthday party! It took us days to decide, because there was only one vote - Grr, Midnight & Cocoa voted for Finnegan & Buddy. Therefore, as CEO of this enterprise, I made the decision myself. Hey, I can be arbitrary -- I'm da boss!

It wasn't easy -- we had some seriously frolicking felines at that fest! Donnie, Marie & Casey came early to clean up the spilled cake; The Meezers brought a bag of fev-vers; The Ballacai led us in box wars and tossed catnip confetti all night; Marilyn MonREOW brought tuna puffs; Zippy, Sadie & Speedy brought homegrown nip and came back the morning after to help clean up; Beezer brought flowers; China Cat brought Temptations; and a tipsy Tara sang Happy Birthday to our human artist while Beau moonwalked with a lampshade on his head!

But let me tell you, nobody out-partied these guys, and I hereby proclaim them the Grand Prize winners in our "Life of the Party" Contest. Let's hear a big round of appaws for ....

Finnegan & Buddy!

These are partyin' pussycats! They showed up early in green derbies with shot glasses hung around their necks; made toasts all night long and danced and sang "and it's NO NAY NEFURRR, No nay nefurr nooooo moooore, will I play the wild kittyyyyy, no nefurrr no mooooorrrre" ... They even came back the morning after to finish off the leftovers and clean up the mess! Finny & Bud, we're sending you this grand prize ...

a MeowWow 100% fleece bed, in GREEN to match your derbies:And since nobody voted for the bean Life of the Party, we're sending that prize to Finnegan & Buddy's mombean. It's a kitty charm to hold her sunglasses in her car and she can hang it from the visor or the rear view mirror. This one belongs to my human artist, but I'm making a special one in beads that match Finny & Bud's mombean's car! But wait, there's more! I'm also sending a consolation surprise to another rowdy meower ... Derby the dancin' cat, who jigged all night with a lampshade on his head, then passed out behind the couch and almost got tossed in the trash during the morning after cleanup!

Thanks to everykitty for helping us make our human artist's birthday a catful of fun!

We celebrated my human artist's 60th birthday this week and I, Rocky, turned 72 (in human years) last week. My human's childhood friend sent us this email, and we'd like to share it with all our cat & human friends who worry about growing older .....

13 Reasons Why Aging is a Gift

1) I am now, maybe for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometimes despair over the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. I am often taken aback by that old person who lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

2) I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon, before they experienced the great freedom that comes with aging.

3) I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
4) As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own best friend.
5) I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

6) Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

7) I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

8) I will walk the beach in a swimsuit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will grow older.

9) I know I am sometimes forgetful. But some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

10) Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or when a beloved pet goes over the Rainbow Bridge? But broken hearts are what give us strength, understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

11) As I get older, it is easier to be positive. I care less about what other people think of me. I don't question myself anymore. I've earned the right to be wrong.

12) Being older has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.
13) And I shall eat dessert (and Temptations!) every single day!

Let there be Peace on Earth

and let it begin with me

"If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr." ~~ Barbara Diamond

"There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing, and the world quietly reshapes itself ..." ~~ Ivy Dodd

"The cat seldom interferes with other peoples' rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life." ~~ Carl van Vechten

"If we treated everyone we meet with the same affection we bestow upon our favorite cat, they, too, would purr." ~~ Martin Buxbaum

"Maybe in the future we should ask presidential candidates where they stand on cats. Better still, we should demand to see the cats these candidates say they have raised, just to make sure we are not having the fur pulled over our eyes." ~~ Gilbert Gude

Surprise !!!!!
Happy Birthday to our Mom!!

Rocky: I'd say she looks pretty surprised! Normally our human artist wouldn't be surprised to come home and find a houseful of cats ... but she's used to 9 or 15 or so ... not squizillions like we have here tonight! Okay, let's make a wish and blow out the candles ...

Open some cards and gifts ...

... and get down to some serious partying!!! Boogie down, Rene!.....

Hey, everybody, Sadie brought home-grown nip, and help yourselves to Marilyn Monreow's delicious tuna puffs and the Meezers' wonderful hamtinis. The Ballacai are throwing catnip confetti and Pixel ... love those dancing shoes ... may I have the next dance?

And don't forget ... vote in the comments for the cat and bean who are the life of the party so we can send them their prizes!

------------------------------------------------------------

7:00 p.m. .....
Rocky: Countdown to the cake -- 1 hour to go! Beans and cats are starting to arrive, and my human artist will be home soon. Our friend Renee is here with her woofie, Rene. Rene is 14 years old and battling congestive heart failure, so we'd better take her out of the room when we all yell "SURPRISE!"

And here I am with our human artist, Jason, who just came in from Indianapolis. Jason is my bud!!

Here's a picture of the MeowWow bed we're sending to the cat who gets the most votes in the comment section for "Life of the Party":If I could vote, I would cast votes for Finnegan and Buddy, major party pussycats. They've been wearing their Irish green derbies and have had shot glasses tied around their necks all afternoon, getting ready to party hard!

And Donny, Marie & Casey, thanks for showing up early to help clean all that chocolate tuna cake off the floor. Marie, you look so cute in a chocolate moustache!!
---------------------------------------------------------

3:00 p.m. .....
Rocky: We're almost ready to party! We've had lots of cats & beans drop by already (check comments), but we'll be in full swing in a couple of hours! And we've managed to get through the party preparations with only one cat-astrophe. When Callie and Lucy put the top layer on the 60-layer chocolate tuna birthday cake, Oscar the Manx tripped and bumped the table and 58 layers went crashing to the floor, so I hand to send Suzanne out to buy a regular cake. Oscar is such a bumblebutt! Oh well, we can't get mad at him; being a Manx he has a bit of a balance problem without a tail.

Oscar: Hey, RockyBlocky, who you calling a bumblebutt? I've seen you knock over large pieces of furniture! And you'll never see me crawl away in shame, tail between my legs!

Rocky: Whatever. Oh, before I forget, our human artist Sharolyn got the best birthday present in the world from her daughter Tiffany in Italy! Today Tiffany had a big audition in Rome, and she won the lead role in the opera Tosca!! She'll be performing three days a week through May! And she'll be paid big Euros for it! I don't know what a Euro is, but it must be really good or really awful, because Sharolyn's eyes have been leaking ever since she got the news. I'd better go now and lick her face so it won't be all smeary for her surprise party.

Callie: Ahem, Mr. Blockhead CEO, aren't you forgetting something? You're supposed to tell everybody about the "Life of the Party" prizes! The human who gets the most votes wins a cat charm rear view mirror sunglasses holder for their car ... and the cat who gets the most votes wins a plush 100% fleece MeowWow cat bed! Just leave your vote in the comments! Fracas, where are the pictures of the prizes so I can put them up here?

Fracas: Hey, keep your foofy bloomers on ... I'm trying to clean all this cake off the floor!!
-----------------------------------------------------------

9:30 a.m. .....
Rocky: Okay, I've sent our human artist birthday girl Sharolyn off to Sam's Club to buy kitty litter, and once she gets in there she's there all day, so that'll keep her out of our hair while we get ready for the surprise party. So let's get to work! I want all the food and drink prepped and presented, and the cake ready by 8 p.m. SPT (Surprise Party Time)!
Callie! Quit primping and preening and get all that hair off the couch!

Fracas: Hey Rocky, how about we celebrate your Oct. 31 purrthday belatedly today? We didn't do anything for your purrthday!

Rocky: Hush, Fracas, that information is a corporate secret, strictly need-to-know. It isn't necessary for the world to know that in cat years I'm 12 years older than our mom! (8x9=72) Okay, everybody, back to work! Meet me here later this morning for a progress report ....

Shhhh ... this post is hush-hush! We don't want my human artist Sharolyn to know that we're planning a surprise birthday party for her tomorrow. November 6 is her 60th birthday! Sixty? SIXTY?? We can't believe it! (And neither can she!) She says she's part of the "Forever Young" generation, so she can't possibly be sixty! We think both our human artists will always be forever young ... I mean, that's what having a houseful of cats does for you! Here they are, 57-(no way!)year-old Suzanne on the left and 60-(impossible!)year-old Sharolyn on the right:

We overheard her saying that she didn't want a big fuss made (At her age, it could be too much for her!). She doesn't even want gifts from her family -- just money, so she can pay her daughter Tiffany's airfare home from Italy and be with her at Christmas. But we can't let this momentous occasion go by with no fanfare whatsoever, so ...

You're all invited to Artsy Catsy tomorrow

for an all-day, all-night

60th Birthday Bash

for our human artist Sharolyn!

Fracas is whipping up 60 different flavors of niptinis, Lucy and Callie are baking a 60-layer chocolate tuna birthday cake, and the rest of the staff is keeping Sharolyn out of the house all day so I, Rocky, can decorate the house with my latest signs:

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow!!

And since our human artist doesn't want any gifts ...

We're going to send prizes to both the cat and the human who are voted "Life of the Party"!

Rocky's Yard Sale

Humans! I swear!! What is it with them and their mindless consumerism, anyway? I mean, I'm ready to get back to work building my Artsy Catsy business, but these two human artists have accumulated so much STUFF in my corporate office that I was forced to have a yard sale this weekend so I could have room to work. A CEO must have his space, after all!

First I had to make zillions of signs and then prowl all over town to put them up. (I used orange paint so if I splashed myself it would look like just another of my handsome, if I do say so myself, ginger spots.)

Then I had to go through their jam-packed closets and drag out all the clothes they never wear, then haul them out to the yard. Every cent they spend on clothes is a cent they don't spend on Temptations, so out with the clothes!

Just look at this stuff they'd piled up! A kiddie pool? We don't even have a kid!

And what the heck is THIS, I ask you:

What, we don't have enough cats around here? Let me tell you, I stuck a bargain basement cheapo price on this worthless overstuffed fake feline!

I had to drag myself out of my human artist's warm bed at 6 a.m. and start hauling stuff outside, where there was frost on the ground and the temperature was 32 degrees! Then I worked my fuzzy butt off all day long for two whole days ...

adding up sales ...

And making change for an endless parade of shoppers ... And dodging boxes thrown around in the shoppers' frenzy of mindless consumerism ... The only enjoyable part of the day was meeting lots of new people and old friends ... like our good woofie friend, Sassy, and her mom Lois:
Well, that and taking a break or two when the sun finally came out and warmed things up: Then I had to spend my entire Sunday cleaning up the mess and prowling around all over town again to take down all my signs!

Now that this blasted yard sale is over, I've issued a corporate edict that all personnel are to get back to Artsy Catsy business immediately. I expect some productivity, you people and pussies! And no more hoarding useless crap and piling STUFF up in my offices! So get into your cubicles and start cranking out all the new products we've been discussing -- cat Christmas tree ornaments; Santa Cat gourd wreaths; cat-themed placemats and matching napkin rings; kitty grocery bag dispensers; cat charm sunglasses holders for human cars ...

Okay, time for me to go gnaw on our webmaster so maybe I can finally get our ArtsyCatsy.com website up and running ...

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

~~ from Rocky & the staff

Would The Great Pumpkin lie to you? We really are back this time ... no trick, and we hope you'll consider it a treat! Wow, there's so much to catch up on in the Cat Blogosphere. I invite you all to comment here and fill me in on what I've been missing! I mean, I'm The Great Rocky, the CEO Rocky, and I have to be in the know, ya know?

Things have been even crazier than usual around here. I've been spending 24 hours a day trying to keep my human artists' spirits up. I won't go into every gruesome detail because I am SO ready to put all this behind us and get back to work.

One of the major disasters is that my human artist Sharolyn almost had to dress up for Halloween with a white cane! In September, she had to have emergency surgery on both eyes because she developed narrow angle glaucoma in them and the ophthamologist said she would go permanently blind in days or even hours without it. I was horrified!! I ask you, would a life without gazing upon my splendiferous visage be a life worth living?

Well, thank goodness she's not blind, but she's had problems since the surgery. It affected the vision in one eye and she sees flashy white streaks in it. I keep telling her she's probably just seeing me streaking around the house, but she says her white streak isn't as FAT as I am! Humph, I get no respect.

Then right after her surgery, her cousin had a ruptured brain aneurism and underwent major brain surgery, so my human was out of town for awhile. Fortunately, her cousin had a fast recovery and is back at home.

But we do have some good news: Our dead catalpa tree trunk is sprouting new trees like crazy: Okay, enough about us! Now I have to get this stupid pumpkin off my paw so I can start surfing everycat's blog and say hi to all our friends and see if everyone is okay!