And Then There Were Two ...

 From my sister Catherine, Bootsie has been helped over the Rainbow Bridge:

Bootsies, 2006-2022. We are so sad to let her go, but she had a large tumor in her hind leg and had lost half her body weight. It was time.

Now Penwiper and Max (at my sister Margaret's in Syracuse) are only two remaining remaining family Tuxedo Kittens.

Millie (2000-2021): Another Over the Rainbow Bridge

 From my sister in Kentucky:

Millie came into our lives on Oldham County Day in 2000 where a family at one of the booths had a litter of kittens available to good homes. 

In her younger days she was notorious for scaring small children with her angry sounds, but she never hurt a soul. While she was not thrilled with the addition of baby Bootsies in 2006, they eventually reached detente. And Millie formed a special bond with [our grandson], always accepting his pets and hugs. 

Her health had deteriorated to the point where we made the decision last night to take that final trip to the vet this morning. She was having none of that, and died on her own terms, peacefully lying down on a mat in the laundry room to take her last breath sometime in the night. 

RIP, sweet tabby.

Fat Cats (and Dogs)

I'm delighted to say an article on fat cats and dogs doesn't apply to our feline overlords.   We listen to our vets, we know what the boys weigh to the ounce, we know where they should be, and we measure their meals to the gram.   

(Okay, kitty treats are unmetered.  But we try to be generally consistent day-to-day.)

obit: Composer Meows Her Last

From the NY Tines: A Noted Composer Meows Her Last

Ketzel, who won a prize for piano composition in 1997 and went on to be featured in a book, “The World of Women in Classical Music,” died Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 19 and lived on the Upper West Side

Support Your Local Kentucky Kitten and Vote!

From my sister Catherine ...

To all you Bootsies fans: she is in the running for Pet of the Week at the Louisville Courier-Journal! You can vote for her at http://php.courier-journal.com/pets/mypetrocks1.php/pets/mypetrocks1.php.

Voting is through Friday!

What do you love?

Google Search Geek Matt Cutts says that he loves cats.

To the Great Ice Floe In The Sky

Our long time associates know that before we were cat valets, we were valets for various plush creatures, especially bears.  Snuffles, the Plush Plump Programming Platinum Polar Bear was (and is) our patron bear of networking.

Thus it is with sadness we note that Ida, the Central Park Zoo Polar Bear, has passed on.  

How Cats Drink

From the New York Times...

It has taken four highly qualified engineers and a bunch of integral equations to figure it out, but we now know how cats drink. The answer is: very elegantly, and not at all the way you might suppose.

Good kitty!

A quick pointer to Christopher, a cat who watches over the feline patients of a clinic in Redwood CA

Administrivia - Site Blog Software Upgraded

We've been seeing too much comment SPAM lately, so for the first time in too long a time (3 years), we've upgraded the Movable Type software which drives our blogs.

With Movable Type 5.01, we are now able to require commenters to sign-in order to reduce SPAM. We will not be collecting your login information, but rather relying on your choice of another web site (Google, Yahoo, AIM, Live Journal etc.) to verify you exist. (We won't see your password for that other site, they'll just us tell your name and maybe email address.)

The leap in software releases required us to change the look of the blogs; we're not done with Katherine's TFM blog yet. In addition, we MAY have broken some links.

Please notify of us any problems you have reading or commenting on the blogs.

Billy's Soul Lttermate

If Billy had a brother he never had met, this guy would be it.

Kenmore The Cat

The Kenmore in the title refers to Kenmore station on Boston, not the City of Kenmore (by the lake) northeast of Seattle. More precisely, it refers to a cat rescued from the station.

p.s. Yes, we're still here, litter box misses, hairballs, midnight commando assaults on Billy by Oscar, happy meal times, and all.

Meow Spoken There

From the NY Times, a story of kitten rescue in 450 sq feet of NY apartment.

I did, I did taw a puddy tat!

A young cougar has been reported to be roaming Seattle's Discovery Park multiple times in the past week, and they caught him early this morning. The handsome fellow has been released to the wilds north of here.


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Farewell to Socks

Various news outlets are reporting that after a long and popular ride, Socks the Cat has gone to The Great Meadow in the sky. He was 19 or 20 years old, and moved into the White House with the Clintons in 1992. There is coverage at CNN and a longer article at one of our favorite cat blogs.

Photo Extra (?): Cooper's exhibit

Cooper the Cat has a photography exhibit running in Seattle.

Meow Institute of Technology

It turns out that MIT is cat friendly.

Need we say more?

Ferocious Attack Kitten Available

Forwarded by a friend, a ferocious attack kitten is available.

In The Mews: Suitcase Cat

A tabby catten smuggled itself into a suitcase for a trip to Dallas, and then the suitcase got lost.

Mew!

To protect and hunt

On the other side of the country from the New York deli cats, the Los Angeles police department is bringing in unadoptable feral cats to clean up stations with rodent problems.