WE CAUGHT THE MOUSEY-MOUSE!

Guess what! We caught the Mousey-Mouse, we caught the Mousey-Mouse! No, I didn’t catch the mouse myself, but what an experience!

For almost a week I didn’t see the mouse, and Daddy and Uncle Kevin had named the mouse, and every night they asked me if I had caught the Mousey-Mouse, and every time I just yawned and pretended they hadn’t asked. But it was yesterday that I saw the Mousey-Mouse for the first time in about a week, and it was early in the morning when I saw him run from the kitchen into the living room and hide behind the file cabinet, and he was crouched in the back corner and I could see his little eyes and his little ears and I meowed and meowed and meowed and walked back and forth and back and forth around the cabinet and I batted with my paw between the cabinet and the wall but it was so narrow I couldn’t fit my whole leg in, so I sat and waited and waited and waited and waited to see if the Mousey-Mouse would come out, but an hour went by and he didn’t come out, so I got bored and went away to take my morning nap. And Uncle Kevin put all sorts of boxes and things around the edges of the cabinet so the Mousey-Mouse wouldn’t get out, but the somehow the Mousey-Mouse DID get out, ‘cause we couldn’t find him again. So I decided to just relax, and here’s a picture of me relaxing…

And then this morning, WOW! I could just smell the Mousey-Mouse all over the kitchen, and Uncle Kevin had set up this big mousetrap next to the refrigerator, and it’s a mousetrap that catches mice live and doesn’t kill them (since Daddy said he didn’t want to hurt the poor mouse, even though kept telling me I should catch him), but the Mousey-Mouse was refusing to go into the trap, and I could tell the mouse was behind that refrigerator, so I meowed and meowed and ran up to Uncle Kevin and tapped his leg with my paw and jumped into his lap, ‘cause I wanted him to come look for that mouse, but Uncle Kevin didn’t understand me, so I went and pawed at the mousetrap, and went back to Uncle Kevin, then I went back to the kitchen and pawed at a cardboard box to get Uncle Kevin’ attention, and when that didn’t work I went back to Uncle Kevin, then I went back to the kitchen and pawed at the mousetrap and dragged it out from the corner it was in, and finally Uncle Kevin told me I was a wacky cat and annoying him, so he scooped me up and locked me in the bedroom with my kibble, and I just sat there patiently until Uncle Kevin finally got done whatever he was doing and let me out.

And then Uncle Kevin went to work, and I decided to take my catnap, and I napped for a long, long time. And when he came home, I woke up from my nap and greeted him at the door, and lay down and stretched out so he would rub my belly. But then I thought, you know, I wonder if anything is new in the kitchen, so I peeked round the corner, and lo and behold, THE MOUSEY-MOUSE WAS IN THE TRAP! So of course I wanted to play with him, so I batted the trap with my paw, and the little guy got all scared and pooped in the trap and crouched in the little opening to the trap, and finally Uncle Kevin noticed what I was doing, and he was so surprised to see the Mousey-Mouse in the trap! So Uncle Kevin took the trap away from me and placed it in a cardboard box and put it in the second bedroom and shut the door, so I wouldn’t scare the mouse to death, and tomorrow Uncle Kevin’s going to take the Mousey-Mouse out to the park near the river and let him out, far away enough from our house that he won’t come back. And Uncle Kevin took a picture of the Mousey-Mouse in the trap, and here’s what he looks like:

And Uncle Kevin thinks he’s cute. And I’m not afraid of the Mousey-Mouse anymore, ‘cause I’m more curious about him than ever! But I don’t think Daddy will let me see the mouse again. But he spoiled me tonight with a fishy treat and an ice-cream treat to celebrate catching the mouse, so here’s me eating my ice cream:



And Daddy is so happy that I actually showed an interest in the Mousey-Mouse yesterday, since he was worried that I was a scaredy cat afraid of a little mouse (and I was a little afraid of the Mousey-Mouse when he first showed up in the house). So let the world know, I am NOT a scaredy cat anymore. Now we will soon learn whether there was only one mouse.

There's a Mouse in my House!!!

I'm sitting here in the sun in the stairwell enjoying the rainbows on the walls made by my Daddy's Austrian crystals, and I'm trying to get myself as far away from the kitchen as possible because there's been a lot of drama here at home ever since a CREATURE showed up in the kitchen week ago. When I first saw it, I ran into the living room where Daddy and Uncle Kevin were sitting and my tail was all poofed up and I meowed and meowed and said, 'hey guys, there's a strange creature I've never seen before!" but neither of them understood what I was saying but they thought I was just nuts. But finally a few days ago Uncle Kevin was working on the computer and he saw the creature and told me to go catch it, and he said it was called a "mouse" and I have never seen one before because I'm an indoor cat and was raised by people ever since I was born and THAT MOUSE SCARES ME! It looks a lot like my furry toys, but it moves! And it's tiny and black and furry like me but it has a scary thin tail and it zooms around the floor whenever someone sees it, and I can smell it but I don't know what to do with it! And ever since Daddy found out there was a mouse in the house, he keeps teasing me and says "Catch the mouse, Oscar! Go get that mouse!" but I don't know what to do! And this morning the mouse came into the living room and scampered under the couch and Daddy freaked because he's scared of mice too, but I don't know what to do with this mouse!

Meanwhile I'm enjoying being a healthy senior cat, and I went to that nasty vet last week (a couple of days before I first saw that mouse), but it wasn't nearly as bad as it usually it because the doctor had a new blood pressure machine that doesn't go around my tail, so they didn't have to shave my tail and give me shame like before. This time he wrapped something around my front paw and pressed a button and the thing squeezed me, but it didn't hurt, and at least he didn't have to use those noisy clippers and shave the base of my tail! But even so, I knew what was coming next, and sure enough he poked and prodded and looked at my teeth and stuck a thermometer up my little kitty butt and stuck a needle in my bladder to take a urine sample, and all that nonsense. But the good news is that my blood pressure is perfect, and my urine is the same as it was last time (meaning that my kidney diet food is maintaining me), and my weight is the same as it was last time, and my temperature was normal, and I guess that means I'm in good health and will live a long long time. So why should I bother expending my energy on chasing a little mouse? (Besides, he scares me...)

It's My Birthday!

Today is St. Patrick's Day and it's the day my Daddy always celebrates my birthday and I'm fourteen years old today. Daddy gave me lots of treats today and kept picking me up and telling me what an adorable kitten I was when he first got me and all that kind of goopy stuff. I love my Daddy but I just wanted the treats. Here are some pictures of how I spent my birthday:

Heat Wave in Melbourne

We’re having a heat wave here in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m burning up! On Wednesday around 3:00 in the afternoon the temperature got up to 107 degrees (or 42 Celsius, as they use here). It got really hot and stuffy in the house, especially upstairs, so I didn’t want to go upstairs to my kitty tree, so I lay on the tile in the hallway because it’s cool, and our house doesn’t have air conditioning:

Then on Thursday, which was yesterday, it got up to 44.3 C (that’s 112 degrees!) in the afternoon, and it was beastly hot indoors all day, so I hid underneath the curtains like this…

Then today—eek!—it got up to 45.1 C (that’s 113 degrees!), and it was so hot that my Daddy and Uncle Kevin went to a McDonalds where it was air-conditioned, but the air-conditioning broke down, so they came back home and sweltered in the dining room which is the coolest room in the house and I hid behind the television set cause it felt cool there, and we’ve all been drinking lots and lots of water cause we feel so miserable! And I’ve had no energy and have just been lying around all day:


Then around 5:00 pm tonight the weather started to drop down to 36 C (which is almost 97, so it wasn't exactly cool, but it felt better!), but by 8:00 it was about 28 C (which is about 82 degrees). I say, thank goodness I’m not an outdoor kitty because I’d probably get heat stroke if I had to walk the streets on days like this, and Daddy says you could fry an egg on the sidewalk this afternoon, and it was so hot that the metal frames of his glasses got hot as he walked to McDonalds. But Daddy says I was never in any danger of sunstroke because I was indoors all day, and I had plenty of water, and Daddy put some ice cubes in my water fountain which tasted great, like this:


And Daddy gave me a brushing in the evening because I was shedding so much fur, and afterwards I gave myself a bath, since my brother Gerald taught me that all kitties should groom themselves properly after getting a brushing, and it starts by licking our front paw until it's nice and wet:

and then we wrap out paw around our head, and that cleans the top of our head:

and then we take our tongue and lick our arms until the fur is nice and neat:

I'm so glad I'm an indoor kitty and my Daddy takes good care of me, otherwise I'd be shriveled toast on a day like this!

My Orthodox Christmas Present was a trip to the Vet!

Today was Christmas Day for people in Melbourne who worship at the Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Churches and so you would think I might get a special present but instead my Daddy took me to that nasty vet! I could tell something was up when Daddy shut the bathroom door last night and kept me away from my litter box 'cause he wanted my bladder full so that the doctor could take a urine sample, but I was having none of it so I stood outside the bathroom door and meowed and meowed and meowed and meowed and meowed and finally Daddy put together a special litter box with a fresh plastic liner and a tiny little bit of crystalline litter so I climbed into it and made a big huge pee and as soon as I stepped out Daddy took a syringe and took some of my urine but all he had to put it in was a taco sauce jar that he washed in the sink and I thought that was funny.

And when Daddy brought out the cat carrier I REFUSED to go in it so Daddy had to push me into it and then we walked to the tram stop and I meowed and meowed and meowed and meowed but I felt better when we were on the tram and didn't make a sound then. The tram went past the Greek Orthodox Church and we saw a whole bunch of people on the steps getting ready for a Christmas service.

But when we got to the vet I knew I was in for it because I could hear two or three dogs whining in the exam room, and when I got in the first thing the doctor did was pin me down and shave the base of my tail with those noisy clippers and wrap that cold blood-pressure strap around my tail but he realized he hadn't shaved off enough so he turned on those noisy clippers AGAIN and shaved off MORE hair and then the strap squeezed and squeezed my tail and I hated it and another doctor was holding me and I was so scared that I hid my face in her elbow. And my poor tail, I have SHAME again and it looks like this:

And then the doctor dumped me on a scale and I weighed 6.34 kilos (which is almost 14 pounds) and then he stuck a stethoscope against my chest to listen to my heartbeat, then he pried open my mouth to check my teeth and stuck a Q-tip inside to scrape tartar and I HATED it, and then he took those noisy clippers again and shaved my chin and took a sharp needle and drew a blood sample, and now I have SHAME on my chin and it looks like this:

And then the final indignity was the thermometer in my kitty bum to take my temperature, then FINALLY he let me go. And while Daddy put me back in my cage, they checked my urine sample and it was still a little diluted (which is why I eat special kidney diet food) but better than 3 months ago which means the special food is working. And the doctor said my blood pressure was perfect which means the Norvasc pills are working so I have to keep taking them (yuchh!) but I didn't care, I just wanted to go HOME! So now I'm home and I'm going to lick myself all over and get my fur back into the right place:

and then I'm going to take a long nap because I DESERVE it!

How I Spent My Christmas day

Today is Christmas Day 2008 and Daddy made me wear this red-and-white collar with jingle bells and I think it's silly but Daddy thinks I look SO CUTE in it so my gift to Daddy was to make him happy so I wore it and politely ignored it, like this:

When Daddy and Uncle Kevin got up this morning they opened up all these present that their friend Jim had sent from California and I got to help:



And I spent the whole day relaxing and playing with my feather toy and then in the evening we turned the Christmas lights on and it was so pretty that I took a long Christmas nap.

And that was my seventh Christmas in Melbourne, Australia!

Kitties Love Christmas

Daddy says today is Nikolaustag or St. Nicholas' Day which is the best day to start decorating the house for Christmas since St. Nicholas is Santa Claus who brings presents to all good kitties on Christmas Eve. Nikolaustag is a German holiday but I'm not a German kitty and Daddy's not German either and we live in Australia not Germany, but what the hey. So Uncle Kevin started unpacking the Christmas tree and I decided to watch:

And he and Daddy put up two trees, one of them tall and thin and I love to sit underneath it:



and the other tree is small and on a little pedestal and decorated with only blue and silver decorations:

Now it's only a couple more weeks until Christmas!

Lookatme, I'm cute!

My Daddy is still away in Canada so Uncle Kevin took this movie of me with his digital camera and it made Daddy very happy, and I thought you'd all like to see it too. I'm so cute!

I'm a film star!

Since my Daddy is in Canada, Uncle Kevin took a little movie of me and emailed it to Daddy, and it made Daddy so happy cause he misses me! So of course I'd like you to see it too. Don't you love my big black mitten paws?

Late Winter Blues

My Daddy left town today for a three-month visit to Canada and was teary-eyed when he left the house today but he bought me a very special present which is a water fountain that runs all the time in the kitchen. Daddy knows that I love to drink running water which is why I hang around the bathtub all the time but now I can have running water whenever I want and I love it! Uncle Kevin will look after me while Daddy is gone but I'm going to miss my Daddy and I got all anxious when he was packing his luggage 'cause I could tell he was going to be gone for such a long time. And I miss PG II 'casue it's been almost three weeks since she went back to her own house and I remember how fun it was to have some cat company and I still find tufts of her fur all over my carpet and her stank is still on my kitty tree.

I'm going to take a nap now in Uncle Kevin's lap and think about how much I love my Daddy.