Three Blind Mice

I got Stanley a new package a those little realistic looking mice toys today while I was in the supermarket. I actually planned the purchase while driving to the store. I was feeling bad for him since these little mice toys are his favorite and his most recent one (and only one in the house) had gone missing. The supermarket had a package of a dozen of them for around $6 ($0.50 per mouse does now seem a little steep, but the pleasure they bring him and the laughs it brings MacPro and I are priceless). Earlier this evening MacPro brought the remains of these toy mice to me in the kitchen. Apparently I had forgotten to put them in the toy cabinet and had left the package sitting in the living room. Stanley, in his attempt to get them out of the cat-proof packaging decapitated at least three of these poor mice. The living room is a mess of little pieces of fake fur, eyes, and chalky insides!

"Three Blind Mice" - Original work by Stanley The Manly

Enjoy ~SJ

Views And Thoughts From Cat World

While I have been up to my ears in research articles and objective writing (including high Bloom's Taxonomy words of course), the cats have been having quite the day. Here are the views and thoughts of their day....

Phoebe watching the blue jays, "If I could only get outside...."

Sitting on the back of Feeder #1's office chair, "Hold on tight with the claws, you never know when she is going to move!"

Phoebe visiting my desk, "Since sitting on the back of the chair didn't get her attention, try sitting next to the laptop on top of important papers. Might as well wash my side, I think it got dirty jumping up here."

"When all else fails, take a nap"

"And when that gets old change positions, and take another nap."

Enjoy ~SJ

While The Feeders Away....

Ok, Phoebe and Stanley have launched themselves into a whole other level of cat mischievous while the Feeders are at work. We all know that Phoebe has a thing for destroying toilet paper. Her new thing is to try to get the shreds in as many rooms as possible, current high score of four rooms. Well now she has worked her way up the paper chain and her new choice paper product is newsprint. Yesterday I came home to an Uncle Henry's newsprint magazine shredded all over the house. The majority of the contents were left in the toilet! (I restrained myself from taking a photo of it, I wasn't sure how you would feel about seeing my toilet or how I felt about my toilet bowl being plastered all over the internet). Now and Uncle Henry's magazine is not a light object for a cat to lift up. I am guessing that it required both Phoebe and Stanley to achieve this feat.

Any suggestions?

Enjoy ~SJ

Charlie Brown's New Years Resolution

I just caught the tail end of Happy New Year Charlie Brown. Towards the end of the movie Peppermint Patty asks Chuck what his New Years Rules are going to be. He responds to her with something like this:
"Be nicer to people, don't leave the crayons in the sun, water the plan more, don't volunteer to chair a committee, and remember to feed the dog as much as he wants whenever he wants."

That about sums it up, if we all lived by these rules what a happier place our world would be. There would be fewer committees, more crayons, and happier people, pets and plants. Stanley would love the kibble increase!

Enjoy ~SJ

Trick or Treat

Stanley decided to dress up as his idol today for Halloween, Morris the Cat. Here is what wikipedia has to say about Morris "Morris the Cat (voiced by John Erwin of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials. A large red tabby tom, he is "the world's most finicky cat", and prefers only 9Lives brand, making this preference clear by means of humorously sardonic voice-over comments when offered other brands. Every can of 9Lives features Morris's "signature".

Well Stanley isn't as picky as Morris, but he sure can pack away the cat food!

Happy Halloween! Enjoy ~SJ

While The Feeders Away....

.... the cats will kill. Well, I have to admit that Phoebe and Stanley have gotten the message that they need to work for their crunchies. They have really stepped up to their responsibilities of being house cats and have started to rid the house of mice. It's that time of year where mice think they should move into peoples homes, and without a good cat around you may get overrun with these little gray pests. Phoebe and Stanley have been working as a team to rid our house of mice, Stanley catches them but leaves the dirty work of killing them to his little sister Phoebe.

Enjoy ~SJ

Stanley and the Wii Fit?

The Music Man just informed me that Stanley is weighing in at 14 pounds. Since the Wii Fit came in the mail this week, I think it is time to modify some of the "games" for him so that he can work off some of his summer weight.

Enjoy ~SJ

Things I Never Thought I Would Say!

First Crazy Statement Of The Day:
Since today is the first day back to school with the kids it can always make for an interesting day. I always get a kick out of how much older they all look and the funny things that they have to say. Here is the high point chuckle of my day:

While in the library laminating (I know, bad teachers laminate during the first day of school, good ones already have it done), a little 6th grade girl was looking around for a book. She came over and said hi to me and then asked me a lot of questions about how the laminator worked. I answered all of her very good questions, and when we got to the end she said "You know, I would really like to be laminated!" In a little bit of a shock I replied "Well, I think that you would get a little hot going through the machine." Without skipping a beat the girl replied "Well, at least I would always be clean!" What could I do other than agree and laugh to myself.

Second Crazy Statement Of The Day:
When I got home today I greeted The Cats by getting on the floor and playing with them. They were very happy to see me after a long day with their Feeder gone, but they seemed to be exceptionally happy about something. It took me a few moments to notice - but there it was - on the floor. (Disclaimer: Squeamish people please stop reading now!) It was a tiny, dead, baby snake! No clue how it got into the house, or how these two fur balls who hardly kill spinders managed it, but they killed a snake. My question to them was "Who killed the snake?" Never thought I would say that today!


Enjoy ~SJ

While The Cats Away....

While The Feeders have been away enjoying summer Stanley and Phoebe reconnected with their hippie roots.

Enjoy ~SJ

Stanley MIA!

After getting home from summer school I got inspired to vacuum. This little project consumed a few hours since I decided to reorganize the front porch while I was at it. After being home for awhile I notice that I had not seen Stanley, I remembered being greeted by Miss Phoebe, but no big orange cat. I scoured the house high and low, not Stanley. So I could only conclude that he had slipped outside and was enjoying the summer day. I went searching outside, calling his name and shaking the treats; no Stanley. I decided to go back inside and give up, either he was going to come home or he wasn't. After moping around the house entertaining the idea that Stanley was gone, he came sauntering out of the laundry room like nothing had ever happened. I stumbled upon this cartoon of a cat brain. I think that the "inexorable fear of vacuum cleaners" part explains Stanly's mysterious disappearance and then reappearance.

Enjoy ~SJ

Somebody Doesn't Like Peaches

Another mystery at the Shamrock. The Music Man discovered the peaches had been attacked while sitting peacefully in the fruit bowl. There seems to be someone living at the Shamrock who enjoys causing trouble. The big question is why the peaches and not the bananas, oranges, or apples that live in the fruit bowl? The hunch is that Miss Phoebe knew that Feeder #1 (SJ) and Feeder #2 (The Music Man) were not happy with the peaches since they lacked flavor and decided to teach them a lesson. Stanley would never bother himself with fruit, he can't eat it, so why bother.

Miss Phoebe 1, Peaches 0.

Enjoy ~SJ

Attack Cat

The big and "fur"ocious Stanley ready to attack and kill (Q-tips that is).

VACATION!

I think the title of this sums up how wonderful I am feeling! I'm on vacation, doing some cat/house sitting in a wonderful little ocean community in Massachusetts. Only one saying comes to mind "Life is good"! The Music Man, Stanley, Phoebe and I all arrived last night after what seemed to be the longest day of school ever. Upon arriving the Music Man agreed (after we ran up over the dune and onto the beach) that we really were in paradise, and was thrilled that I convinced him to come down after school, and not Saturday morning. Phoebe had a very lovely drive down, and slept most of the time in her carrier. Stanley on the other paw, even with his new and larger accommodations still didn't enjoy himself all that much, what you have to go through to enjoy a little paradise ever now and then.














I thought that we were going to be "un-connected" all week, but I just discovered that we can pick up someones unlocked wireless signal. Thank the internet god, what would I do if I had no internet for a week! The Music Man is rationing my internet time, since it is vacation and there is a little slice of paradise waiting for us just outside the door!

Enjoy ~SJ

He's Too Fat!

The Music Man just called to inform me why Stanley doesn't like his cat carrier so much, he is just too fat to fit in it. Maybe this explains why he hates getting in it so much, and why he fights so much to get out of it. So, the Music Man being the new cat lover that he is, went out and purchased Stanley a new, larger cat carrier. Now I feel like one of those parents who has to go out and buy the oversized car seats because their child is obese! I guess my "little" orange boy is going on a diet, anyone know of a great gym for cats?


Enjoy ~SJ

Why didn't I think of this.....

Ok, this is right up there with the many foolish cat accessories that I'm glad Stanley and Phoebe don't know about: heated cat beds, filtered kitty water gourmet cat treats!



















Enjoy ~SJ

Great Paper Mystery

So this is what I woke up to find this morning in my bathroom:


















So that means that either:
A) A robber broke into the house and decided to shred toilet paper all over the bathroom and kitchen
B) The toilet paper decided to explode in the middle of the night
C) Stanley decided after living in the house for over a year that he was interested in the toilet paper
D) Phoebe, who has always been intrigued with toilet paper tubes decided that she needed a new one to play with and removed all of the paper.


Stanley would like to make the following statement: "I was asleep beside The Feeder all night while the Little Black One was locked out of the bedroom due to her poor behavior".




Phoebe would like to make the following statement: "I don't know anything about the toilet paper, I just woke up and found it there. And I got rudely kicked out of the bedroom while The Orange Guy and The Feeder were sleeping, and I wanted to play".

If you have any clues, evidence, or opinions please help solve the Great Paper Mystery at the Shamrock.

Enjoy ~SJ

My New Toy!

Bil Keane, the creator of Family Circus has a guest cartoonist from time to time, his son. Well, my blog has a "guest" writer, my cat Stanley. From time to time Stanley will weigh in with his opinion of his world.

Stanley The Manly reporting from Worthley Pond. My Feeder got me the greatest new toy this week. It is better than the string on a wand toy, or even my rattly mouse! Her name is Miss Phoebe and she is only 10 weeks old. Now, My Feeder prepared me all week for her arrival, and even made me wear a tie (see photo). I of course very excited, since the arrival of Miss Phoebe meant that I would have someone new to play with. See, My Feeder isn't home all of the time to play with me, so she got me Miss Phoebe.



Miss Phoebe arrived on Wednesday afternoon in one of those horrible crates used to transport us. She waltzed quickly out of the carrier and I knew right off that My Feeder had gotten me THE most wonderful new toy. Unfortunately all she does is sleep, eat, and poop, and so far has not lived up to my grand expectations of playing all of the time. I can only hope that when she gets bigger I can train her to play all of my favorite games, including fetch the rattly mouse!

Stanley The Manly