Mr. Pettibone

I have never had a cat like this. He is definitely one of a kind. His name was Mischief when we adopted him but Cha changed it to Mr. Pettibone (after Goofy's pet kitten). He must have been on his best behavior the first six months because I wouldn't necessarily call him a naughty cat. Now that he's settled and feeling comfortable he is a little trouble maker.

He's got this fascination with bread. He loves it and will steal it right off your plate. Cha was having a hotdog for lunch one afternoon and Mr. Pettibone jumped up on the table, snagged the hotdog bun, and tore off. What kind of kitty takes the bread and leaves the meat?

We can't leave bread out or he'll attack it in the middle of the night. We learned this after finding several half eaten loaves in a corner of the basement. Bread now goes in a basket on top of the cabinet.

Yesterday I bought bagels to bring in to work with me. Silly me, I left them on the counter overnight. This morning they were gone and this is what I found in the basement:


A cat and his prey. I couldn't help but laugh. That kitty jumped up on the counter, grabbed a bag of eight bagels, pulled it through the little kitty door and carried it to the basement. I almost want to set up a hidden camera to watch him do it again.

kitties

Back when I worked as a nanny in DC I was cat-less. It was one of the few times in my life that I did not have at least one kitty. I lived with and worked for a couple different families and none of them had pets. It was tragic. They had no clue the fun they were missing.

Here are my two boys, Pete and Mr. Pettibone. They are bestest buddies and bring joy and naughtiness to the house and keep us laughing. It's hard to have a bad day with these two chatting at each other and racing around the house. (Anyone else notice that orange kitties, boys especially, are incredibly vocal? These two talk to us and each other all the time.)

Mr. Pettyibone snoozing

Pete babysitting Rosie the Goldfish

Mr. Pettibone babysitting Rosie the Goldfish

Pete Getting his summer shave (he loves it)

Mr. Pettibone chased me off my desk one afternoon.

Left Paw Green!

Mr. Pettibone babysitting Hamela Anderson

Mr. Pettibone on the Go!

Cha and Mr. Pettibone - BFFs

Pete turns 7 next month. He was born on Independence Day and is the last surviving sibling in his litter. He's my Super Kitty. Here are a couple baby pictures.


Aren't they cute??

Happy Monday.

Coolest Thing Ever - Winged Cats!

Cats with Wings!

: )

Marley & Me

I saw Marley & Me last week. I can't remember the last time I cried so hard at a movie. Despite the sweet and funny commercials, this is not a family film. It may be rated PG but I can't see what a kid would get out of it, other than scared, confused and bored.

One of the highlights of the film (and only a slight spoiler) is when the wife had a miscarriage. Marley, 'the world's worst dog' comforted her like only a pet could. As someone who has spent many painful and sleepless nights snuggled up to by cats, I had to start bawling. Family pets may not understand losing a baby or a breast, but they understand pain and sadness. And because they rarely mistakenly say the wrong thing, they provide the biggest comfort of all.

Go see the movie but don't bring the kids.

Can you stand a few more pictures?

I am so excited about Christmas this year. Everything about it makes me smile and I can't stop singing Christmas carols. Only three more days!

Tonight I finished hanging Christmas cards. Charlotte helped and then she, Matt, the kitties and I had a little photo session. Please ignore the sad state of the walls. They are in dire need of paint. It's on the never ending honey-do list. That's what you get for buying a fixer-upper.

Showing off our cards:


Matt and Cha and The Family Guy:



Okay this is weird. I've lost count of the times friends have commented on how Cha and I are dressed alike. I promise you it's not intended and I never really know I'm doing it unless someone points it out. I just noticed that she and I are dressed alike again here. She's in her daycare clothes and I had just changed into my comfy clothes. At least this time we aren't wearing exactly the same color, which happens quite often. Anyway, here we are with Tig and Ria.

Two Days of Holiday Cheer

It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday we had our holiday luncheon at work, followed by happy hour at a local bar. Since my fantastic company isn't keen on celebrating or even recognizing Christmas we held a Happy Release Party to celebrate a recent product release.

CAD hosted our second annual Chinese Auction (I think that's what it's called?) where everyone brings a gift and draws a number. The lowest number gets to select a gift and the following person can either steal that gift or unwrap another. Watching a room full of developers juiced up on beer and bickering over dollar store crap was more fun than I've had all year (as seen in the oh so flattering picture below).

There was a great turnout for happy hour and I got to spend time with some old friends. I don't think I say nearly enough how much my co-workers mean to me. There's something magical about that bunch.

Here's the disco ball on the food table. We had more food than we could eat and being I am trying to watch my sugar intake it was hard to pass up all those cakes and cookies (but I did!) I had some super yummy but very spicy Indian food instead. I think I've got a crush on samosas.


Under normal circumstances I would rip this picture to shreds and destroy all digital copies I could get my hands on. However, this is probably the happiest I've been all year and that laugh felt good. The chuckles resulted from trying to toss a Starbucks giftcard across the room and somehow getting it stuck in the ceiling. What are the odds?


The scene of the crime. Nothing says fancy like a sparsely decorated training room.


And a room full of peeps in varying stages of sobriety fighting over the following gifts. Please note, when a gift goes out of it's way to say Pick Me, just move along.



Happy Hour at the Park Ridge hotel. This is CAD, Bossman and I lifting a glass for Derek, who was virtually celebrating in California.


After yesterday's festivities I thought I was all holiday-d out, but I was gifted with an hour at Cha's holiday party at school. Santa, Christmas, and all the traditional holiday songs were embraced. It felt odd for the school to so openly wish everyone a Merry Christmas given the diversity of the students.


Here's Cha and Daddy enjoying some tasty treats. I was good and concentrated on the popcorn and pretzels but boy did those cookies look tempting.



After Cha's party we stopped at Max and Erma's for dinner and some nice family time. Matt and I are both exhausted from a very long week. When we got home tonight he told me I could head up to bed and he'd put Cha to sleep. I stayed downstairs for an hour or so to clean the kitchen and get things put away. As I was cleaning up the dining room I found this sweet scene:


I thought how wonderful it was that the kitties love the tree so much. Two minutes later I walked upstairs and hopped into bed, where I'm currently sitting with all four cats snuggled up beside me. How is it that they know where I'm headed even before I get there? Wherever I am in the house they have to be in the same area watching me. It's comforting but I little spooky sometimes.

Anyway, it's been a great couple of days and we have more fun planned for this weekend. Tomorrow the local library is having a reading of a ballerina book and the kids are encouraged to dress up. So, Cha will be putting on her favorite dance clothes and playing with friends. Afterwards we'll be celebrating Cait's 3rd birthday. We're praying for snow on Sunday so we can get out and do a little sledding.

Happy Friday everyone. It feels great to be upbeat for a change.

Bonus Pic - for the cat people

I'm sure you all can relate. It's not so much the monitor but the keyboard. I don't need to see the screen but when I can't get to my keyboard we've got a problem.

Not that I would even dare to swat them away or anything. They're just kittens. You can't break their spirits.

You know you want to snuggle them!

:)

Random Pictures

playing with kiersten

pops at little round top

cha and grandma

grandma, our gettysburg photographer

ralphie - simply cool

olivia and tig

Three more faces

This is what I was faced with when I tried to go to bed last night. My pillow belongs to Evil Kitty. Look at that face! She hisses if you try to move her so most nights I just sleep around her.



Here's Olivia and Pete. My little angels.

'They used it'

The kitties are obviously upset with me for going back to work. This is the mess I woke up to this morning.



Matt left the bag of litter just outside the basement door. That's the last time he'll do that. Matt and I both gasped when we first saw it: 'OMG, they used it.'

What a wonderful way to start your morning.

Here are a couple of redeeming pictures:

Pete and Olivia

Evil Kitty and her new toy