Happy New Year's Eve from Willow & China Cat!

Happy New Year's Eve from Kara & Alice!

Dressing up my daughter's cats...

We went over to visit with my daughter and son-in-law
and I had to bring over the Santa and Elf cat costumes.
Unlike my cat Willow, you can put anything on Alice!
It's true, Willow's antlers were not really on her head!
~~~~~
So we started out putting the Elf costume on Alice. Her other cat is Kara
and she usually hides anytime we are visiting. This time she came out and was very lovable. She was awfully cute in the elf collar too!
Alice just sat there and watched. Alice looked quite angelic in the Santa collar! It's time for the Carnival of the Cats and it's being hosted by the King of the Carnival of the Cats, Laurence Simon. This will be his final time so make sure to check it out here.
~~~~~
Weekend Cat Blogging is over at the Tuxedo Gang's Hideout and hosted by Samantha Black and Tigger.
~~~~~
The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is over with Zed Monster and Megan at Bad Kitty Cats Journal. There is an optional theme of New or Old.

RAMS GAME DAY 16: Rams @ Cardinals

at Still hoping that we win...

PhotoHunt Theme: Messy

Today's theme is Messy.
I don't know how two cats, actually Willow in particular, can be so messy!
And then she won't even eat it off the floor - she meows for new food!
At least China Cat will sometimes help clean up by eating some...

Merry Christmas!

WCB Christmas Edition

China Cat and Willow participated in Secret Paws this year. The cats that were their Secret Paws live in Wisconsin and California. And the cats that sent presents to China Cat and Willow live in South Carolina and Texas. This was our first time participating and it was a lot of fun!
~~~~~
Here are some of the gifts they received! China really liked laying on her hammock
while Willow just kept investigating everything! They received feather toys, catnip mice and a catnip banana,
among other toys! Willow also loves smelling the tree - so far she hasn't knocked any ornaments down! Merry Christmas! ~~~~~
Katie and Puddy are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging
at A Byootaful Life,
~~~~~
Astrid, Kashim & Othello are hosting Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos
(with an optional theme of family or friends) at The Catboys Realm
~~~~~
and the Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Missy & KC
at The Cat Blogosphere (with an optional Christmas theme).

PhotoHunt Theme: Light

The theme this week is "light"
and I love seeing the white snow on the ground and in the trees.
It lightens up everything.
~~~~~
This is the road that goes to "our" winery,
with the sun just getting ready to set. ~~~~~
This photo was taken from the side deck.
The view is beautiful any time of year
but I particularly like it in the winter. ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

RAMS GAME DAY 15: Steelers @ Rams at night...

at 7:15 PM on NFL Network

Time for Treats!

RAMS GAME DAY 14: Packers @ Rams

at

PhotoHunt Theme: Small

The theme this week is small
and I immediately thought of how cute Willow was
when she was small.
She was only 4 months old
when I took this picture of her by my purse. Well, since I never throw anything away,
I still have that purse.
I took a picture of Willow with the purse this morning.
Clearly, she is no longer small! And here's a bonus picture of Willow at 3 months old
when I first brought her home.
She didn't even have a name yet!

Glow in the Dark Cats???

I saw this today on the Yahoo Home Page.
The cats are cute but this is
pretty weird, I think...

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, officials said Wednesday. In a side-effect, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.

A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned," the ministry said in a statement.

"The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," it added.

RAMS GAME DAY 13: Rams @ Bengals

UPDATE: Bengals W19 - Rams L10

at It looks like it might be a tough game with the weather in Cincinnati today!
GO RAMS!!!

PhotoHunt Theme: Long

The theme this week was "long"
and I tried to keep thinking "long" when I was out.
It paid off.
Last weekend we went downtown
to see the Blues play the Blackhawks.
They were playing on a long sheet of ice
a long way down from us! We parked at Union Station and once you are inside,
you can see that it is a very long room
where we enjoyed some cocktails! And then it was a very long hallway back to our hotel room.

Biscuit, Carmen and St. Nicholas

Today is St. Nicholas Day. It is celebrated in many countries. The real story of Santa Claus began with a real man named Nicholas born in the third century in a Greek village called Patara. He had wealthy parents and they raised him as a devout Christian. Unfortunately both his parents died in an epidemic when he was still young. Fortunately for the poor, Nicholas used his inheritance to help the needy, the sick and the suffering. He dedicated his life to God and soon became the Bishop of Myra. He was known for his generosity to those in need, his love for children and his concern for sailors and ships. Nicholas ended up suffering for his faith and was exiled and put in prison. After his release from prison he continued his good works until he died December 6th, AD 343 and the anniversary of his death became our celebration of St. Nicholas Day.
~~~~~
One story of St. Nicholas led to the custom of him being a gift giver. Mysteriously bags of gold or gold balls were tossed into some windows to provide dowries, landing in the shoes that were left by the fire to dry. So now on St. Nicholas Day, children leave out shoes or stockings hoping for some gifts from St. Nicholas, which is not unlike our Santa Claus custom with stockings.
~~~~~
Now, I think that if St. Nicholas liked children, he surely liked dogs also. These two are Carmen and Biscuit. They are my in-laws dogs and Biscuit has been featured here before. Carmen is new to the family this year and the two of them are so cute together.
~~~~~
I took these pictures at Thanksgiving and you can see that such good dogs
will definitely be getting some treats... or maybe some golden colored balls to play with. Until then, they have a lot of fun playing together!
I did take quite a few more of these pictures while they were playing,
but they were moving around way too fast to get clear photos!
Hopefully, I will do better at Christmas!

RAMS GAME DAY 12: Falcons @ Rams

UPDATE: Rams W28 - Falcons L16
Hooray we finally won one at home in the Dome!

at The game did not sell out, so no show on TV.
We were offered 2 tickets, but couldn't go.
GO RAMS!!!!!

PhotoHunt Theme: Red

The theme this week is RED and I thought of Christmas red.
Willow was featured on my Christmas Cards last year
playing with my husband's red corvette ornament
while sitting on a red tree skirt. And last Christmas I wrapped all of the 2007 calendars
in mostly red paper,
which the cats were waiting to give out.