New year, new move!

We are moving! Yep, a couple of thousand miles back home. And frankly, the kitties will love going to the south. But what is scariest will be just getting them there. We've talked to the TSA folks and it will lengthen the cats stress by about half an hour for them to be taken into a small room and removed from their secure crates and be checked. I am mystified as to why the actual cat cannot go into the standup body scanner with me holding them up in their soft sided cases. This will all be SO traumatic for them. Yes, they will go in the airplane under the seat. Probably after several stops to clean them up (India is a pooper and Zuzu pees everywhere when they are stressed! Yikes! Lots of towels and trash bags and wipes for that trip.)

And we are going to have the new house set up with a litter pan and food, etc. But there is just no other way to move them safely. It is the securely part we worry about!

Well, it is time to stage the house a bit, get in the people to fix grout and deep clean the baseboards and kitchen appliances, and make the house attractive.  We already have a new home where we are going. So, it is just a matter of time until we sell this one and move.

Wish us well and wish the kitties a safe voyage and I'll post the adjustment period pictures when we get settled.

winter blahs

India and Zoubi have a case of the winter blahs. For about 5 months now. It is rainy and windy and so, most of their lives are consumed with eating, pretending to play, and sleeping. India has had a winter ear infection which is responding well to treatment. Zoubi continues to be healthy as a horse.

Since there isn't much to say today, here are some pictures!

A really beautiful summer in Sammamish!

Wow- at first we were so excited about the sun but now we are just bored by it. We had to fix our beds on the table so that we could bask in the sun but then move out of it when we got too hot.  Mom brought out the old iMac cat bed for us to cool off in. This meant lots of pictures since Mom got off of facebook for the 99 days without facebook challenge, and she has spent much time scratching us instead.  So here are some pictures, including one by our human sister who is an artist and thought it was funny to photoshop India onto a classical work of art. See if you can spot it!

 

Then there is this hummingbird that knows it is safe from us:

 

We've enjoyed playing the Destiny video game beta:

 

And that sun puts us in a coma:

Another year....

It's summer in Seattle, but my wimpy humans have an air conditioner.

My silly human sister thought it would be funny to put us on a roller coaster. It is pretty funny.

We are always on the lookout for birds and deer and bees.

This is India looking all whiskery in the sun.

Zoubi's brother-in-law, Steve, made this little drawing on his tablet in about 2 minutes.

 

Zoubi is actually laying on a toy she doesn't want India to have.

 

 

Well, we aren't exactly the BEST at keeping our blog active. But we figure no one visits anyway so it is more like a diary.  We get along great- all of us are very purry and happy. But it was time to update these pictures in case someone looked. 

 

Football, Fireplace, Fall

Wowzers! Yesterday we had a big storm here in Sammamish. BIG STORM. We did NOT know what was happening.  The wind roared through here, but we were beyond brave. Beyond. Those big trees swaying didn't scare us at all. In fact, we were fascinated.

 

Here is Zuzu looking at the trees.

 

 

Of course, India was looking, too. But she gets bored pretty quickly and then goes to her usual spot in front of the fire place.

She always has her toes curled like that!

 

So we were pretty tired anyway from all the excitement- we'd never seen candles and flashlights. Last night the power came on again, so things rapidly went back to normal.

 

Today is football- which means everyone is near the television.  But we take some time to relax and play like regular cats. We love that packing paper that mom keeps on the floor for us, She even vacuums around it and cleans it up a bit. Here is a little 3 minute video you can enjoy (because we know you enjoy us!) to show how we use it.

 



 

 

 

Well, it looks like it will be dark at 4:30 today. So we'll be in front of the fire!

 

 



We play!

We are indoor kitties. Why? Well, we won't walk on a leash, that's why. That adorable little Wylla Stout Cinotto Miller over at theittybittykittycommittee.com  walks on a leash. Sits on shoulders. Looks at the world. But not us. In our neighborhood, there are bobcats (we've SEEN them!), bears, coyotes (the worst for us), and very predatory eagles. None of those animals seem very afraid of humans so we are pretty sure that we wouldn't last long out there.

So how do we cope with all those instincts to hunt that we have?
Well, first, we have one another. We get along great. There is NEVER any hissing.
There is only one documented case of a growl- that's all YOU, Zoubisou. India didn't want your turkey meat, she just wanted to smell it.


We chase one another all over the house. We learned to play tag from our human mom, because she thinks it is fun  to hide, then chase us, then run from us- we got the picture on how to play that game really fast. It is so much fun. She doesn't cooperate all the time, so we tag one another instead.

We have our cat trees- one is kind of crummy and one is very fancy. But we don't really think about that much. We like them both.

We like DaBird, and the toy like it that has a bug on the end. We like the feather wands that sound like birds. 
But what makes our day is the scrunched up packing paper that comes in amazon and petco boxes. Mom saves every piece of it, twists it into a snake, then piles it up. We have so much FUN in there- we hide our toys, jump one another, sleep, sit in the middle, and Zoubi even spends hours trying to untangle it and flatten it with her paws. She's pretty good at that!

Sometimes our sweet cat sitter, Sophia, comes to play. We love her. It makes it easy for us to stay home alone.

Well, that's a little insight into how we will spend this winter without all the animal life that we see the rest of the year.

Zoubisou (formerly Zelda Lamm)

Hi! I'm Zoubisou.


Yep, that's me as a baby kitten. I'm not like India Rose. She's a great big sister and all. In fact, she is the best big sister. But you see, I have a LOT of Siamese in me. I don't have the loud meow- my meow is very tiny. But I do have a very BIG personality. I'm friendly. I love to meet new people and see new things. I love to prance around and watch what everyone is doing. I'm not afraid of company either. You might wonder why that is. Unlike India, I had a fantastic start- sort of. Yeah, I was an orphan, too. But it ends there. I was brought to the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County in Washington. They called Laurie, the foster mom for The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee. Laurie is a wonderful foster mom to many kittens. She names all of her foster kittens with fun names and my litter was named the Lamms. Yep- kittens called Lamms. Funny.  Anyhoo, I was there with my siblings named Baxter, Edna and Edison. We were VERY popular on Laurie's website. VERY popular. So I am very documented. Not many foster kitties get that sort of attention, and I am very proud of it. You can go to the website and look me up- Zelda Lamm was my name. I must say, I was stunningly adorable.
(www.theittybittykittycommittee.com)

My story is sort of short because my Mom and Dad picked me out of the Lamm lineup and asked Laurie if they could have me. At first, someone else had wanted me. But something happened and I didn't have to go with them.  So Mom and Dad visited Laurie in something called a "meet and greet". I had no idea this was some important meeting- I'd only been on the planet for about 6 weeks, so what did I know? I could barely stay awake. My Mom couldn't hold back the tears (she must cry around kittens a bunch or something is wrong with her) when she saw me sleeping on top of my brother, Baxter. See, she has a special love for anything Meezer, too, since her best friend cat was a meezer for 21 years, and she even had a second one for 18 years.  I have white paws because there is a Birman in my lineage. That is the part of me that is very sweet. The Meezer part makes me VERY smart and determined.  My Mom could see I was a sharp cookie. My Dad was worried because I didn't purr when he held me. My Mom pointed out that I weighed about 1 pound and he weighed about 225 pounds- so I was probably a little worried that he might eat me. Don't worry, I purred A LOT (and still do) once I got home.  After I got some little surgery to my girl parts (I don't know why), I got a yellow tag to wear and I went to my new home.

Me with my yellow tag

 

I was so looking forward to my new home. I couldn't WAIT! I didn't make a peep I was so excited.

When we got to Sammamish (haha-another funny name!), I was put in a special room so I could get used to my sister. No one told ME about a sister, but she was young, too. Her name is India and she has about 4 months on me. So she was still kind of young, herself. But she looked REALLY big to me.

I learned a lot from India- still do. I imitate everything she does. I want to hug her a lot, but she isn't much of a hugger. She lets me lick her once in a while. She has great manners.

We play like maniacs. I love to chase her around. I don't know if she is like a cat Mom to me, but she is really a great sister.
I try to be nice, but sometimes, I really would like to take over where she is.

 

You can probably see that she is tolerating me. She is like that. If I want something, she pretty much lets me have it. But now I have learned that it is okay if India gets to play. I won't try to take her toy away any more. See? I am learning to be a sweet sister kitty. But boy, it is hard.

I am one of those kitties that likes to fetch. I fetch a LOT. If I have missed my Mom, I really do miss her, I will search the house for a suitable toy I think she might like, and I will drop it on her laptop. She still hasn't figured out if I am GIVING it to her as a gift, or if I want her to throw it so I can fetch it again. Sometimes, I'm not sure myself. My favorite toy is the milk carton pop cap. I loooooove that! I hide them under my cat tree- I have a teensy selfish streak, I am sad to say. This is a picture of my stash that my Dad found when he went looking for all the pop caps I took. I've switched to stuffing them under the closet doors. You might notice I hid a few other things in there- I don't know what got over me!

I get a lot of questions about my name. It is from a French song from the 1960s that Mom and Dad heard on Mad Men. My Dad thought it was a great name. Sometimes I am called Zoubi and sometimes I am called ZuZu. Mostly it is Zuuuuuuuuu. I don't care much. I don't come to anything. Unless it is India. If India meows, I'm all over it.

What do I like (love)? I like everything! Oh wait, I do NOT like the vacuum. India seems fine with it though. Don't know what that's about. I would like to give a shout out to turkey meat and toys on sticks and sparkle balls. I LOVE sleeping with my Dad- he is like a big sofa. Every night I climb on his stomach and get in my "flying cat" position so I can get as close to him as possible. Then I go to sleep for hours. He's the best!

What do I hate? See the above thing about the vacuum cleaner. I'm not a fan of nail clippers, but I'll do it.

If you asked my Mom what I am like, she would say "Zoubi is adorable- a big bundle of friendly energy in a fur coat". Thanks, Mom! I feel lucky, too.