Wednesday Word of the Day: Giveaway

I have 10 of these Discovery
 boxes to give away!

OMC! I'm so excited to be hosting this giveaway! Last month I took part in the tasty taste test, involving Royal Canin's Selective line of foods. Now it's your turn. The wonderful peeps at Royal Canin saw my post and they've offered to provide Royal Canin Selective discovery boxes to 10 of my readers. Isn't that the best! The discovery boxes contain one aromatic sample bag, one savor sensation bag and one protein preference bag. Then you can hold your own taste test and let me know which one you preferred. I really loved the protein preference. When the three were presented to me together, I didn't touch the others. But after I finished that one, I gobbled the aromatic and savor up too.

Did you know that 85% of cats will find their preferred food among the Selective formulas, versus competing products that rely on a variety of flavors? The company wanted to find out what draws a cat to its food—is it taste, aroma or protein. I'll bet every single one of you is curious as to which one you'll choose. I have 10—count them TEN—Discovery boxes to give away. All you have to do is go to their site and tell me in your comment something you learn about cat nutrition and that you'd like to be entered. The contest will be open for 2 weeks and then I'll be using Random.org to pick my 10 winners. I sincerely apologize that this contest is only for cats living in the U.S.A. because of some lousy rule about shipping food overseas or something.

This Royal Canin Protein Preference is da bomb!

Disclosure: Royal Canin did not tell me what to say cos you know this little ghetto kitteh has her own mind and wouldn't listen anyway. They are supplying the prizes. I didn't receive any compensation, except for samples to conduct my taste test.

Newsday Tuesday

So I said to the woman, Woman, you've been slacking again! I haven't talked to my furrends in about a month. I ain't gonna have any left. Of course, it all became MY fault. I've been keeping her and Pop up at night singing. She called me NEEDY! Can you believe that? N.E.E.D.Y. She said I need attention all the time. What a crock that is! So I cry sing the minute I'm left alone in a room. So I want to play 24/7. So I cry sing all night. So I won't leave her alone to use the computer. SO?

My 2 feather toys in happier times. RIP.

When I used to cry sing at night, I used to drag my feather toys down the hall to TW's room. I did that so many times, she finally took those feather toys away from me and banished them to some feather toy Purgatory. This weekend, she discovered they had biodegraded. It was a sorry sight. We had to bury them out of their misery. *sniff*

To answer some questions, yes, we had REAL turkey for Thanksgiving and the cat got tons of it. I also got Merrick's Thanksgiving dinner for cats and it was delish! There were no culinary disasters like last year, so nothing funny to blog about. My newer readers might want to check that blog out. The chocolate turkey is still sitting there in its cellophane wrapper. It hasn't been touched. I have a feeling that sucker will get opened soon.

Now what are they doing up there?

In other news, our blue tarp roof house across the street is finally getting a new roof. last winter's snowstorms damaged the roof and they're finally getting around to repairing it. They've had that blue tarp on for months and this is supposed to be a hoity toity neightborhood, whatever that means. I couldn't stop staring out the window at all the illegal Mexican workers, crawling all over the roof. There were more than a half dozen. They were climbing that roof like flies on a wall. Oh well, no one's fallen yet.

Pop decorated the apartment for Christmas this weekend. With great fanfare, he found his favorite decoration: a Nutcracker soldier that drums and plays 2 Christmas carols—very loudly. TW found this Nutcracker several years back in our Refuse room and couldn't believe that someone had thrown it out. It must've been someone with sensitive ears—or good taste. Did I mention it's loud? The version of Jingle Bells it plays is at double speed and before each song, these screechy childrens' voices say "Ready, let's march! Here we go" and when the songs over, they say "Have a Merry Christmas!" It's so stupid, the peeps love it. The neighbors must groan when they hear it as I do.

BREAKING NEWS: Pop tells me he can now touch the top of his right shoulder with his right arm for the first time his he broke his elbow. He's also started picking me up again. You heard it here first!

Wednesday Word of the Day—Turkey (What did you expect)

When Pop told me he'd bought the Thanksgiving turkey, of course I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to see it and sniff it to see if it met with my approval. From the size of the box, it was a HUGE one! Size definitely matters to this kitty. Heh heh! Pop said he'd open it and place it in the pan so I could have a photo op.

Gotta sniff its butt. STILL doesn't smell like turkey.

But Pop, this doesn't SMELL like turkey …

Pop, what's wrong with the turkey? It's not that Tofurkey stuff, is it?

Are you SURE this is the Thanksgiving turkey? I'm starting to panic just a bit …

Of course, TW being TW had the turkey facing the wrong way in the first photo shoot, so we had to do it over to show you the front of the turkey. And, in the spirit of the holidays, let it be noted by Santa that CK cooperated.

OK, someone is pulling my paw!

The joke was on ME, because the REAL bird was in the refrigerator thawing out for tomorrow. This is a 3½ pound CHOCOLATE turkey that Pop fell in love with. Occasionally Pop will spurge on himself but he's the breadwinner, so be it. Also, it's from a small, local business and we definitely support small, local businesses. Just gave me quite a scare. Someone—I'm not saying who—is gonna be BIT for this and I don't mean a little love nip either! When you least expect it …

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 I'm thankful for all my furrends and followers and their peeps.

♡ You're the reason for this blog. ♡

Games Keisha Plays, Part 2

♪♬♪Anybody here see The Woman

See her fear and hear a commotion?

I think I bit her!

Anybody here see the love

See the hate, CK motioned? 

Don't give ME no hand ME down toys

Don't give ME no hand ME down Nip

Don't give ME no hand ME down perch

Got one already. ♩♬♫

Anybody here who's peeps are older than dirt—and there's a few of you—may have heard this old Guess Who chestnut, called Hand ME Down World. With a few major minor corrections, it could have been written about ME.

Before this post gets started, I have to tell you a funny story. Last week, when we started writing this post, I almost got to see TW's head explode. She managed to delete all the text from Part 1 and the entire post just disappeared into the ether. I must say it was scary, at least seeing TW's head nearly implode was. I kept a low profile because she was in enough anguish. After many tears, tantrums and hand/head wringing, Google Help finally provided the magical answer that brought my post back. Thanks you Richard.

Back to the post at hand since many of you—at least Spitty—has waited long enough. Most of my five loyal readers must think the World's Most Stunning Cat has the world at her paws. I only wish that was so. When I was adopted, most everything I had was hand-ME-down—even my litter boxes. I was blessed to have two, because there were 2 cats before ME and cat etiquette says you must have a box for each cat. I was a new little kitteh entering a hand-ME-down world. The shelter didn't prepare ME for this. Oh sure I had 2 overflowing toy boxes, but the toys were bought for another.

My hand-me-down perch is about 27-inches tall,

not exactly a "cat tree."

Even my perch, which was a downright poor excuse for a cat tree was hand-ME-down. It wasn't until I got on Twitter and met Baby Patches that I started getting really good stuff of my own, like the tunnel of pain and a real cat tree. Luckily, I have Pop wrapped around my stunning paw. He'll buy ME whatever I want so long as I don't ax him the day the property tax bill arrives. It also helps that I'm blessed with quick paws and win a lot of prizes.

I think these hand-ME-downs are the reason I eschew catnip toys in favor of household items, like milkies (the rings from milk containers), plastic security rings from vitamin bottles, bread ties etc. Anything TW drops on the floor is MINE. Once she dropped a little shell from her Oscillococcinum and I had hours of fun with that bullet-shaped object. Just as easily, though, I become disenchanted with said items. I've been through the tissue paper phase, the straw phase (TW found them in 3 different sizes including super long, bless her pointy head), the super ball phase, the golf ball phase, and I appear to be finished with the Poland Springs' box phase. Yeah, Pop brought a promo golf ball home from work and I noticed it made a ton of noise rolling across the wood floor. I realize lots of cats like to play with some of these items, but they also play with cat toys. Me, not so much.

My toy "box"

I'm still in love with those foam rubber rockets that TW brought home for ME in July. TW cannot believe they've held my interest this long. I don't really chase the rockets anymore. Now I lay on my cat tree and bat them down or catch them when TW shoots them. It's easier on the legs—mine, not hers, as she has to get down on her knees to shoot them up to ME. She marvels that I don't cower when she accidentally—or so she says—hits ME in the nose with one; but I keep coming back for more. I'm obsessed.

I caught the rocket. It's all mine!

WOOO-MANNN, I dare you to take this away from me! Heh heh! HAH!

I'll still chase the occasional coated rubber band. Really, a look in my toy "box" turns up many interesting items, including chestnuts (Autumn used to love playing with them. I don't.) and dried up ginkgo leaves that TW brings in every fall and I go nuts chasing. I never did like rolled up aluminum foil or toilet paper rolls, which I understand some kittehs would kill for.

My new favorite "toy" is—are you ready for this?—a pink sugar packet from Dunkin Donuts. America runs on Dunkin and so does Cathy Keisha. TW dropped one because she's clumsy one night and I made a bee-line toward it. Then she threw it and I went running past it and through the apartment. As I said, anything she drops is mine.

That's it for the ME series, however, you guys are lucky because this entire blog is about ME so you'll be reading about ME every day, except those days when I try to make the world a better place for ALL cats by Blogging the Change for Animals and when a political injustice gets this ghetto cat upset.

Wednesday Word of the Day—Winner

I'd like to thank all my furrends who voted for me in the Anipal Academy Awards. I was a 2-time loser. However, I do have some of the bestest furrends in the world, which makes me a WINNER! I was a double WINNER because my date was the handsome SpittytheKitty. I received two Lifetime Achievement Awards for my charity work DJing at Nipclub and Pawpawties. If you've never been to a pawpawty, they're so much fun. There's one this coming weekend. For those who have never attended a pawpawty, my furrend GeorgetheDuck created this page to show you the ropes. You can Win some wonderful prizes, like a Nip and Bones gift certificate, a pawtrait done by the wonderful @zaziart, or a gorgeous scarf for your Mom for the holidays from Pasikas. You have to be on Twitter to attend.

This is my stunning pawtrait by Zaziart that I won
for Pop's birthday last year.

The annual Santa Paws Drive has gotten off to a great start. It was founded by Dorian Wagner, founder of YourDailyCute.com and a bunch of other elves that are familiar in the world of anipal charities and Pawpawties. This is their mission statement, directly from their blog:

The mission of Santa Paws Drive is to bring holiday cheer to shelter animals around the world. We know pets with homes are often showered with gifts and treats for Christmas, and we believe that shelter animals deserve a little holiday love, too! 

Now in our third year, Santa Paws Drive is the first-ever online Christmas toy drive dedicated to pets. The inspiration for our drive was "Toys 4 Tots" and other similar programs that collect donations and then distribute them to the needy – and we wanted to do the same for animals. 

As you can see, it's a worthwhile cause and this year is even more special because the shelters they've picked to help are for special-needs pets. I have the widget over on the sidebar if anyone wants to donate. A truly WINNING cause. UPDATE: Friday from 7-9 pm, there will be a mini pawty on Twitter to benefit SPD. Join us and while you're pawtying, enter to win the Ultimate Pet Christmas Gift Pack from Nip and Bones.

TW worked me over with the FURminator today and I actually *whispers and looks both ways to see if Pop is around* purred for her. Don't let this get around. It's just between us.

On Sunday night, TW noticed that I had a little scratch at the outside at the base of my right ear and the area was all red and ugly. She's been putting Bacitracin on it and it looks better. She hopes I won't have to go to the v-e-t cos she doesn't want to put me through that for a long time. Also, she has to find a new place to take me. Dr. Sadist is not getting another crack at me, that's for darn sure.

BTW, I'll get back to the series about ME soon. I dunno if anyone still remembers it.

Happy Veterans Day

To give the woman time to type up Part 2 of my Toy Story, I'd like to say a few words about Veterans Day. I think all of us, regardless of our political beliefs or opinions on war, thank our vets for their service and protection. The U.S. of A. is very good at sending our men and women to war, but sadly lacking when it comes time to take care of those men and women when they return. Young vets, between the ages of 18 to 21, have a 30.4 percent jobless rate vs. 9 percent overall. Unemployment among Veterans as a whole is 12.1 percent. FACT: 260,000 veterans will be homeless this year and the Department of Veterans Affairs can only reach about 20% of them.

Veterans also are not getting the medical care they need when they come home, both physical and mental. As many as 35 percent of Iraq Veterans have or will experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There has to be a period of readjustment for the returning troops so they can get their lives back in order and that readjustment is made harder when these men and women are functioning at less than 100%. Many have been dumped by their spouses and are confused and despondent. Nobody wants to see bigger government but this great country needs to step in and provide funding for homeless and sick veterans.

Grandpa fought in WW2 and came home an alcoholic. When he got sick, it took the help of several local politicians to get him into a VA hospital. We have to make it easier for our returning heroes to get the care they need.

Won't you help our military veterans this Veterans Day by volunteering at a shelter, donating to Give An Hour, which provides free mental health services to veterans or Soldiers From Above, or becoming an advocate for homeless veterans in your local community.

Help this little kitteh make EVERY DAY Veteran's Day.

PS: Don't forget to read my posts about ME over the past week. Find out what makes CK tick. The series will continue next week.

Games Keisha Plays, Part 1

Anyone old enough to remember that old song Games People Play? Since my peeps are a hunnert years old, I'm forced to listen to it. Allow ME to sing a little of it because this week is all about ME:

♪♬♪ Oh the games Keisha plays now

Every night and every day now

Always biting on The Woman

Never biting on my Pop (much).

I like to make The Woman cry

Bite her ankle then I hide

Cross the room I pray for tuna

Cos HHGutt is to blame yeah! ♫♫♩

What's do you mean, Woman. That's not how it goes? You listen here, woman! This is my blog and you type what I tell you to! Sorry, your delicate eyes had to witness that hateful display by TW. Back to the blog in progress.

I was gonna include a video here, but decided it would detract from this wonderful piece of prose. You can watch it here. The song in the video is Toy Never Played With by Drivin' N Cryin' and as you will see, my nip cigar and fruit are sitting there untouched.

You can see what I'm playing with and it's NOT the toys

I have a unique idea of how to play with my toys. For example, how would you play with a toy dangling at the end of a wand? You'd chase the toy, wouldn't you? ME, I play with the string or stretchy cord holding the toy on. I grab and bite it; almost use it like dental floss. Of course, my real goal is to bite/scratch TW's hand holding the wand.

Your peep rolls a ball down the hall for you. You chase the ball and maybe kick it around a little. Not ME. I MAY run in the general direction the ball is rolled in, but then I run right past the ball and then run back to point A. When the ball is rolled back, I'm in perfect position to WATCH it. I can catch it and not have to move a muscle. I may bat at it if I'm in the mood. I then run the other way again and wait for the ball. In the event that TW throws the ball, I'll leap and catch it or bat it down. I do the same thing when TW shoots a coated rubber band through the air. I'll run in the general direction right past it and then wait for it to come back so I can jump and catch it.

Going after the wands instead of the feathers.

When we play with a string or feather on the bed. I chase it around in circles until TW thinks I'm exhausted or until I nail her hand. Most kittehs would chase the string. On the other hand—pardon the pun—I tend to aim for the flesh, bone and blood holding the string/feather most of the time. Sometimes TW even wears winter gloves when we play but that's way not fair. HAH!

After dark, when the lights are out, we play smousey laser and I run through the hall after it. Most peeps shine the laser around the cat and the cat bats at it. I use it as an excuse to run around the apartment and through my tunnel.

Do I see TW's hand in there?

 I love to run through my tunnel—on MY terms. I used to like when TW stuck her hand in it and wiggled it around. Then I charged at her hand, hoping to do some real damage. Unfortunately, she pulls it out before I get her 99% of the time. She learned her lesson when I nailed her a few weeks ago. I also like her to dangle my peacock feather or a string in the other end or use the smousey laser pointer when it gets dark enough. She complains it takes ME too long to stalk and she gets tired of waving the feather. Can you believe TW actually once hit me in the back side with a coated rubbed band while I was crouched in the tunnel? Then she wonders why I attack her.

I don't particularly like catnip toys because they tend to make me sneeze. Sometimes I'll chase them once or twice if TW throws them. I like interactive toys. The only smousey toy I really like is my Skinneez mouse from Nip & Bones. I did write a review for it but it disappeared. If I'm in the mood, I'll attack my plague ratsy. I've actually never looked at the nip duck that my Buzzy sent me. TW uses it for decoration. I've just became attached to a sock that TW filled with dried nip from our windowsill plant. That's top-shelf nip.

Hiding behind Fort Keisha to attack TW.

In Part 2, I'll explain what my current favorite items of interest are. I guarantee you, you ain't gonna believe what strikes my fancy. TW says, it's just Cathy being Cathy. Hey, whadda you mean by a remark like that? Are you insulting ME??

Wednesday Word of the Day: ME

Yes, once again, this blog is all about ME!

The great Rodgers Hammerstein defined the word ME in song: "ME, a name I call myself." In my case, ME can be defined as stunning, lithe, talented and, most of all, humble.

Cathy Keisha wasn't always my name. The shelter called ME Kittee. When I was adopted, the lady from the rescue begged my peeps to change it. What, oh what, should they call their new stunning cat? Since they also adopted a cat named Mitzi, they decided we'd be Kitzie and Mitzi. GONG! REJECTED! That was worse than Kittee! Mitzi soon went back to her mom and I was the only cat I am today and I definitely wasn't a Kitzie.

Cathy aka Kitzie aka Baby Girl aka Kittee

Gramma always wanted a girl named Cathy, but somehow decided not to name TW Cathy. Go figga!  In honor of Gramma, I became Cathy. Pop came up with the Keisha part to honor my CommuniPAW Avenue roots and because I'm a little ghetto cat at heart. That's why I love Pop so much.

I also have many nicknames, some that can even be printed on this blog. TW calls ME Baby Girl and Pop calls ME his Little Stunner or his Smoky Grey Diva.  When I dj, I'm either DJ CK or DK Baby Gurl.

♔ ♔ ♔ ♔

If'n you already read my blog from yesterday, I added the following facts about my eating habits.

1. I'm a sloppy eater. I have to dump my wet food on the rug before I eat it. Love the taste of rug fibers. This upsets TW to no end. HAH!
2. Before I get my stinky goodness, I like to eat kibble as an appetizer. It's always kibble, then wet food. Gives ME something to do while TW is preparing my feast so I don't have to rub against her.

ME Tuesday

Enjoying my kibble before I got those raised dishes.

Times flies when you've got such an interesting subject: ME. Yes, all this week is dedicated to ME—the World's Most Stunning Cat. Lately, I've been devoting too much time to other, less interesting topics. Today I'll tell you some fascinating facts about my diet eating habits.

1. I eat r e a l l y s l o w l y. It takes ME forever to just lick the gravy out of my food. The cats before ME had 20 minutes to nom their stinky goodness before it disappeared. I have as long as it takes or until it goes bad. I kinda like the crust that forms on it.
2. The peeps HAVE to walk ME to my food and stay there until I'm finished and I've excused them. Not a minute sooner. Like I've already stated, I'm a slow eater so they could be there for hours. What could be more important than ME anyway?. I will NOT eat if I'm left alone. I like an audience.
3. My favorite stinky goodness is Fancy Feast grilled tuna. I tolerate the Luna Tuna/Island Illusion I have to eat to make up for the water I don't drink. The peeps want to wean ME off fish because it rots a cat's teeth. Best of luck to them. HAH!
4. I like most treats, especially the catnip flavor Greenies and Temptations. Friskies Party Mix is nommy and now Friskies has a new treat called Crispies, that is pleasing to ME. I've only tried the salmon flavor. The peeps got them BOGO for ME to try.
5. I'm a sloppy eater. I have to dump my wet food on the rug before I eat it. Love the taste of rug fibers. This upsets TW to no end. HAH!
6. Before I get my stinky goodness, I like to eat kibble as an appetizer. It's always kibble, then wet food. Gives ME something to do while TW is preparing my feast so I don't have to rub against her.
7. Aprés eating, I get the zoomies.



My hat's off to the chief, er, chef.

I hope you've all learned something helpful today. There will be a quiz at the end of the week. NOT!

Of course, you know finger food is this little kittehs favorite!

ME Monday

These last few weeks, all I've been doing is posting about TW and Pop and social commentary. This week will be about ME (and nothing but ME)!

Pop's freshly-washed Old Navy unmentionables are now MINE!

I LOVE laying on nice, clean clothes right out of the dryer. Actually, I also love laying on Pop's sweaty clothes when he first takes them off cos they smell like my Pop. TW has ruined this part of my enjoyment by telling Pop that his good shirts were getting these mysterious "pulls" in them that she excused ME of deliberately doing. That is why I attacked her last night. HAH! I had her screaming and pleading for mercy from ME. Now enough about her, because this week is about ME!

Dona Nobis Pacem

As the old Melanie song goes, "There's a chance peace will come in your life, please buy one." Peace came in my life and it was FREE! Gratis, thanks to an art project by Nicaraguan-born artist Franck de Las Mercedes.  This is my very first Blog Blast for Peace, although I've used this platform to write about TW and Pop's involvement with the Peace Movement, going back to their childhood. This post, however, isn't about them. I thought I'd revisit the Peace Box Project aka Priority Box Project, which is still going strong a year after I originally wrote about it. You can read the post in the tab at the top of the page or here. While you're reading, you can listen to songs of peace by clicking on the widget on the sidebar.

CK with her Peace Box

"The Priority Boxes Art Series" started in 2006, during the height of the Iraqi war to spark dialogue and challenge people to reconsider their ability to influence change and question the fragility, value and priority given to concepts such as peace. Mr. de Las Mercedes personally paints boxes on the outside, turning them into miniature works of art, addresses them and includes stickers that read "FRAGILE. HANDLE WITH CARE. Contains: Peace" or one of about 20 other words. They're free, to remind us that peace and hope are not only free but also a priority. On his Facebook page, you can see a sampling of some of the close to 10,000 boxes he's mailed out for free to more than 70 countries worldwide. The little kitty's picture is in there too!

The first boxes were sent to friends and then he placed an ad on Craig's List, to which he received over 100 responses. Since then, Mr. de Las Mercedes and the Project have received much media coverage and has just celebrated its 5th anniversary. Because of the volume of requests, it can take four to eight weeks to receive a box within the U.S., and up to 10 months outside of it.

The series is funded by the artist, contributions and "Handle with Care" T-shirt sales. He hasn't been willing to accept a sponsorship that would brand his boxes.  Keeping them free "sends a message that there are some things you can't put a price on, like peace, joy, hope, justice."

Peace flyer. Click to enlarge

On the left is a sample of the Peace Flyers Project, which was launched in January. The concept is you can make a difference in your community by printing and posting one or more of these flyers for all to see, and take a symbol of Peace and Hope with them. You can download them as Word documents or jpegs from his web site.

Mr. de Las Mercedes' art isn't limited to the Priority Box Project. He's an incredibly talented abstract artist in his own right, as you can see from the collage below.

For interested classrooms or companies, Mr. de Las Mercedes is giving Priority Boxes Workshops. Please contact nicolab@fdlmstudio.com

To request a "Priority Box," send an e-mail to fdlmboxes@fdlmstudio.com. Please include your name, address and tell them you read about the boxes on this blog. Only ONE box will be sent per requester/e-mail. No, it's not cool to send for another one from a different e-mail cos that would be something a Republican would do. HAH! Everyone who requests one will definitely get one and Mr. de Las Mercedes would love to see pictures when your box arrives.

If you don't like to wait, for a $25 contribution, your 5 x 5 x 5 box will ship within a week of order. Proceeds help the artist cover the project's costs for shipping and supplies.

You can own a work of art for the asking. Art is not solely for the 1%. Now we, the 99%, can also enjoy it, thanks to The Priority Box Project.

Wednesday Word of the Day

I wasn't sure what was going on either yesterday but TW assures me that she was talking about Macoun Apples—not Maine Coons. She just wasn't pronouncing the name correctly. Her diction isn't nearly as good as mine. This is what Wikipedia says about them:

Macoun apples are a cross between the McIntosh and Jersey Black varieties. The Macoun (sometimes pronounced "McCowan") was developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, by R. Wellington. Named after Canadian fruit grower W.T. Macoun, it was first introduced in 1923, and has been regarded to be the finest eating apple in the World. Macouns are also very popular at roadside stands and pick-your-own farms. Availability is generally October through November.
Aside from its short season of availability, the popularity of the apple is somewhat compromised by the problems it gives orchardists. The Macoun has a short stem, and there is a tendency for the apple to push itself off the branch as the fruit matures; also, the Macoun tends not to produce reliable crops each year, with a good harvest followed by a sparser one.

I still don't think TW is the sharpest tool in the shed. Na mean? We didn't have apples in da hood. We had FRIED CHICK-HEN!

Ball of Confusion

I think TW needs to see a doctor. I'm worried about how confused she's become lately. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a Maine Coon is a cat. My furrends MaggieTKat and Parker are Maine Coons. OK, TW will agree that a Maine Coon is a cat; however, she's been calling something else a Maine Coon. Maybe I'm the one who's confused. I doubt it.

TW and I have discovered we have at least one thing in common: neither of us likes fall and winter fruit. Although I don't like ANY fruit at all, she'll stuff her fat face with strawberries, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, etc. EWWWWW! YUCK!

Recently, she's been coming home from shopping all excited. It seems that after not seeing them for two years, she's finally found nirvana—I mean her favorite kind of apple, which has a very short season. Not only has she found them; they're only $1.89 a pound. Even better still, the cashier has been charging her for Macintosh apples, which are .99 a pound. Be still my feline heart! Oh, sorry, that's my gag reflex in action, not my heart fluttering. Honestly, the things that get human excited.

Trying to appear like I cared, I axed her what's the name of these apples that she won't let me play with and she answered "Maine Coon." I swear, that's what she said. I can't believe TW is so confused. I gotta get her to a doctor quickly.

Maine Coon on left; NOT a Maine Coon on right