Kitties from Behind and on the Chimney: Day 17

Before I get into my daily stuff, I have some great news! In the past, I've written recaps for Person of Interest, Elementary, and Grimm for Yahoo! TV. Well, now I'll be writing tweet-caps for POI and Elementary, and gif-caps for Grimm, which will also include fan tweets. I'll be searching for fans of each show on Twitter, and creating lists of fans for each. If you'll be tweeting your reactions to one or more of these shows, please put your Twitter handle in the comments, with the name of each show you'll be tweeting about. You can also tweet me at @kristenhead with the name of the shows.

Today's nonsense comes from my thoughts about my fireplace. I don't know why I was thinking about the fireplace when it's still so hot during the day, but perhaps it comes from seeing my cats hanging out on the roof, leaning against the top of the chimney. And now it's wood the peeks out of the top of the chimney: "Daily Jabberwocky: How to Build Wood from Ash and Fairy Dust." If you'd like to join the site to write your own posts of 400 characters or more and make a cent on every view, like, comment and share in the process, please try it out by signing up using my referral link.

The #FMSPhotoADay prompt for today, Day 17 (Sep 17), is "In Front of Me." Guess what? It's another kitty photo! Miss Kitty's "behind" is in front of me:

Smoking Men and Kitty Shadows: Day 12

Bubblews was down for most of the day, so I was a little late getting my "Daily Jabberwocky" nonsense posted. This one was one of my favorites, because of the layout. I don't want to give anything away in case you want to read it, because I'd like it to be a surprise. Just know that it's sort of a From Dusk Till Dawn type of deal in it's structure (not in its content). Here it is: "Daily Jabberwocky: The Cogarette-Smoking Man Under My Shoe." If you'd like to join the site to write your own posts of 400 characters or more and make a cent on every view, like, comment and share in the process, please use my referral link.

The #FMSPhotoADay prompt for today is "Shadow." Once again, I decided to incorporate my cute little kitties in the photos. I did do one at the bottom without any kitties though.

Day 11 TV, Nonsense and Photo: 'Suits,' Short Aliens and Cute Kitty

First thing this morning, my Suits recap was published on Yahoo! TV. It was another great episode, leading up to the Season 3 finale next week.If you haven't checked it out, you can catch it on Amazon, and a few other outlets as well. Here it is: "'Suits' Episode Recap: Harvey and Jessica Act in 'Bad Faith'."

Next, I created my morning nonsense post. This time, I had aliens on the brain (as is common for me). In yet another sci-fi bit of nonsense, I write about short, fat aliens from the planet Sparta: "Daily Jabberwocky: The Short Blue Aliens of the Planet Sparta." If you'd like to join the site to write your own posts of 400 characters or more and make a cent on every view, like, comment and share in the process, please use my referral link.

The prompt for #FMSPhotoADay Day 11 is "What You Did Today." For 9/11, I wanted to spend the day with loved ones. I'm here with my parents, and my brother is visiting as well. I'm not really into posting photos of my family for privacy, but I also have pets as part of my family. So, to start the morning off right, I cuddled with my kitty loved one (yes, another excuse for cute kitty photos)! Here's Miss Kitty at her cuddling best:

Another Triple: 'Copper,' Violent Shirt Tigers, and More Kitty Photos!

The first thing I did very early this morning (which could also be considered late last night) was to write my recap for Copper. It's not due until morning, but I actually got up at 3:30 am. Why? Because Miss Kitty slept with me on my bed, and mama's boy Booty decided to walk down the hall and meow up a storm for mama's attention until she got fed up and asked to be let out in the front yard.

I tried to get back to sleep, but was wide awake at that point. So, I went ahead and wrote my article before finally getting tired again and going back to sleep. I should actually do that more often, because I got a special message from my editor saying that the recap was particularly good, and that my tone was superb. My lack of sleep paid off!

Anyway, another reason I feel the recap was good was because I really enjoyed the episode. It left off on a nail-biting cliffhanger, and contained an awesome scene between Matthew and the shop owner. You tell 'em, Matthew! If you missed the episode, you can read the recap to understand what I'm talking about: "'Copper' Episode 'Good Heart and Willing Hand' Recap: Donovan Must Be Stopped."

Later, I wrote my "Daily Jabberwocky" nonsense post. I don't know what made me think of living tigers bursting out of my shirt, but it was sure a fun thought to have in my head! Please enjoy the random thoughts from inside the KristenHead: "Daily Jabberwocky: The Tiger Shirt Tried to Bite Off My Face." If you'd like to join the site to write your own posts of 400 characters or more and make a cent on every view, like, comment and share in the process, please use my referral link.

Finally, I have to share three #FMSPhotoADay posts at the same time once again, because I decided to take off the weekend to do some organizing. My last post was also a triple-header because I was busy remodeling the windows on the front of my house. This time, I decided to use the weekend to do some organizing and cleaning after the remodel.

Anyway, the photo prompts for #FMSPhotoADay were "White" for Day 7, "Made by Me" for Day 8, and "On the Wall" for today, Day 9 (Sep 9). The descriptions for each photo are in the captions:

Day 7, "White": I showcase white here by contrasting it with black.
Tippy is all dark black, except for his cute little tippy tale and chin.

Day 8, "Made by Me": Some "delicious" cat food.
Made with raw turkey and a package of kitty vitamin supplements.

Day 9, "On the Wall": A beautiful collection of butterflies.
My mother got this in Florida, signed by the artist who mounted it.

Triple-Header: Back from a Break

So, I was off the Internet for a couple of days because I was working on the house. We had all the windows on the front of the house replace with double-paned glass. The old windows were the originals were from 1974, when the house was built. They were horrible! The house already feels cooler with the new windows. It's really lucky they were finished yesterday because today was extremely hot. We would have been miserable had the windows not been replaced.

In that time, I also took off from doing my daily nonsense post. I did do it today, however, so I do have one bit of nonsense for you. It's just not as nonsensical as my usual nonsense posts. Here it is: "Daily Jabberwocky: Back From Bubblews Break with a Fan." It has all the humor of a baked potato, but at least there's a teeny bit of randomness there. If you'd like to join the site to write your own posts of 400 characters or more and make a cent on every view, like, comment and share in the process, please use my referral link.

One of my articles also published in the morning two days ago for Yahoo! TV. My weekly Suits article is a recap of one of my favorite shows this week. Man, I love Donna and Harvey and Louis! Those characters are truly unique, and live up to USA Network's motto of "Characters Welcome." Mike does too, but his individuality comes from an interesting talent more than his outward personality. Here is my article: "'Suits' Episode 'Endgame' Recap: Will Stephen Get What He Deserves?"

As for #FMSPhotoADay, I'm going to make up for the two days I missed plus today all in this one post. The day 4 prompt is "Alone," day 5 was "Here Forever" and today (day 6) is "Getting Ready." My descriptions for each photo are in the captions.

"Alone": This is actually an old photo, from about six months ago.
This is Teensy when she was a very small kitten.
I used this photo, because it's the first one I always think of when I think of "alone."
She has always been the least tame, yet always seems to want to be involved.
She constantly sits on the outskirts of any activity I do with the other kitties,
and stares at us longingly. She seems to want to be involved, but she's just too scared.

"Here Forever": This tree has been "here forever,"
or at least since the time we bought the house, in 1984.
I'm not sure when it was actually planted,
but it's old enough for me to think of it as forever.

"Getting Ready": Furball gets ready for the day with a nice
grooming from mama Miss Kitty.
He'll soon be ready for a night out on the town!

Mama MissKitty Madness

Ah, MissKitty. I can't tell you how much I respect this little girl. When she first came to my front yard, she was starving to death. You could see all her bones, and she appeared to be frantic to find food and water in the cold, dry environment of the high desert.

I began putting out bowls of dog food and water, which she promptly gobbled up. She was eating so much food, but continuing to starve. So, I bought some cat food and began leaving a little more food in the yard.

I put the food as far away from the house as possible, thinking she was just a neighborhood cat hanging around because I was feeding her. We have a large front yard, so I would put the food and water at the far edge of the yard. When the ants got in it, I took out a plastic liner for plants to act as a mote.

As I look at her curled up next me while I write this, my heart breaks a little to think that I was trying to keep her away. I feel especially bad knowing what I now know. After a few days of feeding what I thought of as "the kitty," I realized that she had be nursing. That same day, I found her nursing those kitties: six of them!

This is the first photo I ever took of
MissKitty. I had just decided to
keep her.

No wonder she had still been starving on the piddly amount of food I left for her! That amount of food was only enough for one cat, not seven! Soon after that, I began leaving out much more food, but decided to bring it to the back yard, where the kittens were staying.

I also spotted her hefting rabbits that were larger than she was over my six-foot fence. All six kittens were perfectly healthy. She completely sacrificed her own well-being for that of her babies. I know that much of that has to do with instinct, but I've heard of cats that do the opposite.

This is right before she got spayed.
She still tried to nurse after being spayed,
so I had to separate them until she healed.
Even after two weeks of healing, she tried to nurse.

Some mama cats kill the weakest kittens, or even half the litter. Some will keep enough food to survive while letting a couple of the kittens starve. Not mama MissKitty. She kept even her smallest kittens as healthy as can be. I can't help but feel tremendous respect for her, instincts or not.

MissKitty reaches for the phone.

MissKitty still loves to hang out with her kittens.
Cheetah is on the left, and Gracie on the right.

Can you believe that sweet little face?

This photo was taken just a couple of days ago.
She still loves to groom all her babies, and play with them.

A little LOLCat I created that pokes fun at my dancing ability

MissKitty loves to stick her tongue out.

This is an early photo of me holding her.

This one pokes fun at my dad's computer literacy. :)

This is when she was recovering from spay surgery.
I bought this super-cushy bed to set on the couch next to me

A to Z Challenge: Gorgeous Gracie Gets Gregarious

Gracie is one of only two, out of the six kittens and one mama kitty I rescued, that I was not able to tame before having her spayed. But as she recovered from the surgery, she became fairly tame within just a few days.

Gracie recovers from surgery

Before, she would run when she saw me. Now, she allows me to walk right up to her and pet her. The trick was simply to get my hand up to the side of her face. As she rested in the cushy covered bed I had created for her in the heated bathroom, I decided to just start scratching her behind the ear. All the kitties love that!

So, after over 24 hours of not eating or drinking anything, I just reached my hand up and began scratching her behind the ear. She loved it more than I ever could have imagined. In fact, she loved it more than any of the other kitties, actually leaning against my hand so hard that she fell over on her side.

Gracie looks like a pointer as she spots my dog

Soon after that, I was able to feed her. She would not eat out of her dish, however. She would only eat the food if I fed it to her directly out of my hand. I had to resist the urge to throw up in my mouth as she licked the wet food -- which looked a bit like poop as she slobbered it all over the place -- from my hand.

Luckily, the fact that she ate the food also meant that she was getting her pain medication. I had felt like such a bad kitty mom when I couldn't get her to eat the food that I had injected with the medication for a little more than a day. The poor baby must have been in so much pain! My only consolation was that she slept off most of those 24 hours.

Gracie tries to catch a birdie toy

I originally thought that Gracie was actually Grayson, because she seemed like she may grow a little larger. She is the largest of the female kittens, although she does not seem as heavy as Cheetah. I think Cheetah must have more muscle in her teeny, quick-moving body, while Gracie's small frame has a little more fat.

She had actually just gone into heat when I took her to be spayed. That really surprised me, because she was so young. As the largest female, I guess she just matured faster than the others.

Gracie looks camouflaged
in the pear tree

Unfortunately, the tom cats had just started hanging around about two days before I was going to try to catch little Gracie, so I had to get through the weekend by bringing all seven cats inside. That was a really tough weekend, but I got through it. I was able to catch Gracie in the trap on my first try on the Monday after.

Gracie plays with mama kitty by shoving her
in the face with her foot

It's too bad that she was feral at the time, because it means that they notch the ear, as you can see in her photos. There was just no way to know ahead of time that I would be able to tame her so easily. Now that she's tame, however, I'm considering taking her in to be micro-chipped.

She's really a darling, sweet cat. I'm just glad we never have to go through the spaying process again. She can just run around and play with her brothers and sisters and mama kitty in the backyard, free as a bird.

"Is that a doggy in my yard?!"

Fancy Furball Fascinates

Today is all about one of my seven rescued cats, Furball. Furball is unusual because he's the only kitty in the litter with very long hair, and with unusual coloring. He is also unusual because he doesn't act like the other kittens.

Can I have some meat if I
give you my adorable look?

Once in awhile, he'll come out and play with the other kitties, but he usually does his own thing. He's usually hiding out or sleeping while the others are playing, and out playing while the others are resting. Even when he goes outside with the others, he prefers doing his own thing.

Taming him was also a strange experience. He used to be one of the most fearful cats. He would run away when anyone even came near him. I would wait by the food bowls and try to pet them when they walked up. Furball would just run away.

Sleepy-bye baby

But then, one day, I was able to pet him a little bit when he wasn't looking. He seemed to think this was the strangest sensation imaginable. He began playing with my fingers, trying to hook them with his claws. But when I got my hand on him, he would twist and squirm while staring at my hand the entire time.

And then he wanted more. He would stuff his face under my hand and walk, all the while squirming and staring. It was difficult to hold in my laughter when he did this. It's as if he was studying this odd petting sensation. He still does it too!

He is still an enigma. Sometimes he will run away. Sometimes he will do his little self-petting while squirming. Sometimes he wants to cuddle. Oh yeah, he loves to cuddle now. When I pick him up, he just luxuriates in my arms, leaning into my nails as I scratch behind his ears, and looking up at me with those big pretty eyes. He loves when we touch noses too.

Please excuse me as I share tons of photos of this beautiful creature. I also made this little LOLCat that pokes fun at my dancing ability:

Moving toward the all-knowing EYE

"Is that my nemesis, Lulu the dog?"

I know this one is a bit blurry, but it looked so artistic to me.
He almost looks like a painting there.

This was soon after being neutered.
Imagine in the left picture he's thinking:
"You took the only testicle I had, and another I never knew I had?! I hate you."
On the right, he's thinking:
"Oh well, at least I have this cushy bed where I can rest."

Look at that beautiful fat tail!!