By now we have all heard of the California cat, Dusty, aka Klepto, who goes on nightly stealing binges taking anything from old sneakers to bathing suits hanging on the clothesline from his assorted neighbors. Dusty has brought his human owners over 600 items in the past three years and has brought himself renowned fame for his addictive habit.   

Nothing against Dusty, we do applaud his crafty efforts, but our beloved Zee has been going on his own stealing spree for many years as well, he just prefers to keep it a bit under raps. This is probably due to the fact that his stealing is limited to items within our own home and is limited to small plush toys. Not nearly as newsworthy I suppose. But, in Zee’s defense, he is not an outdoor cat – we don’t allow our cats run of the neighborhood, plus Zee is scared of his own shadow and would not have the sensibility required to be a street cat. Poor dear, Zee barely has the sensibility to be an indoor cat, he is such the sweet and sensitive fellow! Read more

Since today is Valentine’s Day, it is the ideal time to reflect on the love of our beloved Zee and Zoey. If you translate the timeline of these feline lovebirds from cat to human years, they have been a couple for over 21 years and still remain happily in love! Zee met Zoey when she was just a tiny little kitten and he towered over her. He was instantly smitten with this miniature leopard and fell head over heels in love with her. Zoey soon returned the feelings and after a brief whirlwind courtship, they had a wonderful litter of four kittens together!

While they have calmed down a bit, Zee and Zoey remain the purr-fect couple and symbolize all that Valentine’s Day is – they are still completely devoted to one another, but have also learned to accept one another’s personality quirks. For example, Zoey can be a bit surly, bossy, loud and demanding. But Zee, as any good mate, finds those traits charming and endearing and chalks it up to part of her unique being and loves her all the more for it. Zee himself is a sweet and loving creature – occasionally he will get spooked by life in general, noise, movement, and make believe monsters and nonexistent peril and danger. Zoey overlooks these moments and graciously pretends he is her Maine Coon knight in shining armor.

From the bottom of their furry little hearts, Zee and Zoey hope you enjoy this special day and make sure to tell those close to you how much you love them.

Left to Right – Mia, Rolz, and Peanut

When Zoey gave birth to her kittens two years ago today, I knew my life would change, but I did not realize how much. Dan and I already had a houseful of cats that we loved and spoiled very much – Jazz, our elder Ragdoll, Harley our Tortie, Zee, our Maine Coon and father of the kittens, and Zoey, our Bengal and proud Mama of these four perfect and beautiful kittens. We were quite excited about the birth and figured we would keep one of the kittens and give the rest away. Well, we fell in love with them so quickly and with such possessiveness, that we ended up keeping three of them – Mia, Peanut, and Rolz – with the fourth one, Zeuss, going to a dear friend in Boston.

Having had cats my whole life, I was not prepared for the intensity of how the dynamic in our house would change – somehow these kittens were different than all the others I had known. Maybe it is because Zee and Zoey themselves are so unique and special, but all I know is that I am grateful for everyday Dan and I have with them. Our house is filled with such love and simple joy by having them around and they are such an integral and important part of our family. They humor us, they teach us lessons, and they give us love in return. All I can say is Happy Birthday my dear, sweet, kittens. I love you so much and look forward to all the coming year is certain to bring!

A special Happy Birthday to Zeuss as well – we love and miss you very much!

Mia daydreaming about snuggling on warm laundry…

Hi Everyone – Mia here! My Human Mom (HM) has been extra, super busy lately – she’s getting ready to go to a pet writing conference this weekend that is really, really important to her, so I thought I would give her a break and fill in for her since she seems to have all but abandoned the blog this past week. First of all, I know she would want me to thank all of you on her behalf for all the wonderful comments and feedback regarding our AWESOME book cover and sample chapter that you gave her! Don’t my Mama Zoey and Papa Zee look great on the cover? Now you can see why I’m so pretty! Read more

One cat, one dish. Two cats, two dishes. Three cats, threes dishes. Certainly seems logical, simple, and very manageable. Anything after that, the game starts to change. In our house, we have seven cats, so you do the math… feeding time for our gang is anything but logical, simple, and manageable.

How cats can tell time is beyond me, but trust me, they can. I get home at approximately 6:00 pm every weekday. The cats are already waiting for me at the door, several minutes BEFORE I get home and make they make it all but impossible for me to get inside the house, as I have to try to walk through a sea of hungry cats. They talk and chatter excitedly to me to tell me about their day, allowing me approximately 2.3 seconds to catch my breathe and relax before they remind me that I have already taken too much time and it is time to feed them dinner. Never mind that I religiously feed them every single day at approximately the same time. They feel they MUST tell me in a very loud chorus of seven unique and loud meows, that IT IS DINNER TIME, lest this is the one time I might possibly forget them.  As if…

Dan will have their clean dishes waiting on the counter for me and the dizzying ordeal begins as I mix together a special concoction of canned food and dry kibble into each dish. Peanut will jump up and try to steal a piece or two of kibble to my left, while Zoey will distract me and jump to the right. Dan will tell them to “get down,” grab Peanut and put her on the floor. Peanut will jump back up. Dan will grab Peanut and yell at Zoey to get down. The cats will circle me in a walking swarm, twenty-eight collective legs of perpetual energy, causing me to constantly be inches away from tripping over them and falling to the floor. This ritual will continue in secession until the food dishes hit the floor. If anyone but me feeds them, the meal is considered null and void and merely a “snack.” In their minds, unless it is me who feeds them, they have not been fed.

After all of this pomp and circumstance, just like Thanksgiving dinner, they will be done eating in about two minutes and calm will return to our world for another 24 hours. The weekends are no exception to the phenonium of their uncanny ability to tell time and the chaos level and need to remind me to feed them remains on a steady course, even on Holidays. You can set you alarm to this, I assure you…