The night before, the night before Christmas

Twas the night before, the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the Bobtails. While all the other cats were nestled in their beds with visions of catnip toys dancing in their heads, the Bobtails were all through the house, climbing cat trees, opening cabinets and opening boxes.

One by one they each did their best to see what kind of mischief they could get into. From Pierre, the oldest to PJ the youngest, Bobtail mischief making at its very best.

You simply can't do anything in a house with Bobtails without them offering to help or at least supervise. They are social creatures. When they want to be. When you want a Bobtail, they're nowhere to be found.

I was working in the garage yesterday for a few hours and every time I came back into the house, there they sat, waiting for me. When I finally sat down, do did they; one on top of me, presumably to hold me down, the others stationed within arms length.

Gotta love that Bobtail love.

Bells on Bobtails ring!! Yeah right, bells on Bobtails, will get quickly removed and dropped into the bathtub for some noisy nighttime action. :-)

meow for now,
melissa

I miss my tree......

I miss my Christmas tree. I have a beautiful 4 ft Christmas tree with little bits of snow on it. I also have these cute little white lights that look like pinecones. To go with the tree are ornaments from my childhood, from my grandparents, and from past clients.

So....why do I miss this tree? Where has it gone? It is in boxes in my garage. The reason.....I have cats. I did try for awhile. Two years I think. The first was Sean. I had the tree sitting on a coffee table in front of the sliding door. The area in front of the door was tiled. This is important. On the tree I had these little glass ornaments that someone had given me. HAD is a key word here. Sean, experiencing his first Christmas thought the little glass ornaments were pretty. And proceeded to spike them off of the tree like little volleyballs. Now he had two choices. He could have stood on the tile and spiked the ornaments towards the carpet. Or.....he could have stood on the carpet and spiked them towards the tile. Bingo.....he spiked towards the tile.

Needless to say, no more glass ornaments. We then got Elsa. Or....Elsa No as she became known as. Elsa, no. Elsa, no. Elsa, no. I kept finding her looking at me from the tree, about two branches up. That was the last year I put up my pretty little tree.

I did try a cheap, cute, two foot tree once. They managed to take off many of the decorations and then break the trunk.

Now please keep in mind that I'm talking about the regular cats. Not the Bobtails. God only knows what my Bobtails would do with a Christmas tree. Part of me wants to find out, the other part really doesn't want to know. This crew of mine.......let's just say I love them dearly and want to keep on loving them dearly.

Although everyone is older now. This will be the first Christmas in about 10 years that I don't have a kitten running about. The youngest is 1 1/2 years, the oldest is 13 years old. I might just try it........next year.

Of course, if I put up the tree on Sunday, that should give me plenty to write about for the next few days..........for a few hours on Sunday..........maybe for a few minutes. :-)

I'll have to think about it.........

meow for now,
melissa

Let's hear it for the boys!!!

So.....let's hear it for the Kokopellie boys. Polar and PJ went to Tucson. Nicky couldn't make the trip to Arizona with us. Poor Jon just wasn't up to driving 3 hours to drop Czar Nicholas off in Escondido. The good news is that his right wing is mending nicely. He even made an appearance in Arcadia last weekend.

So, the Bobtail boys who went to Tucson did quite nicely. Both of them managed to bring home 11 finals each. Woohoo!! They both behaved wonderfully as well. The show was fun. Not as much fun as when my partner in crime is there but Mom and I did manage to enjoy ourselves.

I took over Jon's roll of orchid provider. Jon always donates orchids for the raffle. They adorn the judges' tables all weekend and then on Sunday we raffle them off. In addition to 6 beautiful orchids we had a gorgeous Christmas cactus available as well. There was a fight over that one with Mom coming out the winner. :-)

The show after Tucson was Arcadia. It was the annual Kat Knappers Christmas show. We had a great time. The count was low, but the quality was exceptional.

Czar Nicholas came home with 9 out of 10 finals, including Best Cat in show. Polar followed along with 7 out of 10 finals and 3rd Best Alter in show. PJ brought home 4 finals, Boris got 1 final and a new forever home and Silver Tiger, an alter being shown by his new parents, Richard and Janet Martinez also got a final. Nicky, Polar and PJ each also got at least one Best as well. This officially Supremes Nicky. We thought he had done it last month, but our calculations were wrong. Oops!! So you know what that means. There's a party in our future. Stay tuned for details.

Now the boys are on Christmas break. We have a show coming up in Lodi. We're hoping to be there. We'll have to wait and see. Otherwise we'll be showing twice in Arcadia in January. Looks like some of the ladies of Kokopellies might be joining us for some of those Arcadia shows. Stay tuned.......

meow for now,
melissa

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it's been a little over two months since I last posted. Where does time go? I guess it could be because this season hasn't been quite as exciting as last season. Remember.....this is the place for me to brag about the Kokopellie cats.

For the last three years we have been actively campaigning Polar and Frosty for International wins. Joining them this past season were PJ and Nicky as well. Campaigning can take a lot out of you physically, emotionally and financially. Plus it's tough on the cats as well. But through it all the boys all did fantastic. Not a grump in the bunch.

The plans for this season and next are to relax a bit and try for a regional win on whoever we show. So you won't be seeing us all over the country. Time to stay home and recoup.

Nicky and PJ, kittens at this time last year, have come along quite nicely. Check out the website and the Show Cats page to see their big boy photos. Grrrr..........very, very grrrrr........

Let's see......I've been trying to put together a cookbook to aid research in HCM and FIP. It has been completely overwhelming. I expected to get 200 recipes max. I received over 600!! Now I have to pick and choose and edit. And....not all the recipes came via email. Some need to typed into the computer from handwritten notes as well. Ah.......it's a labor of love. I had been hoping to get it out by Christmas. That's not going to happen. Unfortunately. I'm also thinking that it's going to be multiple volumes as well. Just to keep the size down. Otherwise it could rival the yellow pages.

What else has been keeping us busy? Hmm.......lots of local Arcadia shows. And of course I'm the vendor coordinator for those shows. Never a dull moment here that's for sure.

Jon just had surgery on his shoulder. Ouch!! He's recovering and doing well. Unfortunately he'll miss one of his favorite shows this coming weekend in Tucson.

Other than that........the rest remains the same for now. The Bobtails are up to their usual antics. Last night was quite an event. I didn't have to look outside to confirm that there was a full moon. I was ready to put the whole herd up for adoption. LOL. It is really quite amazing how the Bobs all stick together. They run in a little pack.

So now we're gearing up for Christmas. Lots to do in the next 25 days. Two cat shows, a trip to Disneyland, guests for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas breakfast. Fun, fun, fun.

meow for now,
melissa