News

Sorry for not posting in... good grief, it's been two weeks!

I guess I have a good excuse, though. My college class ends in two weeks and I had a final paper due and finals next week. Regular high school classes end the week after, so I apologize in advance if I don't post for a bit, as I've got finals, papers, and all that good stuff.

Anyway, lots has happened since Easter.

That Monday I got stupendous news: I am an Honors Scholar at my school, which means I am an all-Honors/AP student with a 95 or above in each class. I've been an Honors Scholar for four straight semesters now!

Wednesday brought equally good news. In early March I applied for a Detweiler Scholarship, which pays for a college class in the humanities over the summer. Detweilers are reserved for students who've been Honors Scholars for at least two consecutive semesters. My guidance counselor told me that I had been selected for a course!

It's funny how, for the briefest moment, you think everything's going right, then, crash, you fall flat.

That's kind of what happened to me. Literally.

Friday night, Cassie's brother John came over because it's no fun to watch the Bourne Ultimatum alone (Cassie refuses to watch). John's name is literally John Locke and he thinks it's funny that I named one of my cats that. It's nice when he's around because he can lug three 28-pound jugs of cat litter at once.

This might be a good time to mention that D'Artagnan has taken to following me around with his tail wrapped around my ankle.

Girl + stairs + tail of invisible cat = ?

That's right. A sprained ankle.

And so I'm laying there, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the ceiling (this was before the pain actually kicked in) and I hear tripping and scuffling and "Move, Buster!" And D'Artagnan is licking me, crying aloud, which I didn't know he was capable of. He sounds like a squeaky recorder.

Then the other four cats descend on me, demanding noisily to know what all the commotion was about.
When I actually get around to sitting up, which John wouldn't let me do until I'd shown him I hadn't broken my neck, I looked down and saw this giant purple goose egg on the side of my ankle. I should have known that when it didn't hurt and all the rest of me did that it was going to be trouble...

In other news, a brown squirrel has taken up residence in the tree behind the house. He sits up on his hind legs and makes funny noises at Cocoa through the window. I think he thinks because she's so small she's a squirrel, too. Cassie named him Chipmonkey and Cocoa's started chittering at him. (Thank you so much for explaining chittering! I was so worried it would be something bad!)

Well, back to studying...

-L

D'Artagnan's First Post, or, the Friendly Award

Hello, my name is D'Artagnan de Chat Noir and I am Lily's favorite. She asked me to do the post for the next award, as she's busy trying to hide the Peeps for her cousins' Easter baskets.

Thank you so much, Karen Jo, for sending us this fantastic award! Lily helped me link it back to Elin, just like you asked, so click on the award to go to Elin's website.

Cocoa asked - no, demanded - that we give the award to Luxor. That's fine, but Lily also said I could pick my own recipient. To you, Daisy, even though I know you'll always be Skeezix's.

-D'Artagnan de Chat Noir, "All for one and one for all!"

P.S. Hi, Betty! Lily saw your site. She says computers are her sixth love - after us cats, of course!

Happy Easter from Cat Philanthropy!

It's the Feline Five's first Easter!

Every year, Cassie's family comes over and spends Easter with us. We do the classic Paas decorating traditions every Saturday night, but this year Cassie brought this kit that has little sponges in the shapes of bunnies and flowers, with glitter and sparkles and everything.

It will be very interesting to see how the Feline Five act towards the egg decorating and everything. We'll make eggs for all the cats and I've decided we'll do a little treat hunt around the living room, but holidays are still a source of bewilderment for them. Cocoa and Godiva were the only two to actually see the Christmas tree; they were perplexed.

Anyway, Easter came early when I saw the lovely badges the M-Cats Club did for Locket and D'Artagnan. Thank you so much!

I leave you with Cocoa avec une Guimauve playing with the infamous jelly bean. This is her fourth or fifth one. She will only play with the green ones and she'll only play with them on the stairs.

Happy Easter!

Catchup Posts

For a period of a couple of weeks last month, after I got sick with strep, I had Cassie moderating all my comments (see here for reason) because my email was giving me problems and when I went to change it back I did it wrong and we ended up with a big mess, so I never actually saw some of the comments from a few weeks ago. I was going back and sorting through all the comments and I found these awards. I'll be posting them over the next couple of days, oldest to newest, as for some reason my computer keeps timing out my Internet connection if I add more than one image.

My apologies to the Cats of Wildcat Woods and thank you so much for the award!

Okay, so I'm supposed to list six things that make the Feline Five happy and six blogs to recieve this award...

Because I've got five, I'll list a favorite thing for each cat and the sixth can go to Cassie's cat Dixie Hiccup.

1. Cocoa avec une Guimauve's favorite thing: carrying covered rubber bands around the house.
2. Godiva's favorite thing: napping in the sun.
3. Buster's favorite thing: the laser mouse!
4. Locket's favorite thing: playing with Cocoa.
5. D'Artagnan's favorite thing: sleeping on my lap.
6. Dixie Hiccup's favorite thing: sleeping on the end of Cassie's bed.

And the six blogs are:

1. Kitty Limericks
2. A Wizard and an Angel
3. Katiez Furry Mewz!
4. Tom, Official Office Cat
5. Life From A Cat's Perspective
6. Jan's Funny Farm

-L

Terror Past Dusk

On Saturday night, my mother went to dinner with my aunt and my uncle. They live a few hours away from us and so when they come, rather than leave their three boys with a sitter and worry, they leave them with me. Cassie comes over sometimes, but they love the cats so much they usually behave pretty well.

Well, they'd gone out to dinner and I expected them back maybe at midnight. Cassie and I enticed the boys to sleep through building a tent of sheets. All the cats were thrilled at the change of scenery and we ended up burrowed under a mountain of blankets in the family room. You could hardly step anywhere for fear of stepping on a boy or a cat.

The littlest boy, Jordan, in first grade, had Cocoa, who really was just his size. Alex, the middle child, nine, had Locket. James, 11, had Buster. I had D'Artagnan and Cassie ended up with Jordan, because he was scared and wanted to hold her hand.

Anyway, it wasn't even midnight and we were all asleep when all of a sudden D'Artagnan jumps on top of me and starts kneading my shoulder. It hurt like heck and, needless to say, it woke me wide awake.

"Stop," I whispered. "Stop, D'Ar!"

That was when I heard it.

Something in the kitchen fell with a crash. I sat up immediately and D'Ar jumped off me as if to say, Finally!

I am not one of those people who knows karate or anything. In a fight, I might win because, as a few elementary fights taught me, I'm scrappy and determined, but other than that, I don't have any special skills. I also have an overactive mind that was rapidly churning out facts that I didn't want to digest.

The odds were: two teenage girls, three boys, and five cats against at least one person carrying Lord-knows-what.

James sat up too and whispered, "Don't worry, Lily. I have a green belt!"

Great. So we've got two teenage girls, two boys with no martial arts experience, and an eleven-year-old with a green belt. Oh, also five cats.

I looked for the phone. It was on the tv cabinet across the room.

I shook Cassie until she woke up. "What?" she demanded.

"There's someone in the kitchen!"

She sighed. Cassie thinks I panic too often.

We heard something crinkling, like a plastic bag only stiffer. Cassie froze, her eyes huge. "Oh...my...gosh."

By now the other two boys had woken up.

Jordan was clutching Cocoa so tight her eyes were bugging out of her head. James reached over to free her. "This is not funny, Lily! This is a joke, right?" Jordan whimpered.

"It's okay," James said. "Lily and Cassie will figure out what to do."

"We need the phone," I whispered.

"I-I'll get it," James offered. "I mean, I do have a green belt."

"It's a nice offer, James, but your mother would kill me if I let anything happen to you," I said. I looked at Cassie. "Cass, watch them."

I crawled out of the tent and moved slowly towards the door. D'Artagnan kept a half-beat ahead of me.

The wall the cabinet sits on is also the wall of the kitchen and the phone sat on the edge closest to the doorframe. I crept up carefully, listening fiercely. I heard nothing... except for a strange crunching noise.

I grabbed the phone, but then something occured to me and I forced myself to peer around the corner into the kitchen.

The dry food bag had fallen on its side and there was a slender ringed tail switching from side to side in the opening.

Buster Baddie. The criminal mastermind.

Happy April Fool's Day from all of us here at Cat Philanthropy!

-L

Bonne Nuit, D'Artagnan

Every night before I go to bed, the cats and I have a ritual we do.

The Feline Five sleep in my room at night on five pillows and every night I hold each of them for a little while and scratch their ears and rub their tummies until they're good and sleepy.

D'Artagnan is the only one that sleeps beside my bed. We tried his pillow in the row at first but after three consecutive nights of him waking up on the rug beside my bed, he decided for me that he was not going to leave me. D'Artagnan is my own personal alarm clock. Every morning he hops into my bed and snuggles under my covers to wake me up. It beats an alarm clock hands down.

Well, last night I was reading before I went to bed when all of a sudden D'Artagnan jumps onto my bed and opens his mouth. Well, technically he was crying, but D'Artagnan so rarely cries that I sometimes wonder if he has working vocal chords because no sound ever comes out.

D'Artagnan is the only cat who knows commands in French, so I said to him, like I say whenever he cries, "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?" or "What is the matter?"

In response, he lied on his back and stared at me with his big green eyes.

I know I don't really have a good photo of D'Artagnan up because he is really camera-shy. He is a sweetheart and a lovebug, but he does not understand the concept of posing like Locket and Cocoa do.

D'Artagnan has a face like a man. It narrows out into a very precise chin and that, coupled with his big ears, makes Cassie call him Batman when she's not calling him James Bond. When he lays on his back and stares up at me with his big eyes in an attempt to look all innocent, he just manages to look stupid. I love him anyway.

So D'Artagnan was laying on his back staring up at me. (He also has a horizontal strip of white across his tummy.) I scratched his tummy where he likes it and he closed his eyes and purred. His little front paws stretched in and out as he kneaded the air.

"Would you like to sleep up here tonight?" I asked him. "Just tonight." My mom says if I let him sleep on my bed routinely, he'll think it's his bed.

He purred louder and curled into an S.

"No," I said, laughing. "Not here. You're in the middle of my bed!"

I picked him up. He kneaded the shoulder of my shirt then allowed me to lay him down beside me. He closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

"Bonne nuit, D'Artagnan," I whispered to him before I picked up my book and started reading.

A moment later he'd put his head on my shoulder.

Should I mention D'Ar snores?

-L

Wonderful News.. and a Question

On Tuesday, Locket went in for his check up... Bye-bye, infection! There was no trace of it! The vet says he thinks the reason it came back so badly this time was because his first round of antibiotics came when he was emaciated - four pounds on the vet's scale! - after I'd first brought him in. I have to continue the antibiotics for five more days and then he'll be done.

I also have a question about a behavior I've noticed in Locket and Buster that's really starting to disturb me. So it's warming up here and all the birds are back in the trees behind my house. Godiva, Cocoa, and D'Artagnan watch them, but not as much as Locket and Buster. Well, I came home from school both Monday and yesterday to find them so transfixed on the birds they didn't run to the door to see who it was. As I'm standing there watching them I hear this reallly funny noise: click-click-click-click, like a rattlesnake. When I look down at Locket, he's watching a squirrel intensely with his mouth open, clicking his teeth. I considered scolding him, but then he wasn't doing anything technically bad; he could have been trying to talk, for all I knew. I came back a half-hour later to Buster clicking just like Locket had, only at a big, fat bird. What is this? Is this aggression? I asked Cassie if her cat Dixie Hiccup does this and she said no, so I am completely in the dark. If any beans or furbabies could help me understand this, I would really appreciate it.

-L

Wordy Wednesday 2009 (Again)!

Lots of thanks and my sincerest apologies to Zoolatry, who made this lovely photo of Cocoa avec une Guimauve. (I posted the photo on the wrong date.) This is the epitome of Cocoa!

-L

Introducing... The Cat Philanthropy Purr-ney Express!

This greeting card is one my great-great-grandfather sent to his future wife in 1909.I have several huge books of postcards from between maybe 1890 and 1930. If anyone needs any cards for any occasions, just let me know. I've got bunches. Email me at lily.felinefive@gmail.com.

-L

Homecoming!

If you were at my vet clinic today, you would have seen Locket throwing a little kitty fit and me crying. Cassie wasn't there, but she says she has a pretty good idea of what happened...

(Cassie's taking Writing for the Screen this semester.)

INT. VETERINARY EXAM ROOM - DAY.

LILY LOCKE is standing beside a metal exam table with a pet taxi. She is impatient. She is considering pacing the floor.

The rear door OPENS and TRISHA, the vet tech, comes out carrying LOCKET, wrapped in a blanket.

SFX: Locket CRYING pitifully.

LOCKET (VO)

Lily! Lily! Where were you? I thought you left me

here for good!

Lily scoops him up and cuddles him. She is crying.

LILY

It's okay, Locket! It's okay, sweetie. You're going home

and you're going to see Buster and D'Artagnan. And Cocoa!

Cocoa's been going crazy about you!

LOCKET (VO)

Lily, you'll never guess what happened to me! This big, fat cat

yelled at me!

LILY

I missed you, Locky! Are you okay? Are you all better?

LOCKET (VO)

And then Trisha scolded him and when she wasn't looking,

he took his hairy paw and tried to hit me. I bit him!

LILY

I know, I know, you'll be fine. We're going home and

you and I are going to have a nice quiet weekend with the

rest of th cats! If you climb into the cage like a good boy -

LOCKET (VO)

But Lily, you're not listening to me! Someone hissed at me!

LILY

- I'll let you out in the car and you can sleep on the

backseat in the sun.

LOCKET (VO)

Hmmm... That doesn't sound like such a bad idea...

Locket puts his head on Lily's shoulder and purrs. Lily beams. She rocks him a minute, then puts him in his cage. He purrs louder.

END OF SCENE

Okay, so I can't exactly vouch for Cassie's formatting skills, but that is eerily similar to the way it happened. Cassie knows me too well.

-L

Update on Locket

Thank you so much, Zoolatry!

Okay, so I called the vet and asked how Locket was and the prognosis is good.

They expect him home Friday afternoon, but I need to keep him up on his antibiotics over the weekend and on Tuesday he needs to come in for a blood test. Trina, the vet tech who loves Locket because of his full name, John Locke (see Locky's profile), said one of the other cats hissed at him and he was so shocked he just stared. (We have a no hissing policy in our house.)

I asked if I should keep him crated, but the vet said so long as I keep him quiet he'd be okay. He says he'd be much happier on my lap than he would in his cage.

I'll take my final two midsemester exams tomorrow and then I don't have anything else to do. Locket and I can catch up on old A-Team episodes and I can read him Louisa May Alcott's mysteries.

Purrs and Purrayers Needed...

Thank you, KC and ML, for the lovely purrs picture.

Locket needs some purrs and purrayers tonight. The infection he had when he came in returned twice as bad today and we rushed him to the vet. He said relapses were common with that type of infection and he needs to keep Locket overnight for observation. He cried at me when the technician took him back to the cat room.

Cocoa's been walking around looking for him. I feel so bad.

I've had to leave cats at the vet's before and each time it's heartwrenching. I'm worried he thinks I've left him there for good. Poor baby, he's hardly six months old and he's never been away from his family before, ever. He's probably scared out of his wits.

I can't think about it. It makes me feel so bad, like I'm a bad pet parent to have left him there.

Wordy Wednesday 2009

Thank you so much, Zoolatry! This fits Cocoa avec une Guimauve perfectly!

Oh, and I almost forgot, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all the beans and furbabies! Éirinn go Brách! (Ireland Forever!)

-Lily

P.S. Any furbabies want to talk to Cassie for me about messing with my blog? (Just joking!)

Shh!

Lily's out of town, so I decided to spruce up her blog while she was away...

How do all the beans and furbabies out there like it?

The Triple Threat

Yay! Yippee!

"Adventures in Cat Philanthropy" was nominated for Best Animal Blog...



...and Best Blog Host....



...and Best Hobby Blog!



Show your support and vote!

(Thanks, Kat, for letting me know! And thanks, Karen, for the donation!)

-Lily

Photoblog #4 - 5th Photo Meme

Here's my best little buddy, Locket, who coincidentally shares the same name as the fifth folder on Lily's computer. It's not the best photo. Lily still hadn't gotten the hang of her new camera when she took this and it did a double-flash, a new feature to reduce red eye, which makes us furbabies blink. Can you see his double locket?

Poor Locket got into a terrible fight saving me from a turkey vulture. That's why he's got the scar on his nose. You can't see it unless I turn a certain way, but I have two little scars on the back of my ear from that same vulture. Locket and I are very thankful our bean Lily and her cousin Cassie were there to get rid of it. For a bean, she's really short but she can run really fast. Of course, this was all before she brought us inside.

Cassie says our big brother D'Artagnan is like James Bond - so suave and macho - and Locket's like his socially awkward little brother, Jamie Bond. I think this is very mean because while D'Ar is a fierce mancat, Locket is sweeter. He comforted Cassie for hours after her gerbil Wheezy died and she came over. Come to think of it, Cassie's been over here a lot since her gerbil Wheezy died, even though she has her own furbaby Parker, which Cassie swears should be in covert ops, whatever that is. But that's another story.

And here's another one. This one isn't the fifth photo, but it's the most recent of my mommy and me. Cassie took this when Lily was at her human vet getting antibiotics.

This is me cleaning my mommy's face. She'd already cleaned mine, so the least I could do was return the favor. Cassie always tells me I have the pinkest tongue. Err... I have to ask all the other furbabies out there who've been with their beans longer - is this a compliment?

Oh, and I'm supposed to list a whole bunch of furblogs for the next round of the 5th Photo Meme - Lily said five, I think? - so here they are.

1. Curlz and Swirlz

2. The Island Cats

3. Derby the Sassy Cat

4. The Kattonic Cats

5. Daisy the Curly Cat

Have fun and remember to donate! I don't know what I'd do without Lily or my mommy and my brothers and sister but Lily would have to separate us and give us to all different homes if she doesn't get a little help. (Thank you to Daniel and Lynn who donated.)

Avec tellement baisers (with lots of kisses),

Cocoa avec une Guimauve (as dictated to Cassie Locke)