Cats on Tuesday

Last week I joined a group called "Cats on Tuesday". Thus, here are my cat pics for Tuesday.

I honestly tried to get some good pics of my cats tonight, but they didn't want to cooperate. What I wanted to get a shot of most, was Dion's and Prissy's paws as they're both polydactyl cats.

Here's the pics I managed to get or already had. Unfortunately, it's not much.







To the left is Stacey. She's a sweet cat, not polydactyl like Dion and Prissy, and not tailess like Bobby.







This is Bobby, our tailess cutie. Doesn't he look like Groucho Marx? He has a personality to match. He can be neurotic and likes to climb up people to get their attention, but he can also be the sweetest, most loving cat alive. Although Stacey won't like me for saying this, "Uncle" Bobby was a much better mother to her kittens than she was. Bobby's always cleaning them and nurturing them, even now. And Bobby wasn't their blood uncle, just an adopted family member.







Meet sleepyhead, I mean Dion (short for "Dionysius").


He's very big and very mellow (and very sleepy at this time of night).







See the extra digit on Dion's paw? Oy! The pic's still dark. I promise to get a better pic soon.







Here's a pic of another polydactyl paw, that's a little clearer. I'll keep trying to get a very clear picture of Dion's or Prissy's paws and when I do, I'll post them here.

Before I adopted Dion, I'd never heard of Hemingways or polydactyl cats. Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway fell in love with polydactyl cats, too, and adopted several. They propagated and now there are approximately 60 cats on his estate, about half of them with the polydactyl (6-toed) paws.

I just read that the extra digit, or in other words, the polydactyl paw is considered a mutation. No cat that has this feature (the big thumb or extra toe) can be considered a pure breed. No one supposedly tries to breed polydactyl cats.

If Dion's an example, that's a shame. He's the most mellow, adorable, and cute and cuddly cat on the planet. Everyone thinks his paws are awesome. I'll definitely get a pic of him to post soon. He was extra-camera shy tonight, unfortunately.

I'll make it my mission to have more and better cat pictures for next week's Cats on Tuesdays. Stay tuned. Same day, some blog.

Blog Hopping - the things I've learned

I've developed a new addiction, one that's not as bad as my eating, diet coke, or night owl addiction - I don't think. I've become a blog hopper (no pun intended). However, I need a much spiffier name for my blog and that would be an apropos one for me. I don't know that it talks to my romance reading audience, however, so I'll have to give it some thought and get some other opinions. I've come upon a lot of cool and helpful things the past couple weeks since I started hopping from blog to blog. I discovered www.romvets.com of course and I've had my application email answered and so I'll be joining up with them. I learned at http://calamityjenni.blogspot.com/ that an ad spot that claims they put relevant ads on your blogs don't really look after all. LOL. Go check out her today's entry to see the ad about foot fetishes. I don't exactly think that's relevant to her blog... I also discovered on her blog about a few blog awards for which I nominated some really cool blogs I visit daily. Hope they win! I had been wondering about adding one of those ad thingies to my blog, but now, I'm not so sure that's the best idea. Let me ponder that awhile longer... I found out about Lori Foster's readers' and writers' conference in Cincinnati this June, from a blog - and I made a new friend as well who talked me into going. Truthfully, she didn't have to twist my arm very hard. I was drooling to go the second she mentioned it and I stumbled all over my stubby little fingers to go and register. Of course, it was partly because I wanted to go to a romance conference and partly because (a huge part) that it's in Cincinnati where I grew up and where my family still lives - so that I can use my precious day job vacation and see my dad AND get in a romance conference. I've had my new blog friends email me resources to help my children with some of their special needs. Because of another blog I read tonight who has their cat on a diet, I'm thinking I really should put my cat on a diet. Dion, or "Mr. Paws", "Mr. Mittens", "Big Daddy", "Houdini" as we also call him is a big, adorable, extremely cuddly all-black Hemingway. (Obviously, I'm not superstitious). He's probably so cuddly because he is overweight. I just love to hold him and he's so mellow that he lets me cradle him like a baby - in fact, that's his favorite position. Off topic, he gets his other nicknames because right before we got him fixed, he, uh, got our Stacey in the family way and we kept one of their kittens, Prissy (also often called "Miss Priss" or "Missy Prissy" because she really is prissy), and so he is the cat daddy in the house. Of course he's got the paw type names because he's a polydactyl-Hemingway. "Houdini" comes because he's always trying to escape to the outside. When he sees one of us go out, he hides and waits by the door for us to come back in and then dart out. Since he's been neutered and gotten slower and gained the weight, we usually catch him, but he's getting by us more and more again. I wish I could let him outside like a normal cat, but my neighbors complain and even threaten to take him to the pounds, so I can't risk it. We have to chase him and bring him back right away when this happens. Do you know how impossible it is to find an all black cat in the dark of night??? Prissy got her daddy's Hemingway paws and she looks like she's all black until you see her belly where she has just a teensy tiny splotch of white. Stacey and Prissy have maintained their girlish figures and we give them the same food as Dion. So either he's eating way more than his share, or he's just genetically predisposed to be chunky (hypo-thyroid like me perhaps? can cats have thyroid problems?) OR, and I suspect this is the biggest culprit, is that Dion's eating the dog's food too much. Of course, the dogs eat the cat food until we chase them off. I think my dogs and Dion have identity issues... Guess I'll know for sure when Dion starts barking and Andy and Meiko start meowing. I've been invited to participate in author contests and chats which I probably wouldn't have been. I found the 5 Minutes for Mom's site and their special promo week in March 08, "The Ultimate Blog Party" (don't miss it!) - look at the hot pink button on the upper left hand column of my blog. There's been so much more, but it's late and my brain is getting foggy. No, I didn't get beaned by a softball at my daughter's game. Unfortunately, one of the other mom's did at last night's game. She was walking into the ladies' room by another field and it came out of nowhere - she said no one called "heads up". She was in pretty bad shape for awhile but she seems to be better now, thankfully. I probably won't blog hop for the next couple days, or at least not much. I have to have to have to finish my edit and get the book to my editor. It's called "Best Mates" and it will be part of the Bound Brits anthology for TEB at www.total-e-bound.com