French cats
As a cat lover, I’m always on the look out for cats when I travel. Since France (Paris specifically) have a reputation for being cat-friendly I was looking forward to seeing some French cats.
At the beginning of our trip, we were in the French countryside and we came across a sweet tortoiseshell kitty. She was enjoying the expansive green grass, and a setting that would generally be considered a cat paradise. As we tried to coax her closer, she just looked at us with her big green eyes. Malheureusement, elle ne comprend pas l’anglais!
Unfortunately while in Paris we didn’t run across any kitties roaming the street, but I know they are out there. There are some amazing photos of cats in Paris in a fun book I found called Les Chats de Paris.
On our frequent trips to the Luxembourg Gardens, we passed this majestic lion statue. When I took this photo, I thought about the little countryside kitty and how from a behavior standpoint, they aren’t all that different. As cat lovers know, our little domesticated lions think they are king of the animal kingdom.
Newbie on Martha Stewart!
I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks having an amazing time in France. Once I finish organizing my pictures, I will definitely be adding some France/Paris related posts.
In the meantime, I thought I would share a pretty hilarious Twitter-related occurrence. After over two weeks of being off Twitter, today I decided to take a look. I noticed a tweet from Twitter A Critter (@tweetacritter) regarding funny animal photos. As an aside, I think Twitter A Critter is brilliant as it helps spread the world about the many deserving rescue animals who need homes.
The link in their tweet sent me to Martha Stewart’s website and a photo album of adopted pets who (apparently) look like famous celebrities. I admit to having uploaded a photo of my sweet Newbie to this site a long time ago, but was totally surprised to find that same photo in this album, at #30! Apparently he looks like… Cheri Oteri?
I’m thrilled for my Newbie to have this exposure, but… Cheri Oteri?! I did a search for images of Cheri and found one where maybe I could see the likeness. But it’s still a bit odd. I hope Newbie doesn’t think his masculinity has been threatened.
The entire album is really entertaining. Take a look, and cheers to Newbie’s 15 minutes of fame on Martha Stewart!
Two peas in a pod
I couldn’t resist posting this picture of Newbie and Henry sharing Newbie’s favorite window in our living room. You can see the glorious jasmine in the background combined with the early afternoon sun making this the perfect napping spot.
I’m happy to report that Henry has been fully integrated with Newbie and even Pinky. Pinky isn’t thrilled, but she likes that Henry is giving her the respect she deserves, and Pinky takes her time in evaluating situations. So far Henry has been very good around her….
As for Newbie, he has a loving little brother who likes to be around him at all times, even sharing his favorite window.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my spring giveaway!
And then there were three
For quite some time we felt that our Newbie needed a buddy. Despite his 2.5 years, Newbie still has a lot of kitten energy. Unfortunately when he has tried to play with our 17 year old Pinky, she makes it clear she is not interested. We knew it would be tricky to bring in another kitty but we were hopeful that if we found the right kitty, it would work.
Thanks to a local cat rescue group, we adopted our six month old siamese mix and have named him Henry. After his isolation of about 10 days, we were able to successfully introduce Henry and Newbie. So far Newbie seems to really enjoy this little bundle of energy and they are pretty much inseparable. For more photos of Henry, check out my Flickr set.
Our next big challenge is to introduce Henry to Pinky….. stay tuned!
Newbie’s photo shoot
 |
 |
 |
 |
I’m slowly reading through the manual and trying different settings. I’m hoping that this camera will improve my jewelry photography.
What did we do before digital cameras?
Duck sighting!
We had an exciting moment the other day when we saw this sweet duck couple hanging out in our pool! 
They seemed to enjoy their little pit stop.
Newbie, our kitty, was entranced by the duck activity as you can see.
Amazing cat bed
I couldn’t resist sharing this Japanese traditional cat bed called Neko Chigura. Modern Cat, one of my cat Newbie’s favorite blogs, recently featured this product along with a video showing how they are made. Unfortunately the video is in Japanese, but I loved watching how the cats managed to put themselves in the middle of the project!
You can read more about these one-of-a-kind cat beds here.
Newbie, always the curious kitty
Just a short post with a photo I took a few days ago. Despite his intense curiosity about the tree, ornaments and lights, Newbie has been well-behaved this holiday season. We’ll be keeping up our tree through New Year’s so I’m hoping he doesn’t have a change of heart.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!
Pet Lover’s Handmade Gift Guide
As it is now officially the holiday shopping season, I wanted to showcase some amazing gifts from Etsy sellers for your beloved pet. I’ve created a little Pet Lover’s Handmade Gift Guide for you to peruse.
If you are like me, your pets like to be spoiled and appreciate that you are supporting the handmade movement at the same time! These items are only a few of the amazing items to be found in the Pet category on Etsy, but are some of my favorites. Go ahead…..your pet will thank you!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Fall back
I can finally say that I am now acclimated to the time change we had on Monday. I know this is a sad admission, but I found the change really hard this time. It’s only one hour out of 24, so why should it make such a difference? It’s also bittersweet in that we have this additional hour, which is like a gift, and yet it now gets dark so early. I find myself looking forward to December 22nd when the days will start getting longer again.
The kitties were also confused about daylight savings. Their tummies, which are like little alarm clocks, are set to go off at two particular times during the day. The time change left the kitties confused and frustrated. Newbie, pictured above, had the best solution which was taking an extended nap. Everything always is better after a good nap.
