Simply Sunday...Afternoon

Kittens are eating kitten food today and using the litterbox! Simply a Kitteny Sunday afternoon!

Frolicking Kitten Friday

Another Warm Kitten Wednesday passed without a kitten update, and this morning was the start of my 3 day weekend, so one of the first things I did, after giving everyone their morning treat, was to take some kitten pix and a movie.

They all continue to be healthy, happy kittens and while they still stick pretty close to their kitten box, they are starting to be adventurous and their play is becoming much more pounce and bite and there are lots of squeaks that say "Ouch! That's too hard"...that's how they learn what is "socially acceptable" play and it is very fun to watch!

They haven't started eating solid food on their own yet, and there has been a couple of oops puddles outside the box, but there also have been a few clumps in the litterbox too, and a few tentative attempts to dig and cover what they did...but mostly, momma Coco is still taking care of their potty breaks. Soon as they start eating the kitten canned food, though, that will change.

When I am in their "nursery" with them, I set them in the litterbox numerous times, just so they get the scent and feel of litter and get the urge to go, hahameow! They are very vocal when they first see me and come running up to me and that is also a big change in the past week...so fun to see them grow and learn.

They just had their third nail trim and are finished with their Early Neonatal Stimulation exercises, though that is sort of how I handle them anyway, so they are still learning how nice human attention is and have yet to purr for me...just for momma Coco, when they are nursing.

They are 4 weeks old now, and starting to have distinct personalities. Valentino, the red tabby boy (with the pale undercoat, cream chin and marking around his eyes) is the leader of the pack--first out of the kitten box and first to pee in the litterbox. Right now, Love Bug, the brown tabby and white, seems to be the shy one and gets a little shivery when he's out of the kittenbox.

Cassanova plays well with everyone and is always in the midst of a kitten pile. Amore' buddies up with Valentino in play wrestling though I am not sure who wins! Little Cupid is a tad shy too and he and Love Bug like to snuggle together while the others play sometimes.

So, without further Chit Chat, here's the latest photos! Click on them to biggify...And two movies!

Nani's a Winner!

Digital art by WiLLiAm PoP ARTiST®

A Big Thank You to all my CB, Catster and Facebook friends for voting Nani "Best Cat Photo" of the week on PhotoWow.com. We won a super 4 panel Pop Art print valued at $300 and we are purring with joy! What a wonderful way to honor such a sweet kitty and as soon as it arrives, I'll take a photo of it and post it for all her "fans" to see!

Toesies Tuesday!

Cornish Rex toes are sooo unique! Snuggly brothers Clover and Jasper showing us some brotherly love! They live the cozy life in Alexandria, Virginia with Lisa and James.

Mancat Monday

This is Furrydance Jacob, and his best buddy, Elliot. They share there home with 3 humans and 2 sweet Labrador Retrievers in Alexandria, Virginia.

Simply Sunday Morning

Furrydance Brinkley, sunning himself in his very elegant kitchen. He lets 2 other Cornish Rex, 2 dogs and 2 humans share his abode in Davidson, North Carolina. As long as he gets the prime sunny spots, he's willing to share! We think he looks a little like a statue in this photo, don't you?

Cat-O-Lympics--High Jump and Balance Beam

Well, as the 2010 Cat-O-Lympics winds down, with only one day of competition left...Brighton said he should show off his balance beam and high jump skills, as the team sports of synchronized napping, eating, running and dancing never materialized for him as he couldn't convince any of the other Furrydance cats to be his partner!

So, here he is...you will just have to trust him that he did do a high jump onto this bookshelf...here's a pix of his dismount!


and here he is on the balance beam...

Pet Food Recall-Nature's Variety Raw...

I feed Nature's Variety canned food from time to time, but have never fed raw (after having to treat Disco for Toxoplasmosis after he had been fed a raw diet in the cattery he came from), but here's an FYI for anyone who might feed this food:
PET FOOD RECALL: NATURE'S VARIETY CHICKEN RAW FROZEN DIET

Saturday Caturday

I missed posting on Warm Kitten Wednesday...but took photos and a little video this morning, and you will see the difference 10 days makes!

Today was "moving day" for Coco and her kittens! They packed up and moved into their spacious new digs...my master bathroom. That is the next step in their growing up!

When they reach about 3 weeks of age, they start to nibble on each other, groom (lick) themselves, bobble about instead of crawl and are able to climb out of the kitten box--but not educated enough to know how to get back in!

That is when they get to move into the bathroom, with a larger, open ended kitten box and toys to play with...but mostly at this age, they play with each other! There are 2 kitten sized litterboxes in there, too, with World's Best Litter in them so it's safe if they nibble on it (and they do at this age).

They haven't started using the boxes yet, but will soon as they start sampling Coco's canned food. They often will pee in the box before they start on solid food, but til then, Coco cleans stimulates them to eliminate by licking them...but she stops that soon as they are eating something besides mama's milk.

They continue to gain weight well and I finally can tell you for sure...Yes, they are all boys! And the two red boys, there is a difference in them too, so I am not confusing them any longer. Cassanova is a true red tabby, as evidenced by his pale white chin and facial markings. The stripes on his legs is also more defined. Valentino is a red, and his striping is "ghost markings" and will fade as he gets older. He does not have the white on his chin and face.

It's harder to tell the difference in the photos, but easy in person. Also, Cassanova has a bit of a wider face, too. They weight almost the same, but their body style is a little different, with Valentino being slightly more racy, if you can call a chubby kitten racy!

Well, here are the latest photos (you can click on them to biggify) and a little "moving day" movie, too...

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Help Nani win a photo contest, pleeze!

We would like to ask all our CB furrends to help Nani win a photo contest!

Sweet Nani recently became a Angel cat, when at the age of 14 her severe heart problem which was diagnosed when she was only a year old took her from us suddenly, but we have sweet memories of her and lots of photos!

The photo we entered in the contest at Photowow.com is this one of her wearing her pink wig and is the photo that is my avatar. We think Nani looks a little like Barbra Streisand in the photo and we are hoping she wins this weeks contest, which runs from Wednesday February 17th at 1:00pm PST and ends Tuesday February 23rd at 1:00pm PST.

You can only vote once from the same computer so if you have multiple computers, Smart Phones etc...just like when all our furrends helped Coco become Cat President in a last minute landslide vote, you could honor Nani's memory and help her win The Best Pet Photo Contest this week and we would win a beautiful digital art painting of her!

Here's the link to vote
http://www.photowow.com/contest/index.aspx
You have to vote for each pet photo to be able to move to the next one, and give Nani a "10" and we'd be furry grateful!

Thanks!
Teri, Disco, Brighton, Kiki, Sammy, Coco and her 5 lil Valentines

We can haz BlogPaws!

Meowza...we is goin' to BlogPaws!

Our friend Carol said if Teri would do the driving, she'd pay for gas...so with a new friend and traveling companion to keep us company (along with at least 1 and maybe all 3 of her kitties!) we are going to go see what it's all about!


Our mewmie picked best buds Disco and Brighton to be the contingent from the Furrydance household (as you know, Coco's busy being a momcat and Kiki, well she's a bit of a diva and might take a swipe at the pawpawrazzi and end up on the cover of The Star!) and both Disco and Brighton like the limelight and dressing up, too (we mean, mewmie has to come across as a crazy cat lady, right?!)


So, loaded up in our little Prius will be 2 humans, 2 Sphynx and 3 Cornish Rex...and 8 hours on the road! Disco and Brighton are seasoned travelers and all the Meir cats are former showcats, so hopefully they will also just curl up and sleep most of the way! Hope so, cuz you don't even want to know what 5 yeowling cats in a car would do to the human occupants!


So we will be living it up at the Westin (where well-behaved dogs and cats on leashes are permitted---sure, we can do that!) and we will take lots of photos and maybe even learn a thing or two along the way!

We are most excited about getting to meet Skeezix and Mr Tuck and Sparkle and maybe before April rolls around, there will be a few more CB cats who will be able to be there, too! Our mewmie said she will bring appetizers for all our furrends...something special!


We hear they have heavenly beds (they list Dog Beds, but we'll bring our own, thank you!) and Maid Service (heck, we have that at home)and something called Wake-up Service (do they provide cats to walk on humans faces and knock things off nightstands?? We can do that ourselves--does the job pay well? Maybe we could hire out and earn some green papers so we can buy more Bonito Flakes!) and even provide bathrobes (oooh, those soft white fluffy ones, we hope!)

If we get bored, which I doubt we will, they have a workout room (what, no working out in our room??)and movies and something called a V.I.P. room (I am SURE we'll be invited there!). So, as you can tell, we are working ourselves up into a furrenzy, just thinking about BLOGPAWS!

Mancat Monday

Mr Percy, regarding snow...he lives in North Carolina, where it rarely snows!

Simply Sunday...Afternoon

Mewmie has to head back to work tomorrow, so she can earn the green papers to keep us living in the style we are accustomed to. But we soaked up some free sun today, and we hear there's a treat in store for us, spelled H.A.M. She said she got Honey Ham cuz it's Valentines Day!

She let those of us hanging round in the kitchen have a sniff, and we were very interested. Believe it or not, it will be our first taste of ham (except for ham baby food). Thought you'd like to see what we are having for our Sunday dinner!

Who's going to BlogPaws?

Our mewmie is thinking about going to Blogpaws and wants to see if she can get an idea of who else might be going that we follow. It's about an 8 hour drive for her and she has Fridays off, so she wouldn't even have to take any days off work or use any vacation days (good, since she had to use 4 days to make up for the days she couldn't get to work cuz of the snow).

She would take Disco and Brighton, and would really be excited to meet some CB kitties there, too! She's not sure if any of the seminars or networking would be for her, as we don't advertise or market ourselves, but she says when she retires, she has dreams of writing a book on Cornish Rex care and having a more cat health oriented blog, too, so it might be helpful in the future.

We know in this economy, getting away for vacations has turned into Staycations, and she wouldn't be able to go if she had to fly there and take time off work. But she drives a Prius which saves on gas, and she will take food to eat for breakfast and lunch and then maybe share dinner with friends who are there. The car is small, but if there is anyone in the DC Metro area that is thinking about going, she said there'd be room for 1 person and a kitty if you want to ride up and share gas expenses.

Happurry Heart Day!

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue...Coco's Pretty in Pink, and she LOVES all of you! Hope your Valentine's Day fills your Hearts with lots to Purr about!

Fashion Friday

Coco, in a warm and fashionable coat, purrfect for the snow and blustery weather we've been having. But we think she could use some earmuffs, don't you?

Someone thinks we're sweet!

It's Loki, the everso handsome black cat, over at LOKITHECAT. He has honored us with an award before, and we think he's sweet on one of the Furrydance girls...Oh, he's smitten with all the ladies!

The Rules for accepting the Sweet Friends Award:

1). Copy the image to your blog
2). List 10 things that make you happy and try to do one today
3). Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day

Well, there are five cats in the Furrydance house at the moment & five kittens, so narrowing the list down to 10 things that make us happy will be easy!

1. Hearing the sound of the jar of baby food pop open
2. Pet safe heating pads in every room
3. A dripping water faucet
4. Nosetaps
5. Nursing (that's from the kittens...and Brighton)
6. Chewing on mewmies hair (that's from Kiki)
7. Playing with a Cat Dancer
8. Watching The Kitty Show (a video mewmie got us)
9. Hill's t/d dental diet (that's our treat...not diet food!)
10. Visiting our furrends in the Cat Blogosphere!

And for our 10 Sweetest Furrends (now narrowing down that list was hard!)

1. Luna at WE LOVE LUNA
2. Raymond and Busby at RAYMOND AND BUSBY, CATS BY THE SEA
3. Angel, Isabella and Sadie at A BEADED TAIL
4. Eric and Flynn at ERIC AND FLYNN'S ADVENTURES
5. Zoey, Ernie and Wally at THE ISLAND CATS
6. Those lucky garden cats and a dog at CORY CAT BLOG
7. Jill and her kitties and one large dog at JUST ME JILL
8. Ginger Jasper at GINGER JASPER
9. Fui and Suey at FOREVER FOSTER
10. Virus and Hyssing and Bajas at THE WRIGGLEBUTTS

Thankful Thursday

All us kitties (and our mewmie) want to thank Spot and Fiona for this very special award...it will stay close to our hearts furrever, as we watch Fiona (and Harry Spotter) progress in becoming healthy and happy again, and we are grateful and pleased that we could be involved in some way...as our mewmie likes to say..."end our day knowing we helped someone take the best care of their kitty..." with advice, donations and bidding on the auction items, too!

Warmfelines, from Teri, Disco, Brighton, Coco, Kiki, Sammy and all the little Valentines!

Ps: If you haven't met Spot and Fiona yet, please stop by and say hello and learn their story SPOT AND FIONA'S BLOG

Warm Kitten Wednesday

Mewmie's been getting lots of days off hunting because of all the snow that's been falling, but she's been busy fixing up the bathroom, painting, so it will be all ready for the kittens to move into in another week or so. Really, she hasn't been painting for the kittens, but because she wanted to make it more "Zen-like" but we are not sure what that means...

So, we'll talk about what we do know...kittens! They have all opened their eyes now and squeek when mewmie talks to them...she was pretty excited about that! And now the really cute photos begin! They are all doing great, gaining weight right on target and Coco leaves them for short periods when mewmie's home, so she can stretch her legs and use the litterbox. She will use the one in the kitten tent, but only as a last resort. Mewmie says Coco crosses her legs cuz she doesn't want to use the one that is in her "kitten den".

Everyone who is waiting for a kitten calls mewmie to check on them often and one new family were going to come and meet her and the kittens last weekend, but Snowpocalypse happened and no one went anywhere if they didn't absolutely have to!

Mewmie's been putting out lots of seed for the hungry birds...but since she still hasn't gotten round to making it safe for us to go down there again...we are missing out on the best channel on Cat TV!!

But we have been able to watch movies and snuggle with her a lot, so that makes missing the birds acceptable. She hasn't even kept up with the CB much either, in between movies and sleeping in and shoveling snow...we are happy just to burrow deeper into our blankies while she gets that job done! Then she comes in and takes a hot shower and takes a nap with us, yay!

So, without further ado, here are the latest kitten pix (you can click on the photos to biggify them), as well as a cute movie of Coco and her "Valentines"...

Fenway Nanjizal Bay of Furrydance...July 17, 1995 to February 4, 2010

It is with sadness, we learned today that Nani, the cat the CB knows as the cat in the pink wig that is my avatar, passed away during the night. But is with smiles that I am grateful to the family that gave her a home filled with love and affection, after she was returned to me when she was 12 years old, not because she had severe HCM, but because the new wife's cats and she did not get along.

Not surprisingly, that marriage did not last, but the love and tender care that Alisha, Calloway and Marley gave to her enabled her to live out her golden years knowing she was loved. They knew when they gave her a home, that they may lose her at any time to her heart condition, and she just had a wellness exam and labwork and while, at 14 years old, she was going into kidney insufficiency, and couldn't see very well now due to lenticular sclerosis, and we found she had fairly severe spondylosis, her family made some changes in their home to make her life more comfortable.

Last night she didn't want to eat all her dinner, and Alisha said she was very clingy and purring in her lap...maybe Nani knew then she was failing and wanted to spend time being loved and held close. There will be an empty place in their hearts now, that will take time to heal, but may they find joy in remembering the time the shared with her...

Frootbat Friday

What with all the snow we have been having, our mewmie is taking advantage of it and making "Snow Balls"...like those "retro" Highballs. Here is Brighton, checking out a Gin Gimlet Snow Ball. Heck, it is Friday night, right?

Warm Kitten Wednesday

Well, a week ago, the kitten stork brought us Coco's kittens!
COCO'S KITTENS ARRIVED!
and all is well in the nursery (my bedroom) I am happy to report!

Kittens should double their birthweight in the first week and even though Cupid had a slow start, even he is right where he should be with his weight. He was 52 grams at birth and is now 110 grams; Love Bug (the brown tabby & white) was 73 grams and now is 138 grams; Amore', the black and white was 69 grams at birth and is now 147 grams.

And the 2 red tabby boys...well, at first I could tell them apart only because one weighed 10 grams more than the other one. Now they are the same and to me, look identical! Makes me glad I don't breed Russian Blues or I'd be forever confused! Cassanova and Valentino weighed 71 and 80 grams when they were born, and now weigh in at 157 and 154 grams.

Mama Coco is eating well and has a smorgasbord of delights to choose from: Hill's t/d (high in fat and calories--it's what I feed as a treat and all the cats love it and it does help their teeth); Blue Buffalo Evolution dry; Paul Newman's dry; and a new one I found that she likes, Freshpet Select, a gently cooked 'homemade' kind of food found in the refrigerator in the cat food aisle at Bloom Grocery here in Virginia (many stores stock the dog formula but they carry the cat one too, in a chicken and two fish varieties) FRESHPET SELECT and I also mix in some Pedialyte to increase the water content so she has plenty of fluids to help make milk for her babies.

I still think they are all boys, but should feel more definite about that in another week or so...and here are the latest photos, taken this morning! Click on them to biggify...