Almost here!

Our birthday is tomorrow! We can't wait! Mary Beth sent us Jerky for Cats but we can't open it until tomorrow! We got cards with our names on them! One for me, one for Fish! We get to open them tomorrow!

We will be 2! Two years old! We'll be able to have our own Netflix queue! We'll get to go to the big doctor and not the pediatric vet. Good for us! Our pediatric vet and our big vet is Dr. D.!

We'll get to run everywhere in the house and even the mantle in the family room! We can chew tassels off our Dad's loafers! We'll get to do everything!

I just know it!

Whistle

How We Got Our Names

I've been thinking lately about the people I meet
The carwash on the corner and the hole in the street
The way my ankles hurt with shoes on my feet
And I'm wondering if I'm gonna see tomorrow.

Father forgive us for what we must do
You forgive us we'll forgive you
We'll forgive each other till we both turn blue
Then we'll whistle and go fishing in heaven.

I was in the army but I never dug a trench
I used to bust my knuckles on a monkey wrench
Then I'd go to town and drink and give the girls a pinch
But I don't think they ever even noticed me.

Fish and whistle, whistle and fish
Eat everything that they put on your dish
And when we get through we'll make a big wish
That we never have to do this again again

On my very first job I said thank you and please
They made me scrub a parking lot down on my knees
Then I got fired for being scared of bees
And they only give me fifty cents an hour.

Written by the John Prine, a fabulous human being.

Guest Blogger: Fish

Dear Friends,

Monday is my next appointment with Dr. D. my vet. I'll have x-rays taken to see if my leg is healing with the new pins and graft. I know I'm doing well because I walk on my hurt leg and put pressure on it. My leg doesn't hurt.

I'm ready to leave my hermitage and return to the world! I've spent time meditating, thinking, contemplating, reading and having deep thoughts. Now it is time for me to leave my confinement pen and race around the house like a crazy cat. Really.

Thank you for praying for me. I know your prayers helped me heal and continue to do so. Thank you for my birthday presents and for putting up with my brother.

Whistle is cruising for a bruising. As a Brother, I shouldn't let him get on my last nerve. He sticks his paws into my pen to get my cat crunchies. He grabs my tail when I stick it out of the cage (like when I'm sleeping). He gets to sleep with our people in their bed and I can't.

Just so you know,

Fish

Shhhhhhhh! Don't tell anybody!

Littlemankitty sent us a birthday box! Mom opened it to see who sent it then told us we couldn't have it until our birthday...

I got into the box and found a furry mouse toy! Greenies! Cat Crunchies! Catnip Candy Bar cat toys! All from my Cousin LMK!!!

Mom saw me with a spit-drenched furry mouse!

Then I told her I needed to have a Cat Crunchy! It's a new kind! I got one and so did Fish!

Are birthdays the best or what?

I'll be TWO YEARS OLD on Tuesday! So will my brother Fish!

LMK, you are the best!

Love,

Whistle

Dear Melech,
You are a great kitten! We all think so! You sent us cat cookies! We love them and got our Mom to buy more for us. Even our nanny, Sister, likes the cranberry cat cookies.

I hear that you are using your feet and paws funny around your litter box! This is great! Keeps the humans on their toe pads wondering what you are doing. Our forecat, The Great Rusty, perched with all four feet on the edge of his plastic litter box. Sometimes he did his work inside the box, other times, he just didn't.

I have a Booda litter box with steps. I walk up a ramp into an enclosed litter box. Lots of privacy, good place to kick litter everywhere! Love it! Our Mom likes it because she doesn't sweep up kicked litter everyday. Because the Booda is like a lil' round house, the litter stays inside of it. The steps knock off the litter crumbs when I leave the Booda. I think I heard LMK has a Booda, too.

When Fish gets out of his Hermitage, I'll share the Booda with him, or so my Mom says. He may have to get his own! A cat likes his own place to return to the earth what came from the earth (see my poem, "Bitter Litter" from my book, " Fish's Greatest Poems and Quotes: One Cat's Perspective on Life, Naps and Cookies", InterVarsity Press, 2007)

Anyway, you are a great kitten and I'm sure you are helping your Mom feel needed. Be sure to learn to sit on her lap and make her calm. This is holy work and one of the reasons God called us to be Preacher Pets.

Peace of the Paw,

Whistle

Party Animals Cat Cake

This is NOT the cake I want for my birthday. This is a cake for people. I want a cat cake!

How to make a Party Animals Cat Cake: take a can of great canned cat food, open the can, let it fall out onto a Wedgwood or Doulton salad plate (really, I want a Lynn Chase wild animal plate but we don't have one), place two birthday candles into it. One candle is for me; one is for Fish and we make are two cats so it works! Serve cake to me first, then Fish...

Why Party Animals Cat Cakes are the best: because getting wet canned food is a very special treat.

My Birthday is the 28th. Eight days from now I will be two years old. Fish will be two, too. He's my brother.

Have I mentioned any of this before?

Purringly,

Whistle

Eleven days, count em', 11 days until my birthday! I'll be two! That's 2 big old just-about-grown-up years old!

Fish's birthday is the same day. He was born first and weighed more than I did. Now I am bigger than he is but he lost weight when he hurt his leg. He's gaining it back in his new persona, I mean, catsona as Brother Fish.

Almost my birthday!,

Fish

P.S. My Aunt LLS in NC says she can't believe we are having another birthday. She said we just had one. Mom told her, "No, Whistle talks about it all the time, year-round."