The Glorious Twelfth Is Here Again!

Greetings, Effurrybody!

It is I, Queen Trixie, Empress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East.

I have a furry impawtant announcement to make.

For those of you who may have furr-gotten (impossible as that may seem) - today is My Birthday.

Today I am three years old.

Since it is the middle of the week, and Mummy has such a lot to do, We shall be holding My Official Pawty on Shabbat afternoon, as usual, at 5 pm when it starts to get cooler. You - my Dear Furriends - are all invited, of course. 

Since my birthday falls smack in the middle between World Cat Day and Black Cat Appreciation Day (and I am most truly a Black Cat), this will be an Extra Big Celebration.

Meanwhile, I have already received my Birthday Present from Mummy. After giving Me my favourite Shrimp, Cod and Salmon Fancy Feast for breakfast, She took Me to have My portrait painted by the famous painter, Miaownet. I think M'sieur Miaownet's impurrsionist technique really brings out the undertones of colour in my beautiful black furs, wouldn't you agree?
   

And since my brofurs, Caspurr and Shimshi, thought it would be nice for Us to have a little birthday celebration en famille, as well as My Official Birthday Pawty, they are taking Me out later this evening to a nightclub -  a new one called Le Chateau du Chat Noir (that means "The Castle of the Black Cat" - mol).
So I am now going to have a nice, long nap in order to be completely rested and refreshed because when my fur-sibs and I go out to party - boy, do We party!

Don't furr-get now! I'm looking forward to seeing you all this Shabbat afternoon, because it's going to be the bestest pawty effur!

Boomie Drill

Hallo again, Effurryone!

You remember the boomies we wrote about last summer, and how we used to hide in the wardrobe among Mummy's clothes, while Mummy had to run down to the Boomie Shelter?

Well, a few days ago, We were just having a little Nap when we were startled to hear the horrid, wailing sound of the Boomie Warning Siren!

We were about to dive for cover when Mummy said not to worry, it was just a Drill!

Well, We were furry, furry relieved, as you can imagine, but once We had got over our alarm, We began to feel Highly Indignant! What did the Humans at Civil Defence mean by scaring Us like that!?

Mummy thinks it was because the Humans in a country called Iran want to get a horrible kind of Boomie and shoot it at Us. So We have to be prepared.

We don't understand why they would want to shoot Boomies at Us. We know all about Iran, kitties. It used to be called Purr-sia. But We don't have any quarrel with Purr-sia. We love Purr-sian kitties! They are beautiful and furry and effur so good-natured. Some of our best furr-iends are Purr-sian kitties. We are sure if the Purr-sian kitties were in charge, they wouldn't be trying to make Boomies.

So we want to call on all the kitties in Purr-sia to tell their Humans not to make Boomies. Boomies are Bad. If their Humans make Boomies, then effurrybody else will make Boomies and start shooting them at each other and a lot of innocent kitties and their Human Mummies and Daddies will get sent to the Bridge.

Please help Us spread the message.

NO BOOMIES!

S.S.T.

Hallo again, Effurrybody!

It is I, Queen Trixie, Guardian of the Boudoir and Alpha Kitty Extraordinaire.
I want to update you on some furry impawtant news. Perhaps the Most Impawtant News of the Year!

You remember a few months back, I told you that I had been made a           Purr-fessor of S.S.T. at the Feline University of Jerusalem? (That's Synchronised Sleeping Techniques, for those of you who haven't been paying attention.)
Well, last week, my furrst students passed their end-of-year exams with such success that the University Administration has decided that the course - an experimental one, which has never before been offered at any university - will become a purr-manent fixture and, as a result, I have been granted tenure!

What do you think of that, kitties?

For those of you unfamiliar with S.S.T., I am going to explain the concept, with the assistance of my two best students - Caspurr and Shimshi.

You may have noticed that when two or more kitties live together in close proximity, their sleeping patterns tend to be similar. Not only do they sleep at the same time but they have a tendency to sleep in similar positions.

Thus:

Not quite identical, but furry, furry close, as you can see. 

Not only that but, when one kitty moves in his or her sleep, changing positions, there is a high probability that the other kitty will mirror the moves of his or her companion.

These mirror moves don't always turn out quite right:

The goal of my S.S.T. course is to enable companion kitties to perform in-sleep manoeuvres simultaneously and in complete synchronisation.

It was not easy at furrst, I have to admit. My students required individual tutoring and close snoopervision:

Not quite, this time - but Caspurr learned fast, and by the end of the semester, his moves were nearly purrfect:

Shimshi required a bit more coaching, as his attention often wandered:

Indeed, there were times when I almost felt like giving up:

However, I purr-severed, and I am glad that I did. I realised that Caspurr could be invaluable as a Teaching Assistant. Here we are working together, to demonstrate a purr-ticularly tricky position to Shimshi:

I found that the two of them worked well together, as this next photo shows:

Note the small details, such as the way both cats have the tail firmly held in place by the extended forepaw.

So well did they work together, in fact, that I was miaowtivated to invent some new manoeuvres especially for them, one of which I am demonstrating here:

Finally, no less impawtant that the Synchronised Manoeuvres while sleeping, are the Wake-Up and Stretch Techniques to be purr-formed at the end of the exercise. Here, we can see Caspurr demonstrating an advanced Touch Your Toes exercise:

So pleased are We with the success of this course that our hope is to have S.S.T. included as a Recognised Sport at the next Kitty Olympics. We are therefore asking you all to join Us in lobbying the International Feline Olympic Committee (IFOC) to that purr-pose. There is only just over a year to go. Can we count on your support?

I will leave you now with best wishes for a pleasant weekend. 

Shabbat Shalom from Moi, Queen Trixie and from my brofurs, Caspurr the Tigger Tabby and Shimshon the Mighty (aka Shimshi).

Laser Eyes

Hallo there, Effurryone!

We are stlll waiting for the Cat Condo Mummy promised to get Us when We moved into our new palace.  She now says that will have to be put on hold, as she has to replace her Sucky Monster (must you, Mummy?) and her Microwave Oven, which got dedded, somehow. She needs to use the money she would have used for Our New Condo. 

And We are tired of the rubber balls and mousies with feathers, because, in any case, Shimshi keeps stealing them and hiding them and then fur-getting where he hid them.

So we invented a new game. You know that game where the Human flashes a laser light point around? Well, We've gone one better. We discovered that Shimshi has really powerful Laser Eyes and he can cast light spots on the walls for Trixie and Me to chase. 

Look!

We ran around after those light spots so much, I am quite exhausticated!
Now I am off to watch TV with Mummy and my fur-sibs. At least - they can watch TV. I am going to have a(nother) nap.

Have a Good Week!

Caspurr the Tigger-Tabby King

Impawtant Dates to Remember

Hallo again, Effurrybuddies!

This is Me, the Mighty Shimshon. I just wanted to remind you all that today, May 15th, is my Gotcha Day. 

Sort of. 

It is exactly one year since Step-Grandma brought me to live here, with Mummy and with my fur-siblings, Trixie and Caspurr. But, as you may recall, Mummy wasn't sure at the time that She could look after Three Kitties and so it was more than a month till I was Officially Adopted into the J-Cat Family.

However, We are going to celebrate my Gotcha Day tomorrow, so we can, once again, combine two celebrations in one. Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim, the 48th anniversary of the Liberation and Reunification of Jerusalem in the Six Day War. That was a furry, furry long time ago, even in Human Years - let alone Cat Years! It was long befurr I was born. Long befurr Caspurr and Trixie were born. Long befurr Possum and Pixie or even Minxie (who lived in the pre-blogging era) were born.

Jewish holidays start the evening before and Shabbat falls right between My Gotcha Day and Yom Yerushalayim, so - out of consideration for The Staff - we are going to have just one (furry big) combined pawty.

You are all invited, of course! We are going to have a Fish Barbecue, with plenty of salmon and tuna and trout and cod and seafood. And mice-cream for dessert. And nip cocktails. We shall start in the late afternoon, when it gets cooler. So let's say five pm Israel time. Anyone who wants to come early to help us get set up, will be most welcome. It's going to be on the (sort of) Patio...
And then we shall have a Disco Dance.

Trixie says we need to dance in order to work off all the calories We shall have consumed. I don't know why girl-cats are always thinking about dieting and so-on, do you?

Anyways, We are looking furr-ward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Have a nice Shabbat!

In Loving Memory - Nerissa (Nissy)

We are all so sad to hear that our Dear Furriend, the amazing Nissy, has left us - far too soon and way before his time -  and flown away to the everlasting nip fields at the Bridge.  We are too shocked and grieved to be able to write about anything else and anyway, Mummy's eyes are leaking too much to be able to see the keyboard properly.

We wish we were clever at graphics like the wonderfully talented Ann from the Zoolatry blog, who created this beautiful memorial badge in Nissy's honour: 

Alas, we have no such talents, neither does Our Human. We are only good with words, not pictures. But even here, we think the best tribute We can pay to Our Beloved Furriend Nissy, is to adopt the word he himself invented, and thus keep his memory alive furr-ever, wherever the English Feline language is spoken.

What else can one say, anyway, when one is at a loss for words?

MOUSES!

A Double Celebration

Hallo, Effurrybody!

Well, as I mentioned last week, on Shabbat afternoon, We had a Huge Pawty to celebrate Shimshi's Coming-of-Age (he is now One Year Old) and Caspurr's second Gotcha Day. 

Shimshi is a furry impatient kitty. When Mummy gave him the Prezzie She had bought him, he practically tore it out of her paws hands and then tried to climb into the bag it was in:

And when he saw what it was (a lovely, bouncy rubber ball with lots of fevvas), he ran off with it before either Caspurr or I could so much as get a look at it! It's lucky Mummy was there with her flashy box to show you what it was like before Shimshi could pull all the fevvas off!

Naturally, Caspurr was off in a flash after Shimshi and the pretty green ball:

But Shimshi was having none of that so Caspurr had to make do with an old sock of Mummy's filled with catnip. That was an exceptionally good toy, because it smelled of both Mummy and nip (purrs).

As for Moi, I was so exhausticated from all the pre-purrations for the Pawty, I just had to have a rest!

I just hope my brofurs truly appurreciate all the Hard Work Mummy and I put in to make their Joint Pawty a Success!

Now - lest you should think We are done with celebrations for a while - We are looking forward to Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israel's Independence Day) which is celebrated this coming Thursday! The traditional way of celebrating that is with a Barbecue in the garden or yard. So We shall be having another Pawty in just Four Days Time - at 3 pm Israel Time.

And, of course, you're all invited!