Bath-time Frolics

Hallo again, Effurrybuddies!

Yes, it's Me - the Mighty Shimshon (Shimshi for short)!
I've learned such a lot since Trixie and Caspurr last let me talk to you.
For example, I've learned what fun baths and sinks are.

It was Trixie who first gave me the hint. She prefers the sink, but the bath is much bigger and I thought it would be more fun. I even jumped in there when Mummy turned the shower on. Usually, she shuts us in the bedroom when she has a shower because the bathroom door doesn't close properly, but this time, I sneaked in behind the washing machine.

But oh! kitties! I had such a shock.
Not because of the water from the shower - that was fun.
But kitties! what happened to Mummy's fur?

At last I understand why Mummy has to wear "clothes". How ever can she bear the shame?

Now I'm afraid, kitties! I'm scared! Truly scared!

Will I lose all my fur too one day?

The Learning Curve

Hallo, Effurryone!

Trixie and I (Caspurr the Tigger-Tabby) have been teaching Little Shimshi lots of new things this week. At the same time, we had to learn a few new things ourselves - such as what to do when the nasty, scary sirens go off, to warn of an attack of boomies. Our Human rushes down to the Bomb Shelter but She hasn't time to look for Us first, because She only has a minute and a half to get there and We, of course, are never all together in the same place when the siren goes off.

She says that's another one of Murphy's Laws. Who is this Murphy. anyway? He seems to have an awful lot of funny laws.

Anyway, we have been lucky, Mummy says, that we only had the Boomie Warning in Jerusalem three times, since all This Business started. (We have tried to find out what "This Business" is, kitties, but all We know is that there are Bad Humans shooting at Us.)  Mummy speaks on the phone effurry day to her auntie in Ashkelon, which is a city by the seaside, down south. Mummy's auntie says they have boomie attacks there effurry day, even several times a day!

So, to get back to the Things We Have Had to Learn, Mummy says that when the Boomie Warning goes off, we must take shelter somewhere safe, away from windows and not in the bathroom, and definitely not on the balcony, so as not to be hit by flying fragments of glass or ceramics, if a boomie should happen to fall nearby or on the roof.
We think that under the bed, or inside the wardrobe, cushioned by all Mummy's clothes, seems the best option...

Love and kissies to you all, dear anipals and please keep purring that We and Mummy will be safe from the boomies.

Shabbat Shalom

The J-Cats xoxoxox

Big Boomies

Hallo, Effurrybody!

It's Me here, Trixie the Alpha Kitty/Black Panfur.

There have been furry strange occurrences this past week! Twice, we heard frightening, wailing sirens, making a horrible noise, and before we could emerge from our hidey-holes to investigate, Mummy rushed out of the house, locked the door and didn't come back for at least ten minutes. And while She was away, we heard nasty, loud boomies!

We often hear boomies, when there are celebrations in the Arab village across the road, and then we can see pretty coloured lights in the sky, which Mummy says are called "fireworks". And She says there's no need to be scared of the fireworks (as if we would be scared of anything!) because they can't hurt Us. But these boomies were louder and there were no pretty colours this time.  And afterwards, on Fursbook, We saw that the boomies were caused by Bad Humans shooting rockets at Us.

Mummy was only away for about ten minutes at the most, and when She came back,  I rushed to greet her, to make sure She was okay. Shimshi slept through it all.

And Caspurr, as usual, took all the excitement in his stride.

We totally understand if Mummy was frightened of the boomies, but We think that, instead of running off to the Bomb Shelter, with all the neighbours, She should have stayed here with Us and allowed Us to protect her.

Don't you agree, kitties?

A Few Words from the Newest J-Cat

Hallo, Effurrybuddies!

My name is Shimshon but effurryone calls me Shimshi!

I don't remember much about my early life, before I came to live here with my Human Mummy. I had a kitty-mama once, but she didn't want me and refused to feed me :-(
My Human Mummy says that's not because my kitty-mama didn't love me, but because she was furry young herself and she didn't have enough milk for me and my brofur, so she chose the one who she thought was most likely to grow up.
I was furry frightened when she left me, I didn't know who would look after me, but then a Human lady scooped me up and brought me here, to my Human Mummy, who promised to take care of me.

I remember one night, about a week after I came here, I got furry, furry sick and Mummy held me in her arms for a long, long time, till I started to feel a bit better. And then she gave me my name, the Mighty Shimshon - but that's much too long to say, so they all call me Shimshi.

It's nice here. I have plenty to eat and drink and toys to play with.
And I have a Big Sisfur and a Big Brofur too!

Big Brofur is called Caspurr. He's COOL! He lets me play with him and he's taught me to wrestle and he doesn't mind if I curl up next to him when he goes to sleep.

I don't think Big Sisfur Trixie likes me furry much though. She won't play with me and she hisses at me a lot. But then, she hisses at Caspurr as well. 
Maybe she just doesn't like boy-kitties. But sometimes, she comes up and sniffs at me, and lets me play "Catch" for about one minute, before hissing me away again. I don't understand it. She has such funny moods. Are all girl-cats like that, I wonder?

Oh-oh-oh! Mummy is just getting lunch ready! Gotta go! Bye for now! See you all later!

Roll Out the Red Carpet

Furr-iends! Kitties! Anipals!

It is with mixed feelings great pleasure that We announce the Official Adoption of Shimshon the Mighty (aka Shimshi) to Our Happy Family. From today, this is his Furever Home.

Yes, it's O-fish-ull.

Shimshi is now a J-Cat.

I have to tell you that Caspurr is taking his duties as a Big Brofur furry, furry seriously! He has been teaching Shimshi the secrets of wrestling - at which Shimshi has proved himself a fast learner.

Naturally, I myself am snoopervising, as this is Caspurr's fursst teaching assignment. I am keeping a close watch on what goes on and drawing Mummy's attention whenever the Boys get too boisterous (mol).

I have to make certain that Shimshi also learns the impawtance of taking a Nap between each activity. Sometime, furry little kitties are apt to forget this. 

I am still rather stressed by this new turn of events and it isn't made any easier by Mummy getting upset just because I peed on the sofa and on the bed once or twice. I didn't mean to pee on her too, it just happened...

However, to get back to Shimshi - as Alpha Cat and Queen of this Household (as well as of all Jerusalem, Israel and the entire Middle East), I have decided to be gracious and to throw a Welcome Pawty for the newest J-Cat tomorrow afternoon (Shabbat) at 6pm Israel time. It is furry, furry hot, so there will be cooling Catmint Juleps, micecream and other such treats, suitable for such weather.

We are looking forward to seeing you all.

Shabbat Shalom!

Trixie the Black Panfur.

In the Twinkling of an Eye

Hallo, Effurrybody!

It is I, Trixie the Splendiferous. It falls to Me to keep all our anipals posted about what is going on in Our House. Caspurr is too busy playing with Intruder Kitty Shimshi. 

Kitties, I am furry, furry concerned about developments on that front. Caspurr and the new kitty are getting along fine, but the Silly Baby seems to prefurr Caspurr's company to mine. Kitties, I just know Shimshi is going to be a furry BIG mancat when he grows up - you can tell by the size of his paws - and I'm afraid he and Caspurr will start ganging up on Me. It's bad enough now, with just Caspurr to deal with. As I have mentioned before, effurry time I find myself a comfortable perch and make it my own, Caspurr comes along and pushes Me aside. I was nice to him when he was a little baby kitten and I taught him effurrything I knew about Cathood, and look how he has repaid Me! Now I'm afraid it's going to be the same story with Shimshi and I'll find Myself pushed around and bullied by both of them!

But I won't think about that now. I am going to concentrate on Happy Things! Kitties, tonight is a special night. It's the festival of Shavuot. Mummy told Us that there is a legend about the night of Shavuot. At midnight, for just a split second, the heavens part and you can see the Great Cat in the Sky and all his angels. And then you can make a wish and the Great Cat in the Sky will grant your heart's desire. But you have to be quick. If you blink, you might miss it. It's all over in the twinkling of an eye. Mummy thinks that's why, year after year, she has stayed awake, hoping to see the Miracle, but she has never succeeded in doing so.

But We Cats have a distinct advantage over Humans in that area, don't We, kitties? Who is better equipped to sit and stare at the sky for ages, without blinking?

Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday) to you all!

An Eventful Weekend

Kitties (and other Anipals)!

It has been such a hectic weekend! 

As you all know, We have been tem-purr-rarily banned from the Balcony, because of Intruder Kitty. Well, on Shabbat, Mummy decided  (on the advice of the nice Lady V-e-t) to let Us start getting acquainted with the Invader. So She let Us come and say Hallo, one at a time. As you can imagine, Caspurr just sat and stared at him and didn't care much one way or the other, but I (Trixie) was much more cautious and kept my distance. After all - who knows what he might have? Fleas (though Mummy said that was already dealt with)? Ringworm (the v-e-t said our own immune systems are strong enough to resist it now, if the Intruder has it)? Lice (Mummy has seen no sign of it). Worms (very probably)?

After a furry, furry short meeting, We were again banished from the Balcony. Mummy went to have her Shabbat nap and in the early evening, went to check up on Intruder Kitty and found him unconscious!!! His eyes were closed, he hardly seemed to be breathing and Mummy could get no reaction from him.

In a panic, she called the v-e-t's Emergency Number but the v-e-t said that Mummy must remember they had discussed Fading Kitten Syndrome (Mummy says She has no such memory) and that the kitten had already received antibiotics (a low dosage) as a preventative measure (in case the fleas had transmitted a virus to the little kitty). The only thing Mummy could do, said the v-e-t (who Mummy thought sounded less sympathetic than She had expected) was to keep the kitty warm - and pray.

Mummy was terribly upset and she phoned Step-Grandma (you remember, kitties, that it was Step-Grandma who had talked Mummy into fostering Intruder Kitty in the first place), but she, too, was not all that sympathetic and told Mummy to remember that, when all's said and done, it was still "only a cat"!!!

So Mummy wrapped the little kitty in a thick towel and sat there, not even getting up to go to the bathroom, just cradling him in her arms like a baby and massaging his chest and tummy once in a while. And she prayed aloud to the Great Cat in the Sky not to let him die. And she said We should purr for Intruder Kitty also, so We did - because even though We didn't want to share Our Home with another kitty, that doesn't mean We wanted him to fly away to the Bridge.

After a couple of hours or so, the little kitty raised his head and struggled to turn over on his tummy. And Mummy realised that he would find it easier to breathe that way so She let him have his way. But the kitty still didn't open his eyes and his breathing was still very shallow.

So Mummy prayed harder than ever, and We came over to Mummy because We saw how upset She was, and We wanted to comfort her.

And then, kitties, after another half hour or so, Mummy put the little kitty, still wrapped up in the towel, down on the sofa, because She said She just had to go to the bathroom and She made US go back into her bedroom, because She was afraid to leave him and Us alone together (as if We couldn't be trusted!!!). And when She came out of the bathroom, She let Us back out of the bedroom and We came to look at poor little Intruder Kitty.

Then Mummy sat down on the sofa and picked up the little kitty in her arms and do you know what happened then, kitties?

The little kitty opened his eyes. And he tried to struggle out of Mummy's arms. So Mummy put him down on the sofa again and he struggled to his feet. And he began to try climbing up the cushion at the side of the sofa! And then he started miaowing furry loudly. Mummy couldn't think what he wanted at first, but then she thought maybe she'd offer him some food. (Caspurr says that was his idea - but that's because Food is always Caspurr's first thought in any situation. He's such a Greedy Kitty).

Anyway, Mummy offered the food (a mixture of dry kibbles, softened in water, and some special kitten diet moist food) to the little kitty and he wolfed it down as if he was starving! And then he went over to his water bowl and drank some water.

And then he went and slept for a bit and later, he woke up and ate some more, and when Mummy finally went to bed way past midnight, she thought the Crisis was over. And on Sunday morning (yesterday), Intruder Kitty acted like nothing had happened!!! But Mummy still can't feel easy in her mind, because She has been reading about FKS on the Internet and it seems it can strike kittens up to 9 weeks old, with no warning, even when they have previously seemed to be doing fine. (Intruder Kitty is 5 and a half weeks old). She says she won't feel safe for another few weeks yet.

The next day (yesterday), Mummy decided that Intruder Kitty was such a brave little fighter, that he deserved a hero's name, so she decided to call him after Samson in the Bible (Shimshon, in Hebrew - or Shimshi, for short).

So that seems to be it, kitties! We're stuck with him! If Mummy has given him a name, that means he's here for good. We don't want him to die, so We are just going to have to make the best of it.

And I (Trixie the Splendiferous) am going to have to make sure he knows his place and that I am the Alpha Cat around here!!!