Trixie's Patriotic Sunday Selfie and Exceedingly Spooky Caturday Art

Hallo again, Effurrybody!

Queen Trixie here, Furrst of My Name, Empurress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East, Queen of Hearts, the Panfur Princess, Guardian of the Boudoir, Alpha-Kitty Extraordinaire, leading the J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightfully and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Here is My Selfie.

Do you see My Nice New Box? It came with Our Last Order from Animal Shop and contained 10 bags of the new kind of litter We are using for Our litter-boxes. Mummy saw they had a special offer on crystal litter a couple of months ago, so We tried it and were furry satisfied. It doesn't stick to Our furs or leave dust trails nearly as much as the clay-based clumping litter We were using before, and it controls odours much better. Besides which, it's kind of pretty (mol).  So that's what We are using now.
What do you think? What kind of litter do you prefurr (if that's not too purrsonal a question)?

For Our Caturday Art, We have taken note that Howloween is almost upon Us. We used LunaPic's Dark filter at 77%, and some of their Clipart. Do you think the result is sufficiently Spooky? We certainly do!

And here are the blog hop badges:

            

Last night, We put the clocks back one hour, so Mummy had the chutzpah to think She could sleep an extra hour this meowning and make Us wait for Our Breakfast! Well, naturally, We weren't having any of that so We sang the Song of Our People and did zoomies all over the place, until She had no choice but to get up and feed Us!

Despite that giveaway that Autumn is really here, there is no sign of rain and, in fact, We "enjoyed" tempurratures of up to 30 C over the weekend.  

Uncle D. made it safely back to London, although his departure was marked by a truly fur-raising expurrience. Well, it raised Our furs anyway, though Uncle D. claimed nobody on board panicked. On the afternoon that Uncle D. flew home, there were several heavy missile barrages aimed at Tel Aviv. Uncle D. was one of the furrst to board his airy-plane, and was sitting in his seat talking to Mummy on his meowbile phone when there was another rocket attack from Gaza. They were parked there on the tarmac like sitting ducks! There would have been no possibility to get effurrybody off the airy-plane and into a safe space in the 90 seconds at their disposal, so they just carried on boarding, while the Iron Dome air defence system did its work.  NOT something We would care to expurrience Ourselves! 

Now, It is time for Us to sign off, as Mummy has to have a rest before going to Caterwauling practice. They have started up again, after taking a break during the furrst week of the War, because people felt that singing together would give them strength. And do you know what? Mummy says it really did help. She doesn't caterwaul all over the house like She used to before the War, but She says it did help enormously to be with other people and to be able to detach herself for a couple of hours from the dreadful situation all around Us.

      

Till next time, then.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Shimshi's Solemn Caturday Art and Sunday Selfie

Hallo again, Effurrybuddies!

As you know, things here in Israel are furry sad and worrying. More and more details are emerging of the terrible things the Evil Ones from Gaza (We can hardly bring Ourselves to call them humans and We certainly wouldn't insult animals by calling them animals!) did in their attack in the south of Israel two weeks ago. Mummy will write about that in her own blog maybe, in the coming days.

I, the Mighty Shimshon (aka the Little Purrince) etc. etc., Shimshi for short, am finding it harder than effur to carry out My Duties as Master of the Queen's Mischiefs. I have to keep Mummy's spirits up, but it is not easy in these dreadful times. I have been snuggling with her a lot - well, We all have - and I do my best to make her smile, but there is little to smile about. So you will all understand why I am looking so solemn in my selfie.

Yes, dear anipals, it is My Turn to lead my Fellow J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightful, and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Furrst of all, I need to show My True Colours, as I am also Captain of the Guard:

We don't often use LunaPic's Sadness filter, and certainly not at anything like full strength -  but this week, it would be justified. Still, We would not allow Mummy to give in to complete despair and so it is set at 85%:

Another filter that We don't often use - if effur - is Pen. Here, We set it at 65%:

And here are the blog hop badges:  

            

And now to another reason for Mummy's sadness. Yesterday, October 21st, was Possum's yahrzeit - 11 years since he flew off to the Rainbow Bridge. We wish to honour him by posting his pawtrait here, in remembrance of Possum the MagnifiCat.

Here he is in his kittenhood, shortly after he furrst came to Mummy:

He was so tiny - but he grew to be a Really Big Mancat (just like Me, Mummy says).
He is always in Mummy's heart and will neffur, effur, be forgotten.

One nice thing We can tell you is that Uncle D. is back with Mummy, after having spent a couple of weeks at Auntie N's apawtment. He was meant to fly back to England last Sunday, but his flight was cancelled, because of the War. He managed to book another flight, which was supposed to leave on Friday - the day before yesterday - but that, too, was cancelled. So now he has booked with El Al and is supposed to leave the day after tomorrow (Tuesday). Meanwhile, he is staying here again with Us for a few more days.  He cooked supper for Mummy on Friday - stuffed, roast chick-hen and roast potatoes. She said it was yummy, but they didn't give Us any. Mummy said that's because Uncle D. used a lot of garlic and onion in the cooking, both of which are furry, furry bad for kitties. (We think that's just an excuse. What do you think, dear furriends?)

At all events, it cheered Mummy up quite a lot to have Uncle D.'s company.

And now, Dear Furriends, it's time to sign off. If We don't find time to visit you all today, look out for Us over the course of the week.

Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Caspurr's Heartbroken Caturday Art and Sunday Selfie

Greetings, Effurryone!

It is I, Field Marshall Sir Caspurr the Courageous here, repurresenting the J-Cats in this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by Our Dear Furriends, the Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet. 

Who would have believed that after Trixie's post last week, things would get even worse?

As you know, we are at war, dear furriends. Since we last posted, bloodcurdling details have emerged of the terrible things the evil humans from Gaza did. Mummy wrote about some of them in her own blog last week. We don't want to write about them here, but We must tell you that the Hamas-ISIS murderers even slaughtered the animals in the kibbutzim which they managed to over-run.

Many people from areas nearest to the borders have been evacuated to safer places, but have been forced to leave behind beloved pets, as well as farm animals. And there were many furbabies who were so terrified of all the rockets and mortars and gunfire, that they fled.  And that's without taking into account the many pet-owners who were murdered and left their furbabies orphans. Volunteer organisations are trying to take care of them.

We are determined, however, to do Our Best to stay in touch with you all and to keep posting effurry Sunday.

So, here is an artified, close-up pawtrait of me. Mummy didn't hesitate for so much as a minute in choosing a filter - LunaPic's Brave filter, at 100%.

And here are the blog hop badges:

        

The heartbreak of the past week is not only due to the War. We also learnt of the departure for the Rainbow Bridge of two beloved Feline Furriends - Brian, the handsome, gentle mancat from Brian's Home, and Sage (aka TKS), the sweet panfur princess from Savannah's Paw Tracks.  Our sincerest and most heartfelt condolences to their pawrents and families. May these two precious furbabies now run free, forever young and healthy again, in the endless nip fields beyond the Bridge, safe in the Loving Paw of the Great Cat in the Sky.

That's all for now, dear anipals. We will try to visit as many of you as We can, over the course of the week.

Meanwhile, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Trixie's Sad and Worried Caturday Art and Sunday Selfie

Greetings, Effurrybody!

We are back to taking it in turn to repurresent the J-Cats in the weekend blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by those Delightful and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

This week, it is MY Turn, Queen Trixie, Furrst of My Name, etc. etc. to be the J-Cats' official presenter:

This has been a furry sad and worrying weekend for all of Us.  Saturday should have been a wonderful, happy day, because it was the Mewish festival of Simchat Torah. But instead, Mummy woke up a few minutes before 7 am and something told her to turn on the radio. Then she discovered that for the past half hour, the Evil Humans in the Gaza Strip had been firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli towns and villages (later, it transpired there had been over 5000 in all!) Mummy was wary but not too worried, because they usually don't fire rockets at Jerusalem, and if they do, it's usually just one or two, just to show they can. She got up to get breakfast for Us, and a cup of coffee and a sandwich for herself. Well, she managed to give Us Our Brekkie, but then She got distracted by the news reports that said that in addition to the missiles, dozens of Hamas terrorists from Gaza had also infiltrated Israel and were roaming around freely in several towns and villages in the south, murdering people and taking hostages!

And then She We all heard them - the sirens warning of a rocket attack. Mummy dived under the heavy oak table in the living-room, because the air-raid shelter is three floors down an unprotected outside staircase, and in any case, Mummy was still in her rather skimpy nightie. There were a couple of booms, which Mummy said must be the Iron Dome system intercepting the rockets. 

After a few minutes, during which time, She was WhatsApping other family members to make sure effurryone was okay, Mummy felt it was safe enough to come out.  We all thought that that was that, as far as Jerusalem was concerned, but no! There were four or five more Red Alerts during the morning.

And then it became clear that a full-scale war was in the offing. Mummy will write about that in her own bloggie, of course, if not today, then tomorrow. Part 2 of her adventures in Montenegro last month will just have to wait. 
Mummy would also like to mention that her bloggie has a Fursbook page. She might post short updates there if She can't find time to write a full-length article. We also apawlogise if We can't find much time for visiting Our Furriends this week. We will do Our best but We need to stay close to the TeeVee, to keep abreast of what's happening. There is a high pawsibility of war in the north also.

   
Meanwhile, We kitties have a new duty - purrtecting Mummy from the Boomies. I, Trixie, am Chief Air Raid Warden. Naturally, I wear a helmet to keep Me safe. For Our Caturday Art, here is a pawtrait of Me in My Camouflage Helmet, artified using LunaPic's Scribble filter at 30%:

As if Our weekend wasn't sad enough, We also received the heartbreaking news that Pattie Kleinke, known to most of us as TW (The Woman) from Cathy Keisha's blog Stunning Keisha, has lost her battle with the evil cancer and crossed her own Rainbow Bridge. We send hugs and gentle purrs of condolence to her beloved kitty, Cathy Keisha (CK) and to her Dad, Fred (aka Pop).

Now, here are the blog hop badges.

        

Thanks to all of you who left Us messages of support, or who mailed Us to make sure We are all safe in these furry difficult times.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Welcome To Our Sukkah: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo again, Effurrybuddies!

This weekend, all three of Us will be taking part in the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by Our Dear Furriends, the Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

That is because Mummy managed to catch all three of Us together, not fighting, in a lovely, restful Ussie:

We artified this using LunaPic's Edtaonisi filter at 50%. We haven't used this effect for quite a while, for some reason, but We are furry satisfied with the results:

Now that Sukkot (Tabernacles) is here, the weather is finally showing some signs that it is, actually autumn. The sky is quite cloudy today, and We heard there might be some sky-water, especially in the north, but We haven't seen any here in Jerusalem as yet. In fact, We hope it doesn't rain until after Sukkot, because nobody wants a soggy, water-logged sukkah, do they? Especially when We put so much effort into building ours and decorating it and making it all purrty so We could welcome all Our Furriends whom We hope will come to visit Us during the week. We hope YOU will be among them. We will be there effurry day till Furriday, from 9am till 6pm Israel time (only till noon on Furriday) , eating, playing, eating, sleeping, eating, playing, eating, sleeping. Do come and join Us! We are waiting for you!

 

Now, for those of you who want to see more pictures of Mummy's adventures in Montenegro and read more about her vacation, We are happy to announce that the first part of a planned 3-part series is up and running on her own bloggie since this morning. 

It is now time to join the blog hops, so before We forget, here are the blog hop badges:

         

Don't forget to come and visit Us in Our Sukkah and join Us for some refreshments, or even a meal.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.