This Is My Sister

Here are two pictures of my sister. She was my feral littermate. Our neighbors adopted her. We call her August - that is the month we showed up in the back yard. The neighbors call her Leila. My people take care of her sometimes. As you can see, she is much bigger than me. But she has xray eyes like me! They reflect in the floor! She likes nip, as you can see in the pics.

When we were kittens, we were very good pals. Even after August went to live with the neighbors, she would still come over and run through the house and get treats and pets. When my brother Onyx came to live with us, he wouldn't let her in anymore.

She is a very friendly cat, but I like having my people to myself. The food dude is sorta sick, so I am being a comfort cat.

Happy New Year to all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here is a picture of me with my Christmas tree, and also one of my admiring my tree. It has ornaments hanging low so I can bat them around. It also has presents underneath. I got a big dose of nip!!! MMMMMMM.

It has been pretty cold in San Francisco, so I've mostly been staying inside, doing a lot of lap sitting, napping in big warm Irish wool blankets, and chasing pen tops when I get bored. The racoons visited a few nights ago. I laughed at them out on the deck. They wanted to come inside but the cat door was shut. I guess they were looking for Santa.

Also I have been watching the sad news about the tiger killed at the San Francisco zoo when it somehow escaped from its cage. I don't think I would like to be kept in a cage all the time. We are also sad for the people who were hurt and who died. This was a tragedy. So I am saying kitty prayers for them all.

Kitty prayers and good wishes for the New Year to the cats and the bloggers. Maybe one of you blogging cats could email my people and tell them how to make my eyes look right. I really don't have xray vision!

Thanksgiving

This is the turkey we had at our house on Thanksgiving. It was 25 pounds of free range turkey. I like turkey very much. This is a picture of me as I waited patiently for the turkey to be given to me - every single morsel of it!

There were many people here for Thanksgiving. I am not very social so I stayed in my bedroom for a long time. But I got lots of turkey and that made me very happy.

I am thankful for my people, for all my new kitty friends, and also for the medicine that makes me healthy. I hope the coyote had a very full Thanksgiving meal too, and maybe he will fall asleep for a long time like Rip Van Winkle.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi cats and kitties and all their people and friends. Today is the day when everyone is saying my name. Little scary people come to the door at night and my people give them treats so they go away and stop scaring me. I like this day because everyone is thinking of ME!

This is the picture I entered in the cat bloggers' Halloween costume contest. If my people tried to put clothes on me, I would not like it. Besides, since my name is Halloween I don't need much more than myself to celebrate this very important day. I am the spirit of Halloween every day. Plus, I think I am sexy with just the feather boa, don't you think? I am hoping to catch the eye of Rocky the Gutter Cat with my skimpy costume.

Have a good Halloween.

Our New Neighbor! Yikes!

Uh oh! This is one of the coyotes that lives on Bernal Hill, right where I live. But this picture was taken right up the block from my house - among the houses where lots of people and cats live. This guy is even scarier than vishus deer, I think. Doesn't his expression seem as though he's looking for tasty, juicy cats to eat? And very hungry too??? This was taken at 10:30 in the Morning!!! I think I'll be staying inside more for a while.

Hello Kitties, Cats and Everyone Else!

Once again my blog has been ignored by my people. Apologies to all. Here is a picture of what I have been doing in the meantime.

My birthday was in August. Now I am 15 years old. I do not act my age though. I have been busy batting around the feather and as many pen tops as I can find. Since the windows are open during the hot time, I like to fight with the strings attached to the window openers too. They fly around in the wind. They are a good game for a kitty.

The food lady has been taking care of my sister August for a few weeks. We were born together. August is called Lila by her people, who live a few doors up the street. When they go away, the food lady takes care of her. She tried to bring Lila down here to stay once, but I hissed so they took her back to her house. August/Lila was the favorite kitty of everyone when we showed up as strays. She can stay at her house with people who love her.

The raccoons have returned. There were 5 baby ones on the deck the other night. The food dude does not like them and yells at them. I think they want to come in and eat my food. No way!

I am going back to sleep. Hope you are all doing well.

My Back Yard Garden

My Food Lady is still busy with her work project. She has been so busy lately that she does not come home at the approved time. This means I stay out late because the Food Dude and Ryan Who Found Me let me do as I please at night. Here is a picture of one of the places I like to hang out in the back yard. The other neighborhood cats like to hide here too. When they do that, I sometimes wish my brother Onyx was still around because he would not permit that.

Nine Things About The Pink People Next Door

I call the people who live next door the Pink People because they have a pink stairway from their back door down to the back yard. You can see it in the pictures of the grey cat on the side bar of the blog and also in the picture showing Rocky on his way back to BART after he came to visit me. This list is a Public Service Announcement in case you are thinking of moving to our neighborhood and might end up as the other neighbor to the Pink People.

1. If you think the pink stairs are colorful, you should see the paint job on the rest of their house. And I am talking about the outside, not the inside! The front is blue, yellow, red, and brown. It is not a Victorian, but no self respecting Victorian house in San Francisco would have those colors anyway. Actually, no self respecting house would have those colors!

2. Since I was a kitten and came to live at my house, the Pink People have had 4 cats, two pit bulls, and 2 geese. This is the City. Animal Control told them that they had to get rid of the geese. The geese were very LOUD, and they liked to talk. The two pit bulls were there for only a few days and then they bit the neighbor's gardener. Animal control took the pit bulls away. About a year after I came here to live, Onyx showed up in the back yard and jumped in my Food Dude's lap one night. He was on our deck the next morning and refused to leave. He became my brother. Turns out that the Pink People had brought Onyx home from the pound and he just decided he wanted to live with us. They got two more cats (George and a whiny kitten) who also tried to move in here. The daughter of the Pink Lady took George and the whiny kitten to live in another place. Now the Grey Cat lives next door. She comes and visits the back yard, eats my grass, and sits in some of the big herb pots back there.

3. The Pink People had a new roof put on their house. Their roofing people climbed onto their roof and dumped all the garbage from their roof in our front yard. They never told my people this was going to happen. And when my people complained to them about it, and said that they were worried about workers falling in our yard, well, the next day one of the roofers fell off their roof into our yard. That was very upsetting.

4. The Pink People do not care about anyone else on the block. They park their cars wherever they want and do not consider leaving space for other people to park.

5. The Pink People decided to burn dry grass and other lawn garbage in their back yard in the summer. They lit the fire at the edge of their yard under one of my big trees. My Food Lady freaked out and told them to put it out because this is how a fire like the one that burned the East Bay got started. They ignored her. The Fire Department came and told them that it was illegal and STUPID to light a fire in the back yard.

6. The Pink People remodeled the inside of their house without permits. They worked on the house at 7:00 am and until 10:00 pm., and pounded on our shared walls.

7. The Pink People put their garbage in a side area that belonged to another neighbor for years. The neighbor had to wall off that area because the Pink People wouldn't stop.

8. The Pink People called the police once. Never mind.

9. The Pink People are not very nice or neighborly to all the neighbors.

So there you have it. What do you think about all of this?

Thursday Thirteen

My Thursday Thirteen is about things I love and hate. So I will tell you 7 things I love and 6 things I hate. I am more of a lover than a hater anyway.

Things I love:

1. I love my food lady. She understands everything I say and has to translate for the rest of the people. She knows exactly what I want to eat and when. She smells good and is nice and toasty, and she lets me snuggle up right next to her in bed.

2. I love going outdoors. I was a feral cat and I will always be a little wild. Every once in a while, I stay out really late at night. This worries my people but I am just spreading the word to the mice and rats to "stay away".

3. I love to be brushed, but only by my food lady and food dude. They know just how to do it.

4. I love roast chicken, pork, steak, cheese, and sitting right next to the food dude while he eats and getting treats from him. The food lady says they're cutting back on this food, but the food dude whispered a secret to me about that food which I promised not to repeat to anyone.

5. I love cat adoration time. This is when my people pick me up and pet me in all the ways I like and tell me I am the best cat in the world. I'm sorry to have to break this to the rest of you blogging cats, but it's the truth. You'll have to settle for second best, third best, etc.

6. I love it when my people do not go to work because then it is all cat adoration, all day. This is when they do my bidding all day and night. It's a good thing because they need me to tell them what to do around here! This place would be lost without me.

7. I love my new couch! This is a picture of me on it. The food dude went a picked it up a week ago. He called it an anteek. I call it comfy! As you can see, I position myself in the middle to get maximum satisfaction. It's mine, mine, mine! They tried to use it a few times but I complained very loudly about that.

Things I hate:

1. I hate loud noises. I'm called Halloween but I am a scaredy cat when it comes to loud noises. This includes the food dude's voice and laughter. Other disturbing noises: vacuum cleaner (also looks like a big snake), hair dryer, leaf blower, FIREWORKS, car backfire, motorcycle, racoons on the deck at night fooling around on the furniture like it's their personal playground, etc., etc.

2. I hate going to the groomer. They put water on me. I've seen photos on cat blogs of cats sitting in sinks. They must be mutants. How could any cat voluntarily sit in a place where water might touch them?

3. Cat toys. They are beneath me. Designed to keep cats stupid - go chase, like dogs. I reject every cat toy given to me. I prefer to make up my own games, and spring them on unsuspecting humans. Bat the plastic pen top is my favorite. I like the feather on a stick game, but just because it makes the people do something.

4. I hate being picked up and carried into the peoples' cat box room. That's because they close the door behind them and then put me in the prison box. I have learned to set my claws on maximum scratch when I see the prison box. So now they try to fool me and act all nice and lovey dovey by picking me up and petting me and telling me I'm the Queen of All the Cats in the World, and make sure I'm looking the other way and then the door shuts and they put me in prison. This is especially mean because their jobs are to try to keep people out of prison boxes (or at least keep them from staying there forever or something), but they still put me in one!

5. Being put in the prison box can mean only one thing: the V-E-T. Like all the rest of you, I hate the VET. Well, maybe Skeezix doesn't hate the VET. He seems to have made himself into a superstar over there at Boulevard Pet Hospital and acts like he likes it there. Maybe I should tell my people to drive across the bay and go to Boulevard Pet Hospital and see if going in the prison box might have a happy ending instead of the pain and torture I am forced to endure.

6. I hate it when my people go away, especially the food lady. I am very picky about people and reject just about anyone who wants to take care of me. Then I take it out on them when they come home by ignoring them.

By the way, thanks to all of you cats who come to visit me. I am always happy to see your posts. My food lady is almost done with her big project so I should have time to visit you all soon and see what is going on in your lives.

Circular Saturday And Some Things About Halloween

Hello Everyone. I haven't been able to post because my person has been hogging the internet for her work. Because of that, I decided to take the opportunity to say a few things about myself and my life while I have the chance. Who knows when I will be able to blog again?

Things about me:

1. My Food Lady works on the computer a lot at home. It is her job to save people from being executed. She is very respectful about how other people feel about this, but she also works very hard to save her clients. So, sometimes she is glued to her computer. That's why I have a love/hate relationship with the innernet and my blog. I have to whine at her, jump on her papers, sit on her desk, or barf on the rug in order to get her attention every once in a while. Sometimes I make her hold me in her left arm while she types with her right arm when I think she is paying too much attention to the computer and not enough to me.

2. That's why I was dubious about the blog idea. I thought the Food Lady was using the blog as a trick to convince me the computer was my friend. I am still not convinced, but it did get Rocky the Gutter Cat to visit so there are a few side benefits.

3. I barf a lot. Everywhere. I have a very delicate stomach. When my feral mommy cat brought us to the Food Lady's house when we were kittens, my mama cat was sick with a bad tummy too. I think I got it from her. I have been to the V-E-T many times for this. I take tasty treat pills before dinner to help me with this since I am entering my golden years, but it looks like I will always be a barf kitty.

4. My people thought I hated cat toys. That is just because it took them 15 years to realize which ones I like. Plastic pen tops are fab! They coast along the wood floors and make lots of noise. They finally got a feather toy that flies around on the end of a stick - they have to wave it around - which I love! I guess they were too lazy to buy one before!

5. I hate water! I will drink it but I avoid having water touch my body on pain of death!

6. There are a lot of cats who visit my back yard. There is one big orange cat that my people call Stealth. Not only does he come on my deck, he sneaks in the cat door and eats my food and then sneaks back out, and no one hears him til he goes back out the door! He is very big and I figure if he is so hungry that he needs to eat some of my food, I will share.

7. It is ok to have other cats visit us and go on the deck, but it is not ok to have other cats come and live with us. I need maximum amounts of cat adoration time and do not want other cats interfering with it. I also do not want other cats interfering with the telepathic messages I send my people, like, "Open up the door to the deck. Who cares if I can use the cat door? Having the people open it is far better!" Or, "Why are you looking at the computer when you can pet a cat?" Or, "I need cat treats. Now!"

The picture you see of me comes from our back deck. The people put that round thing out there and it got nice and warm so I sat in it. Looks just right for me, doesn't it?

Thanks to all the cat friends who have posted here and have visited me.

Rocky The Gutter Cat Comes To Visit!

Look who showed up next door this afternoon! I was so excited I made the special meowing noise I save up for when I have captured a garden snake! Rocky stopped by to say thanks for the Lourdes water. At least it sure looked like Rocky! He came up and took a bit of my nip plant and then showed me how to play dead. Then we cuddled and he took off towards BART. Thanks for a memorable afternoon. You're my mancat dreamcat, Rocky. Sigh...

Friends of Halloween, Rocky the Gutter Cat, and Other Important Information

Hello everyone. Here's a picture of one of my friends - well, she's sort of a friend. This is the Grey Cat who lives next door. She is a little furry cat, even smaller and more dainty than me! She likes to come in my back yard and eat the grass. Sometimes she comes up to the deck to visit the Food Lady. In fact, all the neighborhood cats seem to come up and visit her! I am a little worried about the Grey Cat though. You see, all the cats who move into that house come over here and try to move in. When Onyx showed up and wouldn't leave, we thought he was a stray like me. But after he lived here for a while, the next door people told my people they brought Onyx home from the pound. They brought three other cats home and they all came over and just started walking in the house and eating our food! Onyx chased them away but he's not around anymore. Hmmm... I have other cat friends who come to visit and when they let us take their pictures, I will post them.

I am worried about Rocky the Gutter Cat. He has been very sick lately. We sent him some healing water to try to help him get better. (I am glad the people sent water out of the house. I hate it!)

One of you asked me how I got my name. I am an orange and black tortie. The people thought about calling me Giant (also I am dainty - they thought that would be funny - oh yeah haha) because we live in San Francisco, the Food Dude's favorite team is the Giants, and their colors are black and orange. But the Food Lady loves Halloween, and my colors are Halloween colors. I seemed more witchy than Giant. So that is how I got my name. I do have a nickname -which I HATE. They call me "Weenie". Can you think of anything more insulting?

Send Rocky some love when you have a chance.

The Puppies, The Animal Cops and the Cats

Hello everyone and Happy Mother's Day to all the people moms and cat moms too!

We had quite some excitement in our neighborhood cat community this week. I have a nice back yard on a hill in San Francisco. I have a couple of big trees in my back yard. Neighbor cats like to climb it. Sometimes they like to come up on my deck and visit my food lady too. Anyway, we cats like to sit on each others' fences and check out the yards, trees, birdies, etc. About a month ago, I began hearing some dogs barking quite a bit. Every once in a while it sounded like they might be crying, so I was a bit worried. I would stand at my back door, and listen to them, and wondered if we should call the Animal Cops to visit them and make sure they were ok.

Well, suprise, surprise. The dogs came over to visit themselves on Friday! They are year old puppies but they are big and very rambunctious. They have been watching us cats and decided to try and catch some of us. The puppies got so excited that they jumped over their ginormous fence and ran around my yard!!! They chased my neighbor!! They were a bit scary, and needed to go home, so we did call the Animal Cops.

On Friday, the Animal Cops called us. The Animal Cop who called us is a famous Animal Cop from the San Francisco Animal Care and Control - who was on TV. You can see her picture here.

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/animalcops/sanfran/meet.html (still getting the hang of blogging)

Her name is Sgt. Forrester. We talked to her on Saturday. She told us a sad story about the puppies, but it has a happy ending. The puppies are rescue puppies. They lived with a mean person who broke the leg of one of them. They were taken away from him and came to be our neighbors because they were rescued by their new people. Sgt. Forrester visited the rescue people and said they are animal lovers who are taking very good care of the puppies. Sgt. Forrester said I might hear them crying sometimes because they are adjusting to their new home and that will take a while. She hoped that the cats and puppies could try to get along. Meanwhile, the owners are making the puppy fence even more ginormous so the excited puppies stay in their yard. We cats will still sit on the fences and wave at them though.

My food lady told Sgt. Forrester about the cat blogs and asked her to stop by and take a picture with me for my blog. Sgt. Forrester thought that was funny - I am not sure why. But she said of course she would come and take a picture with me for my blog! Now I just have to get up the courage to let a stranger - even a famous cat loving Animal Cop - hold me because I pretty much only like the food lady, food dude, and Ryan to do that. I will try to make an exception for Sgt. Forrester though.

Meanwhile, my people have made friends with the puppies' people, and we'll probably have a picture of the happy rescue puppies to show you too.

This was a happy ending for all of us. We are especially happy to meet one of the Famous San Francisco Animal Cops though.

Welcome to Halloween The Cat's Blog!

Hello everyone. I am Halloween The Cat. I live in Bernal Heights in San Francisco. I am 15 years old now. I was a feral kitten. My mom showed up in my peoples' backyard in August of 1992. The four year old who is one of my people - his name is Ryan and he is a big guy now - saw my mom and the four of us kittens in the back yard, so he found us. We all lived in the back yard for a while. We used to stand on the deck of the house and have contests to see which one of us could climb highest on the screen door. My brother August always won. He was the biggest. I was the runt. That is why my people took me in. August lives with some neighbors. The other cats went other places and I do not see them any more.

I had a brother named Onyx. Onyx was just sitting on the back deck one morning when I woke up. He did not realize this house already had a cat and he wanted to live here. Onyx would not leave so we let him stay here. Then Onyx wanted me to leave. He used to run over to my cat bowl and try to eat up my food before I got to it so I would think the people weren't feeding me. The people caught him doing that and they would yell, "ONYX, YOU [BAD WORD]!" Then he would just shuffle a couple of steps to the right and eat out of his bowl like nothing happened! And he wouldn't stop eating and chewing the entire time. Onyx liked to sleep on top of the fancy dinner table on the linen runner at night when he thought no one would catch him. But we knew in the morning because there would be a bunch of black cat fur on the linen!

My job was to be the good cat. Onyx's job was to be the bad cat. We were good at our jobs. People always laughed at Onyx because he was so funny and did so many bad things. Once we caught him hanging by his paws and toenails off the side of the countertops. He was hanging there trying to see if there was any food on the countertop that he might like!

Two years ago Onyx got very sick. He used to run around the back yard and keep it safe from interloping cats and racoons. When he got sick, he sat on the deck and could not move very fast. The bluebirds came and pecked him! This made me very mad, because even though Onyx was a pest to me sometimes, I still loved him. Soon after that, Onyx went to the Rainbow Bridge and my people were very sad. Especially my food dude, because he and Ryan were Onyx's special people. They missed him very much. So - don't get mad about this. I got even with the blue birds and took one of the birdies and put it by the back door a couple of days after Onyx died. They had been very mean to him while he was sick and defenseless so I had to teach them a lesson. I miss Onyx too but I like being a one cat household now.

I am most partial to my food lady.