Allegra’s World

Allegra’s World: Helping Mom Wake up on Time

Allegra's World| 22 Comments

Things have been kind of quiet around here since I last wrote, but Mom said I could write something if I wanted to, so here I am.  To tell you the truth, I think she just couldn’t come up with something new and interesting herself, so I’m here to save the day!  That’s what a good little kitten daughter does, she helps her Mom.

One of the things I’ve been particularly helpful with lately is making sure that Mom gets up on time.  Sometimes I think Mom doesn’t really appreciate how nice it is to have a kitten like me who can tell time as well as I can.  If it wasn’t for me, she’d have to set what humans call an alarm clock.  I know Mom has one, but she rarely uses it (because she has me!).  The few times she’s used it, it scared me!  It makes awful noises, and Mom doesn’t seem very happy when it wakes her up.  So I’ve found much more effective ways to wake her up, and I’m pretty creative and always come up with new, fun ones.

For example, I like to attack the headboard of Mom’s bed.  It makes a very satisfying noise when it bangs against the wall.  Unfortunately, after a while, Mom got used to the sound, and it didn’t really bother her enough to fully wake up, so I had to come up with something else.

It didn’t take me long.  Mom has  picture frames made of clear plastic sitting on her nightstand.  One morning,  I decided it might be fun to chew on the edges of the frames.  Hmm, tasty.  And fun!  It made a very satisfying, crunchy noise – and sure enough, it woke Mom right up!  She told me “no,” and even gently shoved me away from the picture frames, but of course, that required her to wake up all the way.  Ha!  Mission accomplished!  However, instead of being grateful that I found another way to wake her up, she simply put the picture frames away in a drawer from then on.  Humans are such spoilsports!

Not to be deterred, I quickly thought of another way to wake her up, and promptly tested it on her the next morning.  I jumped up on top of the dresser, and launched myself off of it and onto the bed.  Wee!!!  Very satisfying bounce, especially when I landed right on top of Mom!  Excellent!  I’m thinking short of moving the dresser out of the bedroom, she’s not going to be able to stop me from doing that!  Mom keeps explaining to me that she really doesn’t need help waking up, and that she wishes I’d quietly wait for her to be ready, or go play somewhere else in the house, but I think secretely she’s happy that I’m so good at this important task.

Other than purrfecting my skills as a feline alarm clock, I’ve been settling into a nice daily routine.  After I finally get Mom out of bed, I eat breakfast, then Mom plays with me, and then I watch the birds at the feeder on our deck.  It gets really busy out there!  Then I help Mom work by settling in for a morning nap next to her desk.  At lunch time, I remind Mom that it’s time for me to be brushed and then I get treats for being such a good girl.  I love being brushed now, but when I first came here, I wouldn’t even let her touch me with the brush, so she started giving me treats after brushing me.  Hey, I’m a smart kitten – it didn’t take me long to catch on that brushing was a good thing.  And now, in addition to getting treats, I actually like how being brushed feels.

After lunch, it’s time for a little more birdwatching, and then another nap.  By that time, on sunny days, the sun is right on Mom’s bed, and I usually spend the rest of the afternoon taking my nap there.  It feels so good to lie in the sun.  I really don’t like days when the sun doesn’t come out.  I’ve complained to Mom, but she says there’s nothing she can do about it.  I don’t know if I really believe that, because Mom is so powerful and can do so many things to make my life so nice, but so far, she’s not budging on this one.

So that’s it from me.  Life is good.  And now, it’s time for another nap!

Mom says my wake up tactics remind her of a Simon’s Cat video, and she thought you all might enjoy it.  After watching this, all I can say is Mom should consider herself very very lucky…..

httpv://youtu.be/w0ffwDYo00Q

Allegra’s World: Allegra’s First Christmas

Allegra's World| 17 Comments

There’s been so much cool stuff happening around here, I don’t even know where to start!  For the past week, Mom has been bringing out lots of fun toys:  big rolls of paper, crinkly tissue paper, and, best of all, bows and ribbons!  I actually don’t think she brought them out for me, because she put them on the dining room table, and I don’t usually play up there.  And Mom doesn’t usually play unless it’s with me, but she started playing with those toys, so I, being the good kitten daughter that I am, had to go help her.  Mom said what she was doing is called wrapping gifts.  Whatever – it was great fun!  I grabbed some of the bows and took off with them, making Mom chase after me.   Things got even more interesting when Mom got ready to put some ribbon on one of the gifts she was wrapping.  I tried to help by batting at the ribbon and chewing on the ends, and I couldn’t understand why she kept telling me no (I also don’t think she was all that serious about the “no,” because she kept laughing).   I think eventually  Mom decided that her presents wouldn’t have any ribbons on them.   She said it’s called “the path of least resistence.”  I think those are just big words for spoiling my fun.

But the best thing happened this past weekend.  All of a sudden, there were all these packages under our Christmas tree.  Where did they come from?  Mom said Santa brought them.  I don’t know who this Santa is, but Mom explained that he brings presents to good little kittens, and that on Christmas, we’d be opening the packages together.  Wee!!!  That sounded like fun.  I like this Santa!  I helped Mom open the first package.   It was for me!  It was a really fun toy that looked like a giant piece of cheese.  I love cheese!  And there were little things inside the big cheese, so I had to immediately try to get them out.  I still haven’t quite figured out how yet, but I’ll  keep working at it.

But that wasn’t all.  There were so many other packages!  Since I was happily playing with my big cheese, Mom opened some of her packages without my help.  The stuff in them wasn’t very interesting, but the growing pile of wrapping paper was, so I stopped playing with my big cheese and went to check it out.  I crawled under the paper, rustled around in it, and pounced on it.  Way cool!  After letting me have some fun with the pile, Mom said there were more packages for me, so I helped her open them.  So many fun toys!  I didn’t even know what to play with first.  In fact, to be totally honest, I got a little overwhelmed with everything.  I didn’t know it was possible for a kitten to be so loved and to get so many gifts.  How lucky am I!

After we had opened all the packages, Mom started gathering the pile of paper and the bows and ribbons.  I asked her whether we could just keep them out since they were so much fun to play in, but she nixed that idea.  Humans – they can be such spoil sports.  But I didn’t mind too much since I have all these fun new toys to play with.

After all this excitement, I needed a long nap – and I took it in Mom’s lap, while she was sitting by the Christmas tree.  Mom listened to some music, and I slept.

I love Christmas!

Allegra’s World: Allegra Goes to the Vet’s

Allegra's World| 9 Comments

Since so much has happened around here in just the last week, Mom is letting me write here again so soon!  Yay!!!

Last Friday, there was a lot of commotion around our house.  Mom was moving some furniture around, and then she brought this big box up from the basement.  It was huge!  Much bigger than me!  It was a little scary, actually.  Then she took all these green things out of the box.  They looked like the branches on the tree right outside our window.  There were so many of them, I really felt outnumbered, so I did what any self-respecting cat would do:  I puffed myself up and hissed at them.  When that didn’t seem to bother them, I attacked!  But they just laid there, not doing much of anything, so I got bored and went to check out what Mom was doing.  She had put a little table in one corner of our living room, and it was covered with a red cloth that went all the way down to the floor.  Now this was interesting!  I went to investigate, and crawled under the table.  It was like my own private tent!  Very fun.   So I stayed under there for a while.

When I came out, the branches were no longer on the living room floor, but there was a tree on top of the little table.  Huh.  How’d that happen?  My Mom can make magic!  Then all of a sudden, there were all these twinkly lights on the tree.  More magic!  Then Mom hung things from it.  Some looked like little cats made out of wood, and glass, and plastic.  Interesting.  But I liked the little tent under the tree so much, I didn’t even bother to check out the tree all that much.  I sort of get a sense that Mom likes it that way, so I’m going to try and be a good girl.  But it is rather interesting…..hmm….  If I could just maybe bat at some of the little cats hanging from the tree…I wonder what would happen….

But that’s not all.  There was more excitement around here.  On Monday, I had just settled in for a nice long nap on my sunny window perch, when Mom gently woke me up, and picked me up.  She never does that, she always leaves me alone when I sleep, so I wasn’t sure what that was all about.  Next thing I know, I’m inside this big pink bag!  Hello!  How’d that happen?  Now, the pink bag had been sitting in our family room for a while, and I even nap in it sometimes, but this time, Mom zipped up the front, and I was kind of stuck in there.  Very odd.  I wasn’t sure what to think.

You know how I told you last time that when Mom leaves the house, she always takes a purple bag with her?  Well, this time she left the house with the pink bag, and me in it!  What was going on?  The only time I’d ever been outside the house was when Mom picked me up from the animal hospital where I lived for a while to bring me home.  Uh oh.  Animal hospital?

Yup.  Sure enough, after a short time in the car (I remembered the car from when Mom brought me home.  It was a little scary when it first started moving, but then, it was okay), Mom carried me into – oh yes, I remembered this place!  I remembered the smells, but I also remembered that the people there were really nice to me, so I started to get kind of curious about what this might be about.  A few minutes later, Mom unzipped the front of the bag.   I wasn’t sure about coming out, so Mom reached in and pulled me out.  I was a little scared, and I think Mom could tell, because she hugged me and held me close, and that felt really good.  Then a woman came in the room, and she petted me and told me I was beautiful.   Then she took out this weird looking stick thing and asked whether she could take my temperature.  I don’t know what this temperature is, but the woman was really nice, so I figured it would be okay.  Yikes!!!  It so was not okay!!!  I won’t tell you where she put that stick thing, but I will tell you that I didn’t know that woman nearly well enough to let her do that to me!

A short while later, another woman came into the room.  She was really nice, too.  She even took some treats out of her pocket and offered them to me, but after the incident with the stick thing, I wasn’t going to trust anyone there!  God knows what they were going to do next!   After talking to me softly and petting me, the second woman looked into mouth.  Hello?  What did she do that for?  Then she put her hands all over me and squeezed in places that shouldn’t be squeezed if you ask me, but then, nobody asked me!  Then she took this round disk thing and put it on my chest.  It was all very strange, but none of it hurt, so I didn’t put up too much of a fuss – but believe me, I thought about it!

The next part was so not fun!  One of the women held me down, while the other one came at me with something really sharp and poked a hole in my leg with it.  It hurt!  And I started bleeding!  I got really scared.  You’d think they would have panicked, too, but instead of doing something to stop the bleeding, the woman  collected my blood in this tube thing!   What was up with that?  Finally, after what seemed like forever, the woman pulled the sharp thing out of my leg.  What a relief!  Surely, they couldn’t possibly do anything else to me, right?  But oh, no!  Next, she came at me with another sharp thing, and she  stuck it in my hip!  Okay, enough was enough.  I whipped my head around, ready to show them with my sharp little teeth that the woman had admired earlier just what I thought of the way they were treating me!  But they were quicker than I was (which is pretty darn impressive, if you ask me, because I’m fast!).    Thankfully, just when I was getting really mad, the pink bag reappeared, and I ran into it.  I figured they wouldn’t drag me out a second time, and I was right.

Mom says what happened was my annual check up.  It’s to make sure that I’m healthy.  Whatever!  I don’t care how nice the people there were to me, this is not a place I want to have to go back to more than once a year (no offense, nice people).

So that’s all the excitement from me.  I think I’ll go take a nice long tap in my special tent now.

Allegra’s World: When Mom Goes Away

Allegra's World| 2 Comments

I’m back already!  Remember that big black box I was telling you about that showed up in our bedroom, and Mom was putting her clothes in it?  Well, it turned out that the big black box is not a good thing.   The morning after the big black box showed up, Mom left the house and took it with her.  At first, I didn’t think anything of it – after all, she’s left the house before and took things with her.  She always takes a purple bag with her when she goes, even though I sometimes try to lay right in front of it so she can’t get to it!  Anyway, I thought maybe she’d just gotten bored with her purple bag and took the big black box instead.

But when Mom’s friend Renee came to visit around lunchtime, I knew something wasn’t right.  Any other time Renee comes over, Mom is here, too.   But Renee is really fun, she loves kitties, and she played with me and gave me treats and hung out with me, so that was cool.  After Renee left,  I took a nice long nap and didn’t wake up again until it got dark.  Mom still hadn’t come home.  I was just starting to get a little worried when Ronnie came to visit.  Ronnie is Mom’s friend and Mom said she’s also a pet sitter.  I don’t know what that means, and it sounded a little scary.  Does she sit on pets?  Mom said she comes to take care of people’s cats when the people can’t be there to do it themselves.  I don’t really understand that – why can’t the people just stay home?  But Ronnie is a nice person and she, too, loves kitties, so I was glad to see her.  And best of all, she served me dinner as soon as she got there, and I was pretty hungry, so that got the visit off to a good start.  Ronnie played with me after I ate, she brushed me, and she gave me treats.  Okay, this was good.

But then, after Ronnie left, I got a little scared.  Mom still wasn’t home, and even though I can’t tell time, I knew it was way past when we usually go to bed together.  I finally went to bed by myself and eventually went to sleep, but it wasn’t the same without Mom there.  When I woke up, it was light out again, and Mom still wasn’t home!  Where was she?

Thankfully, just as I was starting to get really worried, Ronnie came by again and served me breakfast.  Whew!  At least I wasn’t going to starve!  She played with me again, and that was nice, but where was my Mom?  Anyway – I don’t want to bore you, but this went on for three more days.  I had a good time with Ronnie and Renee, who came by to visit a few more times, too, but I was getting pretty lonely.  I’m used to having my Mom around a lot!

When I heard a key in the door again on Sunday night, I figured it was going to be Ronnie again, but it was Mom!  She was back!!!  I was so happy!!! I rolled around on the floor for her and I even let her pick me up and hug me and kiss me, I was so relieved!  My Mom was home!!!  I followed her everywhere while she took stuff out of the big black box and put it away where it belongs.  I hissed at the big black box a couple of times for good measure.  By the time Mom sat down to have dinner, I had exhausted myself and I knew I needed a nap, but I was so worried that Mom would leave me again, I laid down on her feet and went to sleep there.  That way, I could be sure she couldn’t even get up without me knowing about it.

Turns out she went to something called a cat writers conference.  I don’t understand why I couldn’t go with her.  After all, I’m a cat writer, too!  She did bring back some fun new toys.  My favorite is this pole thing with a dragonfly attached to it – I love playing with it, it’s so fun. Wee!!!  It’s my favorite toy yet!  You can see me playing with it in the video below.

She also brought a bunch of other toys, she thinks I didn’t see her sneak them into the extra bedroom I’m not allowed in.  I heard her say something to someone on the phone about “rationing the toys and breaking them out gradually” – no doubt this is some fancy human speak for spoiling my fun!

Now things are back to normal again, and I hope the big black box stays hidden in the closet for a long, long time.  I don’t like it when Mom goes away.

Allegra’s World: Scaring Mom

Allegra's World| 16 Comments

It’s about time I get to write something again!  Life has been very good here.  Remember that lap thing I told you about last time?  I did it again one more time, and I really liked it again that time.  I know it made Mom happy.  I like making Mom happy.  I know it also makes her happy that I started sleeping snuggled up very close against her at night.  I’m guessing she thinks it’s because I just want to be close to her, and I do, but honestly, it’s also because it’s been kind of cold at night, and Mom makes a really nice heater!

I’m getting smarter every day, if I do say so myself.  That’s because I’m not a a kitten anymore, I’m all grown up now!  A couple of weeks ago, I learned something really cool:  I figured out how to open the kitchen cabinet under the sink.  I managed to stick my paw in, and make it open a little ways before it banged shut again.  It made a very interesting noise.  I especially like doing this when I get bored with sleeping with Mom in the middle of the night, or really really early in the morning.  It’s so fun!

And then, the other day, I figured out something even cooler!  Mom was off on what she calls errands – I have no idea what that means, all I know is that when she does it, she leaves the house.  I managed to get one of the cabinets all the way open, and I climbed inside.  There wasn’t much that looked interesting in there, though, but I liked the feeling of being in a cave, so I decided to take a nap in there.  I really liked it in there!

I heard Mom come home, and I heard her call my name, but I was so comfy in my little cave, I decided to stay in there a bit longer.  Mom kept calling my name, and her voice got louder and louder, and started to sound a little bit funny, kind of shaky and not like anything I’ve ever heard from her.  I figured the best thing to do was keep a low profile and just stay in my cave.  Eventually, Mom stopped hollering, and finally she opened the cabinet door.  I smiled at her – she found me!  My Mom is smart, too!  I got up and walked out of the cabinet, only to be swooped up by Mom and nearly being squished to death!  She was crying and saying things like “oh my goodness, kitten, I thought I had lost you!”  What???  Lost?  I knew I wasn’t lost.  I knew exactly where I was!  Humans are so silly.

Mom says I took twenty years off her life that morning.  And ever since then, I haven’t been able to get into the cabinets.  Drats.  I liked my little cave.  And I’ll tell you something Mom doesn’t know, so don’t tell her:  I had been inside that cabinet before…

Today, some strange things are happening here.  Mom brought a big black box into the bedroom, and she’s putting some of her clothes in it.  I don’t understand why, usually, she just wears the clothes, or else, they hang in the closet, which, by the way, is another place I like to explore that Mom doesn’t like me to be in.  Anyway, this putting clothes in the box thing is a bit puzzling.  But the big box looks like it might make a good napping spot, especially with all the clothes in there.  I think I’ll give it a try.

Allegra’s World: Falling Leaves

Allegra's World| 11 Comments

It’s been too long since I last wrote on here!  I’ve been a busy girl, lots of fun things going on here.  I”m continuing to be a big help to Mom, assisting her with getting the Reiki room ready and greeting her clients, doing my part in helping with chores, and just generally being my cute self.

I love looking out the windows, and there are some very cool things happening outside our house these days.  It’s been pretty breezy lately, and things are falling from the trees and blowing around in the yard!  Wee!!!  Mom says it’s called fall (finally humans call something  by a name that actually makes sense!), and she says that the leaves change color and then fall off the trees.  I can’t really see the color part all that well.  My vision is much sharper than humans’ and I can see in very dim light, which you humans can’t, but I don’t have much use for color.  But I love watching the leaves fall and swirl – it makes for great entertainment.

All that leave peeping makes me tired, though, so the other day, when Mom was sitting on her sofa reading, I tried something new.  I climbed on her lap, and curled up for a nice long nap.  It was nice – Mom’s lap was soft, and I loved being so close to her.  I could tell that Mom was really happy I did that.  I’ve never done it before.  I’m an independent girl, and while I love being with my mom, and sleep with her in bed at night, I don’t need to be on top of her all the time.  But this was really nice, and I think I may have to do it again sometime.  I know Mom misses my sister Amber, who, she says, was a lap cat.  Well, I don’t know about being a lap cat, but if it makes Mom happy, I can snooze in her lap every now and then.  I also love that Mom loves me for who I am, and isn’t trying to make me into something I’m not, even though she might like me to be a little more cuddly.  I’ve got to be me!  But I love Mom, so I’m going to try.  Really, I am!

Gotta go – more leaves blowing by the window.  Wee!!!

Allegra’s World: Helping Mom

Allegra's World| 5 Comments

Hi everyone – it’s Allegra!  So, last time I wrote, I told you about my two jobs:  sheet changer assistant, and Assistant Reiki Practitioner Trainee.  Since then, I’ve gotten so much more mature that I’m now helping Mom with her chores, too!

I’m particularly good at helping her clean the house, if I do say so myself.  I help her clean the bathroom by jumping on the vanity and supervising as she wipes the mirror clean.  Then, when she’s finished, I get really close and press my nose against it to make sure she really got every little streak wiped away.  I don’t understand why she doesn’t think it’s helpful to have my noseprint on the newly cleaned mirrow as a kitten seal of approval – I think it looks rather cute!  When she’s done with the bathroom, it’s time to dust.  This is my favorite part of cleaning the house!   Mom uses this fierce-looking thing on a stick that she says is called a lambswool duster.  I jump and try to catch it as she moves it around, and when I do, boy, do I beat that beast into submission!   Wee!!!

When that’s all done, we get to the part about cleaning the house that I’m not all that crazy about.  Mom gets out “The Monster.”  There’s just no other word for it.  It’s a huge, scary looking contraption and I don’t like anything about it.  It has a long grey snake attached to it that moves around, and when I try to attack it, it doesn’t back down at all.  And it’s really loud!  Mom moves “The Monster” all over the house, and I try to be brave and stare it down, but I won’t let it get too close.  It might eat me!  It seems to eat everything else in its path.  I don’t understand why Mom needs to bring “The Monster” out once a week, I think our house looks just fine as it is.  However, it is kind of interesting how smooth the carpet looks after Mom puts “The Monster” away.  I can pounce around on it and my paws leave really fun patterns!  Wee!!!

By the way, Mom says to tell you that because of me, she uses cleaning products that are safe for me even if I do rub my nose in them like I do when I check the mirror.  I love her for always making sure things are good for me.

That’s all for today.  I hear my favorite mousie calling.

Allegra’s World: Changing the Sheets

Allegra's World| 10 Comments

I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes – I didn’t know I had so many friends out there!

Things are changing around here now that I’m a big girl!  I have a lot of responsibilities now.  It’s not all play for me anymore!

One of my newest jobs is to help Mom with changing the sheets.  I’m really good at it!  I help Mom take the old sheets off the bed by jumping from one corner to the other.  Then, when she throws them on the floor, I take a flying leap into the pile and rearrange it so it will be easier for Mom to pick up to take to the laundry room.  Before Mom puts the new sheets on, I jump back up on the bed and sit in the center of the mattress.  I try my best to get under the fitted sheet, but for some reason, Mom won’t let me.  So instead, I help make sure that it’s put on properly by pouncing on any wrinkles.  Trust me, it really helps to smooth them out.  I’m also a big help when Mom gets ready to put the pillowcases on.  I attack the case and beat it into submission so that it’s good and ready to be put on the pillow.  I know Mom really appreciates that.  I always look forward to when Mom gets ready to put on what she calls the duvet cover.  Looks like just a giant pillow cover to me, but I’ve come to understand that humans like to call things by fancy names even when a simple one would work just as well.  I try to get in between the comforter and the cover.  I don’t understand why Mom doesn’t think this is helpful – I’m just trying to make sure she does it right!  I love it when Mom gives the comforter a big shake, it sends me flying off the bed with some extra velocity – wee!!!  The very bestest part is when we’re done, and I just sort of sit on top of the comforter surveying the results of our hard work.  Mom pretends the bed monster has come to visit, and makes the comforter wiggle from underneath, and I pounce on the wiggly parts.  I let her think I really believe that it’s a monster, and not just her hand under the covers.  Sometimes it’s best to just humor humans.

My other, more important job is Assistant Reiki Practitioner Trainee!  Mom sees (human) clients in her Reiki room in our house.  (Oh, I love calling it “our house!”) She says  Buckley, who lived here long before I came, helped her with her Reiki sessions, and I want to help, too, but Mom says I’m not mature enough yet.  What’s this mature?  I’m one year old!  I’m a big girl!  Anyway, she says we have to start slowly.  She says I’m too rambunctious to be in the room during a Reiki session (there’s those big words again!), but I’m allowed to greet clients when they arrive, and they all love it!  Because I’m so cute, they all pet me and sometimes even pick me up and hug me when they first arrive.  I’m giving them kitty therapy!  After being exposed to my cuteness, they feel better right then and there, and they probably don’t even need the Reiki Mom does, but Mom takes them to the Reiki room anyway.  I don’t like that Mom then closes the door on me.  I would just sit quietly and watch if she let me in the room.  Okay, maybe I would start playing with the client’s purses.  Or pounce on their feet.  But what would the problem with that be?  So, I wait patiently right outside the door until the session is over.  Then Mom finally lets me in the room!  I love that!  The energy in the room always feels really good, and I get to rub up against the client and get more pets.  I love being Assistant Reiki Practitioner Trainee!

That’s all for today.  Between blogging, making beds, learning to be Assistant Reiki Practitioner, playing, and keeping an eye on things in our yard, I’m a busy busy girl, and it’s time for a nap!

Allegra’s World: First Birthday

Allegra's World| 14 Comments

Hey everyone – I’m a big girl now!  I turned one this past Friday!  I’m not a kitten anymore!  Mom says I still act like one, but that’s okay, just because I’m a big girl now doesn’t mean I have to stop having fun!

I loved my birthday!  It was a really cool day.  I didn’t even know there was such a thing until last Friday!  Mom gave me extra cuddles in the morning (and yes, I do occasionally let her pick me up and hold me for short periods of time now), and a yummy breakfast of raw chicken.  I love my chicken.  The turkey – not so much.  I think I’ve pretty much convinced Mom to not buy that anymore.  I’m pretty smart about how I do it.  I always clean my plate when she gives me things I really love, but when it’s something I’m not so crazy about, I leave a little something for her to throw out.  I know some cats will refuse to eat something they don’t like, but I’m no dummy.  I’m not going to pass up a meal!  Anyway, back to my birthday.  After my birthday breakfast, Mom gave me a really cool present.  It’s a big, round, long tunnel thing.  It’s so much fun!  At first, I just checked it out carefully.  Then I slowly went inside.  It made crinkly noises – how fun!  Once I was comfortable that nothing was lurking inside, I ran through it at full speed.  Wee!!!  Then I thought if running through it at full speed is this much fun, what about if I took a flying leap, and then launched myself into it.  Let me tell you – it was quite a rush!  The whole thing rolled and tumbled, with me in it.  Wee!!!  I played with my new toy for most of the day.  Well, at least when I wasn’t napping, I played with it.  And Mom played with me and my tunnel, she tossed toys inside and I went in after them, that was even more fun than playing with it by myself.  And then Mom gave me a yummy rabbit birthday dinner.  It was a purrfect birthday!

I asked Mom whether I could have a birthday every day, but she said I only get to have one once a year.  Hmmm.  But then she said that there are other things we’ll celebrate, and the next thing will be something called Christmas, which she says is even more fun than birthdays.  Apparently some dude named Santa brings cats and kittens toys if they’re nice and not naughty.  Huh.  Who is this dude, and how does he know whether I’m naughty or nice?  Does Mom tell him?  I guess I better watch myself, because I love getting new toys.

That’s it for today.  I’m going to play in my new tunnel.  Wee!!!

Allegra’s World: Busy Kitten

Allegra's World| 8 Comments

I’ve been a busy little kitten!  There’s always so much to do, a kitten’s work is never done.  I’ve got to keep an eye on the birds and squirrels in our yard – that’s almost a full time job right there!  And lately, we’ve had these very strange looking creatures attach themselves to the screen on the sliding glass door.  Mom says they’re called cicadas.  They’re really ugly, and when I try to bat at them, they make a scary noise and fly off!  Oh, and speaking of critters – this is the coolest thing yet since I came to live here.  These big black things are coming into the house sometimes, mostly in the basement.  Mom says they’re called crickets.  I say they’re really fun toys!  I chase them and they jump all over the place.  Wee!!!   The only thing is that they don’t seem to last very long, because I’m too fast for them!  But, unlike my other toys, I can eat them!  Yummy!  I do leave the legs behind, though – a little too crunchy for my taste.  Mom says it’s gross when I eat the crickets, and that she’d rather not know that I do that.  Ha!  I’m a fierce huntress!  This is what I do!  I bet she wouldn’t like it, either, if I left their dead bodies all over the basement.  Humans – sometimes they just don’t get it.

Speaking of toys – I got another cool new one.  Mom bought me a new cat tree.  You can see me posing on it in the photo above.  I really like it, especially the sisal scratching post, I use that a lot.  And I love it when Mom gets one of those fishing pole type toys and teases me with it around the cat tree.  I jump up and down and roll around at the base of it, it’s great fun.  Wee!!!  My birthday is only a couple of weeks away, and I’ve seen Mom take a box inside the one room downstairs that I’m not allowed in.  I wonder whether my birthday present is in that box?  It was a pretty big box!  Wee!!!  It sure is fun living here, so many toys, and so many presents.  Every day is so special!

I like that Mom works from home, and that she’s around a lot, so it was a little weird the other day when she was gone for a really long time.  She left right after our morning playtime, and she told me she would be gone all day, and that she would be back in time for me to feed me my dinner, but it still felt like a very long day without her there.  I slept for most of it, but then, I got a little bored.  Mom says I always look for trouble when I’m bored, and apparently, going by how she reacted, I found it.  I didn’t think it was that bad – all I did was chew on the edges of a book that stuck out from a lower shelf.  Oh, and I did knock her glasses off the nightstand.  But I do that all the time, and she just picks them up and puts them back.  Okay, so I did chew on the ends this time, and I guess they feel a little funny now when she puts them on.  Big deal!  That’ll teach her to leave me alone for that long!  Even though she said “oh, Allegra” in that tone of voice that I’ve come to know means she’s a little upset with me, I could tell that she tried really hard not to laugh, too.  I know I’m too cute for her to stay upset with me for long!

Oh, and I almost forgot – Mom has been feeding me some different food lately.  She says it’s called “raw” – I say it tastes really yummy!  I’m not a big eater, food kind of bores me,  most of the time I’m just too busy to eat, but this stuff, I usually inhale in one sitting.  It comes in different flavors, so far, I’ve had rabbit, chicken and turkey.   I like them all, but I think I like rabbit best of all.  Yummylicious!!!

That’s all for today – time to make the rounds and check on the birds and squirrels!

Allegra’s World: Big Girl

Allegra's World| 12 Comments

It’s been a while since I last wrote here, and I need to catch you up on what’s been happening in my world.  Yesterday was my almost birthday – I’m eleven months old now!  I’m almost a big girl!  I don’t really know what birthday means, but Mom says next month, when it’s my real birthday, we’ll have a little celebration and there will be presents.  I think I know what presents are – I think it’s the new toys that have been appearing here occasionally.  I can’t believe there might be more!  Wee!!!

Since I am a big girl now, I’ve been trying to act more grown up, too.  Well, maybe not quite grown up, but I am trying to be a good girl.  Mom says I’ve been doing really well with some of the things we’ve been working on together . I didn’t realize we were working on them together, but whatever – let her think that!  I may just be a kitten, but I’m still the one who decides what I do, make no mistake about that!  Anyway, I let her pet me for longer and longer periods of time now, and I don’t nip at her near as much.  I really don’t know why I even still do it, but it’s like I have all this extra energy that needs to be discharged somehow, and nipping is a way for me to do that.  It’s like I don’t really want to do it, it just happens.  I think Mom understands that, and she knows I’m not nipping at her to hurt her.  I love that she gets that.  I love her a lot, and I’d hate for her to think that I’m doing it on purpose.  I also don’t like that she simply walks away from me when I do nip at her, so I’m starting to put two and two together.  I’m a smart kitten!

I’m learning to be brave, too.  When I first came to live here, loud noises, especially the big trash trucks that go by our house every day, would send me running for safety under the sofa.  Now, I just watch them go by from the window – I know they can’t hurt me.  I still don’t like the noise of the lawn mowers that come every other week.  Why do humans need to have their lawns mowed anyway?  Don’t they know it scares little kittens like me?  Last week, I discovered a cool new spot to hide when scary noises happen (I still haven’t been able to make Mom stop what she calls thunderstorms – she keeps explaining to me that she has no control over the weather, but she seems to control so much else in our house, I’m not sure I believe her – after all, she can open cans!).  Anyway, I went behind the shower curtain in the downstairs bathroom.  It was nice and dark and I couldn’t hear the loud noise from the thunder as much down there.  When Mom found me there, she started to cry.  Turns out that this was Amber‘s safe place, too, and I guess seeing me there made her miss Amber a lot right then.

I can tell that Mom still gets sad a lot.  I don’t really know what to do when that happens, I’m just a kitten, but I want to help her!  So sometimes when she’s sad, I curl up next to her and just sit with her, even though that much closeness is still a little bit overwhelming for me, but I do it for my Mom, because I know it makes her feel better.  I know she’d like me to do more of it, and I will, but on my own time.  I love that Mom understands that.

Anyway, that’s all.   It’s time for a nap now, and maybe I’ll dream about this birthday that’s going to happen next month!  More toys!  Wee!!!