Amber’s Mewsings

Amber’s Mewsings: Keeping Mom Organized

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I know all of my fans have probably been wondering what happened to me – it’s been so long since I wrote something here.  I’ve been busy keeping Mom organized – things have been crazy around here!  Mom’s book about my sister Buckley (and me!  I’m in the book, too!) has been really well received and is generating quite a bit of buzz around the internet.  I’m so happy for her – I love it when Mom is happy, it makes me feel happy, too.

What I don’t like quite so much is that Mom is busier now, and there seems to be a little less time for reading, cuddling and watching tv.  She always makes sure that we have time together, and I really look forward to bedtime now and snuggle next to her all night long.  It seems to be the one time when I have her undivided attention!  But I understand why she’s busy, and that it makes her happy to be this busy.  And I try to do my part.  I sleep on the perch next to her desk most of the day because I know that my presence inspires her writing (see photo above – that’s me, being Mom’s Mewse).  I help with packing up books to mail to people – I’m really good at playing with the tissue paper she wraps them in (Mom says I mess up the tissue, but what does she know!).  I also remind her when it’s time to take a break and to give me a treat or to feed me.  It’s important that humans take kitty breaks every now and then.

I know underneath all this excitement, Mom is also a little bit sad, because it’s almost a year ago now that Buckley transitioned, and it brings back a lot of memories for her.  For me, too, I do miss my sister.   I’m just better at understanding that she never really left us, she just changed forms.  I still have long conversations with her and I know that she’s hanging out here with us all the time.  I only wish Mom would feel her more often.  She’s getting better at it, and I try to help her.

That’s all for today.  It’s time for another nap.  Being Mom’s Mewse can be very tiring.

Amber’s Mewsings: Amber’s Check Up Gets Postponed

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 Amber's Sunday afternoon

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Mine was excellent!  Mom had told me a couple of days ago that her friend Fern was going to come over on Sunday.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I love it when Mom’s friends come to visit, because they usually fuss over me and comment on how beautiful I am.  But Fern – well, she may be a really nice person, but she has one major flaw that I just can’t get past.  She is a cat doctor.  And she is my cat doctor.  Mom says she’s a great vet, and I believe Mom.  She was really really wonderful with my sister Buckley, because she really got Buckley.  She understood that, given a choice, Buckley would just as soon not have anyone poke and prod her.  Mom always knew that about Buckley, and it really helped Mom deal with Buckley’s illness to have a vet who respected not only Buckley’s wishes, but also my Mom’s.  You can read more about Fern and how she helped us during Buckley’s illness in Mom’s book.

But, I digress.  So, Mom, being the good cat parent that she is, knows how important it is that I have regular check ups.  And Mom, being the terrific Mom that she is, also knows how much I hate being in my carrier, and even worse, in the car, so she asks Fern to come to the house to do my check up.  It still means that Fern is going to examine me (what an innocent little word for being poked, prodded, and otherwise touched in ways that are so not acceptable!), and she’s going to stick needles in me to get blood and other bodily fluids that shall remain nameless, but at least it saves me the stress of having to leave my house.  But – as luck would have it, Fern couldn’t make it yesterday.  Gee – what a disappointment.  Not!  The cool thing is that this is the second time that something came up and Fern couldn’t make it.  What Mom doesn’t know is that I made this happen.  Twice.  I’m surprised she hasn’t caught on to me.  Mom totally gets that our thoughts create our reality.  Of course, cats have always known this. And clearly, we’re masters at living this.  I’ve been picturing a quiet, relaxing Sunday all week – and that’s exactly what I got!  It really can be that  simple, humans.  Now mind you, I could have focused my attention on thinking about not wanting Fern to come – and then, I can guarantee you, she would have shown up here yesterday morning.  Why?  Because the universe doesn’t know the meaning of the word no.  What you think about is what you get.  It doesn’t matter whether you think about wanting it or not wanting it.  So rather than letting any thoughts of Fern into my energy field, I focused on having the kind of Sunday I love:  me snoozing in the sunny spot on the rocking chair in our living room while Mom sits on the loveseat reading.   Life doesn’t get any better than this.

As for my check up – I know it’ll have to happen sooner or later.  But rather than wasting my time worrying about it, I’d rather focus on finding a sunny spot to take my next nap in.

  

Amber’s Mewsings: Cat of The Week

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Photo Montage byLayla Morgan Wilde

I know it’s Saturday, and we don’t usually blog on weekends, but I told Mom that this called for a special update.  I was named “Cat of the Week”  on The Boomer Muse’s Cat Saturday Feature!  I think that’s so totally cool – I’ve been feeling just a little bit under-appreciated lately now that my mom’s book about my sister Buckley is getting all the attention.  I don’t begrudge Buckley the attention, and I love that my Mom has been so happy and excited since the book came out last week, but it does a feline good to know that she, too, gets her time in the spotlight.  Layla Morgan Wilde put together a beautiful photo montage of me – aren’t I gorgeous?  Mom says it’s not okay to brag, but I think that only goes for humans.  We cats aren’t shy when it comes to singing our own praises.

Anyway, go visit The Boomer Muse for the full story, and add it to the list of blogs you visit regularly, especially on Cat Saturday!

And I think that guy Domino is a really handsome boy…

Amber’s Mewsings: New Camera

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It’s my turn to write on here again!  Things have been pretty exciting at our house these last couple of weeks.  Mom’s book Buckley’s Story is almost finished and should be available online in another week or two.  Mom is eagerly awaiting her first copy.  I think she’ll probably start chasing the UPS truck down our street any day now, that’s how impatient she is to finally get her hands on the actual book.  The book’s website is almost finished.  I sat on Mom’s lap when she looked at the most recent design last night, and even though my sister Buckley is the star of the site, I have to say, it’s really beautiful.  I love that Mom is so happy – it makes me happy.

There’s been more excitement around here.  Yesterday, Mom bought a new camera.  And I’m sure you can guess who she took the first picture of.  She hadn’t quite figured out all the settings, so the colors don’t look quite right, but don’t you love how I positioned myself to help her get such a dramatic shot:

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I think it nicely depicts the depth of my purrsonality, the yin and the yang, the light and the dark – well, you get the idea.  Of course, after a while, all of this photo taking got kind of old – she kept trying to take more pictures of me, and all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Didn’t I suffer enough when I patiently sat through the professional photo shoot for her book cover?  You can read all about that experience here.  The things I will do for my Mom!

Fall has arrived here, and with it, the new tv shows have started.  Mom doesn’t watch a lot of tv, but she has some shows that she really likes, and now that they’re all back on, she’s been watching a little more tv than over the summer.  Buckley used to be her tv buddy – she’d spend entire evenings just stretched out on Mom’s lap or curled up in her arms.  I would occasionally join them, but I also like my space, so sometimes I’d prefer just sleeping somewhere else while they watched tv together.  But I know Mom misses having a tv buddy, so I’m doing my best to fill that gap for her.  So we’ve been cuddling and watching tv together, and I can see why Buckley liked it so much.

Mom likes to watch shows that she calls medical dramas – I don’t know why anyone would want to watch that, so many sad things happen on those shows.  Why humans find that entertaining is beyond me.  I can feel Mom’s energy change when she watches those shows, and sometimes, she’s so moved by the story that she even cries.  I don’t like that at all.  I know it’s only make believe, but I don’t like it when  Mom is sad.  I like it much better when she watches happy shows.  But I know she finds watching her shows relaxing, so I guess that’s good.

Well, that’s all I have to say for today.  It’s time for a nap now!

Amber’s Mewsings: Mom Goes to a Cat Show

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new toy

It’s about time Mom lets me write here again!  I have much to say, and all of it is important!  Maybe I should have my own blog – my friend Eva just got a blog of her own, you should check it out at Conversations with Eva.  Cool name for her site, huh?  Somebody sure gets that for us cats, it’s always about us.  Make sure you read The Beginning, the story of how Eva found her forever home.

Meanwhile, things are great here.  Mom was gone most of the weekend, she was at something called a cat show.  From what I understand, some people take their cats to these big places and they have to be really patient and well-behaved and they get shown and judged in something called a ring, and they win prizes.  Interesting concept.  Not something that appeals to me – I already know I’m Number One.  But Mom was really happy when she came home from that cat show place each evening, apparently lots of people are really excited about Buckley’s Story coming out soon, and when Mom is happy, I’m happy.  She also brought me a new catnip toy each day from a place called Mouse Factory.  Strange name, if you ask me, because none of the toys she brought home looked even remotely like a mouse, but wooeee, they are filled with heavy duty catnip!  I could smell that she had catnip with her the minute she walked in the door.  I immediately went to her bag and sat and stared at it until she took the toy out and gave it to me, then I proceeded to thoroughly lick it and cover it in drool.  Then I had to take a nap to sleep off my catnip high.  This was primo stuff, people.

Mom has been busy writing and getting everything ready for her book launch, and I like that she’s been home a lot.  Even though I may sleep in another room while she’s working, I still like knowing that she’s home with me.  This is so much better than when she was gone more than ten hours each day.

That’s it for today.  Remember – it IS all about you!

Amber’s Mewsings: Labor Day

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Mom is taking a break from posting today, but she and I want to take a moment to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.  This idea of a Labor Day holiday is a very strange concept to me.  What is this labor?  Cats don’t labor – cats just relax and enjoy life.  But I do know that resting and relaxing is very important for feline and human health, so this is how I’m going to be spending my labor day:
First, I'll lounge in the sun....
First, I’ll lounge in the sun….

 

....then, I"ll relax some more....
….then, I”ll relax some more….

 

Did you say dinner was ready?
Did you say dinner was ready?

 

Now I really need a nap!
Now I really need a nap!

Amber’s Mewsings: Buckley’s Story Cover

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Amber

Yesterday was a really big day for Mom – she got the cover art for Buckley’s Story from the designer.  What do you think – do you like it?  Mom cries everytime she looks at it, and I get a little emotional, too.  It really brings my sister back to life, and it’s so cool that she’s on the cover of a book that’s all about her.  Well, mostly – I’m in the book, too, and I play a very important role in the story.   And since I’m also on the back of the book cover (in the photo with Mom), I guess it’s okay that Buckley gets the front.  Mom reads a little bit from the book to me every day, and I really like that.  It makes me remember all the wonderful times the three of us shared together.  I miss Buckley.

The other cool thing that happened this week was that the banner Mom ordered for the cat show she’s going to be at in three weeks came in.  It’s got my picture on it (the same one that’s the header for this site), and it’s really really big.  Kind of weird to look at a giant version of myself, but also very appropriate.  My greatness can’t be contained in just a small screen-sized version of the picture.  Maybe I can convince Mom to hang the banner somewhere in our house after the cat show.

In case you’re wondering what cat show, Mom will represent The Conscious Cat at the National Capital Cat Show on Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia.  If you’re in the greater Washington DC area, be sure to stop by the Whimsy Cats booth, that’s where Mom will be.  There’ll be lots of great cat health information (Mom really knows her stuff) and free cat goodies.  You’ll also have a chance to enter a drawing for a signed copy of Buckley’s Story!  I know this will come as a disappointment to all of you, but I’m not going to be there.  Mom said I wouldn’t like it, and she’s probably right.  Although it would be fun to meet all our fans in purrson.

Amber’s Mewsings: Mom Went Away for the Weekend

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can I come photoshopped

Mom isn’t much of a traveler.  I think it’s because she really likes to stay home with me and misses me too much when she goes away – which I can totally understand, of course, since being with me is just the best.  She used to go away a couple of times a year, but all that changed last April, when my sister Buckley got sick.  Mom was really upset about it.  Buckley had to take a lot of medications, and the vet said that her heart was bad.  Buckley was a bit of a pistol when it came to taking pills, and I think Mom was worried that our cat sitter wouldn’t be able to give Buckley her pills.  I also think she didn’t want to leave Buckley, not knowing how much time the three of us would have left together.  We were such a team, it was hard to imagine we wouldn’t always be a threesome.  You’ll soon be able to read more about all of that in Buckley’s Story.  Anyway, after Buckley died, Mom was sad for a long time.  I did my best to comfort her, and I know she didn’t feel like being away from me.

But last weekend, she went away, just for the weekend.  My cat sitter came twice a day to take care of me.  She’s one of my favorite people.  She doesn’t just come to feed me (which is the most important part of her visit, don’t get me wrong!) and clean out my litter box (also very important, I’m a very clean cat).  She brushes me, and plays with me, and we watch tv together.    She’s really sweet, and I love her.  In between her visits, I mostly sleep.  I miss Mom while she’s gone, but I guess I understand that she needs to get away from everything every once in a while (well, not really, but I love her and if it’s what she wants to do, I’m okay with it).  She doesn’t do it much, so it’s fine.

It did make me think about how many cats are left alone when their moms and dads have to travel, especially over the summer, when humans do something they call going on vacation.   I don’t understand why you’d need a vacation when every day is just so wonderful that it makes no sense to me that you would want to get away from everything, but then, humans are hard to understand sometimes.   For cats, every day is a vacation day.  We get to sleep in, we have a servant at our beck and call all day long, our meals are served to us, we get to play when we feel like it.  Makes you wonder who the smart ones really are, doesn’t it?

I hope all the cats and their humans are having a great summer!

Amber’s Mewsings: Birthday Girl

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Today is my birthday, so I told  Mom I wanted to write something on here.  So far, my birthday has been pretty great.  I got my favorite breakfast (salmon and turkey, in case you’re wondering), and I got this really fun toy (you can see me with it in the photo).  I humored Mom by playing with it when she gave it to me, but most likely, it will be used as a pillow to rest my head on while I nap.  I don’t want to over-exert myself, it’s just not ladylike.

Actually, technically today is not my birthday, it’s the anniversary of the day Mom brought me home.  She doesn’t know my real birthday, and I don’t really remember.  I know some of you would love to hear my story, so I thought today would be a good day to share it.  I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that my sister Buckley gets a whole book to share her story and I get a single blog post, but it’s only part of my story, so I guess that’s okay.

Me and my five kittens were brought to the animal hospital where Mom worked in the spring of 2000 by a client who had found the little family in her barn.  I was hungry, skinny, and scrawny-looking, but my eventual beauty was evident to everyone even then.  My kittens found new homes in fairly rapid succession.  One of my daughters, a beautiful Calico, went to live with Cindy Ingram, the founder of Casey’s House.  Cindy rescued my sister Buckley five years later.

It didn’t seem like anyone was interested in me.  I spent my days in the big adoption cage in the hospital’s waiting area.  People would come and ooh and aah over how beautiful I was, but with the constant inflow of homeless kittens that is typical for spring and summer, nobody wanted to adopt an adult cat, no matter how gorgeous I was.  Mom had recently lost her almost sixteen-year-old soul mate cat Feebee, and the grief over his loss was still very fresh for her – I knew she was still hurting, and she didn’t think she was ready for another cat yet.  But I also knew that it was getting harder and harder for her to go back to an empty house every evening, and more importantly, I knew we were meant to be together.  I tried my best to get her attention, and she’d pet me occasionally, but she just wasn’t getting it.

Finally, on July 29, a Saturday, she took me home.  She said it was “just for the weekend.”  I knew better, but I wasn’t about to share that with her – she needed to figure that out for herself.  Mom said she wanted to give me a break from the abandoned feral kitten they had put in the cage with me after my own kittens had all found homes.  The kitten was a rambunctious six-week old grey tabby, and I was getting really tired of his constant need for attention.  I had done my mommy duty, and I was so over the whole thing.

After living in a cage for all these months, it was a little overwhelming to have an entire house available to explore.  I wasn’t sure what to do, it felt kind of scary to me, even though Mom did her best to make it okay for me.  I spent most of that first weekend near or under Mom’s bed.  I was so stressed I didn’t even eat for a day or two – and if you know anything about me, you know that food is very important to me!  But by Sunday evening, I felt braver and started exploring.

Of course, all weekend long, I’d been working my magic on Mom.  I really didn’t want to go back to the animal hospital.  Thank goodness, Mom started to get it.  She liked having my gentle and peaceful energy around the house, and she decided that I could stay a little longer.  Big sigh of relief on my part when Mom left for work at the animal hospital that Monday morning without taking me back there!  Mom still wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge that I was home to stay.  Instead, she told everyone that she was “just fostering me.”  Yeah, right.

Somehow, the flyers Mom had made up advertising that I was available for adoption never got distributed, and the rest is history.

Amber’s Mewsings: On Purring

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It’s been a while since Mom has let me write something on here, so I thought it was time that I shared my thoughts on life and other things again, in case you’re getting bored with Mom’s writing.

So there’s this woman in England who actually did a study on cats’ purrs.  The conclusion of the study was that cats learn to vocalize a particular sound to train their humans.  They needed to do a study for this?  Puleeze!  Cats all over the world are laughing.  For those of you who really need to see the details of the study to grasp this universal feline truth, here’s the link.

One very interesting aspect of the study was that what the researchers called “solicitation purring” got better results than a loud meow, for example to make the human get up in the morning to feed the cat.  I have to respectfully disagree with this finding.  I sit by my mom’s head and gently purr in the morning to make her get up and feed me.  I’m so thoughtful and patient, and it still takes her forever to actually get up.  My sister Buckley, on the other hand, used to meow at the top of her lungs and walk all over Mom in the mornings, and boy, did that work – there was no more sleeping once Buckley got to work.  I miss my sister (and not just because breakfast came earlier when she was still with us).

I hope everyone is having a good summer.  I love summer – the sunny spots stick around longer and are more frequent in my house.  I’m an air-conditioned kitty and I like it that way.  I spent the first two years of my life outside, and I can’t say I miss the hot and humid summer days and trying to find a cool place to hang out in during the day, not to mention always having to worry about finding enough to eat.  Mom may be a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to feeding me breakfast on time, but I always know that eventually, it’s going to end up in my dish.  For those of you who do go outside in the summer, Mom posted a great article about hot weather tips for pets a little while back.

And speaking of my life – I have a birthday coming up!  Well, it’s not really my birthday, but July 29 is the day Mom brought me home, so we celebrate that as my birthday.  Mom always buys me a cool present.  So to help her out, I’ve marked some items in our Conscious Cat Store for my Wish List.  If you’re a kitty with fabulous taste, make sure you check out the store – you’ll really help your human with gift shopping if you drop little hints about what you want every once in a while.  And remember to use that “solicitation purring!”

Amber’s Mewsings: On Thunderstorms

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umbrella-004

I love being an indoor cat.  I spent the first year or two of my life outside, and that was plenty for me, thank you very much. I prefer the pleasures of indoor living.   I’m particularly glad that I didn’t have to be outside in all this rain this week.  Enough, I say!  I want my sunny spots back!  Mom took this photo of me the night we had a really bad storm move through.  I hate thunderstorms, the noise scares me and I can feel the vibration of the thunder all through my body, and I don’t like it one bit.  I go to my safe place in the shower in the downstairs bathroom and wait until the storm passes.  Mom gives me Rescue Remedy when she knows storms are coming, and I love her for it because it helps calm me down a little, but I still hate storms.

Aside from the weather, though, this has been a really great week for us.  Mom got exciting news about her book on Monday.  She got something called “Editor’s Choice” for it.  She was so happy she couldn’t stop crying.  I was happy because she was happy.  I think it means that the book is really good.  It’s about my sister Buckley, but I’m in it, too.   This morning, Mom sent the manuscript off to the copy editor.  I don’t really know what that means, but it made Mom happy, so it must be a good thing.  And this afternoon, we got the photos the photographer took of Mom and me a couple of weeks ago.  I look really good in them, and so does Mom.  She says one of them will be used in the book.

I like it when my Mom is so happy.