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

Pet Bloggers Challenge

Author's Life| 6 Comments

The Pet Bloggers Challenge was initiated by two members of the pet blogging community, Edie Jarolim of Will My Dog Hate Me? and Amy Burkert of GoPetFriendly.  I thought it would be a nice opportunity for some of you to learn a little bit more about why I blog and what my future plans are for The Conscious Cat.  So, I’m taking the challenge, along with other bloggers such as Romeo the Cat and Lorie Huston, DVM  at the Pet Health Care Gazette.  (Psst:  I was supposed to post this yesterday, but they’ve extended it until 11:59pm tonight, so I’m still good!).

So, without further ado:

1.  When did you begin your blog?

I started blogging on March 1, 2009 – we’ll soon be celebrating our 2nd anniversary!

2.  What was the original purpose for starting a blog?

The Conscious Cat was inspired by Amber, and my vision was for it to become a comprehensive resource for conscious living, health and happiness for cats and their humans.  I was already publishing my bi-monthly newsletter News for You and Your Pets, and I was in the process of writing Buckley’s Story.  Starting the blog gave me an opportunity to reach an ever growing audience of cat lovers who are as passionate about their cats and their health and happiness as I am.

3.  Is your current purpose the same?

Yes, absolutely.

4.  Do you blog on schedule or as the spirit moves you?

I usually blog three times a week:  Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays.  I keep an editorial calendar, but it’s very flexible.

5.  Are you generating income from your blog?

Yes.  The Conscious Cat Store features products hand-picked by me (and some are even approved by Allegra!).  I receive some income from carefully selected companies who advertise on my blog.  I only advertise products and services that I’ve either personally used, or that I believe will be of interest to my readers.

6.  What do you like most about blogging in general and about your blog in particular (bragging is good)?

I love to write!  I’m passionate about educating cat owners about feline health and nutrition, and blogging gives me an easy way to reach a wide audience.  I love the community blogging builds – from fellow pet bloggers to my readers, I’ve “met” so many wonderful people through this blog.  One absolutely amazing “by-product” of this site has been the community of tortie lovers created by my post Tortitude – The Unique Personality of Tortoiseshell Cats.  I wrote the post in August of 2009, and it’s generated more than 1400 comments as of this writing!  The thread has become a place for afficionados of cats with this particular coloring to gather and exchange stories about their cats, and the friendships that have formed as a result are something I never expected when I started this site.

7.  What do you like least?

The days when inspiration is slow to come.  Coming up with original content on an ongoing basis, and meeting my own high standards for that content, can sometimes be a challenge.

8.  How do you see your blog changing or growing in 2011?

I’m hoping that the rapid growth I’ve seen over the past year will continue (and I wouldn’t complain if it magically went viral overnight, either!).    I’ll continue to expand the topics I’m presenting.  I’m looking forward to hosting exciting guest bloggers.   I have some great giveaways planned.  And most of all, I’m looking forward to all the comments I get from my readers each and every day.

Pretty Litter

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.

Nutra-Thrive-Cat

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!!!