Growing Up So Fast

The Pipperstink turns 2 today!  And I'm a terrible cat mom and forgot to get her a fancy feast.  That's right, we like to make a big deal out of our cat's birthday around here.  Some day when we have kids we will think about how ridiculous we used to be when we treated our cat like a baby....

A year ago

Anyways.  So I thought I would share what Pipsi has been up to lately.

 I started a puzzle and Pipsi thinks that the pieces are toys.  We go downstairs and they are just everywhere.  

 This weekend, Ryan built her a fort.  She loved it! There's nothing that cat likes better than a fort.  She sat in there for awhile, came out, and then went back in.  It's cold out, I would rather be in a fort too.

 Lately she loves when we shower because it means that that thing in there drips!  She just sits on the edge of the shower waiting for the drip so that she can swat it.  Oh to be entertained the way a cat is...

I walked into the bedroom one day and saw this.  I will never understand her fascination with climbing behind the dresser drawers.

What did we do with our time before we became crazy cat people?  

The weekend I smushed my cat....twice

This past weekend was a rough one for the Pipperstink.  Here is what happened:

On Friday night, Ryan and I were watching TV in the living room.  I was sitting on the lazy boy, with my feet up and a quilt over my legs.  The quilt was hanging over the edge of the chair, and there is nothing that Pipsi likes more than a fort.  So apparently she was lying underneath the chair.  I did not know this. 

So I go to get up to get something, and put the leg thinger down, it didn't really click though, which I thought was weird.  All of a sudden I hear this scratching noise as the cat is trying to get out from behind the leg recliner.  She ran across the living room trying to get traction on the hardwood.  Then she sat on the other side of the room for the rest of the night just glaring at me and the chair.

The second incident happened on Sunday.  I was in the office and Ryan was lying in bed.  He called to me that the cat was stuck somewhere.  So I go into the bedroom and a dresser drawer is open (which happens a lot) so I automatically push it closed.  But it didn't close all the way.  So I try again.  Then I clue in that Ryan said the cat was stuck somewhere.  I look in behind the drawer and there is Pipsi's little eyes looking out at me.

She never made a sound, so I'm assuming I didn't hurt her, and it kind of serves her right for crawling in behind the drawer.  She clearly didn't learn her lesson because last night I heard her digging and she was in another one of our drawers trying to get behind it.  I told you she loved forts.

A Day With My Cat

Yes you read that title correctly.  If you don't understand the relationship between a girl an her cat then just stop reading now.

The thing about Pipsi is that she's always with us.  No matter what we're doing she likes to be in the same room.  And if she's nowhere to be found, I usually figure that I have accidentally locked her in a closet.

If I'm working in the office, she's there.

If I'm working out, she's there.  She is usually either head butting me when I do things like plank or burpees, or on Sunday she was swatting at the spin bike's wheel and then watching as my feet went around, and around.... It was pretty entertaining to watch.

If we are watching TV, she's there.

If I'm packing my bag for yoga, she's there.

If we are making dinner or eat dinner, she's definitely there.  Her favourites are anything with cheese or bacon.

If I'm folding clothes, she's there.



It's kind of nice though.  I'm never alone, and that's what I love about having a pet.




Done folding, what's next?

Home Again, Home Again

We are home from our 6 day vacation to Quebec!  I never share information like this in advance on the blog in case someone is stalking my blog waiting for information so that they can rob us.  Rob us of what, I don't know.  Note to intruders: we have a pretty feisty guard cat and not much of anything worth stealing.

It's so nice to be home.  Are we the only ones who feel like this at the end of a vacation?  We were really just excited to be back in our own surroundings, with our cat, eating regular food and speaking English.  Okay, so we spoke English most of the time in Quebec, but it was more difficult. 

I was excited to get back into the real world.  And by this I don't mean work.  Because I could go on without that.  But to being able to check the Internet (since I was told about 1 day into the vacation that I was almost at my monthly data max on my phone), watching TV and getting caught up on all I missed.  I feel pretty lame that my greatest joys in life are the cat, Internet and TV.  It's a good thing I'm married or else a crazy cat lady I would be.  Now I'm just a crazy cat lady with a husband. 

So the next little while will be an overwhelming number of vacation pictures, which I know can get boring after awhile, so I will try to keep them to the minimum.  Or at least spread the posts out a little bit.

The Pipperstink

Hey there blog friends.  Pipsi here.  I'm taking over mom's blog today to talk about how I'm trying to slowly destroy their house.  First of all, the key is to look cute so that they can't stay mad.  Then, when they aren't looking, mass destruction!

It all started when I was a kitten.  I pretended that I wasn't big enough to jump high and would dig my claws into their kitchen chairs.  I also tended to climb everything in site.  The curtains, the walls, the lazy boy, the ironing board.  I've gained a bit of weight since then, so I just can't do the things that I used to do.

My mom really loves her duvet cover, so I try to dig my claws into that as often as possible.  It's a mess.  #sorrynotsorry

Lately I have been working pretty hard on their bedroom furniture.  I tricked Mom into thinking I'm cute by climbing on the drawers and crawling inside.  But on my way up I make sure that I scratch the furniture.  Sometimes I hear Mom say "we should have gotten her declawed."  Ha! Too late suckers, I got these babies now and I'm going to use them.

Caught in action

The other night, I saw a bug on the other side of the kitchen window screen.  So I jumped real high and put a hole in the screen and pulled it out.  My bad.  But don't you worry parentals, I got that bug! 

Silly humans think that I like them, but really I'm just trying to take over this house and make it my own.  Let's show them who the real boss is!

 

The Pips Turns One

Today was a special day in our house.  Well a special day for a couple of crazy cat people who think that their cat is their child.  Pipsi turned 1!

We started the day off with lots of treats.  First up was a Fancy Feast with a few extra treats in it.  Apparently she was still full when Ryan came home for lunch, she didn't even want a treat.

Then she checked out her new scratching toy.  It has a hole in the side that we can hide her toys in, she thought that was pretty neat.

Pretty sure she had the best first birthday that a cat could ask for.  We are just hoping that she keeps some of her feisty kitten behaviour for a few more years.  We don't want her to be a mature cat yet.  She did give me a bit of attitude while I was trying to get her to pose for her birthday picture.  This is the best I could get.

A Game of Who Dun It?

I know that I said that I would have a story about wine, but sometimes real life happens and the pre-planned posts have to wait until next week.

We have a mystery in our house.

Wednesday night I woke up at around 2:00 am to the sound of water.  It sounded like the shower and I thought, it must be raining hard.  I woke up again at 2:30.  I thought maybe Ryan is showering.  (Why would I think that?  Because he has been known to get out of bed and shower when he realizes that he hasn't showered that night.)  Then I heard him breathing next to me. 

So I get up, and sure enough, the shower is running.

Was it Ryan?  Was it Me?  Are we sleepwalkers?  Do we have a ghost?  Was it the cat?

We are thinking, for our own sanity, that the cat turned it on.  It's the most reasonable explanation.

This seems like an unreasonable explanation, but last week the knob broke and Ryan has temporarily fixed it but sticking a toolie thing (that's not it's official name) on there to pull out when we want to turn it on.  It's kind of flimsy and we figure if she was playing with it, it might turn on.  That's what we are hoping anyways, otherwise something weird is going on....



Tubs aren't meant to have their pictures taken - notice the contraption where the knob should be



When a Dog Comes to Visit

So this week and last week we have been babysitting Oliver while my parents are in Vegas.  This means that we are living in a nut house since the cat and dog just chase each other cosntantly.  Plus, we have to lock Oliver up at night and let me tell you, listening to the poor pup cry that entire first night was torture.  Ryan of course slept through it.  He's been getting a bit better, he only cries for the first bit now and then I think he falls asleep.



Who does she think she is?  Sitting at the table like a people



Pipsi likes to show Oliver who's boss.  He was looking out the window, so of course she had to go jump on the window sill and scare him away. 

He's such a little scruff-a-muffin.  He's still pretty hyperactive in his young age, but he's calming down slightly.  He kind of just follows me around the house and sits under my feet.  Well that's what he does when he isn't playing with the cat. 



Cheap Entertainment

What is better (or cheaper) than a towel and a water bottle cap?  We have hours of entertainment here for the Piperstink.

What she likes even more is when Dad comes in and plays with her and the towel. She loves that.  She runs into the room as soon as he comes in, ready to be wrapped up in it. 

She's a different one.  And I'm a crazy cat lady who posts too many pictures of my cat.

When Cousins Meet

Willis came to stay this weekend.  Willis is our fur nephew. 

By this point in the walk, he had already had a very messy poo, which I got all over my hands trying to pick up and we had to go home, wash up and then leave again.  I love the dog, but this made me realize why I don't want one.  Big dogs do not have cute poop. 

First we took him on a walk up to the Car Show.  Honestly, I didn't even walk around and look at all of the cars.

I just sat under this tent for about 20 minutes and then went home.  Not entirely sure why I went... just for something to do I guess.

But when we took him home, the moment we had been waiting for happened.  The meeting of Willis and Pipsi.  Pipsi plays (or fights) with Oliver, but he is her size.  We weren't sure what she would think of Willis.

This is what she thought.

Then she decided to keep him within eyesight. 

Luckily, they have grown on each other.  I don't know if that's the right term for it actually.  They kind of just tolerate and ignore each other.  Willis is a lover, not a fighter.  He really just lays around most of the time.  Pipsi watches him and eats his food.  Ryan thinks cats eat dog food because its like treats, like if someone put some cheesy delicious nachos in front of a person, you can't resist.  I think that it's because she is showing dominance over him.  Maybe it's both.

So the two pets made it through the weekend without injuring each other.  I made it through the weekend without getting poop on me more than once.  We can't really ask for much more.

The Day I Caught Pipsi Red Handed

Would red pawed be a more appropriate term?

We have one of those automatic waterers for the Pipster.  It is kind of like this:

Except ours didn't come with a Jack Russel.

So once in a while, ours appears to completely empty out all over the floor.  I thought it was because it was cheap and I bought it on sale, so it must have been defective.  But this was concerning, because what's the point of having a waterer so that we can leave her alone for the week, if it empties out and she has no water left by the second day. 

So I'm down in the basement today, and I go into the furnace room and Pipsi is frantically running around, there is water everywhere.  It's all over the rug that is in there that serves no purpose, it's underneath the litter box, it's mixing with litter that Pipsi has kicked all over the floor.  It's disgusting.  So I just throw some towels on it and walk away.  I didn't really have time to deal with it any more than that.  Nor did I care. 

I'm on the other side of the room, steaming clothes, and I hear it gurgling again.  I think to myself, "What the heck?"  I go back into the furnace room and see Pipsi, paws splashing around in the water, sticking her nose in it, splashing water everywhere.  And as she splashes water out, the waterer thinks that it needs to fill up and more water comes out.  So it's not defective at all.  Our kitten is defective.  Needless to say, I have taken the waterer away from her.  She can have it back when she learns to behave herself.

Note: I may or may not have invented the word waterer.  I don't know what they are called.

The Unexpected Houseguest

My sister is staying at our house right now because she had her tonsils removed on Tuesday.  So? Why does she have to be at our house? Because we have air conditioning and my parents don't, and it's like 40 degrees outside.  That's like hot yoga in your living room weather.

So she had a sleep over last night and I guess she's still there because she sent me this picture of her bonding with Pipsi.

Cat's always know when you need a friend.  When she didn't want a friend was last night while she was trying to sleep and Pipsi was trying to play.

Let's see how much trouble I get in for the towel on her head photo...I think she looks pretty good considering that she had surgery this week.

Oliver!

We have decided on a name.  Oliver it is.  Or Ollie.  He is freakin' cute.  We love him. 

So let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start....

We missed our Opie pup and decided that a house without a dog was no good (except my house, that's fine).  So we were on a crazy puppy hunt.  We wanted a dog similar in size to Opie (about 25 lbs), somewhat close to home and not too expensive.  Well this was hard to come by.  I started looking into miniature golden doodles.  They are like $2000.  Who spends that on a dog?  Finally I found Oliver and his siblings on kijiji.  They were down the road from work, so I went to check them out.

Oliver is a schnoodle, which is what Opie was.  His dad is a schnauzer/poodle and his mom is a poodle.  He met all of the criteria except he will probably only be between 10 and 15 lbs. 

Later that same night, Tali, Brady and I went to look at some whoodles (wheaten poodles).  They were cute, as most puppies are, but we decided that we already knew the pros and cons of a schnoodle and we kind of wanted to go with that breed.  So the next day, they went to see Oliver and he came home with them!  He was the most playful in the litter, the biggest, and the only black one.  We didn't want one that looked too much like Opie and both of his brothers that were left were blonde.

He is a good pup so far.  Very few accidents.  He just kind of follows his people around.  And sleeps. 

I'm trying to see him frequently because I wanted him to love me.  I am his designated babysitter after all. 

He came over to visit Pipsi on Monday night.  I don't know if she liked him.  I think that she wants to be friends, but on her terms.  She's such a cat.

  Once Oliver was asleep she got a little bit closer.  Pretty nervy there Pips.