I Certainly Have My Work Cut Out for Me

While I stated in a previous post that it is unnecessary for the feline members of the household to concern themselves with moving preparations, I was ill-prepared for the amount of chaos that my humans could cause while packing. Look at that mess! I am afraid that I have had to take them firmly in hand and personally supervise the remainder of the process. I am getting ahead of myself, however. I shall begin at the beginning.

On Sunday night we were joined by Jennifer's mother, a charming woman named Bethanie. It appears that Jennifer must have inherited her head-strong nature from her father as I found Bethanie most agreeable. But I digress. All three humans quickly got to work packing. Things started off quite well as Bethanie and Jennifer brought in boxes and assorted other supplies, and Jason set up shop on the couch preparing his toy soldiers for departure.

That should have been my first clue that something was amiss. Anything that involves his soldiers (which he calls by the preposterous name of "Warhammer Forty Kay"), invariably consumes a great deal of space and makes a dreadful mess. Jennifer and Bethanie quickly added to the chaos by moving things around, stacking boxes in odd places, and creating a great racket by rustling papers and taping boxes closed.

I found a vantage point from which I could survey the scene and quickly came to the conclusion that my organizational powers were desperately needed. I found that it was necessary to make frequent inspections of the humans' progress as well as giving them clear, detailed instructions. I am proud to say, however, that I have been rewarded for my efforts. The packing has continued, but the chaos has largely been contained.

Jennifer has just informed me that Bethanie and my old chum Bob (Jason's father) will be joining us tomorrow to finish preparing for our departure. I fear that, with this many humans about, things will quickly get out of hand again. A feline's work is never done.

Boxes!!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been super-busy. My Mommy and a Nice Lady have been packing up all of our stuff and I've been helping. That's me making sure that the box is strong enough to hold Mommy's stuff.

The Nice Lady came to visit us for a few days to help Mommy. I like when she visits because she lets me sit on her lap and she scratches my ears. She didn't let me sleep on her feet, though. :( The Nice Lady and Mommy worked really hard, but Mommy says there's still lots to do. There's more than just my food dish to pack. She has to pack my food, the chair I like to sleep on, the laundry I like to sleep on, Spanky's bed, our toys... lots of stuff!

Mommy is too busy packing to play with me as much, but that's okay because playing in boxes is lots of fun! Dante and I spent all day jumping in and out of boxes and exploring box mazes. Plus there's all this crinkly paper laying around that's fun to play pounce with. Dante says he saw a box of little foam bits, but Mommy moved it and we haven't found it again. I hope we do. Foam bits in a box would be super-fun!

Please Inform me When my "Valium" is Ready

I see that my housemate, Dante, has been relating his experiences with the process of packing up our belongings. He appears to be enjoying himself which is why I have refrained from mentioning that he is expending effort unnecessarily. It has been my experience that when humans decide to change domiciles, the best thing for the feline members of the household to do is to take a nap. Let the humans bustle about preparing their belongings for transportation; it was their decision to change dwellings after all. I have moved with Jason on previous occasions and let me assure you that he is quite adept at seeing to my needs. Since we will be traveling by "Valium" instead of by automobile, I see no need to concern myself with the moving arrangements.

I did get quite a chuckle out of Dante's photograph of himself inside of a moving container, especially since he confided to me that he entered it voluntarily. I am afraid that sometimes his enthusiasm for exploration gets the better of him. I have spent many years convincing Jason, and later Jennifer, that cats simply do not belong in boxes. I had to be quite insistent about it, even going so far as to create something of a fuss when such a procedure was attempted. I appear to have finally broken my humans of that bad habit, however, as it has been some time since they attempted to confine me within a cat carrier.

At any rate, I am confidant that once they are doing preparing for our departure, they will know where to locate me.

Oh Hai

Packing up kitties is hard work, especially when you don't have opposable thumbs. My person has it easy. She really needs to stop complaining. Anyway, I'm too tried to post much today (that's me taking it easy). Instead you should check out this site cause it has lots of cat pictures on it: http://lolcats.com/

My person says I should warn you that not all of the pictures are "safe for work." Whatever that means. She was pretty insistent about it. *rolls eyes.* Humans.

l8r

I'm Done with My Packing

So my person's been packing up all of our stuff. She's pretty good at it, probably because she has opposable thumbs. Humans always seem really impressed with themselves cause they have opposable thumbs, but if you ask me, they go to waste half the time. If I had opposable thumbs I wouldn't be putting stuff in boxes, I'd go get some wet food and some catnip.

Anyway, I've pretty much staying out of her way but the other day I heard her tell TGWWGA that she better not be the only one packing stuff up. I figured it was only a matter of time until she starts in on us. She's a decent person and everything but she can really get on your case about helping out around the house. I decided I should get ready to go before she started giving me a hard time about it.

I don't know why she complains about packing. I was done in no time. I even picked a box that had an ear-scratching hole cause I'm thoughtful like that. Now that I'm ready to go, I don't know what the hold up is. What else could she possibly need in California? Well, I guess she needs to put my food dish in a box and probably Edmund too. She better not be using those opposable thumbs to pack up TGWWGA's stuff instead of scratching my ears.

A Bit of Background

Now that the cats have all introduced themselves, I thought some background information about the move might be in order. Spanky, Dante, and Edmund are moving because Jennifer (that's me) has been accepted to the Ph.D. program at the University of California, Riverside. We will be rolling out in a little less than 2 weeks and we will arrive in California about a week later. There is still lots of packing to do (not to mention loading the truck) so I'm sure the cats will have more thoughts to share before the trip.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog and feel free to post in the comment section; the cats tell me they love reading them. :)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the blog "To Say Nothing of the Cat." Jennifer has requested that I participate in this blog in order to share my reflections of our upcoming transcontinental trek. She also threatened to pack me in one of the boxes if I failed to comply.

Allow me to take a few moments to introduce myself. My full name is Percy Sheldon Montgomery, but my friends call me Spanky; a nickname bestowed upon me by my human, Jason, when I was but a kitten. I lived with Jason and his family for many years prior to joining him and Jennifer in their new home. My relationship with Jennifer has been contentious on occasion as we are both very determined individuals. Recently, however, we have come to an understanding of sorts and are now able to peaceably cohabitate.

In addition to the humans, I also share my home with two other felines. Dante can occasionally be tiresome, but he is young and high-spirited and will likely settle down as he matures. Edmund is a fun-loving kitten who I think looks up to me as something of an older brother. He can be a tad anxious and prone to worrying about minor thing, but I hope that through my example he learns to face the world more confidently.

It is my understanding that we will be traveling by automobile on this journey. I sincerely hope this is not the case as I detest them. When I inquired of Jennifer regarding our method of transportation, she reassured me that all would be well. Apparently we are traveling by means of something called "Valium." She declined to elaborate on what a "Valium" was but assured me that I would be most comfortable on our trip.

I look forward to sharing this trip with all of you.

Introduction

Hi! My name is Edmund and I am a cat. I live with my Mommy, Dante, Spanky and the Monster in a house in Ohio. Really! A monster! A very scary one! Dante doesn't like him either. Spanky will sit right next to him, though. He says that the Monster isn't scary at all and if I didn't hide under the bed every time the Monster came home I'd get my ears scratched. I usually trust what Spanky says, but not when it comes to the Monster. He can't eat me if I'm under the bed. *nod nod nod*

Mommy says I should stop talking about the Monster and introduce myself. :p

I really like the house we live in because it has my food dish and nice places to sleep. We won't be living in Ohio much longer, though, because we are going to move to someplace called California. My Mommy says not to be nervous about moving, but I am not nervous at all. I am a brave kitty! Well, I'm a brave kitty when there's no Monster. Monsters don't go to California, right?

Spanky is my big brother and he takes care of me. He lets me sleep on him sometimes and helps make sure my fur is nice and pretty. Dante and I are BFFs (that means Best Friends Forever). That's a picture of us up there. I'm the grey one. :) Dante and I play together all the time. We play chase. We play pounce. We play sleep on Mommy's homework. My Mommy is the best! She feeds me and plays with me and scratches my tummy. She won't let me have any of Dante's wet food, though. I don't know why. Maybe she doesn't see me sitting right where the plate with the food on it goes? Maybe I need to frolic more while she's doing it...

I hope you like my blog!

My Mommy also says that if I meow all the way to California, I will have something to be nervous about. O.o

Introduction

Hey. My person says I should introduce myself to everyone. *shrugs* If it’s that big of deal…

My name is Dante and live in Ohio with my person, 2 other cats (Edmund and Spanky), and That Guy Who Won't Go Away (TGWWGA). Ohio’s okay, I guess. There are birds outside the window to watch and my person is here to scratch my ears. We won’t be living here much longer because we’re moving to someplace called California. My person wants me to write about the move and everything. Something about “sharing the experience with friends and family.” *rolls eyes* You know how humans can be. She gives me wet food twice a day, though, so I guess I can do this blog-thing if that's what she really wants.

Oh, right, introductions. I am 4 years old and I've lived with my person since I was a kitten. That's a picture of us up at the top. You can look at my profile pic to find out what I look like now. Edmund and I are best friends. A lot of people say he’s a scaredy-cat, but he’s always up for a game of chase and tackle so I can’t complain. Spanky and I are not cool. He always takes TGWWGA 's side and he thinks he’s smarter than me.

I’m pretty excited about this move to California. My person says there will be birds there and I’m hoping that the birds will be inside the house instead of outside like they are now. That would be pretty cool. I wonder if TGWWGA is coming with us? I hope not.

Well, I hope you all enjoy reading this blog. I think Spanky and Edmund are going to post too. It should be pretty interesting.