Photos Posted -- Quilt, Cat & Kid

Lovely Bunnie; and, boy, doesn't Raechel look grown up! . In message , Tia Mary writes

Bunnie looks right at home in that photo. Bodacious fits her personality. I can see her extrovertedness staring out of the picture. :-)

Wow, the Egyptian quilt is wild! I bet that was a fun one to make.

Raechel is quite the little doll. :-)

We started calling Bunnie Miss Lardbutt because she is , well, a lardbutt -- LOL! An inquisitive one at that! She went MIA today for 4 or 5 hours and we couldn't find her anywhere. She's so chunky that there are very few places where she could have hidden her Bodacious Bulkritude and we checked them all but couldn't find her. DH had been putting decorations away up in the attic and he finally thought to check. Sure enough there she was! That brat had climbed up the pull down attic ladder when Dh wasn't looking and got herself locked in! She was famished, of course, and had to go eat (she's on fat cat diet food) immediately -- LOLOL! I need to take some close ups of the Egyptian Quilt fabrics. The blocks are a modified log cabin set with a 3" square in one corner that is dark purple with a bust of Nefertiti in gold. The blocks are then set on point and the filling triangles along the outside are from the CleoCATra line of fabric that was out several years ago. As for Raechel, well, she's Raechel -- LOL. A tomboy who much prefers jeans and consented to wear a dress for her school photos only because it was one that GrandMother had made for her and it had a kitty, panda and bunny on it :-))). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Mary, I really like that quilt -- the fabrics are scrumptious! Raechel is a beauty; those green eyes will be the cause of many a broken heart as she gets older. Bunnie is adorable. :)

I'm behind the times. Haven't kept up on my RTCQ reading--but I have been working on EQ quilt designs for friends, so it's for a good reason! ;-)

So how are Miss Bodacious Lardbutt, Ivy Jane, and Cassie doing? Is Ivy Jane getting any less skittish?

Yes, I could tell the Egyptian fabrics were really interesting, but as you said, couldn't make out the details in the overall picture.

And I'd say Racheal has good taste. ;-)

Sorry about this latest setback, but I do have to say I so enjoy your stories. Both of ours have the same habit of hiding (in our case it's usually under the bed) with their heads under the bed and their hind-ends sticking out.

We haven't had any of the skirmishes that you've encountered. Thankfully they have adjusted well to us and to each other, but we had the advantage of both of them being newbies in our home - #1 had been with us only two months when we brought #2 home. Right now they're chasing each other up and down the stairs to the basement - oh, wait, we just had a time out for a litter box break! Okay, done with that - back to chasing.

I do hope Ivy Jane is okay and lets you into her world soon - both for your sake and hers. Once she discovers how much love you can give her and how luxurious it feels to be brushed/combed, she'll never leave you alone.

When I went in to make the bed a little while ago, Bunnie (ChunkyButt Cat) came out from under the foot of the bed and started begging for loves. I dutifully picked her up and loved her and then brought her into the computer room where she could sit on the little bench in front of the window and get brushed. She is SO FAT that she can barely get her belly cleaned let alone her back above the tail. She's off meowling like a demented Siamese and chasing after one of the numerous toys she has accumulated -- some of them even meant for cats!! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I am enjoying reading about your house full of adventures Mary. I sure hope IJ settles in soon. Taria

Taria wrote:

MAJOR setback with IvyJane just now. She has been letting me get close and closer so I thought it was time to try and get pretty close and feed her some canned food. She was under the storage bench on the upstairs landing (where she has been hanging out since yesterday) and she let me get down on the floor right in front of her. I put some canned food in a bowl, lay on the ground right in front of her and slid the bowl right up to the bed. I reached my hand out for her to get a sniff and must have wriggled or moved in such a way that she started to bolt but there was no where for her to go. There is a box blocking one end of the bench and a small table against the other end. This provided a nice snuggy, secluded where IJ felt safe -- poor little thing! Anyway, as I was moving my hand away, it settled on her tail, she went totally ballistic, hissing and screaming and all claws. She has GOOD claws as my right arm and shoulder can attest to. I'm just glad she didn't bite me -- that would NOT have been good -- LOLOL! VBS, I'm afraid that we have likely taken a step or four backwards :-(. I'll just have to make a point of totally ignoring her for the next few days. I was at the PetSmart where I adopted her and the folks there said she ALWAYS came out of hiding for canned food and they thought it was worth a try. If I had been thinking, I would have realized she would panic when she realized she was trapped. Oh well, a few more prayers to St. Frank are in order, I guess. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Rats, it really takes a lot of patience to live with cats. Guess that is why really dogs are my favorite. Gosh a can of chow would bribe almost any pooch. I am learning about cats. One of the repo cats we have been trying to feed is in my garage recovering. He had an abscess that needed work and also got fixed on Tuesday. I am into this stray for just about $200. He is still on antibiotics and has a bandage that can be removed Tuesday. We talked to the rescue folks at the local petsmart this morning and they will try to find him a home once he is done with meds. They are the rescue we got our wonderful Ginger dog from and I am hoping they can find this kitty a good home. I hope he is a little braver and tougher than IJ. Some of these kitties just have had to deal with way too much. I would like to beat folks that get a kitty or puppy and then dump them. Taria

Tia Mary wrote:

It almost sounds as if she had been a feral cat, that someone trapped and put up for adoption. If that is the case, you may never be able to hold her, etc. Right now, the best thing is probably to ignore her, keep feeding canned food, letting her get used to your voice as you talk to DH and the rest of the family, and keep her safe from harm.. She may come around in her own time. Gen

Her records (and the rescue people) say she was found as a stray -- older kitten less than a year old -- on 05 November 2003. She's not at all feral just skittish and very shy, to be expected having to live in a cage or moved from foster home to foster home for five years. Apparently the rescue group has a room in the basement of the Pet Smart that they use to keep the cats in without being in cages when they are to be there for adoptions. So poor IvyJane has gone from pillar to post for years and never really bonded with anyone. I am told she loves to be brushed and comes running whenever she smells the canned food being opened. As for getting used to my voice, well, she seemed to have done that in the 10 days we have had her. I talk to her all the time, calling both her and the Bodacious Miss Bunnie (Chunkybutt Cat). Whenever I would see her I would stop what I was doing and be still and just look at her and talk to her quietly and gently. I'm sure this is why she gradually made her way from hiding in a place we could not find to on the dining room chairs around the table to under our bed and finally to sitting on the little table in front of the bedroom window (when no one was around, of course) or sleeping in the cat bed under the bench -- almost out in the open for her. I'm just soooo sad to have stressed the poor little thing out. But

-- one good thing is that she didn't run and hide in her unfindable place. I checked under the bed and, sure enough, she was there. I told her everything was OK and that I would leave her totally alone for as long as it takes her to recover -- as if she understands what I am saying -- LOLOL -- it's the tone of voice she hears, the words are for myself. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Some cats just seem to be shy and timid. Mia is like that - she has never sat on a knee. She does show affection, but on her terms, in fact everything has to be on Mia's terms - this includes bedtime. The boys come running - bedtime means biscuits. Mia loves biscuits too, but sometimes she will hide and just peep and then run to another inaccessible place and peep. Then, if ignored she will suddenly decide to go to bed. Kiwi however is completely the opposite and as her little litter brother has obviously had exactly the same experiences as Mia.

DH says Mia is a proper cat!

Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Tia Mary wrote:

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:54:36 -0600, Tia Mary wrote (in article ):

Just be patient. She knows now that nothing really bad happened to her. But some kitties are just more standoffish than others.

Maureen

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:16:57 -0600, Tia Mary wrote (in article ):

Sounds like she's slowly getting comfortable. it's just likely to take her a really long time. Her situation sounds like our Katie Mae's. Katie took forever to get used to us, and sometimes still is really skittish around David. I guess it's just part of her personality.

We love her to death, even if there are days when she's not the friendliest of kitties.

Maureen

I saw IvyJane several times today and made sure there was no eye contact. She was at the bottom of the front stair as I was walking past the top of the stair and I made a point of not looking her way. She stood there a moment and the scooted off to go hide her head in the sand :-). She can take as long as needed, my only real concern is that she gets to the vet in the next few months to have her shots updated and also to have a good brushing so she doesn't generate a host of rats, mats and scraggly cat fuzz :-))). Bunnie, OTOH, was a happy camper today. It was a bit warmer here (low 40'sF) so I let her follow me out to the screened in porch. She thought she was in hog heaven -- LOLOL. She did that rolling around "bacon" thing that kitties like to do on concrete and just sat and watched the birds and squirrels. Best part is, when I was ready to come back in the house, I opened the door, came inside and called her. It took a few times of calling her name but she came right in with no problem. We were out there twice today and both times she came back in after just 2 or 3 times calling her name and telling her to come in! Pretty good for an abandoned cat baby if you ask me :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Sorry about the misunderstanding between you and IJ, Tia Mary. However, it really hasn't been that long. I'm sure she'll come around. However, you may be looking at weeks before that happens rather than days. In any case, she's safe and sound in your care. That's a good thing.