Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is my very first Christmas at the Nice's house. I can tell it will be exciting. Today Mr. Nice put up a real tree inside the house and Mrs. Nice spent hours decorating.

She is a little worried that I may climb up her tree because her old cat used to do that when he was a kitten. The Santa Claus you see in the picture looks like something I'd love to get my paws on, but I better not. I know she will get the water bottle out and spray me which I don't care for at all.

Anyhow if I don't get around to drop you a line. Have a Merry Christmas with all your loved ones and all the best for 2008.

Yours truly,
Stella-The-Cat

Way Up High ....

Usually Mrs. Nice has a clematis growing here, but I thought I should see how difficult it is to climb up here. Great view from up here, I'd say.

At the moment it is too cold outside to have any exciting adventures outdoors. Mrs. Nice says I act like Garfield the cat when I am bored. Can you tell me who this is?

Anyhow, have fun looking at my pictures.

Stella-The-Cat

View Album

Get your own

My favorite and not so favorite spots in the house

When I came to Mr. & Mrs. Nice's home, I had presents waiting for me. One of them was my scratch pole which I have shown for Luna once before and my little wicker basket.

The scratch pole remains to be one of my favorite spots since I can sit there and look out of the window into the garden. Since I don't care to be out very much at the moment, I can sharpen my claws there as well which I do lot.
The wicker basket I liked at the beginning. For some reason which I cannot explain I have avoided it for a while.

Then they bought this red "cave" for me. At the moment this is where I am all the time when I need some peace and quiet. Of course, it is in my favorite room which is the bedroom.

Mr. & Mrs. Nice thought I should have more hiding places and bought another one. This one is blue and it has a pillow with the same design on the inside. She has begged me to use it. Mr. Nice thought that I may be smelling something I don't like, so Mrs. Nice even washed it and put my favorite cuddly blanket in it.
Today they tried again to entice me to use it; to no avail though. I wonder why I just cannot use it quite yet?

So, what do you think of my furniture?

Have a nice week!
Stella

What's there do do ... Part II

Dear friends,
the cold weather continues. The weekend is here and this usually means that I am allowed to spend a lot of time outdoors when Mr. and Mrs. Nice are home. Since it is dark when they come home in the evening now, I don't care to be out since the temperature has dropped so much.

However, today I had to go out and explore our garden a little. As you can probably tell by the looks of it, my paws were pretty cold. I didn't stay out much longer.

I hurried to make it to the border and back inside the house.
I decided this week I need to take charge of the other couch where Mr. Nice likes to sit with his notebook and surf on the internet. He left the notebook on the couch while he worked on the office computer upstairs and I had time to admire my blog.

I hope wherever you are that your weather is warmer than it is in Bavaria right now.

Have a nice weekend!
Stella-the-Cat

What's there to do ....

.... in weather like that. I decided for myself to take a nap .. all day long.




Have a nice week!

Stella-The-Cat

The Invasion

Dear blog friends,
I haven't posted in a while, but nothing exciting has happened lately in my boring life until last week. Of course, I have got to share it with you.

You are probably wondering about the title "The Invasion". Yes, we actually had an invasion kind of ... sort of ... invasion of children and adults.

It all happened on Saturday the 13th, not Friday the 13th. It might as well have been Friday the 13th. It was a quiet Saturday as usual until about 4 p.m. Suddenly there were 4 people on our patio, 2 big people and 2 small boys. They were greeted very lovingly; still no clue who that could be. I kind of stepped ahead to be noticed and the little boys paid attention to me.

Suitcases and lots of bags, goodies for Mr. and Mrs. Nice were carried into the house into the spare bedrooms. What was happening???? Somebody please tell me????

The strangers stayed. They stayed for a week.

There was no place to hide for me anymore. They were everywhere. After about two days I succumbed to the situation. What else was there for me to do? I didn't get the impression that they were leaving anytime soon.



Actually it turned out rather nice. I had many people to spoil me. Later on I found out that the older two were Mrs. Nice's parents and the little boys, who were 9 and 10 years old, were her nephews. I came to appreciate them as fun playmates. Whenever I would go outdoors, one of them would follow and play Hide'n Seek with me. Even Mrs. Nice's mom spoiled me. This was new to Mrs. Nice because she always considered her mom not to be a cat person. Mrs. Nice's dad just observed me from a distance and got tickled at some of my habits.

Today -without telling me, no advance warning whatsoever- suitcases and bags were taken outside into a car, the newfound friends left again. What happened??? I thought they were going to live with us from now on.
Well, Mrs. and Mrs. Nice explained to me that this is called "a visit" and that they return occasionally.

I was relieved after that! At least I know I will see my new friends again. Until that time I will enjoy the piece and quiet again in my house.

On Special Request by Luna

Luna wanted to see my scratch post and Mrs. Nice got a good shot of it today while I was resting from running around outside all day. This weekend was especially busy since I had the responsibility of observing the border makeover in Mrs. Nice's garden.

What do you think of it, Luna? I like it very much and it feels great to scratch on real wood, especially when you can't go outdoors. Mr. and Mrs. Nice like it because it fits into the house quite well and it doesn't look as artificial as other scratch poles.

They bought something else for me! I haven't gotten a picture of it yet, though. It is a comfy little cave. The inside has fur and I love to sleep in there a lot during the day.

Last week was a quiet week, except for Sunday night/Monday morning. Mrs. Nice's son came home late and I noticed he didn't turn the key and lock the door. Can you guess, what I did? I jumped up the door handle and got out. When Mr. Nice got up in the morning getting ready for work, I was not home and the front door was open. He was very upset about it, which I don't understand because I came right home, when they were getting ready to drive to work which is 6:15 a.m. After that I thought that I could go out every night, but -oh no!- the front door has been locked again. Then again, it was interesting to enjoy the "night life".

Rainy Days

I am not allowed to go out when it rains. Usually, Mr. & Mrs. Nice let me find out myself whether I like it or not. You probably guessed it, I not only dislike rain, I hate it. Nevertheless, I like to make up my mind anew each time it rains. For whatever reasons my owners do not understand that part of my thinking.

These past weeks have been rather irritating for me. Tied to the house most of the time during the day since Mr. & Mrs. are back to the office, it has been pouring down during the evening when they get home and we've had hail twice in a row. In addition to my urge to hit the road, you have Mrs. Nice who is upset about not being able to do much outdoors and seeing her hostas and other plants looking like Swiss cheese. Great combination, don't you think? You'd believe that she understands me.

Since I am not giving up the right to find out myself whether I like it outdoors or not, I guess we will continue the game which has been documented in pictures of course. ;-)

Here I am checking out the weather from the lower levels.

Looking outside from my scratch pole. Yes, looks kind of wet outside.

Let me out guys!

Why does Mrs. Nice always leave her garden shoes here? The rug has been placed there because of me. Mrs. Nice says I bring the outdoors indoors on my tail and fur.

I wonder if I can open this?

Maybe I need to put my paw between the tilted window?

There has to be a spot somewhere here inbetween where I can slip outdoors without having to beg those two. I know they are watching me.

I give up. YOU RULE - but this time only.

It's been a while

Mr. and Mrs. Nice have been kind of busy and there wasn't much time to get this week's story online. You may have noticed my absence, but I was not at home. You will read more about this if you stick around.

I have also been a bit upset. They did not tell me that I would be alone in the "cat hotel" for two weeks. Now I know what it means when they get these things called suitcases from the attic. It means one or both will be leaving.

While they were away vacationing on some island where they've decided to get married while there by the way, I had to spend two miserable weeks in a cat hotel. What's REALLY bad about this is that it was the place where they have adopted me. It scared me so bad having to go there, even though it was a separate house and room where only cats stayed whose owners where on vacation. You may have read that I don't really care about other cats. My only enjoyment are the people I stay with. They are the ones spending time with me, cuddling and hugging me, feeding me. I missed them very much.

The two weeks passed by and I was so happy that they returned and had not forgotten about me. Like I have said before the two have gotten married. I thought they already were married, but no .. they've been "living in sin" for 10 years. Oh well, that is not unusual in Germany, but it definitely surprised me. Well, I don't care either way, I am just so happy I have got my Mr. & Mrs. Nice again all to myself and don't have to be away from them now.

The past 1 1/2 weeks I did not let them out of my sight. They've had to carry me around. At night I made sure I slept at the foot of the bed. Mrs. packed a suitcase once again and I was afraid I'd have to go to the "cat hotel" so soon again, but she had to go on a business trip over night and Mr. Nice stayed home. I'll settle for that.

What's new is that both of them leave every day now. In the past months Mrs. Nice has been home with me, but she has to go to something called "office" along with Mr. Nice. They come home every night and then it is "my" time. As long as they come home it is allright with me.

I get to go outdoors, but I don't stay away for long and come back often to check if they are still at home. I've heard Mrs. Nice tell Mr. Nice that she believes that I have fears of being abandoned again by my "can openers". She may be right. Too bad I cannot tell her in people talk what happened to me before they adopted me at the shelter.

Now you're up-to-date again about Stella's life! Keep coming back!

Gib mir fünf

I am doing this post in German since German cat friends tagged me for "Give Me Five".

Maus & Allegra haben mich "getagged"

Jetzt soll ich 5 Fragen beantworten, womit ich euch dann so einiges über mich verrate, was ja nicht jeder wissen sollte. Aber wahrscheinlich macht ihr euch sowieso schon Gedanken über mich, wenn ich euch meine Strategien im Internet verrate, wie ich Mr. & Mrs. Nice erziehe.

Frage 1: Nenne deine 5 Lieblingssongs

• "Hit the road, Jack, but I will come back ... " Das singe ich, wenn ich vor meinem Kästchen stehen, wo mein Halsband aufbewahrt wird.
• "Fisch im Gelee, oh yeah, Fisch im Gelee ..." Das singe ich, wenn ich brav darauf warte, bis meine Dosenöffner mir mein Schälchen gefüllt haben, damit sie wissen, dass Rind nicht mein Lieblingsessen ist.
• "I am ready, I am ready to be cuddled, yes, M'am... meow" ... Das singe ich, wenn ich mal wieder schmusen will und das ist ziemlich häufig
• "Time to say Good Night" - Das singe ich, wenn ich zum wiederholten Male zu Frauchen komme am Abend, um sie endlich ins Bett zu holen.
• "Hello again ..." Das singe ich, wenn ich mich wieder bemerkbar mache nach einem Gartenbesuch, um auf Nummer sicher zu gehen, dass meine Schüssel schon wieder gefüllt ist.

Frage 2: Was sind deine 5 Lieblingsspielzeuge

• Die Frösche an und in Nachbars Teich
• Meine bunten Bändchen
• Mein Weinkorken mit Schnur
• Schmetterlinge, aber die lassen sich nicht fangen
• Meine kleinen Bällchen, die ich wie ein Fussballprofi durch's Haus kicke

Frage 3: Nenne deine 3 Lieblingssnacks
Jetzt wird's schwierig. Herrchen und Frauchen haben ziemlich schnell gemerkt, dass ich eine Katze bin, die sich aus den ganzen Snacks, die sie gekauft haben, nichts macht. Darum liste ich mal meine Lieblingsfutter.

Herrchen kauft mir immer diese Tütchen von KitKat, die ich liebe. Da komme ich angerannt, wenn er damit winkt. Hmmmmm.....

• Thunfisch
• Lachs
• Alles, worin Leber enthalten ist, auch Trockenfutter
• Kabeljau - einfach göttlich
• Huhn - dagegen mag ich Truthahn überhaupt nicht.

Frage 4: Nenne deine 5 Lieblingsbeschäftigungen

• In den Garten gehen und mich in der Sonne aalen
• Auf der Wiese hinter unserem Haus spielen
• Schlafen in einer stillen Ecke im Garten
• Schmusen
• Mit Herrchen spielen, weil der das richtig gut kann

Frage 5: Nenne 5 schlechte Angewohnheiten

Da muss ich richtig überlegen. Eigentlich bin ich perfekt.

• Ich nerve meine Dosenöffner mindestens 1 Stunde jeden Abend, wenn ich eigentlich im Haus bleiben muss, damit sie mich doch wieder raus lassen. Aber es funktioniert nicht. Sie bleiben hart. Frauchen sagt immer: "Dass Stella das nach 2 Monaten nicht kapiert, dass sie abends nicht raus darf." Ich hab's schon kapiert, aber bisher hab ich euch ja immer wieder weich gekriegt. Nur da scheint es nicht zu funktionieren.
• Ich renne manchmal zwischen die Füße von Frauchen, wenn sie die Treppe runter geht, weil ich vor ihr an der Terrassentür sein möchte.
• Wenn Türen geschlossen sind, spring ich hoch und öffne sie. Inzwischen sind die Türgriffe hochgestellt, weil sie nicht immer wollen, dass ich überall rein kann. Bei Sohnemann A. wirkt es aber. Er macht mir auch mitten in der Nacht die Tür auf. Frauchen hat ihm aber gesagt, er soll sie geschlossen halten, wenn er nicht möchte, dass ich zu ihm komme. Allerdings musste Herrchen schon mal durch's Küchenfenster, weil ich die Terrasentür angesprungen hatte und da ist die Tür geschlossen, wenn der Griff unten ist. Jetzt nimmt er aber immer die Schlüssel mit in den Garten.
• Ich gehe in fremde Häuser und leg mich auch mal in fremde Betten.
  

Da Silke und Wolfgang schon Giselas Max nominiert haben und die einzig andere Blog-Katze Luna ist, die ich kenne, gerade in Urlaub ist, muss ich wohl mit meinen Offenbarungen hier allein bleiben. Eure Stella-The-Cat

Week #9 - Sneaking my way into the bedroom

I cannot remember whether I have told you that Mrs. Nice didn't really like for me to take my naps on her bed. At first the bed was completely off limits.

Then I started joining her in the morning when she would make the bed. She'd open the shades and I could sit on the window sill and look outside.

One day she left the bedroom door open and I laid down on the bedspread. She thought it was cute. The rule changed to: Stella may rest on the bed, but the spread must be on the bed.

Another rule was that I could not sleep in the bedroom at night. They put the door handles upright to keep me from opening the door and hung a scary balloon there which would pop when I jumped at it.

Then I would sleep in between the hallway and the bedroom before they came to go to bed. I must've looked so cute and they didn't want to wake me, so they left their door open and put the blanket on the floor. Mrs. Nice softened and put my little basket into their room for me to sleep in with the condition that I would not come into their bed.

One night I thought I'd give it a try. Mrs. Nice went to bed and I jumped on the bottom part of the bed. Mr. Nice started laughing and they let me stay there under the condition that I stay at the end of the bed.

Can you see the progression? This is the way to do it .. be sneaky about it, be cute and they will let you do anything. That's my story for week #9. Gotta go and check out the neighborhood! Have a nice weekend!

Week 4 and 5 - Stella on Tour

These past two weeks have been incredibly busy. I was out and about checking out our neighborhood on my own. It was GREAT! Of course, I made sure to come back so Mrs. Nice would not worry too much.

Mr. and Mrs. have taken off some of the "things" around my neck that you saw in the previous post so I would not get caught in shrubs. The bell was taken off first and the registration tag. However, they decided to leave my little tube with the address inside on my collar.

First time with no leash

Here I am running out the door.

Leaving the terrace

In the backyard - no leash!

Checking out the neighbors. I decided to walk with Mr. & Mrs. Nice. It was a little scary.

The very first time around the block they walked with me and I was glad they did. We have people running loud saws and I didn't want to walk any further. Mr. Nice carried me past the saws. Then we have a big black dog that hates cats. He barked so loud and Mr. Nice picked me up again. Our neighbors right behind us have a male cat. When he saw MY Mrs. Nice and she talked to him he climbed across the fence to talk back at her. When he saw me he sat right across from me and looked at me straight into my eyes. Then he made noises which really scared me. He looked really handsome, though. Mr. Nice carried me the rest of the way, so I would not have to be scared anymore.

I decided to try by myself again the next day. It was enough excitement for one day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My first excursions all by myself took a little longer and on the very first day Mrs. Nice painted the hallway so she had a way to pass time she said while I was running around. It took exactly 3.5 hrs for me to come home. She must've set the stop watch. Now I know how her sons feel when they stay out too long.

I think she tricks me into coming home. There is just enough food in the bowl now that I have to keep coming home to eat. What do you think?

At night I am not allowed to go outdoors at all. When I scratch on the windows they fuss with me. They really don't like that. I run upstairs then and sleep. Then they can fuss all they want, but I don't hear them.

Have I told you that I've got a new favorite place - the bathroom mat? Hey, if they all sleep on the first floor, why should I sleep in the living room? It is another one of my perfect arrangements to keep "things" in this household under control. When they get up I can watch what they are doing. When Mr. Nice gets up, I make sure he does not forget to feed and brush me. When the Mrs. makes the beds I am right there sitting by the bedroom window. Then we go downstairs, she fixes my food, puts my collar on and I am allowed to leave. When they take my collar off, I have to stay indoors. That's easy to understand, isn't it? They have all kind of smart ideas, but they are starting to make sense.

Week 5 I had to be alone in the house for a few days during the day because Mrs. Nice was in the hospital. I watched her pack her suitcase wondering what was happening and could tell she was sad and I didn't leave her alone much on this day. Now she's come back home and I am happy I've got all my family together again. I can come and go as I please during the day and don't have to wait for Mr. Nice until the evening.

Here's another nice picture of me. Mrs. Nice says, I am the perfect garden decoration, don't you agree?

I know how to walk on the fence now. Check me out! Here is a collection of snapshots. Click to enlarge the image.


More next time. I hope you enjoyed my little summary.

I am getting ready .....

.... to hit the road, Jack, but I am coming back.

Look at what Mrs. Nice got for me! A red collar. My registration number** is attached to it and an annoying bell. Right now I am wondering how I am supposed to catch any birds with a bell around my neck. We'll see if I will keep wearing it.

When Mr. Nice comes home I get to go out by myself - BY MYSELF!!

What do think of me wearing a red shiny safety collar? Be honest. I posed especially nice
** I have a chip implanted behind my ear. If I get lost or hurt, the chip can be read. Mrs. & Mrs. Nice registered me with TASSO. They do all kinds of stuff for animals.

Week #3 or Training Mr. & Mrs. Nice continued

Thank you for the nice comments you left in my blog and the warm welcome I have received. I was overjoyed and hope you will return.

This was a tough week for me because I have had to put all my efforts and wits into training Mr. & Mrs. Nice. You would not believe the week I have had. However, let me start at the beginning.

I have told you last week that Mr. & Mrs. Nice have noticed that I was loosing hair on one ear. Conscientious as Mrs. Nice is about my welfare it was decided that I had to go to the vet. She checked with the neighbors where they were taking their cats and decided I had to go to the one the nice lady across the street uses. Tuesday was the day for the visit.

I hopped into my new colorful carrier. Just as we went outside to the car this downpour of rain started. Mrs. Nice opened the garage, put me in the car and we drove to the next town. We got there too early, so we went off for another spin around town. We were the first ones to be in the waiting room and the vet asked us to come into the examining room. He was really nice and I had to sit on this shiny table. Mrs. Nice asked all kinds of questions about my health and my shot records. He checked my ears under this ultraviolet light, gave us medicine for it and told us to return in 2 weeks if it did not clear up. Mrs. Nice took along some nasty worm medicine, too, because I am due to take that in 2 months again. I was really afraid he would give me a shot, but Mrs. Nice told me not to be scared and I felt safe and believed her. Then we drove home and since then I get medicine on my ear twice daily. Mr. Nice said it is getting better and I may not have to go back.

All week I have been taken out on my leash. I must not tell you that I am getting veeeeeerrryyyyy tired of that. We went for interesting walks, though. All around where we live I discovered the neatest things. There is a creek nearby and the biggest field!! Beautiful! Do you think Mr. Nice would let me run around there by myself??? Oh no!! When I try ... he picks me up and back to the house we go.

Then Mrs. Nice took me on a walk up the creek. She helped me cross this little bridge. I really didn't want to go across it, but she encouraged me and you know what? It was not scary after all because so many new smells, plants and even another cat was there. I just looked at her, though. At the time I felt it was better to walk with Mrs. Nice; didn't want to scare this cat. :-)

As the week went by I started to push the issue of going outside more seriously. They are at the point now where they are getting tired of having to stop what they are doing to take me outdoors. I have got a feeling that is the status right now. I am allllllmoooost where I want to be. My road to personal freedom.

It is a drag how hard I have to work on that. At night it irritates them really bad. They want to watch TV and I abuse the window and screen. Remember when I wrote that Mrs. Nice is stricter? Well, I think she and Mr. Nice have a had a conversation about my upbringing. He is STRICT now as well!!! He sprays me with the water bottle when I do something that annoys them badly. But guess what ... he plays with me, when I keep doing it to keep me from being bored. That's a good one, isn't it? Wouldn't you know that I'll remember that? :-) He takes me hundreds of times to my scratching post when I scratch the window or the screen. My original thought in doing that was that they would let me out, but it is not working. My first impression that they are smart people seems to be correct. Instead of opening the door I am taken to the scratching post and being told that this is where I am allowed to scratch. Let me tell you in people words: IT STINKS!!

This is how I start to get them to take me out. What do you think? You may want to show your cat, because it works sometimes.

I walk to the window, hear their sigh in the background, "She wants to go out. Who is taking her?" They are trying to ignore me, because they are really not ready to interrupt what they are doing, but I can tell they're watching me out of the corner of their eyes.



I place myself right in the middle of the room. They HAVE to see me THERE! Still no response from Mr. & Mrs. Nice. Sometimes I believe they think I will evaporate and put my needs behind theirs. Are you kidding me, Stella-The-Cat? I am not a dog!




Ok, one more elegant (but begging) look back to see if I see a reaction on their faces and I have to think about the next strategy.






Ok, here I go! I am going to the front door? Will you take me out there?






I'm REALLY going to the front door, you better believe it!







It is not working!! They are still ignoring me, but I'll get them.







That should get them NOW. They do not like for me to be on top of furniture. I have been wanting to sleep in my carrier since we got back from the vet. Mrs. tells me it doesn't fit into her livingroom, but I could care less. It is considered a piece of furniture now.

NOOOOOWWW I've gotten their attention. They are taking me off the carrier. One last try now.

I am walking towards the dreaded balloon that's supposed to keep me from scratching the window (which I have managed to work around now. Tell you later about that.) THEY ARE WATCHING MEEEEEEE!




I DID IT!!! Can you tell what this is? My little harness to get outdoors. The hands you see are Mr. Nice's hands!! He is a softie .... I am VERY good!!





I am telling you a secret now. Don't tell Mr. & Mrs. Nice I know, though. They are giving up on making me a 75% house cat I've overheard. Once I get a little collar next week, they are allowing me to hit the yard BY MYSELF. It will be difficult to hold back my excitment until then, but WORLD GET READY, HERE COMES STELLA-THE-CAT!

On a more personal note: You will have to show mental support for Mr. & Mrs. Nice. It will be like cutting the umbilical cord for them and letting another child out into the bad world. They just don't know at the moment that I will love them just as much.