And affectionate. Looks like you did well adopting these cats.

Do the boys now know about V and O? It's been awhile so I bet they do. They probably figure "well, it's Mom's house and Mom's daily life so whatever..."

I hadn't been in HomeGoods in months but stopped in the other day while running errands near there and left with a teddy bear cookie jar for $15. I've loved teddy bears since I was a little kid and this one is so cute and was such a great price. You never know what you're going to find at stores like HG. Then I found a Fall faux tree on the rainforest for $16 that can plug in (rather than batteries) and I have a new Fall decor that makes me smile all day.

It's still reaching 90° here although the nights are dipping down a bit so this may be the only Fall thing I see for awhile... 😊

Yeah I know it's a little faulty sometimes I have to tap it a number of times to make it work but I have to keep it cuz I can't get the Google keyboard to go with the Google on my phone because it's another app I would have to download my son told me he's pretty tack him and he helps me I don't know if he ever moved out I won't be able to do our doorbell I hope I can learn it from him I don't know what to do to do things like that anymore I used to be more Tech when I was younger I really hate getting no but I should be thankful for my age my mother never lived this long cuz I have not lived as long as my grandmother lived and gosh I miss her I miss them both that's good that only o l l i e in case it's talking stupid likes a certain music in the morning like Maui like the country in the morning at evening if you turn the radio on she wants rock and roll or some classic music just like she hated winter you know a cat knows what they like I'm laughing here cuz how she would yawn real big when she saw the snow on the ground eyeballs are popping out of her head and then she decides to go go meow and roll over and fall off the bench like this is so boring! So funny I'm going to miss her this fall Mr all since she's gone but she liked like the leaves blowing but she did not like the flowers gone and she hated Mr spider outside she would scream at it every year so funny and she loved the Christmas lights you take those down and she would find it worse boring out there

I said I've always loved teddy bears. These now live on the top of an armoire in what was once my daughter's bedroom. My own bear was the dark brown one (in front) that I got when I was about four years old. My brother's was the smaller light tan one - not sure how I got it.

I was a single Mom without a lot of cash by the time my daughter was ready for a bigger bear so I made her the blue fellow at the far left out of a velour pullover shirt I had. The directions were in a Women's Day magazine.

You can see that many of the bears have accessories. Those came from my daughter and her girlfrieds when they played with the bears. The pink ballerina in back is "Anna Bearvlova" from the North American Bear Co (a Christmas gift to my daughter when she was dancing - it still has it's tag and was never really "played with") and next to her is "Albeart Einstein" - a gift the Christmas she was taking physics in high school. The others are just bears she loved growing up. They're all up out of the way so I've just kept them. Some things are hard to let go of. My granddaughter was never interested in stuffed animals or dolls or they would have gone to her. Every child is different and every one is special and every little girl doesn't have to love stuffed animals. 🧸

Before Covid, when we did a lot of structural work on our house, I came across the storage cupboard of stuffies. I could not deal with disposing of them, but Beloved received clearance from the kids and donated them to a local church for missionary works…sadly, used stuffies are generally not able to be donated in this country.

I was amazed at how different my children were from birth. I had never had any experience with babies, and books you read address the nuts and bolts (lol) of baby care, not much else.

Yes, children are all different. All lovable.

Stuffies…omg… thanks for sharing your personal stories peeps… I feel less neurotic. I have a basket of stuffy‘s that are well loved going back to my oldest son‘s first birthday and they sheep that I made him that has a music box in it where you pull the string. And it plays. It was a high-quality music box at the time and amazingly it still works just barely. These stuffy’s are not worth anything to anybody except me. I still have the ones that I played with as a young child and I have to do something with them so they don’t end up in the dump when I leave the planet. I used to make up stories about them for my brother and sisters.

This little guy is 70 years old. He has a windup music box in his back but it no longer works.

That’s a great bear Sam… like the velveteen rabbit, it’s clearly come to have a life. 🥰Jay that’s a great fall display with that bear cookie jar. No wonder it cheers you up… i’ll have to share some of my stuffy‘s tomorrow. In the meantime I’ll share this picture today of a certain bad little cat when I was organizing my art portfolio to give some work away guess who decided she had to lie right on top of everything. So very CAT it was hilarious.

When we get up in the morning to have breakfast she trots down the hall in front of me miaowing… but before we get to the food part she flops abruptly on the hallway floor rug right in front of me. Before eating, there has to be “pussycat adoration times”. Sweet talk…😘And if I’m playing with her it’s not enough to just wiggle the mouse around while I do something else. No… There has to be talking and praise for the way she is kicking the stuffing out of the mouse…🤣

By the way the art that she is flopping all over our pieces that are slightly damaged anyway. Otherwise I never would’ve laid them down flat on the bench.

I love the history of your bear collection… A number of pieces in my collection are also handmade. As are some of the ones from my own childhood. I think those ones are the hardest to part with.

Of course Lia she has to lie on the art LOL. Look at those beautiful green eyes!

Someone seems to clearly have taken over your house!! Lol

lia, Violet is training you well! 😻🤣

She knows the art is special to you. It has your scent all over it.

She is a beautiful girl!

Lia, that’s funny. This morning I was describing to my brother how y’all have cats, and they just plop in front of what you are trying to do.😆 the stuffed animal collection we had, over 350, TY BEANIE BABIES. I had them for each season, holidays, type of animal/angel, etc. When the grand nieces and nephews would come over to visit, I would let them come to the tubs and select whatever they wanted. The parents went crazy, of course. When we were moving from Missouri to Alabama, we put all the Beanie Babies in a giant black trash bag, and donated them to the Ronald McDonald house. They were thrilled to receive them.

She's keeping it safe for u!

D2 still sleeps with her bear she got at birth(. 39 years ago ) Her daughter has managed to sneak most it the remaining stuffies from my house to hers. Both grand sons also sleep in very crowded beds!

Here, as you know, it is penguins. Fiss, I should send you all the penguins for Dr TSFP…lol. My son YS has a very large shabby dog now…penguins are passé. Grands both have a collection. Gls, what did they DO with 350…give them to kids? Here, you can donate at least to Value Village but …members of the family? You can’t donate those… lol. Bedtime stories were told every night using the whale, the stupid sheep and goat. The sandman came in his magic balloon to the bedroom window and took away the animals to the magic island. For adventures. My OS carried on that tradition with OGS…with OGS stuffies. Very charming. OGS now has his own contributions to the stories.

Albeart is my fave bear in your collection Jay…he could play a big role in storylines…lots of character development possible there. Ballerina is full of charm as well…the diva bear and the brainy bear…what potential! Sadly, my childhood bear who was part of my stuffy stories I told, was given away in a pitch and ditch my mom did. I was in NS, and too far away to consult…and didn’t likely care at the time. She didn’t know he was THE bear, and felt bad. He was fully jointed, likely an expensive gift from Grandmother in Florida.

Yes, every child is different…born individuals, formed in a mysterious neural network that is beyond comprehension…deeper than we can see, is the well of Being that each one of us draws from. 💕

Ladma, a very few of my stuffies have migrated to grands…. One is a rat puppet by FolkManis, which I love and used in teaching kids at my school. Vermont company, HIGHLY recommend, for you peeps who have littles in your lives. Quality stuffy puppets, no Disney, just charm and good craftsmanship. They have a crow I covet.

FolkManis…puppets. Mouse needs a small hand…be good for a child, as I recall.

We had FolkManis porcupine here…which my YS nicknamed “Roadkill” which tells you everything about YS…😉🤣 with permission, it was gifted to my lovely neighbours new child.

Morning tea time

It looks like I was deceived about the veterinary records for these cats; having called around to all four vets in the geographical area where the previous owner lived, there’s only one record and it’s for Ollie for an emergency visit in 2017. At that time his record was that the cats were about a year and a half old. So that pegs the cats at being at least 10 years old going onto 11 at least. No records at all for Violet.

So much for the concept that the cats had yearly vet check ups unless the deceased happened to be personal friends with a veterinarian or vet assistant…which is possible. I guess we can assume that they were healthy over the past decade. I’ve definitely done that with some of my cats. I did not do yearly check ups unless there was an issue.

When I adopted my 10 year old ragdoll girl I wanted to have her front claws trimmed because she was catching them on everything, even the carpet. It was only like $7 to get the claws trimmed at the vet's BUT they wouldn't see her to do anything until I got her annual rabies innoculation up to date. It was probably good to have her checked over anyway so we went ahead and took care of it. I suspect most vets in the U.S. have the same policy.

Maui went yearly to the vet but I seen on my phone after she passed that 8-year-old cats should go to the vet twice a year so cuz their age you know they're considered elderly senior cat

That is so lovely that you're having your tea time with your cat violet for only o l l i e isn't joining you but maybe in time she might sit across the room or it's a hee yeah

It really is unfortunate that this person has ghosted you with the cat information because you didn't expect that from her, but all you can do is go forward as you are. Hopefully Ollie is eating okay etc.?

How is Ollie doing? Does he still stay upstairs?

Morning tea time. I’m keeping track of what they eat. They’re still pretty variable in their diet at both of them and he did throw up again last night. I’m going to have to try the trick of putting out only a small amount of kibble on a very flat surface. That AI suggested so he can’t gobble his food. at least I assume that he’s the one that’s throwing up. And I need to buy some Folex. The bad news here is that the vet that I did get a hold of placed his birthdate at 2015 which means that they are at least 11 years old. Going on 12. Based on my experience with tabby‘s I’m not expecting many more years with these fur babies.

Is o l l i e eating better? Maybe he might need sensitive food if he has issues with this stomach like Blue Buffalo I don't know Purina has sensitive stomach kind I can't remember right now Blue Buffalo does just wondering if the vet Place told you what the emergency visit was about? I know that's 8 years ago 9 years ago

As far as the claw trimming goes, with Violet I’m going to get the woman in who does the trimming. For my neighbor. I’ve got zero dollars right now to do a vet exam I have to pay for getting my house painted, oil change, winter tires, possibly another two cords of Fire Wood (to the tune of about $800) getting my woodstove and my furnace cleaned. All of that is going to wipe me out. In addition I need to buy at least two electric heaters here to get me through the winter what with the price of oil.

Wow, that's a lot of winter-prep item$ to take care of, Lia. I hope you find good deals on some of them. The space heaters that are electric may affect your electric bill. It's like you get caught financially no matter which way you go. And remember, your kitties already have fur coats so they'll be fine if the house gets cooler. The one you have to be concerned about is you.

Re: cat claws. I learned to trim cat claws myself. You can do it. I would wrap the cat like a burrito with only the head sticking out. Then we'd sit in a reading chair with the cat next to me and the cat squished in between my hip/leg and the arm of the chair. I would pull out one front paw and trim it and if I was lucky I could do the other paw at the same time. Often we'd only get one done at a time. "Nope, nope - no more of that" followed by a feline lunge off the chair... I know you can visualize it. I trimmed all my cats front claws (never the back paws) over the years and none of them were sweethearts about it but it can be done. You just have to be careful to only take off the tip and not get into the quick of the nail. 😼

Hm..I could see learning to do Vi…Ollie not so much. Violet is very good about physicality…I am so conditioned to be hands off after Moozie 😑takes some getting used to.

I think this cat needs a cat tree.

Bored.

Winter prep is a lot of work! We got a tank of oil a few weeks ago, not at the worst price, but 50% higher than last
Year, I have lots of cozy blankets. Flannel lined jeans and warm sweaters

Yes…October tends to lull one with nice weather…then…brrrr

Check this one out. Really good 87% five star rating on the rainforest site. On sale right now for $40 U.S. (Regularly $60). Limited time offer.

https://www.amazon.com/OLIXIS-Space-Heater-Indoor-Oscillation/dp/B0HGF2WJCM/ref=sr_1_9?crid=LW2P6LQYE97Z&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FGjDxFd0shvQRUM0UEjWnvGIOla-

Lia, indoor cats can live long lives, maybe 20 years, so don’t fret about it. I would worry though about the vomiting…

Hi Lia. This may be helpful when you're ready to shop for space heaters.

Wirecutter's top recommendation:

That heater is available at Costco also. I think I read some time ago that you went to Costco with your son, so it might worth a try getting it from there

Lia, The R MC HOUSE has a treasure chest at the check in counter where family arrives. The child/ children can select a toy for themselves. I don’t know if that is just at check-in or for the duration. The Pensacola facility has rooms for up to 25 different families. There are two queen beds, tv, etc in each room like a hotel. The facility has a common kitchen, and lockers for the families to lock their own foods in the lockers. R MC HOUSES are totally supported by the local community. R MC just lends the name. Our facility uses tab tops from aluminum can to pay the electric bill. Our snowbirds collect tabs all year and bring them to us and we take them to the facility. The facility in turn sends the various groups of snowbirds a lovely thank you letter.

Gls…RMC house is for…hospital support? I think? What a great idea ❤️🙏💐.

Thanks for heater leads. Especially the prevetted one Dsimber! Costco is a good lead. I may have to source at Canadian Tire, where I can do a zero interest credit card and spread out costs. I also need to run more air purifiers for cat boxes. Indoor cats make a lot of waste…Alice you must be going through buckets of the stuff!

One thing I am very grateful for, is they are quiet at night. Happy, he is eating dry sensitive stomach…but getting food that is for that, PLUS urinary, doesn’t seem possible. Not sure what he was in to vet for. One place wouldn’t even tell me if the previous owner was even using their services, as a vet! Even when I explained the owner is dead. 😑So ridiculous. Luckily, they were linked with a partner business and I convinced the other receptionist to check, so both were covered. But really…I was more than a little annoyed. “It’s our policy. Sorry.” I said what if the sister of the deceased calls in…oh, then they could do it…well, anyone could call, and say they are the sister. I pointed that out. Still, no dice.