Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, it's been like fureffur since we Ballicai blogged (giving Mom the stink eye). Mom's been so busy with her book stuff, but finally we Ballicai sat her down and told her that she's gotta help us with our blog once in a while, and finally she listened. Isn't that superduper?

So we'll try not to let another three months go by before we blog again. We've missed all of you, our furriends on the Kitty Bloggiesphere!

We're all doing furry well. Brainball and Dorydoo have been doing lots of cuddling:



MaoMao likes snoozing in his Mao House:



And Marilyn MonREOW sits on Momma's computer a lot. It's warm up there, and she thinks the glossy black case goes well with her furs.



Happy Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Weekend, effurybodies! We Ballicai have missed you, and we love you. We'll try not to be so long about blogging next time.

Taking a Break for a While

MaoMao here -- hi, effurybodies! We Ballicai have been slower and slower on the uptake with blogging. So we wanted to annownce that we're going on a break for a while.

We're all doin furry well, so don't worry about us -- Momma's just so buzzy these days that it's hard for her to help us with our bloggie.

We aren't leaving the Bloggiesphere, and we'll be posting again, that's for sure -- but it's gonna be infreekwent (how to you spell that, Momma? Oh, "infrequent."). But we love alla you, our furriends, and we'll vizzit and post as often as we can.

MaoMao

Brainball

Dorydoo

Marilyn MonREOW

Happy Eighth Gotcha Day, Brainball!

The Ballicus Mom, Thomma Lyn, here. It boggles my mind that eight years have gone by so quickly. It seems as though hubby and I have always had Brainball.

We adopted him in August 2001, after neighbors had moved away and heartlessly abandoned him. Their loss was our gain -- we adopted precious Brainball, and he became a member of our family. We had a cruddy little digital camera back in 2001, but I still took plenty of pictures, and here's one of the first pictures I ever took of our Lion Boy. At that time, 2001, his vet estimated him to be 3-4 years old.



From the start, Brainball has been my Kitty Assistant. He helps me while I cook and clean, and he loves to drape himself across my legs as I prop them on my desk. Brainball also loves rubs from his daddy. He's our steadfast and faithful friend. And oh my goodness, does he ever purr! He has the rumbliest, loudest purr I've ever heard. Fitting for a lion, of course.

I'm sure most of the Cat Blogosphere knows this by now *grin*, but when hubby and I adopted Brainball, he was misidentified by the vet as a female cat. And it was only a couple of years ago that a (new) vet, evidently more proficient at telling the sex of very floofy cats, correctly identified Brainball as a boy. Fortunately, Brainball does not seem to have suffered any gender confusion.

We have hundreds upon hundreds of pictures, but sadly, we don't have many from pre-2006. The reason? Thomma Lyn's Hard Drive Crash of 2006. I hadn't backed up all our pictures -- huge and very sad mistake, and we lost many precious pictures. Not all of them were lost, however -- thank goodness. Here are a couple of pictures of Brainball circa 2003-2004:





Brainball was an only cat until late 2004. Then came Dorydoo. And it was -- very nearly, anyhow! -- love at first sight. Brainball was the best big brother imaginable, and he also helped us raise little Dorydoo.



Here are some pictures of Brainball from 2005. What a floofy lion boy he is -- has always been!



And from 2006, in a kitty meatloaf (meaty kitloaf):



And here are some Lounging Lion pictures from 2007, the year the Ballicai started blogging:





Here's precious Brainball in 2008 -- last year!





And 2009 -- Brainball's Eighth Gotcha Year. Happy Gotcha Day, dear Brainball. You are our Alpha Mancat, our floofy lion boy, founder of the Ballicus Dynasty, my household helper, my cooking assistant, and deep friend of my heart. You make me laugh and comfort me when I'm down, and you remind me that joy is to be found in every moment of every day, if you know where to look for it. And you, Brainball, are pure joy.



Momma loves you. I'll love you forever.


And now it's time to party! I'll turn this post over to the Ballicai.

MaoMao: I'm happy not only cuz it's Brainball's Gotcha Day but also cuz my wife and sweetie Ariel is bloggin again! And lookies what we've got fur the party: we've got HAM and CHIKKEN! Efurrybody dig in!





Marilyn MonREOW: And I made my tuna puffs. Please all, help yourselves. Try the salmon, too. It's delicious!





Dorydoo: And check... out... the... NIP! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEAK! And Niptinis! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!





Brainball: Several kitties have asked how I got my name. Well, my actual name is Calamity Jake (it was Calamity Jane when the humans thought I was a girl, *sigh*). But very soon after I was adopted, Mom and Dad started calling me a "Fuzzball with Eyes." That morphed into "Brainball" and it stuck. They've been calling me "Brainball" ever since.

Thanks, friends, for coming to my eighth Gotcha Day party. Everyone get comfortable, help yourself to the buffet, and enjoy. We Ballicai love you, and we're happy to be part of the wonderful Cat Blogosphere!

Floofy Friday

MaoMao here, but here's a pickshure of Brainball since we're all gettin ready fur his Gotcha Day party on August 1. Gettin closer and closer! Lookie, he's got one lazer eye.


Brainball's been with Momma and Daddy fur eight years, and Momma's been going thru old pickshures. It's fun for her. She's gonna pick some furry speshul pickshures to put with his Gotcha Day postie.

We Ballicai are sorry we haven't been around much. We Ballicai have been feelin furry sad about Ariel (my kitty sweetie) leavin the bloggiesphere. And Momma's been soooo buzzy with her writing and gardening and alla the stuffies she does. She's one spazzy bean, that's fur sure.

We miss alla you, our furriends, and we hope you're havin a superduper summer.

And be sure and join us on August 1 fur a PAWTAY!

Floofy Friday

Hey, efurrybodies! MaoMao here, and guess what. Brainball's Eighth Gotcha Day is on August 1. That's less than a monthie away! Momma can't believe eight years have goned by so fast, but at the same time, she feels like she's always had a Brainball. And a Dorydoo. And a MaoMao. And a Marilyn. hehehe

Momma's been crazy buzzy, spazzin almost as much as me, but we Ballicai are gonna have a speshul postie to cellybrate Brainball's Gotcha Day. He's our Lion Boy Alpha Cat, and we love him! Here is is layin on Momma's legs, gettin rested up fur his Big Day.

Hello Efurrybodies!

MaoMao here. Wow, Momma's been furry slow on the uptake, helpin us Ballicai blog. She's been hoggin our compooter like crazy. We Ballicai are thinking that we need a compooter of our own. Only thing is, we'd still have to learn to type!

Here's Brainball and Dorydoo, sharin a nappie in Daddy's chair.



And here's Dorydoo, sunbathin and stretchin on the perchie.



Here's Marilyn, lookin furry kolor-koordinated on Daddy's itty bitty white pooter.



And here's me, lounging onna window perchie, watchin Momma and Daddy's garden grow.

International Box Day

MaoMao here. We Ballicai are purrticipating in International Boxie Day!

Whenefur Momma and Daddy get stuff, they always give the boxes to us Ballicai. We love alla our boxes, but the other day, Daddy gotted some new boots, and his boot box ROCKS.

Me and Brainball share the box cuz it can be opened out with a kompartment for each of us. And Brainball's been munchin on the box. He loves munchin on boxies.

Here's me in the box:



Here's Brainball in the box, yawning:



Here's me and Brainball together:



And here's me sayin' to Brianball, "Enuff sittin around. Let's play!"



So me and Brainball runned off and rassled, then Dorydoo got into the boxie. She likes it bunches, too.



Marilyn hasn't hung around in the boot boxie, but here she is chillaxin on top of her favorite box.



While Momma tooked the pickshure of Marilyn, me and Brainball and Dorydoo got into a three-way Ballicus rasslin rumpus, and we flipped the boxie closed. Then Brainball claimed it in the name of Catdom.



Happy International Boxie Day, effurybodies!

We're Here Wednesday

No thankies to Momma. She hasn't helped us blog in ten days -- count 'em, TEN DAYS!



The gurlz are catchin up on their beauty sleep...





...and Brainball's yellin at Momma to help us blog and vizzit more! We miss our furriends!



Roar, Brainball! ROAR!

Easy Like Sunday

We're a bunch of Ballicai, kitty-loafing around....



Zzzzzzzz.....



Snore......



Purrrrrrr.....


Oh, it's good to be Ballicai!

Boxcat Ballicai

MaoMao here: guess what! We have a new box. And we're all checking it out. Here's me in the box, and Marilyn's starting a game of Box Wars. Then Brainball comes along and gets real close to the camera!



Here's Brainball with the box, but he's too big to get in it, so he's just sitting by it and looking Lion-like.



And here's Dorydoo in the box. She's little, and look how purrfectly she fits. I think she likes it in there!



Here's some still pictures, in case the videos are wonky:

Washing and Wishing Wednesday

Brainball here. Dorydoo and I love to snuggle together, and here, I'm grooming her. There isn't any audio with this video clip, but if where were, you'd hear Mom saying SQUEE!



Here's a still photo, in case the video is wonky.


We Ballicai are sorry we've been scarce. Mom has been busy with the release of her novel, and she's working on a new one, too. Can you believe any bean could do that much typing, yet only help us kitties blog once a week (if we're lucky)?

Here's Marilyn MonREOW, asking Mom to please help us blog more often.



And MaoMao MAOed and MAOed and MAOed at Momma, but now he's taking a nap. The spring sunshine made him feel all relaxed and dozey.


We Ballicai send purrs and kittyhugs to all of you!

Super Sunday

It's a super Sunday for all kinds of reasons! For one thingie, alla us Ballicai got a beeyootiful awardie from my wife and sweetiepie, Ariel: the Works of Heart Awardie. Thank you so much, Sweetie!



And for another thingie, alla us Ballicai got another wunnerful awardie from our furriend Black-Cat: the Friendly Blogger Awardie. Thankies so much -- we are honored!



And still another thingie -- Momma got her author copies of her novel in the mail yesterday. She said something like YIPPEE SKIPPY! And she thought I might be innarested in checking out her book. Well, here's what happened:




Here's a pickshure of me with Momma's book, just in case the movie is wonky.



Guess I'm not much of a reader, but I thought it tasted purretty good, hehe! If anybody would like to check out Momma's novel, it's a love story, and it's on Amazon.

(Momma? MAO! That'll be ten Temptayshuns a piece, please, since we Ballicai letted you share our bloggie!)