Shirt Stealing Saturday!

Lookit me, lookit me! I stoled Brainball's shirt! It's mine now, hehehehe....



And Brainball sez, "It's okay, little brother -- you can sleep on it a while."



Dorydoo doesn't care about the shirt. She thinks it's a mancat shirt, since me and Brainball sleep on it the most.



And Marilyn doesn't care, either. She's sleepin in her box, on one of Momma's jackets. It's amazin Momma has any clothes to wear at all cuz she gives so many of 'em to us Ballicai.



So anyway, while I got Brainball's shirt, I'm gonna enjoy it! (And I'm gonna try to furget about the orange floofwad Brainball left on the shirt to remind me it's still his... see the floofwad? It's to my right, near the base of my tail.)

Wacky Wednesday

Sumetimes I think beans get a little wacky with their flashy boxies. The othur day, Momma tooked pickshures of us. That's standurd proseedure. But then she tooked close up pickshures of our furs! I thought that was furry strange. But beans will be beans.

Here's me:



And here are my tummy furs, close up.



Here's Brainball:



And here's Brainball's floofy back furs.



Here's Dorydoo:



And here's her tummy furs:



Here's Marilyn:



And here's her back furs close up:

Sunday

Here I am in my cube, thinkin. Thinkin about what, you might ask?



I'm thinkin about my upcomin wedding to my sweetiepie Ariel!

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New Bloggurs on the Block! Go say hello to Miss Henry (a beeyootiful gray gurl kitty) and Marley (a great-lookin Husky woofie) at Fur Balls x 2. They're eagur to make new furriends!

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We Ballicai gotted the Arte Y Pico Awardie frum our wunnerful furriends (inkluding Dorydoo's sweetiepie, Earl Grey) The Furry Kids! Thankies so much. We are furry honored!


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Tragic news: the beeyootiful and preshus Forest has left us quite shockingly and suddenly and is now at the Rainbow Bridge. Our purrs and our love go out to her loving and greeving fambly, Omer, Snow, Leo, and Fairy. Our hearts are with them at this diffikult time.



"Golden Memories"

They say memories are golden, well, maybe that is true.
I never wanted memories, I only wanted you.
A million times I cried.
If love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.
In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still.
In my heart you hold a place no one else could fill.
If tears could build a stairway and heartache make a lane.
I'd walk the path to Heaven and bring you back again.
Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same.
But as God calls us back one by one, the chain will link again.

For Our Hero Mu Shue

Edited 7/12 at midnight: Mu Shue has rallied! We Ballicai are so happy -- what wunnerful newsies! We are purrin and purrin for him and for his fambly. Keep on keepin' on, sweet big boy!

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Purreshus Mu Shue Pooh King Cat will be goin to the Bridgie. He is furry ill. But he lived a long life and shared many years with his Mom Laura. He resckued his sweet sisfurs, Lily and Iris, from the fire, and he stayed long enough afturward to make sure Mom Laura's sweet li'l blurpy twins arrived okeydokeys.

Mu Shue was an angel on Earth, and now he'll be an Angel at the Rainbow Bridgie. Mu Shue, we Ballicai love you, and we send love and purrs to your fambly.



High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Wordy Wednesday

We Ballicai are havin a Wordy Wednesday cuz we've got a lotta katchin up to do!

First of all, I wanna announce that me and my sweetiepie Ariel setted a wedding date: we're gonna get married on Saturday, August 30! We'll be givin out more details soon. (We're still workin 'em out!)



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Us Ballicai gotted a really kool awardie -- the Arte y Pico award!

"The 'Arte y Pico' award was created and to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents, whether it be writing, artwork in all media. When you receive this award it is considered a special honor."



We got it frum Black-Cat and the Krasota Castle Cats, and Marilyn gotted it from Tybalt for her poetry. Thankies so much, efurrybody! We're honored.

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Our furriend Mickey the Black Cat taggied us fur the Cold Box Meme! "Show us a photo of the front of your Cold Box and tell us about at least one thing on it and one thing you keep inside of it!"

Okeydokeys, here goes:



As you can see, the front of our cold box is purretty bare. There's a can openur, a couple of bag clippie things, a postie card frum a friend of Momma's, a kool magnet frum The Cat Realm, and a purretty kitty magnet frum our gramma.

Ya know what? It's my fault that the front of our cold box is so bare.

Before I came to live here, Momma hadded more stuffies on the cold box. But once I came here, I found out that I like to jump up on top of the cold box, reach down as far as I kould reach (that's purretty far!), and whap efurrything offa the front of it. So Momma hadded to take a lot of things off so I wouldn't whap 'em off and lose 'em, and as you can see, what little she does keep up there, she keeps way down low on the cold box, out of my whapping range.

In the extra-cold part of the cold box, the beans keep ice cream treats (the bean version of Temptayshuns, I think), and in the regular part of the cold box, they keep oranges. I don't get why the beans like oranges so much.

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And our sistur-furriend-cousin Gretchen taggied us fur three memes!

Here's the first, and I, MaoMao, will do this one:

1. Who would you like to see on a new banknote (dollar bill, etc.)?

Our Alpha Cat, Brainball!


2. If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal (or human), what would it be?

A feller who races crotch rockets (sports moturcycles)!

3. If you owned your own restaurant, what would you call it?

MaoMao's Foodies.

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Here's the second, a One Word Meme, and I, MaoMao will do this one, too (hey, I'm the Meezer around here, so I talk the most, hehe):

1. Where is your cell phone? Huh?
2. Your significant other? Ariel.
3. Your hair? Short.
4. Your mother (Mom Bean)? 'Puter.
5. Your father (Pa Bean)? 'Puter.
6. Your favorite thing? Spazzin.
7. Your dream last night? Ariel.
8. Your favorite drink? Toiletwatur.
9. Your dream/goal? Ariel.
10. The room you’re in? Spazzin.
11. Your hobby? Spazzin.
12. Your fear. Nothin.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Biggur.
14. What you’re not? Quiet.
15. Muffins? Temptayshuns.
16. One of your wish list items? Temptayshuns.
17. Where you grew up? Tennessee.
18. The last thing you did? MAO.
19. What are you wearing? Fuzz.
20. Favorite gadget? STIRRURS!
21. Your pets (humans)? Funny.
22. Your computer? Lappietop.
23. Your mood? HAPPY!
24. Missing someone? Ariel.
25. Your car? Huh?
26. Something you’re not wearing? Pants.
27. Favorite store? PetSmart.
28. Like someone? Ariel.
29. Your favorite color? Purple.
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today.
31. Last time you cried? Dunno.

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Third Meme, the Quirky Meme -- to list six quirks about ourselves. Alla us Ballicai are gonna share this one.

1. Brainball likes sittin on Momma's desk. Sometimes Momma props her feet up on her desk when she's workin and he lays on 'em. And he likes to take bathies up there. He's Momma's snoopervisor. Since he's the Alpha, it's his job to keep her in line.



2. Dorydoo often sits like the Egyptshun Sphinx, with her pawsies out in frunt of her! She also likes to get undur the cofurs all the way. When she does this, we call her a Dorylump.



3. Marilyn has rotatin sleep spots. Well, othur than sleepin in laps, which she loves. But when Momma and Daddy can't make laps, Marilyn snoozes in her Spot of the Week. This week, it's a big carboard box, and Momma putted a fleece coat in there for her to snooze on:



4. I like sleepin undur cofurs. Here I am, restin up fur me and Ariel's big day:



5. One of Marilyn's nicknames is Duallipot, and she sits in a funny way that Momma and Daddy like to call the "Dually Squat":



6. Me and Dorydoo rassle a lot, and efun though she SQUEEKS and SKWALLS at me a lot, she has a great time, and so do I. And sometimes we curl up togethur fur a nap on the window perchie:



We're doin an open taggie on the memes -- effurybody who wants to play, YOU'RE IT!

Mancat Monday

I wanna devote this Mancat Monday to Brainball beckause he kept us safe from the noisy-boomy fireworks ofur the Fourth of July weekend.



The fireworkies started goin off in our neighborhood the night of July 3. Me and Dorydoo and Brainball were sleepin on the bed, and Marilyn was sleepin on the weight benchie. When the boomies started boomin, they didn't bothur Marilyn much beckause she's partially deaf.

But me and Dorydoo both got skeered. Dorydoo ran and hid undur Momma's desk, and I went and hid inna baffroom.

But Brainball rushed out, ready to take on those boomies. The booms made him nervous, sure, but he didn't hide. He got into patrollin mode and patrolled and patrolled all ofur the housie to make sure efurryone stayed safe and snug. And he did the same thing onna night of the Fourth.

I'm so proud of him. So's Momma and Daddy. Momma called him her Big Brave Lion Boy and hugged and kissed him and thanked him fur takin such good care of us and lovin all of us so muchies.

His Gotcha Day's comin up on August 1! He'll have been gotted fur seven years. The vet guessed that Brainball was about three years old when Momma and Daddy adopted him, so they figure he's about ten years old now.

When Brainball was youngur, he was a lot more fiery. Like a Feline Alexander the Great. When he lived with the neighbors, he was an outdoor kitty, and he got into fights for territory with othur cats. He still has a scar on his eyelid from one of those long-ago fights. But he always came out the winnur cuz he was the biggest and the baddest. Then the icky neighbors abandoned him, and Momma and Daddy tooked him in and made him an indoor kitty.

Here's one of the furry first pickshures of Brainball in existence, taken back in 2001, the year he was adopted. It was tooked with a primitive digital kamera, that's why it's so grainy. But you can get an idea of what he looked like when he was a young, feisty and fiery mancat. He was just as handsum then as he is now. This pickshure is furry purreshus to Momma. She lost bunchies of old pickshures of Brainball and kitten pickshures of Dorydoo in a hard drive crash back two years ago, and only a few of those older pickshures are left. She still kicks her own butt fur losin those pickshures.



As the years have gone by, Brainball mellowed out a whole lot. And when Momma and Daddy adopted Dorydoo, Brainball fell in love with her. He's a Gentle Giant and loves alla us Ballicai and is the bestest Alpha Cat we could efur have. He loves gettin massages frum Daddy, and he's Momma's helpur. From day one, he loved to help her do alla the housie chores. She sez she doesn't know how she efur got by without Kitty Assistance.

Here's a video of Brainball cuddlin with Dorydoo on his favorite shirt. They're furry furry close. He helped Momma raise her frum a little kitten.





And here's a pickshure of Brainball washin Dorydoo's head:


So this Mancat Monday, we wanna celebrate our Brainball. We'll be cellebrating him on his Gotcha Day, too. But ya can't celebrate a good Alpha Cat too much, that's fur sure. He's King Leonidas Ballicus I, but he's also our Good Ol' Brainball, and we love him bunchies.

(And we Ballicai still can't believe Momma and Daddy thoughted he was a GURL for so long. Beans. SHEESH!!!!)

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Alla us Ballicai are furry ecksited about my engagement to my sweetiepie -- my FIANCE -- Ariel, and I'm the most ecksited of all, hehe! Me and Ariel will set a date soonies, but whenefur we have the wedding, effuryone's invited!

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Us Ballicai have some furry sad news to report. Our dear bunny furriend, Tidbit, wented to the Rainbow Bridge Saturday. Please go vizzit her fambly, and give 'em lots and lots of purrs and hugs. Tidbit was a purreshus bungirl and will be furry missed.

Rest in peace, sweet Tid. You are loved, and will always be.

Happy Fourth of July, Happy Birthday Sweetiepie, and a Proposal!

It's the Fourth of July -- Independence Day inna United States. I hope effurycat has a superduper holliday, and I hope the cracky poppy noisy things people fire up inna air don't bothur anycat too much!



Anyway, Happy Independence Day frum alla us Ballicai and our beans!

And guess what. It isn't just Independence Day. It's also my gurlkittyfurriend Ariel's sixth burfday! Happy Burfday, Ariel! Here is a purrfeckt rose for you, my purrfeckt love.



And as much as I love callin Ariel my gurlkittyfurriend, there's somethin new I'd like to call her.

Fiansay.

(Momma? It ain't spelled that way...? Okay, HELP ME, I'm tryin to propose here, and I don't want my cruddy spellin to get inna way.)

Fiancé.

(Thanks, Momma.)

Ariel, I'd love to call you my fiancé, and then my wife. If you'd do me the honur of beckomin my wife, you'd make me the happiest mancat on earth.

I love you bunchies. I know I'm kind of a young mancat, just ofur two years old, but I don't have to be any older to know that you are my fureffur sweetiepie. Here's a beeyootiful poem Momma founded that eckspresses what I feel:


"Thank You For Your Friendship and Love" ~ Nicholas Gordon

Thank you for your friendship and your love.
However life may turn, this gift will be
A mountain that has made my river bend,
Nor will it flow the same way to the sea.
Knowing you is something I'm made of.

Years will not this part of me remove.
One lives for just a brief eternity,
Understanding truths that never end.


So what I'm tryin to say is: Ariel, sweetiepie...


Will you marry me?

(Thankies so much to Zoolatry for the beeyootiful grafficks!)

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Ohhhhh, I'm spazzin all ofur the housie cuz I'm so happy, doin the Mancat In Love Dancie! My Sweetiepie said YES!!!!!

Meezer Rule Wednesday and Awardie

Do stuff to make yur siblings look at you funny.

So I, MaoMao, was playin in our cube and gotted it all flattened out.



I kept it flat by stickin my head out one side and my butt on the othur.



Brainball sez, Hey MaoMao. Don't you know that cube is flat?



And I say, Tell me somethin I don't know, big bruther. I didded it this way on purpose.



Dorydoo gives me her owl look and asks, But WHY?



And I sez, Why else? To make you two look at me funny! hehehehehehe



Marilyn didn't pay no attenshun to me at all. She was too buzzy cuddlin in Daddy's lappie.



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Our great furriends Mr. Chen and Ollie awarded us Ballicai the You Make My Day Awardie. Thankies so much, Mr. Chen and Ollie! We are so honored. You two make our day, too!



We Ballicai would like to pass this awardie to our much-loved furriend Castle, brother to the fureffur loved and remembured Stormie the Furry Fighter, to welcome him to bloggin.

Quirk Meme

My beeyootiful sweetiepie Ariel taggied me fur the Quirk Meme! Oh, this will be fun cuz I'm a quirky feller.

Here are the rulz fur the meme:

* Link to the one who tagged you.

* List the rules on your blog.

* Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

* Tag some blogger friends with links.

* Leave a comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

Okeydokey, here goes:

1. I love alla my sibs, but I'm speshully close to Brainball. He's not just my big bruther, he's my bestest furriend inna whole wide wurld. And he's my mentor and he's so much fun to rassle with and play with. He's also comfycozy to snuggle and snooze with, too. Here he is, sharin his shirt with me.






2. I talk a LOT. I say MAO MAO MAO MAO MAO!!!!! I MAO in the mornin and I MAO inna affernoon and I MAO at night. I MAO when I want somethin yummy, I MAO when I wanna play, I MAO when I wanna cuddle. And lotsa times, I MAO just so I can hear myself MAO!

3. When I get ecksited -- I mean, really really really hyper-spazzy ecksited -- I BARK. And when I bark, I leap into the air, then I tear thru the housie at about a skwillion miles an hour.

4.I love love love watur! Brainball and Dorydoo like drinkin watur outta the sinkie, but they don't like gettin it on their furs. Marilyn won't efun go in the sinkie fur a drink. But I get inna sinkies -- both inna baffroom and the kitchun -- to PLAY with the watur. I get down inna sinkie and try to WHAP it. Sometimes I get inna toilet cuz it just drives me crazy wunnerin where alla that watur goes when the beans flush!

5. Efun though I MAO a lot, I have a furry quiet purr. I purr, but you've gotta be superduper close to me to hear.

6. I've lived with Momma and Daddy and the othur Ballicai fur almost a year and a half now, and not in alla the time Momma and Daddy have known me have I efur HISSED. I nefur get mad at anykitty or anyone.

I think lotsa kitties have already done this meme, but if you haven't, konsidur yurself taggied!

Floofy and Frootbat Friday

Round here, Brainball's sumetimes called Flooficus Maximus:



Now I wondur why that would be??? Hmmm.



Here's Dorydoo, the Ballicus Frootbat.



I nefur miss an oppurtunity to snooze next to Brainball. He's good to snuggle up to. He's such a big feller, nice and warm, and I'd say there's room for about a squillion kitties in alla his floof!



Alla us Ballicai are sendin love and purrs to The Cat Realm. Emil has gone missing, and his fambly fears he won't be komin home. We're gonna purr fur a miracle. But we're all gonna miss Emil, and Dorydoo's speshully sad bekause Emil was her Burp Buddy. Emil was a wunnerful mancat and will nefur be forgotten. We love him, and he'll always be our furriend.

Meezer Rule Wednesday

Get good at lookin inskrutable. It'll keep the beans from figurin out what you're up to!

Slacking Momma!

Momma's been so darned BUZZY! What can us Ballicai do about her? I mean, we haffen't blogged since TOOSDAY! That's just ineckskusable!

Here are me and Brainball lookin at Momma, sayin HELP US BLOG!



And here's Dorydoo lookin at Momma, sayin HELP US BLOG!


Momma bettur listen. Or else alla us Ballicai are gonna hock hairballs in her boots.

Two Sisters and Two Brothers Tuesday

Lately, my two sisturs Dorydoo and Marilyn have been hangin out on Momma's bookieshelves. I don't know if they're lookin fur a book to read or if they just like the view from up there. They're both superduper jumpurs and love bein up high.

Here's Dorydoo,my house panthur sistur. If she's lookin fur a book, she's lookin fur a book on physics, astronomy, or cosmology.





And here's Marilyn, my whitester sistur. And if she's lookin fur a book, she's probably lookin fur a really good classic novel or a book of poetry.





And while the gurls are takin turns hangin out on the bookieshelves, me and Brainball, the mancats of the fambly, are takin turns on the purr pad on the window perchie. Zzzzzzzz.....

Daddy's Day, and Remembering Kali

Happy Father's Day to our Daddy! Me and Brainball always go to him fur rubbies -- Daddy gives the best rubbies and mancat massages efur. And my sisturs, Dorydoo and Marilyn, love to lay on his lap.

Our Daddy is a wunnerful and sweet kitty purrson, and he loves us Ballicai so much.

*~*~*~*Happy Father's Day to all Daddies!*~*~*~*

We Ballicai learned that precious Kali, Tyler's older sister, was helped to the Bridge yesterday. She was nineteen years old. What a sweet and beautiful Torti girl Kali was. May her loving mom and family be comforted by their precious memories of her. Our love and thoughts are with them.

Furry Fighter Friday

Today, our precious friend Stormie the Furry Fighter is being helped to the Rainbow Bridge. Here she is, with her loving brother Castle.



We Ballicai are sad because we will miss Stormie terribly, but though we are sad, we rejoice, too, that she has enjoyed a life of love. And a life of love -- loving and being loved -- is something to celebrate. Stormie will forever be an inspiration to all of us in her kindness, her courage, her devotion to her loved ones. And we will always love her.

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~Mary Oliver

Our hearts and our love go out to you, Stormie, and to Castle and to your loving Meowmies. Here we are, with you in spirit, with you in love. You will always be a true champion.




(Our sister Marilyn is honoring Stormie on her bloggie, too.)

Meezer Colors Day and Meezer Rule Wednesday

Today is Meezer Colors Day, fur all Meezers to pose with their favrit colors!

So here's me with my favrit colors: blue and purple. This beeyootiful portrait was maded fur me by my furriends at Zoolatry!

My Meezer Rule:
If you've got a big bruther, get him to help you with yur baths!