Have a great time begging for candy, candy, candy! From all of us in the Shakadoo family, we hope your Halloween is scary and fun!

Photo: RLB865 on Flickr

Have you noticed your cats galloping the length of your house lately? It’s all Aunt B’s fault. My cats like to wait until we go to bed, then spend an hour or so meowing at the bedroom door, and then when that gets boring, they like to start zooming up and down the hallway. Bonus points if I’m just about to fall asleep and they wake me up. Ah, cats.

I was worried about my cat Simon this weekend. He was walking funny- his front legs walked fine, but his back legs looked odd. It’s hard to explain, but it was like he had arthritic hips. So, I took him to the vet this morning.

Luckily, he’s fine. The vet said at his age, he is most likely reacting to the weather, which recently went from nice and toasty warm to fairly cold. She went on to tell me that giving him a soft, warm place to sleep would be the best thing for him at this point. He doesn’t seem to be in much pain, so I’m just letting him chill out in my closet.

But ack, this is the hard part of owning pets, watching them get old and knowing that eventually they will die. My dog’s only 5 and he already has more gray hair than I do. Soon I’ll be running a home for aged pets. Simon and Spike are 9. Of course, they do have BabyCat to keep them on their toes.

Simon just now came and floofed himself down on my foot. Poor old guy.

Is there anything funnier than a tap dancing cow? Probably, but this cheered me mightily this morning.

MegMorris on Flickr

BabyCat, also known as Shadow, has grown into a sleek, teenage cat. I worried when I rescued him that he’d look like a sad, ragged cat. I shouldn’t have, though. He’s got beautiful shiny black fur and big ears. The blind eye, which may not be blind- at least as far as I can tell, since he appears to see very well, is looking fine. He’s perfectly healthy and is beautiful.

He also likes to sleep on my head. It works out well. Tiny, my dog, likes to sleep at my feet and BabyCat sleeps on my head. It’s not as bad as it sounds- it’s like having a soft fur hat for sleeping. BabyCat and Tiny actually get along fairly well, unlike Tiny and the other two cats. I suppose Tiny figures if he can’t beat them, join them. Or at least join up with BabyCat in tormenting the other two cats.

I was afraid he’d want to go outside, since he spent his first few weeks of his life outside, but he shows absolutely no interest in going outside. The only remnants of his former outside-catness is the fact that he will eat anything. Last night I was eating some cheese and he jumped up into my lap to beg for a bite. He eats right out of my hands, it’s so sweet.

I am so glad I rescued him, he’s a fabulous kitty.

Baby pigs are soooo adorable. But bacon is soooo tasty. Hmmm, a connundrum.

My friend Newscoma posts a curious picture of a cat riding a chicken. The mind boggles with the possibilities. Does the chicken mind? Does the cat get anywhere any faster when riding the chicken? What gave the cat the idea?

Some things just make you take a pause to think about it. This is one of them.