Ramblings!

Hi friends -
It's hard to believe, but this is going to be a short post mainly to tell you I won't be updating again for about another 4 weeks.  Why you ask?  Well, listen to my woeful story:  (Oh, before I get into all dat - this is a picture of  me napping on the sofa.  The picture in the back my Dad painted. We is quite proud of it.   He did win an award for it in our local art show in the Intermediate category.  He is  not a professional but has been taking oil painting classes at NWTC for about 4 years now.

Now back to my woeful story:

1.  M & D are leaving me again - this time to go camping for 5 days without me.  Oh don't worry too much, My friend Sue will pop in twice a day to love me up a little, feed me, and scoop out de box!   But, I do get so lonely in between times.  She tries to spend as much time as she can with me, but has several special needs kitties to tend to in her own house, and she oversees the daily care and supervision of two mentally-challenged adults living in the other half of her duplex.   So, I guess she's a pretty busy lady, and I am lucky kitty to get her twice a day.  But, I still get very lonesome when I'm home all alone.  (Poor me!)

2.  As if the peeps being gone 5 days isn't enough, the  next weekend after camping  they are going on an overnight trip to see my D's aunt in another part of the state.  Geeeesh - enough with the wondering around already.  Their job is to stay home and entertain me!

3.  As many of you know, I'm on the committee for the AnipalAcademyAwards.  The gala event is going to be the Friday afternoon and evening of July16th for a PreAwards pawty with the main event being held as part of  FrugalDougal's monthly pawpawty on Saturday, July 17th.  The awards part will start about 2 hours after the pawpawty begins..  (Times are tentative yet & will be announced as soon as plans are firmed up!)  Hope you are all coming to this big event cuz it is going to be loads of fun and will keep you laughing.)

Dis is a really exciting time for all committee members and things are really gearing up now.  We has so many very talented anipals on the committee.  I'm just in awe most of the time with what they create and all the work they do.   My job as "Awards Crier" (like Town Crier) keeps me brain and M's fingers pretty busy.  So, my bloggy has to sit in limbo for a few weeks.  It doesn't help either dat my peeps are going to be gone for a total of 7 days.   So, you see, it's really their fault my bloggy gets shoved on the side.

Come back and see me in 4 weeks, if I didn't bore you too much today.

Dis is Mario signing off - finally.

(Note - this was supposed to be a short post.  Well, as usual, I have the "run-on" of the mouth disease!.)

Newest Angel

Dear Friends,
Sunday was such a sad day for me and M. as it was for many of our Twitter friends.  We got the sad news dat Rosie (MedusaJ) crossed the Rainbow Bridge unexpedly very early dat morning after being rushed to the Vet by her mum. 

After having very leaky eyes and spending time taling to Twitter friends, I told M I wanted to do somethig special for Rosie and her mom cuz I was feeling bad we didn't have a chance to tell her how much we loved her.  I wanted to honor her in my bloggy.  A day later M had a chance to talk to Rosie's mum, and she gave us permission to use any picture we wanted.  The one at the top is my favorite - Rosie looking happy & waving her tail high.

I always felt close to Rosie.   We used to joke and call ourseves the toothless buddies.   We even talked about starting a "toothless kitty club" cuz I has no toothies and Rosie was almost toothless.  Me memory isn't good so I can't member how many toothes she had left, but it wasn't more den 4 or 5, if even dat many.  I have to giggle now because we had so much fun planning and trying to member who else was toothless to invite to the club.

Rosie had lots of other health problems too.  I member the time the vet stole her thyroid just like my vet stole my toothies.  She said she was never goig back there again because she was missing enough  body parts.  As sick as Rosie was, she never lost her sense of humor.  She could always make me laugh when I should have been the one cheering her up.  That was our Rosie.

The picture on the left is of Rosie in her garden.  I always envied Rosie cuz she got to go outside in her garden and be free, while I'm teathered to a leash. 

Rosie never thought of herself as bootiful, but just look at dat bootiful girl on the right in her garden.  She was really gorgeous.  She must have been too cuz she had several tom cats interested in her.  (Including me, but don't say anything cuz I don't think I every told anyone dat before.  I always felt I  was no match for dat Rosie.  What a gal!)



I member the day her mom bought Rosie the cute igglo.  If I member right, Rosie got in it for bout 2 minutes, den got out.  Dat was the last time we saw the igloo. It makes me smile again now cuz she much preferred boxes and told me she hated that thing.  That was our Rosie - independent and knew her own mind. 

M told me dat she likes to believe kitties and doggies become angels when they cross over the bridge because it helps her cope with the loss.   After they are welcomed by PepiSmartDog and/or one of his special welcoming crew, they are taken to meet an angel and given their wings.  They then have the freedom to return to visit us and their families, if they choose, or they can stay there and watch over us, protect us, and romp in the fields full of flowers and chase butterflies.  I remembered a picture we saw one time and wanted to show you how we picture Rosie meeting dat special angel.

Fly high bootiful Rosie.  I will miss you on earth but feel you are happy now and you don't have to worry abuot any more vets stealing your body parts- or toothies!  We love you, will never forget you, and know we will be together again some day when we too cross dat bdige.  Love you girl
Your pal Mario.

The Rise And Fall Of @Ladycat3

Here it is friends - the Rise and Fall of Ladycat3.  It's still embarrassing to tell.

 (Oh, the picture is Mariodacat all ready for the @pawpawty this weekend and trying out the famous Hanks Bacon Beer.)

In February 2010 I celebrated one year of being on Twitter.  Dat brought back lots of memories of how and why we started.  It all began because of M's curiosity of what is Twitter.  She had been to breakfast with friends and the subject came up.  No one in the group had any idea of what Twitter was - they jsut knew dat Oprah and Ellen did it.  So, when M came home, she said to me "Mario - let's have some fun today and investigate Twitter."  Well, I'm always up for a new adventure, so I hopped up on her lap, and she fired up the computer.

Now keep in mind dat M used to work for a large school system that had a Techno Department (whatever dat is) to create/install programs, etc.  All she had to do was learn how to operate the programs.  If there were poblems, all she did was pick up the phone and call for HELP!  Otherwise, she's pretty dumb about puters.  Since I'm a cat, duh - I'm no help either.  Of course the first thing Twitter wanted was something called "username."  All M could think of was "cats."  Well, how bout Ladycat3 den.    -   WALLA - the birth of @Ladycat3.  (Now I remember very well trying to tell her to use Mancat3 or Mariodcat, but of course she didn't listen to me - stubborn oomans.)

Once we had the acount created, den what.  We cleary did not know what we was was doing.  There was a "search" thingy, so we searched for our big interest of CATS (he he - you were expecting something else maybe!)  Den the flood gates opened up and there were lots of anipals listed.  We cicked on a few and noticed a "Follow Button."  Well, might as well see what happens when you follow. "Look Mario" said mom.   "There are animals talking to each other."  "Maybe you would like to say hello to them," she said.  Well friends, before long I had lots of followers and people to follow, and I was talking up a storm!  My very first follower was @Wildboutbirds, then @EmmytheCat, then @Totally Lamont, then @Baby_isis, den @Petiethecat.  It just kept growing from there and here we are today - so many wonderful friends.

We didn't talk at all at the first #pawpawty cuz we were too shy and everyone was having such a good time.  But it sure was fun evesdropping!!  But eventually I got brave enough to talk on the time line.  Everyone was so very friendly and welcoming.  I remember dat @EmmydaCat even introduced me.  Den I really got lots of followers.

Now I didn't much like talking like I was a girly (tho I did have fun flirting with the guys.)  But M kept telling me dat it would be too embarrassing to say I was a boy kitty with a name of @Ladycat3 and admit how dumb SHE was.  We were too stupid at the time to know you could  simply change your name.  So, I just kept going on like I was a girl. - My costumes back den were pretty simple consisting of pink with flowers  (I mean these are almost embarrassing to even show dey are so bad but we'll show dem to you anyway).  We didn't have a program den to make pictures like we do now.   So we tried some of the free sites.  There is nothing wrong with the free sites, it's dat the operator (the big M) didn't know what she was doing AGAIN!  But we limped along and tried as best we could.   Here are 2 of the first ones.

I member in May we had a Cinco Demayo pawpawty and my good friend @Mama_Gerbil came to my rescue and photo shopped dis picture for me to use. I was still known as @Ladycat3.  Now dis one was professional. (Note the frilly girly stuff I'm wearing tho cuz I'm stil Ladycat3.)  Didn't she do a great job?  I felt so proud to have dat AV & MamaG was so kind to do it for me.

M and I were feeling very guilty bout lying about me really being a boy all dis time.  But we were in so deep, we didn't know how to own up to how stupid we were in the beginning.   Den, In October 2009, @JazzydaCat DM'd me and said she'd like to interview me for the Ducky Club blog.  I was so surprised dat I was speechless for awhile.  (Imagine me being speechless!)  M looked at me den and said "you know Mario, this might be a chance to tell everyone you is really a boy!"  Dat sounded pretty good to me cuz I was getting tired of pretending to be a girl and always wearing pink..  I just wanted to be myself. 

I dictated and M typed up a draft to @Jazzydacat and emailed it of to her.  Well, you should have heard @Jazzydacat go into hyserical laughter.  (We could hear her way over here from the UK and not useTwitter either)   Jazzy thought it was the funniest story she had ever heard and didn't waste any time publishig the article or broadcasting it on Twitter.  (Now we all know how Jazzy got to be a reporter for the @AnipalTimes - she loves a good story).  She then said she was happy I was a boy so she could flirt with me! he he (I must admit the thought of flirting with all the purdy girls I had met kind of appealed to me too, and dat Jazzy certainly is purdy.)  If you are interersted in reading dat interview, here's the link to the article published on October 12, 2009. 

http://theduckieclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/confessions-of-ladycat3-for-duckie-club.html

M and I were so afraid of losing friends over coming "clean' so to speak.  But you know what - we didn't lose one friend.  Most my friends thought it was extremely funny, and I got teased a lot.  Some friends were very shocked, but when dey got used to the idea, they were fine with my being a boy.  It was vary hard "owning up" to what we did tho to @Petiethecat cuz I used to flirt with him too - lots.

Now I limped along using @Ladycat3  for a couple of months after my story was made public simply because we didn't know you can just change your name anytime you want.  (We are so dumb with all this techie stuff!)  In fact, it was only in December 2009 when we finally created a new account for @Mariodacat and slowly started adding my followers to dat account.  It was after we created that new account dat we learned you can just change your name.  he he - It seems we always do everything the hard way.  But we've learned a lot, thanks to all the help we've received over the past year from all of you.  We're still learning as we go - sometimes the hard way tho. 

Now @Ladycat3's account we mostly use when I land in Twitter jail from too much talking, which happens a lot.

That dear friends is the story of Ladycat3. 

Come back next week cuz I think we're working on a special story dat I can't talk about yet.  Besides, if I tell you now, you won't come back!

This is Mario signing off.  Love you  

(Note to M from Mario - would you pleazzzzze get rid of those Ladycat3 pictures now!)