Monday, June 27, 2011

MANCAT MONDAY WITH DANTE: SERENE IN GREEN

There's nowhere that Dante would rather be than in the garden, surrounded by all kinds of greenery.  He seems totally unaware that the bold lush background serves as a purrfect foil for his orange abundance!

Serenity is the order of the day.






Who says it's not easy being green?

Sunday, June 26, 2011

EASY ON SUNDAY WITH DANTE: THE LAYABOUT!

Dante is usually a very busy boy when he's in his garden, but on Sunday, he just likes to be a layabout.


Whether it's in the sun ...


... or under cover!




That -- my dear furiends, is what it's all about!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

THURSDAY IN THE GARDEN WITH DANTE: PERIWINKLE-POO!


Dante was quite disappointed with the PURRogress of the PURRiwinkle (or should I say lack of PURRogress?) since last week. So he decided to give it a little help!

"I isn't da Secretary of FURtilizashun fur nuttin'!, says he.

THE END (or so we would hope!)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

THURSDAY IN THE GARDEN WITH DANTE: PURRIWINKLE BLUES!


Today, Dante is in the back yard because Daddy did some planting AND he cut the grass!  There are also a couple of other new things such as ...

... the deck has been refinished in a lighter green colour, and Mommy planted her herbs.  You can see them in the background.  There's some basil, rosemary, and thyme.  There was some oregano, too, but it died.

"Aside frum dat, Daddy planted sum 'vinca' wich is also called 'PURRIWINKLE'!"


"Heer's wot it looks like.  Mommy wontid it fur grownd covah ...

... ta fill in da bare patches undaneaf da twees.  Grasses jus' woan grow dere becuz dere's no sun.  Da PURRiwinkle grows in full shade or full sun!  It shud sPURRead itself arownd cuz it likes ta do dat sort of fing."


"Heer's me posin' wif da PURRiwinkle ...

... it has such PURRty blue flowahs, doan yoo fink?"


"An' wile I'm heer, I fawt I'd do a liddle FURtilizin' by da fence.  Itza big job butt sumbutty's gotta doos it!"

And just when Dante thought he could take time to relax and have a bath ...

... he spied an introoder on the fence!  Who would dare to enter his Kingdom?

Why, it's none other than the Queen herself, the royal Domino!  At our place, the Queen trumps the King efurry time.

See you next time!



Tuesday, June 14, 2011

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY WITH DANTE: HIS ASS IS GRASS!


(In this case bigger is better, so biggify if you will!)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

DANTE GOES SHOPPING!

I am making this post at the special request of Admiral Hestorb who asked if I had pictures of Dante shopping at Petsmart!  Is the Admiral psychic, or did someone purrhaps tip her off?

Admittedly, Dante hasn't been to the Petsmart in a couple of years, but I did take him from the time he was about one year old until he was around 7 years old, on a regular basis (i.e., at least once a month).  He always drew a crowd and I would end up answering the same questions over and over:  How old is he?  How much does he weigh?  What kind of cat is that, I thought it was a dog?  Etc.

Dante would always howl in the car on the way to the petstore, but amazingly, was completely quiet on the way home. Dante knows what the word "home" means.  In fact, if we said we were going home, Dante would jump into the back seat of the car all by himself -- completely without prompting from us.  Of course, we always had him on a leash, but he was happy to get in the car knowing where it was headed. 

I would routinely take Dante on a tour of the store, stopping at the bird cages, the mouse cages and, of course, the fish tanks.  Most of the time he was content to sit in the child seat of the shopping cart on his own purrsonal pillow, but sometimes he wanted to get out.  He enjoyed standing on the checkout counter while all the catfood was being scanned into the computer.

Dante was also a very good sport, because he would allow people to pick him up.  If the person looked trustworthy and they were sufficiently piqued by Dante's uniqueness, I would give them purrmission to hold him for a minute.  I credit these visits to the petstore with socializing Dante so he is not afraid of people he doesn't know, and he even grew to love little dogs from coming face-to-face with them in these situations. 

Speaking of that, here's an example of Dante's comfort level with little dogs.

He's made himself totally vulnerable to the woofie, and even lets him sniff his nether regions.
Dante truly is a Gentle Giant!

But I digress.  Let's go shopping with Dante ...


Looking at all those birdies!

Lounging in a cat tree!  Dante is very good adFURtising.

Snoozing on a shelf!  Can you get any more relaxed?

Playing Go Fish!


Being carted around!

Petsmart Lady giving hugs!


Then another Petsmart Lady wanted her turn, too!


One of the customers wanted a turn, too! 
Notice customer smiling, Dante not.


Staring at all the kitties in cages!  What the?????

Dante likes to go to the Petsmart so he can stare at all the people, too.  It's even better than a zoo!


"I is reddy fur mai CATSCAN now, lady!"


Trying to smooch the pooch!


All done!  We're going HOME now!!!  Yay!

Dante has STORED up enough shopping experience to last him a lifetime.  How do you like that, Admiral?




THURSDAY IN THE GARDEN WITH DANTE: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES!


Dante's in the front garden again this week because there have been some significant changes since his last post.  It has been rather hot, and then we've also had lots of rain, so all the plants have plumped right up.

This time we are starting from the other side of the house. 

Dante is sitting next to the neighbour's porch.


"Dey has bin busy doin' sum plantin'", says Dante.  "Dey seems to be parshull ta hostas."


"Dey's still got a long way ta go befor dey's finished.  Let's take a luk see how mai gardin is doin'."


"Dis potted plant is fillin' owt kwite nicely", he says.  "Dose spiky fings aren't lookin' so good, doe.  I fink dey is gonna dry rite up.  I'll hafta tell Mom to get rid of dem."

"Last week I only showed yoo sum of our gardin cats.  Heer are two moar -- Stoned Kitteh an' Stoned Kitten, I calls dem."

"Dis is reely excitin' cuz wun of da weigelas is startin' ta bloom!"

"Look at da bootiful red buds.  Dey will be efun moar speCATular wunce dey open up."

"Dis is a vyoo of da front gardin facin' west."

"Heer's moar gardin cats.  Da free kittehs on liddle bench are supposta rePURResent me, Domino and Dylan."

"De flowahs in de urns has expandid, too!  And liddle wite flowahs has cum out since last week.  O, an' dere's a cuppla Mexican cats makin' sum kinda statemint."

"Dere is green kitteh on da steps.  He matches da pot he's standin' next to."

"Dis is da garage wall wif da hangin' plant.  An' undahneath is wun of Mommy's newest treasures.  She gottid does free singin' cats fur Crismouse.  She tot dey were kinda neat cuz dere's a liddle wun, a big wun an' a medium size wun -- jus' like Dommy, Dylan an' me!"

"Uh-oh!  Daddy says is enuff fur today!  It's hot owt heer an' he wants to go inside ware dere's air conditionin'."

"Daddy needs ta stick owt his tung wen he carries me -- cuz I is so heaveh!  Sumhow it helps. 
 Silly Daddy!"