odds and sods

Odds and sods and some other silly stupid stuff.

Well...

Well maybe not so much stupid as um...

Hmmm...

Unimportant.

At least to me.

MOUSES!

But not so unimportant that I won't blog about 'em today!  'Cause you know me, I'm always lookin' for stuff about which to blog.

MOUSES!

So I spent this mornin' supervisin' ol' Peepers colourin' her hair.  I knew she was gonna do it.  Said so on the calendar.  So I KNEW today would be the day.

And in preparation of the big event, I hauled out my pen collection from under the refrigerator, thinkin' there might be some colourin' crayons under there.

No such luck.  Just a whole bunch of pens.  Which makes sense on account of it bein' a collection of...  pens.

But what would the peep do?  With no crayons on paw, how would she colour her hair?

I know, I know...  I know what you're thinkin'.  You're thinkin' peeps don't use crayons to colour their hair.

Well I'm not so sure they shouldn't!  First of all, crayons would make a whole lot less mess.  And secondly, with crayons, one wouldn't risk the golden-brown-not-so-golden-but-actually-kinda-orange catastrophe of the spring of 2023.

Now as a marmalade cat, I appreciate a good head of orange hair.

On ME.

MOUSES!

I know, I know...  I know what you're thinkin'.  You're thinkin' Peepers was tryin' to imitate me by dyin' her hair kinda orange; and I can see your point, to be sure.  I mean, who WOULDN'T wanna look like me?

But there were way too many beepin' thises and beepin' thats 'bout the golden highlights lookin' oh-so-orange.  Way too many words I will not use on my blog 'cause this here is a family-FRIENDLY blog, to be sure.

MOUSES!

Turns out, a second catastrophe was averted.  Apparently, medium brown does not turn orange.

And it's a good thing, too, for there's only room for one marmalade gorgeous gus around here.

And that would be me.

MOUSES!

Now what else?  Hmmm...

Oh!  We had frost.  FINALLY.  Three weeks and two or three days late, this year; a fact about which Peepers complained, profusely.  

Now Peepers is complain' about all the stuff in the yard she couldn't do earlier because we hadn't yet had frost, and now has to all be done in the next couple weeks.

Typical peep.

MOUSES!

And speakin' of yard stuff: the leaves are startin' to fall.  So, of course, they need to be raked.

Now I'm not too big on rakin' up leaves - too much like work, you see - but I do enjoy a good run-up-to-and-jump-into-the-pile-kickin'-leaves-every-which-way-and-about dance after the work part is done.

Word to the wise: First time you do it, peeps find it adorable and irresistibly cute.  But the second time?  Not so much.

And don't even think about goin' in for a third.

My ears are still ringin' after that one.

MOUSES!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you 'bout what I found on Saffron.  Should have mentioned it earlier, when I was talkin' about Peepers' hair.

Guess what I found on ol' Saffy.

Come on...  Guess!

Nope, not a tick.  He's been dabbed on the back of the neck, for that.

Guess again.  Again!

Give up?  Okay, on Saffron, I found a grey hair.

MOUSES!

I know, I know...  I know what you're thinkin'.  You're thinkin' that as a charcoal grey kitty with a silvery kinda aura thing goin' on there, Saffron is probably covered in grey hair.

True.  But this one was definitely outta place.

Cat's gettin' old.

MOUSES!

And speakin' of old, there was a documentary on TV the other night about dinosaurs and asteroids and whatnot.  I asked Peepers if she remembered any of that happenin' when she was younger.

Word to the wise: Never ask a peep things like that.

At least not until AFTER you've had your fill of the extra good treats.

MOUSES!

Anythin' else I should mention?

Hmmm...

Yeah, I should probably mention how that sock Peepers lost in the laundry, last week, finally turned up.  Not sure where it had been hidin'.  It just suddenly appeared.

Socks will do that, you know.  Socks can be weird.

Which is why, as a cat, I don't wear 'em.

MOUSES!

So that, my friends, is the end of my odds and socks...  I mean, SODS for the week.

MOUSES!

odds & sods

What are sods, anyway? MOUSES!

Odds and sods... Apparently, they're bits and pieces.  Interestin'... You know, I find it very odd that the sods in odds and sods has nothin' to do with sod.  Again I must say, MOUSES!

But that's enough about that.  Let's get down to business here and start discussin' my odds and my sods.  Okay?  Okay. So glad we have that sorted.  Now to start sortin' my bits and my pieces.  MOUSES!

As promised, in this here blog post I'll be announcing the three winners of copies of Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes but before I get to that, I have a couple of awards to tackle.  Now let's see...

In the past week or two, I managed to score two awards.  The first was, I am told, for very inspiring bloggers.  My dear friend Basil, from Basil the Bionic Cat's Blog, honoured me with the lovely Very Inspiring Blogger Award and then, my wonderful pals over at the 15 and Meowing blog did so, too.  Yoo-hoo!  YOO-HOO!

Truth be told, I've already received this lovely award but I decided that since I really love awards, I would accept it once more.

I'm supposed to list three things that inspire me.  Well that's pretty easy.

Firstly, my peeps inspire me.  Or rather, they provide inspiration for many a blog post.  Perhaps inspiration isn't the most appropriate word.  Fodder?  Yeah, fodder.  They provide fodder for many a blog post.  Especially Peep #1.  She's always up to mischief about which I can blog.  MOUSES!

Secondly, the news and in particular, news comin' out of Ottawa.  Hmmm... That one probably falls into the fodder category, too.  Once more I must say, MOUSES!

Thirdly, I am inspired by the garden and the great outdoors and Mother Nature, herself.  Birds singin' and flowers blooming are inspiring for both body and soul.  Nothin' else like 'em, at all.  Very inspiring, for sure.

Award number one down and onto number two.  My friends over at the 15 and Meowing blog gave me the Creative Blogger Award as well.  And then, just the other day, my pal Simba from Simba's Antics gave it to me, too.  Yoo-hoo!  YOO-HOO!

This award is also one I have received before but, like I said earlier, I LOVE AWARDS!  How could I resist not acceptin' it again?

For this award, I must list five things about me.  Hmmm...

Well for starters, I'm a mancat.  I know that most of you probably already know this but Ol' Peepers here went and gave me a girls' name and in doin' so, created a lot of confusion.  Just thought I'd mention it again.

Secondly, I've been published!  In print and everythin'.  That's right, in case you hadn't heard, my rescue story is in the book, Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes.  I wrote it myself.  My personal rescue story, I mean.  It's the story of my first few formative months.

Number three...  Let's see...  I have been diagnosed with the medical condition Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency.  More on that in just a bit.

Fourthly, I've been gettin' out in the garden in the last week or so.  This is kinda big news on account of the rotten winter we've had that simply refuses to leave.  There's still some snow on the ground but it is goin' and things are comin' to life in the garden.  I'm hopin' to get out more and more with each passing day.

And finally, I'm vyin' for a Senate position.  Yeah, you've probably heard 'bout that, too, but just in case you haven't, I'll mention it again.  What I need is for the Prime Minister of Canada to appoint me to the Senate.  That's all.  Don't need to run in an election or anythin'.  Senators aren't elected here. They're appointed.  One little appointment is all I need.  #Niss4Senate - Tell the PM, today!

For both of the above awards, I'm supposed to thank the bloggers who gave 'em to me so... THANK YOU!!!  Please feel free to visit their blogs.  They all have great blogs, for sure.  Just click on their blogs' names and you'll be magically transported right over to 'em.  Easy peasy, I do believe.

And I'm also supposed to pass the awards along but I think everyone already has 'em.  But if not, and if you'd like one, please grab either or both and know that you're doin' so with my blessing.

I would also like to thank my pals over at 15 and Meowing for the lovely get-well prezzie they sent. You should see the toys!  Their mum made 'em with yarn and stuffed 'em with nip and boy-oh-boy, they really are great.  I love 'em!  We all do.  Yes, I'm sharin', for sure.

The peep was gonna take a picture of me with that lovely get-well gift but truth be told, I'm not lookin' my best right now so we decided to hold off on any picture takin'.  I wanna look my best for the camera.

And that brings me to a medical update.

Like I said, I have Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency.  Basically, my body is no longer producin' the enzymes necessary to digest food so even though I'm eating, it's hard to get proper nutrition.  That resulted in my losin' a lot of weight.  Way too much weight, for sure.

Things were pretty touch and go for a while.  The only meds I could get up here in Canada were in powder form and they HAD to go into my food.  It was so gross.  The meds were partially digesting the food before I ate it.  I was literally eatin' partially digested food!  MOUSES!

Actually, that's not quite true on account of the fact that I was refusing to eat.  Did I mention that the food with my meds was gross?

So the peep did some research and found that in other countries, my medicine is available in tablet form but she couldn't get it here in Canada.  But then we found an American company willin' to work with my doctor to get a special import permit and things were lookin' up.

But in the meantime, my doctor found a source for my meds right here in Canada!  And they're tablets and everythin'!!!  They're not actually meant for cats.  They're people meds.  Yup, I'm takin' peep meds and taking 'em like the real trooper, I am.

So the Peep says that I appear to be holdin' my own.  I've only thrown up a couple of times since startin' the tablets and my poops are much firmer.  I have a weigh-in tomorrow and have my paws crossed that I'll have gained an ounce or two.  If so, I'm on the path to recovery, for sure.

And now for the big news.  The big news for which you've all been waiting.  The winners from our adventure!

In case you missed it, my pals and I went on an adventure to promote the book, Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes.  It all started when Savvy of Savannah's Paw Tracks invented a new form of paper containing the nip.  The story continued on the DashKitten blog with Silver teleporting over to FitCat Publishing to hack into their computers so that we could secretly substitute Savvy's new paper for the plain ol' paper they had previously been using.  And finally, we concluded our story right here on Nerissa's Life when I managed to score a roll of that special nip paper for myself!

Okay, okay...  I know...  You're all dyin' to know who won books.

Savvy's mum put all the entries - and there sure were a lot of 'em - into that ol' Random dot com thingy and three names were selected.  And the winners are...  Drum roll, please.

Winner number one is...  Toby & Leia from The Whiskeratti!

Winner number two is...  Sammy from onespoiledcat!

Winner number three is...  The J-Cats from Purr-sonally Speaking!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  We'll be in touch with each of you shortly for contact information so that we can send you your copy of Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes.

Finally Savvy, Silver and I just wanna give each and every one of you out there all a great big hug and thank you for taking the time to enter our giveaway.  You all made our adventure a rip-roaring success, for sure.  THANK YOU!!!  purrs

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Please remember that throughout the month of April, a portion of all sales of the book Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes will go to the wonderful Anjellicle Cats Rescue of New York, helpin' them to help save cats' lives.  You can purchase your very own copy at your local book store or on Amazon by clicking right HERE.  You'll wanna stock up for holiday gift-giving, for sure.  PURRS.