Ficelle and Neuchatel

Ahhhhhhh....this couch feels sooooo comfortable....I'm having a hard time going anywhere. Outside it is just awful. Awful, awful, awful. Cold, raining and awful.

But, yesterday L&T's mom was in the city of Neuchatel with her friend so I've decided to show you a picture she took which shows the center (old town), part of the castle, the lake and the mountains. Pretty, isn't it?

Ficelle's Favourites

Bonjour! Ficelle here again. Because the weather isn't very nice, I can't show you my garden yet so L&T's mom has asked me to share with you some of my favourite pictures that she took when she went to the open market in France on Saturday. These are my favourites and I thought you guys might also enjoy them. Bon appetit!!

Ficelle (Tails from Switzerland)

Bonjour, my name is Ficelle (which means 'string' in French). Lautrec and Tiny's mom asked me to make a few of the blog posts while she is visiting me and my family here in Switzerland.

As you might have guessed, that's me in these pictures...I'm napping on the top of the couch on a cushion...my favourite place in the house where I like to sleep and watch the world. I especially enjoy looking out this window at our garden on days when the weather is not so nice and I'm not inspired to go out...like today. Since I am a senior kitty (I'm 17 years old), on days like this I prefer to be inside where it is warm and cozy, but maybe tomorrow I will go outside and if I do I will give you a tour of my garden and my favourite places. Until then, I'm just going to return to my napping. A demain.

The Good Stuff

OK, Tiny here..while Lautrec continues to pout in the closet, I will take over. This picture was taken a few days ago (before Mom 'abandoned' us!)....yes, I AM there... behind Lautrec...see my ear? Lautrec LOVES grass and, as you can see, he is really enthusiastic about it. He is so funny because he is sitting about 3 feet from the grass you see in this picture, but he is trying to reach out and grab it ... yeah!! Like he has paws that are THAT long!! He's funny.

I just wish he would quit moping around and get out of that closet. Mom will come back. She promised and I believe her. Yeah, so, Dad doesn't know how to love us like she does, but I'm thinking that when Mom does come back we will get a huge, humongous dose of lovin' like we've NEVER had so I'm already looking forward to that!!

Into the Closet

Before Mom left, she made it so I could get into her clothes closet and snuggle up to her clothes....her sweaters, shirts, jeans.... sorta like being with her...so that's where I am. Dad comes to visit me and tries to get me to come out to play a little and to eat, but I'm just not that hungry...oh WHEN will Mom come home....*sniff* *sniff* *sniff*...I heard Mom's voice today and Dad brought me close to it and I THINK I even saw Mom, but I couldn't smell her and I didn't feel her hands scratching me there on my neck like I like so I must have been dreaming, but it did kinda make me feel a tiny, weeny bit better. Dad told me that he would 'SKYPE' (when he talks to the computer) with Mom again tomorrow and that I could hear her again like that...I just want her HERE. NOW. HOME.

So, until Mom comes home I'm going to stay here in her closet and nap...*sniff*...8 more days!!! Oh, woe!!

The Bull by the Horns

OK, since Lautrec is still under the duvet, I'll just have to take the bull by the horns and do today's post. As Lautrec said, Mom is away (*sniff, sniff*), so I'm using oldish pictures of us.

Actually, these aren't too old...just a few days...these were taken on Sunday (yes, just last Sunday) in our garden. It was a nice, sunny day and we were enjoying it...we had our solar panel ears out collecting all the sun we could...ahhhh, isn't SPRING marvelous?? But we still miss Mom and she's only been away for a day...oh....9 more looooong days to go without Mom...WILL WE SURVIVE? Dad is here, but he just doesn't give us the lovin' like Mom does...*sniff*....please leave comments so we don't feel too sad....*sniff*...thank you.....

P.S. I love how Lautrec can do that kind of one-eyed wink thing with his eyes...I wish I could do that!

Sad Thursday

I'm going to just stay here. Yep....for 10 days. Why? Because Mom is going away today for TEN DAYS to Switzerland and we have never, ever had to be without her for so long. So, I am sad. I am bummed and I am just going to stay here under the blanket (her blanket) until she comes back.

If I find the courage, I might try to post during her absence, but I will have to use old pictures of us....otherwise, Mom said that if she takes any fun pictures in Switzerland (of cats and whatever) she will try to post them. So, please forgive us if we aren't leaving any comments on your blogs for a while..we are sad, but as soon as Mom is back (did I say that she will be gone for 10 - T E N - long - days???), we will be commenting on all your blogs again, for sure!!!

Oh, woe is me.....woe, woe, woe........sniff.

Family - Red, Lautrec and Tiny

Wordless Wednesday...the way we were.

The Introoder and an Award!

We were in our garden this weekend and we smelled THE INTROODER!!

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You are in for a treat because today you will get MORE info about us because we have just been given another award by Kitty's Cat Chat (Xanthe and Nishiko) which works on the same principal as the one we posted yesterday (7 things about us):

Let's see what we can tell you....

1. Lautrec likes to sleep under the duvet with Mom and on most mornings Mom wakes up to find just his nose sticking out from the bottom of the duvet.
2. Tiny never sleeps under the duvet...only on top of it.
3. Tiny can jump really high and even though she is 15, she still hasn't learned that it is NOT OK to get up on the kitchen table!
4. Lautrec had a couple of mishaps when trying to jump when he was young (he's 11), so since then, he's afraid to jump very high so often needs help getting to high places.
5. Lautrec adores chicken, but Tiny just likes it.
6. Lautrec loves cat grass.
7. Tiny loves that malt paste for cats that comes in tubes.

NOW, once again, we are to give this award to 7 other bloggers so we name:

• Sweet Praline
• Simba's Antics
• Faz the Cat
• Brattleboro
• Perfectly Parker
• Cory Cat Blog
• and a blog not about cats, but a very lovely and interesting one about benches: Benches on My Way

Wow! What an Honour!!

To our great surprise and honour, we were given the Beautiful Blogger award by Jacqueline's Cat House ... Tiny and I are both very touched because we haven't been at this blogging thing too long so we aren't always sure we are doing it quite right. This nice award does make our paws warm and our hearts go 'flip, flip, flip' (like the wings of a butterfly!).

The rules are very simple: we are to list 7 things about us then offer the award to 7 beautiful bloggers. Here goes:

1. Tiny was originally given the name 'Jezinka' because she had to have a 'J' name and being that my husband is Czech, he chose Jezinka because a 'jezinka', in Czech fairy tales, is a fairy that has green eyes and lives in the woods. A jezinka, if she loves you, will protect you and be loyal to you, however, if she doesn't like you, well...watch out!! Tiny is truly a good jezinka to her Mom.
2. Lautrec was given the name Lautrec (even though his birth and paper name is 'Emmanuel') because he just didn't seem like an 'Emmanuel' to his Mom and Dad so they searched for a name that would suit him. Because Lautrec is slightly cross-eyed (in French: 'il louche', or if saying it to him directly: 'tu louche') ...Mom and Dad would say to him 'tu louche' which sounds sorta like Toulouse and since Mom is fond of the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec it was decided that Emmanuel would be called Lautrec because being reminded that he is cross-eyed is not very nice, but to be named after a wonderful painter is!!
3. Purely by chance, a word that sounds similar to Lautrec in Czech is 'lotr' (pronounced: LOW-ter) which is someone who is mischievous...and there are often times when Lautrec is a real Lotr!
4. Tiny was born in France to a Abysinnian father (Tiny's son resembled him almost perfectly!) and a Balinese mother of which Tiny got nothing if not just a couple of extra stripes. Tiny's mother had big, blue eyes and long hair and looked like Balinese cats do.
5. Tiny has spent a total of 12 (Mom thinks) nights up trees...the longest time up a tree was when she was stuck 25 meters up a tree over a marsh (read: inaccessible by ladder or any other normal method) for 8 nights in the cold month of October. Because she refused to come down of her own accord, Mom and Dad had to ask a tree 'surgeon' friend to climb the tree and get her. When he reached her, she wanted to go higher, but thankfully, he grabbed her. She did not want to come down peacefully, so Mom told the man to drop her. Tiny fell the 25 meters with paws out and prepared and her tail 'guiding' her...when she hit the ground, she bounced and ran a couple of meters. She had not one scratch! But she was very happy to be back on the ground again and to have some food!! Since then, she has pretty much stayed away from tall trees.
6. Lautrec still recognises his first beanMom and beanDad every time he sees them and will willingly go to them and give them love. Isn't that sweet?!
7. Lautrec and Tiny both have a pretty good vocabulary and in 3 languages...they know:

• 'Manger' French for 'to eat' and will perk up immediately if this word is spoken;
• 'Chicken' no explanation necessary!;
• 'tady' which means 'here' (as in 'come here' or 'look here') in Czech;
• 'mouche' which means the insect 'fly' in French;
• 'Dolu' which means 'down' (as in 'get down!') in Czech;
• 'promenade' which, of course, means 'walk' in French;
• 'dehors', again, in French for outside;
• 'Kocicky' (pronounced: Ko-Cheech-ky) which, in Czech is the plural endearing form of cat;
• 'Good'...they do know this word and react positively to it, but I think most of our cats and dogs do!!

NOW!! Our turn to give this award to 7 beautiful bloggers:

1) Gone to the Snow Dogs

2) Four Crazy Cats

3) Life with Lucy

4) The Life and Times of Remington

5) Sammy and Andy's Meowsville

6) Lucy's Cat Lounge

7) The Poupounette

Everyone have a wonderful week and may flowers line all your paths and birds sing for you from morning until night..and may there be lots of chicken in your dishes and treats ready at hand and toys to keep you happy and busy!!

Flashback Sunday

It's flashback Sunday so I've dug out a picture of us when we were supermodels. Yep, that is me there in the middle of that cat tree above...and down at the bottom is Tiny...and up on top is Red, Tiny's son (sadly, Red was killed several years ago by a car). A friend of ours is a photographer for a mail-order catalogue in Switzerland (where we used to live before moving here) so we were often asked to model various cat gadgets and toys...as you can see here we are modelling cat trees!! I was only about a year old at the time, that's why I look so small!! In the picture below, it is just me and Red (Tiny didn't want to be photographed that day...she said something about having a bad fur day...whatever that means!)...it was fun, but kinda scarey to be in front of all those lights and in a strange place.

Spring in the City & the Country

Yesterday, I went out on our city terrace (ok, our balcony!!) for the first time this year!! We've had such cold weather until now that we didn't even want to put our noses outside...but today I managed to put my whole self outside long enough to take a peak and a big sniff of Spring. I didn't stay long out there because Mom told me I had to come in because it was time to go the country house. As always, we both hated the 1 hour ride in the car, but when we got here we realised it was soo worth it because the weather was great! In fact, it was so nice we spent at least an hour outside just checking our favourite areas of the garden, eating grass and soaking up the sun.

That's me there in the lower-right of this pic and if you look closely, you can see Tiny there in the upper left. Tiny blends in really well doesn't she? I say she is catouflaged. After all that fresh air, snoopin' around and eating grass (even if it was sad, old, dry last year's grass it still tasted good!) we were thoroughly exhausted and slept like dogs!! Now we are ready for more of the same today!! Woooo hooo!

Furr-oh-shus Friday II (on video)

It's FURR-OH-SHUS Friday: now on video!

I am one BAD cat...don't even THINK of messin' with me!!

WARNING: this is a REALLY SCAREY VIDEO!!

WE'VE BEEN TAGGED!!

On Tuesday, the Kool Kitty Krew tagged us for a picture share game.

These were their instructions:

1. Open the first photo folder of photos of you
2. Scroll down to the 10th photo
3. Post the 10th photo and tell the story about it:
4. Pass this along to 5 other blogs...

This picture was taken of us on our 'balcony' in our city home. We don't have a garden to go out to in the city (we have one in our country house) so Dad made us this 'balcony' on the window...there is a big, soft blanket on it and in the morning the sun shines on it (in Spring and Summer). We love it. There is also a tree RIGHT THERE so sometimes there are even birdies visiting us..well not US, but it seems like they are!!

We now tag the following fuurrends:

1. The Poupounette

2. The Life and Times of Remington

3. Cat with a Garden

4. Attie Cattie

5. Life with Lucy

Tidy Thursday

Sometimes we get a bit lazy and don't keep our fur as tidy as we should, but since we are 'easy-care' models (translated = short fur) we can get away with it for a little while, but then we'll get down to business; get those scrubbing tongues to work and in no time we are all tidied up and looking brand new...well, ALMOST!!

Boy! Tidying up can really wear a cat out...time for a nap!

What is a St. Paddy?

We've been hearing people talking about St. Paddy and we just can't figure out WHAT a St. Paddy is, so Tiny and I put our heads together and have pulled up everything we know about a 'PAD' from the depths of our collective memory. This is what we came up with:

1) Pidder PADder

2) PADding around

3) PADdadeePADdadah

4) On the PADs of her paws

Based on these bits of memories, we think we know what a 'St. Paddy' is...it is that one really special toe on our favorite paw...our saint paddy! In honor of our saint paddies, we've decided to give you a show of all our paws and paddies, however, we prefer to not divulge which is our St. Paddy...that will be our little secret! We hope everyone has a special St. Paddy!!

Tiny's Tuesday

Welcome to another of my Tuesdays. Normally, I might just talk about myself, but I can't today because there's something important I need to tell you: Lautrec is full of hot air.

Seriously, I mean it!! If you believe everything the guy says, you would think he and I are arch-enemies, but we aren't! I love Lautrec and Lautrec loves me. I know I give him a hard time sometimes - it's to keep him on his toes! It doesn't mean I don't love him. Au contraire!! You've certainly noticed that he has this thing about needing to show you pictures of us fighting...hmpf! What a dork! He might as well just beat his chest and bark on the rooftops that he is a real man-cat. But I know the truth: Lautrec is a big marshmallow! You just look at the below pictures and tell me that the guy isn't a teddy-bear.

He is my buddy, my pal, my friend!

He never lets me feel lonely.

We explore together!

In the car he tries to reassure me that everything is ok.

His table manners may not be perfect, but he almost never burps!

So tell me...do you think Lautrec looks like a tiger or a marshmallow?

Lolo Monday/Lolo Lundi

Some of you were wondering about my origins, so I thought I would use this Lolo Monday to show you my fur family. I am an Oriental Lilac Tabby Point Siamese and my birth name was Emanuel van der Nessermolen because I was born in Holland - where my fur family still lives. This is me when I was a baby.

Here are a couple of pictures of my FurMom, Amanda. I look a lot like my my FurMom (except FurMom doesn't have the Oriental features I have which I must have gotten from my Dad, but I don't know what he looks like):

FurMom lives with my sister Engel (below on the left) and my uncle Daniel (below on the right) in Amsterdam.

As you can see, Engel (below right) doesn't look too much like me (she's a Chocolate Point Siamese), but Daniel (on the left below), who is an Oriental Seal Point Siamese, does have the long Oriental bones...he is very long, indeed!

I don't see my family at all, but because their beans also have a house in the Czech Republic, my bean Mom sees them when they come to stay in the summer. I always know whenever FurMom, Engel and Daniel are near because bean Mom will come home covered with their fur and smelling faintly of my kittenhood.