Must be November

That's right, November is here! It came on quite suddenly, with the usual incredibly loud wind storms and the never-ending northwest rain pelting the windows. Of course, none of that matters to me 'cause I live indoors.

But my favorite part about November is when the snow geese start coming back. I can hear them flying over the house in the morning to head to the wetland mitigation lake below. And then they fly overhead again at dinner time. They're starting to gather here in large numbers and will soon be very vocal. It's music to my kitty ears!

I love to stare at the snow geese and listen to them fly over the house, but when I see how big they are I am thankful I'm an indoor kitty. Right Scruffers?

Ok, gotta run. Snuggle season has begun and I have to claim my spot on the sofa.

King County waives adoption fees for shelter animals

King County is waiving fees on all pets in its shelters and in foster care, officials have announced.

Dogs, puppies and kittens previously cost $75 to adopt, and adult cats were $35, according to the county. While there still will be a charge for a pet license, the change is part of an effort to find pets safe homes as flood season begins.

When the county adopts out animals, vaccinations, including rabies, are included. A list of adoptable pets is at www.kingcounty.gov/pets.

County Executive Kurt Triplett announced in late September his intent to move pets out of the county's Kent shelter by Nov. 1 because the building could be flooded this winter due to damage to the Howard Hanson Dam.

At that time, Triplett also said King County would stop providing shelter and animal-control services to cities by the middle of next year as part of an effort to close a budget gap.

While the county has identified a few sites for a temporary shelter, it hasn't closed a deal yet, Christine Lange, a county spokeswoman, said last week.

"We're very close to having plans finalized, and the animals will be out of the shelter well in advance of a flood event," Lange said.

The county's Kent shelter on Oct. 19 stopped accepting pets given up by owners, she said. Last week, the shelter had 310 animals, county records show. There were 523 more animals, mostly cats, in foster care.

Is it your turn to rescue a kitty? I hope so.

(Photo courtesy of www.petfinder.com)

Cat gets H1N1: Furry housemates may have flu risk, too

Oh no! What if I wake up and look like this? Please don't let me get the swine flu!

By The Washington Post and The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Does the swine-flu pandemic pose a threat to your pet? Yes, according to a new report from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

A cat in Iowa tested positive for the H1N1 virus, state officials confirmed Wednesday, "marking the first time a cat has been diagnosed with this strain of influenza," the association said.

The 13-year-old domestic short-haired kitty was treated last week at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ames and recovered, officials said. The virus also has been confirmed in two ferrets — one in Oregon and the other in Nebraska — but they died.

"We've known certainly it's possible this could happen," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesman Tom Skinner. "This may be the first instance where we have documentation that transmission occurred involving cats or dogs."

The veterinarian who treated the cat, Dr. Brett Sponseller, said two of the three people in the cat's Iowa home had flu-like symptoms before the cat became ill. The case was confirmed at Iowa State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Other influenza strains have been known to cross species, but Sponseller cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the cat, including whether other pets also could get the swine flu: "It's well documented in influenza in general, but this is the first highly suspected case of H1N1 going from humans into a cat."

The indoor cat was lethargic, had a loss of appetite and appeared to have trouble breathing after it became infected, Sponseller said. Its owners declined to comment.

Officials said pet owners should take the same precautions against spreading swine flu to pets as they would with humans.

Getting children vaccinated for swine flu also can help prevent the illness from spreading to pets. There is no swine-flu vaccine for pets.

Dr. Ann Garvey, Iowa's state health veterinarian, said it is not known how sick pets could get from swine flu. "Because we haven't seen that many cases, it's difficult to give a blanket assessment on how sick it can make an animal," she said.

Officials also stressed there is no evidence swine flu can be passed from pets to people. "But it's so early in the game we don't know how it's going to behave," said Michael San Filippo, spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Oh, Scruffy - trick or treat!

What's that noise? I swear I just heard Heather walk upstairs with a clean kitty box. I'd better go check it out.

Yup, there's fresh kitty litter in my freshly scrubbed box. But, here's my favorite part - I beat Scruffers to the inspection of his box. And his box has been scrubbed clean too.

I look around to see if he's coming. Nope. I quickly jump into his box and lie down. I love to rub my scent in all over his box so he can't get away from me! Might as well tinkle a little too so he really knows I was here. He he he!

(Photo: Giuseppe Gattino looking around for a sign of Scruffers.)

Who wants to start with some worms?

Halloween was so much fun! I thought it was ging to be an annoying evening but after being cranky all week, Heather adjusted her attitude and we had a blast!

First I helped her decorate the outside of the house. We added fake spiderwebs sporting fake spiders and old campaign signs redecorated with messages such as "danger ahead!" and "beware!" leading up to the house.

Then the fun began! Heather made (and I supervised) a dinner plate to scare off the children. It sported worms (ramen noodles soaked in soy sauce), bugs (cooked white beans) and hearts of bad children (chicken hearts). And then I helped her as she changed into her super-scary Halloween costume. She painted her nails black and ringed her eyes with this hideous neon green eyeshadow. Next she put on black pants and a black shirt and then covered them with a long black dress that looks like one of those coats Iranian women have to wear in public. Heather then put this awful looking red mask over her head and tucked it into the Iranian coat. Scruffy took one look at her and hid behind the couch!

OK, talking about Scruffers, notice that he thought that worms, bugs and the hearts of bad children would make a tasty meal. He attempted to eat it a few times! Scruffers - wouldn't you rather have that nice soft kitty food Heather feeds us?

The doorbell rang and Heather got to test out her costume. She opened the door and - the first child cried. And the second. And the third one ran away and had to be brough back by his brother. Heather ended up taking off her mask for all the smaller children and only offered the optional worm meal to the older kids. My favorite was when she asked the 11-year old girls (all dressed up as sexy cheerleaders, yuck!) if they wanted to try some worms. They actually screamed! Scruffers and I were on the ground rolling with laughter! Only one kid wanted to taste a chicken heart but Heather had to take the plate away and explain that they were raw. Come on kid, chocolates or a chicken heart. It shouldn't be a difficult decision!

It was a dark and stormy night...

It feels like Halloween, doesn't it? I'm sitting on my throne (not in the bathroom, silly - up on the fleece blanket on the dresser) and all I can hear is the wind whipping around. The trees are creaking, leaves are flying everywhere, and I can hear the wind rush into our fireplace. It's an exceptionally good night to be an indoor kitty.

Of course, I don't know what it looks like outside because Heather closed all the blinds, but if I could see outside, this is what I would imagine - a dark and spooky. What a perfect way to usher in Halloween!

(Photo taken from Eddie Soloway's website. Eddie, I don't know who you are but you sure know how to capture a spooky looking evening!)

Who wants dinner-o?

Aah, dinner-o, one of my favorite meals of the day! And tonight was a special treat! Where do I begin?

Heather chose not to feed us before she left for yoga. We knew she'd be back after dinnertime but she decided that feeding us on time wasn't a priority. So we waited. And waited. And the next thing you know it's 7:45 and Heather's just coming home. And with groceries in her hand to boot. OK, it was bad enough she left us to go to yoga, but then she went shopping afterwards. Sheesh!

Heather raced in the door and fed us pretty quickly. Scruffers and I were too busy having our nightly feeding frenzy contest to be mad at her. Then Scruffers made Heather take his bowl upstairs (like every freakin' night) so he could finish dinner in peace. So far, all's normal.

Heather sits down at the diniing room table to eat her dinner and that's when the fun begins. Scruffers comes back downstairs and sits in front of my tunnel and begins retching. As he and Heather are facing each other. Imagine: Heather sitting at the table with a bite of food in her mouth watching Scruffers retch and regurgitate his dinner all over my tunnel and all over the living room carpet. She was horrified. Then to top it off, Scruffers had to wipe his mouth off on the tunnel to get the last bit of saliva and slop that was hanging from his lips. Ugh! I swear Heather turned green.

She tried to finish dinner and calmly waited for Scruffers to eat the slop off the floor and from inside the tunnel before she started cleaning. It definitely wasn't her night.

Maybe next time you'll feed us before yoga, eh?

We're thinking of you, Cynthia

Our kitty friend Cynthia goes in for surgery today for a double mastectomy. Yikes! I know Cynthia from my young days - she and Dave raised me from the time I was born till I was old enough to come live with Craig and Heather. She also took great care of me last Christmas.

Scruffers fell in love with Cynthia the moment he met her. While he was still nervous about being touched outside of his safety zone (Heather's office) he one day met Cynthia at the front door and proceeded to jump into her lap and purr while she gave him a full body rub. Here he is (left) keeping Cynthia from getting beyond the front entry way.

Get well soon, Cynthia! We both miss you!

Shtinky Puddin' must be so upset!

Did you see the news? Shtinky Puddin' - don't look; it's not pretty. It's time for you to save the tigers!

Experts: Tigers fast dying out despite campaigns

The world's tiger population is declining fast despite efforts to save them, and new strategies are urgently needed to keep the species from dying out, international wildlife experts said Tuesday.

An estimated 3,500 to 4,000 tigers now roam the world's forests, down from the more than 100,000 estimated at the beginning of the 20th century. All the remaining tigers are in Asia.

Taken from an article by BINAJ GURUBACHARYA - Associated Press Writer

BINSAR BAKKARA / AP: A newborn Sumatran tiger cub is seen near the paws of its mother at a zoo in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. There are thought to be only around 250 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

Welcome to the Rainy Season

It looks like my days of going outside on the leash are over for now. Fall is here and so is the rain. And the gray. Heather was excited for the beginning of the fall rainy season but who knows why. She said she was sick of training but the good weather made her want to continue training so she wanted the good weather to hurry up and go away. Uh, can't you just take a break from training when the weather's nice? Guess not. Maybe that's why you got injured, Miss "I can't take a day off and miss a day of the best summer we've had in forever."

OK, so I live with a weird-o. Two of them. Craig was ready for the rain too because he's sick of being on the road and hiking all the time for his next book project. And talk about injured! Mister "I'll just take more painkiller so I can continue researching this backpacking book." Why can't you guys just see the sunny weather and enjoy it from inside like I do? Take a long nap in the sun, watch the reflection of the sun hitting my name tag and chase it around the living room until I find a bug to stalk.

I like sunny days. Why anyone would wish for this wet, gloomy weather is beyond me. Hot chocolate season, puleaze! Kitties can't have chocolate. The only thing to look forward to is the return of the tundra and trumpeter swans and the snow geese.Thank goodness I do live inside, though, 'cause those things are HUGE.