We were up in the Napa Valley over the 4h of July holidays. As usual there were lots of winey cats about and ready to have their photos taken…
First stop. Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford. This kitty named Terracotta has been a resident here for years.
She was actually looking like her age his caught up with her a bit lately. She just wanted some peace and quiet to sleep.
Next stop… Corisan Winery in St. Helena. This cat’s name is Vinnie. You might remember his sister Zoe who I featured back in the wintertime in this post here.They were both born on the concrete floor of a barrel room. Look at those big yellow eyes… what a stunning man cat!
I actually thought this was Zoe when we first arrived as they look so similar. Vinnie is bigger than his sister though and normally roaming the vineyards and shy of people. It was a real treat to meet him!
Last stop… Black Cat Vineyard in Napa who I’ve featured many times before. We spent the evening with Tracey, her family, friends and other wine club members celebrating the 4th of July at her Vineyard Estate.
I actually featured this guy O.D. on the blog before. O.D. meaning “Orange Dream” and this guy sure is dreamy!
He basically hung out with us all evening relishing in the non-stop attention and rubbing.
and finally the gratuitous belly shot… dreamy! He reminds me of my very own cuddle bear and “grey dream” Micky cat. What a fantastic 4th of July!
I saw this for the first time on t.v. tonight and I had to look it up online to share with you all… yup let’s hear it —– all together now —— Aaaaahhh so SWEET!!!
Looks who’s back! It’s been about 6 weeks since I first saw this guy in our backyard. I was just sitting in my office having some morning coffee when I saw him wandering around the pool again.
He walked around stared right at us then wandered off. I suspect this guy must have a home somewhere nearby if he’s still wandering around coyote country. He is just too cute!
Imagine my surprise when I saw this guy wander into our backyard. I’ve only seen a stray cat in our neighborhood two times in 5+ years. Both cats were tremendously skittish and ran off before I could even get a proper look a them. This guy however was on an “Exploration Expedition” of stalking birds and lizards.
How cute is he standing on two legs looking like a Meercat! He sees something on the hillside!
After wandering around in the hillside brush for awhile he wandered back down to the wall, then hopped the fence to the neighbor’s yard. Hopefully the little guy will be alright. We have coyotes that wander in the hills were we live. He seemed pretty tame actually and not emaciated but he wasn’t wearing a collar. If I’m able to see him again I’ll try to trap him and take him somewhere safe. I can’t image where he came from…
We took off for a few days after Christmas and headed up to wine country in the Napa Valley. One of our favorite stops is Corison Winery located in St. Helena. We’re members of their wine club and they make some of my favorite Cabernet.
Here is one of their beautiful vineyards. Since it’s winter you don’t see much on the vines but the mustard (little yellow flowers) are starting to pop up a little between the vines.
Last spring they had a wine tasting event outside on their back patio and I met this little lady, Zoe. She rules over wine making operations with her brother. (He is super shy and hardly ever shows himself to strangers.) They were born in someone’s barn on a concrete floor like this one before they were adopted. She makes sure they never have any mice in THIS barn.
She was acting especially charming the day we stopped in.
Zoe is super talkative and doesn’t hold back in telling you she needs to be petted. I love how she shuts her eyes when she talks. So if you’re ever in the napa valley stop by Corison Winery. Maybe you’ll see Zoe!
So what do you give kitties who are already super lucky and spoiled rotten you ask? Every year it gets tougher and tougher but here is this year’s list of what Santa might be bringing our gang.
Corduroy Puff Ball Pet Bed
I hope this arrives in time because I bought it from what turns out to be the crappiest online pet store ever. I’m not even going to tell you where I bought it because I’ll be lucky if it shows up at all!
Organic Catnip R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. set of 7 Rainbow Crochet Balls
The tree is up and I have some new cat christmas ornaments to share with you! I shared some of my collection with you last year. You can read that post here. This year our tree is a little smaller than usual but it’s very full, very healthy and hardly dropping any needles at all! The cats have been good too, much better than last year; no climbing, and no grabbing of beads or ornaments.
This ornament is Jake’s Lucky Cat ornament. It was a Christmas gift from his friend Charlie while Jake was sick with renal failure. Charlie also had a renal deficiency and it was his wish of good luck and good health to Jake. Sadly Charlie passed away a few months before Jake did. I know that both of them are enjoying each other’s company at the Rainbow Bridge.
This is a pretty Delft Blue cat I found on Ebay. I have a couple other Delft Blue ornaments that we picked up in The Netherlands years ago but I always wanted a cat ornament.
This “purrfect friends” cat ornament was a gift from my parents last year.
We’ve been to Hawaii on vacation a few times recently and I really wanted to find a Hawaiian inspired cat ornament. I was lucky to find this Lucky Cat wearing a lei of Hawaiian flowers!
You all might remember this cat ornament that I picked up a few months ago on my trip to New Orleans, LA!
This is a new stoneware cat ornament from Jonathan Adler. I have to admit I’m a hopeless collector of his porcelain cats. I discovered he designed a more affordable line called Happy Chic for HSN this year and offers a darling menagerie collection. The stoneware collection looks almost identical to his pricier porcelain menagerie collection. You still have time to purchase your own cat ornament off the HSN website.
Finally I made some new photos ornaments for the cats from photos from 2010. The Elf.
Guaranteed to make you giggle. This video reminds me of Jonah and Micky when they play because they get so mad at each other you can easily imagine what they’re thinking just from their facial expressions and body language.
On Saturday, October 23rd we attended the Evening at the Stray Cat Club event hosted by the Stray Cat Alliance. The event raised somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000!! All the donated money will go to solving the homeless cat crisis. Their programs are a large piece of the puzzle in creating a No Kill Nation, where a home is found for every healthy or treatable companion animal, feral cats are fixed and properly cared for, and sterilization is readily available. They also contribute to caring for feral cat colonies.
Sparkle Cat’s mom attended the event with her boyfriend!
They served the most delicious vegan fare.
There were edible arrangements and a dark chocolate fountain for dipping fruit and pretzels YUMMY!
This year’s honorees were the Los Angeles Animal Services smART Team!! You can watch some amazing animal rescue videos on their MySpace page.
This was without a doubt my FAVORITE costume of the evening! I couldn’t stop looking at him. He looked exactly like Puss in Boots!
The party hosts have something like 10 cats!! It was fun watching them through the windows in their sequestered rooms. What a life huh? The entire house was pristine! I’m still trying to figure out what they scratch on (couches and furniture were purr-fect) and where the litter boxes for 10 are hidden!
This guy was mesmerized by my cowboy hat. He couldn’t take his eyes off it.
