Ebby vs Thalia

When Thalia arrived on the scene almost three years ago, Ebby was keeping pretty much to herself, and didn't want much to do with a high energy kitten. In fact, Ebby can be down right grumpy, and has no qualms about taking a swipe at anyone in the house. Usually with claws unsheathed. But on this particular evening Ebby showed extraordinary self control, and let Thalia wrestle with her to her hearts content.

I have posted these pictures before, but it's Ebby month here at Athenamama, so I thought I would pull them out again for your enjoyment. Besides, they're a lot of fun for me to look at as well.

More cats can be found at the Friday Ark at The Modulator, and the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.

Happy Birthday, Papa

Today is my boy Angel's birthday. Five years ago today he was born in what was most likely a puppy mill in Kansas. But, I don't wish to taint my boy's birthday by talking about that.

Angel's story of how he came to be in our family can be found here. Please go read it because I love that story.

Anyway, Athenamama tradition dictates that whenever it is one of our pets birthday, they get their very own entry along with baby pictures, and pictures of them today. So, without further ado, I give you my Papa, Angel....

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Athenamama Hits the Big Time

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I think Athenamama stands a very good chance of being mentioned in an upcoming edition of the local newspaper.

A while back I responded to an advertisement in the Ventura County Star concerning a possible article about people who have multiple pets. (If you weren't aware of this, I do in fact have multiple pets.)

A few days ago the nice young man who is writing the piece contacted me by e-mail asking for an interview over the phone. We had that interview last Friday night, and I think there is a better than good chance that Athenamama will be mentioned.

We mainly discussed what it's like to own three dogs and three cats under one roof. We also talked about Athenamama, and what I write about here. We also talked quite a bit about Athena, which actually makes me pretty happy.

So, if the article does mention myself or Athenamama, I will of course be sure to link to the online version of the story for all three of my readers to enjoy. I just wonder how I am going to pay for the extra bandwidth once I become famous. I guess I will just hope that I become rich before I become famous.

Stay tuned!

Pretty Ebby

Ebby is the featured cat this month here at Athenamama. She currently holds the title of Official Athenamama Cat of Halloween, and today I thought I would post a few pictures of her.

More cats can be found at the Friday Ark at The Modulator, and the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.

The Hollywood Wax Museum

A while back the wife and I took our lives into our own hands, and went down to Hollywood boulevard to see Hollywood Wax Museum. It was amazing.... amazingly BAD!

The creatures that inhabit the museum look nothing like the people they are intended to represent. To be fair, in some instances they are pretty good, but most of the time they are awful.

I took several pictures, and ran across them today, so I thought I would share...

(Remember you can see larger versions of these pictures by clicking on them.)

Angel and Jacqueline and the Quest for Grass II

Part I of "Angel and Jackie and the Quest for Grass" can be found here.

Jackie and Angel need a house, (OK, the whole family needs one,) with a backyard full of grass, and my wife and I have made an offer on one, but first we need to sell our condo. The problem is that the real estate market in our area is in a slump right now, so we are having difficulty selling our place. Condos like ours were selling for as much as $445,000.00 up until a few months ago, but recently the prices have dropped, and so we were forced to lower our asking price from $414,950.00 to $399,950.00, and that still puts us at one of the highest priced condos in the area.

The house we found is 1875 square feet, has four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and is a ranch style single story that was built in 1963. It is also below market value. The house is on the market evidently because the owners have "gone their separate ways", and therefore have not been able to make their payments. They are at least two months behind, and the bank has told them to sell the house NOW. Initially it was listed at $629,000.00, and when we saw it the first time we liked it, but we weren't impressed with the bathrooms and kitchen.

We were out the weekend before last checking out open houses when we drove by the place to see if on the off chance it was opened. We were in luck, and so we got out for a second look. The Realtor was almost begging for us to make an offer, and told us that the price had dropped to $599,000.00! We talked it over and decided to make an offer on Monday. When I called my agent, however, the house was no longer on the market.

It's kind of a long story, but essentially the listing expired, and later that afternoon it was back on the market... for $585,000.00. We jumped on it, and the seller has agreed to take our offer IF we can dump our place in 21, now 12 days.

So, if you, dear reader, know anyone who is thinking of buying a very nice condo in the sunny and mild beach town of Ventura in southern California, give me a call. I'll make you such a deal!

In the mean time, let's take a look at some pictures of Jackie and Angel in the great outdoors...

Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Side Bar Update

I added hyperlinks pointing to the stories of how we brought each of our pets into our lives over on the side bar over there on your right under the category of "Athena's Siblings". So far I have only written about Angel, Ebby, and in an indirect way, Athena. Athena was added to the category because she does have a story involving her coming to live with us. She wasn't there before because of course she can't be her own sibling.

Someday I will have a story for each, and then everyone will have their own hyperlink, and all you lucky people can read the fascinating stories of how each of our pets came to us.

You lucky, lucky people.

Angel's Long Lost Brother

Last week reader Juan sent me an e-mail entitled, "Angel's Long Lost Brother". Intrigued, I opened it. Juan said he had surfed to Athenamama, and was struck by how much Angel resembled his dog, Patch. Juan was good enough to attach four pictures as proof.

Being the sort who can spot an easy post a mile away, I decided to post one of the pictures here along with one of Angel so that all you happy people could see my boy, and his long lost brother, Patch.

(Yeah, I wondered why an all white dog was named Patch too, but there again, why would anyone name an itsy bitsy Chihuahua, Jacqueline?)

Check in next week for a new chapter in The Adventures of Angel and Jacqueline. And don't forget to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Ebby's Story

One night my wife and I were spending a lovely evening at home watching television, when suddenly she turned to me and told me to turn down the television volume. I asked why, and she told me she thought she heard voices outside. We live in a condominium complex, and so we often hear people talking on the pathways that meander through the complex. I did as she asked, and sure enough there was a group of people just outside our window talking.

Being the nosey people we are, we strained to listen to the conversation, and we soon realized that these people had found a kitten, and were trying to find out where she belonged. My wife and I had recently fostered three kittens for a local cat rescue outfit, (that is how Athena came into my life,) and so I ventured outside to talk to the people about possibly taking the found cat to the adoption people.

The man holding the kitten told me that he had been out that evening for a walk, when he suddenly saw a large white dog chasing the poor thing. He somehow managed to catch the kitten and chase off the dog. After that, he wasn't sure what to do, and began knocking on doors in an effort to find the kittens owners. I told him about the adoption people, but he said that he couldn't foster the kitten because he had too many pets already. So who do you guess took the kitten in?

At first we kept the kitten in the garage because at that time we already had Angel, Athena, and Salem. We felt that was too many animals for this street kitten to manage so soon. But the kitten felt lonely in the garage, and yowled to be let out. Fearing a call by the neighbors to the animal protection agency, we let the kitten out, but supervised all contact between her and the rest of our crew.

Athena took a liking to the new kitten at once. In fact, Athena treated her like her own kitten even though Athena was still technically a kitten herself. Soon, she and the kitten were fast friends, and they were inseparable.

I contacted the adoption agency and they said they would of course take our kitten as long as we agreed to foster her. I said that would be fine, and since the foster family can choose the name for the cats available for adoption, we decided to name her Ebony. We named her Ebony because she is almost completely black, and also because she came to us in the dead of night.

The very first time I took Ebby to the adoption center she quite literally cried herself hoarse. She cried when I put her in her crate, she cried all during the drive to the adoption location, she cried from the car to inside the building, and when I picked her up, the people at the adoption center told me she had cried ALL DAY!

They also told me the only time she didn't cry was when a lady asked to see her, and they brought her out of her crate. Unfortunately she only stopped crying long enough to attack the lady. She didn't hurt the woman; just a few scratches and one well placed bite, but it was enough to turn the poor woman against the idea of taking Ebby home.

Ebby also didn't cry much on the way home, however, she did try. By then, though, her voice was gone, and I think she knew she was going "home" anyway because she just sort of curled up in her crate and napped on the way home.

While Ebby was at the adoption center, Athena was going nuts wondering where her "baby" went. She would wander around the house calling to Ebby, and became more and more distressed when Ebby wouldn't appear. She became so wound up that she started bugging me by following me around, howling, and trying to get me to follow her. When I brought Ebby home Athena lavished great love on Ebby, rubbing up against her, and cleaning her ears. (The ear cleaning style of showing affection has since been passed down to Jackie.)

And that is the way it went for three weeks, and each week it became more and more evident that we would be doing a great wrong to Athena and Ebby by separating them, thus, the last trip I made to the adoption center was to let them know Ebby would no longer be available for adoption, she had found a home.

Tragically, when Athena was a little over two years old, she died, but that is another story, and has already been told*. Ebby became melancholy, and to this day has not really bonded with either of the other two cats, or with Jackie or Angel. She keeps to herself, and doesn't seek human affection very often. She does spend most of her time in my stepson's room, and he treats her well. She also will come to me every so often, and she will sit with me for a while and let me pet her. When she does, I think of Athena, and the special relationship the three of us had. I wonder what Ebby thinks.

More cats can be found at the Friday Ark at The Modulator, and the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.

*My apologies to CheeseBurger Brown. I love his writing, and stole this phrase, "but that is another story, and has already been told" from him.

Vista

I don't do many reviews here on Athenamama, but I have been using Windows Vista RC1 for the past couple of weeks at home, and I really dig it, so I thought I would share a few thoughts.

First off, the interface is more attractive than XP. There is also a neat sidebar where you can have all sorts of killer little apps like a weather app, a clock, a rss news reader, and other neat little goodies. It also has a feature called "Aero Glass". Quoting from Microsoft,

You can access this feature by clicking on a little icon on the lower right hand side of your screen, and all the windows you have open will organize them selves turned at an angel, and cascade down from left to right.

Vista's administrator tools that you use to keep users in line seem simpler to use as well. Unfortunately, I don't think that is a good thing because it's almost TOO easy. With XP professional, if you wanted to control what users could do, or what areas of the computer they could access, you needed to know something about groups, permissions, taking ownership of directories/files, and how to use the NTFS file system in general. Now you just click through a couple of windows asking if you are sure you want to take ownership of a file or directory, and viola! You are the new admin for that directory/file!

I don't really like that. All someone needs do is became an administrator on the computer and they can wreak havoc where you don't want them wreaking havoc.

I also don't like having to approve installation of files in shared folders. Especially when installing complicated programs like Office 2007, which places a boat-load of files in shared folders.

There's lots to say about this new version of Windows, both good and bad, but personally I like it more than XP. Up until later this weekend my computer has been set up to boot using either my old XP setup, or the new Vista OS. I have decided after two weeks of testing that I am comfortable enough with the new OS to reformat my computer, dump XP, and run only Vista.

I would also like to say that before you comment, if you are a Mac user, I am very happy for you. I have used a Mac running OS X enough to say that I am quite familiar with it, and I think it is a fine OS. I would go so far as to say it is a superior OS when compared to Vista, as long as you don't want to play games or use the computer in a business environment. I have also had difficulties trying to get a Mac to play nice with Windows machines and printer/fax machines in a business network. Maybe it’s me and my lacking networking skills, after all, all I have ever achieved as far as certifications are concerned is a CCNA. What I am driving at is, I abhor OS wars, and would rather you not leave a nasty comment stating that "Winblows sux", or anything of that nature. Otherwise, thanks for stopping by.

Ebby, The Official Athenamama Cat of Halloween

Since the Halloween layout is up I figured I would go ahead and announce that Ebby, Athena's favorite sister and all around good cat, is the Official Athenamama Cat of Halloween.

Tell your friends. Donations welcomed.

More cats can be found at the Friday Ark at The Modulator, and the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.

BOO!

I love the Fall. It has always been my favorite time of year. Therefore, I figured I would throw up the official Athenamama Halloween theme for the site. Don't be surprised if it stays up through New Years.