I'm Ready For My Close Up...

Due to his blogging fame, Dud is going Hollywood on us and putting together his portfolio.

Bloggy Giveaway

Dudley and his buds want to show the blogging world what a "giving" group of felines they are. So they have joined the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival (Fall 2008). Mary Beth introduced them to this great giveaway carnival and the rules are simple. Please just leave a comment to this post and Dudley will randomly pick a winner next Wednesday, 11/05. The giveaway is supposed to end tomorrow but since we are late to the party (as usual) we will leave the contest open for a week.

What are Dud and his buds giving away? They have generously finally agreed to part with this Hand Knit Elephant Catnip Cat Toy which we sell in our Etsy Shop (you didn't think we would give up the opportunity for a shameless plug did you?)

As you can see, Dudley has one of these elephant toys and it is one of his four favorite toys.

So leave your comment below and then go to the Bloggy Giveaways site to see all the other great giveaways. There are literally thousands of giveaways! Dudley will contact the winner on Wednesday to get address information.

Uh Oh! We Think We Broke Her

Yesterday one them decided to torture us with the vacuum. Thank god they are slobs and this rarely happens but when it does, it is terrible. All four of us hate the vacuum. It totally disrupts our tranquil mornings. We were trying to come up with a way to take out the vacuum so it would never happen again when she decided to appease us and fill our food bowl. While she was tying up the food, her back went out. At first we were very concerned because she was moaning and crying (George almost started to panic at the possibility that she might not be able to feed us). As the day went on, we realized that though she might be paralyzed with pain, this is not such a bad thing. She has to sit still in the comfy chair with a heating pad. Since he's the youngest and lightest we decided to let Dudley take the first watch of taking care of her by keeping her lap warm.

Hang in Baby...

So you would think Dudley would be a little sleepy and dopey the day after his castration...

Evidently, you would think wrong!

This is Dudley hanging from the screen door, no more than 24 hours after his "procedure".

Yeah! Our First Meme

Karen has tagged Dudley & Friends for the 7 Things About You Meme. Here are the rules:

The rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

We are going to list one thing about Dudley and each of his friends that will every so often pop up on his blog. As luck would have it, there are seven of them. Here are the players; first the obvious four: Dudley, Andrew Eugene, George and Gretel. The other three are not so much friends as acquaintances Dudley sees every weekend when we go to the parents house - Dickon the Corgi, Morgun the Cairn Terrier, and the four parrots will be treated as one. So without further ado...

1. Dudley

Dudley loves people food and his favorite is eggs. Every morning he will sit in one of the kitchen chairs and wait for us to make our eggs. The waiting is usually done quite vocally with pitiful cries because we are not cooking fast enough. If allowed he would eat the entire plate of eggs and leave none for us. I'm not sure his vet would approve!

2. Andrew

Andrew is a giver. He feels we are not bringing in enough funds from our Etsy shop, so when we go to bed, Andrew gets busy. He will go through our knitting bags - if we forgot to put them away from his reach - and pick projects to work on. Typical help from Andrew will include moving the project from the first floor to the second floor to one of our bedrooms. He considers it really helpful if he can drop a few stitches along the way.

3. George

George's most favorite thing in the whole world is his food. He keeps all his favorite toys in the dry food bowl. Sometimes to the point where there is no room for the food. We know when the food is getting low when the toys start to show up in the tv room or kitchen. His favorite toy is monkey and if monkey makes it out of the bowl, we know things are really dire!

4. Gretel

Being the only female, Gretel is the diva of the group. She feels she is WAY above the male morons and should not be expected to fraternize with them. She has yet to acknowledge the existence of one very spoiled black and white kitten. Though she is the smallest by far, we call her the vacuum cleaner when it comes to eating. She can put away more food than you would think possible considering her tiny frame. She prefers to eat separately from the group and despite how hungry she might be she feels it is only right for us to bring her night wet food to her, wherever she might be. She will not come when called, it's our job to find her. The other night we couldn't find her anywhere. We checked each room two or three times, yelling for her and checking in boxes. Finally after about 45 minutes of searching, I opened a closet door that looked like it was closed tightly. There she was, stretching and giving me this look like "Oh, were you looking for me. Here the whole time!" This is Gretel.

5. Dickon

Dickon is a Welsh Cardigan Corgi. He is our mother's puppy. She saw his puppy picture online on a Wednesday back in February. That Friday (48 hours later) we were driving down to Arkansas (from NJ) to pick him up from the breeder. We drove 19 hours each way on Superbowl weekend and he was worth every minute. He is the happiest dog I have ever seen. He actually smiles and has dimples. He is a big reader and if you leave your book lying around, he will read/eat it. He is particularly fond of any book that belongs to Amanda. He is NOT a friend of Dudley's, though he thinks he is. However, since the humans control this blog, he will be featured occasionally.

6. Morgun

Morgun is a cranky old man. He is our Dad's Cairn Terrier. He is blind and diabetic and recovering from issues with his pancreas. He has been known to bite the hand that feeds him and for some reason we all love him anyway. He is happiest when it is just he and his man (Dad) in the kitchen. He recently tried to take on the felines and George came charging out of his room and pretty much kicked the crap out of poor Morgun, though he tried to hold his own.

7. The Birds

Merlin

Brooklyn

Humphrey

Boswell

The parrots are my mother's. They are housed on the sun porch at my parents house which is separated from the living room by french doors. Andrew and Dudley love to sit and watch them through the french doors. Each of them talks to some extent, though Merlin is the conversationalist. Each has their own personality and despite the fact that they are a pain in the neck to care for, they are amusing and great pets.

Well that was probably way more information than anyone counted on but now you know a little something about Dudley and all his friends and relations.

VERY BAD WEDNESDAY!

Poor Dud is now officially a desk. The neutering is over! As with every other stage of his young life Dud came through the procedure with flying colors. He was very groggy when we got him home and was walking sideways and falling over (we tried very hard and unsucessfully not to laugh at the poor boy). His good friend Andrew took care of him. He cleaned Dud's head first thing when he got home and then would come check on him occasionally. Andrew even took on Gretel at one point because he felt she was too close, in the same room, to the patient.

I would like to point out that Dud's insatiable appetite was not affected. He ate his dinner and came charging - somewhat sideways - to help us eat our dinner. This morning he was back to his old self chasing his nursemaid Andrew all over the house.

Karen, the felines keep reminding me that you tagged them, and I haven't forgotten. They are very excited to be tagged for their first meme. It will be our next post here I promise. Family issues have gotten the best of me and blogging had to take a back seat for a little bit.

We Want to Go Outside Too

The boys want to know why they can't come outside with me.

Dudley Offers Some Unsolicited Help in Knitting

The orange band is not a dashing new outfit for Dud but the Pumpkin Hat I was knitting!

Dickon Goes to the Parade

Dickon got to go to the Beach Haven Fire Department Parade yesterday. He was so good, even with all the noise from the fire trucks and all the other dogs in the area.

Relax Dude

With the impending castration looming over his head, Dudley "stresses out".