What ARE these things? And why are they soooo much fun?
Sometimes, I have the good fortune of waking up the staff without even meaning to!
This morning, I was patrolling the perimeter of the room and came across the cat toy I had forgotten exists: the boingie thing that sticks out of the wall.
I started playing with it: Bat, boing! Bat, BOOOOOING! Bat, BOOOOOOOOOOING! Bat, BOOOI……
“ROMEO! What are you doing???!!!”
Um. What?
Oh, HI! Is BREAKFAST ready?
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Oh, how I love thee, Cheez-its
Last night the staff shook things up a bit. Male staff was snoring. This was highly annoying to me and obviously highly annoying to female staff because, after kicking him a few times, she grabbed her pillow and comforter and headed to the living room and sofa city.
The beauty of this set up is that there are SO many useful tools in the living room and kitchen area to incorporate into the wake up strategy. As I was trying to figure out which one I would pick, I spied a small bowl of Cheez-Its that the Running-Yelling-Cat-Carrying-i-Pad-Watching Creature had left on the counter last night.
You may not know this but I LOVE Cheez-Its.
And, as I discovered this morning, they make a wonderfully annoying sound when a cat face is snuffling around in a bowl of them.
Clack, clack, clack. Crunch. Crunch. Clack, clack, clack. SNEEZE. Clack, clack, clack. Crunch.
Oh, it was quite a sight to observe the poor staff running around the room trying to figure out what was making that noise! When she finally discovered what it was, she laughed and said, “Oh, I see you’ve already had BREAKFAST!”
Wha?! Wait! No, no no NO that wasn’t BREAKFAST! No! No, get the can out! GET THE CAN OUT!!!!
Whew. Thankfully she complied.
That was close.
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What the male staff saw when he opened his eyes this morning.
I’ve discovered that, after a while, the female staff becomes a bit desensitized to my wake up shenanigans.
To keep things interesting, I must go in search of a new target. I don’t have to look far; only across the bed to male staff, who slumbers peacefully through BREAKFAST every morning.
Except today.
Today I decided to see how quickly I could rouse someone who was not used to fending off my genius tactics.
I tiptoed over to male staff. Stared at him. Then, sat down and gingerly settled my ginger-y tail on top of his face.
“PFFFFFFTTTTTTTEW!”
Haha! He was up! And, so was female staff. But it seems as if the unspoken rule among the staff is that whoever I target each morning is the one who must serve BREAKFAST.
Male staff was up and my kitteh-belleh was full within 10 minutes. YES!
Question to readers: who do YOU target each morning?
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The Pugman Snoreth
You see, Pugsley snores. Pretty loudly. He happened to be sleeping-snoring on the pillow next to female staff.
I jumped up on the bed on the other side of her head and nuzzled the top of her ear. Nothing. Then, put my cute, wet little nose IN her ear and nuzzled. She made some noise and then rolled over.
Now this is where Pugsley came in. As he snores, he often lets out a bit more than a snort – it’s actually a snuffle-snort-sneeze type thing. He did this at the every moment staff rolled over, spraying cat juice right in her face.
She jumped up, wiped off her face and looked at both of us with a not-so-happy look on her face but who cares? Because BREAKFAST was on its way.
Hooray for Pugsley! Hooray for me! Hooray for BREAKFAST!
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Don't make me use it.
Welp, this morning it took longer than expected to obtain BREAKFAST.
First, crawled up onto female staff member’s pillow. Put paw on her head. No response.
Then, sat down on her pillow, aligning furry body with the side of her face. A little bit on her cheek.
Nothing.
Finally, stood up and sat back down, with entire furry butt on her head and face, over her forehead and left eye. Shimmied butt around a little bit to get comfortable (and render her less so) and made sure a piece of tail was squarely on her mouth.
And, voila! The staff member was up! And BREAKFAST was served shortly.
All’s well that ends well but I still do not understand why staff continues to insist we do this the hard way.
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Happy New Year, fur-iends!
I think staff should make a New Year’s resolution to set her alarm so I don’t have to do all this work getting her up. Speaking of staff’s New Year’s resolutions…..my friends at Halo, Purely for Pets conducted a survey of 1,000 pet staff members to find out about what they plan to do to improve the lives of those they serve. Here were my favorite responses:
88.7% of pet parents plan to help their pets get more exercise, including:
68.3% say they will play with their pets more, 30.3% said they will find a new game to play and 15.8% of those who serve cats say they will run my cat up and down stairs (super fun if you’ve never tried it!)
69.4% plan to feed their pets higher quality food (woo hoo! That’s one Pug and I believe in wholeheartedly. Wish they had all said MORE food but whatever)
86.8% plan to groom their pets more regularly and, of those, 80.3% are going to brush their pets more regularly (better be with the FURminator, just sayin).
And, LOVE this:
94.1% plan to help pets in need by adopting a new pet, fostering, donating, playing Freekibble.com or Freekibblekat.com.
Finally, really big important point….when given the option to “fill in” their own resolution on the survey, lots of pet parents said they will spend more time with their pets (YES!) and love them even more than they did last year. More love is always a good thing!
Personally, I have one resolution: continue building this blog so I can help more pets in need.
What are your New Year’s resolutions?
P.S. you guys probably know this but my staff works with Halo, helping them with their PR. Even if she didn’t, I would still share this survey with you but, well, just lettin’ ya know.
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Q-tip cat carefully constructed by the staff members. With no help from me.
The Twelve Days of Q-tips®-mas
Inspired by tips from our wonderful readers, with a special holiday giveaway at the end!
On the first day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
A Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the second day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the third day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the fourth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the fifth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the sixth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the seventh day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the eighth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Eight Q-tips to apply topical meds to my pet’s boo boo’s
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the ninth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Nine Q-tips to clean out the corner of the birdcage
Eight Q-tips to apply topical meds to my pet’s boo boo’s
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the tenth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Ten Q-tips to scrape out the doggy doo from the bottom of my boots (ugh)
Nine Q-tips to clean out the corner of the birdcage
Eight Q-tips to apply topical meds to my pet’s boo boo’s
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the eleventh day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Eleven Q-tips to clean out the squeaker in the squeaker toy
Ten Q-tips to scrape out the doggy doo from the bottom of my boots (ugh)
Nine Q-tips to clean out the corner of the birdcage
Eight Q-tips to apply topical meds to my pet’s boo boo’s
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my tree
On the twelfth day of Q-tips-mas my true love gave to me
Twelve Q-tips to gently clean “sensitive” areas on my dog or cat
Eleven Q-tips to clean out the squeaker in the squeaker toy
Ten Q-tips to scrape out the doggy doo from the bottom of my boots (ugh)
Nine Q-tips to clean out the corner of the birdcage
Eight Q-tips to apply topical meds to my pet’s boo boo’s
Seven Q-tips to get the gook out of the slots on the litter scoop
Six Q-tips for the pets to bat across the hardwood floors
Five Q-tips to get rid of cat and dog eye boogies
Four Q-tips to remove the winter road salt from between my doggie’s toes
Three Q-tips to clean the motor of the automatic drinking fountain
Two Q-tips to clean my cat or dog’s ears
And a Q-tips Christmas Cat to sit by my treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Readers, leave a comment below and tell me how you use Q-tips and you have an opportunity to win one of TWO $50 Petco gift cards!
You have until Friday, December 24 at 5 p.m. EST to enter. I’ll do a random drawing and alert the winners on Monday, December 26, 2011.
Happy Holidays everyone!
This post and awesome holiday giveaway is sponsored by Unilever, the makers of Q-tips®. But the song is mine. And yours. 
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oh, hello there handsome!
The Romeo Pillow by CustomBodyPillows.com.
You see, I do spend a lot of time sleeping next to the staff at night but I have things to do – visit the “litter boys room,” check to see if any food has magically appeared in my bowl, chase Pugsley, look out the window, you know. Stuff. I cannot be in all places at all times.
But, with this bad boy laying under staff’s head all night long? Think of the progress I could make towards BREAKFAST each night without having to do anything. I’m talking subliminal messages: BREAKFAST. FEED ROMEO BREAKFAST. BREAKFAST. Then, once I do commence the wake up work, I’m thinkin’ it will much more effective. And fast. What do you think?
These lovely folks at CustomBodyPillows.com have no idea what a help they’ve been to me. They kindly sent me this pillow/wake up assistant so I could see for myself how cool it is and so I could share with you how cool it is. As long as I thought it was cool when it arrived that is. And is it ever. Cool, that is.
Aside from the handsome mug on this particular model, it’s nice quality and very soft. You upload whatever photo you want for the pillow and then the company offers your choice of colors for the faux fur on the back. They have a couple of size options – this one is 20×18 inches but they offer one that is even bigger – 42×20!
So if you need a gift for a pet loving friend, either for the holidays or beyond, this is a great idea! You probably won’t get it in time for the holidays (although they are SUPER fast) but you could certainly give your giftee a photo of the pillow and wrap it in a box and then buy it for them when you know what photo they want on the front. Anyhoo, check them out, and if you do decide to get one, tell them Romeo sent you!
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Have you heard about the book, Unlikely Friendships
Jennifer’s 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom showcases tales of friendships between animals that you’d never expect would be buds. Some of these adorable interspecies friendships were brought together by human intervention, like the runt of the litter piglet rejected by its siblings but given a second chance with a Dachshund, while others happened on their own, like the Tortoise and the Hippo who were discovered one morning cuddling with each other (OMG how cute, right?) There’s even a hamster that was intended to be dinner for a snake, but the two declared peace instead.
Each story is accompanied by a scientific outline of the species involved with the phylum, class, order, etc. It would make a fantastic gift for your animal loving friends. Or for you. 
The thing I love about this book is it shows how animals can transcend what they are “supposed” to do and hang with anyone they darn well choose. Sometimes I wonder why humans make everything so complicated. If cats ran the world there would be fewer wars and more naps. Take note humans, if your animal pals can find contentment and friendship, so can you.
Pugsley and I have even made peace with the Crawling-Drooling-Pooping-Crying Creature. She pulled my tail the other day and got a fistful of fur but it’s all good. She does get the staff up earlier these days, so we’re cool.
Unlikely Friendships is also a Unlikely Friendships 2012 Wall Calendar
AND I am giving TEN of them away to lucky readers! That’s right! Ten! Just leave a comment below telling me a story of an unlikely friendship you’ve experienced or heard about or witnessed. If you don’t have your own story, tell me what you think would be a hilariously unlikely friendship!
LEAVE YOUR COMMENT BY TOMORROW, NOON EST THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 so I can make sure you get your calendar in time for the new year (maybe even by Christmas!) Then check your email tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. so I can get your address if you are a winner!
Good luck and Happy Holidays!
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Note the beautiful toe fur. Very useful too.
Then, I jumped off her bod and walked over to the side of her head. Heh heh, her mouth was open. Catching some flies there, lady?
Put paw on her bottom lip, just enough so that a bit of paw fur got in her mouth. Then, pushed on her lip. Nothing.
Pushed on her lip a little further. Then, a little further……
“PFFFFFFFFFT! Romeo!”
I jumped back. What?! What’d I do?
While you’re up, though, can you please go get BREAKFAST?
Reader challenge time: How many minutes do you think it took before BREAKFAST was in my belly?
a. 15 minutes
b. 8 minutes
c. 2.5 minutes
d. 2 minutes too many
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