Working on the Club and a few updates

Hi Everyone - I am so glad about the great response to the Naughty Kitty Club! I think it will be a blast. I am working on a list now of people interested from the comments here but please feel free to visit the new blog at This link http://thenaughtykittyclub.blogspot.com/ (I posted the full link for those who want it that way instead of clicking). I am open to any suggestions. I am still trying to get a badge together - I know what I want it to be, I just need to get it down (I am not great at the super creative stuff like this - which is why I was a photo major - photographs are much easier to me).

So I saw a couple comments on the tree I wanted to address. First thanks to everyone who liked it. See, this is not our normal tree, but it is a tree I kind of always wanted to do. Normally we have 2 green trees with 1 being all shinny glass ornaments (mostly from Crate and Barrel) and 1 being all the sentimental ornaments - mostly from Hallmark but a few others. It also held a few that didn't really fit with the other tree but that I wanted out (so I guess sentimental too). When it was just the older cats (Floyd, Kirzon and Lola) they were good and never really bothered the tree - they would sit under it and try for the tinsel the one year we had it (even higher then they could reach was a bad idea - luckily no incidents happened) but otherwise they left it alone (I have a ceramic Precious Moments Christmas village - it came out the first year but has been in hiding since - Floyd was good with it but Kirzon was too young the first year, and it just is to dangerous to have out I think). So anyway, Virgil was only 5 months old when Christmas came around last year - and there was no way the trees with the fragile ornaments could be used. He was a bit of a wild child (he is calmer now). So I decided to go with unbreakable ornaments, and since I was changining I knew I wanted to do a kind of modern-retro 1950's kind of tree. It is tough to find the all metal trees, and I knew that the silvery foil would be a temptation for all the kitties, after the tinsle incident, so I went white (I had a tree of my own when I was little and it was always white). And I knew to be a bit retro it had to be bold, so I decided on hot pink, lime green and turquoise as my color scheme - luckily there were a few places that had a nice selection of these, and they were all unbreakable! We went and found a white tree (it took forever - now we know to go to American Sales which has a ton of trees, but last year we had no idea). It was a prelit but I still decided to add lights - I had hoped to find white wire lights in my color scheme and lucked out because they have them on Amazon (I would have gotten more this year in LED form but I wanted to save money for the outdoor lights). So this is a very cat-friendly tree because 1) unbreakable ornaments, 2) no ornament hooks (I read this year they are bad, but I had used transite last year because I didn't want the grey hooks on the tree - I used it again on the few ornaments I added) 3) no tinsle or anything easy to nom on (there are silver tinsle wrapped balls but the tinsle is covered so it doesn't come off - like a shell over it). It is not anchored (though that may happen sooner then later at the rate Barney is trying to climb it). The only problem is that Barney climbs and pulls the branches down - you can see two droopy bottom ones in the pictures on the sides. I had them tied up with wire but that broke - I have to find a stronger one then what I used (it was thin so it is invisible). And this year I added to the color theme with the wreath on the door (you can see it in the card pictures - I made it out of bells that they had this year at Hobby Lobby - they are using that color scheme too), and the colored mini-trees (ok, they are pink, turquoise and purple but close enough becuase I added in purple this year). I decided to not use the holly trim on the bannister and went with a white sparkly fabric, things like that. The kitties are good, except for Barney who is OBSESSED with the tree. Normally he knows if I am moving him it is ok, but with the tree he was literally grabbing it with his arms around the branch, holding on and biting when I tried to grab them - it was insane. I have switched to water squirts and they are working. He has been known to sit and be good there, but mostly it is biting/eating/climbing. Lola loves to rub her face on the tree (I have to watch because this is around the time she got her chin acne last year so I hope it wasn't the tree that did it). She will sit under it too, and fight under it when she is bugged by her little brothers. Kirzon sits by it but usually is by me on the couch. Virgil likes it, and doesn't do anything bad except when he uses it as cover for sneak attacks on Lola. Floyd liked to sit under the tree, and it is weird not to have him here. I think they can still smell him on the tree skirt - it isn't washable, I can only use the lint roller stuff on it. The cats each have their own stocking - we had three from last year because Lola peed on one so I replaced that one. It was Floyd's so it was sad to do, knowing it wasn't his anymore.

Wow, that got longer then I planned.

I sent most of the Christmas cards out today - I still have a few to do, and if anyone would like to get one let me know, I have some left and love sending them. Even if you aren't sending that is ok (well, at least while I still have some it is!)

I am going to try to post a picture of our outside lights if I can get one tonight before the snow comes - they are making it sound like there will be a lot - I hope not! If you have seen my Halloween pics you know I like to put lights up - there are a lot more for Christmas!

And I will be posting a list of the Naughty Kitty Charter Members (those are the members that join originally right - charter memebers) in the next day or so, and opening the blog for posting. Other than that, there is a lot of stuff going on in the blogosphere - we hope everyone is well, all the kitties who are lost right now find their way home, and that everyone who is sick gets better, and those who need help get it.

Later!