Cabin Boy is Here!!

The kitties and crew of the Black Furrball are pleased to announce the arrival of our Cabin Boy, Callum Andrew. Callum was born on November 25, 2009 at 5:54am. He weighed 8lbs, 8 ounces and was 21 inches long.

Here he is sleeping in his bassinet in the hospital. Isn't he cute?

Here is a portrait of all of the human members of the Black Furrball. This was taken the day after Callum was born while Mommy and Daddy were still in the hospital with Callum. They were actually there for 5 days but it was okay because Uncle Dave came over lots to take care of us.

No member of the Black Furrball is consider ship shape and ready to sail without an examination from our personal V-E-T Aunt Susan. From the look on her face, he seems to have passed. Aunt Susan is little Callum's godmother.

Daddy took this picture Monday night while we were watching the Saints game. Callum enjoyed his first Saints game a lot!!

We are doing very well with all of the changes of bringing Cabin Boy home. Mommy and Daddy are making sure that we get paid attention to as much as possible. Daddy brought home a blanket of Callum's the day before he came home so we could get used to the new smells of the baby and Mommy has let us all look at him too. The only problem is Captain Jack and Dante both want to sleep in Callum's bassinet but other than that, things seem to be going quite well. Thank you all for your well wishes - we really appreciate them all!!

Mancat Monday

For this Mancat Monday, we have two mancat guidelines to discuss. The first will be presented by Captain Jack!

Captain Jack: Real mancats know how to show their true feelings. You see, our Nana and Grandpa came over Saturday to bring some things they had picked up for the Cabin Boy. Well, there were some snuggly blankets in what they brought that just had to be for me, right? So I decided to thank Nana by climbing up on her lap and making biscuits as hard as I could. I had to show my appreication, right? Can you believe that she tried to push me off and said "Jack, that hurts!" I was most displeased so to show her how angry I was, I had to put the bitey on her hand. That will show her not to let me show her my thanks in future, right?

Uh yeah, Captain, whatever you say, just don't bite us!

Our second mancat guideline is that all real mancats know how to get the 5 star treatment. You may remember us telling you about the black cat that showed up on Aunt Susan and Uncle Dave's front porch this past Halloween. Well, Mommy was over there last night and Hootie, as they are calling him, was still there! He refuses to stay in the house though so Aunt Susan made him a right snug little nest on the front porch complete with heating pad for when it gets cold. And he is a real mancat as he knows how to get attention. Mommy walked by the front door and he meowed and headbutted the door until Mommy came out outside. She sat on the glider on the porch and Hootie jumped up into her lap (not easy with the Cabin Boy due any day now) and purred and headbutted her. She tried to snap a picture of him but he would not cooperate, preferring to be petted and worshipped to being photographed. Mommy says he is one of the sweetest kitties ever and the good news is his leg is better (Aunt Susan examined him and X-rayed him and even had another V-E-T that she works with look at him and they cannot see an injury or deformation so hopefully its just a sprain that will heal on its own) and that he combo tested negative. Aunt Susan said she will try to find him a forever home soon, but that he is quite snug on their porch until then. He is well on his way to being very spoiled because if there is anything Aunt Susan does well, its spoil kitties and woofies...that and making them healthy and well too - just ask Fagin!

Samwise has an Owie!

Heya kitties! It's Captain Jack and I am here with some unhappy news. My woofie, Samwise, has an owie - two owies actually. Yesterday when Mommy got home from dayhunting she looked at Samwise and realized something was not right! One of this eyes was completely closed and leaky and the other was only half open and leaky and both were really RED! She called Aunt Susan who came over to look at him and Samwise has owies alright! He has a very obvious ulcerated cornea in one eye and the other eye is very red and inflamed. Aunt Susan also said from his eye dialation that Sammy is in pain from his owie eyes. She had some eye Auntie Botiks that she and Mommy put in his eyes and Mommy has some pain med-a-shuns for him too. Today, Daddy is taking him to a V-E-T clinic to have dyes put in his eyes so the amount of trauma can be determined (Aunt Susan could not do this from home so we're going to the clinic our Aunt Mary works at). Poor Samwise!! We hope our favorite puppy cat gets better soon!!

Finally Friday

It's finally Friday and I am ready to Boogie on my Boogie Mat all weekend long!! Mommy gets a long weekend too - no day hunting for her on Monday so we are even more excited!

We must ask you kitties for something serious though. When Mommy and Daddy came home last night they discovered that the little kitten was limping. It appears that he has somehow injured one of his front legs. Mommy checked Fagin all over, looking for any swelling, etc and then called Aunt Susan. Aunt Susan thinks that he probably just strained something being a silly kitten. She's coming over tonight to check him and to give him his first kitten SHOTS!! We're trying to warn him about SHOTS but he's not listening. So if you kitties could keep Fagin in your purrs that his leg is okay and that the SHOTS go okay, we would appreciate it! We're also going to give Aunt Susan all of the responses to date on the poll for her vet clinic name and see what she thinks! Oh we can't (but Fagin can) wait to see our favorite Aunt tonight!!

Territorial Tuesday

Sir Dante, the Dread Pirate here (yes, I like both names. I have decided to use "Sir Dante" when I am being noble and "Dread Pirate Dante" when I am not). So yesterday Captain Jack hogged our blog to whine and complain and moan about how hard his life is. Puh-leese! Let me tell you kitties, the Captain's life is anything but hard! He just likes to whine and moan is all - and pee in the food bowl!

I have no clue why he would want to do that. When Mommy came home last night it had happened again so she called Aunt Susan to ask her V-E-Tly advice. After she finished laughing (yes, Aunt Susan has a weird sense of humor) and asking Mommy some questions Aunt Susan said that yes, it is probably behavioral and a dominance thing and to try seperating the bowls. So far Aunt Susan does not want to take either of us to work (that's human code for Aunt Susan taking us to her V-E-T hospital and doing V-E-T things to us) but if one of us has to go, she will start with Captain Jack cause she thinks it is him doing the deed too.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Captain will have to go in the PTU before me! HAHAHAHAHA! Serves him right too!! Revenge is so sweet. Until he can behave himself I refuse to play Thundering Herd or Chase the Kitty with him. Instead, I will sit here and enjoy my window....is there any special kitty that would like to come and enjoy the view with me??

Tiger Tales

For those of you who do not know, we live in the South - right outside of Atlanta, GA. Also for those of you who do not know, last night was the college football championships and as Daddy says a lot "In the South, football is a religion" (to this Mommy always says that if that is the case then it's definately a church that she does not attend). The main reason we mention this is that last night Daddy left and came home really late because Mommy said he was watching the game over at Uncle Dave's. That was okay, because we got plenty of cuddle time. However, while we were cuddling Mommy told us a very interesting story that we want to share with you.

Again, for those of you who do not know, our V-E-T is really our Aunt Susan (Uncle Dave's wife and one of our Mommy's best friends). Well, she went to vet school at the college that won the game last night, LSU (Louisiana State University). And while Aunt Susan was at vet school, one of the first kitties she ever got to care for was very special - can you guess who that kitty was?

Yep, it was Mike the Tiger, LSU's mascot! She got to help care for Mike V (who passed away last May - Mommy says Aunt Susan was upset when he died) when he was just a kitten and up until she got her DVM. She said it was one of the most amazing things she has ever done, taking care of a tiger baby. We think that taking care of a tiger helped Aunt Susan to be prepared to take care of two pirate kitties like us - we mean, its gotta be harder to care for pirate kitties than for a tiger, right?

Mike V, the kitty our Aunt Susan helped to raise and care for.

Anyway, we are glad that LSU won last night because it made our Daddy and Uncle Dave very happy. But we knew all along they would win - after all they are cats aren't they? Cats are always the best, no matter what they do!!!!

PS: Mommy is sick today so we are not sure how much visiting our friends we will be able to do, but we'll be back ASAP!!

Spooky Saturday

We thought about not doing this post when we logged into the cat blogosphere and saw all of the pictures and purrs for Miss Peach. Instead, we thought of simply posting the picture that we placed in our sidebar (we got it from the Cat Blogosphere - we hope no one minds that we took it - we just had to do something for Miss Peach) and foregoing our Halloween post for today. Then Mommy said, "I think Miss Peach knows that we love her and purr a lot for her. I think that maybe your Halloween post will help other kitties to think of different things for a time so that they can rejuvenate and purr even HARDER for Miss Peach." We agree with Mommy so we are posting.

We are posting about Mommy and Daddy's Halloween adventure last night. We live in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. Last night, Mommy and Daddy went to Historic Oakland Cemetery for their Capture the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tours. To find out more about this very historic cemetery in downtown Atlanta that was built in 1851, please visit here.

The Capture the Spirit of Oakland Tour was a lot of fun. The Historic Oakland Foundation put together the whole thing, and all money raised for admission went toward the preservation and beautification of the cemetery. The Tours walked groups through the cemetery at night (under a full moon no less) and introduced you to 6 spirits who when living were prominent figures in Atlanta. Five of those people are buried at Oakland, and one - Father O'Reily who helped preserve Atlanta's churces during the Civil War, visited just to let visitors know of his deeds while living.

The one spirit Mommy looked forward to meeting the most was Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With The Wind (Hendrix - tell your Mommy our Mommy thought so hard of you guys when she met her)! Ms. Mitchell is one of Mommy's favorite authors and look! Mommy even got a picture of her! See? She was telling Mommy all about her life and how she lived when she wrote Gone With The Wind.

Mommy and Daddy had lots of fun and didn't get home til after lots and lots of sleeps. Mommy said the best thing about the adventure, was getting to go with lots of our friends. Aunt Susan (remember she is our V-E-T and rescued Dante too!) and Uncle Dave even went too! Friends mean a lot and we cherish every one of our new friends that we have made since we starting blogging. We love you all! Feel better Miss Peach!!

Meet our brother!

Happy Monday everyone!


First of all, did you guys see what Maggy and Zoey at Zoolatry did for us? Isn't it beautiful? We absolutely love it!

We hope everyone had a nice weekend. It has finally cooled off enough that Mommy left the windows open all day so we could enjoy the breeze. It was a lovely way to spend the weekend - napping with the breeze blowing over us and hearing the birds and squirrels.



In between napping, we had to listen to Samwise complain that he is not blogging with us. Who is Samwise you might ask? He's our oldest brother who is actually a doggie, although he really thinks he is a kitty. He lived with Mommy and Daddy before either of us. Like Jack, a kid in the neighborhood found Samwise four years ago and took him to Aunt Susan (all of the kids bring Aunt Susan the strays they find being as she is a V-E-T and all). Daddy's brother had just crossed the Rainbow Bridge and Aunt Susan thought Daddy needed a friend so she talked him into adopting Samwise. Later, Mommy was concerned that Samwise was lonely being left alone in the house all day so Aunt Susan recommended adopting Samwise a kitty friend. A few months later, along came Captain Jack. Samwise loved Captain Jack from the moment he saw him - he even groomed Jack for three whole hours the first night Jack was adopted. Mommy wanted us to include the picture below as it is here favorite of Samwise and Captain Jack - taken when the Captain was only about 6 weeks old.

So Samwise raised Captain Jack, teaching him how to play and how to hunt and fight. Samwise has always been very patient with Jack, even when Jack tried to put the bitey on him like he did in the picture below.

People usually ask Mommy what kind of doggie Samwise is. She thinks he is a border collie/sheltie/spaniel mix and is very sweet and friendly. Sadly, Captain Jack cannot convince Dante to love or even tolerate Samwise. Dante must have had some bad experiences with doggies when he was a homeless kitty, because he really does not like them and instead growls and hisses at Samwise whenever he is near. Captain Jack has actually had to put the bitey on Dante when Dante tried to attack Samwise. Its one of the things that Jack will always pull Captain's rank on Dante for, because he loves his Sammy!

Stay tuned later in the week. Mommy wants us to do a feature post on our other brother doggie named Beaux. She told us that she will give us nip and Pounce if we do so we guess we should. Do you guys want to hear about Beaux too?