We’re enjoying a quiet day… Sammie has yet to open her presents.  I wrapped bell balls in wrapping paper in hopes she’d shred up the paper, but no luck so far.  I think I’ll be stuck opening her presents for her!

Sammie just got a can ofNature’s Variety Instinct venison and quite enjoyed it!  I just wish it didn’t come in such large cans, as she only eats a small portion of it at a time.  She even chowed down on the peas and carrots in it, along with the deer meat!

I made an awesome discovery on a late night trip to Walgreens last October (I now, I am downright terrible at updating!). I found this awesome leopard print cat bed that is, well, a cat!  Sammie of course took to it right away, and we’ve started calling it her “Kitty.”

Unfortunately, now that the weather has definitely turned to the colder end of the thermometer, she has abandoned Kitty for her heated pad on her condo.  But Kitty still sitting there, ready to be occupied again!

Here we find Sammie enjoying some “Fresh Price of Bel Air”

The bed only cost $10, so it was quite the bargain!  I had also gotten Sammie’s leopard print fleece blanket for $3 from Walgreens, so they’ve proven to be quite the place to find a treasure at!

Sammie’s 3rd birthday is on November 23rd, but we celebrated a night early!

She got a bowl of Nature’s Variety Instinct canned rabbit with a special “3″ candle/

Sammie seemed to enjoy the food very much, and went crazy the minute I set it down for her.  So that is nice to know!  She’s usually not a fan of canned food, and will usually ignore it.  So either she has a thing for rabbit, or was just happy to get her “birthday cake!”

And since I’ve been lazy about updating this… here are a few of Sammie’s “formal” Halloween portraits.  She was a little devil this year!

The Yeowww! Catnip Banana arrived today and Sammie is hooked!  I have never seen her have a strange reaction to catnip, so it was quite fun to watch her go absolutely bonkers for it!

I lucked out and got this great picture:

Some others of her play session:

I also just started Sammie on  Orijen cat food.  This food is labeled “biologically appropriate real food kibble” and contains 75% meat products and 25% veggies and herbs.  It is 100% grain free, and is design to mimic a cat’s natural appetite.  Most commercial cat foods are mostly grains like corn, which is not appropriate nutrition by any means, and have can deadly implications.  Sammie has been enjoying the Orijen, and I am looking forward to the positive improvements in her health.  Also, because Orijen doesn’t have fillers like grains, serving sizes are smaller, so a smaller bag lasts a lot longer, which to me offsets the costs a bit.  I ordered a 5.5 pound bag to start off after a 1 pound sample bag to make sure Sammie would eat it.

As a special treat, I also ordered some high quality grain free canned food for her.  I got one can of each of these:  Nature’s Variety Instinct canned rabbit,  Wellness Beef & Chicken, and Wellness Chicken & Lobster.  I was excited to see different flavors available… they even make canned venison for cats!  Duck, lamb, crab, lobster, rabbit, venison… exciting!  I decided to try out these 3 flavors first to see how she likes them.  I might save the rabbit for her upcoming birthday in November.

Even when you want a moment in the bathroom!

Sammie just can’t stay out of the bathroom when someone is in there… even with a completely closed door she tries her hardest to get inside!

I wanted to see what Sammie would do if I gave her a cuddle buddy

She is very funny with stuffed animals… I caught her grooming a few of them the other morning!

Who says cats won’t walk on a leash?!

Squishy couch + Walgreens fleece pet blanket = blissful sleep!

Oooo, so long without an update :(  I have lots of pictures to post, but never seem to find the time…

Sammie experienced her first move with us as we changed to a much bigger apartment.  She started to act very sad as stuff was being moved out of the old one, especially her condo.  Moving into the new place has been a good transition.  Thanks to a tip from bengalcatforums.com, I picked up some Comfort Zone Feliway spray and a room diffuser.  These contain synthetic cat cheek pheromones that help comfort, relieve stress, and stop marking and scratching.  I put a spray in her carrier before bringing her over, and Sammie meowed a lot less in the car then she usually does.  Then I had the diffuser (which is kind of like a Glade plug in without the fragrance) plugged in for about a day before her arrival.

Sammie was apprehensive of her new home, of course.  Lots of sniffing to do!  First time I brought her to her food bowl she hissed and ran away.  But like the good kitty she is, she quickly learned where the litter box was and has been using it appropriately.  New oddities she’s picked up during/since the move:

-Loves receipts.  LOVES them.  Sammie will find a receipt and carry it around with her.

-Will not sleep in her box bed anymore, much to my sadness.  I always enjoyed waking up with her by my side in her box.  Every time I try putting her in there now she jumps immediately out and won’t go near it otherwise.  I think I might try putting it on the floor to see if she likes it better down there

-Hides/sleeps under the bed.  Hopefully she gets over this.

-New interest in going outside, so patio door must be guarded when open.  Once I get her leash out, I will take her out on the patio to sniff around, something we couldn’t do in the old apartment really.

I think she’s still getting use to the new place and new smells and all our stuffs being in disarray, as it hasn’t even been a week yet.  So hopefully she’ll become less high strung and more like the old Sammie.

As a departing gesture, here’s a picture I took awhile back of Sammie posing next to some canned kitty food that I’ve been meaning to send off to the Belleglen Sanctuary in California.  Sammie is not a fan of canned food, and I didn’t want to see these cans go to waste, so once the hecticness of the move goes away, I will be sending these off to some deserving kitties.  Only 8 cans, but hopefully it will still help out.

the love between a kitty and her lime green ponyring!

Sammie actually stole it out of the bathroom, it was one of mine, until she “adopted” it.  I had never seen Sammie play catch before she got ahold of this particular ponyring.  She not only loves fetch with it, but I’d often see her just carrying it around with her for whatever reason.

Unfortunately Sammie manage to lose this particular one.  She actually seemed quite stressed about it, and would look to me as if she wanted to say “Mommy, throw my green thingy!  I know you have it and I wanna play!”  I felt really bad, so after a few weeks I managed to find a pack of ponyrings at WalMart that had some lime green ones in it, since I couldn’t seem to interest Sammie with any of mine that were of another color.

She’s already lost one or two of the new ones.  I think she must be stashing them somewhere, maybe for a rainy day?