Cat Tail Computer Screen Cleaning

Above: Trout the cat. Yes, Trout is her name.

NEW for the Holidays! Cat-tail computer screen washer! It's safe, it frees up your valuable time and her breath smells like tuna. Hey, if you act now, we throw in the laser eyes absolutely for free!

Related: The cats show us "The Right Way to Sleep:"

An instructional series of photos featuring Sam (B&W), Rufus (orange) and Trout (tiger) demonstrating the correct ways to do things.

Today's lesson: the right way and wrong way for a cat to sleep.

Right way: Sam


Right way: Rufus


Wrong way!


I have no idea how Trout the cat can sleep like this, but it's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

This has part of an informative series of cat-related blog entries. Thank you for your kind attention.

Related: Introducing Trout.

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Stacy's poem got a lot of very nice emails, and I've rerun annually it since then. Hard to believe that since then we've moved and found a stray kitten at the milk farm up the road (or, rather, SHE adopted US) and then we rescued another stray just last month.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again:


The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Trout and Dexter.

The Right Way to Sleep

An instructional series featuring Sam (B&W), Rufus (orange) and Trout (tiger) demonstrating the correct ways to do things. Today's lesson: the right way and wrong way for a cat to sleep.

Right way:


Right way:


Wrong way!


I have no idea how she can sleep like this, but it's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

Trout Back Home from Vet

Trout is just fine after getting fixed. She's home and is doing well. Her pals (all of the cats and people at home) are very glad to have her back.

Trout to Vet's

Above: Trout (tiger cat) with a look of bliss as her mate Sam (B&W cat) gives her a bath.

Our little girl cat Trout is a little girl no longer.

Trout went into heat sometime around 3am. It was disruptive, and it confused our neutered male cats, Roo & Sam. And there was not much shut eye for the people as well.

We were bad for not getting her fixed beforehand.

Off to the vet she was taken first thing this morning. We will be without our stripey cat with the funny fish name until tomorrow, when she gets picked up, a little groggy with a shaved belly, so we may all return to our status quo.

Happy Anniversary, Trout!

It's been a month since a little kitten came howling at us, begging for attention, during our Healthful Walk. I'm taking our new kitten, named Trout, for her second routine vet visit.

We'll talk cartoons later ...

Introducing Trout

Above: Samson (B&W) and Trout (tiger stripe) in a living room chair last night.

In the tradition of blogging about cats on Fridays (and there is such an odd tradition out there in blog land; but at least it's not as odd as that lame Talk Like a Pirate Day thingy), above is a photo of good ol' Sam the cat, and, sleeping next to him, is our new little baby cat named Trout.

And below is my wife Stacy, recounting now, for posterity, the story of Trout adopting us during our healthful walk in the country. Ah yes, it was a lovely afternoon here in NH, and there we were, minding our own business Monday afternoon, ambling along ....

So, Mike and I were out for a walk yesterday and were walking past this dairy farm where about a dozen cats hang out/live/work. We always look for the cats. Anyway, Mike spots this tiny, tiger kitten and points her out to me. As soon as the kitten saw us, she came racing over, purring and purring. Now we were walking in the street and it's a country road but the cars that do come down it, come flying. So I told the sweet kitty to go on back home and carried her over to the other cats...but she followed us again...and again...and again. By this time, the guys working in the barn had seen us and came out to see what was happening. They laughed and said, "take her". I protested that we already had 2 cats and didn't need any more. They said that someone had dumped her there just that morning (that happens to them alot, as it's a dairy farm and they have a lot of barn cats). So this kitten is not letting me out of her sight and purring and purring and keeps trying to follow us...and we decided to take her!

We quarantined her from the other cats (Rufus and Sam) until she had gone to the vet for her shots and made sure she didn't have any airborne diseases that our adult kitties could get. The vet checked her out -- dewormed, defleaed, and our wallets a little lighter -- she was given a clean bill of health. Even though she weighs a wee 2.1 pounds, the other guys were, at first, a little scared of her. But, as you can see above, she has settled in nicely. Yikes! Now we got 3 cats! That's the limit!

Stacy sums it up:

So that's what I get for going out for a walk. Moral of the story: exercise is BAD!!!!!