Max on ... Pet Portraits by Susan Kessler

HH asked me to tell you about her friend Susan Kessler. Susan is a wonderful watercolor artist. She paints beautiful pictures as you can see here and she teaches, too.

Her speciality is pet portraits. Here are a couple of her recent paintings. And how lucky am I? She's in the process of painting my portrait right now!!! I'm excited about that and I'll share it with you when she finishes it.

Anyway, if you or your food human would be interested in having a pet portrait done, you can contact her for information at caseykessler@yahoo.com . You're also welcome to visit her website to see more of her work: www.susanswatercolorart.com



Have a great and colorful day!

HH had a book signing yesterday.... and I wasn't invited.

I'm here to tell you that HH had a book signing yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn't invited.... something about maybe I'd get in trouble while she was signing books... and another about my not being allowed in the library where the signing occurred... what's that about?

Anyhooooooo, I put up a fuss about being left home, but I'm over that. She came home glowing because it went well and she met so many nice people. So, I'm not pouting anymore about being left home. In fact, I'm posting the picture above to show you her little spot at the signing. I named the bird "Tweet." He looks just like the bird on the book....

Have a great day.... *nosetaps* to all.

Tag.... You're It!

My good pal Shawnee the Shepherd tagged me yesterday for the photo game. What fun! It works like this...

1. Open your first photo folder
2. Scroll down to the 10th photo
3. Post the 10th photo and tell the story about it
4. Pass along to 5 other blogs

Here is my 10th photo in my first photo folder:

Oh I remember this photo well. My good furriend here and I went to the beach early one morning to watch the sun rise. It was close to Thanksgiving time, so we took a picture of ourselves and added "Thanks" to it to send to all our friends to tell them "Thanks" for Thanksgiving.

I'm passing the Photo game to five furriends... They are.

Noir's Nook
Adventures of Grrlysquirrel
Mario's Meowsings
Cokie the Cat
The Mooshie Chronicles

On your mark, get set.... go find those photos. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Wordless Wednesday

Max's Novel continues... Episode 5

As Max was hurtling through the air, plastered to the head of the intruder, he thought, "Oh my gosh, I haven't told the readers what led up to this frightful night."

So... in his own words, Here's the story from the beginning.

In fictional land, my name was Max, too. My food human, I fondly call her HH (for Her Highness) and I moved to North Carolina just a few days before this story begins. We had lived in Virginia all of my life, but HH's Uncle Herbert died and left HH this wonderful old, two-story, brick building and a little pile of cast to go with it.

HH had had enough of the stress of the rat race and decided this was the purrfect opportunity to follow her dream of opening Writer's Creative Studio. To move things along, suffice it to say that I hated the moving part of the change, but as soon as I saw our new digs, I fell in love.

The downstairs of the building used to be Uncle Herbert's hardware store and the upstairs is a one-bedroom apartment. I have a sweet deal here. At night, we go upstairs to our home life. During the day, I get to go to work (downstairs) with HH.

Didn't take me but a day to find my purrfect daytime spot. There's a big show window that used to be where Uncle Herbert would put his special deals. Well pals, now I'm the special deal. I just find a sun puddle in that window and I'm good for most of the day. Oh, I do wake up occasionally when folks tap on the window to tell my how cute I am...who wouldn't? Anyway I digress... back to the story...

Since we just moved in a few days ago, Writer's Creative Studio is not quite open for business, but HH does have one client already and this story starts with him. His name was Fred Newton and HH met him yesterday for coffee at The Percolator, a coffee shop just a few doors down from Writer's Creative Studio. Fred gave HH the manuscript of his memoir, complete with more than 50 prints of the pictures he was thinking of using to illustrate it.

The following night, I was upstairs. That's where I go when HH goes out. She locks me out of the downstairs for some reason -- it might be because there was that one time when I was feeling frisky and ran across the room, landed on her desk and skidded from one side of it to the other, clearing the surface in the process. What does a guy have to do to live down a botched landing?

Anyhooooooo... on this particular night, I thought I heard noises downstairs. I would have investigated, but the door to the first floor was locked. So, I sat by the door and logged in everything I heard.

I know that before HH left to meet new friends for dinner, she had let Fred in downstairs. He wanted to sort through the pictures to his memoir one more time before HH started editing. So, at first, I thought that I was just hearing him talking to himself, but then I heard"OH NO!" and a loud BANG followed by a thud.

When I heard the downstairs back door slam, I ran to the second floor back door and crashed full force against the cat door. Drat! HH must have locked it so I wouldn't get out while she was away.

Ignoring the pain, I jumped to the counter and craned my neck to see out the kitchen window. There... there ... running around the corner toward the alley between our building and Mrs. Kittle's quilt shop was a dark figure wearing a hat and a long trench coat. He turned and looked my way just before he disappeared down the alley....

Mousey taking a test for....?

Max on... St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day one and all.

This is a day to wear green,

to smile at everyone you meet and

to celebrate.

Have yourself a great day!!!!

Max on ... Sunshine Award

Thanks so much to CokieTheCat at http://cokiethecat.com for the Sunshine Award. What a nice thing to do: recognizing me for bringing sunshine into your life. Right back atcha pal. You're spreading a lot of sunshine yourself.

In order to accept this award I need to pass it along to 12 others who bring sunshine into my life through their blogs. They are:

1. Cats With a Garden at http://catwithagarden.blogspot.com

2. Four Crazy Cats at http://fourcrazycats.blogspot.com/

3. Noir's Nook at http://noirsnook2015.blogspot.com/

4. The Island Cats at http://www.island-cats.com/

5. Bunny's Blog at http://bunnyjeancook.blogspot.com/

6. Brian's Home at http://brianshome-me.blogspot.com/

7. Confucius Cat at http://confuciuscat.blogspot.com/

8. Rumblebum Blog at http://rumble-bum.blogspot.com/

9. Shawnee's Blog at http://shawneetheshep.blogspot.com/

10. Jan's Funny Farm at http://jansfunnyfarm.blogspot.com/

11. Mookie at http://mookiepig.blogspot.com/

12. Spot and Fiona at http://spotandfiona.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to all the winners! Try out their blogs. They'll bring sunshine into your life.

The rules for accepting the Sunshine Award are as follows:

1. Put the Sunshine Award flower logo on your blog or within your post
2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers who fill your life with Sunshine
3. Link the winners within your post
4. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they've received the Sunshine Award
5. Post these instructions so they'll know what to do!

Thanks to the winners for bringing sunshine and smiles into my life.

And thanks again to Cokie The Cat...

Max's Story Continues: Episode 4

When we left Max in episode #3, he had jumped on top of the head of the nefarious intruder.

Wrapped around the man's head like a helmet, they struggled on the second story landing.Max didn't relish another fall to the ground, but he wasn't going to let the intruder get HH, that was for sure. So, he slipped his front paws down over the mans eyes and pushed in so he was sure he couldn't see. The man struggled under him and in the process dropped the gun he was carrying.

Just when Max thought he had the man licked, the back door opened and HH gasped. "Max, what's going on?"

Too late. The sound of HH's voice startled Max and sent a chill through him. He pictured the man killing her. In response to his thoughts, he pushed his paws into the man's eyes and tightened the grip he had on the mans neck with his hind legs. The man flailed and in that instant lunged in the wrong direction and Max and man tumbled over the railing and toward the ground.

Luckily, just in time, Max let loose his grip and while the man landed with a thud on the ground, Max landed on the man's soft back. Max was stunned at first and was astounded that he had fallen from the landing twice in the same night and lived to tell about it. He heard HH clattering down the steps and looked over his shoulder in relief to see that he had kept her from harm.

But then he realized that the man was not moving... Oh...Oh, he thought... this might mean trouble....

What would you say to a bird?

Giving Away a Book

The winner is CokieTheCat. YAY. Concatulations!!!!!

Wooo Hoooo.... HH (that's Her Highness - the name I call my food human) has given me permission to give away a book. It's the book she wrote: Ready...Set...Tweet! A Speedy Guide to Twitter.

To participate in the Give Away, sign on to follow my blog. The Follow Gadget is in the right hand sidebar.... just click on "follow" and follow the directions.

If you are already a follower, you will automatically be entered. I will post the winner at 4pm Eastern US time today right here on the blog... and I'll announce it on Ttwitter too.

Good Luck.....

Max on .... gratitude

Wow! It's been a hectic couple of days. We just got the notice out about HH's new book, Ready...Set...Tweet! A Speedy Guide to Twitter and along came that hacker who stole the show.

Together we licked the hacker and spread the word. That's the point of this blog post. I want to thank you all for helping to spread the word about the hacker.

First of all, thanks to my web designer, who caught the hacker before he/she/it could make off with my whole blog. And, special thanks go to The Cat Blogosphere for running the warning blog I put up and to Jan's Funny Farm for sending so many to see my blog.

And thanks to all of you who commented with thanks or words of encouragement.

Yay! We're a great group and I am happy and grateful for all my furriends!

IMPORTANT -- Keep your blog squeaky clean and safe

Okay critter pals and beyond.... This is a serious blog post from me. I clicked onto my own blog this morning and I was stolen away to some advertising site. I thought it was a fluke at first, but I was hacked.... HERE's how.

I had added the Zen Aquarium gadget months ago to my blog. It's a cutesy little thing that had fish swimming back and forth. They got in through that and it redirected my whole blog to another site ... and it was hard to catch... I mean very fast... fast ... fast.

My advice, use your words to be cute... Don't put cutesy things on your blog and risk being hacked.

Luckily, I have a wonderful web designer who caught it fast, but even she said that she wasn't sure she could.

Excitement at our house!

I know I've been telling you on and off that HH was hogging the computer because she was working on a book. Well, it's out.

No, it's not the book about me. That will come soon enough. It's a book about Twitter and is designed to help people get started on Twitter. Just wanted to help her launch the book... We are having a great big party here now that the book is finished.

Congrats to HH.... Seeing the book in print has made all those times she bumped me off the computer worthwhile. Here's a look at the cover and if you click on it, you can go to the website and read more about it.... ♫♪♪♬ — ♫♪♪♬ — !!

Max on.... book review of Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter

My book pick for March 2010 is Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement...

Okay Critter Pals, it's time for a review of my latest favorite author. Blaize Clement has written a series of mystery books. It's called the Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series.

I have just finished the first book of the series, Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter. It was published in 2006. I could have started with her most recent book in the series, but when I find an author, I like to read the books in order. Anyhoooo.... here's a little peek at how the book starts. Of course I'm not going to tell you how it ends. On-no... you have to read it for yourself.

Dixie Hemingway, the main character, is a pet-sitter. She stops by the homes of busy or traveling pet owners to feed, brush, walk, and give some lovin' to their pets.

The story opens with Dixie stopping by to feed Ghost a beautiful Abyssinian. When Dixie steps in the kitchen, she finds a man dead on the floor...murdered to be exact.

Well Critter Pals, you know how he was killed? First he was knocked out, then some nefarious chap taped his head -- face down -- into Ghost's water dish. Dixie calls the police, then takes Ghost to kitty daycare.

Cause of death? He drowned. Now that's the way to grab a reader's attention. Well, you'd think that would be enough excitement for one day, but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... Dixie can't help herself. She starts an investigation of her own.

Excitement and tension ensue.... To know what happens, you have to read the book. If you like mysteries, give this one a try. On a scale of 4, I give Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, 3 1/2 paws. I would give it the top number of 4 paws, but I gave that to Dewey and it's just too soon for me to get over that wonderful book.

Anyway, read Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter then move on to other books by Blaize Clement. They are:

• Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund
• Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues
• Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof
• Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs

Note: If you live on the west coast of Florida and you want to meet Blaize Clement in person, she'll be signing books at The Sanddollar Book Store in Venice Florida on March 13 at 1:00pm. Tell her Max the Quilt Cat sent you.