Behind The Dot

Hi everyone in the Interwebs!

I’m Julie Danielle Catinez, but call me JD. I like JD better. Mommy says Julie Danielle is my name but she only uses it when I’m bad. Bad? Who’s the cat here? I’ll tell you if I’m ever bad. I’ll turn 4 next year and be able to go to feline obedience school. I read that in the online sample of our first semester text book, “Make Them Obey.” Even if you don’t go to obedience school, it’s a best-seller at Catmazon!

Mommy follows some pretty cool blogs! She hasn’t writed a lot in a while, but she’s using stuff she says is like catnip but you don’t feel funny. It sounds like boring catnip, but it helps her help me write, so if she likes it, it’s okay for me.

Mommy follows some great blogs Of course there’s Miss Edna’s biog where we keep up on our friend, Pogo, but there are also blogs about or writed by other cats! They play Interwebs games together. Mommy’s gonna help me with Linky so I can play too.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a Friday game, and I will try to do it earlier this week.

Friendly Fill-Ins are from Four Legged Fur Balls and 15 and Meowing.

1. I look forward to seeing _________ at the holidays.

2. I can see _________ outside my _________ window.

3. _________ always puts me in a festive mood.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is _________.


1. I look forward to seeing Santa Paws at the holidays! Last year I was a kiteen (Mommy and Daddy say we look like cats at a year old, but kittenhood lasts for a couple years.) Because I just becomed a housecat last year, I never got treats and toys for Christmas before. I can’t wait this year!

2. I can see squirrels outside my front cat TV screen. (Which they tell me is also called a window) It snowed last month and Squirrely, the star of The Squirrel Show, went into his oak tree in front of the screen. But it got warmer and there was another episode!

3. Mommy puts on my favorite green blanket so I can sleep on her legs always makes me happy and that’s a festive mood. She makes Christmas scrapbook pages and it makes her happy.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is Mommy has Christmas candy so we get more treats!

Have fun! I’ll be back soon!

Our newest baby!

Since I haven't written in a while there are a few things I want to update visitors to my cyber coffeeshop about. If you aren't a Facebook follower of my husband or me you haven't seen photos of JD, who came to live with us in May!

This is Julie Danielle. We call her JD “Catinez.” She is named after "My" former Tiger, now "My" Red Sox, JD Martinez. The JD in the baseball player is Julio Daniel. We decided OUR JD should be Julie instead of Julia because cats respond better and better recognize a two syllable word as their name. But we call her JD and she recognizes JD. I don't think she has any idea who Julie is.

JD is a rescue from the Michigan Humane Society. David's former coworker and a mutual friend on Facebook, Tanya, is a foster mom for MHS. She brought, at the time known as "Gina," to meet us after her kittens were weaned. David saw a picture of her and her story on Facebook.

Marco had become known to us as ”needy cat.” He had become almost demandingly affectionate. He just seemed to not be happy as an only cat. Marco needed company. So we were avidly, or at least semi avidly, looking for a sibling for him.

We’re proud that we were instrumental in making JD very special. In the shelter world black cats are usually the most difficult to find homes for and kittens usually find homes long before their mama cats do. JD is a black cat who was adopted before any of her kittens!

It's usually about a week of listening to growling and hissing sas cats get to know each other. Marco and JD were getting along within about three days. I think part of that may be that Marco is not the alpha cat we thought he might be. We really expected he would take rule of the household after we lost Kaline, but he and Carla remained living as equals. JD did seem to take over that alpha position and Marco not only seemed okay with it, he seemed pleased.

Now, for the last three weeks or so, Marco’s finally realized that at 15 1/2 pounds he's just a little bit bigger than the 8-pound alpha cat. So know when they play it’s a little rough. But I do know that it’s play because she lays on her back and waves her paws at him after she hisses instead of running away and Margo grooms the top of her head after they bump noses in a friendly “kitty-kiss.“Sometimes I just have to remember that cats can play as rough as puppies do. But it's a happier house with another cat.