Innocent abroad

Dear Frau Bearbirds,

Thanks for the new comment on the New Year's Resolutions blog. I am noble and white? How cool! Well, maybe just the white part, despite my name. I love the photograph of Eisminchin. Thanks for letting me add it to the blog. He sure is a chubby cat. Is Eisminchin a "Harz 57" variety or maybe just a Harz cat? (tee hee)

Significant news - I won't be finishing college this year. I have purrsuaded Mops and Pops to let me take a gap year from school and see some of the world.

I need to become more independent and decide what my future career should be. Maybe it's not music after all. Or maybe it is. I need time to think. Plus my life so far has been pretty sheltered. There's a whole world out there and the time feels right. It's make or break time for this fur ball!

The travel cannot be just goofing off, though. Everywhere I go will have a purpose - things to learn and strengths to develop. Let's face it, this puss has been a bit of a wuss!

You will be able to follow my travels on the blog, starting with some Canadian cities, before heading off to Europe. For sure I will visit Germany and will buy a phrase book to help me order from the katz restaurants. I've been practicing already. Maybe Eisminchin and I can share some milch or a kalt root bier float? Shhhh...don't tell Mops and Pops!

Mops and Pops are taking down the decorations as I write. It's a hoot watching them work. Pops is not a gifted worker. He always opens the wrong end of the box and Mops gives him what he calls "that look". But somehow they manage. Soon the place will be back to its pre-Christmas phase. There will be nothing to play with. Boo-hoo! Already I miss the razzle-dazzle of ornaments.

Later I head east to Winnipeg. Mops was born there and it's where Pops grew up. So I am going out of family respect and to learn about my family's roots. They say to expect a few surprises.

Look for new blogs on my stops around the globe. I hope you'll enjoy reading about the places I visit and what I learn. Through it all, I hope to remain an innocent abroad.

As Mark Twain wrote,

• “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Love & purrs, Edelweiss

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Thank you to Frau Bearbirds, who has sent a wonderful photo of an ogre that Eisminchin met.

New Year's Resolutions

Mops and Pops are going nuts making resolutions, so, not to be left out, I decided to make some too.

Everyone says that New Year's resolutions are made to be broken. I look forward to that!

1. Exercise more. Chase birds, butterflies, and mice. Run from dogs.

2. Widen social activities. Join a choir - group purring can be fun.

3. Be more adventurous. Investigate crawl spaces, dark closets, and try, just once, to sneak into a bird shop.

4. Spend more time with the family. Prepare to be stroked, tickled, hugged, placed on laps. Hmmm....I may have to lick human skin (yuk!) and eat whatever is fed me, even left-over sweet potato pie.

5. Stick to a budget. Never go to the mice market hungry.

6. Improve hygiene by following the house rules: Use the litter box! Use the litter box! Use the litter box!

7. Help others. Remember a roll of toilet paper is not a ball of yarn.

8. Improve diet. Look for lean mice.

9. Get organized. Divide bowl into mice bits, bird bits and fish bits.

10. Learn new things. Experiment with raw vegetables.

Love & purrs, Edelweiss
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Going Green for the Holidays

Christmas offers a thousand things for a cat to do. In my case, other than pawing the ornaments on the tree, often with mixed results, I love playing with the left-over mountain of wrapping paper and gift boxes. There is nothing quite like digging ones claws into crinkly tissue, except maybe chasing a runaway ball of yarn. I love it when I can stretch out and fall asleep on the tissue paper amid all the hubbub and chin wagging.

But this year everyone's gone green.That means no tissue, no crinkly paper, and nothing that would harm the ecosystem. Some folks use brown paper and spruce it up with dried twigs, sprigs of holly and dried berries. It's very homespun and au naturel, as they say in French. Others use newspaper as wrapping, going so far as to match story headlines with the gift. They make it appealing and witty, but be careful of newsprint stains, risky for white balls of fur like me.

And then there are reusable gift bags made of paper or cloth. Pops says that cloth ones are greener, especially if they are not whitened by bleaching. Looks like white is out. Oh dear!

If we go totally green, what will become of this Christmas classic?



These are the sign of the times and, like everyone else, a kitten like me has to do my part. I paw the Holly sprigs and hide in the cloth bags. It's great fun!

Love and purrs,
Edelweiss
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Home for the Holidays

I'm finally back in Canada after nearly a year of being in England attending school.

Now that I'm home, food in Canada tastes strange to me. I fell in love with English food, particularly the fish. Here, unless you live by the ocean or near a lake, it comes from a tin.

However, Canadians have the best bacon in the world, bar none. In fact Canada is famous for its bacon. So is it any wonder that this Christmas I will enjoy a yummy bacon sandwich with my egg nog?

I love the English rain, which is an odd thing for a kitten to admit. I guess I just love England. From time to time it floods over there quite severely. Winters tend to be cool and damp. But the folks are very warm.

When I got off the plane I walked into a blizzard. There was snow everywhere! A little white ball of fluff like me has to be very careful when she goes out on a snowy day. I become invisible! And cars whizz by at the speed of light. What would happen if they collided with me? Oh what a cruel fate that would be!!

It's a good thing I decided to wear an electric red parka with a big furry hood and button up leggings. This outfit gets some very strange looks from the local cats. Such a vision I must present! They don't know whether to run, laugh or ask the name of my wardrobe designer.

This Christmas we are going to have an old movie festival. Out comes the popcorn and tissues! I'm hoping for Cats - The Musical and love it when the old cat sings "Memory":

This year I'll hang a paw sock up and hope it gets filled by Santa Claws, my kitten name for Old St. Nick.

Well this inaugurates my blog. Seasons Greetings to all and a Happy New Year!

Love & purrs, Edelweiss
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