Award and TNR adventures

Looky what we got? We got another award!!

The Sunshine Picnic Award!! 

With all the rain we've been having, sunshine is coveted! Thanks to sweet Katie Isabella for gifting us with this award (for the second time!) I'll offer the award to anyone who hasn't received it yet, please take and enjoy!

And speaking of sunshine, I had the opportunity to escape the rain yesterday by traveling to another part of the state to teach a TNR class. It was too much fun, I loved it! After the class we toured a TNR site that takes the cake for being the most challenging site of all time. It's crazy! 

I just wrote up the experience with lots of pictures on my backyardTNR.com blog, so if you want to check it out you had better pop over there and take a look. Feral cats rule!

Catch up!

Where does the time go?! I've fallen behind on the news of the week. Time to catch up.

First off, our housemate recently moved into her new home, which means that Bear also now has a new home. Yea for them! He'll have some good kitty company in the new home as the two resident cats (Casper and Omar) are quite cool cats.

Jana and Bear in their new home!

photo courtesy of Jana

Bear starting to feel more comfortable in his new space.

 Exploring   photo courtesy of Jana

photo courtesy of Jana

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Darling Katie Isabella bestowed the Sunshine Picnic Award to us!! Can you believe it?! We got an award!! Seems like it will be ages before anyone has a picnic in sunshine around here, but it's something to look forward to! Thanks Katie, you awesomes kitty!

I think that sunshine picnic is about Fancy Feast and mouses and nips - all the good stuffs!

It's hard to choose who all to share this happy award with. After a long and hard search, the following kitties, please come forward and accept this award for spreading sunshine amidst the dark, cold winter. Thank you all for being very generous with the warm light.

Brian's Home - especially Gracie, that she's feeling better after a rough season. 

Angel Prancer Pie - sweet Prancer Pie recently crossed over the rainbow bridge - he still brings sunshine in my heart

Fur Everywhere - Carmine and Jewel both recently had to take a bunch of tests, I think they passed!

Fuzzy Tales - Sweet and crazy cute Nicki and Derry - you two have to endure all that cold snow. You guys need some sunshine up there! Purrs to you all as you remember precious Annie.

I've been a little away from many blogs lately, so I'm sure I'm missing some important kitties. So, if you've been spreading sunshine recently too, please consider yourself awarded this lovely award.

Now it's time to break out the Friday dance!!!

Happy Friday!

piggy on nip

We got some awards!! First, one that is filled with mind altering nip! Can't go wrong there!

Thank you Sarah at Three Cats and a Girl for the award! This award was started as a celebration and so to officially receive it, I'm suppose to tell everyone what I want to celebrate. Hmmm... so many directions I could go with this. 

In this moment, I will celebrate the good health of Laura, Nahum, Willow, Theo, Rose, Buddy, Oliver, MK, Oliver's unnamed boy and girl, Hershey and myself. No telling if we will be healthy tomorrow but that's irrelevant because in this moment we are alive and well and that's something to celebrate!!! Yahoo!!!!

So, what better way to celebrate than with lots of nip!?! Come on over for a nip party!!!!

It's tempting to hog all the nip for myself, but that would violate the rules of the award! So, I must share the nip with some of you. Hmmmm, who should I pass the nip too... I think I will pass the nip to...

And, I just received the highly coveted Honey I Shrunk The Pig Many Babies Blog Award from Karen Jo at Herman's Hideaway!!

My heart still hurts for Karen Jo, as sweet Herman crossed the bridge not long ago. It feels like it's been a full season of friends crossing the bridge between Herman, Deb's Cali over at Just Cats and of course JudiBug. As I mentioned earlier, I'm so thankful that all my kitties are doing well at the moment. It's just a matter of time before I will have to say goodbye to them.

I think I will pass the nip AND the sweet piggy award together to:

• Greg over at The Feline Cafe - his blog changes theme from time to time, but he's back to cats now. Although to be honest, I liked the stereoviews too! 
• Random Felines - I don't know name of the human who oversees the random felines, but I do know she does amazing rescue work for cats! She recently has been helping out with some kittens who need a lot of medical attention. Please consider donating or buying something at the holiday auction to help raise money for the medical care of all these needed kittens she is fostering.
• Kittykid Kreations - Josie started this blog awhile ago and hasn't updated it in awhile. She makes handmade crafts for pets and sells them to raise money for her locale Humane Society. Maybe if she gets an award and some more traffic to the blog she might make more stuff and post more!

more awards for me!

Wow, I'm thrilled to have recently picked up another two awards to add to the collection!

First, Random Felines graciously bestowed the Sunshine Award to me back on the 24th! Thank you so much!! With all the cloudy skies we have had lately, I'm hoping this Sunshine Award will make all those pesky clouds go away!


With the Sunshine Award comes seven questions that must be answered. I hope I get these questions right because I would hate to have to return the award.


So, you gotta answer 7 questions and then pass it on (and let them know they gotted it).

Question 1: Favorite Number?

• hmmm... I'll have to go with seven. Our hobby cattery license allows us to have seven cats. We only have six so far on the license (Oliver is a mostly outdoor cat but I went ahead and got him licensed, so he's officially mine!) So, as I see it, we got room for one more!

Question 2: Favorite Nonalcoholic beverage

• Tall soy mocha, no whip.

Question 3: Facebook or Twitter?

• Just facebook, twitter seems stupid. Not a huge fan of facebook either.

Question 4: Your Passion

• Silly question, cats of course! I love kitties, kittypets and ferals alike.

Question 5: Favorite Pattern

• Banana.

Question 6: Favorite Day of the Week

• Any day that doesn't involve work!

Question 7: Favorite Flower

• I'm impressed by hydrangeas, although I think they are toxic to kitties. And since Nahum is a flower hungry guy, I don't do flowers. (Sorry Laura!)

Now comes the fun part, I get to spread some Sunshine to some other great bloggers.

Bloggers I want to share this with:

• FosterKittenCam, The Scientist Kittens - ok, this technically is not a blog, but watching the kittens and mama has brought a huge amount of Sunshine to my life! Who can resist watching ginger kittens?!?!
• The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - I must be in the mood for kittens! The amazing people at IBKC just raised over $75,000 for the cats at their local Humane Society! Awesome!
• Cat Tee Mission -  formerly known as the Purr Diaries, the blog was relaunched as part of the Cat Tee Mission, which is a great fundraising idea. Sarah creates fun original tee shirts which are available for purchase and all profits go to help cats!!

And if the Sunshine Award wasn't amazing enough, I was also recently given the Versatile Blogger Award by Sarah at Three Cats and a Girl! Wow! Thank you Sarah! 

I try to keep fourwhitepaws versatile in covering all things cat. I'm often tempted to fill the blog with cute picture, after cute picture of Willow, but that wouldn't be very versatile, now would it?! So, I mix in some other stuff in between the cute pictures of Willow! Speaking of which...

gratuitous cute Willow picture

Goodness, I digress, Willow will do that!

So, the Versatile Blogger Award comes with some rules. 

1. Nominate 5 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging. 
2. Let the nominated bloggers know they have been nominated for the award. 
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself. 
4. Thank the blogger who has nominated you. 
5. Add the Versatile picture to your post.

I'm gonna go out of order with the rules, hopefully this doesn't invalidate my Versatile Blogger Award! I'll start with seven random facts about myself.

• I've got a thing for Willow! 
• The best food of all time is cheese, especially Cabot Seriously Sharp, but sadly I'm allergic to dairy. :( 
• I once worked on an island paradise in the middle of no-where! It was the best!
• The first 30 years of my life I was a strict dog-person, and never even dared touch a cat. Thankfully my friends Tom and Sarah worked an intervention and set me straight.
• The briefest job I ever held was for only 5 hours. I couldn't even make myself get through the entire first day. Since I was the only one in the office when I quit, I had to leave a note for the boss telling him I was done. 
• I was a DJ at the college radio station. 
• I love trains. 
• Forget the printing press, the lightbulb and the sewing machine, flannel lined jeans are the best invention of all time! 
• Roger Water's The Wall is music for my soul. 
• I can't count to seven! 

Now, to share the goodness with five bloggers who are relatively new to blogging. Ok, here goes:

• Cat With A Garden - now, this blog is not new, but Siena hasn't posted in quite a while, so maybe this award will spur a new update! Siena is a gorgeous fluffy Norwegian Forest Cat. 
• Mr. Puddy - again, not a new blog, but with Mr. Puddy's recent return from a long absence, it's like a new blog! Since my first cat was a floofy black and white, I'm a sucker for floofy tuxedos! 
• Frank's Corner - another fluffy kitty! (are you detecting a theme here?!) It's been ages since Frank has posted any updates. Frank's blog doesn't have many followers, so it qualifies as relatively new. 
• Tails from the Foster Kittens - Connie has lots and lots of great pictures of her kitties and her fosters. For some reason I'm partial to Fleurp. 
• The Maple Syrup MOB - Jane and Chris's blog certainly qualifies as Versatile, as they cover many of their great adventures, whether working on a new deck or visiting the fun art installation in town - oh and plenty of kitties sprinkled in too!

Thanks again to Random Felines and Three Cats and a Girl!

another award!!

Thanks to Sierra at Fur Everywhere for honoring us with another award! This one was extra special, because we received it on Valentines Day!!





I know that I don't get enough affirmation at work, so receiving awards from my faithful followers here in blog-land feels great! I've even decided to create an official Awards page as a special place to showcase all of them.

With the All Around Wonderful Blog Award come these rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog.

2. You must link the award back to my blog.

3. You must pass the award on to three other blogs.

Narrowing down all the deserving blogs to just three is crazy-difficult. However, after careful deliberation and consultation with many wise kitties, we would like to give this All Around Wonderful Blog award to:

• Love & Hisses - great kitty action photography!
• The Furries of Whisppy - the Furries are taking a little break from blog-land right now as they grieve the recent loss of beloved Bronto.
• Cattywumpus - I am a fairly new follower of Cattywumpus and I love the original drawings - they are so simple yet incredibly expressive.

Thanks again to Sierra at Fur Everywhere for the award!

wonderfulness

Did you know that fourwhitepaws was given the Wonderfulness Award? Indeed, House of Carnivores graciously bestowed this award to us late last week. How wonderful of them!

And of course, with every award comes strings and this one is no different. The conditions of accepting this award requires me to link back to the blog of the person who awarded it to me and to pass it along to three other deserving bloggers.

So, I hereby formally accept this award. And I again thank House of Carnivores for thinking of us. And after careful consideration, I would like to pass this award on to:

• The Maple Syrup MOB - I only recently discovered this blog. It's operated by two Canadians who love cats and Doctor Who! How can you go wrong with that combination?!
• Barb's Cats and Quilts - I can't remember now how I discovered Barb's blog, but the first post I read was about a giant sock monkey and I about fell out of my chair laughing so hard.
• Cat Fosterer - Rachel built this amazing outdoor heated cat bunk house for fostering cats. She recently received her first foster cat, a very exciting experience.

Checkout some of these wonderful blogs and enjoy the riches and fame that come with receiving the Wonderfulness Award!

many blessings!

Way back in October, I won some free cards from Shutterfly on Linda's A La Carte giveaway and I just got around to placing my order. With the thousands of options available, it took me forever to think of what I wanted. So, here's the final product - Simply Willow. Now I gotta wait for them to arrive in the post - I can't wait!!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

And in other very exciting news, I received my first award! Thanks to Random Felines for the honor. I can now boast that fourwhitepaws is an award winning blog!! How cool is that?!

"Liebster" means dear, dearest, favorite or beloved in German. The requirements of receiving the award are to link back to who gave it to you, paste the Award on your blog, then choose 5 of your favorite blogs to pass the award on to that are up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers, let them know by leaving a comment on their blog and hope that the 5 blogs chosen will keep on spreading the love by passing the award on to 5 more blogs.

So, after considerable consultation with all my kitties, we have decided to pass the award on to these awesome blogs. If you haven't already, check out these great blogs:

• Homeless Cat Care - Debra has a huge generous heart for taking care of feral and homeless cats. Her recent post, Remembering Sunny, really touched my heart. Debra just doesn't take care of homeless cats, she invites them to forever live in her heart. 
• God's Little People - Joan should be a candidate for sainthood! She does an amazing job of care taking the feral and abandoned cats on a small Greek Island. To see what I am talking about, check out her recent post, A prayer and a healing thought for Bessie. The world so needs more Debra's and Joan's in it.
• A Cat In Gloves Catches No Mice - follow the adventures of KitKat, Gizmo and Denali! Their amazing humans took them with them on an exotic vacation where they saw kangaroos right from their vacation house window!
• The Very Best Cats - Motor and Tiger are two fun ginger kitties that almost look identical! Not too long ago a doggie, Jack, joined the family. Their mommy is a very talented artist and creates many fun and beautiful designs.
• Brett Seymour Photography - This blog has nothing to do with cats. Brett works for the National Park Service as an underwater photographer. He travels the world capturing the most incredible photos. He recently traveled to the Arctic Circle to assist Parks Canada in documenting the wreck of the HMS Investigator. His series of posts on the HMS Investigator really bring history to life. On his personal website, he shares many of his amazing photographs, including a tribute to the USS Arizona. I think what really makes Brett's work truly amazing is that his kind heart is revealed through his photography and writing.

Honorable mention goes to GraceNotes - Laura posts inspired words and pictures from her heart. If it wasn't for the sporadic long passages of time between posts, GraceNotes would have taken home a Liebster Award. Maybe if she gets some encouragement from new readers she'll dedicate more time to creating new posts!