Thei-Chan's Thnuggles on Thursday

Thei-Chan: We throngly thuthpect... Oh, Excuse me! I got carried away.... So, we strongly suspect that a certain new arrival is going to be hogging the blog over the weekend and that both SEIturday and Snuggles on Sunday will morph into Kitten Days. So, I have decided to be pro-active and combine those two important posts into Thursday!

I have been getting in my dose of cuddles with Tommy:

I wonder what the new kitten will make of him? Where he was born, they have four whippets so he must be used to woofies, but Tommy is a bit bigger...

Anyway, Tommy has been hanging out with Tama-Chan too:

And with the Beebster (boys!):

The Bibi just loves cuddles with his #1...

But he loves even more cuddles with his #1 AND his green bean!!!

Tama-Chan takes her cuddles with #1 rather more seriously:

And gets toe massages as a result!

Now back to me. I tell you.. It's a good job I am here to supervise things and make sure the house and blog run smoothly. I suppose every home needs a dedicated Thupervithor!

Wordy Wednesday

#1 here. The other day, we received a very nice award from our friends Ben, Pip and Co. at The Dogs of Greenhill Farm. Thank you!

It seems that this is a combo award and meme because it comes with a request to write seven things about myself and, if I understand correctly, they should be about me rather than the Gang (boring, boring...). Anyway, here goes:

1) Tommy is my very first dog. I had wanted one ever since I was little, but parents and then life in general made it impossible until now.

2) The longest I have lived in any one country to date is 20 years, and that was in Japan.

3) My first cat, Ikkyu, lived with me on three continents (Asia, North America and Europe).

4) I am trilingual (English, French and Japanese)

5) I always lived in big cities until I moved to rural France almost nine years ago.

6) I tend to get annoyed when people claim to be exclusively cat people or dog people. How is it possible to love one and not the other?

7) It really makes me laugh when people think I may be lonely and bored living in the country. I have never been busier in my life!

There you have it. The original request is that this should be passed on to 15 other bloggers. How on earth does one choose 15? If you haven't done this yet, consider yourselves tagged!

Can't possibly not include any photos in today's post, so here is one of me and Tommy, taken by a friend last October:

And here is a rose from our garden:

And a couple of our local ladybirds/ladybugs:

There seem to be more of them about this year than ever before, and also lots more bees, which is great.

We shall return to regular programming tomorrow. By the way, Tommy is still on limited exercise. He can now run about the field a bit, but still no rough play. He is no longer limping but will remain on Rimadyl for another 10 days and we want to be absolutely sure he's better.

Tama-Chan Tuesday

Tama-Chan: After a few cooler days, we seem set for 30C today, so my plan is to spend part of my day here:

And when it gets too hot outside, here:

#1 has started working on getting the back room ready for "him" but hasn't made a lot of headway yet, other than creating an even bigger mess! I tried to supervise but gave up, and went back to supervising the outdoors instead!

And yesterday, she gave up altogether and went off to Paris for the day to meet a visiting friend she hadn't seen in over 15 years for lunch. She was able to report back that Paris is still there.

Manly Monday - Featuring BIBI AND THE BEAN!

Bibi-Chan: Hi everybody. Did you have a fun weekend? Of course our friends in the States are still enjoying theirs. Happy 4th of July! Yesterday, when we had our guests, I got to go outside in my handsome purple Puppia harness, and I decided I would look exceedingly handsome in a pot!

Anyway, i have made a fabulous discovery! I have found the best toy EVER!!!! They don't sell this stuff in pat stores but #1 says they are easy enough to find at the supermarket. Behold the GREEN BEAN!

You can carry it around, whap it, throw it in the air! It is so versatile!

And it's easy to store!

I shall have to teach my little brother about beans as soon as he arrives!

Tom: OK, my two weeks are up! Everyone says I am no longer limping at all, and I am feeling very frisky! #1 is going to Paris for the day today but she has promised to call up Dr. C tomorrow morning to see what the next step should be for me. I am still supposed to continue on anti-inflammatories for a couple more weeks.

In the interim, I have had a really fun few days. #1 and I went to lunch with some cousins who were visiting from Toronto. Young Mr. L and I immediately became buddies!

And Cousin P, whose house we were at, gave me awesome ear scritches!

Then, they came to visit us yesterday! We went down to the market and stopped for coffee:

And when everyone was having lunch, the Beebs and I enjoyed hanging out under the table!

Vidock: I got visitors too yesterday! I'm a very cool guy, so I pretended not really to notice when the lovely Ms. S came to meet me!

I think she liked me!

Slurps, Snuggles and Secrets on Sunday

Tama-Chan: I was the first one to spot the glass. There it was, on the table, and #1 had not sat down yet... I approached to investigate...

And decided to have a taste!

I was quickly followed by Sei-Chan (who normally does not go for new culinary experiences):

And then came my Bibi:

We have a unanimous verdict: Mare's milk is yummy!

In other news, we had a great time with our guests yesterday. Tommy loves to play tourist guide, Bibi got to go outside "officially" in his Puppia harness, and neither I nor Sei-Chan hid!

#1 has been seriously slacking this week in terms of snuggle pics. Can you believe that? Do you really think that torrid heat and no power are adequate excuses? Thought so... Anyway, the one thing we do have is the one missing from last week's post: a snuggle with Vidock!

Oh, and there is one of Tommy with his new best buddy, Mr.L! Too bad he lives in Canada...

Now, as for that "other Matter" or "the secret she has been keeping from us"... we managed to hack into #1's email account to discover what she was hiding. It seems that she has indeed been plotting to get us a new sibling. You know what her excuse is? That Bibi desperately needs a buddy he can be rowdy with because we girls refuse to play with him and we hiss at him, Hah! Anyway, it is a Blue Aby that is coming our way. He was born on March 31 and will be arriving, by plane if you please, on July 8th. He was born in south-west France and is not related to any of us. He is apparently full of beans and hugely playful. Hah! Sei-Chan and I have started rehearsing our synchronised hissing... As for that Bibi of mine, who knows what he will do?

The little one (who is indeed a boy) will tell you all about his name when he arrives. He will of course be a "Chan." It seems he will be confined to the back room initially, and will get to meet Bibi and Tommy first.

We found a couple more pics of him:

Will things ever be the same again?

SEIturday!

Sei-Chan: #1 tells me we have family (including cousins from Canada!) coming to lunch today, so I may have to hide. Do you think this is a good place?

I know my sister Tama has found this past week a bit stressful, but I have tried to remain cool and calm.

After all, que sera sera, right?

I have to say that Tommy is a pretty good influence!

We shall see what tomorrow brings... In the meantime, enjoy the weekend!

Fazed Friday!

Tama-Chan: So, WHAT, exactement, is going on around here? It has been a weird week. It was hotter than hell the first couple of days (it's now cool again). Then we had no power for almost two days. Then #1 and Tommy disappeared all day yesterday! And then... there are those weird photos popping up on the blog. I am FAZED, Friends!

Not quite frantic yet, but definitely fraught...... #1 has been mumbling about cleaning out the back room on Sunday. That's MY room, the place where I raised my kits. WHAT is she planning to put in there?

I need to calm down. Really. So here is a picture from our garden of our (calming) lavender which is in full bloom and attracting lots of butterflies, including this magnificent scarce swallowtail:

And look at this thistle!

I feel better already. And I WILL get to the bottom of this!