{"id":4534,"date":"2016-12-25T16:25:18","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T00:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=4534"},"modified":"2016-12-25T16:25:18","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T00:25:18","slug":"the-kitten-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=4534","title":{"rendered":"The Kitten Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everybody! My chess blog is not really back yet — I’m still working on my book — but I thought that on Christmas I could take a little time out for a Kitten Awards Show.<\/p>\n

As long-time readers of this blog know, my wife and I take care of foster kittens for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter<\/a>. These are kitties that are basically healthy but still too small to be adopted (generally speaking, they need to be at least 8-10 weeks old and 2 pounds). At the Mackenzie Finishing School for Felines, we feed them, give them lots of toys and affection, and teach them the finer points of kitten etiquette if necessary.<\/p>\n

This year we fostered 25 kittens in 9 batches. The last three (Muffin, Josie, and Pepper) are still with us, so we had the extra-special privilege of giving them their first Christmas.<\/p>\n

And now, here are the awards. The envelopes, please:<\/p>\n

Glow-in-the-Dark Eyes Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

This award goes to Abby, hands down.<\/p>\n

The Lurker<\/p>\n

\"lurker\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The “I’ve Had Too Much Coffee” Look<\/p>\n

\"abby<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Haircut<\/strong><\/p>\n

This award goes to Ace, who was, shall we say, a mess when he first came to us. (But he got cleaned up very nicely after a few days.)<\/p>\n

Before<\/p>\n

\"ace<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After… Stylin’!<\/p>\n

\"ace<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Power Nap<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyone who knows kittens knows that the competition in this category was intense, because kittens sleep about 20 hours a day. The winner is Emmy… by an eyelash.<\/p>\n

\"exhaustion<\/a><\/p>\n

Dog’s Best Friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had several good candidates for this award, but it has to go to Eddie. He came to us as a single kitty, with no brothers and sisters, so for three weeks Daisy, the dog, was his only companion. Basically he was sure that Daisy was just a large kitten.<\/p>\n

\"eddie<\/a><\/p>\n

\"daisy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"eddie<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Chess Kitty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course I need this category, right? This year’s winner is Jasper.<\/p>\n

\"jasper<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Convincing “I Didn’t Do It” Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

… goes to Jinjur, who swears that she had nothing to do with the hole in the garden.<\/p>\n

\"dig<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Halloween Kitty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although black cats have a great advantage in this category, Josie impressed me with her classic form. Note the inflatable tail.<\/p>\n

\"halloween<\/a><\/p>\n

I think an honorable mention for this category has to go to Winifred, Moo, and Tab Hunter, who look like a posse coming after Max. Or maybe the Attack of the Zombie Kitties.<\/p>\n

\"approaching<\/a><\/p>\n

Best Photobomb<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honest, I was just taking a picture of these pretty flowers, when this cat appeared out of nowhere. (Natasha plays the jester in this photo.)<\/p>\n

\"photobomb<\/a><\/p>\n

Special “I Growz Up to Be Big Kitteh Someday” Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kip was the smallest kitten that we have ever successfully fostered. She came in at 14.5 ounces and dropped to 13.5 ounces before rallying. While I don’t want to be overly dramatic, I think we saved her life. With an assist from Kip herself, who didn’t want to give up. Here she looks up to big kitteh Max, in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

\"someday<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally, the coveted<\/p>\n

Best Photo of the Year Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

… goes to Natasha’s brother Nikolai, who did this little peekaboo from the door of the “hobbit house.”<\/p>\n

\"peekaboo<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as we enjoyed having such entertaining company all year long! For people who just can’t get enough kitten photos, Kay has written a more traditional chronological account in her annual Cavalcade of Kittens<\/a> post at her blog, “All About Applique.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everybody! My chess blog is not really back yet — I’m still working on my book — but I thought that on Christmas I could take a little time out for a Kitten Awards Show. As long-time readers of this blog know, my wife and I take care of foster kittens for the Santa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[3665,1246,383,1084,2381,1580,876],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-off-topic","tag-awards","tag-christmas","tag-humor","tag-kay","tag-kittens","tag-mackenzie-finishing-school-for-felines","tag-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4553,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}