Better Than A Box?!?

Greetings to all! It's me, Maggie.  I have a question for you all - especially for my kit-cat friends:  What is better than a box?  Are you as stumped as I was when my mom posed the question to me?  Well, here's the answer!

"A box AND crinkly PAPER!!!"

I know - a little slice of Heaven, right?  It was awesome!

"I could stay in here forever!"

Well, I could have, but then I would miss Cammie too much.  Mom said maybe Cam and I could play "Hide and Seek" and I could hide in here.  OH!  Great idea!  I scrunched down a bit, down into the crinkly paper ...

"How's this?  Do you think she'll be able to find me?"

CRAZY amount of fun!  Oh.  And yes, she did find me.  I think it's because Mom had ordered treats that came in the box and started putting them away.  Cam was interested in checking them out, so she came over.  But now grab this by the neck and shake it - she was more interested in the treats than the box and crinkly paper.  Can you believe that?!?  I just don't get her sometimes!

Anyway - have a great Saturday, everyone!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Sticking!

Greetings to all, it's me, Maggie!  There we were, on our walk the other morning - Cam, Mom, and me - when something started following us!  It followed us slowly at first, then somehow it gained on us and passed us!  I had no choice - I had to pounce on it as soon as we caught up to it!

"GOT IT!"

It was a stick - with leaves!  It was really cool.

"You're coming with me, Stick!"

Cam said the only reason it was able to pass us was because we were having 40 mph wind gusts.  That makes sense.  Cam's pretty smart like that!

I thought I should carry it with us for a while. It tried getting away from me a couple times, but I was on it!

"No way, Stick!  You're MINE!"

So ... if when I enjoy a good box, it's called "boxing", is this considered "sticking"?

" ...'I'm gonna stick like glue ... stick! Because I'm stuck on you'..."  

I wonder if this is the kind of stick that Elvis guy was singing about?  I think he mentioned something about an apple tree, but I'm not sure.  You never know.

Anyway, it sure was fun sticking for a while!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Still Working

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  Remember I mentioned a while back that Mom and Dad have been working on a super-big landscaping project?  They're fixing up the area where that Elm tree used to be -- that, and the area just down the hill from there.  So yeah, up and down the hill, moving rocks, digging up nasty roots, taking out thorny bushes, putting in mulch and pavers and lots more up and down the hill, raking, digging, bending, kneeling, pulling, sweating ... still at it!  And me?

"Yes.  Yes, it IS exhausting watching them work like this!  I meant 'supervising'."

See how exhausted I am? I got all confused there. I think I need a nap.

We'll show you the project once they get closer to completion. A little "before and after" thing.

In other gardening news, guess who finally stuck around long enough for a photo-op the other morning? Our resident bat - Bart!!!

"Good eeeeeeeevening!"

Isn't he cool? And he eats 1,200 mosquito-sized insects an hour!!! Go, Bart, GO!!  For new readers of the Ao4 Digest, Bart has been spending his Summers hanging from the underside of our upper deck -- the ceiling to our lower deck.  (Enter "Bart" in the search bar to our blog in the upper left hand corner for previous posts about him.)  He has never bothered us and we don't bother him (unless you count Mom taking his picture once a year).  Mom is also careful to wash his guano off the deck.  Anyway, we hadn't seen him all Summer and were getting worried about him!  Welcome home, Bart!

OK, I have more supervising to do.  This landscaping is hard work.  Have a great day everyone!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Cammie!

About That Chewy.com Box ...

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  So ... remember on Friday when I showed you the really cool box Mom gave me!?!?  Right!  A Chewy.com box!  As a connoisseur of fine boxes, I must say Chewy.com boxes are among the best out there!  Now, where were we?

Truth be told, we were right about here:

"Gotcha, Mags!"
"Ha!  Now I've got YOU!"
"Oh, girls?!?  Ladies!!!"

Yeah.  We got a bit ... distracted.  But ... all Mom had to do was flash the Zuke's bag at us, and she had our full attention!

"Yes, Mom?"
"Y'ello."

That's right! This month, Sydney and the great folks at Chewy.com asked us to review Zuke's Mini Naturals - Peanut Butter Flavor! We've never had the peanut butter ones before, so we were all kinds of anxious to try them!

Let me come clean about something - they didn't come in this Chewy box, they came in a padded envelope. Greenies are on sale, so Mom had ordered us a big box of those - and they came in the box in the photos. The envelope wasn't as photo-worthy as the box, though ... so there you have it.  I just wanted to get that off my chest.

We were both right there when Mom opened the envelope ...

"Hey, Mom.  What's in the ... ZUKE'S!!!"

"Did someone say 'Zuke's'?!?"

And then Mom said something about "holding off for later on", and ...

"Umm... yeah, OK.  I'll just go in the other room and find something to amuse myself with ..."

That's pretty much what prompted the deck party!

"OK, a couple poses, then we really need to rip that bag open, Mom."
"We're only doing this because they're Zuke's..."

So ... Zuke's are made in the USA!  They're only three and a half calories per treat, so they're perfect for training!  You can eat a gazillion of them with no guilt!  They're chock-full-o healthy ingredients and have no corn, wheat, or soy.  Equally important - we LOVE the taste!  They measure about 3/8 of an inch in diameter.

Mom put us in a "down-stay" then ripped the bag open and let us taste a couple.

Me and Cam, doing a perfect down-stay
If I do say so myself!

For the record, we'll do a lot of things for treats, but neither one of us is fond of doing the ol' down-stay.  That right there should tell you how badly we wanted another Zuke's!!!

"Seriously, Mom.  They're only 3.5 calories each.  Let's splurge."
"Please, Mom?"

Cammie and I give the peanut butter flavored Zuke's Mini Naturals 5 out of 5 stars!  We really do go crazy for these treats!

Mom doesn't usually get chewy treats for us, she prefers us to have crunchy, but she makes an exception with these.  She often sticks a few in her pocket when we go on walks to reward us for posing or to distract us from things.  Obviously, we don't know from what, as we are distracted.  (Ha roo roo roo.)  We have no idea why she'd want to do this, but she can also break them into pieces.  She also gives them a 5 out of 5 stars!

"Thank you, Chewy.com!!!  We love the Zuke's!"
"Yes, thank you for the tasty Zuke's treats, Sydney!"

Many thanks to Chewy.com (and to Sydney) for sending us these treats to review! We love being part of the team!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

DISCLAIMER: We received no payment for this post, but did receive the product free of charge from Chewy.com - in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own. And mom's. She's the one with the crazy idea about breaking a 3.5 calorie treat into smaller pieces.  Honestly - who DOES that?!?!

Chicago, Chicago ...

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  Yesterday, we had a nice, cool morning, so to celebrate, we took Mom on a long walk.  I didn't quite realize how long we had walked her until I saw this sign:

"CHICAGO?!?  Hey!  Don't we have friends in Chicago?  Maybe we'll see them!  Ha roo, anyone?"
"I think they must live in New Chicago, Mags..."

Wow. All the way to Chicago! That toddlin' town!  Mom's RunKeeper app's really going to be happy with our progress on that walk!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunflowers

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Remember last Sunday, we shared some sunflower shots we helped Mom take along our walking route?  Well, a couple days ago, Mom and Dad stopped by a whole field of nothing but sunflowers - and we thought we'd share some of Mom's shots with you!

Here's a look at the field:

It might seem like they were out in the country, but it's actually a cultivated field right across from the Kansas State University football stadium.

Let's get closer!

And closer!

And ... if there's one thing Maggie and I know, it's that Mom loves taking close-ups! Let's get in there!

Sunflower with bee, raising its face to the sky!

The bees LOVE sunflowers!

Mom did some special effects on this next one, to make it look like a painting:

It's subtle, but we like it!

Here's a "regular" shot:

I think this one exemplifies why they're called "sunflowers":

And this one is Mom's favorite:

Why? If you look at the center of the sunflower, it's heart-shaped!  Can you see it?

If you'd like to see more of her sunflower shots, please visit the set at this link.

Have a wonderful, smile-filled Sunday!

Cammie!

Deck Time!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Yesterday, after our walk, Cam and I got to go out on the deck with Mom to do some relaxing!

Cam and I relaxed on the stairs and upper deck:

"Ha roo!"
"Ha roo to you!"

And we relaxed on the stairs and the lower deck:

"Ha roo?"
"Ha roo!"

There were a lot of Crazed River Otter moves involved in between those shots, but for some reason (?) Mom's shots are all blurry. Go figure.

When things had pretty much wound down, Mom said she had a surprise for us. Oh, how I love surprises! She said the surprise was a two-parter and that I'd probably be more interested in the first part than Cam.

"A BOX!!!  I love it, Mom!"

When she's right, she's right - Cam wasn't interested in playing with my box.

Yes, it's a mighty small box, but at least I got up to the Hokey Pokey verse about putting your two feet in. ...there IS a verse like that, isn't there?  Doesn't it go left foot, right foot, then both feet?  Whatever.  Unless Eric Clapton comes out with a version of the song, I'm not really interested.

Anyway ... where was I?

"Oh, yeah.  'You put both feet in!  You take both feet out...' "
"When do we get to the part where Mom gives us what was in the box?"

Oh, right. We'll fill you in on what was in the box on Monday! Stay tuned!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

9/11/2015

We here at Ao4 Headquarters will never forget -

Islamic Terrorists flying planes into the Twin Towers ...

... and into the Pentagon ...

... and the terrorists' plans for Flight 93 thwarted by some brave passengers over a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

We will never forget these acts of war. We will never surrender. We will never stop thanking those who continue to fight to keep us free.

We stand strong.

We are Americans.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." 

Psalm 33:12

From all of us here at Ao4 Headquarters, may God bless the United States of America.

Hard Work

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Cam and I took a little bit longer of a walk yesterday with Mom and Dad.  We got going a little bit early, so we could beat the heat.

At first, we went through some of the nearby neighborhoods ...

Me and Cam

... then walked through CiCo Park/the county fairgrounds!

Me and Cam in the park

We walked up the big road and got to one of the entrances to Hudson Trail, as you saw yesterday. Here's another shot of us posing:

Me and Cam at the trailhead 

Two things of note there - number one, you can tell we were getting a bit warm (we were about at the two mile mark by then) and number two, I like this shot better than yesterday's since neither one of us is looking at Mom. But I digress...

Next, we headed down Hudson Trail.

"This feels nice, doesn't it, Cam?"
"Yes!  Much cooler in here!"

It was nice and shady down there, and that part is unpaved, so it's cooler on our feety-feet.

Before we knew it, we were back out in the hot sun again. We paused briefly for a photo by our water tower:

"Hey, look, Peeps!  Someone's following us!"
"I wonder if they'll give us ear-scratchies?!"

Once we got to the water tower, it was all downhill and home! We got a quick drink, then it was right to work! That's right! Mom and Dad are in the midst of a huge landscaping project that requires lots of hours out in the sun, bending, pulling, sweating, shoveling, raking, moving rocks around, hauling heavy stuff, digging - and lots, lots more! It's exhausting! Fortunately for them, I'm right there with them, helping every step of the way.

"I can oversee the whole project from here.  I sure hope they aren't late with my lunch..."

Well, not so much helping every step of the way as supervising from the comfort of the bed and an air-conditioned house. But I'm with them in spirit!!!  Besides, supervising is hard work!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Yours sincerely,
Mags and Cammie!

Tuesday

Hello, everyone.  It's me - Cammie.  Over here.

"Umm... what do you mean it was my turn?"

I thought Maggie was going to cover the blog today. Sorry.  I've got nothing.

I really think we need "No Talk Tuesday" or something.

Cammie!

Labor Day

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  In keeping with this thing called "Labor Day", I have put myself on KP Duty.

"I'm all set, Mom!"

Now let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Serene Sunflowers Sunday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Maggie and I took Mom on a walk the other morning that was jam-packed with sunflowers.  They always make us smile and feel all warm and sunny inside, so we thought we'd share some of the photos with you for Serene SUNFLOWERS Sunday!  Ready to go up the water tower path?  Mom's got treats, so let's pause real fast for a photo:

Maggie and me!

OK.  Time to start walking!  We walked up the hill and before we knew it, we didn't just see one Sunflower ...

... or two Sunflowers ...

... or even three Sunflowers ...

No!  We saw a whole sea of Sunflowers!!!

The water tower path;
it actually has an official name now, but we can't remember what it is

Mom still has a treat, so let's try for another photo:

"Sunflowers make us smile!"
"So does the treat in Mom's hand..."

Something for everyone, right?  The Sunflowers reach all the way up to our blue Kansas skies!

Does that make you feel good inside?

"I feel so happy!"
"Me, too!"

We hope the beauty of our Kansas Sunflowers make you feel as good as they make us feel! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Cammie!