Balance Beam- The Finalists Revealed and Voting Begins

::drumroll::

The Balance Beam competition is concluded.  Results and medal ceremony will be posted on Friday August 3rd.

Our panel of esteemed judges poured over the eleventybillion entries. All of the entries are wonderful and amazing.  The competition was fierce.  In the end, each judge independently picked their top 10-15.   Once they were finished, the finalists were the ones that ALL judges independently agreed upon! 

The criteria that mattered to most of the judges were (and in no particular order):  degree of difficulty, style, originality.   If you made the judges have a bit of a heart attack...you got a big thumbs up for that.

So...on with the big reveal.  Mom used random.org to help put the entries in order so there would be no tip of the paw to the judges favorites.  We will put the competitors on the poll in the same order as below.

The finalists in your 2012 Balance Beam are....

Cathy Keisha

Allie

Ben

Teddy

Mirksu

Faraday

Truffle

Nicki

Coco

Archie

Roo

Guido

Charli

Alfie

Bibi

Voting begins now!  We will leave the poll open for 1 week and then we'll announce the winners!

**having technical difficulties getting the poll on blogger to work**

Please leave a comment to vote...will keep trying to get the poll up and running.

Society of Feline Gardeners- Thursday in the Garden with Jonesie

 ::Meowwww::

Hi there furriends!  Today I'm teaching my brother Figaro important gardening lessons.  The fine art of watching lettuce grow is fairly simple.  Lettuce does well in our garden but the weeds grow up around it.  Here I am demonstrating how to use my body as a physical barrier to the weeds.  They won't dare grow up around my belly furs.

 As always, purring for your plants makes all the difference.  As you can see below, we have more flowers blooming right now.  Our cone flower is just getting started.

 More daisies for mom!  She adores them.

 The buddliea bush is going to be attracting butterflies soon!  I can hardly wait.

 Now, you all know that being a garden cat means that I get dirt and leaves in my furs.  Even though I get a bit messy, I am a ladycat and I like to look my best.

Mom Furminated me and got my coat all soft and silky.

And after she was done, I finished up with a nice paw and face wash.

I hope you are enjoying your gardens!


**breaking news**

Little did you all know that gardening is not my only job.  I now have another important job to add to my resume.  Matchmaker!  Oh yeah!  See my sister Cory has been heartbroken since her beloved Whitey went to the Rainbow Bridge earlier this year.  Just last week I heard my bestest furriend in the whole world, Alfie Marshall, was looking for a new girlfurriend.   It didn't take long for me to realize...hey this just may work!  Maybe then I'll get to see my pal Alfie more often too.  Win win win for all!

I'll give you a sneak peek at their first picnic date earlier this week....

Wordless Wednesday

Tabby Tuxie Tummy Throwdown

 Ginger:  Whatdaya mean your tummy is cuter than mine...them's fighting meows!

 Figaro:  Take that!  How can  you possibly compete?

 Ginger:  Of course I can...my tummy is cuter!

 Figaro:  Not when I toss in a paw stretch too.  The ladies can't resist me!

 Ginger:  That's nothing.  I can do that too.  Cuter!

Figaro:  If there were a tummy competition in the Olympics, I would take the gold.  I think you would have to settle for silver.

 In your dreams Figgy!

Momma Meezer and Mitten Monday

 zzzzzzzz.....Oh! I didn't see you come in!

 Hi there!  Momma Ellie and me here!  I realized how often all the other kitties hog the blog and my momma doesn't get much face time.  I mean, she's in all of our faces all the time, washing and licking and stuff.    Mom says it's because my momma Ellie is "busy".  She's always on the move and unless she's asleep she's moving.  Many of the pictures of her come out blurry and stuff.

 Every once in awhile, mom gets a good photo of us together.

 But you can see momma Ellie is still busy washing me...

 ...and uh...ooops!

 All this photo stuff is making me sleepy!

Society of Feline Gardeners- Thursday in the Garden with Jonesie

 ::Meowwww::

Welcome back to my garden!  It's been such a wonderful week.  We've had sunny and warm weather and everything in my garden looks lovely.  Mom says that includes me.  ::blush::

Last weekend was Grete woofies 6th birthday.  She said she was amazed at how many kitty furriends she has...and special woofie furriends too.  From all over the world.  Grete and I hung out together while we waited for our pals to teleport over. 

 I'm very excited that our new peach tree is growing little peaches.  I will purr and purr to make sure they grow big and sweet.  Just like my Grete.

 Our grape plants are doing well.

 If you look closely you can see the grapes!  They are still tiny, but they will get bigger I just know it.

 We had a lady bug hanging out on the grape plants.  She thinks they are cool too.

 The best part of the day is when my daddy thanks me for all my hard work and snoopervision.  He can't do it without me and he makes sure to let me know how much he loves me.