Mitten Monday

 My mom and I spent a lot of time together last week watching the Olympics.  Her favorite is watching the rowing events.  She had a special app on her iPad so she could watch ALL of the events.  Every heat, semi, petite finals and finals.  Sheesh!

 All the splashing around and no matter how much I meowed and swatted at them, they didn't go any faster.  At least I think they didn't.

 Sigh.

It all makes me a bit sleepy.   And we still have a whole week to go.  Wonder what we'll be watching next.

 Meowing about the Olympics...my momma Ellie and my brother Figaro found out they did NOT medal in the competitive napping events.  Unfazed by this turn of events, they promptly went back into training for the Winter Games 2014!

Balance Beam Medals Ceremony

Bennette here!  I have the honor of presenting the medals to the winners of the Balance Beam Competition.  This is based on my deep experience in the sport and to cover for the brewing international scandal!  Where is Ginger when I need him?

 It has come to our attention that the poll my lame mom set up didn't work for everyone.  So all the kind kitties and woofies trying to vote didn't all get equal chances.  We took votes on the blog via comments and we also got lots of nice emails.

In the end, I decided to take over the decisions from Cory (for reasons that will become clear later) and declare the winners...yes winners of each of the medals.   Based on percentage of votes received, the gold medal goes to:

Bibi

Cathy Keisha

Alfie

 The silver medal goes to:

Mirksu

Truffle

Coco

Guido

Charli

 The bronze medal goes to:

Allie

Ben

Teddy

Faraday

Nicki

Archie

Roo

 All the finalists were so spectacular they all deserved to be medalists.  As for Cory...rumors were swirling that she had teleported across the pond to hang out with Alfie Marshall, one of the finalists.  I thought that was innocent enough, I mean, they are both sports fans.

 But then, the international committee for the PetBlogging games saw pictures like this...and it was obvious that Cory was up to more than watching sports with her young man friend...and impartiality could not be guaranteed.

So to ensure a fair competition, I took over and fairness prevailed.

No one messes with Bennette!

Concats to all the medalists and to all that participated.  It was an amazing event and the talent in the Blogosphere is inspiring me to take on balancing challenges beyond my deck.

See you at the Winter Games in 2014!

Thank you to Domino's mom for supplying the spy photos of Alfie and Cory!

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.

Cory Announces CatOlympics Event!

Hi there everyone!  I wonder how many of you were around when we last held the CatOlymic events a couple of years ago?  Well you are in for a ton of fun!  My furriend Huffle Mawson is getting us all off to a good start.  Please click the link to to her blog and she'll give you all the scoop.  What you need to know from us is that we'll be hosting the Balance Beam competition!  

I don't have photos of winning entries from the last event, but we've got a few ideas for preparing and training for this world class competition.

Points will be awarded for style and degree of difficulty.  Below, Jonesie demonstrates how to start training on a wide beam that is close to the ground.

Below, Cecilia demonstrates how she has tried the narrow strip of wood around the garden bed.  It's close to the ground but very difficult to walk on.  See how she uses the soft dirt to cushion her fall.

Safety first my pals!

Figaro attempts and fails at the brick border.  Notice the soft grass is not far from his paws!  Soon he will attempt more difficult apparatus.

Jonesie and Cecilia work together to improve their skills.

So there you have it, lots of ideas on how to train.  You can use indoor or outdoor balance beams.

Here are the rules to enter:

You must submit your entry to me no later than Friday 13th July (whatever time zone you're in).

1. You must email me your picture, together with the name of the cat/dog competing AND a link to your blog by sending it to corycatblogATgmailDOTcom
2. Competing in this event means that you are giving me permission to use your picture for the Cat-O-Lympics 2012.
3. Entry is open to all cats and dogs. You do not need to have a blog to enter.
4. Cory has not yet decided how the winner will be determined however since gymnastics are typically a judged event, we will likely use a poll on the blog so readers can vote.
5. Prizes will be the pride  you have in knowing that the CatBlogsphere knows how awesome you are!

Oh yeah, and you need to be balancing on something!

Thursday In The Garden With Jonesie- Olympic Edition

Mom, can I enter the Cat-Olympics?  I think I can win a medal in Biathlon.  The combination of  twig play and kleening machine is too much for most cats to handle but I think I got a shot.

It's hard to get the twig under control.  It takes good paw mouth coordination.  It takes years to purrfect this so young kittens typically don't do as well in this event.

I know this looks like fun, but it's really hard to make it look this easy.

You can show the twig no mercy.

When you have a chance to put the bitey on, you gotta go for it.

Got it!!!

It's ok to celebrate your victory over the twig.  I do it all the time!  You can see how tough this was by all the grasses stuck in my paws.  This is why the second half of the event is so important.

Gotta clean those paws.  A Kleen machine is what separates the cats from the kittens.  

Please leave a link and let me know what's happening in your garden...or your  Cat-O-Lympic event!  Don't forget to visit the Olympic village over at Fin's place.  And guess what?  Not only can you catch up on all the action in the CB, Cory is playing Fin in Ice Cube Hockey so don't miss out on the action at Fin's!

Cat-Olympics Day 2- Tuesday Triple Threat

Today we take no prisoners.  Today we compete in 3 separate but very challenging events.

First up, Ellie in her BunnyKicking Olympic debut.  Not many cat-athletes are multi-sport champions, but Ellie is the master of the bunnykick, power napping and the ultra competitive synchronized snooze.  The crowd goes crazy for her combo bitey-kicky moves.

Before we move on to synchronized napping, Grete is ready to go in her main event, Snow Jumping.  What technique!  She even looks like she's having fun!  Don't let that fool you into thinking this is easy.

Now on to the main event of the day, Cory and Ellie in Synchronized Snoozing.  

Don't forget to tune into what all the other competitors are doing!  Stay dialed into all the excitement over at Fin's place!