THE CAT REALM

RIP sweet Rita

2019-12-11T18:15:00.002-07:00

Happy Noms Day to Everybody!

2019-08-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today again we are celebrating Noms Day ("Not Of My Species Day"), a holiday to remember that all beings are equal, to remind ourselves to be tolerant towards everybody, to reach out across species, cultures, nationalities, religions, languages, beliefs and appearances and to come together and embrace our differences.

OMG - it has been three years without posting!

2018-05-18T13:16:00.001-07:00

Happy Noms Day to Everybody!

2015-08-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Today we are celebrating Noms Day ("Not Of My Species Day"), a holiday to remember that all beings are equal, to remind ourselves to be tolerant towards everybody, to reach out across species, cultures, nationalities, religions, languages, beliefs and appearances and to come together and embrace our differences.

Ruis, my beloved. Part 3

2014-11-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

2009 to 2014.

We started the year in style, doing what we did best: having fun!

Valentine was spent in Sicily, traveling with friends. And having fun!

Followed by fun in the Netherlands!

Our first anniversary we celebrated in Bora Bora...

...with the usual outcome of having lots of uninvited visitors, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(See the trip here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)

Our next trip brought us to Rome, to celebrate Opus birthday.

And then came Paris where we celebrated Sassy's retirement with a five day event!
(See it here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.)

2010 we started with a trip to Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida!
(See it here: 1, 2, 3.)

Then we had another Valentine adventure: Niagra Falls!
(See it here: 1, 2, 3.)

From 2011 to 2014 things quieted down a bit. Not our fault, the help wasn't much help anymore, the gang had lost so many dear members, life had changed a bit.
We still had parties, even if it was just 'tea parties',

We still danced,
(this time at Ruis' staff wedding!)

and we still traveled.

But by far not as much as we used to.
Ruis and my last adventure was playing in the World Cup in the Summer of 2014.

Now I am all out of words, full of memories, but missing my dear Ruis, the love of my life so much.

We had a glorious ride, dear Ruis, and we will forever be 'Karl and Ruis'.

I love you.

"... And now there is always one.
And now there is no loneliness.

Now, forever, forever you are as one.
There are two bodies.

But now there is only one heart in both
And you are as one person."

Ruis, my beloved. Part 2.

2014-11-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

June to December of 2008.
After our honeymoon at an undisclosed (we wanted to be alone!) location we flew directly to Limburg, my husbands home and spent some time there.

At this point I think it is time to introduce "THE GANG". Six cats and one dog. Us, Karl and Ruis, Roscoe and Opus, Sassy, Momo, Asta. Best friends forever, we would go on adventures together, and also worked together as the team behind CCSI, Cat/Canine Crime Scene Investigation. We produced five 'capers', and Ruis directed three of them! He worked as an actor, was part of the graphic design team and the Advertisement and Marketing Director of Little Production. He also received an aCATemy Award! What a talented mancat he was!!!

And we kept on traveling! To Africa....

(A very long trip, see it here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.)

...and Hawaii.

We had soooooo much fun together!

For Ruis' birthday we had a surprise party at The Cat Realm with an Arabian theme! And I performed a Belly-dance for my beloved!

Afterwards we took a trip to Egypt!

To be continued....

Ruis, my beloved. Part 1.

2014-11-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

November 2007 to May 2008.

"... And now there is always one.
And now there is no loneliness.

Now, forever, forever you are as one.
There are two bodies.

But now there is only one heart in both
And you are as one person."

Those words I, Karl spoke to you, Ruis, the love of my life on May 30, 2008, our wedding day.
And though your body has gone to the bridge, through our hearts we will always be one.
This three-part post will be my last. No point in adventures without you, my love.
I, Karl, will retire from blogging, handing The Cat Realm and it's 'signature laugh' (which I took from Anastasia when she was called to the bridge) over to Mrs. OZ.
And here is the story of Karl and Ruis. The story of a love that crossed continents. And galaxies. A love that was full of adventures and romance. And full of friends. Sometimes uninvited friends, see here and here HAHAHAHAHAHA. I know you are laughing with me at the bridge about this one my love.
I am forever yours, until we meet again.

The first time we met was in the back of a bus, on a road trip to get two other lovebirds together, in November of 2007:

And yes, we hit it off immediately. Only a month later Ruis came visiting me in Arizona...

...and we had our first Halloween together.

As we both had houses full of other cats, and dogs in Ruis case, AND lots of curious blogger friends we decided to go for a real romantic get-away to have some quality time JUST the two of us as far away as we could think of! Here is the Antarctica trip: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 8.

We should have known better. Three days later:

Our love nevertheless blossomed and grew day after day!

And on January 28 I proposed.

And Ruis accepted, making me the happiest mancat in the whole universe!

Then we started to have adventures! In February we went to Venice.

...and in March we first toppled the tower of Pisa...
(This unfortunate incident was part of "Europe in two days"! You can follow it here:
Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.)

... and then partied for St. Patrick's day in Ireland!

But we always made sure to get enough rest, in between adventures!

And we also always made sure to go to enough parties, in between resting, HAHAHAHAHAHA:
This is Asta's welcome home party, see it here: 1, 2, 3.

And on May 30, 2008 we got married! On board the voyager, by Captain Janeway.
See here the wedding preparations, the wedding, and of course the wedding party!

With 52 guests!

Our wedding picture. I love you Ruis, now and forever!

to be continued....

RUIS. We miss you so much.

2014-11-20T18:22:00.001-07:00

Samyr Pax de Levant
26 november 1998 ~ 18 november 2014

We will have a tribute to Ruis at a later time.

national feral cat day

2014-10-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

"Alley Cat Allies launched National Feral Cat Day® on our 10th anniversary in 2001 to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return, and recognize the millions of compassionate Americans who care for them."

we at the cat realm celebrate national feral cat day in memory of our dear feral cat anastasia.
and who could ever forget her wild "dares", making the whole blogosphere wear pink wigs with the first one!
we will always love you anastasia!

HAPPY NOMS DAY !

2014-08-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today we are celebrating Noms Day ("Not Of My Species Day"), a holiday created by anastasia in 2007 to remember that all beings are equal, to remind ourselves to be tolerant towards everybody, to reach out across species, cultures, nationalities, religions, languages, beliefs and appearances and to come together and embrace our differences.

We wish all of you a very happy Noms Day!

World Cup 2014

2014-07-09T21:45:00.001-07:00

happy new year to all of you!

2013-12-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

dia de muertos

2013-10-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

this year we decided to not go for the whole halloween thing but to celebrate dia de muertos, the day of the dead, a mexican holiday, as we live only 60 minutes north of mexico.
we will celebrate and honor our family members who went to the bridge, and have buildt them a little altar:

upper row left to right: luna, anastasia, opus and roscoe

lower row left to right: emil, sassy, momo, olive

we will always love you.

we got an award!!!

2013-09-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

after being away from the active blogging world for so long it came as a BIG surprise to us that we got an award nevertheless!
our dear friend islay who is continuing our very dear angel friend charlie's blog gave us the sweet award.
and how sweet of you, islay, to do so. thank you sooo much!

and here are the "rules" that come with it:

1. Thank a blogger for nominating you. thank you, thank you, thank you islay!

2. Include the award image on your blog.

3. Nominate and notify a baker's dozen sweet blogs for this award.

4. Answer 5 Super Sweet questions:
Cookies or Cake? i guess there was a misspelling? shouldn't it read "and" not "or"?
What is your favorite sweet treat? whip cream
When do you crave sweet things the most? i don't understand the question? it almost sounds as if there would be a time when one does not crave sweets???
If you had a sweet name, what would it be? honeysuckle sugarpie

and we pass this award on to the following blogs, and angel friends:
ruis
gracie
asta
socks
flynn
angel and kirby
team tabby
cheysuli
momo
roscoe
opus
olive
sassy

PS - the rules of course do not apply to the angel kitties.

2013 summer blogosphere trip

2013-09-01T15:24:00.004-07:00

our good friend gracie was hosting the third annual blogosphere trip and thanks to her and my dear husband ruis i, karl got to go along! and now that i am back i finally found the time to make a post about it! we had sooooo much fun, you can read about it at gracie's blog, and there are lots of wonderful pictures also:

picture by gracie

happy noms day to all of you!

2013-08-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

as some of you might remember our beloved anastasia used to have "dares" for the whole blogosphere, and one of them was the nomss friend dare: I dare you all to make a not-of-my-species-special-friend.
and you all did and from then on we celebrate noms day every august 5!

HAPPY NOMS DAY !

until we meet again....

2013-07-07T08:43:00.002-07:00

our hearts are broken. there are no words for the pain we feel.

sweet olive, we will miss you forever!

you can also leave condolences with her family.

happy 4th of july!

2013-07-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

and the party is at the tabby cat club, see you there!

picture by gracie

we will miss you skeezix!

2013-06-19T14:46:00.002-07:00

he wore sunglasses before we even started blogging.

our role model and hero, a legend within the blogosphere.

always funny, always supporting!

always fighting for justice.

cyberspace, the internet, the world and of course his wonderful family

has lost one of their greatest:

skeezix the cat.

we will miss you. until we meet again.

no party.....

2013-06-04T07:56:00.002-07:00

as i did not win... (see last post)

congratulations to glogirly though who DID deservedly win the
PBM logo contest! well done!

i am taking a rest from the hard work of designing but hopefully will be back soon!

please vote for the new pet blogger mall logo!

2013-06-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

some very smart pet bloggers had the fabulous idea to open a
pet blogger mall.

and to find a logo for their new mall they created a logo design contest.

and yours truly, karl of the cat realm, entered three designs!

and to find the winner there will be a public voting, and that is where you all come into play:

please go over to the voting post and vote.

if i win, we will have a party, hahahahahahahahahahaha

here is the URL and voting has started

click here to vote

and will only last one day!

karl

here are my designs:
(i personally like the first one best but decided to still send all three in.
the more, the merrier, right?)

ruis - we are here for you!

2013-05-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

while ruis is home now, he still needs purrs from all of you, and some help form nurse OZ and nurse karl.

please send healing purrs to my dear husband ruis!

2013-05-06T23:07:00.002-07:00

+++ update: ruis is home but still very weak +++

he still needs your healing purrs! thank you!

ruis heart is not pumping strong enough and he also gets fluids behind his lungs. he is getting medicines for both now and is still at the vet so they can monitoring him and give him fluids when needed. if he continues eating (he ate a little bit) and there is no fluid behind his lungs, he can come tomorrow evening!
so please, send healing purrs so he gets better and the medicine will continue to help him!

guess what i just did....

2013-05-05T08:11:00.002-07:00

PS: check back - karl and I are also still waiting for that taxi cab to take us to the next adventure!

waiting to be picked up...

2013-04-26T18:17:00.000-07:00