Murchyk the Cat is Packing Christmas Gifts

Christmas 2013 is just around the corner! Murchyk the cat is packing Christmas gifts to our friends and family:

Purry and Meowy Christmas 2013 and Happy New Year everyone! From the Murchyk, Canadian cat with Ukrainian name

Exotic Cats I Got For Christmas

I knew it and I felt as a cat person that I am going to get some cat-related gifts for Christmas! And I got it!

First one is a beautiful pencil case:

A wonderful lady and a friend of our family Mildred gave it to me. Thank you so much Mildred! This is a really nice piece of art, this colorful leather case with an image of exotic kitty on it – crafted in India and sold in one of my favorite stores, Ten Thousand Villages Canada. The case is very multifunctional – can be used for carrying pens and pencils, also, as a coin purse or as a case for glasses.

Another cute and exotic kitty-cat I got for Christmas from my husband Ron - a wood carved art, handmade and handpainted:

Amazing, isn't? Actually, this is a mail holder, but can be also used as a napkin holder.

Love it so much!

And how was your Christmas, cat lovers? Did you get something with kitty on it, like me? Feel free to tell your stories here, in comments section to this post, or at Murchyks Facebook page. Thank you!

Table-Top Christmas Tree is The Best Solution for Those Who Got Too Curious Pets

Have you got too curious cat or dog at home? If so, I think, you familiar with this kind of Christmas carol:

Oh Christmas tree,

Oh Christmas tree,

Your ornaments

Are history!

Are you smiling? Me too! But, on a serious side, my family know how to avoid ruining our Christmas tree or decorations by too curious furry friend (in our case – our beloved Murchyk the cat :) So, in order to avoid big Holiday Catsmess, two years in a row, since we got our Murchyk, we simply… didn't have any Christmas tree. However, we have found few compromises, like having kissing balls and swags – take a look; it was last year and a year before.

So this Christmas 2012 Ron and I have decided to go the same way – to get few kissing balls in our favourite flower shop, and that’s was it. Until we accidentally saw a perfect solution for our (and our cat’s) Christmas – a table-top Christmas tree! Live! We have spotted it in local mall and bought immediately. Good, we have a little patio table, so we brought it in, set up our table-top Christmas tree on it, decorated it, and… it looks beautifully! And, of course, unreachable for our curious Murchyk:

As you can see, the tree got a little stand with a bowl of water; I water it regularly, so our tree can stay live in a house for long-long time, which is good, because we are intend to keep it longer than for Christmas and New Year. As we have explain in Murchyks blog introduction, our family is Ukrainian-Canadian, so we celebrate Ukrainian Christmas as well (Ukrainian Christmas is January 7).

So, we are really happy we have found a perfect Christmas tree solution as for us, cat persons. But even having a table-top Christmas tree, I still wanted a kissing ball, which I got; here it is, with Murchyk’s Christmas stocking on it:

It’s so nice to wake up in Christmas time in a house full of smell of a real fur-tree! And knowing that both your cat and your ornaments are safe :)

Our Murchyk the Cat Won a Gift Basket for Christmas!

Yay! Our Murchyk the cat won a cat raffle gift basket for taking picture with a Santa Claus in Academy Canada! What a nice surprise for Christmas!

Here is the picture of the winner – our Murchyk the cat with Santa:

And here is Murchyk with his prize – the gift basket with plenty of cat’s goodies:

Here is Murchyk opening the basket:

Trying out what is in there:

And playing with all of it, of course:

And, finally, trying to be a Santa himself:

P.S. А huge thanks from us, Maria and Ron, happy owners of the Murchyk cat, and from Murchyk the cat himself, to Academy Canada for their amazing event Santa Paws – Pet Photos with Santa Claus!

Merry and Furry and Purry Christmas everyone!

We Had a Very Purry Christmas

So, how was your Christmas? Hope you had a good one.
Our Christmas was really warm and cozy and very purry :) As a family with a cat, we got few nice cat-related Christmas gifts. This cute Kitty-Santa ornament is from our friend Lisa:

Our friend Candace, who is a cat person too, just like us, gave us this lovely picture of three cats

and a Cat’s Meow Christmas CD with special carols for our Murchyk cat – "We Wish You A Merry Kitty", "Oh Come! All Ye Persians!", "Kitty Bells" etc.

Murchyk was listening to it and his ears were moving – he was definitely curious who is meowing to the carols tunes.

My husband and I also got a cat-related gift for Candace – a German Riesling in a cat shaped bottle. Here is our Murchyk, helping me out to decorate a Christmas present for Candace:

I had a Riesling myself in a cat-shaped bottle, it was two years ago. When wine is gone, I decided to keep the bottle - it is because 1) I am a cat lover; 2) bottle is too cute to be thrown away; 3) it can be used as a one flower vase – and it is being use as a one flower vase. Or for Christmas decorations, like this year:

So, when I saw the same cat-shaped bottle in store, only in a different color – just before this Christmas – I had no doubts what to get for Candace. I am glad she liked our gift. She also got a cute cat-shaped wooden jewelry box from her sister-in-law.

Candace and her family have two dogs and three cats! Pets are very smart and friendly and fun. They all adore Candace – she is very good with them.

Back to our gifts talk, I wanted to tell you, that Candace’s family and friends have no big troubles what to get her for a Christmas or birthday present – they know that something cute and cat-related will work just fine! Therefore Candace has an amazing cats ring on her finger, and wonderful earrings (I’ve never seen anything like this before: a cat in one ear and a mouse in another one); and plenty of kitties pictures at her home; and cats magnets on a fridge; and a cat candleholder, and… Anyway, Candace said, it is okay with her, if I will tell you more detail story about all the cat-related goodies she got, here, at Murchyks.com

And, of course, I will introduce you Candace’s cats – they are so cute and funny!

I also have a question to you, cat lovers: what did you or your kitty (kitties) got for this Christmas? Please feel free to post your pictures and stories at Murchyks Facebook page – with a link to your cat blog or website, if you have one.

Cat-Related Christmas Ornaments

Christmas would not be a Christmas for cat persons without having cat-related ornaments on a Christmas tree or another fir tree unit (like ours), right? So, I would like to share with you what we got on our kissing ball this Christmas – a “Hello Kitty” ornament:

Next one is not ours. This picture of a Tigger Kitty ornament our friend Galya from Texas sent to us. Galya is a cat person too, and that’s what she got for her family Christmas tree:

If you have some cat-related Christmas ornaments and would like to share, please feel free to post those at our Murchyks Facebook page (can be posted with a link to your website or blog).
Merry Christmas!

Merry Catsmess!

Meet Vasey. He is a lovely cat of Jasmine (Jasmine is a niece of my sister-in-law). This picture was taken last year, when Jasmine's family was setting up a Christmas tree. Kitty-cat immediately went to discover what is it and how it works and whether he can play with it. It was Vasey's first Christmas! Yay!

Last year was our Murchyk’s first Christmas too. But my husband Ron and I decided to avoid any complications having Christmas tree in the same house with cat – we knew we would have permanent worries whether our Christmas tree, ornaments and garlands are survived, or whether our kitten is okay. Sometimes I think how people can ever manage having a Christmas tree, a baby and a cat (cats) – everything at the same time :)
Anyway. We COULD have a Christmas tree, but we decided to avoid any worries about our cat and tree relationships, so that’s how we decorated our house for Christmas last year – we just hung a kissing ball to the wall. We have ordered a plain fir tree ball in a local garden store and I decorated it with our ornaments:

I can tell you - this is a good Christmas tree solution for cat persons like us!
This year we stuck to the same decoration idea: two kissing balls under the ceiling

(oh yeah, cat-related ornament is a must!)
and a swag on a wall:

Knowing our Christmas decorations decision, our friends from the States Olya and Jim sent us a sweet Christmas card which we love so much! Here, what they wrote, “Since you didn’t put up a tree because of your Murchyk might make a mess, we found a card to show you it would make great pictures! Merry Catsmess!” 
And here is the card:

Thanks Olya and Jim! Thanks Jasmine for the kitty’s picture! Merry Christmas to all of you, guys! And to all the cats in the world!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It is nice to start something new for Christmas! So, here we are, another two cat persons, which are joining a huge army of cat bloggers worldwide. I am Maria, an author of this blog, and my husband’s name is Ron. We are happy Ukrainian-Canadian family and we live in Canada. We got a cat, his name is Murchyk - please take a look above for the blog description, what does Murchyk mean. In this blog we will talk not about our cat only, but about everything what is connected to cats: pictures, videos, tips how to take a better care about your furry purring sweetie (sweeties) etc. So, as we started before the Christmas, we want to share with you something Christmassy about cat’s world. In this case – about our Murchyk’s world. Our cat is indoor-outdoor cat and he is absolutely okay with winter. He is very curious about snowy weather and about everything which is connected to a snow, like shoveling snow:

And our Murchyk is having quite a fun in a snowfall:

Well, it is not that much fun, when he is coming in with all those snowballs stuck to his furry belly and leaving wet marks all over the place. In this case I normally take him to the bathroom and let those snowballs to melt, because it is impossible to remove them from his fur right away, especially if it was a humid weather outside and snow got wet.

But, anyway, it is fun – as I am a cat person, everything what is connected to my beloved kitty is fun. And every time, looking at his winter pictures, I am getting into a Christmas spirit. I hope, you too!

Your comments and messages are welcome.
P.S. I completely forgot - I have a video of our Murchyk which I took on the same snowy day! Here it is, hope you enjoy it like our furry sweetie was enjoying a snow and snowflakes: