Conference misery::feline

    Well, as you are all well aware, there are four solid black felines in
    the FIRM. 

    As always, the twins Panther and Eirene swapped collars to disguise
    themselves as Eirene and Panther, and they flew around the neighborhood
    on a souped up Eureka. They went around haunting.

    Nikoloas is a bit more traditional; He went trick-or-treating from
    house to house, transported on electric broom. His goal was to  scare
    people, and figured what would be more fearful than an attorney
    (subpoena in paw) on your doorstep? 

    Kostas decided to stay home and eat all of the cream-filled bonbons
    that I had for trick-or-treaters. I think that the put on two pounds.

    Deb

    Deb, does the cat have to be all black?  We spent our weekend cleaning,
    and that includes the black cat.  :^)  How boring and uneventful but
    we'll make up for partying at a later date!!!!  Drats, and to think, I
    was going to go to a party dressed as a whole male!  Sandy Merritt
    would have never been the same...  :^)

Simon spent Saturday evening playing with his bottle caps.  They're his most 
favored toy, and he has them all over the house, especially under the kitchen 
stove  (I recently retrieved *15* of them from under there!)  When you open a 
soda bottle, you have to hold onto the cap, or you will find Simon has absconded 
with it. (plus, he knows where I hide the 'extras'...)

    Well, we didn't get any tricker-treaters ... sigh!
    
    Otis is black (with a white chest and two white paws) Tiffany
    is black with HUGE white spots (like a reverse Oreo cookie)
    and Abigail is a light shade of black (ahem...gray) on the tail
    and top of head with the rest of her coat being white.  So, I
    guess I could say all three COULD apply - but in all honesty
    I don't have one that is solid black.
    
    Halloween was quiet - with the exception of Abigail terrorizing
    Otis and Tiffany was depressed and went to bed around 11:00 a.m.!
    
    M,O,T,A and stray
    

We had an interesting evening at the Tamir Home for Wayward Cats....
Most of my cats had the common sense to hide, except Beth, who was very
interested in the activities.  Several neighborhood kids who know Beth
came in to see her and they said she looked like she had on a mask without
eye holes.  Beth had fun playing with them.  Blue had a visit from his former
owner, and I got very jealous.  He was all over her.  He obviously remembers
her and compared to her, I just won't do.  Sigh....

Mikey stuck a pillow under his belly and went disguised as Robin.  Not to
be outdone, Robin removed her brain and went disguised as Mikey.  Julie fell
into the toilet--she wanted to be Jacques Cousteau.  Biff went out as
Ross Perot.  If you've seen Biff, you've seen his ears....

Honey and Chauncey kept their fellow Himmy company....

Mary

    Well, my dear Tabitha had an interesting night on Halloween. (my solid
    black baby).
    
    We had a halloween party.  Most everyone dressed up in SOME type of
    scary costume (we actually had most of the adam's family there). 
    Tabitha spent the entire evening running from lap to lap, crossing
    EVERYONE's path. (-: She thought she was being "scary" when actually,
    she was being rather cute.  She was having a ball getting cuddles from
    all of the people at the party, and she didn't seem to mind the scary
    costumes at all! (-:
    
    She enjoyed the extra cuddling and all of the treats she got.  She got
    so many treats, she decided on no tricks this year (unlike past years!!
    (-:)
    
    Holly
    

    Onyx spent the evening posted by the window making sure that pumpkin
    cat, Dusty, didn't dare try to come in the house.  Carrie was either
    posted by the door checking out the trick or treaters or guarding
    the candy.  Amelia was tucked comfortably into Bailey's bed and 
    watched the whole thing with half-mast eyelids.
    
    The two outdoor kitties (Dusty and Phantom [aka Bill]) had firm 
    instructions not to leave the locked patio at all.  They followed 
    instructions completely.  Dusty was curled up on his black felt 
    squares on the large crate and Phantom was tucked into his box.
    They even stayed on opposite ends of the patio so they wouldn't
    have a noisy fight and call attention to themselves.

    Nique spent the evening locked in the barn, so as not
    to tempt any pranksters lurking about.  There were some
    pranksters lurking, because the Jack-o-lantern disappeared off the
    front steps sometime after 11:00.
    
    She was highly indignant to have to spend the evening with the
    2 horses and the rabbit, shut in the barn.
    
    A can of fancy feast w/shrimp smoothed her ruffled feelings...
    
    L 

    Rosie terrified one group of children who came round to us Trick or
    Treating.
    I usually make sure both my cats are inside, just in case, but this
    year Rosie didn't want to come in. She had other plans!!!
    The first I knew about it was when I heard shrieks from outside. When I
    went to the door I was met by three white-faced monsters and a ghost
    who really looked the part! 
    
    Rosie had apparently waited until they were just outside the porch and
    then leapt onto the shoulder of one of them from the roof of the porch.
    Being a black cat, they didn't see her until it was too late.
    
    Rosie likes Halloween - it's great fun!!!

    Well, Feendoonie must have understood that halloween is not a night for
    a black kitty to be out and about, so she spent the night curled up in
    my lap. If I got up, she would wait (im)patiently for me to return to
    my chair, and immediately jump back up.
    
    She sleeps in my lap a lot, but not usually for that many hours at one
    stretch! We don't get any trick or treaters in my neighborhood either.
    
    The other two were just hanging around, totally unaware of the dangers
    that may have been lurking in the darkness. Finnigan sat in the window
    for a short while pretending to be a pumpkin, but since there were no
    kids about, he soon got bored, and went to sleep in a pile of catnip I
    put on the floor for him. ;-)
    
    Yonee

    I had five "little white ghosts" tricking about the house on Saturday!! 
    They were looking for treats, but, I TRICKED THEM! No candy for
    kitties.
    Karen with five whites out of eleven!

    My two black little goblins spent the evening indoors as usual.  I
    think Lasher wanted to be a phantom since he made himself scarce, but
    Nic had a blast helping my sister make a costume for her boyfriend.
    
    Michelle

       We got 4 black cats of the night in the Gang.  They all hid every
    time the doorbell rang.  My orange pumpkin cat sat in the window like
    a good pumpkin should on Halloween!

    Momcat spent Halloween as she spends most of her days: eating
    everything in sight, napping, tormenting Baby Cakes and The Stump,
    and trying to catch slow, small animals. Until it got cold she was
    having some success with baby frogs, but with the coming of winter her
    hunts haven't been too successful when left with only fleet, small
    rodents to chase.
    
    She is holding at 15 pounds, down from her all-time high of 20, It is
    not easy. Several nights ago we turned our backs for a moment and when
    we looked back she was up on the kitchen table, polishing-off the
    _peas_.
    
     She took Halloween night off.
    
    
    ken
    
    
    

         My pumpkin cat, Loki, stayed in the chair in the front room and
    watched the trick-or-treaters.
    
         My pure-black cat, Midnight, stayed in our bedroom - she's afraid
    of strangers and these little goblins were just too much for her ;^) .
    
         The old brown tabby cat, Bigfoot, slept through it all 8-) .
    
    					- Andrea

    Hershey, my mostly black tortie, decided to be a bird on Halloween and
    attempted a practice flight Saturday morning from 20 feet up a tree.
    Her first flight was quite unsuccessful, and she spent the rest of the
    weekend in the hospital recovering from surgery.  
    
    Actually, she was attacked by another cat and ran up this tree to get 
    away from it.  I saw her up in the tree but didn't know then how she
    got there.  As she tried to get down, she slipped, fell across a broken
    branch which cut her abdomen open about 3 inches, and then fell to the
    ground landing in a briar patch.  She had lots of stitches Saturday
    morning and stayed at the vets until Monday morning.  When I picked her
    up on Monday, the vet then noticed 4 puncture wounds on her back just
    above the base of her tail and said it was definitely a bite. 
    
    Barbara + Hershey and Gretel

Oh, poor Hershey!!  She must have been scared stiff!!  Poor little dear!!
Tell her that Blue wishes her a quick recovery!!

Mary

    Nippa spent the night in a snit since she was grounded and not allowed
    out (mostly black tortie).
    
    Michele

    Poor Hershey.  I hope she's recovering well.
    

    Yes, Hershey's recovering well and leaving her stitches alone so far.
    She was so terrified after it happened, and I felt terrible about 
    having to leave her at the vets for the whole weekend.  What really
    worried me was that when she fell she did a fast low crawl from the
    tree to the house (about 20 feet), and once inside, I could see that
    she was badly limping on one hind leg.  I was afraid she had a broken
    leg or hip, but it was only bruised.  Two days of rest in a cage at
    the vet's probably was good for her, since she's walking almost
    normally now.
    
    I'm closely following the "Indoor Kitty" note after 3 trips to the
    vets for 2 cats in the past month due to outdoor accidents. 
    Unfortunately, all 3 "accidents" were vicious attacks from one
    stray cat.
           
    Barbara

    Both my black kitties spent the evening staring at the flickering
    candle in the pumpkin and batting around bite size Mounds bars.
    
    - Lauri
    

    Well my Halloween kitties are Van Gogh (black with some white) and
    Barkley (mostly black with a white locket on his chest).   Both spent
    a very quite Halloween hanging around.   Van Gogh helped greet some
    of the trick or treaters.......it is amazing that he no longer has
    any fear of people!!!
    
    As far as the rest of the crew...they were in hiding.  Everytime
    somebody would knock on the door...they bolted!!!   
    
    Sandy

         Sandy, does this mean that Van Gogh is getting better with the
    rest of your crew too ???
    
    					- Andrea

    Oh no......for the first hour of trick/treating...Van Gogh was
    out doing is "special time" with us.   And then for the next hour
    we had the rest of the crew with us...and then for the next hour
    we had Sass doing "special time"!!!!  And I wonder where my nights
    go!!!!
    
    I still dream of days we can all be together....we plan on trying 
    intro's again...but right now we are concentrating on Sass who is the 
    priority right now!!
    
    Sandy
    
    
    

    Moon acted as receiving committee, social secretary and primary objet
    macabre for a party of 7-year-olds on Halloween afternoon.  My
    daughter: "that thing on her forehead we call her `antler' but it's
    really CANCER.  My Mummie says someday she's gonna `kick the bucket.'"
    !!  Too true, but Moon was in fine Aries gadabout form for the
    festivities, and was actually kind of bummed when our company left to
    go trick-or-treating.
    
    Leslie