Murder and Tea

Hello my Toms and Kittens,
Thomas Beckett, ghost cat. There has been a lot of activity at the inn lately. It’s so a cat get a good nap these days! In march we had a Wild West murder mystery…I even saw Calamity Jane. Thought she was on the other side with me. Then this last Saturday we had a Tea complete with hat competition. You are right to think this incredibly tempting for a cat of my caliber. You will be happy to know no hats were damaged as I kept my paws to myself. It was a nice intimate tea, the food was glorious and everyone left with a little something to take home.

Our next event is Mother’s Day dinner. Make sure to get your reservations in as soon as you can. Until after my next catnap…. May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!
Thomas Beckett
(ghost cat)

Look what you missed!

Hello Kittens and Toms!
Valentine’s Day is over. Whew! It was busy around here. Twenty-four people on Saturday and 35 for Valentine’s Day. If you weren’t here you missed quite a dinner. You also missed an opportunity to win some prizes.

Three enthusiastic meows to Larry Lutz for winning the one night stay, and Steve and Vicki Fortune for winning the dinner for two!

I am off to join the other cats for some scrapes. There is a six-toed beauty, ironically named Beauty, that I want to woo.

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!
Thomas Beckett
(ghost cat)

Memories of Pepé le Pew

Hello my toms and kittens,
Ghost cat of the Inn here, Thomas Becket. I know some of you are old enough to remember Pepé le Pew, that master of love, Cassanova of the kiss, Valentino to every female skunk’s (cat’s) heart and the first in interspecies love affairs! … Bless his heart, and those poor kittens. When that smell hit! Nothing deterred Pepé though. By-the-way, great friend of mine. I mention him now because it is his favorite time of year, when a young male’s heart turns to the prospects of love. Valentine’s day is getting close at hand and I hear it is going to be a five course meal at the Inn. You know what that means! Kitty scraps for days and serious ability to pitch woo. You can’t believe what a kitten will do for the Inn’s table scraps.

Well, Pepé and me have our plans for Valentine’s day. Do you have yours?
May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!
Thomas Beckett
(ghost cat)

New Year

Hello my Toms and Kittens,
Thomas Beckett, your ghost cat, here. Well, well, well it has been a while. You must forgive me as I have been cat napping. You lose time on the other side of things. I will try and not take such a long cat nap again. New year, new resolutions. I see the bloody dog is still around. She has gotten ruder than ever. Barks at me constantly! Kay’s in the process of taking down the Christmas decor and Celeste is at her computer getting preparations for Valentine’s Day dinner taken care of. Looks like there is a chance to win a free dinner for two and a free night stay at the inn. Twice the chance to win something. Not to worry, I will not haunt your stay. Celeste tells me it is not nice to frighten guests.

This Christmas season we had a lovely family stay and have Christmas with us. I think it was that that woke me from my nap with all the game playing and children laughing....and then there was the food! How can a ghost cat nap with the smell of food everywhere?

Celeste is telling me to make sure to remind you to check our calendar periodically for upcoming events.

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!
Thomas Beckett
(ghost cat)

Post Valentine's Review

Hello my little kittens. We had a good showing for the Valentine’s dinner, and if you missed it….well you missed out. As your neighborhood Ghost cat, naturally I was there. I mean there was food after all. The steak, the chicken, the Cheesecake! Makes me purr just thinking about it. So for those that missed it I have a few pictures to show you to make you feel even more guilty. Which if you know Celeste is a miracle, because she is always forgetting to get that money shot.

This year we gave away a free night’s stay at the inn as a gift to one special couple. The couple who won the draw is Eva and Igor Takacs. Congratulations!

Our next dinner is Mother’s day, so get it marked on your calendar!
May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! .
Thomas Beckett

Winter Kitty Land

Hello Cats,
It is Thomas Beckett your Cat-on-a-cold-tin-roof (I couldn’t help myself with that one). It is the season of ear muffs and mittens and I am looking for that perrrrrfect place to curl up and keep warm. Hunters are here and the Inn is full of life.

But I digress, I am on business with this blog. Christmas is coming soon and per usual our inn will be having our annual free-will donation Christmas dinner. I am happy to say Celeste has up on our calendar almost all of our activities for 2020, so you can look that over and make your plans.

I am off to hide from the hunters!
May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! .
Thomas Beckett
(ghost cat)

Summertime!

Hello Kittens and Toms,

This is your on-the-prowl ghost cat Thomas Becket. Summertime is here, and it’s time to get out and enjoy the weather. On my wanderings I have noticed that the Old Time Soda Fountain is now open for the summer on Saturdays again. They are nice and give me an occasional bowl, not of cream but of vanilla malt. Mmmmm. If you haven’t stopped by yet you should.

The warm days have found me out exploring. I may be a ghost, but I am still a cat and love to explore my territory. I encourage you to do the same. Take a visit to the Round Barn, Prairie Trails Museum, Amish country or Bob White Park. Don’t forget in your travels to visit me at the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat. On top of a great place to get-a-way for a weekend, the inn is a wonderful place to have your birthday parties, anniversaries, graduation open house, reunions etc. Pick up the phone and give us a call at 641.873.4900. Celeste, Kay and I would be happy to welcome you.

Have a memorable summer.
May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!  .
Thomas Beckett

Christmas Season Was Purrrrrfect!

Welll, the new year is here and not that time matters to a ghost cat, but where in the world did last year go?! We are looking forward to new and wonderful things in 2018. 

I hope you and yours had a good Christmas. The Christmas season was pretty busy around here. Bev and Gary Thomas had their family Christmas gatherings and Ziggy's had their company Christmas party with us. Games were played, presents unwrapped, ribbons everywhere (sigh...I love playing with ribbons!) & let us not forget about the food! 

Speaking of food, though Celeste didn't get pictures of it, we had tons of food. 60 people shared our free will donation Christmas dinner–the largest crowd to date. I have to say I headed for cover. I mean a cat can get trampled in a crowd like that. Well, don't take my word for it check out the pictures!

Seriously! Mom does this to me every year.

Seriously! Mom does this to me every year.

And what year wouldn't be complete without humiliating that dog that I put up with. Gotta love it! It's so funny I coughed up a hairball laughing so hard.

Well toms and kittens, keep your eyes and ears open for the events coming up this year. The next is Valentines Day dinner. If you really want to impress your Valentine come spend the night or weekend.  We will be advertising a romance package for Valentines soon.

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

Christmas Time Is Here!

Schneider family's 2017 Brothers & Others Hunt on the steps of the Inn.

Schneider family's 2017 Brothers & Others Hunt on the steps of the Inn.

Hello Cats and Kittens, it's Thomas Beckett your ghost-cat-on-the-prowl here. The Inn is taking a short break from hunters to get ready for Christmas. We are all decorated up and looking forward to our annual free will donation Christmas Dinner. There is going to be lots of fun, stories and goodies to eat. 

Hunting season has been pretty good this year and of course I am persona non grata at the inn around this time. Despite some of my live cohorts sneaking in when hunters left doors open, it didn't keep them from killing there deer. Happy hunters, happy hunting lodge! We had some great groups come this year. One family, the Schneider family, was on their "2017 brothers & others" hunt. They even had a little pin to commemorate it. Out of their group of 11, eight killed their deers. We are looking forward to our last hunters of the season coming up and after Christmas.

Celeste, Kay and I hope that this Christmas season finds you and yours well and happy. So from the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat...Merry Christmas!!!

Till next time, May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

A Catch up on the Summer

Well Cats and Kittens, it has been a while since I have been online. The summer has been like bad catnip...crazy! I know I have been napping lately and I will try to be better. 

This summer we hosted the Compass Creative Dramatics for a week. They came in on a Sunday, Monday they auditioned kids for The Wizard of Oz and put on a show Friday and Saturday. It was just amazing to see what could be accomplished in just a week. The Children of Allerton did a great job! Cathlyn Melvin and David Smith did a great job with the kids and we want them to know how much their coming and teaching the children is appreciated. They travel the country doing these workshops and opening young people up to the theater. I encourage you to check them out in the link above.

Just this last weekend we had our 5th annual Ladies and Princess A Brunch and Fashion Show. There were a few less ladies than last year but the food and fashions were awesome and everyone had a real good time. Celeste and Kay worked extra hard to get all of the little tasty finger foods done with a bit of help from Linda Murphy. This Kitty sat back and took some pictures to share. We had ladies and princesses from Walnut, Leon, Humeston, Corydon and Allerton. I hope I didn't miss any towns. A huge thank you to everyone who came. The ladies didn't leave this kitty hardly anything to snack on. Oh well.

Until next time....May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

Candles and Soap and Kittens...oh, my!

Hello Kittens and Tom Cats! New and exciting news here at the Inn. Now, instead of just cups and our book, we have candles and soaps for guests to purchase as mementos of their stay. Each candle and soap has a little cat charm, after all we are the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat. We have postcards in the works as well, and hopefully they will be available soon. 

We like to reuse things here at the inn, so that very little goes to waste. In that spirit, all of the soap and candles come from recycled materials and old dishes. Celeste is a bit of a Tinker Bell in that she likes to make things out of "lost things." We hope that our guests will like having a bit more of a variety of souvenirs to choose from. I believe the goal is to have an Etsy account for the products. I will of course keep you updated on that. 

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

Murder Madness

Hello All! Your on-the-prowl ghost cat, Thomas Becket reporting on the Murder Mystery dinner here at the Inn of the Six-Toed cat. We had 4 guests that stayed the weekend with us enjoying our country goodies welcome platter, breakfast and the murder mystery dinner. Next year we hope that we will have a full house. Those that didn't take advantage of the weekend package really missed out. Everyone had such a good time.  

We had a total of 12 people for dinner, which made it cozy and fun! I spent most of my time in the kitchen with Celeste so we only got to hear the laughing, gun shots, screaming of the dying victim and the conversations at the table as the guests played out their parts. A couple people even dressed for the event having been sent their parts early.

The food was wonderful as usual. Me, the Pounce and the Glare (words for a groups of cats) in the back got left overs...Yummmmmmmy! There was Reuben Cups, bangers in a blanket with a Guinness dipping sauce, corn beef and cabbage, chicken skewers, apple cake with custard sauce and a chocolate Guinness cake. 

I am thinking next year should be a civil war murder mystery. What do you think?
May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

2016 Small Business of the Year Award!

Well, hello Kittens and Tomcats! Thomas Becket, your ghost cat on-the-prowl here. It has been a while, I know, but trying to get a photo of the ladies for this blog is impossible! I have some very good news to share though. The yearly Chamber of Commerce dinner held quite the surprise for the girls. Kay wasn't feeling well, so her and Celeste came home right after the food but before the speaker and awards started. 

Celeste and I were in the kitchen making some eggs and she was getting into full relaxation mode. You know, shoes off, wig off, etc., when first a bellow came from Kay's direction quickly followed by screaming for Celeste to "get in here quick!" As soon as Celeste asked her what in the heck she was screaming for, Kay told her she had to get back over to the Chamber dinner ASAP. Well, both her and I figured this could only mean we won an award. The person presenting the award had kindly texted Kay to find out where she was.

Celeste's ASAP was to put her wig and shoes back on...Kay's ASAP was for her to forgo that and fly down the street. The hair was put back on, naturally, and then the peddle was put to the medal...or is that the other way around? I can never remember.

Kay, Celeste and I would like to thank every one in the chamber for this award. We were very happily surprised. Celeste and I really consider this Kay's accomplishment since she has only been here a year and I of course am a ghost.

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

 

 

A New Terrifi-Cat Year!

Wow, can't say I am sorry to see the end of 2016! Talk about a year that went to the dogs! On to bigger and better things this year at the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat. This kitty can't wait to see what's in store. 

Now, I am not one to spread any rumors (especially after hitting the cat-nog at Christmas...and New Year, but I heard from a very reliable source that there are some special package offers for the end of January and Valentine's. Right now Celeste is just offering them to past guests before she goes public with it. You can be sure your ghost cat on-the-prowl will fill you in just as soon as that happens.

A couple updates on the Cat front. One of our Pounce has been adopted! Yea!!! Garfield has a new home with one of our wonderful hunters, Jeff Pyle. We thought Jeff might be living with us after the wife found out one of the things he was bringing home didn't have antlers. Nope, we are happy to say Jeff and Garfield still have a home. We couldn't be more pleased! The second isn't quite as joyful. Spotty went to that big catnip field in the sky just before Christmas. I expect to see him on the porch in ghost form anytime now. 

So if you feel something rub up against your leg at the Inn, don't be afraid, it's just me, Thomas Beckett and Spotty. If we get pictures of Garfield and Jeff we post them.

Until next year, may your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Whew! Just got back from playing ghost cat of Christmas present, well, if your reading this now then I am at the moment playing ghost cat of Christmas just past. Thomas Beckett, as always, your ghost cat on-the-prowl. Meowy Christmas!

This year's human Christmas dinner was a small, cozy affair with only 18 people attending.  I, of course, was on my best behavior, hower that can't be said of Ghost who snuck in and had to be booted out.

Along with the wonderful food (Kay's apple salad being quite a success), there was a Christmas quiz and musical stylings of Larry Murphy who sang a couple creatively funny new twists on some favorite classic Christmas songs.

Celeste almost forgot to get up and take pictures. She knows I always like to have pictures with my comments. She did manage to get a picture of Roxanna and Kevin Wolfe who won the quiz game with 11 out of 15 right. Congradulations Roxanna and Kevin! Hey, do you know "what carol contains 'the everlasting light'?" 

Until next year, may your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

Christmas Dinner at the Inn

Well, unbelievably, it is Christmas time again. Thomas Becket, your ghost cat on-the-prowl reporting in that the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat is all decorated, Missy Mouse is in her Christmas jammies, cookies have been made and most all the hunters have gone home.

In the spirit of Christmas, the Six-Toed Cat is putting on it's 4th annual Christmas Dinner. If you don't have anywhere to go for Christmas, family is away or even if you just don't feel like cooking and want some good food and great company, come on over and have Christmas dinner with us. Stay for games, football, movies on TV or just good ole fashioned conversation.  

Where: Inn of the Six-Toed Cat
When: December 25, 2016
Time: 12 noon
Reservations required – call 641-873-4900
Cost – Free Will Donation

Oh, and don't forget if you are wanting to give a kitty for Christmas we have plenty that need homes, including two young ones. Ooh, ooh, ooh I almost forgot, don't forget to bring some catnip for me!

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

A Hunting We Will Go

Hello Cats and Kittens! It's Thomas Beckett again, your ghost cat on-the-prowl. It is that time again -- hunting season. I know some of you can't appreciate that, but to a wild animal like me it's life's blood...okay, okay, maybe just a house cat with wild longings. 

Getting ready for the invasion of hunters means Missy Mouse has to go into lock down. No more free roaming for her. Inn has to be made shipshape, menus made, laundry baskets and towels out for them, bedding changed from fru-fru to manly...or as manly as our in can be, etc.

The only other exciting thing that has happened lately is that Celeste felt it her civic duty to help an elk commit suicide. Her poor car, but I have to say it's car 1, elk 0. And last night we had to evacuate the building for a few hours for mysterious reasons. Other than that not much to tell. Life at the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat goes on and lazily. 

So, until next time, May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

Dinner with General Ulysses S. Grant

Uploaded by Celeste Bivin on 2016-09-18.

Thomas Beckett here, your ghost cat on the prowl. This weekend we had quite a thrill as General Ulysses S. Grant had dinner at our little inn. He was with a some of his officers, their wives and a few guests. They all looked very smart in their uniforms and beautiful dresses. I wonder if they make the officer's hat in cat size?

General Grant told a few stories, and everyone ate dinner complete with his favorite dessert of rice pudding, mmmmmm. We even had the excitement of Ghost sneaking into the inn and being chased around. You should have seen it at least 3 people on the floor calling and trying to catch him. He lead Celeste on a merry chase!

As you can see everyone had a good time, but sadly he didn't need a mouser. The job was already taken. General Grant has left the building, I repeat General Grant has left the building.

In all seriousness, we at the Inn of the Six-Toed Cat really enjoyed having this lovely group of people at our inn and look forward to having them visit again.

Until next time, May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

 

The Brunch and Afterwards

Thomas Becket...ghost cat...dun, dun, duuunnnn. Some things I just do for myself.

Sorry for the lack of an August blog, but we have been busy around here. Someone, we won't mention any names, was busy watching the olympics and making head dresses, so I had very little access to her computer.

Well, we had quite a time at the Ladies and Princesses a Brunch/Fashion Show. I just remembered to get a couple snap shots, but silly me forgot to get pictures of the fashion show. Everyone had a very good time. I tried to stay out of the way, too many feet about the place. There were 31 guests and models...a complete success. 

Afterward, Kay and Celeste were both taking catnaps so I curled up beside them and took advantage of the quite myself. I did feel a bit bad, as I distracted Celeste the night before when she was making the little pies and she burnt 2 batches....oops!

Now we are getting ready for a Dinner With General Ulysses S. Grant on Sept.16. It should be fascinating, so get your reservations in. Mmmm, I wonder if he needs a good mouser?

Until next time, May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong! 

The Mouse Patrol of the Six-Toed Cat

Thomas Beckett here, your on-the-prowl ghost cat. So, it's breakfast time at the Inn...for the mouse patrol. The sound of the doors opening in the morning brings them all running. My feline family is growing and we are on a search to find homes for some of them. There is a pounce of cats in the front – they are the greeters. Then there is the glaring of cats in the back – they are the rear guard and mostly feral, hence the two different terms for the groups.

Let me introduce you to our pounce: Ghost, because you turn around and there he is...in the inn; Garfield, well, he's light orange and constantly wants your attention; Tiger, he is dark orange with stripes; Spotty, who is quiet, and, well, spotty; finally, Midnight, he is new and I believe the poor guy is happy to have found the Six-Toed Cat. All of them are fixed.

The glaring: Momma Cat, so named because she is always pregnant (she is fixed now); Grey Girl, she is gray in color obviously; Noisy, who has has moved from the front to the back and loves to talk; the three kittens, Little Red and Wings (haven't named the third); finally, one last male that is also orange, Goldie.

My hope is that good homes can be found for the kittens and four or five of the pounce. So please pass the word. Who Can say no to these faces?

To adopt one of our cats or make a donation for their care just call 641-873-4900.  If you are from out of state, we will get the cat to you....trust me, we will make it happen.

May your catnaps be long and fanciful & your catnip strong!