A moment of cat blogging

The kid took two really good pictures of the current four legged members of the family so I thought I'd share.

First is Zaphod. She's looks calm and regal. She's actually a total nut job.






















And this is the newest lady of the house (with the leading lady seen in the background). Her name is Jenny. She is very shy.

Weekend Update November 24

The Weekend That Was - Well most of the snow came before the weekend so I'll just ignore it. I may have some photos soon (I seem to be missing a cable) No, the real excitement of the weekend was with our cat Zaphod. Z is still enough of a kitten that she lives life at warp speed. Well Saturday she went into hyperdrive. Racing around, then stopping and giving the look of panting for a couple seconds, then racing off again. Then she'd hide under the furniture, then start all over again. She was obviously in distress but we couldn't figure out what kind. She didn't want to be touched (in fact she took a good shot at me and drew blood. She's never done that before) So after about 45 minutes we called the vet. Any new liquids/solids/stuff in the house (no), new lights or electrical cords (no), any new flea treatments (no), is she alert (yes), seizures (no), the running around would seem to eliminate heart or lung problems. Hmmm, well try wiping her fur down in case she'd gotten something on it (she would occasionally groom frantically)and see if she calmed down. If not call back. I've no problem with that response from the vet. As they said they best they could do under the circumstances would be to just observe her any way. We can do that at home for free. So we looked around. The only unusual thing was the very hot pan that had the Christmas fruitcake cooling in it. Our theory is that she licked the pan and burned her tongue. By this morning she was back to normal.

Then today she jumped up on the toilet seat just as I sat down. Surprised the daylights out of us both. No one injured. So it's been an interesting weekend for her.

Yes, I bake fruitcake for Christmas. It is 3.5 pounds of candied fruit soaked in brandy and held together with a very minimal amount of cake. It's delicious and it's not Christmas till I have a slice. I will wrap it in brandy soaked cheesecloth for about a month and then send it some to each of my brothers. Do not compare this with any fruitcake you buy in a store. I do not permit that wretched stuff into my home.



The To Do List - Still whittling down those little projects. Need to start thinking about summer camp issues very soon. Yes, seriously. Plus I have some absolutely cool reading that just arrived (details soon)


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Mostly doing those small projects. Silly. I could knock off a most of them in the week and be done with them.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Working on Kerouac's "On the Road". I'm still early on but it looks interesting. I really want to finish it before the holiday so I can get to two new books that I'm really excited about.

Finally saw "Unbreakable". Gotta admit that Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson are on my list of actors I'm willing to watch in just about anything. The movie may be absolute garbage but they're just fun to watch. This is the second M. Night Shyamalan movie I've ever seen (Sixth Sense is the other). I don't remember if he did it that movie but he spends a fair amount of time early in this one with cutsey camera angles and stuff. It gets irritating. And it's unnecessary because his basic directorial style is pretty good. The Hitchcock influence is a bit heavy handed though. It's like the difference between Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. Pryor used obscenity for a purpose and Murphy just decided to crank it up. Which totally misses the point. A really clever/artsy shot should lead back into the story and then disappear. A lot of these don't.

Otherwise I really liked the movie except for the end which felt contrived and dumb.


Next Up I need to plan out a sprint through to the end of the year to really set up next year. That means getting the little projects done, and laying some ground work. This next stretch is usually very quiet for me so I don't have many distractions.

How Am I Doing I'm in an OK place right now and I have some very cool things within sight.

Peace

Bits o news

Been a strange week so far:

A very dear friend at church passed away yesterday. It was not unexpected in any way but it's still sad. She was a special lady and will be missed. Funeral tomorrow.

Had to take our older cat to the vet yesterday because she had pretty much lost all interest in anything. She barely flinched when the kitten would jump on her and gnaw on her head rather than growling and hissing per usual. And she wouldn't even budge when my lady wife came into the house. This cat has always treated her as the "goddess" and needs her undivided attention for at least 20 minutes at the end of every day. The last three days? Didn't even turn her head. The early word is not good -liver damage, kidney damage. She's a very sick kitty with a very poor prognosis. She's in the animal hospital for the time being.

In news of lighter note and less importance -

My first weigh in on my new contest put me in the top 5. I doubt I'll stay there. Lost just over 2% of my initial weight. I would really love to drop below that next 10 pound milestone. Just four pounds away.

Dropped out of the top 10 in the football pool. It was a wretched week. Come on the Dolphins beating the Patriots? And a serious case of tail whoopin' at that. A couple other teams let me down as well. So I fell to 11th place. Still picked something like 10 out 16 games last week but got several high point games that I missed. Need a better week this week. Only 13 games to pick.

I've spent most of the day waiting on a software download that I need for the big project I'm sitting on. So everything has been on hold. Doing lots of little things.

Peace

Our newest family member

I meant to post this as part of the "Friday Cat Blogging" trend but the place where I store my photo files seems to have died (again!). So I had to establish a new place for the photos.


This is Zaphod. I award extra points for folks who catch the reference although that's costing me a LOT in points. It's not nearly as obscure as I thought. Which is kind of cool actually.

Zaphod is a long hair (sigh, not my choice. My two ladies picked her out and didn't check) all black kitten. I knew I was in trouble the day I picked her up. She was climbing the inside of the cage at the SPCA. Then when she was safely in her cat carrier on the way home she attempted to tear her way OUT of the cardboard carrier. No piteous mewings, no anguished yowlings. Just claws and teeth and full length extensions of paw and limb through the air holes looking for somethig to grab.

Since she's gotten home she's displayed all the usual kitten energy. Plus an absolute mania for climbing. Not just the usual though. She climbs like a lumberjack, wrapping her front paws around the newel posts of the stairs or even the door frames and kicking her way up. She's gotten well over five feet up the door frame several times. I have no idea where she thinks she's going. Fortunately she likes the scratching post I built for her (pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Hand wound with 100 feet of sisal rope)

Our senior cat Amidala is less than amused by all this energy. Ami never had much of a kitten's sense of whimsey even when she was a kitten. Now she's a grumpy old dowager barely tolerating this tasmanian devil of activity. But no blood. Ami growls and swats when Zee gets too much for her. They've made peace at the food bowl so that's good.

It keeps life interesting for us all. Zee likes to announce her joy of life to me by rubbing, purring and licking my face each morning. Usually around 4 AM. I may be the one to draw blood.

Oh and a note on black cats. Black cats are a tradition in my family started by my father. We only had black cats all the years I grew up. They remain my favorite. I was very disappointed when we adopted our last two because there were none to be had at the SPCA.

A little (a very little) Friday cat blogging

I've owned cats all my life.
I like cats.
I own a cat.

But some of this cat blogging stuff just gets silly to my way of thinking.

But it's Christmas and for the moment my cat is pretending like she tolerates me. I actually CHOSE this cat at the Humane society. She is utterly utterly worshipfully devoted to my wife. My daughter is second choice. If I'm the only person in the house she'll come sit on my lap. But she acts like it's a great personal strain on her.

This is Amidala. She's a very attractive cat but somehow she has never had a sense of kittenish whimsy. I've never had a cat like that.

Eulogy

I'm not sure I'm ready to write this post.

But then I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to write it.


The pretty lady on the right is Jamie, one of our two cats. Late last week we made the decision to have her put to sleep. Jamie had suddenly gotten ill, went downhill very quickly and nothing seemed to stop the progress. Our vet knew that her liver was being attacked but couldn't tell by what. It may have been a virus, it may have been cancer. What ever it was it took a healthy beautiful cat and left her shattered in less than two weeks.

As you may suspect I and the two ladies in my life are devastated. It has always been my practice to focus on the life of the ones I lose at a time like this. Let me share a few thoughts on Jamie.

By my count Jamie is the eighth cat to be a part of my life. Of all of them she had by the far the softest fur and was the sweetest tempered.

Over the first several years we noticed several unusual things about her. Unlike most cats in my experience Jame really didn't like snuggling, lap sitting or being held in any fashion. If she sat with you it was usually 6-8 inches away. Later she discovered the joy of curling up close. If I stretched out on the sofa to watch TV she'd stretch out full length next to me and purr as I stroked her fur. Her trust in me grew to where if I needed to move her I could slide my hands under her body, scoop her up, and settle her in a more convenient spot. When she lay on the floor she would do it the way a dog does, chest throat and chin all on the floor with her front paws on either side. I've never seen a cat do that and she ALWAYS did it. We always had doubts about her eyesight. She would take forever before jumping up or down, seeming terribly unsure about what was right in front of her.

Truth be told I also harbored questions about just how bright she was. Let's be generous and just say she was a simple soul. In many ways the stereotypical "blond", lovely to look at but not a deep thinker. When you added in her sweet temperment and loving spirit it didn't matter. She was a beautiful lady and a joy to have around.

That of course is why it has been so hard on us. Making the decision to have a pet put down is one of the hardest decisions there is. Knowing that you are doing them a mitzvah by ending their suffering is still hard. We all cried as we said good bye to our pretty girl. It's been days and I still cry especially when I look at her picture.

I don't KNOW that animals go to heaven, but I want to believe that God brings all of his creation home to him. So I'll believe that she's curled on someone's lap, looking up them with that beautiful face, waiting for her silly humans to come and join her.

I love you pretty girl, and I shall miss you.