True Love Jennifur spent a lot of time curled up with me today, all soft and furry and stuff. So I was very happy.

Later on, I was working on my computer and today was cool enough again that she jumped up onto her monitor shelf and slept there while I worked (and people ask me why I don't "upgrade" to a flat panel...hah!).

So even though I had to leave a while later, I snuck out so I wouldn't wake her. I always love to have her with me, but I thought it was more important for her to have uninterrupted rest.

That's true love.

Labels: cat love

  ¶ 19:15 0 comments

  Unintended Consequences of Reading Harry Potter Today we received the new Harry Potter book from Amazon, and Steven immediately shut himself in his room to read it.

So far, so good. The only "gotcha" is that we've been trying to capture a feral cat in the backyard, and Steven has been bringing the trap inside at around 5 PM so we wouldn't get any skunks by mistake. Late this afternoon, I saw some activity in the cage (which we covered with towels so it wouldn't look like a cage to the cat), and called Steven to calm the cat down and give it some water. About 45 seconds later, I see him in the back with the towels off the cage and staring at a very surprised baby skunk! Sure enough, it was around 7 PM and he had gotten so engrossed in Harry Potter that he had forgotten about the cage.

You can see what happened next on YouTube.

Labels: skunked

  ¶ 21:55 0 comments

  Jennifur and the Long Tail Damn system crash...

Sorry, just grousing about losing some time to technical nonsense when it's so much nicer just to talk about cats.

Especially Jennifur.

Especially Jennifur when she sits down in Sphinx pose between our pillows (that's Susan's pillow and my pillow, just to keep things straight) so I can feel so much love while watching them both (that's Susan and Jennifur).

Or especially Jennifur when she sits next to me in bed with her long beautiful tail curled up around the top of her hind leg in that particularly fetching way that some cats have.

Or even Jennifur when she sits behind me on my desk chair like she's doing now, making sure I don't go anywhere without her knowing about it first.

Sigh...such perfect love is hard to find.

Labels: cat love

  ¶ 01:59 0 comments

  Forget the Cluetrain; Get On the Cat Train! A new shinkansen (bullet train) is being tested in Japan that aims to be not only the world's fastest, but the first with cat ears, according to The Japan Times.

At 360 km/hour (sounds faster than 222 mph), the new Fastech train will be 20% faster than current shinkansen and the French TGV. And the cat ears aren't just for good looks, but they pop out to act as air brakes to slow the train down quickly and safely.

Any fan of My Neighbor Totoro will understand the real reason, though: they wanted to outdo the cat bus! :-)

P.S. Thanks to the Self Help for Cats blog for alerting us to this.  ¶ 01:48 0 comments

  Yang's Pet Cat Today Yang was lounging on a chair when Jennifur sauntered by. He lazily stuck his paw out and managed to pet Jennifur while she passed underneath. Luckily, she didn't notice because she doesn't like Yang much anyway and she would have started a fight, so it ended up just one of those magic moments that us humans can only share with other humans.

Labels: kittens

  ¶ 22:41 0 comments

  The Human Flying Squirrel This is the craziest thing you will see today.

Some guy jumps out of a helicopter over extremely pointy snow-covered mountains, gliding at high speed just a few meters above the ground, and finally comes to earth with a parachute.

If this stunt isn't in an upcoming James Bond movie, they'll be missing something.  ¶ 18:04 0 comments

  The Chutzpah of the Spanish Government Odyssey Marine Exploration, a U.S. company formed to locate and recover sunken treasure, had one of its ships boarded and seized by the Spanish government in international waters, according to BBC News. So what's the big deal here?

1. Odyssey has recovered potentially $500 million in gold and silver coins from a shipwreck which it has not yet identified but is likely to be several hundred years old.
2. Spain claims that all its sunken treasure remains the property of Spain, no matter where it is found.
3. If the shipwreck is indeed from a Spanish treasure ship, then it was stolen from the peoples in Central and South America. This does not make it Spanish property, unless countries in the 21st century are playing by rules of "I stole it fair and square".
4. No matter what the original nationality of the ship, I don't see what claim a country would have to a several hundred year-old wreck in international waters unless they have been trying to recover it themselves. If not, wouldn't it be unclaimed salvage?

If Spain really wants to pursue this in international courts, perhaps it would make sense for descendants of people who were affected by Spain's numerous affronts to human dignity to make a claim against Spain. For instance, people with Aztec or Mayan heritage; descendants of the Jews who were thrown out of Spain; and anyone affected by the Spanish Inquisition.

Spain has a lot to answer for.

P.S. I have no connection to Odyssey. I wish!  ¶ 05:33 0 comments

  Cat Love Last night, Jennifur slept right next to my leg, all stretched out and just high enough that I could put my arm next to her.

I stayed up as long as I could to treasure the feeling and finally fell asleep with a big smile on my face.

Labels: cat behavior, cat love

  ¶ 13:12 0 comments

  The Unwanted Mother This morning Charger seemed out of sorts. He started wrestling with Yang, but Yang thought things were getting too rough, started fighting back in earnest, and finally jumped up and ran away. Next, Charger went over to look out the glass door, joining Jennifur and Yin (who were getting along for once). Suddenly there was a shriek from Yin, who took off like mad with Charger chasing him.

Charger doesn't normally hurt anyone like that, so we became concerned and Susan said, "What's the matter with Charger?"

Like I knew. So (not being the cat whisperer in the family) I said, "Why don't you ask him?"

There was a long silence. Things were quiet...too quiet (insert your favorite similar cliche here). Finally Susan told me what Charger had to say.

It seems that Charger's mother had "called" to say goodbye. She was sick and her human had decided not to spend the money to have her made well again, so they were euthanizing her. In fact, Charger was saying his last goodbyes to her at that moment, having shown her what his life was like here, surrounded by friendly humans and other cats.

That kind of put a serious damper on the morning, but we've taken extra time with Charger to comfort him today.

Labels: animal communication, cat behavior, cats

  ¶ 21:45 0 comments

  A Talk With Jennifur Today I decided to see if my guess was right about Jennifur talking to Little Kitty yesterday. I asked Susan to ask Jennifur whether this had happened.

Susan came back in a little while and said that while Jennifur was her usual laconic self, she had said that Little Kitty had been talking with her about survival and loneliness. Apt topics for feral cats to discuss!

But I'm really happy that Jennifur is talking to an outside cat. This is a nice change for her.

Labels: animal communication, cats

  ¶ 02:35 0 comments

  Jennifur and Little Kitty This morning when I woke up, Jennifur was looking out the window. Not just "out", but "down", so I figured she was watching someone. I crept over and saw a feral cat we call Little Kitty, who's kind of a petite patchy calico, and who we think might be not only female, but pregnant as well.

Little Kitty also spooks easily, so as soon as she saw me she took off around the corner.

The odd thing about this is that Jennifur usually growls, hisses, spits, or otherwise attempts to convince outside cats to go away. While Jenni has been mellowing lately, this particular habit is pretty ingrained in her purrsonality, so I suspect that either (a) we're wrong and Little Kitty is a male and Jenni likes him or (b) Jennifur actually deigned to talk to Little Kitty, because that's exactly what it looked like she was doing.

Labels: cat behavior, cats, feral cats

  ¶ 07:13 0 comments

  A Piece of Tail Today while I was working at my computer, Steven called me over with some alarm in his voice. "I think it's a lizard", he said.

I walked over to the entrance to my office to find Steven and three or four cats staring intently at something wriggling on the ground. They (the cats) were trying to grab it and were huddling over it, so I whipped out my ever-present LED flashlight to take a look.

It wasn't actually a lizard, but only a tail, bending fantastically this way and that, like a demented ballpoint pen refill on drugs. From the looks of it, it had belonged to a small alligator lizard that was now hiding somewhere amidst the cardboard boxes in the immediate area. Dropping a tail is a last-ditch survival trick of lizards that I had heard of many times, but had never seen in real life.

I thought it was pretty cool. Steven vowed not to eat anything longer than it's wide, at least for several days.

Yang eventually carried it away proudly and presumably ate it. Yech.

Labels: cats, lizards

  ¶ 04:19 0 comments