This is an utterly hilarious video of a cop trying to do his job, and a cat determined to use the cop as a tree.
Articleis here. Note that the officer was not hurting the cat, just herding it. Or trying to.
11/17/2009
10/31/2009
Caturday
I watched Sarah’s kids last night while she and Larry went out to see their favorite local band. I brought a picture of Tig to show Sarah, forgetting that I had put it on the blog last month. Well, Max fell head over heels in love with the picture and asked if he could have it. He even offered to buy it from me, and started wondering how much money he had. Of course, I gave it to him. I asked him to show it to his mother, who was getting ready. He went skipping down the hall to her room to show her.
Yeah, I like the picture a lot, too. It’s one of those one-in-a-thousand shots, where you take a thousand pictures, and get that perfect shot that makes you look like a really good photographer. In my case, trust me, it’s sheer accident.
But I like this picture, too.
I probably shouldn’t use my antique Chinese screen as a playground for my cat, but, well, what’s another scratch or two on an antique anyway, right?
10/08/2009
Kitty palate cleanser
I have an antique Chinese screen. Gracie respects it, mostly.
But Tig does not.
Then again, I’m the one who encouraged him to play in the space under the screen. Because I was hoping for a picture like this.
Kitty pr0n.
09/19/2009
09/12/2009
Caturday: A study in Gracie
Because both Tiggers have been the bigger clowns, the ones who stick near me like glue, and the most easily photographed, today, I bring you: Gracie.
First we have Gracie waking up from a nap that she decided to take on her back. This is one of those rare belly shots, and as you can see, her beautiful white fur has completely grown back. She was at the vet’s for her annual shots, and he reminded me that it’s been nearly three years since her bout with irritable bowel disease and the town’s worst vet (not the one we were at, obviously). In fact, she gained nearly a pound since last year, and, uh, now I have to cut down her food.
Next we have my hourly annoyance. Sometimes several-times-hourly. Gracie comes into the office and yowls at me to pet her. Her vocal range is pretty astonishing. There is what I call “the imperious mew,” which is a loud demand to leave whatever I’m doing and pet her. There is the long, wavering yowl when I’m busy working and she really, really, wants me to pet her. She does that often while I’m on the phone with Sarah, and it never fails to make Sarah laugh. There are the many different chirrups and burbles, elicited with and without petting. In this picture, she was merely purring.
This is what I see most mornings: Gracie curled up not far from me, lounging in the sun.
And this is Princess Gracie, deigning to pose for us mere mortals. She does this type of pose best. It’s what gained her the royal moniker. She is truly one of the most beautiful cats I’ve had the pleasure to own. And one of the sweetest.
Last week, when Sarah and the kids came over to watch Megashark vs. Giant Octopus, Gracie came downstairs, threaded her way among the four children, and sat down to wait for me to pet her. I love that she’s comfortable enough around the children that she’ll visit with them. She is, without a doubt, happier here and now than she has ever been in her life. And it seems I may have her for many years to come, if her heart murmur doesn’t get any worse. I’d like that. She’ll be thirteen in March. May she live to see twenty.
09/05/2009
Split-level kitties
A scene that I’m starting to see a lot.
This is actually the first in a sequence of shots that I’ll put up eventually.
Also, if I have any time in the near future, I’m going to create a kitty slideshow for the kitty-addicted out there. I may have some time on Monday if all goes well.
08/29/2009
Caturday
I really like this shot of Tig.
I assure you, this isn’t what he was looking at.
He was actually searching for his mousie, which he had dropped.
Tig loves his mousie. Gracie loves being left alone by Tig. It’s all good.
08/25/2009
By request: Kitty pics
Several people have been asking, so here they are.
First, Miss Gracie, doing what she loves most: Relaxing in the sun in my office (which I think is now her office).
Since I work from home most days, Gracie spends the bulk of her time with me in the office, or out on the landing within view. I keep my camera in the office now, for just such occasions.
Next, it’s Tig, posing on my newly-made bed.
Making the bed with Tig in the room is a challenge. Quite often, I have to kick him out completely, as he tries to get under the fitted sheet, then the flat sheet, then any blankets. He loves getting under things and has since he was a kitten. Then there’s the biting-my-feet-through-the-blanket thing that he has. Every so often, I wake up with Tigger’s jaws clamped around my toes, which evidently I was wiggling in my sleep.
08/01/2009
Caturday
I found my camera, and so, kitty pics.
Tig’s toys were restored to him after my horde of Latina women came and went last week. And Tig rediscovered the toys of his childhood (and young adulthood).
I caught him in a big stretch.
And then, when he was taking a break, in a shot that can only be called kitty pr0n. (Can’t use the real word; the spammers search for it and launch their commentbots.)
As for shots of Gracie playing, well, I bought a new toy for Tig. It’s a catnip toy (pictures to come later), and he loves it. Gracie likes catnip, so I showed her the toy, and she ignored it. And then, when she thought I wasn’t looking, she started playing with it. So you have the usual Gracie shot of her resting comfortably in one of her favorite spots. Here she is in her favorite corner. Notice how orange cats go so well with my decor.
Sometimes they both sleep along the railing. I have a wallpaper shot of them sleeping there shortly after I moved in (almost a year ago!). I’d like to get the two of them again so you can see how Tig has grown. But they are so far refusing to cooperate. I’m patient.
07/28/2009
Adventures in bookcases
My new bookcases arrived today. The office was empty and lonely without my books.
But the office started looking much better after the new bookcases were put in. I think I’m going to have to buy one more set of shelves, but I won’t know until the books go back in. Which won’t be until the weekend. Tig, of course, had to investigate.
And investigate.
And investigate. You know. Curiosity. Cats. That sort of thing.
If Gracie has set foot in the office since the bookcases arrived, I have yet to see it. I expect she’ll be fine by tomorrow, at least, until I start dragging boxes of books back into the office and putting them in the shelves. But she’s perfectly content in her spot by the railing.
I’m so excited. These are the first really decent bookcases I’ve ever had. They’re also the first that weren’t hand-me-downs. And just think, I get to alphabetize my books for the first time ever! Woot! (Actually, not so woot. Pain. But it will be done.)
Caturday is either late or early this week. Late, I think, since I didn’t post any kitty pics last weekend.
07/13/2009
A midday visit, with pictures
Sarah and the kids were in town today so that Jake could retake a couple of parts of the test for the gifted program. He was sick and on meds when he first took the test, and didn’t score highly enough on the math, at which point Sarah went, “WHAT?” because the kid is a math genius. So I got a call around lunchtime, and Sarah gave Jake the phone to tell me that he had scored 100 on his math, and 97 on his verbal. Which both utterly rocks and guarantees his entry into the gifted program. Couple that with the fact that his [Aunt Meryl-advised] essay won him a trip to DC to listen and talk to some real, live moon-walkers (the astronaut kind, not the dancing), and his bar mitzvah last month, this is one very exciting time for our young man. Sarah was only too happy to take the kids out for a celebratory lunch. So, since they were two minutes away, I said, “Want to stop by for a while?” and of course, they did.
Tigger was curious, yet worried. He took to the high ground pretty much the whole time.
He stayed upstairs. As for Gracie, she never moved from under the bed. It’s naptime, dammit, and those kids are always so noisy.
Max decided to curl up in The Chair That Swallows You Whole, thus proving its name.
This, of course, initiated the usual reaction among children: Me too.
And me, too. Except in my own way.
Jake, as the oldest of the four, did not deign to curl up in the chair. You’ll have to go over to Sarah’s site to see pictures, or maybe I’ll just take pictures of him next week. He’s got an actual job here, as I’ve hired him to help me organize and categorize my comic collection, which will then be put into file cabinets when I finally find the kind that I like at an affordable price (lateral, wooden files, if you know of any good places to get them). I’ve pretty much blown my budget for office furniture for the year with my new bookcases (due at the end of the month, woo-hoo!).
We also watched an episode or two of SpongeBob, and I must highly recommend “One Krab’s Trash” as what may be the funniest SpongeBob ever. (”Oh my gosh, it’s a shopping list!“) [And by the way, um, spongepedia? Spongepedia?) I had laughtears falling, I was laughing so hard.
There is now a rule in my house that no child is allowed upstairs without adult supervision. That’s because I have a handgun in the house, and when the kids come for an expected visit, it is firmly locked up in a clamshell that disables it from being used as anything but a club. But it’s been a while, and I didn’t think about locking the clamshell until they got there. Sarah had to dash back to Ukrops because she’d left her purse there, so I figured I’d better go upstairs and lock up the gun. Max, obeying the letter of the law, came upstairs right behind me. Note that I never said they had to have permission. Just supervision. All children are born lawyers, and will parse the hell out of any rule you set down. Max stayed on my exercise machine while I locked up the gun and put it out of reach. After that, I didn’t mind if they were up on the landing while we were downstairs, but I do insist that they stay in sight (and out of my office and bedroom).
All in all, a nice break. We used to have lunch together every Thursday. Perhaps we should bring back that tradition.
I, for one, welcome our feline overlords
Proof positive that cats own us.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a “soliciting purr” to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.
Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a “cry”, with a similar frequency to a human baby’s.
The team said cats have “tapped into” a human bias – producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.
Ah-ha! So that’s not a “Good morning, glad you’re awake!” purr. It’s a “Feed me, slave” purr.
Admit it. We always knew it.
07/03/2009
Friday catblogging
As promised, more kitty pics.
First, Miss Gracie, in one of her rare goofball moments.
I actually missed her during one of her funniest, yet strangest habits. She loves chlorine-based cleansers. And I mean loves. They affect her like catnip. If I used a bleach-based cleanser, which I did this morning to clean the garbage can (and then to kill some ants in my kitchen, thus putting the scent on the kitchen floor), she will stop, sniff the place, and then make mad, passionate love to it. She will rub and rub and rub her face on the area, and then roll around in bliss. I really do have one of the strangest cats in existence.
Next: Where’s Tig?
I needed to find Tig before leaving the house the other day. This is a new spot. All of a sudden, he’s sleeping with Gracie under my bed. That’s her regular spot to the left, and he’s decided to take over the right-hand side.
Two days ago, I found him in his usual position—his bottom half underneath something. Alas, I didn’t get the camera in time, but I’m sure I’ll have another chance at getting Tig’s butt hanging out from under the bed. Or the bureau. Or the shower curtain. Really, he’s not very good at hiding, but he sure must think he is.
He also has a tendency to use very hard items for pillows. I’ll have those at a future date.
06/27/2009
Saturday picture shows
We’re waiting for Bob to get home from the movies before we go to lunch, and for the clouds to go away before we go swimming. But I have time for blogging, and I simply had to share a few pictures. First, the House Of Meat (or, as it should be called, House O’ Meat). We stopped there because they said “kosher” on the marquee. It was not. It was halal only, pretty much, and very Arabic.
Alas, the cable cable (which you have to describe as the cable cable) is interfering with the proper display of the House O’ Meat sign.
Next, we have more kitty pictures. Here’s another shot of Tig in my computer chair.
And of course, another shot of Miss Gracie, who also likes the chair. I often find her next to it in the morning.
She’s actually fairly close to it in this picture. She’s sleeping below the window pictured above.
There. We have more kitty pictures, and the House O’ Meat, in Hamilton, NJ. I have done my job for the day.
06/24/2009
And now, kitty pictures
First, Mr. Tig in my new computer chair today. Gracie sleeps next to it, but I’ve never seen her on it. This is the first time I saw him on it as well. I wonder if it’s because it’s usually facing the desk.
That’s my new, good-for-your-back computer chair that I bought immediately following my unfortunate rear-ending experience up in NorVA. Moron was watching traffic, when she should have been watching me, and it was enough of a bump to aggravate my back, setting me back from months of anti-inflammatories and exercise for my arthritis. Oh, wait. I don’t think I told you all about that. Another time.
I think I need one for downstairs, too. That’s my work chair.
Next, fuzzy Gracie belly!
It has been literally years since I’ve seen Gracie’s fur all grown back on her belly. She may look a bit undignified here, but I just love seeing her pure white belly fur again.
You can thank Lair Simon for the kitty pictures. Visiting his blog made me realize I miss them.
05/25/2009
Time for a kitty timeout
Still not doing much blogging this weekend.
So we have cat pictures.
Tigger on deck.
Gracie napping.
Believe me when I tell you that Tig is not nearly as fat as he looks. He has about twice as much fur as Tig the Second had.
Although, he is a chubbo.
The Pet Club in my area went out of business, and as I drove by today I saw a liquidation sign. I just bought about 60 lbs. of Felidae for about $60. I won’t have to be heading over to the West End for cat foood for a while. Even Tig will take a while to go through that much cat food. Not for lack of trying, of course.
05/20/2009
Advanced cat yodeling
From the men who brought us cat yodeling: The next step.
Because we need a laugh.
04/25/2009
Caturday afternoon
It’s 93 degrees in Richmond today, and so we have: Cat pictures.
First, we have Tig3.0 looking his best to imitate Tig 2, who was also known as The Independent Republic of Tiggerstan. Sorry, Tig3, but you’ve got a way to go.
Next, we have Gracie all curled up and happily asleep, while Tig comes to take a look and wonder if she’ll uncurl.
Nope.
04/17/2009
Happy Tigger Day!
One year ago today (technically tomorrow, but it was a Friday 52 weeks ago), I brought home my new orange goofball.
Here’s how he looked on the way home:
Here’s Mr. Tig today (literally):
He’s been a major huggy bear today. And that’s even before I give him his treat (he’s getting tuna later). And in honor of Tigger Day, we have a cascade of photos of my third orange goofball in a row.
He eats bugs.
He strikes silly poses.
He walks on tables.
He lies in the sun.
He pulls the afghan off my chair and sleeps on it.
He lies in wait to play with the broom. (Yes, really.)
He goes where he’s not allowed.
He is: Tig3.0. What a wonderful year this has been.
03/28/2009
Caturday
Time to relax with some cat pictures.
First, Miss Gracie in the sun:
Gracie spends the morning following the sun from my office to my bedroom. She is even more beautiful when highlighted by Sol.
Next, Tig in a venture onto the deck.
He really likes it out there now and wants to go out every time I open the door. (I really do have to post those movies I took of him in the snow, too.) By the way, although he is a bit chubby, the bottom two inches is all fur. His fur is much longer than Tig 2’s.
And now, let us relax the rest of the day.
03/15/2009
Happy Birthday, Gracie
Gracie is twelve years old today. Here she is last week, in her usual morning routine—sunning herself in my office.
She got tunafish. So did Tig.
A perfect addition to my EATAPETA dinner of chicken.
Happy birthday, Sweetness. May you have many, many more.
03/01/2009
Tig’s first snow
Tig 3.0 is an indoor cat. I want it that way, because outdoor cats tend to have much shorter lifespans. But I’ve been letting him out on the deck lately (supervised), and tonight, I wanted to see how he’d react to the snow. First I took him to the front door and held him while I stepped outside. He tried to watch every single snowflake coming down. I expect he was trying to decide which one to go after first. Then I opened the door to the deck. Witness:
Now he wants to go back out. I think I shall let him.
Update: And there went the power, three times in two minutes. I’m going to bed, and bringing an extra quilt upstairs with me. Not that I expect to sleep through a blackout. I have APC’s that beep.
02/18/2009
Happy birthday to Tig
Tig turned a year old today. And got a birthday treat:
I’ve had him for ten months.
It’s been a good ten months.
02/15/2009
Tig3 vs. the Hulk
It’s inevitable. Every cat that I have ultimately has to have a smackdown with the Hulk. And here is what happened between Tig and the Hulk last week:
It started with a look. I knew there would be trouble.
It’s on.
Hulk comes on strong, but my money’s on Tig. Because the Hulk is not mean to animals and children.
And I was right. The winner: Tig. (Hulk gave up.)
Tig smash Hulk.
02/10/2009
A note to cats and dogs
Reader (and my firearms instructor) Stretch sent me this, which I present for your amusement.
The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.
Dear Dogs and Cats:
The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food.
Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn’t
help because I fall faster than you can run.I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. I know this for a fact; it is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.
For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years – canine/feline attendance is neither required nor appreciated.
The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat’s butt. I cannot stress this enough.
02/09/2009
Anniversary
A year ago today, I lost my second Tig. It was a very, very sad day.
And while I do miss many things about Tig 2—like his boxer’s nose, and his mrowr when I asked “Do you want a snug?” followed by the deep, throaty purr as I picked him up for a hug (he was purring in the post linked above, nearly his last-ever snug), well, I got over it. Because I have this goofball.
Who's that Tig behind the curtain?
I finally put up a shower curtain in the upstairs bathroom. Tig’s been hiding behind it and leaping out at me ever since.
Tig in the office
I turn around while I’m working in my office, and that’s one of the things I see fairly frequently—Tig (or Gracie) in the sleeping bag behind me. Or I have my goofball under my chair, or sleeping on the shelf of the desk, or jumping into my lap, something that Tig 2 rarely did. Tig 3.0 still snuggles into my left shoulder, except now he’s big enough to stand up on his hind legs and drop his head down on my shoulder. But he won’t consider it a snug until I physically pick him up and his butt is resting on my arm, all fourteen pounds of him.
A year later, there’s a new Tig. Door closes, door opens, just like the saying goes. A few weeks after I was told she never gets orange Maine Coon kittens, Wendy had two of them. And now I have one. Tig is gone. Long live Tig.
02/06/2009
Your morning Gracie
One more new picture of Gracie, to go with the new picture of Tig from the other day.
Princess Gracie deigns to say hello.
02/04/2009
Cat belly futures (and past)
You know, I really did try not to let Tig3.0 get fat. Really. I tried.
And although I failed, I think it’s safe to say that he hasn’t quite reached the width of Tig the Previous.
You know, a search on “belly” brings back 37 posts in WordPress alone. I shudder to think how many there are since the inception of my blog in 2001.
February has turned into quite the milestone month. It will be a year for Tig in five days. This month marks my second anniversary with Company in Northern Virginia, which has been the best thing to happen to me in a very long time (and may I once again say thank you to Janet and Chris for pushing me to meet with their boss, who is now my boss). And I realized a few days ago that it is the 22nd anniversary of the day I opened my BBS to the public. Seven years of BBSing, a long period of GEnie and online networks, and now nearly eight years of blogging. I sense a pattern here.
The year I got Tig the Second and Gracie, February was a dark, dark month. I lost my first Tig near the end of January, and was catless until April. I still remember the sight of the tips of those little orange ears showing as Tig 2 clawed his way up my blanket into bed. Miss Gracie, who has been timid since I first got her, had to be assisted into bed at first. (Sorry, I have no kitten pictures of them. That was pre-digital camera days.)
Gracie, too, has a beautiful belly. It’s not as pretty as this anymore. Her episode with IBD (and subsequent mistreatment by ex-vet) caused her to lick it bare so much that her fur has never properly grown back. But she’s still a beauty.
I used to hate February. Not so much anymore. This morning, I noticed that for the first time since autumn, I had to close the blinds of the window next to my desk, because the office is once more bathed in morning light so bright I can’t see my monitor.
There may have been snow on the ground yesterday, but here in Richmond, spring is near.
01/15/2009
Time for a kitty update
Miss Gracie went to the vet this morning and got X-Rays. The bad news is: She has bronchitis. The good news is: She has bronchitis. Now both she and I are on antibiotics (and I got the vet tech to give her a pill before I left, so I don’t have to). Her mews will return, probably when I’m recording my segment for Shire Network News.
My cat scratch fever is possibly beginning to show signs of abating, but it still freaking hurts. And I cannot for the life of me get that damned Nugent song out of my head. Damn you, Ted! Damn you to hell!
Anyway. Here’s a recent shot of Miss Gracie, recovering from the weary task of napping in the office while I work.
01/13/2009
Tiggeritis
My eye started itching over the weekend. By yesterday, it was hurting and the right side was swollen. Went to the doctor’s this morning, and after about five or ten minutes of exam and puzzlement (not sinus, no fever, not this, nothing in it, not that), I remembered that Tig swiped me in the face on Saturday. It was an accident, and I don’t remember how it happened. I do remember that he got the bottom right lid of my right eye, and that’s where the problem is. He didn’t even break the skin. But he gave me Tiggeritis. The doc gave me a prescription for hydrocortisone cream. And I’ll be putting cold compresses on it. This thing goes down as the weirdest ailment I’ve ever had. It’s not technically cat scratch fever. But it’s the result of a cat scratch. Go figure.
And Miss Gracie has lost her mew. Over the weekend, it just disappeared, and this hoarse croak occurred in its place. So both she and I went to the doc’s this morning. I gave her a Fancy Feast treat when we got home. I just went back to work.
The vet couldn’t find a single thing wrong. I may wind up letting them X-ray her chest, which they wanted to do last summer when her bloodwork showed possible markers for cancer. I think it’s going to depend on my budget, and whether her meow comes back. She’s a very, very talkative cat, and it’s bothering both of us that she can’t talk. She and I would have conversations. Or she’d call me upstairs with what I call The Imperious Mew. Or she’d let out this long, trailing, wailing meow when she really wanted to get my attention. Sarah would occasionally be on the phone with me at the time (which would be why Gracie would be giving her super-meow), and it never failed to crack her up.
I hope she gets her meow back. It’s only been a couple of days, but I miss it.