Partially inspired by Tessie and Angel earlier this month, because I’m almost certain that she was in the bed first and Tessie joined her, rather than the other way around.
But Jacoby totally does this. He does it to me all the time, and I’m sleeping in a queen-sized bed!
(Click cartoon to embiggen, or you can view all cartoons in Slideshow mode on Flickr.)
Jacoby sees or hears a camera, and he poses.
He also seems to be aware of lighting and composition, as he tends to pose in photogenic places.
In this set, he seemed to be pulling an ET-in-the-closet and trying to blend in with his surroundings.
“What? I’m just a life-sized stuffed toy cat!”
I think he thinks I’m not very smart. He also seems to think that I don’t know that the headboard is his gateway to the top of the bookcase.
I’m onto you, Jake.
Jacoby loves weekends almost as much as I do.
He knows he can’t wake me up (he saves the waking up maneuvers for my husband), so he just cuddles up with me and purrs for England.
It’s the best part of waking up, Folgers’ copywriters notwithstanding.
We’ve been having a really mild winter this year. Although, it did finally snow the other day.
And Jacoby? Was psyched.
He really does seem to like snow. I’m not sure if he likes how different it makes the world look, or if he likes to watch it falling…
…or maybe he likes both those things.
But Jake’s a lot like a little kid when it starts snowing. He just gets excited and pastes himself to the window to look at it.
And of course, I love watching him watch the snow fall. Unfortunately, the snow didn’t last long enough for us to go out and walk in it. That’s the kind of winter we’ve been having this year. I’m not sure if Jake was as sad about that as I was, though.
Angel looked so cute in Jacoby’s Hawaiian shirt and matching sunhat on Dress Up Your Pet Day, I wanted to post a few more photos of her wearing it.
She’s such a good sport!
Despite appearances, Angel isn’t really as put out by dressing up as her eye and ears might lead you to believe. It’s easy to look annoyed when you only have one eye.
And she can’t help having Airplane Ears of Supreme Disapproval. It’s the elastic on the hat that makes her ears look like that!
See? She actually has a happy tail! Dressing up isn’t really that miserable!
My husband took today’s photos. I’d been watching television and fell asleep (which is why I’m sleeping with my glasses on).
Jacoby usually does sleep with me, but he almost always sleeps near my legs, usually behind my knees. Still, it’s pretty good for an Aby; Gun-Hee never slept at all, and Angel usually prefers to sleep on the cat tree than on the bed.
But for whatever reason, he decided to sleep right next to my head this time.
Granted, I didn’t really know he was sleeping there until I woke up, so I don’t know how long he was there, but it was a nice thing to wake up to.
“Okay, Dad, enough with the camera and the flash. You’re gonna wake her up.”
I got this alert from one of the Aby lists last night…apparently, homeless Abys run in cycles, who knew? Poor Cairo, though…isn’t he handsome?
“I am a neutered male, ruddy Abyssinian. The shelter staff think I am about 2 years and 2 months old. I have been at the shelter since Jan 23, 2012.”
Apparently, Cairo is now in a foster home and out of that cold, steel shelter cage. If you are interested in him, you can contact the Montgomery County Animal Control & Humane Society at 240-773-5960, or email Susan at schenoweth@pipeline.com.
I got this alert from one of the Aby lists, and it’s right in my own back yard…Sonic looks like a purebred fawn Aby to me!
“This poor lad was left abandoned outside our shelter in a box. He was extremely terrified and nervous of new people and noises. We cannot imagine what poor sonic went through before he got to us.. but he had all the markings of an abused animal. It has taken him quite a few months to come around and trust, but his time is here. He needs a quiet home with an older person or couple who will understand all he has been through and give him the time he deserves to really show his true colors. No dogs, maybe one other cat, tops. He still is exremely fragile, so please…Serious Inquiries Only!”
Can you imagine? An Aby? Left in a box on a shelter’s doorstep? Wow. Sonic is in Meridan, CT, and his adoption information can be found at the Rescue Me website.
The Rescue Me site also shows states with other Abys available for adoption (one in CA, 2 in MI, etc.), but most of them aren’t actually Abyssinians. However, there are two other Abys looking for homes…
Phineas, in Austin, TX, appears to be a young black silver Aby and Ava, in New York, who looks like she might be either a red or a fawn. These two, however, appear to be in homes currently and are looking to be rehomed. Sonic is in a shelter.
This is actually something I wish would happen…Then he wouldn’t go up there!
(Click cartoon to embiggen, or you can view all cartoons in Slideshow mode on Flickr.)
If you’re a cat, there is nothing better than an empty box.
Unless it’s an empty box that’s had a roof put on it.
I’d started this box to take things to storage, but Jacoby commandeered it.
I actually found another box for storage. This one is still in our apartment, and it’s the place to sleep right now. Jake and Tessie actually fight over it.
As I’ve said before, we’re huge fans of Jackson Galaxy and My Cat From Hell, which just started its second season on Animal Planet a few weeks ago.
But what I didn’t expect was that Jacoby would be really interested in the show. Usually, he only cares about the television as a way to use it to get our attention.
But when we were watching last week’s episode about City the Kitty, who is thought to be part Bengal (though personally, I think he’s actually part Savannah because of his jumping prowess), Jake jumped up on the TV stand to watch the show close up.
Of course, he may just have been trying to tell me that he wants his own cat wheel…
I know we’re two-thirds through January already, but we finally had our first real snow today.
Crazy, I know. I mean, this is New England!
But I swear, Jacoby was excited to see that it was snowing this morning!
I’m not sure why, to be honest.
I mean, obviously, snow is cool. But is it the flakes actively falling from the sky that entrances him?
Or is it the fact that everything is suddenly covered in white?
Whatever it is, one thing cannot be denied: Jake likes snow.
Jacoby and Angel have always been the best of friends.
Oh, yes.
Always, always, always. Right from day one.
Definitely love at first sight.
I mean…
…isn’t it just so obvious?
Jacoby has discovered a new favourite thing to do.
When you look at this photo, keep in mind that we have 11′ high ceilings, and that Billy bookcase is almost 7′ tall. So Jake is way up there.
I’m not sure how he figured out the way to get up there. I’ve seen him do it, and he has to make a mighty leap from the headboard to the top of that shelf. It’s not easy, and it’s not an obvious thing to do.
He’s super proud of himself and his accomplishment, though, and you can tell.
Jake’s favourite time to go up there is late at night, after I’ve turned the lights out and gone to bed. These photos would have been better, but I took them in the dark.
There’s also only one way he ever gets down. He jumps. He jumps from where he’s sitting onto the middle of the bed. He usually manages to miss landing on a person when he does it.
We have a Tempur-Pedic mattress. You know how they say you can jump up and down on these mattresses and not spill a glass of wine? Well, that may be true, I don’t know. I haven’t tried it. But I can tell you that a 10.5lb cat flinging himself from 7′ tall piece of furniture? That, you’ll feel. Trust me.
These are just a few stories that were posted to one of the Aby lists I subscribe to; they made me laugh when I read them, so I just had to share them here. Personally, these are the reasons that I love Abyssinians so much.
Chris from Merrydancer is the breeder of my kitten Cassie. Chris kept one of Cassie’s littermates, Querty, and recently I received this message from her:
“I think Querty is the ‘bounciest’ kitten we’ve ever bred! As soon as she realises one of us is on the computer, she’s there, trying to grab fingers, walk on keys, throw paper on the floor, knock the pens on the floor, and guess what – she’s just come back LOL! She’s a complete nut case LOL! I end up trying to type with one hand while my other hand is being ‘mauled’ in an attempt to keep her away from the keys.”
Cassie is exactly the same as Querty – she adores the laptop and tries to catch the cursor from the screen and from behind it! I’m only able to type at the moment because Phil is brushing her and she’s ecstatic!!! She would spend hours playing “fetch” if we were prepared to keep at it and we have balls of paper scattered throughout the house! She also likes socks! Any socks that she finds (ie Phil’s that haven’t quite made it to the washing basket), she takes for a walk. I usually find them either on the stairs or the door mat.
Cereal bowls send her into a head-butting frenzy and I either have to shut her out of the room or try to eat and keep the bowl and spoon out of her reach. If I don’t, I get covered in cereal as she head butts them!
She’s very much a morning cat and spends most mornings running, chasing something or following me around the house. She slumps around lunchtime and finally goes to sleep. From late afternoon onwards it’s a mixture of playing and sleeping and then, when we go to bed, it’s “let’s chase the other cats and play-fight” time plus a bit more “fetch.” Phil has been known to sit in bed and throw paper balls through the bedroom door onto the landing to try to tire her out!! He gets tired before she does though!
Merrydancer is a VERY accurate prefix!!
This, of course, prompted other stories. Stories like this one, about Amber and Spike, who evidently think they’re starving to death.
Our cat, Amber, loves cereals too. But what she loves even more is waiting for me to drink from a cup of coffee then headbutting my elbow. I’ve been late to work twice now because I’ve not noticed her and had to change my shirt!
She’s got favourite toys that we find in our bed. And over Christmas she took a dislike to one of two identical Xmas stockings. How she could tell them apart is anyone’s guess, but she only hissed at one of them!! But we love her all the more for it:-)
Spike on the other hand is pretty normal. Unless we give him some meat. Then he starts growling with pleasure constantly. How a cat can growl while chewing and swallowing is anyone’s guess, but he can!!
Which prompted this story of mice and Abys:
Oh LOL! They are just so funny. Some of ours bring me mice to throw for them to fetch, but when Jessica did that, and I threw it for her she looked absolutely offended! She comes up to me with a little squeak and presents it at my feet and I’ve realised now that it’s a present and she thought I was throwing it away before! So now I say thank you and pick it up instead!
So of course I had to share my favourite story about Jacoby:
Jacoby is the first cat I’ve known who understood technicalities and loopholes. Now, the fact that cats understand words is no surprise; after all, their “meows” are an attempt to imitate us, since they don’t meow to each other.
But Jake…he takes it to a whole new level.
Our cats are not supposed to go on the kitchen counters. And they know this. And three of our four (including another Aby) rarely – if ever – go up there. But Jake spends as much time on the countertops as he does on the floors or on the bed. And when I tell him, “Get off the counter!” he does.
He gets right off the counter…and right onto the Foreman grill. Or onto the toaster oven. Or onto the microwave. Whatever’s handy. And then he looks at me, like, “What? I’m off the counter!”
Any stories out there you’d like to share? Lay them on me!
Jacoby really isn’t as sneaky as he thinks he is.
(Click cartoon to embiggen, or you can view all cartoons in Slideshow mode on Flickr.)
I took Jacoby with me when I got my hair cut.
He was very calm and composed while I was being worked on.
Blow dryers, music, people talking? Not a problem.
Of course, my hair salon, Avanti South, is in the same complex as the building we live in, so it wasn’t very hard to bring him along with me…
When I started this blog, I meant it to be a sort of reference for all things Abyssinian. In the five years, more or less, that I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned a lot about my favourite breed. There are Yahoo groups and many other ways for Aby people to network, but since I haven’t the space or resources to actually breed Abys myself (which has been my “dream job” since I was 11 or 12), I reckoned that running a fangirl-slash-photography-all things Aby blog would be the next best thing. And it’s been a fantastic experience.
Last month, I got the following email from Kelli, one of my readers:
Hello! First of all, I just adore your blog. I am currently owned by a female ruddy Aby and recently lost my other precious Aby girl to FIP this past summer.* I just cannot imagine my life without an Aby in it!
Anyways, I am now looking for another Aby as a companion for my girl and have come across an available male through …[a breeder]. I see that she has been featured in a couple of your posts, so I was hoping you might be able to give me your thoughts on her as a breeder. Health is always more important to me than looks, so I’m particularly interested if you know anything about the health of her cats or just her reputation as a breeder in general.
I truly appreciate any input you might have. Thank you!!!
That email kind of made my day, since that’s one of the reasons I started my blog. I responded that I didn’t know that breeder personally, but I shared what I did know. Then I asked which region she lived in and mentioned that I could ask my friend Meg of Anubis Cattery, since she’s been breeding for 38 years and knows practically everyone in the Aby world. Kelli wrote back and said:
Wow! Thank you! I’m in [the Dallas area] and there aren’t really any great Aby breeders around here, at least not from what I could find. And that would be amazing if you could ask Meg. She is one that an Aby breeder friend of mine (in Malaysia) referred me to, but I could never get in touch with her. I’m looking for a Ruddy, either male or female, but I would like to get one in the next month or two while my girl is still relatively young. She’s just under 9 months now. Location doesn’t really matter since I would be flying the kitten back myself.
Here are some photos of Emmy. Anyways, any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated and as always, I look forward to more aby pics and stories on your blog!
I wrote back to Kelli with a few links to Aby breeders in Texas and what I’d found on the Retired Friends list. I also sent her email onto my friend Molly, from Tigerflower Abyssinians.
You may recall that Molly had little blue girl she named after me. Long story short…turns out, little Coco wasn’t a blue after all, but a ruddy. And before I knew it, I got this email from Molly:
So I lost my head and offered her Coco! HOWEVER…my next great show cat will be CocoKOH…the better name. And I have a litter due in a month… Kelli is a darling – and she would like to try a show…
Right after that, I got this email from Kelli:
I know that Molly has already told you, but I just wanted to personally thank you again for your help and for referring me to Molly. She is just as wonderful as you said and I can’t wait to get my new baby girl. I promise to keep you both updated with pictures as she grows. As if it weren’t already meant to be, she will be ready to go home on my birthday
So, fast forward through the holidays and to this weekend. I got email updates from both Molly and Kelli!
First Molly told me:
Kelli flew in from Dallas Tuesday to pick up (Coco) and it is a lovely match. Thank you for this good referral!
And then Kelli gave me the good news…with photos!
I got her Tuesday morning and I have officially named her Allie. 
Unfortunately, she has not been formally introduced to Emmy yet because she came down with a URI right away. You can tell from the pic at the airport in her carrier that one of her eyes is smaller because of the conjunctivitis starting in it.
She’s on an antibiotic for 10 days and my vet said I could introduce her after she’s finished with those. Emmy has seen her several times because I will occasionally put a baby gate up so she can watch us play. Of course Emmy just growls and hisses but she’ll get over that soon. I think she’s just jealous because Allie took over her play room. LOL.
The two pics of her in her carrier with the bear aren’t the best quality because I was on the drive home from the airport with her, but it was just so cute I had to include them. The bear is something Molly gave her to remind her of her home and you can see that she really used it as a comfort. Enjoy!
I am so proud to have been involved in this matchmaking!
* What’s funny is, I actually “knew” Kelli and her Aby Maggie without actually knowing I did. On my blogroll, one of the links leads to a page on the IBD Kitties website that shares Maggie’s story! Kelli actually pointed it out to me: You know, the first time I was looking through your blog I noticed on the right a link called “Maggie’s story”. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I was just back looking through your blog and decided to see what it was about, since I also had an Aby named Maggie. It turns out, it was the link to my Maggie’s story! There used to be a link to the video tribute of her on that page, but for some reason it’s no longer there so I thought I’d share the link with you so you can see more pics of my beautiful girl.
At the time, I felt I needed to do something to honor her memory as she was the love of my life. FIP is such an awful disease and I hope neither of us ever have to experience that again.
Amen to that! But isn’t it funny how small and intertwined the Aby world is?
