Aby-a-Day – March 29: What are little girls made of?

Remember that old nursery rhyme? “What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice.”

But what is Angel made of?

Yeah…I’m thinking she’s more vinegar and something else than she is sugar and spice…

Aby-a-Day – March 22: Playing with light

I love watching Angel playing with laser pointers.

Look at her paw! Even though it’s light, Angel thinks she can grab the red dot. Adorable!

Aby-a-Day – February 9: Invisible toys

Angel sometimes plays with things that only she can see.

What’s even funnier, she usually only does it when nobody’s looking. My husband says she’s like that singing frog in the old Merrie Melody cartoon.

I got lucky the other day; she was not only playing when I could see her, but she was doing it while my camera was handy!

Aby-a-Day – September 27: Cloudy with a chance of hissing

Angel, for whatever reason, is still not happy about Jacoby’s general existence.

And poor Jake just doesn’t understand why he’s suddenly not able to play with Angel the way he used to. So he’s been forced to engage other playmates…

…like Kylie…

…and Tessie. Needless to say, I hope this blows over soon, and I think Jake does, too.

Aby-a-Day – June 7: App for Cats

I have some apps on my iPhone that are there solely for the enjoyment of the kitties, especially Jacoby. One of these is named simply (and logically) App for Cats

App for Cats features little bugs crawling around the screen.

It starts out with one and then gradually adds more and more (kind of like Microsoft products…oh, snap). When you tap a bug, the phone makes a “meow” sound and all the bugs speed up.

As far as Jake’s concerned, it works!

Although, he did seem to have a hard time believing that the bugs weren’t just underneath my phone.

This app has versions for both the iPhone and the iPad, and I’ve heard that the iPad is much more fun for cats to play with, but Jake seems to enjoy the smaller version quite a bit…or, maybe he just likes trying to push my phone off the bed.

Aby-a-Day – March 9: Wordless Wednesday (Angel in flight)

Aby-a-Day – Day 270 of 365

Even though Jacoby is almost a year and a half old, and Angel is three, they still play as much as ever. One thing they do is play fight; Jake starts a lot of it, but Angel usually wins.

She weighs less than Jake, but she is stocky and solid. Her legs are shorter than his, too, and her lower center of gravity gives her the advantage.

(Sometimes they move faster than the camera can readjust)

Not even white hot lazors can help Jake beat Angel.

This is Jake’s idea of a defensive move: holding her at arm’s (and legs’) length.

Yeah…that tactic doesn’t really work all that well.

Which isn’t to say that Jacoby doesn’t have some moves of his own; he usually gets a few hits on Angel.

However, age and treachery will always prevail against youth and speed.

Aby-a-Day – Day 266 of 365

As I’ve mentioned, we are currently redecorating and reorganising our apartment (and any dishevelment you may notice in the backgrounds of your Daily Aby photos is utterly and completely due to this activity). A couple of weekends ago, we built some tall IKEA bookshelves, and I caught Angel playing with a piece of plastic while my husband did his handyman things…

Her eye is as subtly retouched as I could manage. It’s hard to cover her eyeshine because it’s red and doesn’t stay within the pupils because of the spots on her cornea.

If you look closely at these last three, you can see the little piece of plastic she’s playing with in her mouth.

And if you look very closely at this last photo, you can see she’s putting it down on the blanket so she can play with it closer to Dad.

Aby-a-Day – Day 139 of 365

On yesterday’s post, said that Angel was “reserved” and “ladylike.” I’m here to tell you that that’s not exactly the case.

Aby-a-Day – Day 13 of 365

Sunday afternoon, Angel noticed dust floating in a particularly bright winter sunbeam. With her one eye, she notices things other cats either don’t notice, or do notice but don’t pay attention to.

Angel played with the dust in the sunbeam for much, much longer than this short video.

Funny girl!

When I adopted her, Angel’s foster mom told me that sometimes she’d see Angel playing with invisible things in the air that she thought might be shadows in her good eye.

I hadn’t managed to catch her doing this, until tonight. She’s on a roll, batting at things only she can see. It’s adorable.

Bless the Beasts and the Children

On our walk on Saturday, Gun-Hee and I met a little girl named Shelby and her mother in the Binford Street Park. They were just leaving as we arrived, but Shelby said hello to Gun-Hee and asked to pet him.

On Sunday, as I was taking the photos of Gun-Hee in the heather, I heard a young girl cry, “Oh, look! That kitty’s here again!”
She petted Gun-Hee some more, and then Dave gave her the sparkly wand toy that he’d brought along with us for Gun-Hee to play with. The pair of them had a pretty good time playing with it

Flight of the Helicopter

This is an older video (circa the “Magic Wand” video of a few weeks ago) that wouldn’t upload to YouTube until last night.

Gun-Hee and the Magic Wand

Here, Gun-Hee plays with a wand toy until he’s so tired he can’t stand up.

The King of the Box

I’d put this Shutterfly box next to the door to take it to the recycling bin. Gun-Hee saw it and had other ideas…

Kylie and Tessie were interested in Gun-Hee’s cardboard castle.

Kylie was, perhaps, a little more than just interested.

Bam! Gun-Hee’s castle has been stormed! He’s still in there, by the way…

What is a cat toy?

Apparently, whatever the cat says is a cat toy.

Gun-Hee has decided that the kitchen sponge is a toy. He goes up on the counter to grab it off the sink (which he is not supposed to do). Then he drags it all over the house. This morning it was in bed with us. With a few hunks taken out of it.

Never thought of a sponge being a toy. Guess I never knew what I was missing.

Six months on Friday

Next Friday, Gun-Hee will be 6 months old, and he’ll have been living with us for three of those months. Next Wednesday, he’s going to the vet to have the operation.

He’s an amazing cat. Physically gorgeous, and his personality is even more beautiful. I could not have gotten a better best friend had I gone to the kitten store and ordered one up custom.

Which is not to say he isn’t a complete terror and a total brat. He is; that’s part of being a lively and healthy kitten! Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s 5,000 worth of what it’s like to live with Gun-Hee.

Ooooh, shrimp! Can I have it?
(He stole, and ate, three whole shrimp while they were thawing in the sink!)

Napping with Kylie on the heated cat bed…this is a rare quiet moment.

Watching the fish…

He loves the bigscreen TV, and often tries to interact with it.
He seems to like shows with lots of dialogue.
Here he is, trying to get two of the characters on Miami: CSI to play with him…

Gun-Hee Fetching

This was this morning when he woke me I woke up…

Out-take from the previous video

While I was filming the video of Gun-Hee jumping up the door after his fishing lure toy, I moved some of the magnets out of the way. One of these was a magnetic cat toy, a favourite of Tessie’s. She noticed it, and came to play with it. And of course, Tessie noticing it made Gun-Hee notice it…and so…

Gun-Hee is such a helpful little kitten…

…Look how he helps me put the laundry away!