Angel is a very social cat and is much happier living in a home with other cats than she would be as an only cat – this was true in her foster home and living with us. However, she’s easily intimidated by other cats.
Here’s Angel with Jacoby and Tessie…Tessie makes her a little nervous, but Jake’s there, making her brave.
Another photo of the two Abys conspiring atop one of the cat trees. I like how Angel’s tail is curled.
I posted yesterday’s bukkit photos to to see if anyone had any LOLcat ideas. came up with this:
This brand new video showed up on my YouTube subscription email update this morning. Another funny example of how Abys use their hands.
Question: If you could have any fictional creature from a book, film, or TV show as your pet, which one would you choose, and why?
Absolute no-brainer, this one. Zunar-J-5/Doric-4-7 (aka “Jake”), the Cat from Outer Space.
Seriously? An Abyssinian that can not only talk but crack snarky one-liners? Not only yes, but hell yes!
And yes, the Jake in the movie is part of why Jacoby is named Jacoby and Jake for short.
We’re in Florida on vacation for the next few days. This is the first time we’ve been away (except for one overnight trip to New York right after we got him in August) since Jacoby came. I really wonder how he’s going to do without me and my husband there. He’s so very attached to us, me especially, and he’s just never really been alone with only cats since he was born.
I mean, he follows me around and has to be with me constantly…even if I’m in the bathtub!
I know I post a lot about Angel playing with the images on TV, but it’s just always entertaining. She especially likes watching sports, so she’s really into the Winter Olympics.
Tonight, it was Canada vs Russia Men’s Hockey.
It’s so funny to watch her head move around as she follows the puck…and she does follow the puck with her one eye.
“Oh…I’m not in your way or anything, am I?”
I would have thought Jacoby would have been interested in the game, too…I mean, he was born in Canada and all!
We are in the process of IKEA-izing our apartment. We have a set of Pax cabinets built in the bedroom; while we wait for another trip to Stoughton to get another set of drawers, Jacoby’s favourite sleeping spot is a basket on one of the of the still-open shelves.
Here he is in his basket, while Angel gauges her chances of joining him in there.
I have a confession to make: I’m utterly addicted to Etsy. It’s just incredible; any handmade thing you can imagine, from anywhere in the world, all in one place.
So one of my projects has been to build the cats perfect collars and tags. It started with custom kangaroo leather braided tag collars by HitideCreations in British Columbia. These are great for cats because they’re light, thin and they slip on and off over their heads (no buckles). Then, the perfect tags, by two artists: MakeYourDogSmile and PatsDesign. These are 4 different metals, aluminum, brass, copper and silver. The small silver tag is a symbol for each cat; the other three have our phone numbers, their names, and our apartment number in case they get out into the hallway.
Then, a little gemstone from AddADangle, and a bronze hook to hang them all from UnkamenSupplies.
Here’s how they look on the Abys:
Angel has a collar braided from four different purples and an Amethyst dangle. Purple goes so well with her cinnamon fur. Her silver tag is a pair of angel wings.
And here’s Jacoby’s. His collar is green and his stone is a Peridot. His silver tag is a shamrock since he lives in Southie.
Tessie has a red and blue collar with a (real!) Ruby gem and a butterfly on her silver tag (her registered name is Bes Butterfly), and Kylie has a collar in pinks and white with a gorgeous Pink Opal and hearts on her tiny silver tag, in case you were curious 🙂
When Jacoby first arrived last August, Angel wasn’t sure if she liked him or not. Considering the reception Kylie and Tessie gave her when we came home from California, you’d think she’d have been more welcoming. Jacoby loved her at first sight, of course; he walked out of his carrier and basically said, “Oh hai, you’re an Aby, I’m an Aby…My name is Jake. I have just met you, and I love you.”
It wasn’t until we took the two of them out to Binford Park for a walk that they really started bonding.
These are some of my favourite photos of them together; I just wish they hadn’t been wearing their harnesses.
I love that their back legs are synced.
The place is lousy with nice, lush grass, and these two choose to stay on the bricks.
I swear, they’re urban to the core.
This was Jake’s first time outside and his first time on a leash.
He seems quite unfazed by the lack of ceiling.
Randomly discovered on Flickr this afternoon: Real LOLcats.
Apparently, this was Jack and Evey’s halloween costumes last year! 🙂
Another photo of that most unlikely twosome, Angel and Kylie. Technically, this isn’t a very good photograph, and I know that…but for some reason, it just amuses the heck out of me.
Jacoby’s been stealing the spotlight lately, so it’s time for a little Angel interlude.
Kylie is the least fond of Angel, and because of that Angel isn’t crazy about Kylie, either (it’s hard to like someone who baps you on the head and hisses in your face); here’s a rare moment of sweet friendliness between the two.
(Although, a glance at the upper right corner will show you that you can take the spotlight off of the kitten, but you can’t take the kitten out of the spotlight!)
Jacoby is a very clean cat. I rarely need to bathe or brush him; apart from his ears and his teeth, he keeps himself immaculately groomed.
He may not be very gentlemanly, but he’s clean.
I took Jacoby out for his first walk in the snow a while ago. He would have enjoyed it more if he’d keep his booties on, but at least he put up with wearing Gun-Hee’s old parka.
I can’t wait for warmer weather. He’s had barely any practice, but he’s great at walking on a leash.
Not sure why he’s standing on his tail, though…
The parka, as I said, belonged to Gun-Hee. Here he is walking along Fort Point Channel in early November 2007.
I got a very tragic email today from a friend…
Enzo, our nine-month old Aby/Egyptian Mau mix, had to be put down today due to FIP. Really so insidious and fast-acting. Unreal. I was thinking about you and Gun-Hee, and I just wanted to… I don’t know, really. I guess just wanted to hug you, is all.
FIP is terrible. It’s a genetic disease, and Abys seem to be somewhat more prone to it because they’re more genetically similar than other breeds (Cheetahs, also, are susceptible to FIP; all cheetahs are over 90% related to every other cheetah). Almost all Abys can trace back to the original Abyssinians that founded the breed back in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s in England; the breed almost died out during WWII because of the bombings Britain was subjected to and was saved when cats were sent back to England from the US and Canada…which had gotten Abys from England in the first place only forty or fewer years earlier. There’s a reason Abys were chosen to map the feline genome: they’re genetically homogenous.
Gun-Hee and his brother Rusty (Jacoby’s half brothers by their father) both were diagnosed with FIP within days of each other in June, 2008. I posted a lot about it here, but there were some photos I never posted. In memory of Gun-Hee, Rusty and Enzo…This is Gun-Hee on June 25, 2008, three days before he died. He wasn’t even two years old.
This was the last time we went outside together.
A couple of movies with Jacoby…
First, Jake plays with his lambbone on the bed. He really loves his lambbones. I keep them in a drawer and he knows exactly where they are. If I go anywhere near the drawer, he runs up and tries to open it, hoping I’ll give him one.
And then, a silly little video of what happens when he can’t see me in the hallway (listen very carefully at the beginning and you can hear him crying).
As I often say, Abyssinians are the most “handsy” cats I’ve ever known. Angel especially, but Jacoby and Gun-Hee too, use their paws as much as their eyes to learn about their world.
Evidently, they’re not unusual. Here’s a couple of YouTube videos showing other “handsy” Abys.
This guy cracks me up. I don’t know what the people are eating, but he wants some of it!
Angel wishes you all a happy Valentine’s Day!
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 