Aby-a-Day – Day 151 of 365

One of Jacoby’s birthday gifts was a Suck UK fighter plane kitty playhouse. It required assembly, so it didn’t get built right away. I finally put it together this weekend.

He loved it, as you can see.

Although I’m pretty sure that real fighter pilots don’t chew their propellers.
This plane was incredibly detailed for a fancy cardboard cat toy. There are control planels and dials inside, battle art on the fuselage…there are even bullet holes in the tail which, when viewed from the top look green (like the grass) and when viewed from beneath look blue, like the sky.

In honour of Memorial Day, here’s Jacoby in his WWII Mustang somewhere over France:

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Aby-a-Day – Day 150 of 365

Of all our cats, Jacoby and Kylie are the two who seem to live to eat. Ironically, they’re also our two slenderest cats. We have to spell the words “can” and “treat” around them…and even then, I think they’ve figured out that the sounds of spelling the words means the same thing as the words themselves.

Here’s the two sharks, with their tails in the air, waiting for manna from heaven.

Writer’s Block: Bone appetit!

Question: If your pet were arranging a dinner party, who do you think they would invite and what would they serve?

I could see Jacoby and Angel being quite the hosts. They would serve chirashi sushi, including raw beef and lamb along with the fish.

They would invite everyone they knew…especially Jake; he’d probably also invite the dogs who live on our floor.

Aby-a-Day – Day 149 of 364

The feline reaction to catnip is genetic and the trait is governed by a dominant gene. Abyssinians, as a breed, have a very small genepool and are therefore not terribly genetically diverse, so it’s no surprise that the Abys were so captvated by the fresh catmint. While they were, by far, the most impressed with the catmint, Tessie was also pretty fascinated by it.

Kylie, however, took one sniff and wanted nothing whatsoever to do with it.
She usually does like regular dried catnip, so this was an interesting reaction.

Look at those ears! “More for me,” says Jacoby.

And, in case you were wondering, this is what catmint
looks like when it’s not being nommed by kitties.

Aby-a-Day – Day 148 of 364

Angel was also very intrigued by the fresh catmint I brought home.

Sneaking a sniff when Jake wasn’t looking.

It’s whisker-licking good!

Enjoying the bouquet like a true connoisseur.

She actually dragged this piece away to enjoy it in peace.

Jake’s all, “Waitaminute, something’s missing!”

Aby-a-Day – Day 147 of 364

Walking home from work on the Rose Kennedy Greenway one evening, I noticed some catmint in one of the gardens.

I’ve never seen catmint before (catnip, yes, but not catmint), so I picked some to show the cats. Jake was very intrigued.

He picked it up and started chewing it.

Nom nom nom…
Although, it’s not too surprising that he liked it. Even as a small kitten he was interested in catnip, and kittens aren’t supposed to be affected by it when they’re that young.

He’s 10 weeks old in this photo, and having a marvelous time!

Jacoby’s Namesake

Jake’s full name is Pellburn Jacoby Stealin’ Home, after Red Sox player Jacoby Ellsbury, who stole home against the Yankees last year almost two weeks after Jakey was born.

Well, there’s also a song by the Boston Baseball Band about Jacoby…which of course I sing to Jake on a regular basis. So I thought I’d share it with you:

Doesn’t every cat deserve his own theme song? Angel has one, too; her song is Pretty Little Angel Eye.

Aby-a-Day – Day 146 of 364

When we go to Rolling Bridge Park, the circle of stones I call BenchHenge is an endless source of entertainment as far as Angel and Jake are concerned.

Abys in Need! 40+ Abys seized & available as rescues in RI

You remember those Abys I found in Rhode Island via Petfinder? Well, as Paul Harvey would say…Here’s the REST of the story. And it’s not a happy story, but I hope it’ll have a happy ending.

Forwarded message:
“I thought you would be interested to know that the Potter League for Animals removed 48 Abyssinians from a cat breeder in Newport, Chickwick Abyssinians, from her house. They also removed a corn snake, one dog, a turtle and two other household cats. She now has no animals. This situation was discovered because there was a fire in her home and when the fire department came they discovered such filth that all these cats were living in. I looked at her website and it is a pretty nice website, you would NEVER think that she had terribly sick cats and kittens. The Potter League has most of them presently, they have other rescue groups coming in and believe it or not only one had to be put to sleep because its eye was not in the head and one did die at The Potter League. According to one woman from Potter’s she is a greedy woman and only cares about selling her kittens. She lives on one of the most beautiful locations in Newport, you would never think this woman would live in these conditions.”

If you’re interested in helping to rescue one or more of these Abys, please contact the Potter League for Animals (Newport, RI), 87 Oliphant Lane, Middletown RI 02842
Phone: 401-846-8276
Email: info@potterleague.org

Abyssinians are Everywhere!

Searching for “Abyssinian Cat” on Amazon, I discovered a song called Abyssinian Cat by Syzygys, a Japanese “microtonal pop music” duo. The mp3 is also available on iTunes; either place it’s only 99¢, so I bought it.

I haven’t listened to it, yet (and I have no idea what microtonal pop music actually is), but it’s a song called Abyssinian Cat! I had to buy it!

Aby-a-Day – Day 145 of 364

I just love the way Angel sleeps on the top of the cat tree, using her arm as a pillow.

Aby-a-Day – Day 144 of 364

A message from Jacoby to the Boston Celtics:

Do not follow the Boston Bruins and choke a 3-0 playoff lead.

Seriously. Just don’t do it.

Lucky the Therapy Cat (Not an Aby and a Little Clown

I got an email today with a link to an interesting story about a Therapy Cat named Lucky. I like it because it really explains what a therapy cat does, and it’s a good thing to point people to when I talk to people about Jacoby when we’re out and about.

Unrelated to that, I found this amazing new photo by Peter Hasselbom on Flickr today.

Aby-a-Day – Day 143 of 365

In honour of Lost’s final episode, I give you these Lost LOLcats I made a few years ago, starring Gun-Hee:

I already miss them both.

Aby-a-Day – Day 142 of 365

We went to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 3 tonight at the Garden. The Boston Celtics creamed Orlando and took a 3-0 series lead.

They handed out rally towels at the game tonight, just like they did at the Bruins NHL playoff game we went to a couple of weeks ago. And, like I did after the Bruins game, I put my rally towel on Jacoby when I got home. This time, Jake knew what I was doing with the towel, and he posed like a pro for the camera.

This is my serious face.

How’s this, mom? Cute enough?

What a ham! Oh, behave!

Jacoby’s going to be an uncle again!

I got this email from Sherry, Jake and Gun-Hee’s breeder:

Jake’s brother Dillin has his first “date” arranged. I have one of Hinka’s girls, Siren, up for a visit. Just waiting for her to come into heat 🙂

Aw. I can’t really imagine Jake being a father himself; he’s such a goofball. But it makes me happy that Scar’s genes are being carried on.

And speaking of family, I found a gallery of photos of Jacoby’s paternal grandfather, QGC Haro’s Jake of Eszencia, called TJ, as well as his pedigree. His brother and littermate, Haro’s Jacob of Eszencia, called Jake, is Jacoby’s great uncle (and yes, the name Jake is also kind of a family tradition, although I didn’t think of that when I chose my Jake’s name). There’s definitely a family resemblance!

Now that’s an Abyssinian of another colour

This is an interesting collusion of things, actually. I’d been meaning to post for a while about unusual Abyssinians, particularly Tortie Abys. Through my emails to the National Aby Rescue, I’ve been turned onto the Homeless Abyssinians list posted on the website of Aksum Abyssinians in Atlanta (Aengus, the Red boy and the other Abys I posted about Wednesday are now on that list as well).

They also have an Aby newsletter to which you can subscribe. Of course, I’ve signed up, and in the process I’ve entered into a correspondence with Susan, the woman behind the cats at Aksum.

So I’ve been inspired to finish that post I’ve had waiting in the wings about tortie Abys (more properly called “torbie” Abys, since Abys are genetically tabbies), silvers, sex-linked red (which is different from the “red” or sorrel Abyssinians we’re more familiar with) and other colours outside of the Original Four.

While the CFA and other registries only recognise ruddy (“usual”), red (“sorrel”), blue and fawn Abys, they actually come in quite a few more colours than that. According to the UnsualAbycats website, there are 28 variations possible. I find it interesting that Abys come in all the colours other breeds do (except for white and white-spotted): black (ruddy/usual) and its dilute blue, sex-linked (“true”) red and its dilute cream, and all torbie variations, plus silver variations, and plus “red” (sorrel) and its dilute fawn, which is caused by the Cinnamon gene and isn’t seen in many cat breeds apart from Abys.

It’s thought that silver Abys were much, much more common in the early days of the breed in the late 1800’s; in fact, Aluminum II and Salt, the first two Abys imported into the US, were almost certainly silvers.

The other colours are being bred much more extensively in the UK (Crystalpaws Cattery in Essex has some great photos), Europe and Australia/New Zealand than they are in the States…which brings us back full circle: Aksum Abyssinians is one of the few American catteries working on the other variations. As Susan said in an email, “I’ve been asked to do an article on them for the Australian Aby fanciers, and I’ll be the new ACCA (Abyssinian Cat Club of America) newsletter editor, so I am quite sure more will be said about them and I am hoping to recruit other Aby breeders to the ‘new’ colors (they were added in the 70’s and 80’s).”

And how did I start looking into other Abyssinian colours in the first place? I made a random comment to about Abyssinians being a handful, and torties being a handful…but just imagine a tortoiseshell Aby! It’d be the perfect storm of cattitude!

Aby-a-Day – Day 141 of 365

In the interest of fairness and equal time, of course I’m following Jakey’s bath photos with some of Angel’s…

Angel in the tub.

But…I luvs you!

Getting wrapped in a nice, warm towel.

Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job drying her!

Aby-a-Day – Day 140 of 365

We gave all the cats baths a couple of weeks ago…here are some photos of Jake’s mighty big ordeal.

Jake in the tub.

Getting dried off.

Fixing his fur.

Abys need to bathed every once in a while because their fur picks up the oils from our hands and it gets kind of greasy. They don’t mind being bathed as much as it look like they do.

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.