What’s the best part about Thanksgiving?
What else?
The turkey!!
Particularly if you’re a cat.
And especially if you’re Angel!
Today’s Page-a-Day Cat Calendar cutey isn’t a purebred Abyssinian, but she is a ticked tabby…I think she probably looks like the founders of the breed from the 1800’s.
“Eight-pound Muffin is a tiger at heart, says Marian Gall of Logan, Ohio. The three-year-old gray tabby loves to pick on the other two house cats – even one that weighs twice as much as she does. Small wonder that she has to take a break and chill out with a little yoga.”
Also wanted to alert you to some wonderful calendars, in case you need one for the new year.
Our friend Sparkle has her award-winning calendar available for sale on Zazzle.
The Abyssinian Cat Club of America also has a calendar for sale featuring colour photos of the ACCA’s top-scoring Abys of the 2010-2011 show season; to order one contact Harford Gillaspie by email (dexterus@volcano.net) for an order form.
Finally…I have a calendar too! Not for sale, not yet…but I make this one for family and friends and this year’s edition features several photos of Mr. Camera Ham, as well as pictures of Angel, Gun-Hee, Kylie and Tessie. And I have one to give away to one lucky Daily Abyssinian reader. Please comment on this post and I’ll choose someone at random.
And if you would like to receive a holiday card from Jacoby (and the rest of us), I’d love to send you one! Please send me your mailing address (abyaday@talonvaki.com). International addresses are welcome, and I promise I won’t use your address for nefarious purposes.
Happy holidays!
I just love the feeling of anticipation at a cat show.
Each new ring, each new judge…you never know what will happen.
Even if your cat’s been seen by a judge at a past show and done well, it doesn’t mean that you’ll see the same result today.
People ask me what it is about cat shows I find so entrancing…well, that, I guess is a big part of it.
It’s also really interesting to see your cat compared with other members of his or her breed.
And it’s also fun to see other breeds, too.
Good morning…Update on St. Anne posted to the Aby Rescue list:
“She has Tritrichomonas foetus (an easily diagnosed and treated intestinal parasite) but we cannot afford vet bills since we have fallen on hard times…Plus she is stressed out and giving herself hotspots. We are blaming it on stress but maybe a vet could find an underlying reason/skin irritation? I want everyone to know up front that she has a problem. It would do her no good to go to someone else who can’t afford the vet bills. We are only giving her up for her own good and it is breaking our hearts.”
I know what it’s like to deal with overgrooming; Tessie’s had that problem since May.
If there’s any more information posted, I’ll pass it along.
Today was spent putting up our beloved LED fibre-optic white Xmas tree and the other holiday decorations.
I had such a great helper, too.
From the moment I unzipped the tree bag, Jacoby was right there inspecting everything to make sure it was all in good working order.
Then he needed to check out the ambiance underneath the tree.
And then…he got into some serious fake pine needle chewing. I don’t understand the attaction, and none one else does it, but he loves biting the tree.
Check out the Grand Premier! If I ever need to blackmail Jake, I think I’m set.
“Okay, that was awesome…what else do you have?”
Today was an extraordinarily amazing, warm, gorgeous day for late November; it got up to 63° in Boston (the record for this day was 67°, in 1946) and there was no way Jacoby and I weren’t going outside to take advantage of it. We didn’t do much, just walked along Fort Point Channel to the post office and back, but we did have a chance to check out the new P&G/Gillette Public Dock that they were building all summer and which officially opened last month.
It’s really cool. It’s just a small wooden dock, floating on the water, that’s open to the public. I’m sure it’ll be busy in the summer when people with kayaks and little boats start using it. But hopefully we’ll get a chance to sit on it and watch the jellyfish at some point next year.
Actually, it was really nice to sit on it today. There weren’t any jellyfish, but we did see a Horned Grebe
Now you get to choose: a photo where I’m ready and Jake isn’t…or one where he’s ready and I look like I’m asking why the flash didn’t go off.
(Me ready, Jake not)
(Jake ready, me not)
But my point is, how often, living in a place that gets a freak snowstorm on Halloween weekend, do you get to sit outside with your sleeves rolled up and no socks on?
Yeah, it was a pretty good day.
‘Tis the season…for Abyssinians to need new homes for the holidays, apparently. I got another email this afternoon:
I would like to alert any Aby people in New York City that I have just placed a wonderful 4 year old ruddy Aby on the City Critters Petfinder page. She lost her person and is in need of a loving forever home. Unfortunately the circumstances seemed to make havoc with her waistline and she is in need of proper diet and excercise…but she is extremely beautiful and very sweet. If any New York people are interested they can go to www.CityCritters.org and click on our Petfinder list. Of course I can be contacted at Ellie9k@aol.com. Thank you so much for your assistance.
Abby looks quite distraught at being in a shelter, poor girl! Anyone in the New York area in need of an Abyssinian, here’s your chance!
Of course, in my little dream world, I’d adopt both her and St. Anne and let them be Angel’s new A-girl posse. Sadly, I’m not allowed to ask Santa for any more Abys in my stocking!
We were lucky enough to get tickets to today’s hockey game against the Detroit Red Wings today.
The meanies who run the Garden wouldn’t let us bring Jacoby to the game with us, but that didn’t stop him from dressing for the occasion.
Despite living in Boston, I actually had a really hard time finding Jake a Stanley Cup Champions T-shirt in his size!
I finally found him a shirt (and a bandana!) at SportsFanimals.com; they’re sold out of most sizes, but they’re a great company if you get the urge to dress up your kitty in some team gear.
Angel was very impressed with Jake’s outfit (at least, she didn’t hiss at him while he had it on)!
I’m on a couple of Abyssinian mailing lists, and one of these is very active and very international. The listmembers also share a lot of really fascinating photographs.
Susan Graham of Aksum Abyssinians shared these x-rays and photos of the litters of two sister Abys, Aksum Tiny Dancer, a chocolate, and Aksum Cheyenne of Blue River, a blue. The father of both these litters, as it happens, is the same male, Vivid V’Lane of Spiritcat, so all the kittens are cousins.
From Susan’s email: Here’s the photo of Dancer’s x-ray (above photo with drawings of where the kittens are, below photo without the drawings). And also the very first photo of Dancer’s fourth and last litter of kittens that I’m publishing. I’m pretty sure they are: ruddy male, ruddy female, chocolate female. 🙂 Yes, the x-rays have been correct every time so far. 🙂
Here is another recent x-ray we got done, on Dancer’s younger full sister Cheyenne, who also recently had kittens. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get one of them out fast enough, the kitten was breach and she didn’t make it. Cheyenne is a blue and the sire has produced blues, but she had three ruddy females, go figure! Anyway, here is the x-ray and it’s more like what you really see since a picture of it was taken with a better camera.
With Cheyenne, there were three kittens and two survived. All three were/are ruddy females. The two ruddy females are doing great! One of them had one eye open yesterday and I took a picture. The other eye opened today. They are so CUTE!! I adore kittens!!
With Dancer, there were three kittens and all three did fine. Dancer and Cheyenne are full sisters, but Dancer is a chocolate carrying cinnamon and dilute and Cheyenne is a blue (not sure if she carries chocolate or not yet, need to color test I suppose, but probably won’t because she is also a B blood type, ugghhh…). We’ll test Cheyenne’s and Dancer’s kittens instead in about three weeks, for blood type and color.
Between the two litters (born about a week apart, with Dancer now caring for all five), there are four ruddies (one male, three female) and one chocolate female. Talk about crowded! LOL!! Dancer is a little girl, which is why I named her Tiny Dancer. 😉 She looks a bit overwhelmed, poor girl, but she just purrs away, she is such a great mom!
I just find it so incredibly cool to see x-rays of unborn kittens and then photographs of the same kittens after they’re born.
Susan also posted x-rays of another of her pregnant females, Alexy Blue Cream Sky of Aksum, a blue-cream torbie.
There are only two kittens in Sky’s belly. Here’s how she looks on the outside:
Isn’t she lovely? Blue-cream Abys aren’t recognised in CFA, and they’re more common in Europe; Susan is one of the few breeders in the US breeding sex-linked reds and torbies (I say “torbies” rather than “torties,” since all Abys are, technically, tabbies). You can see the subtle patching of blue and cream in these photos of Sky. It’s said that torties are “crazy,” perhaps because of the mosaic genetics that produces their motley coat. We all know what Abyssinians are like…I wonder if a torbie Aby is a special kind of crazy?
One more interesting little thing I discovered: Dancer’s paternal great-grandfather was Paranor’s Panamaniac of Devande. Paranor’s Panamaniac of Devande is also Jacoby’s maternal great-grandfather! Once again, the Aby world is a small one!
I got this email yesterday via one of my Aby mailing lists, and I think this is just…sad.
“Hello, we live in Florida and have an Abyssinian who needs a new home. Saint Anne is 5 1/2 yrs old, sweet and loving, but will only use a litter box, not a toilet. Using a litter box is not an option for us, so after three years of trying to train her to the toilet and failing, we must give her up.”
Call Rocky Torres at 813-263-3871 and/or email: rojerthat@hotmail.com
Saint Anne seems like a real sweetheart who gets along with other cats and is only a year older than Angel. She’s currently in Tampa, FL and apparently her only crime is she only uses a litter box and not (GASP!) a human toilet. If you know of anyone who’d like to add a pretty girl to their family, the contact information is above.
Waiting for the turkey to cook is so hard!
“Is it ready yet?”
“It smells SO GOOD!”
“I’m pretty sure we need to open this up and check…”
This video really made me laugh, and it was really cool to see The Cat’s Trapeze (which I’ve really only seen on Moderncat) in action:
We may have to get one of these!
While the holidays are a fun time for cats and people, they can be dangerous, too. I’ve seen some really good advice being posted on the various cat-related blogs this week, and I wanted to pass it along.
From Catster: 10 Ways to Avoid Kitty Disasters on Turkey Day
From PawCurious: Thanksgiving Food Dos and Don’ts For Your Pet.
And from Cat Fancy’s CatChannel: 3 Tips for a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving with Cats.
Of course, it is perfectly fine to share some boneless, skinless bits of turkey with your cats…
…as if I could stop Jacoby from sharing!
I suppose I should add this one last holiday safety tip for Abyssinian people: Don’t let your cat get stuck inside the turkey!
Happy Turkey Day, everyone!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cat show…
Sherry emailed me last night to point out that this past weekend, at the CFA National Show in Indianapolis, Indiana, an Abyssinian was named Third Best Cat in Show!
GP Hitails Banjo Mooner, a blue neutered Aby, came in as 2nd runner up behind a tortie-and-white Persian spay and a red tabby American Shorthair male out of 500 cats! 18 Abyssinians were entered; 9 Kittens, 6 Championship and 3 Premiership.
What’s funny is, we’ve met Banjo’s family recently: You may recall my Halloween post about Racy Mooner. Turns out, the Hitails Abys are quite the characters. Not only is Racy a waterbug, but her mother, Zehnder’s Twyla Mooner of Hitails, is a Feline Agility star! She’s also a CFA Regional Winner: Look at this wonderful photo from the CFA Southern Region 2011 Awards page:
Such a talented – and gorgeous – family!
Jacoby’s interest in the “shopping cart” is about more than just the grocery bags.
He really loves riding the cart back downstairs with me when I return it to the storage closet.
I used to do this with his half-brother, Gun-Hee, too.
Jake and I have been returning the cart together since he was a little kitten.
He actually gets disappointed when the cart comes upstairs and, for some reason, he doesn’t get to ride back down with it.
He also gets a little annoyed if I don’t push the cart fast enough. He’s a little speed demon!
The elevator is boring! Vertical movement isn’t nearly as exciting as horizontal motion.
*Ding*
“Okay, mom…floor it!”
It seems to be a big year for Abyssinians! At the GCCF Supreme Show this past weekend in Birmingham, England, Pontaby Paperina (aka “Daisy”) was named Best of Variety Foreign Kitten!
Daisy is from Glasgow, Scotland, and, in the words of her breeder, Lorraine, she is “a right poser.” On the Unusual Abys list, Lorraine said, “It really was a fantastic set of results at the Supreme this year, with lots of new titles for the Abys but Daisy really topped the bill. As Maggie will testify I actually cried after I seen her up on that stage…it was rather emotional to see the very first EVER Pontaby win a Best of Variety at the Supreme!”
It really has been a good year for Abys. In the CFA, 29 Abys have Granded this show year (which runs May 1 – April 30) so far!
One thing about cat shows is, there’s a lot of down time.
Luckily, since we keep it set up at home, Jacoby and Kylie both see their Sturdi-Shelter show cage as their home away from home.
Jake especially likes to watch the goings-on from the top bunk.
The only downside to their fondness of their “house” is they don’t always want to leave it when it’s time for them to go up to their rings!
Thanks to Abyfriend Freecloud13 for this link to an Italian article about a Swedish Abyssinian who was just named Most Beautiful (Category 3) Cat in the World at the World Cat Show in Poznan, Poland the last weekend of October.
His full name is SC Brunnbäcken’s Pedram DVM, DSM
In English, it says: Anyone with a cat in the house is believed to be the most beautiful in the world. But, at least for the official results, the title belongs to him, emerald eyes and look between the proud and the curious, Negus is four years old and lives in Bastad, Sweden. The young Abyssinian was awarded the highest recognition a few days ago – in the category short haired neutered male – at the World Cat Show in Poznan, Poland. And now, within the warm walls of the house, posing for photographers with his family.
Please note, however, that the Italian article is incorrect in one detail: Negus is not neutered!
And (oh, you knew I was going to do this), Negus is distantly related to Jacoby! Not only is Negus’ paternal great-great grandfather Purrsynian Jambe Finite (who is also related to the Pouponette Gang, to whom Jake is related through Jambe’s great-great grandfather Bogeykat’s Brendan O’ Cork, but another of Negus’ great-great grandfathers, Allmykittens Mitchel‘s great-great grandfather was El Qahira’s Pegasus of Mellowmews…who is also of Jake’s grandfather, TJ’s great-great grandfather!
Is it just me, or have there been a lot of Abyssinians making the news this year?
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