This week’s Photo Hunt subject is “Coffee.”
Jacoby uses the coffeemaker, along with all the other countertop appliances, as a place to stand when I tell him to “get off the counter.”
Because the last thing Jake needs is coffee. Can you just imagine? A caffeinated Aby?
“Coffee? Sounds delicious! Yes, please, may I have some?”
NO! Now get off the counter, Jake.
Good boy!
But you still can’t have any coffee.
Apparently bread-eating runs in Jacoby’s family. Almost nine years ago, Gun-Hee attacked a loaf of bread.
Hello, Abys…what part of “obligate carnivore” escapes you?
So sad to announce this…Jacoby has lost an uncle.
Last week, Sherry posted: “My 6 year old Wild Bill, the most playful and affectionate cat I’ve ever known, is in the hospital in critical condition tonight with sepsis after being blocked with urinary crystals. He has been in the hospital since Saturday morning and was seemingly recovering until this morning when he started to look weaker and ended up in septic shock from infection. I love him so very much and pray he makes it home soon – he’s missing rubs on his head and his favourite toy, Tim Horton coffee stir sticks – like so many people, he needs his Tim Hortons everyday.”
And then today came this sad news: “I am so broken hearted to let everyone know that my sweet boy Wild Bill passed away yesterday morning. I had him back to the vet the night before because he still did not have any appetite and seemed to be getting a bit worse rather than better with a below normal temperature. They gave him injections for pain and appetite but by yesterday morning he was very weak and a couple of hours after his morning syringe feeding he was barely able to walk and as soon as I saw his mouth open to breath I called my vet and rushed him right in – by the time I got there his heart had already stopped. I had no idea he could end up that bad that quickly after a urinary blockage. I am devastated to lose my Wild Bill – he was truly a special cat and will remain forever in my heart”
Wild Bill was Jake’s uncle. He was a younger sibling of Scar’s (same mother and father, but from a different litter). He was from the last litter of Ginger x TJ, born 3 May, 2010 – an uncle younger than Jake!
But it’s scary because Jake, too, has urinary crystals. He’s never had a blockage, but it’s serious motivation to make sure he only eats UT food.
My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today.
Most people are familiar with the concept of “I licked it, so it’s mine.”
Abyssinians have perfected this idea and made it into an art form.
Take, for example this poor unsuspecting baguette that did nothing wrong. It was simply brought home from the grocery and set down on the kitchen counter.
And just look what happened!
Oh, the breadmanity.
And was Jacoby content with merely licking the part of the loaf that was sticking out of the bag?
No, of course he wasn’t.
He folded his ears back and pushed his head and raspy tongue in as far as he could to lick as much of the bread as felinely possible.
He would have bitten into it, too, but the crust on a loaf of French bread is pretty hard, so Jake had to content himself with licking. Biting it would be too much work.
What really gets me, though, is his sheer brazenness and chutzpah. I mean, I was standing right there, watching him. He licked it anyway. So there, humans.
When we were at Manchester City Hall filling out the marriage license application, I noticed that there were crayons and scratch paper out for kids to entertain themselves.
So, while I was waiting for the Justice of the Peace to type out a proof copy of our marriage certificate…I entertained myself.
Björn and I went to a Red Sox game while he was here last week. We brought mini-Jacoby with us, but…I completely forgot to take photos of him during the game.
So…here is mini-Jake in front of the world-famous Cask & Flagon bar…
…in the shadow of the infamous Citgo sign.
I have several tattoos, but I wanted to get one to symbolise and commemorate my marriage to Björn. Many years ago, he gave me a silver necklace based on Bronze Age rock art from Sweden with a design of a man and woman kissing. The couple is known as “the Lovers,” “the Bridal Couple” or “the Holy Wedding.” It’s become something of a talisman of ours.
So on 1 April, I went and got myself another tattoo of it!
I added a cat-like creature from other rock carvings to the pair…if you look closely, you’ll see that the cat has a darker stripe along its back and a darker tipped tail! Just like an Abyssinian!
While Björn was here for our wedding and honeymoon, he got a matching tattoo by the same artist, Deirdre at Redemption Tattoo in Cambridge – and she is awesome, by the way. If you need a tattoo and happen to be near Porter Square, look her up.
Here are both of our tattoos together. Björn’s is about 2/3 the size of mine (I needed to balance out with the octopus on my other shoulder) and is feline-free. We are already planning on a trip to see the original rock carvings, which are conveniently located in Western Sweden, not far from where we will live. If we can, we want to get a photo of our tattoos and the original art…we’ll see how that goes.
This week’s Photo Hunt subject is “Rain.”
So, here are some photos from 2011 of Jacoby and I wearing our somewhat-matching raincoats.
He actually has two raincoats; a teal one and a dark green one.
Now if I could just find him a little umbrella…
Björn and I got married on Monday, as I mentioned earlier.
Much to our delight, a bunch of our friends came to wish us well, including Meg, Molly, Barb, Kelli and Donna. We were so amazed and grateful that they came to witness our marriage.
And they all gave us lovely gifts, apart from their presence. Molly gave us this “something old” that she found in an antique shop. Isn’t it wonderful!? It’s clearly meant to be an Aby, which in itself is amazing, but the detail and the workmanship in this small stained glass is wonderful.
He has wire whiskers, and three-dimentional, marble-like cat eyes that are just entrancing.
We love it so much…thank you, Molly!
As you saw yesterday, Jacoby and Björn shared a chicken salad sandwich when we went to visit the cats yesterday.
And by “share,” I mean “Jake demanded to have some and wasn’t about to take no for an answer.”
Semantics, I know.
But even after the sandwich was eaten, Jake refused to believe it was really gone.
I mean, he really played the denial card to the utmost.
Jake was determined not to miss a morsel.
It’s kind of interesting how well designed those plastic sandwich holders are. It’s like they were designed with the Abyssinian head in mind…
It’s almost as though the sandwich box makers thought to themselves, “We need to make a box that securely holds a sandwich…and also fits an Aby’s head without any undue bending of the ears. Yeah, I’m sure that was their primary consideration.
I drew this on the train back from Washington DC last Wednesday after my residency permit interview at the Swedish Embassy. I used Adobe Sketch…it’s actually rather a frustrating program! I used my iPad Pro and Pencil…which should have been like drawing on paper. Not so much.
It does have different media, though. I started out with a pencil…then I inked it in.
I also drew this whole thing, from scratch, TWICE because somehow I managed to delete the first one. Seems there are sketches and projects in Sketch, and once you delete a project – a whole set of sketches – there is no way to get it back! Arrrrrgh…
However, it was definitely easier than drawing on a Wacom tablet and having to look at a screen away from where you’re drawing to see what you’re doing. I just need more practice. Anyway…here’s a little doodle of what poor Jacoby must be thinking since I couldn’t bring him to our wedding in Manchester yesterday. Don’t worry, Jakey! You’ll be Best Cat at our Swedish wedding!
Today Björn and I were married in Manchester, NH!
We got a lovely room at the Manchester Radisson which included Champagne along with a cheese plate and chocolate-covered strawberries.
We weren’t able to bring the real Jacoby along (he’ll come to the wedding we have in Sweden), but mini-Jake crashed our little honeymoon.
He tried to act like he was helping us open the Champagne.
And he swore he wasn’t interested in the strawberries or the cheese…
…He just thought the decorative orchids made lovely hats.
He wanted to check out our rings, but of course they weren’t in the box anymore.
They were on our fingers!
My friend Mary sent me a “lucky sixpence” for my shoe.
It’s a 1965 sixpence – the same age as Björn and me!
Our friends Molly, Kelli, Meg, Barb and Donna were all able to to come to Manchester to help us celebrate. It was a simple, yet moving, ceremony at City Hall…but it was wonderful! Thank you all!
Björn was interviewed by the Göteborgs-Posten last Thursday bay a reporter doing a piece about Migrationsverket and the “love migration process” and people like us who either have a partner trying to move to be with them or who are that partner, and an article was published in last Saturday’s paper (that’s the big paper of the week there, Saturday instead of Sunday, so you have two days to read it all).
This was the main photo they used on the web version of the story and in the newspaper itself.
This is the front of the newspaper…
Look who made it to page 1!
This is the spread on pages 6 & 7 with sidebars about other aspects of Migrationsverket and Swedes waiting for their partners.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time someone I know has been featured on the front of a major publication.
Not only that…he also had a spread on pages 6 & 7! Björn and Jacoby…media superstars!
This week’s Photo Hunt subject is “Pop.”
I recently discovered the Privacy Pop bed tent, and it is awesome. Haven’t you always wanted a bed fort? I may be 50 years old, but this thing is awesome.
You’re meant to put it on a bedframe, under the mattress, but it also works if your mattress is on the floor.
And it comes in all sizes, except King. Which means if you have a Full or Queen bed, you and your significant other can have your own private little nest.
Not only humans love the Privacy Pop…Jacoby thinks it’s pretty cool, too.
(And it only two about two attempts for him to learn not to try to jump on top of it!)
Jake has always loved to play with his round lambbones on the bed.
And a bed inside a Privacy Pop tent is just as marvelous a playground, if not better.
He really loves those lambbones. He loved them when he wasn’t even a year old yet, he loved them when he was four years old, and he still loves them just as much now, when he’s about to turn seven.
Last week, I posted about Angel’s new leash. I also got everyone new collars, and Jacoby and Angel also got new tags!
I’m working on getting them silver tags, made by the same person who made them before, but she hasn’t been able to do it yet, so I had these made by Jen at K9 Stamp Art.
These are brass, and the lettering is done in colour, which I think is a nice touch. They have crystals embedded instead of gemstones.
I also got Pyret a collar, BlanketID tag, and a nametag. Pyret’s colour is yellow (Angel’s is purple and Jacoby’s is green), and she’s never worn a collar before, but I thought it would be nice for her to fit in with the Abys.
All the tags have our new Swedish address on the backs, too…just in case someone sneaks out the door.
Today is Jacoby’s 7th birthday!
As is tradition, he got his cat food can-cake with a candle on top.
He loves his birthday cake!
He knows he can’t eat any of it til the candle is lit, so he paced around impatiently while I got out the matches.
“Hurry up, mom! Light the candle already!!”
Abys have no fear of flame…this is a reason why I never have candles.
Fire on food? No problem!
Angel was completely uninterested in the festivities.
Nom nom nom
I let him eat a little bit, and then saved the rest for his evening meal.
After the cake, it was time for his present! A new Hexbug!This is the Hexbug Nano V.2, which can climb up tubes.
What’s nice about it is, on the floor, it seems to just want to go around in circles. It doesn’t try to escape like the other ones. This seems to be more fun for cats, too.
Kylie always gets involved in Jake’s birthday – hers is only 10 days away, on 24 April.
Here’s a quick little movie of Jake playing with his Hexbug, with a cameo by Tessie.
Happy birthday, Jakey!
Last week, I posted the cartoon I did for the holiday card I sent out just before I got married to my first husband.
This is the drawing I did on the invitation. Again, Harri the Siamese is prominently featured. I sent Björn and his then-fiancee an invitation…but they weren’t able to attend.
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