Björn and I cleaned Kalle’s room this past weekend, and I found this adorable cat drawing he did in 2010. I love the eyes!
It’s part of a larger drawing that includes two hares, so it’s probably meant to be in the tall summer grass we have outside our apartment. Kalle keeps telling me he has no artistic talent…I disagree!
Jacoby has had one attack of his UTI crystals since we moved to Sweden. It was back in October 2016.
Okay, he doesn’t seem that sick in this photo, but trust me…he was having issues back at home.
This was actually the first time we visited our veterinarian. We came here because the vet Björn used to take Pyret to couldn’t make room in their busy schedule for a UTI emergency.
I have to say, I was impressed.
I mean…they got my phone number wrong in their system…
…so they sent me a post card because they couldn’t ring or text me!
When we went back, Jake got an ultrasound of his bladder. My vet back home in Boston was jealous of their in-house ultrasound equipment.
I thought I had gotten a photo of Jake getting his ultrasound, but I can’t seem to find them. I did get this illustration of what was going on with him, however. It wasn’t actually a crystal problem at all this time…he had a polyp in his bladder. The vet illustrated it for me.
On the way out, we passed a cat food company’s ad and Jake wanted to check it out.
He took a good, close look.
Perhaps too close. Okay, Jake, we get it…you are one with your virtual, plastic model of your UTI.
When I say I live with five cats, people are usually shocked and incredulous. “How can you live with five cats!? Don’t you feel claustrophic, with that many cats in an apartment?
Short answer, no, no we don’t. Firstly, one cat is 18 years old and not very active. Plus, it’s a big apartment, with an extra room in summer when we can open up the balcony.
But we have moments where we look around and ask, “Where the hell are all the cats? We have five cats…why can we not find any?
Well…we have Jacoby on the sofa next to Björn.
Then, going round the room anti-clockwise, we have…Logan in the little brown house-bed…
Grande dame Pyret asleep on her chair…
Angel in the house at the top of “her” cat tree…
And Alfred in the bed our friend Sanna-Leena sent Jake, on Harri’s old cat tree.
All of them, sound asleep. Except for feeding time, five cats are no more trouble than three or four. Trust me, I have had three cats, four cats, and (now) five cats…it just isn’t that much more work or trouble.
Since Jacoby has decided he doesn’t like FIFe’s way of showing and has declared himself retired, Logan is the only show cat in the house now. But, when Logan and I are going to a show in or near Stockholm, we take Jake along and he stays with Kalle at Kalle’s mother’s house just outside of Stockholm.
Jake and Logan have become comfortable travel companions. They don’t always get along at home, but on the road they are the best of friends.
Train rides are rather lulling. It’s easy to fall asleep to the rhythm of the clickety-clack.
Until…what could the matter be!?
A dog! On the train!
Animals are allowed in only certain cars on Västtraffik and SJ trains, so it’s not unusual to have several cats and dogs in one car.
I guess someone forgot to alert Logan that his train ride might include non-humans and non-felines.
I love how upset, offended, even, that Logan is about the presence of a dog on his train. Meanwhile, Jake is like, meh, whatever. Dogs, man, what are you gonna do? They’re everywhere.
Look at Logan’s tail!
No, I mean it…Look at it! I’m pretty sure he’s seen dogs before. I guess he just hasn’t ever see a dog on a train.
Do you remember that scene in Garden State where Zach Braff’s character inadvertently wears a shirt that matches the wallpaper?
Well, Logan does. At least, he understands that feeling.
I tried Jacoby’s red and white Christmas hoodie on Logan…while forgetting that our bedspread has a similar pattern and colour scheme. Apparently, Logan remembered.
Oh sure, it’s cute. And it’s the subject of hundreds of adorable YouTube videos. Hell, I’ve even posted about it. But it’s becoming a world-wide epidemic!
You know what I’m talking about.
Cats interrupting their owners’ enjoyment of the Winter Olympics.
I suspect it’s because of the high contrast against the snow and ice and the fast movement.
This is Logan’s first Winter Olympics. He appears to enjoy downhill skiing.
The only cat who can really get away with interrupting the Winter Olympics is this bobcat in Whistler, BC (and yes, he is a bobcat, not a lynx).
I have the saddest of sad news to share. Last night, Sherry messaged me from her vetrinarian’s office. She was there with Catalina, Jacoby and Dillin’s mother. Catalina had painful cancer in her lower jaw which made it difficult for her to eat.
Ch. Instincts Santa Catalina of Pellburn was only 11 years old…just two years older than Jake!
I never met Catalina in person, but I know she was always a wonderful mother and she had many wonderful kittens. Here is a video Sherry made of Catalina with one of her litters.
My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
Just a couple of sketches of Logan wearing his diaper. And Freddy.
Illustrating how much Logan hates his diapers…
Today is a special day in all our lives, especially Logan. We went out to Skultorp to visit Min Veterinär for a very special reason. Logan got a Supralorin implant. Supralorin is chemical castration…temporary, but as good as the real thing.
Obviously not aware of the size of the needle he was about to have stuck into his shoulder blades, he hopped down to greet the vet.
So very blissfully unaware of what is about to happen…
Before the implantation, our vet sprayed between his shoulder blades with lidocaine. Logan is a very fastidious cat, and he is constantly grooming himself (which is one reason he hates wearing his diapers). So, naturally, he wanted to groom off the stuff the vet sprayed on him.
Apparently, lidocaine tastes nasty.
Really, really nasty.
He sulked about that for quite a while.
Vocally. Very vocally.
He was pretty annoyed at me.
Given that he was suffering from lidocaine-taste flashbacks…
…Which from his expression were just as bad as the first taste.
Once the lidocaine had had time to take effect, the vet came back and prepared for the implant. Logan looked at me like I was violating his every right. What he doesn’t know is, the implant will make him happier, and he won’t have to wear the diapers that he hates.
He blamed me. Look at that body language.
The vet prepared the implantation needle.
And then, in it went. It will take two to three weeks for the implant to take effect, but after that, Logan will be like a surgically neutered cat in every way. After that, he will be a stud cat in my breeder Lisa’s program.
The best part is, we have up to two years to show him and earn titles in the Champion (unaltered) class. But eventually, he will be surgically neutered, and when he is, we can start over from the beginning and show him in the Premiership (alter) classes and earn the titles all over again. He’ll have a nice long showing career!
Claws are serious business. Even if they are clipped.
I clip claws and do other grooming on all five cats every other week, usually on Sunday. Back in October after I clipped Angel’s claws, she rolled off my lap awkwardly and scratched my leg. It was an accident – she tried to grab onto something when she fell off my lap and my leg was within reach. When clipping claws and doing their general grooming (ears, teeeth, bum, etc.), I tend to wear shorts. This photo was taken a week after Angel scratched me.
And this is the scratch today, just over four months later. It didn’t get infected or anything, but four months later, I still have these very clear scratch marks on my leg. And these were made by clipped claws. So keep that in mind when taking care of your cats. Even when clipped, claws are serious business.
Abys run funny. I don’t know what it is…they sort of kick their backlegs out and they look like Phoebe that time she ran on Friends.
I haven’t had an Aby yet who didn’t run like this. Jacoby and Angel both run with this odd, legs-splayed running style.
And it appears that Alfred is as much of an Aby as they are.
We went outside just to take some photos, and since Freddy doesn’t feel like he needs to wear a coat, we figured he could come out with us.
I mean, we weren’t going to be outside very long, probably less than 15 minutes, so there was no point in putting a lot of effort into the going outside preparation.
And Freddy loved it.
But…he runs like a goof.
Cats are graceful animals as a whole…but there are exceptions.
Freddy is definitely among them.
Still, it is kind of refreshing that he favours enthusiasm over style. That’s nice.
That being said, I dare you to look at this photo and not giggle.
Two years ago this month, Boston had an unseasonably marvelous Sunday afternoon. I needed to go to the Apple Store on Boylston, and I decided to walk there with Jacoby. Apple Stores, as a whole, are known to be pet-friendly, and the Boston flagship store is no exception.
We were walking home after having my MacBook Pro checked by the lovely Geniuses, just enjoying the still-warm February evening and enjoying Boston, when…
…We met a boy.
A boy in a stroller. It was adorable. Jake was checking out the kid’s stroller, and the kid was checking out Jake’s. It was like when two vintage car owners see each other on the street, comparing chrome and fin height.
It took him a little while to screw up the courage, but finally the boy reached out and petted Jake. I couldn’t tell with the pacifier in his mouth, but I think he was smiling.
After we parted ways, Jake went back to looking at the fancy windows at Lord and Taylor. He always liked looking at those windows.
Last week, I found a lovely deal on herring (sill in Swedish) – 75kr a kilo! I wanted to use it to make something Thai with rice noodles, and I found a delicious recipe for khanom jeen nam ya/i>, a delicious fish curry designed to use a strong-flavoured, oily fish such as barracuda, mackerel, or herring.
While we were eating it, we left the remainder in the wok, with what we thought was a heavy enough lid on it to protect the delicious fish curry inside.
We. Were. Wrong.
Alfred managed to get under the lid and used his grabby Aby hands to reach into the wok and eat my delicious fish curry.
He clearly enjoyed it. Lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, and all.
And then he went in for more. Reach…
…and eat.
“Don’t you tell me ‘NO,’ mom…”
Reach again…
…and eat again.
Rinse and repeat. Until we caught him, anyway.
He is shameless. But it wasn’t all him. In the photos, you can see Jacoby in the background…well he had a slightly greasy head later on. I am pretty sure that he is the one who pushed the lid off!
Last year for Valentine’s Day (called “Alla hjärtans dag,” “all hearts day” in Sweden), I had an early morning class, and I left for class before Björn went to work, so I drew him a little Valentine cartoon.
Later, in class, I doodled Jacoby with some roses. And a little poem for Björn which says:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I’ll love you
When you’re old and grey
(It rhymes in Swedish.)
A week or so ago, Logan and I went to visit our vet in Skultorp. Nothing serious, just a quick check of his urine, and to get “a veterinary certificate confirming that both testicles are normal and are descended into the scrotal sac,” as per FIFe’s Breeding & Registration Rules
Logan is an excellent traveller. We have a Hatch carrier from a Kickstarter we backed, and it’s been really great.
Of course I went from living in the same building as my vet to a 36-minute (with one transfer) long bus ride to the furthest reaches of Skövde. That being said, it’s a pretty easy bus ride, and the stops are close to both our apartment and the vet’s office.
When we got there, I let him out to explore the waiting room…and he stalked around like a person who just got bumped off his business flight to Milwaukee.
Apparently, Logan does not like to wait.
And he had to wait.
and wait.
“What is taking them so long!?”
Finally, we were taken back to an exam room.
“Okay…let’s get this over with.”
“Wait…you wanna look at my WHAT, now?
Okay that was…not fun. Can we go home now?
To make it up to him, I let him walk a little outside on the way home. He doesn’t enjoy outside in the snow as much as Alfred does…
…but it did cheer him up!
Look at the happy tail!
But he was even happier when we finally went inside and I unlocked our door.
Two weeks ago, I posted photos and video of Björn pushing Jacoby on a swing
Well, turns out Jake isn’t the only swinging cat in our family. About a month after that first outing, Kalle and I took both Jake and Angel out for a walk. There is this one big, flat, basket-like swing in one play area in our apartment area, so we took Jake and Angel over to it to see what they thought of it.
Angel stayed in it! That was the first hurdle.
Then Kalle started pushing.
Of course, Jake was totes fine with that.
Angel was…less fine with it. But she tried.
She really tried.
But she could only take so much swinging.
So finally she bailed from the swing.
Jake was perfectly happy to keep on swinging, though.
Happy? He loved it!
I mean, look at him!
Here’s a short video (click on the image to see it…and apologies for the non-landscape orientation; I forgot) of Jake and Angel on the swing with Kalle.
We are very lucky in that we live extremely close to a very good pet supplies store. Skövde’s DjurMagazinet is the equivalent of five Boston blocks from our apartment.
And they carry almost everything we need. The rest we can order online.
But they have our Bozita, our Vaisto raw, and everything else we need on a regular basis.
And of course they welcome pet visitors. And you know how Jacoby loves to help me shop.
He always makes sure we have gotten everything we need before we pay.
The staff all know Jake, of course.
With our purchases safely stowed in Jake’s light stroller, we’re homeward bound!
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