Aby-a-Day – 28 Februari: Our three seconds of Swedish fame (Thursday Things)

When we went to the Ädelkatten show in Västra Frölunda back in December there was a celebrity spectator in the show hall.

Glenn Hysén is a retired footballer, manager and commentator who, along with his sons (also footballers) Tobias and Anton and his wife Helena, go to places around Göteborg and film their interactions for a Swedish reality show. It’s a bit like the Kardashian show, but less sleazy and more silly.

Of course they captured typical scenes from a typical cat show…the last cat, the Cornish Rex, is our friend our friend Sully!

They also caught my friend Peter on film as well.

I am not entirely sure what they said, but from the video, they did a good job capturing a show.

They even covered a final.

Our friend Stellan, one of the top Singapura breeders in Northern Europe, was the emcee for the finals, so of course he was featured on the show.

And so were we!

They actually filmed us for a while, and interviewed Björn, but all we got was about three seconds.

But hey, we were on television! In Sweden!

You can see the cat show segment here; it starts at 23:08, but you can’t fast forward though the ads (you can jump to the beginning of the third segment, but you have to watch the ads). The link will work on computers in North America, but not on phones.

Aby-a-Day – 27 Februari: Wordless Wednesday (Portable territory)

Aby-a-Day – 26 Februari: Fox finished…plus a little extra (Cartoon Tuesday)

Last week, Linus finished up my fox tattoo. I really love the way it turned out.

Here is a close up, showing where the snake used to be.

I am so glad to be rid of that snake! Even though I adore Barnaby, the artist who did it (and who did my Octopus, Koi and Tiger tattoos)…but it was a mistake.

Whilst I was there, Linus also touched up the memorial tattoo of Gun-Hee and Logan (Logan’s eyes were made greener, and the background was touched up.

But best of all, he also touched up my very first tattoo, which I got on my first trip to New York City at the end of 1995. Naturally, being almost 25 years old (Day-uuuuuuummmmm!), poor Harri has faded quite a lot.

Now he looks like he did when I first got him! Thank you, Linus!

Aby-a-Day – 25 Februari: In memory of Walter Hutzler (Hipstamatic Monday)

Sad news…CFA judge Walter Hutzler has passed away. He was a great cat judge and person. I didn’t know him well, but he lived in Region 1 and I was lucky to have seen him judge and have Jacoby judged by him a few times.

The thing I remember about Walter is his flamboyant style of dressing. He also often wore scarves, which I thought was cool, and a nice change from the usual ties CFA judges wear.

He was even featured in the 2006 PBS documentary Standard of Perfection: Show Cats. It’s always fun to see judges you know on TV shows.

Walter was a really fun judge to watch.

He really interacted with the cats as he judged them.

Since it was Monday, I remembered I had taken some Hipstamatic photos of Walter judging Jake at a show in Groton, CT in October 2011 (the same weekend I met Molly and Mosey and Jake Gbecame a Grand).

My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today. Sleep well in Tuonela, Walter.

Aby-a-Day – 24 Februari: “Some chicken, some neck!” (Cinema Sunday)

Izaak loves his chicken necks.

I mean, he really loves them. He only gets one a day, though, because too many raw bones can cause constipation…but if he could have it his way, he’d eat five or six a day.

I generally feed the cats at noon and midnight, and Zak gets his neck around 8pm. He knows this, so starting around 6pm, every time I get up, he tries to lead me into the kitchen. If I am in the kitchen, he leaps up to the counter next to the refrigerator and yells for his neck.

Of course, still photos cannot express how funny he is when he is doing this…so I made a video of a typical trip to the kitchen chez Hellqvist.

Aby-a-Day – 23 Februari: Eating is…problematic (Swedish Saturday)

Generally, we eat dinner in the living room in front of the TV (don’t judge), and the way our apartment is set up, we are able to close off the living room from the rest of the house by closing two doors. There are some days that we have to close those doors.

This meal was one we probably should have closed the doors for.

Okay, we have four Abyssinians and a Singapura. Mealtime was never going to be easy, granted. But the usually shy and retiring Angel becomes a demon when food is involved. To the point of her trying to intercept food on my fork on its way to my mouth.

She’s extraordinarily aggressive when it comes to food. Annoying is another adjective that fits into that sentence.

Not that she’s not loving and sweet…as long as there’s food to be had.

With cats like these, who needs enemies?

Aby-a-Day – 22 Februari: Brothers from another mother…and the little step brother who could (Friday Flashback)

I always think about Alfred and his “Brother from Another Mother,” Logan.

These photos are from July 2017, a month after we introduced Logan to Freddy.

They bonded after only a couple of days.

But their bond was deep. I called them “Brothers from Another Mother.” But they really were.

I mean, just look at them!

Logan and Freddy were so attached to each other.

They were so in sync with each other, too. You can see how bonded they were from these photos, taken only a month after we introduced them.

One thing Freddy liked to do was hold Logan down to groom him.

Whilst Izaak is not Logan, and it’s taken Freddy some time to accept Zak…

…it seems that Freddy needs a Singapura brother to take care of and look after.

It’s not the extreme “brothers from another mother” love that Freddy had with Logan, but…

…Zak seems to be an acceptable surrogate for Freddy’s Singapura fixation.

At least, until Zak has had enough of Freddy’s “brotherly” love.

I guess that’s the difference between Logan and Zak…Logan grew up with Big Brother Freddy, and Zak…didn’t. But he tolerates Freddy’s attention well. Enough.

Aby-a-Day – 21 Februari: A box from Meg…and a little backstory (Thursday Things)

Friendship is a funny thing. You meet people every day. Some are strangers, and strangers they remain. Others become friends.

When I was a cat-crazy kid, I couldn’t imagine being actual friends with a cat breeder, let alone a cat show judge. Yet here I am, 38 years after this magazine was published, with threinds who are both breeders and judges. In April 1981 I was two months shy of my sweet 16th, and I loved cats. Cats and the Beatles. No wonder that in August 1981, when I found a seal-point and white kitten, I named him Sgt. Pepper…

Usually, when you look at an old magazine, you don’t read the classifieds at the back. But this old issue with an Aby on the cover…I wanted to see something.

And, lo and behold. Meg is listed as an Abyssinian breeder in Massachusetts. I never knew I’d end up in Massachusetts, let alone be friends with a breeder who had ads in a magazine when I was 15 going on 16…

But it’s true. I am actually friends with a woman who has been breeding Abyssinians almost (but not quite) as long as I’ve been alive. And to think that she and I are very good friends! But it happened so naturally…Meg knew Sherry, and Jacoby was related to Lew and Taz…and…we clicked. That’s how it is when you make a friend.

So a couple of weeks ago, Meg sent me my belated Christmas present. To be fair, though, I didn’t send mine out until January.

She sent me a lot of cool things for me: Socks, a candle holder, and some CFA things…but she also sent things for the cats. One of which was this catnip shrimp. Alfred was the first to investigate the shrimp, but…

…Jake quickly took over. Jake loves firmly stuffed catnip toys.

So yeah, this shrimp was almost tailor-made for Jake. Sorry, Freddy.

Another toy she sent was a wonderful stick toy that we can use at cat shows. Izaak was all over it

Whilst Zakkie loves his mousies, he also really likes stick toys.

Not as much as Lorelai does, apparently. Because oh, look, here she is, moving faster than a camera can capture.

Rory and Zak enjoyed that stick toy so much, I think it’s going to be a permanent fixture at our future cat shows!

Aby-a-Day – 20 Februari: Wordless Wednesday (Adoorable Lorelai)

Aby-a-Day – 19 Februari: Valentine’s pub quiz sketches (Cartoon Tuesday)

Last year, Valentine’s Day fell on a Wednesday, so Björn and I celebrated by doing the pub quiz Our favourite pub, The Bishop’s Arms. This year, of course, Valentine’s Day was on a Thursday, but we decided we wanted to celebrate the same way, so we did Valentine’s Day a day early.

And of course, I drew on the answer sheet again. First Jacoby with a big heart sign, because Valentines. But then I wanted to draw someone else. I started it out intending it to be Izaak, but once I got the face done…I realised it wasn’t Zak at all. It was Alfred! Which, considering he wears a heart on his collar tag, seemed quite fitting.

Aby-a-Day – 18 Februari: Presidential Photography (Hipstamatic Monday)

Back in the States, today is President’s day. Of course, there’s not much to celebrate lately, but in honour of the holiday, Hipstamatic released a special free Hipstapak with the Lincoln lens and TR Roosevelt 26 film, a subtle reminder of two good Republican presidents.

Well, I didn’t have an idea for a Monday post, so I figured I’d try it out. Usually, I use Hipstamatic on random, mixing and matching lenses and films, but today I only used the new lens and film. Not sure what I think of the results…but here is Angel.

It does do a great job on Izaak, though.

Of course, it’s hard to take a bad photo of Zak.

Recently all the cats have taken to sleeping in our bedroom. Most of them like our bed, but Angel, as you see above, prefers to sleep in a cat bed that’s on our clothing hamper. But it’s not uncommon to find everyone else on our bed, especially Jacoby and Lorelai, who like to burrow under the comforters.

Now that she’s no longer a super crazy kitten, Jake has become more tolerant of Rory…

…Well, mostly.

When I was taking these photos, Alfred was sitting right outside our bedroom and next to the kitchen, hopefully awaiting a snack.

Good ol’ Freddy.

Aby-a-Day – 17 Februari: “A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope” (Silly Singapura Sunday)

About a month ago, Kate over at Hauspanther made a post about Patti Haskins’ amazing catnip snakes.

Well, they did look pretty awesome, and since both Jacoby and Alfred like to lick and roll on catnip toys, so, even though they were a bit expensive (especially considering the postage)…but they truly did look awesome, so I got one for Freddy and one for Jake. The snakes arrived after Freddy’s birthday, so I gave one snake to everybody whilst holding one back for Jake’s birthday in April.

I took the one out and gave it – I thought – to Jake and Freddy to go nuts on.

I was…surprised, to say the least.

Contrary to any of my expectations, Izaak was the one to attack and dominate the catnip snake.

Zak has never (before) shown any interest in catnip the way Jake and Freddy do.

I was amazed at how fiercely Zak attacked the catnip snake.

ç

In retrospect, I guess I should have made a video of Zak and the snake. But what’s even stranger is, since that first day, he has entirely ignored the snake in favour of his mousies. What a funny little cat!

Aby-a-Day – 16 Februari: Alla hjärtans dag (Very Aby Holidays)

Just in time for Valentine’s day, Björn found a package of chicken hearts in the “Ät Snart” (past date meats) bin at our loval ICA. He thought the cats might like them…

…Gee. Raw meat. What’s not to like? We served them to the LunaTicks on Valentine’s Day (of course). So I rinsed the hearts off…

…And served them to our feline family.

Angel, Alfred and Izaak, not too surprisingly as they are our biggest raw food eaters.

Still, Jacoby and Lorelai joined in to eat some hearts.

Angel gets nervous eating close to the other cats (probably something to do with someone stealing her food in her foster home), so she took her heart a little ways away to eat it.

Not that anyone was looking at her specific heart. There was enough for everyone.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day hearts.

Aby-a-Day – 15 February: Supermodel Lorelai (Fashion Friday)

Yesterday, I got a Facebook message from Madelene Jonsson, the photographer who took the marvelous photos of Izaak and Lorelai that I posted on Wednesday (and macroed yesterday). She wanted to show me her ad for the next cat show where she’ll be taking photographs. And look who is prominently featured! I am so proud of our little girl! Thank you, Madelene!

Aby-a-Day – 14 Februari: “We don’t care what people say, LOLcats are here to stay” (Thursday Things)

So I have been an avid fan and follower of LOLcats since they first appeared on the internet in 2007 (Yeah. Think about that. They’ve been around for 12 years already). I love them. So, when I got the most recent professional photos of Lorelai and Izaak (taken by Madelene Jonsson at the Örebro show in January), I couldn’t help but notice that some of them were infinitely LOLcat-able.

Rory had two photos that fell into two classic meme categories.

But Izaak had the best shots of all. Taking two shots together, it made a classic “I Love to Sing-a” meme, only made stronger by the fact that it stars an actual Singa!

Aby-a-Day – 13 Februari: Wordless Wednesday (Professional photos from Örebro)

Aby-a-Day – 12 Februari: Till Koshka att måla (Cartoon Tuesday)

Along with the thank you note Emma drew for Björn, there was something for me, too. I have given Emma a couple of Top Model kitten colouring/sticker books, and she sent me one of the pages to colour in myself.

I decided to scan it and colour it on my laptop. The kitten she sent me kind of looked like a Singapura, so that determined my colour scheme.

The only problem was that, when I was finished, the eyes looked…wrong. Not very Singapura-y…basically, they were just too small. So, I enlarged them. Not quite sure I like the way they look, but they bother me less than the original.

Aby-a-Day – 11 Februari: All clear! (Medical Monday)

A couple of weeks ago, I got the following email from Dr. Cecilia: Hi Koshka!
I just got the results back and all cats are free from Tritrich! Great job!
Hope you haven’t waited too long for the results. They appeared in a weird place in the journal, so I hadn’t seen them before. No more restrictions. Hope Jakey is doing fine. Otherwise get back to me to discuss treatment with prednisolone.

I wrote back: I knew it! There’s been no diarrhea and he’s gained weight. We’ve been feeding him sensitive stomach food and kitten food, but he is still a little growly. It took me a while to get all five cats’ poops. Angel is a very stealthy pooper. So no, I didn’t wait too long at all! Great news! What do we do about the prednisolone?

She responded: Hi! If he’s had no diarrhoea and gaining weight I wouldn’t put him on pred for now. The best would be to put him on a hydrolysed feed. There are a few different ones, but I recommend them in this order of priority (based on protein and fat content): Purina HA, Hills z/d, Royal Canin Hypoallergenic, Specific CDD Allergy Management Plus. Also I’ve written a prescription for folic acid and B12. He should be on it for 6 weeks, then off for 2 weeks. After that I recommend a revisit to check his B-vitamin values, evaluate the feed and recheck his albumin and proteins, which were abnormal before the treatment.
Is that an OK plan for you?

My answer was: It’s a great plan! to which she said: Super! I’ll put him up for a revisit in 8 weeks. We’ll call you to make the appointment.

But what AWESOME news! We have successfully conquered both Giardia and Tritrichimonas Foetus. I am earning my cat-parent merit badges!

Aby-a-Day – 10 Februari: Happy Birthday, Lorelai!

Suddenly, we seem to have a lot of cat birthdays in January and February.

First, Izaak had his birthday at a cat show and then Alfred had his birthday last week. Today was Lorelai’s turn.

Of course, I made her the traditional cat food cake.

Untraditionally, instead of me giving Rory her “cake,” Björn did.

After all, she is Daddy’s little girl.

Unlike Jacoby and Angel, Rory seemed intimidated by the candle flame on her cake.

Even after Björn blew out her candle, Rory was still leery of her birthday cake…despite having watched this ceremony twice in three weeks.

Once the candle was removed, it still took some convincing before Rory would eat her “cake.”

Finally, Rory tucked into her cake properly.

Happy first birthday, Rory!

Aby-a-Day – 9 February: Playing with Izaak (Singapura Saturday)

Whilst Emma was busy playing with Lorelai, Björn and Izaak played together with the Ferocious Friends mousie on a stick. It’s very well made and sturdy enough to play with outside.

Zak just loves mousies of any sort, as you know.

This mousie is no exception.

I often wonder what Zak would do if he ever saw a real mouse.

Look how intent he is on his prey!

…uh, Zak..?

<

…Where are you going…? The mousie is back there…

Oh. Leaves.

Okay, well, I guess those are fun, too.

I think Zak had almost as much fun playing with the leaves as he did with the mousie on a stick!