Aby-a-Day – 31 Maj: A date that will live in infamy (Friday Flashback)

This time of year is always special to me because my birthday is tomorrow, but for the past three years, the 31st of May is special, too; it’s the day the movers came to pack up all my belongings to be sent to Sweden…

…And it’s the day I was granted my temporary Swedish residency permit. I got the email first thing in the morning, but I had to wait for the Swedish Embassy to open their phones at 11 am before I could find out what the decision actually was.

The movers arrived fairly early with their boxes, bubble wrap and tape and got right to work.

As you can see, Angel was unfazed by all the activity.

Tessie watched for a while, and then retired to the bedroom, where it was quieter.

Jacoby was his usual, bulletproof self.

He even went out in the hallway to help the movers do their job!

They did a very thorough job. This is my bicycle, all wrapped up.

The movers didn’t seem to mind Jake helping at all. They were just amused.

Jake took his supervisory position very seriously, as you can see.

He made sure the movers marked all the boxes correctly…

…noted down properly on the list…

…and he made sure they didn’t leave anything behind. Jake was such a good helper!

Unfortunately, Jake couldn’t help us when were were finished at the apartment and moved over to the storage unit. Too bad, too; he would have enjoyed helping to pack up the floor-to-ceiling cat tree!

Aby-a-Day – 30 Maj: Stroller Rage (Thursday Things)

Yesterday, I had an appointment to take everycat to the vet for a check-up and jabs. Björn didn’t have the day off, so I had to manage on my own. Naturally, I took them all in our new stroller. Our appointment was in the middle of the afternoon (not that Skövde really has a “rush hour,” unless you count when all the kids get out of school), so the bus wasn’t crowded at all.

We have to take two buses to get to our vet, and the first leg of our journey was uneventful.

The buses we have in Västra Gotalands have a dedicated space for strollers, with room for two (theoretically, as we will see).

This isn’t the first time we’ve taken all four in this stroller (we had a trip to DjurMagazinet in April), and it was vastly easier than trying to do it with Jacoby’s old stroller! Still, I did feel a bit like that man in Tokyo who takes his nine Persians out in a stroller.

As you can see, everyone fit very comfortably in the stroller. We also got lucky with the weather. It was sunny and warm. Today it’s grey and rainy.

On the second bus (also empty), we started out comfortably.

And then…it happened. Another stroller wanted to get on the bus.

Of course, I instantly shifted over as much as I could, but she wasn’t very good at manoeuvering her stroller (it was one of those awkward raised car seat/stroller combo things).

In fact, she was having so much trouble getting on the bus, the driver got up to see what was taking so long. And he glared at me like it was my fault and told me to let her on, like I was deliberately blocking her. As you can see, I was jammed in as much as I could possibly be.

And then, on the way home, it happened AGAIN! This time, it was one of those awful double stroller, with one kid who looked about five…isn’t that a little old to be needing a stroller? Again, I shifted over and jammed in, but this woman was a LOT better at managing her stroller, and her older boy (the one not in the stroller, behind me) seemed to really love the cats.

I understand that people with little kids need strollers, because I need a stroller to schlep multiple cats around. I couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like trying to manage three (we have one that’s a double) cat carriers on my own! And believe me, I am no stranger to controversy about cat strollers. My resentment and annoyance is not anything against parents or children. It’s the attitude I get from people (like the driver, and sometimes the other stroller owner) that somehow their strollers are somehow more important than mine. I have as much of a right to bring my stroller full of cats on the bus as they do with their stroller full of baby or child(ren), especially if I am running an errand that requires multiple cats to be with me. And I always shift as much as I possibly can. Yet, in these situations, the person with the non-humans in the stroller is always the “bad guy” taking the space away from “the person who NEEEEEEEDS it”. (Sidenote, it’s even more fun when we’re on a bus back from a cat show with other cats in strollers and a baby stroller comes on. The entitlement on the baby people and the shade thrown doubles.) Basically, it’s a case of “All strollers are equal, but some strollers are more equal than others,” which really isn’t fair at all.

To that end, I posted a couple of these photos to Facebook as events unfolded, and made a flippant comment that 4 > 1, and then added “Cats Before Brats.” A friend said, “That should be a bumper sticker!” So…

…I made one. It’s available on Zazzle, and at the moment, you can get 15% off with code ZSWEETTREATS.

Aby-a-Day – 29 Maj: Wordless Wednesday (“Life is short. Running makes it seem longer”)

Aby-a-Day – 28 May: Reliving history (Cartoon Tuesday)

The 2019 Stanley Cup Finals started yesterday, and they are quite exciting. The Boston Bruins are in them, of course, and if they win they will be the THIRD Boston team to win a championship in a year…and they’re already up one game. They face the St. Louis Blues, who haven’t been in the finals for 49 years. And even more interesting, in 1970, the team the Blues faced was…the Bruins!

Ray Lussier took a now-iconic photograph of Bobby Orr celebrating scoring the winning goal against the Blues in 1970. This image is such a part of Boston’s culture that there is a statue commemorating that moment in front of the Garden, and it has been reproduced on T-shirts for 49 years.

My ex found me an unofficial playoff shirt (the kind that can only be found in Boston) with the Bruins Bear recreating Orr’s flight (modeled by Tessie), and it kind of inspired me.

Using a photo of the moment, I did a sketch of Jacoby as Bobby Orr.

I did a first ink, but I didn’t like the pen I used; it was too thick and clunky. So, using that ink as a reference, I made a second inking.

That inking turned out so much better! I’ll colour it in and finish it for next week…the day after Game 4.

Aby-a-Day – 27 Maj: “I’m so hip I have trouble seeing over my own pelvis” (Hipstamatic Monday)

I know I have been posting a lot of Loreali and Izaak outside photos, but they are just so photogenic and they love being outside so much.

On a recent outing, I thought it might be fun to take some Hipstamatic shots whilst we were outside. I got some astoundingly beautiful images.

I never tire of the randomness of Hipstamatic. You never know what you’re going to get. And of course, they aren’t all good. But once in a while, you get lucky.

I love how these two show Rory’s busyness when she’s out exploring.

I’m also quite enamoured of these photos showing the camaraderie between Rory and Zak.

And these last two, of Zak…somehow, the Hipstamatic lenses and films capture him beautifully.

Aby-a-Day – 26 Maj: Outside with Alfred (Cinema Sunday)

When I share the photos of Lorelai and Izaak running around outside, people ask why we don’t let Alfred run free, too.

The reason for that is he was never trained to go outside offleash. We worked on leash training with him and Logan, not offleash training. It’s something I never thought to do again until I met Rory. My Siamese Harri was the last cat I trained to stay close offleash. It helped that he hated me to be out of his sight, so all I had to do was hide behind a tree, and he’d yowl and come running.

Zak is the same way Harri was. Rory is a little more free-spirited; she knows when we want to go in, but she tries to stretch her time outside as long as she can. If I go back into the building, though, she always comes up to the doorstep trying to find me.

But if Freddy gets out off leash, he runs off to explore on his own. This is partly because I never trained him to be off leash, and because, being the evil genius he is, when he was young he managed to open the kitchen window and the balcony sliders a couple of times without our knowing and roamed around alone for hours until we noticed him missing. Jacoby also did this; the first time he escaped, he was gone for over an hour!

So, sorry, Freddy…you need to stay on your leash.

But really, he doesn’t seem to begrudge the kittens their offleash time. He’s perfectly happy to be outside at all, even if it’s on his leash.

Aby-a-Day – 25 Maj: This time last year…(Swedish Saturday)

I thought I would chip away at my massive backlog today…

This time last year, we hadn’t gotten Izaak yet, and we were showing Lorelai the outside world on the end of a leash.

Well, she was only three months old…but I think these early outings laid the foundation for her being so good offleash outside now.

Look how little she was!

Even though she was so small, she was still fearless.

Of course, she had her big brothers with her to protect her. Not only Alfred…

…but Jacoby as well.

Rory was lucky to grow up with two protective big brothers.

Aby-a-Day – 24 Maj: “Scattered pictures…of the smiles we left behind” (Friday Flashback)

As I posted earlier this month, the Memories that Facebook shows you can be bittersweet. Lately, they’ve been showing me a lot of Jacoby memories. It started with this one, of Strollercat on the way to a cat show in Göteborg in 2017.

I never actually posted these photos here, as this was during the blog’s hiatus.

This is another photo that popped up, I think as one of Björn’s Memories. I called it “Conversations on a train.”

Then there is this one I posted whilst we were at that cat show.

I found this photo of Jake crashed out in the hotel room after the first day of the show was over whilst I was looking for the other ones from this week’s Memories. I had forgotten it…but it is SO Jake.

This is the Memory that came up yesterday…

…another one I forgot about that is such a classic Jake moment. I found Angel sunning herself in a little square of sunshine in the kitchen.

The square was just the right size for one little cat loaf.

And then…along came Jake.

And he decided that he wanted the sun square. I wasn’t able to capture what happened next.

And this last one is the most bittersweet of all, from five years ago Wednesday. Jake loved riding on the front of his stroller on our way home from our therapy visits. I posted the photos here in the blog at the time, but I only posted the video to Facebook. Apologies for the vertical video…I forgot to turn the camera sideways.

Aby-a-Day – 23 Maj: “A corner of the mournful kingdom of sand”(Thursday Things)

Lorelai loves the sandy area around the swings in the yard behind our house. I don’t know what it is. But when we go back there, it’s because she’s run back there.

And it’s not like she thinks it’s just an enormous litter box. I mean, she’s not Alfred!

No, I just think she likes the way it feels on her feet and how she can dig and dig without ever hitting a bottom.

Izaak is…trying to see what she sees in it.

He’s not quite understanding what she thinks is so awesome about it, but he’s really trying.

Just when he’s starting to appreciate the sandy goodness…

…Rory shows up.

And proceeds to tell Zak that he doesn’t know how to enjoy the sand properly and he’s doing it all wrong.

Uh, Rory? I think this is an example of “to each his own.”

Aby-a-Day – 22 Maj: Wordless Wednesday (I woke up like this)

Aby-a-Day – 21 Maj: Singapura Stinkeye, Pixie-style (Cartoon Tuesday)

Last week, I did some sketches of Izaak in the style of Pixie from the webcomic Pixie and Brutus. There is one particular cartoon that really inspired me to do a Singapura Stinkeye PixieZak. So…here it is.

I tried to do this entirely in Procreate on my iPad Pro, but I had to do a couple of things in Photoshop after I had finished. One, Björn thought Zak’s eye was too big, so I made it a little smaller…and two, I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to paste my signature into the drawing on Procreate.

However, whilst Procreate may be lacking in layer-pasting abilities, it does have a very nifty feature: it records your drawing, which you can then export as a video! So…here is me drawing Zak as Pixie.

Aby-a-Day – 20 Maj: It’s not as easy to make a 29 second video of a cat running down a hill as it looks…(Movie Monday)

So I am pretty proud of my Little House on the Prairie spoof with Izaak running down the hill that I posted yesterday. Mainly because it looks so perfect…but it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

Someone on Facebook asked me why I put Zak in Slo-Mo. Well…the reason is…he runs too fast when he gets going. This is the first part of what I ended up using…a whopping five seconds.

Here’s the ending bit. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. So yeah, you can see why it was slowed down.

But it really took a lot more work than it looked. We had Lorelai and Alfred out there, too…my original thought was to have Rory and Zak running together down the hill. That just didn’t work out. Here are all the takes we did…with the original sound.

Aby a Day – 19 May: Little Cat on the Prairie (Singapura Cinema Sunday)

Since I moved to Sweden, I have absolutely fallen in love with Family Guy. Something about the razor-sharp New England sense of humour and the pitch perfect spoofs of pop culture…what’s not to love?

Recently, we happened to see Seth MacFarlane’s spoof of the iconic closing credits of the classic 1970’s television show Little House on the Prairie. Then a couple of days ago, whilst outside with Lorelai and Izaak…I got inspired.

It’s been rainy and grey the past few days, but today it was sunny and not windy and just…perfect for what I had in mind. It took us a while to get it just right…but at the end of the day, I am pretty proud of myself.

Aby-a-Day – 18 Maj: “I think I’ll go for a walk outside now, the summer sun’s callin’ my name…” (Swedish Saturday)

In both New England and Sweden, a pleasant sunny day is like a special gift, not to be squandered. One must go out and enjoy the good weather while it lasts…because, in both places, wait five minutes and it’ll change.

Take today, for example. It was raining so hard that it woke me up. Anyone who knows me, knows what a difficult thing that is to do.

But a couple of weeks ago? It was gorgeous outside, and we absolutely needed to get outside and enjoy it.

And oh, how Lorelai and Izaak enjoyed it.

The way they interact outside is so different from the way they interact inside. They are best buds, the two who grew up together, the cat show team, the “kittens.”

They play chase games in the house, but it’s taken to a whole other level when they’re outside. They are pretty evenly matched: Zak is older and heavier, but Rory is faster and sneakier.

I know we don’t have a subway to ride, or a city to explore, but we can run around free outside…and that’s a fun option to have.

Aby-a-Day – 17 Maj: NOM nom nom…(Friday Flashback)

I make a photo family calendar for my mom every year – that’s the only gift she really wants. May’s page is a collage of various cat show photos of Izaak and Lorelai.

Since I am reminded every day this month of the time Rory tried to nom her NOM rosette…I thought you should, too.

Grumpy Cat hunts with StarClan…

Sad news. Tardar Sauce, known worldwide as Grumpy Cat and possibly the most famous cat on the planet, died on Tuesday from complications from a urinary tract infection. She was seven years old.

She was an inspiration to all cats who wanted to become a meme, and if it wasn’t for her, Boston may never have had Strollercat. I was pleasantly surprised by her Lifetime show, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever and I love the Grumpy Cat Weather App. I can’t believe she died so young.

I drew her, once, in a cartoon about the “Aby smile.” She was surprisingly difficult ti draw!

May StarClan light your path, and you find good hunting, swift running, and shelter when you sleep, Tardar.

Aby-a-Day – 16 Maj: Kalle’s couch brings all the boys to his room (Thursday Things)

Alfred and Logan were truly “Brothers from another mother,” and when Logan died so young and so suddenly, poor Freddy was probably the most affected by our loss.

Lorelai’s arrival a month after Logan’s death helped Freddy cope. But then when Izaak joined our family a month and a half after Rory, it took Freddy a little while to accept little Zakky.

As Singapuras are wont to do, Zak kept cuddling up to Freddy in spite of Fred’s opinion. Fast forward almost a year, and Freddy and Zak are usually found cuddled up together…especially on my legs whilst I’m asleep.

Another of their favourite napping spots, especially on sunny afternoons, is on the couch in Kalle’s room.

Okay, so Freddy and Zak aren’t the bonded pair that Freddy and Logan were…partly because Zakky loves everyone in his way. He’s also closely bonded with Lorelai, of course, and he had an…interesting…relationship with Jacoby. I’ve even caught Angel playing with him! But Freddy and Zak have their own special connection, being the two boys in the house.

“I can make anybody love me! So there!”

Aby-a-Day – 15 Maj: Wordless Wednesday (Undercover Izaak)

Aby-a-Day – 14 Maj: Pixie and Izaak (Cartoon Tuesday)

Last December, I mentioned how in love I am with the webcomic Pixie and Brutus, about a tiny, adorable kitten and her big brother, an enormous, scarred, retired military dog. I’m always struck by how much Pixie resembles a Singapura (despite her stripes)…So I decided to try some Pixie-style sketches of Izaak.

Using the original cartoons as a a reference, I sketched PixieZak from the front, and then from the back.

Then I gave a sitting, paw-up position. I think this is my favourite of the three. I’ll need to try some more poses in future.

Aby-a-Day – 13 Maj: The fine line between peace and war (Hipstamatic Monday)

This afternoon, the cutest little scene unfolded on the sofa next to me.

Izaak came to join Lorelai on the Ikea cat bed where she was alternating between napping and birdwatching.

And Zak started to groom Rory.

It was so adorable and sweet.

At one point, Rory seemed to be a little over Zak grooming her.

But then she succumbed to the ministrations of Zak’s tongue.

It really was a touching, lovely moment…

…until, suddenly, it wasn’t.