Aby-a-Day – 30 Juni: A memory of Jacoby (Cinema Sunday)

Today’s photos and video were not really ever going to be posted. I didn’t think that they were really good enough. But time changes photos, did you know that? What seems like a crap photo today can turn into a treasured memory with time. This is back from February, when Meg sent me a package that included some pretty superb catnip toys.

Jacoby took an interest in the paper the toys were wrapped in. Izaak came to see what was so interesting…he didn’t see it.

And when I say Jake was “interested”…

…I mean, he was really interested in it.

It was so funny that I made a video to show Meg. But now, I want to share it with everyone. Jake was such a goof.

Aby-a-Day – 29 Juni: Don’t worry Mom…I got your back (Singapura Saturday)

Björn took these photos while I was sleeping…

These were actually taken after we rushed Jacoby to the hospital…but never brought him home.

Izaak was sleeping on me exactly the way Jake used to do.

It’s almost like Zak knew what was going to happen before the rest of us did.

Aby-a-Day – 28 Juni: Unlikely bedfellows (Friday Flashback)

Jacoby used to love sleeping underneath the comforters, especially in cold weather.

One afternoon, five days before Jake died, I came upon the sweetest scene ever. Lorelai had joined Jake on the bed, and was cuddling with the part of his that wasn’t under the quilt.

They hadn’t been the closest of cats, and, of course, we didn’t know Jake was going to die within the week. It was so sweet to see them close.

Aby-a-Day 27 Juni: Dining al fresco (Thursday Things)

I have often commented on this blog that cats go through fads. Suddenly they’ll start doing something they never did before, or haven’t done for ages, and carry on with it for weeks or months…and then, just as suddenly, stop.

I showed you one such fad yesterday. Out of a clear blue sky, Angel started sleeping on our bed, nestled in the pillows and plushies. She hasn’t done that since we were in Boston.

Izaak has, of late, decided he wants to eat his breakfast on the balcony.

He eats his dinner in our bedroom, and his chicken neck in his Sturdi house…but he demands to have breakfast on the balcony.

I don’t mind. As long as it’s a place I can close off (because he eats only raw, it’s for his own protection), and he’s eating (he’s a slow eater and tends to be a bit fussy), I’m happy.

In typical stubborn Singapura fashion, he demanded his food out there. When I was preparing everyone else’s food, he wasn’t a part of the pack milling about my feet.

He parked himself on one of the chairs and refused to budge when I called him.

When I came looking for him, bowl in hand, he just looked at me without moving a muscle.

The weather’s been quite lovely lately, and, compared to our dark bedroom (blackout curtains are de rigueur in Sweden), can you blame him for wanting to eat in the sunshine?

Every morning for about a week now, he’s demanded this routine.

Hey, if it makes him happy…why not?

As the cat food commercial says, “Resistance is futile.”

Aby-a-Day – 26 Juni: Wordless Wednesday (Angel on our bed)

Aby-a-Day – 25 Juni: Dashiell and Taz (Cartoon Tuesday)

This isn’t really a cartoon, but today Meg sent me the most wonderful photo of Dashiell interacting with a portrait of Taz, painted by her friend Rose Gates. It’s so very sweet, the way Dash is touching Taz’s face. I think he really will be a special cat indeed…Meg’s comment: “Dash is awed by Rose Gates’ Taz portrait. ‘I want to grow up to be a star like this guy!'” I hope he will.

Also, whilst cleaning my clothing cupboard the other day, I also found this charming birthday card Meg sent me.

I think it was last year, before Taz died. It’s perfect…and it does look a bit like a fawn silver Aby…

Aby-a-Day – 24 Juni: Tentacle Kitty (Miniature Monday)

Last week I happened to go to our local second-hand shop and found an interesting plushie.

Intrigued, I looked at the tag, and it said “Tentacle Kitty, Second Edition.” Second edition? What? A pink kitty-squid with a cute little nose has been a thing long enough to have a second edition plushie and I have never heard of it before!? How is this possible?

Turns out, Tentacle Kitty was created in 2009 by a husband and wife team in Oregon. There’s a webcomic about her and a cast of other multi-limbed kitty characters. Not sure how I missed a cartoon kitty for ten whole years…but I’ve found her now! And she only cost 29kr (about $3 USD).

Izaak seems to really like her, too. Or maybe it’s just that her tentacles remind him of his snake.

PS: Today is Cat World Domination Day. Be sure to go and celebrate it with our Somali friend, Summer!

Aby-a-Day – 23 Juni: “Have you ever held a snake? They are so strong. You can see why there are so many myths about them: they are unlike any other creature” (Silly Singapura Cinema Sunday)

You may recall a few months ago, I had bought some catnip snakes on Etsy. I gave one to “everybody,” which Izaak promptly claimed, and then put one away for Jacoby’s birthday…which never happened.

The other day, whilst tidying up my clothes cupboard, I happened to find Jake’s green birthday snake. I had forgotten about it.

So, I called Zak to come and play with it.

He was all over that action.

Lorelai wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Zak was not about to share his new toy.

One of Zak’s little quirks is, he loves to roll around on the entryway rugs. I have no idea why, but he does it almost every day…I just haven’t captured it on camera yet.

Apparently, rolling about on the rug is much improved with a catnip snake.

He really likes this snake!

When I posted about the first snake, I lamented not catching it on video. So this time, I made sure to sort that. Here’s Zak in action with Jake’s snake.

Aby-a-Day – 22 Juni: “Keep your eye on the prey” (Swedish Saturday)

On one of our outside adventures, Lorelai saw a pigeon perched in a tree.

It’s kind of hard to see, so I’ve marked it in this photo.

Rory was so intent on hunting it.

(Here it is marked again)

You could see her brain working out how to catch that fat bird.

The pigeon was hard to see up in the branches, but Rory never lost her focus.

At one point, I thought she was going to give up.

The pigeon was still watching her, though.

But suddenly, Rory climbed even higher in the tree!

She was actually as high up in the tree as the pigeon!

I think her idea was to get higher than the pigeon, and then drop down on it.

I couldn’t believe how high Rory climbed!

She really wanted to get that pigeon. I honestly don’t know why the pigeon stayed there so long. Maybe it was curious about the small predator.

I think this may be the closest Rory’s ever gotten to a bird. Impressive.

Aby-a-Day – 21 Juni: Who wore it best? (Fashion Friday Flashback)

Glad Midsommar, allihopa! It’s all downhill from here…

Today is the greatest Swedish holiday apart from Jul, the day when we get the longest day and the latest sunset, and in a country known for winter, this is a big deal. When I posted about Midsommar last year, I included photos of Jacoby wearing the traditional flower crown.

I recently found the floral crown again (it had fallen behind some books) this spring. I was thinking Jake could model it again, perhaps outside…but obviously that can’t happen. So I decided to try it on everyone else, and see who, potentially, could be my next hat model. I started with Angel.

After all, Angel does have hat wearing experience.

She wasn’t in the mood today…

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…this is the best I could get from her.

So, Alfred, how are you at wearing a flower crown? You are a native born Swede, after all…this should be natural for you!

Er…Where are you going?

Oh, you think the top of the balcony tree is a better background?

You may be right. Okay, give me looking off into the distance.

Great! Now give me sensitive and thoughtful.

Awesome! And now…give me the money shot!

Perfect!

Okay. Let’s try the other Swedish Aby. Lorelai, your turn.

Once again, without the crazy eyes?

Okay…better. But let’s keep going…

Demure…demure is good…or it would be if you weren’t so frowny.

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There you go! That’s perfect!

And, now…let’s see how the Polish contestant does. Here you go, Izaak.

Oooookay…could you sit up, please?

And could you lose the attitude?

That’s a little better…keep going…

…better…

Okay Zak, now you just look like a Tribble with flowers.

And…yeah, I think that’s the best we’re gonna get from you today. Thank you!

So, who wore the Midsommer flower crown best?

Aby-a-Day – 20 Juni: “She’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner…She’s a lady” (Thursday Things)

Lorelai is elegant, lithe, and graceful…When’s she’s awake.

Sleeping? Not so much.

And she’s always been that way, actually. The first two photos were taken this week.

But the rest of the photos in this post were taken last July, when Rory had only been living with us a couple of months.

She really folds herself into some interesting positions.

But she seems to sleep deeply, despite her contortions.

Of course, she doesn’t always sleep alone.

Today is also Izaak’s Gotcha Day…last year, on 20 June, I went to Stockholm to collect him. So, sometimes Rory has to share her sleeping quarters with her little big brother.

While he is not quite as…stretchy and bendy…Rory is, he can sleep in some pretty odd positions, too.

Aby-a-Day – 18 Juni: More Pub Quiz Sketches (Cartoon Tuesday)

Our friend Roger joined Björn and me at the Bishop’s Arms for the pub quiz last week…and of course, I had to decorate our answer sheet. My first doodle is Izaak with his chirpy mouse.

Next, Lorelai…just looking cute.

And then, Alfred…looking innocent (or trying to).

And, finally, Angel, just trotting by.

Aby-a-Day – 17 Juni: The nose knows (Medical Movie Monday)

This happened two summers ago. Jacoby was acting like he had something stuck in his nose or throat. I checked his mouth to make sure a string or something hadn’t gotten caught under his tongue, but there was nothing there. The way he was acting reminded me of when I’ve gotten a grain of rice stuck in the back of my throat in my nose; Jake was coughing and snorting in the same way.

This is what he was doing (click the photo to watch the video in Flickr). We were growing cat grass on the balcony that summer, so I suspected that Jake might have inhaled a blade of grass and gotten it stuck in his pharynx or nasal passages.

So we went to the vet, and they flushed out his nose and checked him out. They noticed some irritation, but didn’t find any grass or plant matter. They prescribed antibiotics, just in case.

After we got home, however, I found what looked like some dried, clear cat barf on the floor in the room Jake ate in. But it wasn’t like a regular hairball or food barf…it was a tiny leaf! I had been right – Jake did have something stuck in his nose! He just managed to get it out by himself before the vet appointment.

So, I did a little research and discovered that it was a small leaf of Yarrow! I only know Yarrow from the Warriors books (the medicine cats use it, and there’s a cat named Yarrowleaf in the more recent books, but I had no idea it was growing in our lawn! Because they mow once a week, it never gets a chance to grow tall or flower.

This Yarrow plant is entwined with a bicycle rack, so it misses getting mowed. This is what it looks like when it’s allowed to grow. Jake must have accidentally inhaled the little leaf when we went outside – he loved chewing on the grass, and the yarrow is mixed into the lawn. It was an interesting mystery, and I’m glad I was able to solve it.

Aby-a-Day – 16 Juni: The birds and the bees (Cinema Sunday)

When we were outside with the Kittens a while back, they found a bumblebee.

Izaak seemed more interested in it than Lorelai was, at first.

They were adorable, studying the little insect. Zak went so far as to pat it with his paw, but luckily neither cat got stung.

When it didn’t move, Zak got a little bored, but Rory knew it had potential and studied it intently.

Finally: the big payoff! The bee started to fly!

Rory is incredibly agile and athletic when she is chasing a bug. She actually catches flies (and eats them) in the apartment without knocking over anything.

Here’s a video of Zak, Rory and the Bee.

Later that day, Rory went to the area behind our apartment…I could tell because the birds were going crazy with their “Cat!” warning cries. It was really loud…I took video, but I don’t know if you can hear them. I worry about the bigger birds dive-bombing her; when I was a kid we had outdoor cats (not my idea), and one got a massive abscess on his head from either a scrub jay or a mockingbird. Rory’s only 2½ kg, our smallest cat, and your average crow weighs around half a kilo…but they have force and gravity on their side. One peck from a crow or jackdaw’s bill could do some serious damage.

That being said…Rory really wants to catch a bird someday.

We’re trying to teach Alfred to go outside with us offleash…but in the meantime, sometimes he joins us via the balcony. Here he is complaining about being left out.

Aby-a-Day – 15 Juni: Parallel Judging (Cat Show Saturday)

Amongst all the other things that happened at last weekend’s cat show, I mentioned that there was a trainee judge watching the Abyssinian judging, shadowing a Group 4 judge. But later, after the Singapuras and the Selkirk Rex had been judged, Stellan called me to bring Izaak over to the Group 3 “Parallel judging.”

I’d never heard of that before, much less seen it. Stellan said it’s fairly rare. But it’s actually pretty cool, and I don’t think either CFA or TICA have a thing like this.

Basically, you’re all called up to a mock ring. Stewards take the cats up to the student judge, who judges each cat and writes down notes on every one, the same as the real judge does. She also chooses her Bests in Variety and the cats she would Nominate if she were the judge.

Later on, they compare her notes and decisions to the actual judge’s notes and see how she did in comparison. We exhibitors don’t get to see the notes, nor do we ever know how our cats placed…but it was interesting to watch.

Zak thought it was a lot of fun! Maybe even more fun than the actual judging, because he got to do it and Lorelai didn’t!

Aby-a-Day – 14 Juni: All Angel’s birthdays (Flashback Friday)

As you saw from Wednesday’s post, Angel turned 12 this year. When we got her from Purebreds Plus Rescue, they didn’t know her birthday, so I chose 11 June as the day she could have been born on. Last year, I got confirmation that she was most likely actually born on 4 July 2007, but my dad’s birthday is the 4th of July, so I just keep celebrating on 11 June. She was a year and three (or two) months old when I adopted her, so we missed her first birthday…but here is a photo of me with her on her second birthday.

Angel on her 3rd birthday…still not used to those candles.

Here is Angel and me on Angel’s 4th birthday.

Angel’s 5th birthday fell on a Monday, so we celebrated with Hipstamatic photos.

Look how proud Angel looks to be 6 years old!

Angel’s 7th birthday was her first in our new apartment, and she had her cake on the window seat.

Angel couldn’t wait to eat her 8th birthday cake! I’m surprised she didn’t singe her whiskers!

Her 9th birthday was our last in Boston. She seemed a little intimidated by all the candles.

So, of course, Angel’s 10th birthday was her first in Sweden.

Last year’s birthday…I can’t remember what was going on with the candles. Either her birthday took us by surprise, so we used whatever oddball candles we had…or I was just matching the colours. And now she is 12…that’s a pretty incredible accomplishment.

Aby-a-Day – 13 Juni: Cats love hotels (Thursday Things)

I don’t know what it is, but every cat I’ve ever known has loved staying in hotel rooms.

They always say that cats like stability, familiarity, routine…so why they love strange new hotel rooms, foreign beds, and different window views? Perhaps cats are more adventurous than we give them credit for. All I know is, going back to my Siamese, Harri, who was born in 1991, every cat I’ve ever taken to a hotel has loved it. And I hear that from almost every other cat person I’ve talked to at shows.

Izaak and Lorelai are no exception. The minute we walk in the room, they’re off excitedly checking out every corner. Jacoby would actually be cranky at cat shows during the day because he’d stayed up all night whooping it up in the hotel room.

The first batch of photos were taken Friday night. On Saturday night, Zak decided to play with the decorative blankets on both beds.

He didn’t just pull them off onto the floor, though; he also bit them, bunny-kicked them and dragged them around the room. Unfortunately, none of those photos turned out.

I don’t know if Zak thought those blankets worked better as rugs or what…

…but he is just so damn cute when he’s being naughty.

Meanwhile, Rory was exhausted after her big show day and just wanted to nap.

And yes, she dug this comforter cave all by herself. She does that at home, too. She is the queen of quilt forts.

Aby-a-Day – 12 Juni: Wordless Wednesday (Happy 12th Birthday, Angel!)

Aby-a-Day – 11 Juni: The Incatibles (Cartoon Tuesday)

Our new kitten, Dashiell, is named after the author of The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett. When I lived in San Francisco, I lived a block away from the apartment building Dashiell Hammett lived in at 891 Post Street). But our kitten isn’t the only one named after him: Dash, the older son of The Incredibles is named Dash, too (full name: Dashiell Robert Parr). And I got to thinking…okay, Dash…we’ll have five cats…two girls and three boys…hmmmmmm….

So, using this image of the Incredible family, I came up with this. Alfred, our biggest cat, is Mr. Incredible; Angel, of course, is Elastigirl; Lorelai is perfect as Violet, Izaak is Jack-Jack (or, if you prefer, Zak-Zak)…and Dash is, well…Dash. Now I just need to colour it in!