Tomorrow will be the eleventh anniversary of the day Sherry brought us Jacoby
He basically walked in, said, “Okay, this is home?” and that was that. He was completely unfazed by Kylie, Tessie and Angel.
Typical Jake. Bulletproof from the start.
And, as a bonus, here are two videos my ex took that I never even watched before. Look at him go! Click on the images to view the videos in another tab on Flickr.
He really did just walk in and take over our apartment.
Lorelai’s love affair with the sand area under the swings continues.
Rory ran over to the sand area all by herself. Unbeknownst to her, Izaak followed her. He thought it was an excellent chance to practice his stalking.
It was pretty easy, considering Rory was completely oblivious, busily digging in the sand.
At one point, she seemed to notice Zak sneaking up on her.
And then she just went back to rolling around.
Rory takes her sand rolling very seriously.
Step by step, Zak drew closer.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
After Zak’s epic stalk and pounce, Rory felt the need to do some more rolling around. Zak was not impressed.
This weekend I finished that romantic sketch I did of Lorelai and Io after their (hopefully) romantic weekend.
First I made the heart-shaped art-deco frame using elements I found online. I checked it against the coloured sketch to make sure it was the right proportions, as you can see above. On the frame, I added a glow and a metallic gradient to make the different pieces I used coherent.
I wanted to keep the style very 1920’s and simple. This is the ink.
Then I coloured in the outline.
You may remember from the drawing I did of Rory as a Vegas showgirl that Procreate has some really fun sparkly brushes. I thought this portrait could use a little sparkle.
After the sparkle was added, I took it to Photoshop and added the red background.
I decided not to use my regular fur brushes, because I wasn’t necessarily going for realism on this drawing. I left the colouration flat instead.
I then added a pink glow around the happy couple, and applied the oil paint filter.
I’m not 100% happy with it…but I do like it.
As always, I saved the video Procreate saves. I also discovered that it can make a gif of your drawing. I am not sure what I’m going to do with that, but it’ll be a fun thing to play with in the future.
Even with the impressive camera on the iPhone 11 Pro, it’s still possible to take a bad photo. Despite the auto-focus and auto-lighting technology, the camera still occasionally makes a mistake. The other day, the lenses somehow centered on the wrong thing, and some photos of Dashiell came out dark and underexposed.
This is something Hipstamatic is great for. Look at how much clearer Dash is now. You can actually see his eyes!
These two shots of Lorelai running almost look like they were taken with bad film! I have no idea what happened, but the auto-correct didn’t work at all.
Hipstamatic doesn’t magically make them good photos, but it makes them better, and it turns them into art. Which is better than just having a bad photo, I guess.
The other day when we went outside, Alfred suddenly ran up a tree!
We were all surprised at his feat…I think Freddy was the most surprised of all of us. Look at his face!
He didn’t seem sure of what he wanted to do.
At first, Freddy thought he might try to climb higher.
But in the end, he decided to jump down. What goes up, and all that…
As you’ve seen this week, Dashiell is becoming increasingly comfortable with going outside, but he’s still rather easily startled.
The other day, Dash was standing out in the open on the lawn when Lorelai came speeding past him.
It happened so fast.
And then, in hot pursuit, Alfred came barrelling past.
Look at Dash’s body language. He’s completely thinking, “What just happened?”
This memory came up in my Facebook feed today. Seven years ago today, I was contacted by Leslie and Sheila of the Westchester Feline Club because they wanted Jacoby to be the 2013 Westchester Feline Club Cat of the Year.
I have to admit, I really had no clue what a huge honour it was to be named Cat of the Year, but fortunately I’m a fast learner. Of course, seeing his face on the Jumbotron was a pretty big hint.
I was constantly talking to people, or doing something with Jake. Besides the Cat of the Year, Jake was also entered in the show (we only missed two rings, which is a bit of a miracle) and he participated as a model in the Fashion Show which was held both Saturday and Sunday. Jake is actually the first Cat of the Year to do all three things in the same show!
The show was good; Jake made a few finals. And the fashion show was fantastic. They originally wanted Jake to wear a Santa outfit…but when we saw how he rocked this turkey confection, everyone agreed that it was the costume for him! The person who made it even gave it to him afterwards, because he owned it so hard.
The list of previous Cats of the Year is impressive, indeed.
Jake was given an incredible rosette – the Scarlett Ribbon – with a photo of Scarlett, who was the very first Cat of the Year and the reason the award was created.
He was also given this certificate…
…and this poster. I was NOT prepared for all of it!
It was truly a once in a lifetime experience…but I didn’t realise that in July!
Lorelai loves to run outside. I have said, since we have had her, that to watch her run outside is to witness joy, personified.
Rory outside is the happiest thing that ever happied.
She is never happier than when she is running outside.
Even when she isn’t actually running in it, you can tell…this little girl loves being outside.
Today I discovered that there was an entire television episode devoted to an Abyssinian!
Not sure how I didn’t know about this, but there is an episode of Mad About You from 1998 titled “There’s a Puma in the Kitchen” that features an Aby. I used to watch that show, and I have no memory of this episode! Unfortunately, Cinema Cats has little information on the Aby(s) who acted in this episode.
The best bits are at 6:34 and then from 9:01 on. Also be sure to watch the end credits, where the director argues with the Aby.
Björn’s daughter Emma’s 10th birthday is on Thursday. Usually, she and her mom come here to celebrate and Björn makes her a special cake. But because of Covid-19, that’s not happening, so Björn mailed her a birthday card today. As usually, I did a quick cat sketch…it’s meant to be Izaak, but meh. Also rethinking my choice of gold pen. But here it is.
Since it was fun last week, I thought I’d post some more Hipstamatic photos of Lorelai and Io from this past weekend.
I love the variety of styles in Hipstamatic. Of course, I have been using it for over ten years now, so I’ve amassed a large collection of films and lenses.
You can also edit regular photos after the fact in Hipstamatic now, and turn a photo you might trash into something artistic.
I love this one. It changed all the greens to red, and desaturated everything else. I really like how this one turned out.
You can get some fun effects.
In the Hipstamatic app, you can apply more than one film and lens, and get results you could never get using the Hipsta camera.
I like this one, too. Nice shade of green.
Rory saying goodbye to Io. I hope they made kittens.
This was a blah photo of Rory on Björn’s shoulder. Now it’s cool and interesting.
This is another of my favourites in this batch.
It’s interesting that one combination turns greens red, while another filter turns the reds green.
Rory and Angel when we finally got home. My girls.
Yesterday, we drove back to Överum to collect Lorelai from her sleepover with Io. When we got there, everyone was outside; Rory in her car cage and Io on his leash.
Look at how handome Io is in the sunshine!
We aren’t sure if they actually mated during the past week
As soon as we got there, we put her harness and leash on so she could say farewell to her beau.
They weren’t unfriendly towards each other…
…But Rory wasn’t all googly-eyes over Io, either.
Rory was super happy to see us again. I wonder if she thought we’d left her and gone forever?
Rory was VERY happy to go for a little walk around Karin’s yard.
Rory said her goodbyes to Io and we were back on the road. If Rory hasn’t gotten pregnant from this visit, we’ll make the trip again in a few weeks. I hope she is knocked up, though; we didn’t get home til after 10pm, which is why this is another two-day post!
On the way back, we stopped at Björn’s brother Örjan’s house.
Looks like someone really missed her daddy!
When we got home, we brought Rory into the apartment still in her car carrier. Izaak and Alfred were the first to greet her. I think Zak missed her!
After her evening chicken neck, Rory was acting like she hadn’t been away for a week. We just need to wait and see if anything developed between her and Io.
I guess the LivePhoto function on my iPhone got switched on again, because all the photos I took of Rory’s journey were also saved as LivePhotos. I compiled them into one video, so take a look at what just might be the origin story of Rory’s kittens.
As I mentioned last month, members of the Facebook group This IS an airport, please announce your departure: aeroplane ear posting said that Izaak was Ron Swanson as a cat. So…
I made two versions: one with Ron’s signature mustache and one without. I can’t decide which one I like better…Which do you prefer?
The other day when we were outside, we ran into our friend Markis.
Izaak and Lorelai came trotting up to say hello.
Rory got bored and ran off, but Zak…Zak took an interest in Markis.
And, unusually for him, Markis was actually interested in Zak, too.
Usually Markis just nopes out when he runs into the LunaTicks.
Or…maybe it’s just Zak Markis likes. Rory came back…and Markis decided he’d had enough.
“See ya!”
“But…but…Markis? I thought we were friends?”
Based on the events of this weekend, I wanted to do a romantic bride and groom drawing of Lorelai and Io.
So I did a quick 1920’s theme (being that we are now in the new Roaring Twenties), and then changed its colour and lightened it.
Then I did a second sketch.
I knew I wanted the heart and Rory’s flower to be red, so I made a “red layer.”
Then I coloured the sketch in.
Finally, a few highlghts, and…voilá: a finished sketch. I may come back and finish this, but at least the idea is out of my head.
And…because I can, here’s a video of the drawing in progress.
Yesterday, my good friend Anne posted on Facebook: “Tiuku 12.5.2001 – 13.7.2020
(EC, Ch Habibin TirNanOg DM)
She was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.”
Tiuku was 19 years, 2 months and 1 day old, but no matter how long you have with them…it’s just never enough.
Tiuku with her grandkittens; Anne said she was a grandmother twelve times! I never met her in person, but I feel as though I knew her. My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today. Sleep well in Tuonela, dear, sweet Tiuku.
Lorelai is still with Io, so I thought I would share a few Hipstamatic shots from our trip.
Here she is, before she knew all the firsts she was about to experience…
…like her first kiss…
…and her first…um, whatever this is.
“Oooooh…isn’t he dreamy?
Okay, Io…now get busy getting busy!
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 