Aby-a-Day – 23 Augusti: “When you put the whole picture together, recycling is the right thing to do” (Hipstamatic Monday)

Sweden is well-known for its recycling system. We used to have to go to several different places to recycle (paper and cardboard were in our område, but metal, glass and plastic were in other areas around town.

But two years ago, we got two consolidated underground recycling stations in our område. It is so much more convenient!

And, we can take the cats with us, turning a mundane chore into a fun outing.

The stations have kiosks for regular household trash, food garbage (which is turned into fuel for buses and home heating), coloured glass, clear glass, metal, cardboard, paper, and plastic.

It’s also an amazingly clean and odourless place, too, considering it’s a place people bring their trash.

The stations also don’t attract scavenging corvids, seagulls, or rats. Just Abyssinians and Singapuras.

One other nice thing about the recycling stations is that you can meet your neighbours. I think the whole concept of these tidy little stations is brilliant.

Aby-a-Day – 16 Augusti: Dashiell in the sunshine (Hipstamatic Monday)

Dashiell really loves to sit on the elliptical and bask in the afternoon sun.

His fur is so shiny and bright, too.

Lorelai tried to get some of Dash’s sun puddle, but he was not giving it up.

Good for you, Dash!

The moral of the story: never relinquish your sunshine.

Aby-a-Day – 2 Augusti: Alfred is such a ham! (Hipstamatic Monday)

Yesterday when Björn and Emma were making breakfast, they gave the cats a little bit of ham…and a piece fell on Alfred’s back.

He could smell it, but couldn’t figure out where the delicious ham was.

Meanwhile, here it is.

Meanwhile, Izaak is wondering why we are all giggling and taking photos.

“Mooooommmmmm…where’s the haaammmmm..?”

“Wait? There’s ham? I thought I smelled ham…”

I thought for sure Izaak would clock the ham on Freddy’s back.

Because I am a meanie, I tried to get Zak to notice the ham on Freddy’s back.

I almost thought he was going to see it.

But in the end, Freddy managed to knock the ham off of his back and eat it. Sorry, Zak.

Aby-a-Day – 19 Juli: Another trip to the veternarian (Medical Hipstamatic Monday)

Today, Angel had a follow-up visit to the vet to check on her eye

This is Angel at the bus stop. It’s a two-bus, half hour trip to the vet…sigh. If I was still in Boston, my vet would be on the first floor. But I digress.

Angel’s a pretty good traveler, except she tends to yell a lot.

When we got to the exam room. Angel was not sure she wanted to leave her carrier.

Angel had some spicy commentary about having to be at the vet at all.

Still, overall, Angel was pretty calm. Until Dr. Brigetta came in. Then stuff got real.

First, Angel got some eyedrops.

Angel had had ENOUGH long before Dr. Brigitta was finished examining her. Angel got several eyetests, including one that measured how many tears she produced in a measured time period. That one was actually pretty cool.

She still has vascularisation in her eye and will need another course of eyedrops. Awesome. Wow.

When the examination was finished, Angel got treatos.

Angel got all the treatos.

Then, we were homeward bound.

This is on the bus ride home.

Angel walked part of the way home, but she kept wanting to go into the bushes.

I am glad she was on a leash…Extracting cats from bushes is a pain.

At the end of the day, Angel was more than ready to go home. And yes, she also knows where she lives.

Aby-a-Day – 12 Juli: Don’t let the cat out of the bag (Hipstamatic Monday)

Yesterday, we took some recycling out to the bins, and of course the cats came with us. Which, of course, drew the kids in like a magnet.

This one little boy, who we’ve seen outside as long as we’ve been taking the cats out, loves the cats…

…but his love tends to involve happy shrieks and picking them up. Alfred and Izaak generally get enough love and prudently run away and hide in the bushes. But Lorelai on her leash is a captive audience for his attention.

It’s funny. This boy loves the cats, but is also a little afraid of them. I don’t know what he thinks is going to happen or what he thinks Rory is going to do.

Eventually Rory went into one of our recycling bags. This fascinated the boy.

It also brought a little girl to look at Rory in a bag.

They had a pretty good time playing with the bag, Rory and the kids. It was cute to watch.

Aby-a-Day – 5 Juli: “My what big peets you have…” (Hipstamatic Monday)

The other day, I was reading whilst lying on the bed, and Alfred came to cuddle with me.

He curled up next to me and laid a paw on my arm.

Look how loooonnngg Freddy’s toes are! He has really big feet, even at four years old. Do you think he’ll ever grow into them?

Aby-a-Day . Shadowing Izaak (Hipstamatic Monday)

It has been raining really hard for the past two days – lightning, thunder, and a tremendous amount of precipitation. Last week, however was sunny and bright.

When we went outside, I was struck by the way Izaak’s shadow looked. I had to take some Hipstamatic snaps of him.

Aby-a-Day – 14 Juni: Sun and shade (Hipstamatic Monday)

One of Izaak’s favourite summer sunspots is on the rug in the living room.

One day, he flopped down and there was this interesting series of stripes in the shadows.

How could I resist?

And of course,

Aby-a-Day – 7 Juni: A nice day outside (Hipstamatic Monday)

The other day I took Alfred, Lorelai and Izaak outside for a little romp.

I let Rory go out offleash, but I had it with me just in case she decided to be naughty. She was happy to jump into the tall grass on the hill.

Meanwhile, Zak investigated the big tree.

Later on, we made two discoveries: Markis, and catmip growing in the grilling area! Not sure how we never noticed it before. Maybe it’s new.

I wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn’t been for Markis.

Zak is so funny…he really wants to be friends with Markis.

We also ran into the neighbour boy who loves Freddy. Freddy was sweet enough to let the boy pick him up, and the boy was thrilled. He knows all their names and calls out to them, it’s so cute.

Aby-a-Day – 31 Maj: “Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible” (Hipstamatic Monday)

Good news, everyone! Last Wednesday, I got my first Covid vaccination (#teampfizer)! However, it also kicked my butt for a few days; today is the first day my arm doesn’t feel like I was hit by a stick. So, here: have some random Hipstasnaps taken around the house. First we have Alfred and Izaak cuddled up next to Jacoby on my leg.

It’s interesting to see the pair-ups that occur amongst the cats. Dashiell and Alfred hang out together quite a bit.

So do Angel and Zak. Sometimes, it’s Angel’s choice…

…other times, not so much.

I wonder if I should be concerned about what Dash and Freddy are plotting…

Not quite sure what’s going on here. Moving on…

Lorelai looking at me hopefully. She always wants to go outside to run.

This was taken today. Zak was looking particularly smexy this afternoon.

Aby-a-Day – 24 Maj: My little limpet (Hipstamatic Monday)

We have a daily ritual where we watch reruns of Chicago Med and Chicago Fire. This is how Izaak likes to sit on me.

For some reason, Zak prefers to sit on my bare legs. Especially my knees.

It really doesn’t seem that comfortable of a way to cuddle, but he likes it. And he’s sound asleep, in case you were wondering.

Aby-a-Day – 3 Maj: Look at this smexy boi! (Hipstamatic Monday)

Sometimes the simplest things make beautiful photos.

Dasshiell was at the end of the sofa, just grooming himself, but something about his pose, and the lighting, intrigued me.

His fur is growing back on his belly, by the way. The Zylkene seems to be working.

As I have said before, Hipstamtic can salvage a bad photo…but Hipstamatic also transforms good photos into art.

And apparently, Dash has inherited a bit of Jacoby’s ability to work a camera. Look at these poses!

That is some steamy side-eye Dash is giving me.

Pure smoulder. Yeah, baby!…Oooh, behave!

Aby-a-Day – 29 Mars: Cats are such brats sometimes (Hipstamatic Monday=

Björn bought some really nice bratwurst and had it for breakfast yesterday.

A certain little girl was very interested in the brat on Björn’s fork.

This was actually pretty unusual for Lorelai; she’s big on raw meat when we’re cutting it up for cooking, but she’s not usually so grabby when it comes to cooked food.

It was so funny to watch her!

It smelled good to me, but it must have smelled amazing to Rory for her to act this way.

But Rory had competition for that brat, though. Someone else wanted it, too, and look at the daggers she’s staring at him.

I know you probably thought it was going to Alfred…but it was Izaak!

And for Zak to try to steal food is even more unusual that Rory doing it. He is strictly a raw meat kind of guy.

And he wanted it even more than Rory, too.

Björn said Zak was really pulling down on his hand. For a little dude, Zak is strong for his size!

Aby-a-Day – 22 Mars: It’s kind of springy (Hipstamatic Monday)

Today it was a balmy 10°C (50°F), so I thought I would take the cats out. Lorelai was on a leash again, but I attached Alfred’s leash to hers, so it was twice as long.

I managed to get Dashiell to come out with us too. He’s gotten so little exposure to things: trains, buses, cat shows…and just being outside because of the pandemic. I do the best I can to get him outside, though.

Rory, of course, was eager to run down the hill, but the leash sort of put a damper on that plan.

Maybe next time I’ll attach a third leash so she can go farther.

Freddy came galloping down to join Rory.

Izaak came swaggering over, too.

Look at them. The Three Musketeers.

Dash did pretty well outside. At least, he had a happy tail.

Dash and Rory have a sort of bond, being the two youngest cats.

Freddy had an awesome time running around. At over 5 kg (11 lbs)…he needs to run a bit.

It’s nice to go outside with the cats. It’s kind of nice to go anywhere with them, to be honest.

Aby-a-Day – 1 Mars: “That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run” (Hipstamatic Monday)

I barely caught these two photos of Alfred running when we went outside yesterday. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and caught him in the corner of the frame.

They turned out okay when I cropped them, but I thought that they worked better as Hipstamatic snaps. So here you have Freddy running for no particular reason.

Aby-a-Day – 22 Februari: An outdoor adventure (Hipstamatic Monday)

It was a balmy 10°C (50°F) today, so Lorelai, Alfred; Izaak and I went outside for a little bit. This was the first time we’d been out for a few weeks, and I think we all needed it. I also wanted to check out the new “pond” at the bottom of the hill. I wonder how long it will last?

Freddy and Zak checked out their dustbowl tree, but it was too muddy for rolling.

The ground was kind of muddy and slushy, but they had fun reacquainting themselves with the outside.

Freddy and Rory investigated a metal drain cover. Freddy tried to roll on it, but I didn’t manage to catch it with my camera.

Then they had to check out the back of the building.

There’s still ice on the lake, but I think it’ll melt soon. I also managed to include a magpie in the photo.

Rory noticed it when it flew away.

There’s definitely signs that spring is coming. The bulb plants are starting to sprout.

We do still have a pile of snow. Which, of course, Rory had to climb it.

The only thing they do about snow here is throw gravel on it (I really miss the snow melting stuff they used in Boston because gravelly snow is really hard to walk on). I think Rory got a piece of gravel caught in her paw pads.

Since Rory was checking out the snow pile, Zak had to check it out as well.

Finally, we all went back inside…but Rory still wanted to explore. She was the last one to go back into our apartment.

Aby-a-Day – 15 Februari: I’ve got you covered (Hipstamatic Monday)

So this happened yesterday.

I opened the bedroom door after feeding Izaak and Dashiell their evening meal to find them sleeping together on our bed like this.

Zak was so cute, snuggled in underneath Dash’s cone.

Singapuras love to be underneath blankets, and I guess Dash’s cone is close enough.

Aby-a-Day – 8 Februari: Izaak remembers Pat (Hipstamatic Monday)

On Saturday, there was a Zoom memorial for our friend Pat, who died suddenly last week. Björn and I both attended (never Zoomed before, so that was interesting), and it was quite lovely. Interestingly, Izaak also attended. It was like he knew an important Singapura person had passed away and wanted to be there, too.

Zak wasn’t the only Singapura at the memorial. You can’t see him in the photo because of the lighting, but one of the last boys Pat bred, Zain, was also there. It seems Zak was amused that Zain was there, but squirming and not sitting nicely like him.

Aby-a-Day – 25 Januari: My Space Kotty (Hipstamatic Monday)

A while back, I signed up for a Kickstarter project for a supersonic litter box from a company in Poland. However, as sometimes happens, there have been some hiccups; this project was supposed to be finished in March, but now it’s projected to be ready to ship in December. I get it, stuff happens, but the company wanted to make it up to all the backers, so they offered us a free My Kotty scratcher. It’s a laminated cardboard scratcher, and I haven’t had many cats be interested in those…but hey, free 50€ scratcher in exchange for waiting 9 months? I can deal with that.

This all happened last week, and the scratcher arrived today (wicked fast!). Izaak immediately claimed it. I don’t know…maybe it’s a Polish thing.

Lorelai wanted to check out the scratcher, too.

Zak was having none of that, thank you very much.

He got out of the scratcher for a while, so I enticed him back with one of his mousies

That went well.

Then Dashiell came to check out the new scratcher.

Sniffing was okay…but when Dash tried to scratch it…

HOW ABSOLUTE DARE.

Dash seemed confused. “Zak, I thought we were friends!”

Then Rory attempted a sneak takeover of the scratcher.

She was fended off as well. It’s a lonely life, being the king of the new scratcher.

Aby-a-Day – 11 Januari: Serious cuddle puddle (Hipstamatic Monday)

The other evening there was a pretty serious cuddle puddle going on at the end of the sofa involving Dashiell, Izaak and Lorelai. The whole his was pretty adorable.

But the absolute cutest thing was Dash’s leg over Zak’s back.

I mean, isn’t it just the sweetest thing?

At least, it is until you realise that Dash was probably sleeping on the bed all by himself until Zak wormed his way in there.

Rory joined them afterwards.

However it happened, it still makes for some super cute photos.

All right, Rory…you can go back to sleep now.