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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We’re putting up our Jul/Christmas decorations gradually this year, starting with the easiest things first. So first the wreath goes on our front door, and then we put the Julljusstaken in the windows.
And, as always, it leads to some incredibly festive photos ops.
Pair the candles with Hipstamatic’s holiday-themed films and lenses, and you can have a lot of fun. This film is called “Vixen-chan.”
And this film is “Donner.”
This last one isn’t one of the holiday films…but it feels Christmassy, don’t you think?
Me, it’s usually a cat.
Or two.
Usually, it’s Alfred and Dashiell.
Many mornings I waked up with my arm around Freddy, like he’s a stuffed animal.
Dash likes to purr at me, bump his head on my hand, and pat my face with his soft little hands.
Unfortunately, both these boys are drooly purrers.
Still, if you have to wake up, I can’t think of a better way to do it.
Oh, and if you’re wondering where Izaak is, he’s on my legs, under the comforters, licking the insides of my knees.
So, as I posted on Saturday, Lorelai met a boy in a hotel. At first, she didn’t like him at all.
On Saturday night, Rory was grooming herself suggestively…and Ritchie was watching appreciatively.
Then Rory caught him watching her.
Ritchie instantly looked away. “Who, me? Nope, I was looking at this suddenly very interesting ceiling.”
Then, at approximately 07:48 am on Sunday morning, I was awakened by a thumping and cat noises (and a need to pee). The thumping was due to rolling around the shoes underneath our suitcase, but yeah, when I woke up, sexy times were happening under our bed.
Bow chicka bow!
After their tryst under our bed, the lovebirds went to the space under our suitcase, where the shoes had been, pre-all the rolling that woke me up.
I actually watched a mating cycle, including dismount, and there were at least two others that I didn’t see, so I think we may have touchdown this time!
Hipstamatic jusr released a new a new Hipstapak with a new film and lens. I thought I would try them out on the “NOT brothers from another mother,” Alfred and Izaak.
It’s not a terribly exciting combination, to be honest.
But seeing Freddy with Zak reminds me of Freddy and Logan. And I wonder: what would they be like together now?
The brown dome bed is Angel’s. That’s a fairly well-respected fact in our house.
Except for Izaak. Singapuras have zero boundaries.
Well, what have you got to say for yourself, young man?
Oh. All righty, then. As you were.
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 