This is how I wake up most mornings. Izaak is usually involved, and then it’s either Alfred, Lorelai and/or Dashiell. I tried to take a selfie one morning…but it did not go well. The front camera, even on an iPhone 11 Pro, is really not that great.
So I had Björn take the photos with the back camera.
So, okay, not technically selfies…but credit for intent. And I absolutely adore the way Zak tries to hold my hand.
Isn’t that adorable?
Facebook reminded me that, three years ago, Logan really wanted to be friends with Jacoby.
And also this exchange with Stellan: “Aha… you’ve been seduced over to the darkside,” he said.
“Well, I don’t think I’d go that far,” I said. “I’ve definitely been seduced over to the sepia side, though.” I still use that one.
Logan used to do this thing we called the “Singa bum bump.” Izaak does it once in a while, but it was Logan’s signature move.
He’d walk past Jake, just brushing his pelt…
…and then turn his butt and bump Jake with it. Sort of like a head bonk, with the other end.
It was really cute to watch.
Jake was rather unimpressed.
I love the expressions on his face in these photos. They were taken two iPhones ago, and they aren’t the best quality, but they really show how much Logan liked Jake.
Singas do that, though. As I showed over the weekend, when they decide they want to be your friend…that’s it.
Resistance is futile.
The other day when we went outside, I captured these portraits of Lorelai.
Usually, she’s always running. This was an odd quiet moment for her.
But she looked so pretty against the green grass.
Fear not…she was running down the hill a few minutes after I took the last photo.
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.
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.
One feature of the new iPhone 11 Pro is that when you take a regular photo, the camera also takes what Apple calls a “LivePhoto,” which is the photo you took time-lapsed for three or four seconds with a little motion. It’s kind of like those moving pictures in Harry Potter.
I thought it would be interesting to string a bunch of these LivePhotos together into a movie. So…here is what a string of iPhone LivePhotos looks like, put together into a movie.
I haven’t done a Hipstamatic Monday in over two years. I’ve gotten a load of new films and lenses since then…so I figured, hey, why not?
So let’s go from oldest to youngest…as much as we can. Starting with Angel.
Lately, she’s been a big fan of the canoe bed that currently sits on the Danish modern chair that needs recovering.
It’s one of those cat bed fads, I know…but she is so cute when she’s in the canoe.
Next up is Jacoby.
Good old reliable Jake.
He’s been a Hipstamatic cat since the very beginning,
As always, I love the randomness with Hipstamatic.
Here’s Alfred.
He’s shaping up to be as big a poser as Jake is!
Izaak has shown us that he loves IKEA mice along with any largish plush toy. He even likes the Han Solo mousie!
He’s not even here a week and he’s already showing a distinct personality.
He’s very protective of his mousies.
He stood his ground to protect it against Freddy…so brave!
Last but not least we have Lorelai.
She’s so much larger than Zak, it’s hard to remember that he’s older than she is.
But yes, it’s been only five days, and they are already best friends!
Lorelai is a wonderful leash-walker. She may even have a better follow instinct than even Logan had.
Rory has a slight “kitty cold,” so we went to the vet. When we got back, Rory walked all the way home from the bus stop!
On the way, she found a pigeon feather.
“Please, Mom, can we bring it home?” (Spoiler alert: yes, we brought it home and I dipped it in Virkon as soon as we got home.)
Below is a video of Rory’s impressive walk home…She is such a good walker!
Today Björn and I went to Jönköping to collect Logan’s ashes.
His ashes came packed in a very nice cardboard box. They even put a little gold heart sticker on it. (It says “Contains wooden cremation urn” on the label.)
Of course, Alfred came to see what I was doing.
Is he looking up to StarClan to see if he can see Logan?
Inside the cardboard box was this little wooden urn. They put a label with Logan’s name on it. This seems to be the common urn for cat ashes in Sweden; both Pyret and Björn’s other cat, Olivia, have identical urns.
However, this little box is not Logan’s final resting place. I’ve ordered an absolutely brilliant little casket of oak and slate with his photo on it from an Etsy seller in the UK (that’s the proof of it above). You may remember my special welded urns for my Siamese boys, Harri and Patrick, but it would cost a bomb to have one of those shipped here to Sweden. But this is perfect for Logan.
And on the way home on the train, it rained…and we saw the rainbow at the top of the post.
Jacoby has been a very snuggly, cuddly boy lately.
He’s been sleeping with me almost every night.
Although, sometimes, he’ll settle in an…shall we say…awkward spot.
And then…boom!
Erm…Jake? You realise that…oh, I can’t even.
This week’s Photo Hunt subject is “Flip.”
It’s starting to get warm in Boston, and my bedroom hasn’t got the greatest air circulation, so I keep my little Vornado Zippi fan running at night while I sleep.
Jacoby sleeps with me most nights, and he thinks the fan is pretty cool.
In fact, he finds it fascinating.
It’s like the best cat toy ever.
He likes to stop the soft cloth blades. They don’t hurt at all.
Although sometimes, it seems they do sting his paws, so he has to stop and lick them.
But then…
…he’s right back at it, smacking my fan.
Or biting it. Biting is good, too.
It’s like a game. If he catches it and makes it stop, he wins.
And if he flips it over…? Bonus points! And in case you were wondering…why, yes, does it makes a lot of noise! And he does it a LOT! It’s like his version of playing with the boingy door thing. Siiigghhhh…
As you saw yesterday, Jacoby and Björn shared a chicken salad sandwich when we went to visit the cats yesterday.
And by “share,” I mean “Jake demanded to have some and wasn’t about to take no for an answer.”
Semantics, I know.
But even after the sandwich was eaten, Jake refused to believe it was really gone.
I mean, he really played the denial card to the utmost.
Jake was determined not to miss a morsel.
It’s kind of interesting how well designed those plastic sandwich holders are. It’s like they were designed with the Abyssinian head in mind…
It’s almost as though the sandwich box makers thought to themselves, “We need to make a box that securely holds a sandwich…and also fits an Aby’s head without any undue bending of the ears. Yeah, I’m sure that was their primary consideration.
This week’s Photo Hunt subject is “Lunch.”
Jacoby and Angel are always ready for lunch.
And I do mean always. You may notice that it’s dark outside…
…well, as Ford Prefect once said, “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Or as Angel clearly believes, “Hey, it’s noon somewhere!”
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 