Aby-a-Day – 19 Augusti: Happy Birthday, Pyret (Thursday Things)

Today would have been Pyret’s 22nd birthday.

She only saw 18 birthdays, but no matter how long they’re gone, you always remember their birthdays.

Pyret was an only cat for many years…until she had a couple of Abyssinians thrust upon her.

She adapted well, though.

And then…she met Logan.

Right from the start, they had a sort of bond, those two.

Of course, when there’s a Singapura involved, bonding is not exactly an option.

When Pyret started dying, Logan watched over her closely.

Even after Pyret died, Logan spent time with her body. It was especially poignant in hindsight, as Logan died a month later…almost as if he knew.

So, happy 22nd birthday, Pyret.

Aby-a-Day – 8 Augusti: A memory from 2017 (Cinema Sunday)

Today I found a silly old video I made back in 2017 when we only had three cats.

We were all in the kitchen, preparing salmon for dinner.

Angel, Jacoby and Pyret.

I don’t even know why I was taking photos. I mean, it was just an ordinary, everyday thing.

But sometimes, those little bits of random normality are nice to look back.

And I really don’t know what possessed me to make a video…but again, here we are.

Aby-a-Day – 25 Juli: Lunch with the movers (Swedish Sunday)

Five years ago this week, the movers brought my things from Boston.

Swedes take their lunch breaks very seriously. Right at noon, they all stopped and sat down to eat their lunches at our table. Of course, Jacoby had to join them – always the gracious host.

The movers were bemused, but charmed, by Jake’s curious and friendly manner. That’s the thing I remember most about that day.

Aby-a-Day – 2 Juli: Remembering Jacoby on Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day, and the above memory from last year popped up on my Facebook feed. Even though the celebrations this year are rather subdued this year, I can’t help but recall Jacoby’s past Canada Day fashion statements.

There was that one time when he wore a wool sweater…and a mitten.

Of course, in 2014 he was very excited about the Winter Olympics in Sochi…and with good reason: Canada beat Sweden to win hockey gold!

Then there was the year he was feeling a little conflicted about being a Canadian in Boston, which is kind of famous for its epic Fourth of July celebrations.

Aby-a-Day – 18 Juni: Five years ago today…(Friday Flashback)

Five years ago today, Jacoby, Angel and I landed in Stockholm.

We took IcelandAir, which requires pets to travel in crates in a special pet cargo hold. It’s actually really great, because they allow two pets of the same species in one carrier. When we changed planes in Reykjavik, I actually saw them being loaded on the new plane.

We had a LOT of luggage. That was fun on the train to Skövde.

But once we had it all stashed, it was a very comfortable ride. Jake was enjoying the view immensely.

And then…

…we were home.

Aby-a-Day – 15 Juni: Complete this cat for the laughs (Cartoon Tuesday)

There’s a fun meme going around that involves a simple line drawing of a cat’s head and four paws, captioned “Complete this cat for the laughs.” Well. I like cats, and laughing, so sure!

As a warm-up, I did this silly sketch of two cats dancing.

Then, I decided to play with colours and brushes, so I drew Jacoby in his parka.

Painting fur was fun, so I decided to paint some feathers. I also made the kitty a little happier. Silly, maybe…but any excuse to draw, right?

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 – 29 Maj: Dashiell with hair brighter than the sun (Swedish Saturday)

As I mentioned the other day, Dashiell is gradually becoming more comforatble outside.

You can see it in his eyes and in his gait.

He’s getting much braver. We still have to catch him and bring him outside – he doesn’t eagerly race out like the other three – but once he IS out, he enjoys it.

But look how incredibly shiny his coat is! I don’t remember Jacoby being quite this shiny. I think it’s because Dash eats more raw food. Jake refused to eat it. He would eat his other food and leave just the raw behind (kind of like Izaak in reverse). I can’t wait to take him to a cat show!

Aby-a-Day – 11 April: A sad anniversary and an update (Serious Sunday)

I haven’t posted since Thursday, because…Björn and I have been sick. Björn is actually in the hospital with Covid, and I have a wicked cough but no fever yet. It’s also the second anniversary of Jacoby’s death, so with all that going on I haven’t felt very inspired. Kalle and I will get tested for Covid on Tuesday, and hopefully Björn will be home soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Aby-a-Day – 5 April: Thanks for the memories (Monday Memory)

Facebook gave me some wonderful memories this morning. The first was the time a shirty MBTA conductor made me miss my stop to meet Meg for a cat show.

The second was of Tessie, happy with a box. Facebook can be evil…but it’s good for something, at least.

Aby-a-Day – 4 April: Dashiell meets Jacoby (Silly Sunday)

Yesterday, Dashiell was lying in a bright, warm sun puddle, and I commented that, in that light, Dash really reminded me of Jacoby in the sun. So Björn got the idea to introduce Dash to Pancake Jake.

Dash was actually a little afraid of Flat Jake.

He actually backed away from Flat Jake.

Lorelai came to see what was going on. Flat Jake sits in a window that Rory frequents, so she’s more familiar with him than Dash is.

Aby-a-Day – 30 Mars: Happy Birthday to my sister, Karen! (Cartoon Tuesday)

My sister’s birthday is tomorrow. I got her a card, but things being what they are, I didn’t mail it in time. So, I reckoned I’d just sent it to her electronically. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I always draw a little cartoon in the cards I send people. But if I’m Messaging my sister her card, what’s the best way to add my traditional drawing?

With Procreate and Photoshop, of course! And this card drawing is better than most, because I was actually able to do a sketch beforehand. Usually, I just freehand the drawing in ink.

This is the ink version, done in Procreate.

If you’re interested, you can watch the Procreate time-lapse video of the sketch and ink on Flickr. Click the image to view the video in another tab.

And here is the inside of the card that my sister will get tomorrow. The Swedish translates to: “If you were a cat, you’d be turning a hundred and eleventy-twelve years! Congratulations on your Birthday!”

Aby-a-Day – 17 Mars: Wordless Wednesday (Remember St. Patrick’s Day with Jacoby and Logan)

Aby-a-Day – 12 Mars: Origin of the species (Photoshop Friday)

The origin of the Singapura breed is not without controversy. While some people say that the breed occurred naturally, on the island nation of Singapore, others believe the breed is a deliberate hybrid. And it creates a bit of a rift in the Singapura community; not unlike, say, mask-wearing, both factions can be rather…attached to their viewpoints.

Where do I land on the subject? I have been following Singapuras since I first learned about the breed in the early 1980’s. I even wrote a letter to Tommy Meadows, the founder of the breed when I was in high school (and which I wish I could find, because I’m sure I have it somewhere), even though I have only recently joined the Singa community, I have a lot of book knowledge about the breed. So, I lean towards the Burmese/Aby hybrid theory.

This is not without a lot of though, so let me explain: First point: Tommy Meadow’s cattery name, USAF, is attached to both Abys and Singas; she worked with both breeds. She also had Burmese (haven’t been able to figure out if she bred them, too). She imported some cats when she moved from Texas to Singapore, and these were listed as Burmese and “brown Abyssinians” on the import manifest.

Second point: Singapore is an island, and, like mosts cats native to islands (Japan, the Isle of Man), the majority of Singapore street cats have some sort of tail deformation. Singas occasionally have tail deformation, but no more so than appear in other breeds (Siamese, for example). Of course, some long tailed Singapore street cats may have been used in breeding programmes, but that’s quite a bit different from an actual native breed (In Japan, you see feral cats that look almost exactly like purebred Japanese Bobtails).

Third point: Singapore was a British possession colonized in the early 1800’s. Given the British interest in exotic cats from foreign lands (Siamese, Burmese, and particularly the Abyssinian, purported to have been brought back from soldiers after the Abyssinian Wars) and the increasing Victorian interest in creating purebred animals and the Fancy, if the Singapura really was a native breed running around Singapore, don’t you think the British would have jumped on them and exported them back to England they way they did with other cat breeds?

At the end of the day, this is just my opinion. I know there is a romance in the “party line,” but honestly, so what if they ARE a Burmese/Aby hybrid? What’s so awful about that? Ocicats are Aby/Siamese/American Shorthairs, and that’s okay. Pointed Persians (Once the Himalayan breed) are Persians bred with Siamese. Burmillas are Chinchilla Persians bred with European Burmese. That’s all okay. You believe the origin story you feel most comfortable with.

All of this backstory has a point: Last week, I got the newest issue of Kattliv, featuring the (European) Burmese. I was struck by how much some of the photos reminded me of Singas, and I got an idea. I took a photo of Jacoby, and a photo of Butters, the cream EuroBurm we met at a show in Groton.

First, I reduced opacity on Jake and softened some edges.

Then I did the same with Butters, and erased his eyes.

Then I superimposed the two layers, and added a Sepia (of course) photo filter. But the eyes still just weren’t quite right.

So, I made a layer with Izaak’s eyes, reduced their opacity, and added a green photo filter.

And…Voilà! Okay, so it doesn’t look exactly like a Singapura…but it looks like it could be a computer-generated witness-descibed wanted poster image of a Singa.

Aby-a-Day – 2 Mars: Remembering the Cat Pack (Cartoon Tuesday)

The other day I was reminded of the “Cat Pack” of 2013. They included Strollercat (of course), Rosie and Louis, my friend Kathy’s two Abys; Jafari the jogging cat, my friend Christopher’s Aby; and, of course, Jacoby’s cousin Toki Nantucket, my friend Julie’s supermodel Aby. I did a little sketch of the famous cohort.

2009 was a good year for Abyssinians.

Aby-a-Day – 30 Januari: Off the wall (Swedish Saturday)

These photos are from May 2017. Before Logan died, we had entered him in a cat show in Göteborg. Since we had already paid for the entry, we took Jacoby instead. But he was not allowed into the show because the entry staff misread his vaccination records (they said he wasn’t up to date on his jabs, but he was). It was the same trip where Jake explored Göteborg’s future.

So, we went for a walk around Göteborg with Jake. At Östra Larmgatan 13, we found an interesting black and white mural.

We were particularly enchanted by this cat surfing/skateboarding on a fish.

Oh, everybody’s a critic.

This is the whole mural – it’s actually a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vans shoes! (Photo from Google Earth)

Aby-a-Day – 22 Januari: Feel the Bern! (Photoshop Friday)

The best thing to come out of the Presidential Inauguration on Wednesday (apart from the obvious, of course), was this image of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in full-on New England winter gear, including mittens made from recycled materials by one of his constituents. The minute the cameras turned on Bernie, Twitter and the internet went berserk (in a good way).

When I saw Bernie, the first thing I thought of was Logan in his coat. I thought maybe Bernie just needed some company at the Inauguration.

But then I realised that the real meme is more about putting Bernie in places, including practically any place on Earth. So…Here’s Bernie sitting in my front yard, watching Jacoby and Olaf.

Bernie loves him some Social Democracy, but maybe Sweden’s a little too far away for him to commute from his day job. Better keep him in New England. He seems like he’d enjoy Rolling Bridge Park. And if you were wondering what Bernie’s reaction is to all this, Seth Myers asked him about that, and here’s what he had to say.

Aby-a-Day – 10 Januari: The second day at the Swedish CFA show (Swedish Cat Show Sunday)

The second day of that Swedish CFA show was as much fun as the first, both for us and for Jacoby.

We had a lot of judges come over from the US. At this point, I had only been in Sweden for six months, so it was fun to see some familiar faces and hear some familiar accents.

This judge, Albert Kurkowski, was one of the few non-American, non-CFA judges; he was from Poland, and he was a guest judge from the World Cat Federation.

I really enjoyed watching him handle Jake.

There was a really pretty little Burmilla girl who was frequently benched next to us during judging.

She reminded me a bit of Tessie.

This judge, Inga Balciuniene, was also a WCF guest judge from Latvia.

Pam DeLaBar is a CFA judge who lives in Finland. I actually hadn’t ever seen her at a show in the States. It’s nice having another ex-pat in the cat fancy.

And our friend Russell Webb was there, too. He was always Jake’s lucky charm.

Jake was Second Best cat in Premiership in Russell’s ring.

As we did Saturday, when Jake got a little antsy we went outside to play in the snow. This time, I didn’t bother with the harness and leash. I figured, how far is he going to get in that deep snow.

Famous last words.

He started making off towards a little house. He went pretty far really quickly, too! I was surprised how hard he was to catch.

I finally caught him, though.

The cats we have now are awesome, and a lot of fun to show…but I still miss going to shows with Jake.

Aby-a-Day – 9 Januari: Scenes from a Swedish CFA show (Swedish Cat Show Saturday)

I never did post the photos from the CFA show we went to in 2017 I was reminded of yesterday.

Jacoby seemed delighted to be back at a CFA show after competing in a few FIFe shows.

And our friend Teresa Keiger seemed delighted to see Jake on her judging table again.

Many CFA judges enjoyed showing off Jake’s “hands off” style on the judging table, and Teresa is one of them.

People never got over how he loved to just stand and pose on the table, with absolutely no desire to run off.

Jake really loved CFA shows.

Even so, later in the day Jake started getting a little antsy, so we took him outside to play in the snow.

The snow was fresh and wicked deep.

I think Jake was happy for a break outside…but a little taken aback by how much snow there was.

That didn’t stop him from exploring, though.

He even plowed his way to a chain link fence.

When he got there, he gripped the links and looked out through the fence.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

It was strangely reminiscent of the way he loved to look through the chain link fence in our little park along the Harborwalk back in Boston.

After the first day of showing was over, we settled into our hotel. Jake knew where his food was!

Jake and Björn chilled on the bed watching TV.

There happened to be a documentary about cats on TV that night!

Jake was very interested in it and watched intently. It was so cute!

Aby-a-Day – 8 Januari: Remembering Jacoby’s last CFA show (Friday Flashback)

Four years ago, Björn, Jacoby and I were at our first (and Jake’s only) CFA show in Region 9 (Europe). There in only one CFA show in Sweden annually, and it’s inconveniently located and so close to the beloved Örebro show, so we only entered it the one time.

It was fun, though, and Jake really enjoyed himself. He always preferred CFA’s format to FIFe’s. And, entered in the show, were three Abyssinians descended from Instincts cats.

It was fun to see old friends again. Pam DeLaBar, a CFA judge, is also another American expat living in Finland.

There was also a lot of snow. When Jake started getting bored, we went out and played in it.

This show was also the only show where Jake finalled in every ring. There were only nineteen cats entered in Premiership, and, interestingly, they were almost all older than five years. It was a fun time…even though the rosettes were printed on cardboard.

We went outside again on Sunday to play in the snow. This time, I didn’t bother to put Jake on his leash. He went on a bit of a walkabout before I was able to catch him!

I’ll share more photos from that show weekend tomorrow and Sunday.