So last night, we watched the most recent, and quite possibly the best, episode of Family Guy…Season 19, Episode 19: Family Cat.
While it does include some dog-centric stereotypes, it’s actually a pretty cat-friendly episode, and it discusses the conundrum of Toxoplasma gondii. And, you have to admit, that one cat on the far left looks a lot like a cartoon Aby.
I am not sure how long this link will last, but you can watch the episode on YouTube.
I got an email from Shutterfly today reminding me of photos I uploaded 14 years ago this week.They were all of Gun-Hee.
Most of them were of Gun-Hee “watching” an NCAA basketball game.
He had just turned six months old that week, too.
It was so cute to watch him. On that TV screen, the basketball was about the size of a Superball.
He clearly knew where the ball was. You can see he’s looking at it in this photo.
Gun-Hee really wanted to catch that ball!
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been on the air for 22 years, and I have been watching it since the very first episode. Since moving to Sweden, it’s been hard to keep up with the latest episodes, but I manage.
New episodes air Thursday nights at 9pm Eastern time, which is 3am here, so I watch my SVU every Friday morning (good lord, I sound like my mom). And I rarely watch it alone.
Björn snapped these photos of everyone watching the show with me. This is what our life in quarantine looks like. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year of this.
Today I challenged myself to put Izaak behind Ron Swanson’s round desk.
It’s based on this screenshot. I had to use three different photos of Zak to get the right body (I didn’t have one single photo of him that looked right), and I just don’t know if I like it. I may go back and rework it some more.
This is the scene where Ron has to sit behind his round desk.
I’ve been rewatching Parks and Recreation, and I have remarked before that Izaak often reminds me of Ron Swanson. I had an idea this morning, and well…here it is.
This is the set of scenes of Ron going “off the grid” that lead up to my little project.
As I’ve mentioned before, people keep telling me that Izaak looks like Ron Swanson, a character on the TV show Parks and Recreation Last night, Zak was looking especially Swansonesque and I manage to capture it. Today, I posted these two photos of Zak in the Facebook group This Cat Is NICK OFFERMAN (yes, there is a Facebook dedicated to cats who look like the actor who plays Ron Swanson).
I posted them with the caption “Izaak would like to enjoy his chicken neck now and in solitude, please and thank you.” It’s fun to see people enjoying my silly cat.
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.
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?
Lately, I have been showing Björn one of my all-time favourite television shows: Get Smart. This series debuted the year we were born and it’s been one of my favourite shows since junior high (They showed it on independent channels after school).
Lorelai enjoys watching with us….but she can be a little annoying.
Barbra Feldon and 99 were such a HUGE influence on me when I was young (Brunette! Short hair! Flat shoes!)…I’d name a girlcat after 99, if 99 had an actual name (and no, her her name is not Susan.
Since I moved to Sweden, I have absolutely fallen in love with Family Guy. Something about the razor-sharp New England sense of humour and the pitch perfect spoofs of pop culture…what’s not to love?
Recently, we happened to see Seth MacFarlane’s spoof of the iconic closing credits of the classic 1970’s television show Little House on the Prairie. Then a couple of days ago, whilst outside with Lorelai and Izaak…I got inspired.
It’s been rainy and grey the past few days, but today it was sunny and not windy and just…perfect for what I had in mind. It took us a while to get it just right…but at the end of the day, I am pretty proud of myself.
When we went to the Ädelkatten show in Västra Frölunda back in December there was a celebrity spectator in the show hall.
Glenn Hysén is a retired footballer, manager and commentator who, along with his sons (also footballers) Tobias and Anton and his wife Helena, go to places around Göteborg and film their interactions for a Swedish reality show. It’s a bit like the Kardashian show, but less sleazy and more silly.
Of course they captured typical scenes from a typical cat show…the last cat, the Cornish Rex, is our friend our friend Sully!
They also caught my friend Peter on film as well.
I am not entirely sure what they said, but from the video, they did a good job capturing a show.
They even covered a final.
Our friend Stellan, one of the top Singapura breeders in Northern Europe, was the emcee for the finals, so of course he was featured on the show.
And so were we!
They actually filmed us for a while, and interviewed Björn, but all we got was about three seconds.
But hey, we were on television! In Sweden!
You can see the cat show segment here; it starts at 23:08, but you can’t fast forward though the ads (you can jump to the beginning of the third segment, but you have to watch the ads). The link will work on computers in North America, but not on phones.
When Lorelai was a tiny kitten, she was fascinated with the television. These photos are from 22 May, when Rory had been with us for about two weeks.
She really got into trying to interact with the people on the screen! She’s since outgrown her interest in the TV, but it was awfully cute (and not a little bit annoying) while it lasted. Also, if you look closely at the second photo, you might notice some previous Miniature Monday post subjects.
It’s hard to describe how important watching Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) at 3pm on Christmas Eve is in Sweden.
Jacoby…seriously. It’s a big deal. Go sit down and watch.
That’s better.
Having experienced four Swedish Julaftons now, I can attest. Donald Duck and Christmas are a thing.
The annual broadcast, shown in Sweden since 1959 consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting about a dozen Disney cartoons from the 1930s to the 1960s, only a couple of which have anything to do with Christmas. There are “Silly Symphonies” shorts and clips from films like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Jungle Book. The special is pretty much the same every year, except for the live introduction by a Swedish host and the addition of one new snippet from the latest Disney-produced movie (This year, it was a scene from Wreck-It Ralph Breaks the Internet and a scene from The Incredibles II).
The first year we lived here, we went to Jönköping and watched it at Björn’s mom’s house. We have done that every year…until this year. In a manner of speaking, Jake spent Christmas at Björn’s mom’s house before he even lived here.
This year, we had Julafton and watched Kalle Anka at home in Skövde.
But it was hard to not think of the Juls we had spent at Björn’s mom’s house. That defined Christmas in Sweden to me…and Christmas in general to Björn.
We did miss Björn’s mom’s Christmas tree, decorated with hand-cut paper hearts.
And also the weird straw pig that lived underneath the tree.
Björn’s mom also had this display of her collection of Dala horses. Jake tried to fit in.
“Ugh…these guys are a bunch of stiffs!”
Like his mini-me, Jake posed with the row of Tomten, too.
This Julafton was wonderful…but I miss the holiday in Jönköping.
Of course Jacoby is a Red Sox fan – his very name commemorates a magic moment at Fenway that happened 12 days after he was born. But what we tend to forget is that Gun-Hee watched them win the World Series, too.
He was a pretty good fan, too. Look – he knows where the ball is!
He was fascinated with the players, too.
Ummm…maybe a little too fascinated?
He was so adorable, you didn’t really even mind that he was blocking your view of the game. Of course, we didn’t have the Red Sox wardrobe that Jake later acquired, but that didn’t make him any less of a fan.
I really love old, classic television from the 50’s and 60’s. Shows like Get Smart, Dick Van Dyke, Dobie Gillis and Donna Reed are my catnip. I grew up watching them (some as they were aired, the older ones as reruns after school) and I miss the days when Nick at Night* would show them endlessly. I wish they would play them now, There’s a whole generation that’s missing out on these shows.
I also liked watching My Three Sons, because I was mesmerised by the opening credits. One day I said something about “my three Abys,” and, well…this happened.
*If you also watched Nick at Night in the late 80’s and early 90’s…you may remember the words to the My Three Sons theme song…
…You’re welcome.
Oh sure, it’s cute. And it’s the subject of hundreds of adorable YouTube videos. Hell, I’ve even posted about it. But it’s becoming a world-wide epidemic!
You know what I’m talking about.
Cats interrupting their owners’ enjoyment of the Winter Olympics.
I suspect it’s because of the high contrast against the snow and ice and the fast movement.
This is Logan’s first Winter Olympics. He appears to enjoy downhill skiing.
The only cat who can really get away with interrupting the Winter Olympics is this bobcat in Whistler, BC (and yes, he is a bobcat, not a lynx).
Since moving to Sweden, I have been watching a lot of BBC Brit. I have fallen in love with the comedic panel shows, especially
I realise that this is almost six years old…but apparently they have only just started showing My Cat From Hell in Sweden on a channel we get, so I only just saw this episode. It involved a couple with a 10-year-old overweight cat, Molly, and a young Abyssinian named Mimi.
Now, Mimi is NOT the cat from Hell in this episode. In fact, she’s the victim of Molly’s bad temper. As Jackson describes it:
“Mimi’s an Abyssinian. Abyssinians are spider monkeys. They swing from the chandeliers while everyone else is eating dinner. They need to have directed activity, and they need to have that activity constantly. In the meantime, you’ve got an older, crankier cat who’s saying ‘Just make it stop!'”
Molly actually sent poor Mimi to the vet for stitches after a gash in her flank!
The link above leads to the full episode on Animal Planet’s website, but you need to sign in with a television provider. However, you can see Jackson’s final visit to Molly and Mimi and Jackson’s follow-up with Molly a year later online without signing in.
Well…there’s some big-deal sportsball game going on today. So you know what that means…
It’s time to watch the Kitten Bowl!
Angel is a longtime fan of Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl Kitty Halftime Show…
…But with the introduction of an actual Kitten Bowl, with cats as the main attraction rather than just the “entertainment”…well, like everyone else around here, we’ve switched.
Angel was rooting for the red tabby Bengals team…
…And for a while, they were ahead.
But the brown tabby Bobcats team ended up winning this game, only to lose to the black-and-white Felines. Better luck next year…oh, wait. Next year, we’ll be in Sweden, where the Super Bowl isn’t a thing.
As I’ve posted before, the cable box in my hobby room is a highly sought-after and coveted napping spot.
Angel is always quick to claim it when she can.
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I know she’s been a little out of the spotlight lately, what with all the cat show posts. I can’t imagine how Angel would handle a cat show…
Speaking of things I can’t imagine…I can’t imagine how this is a comfortable place to sleep.
Angel loves the cable box, though. Look – she’s even hugging it!
Sov sött, Angel!
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 