Category: cats
Friday Cat Blog: The Return
Posted by – August 20, 2010
Betty’s gotten some amazing new photos of the cats in our new place, so here goes:
Like Catnip to a Lion
Posted by – June 16, 2010
Cats really do rule the world. Okay, not really. Actually, toxoplasma rules the world:
Unlike Plasmodium, however, which can rely on the natural behaviour of mosquitoes to spread it around, Toxoplasma’s rodent hosts have a strong aversion to helping it into its next home. Which is where, in Dr Webster’s elegant phrase, fatal feline attraction comes in. Rats and mice infected with Toxoplasma start wandering around and drawing attention to themselves—in other words, behaving in ways that will bring them to the attention of cats. They are even, Dr Webster’s work suggests, attracted to the smell of cats.
(thanks to my friend Mendel for this one)
Christmas Goodness: Saving Paws
Posted by – December 25, 2009
For Christmas this year, I thought I’d mention this cool animal shelter we’ve just discovered here in Appleton. Saving Paws is for cats and dogs, and like so many animal shelters, started because one person decided to foster a few cats… and now the organization has 50-75 housed on a regular basis.
If you can, do donate to them.
A very merry Christmas!
Photos by Betty
Posted by – December 11, 2009
I forgot to mention the other day that those stunning photos were by Betty; she’s been taking some amazing photographs of the campus since fall. She’s also taken a few really great ones of our kittoi; this is Aurora on her double-harness deciding that she does not like snow.
And no, it doesn’t amaze me to find out my lovely wife has yet another fantastic skill.
LOLCat Unpacking
Posted by – August 30, 2009
What our apartment will look like as soon as we’ve unpacked some:
LOLCat Treat
Posted by – August 28, 2009
More, for your amusement while we’re on the road:
We drive from Brooklyn, NY to a hotel in Elyria, OH today.
LOLCat Carrier
Posted by – August 26, 2009
For those who have ever had cats who have to be put in carriers:
(Actually, ours just get in them, for the most part. They’re very good cats.)
The Great Wind Chime Incident
Posted by – July 24, 2009
Our Endymion has a thing for paper bags with those twisty paper handles. He invariably needs to know what’s in the bag and gets his big head & body wrapped up in the handles, leading to him panicking and running with the terrifying bag after him. One year, right after Christmas, the bag he’d stuck his head into had both glass bowl candle holders and wind chimes, which lead to the The Great Wind Chime Incident (about which we do not speak in front of Endymion).
That incident taught him to hate chimes forever, but he apparently learned nothing about sticking his head into paper bags with those twisty handles.
Room With a View
Posted by – July 17, 2009
That’s the Big Guns, Endymion, looking out a hotel window in Kenosha on our way to Appleton last year.
Aeneas Keaton
Posted by – July 3, 2009
He’s got a Buster Keaton thing going on, doesn’t he? I think so, but then I’m a big fan of Buster and of Aeneas. He is not so slothful that all he does is rest himself on the slope – he does, also, sharpen his claws on it.
Not Important Data
Posted by – June 7, 2009
Found here. This makes me laugh really hard because Betty is extraordinarily funny when talking about the cats’ preferences for where & when they like to sit on her. In her spluttery Lewis Black kind of way. & Maybe because of the priorities of whoever created it.
LOL Cat
Posted by – May 22, 2009
Jude suggested an LOL Cat treatment of the photo below? Any takers? You don’t have to do the graphics – just provide the text.
Big Eyed Boy
Posted by – May 22, 2009
Yes, Aeneas is the one with the heart condition, and he tends to startle easily.
Goobers
Posted by – May 15, 2009
When you come home & you get to see this first thing, life just seems a little less sucky.
Big Guns
Posted by – May 8, 2009
Sleeping the sleep of the just, Endymion is the cat we call Big Guns. Look at those big legs. (For those of you who don’t know, “guns” is slang for “muscles.”)
Wink
Posted by – May 1, 2009
Endymion tends to have one eye that doesn’t open for a few minutes after he wakes up from a nap. It’s been that way since he was a kitten, but I’ve never managed to get a photo of it before.
Not a Ferret
Posted by – April 17, 2009
Our big Endymion trying to find the catnip cigar he got for his birthday. (They turn 9 this year.)
Foster Pets
Posted by – April 2, 2009
April 1st kicks off Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month. I don’t think there’s anything I hate more than the abuse of the goobers who trust us & depend on us. I know there are plenty of people out there “avenging Dusty” but I’d like to suggest we do that in a cool & groovy, pay it forward kind of way instead of in vengeance. (There is definitely a lot of animals out there that need your attention more than that kid does)
During these crap economic times, a lot of people are having to give up their animals, or, at the very least, can’t take care of them for a while in order to pay other bills.
If you have the space, think about fostering an animal or two; our local fostering organization will actually pay you per day to foster, and has a page of other useful information.
You can check in with North Shore Animal League as well, who are another favorite of ours, or the ASPCA (so maybe they can take those heartbreaking ads off TV).
