Rest in Peace, Bopeep.

Fierce warrior princess, prize biscuit maker, Kelly's first kitty, sweet snuggly girl.

We'll miss you forever.

Bopeep, 1996? - 2010

Home Alone

Finally, we know what the kitty critters are doing while we're out of the house. Not sleeping and pining for the owner to return, according to this morning's paper.

A cat food company cammed 50 cats and found 12% of the time was spent looking out the window.


12% of the time playing and interacting with other critters in the house.

8% was spent climbing on chairs.

6% was spent watching television, computers, or DVD's.


6% hiding under tables and chairs.

5% playing with toys, or in my house ripping up socks.


Only 6% was spent napping, well deserved after the busy day.


Now we know.

Hope for all of us...

This morning while eating my breakfast, I've enjoyed Joan's pic of a newborn in our nursery, cracked up over Thor getting into the masking tape, and been sad that Koji had another seizure.

But what's really got me going is an article over at the Short Sharp Science blog. Check out this young person's invention that keeps food cold. Wow! And she's only 21. If she keeps this up, there is indeed hope for all of us.

Think I'll go slay a couple of dragons myself...after I get my shower, that is.

Catparatus

OK, I've not been blogging much lately - except at work (for real!) - because I've been busy painting, quilting, etc., but I just had to post this from one of my favorite sites. Can some nice carpenter come over to my house and build something like this for my 5 cats? We would love you forever...

Mystery Photo

Two weeks ago I suffered that mother of all disasters, complete erasure of the hard disk, the story with which I will not bore the readers. In lieu of writing a philosophical story on the Buddhist Kalachakra ritual of impermanence I had been mulling over, I offer this mindless shot I captured this morning.



In the meantime, back to recreating that cyberworld on which we have come to depend. Mr. Kozsinski, you were so right in some ways.

Che is a She

It's official. He's a girl. The imp in the last blog went for surgery today and the mystery is solved.

Two kitties smuggled across the Mexican border at four weeks old to save them from being put to sleep came to the household in April. "A brother and a sister", the rescuer said. She thought maybe they were snowshoe siamese, but that's a mystery, too.

Appropriately for their Latin heritage, she was named Xochitl for the Aztec princess, and "he" was named Che after the Argentinean revolutionary who trained with Fidel in Mexico.


Looks like a revolutionary with that black mask, little black goatee, and piercing clear blue eyes. Well, maybe a Latin revolutionary would have brown eyes. In the movies he would have blue eyes.

"Hm-m-m. Not so fast", said the vet at the first well child visit. "No parts". Not good news if you're a boy. And the female parts were ambiguous. "Bring it back in 2 months".

Two months go by. "Hm-m-m", that noise doctors make when they're not sure or frankly don't know. Still no parts. No clear girl parts and definitely no boy parts. I'm thinking $500 CT scan to find out and the thought that here's a real cat scan didn't make the price tag any funnier. Worse, Che's been raised as a boy and has a boy name. Che has seemed a little "light in the loafers" but how can he/she do this to me?

Today, skipping the CT scan, was the day. Looks like we're going to be raising two girls. Love 'em both. Now, what to do about that name?

Caught!

We had excuses of being away walking England for a couple weeks and Patty's computer breakdown, but the rest of our hiatus is unforgivable. My blogging hero is our England co-walker, Joan, every day a blog and photo. Unbelievable discipline! Patty, here's a simple blog to get back into the swing.


Turned my back this evening and Che was on the table in a minute. Not a pang of guilt on that sweet face. Does the five second rule apply? Karma will bite -- she goes in for a spay tomorrow.

And Now I Have Three!

Not to be outdone by family additions, the West Coast household welcomes two new kitties debuting today on the Internet, Black Zulette and IvoryLena. They were "rescue" kitties totally pampered by their original rescue owner, right down to the acrylic nails.

PorkChop has been lonely since Don Diego de San Diego died just before Christmas. A cat can watch just so much bird TV by himself.

Introducing IvoryLena...


"I'll take milk and sugar with my tea, thank you..."

And Black Zulette...

"I'll have that bird for dinner, s'il vous plait..."

In case the reader is wondering about the names, the young ladies arrived with the names Ivory and Ebony. Hayley, grandaughter #1 and the rower, wanted to name them after the women who started ZLAC, America's oldest rowing club for women right here in San Diego, and I wanted to keep some part of their original name. Our choices were Zulette, Lena, Agnes, and Caroline. Not a hard choice to make.

PorkChop? Well, he's still hissing around and rethinking the "answered prayer" thing.

IN MEMORIAM

Don Diego de San Diego
1992-2007

























Diego was a brave, loyal and loving kittie.
His gentle spirit is free to travel the world.

"Dogs and cats - living together..."

Speaking of Caddyshack and Bill Murray, I just love the Ghostbusters scene of Venkman, Stantz, Egon, and Winston trying to convince the mayor that the city is in the throes of the Apocalypse.

Here's an amazing real-life story about cats and dogs living together.

If it wasn't 6:45 in the morning, I'd put Ghostbusters on the ol' DVD and be a couch potato. Guess I'll get ready for work instead.

Later.

Nora, the Piano-Playing Cat

I'm a sucker for anything cat-related. I'll check Janet's blog every morning before work just to see if she's posted new pics of Thor and Loki. This evening, I found a link through A Mindful Life to such a cute YouTube of a cat named Nora playing the piano. Isn't she a hoot?

Most Wanted

Name: Bopeep

Age: About 9 years
Color: Brown/grey tabby
Gender: None
Weight: A svelte 10 pounds

Although missing her front claws, the suspect shown above is armed with stinky breath and very sharp teeth and therefore considered extremely dangerous. She is wanted for using my $1,800 leather sofa as a litter box. Last seen licking an off-smelling liquid from her paws, she was in the company of the suspect pictured below. He is wanted for sharpening his claws on the back of said sofa.

Name: Frogger

Age: 4 years
Color: White/Siamese mix
Gender: None
Weight: A whopping 19 pounds

When caught, she will be permanently diapered; he will be fitted with bright pink kitty mittens.