Titanescu is especially sad. His hero, Colonel Meow, has passed away. The Colonel was a rescue who was found abandoned by the side of the road. He was later adopted by Anna Marie Avey aka Slave Beast. His rise to power began when his pictures were posted to Instagram. From there, he extended his power to Facebook. On top of his rise to power, The Colonel also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest fur (9 inches). He accomplished much in his short time on this earth. We’re sure he’s finding new minions beyond the Rainbow Bridge and living by his motto:
Enjoying life, one scotch induced nap at a time.
Jarrett Bellini of CNN has written a wonderful and humorous obituary for The Colonel and you can find it here.
Colonel Meow will be missed greatly and we wish to extend our condolences to Anne Marie and ALL of his friends and minions. With much love from Titanescu, Tito, Miss Jenny Nightshade, Rudha-an and Lastech
Well, no. This IS San Francisco and the home of the Maltese Falcon, but not this time.
We went to the Japanese Tea Garden to soak up a bit of Zen. Instead, the main pond had been drained for maintenance. Bummer. Still, we decided to walk around it to see what might be blooming. Then we found this:
Red shouldered hawk
This is not the same bird that we saw across the street at the Arboretum. I meant to take only a couple of pics, but it turned into a regular photo shoot. The birdie was working it for the camera.
From the tree, the hawk dove down to catch a crawdadWowOm nom nom nomAfter eating, the hawk flew over to sit on a lantern and modeled for usLooking coyThis is my good side!
I think I took about 90 pics. These were the best. I’m still in awe.
Here’s a vid that Lastech took with his new phone. The sound is awful, but I’m too impatient to edit it out for now, so hit the mute button. 🙂 We’ll get better at this. We just need practice.
Yesterday we ran off to the park to test Lastech’s new phone as we wanted to see how well the navigation worked. We decided to visit the Arboretum in the hope that there might be some wildlife in addition to the magnolias that were blooming.
Magnolia
We rounded a corner to find 3 other people staring at a tree. This is why.
HawkCloseup of the hawk
I found it amazing that several people walked by and never even wondered (or noticed) what we were all looking at. The hawk was sitting in a tree next to the walkway. It was only about 7 feet off the ground.
Several months ago Lastech and I were invited to go to Angel Island. While there, we took the tram tour. We did that as we had no opportunity to hike the trails at the time. My photos are limited as a result. I’ve been saving the last few as they are mostly of the the Immigration Center exterior but they are meaningful to me. In 2010, President Obama declared January 21st as National Angel Island Day.
The barracks were cramped and afforded no privacy
I’ve spent my life surrounded by immigrants. Lastech is an immigrant and most of my friends are immigrants as well. One of my grandfathers came through Ellis Island. Sadly, unlike beautiful Ellis Island, Angel Island was built as a detention camp. The barracks were cramped and afforded little in the way of privacy and conditions there were deplorable. It was built to enforce the Chinese Exclusionary act of 1882. Economic fears and racial prejudice were the reason for act. From the proclamation (above link):
Unlike immigrants who marveled at the Statue of Liberty upon arrival at Ellis Island, those who came to Angel Island were greeted by an intake facility that was sometimes called the “Guardian of the Western Gate.” Racially prejudiced immigration laws of the time subjected many to rigorous exams and interrogations, as well as detention in crowded, unsanitary barracks. Some expressed themselves by carving poetry and inscriptions into the walls in their native language — from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean to Russian, German, and Urdu. These etchings remain on Angel Island today as poignant reminders of the immigrant experience and an unjust time in our history.
The station was abandoned after WWII and scheduled for demolition. In 1970, a park ranger named Alexander Weiss was exploring when he came across Chinese characters carved into the walls. It was the poetry. Due to his efforts and those of others, legislation was passed to preserve the poetry. You can read more about the station history here.
This poem and many others were found carved into the walls of the barracks
This is a translation of one of the poems
There are tens of thousands of poems on these walls
They are all cries of suffering and sadness
The day I am rid of this prison and become successful
I must remember that this chapter once existed
I must be frugal in my dailyneeds
Needless extravagance usually leads to ruin
All my compatriots should remember China
Once you have made some small gains,
you should return home early.
Written by one from Heungshan
There is writing and poetry from other languages and cultures as well.
Now here are some of our pics. We intend to go back when we can hike to the center and visit the museum.
Mule barnImmigration barracksThe old fog bellAnother view of the station barracks
The old hospital. It is currently undergoing renovation and isn’t due to reopen until sometime next year.The island is full of deer
If you want to see our other posts about our Angel Island trip, you can find them here.
I finally got a few pics of the fur kids. Miss Jenny is learning to NOT run when she sees me with a cam. 🙂
Tito doing the dead-bugMiss Jenny and her pretty pink jellybeans
As for Titan? Well, he’s the beggar. He’s the one who loves his mushy food. During PDT, he was fed at 5:30 am and pm. Now that it’s PST, it’s 4:30 am and pm. However, begging commences an hour ahead of time. In the wee hours of the morning he and Miss Jenny are a tag team. In the afternoon, Titan does something different.
When Titan is hungry, he sits in front of the computer monitor
Removing Titan from his perch is hazardous and usually results in a sound slapping session with or without hissing and biting. We both refuse to give in. I won’t feed him until the appropriate time and he doesn’t move. I sit and read my book instead. 🙂
And now for something completely adorable from WorldBirdSanctuary at Youtube.
Not quite, but what the heck. I was bored and we haven’t gotten out much lately as our free time was taken up with a stupid phone problem. It’s fixed for the moment. Since I had no brilliant ideas, I went off to play with some photo editors.
TitoMiss JennyTitanescu
So that we don’t ignore the doggies of the world, here is an amazing trick brought to us by nicknozzy (Nick and Ozzy) at youtube. Yes, it’s safe for work. 🙂
Yesterday was the birthday of our friend and fellow blogger known as Catgirl. She has Nekoneko’s Movie Litterbox where she blogs about great horror films from around the world. I had a brain fart yesterday. My bad. My very bad. 🙂
Lots of best wishes from Rudha-an, Lastech, Tito, Miss Jenny and Titanescu 🙂
As you all know, Titanescu is grumpy. His other name is Titanus Grumpicus Bunny Butt. He’s called those names for a reason. He’s bloody grumpy!
He has lightning fast paws and he’s bitey. To date, he’s never broken the skin when he bit. It was always followed by an immediate licking of the bite area. He doesn’t smack with his claws out either. He will hiss loudly in your face and spray plenty of fishy smelling spittle if the slaps and bites don’t work though. I always thought it was funny.
Now I don’t know what to think. He hasn’t slapped or bitten me in days. He hasn’t hissed for a few weeks.
He’s plotting something. I know he is. It’s just not in his nature to go so long without one of his grumpy meltdowns. He’s been far too calm and he’s even been a tad snuggly. I’m going to be tiptoeing around the apartment waiting for the paw to drop.
Oh yeah, it’s Caturday! Here you go.
Tito and Miss Jenny enjoying the cushion togetherHere’s Titanescu pretending to be lovey and using Miss Jenny for a pillow. He’s plotting something I tell you.
And now for something different. You can find more like this at zefrank1’s Youtube channel. It may be a bit too NSFW for some.
