My apologies for not having posted much. Sometimes life gets in the way. Lastech has a cold in his dode and I had a fall. The first is miserable and the second was downright stupid (and preventable). Lucky for me, aside from a few bruises, the only thing broken was my pride.
Now for the furkids as it really is their day to shine.
Hubby was in the kitchen when he felt eyes watching him.
Speaking of hubby… He was taking pics of Tito and took his glasses off. Oops!
And now for a bit of humor
There are things they hide from us, or at least do when we’re not looking. They have secrets, which some people hate, but when you finally get to shed light on a cat mystery, the satisfaction is second to none.
Item one: the tufts of white hair we found lying about were Tito’s. I know this because one morning in the last few days, I opened my eyes to see Jenny pin Tito down Greco-Roman wrestling style with a lock and a throw. Tito tried getting up, but his attempt ended up with him hitting the ground again. In between throws, Jenny turned nervously towards the bed to see whether I witnessed anything, her head surrounded by fluttering tufts off Tito’s back.
The second mystery, while not quite amounting to one, was how could half pound potatoes find their way across our kitchen floor?!?
We still haven’t caught her doing it, But Jenny has precedents with smaller taters, and can be seen here practicing the wide-open jaw-lock necessary to “lug a spud”…
What it is with her and potatoes we have no clue. But she sure does like bringing them to bed…
Yes, evidently the fur flew. I don’t know when or how. It was done in stealth mode or I would have heard it. I awoke to a cold apartment and got up to turn the heater on and when I got to the hall there were a bunch of tufts of white hair lying about. It was white hair, but it wasn’t Miss Jenny’s. You see, Tito’s hair is only charcoal at the tips. He’s white underneath. I also saw tufts sticking out of his fur that had not hit the floor yet, so it was clear that Miss Jenny was the offending party.
What was she doing?
Was she creating a wig? Did she think she might look like this? (Our thanks to shironekoshiro at Youtube)
Sadly, she would have probably looked like this instead. (thanks to Cheezeburger).
Whatever happened, it was during playtime as I’ve seen no evidence of malice. They are nestled together on the cushion as I type.
When I was young, I made a lot of blanket forts. I built them so I could hide with a flashlight at night and read. Mom wanted me to sleep and I wanted to READ darn it!
Our furkids are pretty fond of blanket forts. Tito likes the one we make when we sit in bed and read or watch tv. He stands on us and paws at the blanket until it’s lifted and then he scoots under to sleep under our knees.
Jenny isn’t so fond of sleeping that close to a human. The only time she spends a lot of time close to us is when she is in zombie mode. Then she stands by daddy’s head and nibbles on his eyebrows and bald head. I’m sure she just wants to get at those brainzzzzzzz. Instead, she makes her fort on the cushion using the sheets we have hung up over the window to make it darker.
My first Caturday in quite a while is dedicated to Miss Jenny, the fabulous kittoon… I’ve not been able to sit and type about our pointy eared folk since Mazuzu passed, partly because the whole experience was so puzzling, like some sort of s****y real life cliffhanger.
There was the possibility that Jenny introduced the virus which ultimately took over Maz after we adopted her. We don’t know and never will since there is no test for FIP. Rudha-an read up on this more than I and it may be that this disease may be a growing threat, affecting many more pets. At this point my understanding of it is largely empirical and will require a lot more reading. Be that as it may, both Jenny and Tito have been coming out of their shells ever so slowly these past few months.
Tito now spends time on our bed, sometimes under covers when he’s not playing with Jenny. He coos and trills happily, greets me home from work with a game of ‘fetch’ and is generally more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. As to Jenny, she likes to rove around on the bed, once in a while stopping by to nibble an eyebrow, lick my skull or lightly ‘bite’ it while purring up a storm.
And still, despite better diet, she’ll ‘grace’ me with a fart, in her completely innocent, matter-of-fact way. Her way of putting a spell on us is to fart in our general direction…
Happy New Year!
Now is the time to take a minute and look back on this past year, and the ways it affected the JBoD microcosm.
We spent much of 2012 watching sunsets and wildlife (fins!) from local beaches, but in April, we chose to visit the neighboring hill known as Bernalwood where stunning California poppies in full bloom awaited. On another more recent trip, amazing clouds treated us to an ‘air show’…
In May, we finally managed a trip to see the California Academy of Sciences. The albino alligator named Claude is a real beauty.
I took a lot of photos, so it’s in four parts. One, two, three and four.
In May, our glorious Golden Gate Bridge turned 75 years old. I’ve lived here for ten years and I never get tired of seeing her.
In June, a contractor working a few doors down from our home base cut into a gas line, resulting in a gas explosion and fire. Purely by chance, prevailing winds minimized the spread of the damage, a very good thing considering how long it took to shut off the gas. The kind of scene best left in movies, not real life. The Pointy Eared people weren’t amused…
Then in July, we lost our sweet, comical tyrannical food thief Kitsy to FIP. It was sudden and awful and I still haven’t been able to write a proper post for him. As for Lastech, he is still coming to terms with the possibility that the virus which took him might have been introduced by Miss Jenny. So little is known about FIP and no test being available, it remains a painful mystery.
In August, we went to the park on a foggy morning and came across some wildlife with a pissy attitude.
In September, Miss Nightshade Jenny brought me a most bizarre gift.
Later in September, we got to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor fly over the Golden Gate Bridge. Incredible!
In November, we went to the Japanese Tea Garden and Arboretum for a bit of zen. We wound up having a wonderful surprising encounter with a hawk.
A week or so later, we went exploring the Coastal Trail near the Golden Gate Bridge. We encountered another hawk, a couple of hummingbirds, a slug and a wonderful sunset.
We finished off the year by exploring the cliffs around Battery Mendell, a coastal battery that was built before WWI.
That was our 2012 for the most part. Some was good and some was bad. Hopefully, 2013 will be an even better year.
Happy New Year from JBoD
Rudha-an, Lastech, Tito, and Miss Nightshade Jenny
It’s not raining right now. It’s an amazing thing. While we were safe enough, there were floods and rock slides and trees falling all over. It was a mess, to say the least. We had horizontal rain and hail thanks to high winds. Tito was NOT amused and spent a lot of time hiding as a result. He’s happier now.
Our thanks to Cheezburger.com for this one.
We’re not doing anything exciting for Christmas. We picked up a leg of lamb and some fancy taters. With luck, Miss Jenny won’t be able to steal one and bring it to bed like the last time. We might go off to the park or the beach for a good walk though. 🙂
I would like to apologize for not posting lately. I’ve been doing some major maintenance on the blog (behind the scenes). I should have it all tidied up soon.
It has been raining and raining here. I don’t mind. As you can see here, it makes our hills a very pretty shade of green.
Here are the beasties.
Here are our two “angel” kitties.
And now for the recipe. I love pumpkin bread, but most times I find it dry and mealy. This recipe is NOT dry. It’s moist and wonderful. My mom and dad have made it for years.
Mom and Dad’s Pumpkin Bread
5 cups pumpkin (1 large and 1 small can)
2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts
5 cups flour
Mix all the ingredients well. Makes 2 large bread loaves, or up to ten smaller loaves. Bake at 350 for 1 hr. and 5 minutes. May take longer. Bread is done when a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
We always greased the pans and sprinkled them with sugar (rather than flour). We also sprinkled a bit of sugar on top as it made the top crunchy.
Obviously, this is NOT diet food. 🙂
This is why we do NOT have a Christmas tree in the apartment.
It’s cold, rainy and a good day to stay indoors. Tito and Jenny have spent most of the day snoozing.
Here’s the reason we don’t have a Christmas tree. This video is brought to you by rathergood.com
No, I am NOT a Trekkie. The proper term is Trekker, thank you. That said, the playtime of Tito and Miss Jenny bears a close resemblance to Klingon foreplay. Pon farr? Not so much. Be aware, Tito is neutered and Miss Jenny is spayed. We are responsible kitty people. I figure that whoever wrote about the Klingons and their sex life had to have had a fascination with cats, big and small.
After the playtime and violence that occurs, this is the result.
Miss Jenny, as an orphan did not have a jinaq. Tito didn’t mind.
Ok, here’s a bit of humorous Christmas music. It may not be safe for work, so beware. This is brought to you by rathergoodstuff at Youtube.
