As a follow-up to last Caturday, this is what went on this morning at 5 am…
Tito started with his monkey-boy routine of hanging upside down on the cat tower…
Notice the rare evil glow in his eyes…
Although not everyone was impressed…
Someone was.
PSYCH.
Meanwhile the old coot didn’t even care what was on tee-vee…
Eventually I manage to kind of “bat” Jenny away just long enough to check the time, 9:39 a.m., crap I’ve only slept three hours. She walks back and forth across the pillow and darts when I pet her, almost coquettish “oh no, monsieur, really you mustn’t! Hee! Hee! Hee!”
Back and forth, back and forth.
It dawns on me she’s digging around my night stand for something specific. She picks up an eyeglass cleaner in its wrapper and spits it on the floor, bats a small bottle of aspirin aside and gnaws at a pen, her eyes big as saucers and purring up a storm, with the determination of a French cop from XIX century literature, coquetry out the window now.
Jenny Javert, Javert-Jenny, whatever, I’m doomed by strawberry-cream jellybeans…
I get it, finally, and palm the toy laser before she picks it up to spit in my lap. She hasn’t seen me do it but she ‘senses’ I got something, so she walks over still purring loudly, extends her neck to smell my face, maybe give me a morning kitty kiss. She half closes her blue peepers, then vurps a small cloud of fishy breath up my nose.
But there’s worse now around here… Speaking of literature, of a Russian flavor this time. Titanus Grumpicus being treated for halitosis, his ‘affections’ can be fetid, especially after he’s nommed his canned food: I mentioned before he slobbers a bit. Well, that, combined with dragon breath and the tiny bits of Friskies mixed in spit he dribbles shape my dreaming into an episode of “Alien” where the freaking monster corners me in a dark service corridor and prepares to spear my forehead.
And do be careful trying to shoo him away, no matter how gently: he’ll swipe at your hand with surprising speed with a slavic-accented yowl you can interpret as “I crush you!” Old bastard.
Ah but Tito, the gentleman, rolls back and forth on the kitchen floor cooing, trying to prod the old coot into a game of tag, drawing him away from my eyes still puffy from sleep, cat vurps, farts and spittle, bless him. Of course, eventually, he’ll chase Jenny around and they’ll race across the bed, launching off of us like gut-punches or a brass-knuckled haymakers to the face. To the face…
So fine. I’m up. And we know Jenny and Tito have their theme music, but now we have to think of something for comrade Titanescu, something purple maybe? Like our bruises..?!?
“Start wearing purple” by Gogol Bordello…
paraclete [ˈpærəˌkliːt]
n a mediator or advocate
Tito is a paraclete. Notice the small ‘p’. The capitalized version has a religious definition.
Tito was a dear when our first kitty was sick with lymphoma. He was much younger, but he tempered his play knowing that The Boober didn’t have the stamina.
Later, he greeted Kitsy enthusiastically without a hiss.
He did the same with Miss Jenny.
He has really shown off his ability to be a paraclete with the adoption of Titanus Grumpicus. Titan is a grumpy senior kitty who spent far too long in the shelter and had to endure two failed adoptions. He came to live with us one month ago today.
Enter Tito, the paraclete.
Tito has really worked at making friends with Titan. Titan would hiss, spit and swat (no claws though). Tito would just carry on without a twitch. Since it’s taking Titan longer to adjust to Miss Jenny, Tito tends to place himself between them in order to avert any animosity.
Last night, Tito managed to coax Titan into a short game of tag. It was impressive. This morning, for the first time, Tito and Titan sniffed noses. Titan finally remembered to hiss, but Tito just did his kitty version of a shrug and went off to nap.
Tito deserves as much credit as we do (if not more) for helping Titan to adjust to his new home. Don’t get the impression that Tito is an angelic kitty or something. He’s far from it. However, he knows when his paraclete skills are needed and uses them well.
I wanted to post this yesterday, but I was too pooped to type. I spent the day at the fire department taking part in a disaster operations class for some volunteer work I do. The class was fun and I managed to stay awake though I hadn’t had any sleep in over 24 hours. Once I got home and sat on the bed, I melted. So today you have it. Hopefully, next Caturday will go up as planned.
Tito is adjusting well to the new tyrant. He pushes things with Titan a bit, but not in an aggressive manner. He walks up to him and doesn’t let a hiss deter him. As a result, Titan hissing a lot less. Tito is a beautiful little soul.
Miss Jenny is more careful around Titan. I think she got her feelings hurt when he smacked her nose a while back. She’s not scared or aggressive. She’s just more careful to give him space.
Mr. Titanescu or Titan of the White Whisker has made plenty of progress this last week. We leave the door to his room open unless we’re both going to be out. He’s exploring the apartment more and more. He’s finally beginning to explore our bedroom and the place where the other two hang out most.
This morning he did something amazing. He played. He was in the hall and did one of the quick 180s and dashed into the kitchen. Tito followed. He then dashed into his room at top speed followed by Tito. He did that twice and only at the very end did he remember to hiss at Tito. Tito just looked at him and sauntered away calmly. I swear I saw Tito smiling.
We also discovered that Titan has a bad drug habit.
Waiting for the Pointy Eared people to work out their treaties and other political deadlocks, I look through older photos and forward to the tribe coming together.
So today is part retrospective, part look back to the future…
This is what I want:
Tito does the camouflage very well on this dark shiny blanket, but I think Titan will blend in even better…
… This is what I get:
And a really good thing it is that we “moored” the tower to the bookcase, or it would have been toppled countless times…
This is what I want:
The Boober did have the patience of a saint…
This is what I got:
Meanwhile, next door:
Just under Titan’s stubby tail is a teddy bear. It’s not what it looks like: these are the bears’ eyes and nose.
Maybe in the future we’ll have a cat named Jupiter or Jove, and Titan will moon him, rather easy with that nub of his…
Dedicated to our spectacular dramatis personae Maz Whang and Boober…
Finally, I now realize I blamed the cats unfairly when I couldn’t find my socks… I had no idea!
Fist things first. We want to congratulate our friend StateOfGrace for her adoption of Pearl, a bengal mix and Mabel, a beautiful black kitty. We know those two furbabies are very lucky and have a wonderful human who will love them, forever. Hugs and head bonks from the JBoD family.
Now… I’m beginning to get cranky. I want my rain and/or fog darnit! There’s too much sunshine. It’s hard to take pics that aren’t over exposed or suffering from terminal purple fringe. Oh well. We managed to escape and Lastech got a few nice pics in spite of the sunshine. These were taken around Lands End and Sutro Baths. It provided me with some much needed exercise as there were lots of stairs to deal with.
As for that white whiskered tyrant named Titan… He’s coming along. He’s still a hissing spitting old fart. Today we opened the door to his room and left it open for a while. He hissed at Tito. Tito was unfazed and ignored it while exploring Titan’s room. Jenny was napping elsewhere. 🙂
Some old aspects of the cat remain while new attitudes slowly appear. Looking at Titan’s russet accents, I am reminded of the Boober’s sable-brown fur. And way back East, where I imagine Titan might hail from, as far back as Romania where the Strigoi and Communist generals are the scourge of the people, bastards would kill for such a luxurious coat.
There’s a bit of Bukowski in him too, as he ambles over to the futon to cuddle and rub his chin on our face, smearing cat food all over and leaving streaks of fish flavored saliva with his slobbering kisses, hissing when the petting gets too close to his nubby tail, snapping unconvincingly.
Jenny and Tito came in tonight for a supervised visit, while the old coot watched from the bed, moaning and hissing softly in annoyance. They roamed around at a safe distance but still confident that Titanescu’s armored divisions were long sold to African or Middle-Eastern clients at a discount, and that his blunted incisors couldn’t quite sink into their necks. They knew and he knew.
The world has changed and continues to…
Another Caturday rolls around and life is beginning to smooth out a bit. Titan is still in his safe room but he’s adjusting well. We’re getting him started on kitty introductions. The day before yesterday, he saw Tito at the door (across the room) and he hissed. Yesterday, Tito was allowed to spend about 2 minutes exploring the room while Titan watched from the bed. He didn’t hiss. This morning, I cracked open the door and Titan came over and stopped about two feet away from Tito. He hissed once, but didn’t run away. He studied Tito for a moment and went back to his human pillow (aka Lastech). We’re advancing slowly. 🙂
As for the theme of today’s photos…
And now for something completely different. WARNING!! Cute overdose is imminent!
My apologies to everyone. We just haven’t been able to update the blog the way we like. Hopefully, we’ll do better in the future. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, we managed to for a walk out at Lands End and we came across two beautiful birds. Yesterday, we were down at Sutro Baths when we came across a Great Blue Heron.
This morning, we went back to Lands End, but took another trail. I hadn’t gone far when I spied this little hummingbird.
And now for the basement kitty update. Titan of the White Whisker is doing just fine. For the first two days, he did the senior cat’s version of “get off my lawn!!!”. But he’s much happier now. No more growling. He’s eating well and he’s very happy to see us. I think that by the weekend, he may be ready to sniff noses (very carefully) with Tito. If there’s no hissing, we’ll let them meet up a bit closer. We won’t try to go too fast though. Tito and Miss Jenny are no longer giving us the stink eye. 🙂
There is a new addition to the JBoD household. Recently, we found ourselves looking at our local shelters online. We weren’t in a hurry, but we wanted a rescue kitty. Last weekend, Lastech found one. His name was Titan and his picture showed him sporting a pair of bat wings. It was adorable.
Yesterday, we went to visit him. He’s ten years old and, born without a tail, he sports a very cute little nubbin instead. 🙂 From what we know of his story, he was adopted and returned to the shelter twice. The second time, it appears that he wasn’t introduced to the household properly and he was scared and hiding most of the time. Poor baby. We’ll take our time and introduce him slowly. We have a safe room all set up. There’s a futon, so Lastech and I can take turns staying with him. He and the other kitties can sniff at each other with a door between them for a while.
These are pics I took at the shelter when we met him.
These pics were all taken yesterday.
Oh yes, about Tito and Miss Jenny? Well, we came home with the smell of strange cat on our persons. Tito and Miss Jenny were not amused.
Today we brought him home. He’s currently hiding under the futon and I figure he’s nervous enough without me chasing him around with the camera. I’ll let him settle a bit before I do that. I would do anything if I could remove the trauma that any animal feels when they meet a new environment. All I can do is be patient and quiet. 🙂 He’s worth it.
