An amazing and miraculous event occurred. Grumpy Butt (aka Titanescu) forgot to be grumpy for a bit. It only lasted for about 5 minutes, but it was a major breakthrough. It has taken 6 mos. to get him to this point.
The picture isn’t the best, but since Miss Jenny runs from the camera, I had to use my phone. 🙂
One evening we were out and stopped by Bernalwood to walk around the hill and enjoy the sunset. It’s located just north of us here in San Francisco. It was a beautiful evening.
We were slowly headed back to the car when I looked up and saw that Karl (The Fog) was moving in wispy tendrils along the top of Bernal Hill.
I must confess. I’m having an affair. Lastech is well aware of it and he even helps me to indulge. You see, I spent the first 37 years of my life in the desert. While the desert can be beautiful, fog, rain and greenery are NOT plentiful. I simply adore Karl The Fog. He is one of my favorite things about San Francisco. I pine for him when he’s off somewhere and happy when he comes back. He was in a hurry and moving fast that night. Lastech and I hopped in the car and raced over to Twin Peaks. It was worth it.
My brain is lazy today. The kitties are lazy today. It’s a lazy day.
Now for a funny video about a little wet dog by Klaatu42 over at Youtube.
We have joined up with a group of Facebook friends to participate in The Great Meow.
According to Venus BelaStar on FB:
In Remembrance of Those Departed
The Great Meow is a very old cat tradition passed down through generations. Our adopted dad, Shiva Dancing (who was a very wise and old soul) taught us about it.The time will be 9PM in every time zone
At nine time throw your head back and let out the biggest MEOW ever for who you wish to honor…there is no limit to how many…PUT YOUR HEART INTO IT!!!
A few days later look for them in the late night sky…. The Perseid Meteor Shower will be passing us by…I don’t know about you, but I have some shooting stars to name!
We meow for Henry Hobson’s brother, Mr. Peabody. We are meowing for Nekoneko’s kitty, Goober and Sally’s sweet kitty, Sundance. We meow for Labwitchy’s two labs, Thordoggie and the Divine Miss D. We are also meowing for Abra’s sweet corgis, Terra and Justice. We meow for ALL of those who have passed over the Rainbow Bridge. All of them are missed greatly.
ALL cats have quirks. Many seem to have the same quirks. We don’t mind. It’s a part of what makes them fascinating and endearing. For example, Tito’s favorite toys are crumpled bits of paper. The crisper, the better. He not only plays fetch like a dog, he will take them and store them in the bathtub for safekeeping. If he can’t find a paper ball, he’ll grab a receipt, jump on papa, drop it on his chest and wait. He has other quirks too. 🙂
Miss Jenny and Titanescu have their quirks as well. Jenny imitates the Predator (movie monster) while watching birds. This is common to many of the pointy eared people.
Titanescu prefers to play King of the Mountain. That is my hip. It’s also where he perches and sleeps. He manages to stay on when I roll over too. Logrolling competition? Weird
For those who want to know, the dvds next to Tito are:
The Red Balloon (1956)
The Ladykillers (1955)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1998) This French TV series is the only film version worth watching.
Amélie (2001)
The Campaign (2012)
The Exorcist (1973)
It’s a well known fact that the pointy eared people are plotting world domination. Training us humans is their first mission. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster take pity on you if you miss feeding time by more than 10 minutes because kitty sure won’t. That’s only one example of the training they enforce. We also learn the danger of leaving the litterbox cleaning for a few minutes too long. I think you get my point. Failure is not an option.
This is what they want us to see.
This is what is really coming.
Today is Miss Nightshade Jenny’s birthday. She is two. She also behaves like a typical two year old, but she has done that since she came to live with us.
She came to us as a timid youngster. She spent her first three days hiding under the dresser in the safe room, only emerging to eat and dart back under. I lived in the safe room with her and she finally got brave and emerged. She and I get along quite well, but she’s daddy’s girl and has been from the beginning. 🙂
She managed to fit in quickly. Tito adores her and grooms her at every opportunity.
Kitsy adored her. She turned into nurse Jenny when he was sick. She wouldn’t let him sleep alone…ever. She stayed with him and kept him warm. She missed him a lot when he crossed the bridge.
As for behaving like a two year old? She’s a pen thief. She steals lots of things, but her favorite is pens. She likes to bring some to bed and the rest she hides somewhere. I figure they’re behind the futon where I can’t get to them. I wrote about her thieving ways here. She also loves to steal taters. She rolls them around the floor and even brings them to bed. Cats are strange and she’s no exception to the rule.
Of course, she’s still a nervous kitty and will hide from strangers, new lamps, new drapes, etc. She’s even hiding from her mousie birthday present.
She’ll be playing with it soon. It just might take a day or two. She’s probably still recovering from her fear of the lamp monster.
She was named Nightshade by the shelter. We added Jenny after Pirate Jenny in the Threepenny Opera. Jenny was played by Lotte Lenya in the original movie. She is a prostitute who was mistreated by Mackie (Mack the Knife) and she’s our favorite character. This song is her dream of revenge for the abuse she has endured. This version, by Marianne Faithfull, is a more accurate translation (from the German) than most. I hope you like it as much as we do.
Warning: this song contains a bad word or two and may be NSFW.
You can see the original by Lenya here.
Most of our friends living with nervous pointy eared people will be familiar with the sentiment above. Change (ANY change) is met with fear and loathing. In our case it was a new lamp. Yep, we brought home a simple torchier style floor lamp and the world almost ended…for Tito and Jenny (mostly Tito) at any rate.
I decided to assemble the lamp in the kitchen. Tito and Jenny took one look at what appeared to be a headless tentacled monster and scrambled into their bolt-hole (kitchen cupboard). I could see their eyes glow, but that was all.
I had it put together in no time and tucked into place on Lastech’s side of the bed. We turned it on and then ignored it. It took a while. Miss Jenny emerged first. She glared at it for a while. Once she figured out that it wasn’t going to attack or fall on her, she hopped in the basket for a nap.
Tito was a different story. He crept in on his belly. He glared. He paced a bit like the cavemen around the monolith in “2001: a space odissey“, then bolted back to the cupboard. After about three rounds of this, he finally decided that it wouldn’t kill him. He went off to nap. It will take a while before he gets brave enough to approach the bed. If not for the fact that the monster loomed over him, he would have slapped the crap out of it a few times and gotten over it faster.
Where was Titanescu through all this? Did he care? Was he upset?
On the serious side… Yes, we can laugh at Tito and Jenny and their nervousness. However, we do try to make changes as easy on them as possible. Once they went into hiding, we left them alone to come out when they were ready. After all, it may only be a lamp to us, but to them it’s like their entire world was rearranged. We wouldn’t react well to that either.
Back to the funny side and more scaredy cats for you to enjoy.
