New Kitty Update: Kibble Tossing

As most of you know already, we have adopted a young kitty named Nightshade Jenny. It isn’t for the faint of heart. This little beauty is going to take work. She was found abandoned on the street and spent a while at the county shelter before being sent to the SFSPCA. All of this adds up to a pretty traumatic experience for a young kitty of only 4 mos. or so.

After we brought her home on Saturday, she dove under the dresser and only came out to eat and use her box…when we were out of the room.

Miss Nightshade Jenny
Miss Nightshade Jenny

Last night was a major breakthrough. She had her dinner and then I went in to keep her company. I parked myself on the futon and and teased her with the laser pointer. It worked. She would come out to chase the light. It started with her dashing out a couple of feet before realizing I was there and diving back under cover. Eventually, she started spending more and more time out on the floor playing. She even let me touch her with a finger.

The kibble tossing began when I started to suffer from terminal laser pointer thumb and had to quit. She finally got brave enough to head for her kibble dish. She was still in the mood to play. She took a bite of kibble, tossed it in the air and then batted it around the floor a bit before eating. She repeated this routine for almost an hour. Evidently, the kibble tossing got the attention of Tito. The next thing I knew he was laying at the door, snaking a paw under the door and cooing like crazy. Miss Nightshade Jenny went to the door and they kept each other company for a while.


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Day two: Hedwig and the angry hiss..?

Hmmm… Is Nightshade Jenny trying to tell us something, I wonder?

Open. Open.Open.

Previously, on this channel, butt-head Maz Whang hissed at Jenny and at my wife when she picked him up to, let’s say “decrease the atmospheric pressure” in the room. Made me wish I had the camera ready, it looked like something out of the first “exorcist” and all I could think of was:

Ego te absolvo in nomine Patris, et Filiii, et Spiritus Sancti!!!!

Not Mazuzu Whang, but close enough. Tito, on the other hand, seems much more mellow and just very curious about the little ball of fur. There is a possibility that Tito could help in bringing her out of her shell, but we’ll explore that later.

Sugar and spice, huh?

In another post, this one about Mazuzu, I’d mentioned that it’s sometimes better to wait for the newly adopted to come up with their own name. And well, beyond the oh-so-sweet blinking gaze of Jenny’s blue peepers, I now sense something more than just the cute, vulnerable fuzzy-wuzzy that makes us go all kajagoogooey and ghoo-buh-ghee? Goo-buh-ghee-ish.

What happened yesterday, I can’t quite discount or otherwise sweep under the carpet. When in the safe room with my wife in the evening, Jenny decided to do a bit of exploring. Wonderful! Yes?

But when my wife was perceived to be getting “danger close” to the dish of wet food, Jenny fixed her with her ice-blue eyes and hissed a clear warning. Sooo-eee! We got us a handful there I think, so let’s see:

Hedwig \he(d)-wig\ as a girl’s name is of Old German origin, and the meaning of Hedwig is “contention, strife“. Actress Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Kiesler.

Hmmm. Hedy… Hedwige… Hedda…

"It's HEDley!!!"


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Something wicked this way comes

Wicked as in “cool”, that is. This little gal was named Nightshade by the wonderful staff at the San Francisco SPCA, and we’ve decided to call her Nightshade Jenny, Jenny as in Pirate Jenny from Threepenny Opera.

Little Miss Nightshade Jenny. She is quite small with ice blue eyes. Yes, she is gorgeous.
Little Miss Nightshade Jenny. She is quite small with ice blue eyes. Yes, she is gorgeous.

She’ll need time to get acclimated and has a quiet room to do so, always with one of us in it with her, she’s a shy little thing that one. Hopefully, the pictures will do her justice, she is absolutely gorgeous. But then as Leonardo Da Vinci said, the smallest feline is a masterpiece.


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Friday Night Cat Blogging: Mystery Girl Coming Soon

It’s time for the boys to shine…for the last time. Next time, they shall be shining with a girl. Yes, we are about to bring home a kitty. We don’t know which kitty yet. We’ll go see in the morning. 🙂

Here are the boys.

Tito
Tito
Kitsy cleaning the jellybeans
Kitsy cleaning the jellybeans
Mystery girl
Who she is, we won't know until tomorrow. We will follow up with a formal announcement


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Klingon for cats: a “Kajagoogoo” revival of sorts…

Everyone does it. It’s only a problem when you actually do it on purpose, and a sickness when you work at making it into a language.
Baby talk. Whether with infants or pets. Maybe it starts with the ‘shorthand’ people develop when they live as a couple for a while, sharing an ever increasing frame of reference. I was reminded of this while watching “date night” with Tina Fey and Steve Carell, a pretty funny and fresh take on marriage.
Here, in the realm of jellybeansofdoom, Tito and Maz Whang do it in their own way: the cooing, meowing, purring and other vocalizations.
And I’ll confess we imitate them, only to have them both look at us as though we speak in a heavily accented version of cat. Silly humans and their funny walk…
For having led such a sheltered life (by comparison), Maz speaks in harsh tones (unless he’s cold, in which case he whimpers ‘sotto voce’). His language is positively Klingon and I’m certain I heard him more than once calling Tito a p’tahk, whatever that means.
But where it gets really questionable is when I find myself (this is hard to admit, gimme credit) pulling the covers away from Maz’ sleepy head and whispering…. Buh-ghee! Buh-ghee! Ghoo! Ghoo-ghee..?
No, I don’t even know what it means but it does make us both feel good. I think.
Oh and speaking of Kajagoogoo, this guy wouldn’t last a minute around cats with this hairdo, and that’s before he put beads in. Hey, you know, I guess I do remember the ‘80s after all…


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Caturday: in the mood for rain…

The rain is making a comeback and the City always looks best when shrouded in fog or damp with rain. It’s just that kind of lazy afternoon, perfect for cuddling with the cats…

A few of our favorite things...

Add a few minutes of Miles Davis…


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Musical archeology: where the switchblade came from…

Made you look. Okay, what was with the switchblade waved by Julien Doré in his video “les limites” posted here previously.

Glad you asked, because thanks to some hardcore detective work (okay: reading comments on youtube), we knew the video was inspired by an old Serge Gainsbourg song, back when they were called ‘clips’. Question was: which one? After hours of research fueled by coffee and aspirin, we found it in Gainsbourg’s song “les yé-yés”.

More can be found about the yé-yés here.

Now, Gainsbourg was always a better songwriter than singer and had a hit in 1965 with “laisse tomber les filles” sung by France Gall, then 17. This song might sound familiar as Quentin Tarantino used it in “Kill Bill”:

Now you know. Let’s bask again in a bit of retro-cool with another version of Doré’s song: it’s got dogs, a rooster, a pony!


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