How They Are Sizing Up

The kittens in my care are growing. I wonder, though, if the siblings will match Aurora in size. Someone in the rescue-group suggested that the colourful girl is not yet fully grown; this could be, since she is still smaller than Renn. My big boy is, of course, a large cat, even if he is diminished a bit with age.

But Auro is a heavy beast, and large compared to the siblings, especially Theodore, who, surprisingly, has been overtaken in growth by his sister, Chiff. We know when those two were born - June 4th, 2023 - as they first saw the light of day in a foster-home. We estimate Aurora’s age to be about three weeks greater than Theodore and Chiff’s. Even so, she seems quite large compared to them, and I don’t think the younger pair will narrow the gap in the next three weeks. If Auro still has some length and width to obtain before she finishes, then she will be a strong and impressive cat.

There has been interest in her from a couple of sources, so she may not be with me much longer. It’s interesting that, though tiny kittens attract attention, they don’t receive a great many adoption inquiries. These usually come after they reach six months of age, and many not until they are almost a year old. This suits me, since after six months, a feline personality is formed, and the habits and attitudes they have are what they will retain, making matching them with prospective adopters easier.

If Auro is adopted, the other three youngsters (Brazil included) will miss her. Her increasingly large paw prints will be hard to fill.

The Case of the Tiny Shoelaces

My shoelaces keep shrinking. For the last few days, every time I tied my shoes, there was less lace with which to bind them. Initially, I found this puzzling but, upon closer examination, I noticed that the laces had been chewed through, repeatedly.

I had seen young cats loitering about by my shoes while I wasn’t wearing them. Now, I realise what the delinquents were up to. I cannot, however, have anyone charged for the crime because I’m not sure who committed it.

Was it…the lookout?

Was it the connivers, seen here plotting their next felony?

Or perhaps…the mastermind?

Whatever the solution to the mystery, I have had to buy new shoelaces. As it turns out, they are rather too long for my shoes. But I am not worried. I have a feeling they will be shortened before long…

A Little Too Much

You know the residents are having a good time at the New Year’s Eve celebrations when a cat starts wearing a lampshade…

An Entirely Selfish Beginning to My 2024 Blogging

I hope 2024 has begun for everyone free of unpleasant incidents. To be honest, as I grow older, I find that any kind of incident whatsoever is best avoided. This may seem like throwing the baby out with the bath-water but, frankly, I think that ‘incident’ by definition implies something to be declined, and in this case, the baby is probably just as undesirable as the bath-water.

Anyway…

This first blog-article of the new year has nothing to do with cats. It has to do with me. I have published a book. I published it through Amazon which required a great deal of learning and effort, but has, in the end, proved advantageous. I had spent some time years ago trying to interest real publishing houses in my stories. However, the subject matter and the format, along with the ever-increasing costs of printing and marketing, made interest in my work less than encouraging. Or I may simply write crap.

This is a collection of short stories about the fictional adventures of an equally fictional British intelligence officer in the 1920s. They are not in the James Bond vein; I tried to make them realistic, though they are, in truth, mysteries with an espionage setting. Each is a self-contained tale, though there is a continuity to them. They do not involve cats.

A number of people may want to buy the book just to be generous to me. While appreciated, there is no sense in purchasing something unless one is interested in the subject. I wrote these stories (and quite a few others, hopefully to follow) through the years just as manifestations of my joy in writing. I published them just to have a physical form to that writing. Selling the finished product would be a bonus, but I will never live off my writing. That was never the point, and I consider it impractical to expect that to happen. I actually intend still to live off my winnings in the lottery, which I am sure one day will occur.

Nonetheless, if anyone wants to buy the book, such action will not make them an enemy of mine. It is available in both paperback and electronic form, the latter for a Kindle reader, from Amazon. I have never purchased an electronic book, and likely never will, so I have no idea if the electronic form is compatible on one’s private computer or abacus. Also, I noted that I cannot purchase the Kindle version from Amazon.com, only from Aamazon.ca. Someone who is not me informed me that the Kindle version is indeed available for purchase from Amazon.com. This confirms what another had told me: that Amazon, for reasons of its own, wants Canadians to buy from their ‘local’ Amazon (.ca) and not a foreign version (.com). Yet I can buy a paperback version from Amazon.com.

All of this is beside the point. If someone wishes to buy the book, in whatever form, it will probably be easy to do so. I have received a hard-copy myself and was pleased at the result. The cover is laminated, the paper of good, if not excellent, quality. Other print-on-demand works I have seen contain numerous errors; this one contains none that I have found. (It better not; I went over it many, many times.) As well, Amazon, whether one likes it or not, seems to be experienced in this line, and so knows what it is doing.

As I wrote, I hope to have sequels in the future. The stories are already written, and need only publishing. I will do this regardless of the sales of the first volume, since, like that initial book, I will be doing it just to have the stories in physical form; perhaps next year. Unless, of course, I am subject to an incident.

Tomorrow, we will return to our regularly scheduled cats.

Good-bye, 2023

At midnight, 2023 will end. This is strange, since it seems only six months were required to go through it. In another decade, I will be shooting through a year every month…

The year ends on a good note for me. No, I have been given back my youth and transported to 1982. Not that good. But not bad, either. I will write about that on another blog-post. For now, I will state that the cats in my care are doing well. Here, you will note there are six in one room, all more or less tolerating each other. That they are mostly unconscious may give a clue as to how the tranquility of the scene was achieved.

Brazil is not yet part of this group. His attitude toward Imogen remains, shall we say, energetic. But I am letting him come into the bedroom – Imo’s safe-zone – now and then, and only when I am in the room. I think there will be no progress in their relationship unless they are in proximity, but I must balance that with maintaining Miss Silky’s belief that she is secure from unwanted attentions.

But, as I typed above, the year is ending well. I hope it is ending the same way for each of you, and that 2024 begins positively and only goes up from there.

The Subtle Message

Though Theodore and Chiff have a good relationship – they play together, cuddle with each other, groom one another - it’s sometimes difficult for me to tell when they are being kind or experiencing a kind of species-wide instinctive desire to show others who is the boss.

Imogen Tries Something New

I hope everyone is having a good Christmas. Ours in the Cosy Apartment is proceeding well. I had an extended weekend, which is always pleasant. And I noticed something quite novel occurring with one of the beasts.

I have not seen Imogen eat hard food - or drink water - since she has come to live with me. It’s conceivable that a cat can take in sufficient moisture from tinned food; depending on the brand, it can be about three quarters water. But she has not had any interest in hard-food. This past weekend, however, she ate some kernels of hard-food, possibly for the first time.

Imo has been placed in the bedroom with the doors closed whenever I am at work, due to Brazil’s continued disturbance of her. To provide some company, I have been putting Neville in there with her. They leave each other alone, and it allows the Nevsky some hours away from the annoyance of the kittens. Food is of course provided, and I thought it was Nev who was eating it. It may be. But when I randomly placed a small bowl of the ‘dietetic’ food that my grey lion enjoys near Imogen, she smelled its contents.

That was a first. Several times subsequently I offered her the same food, and eventually she ate. True, it was only four kernels, though she has repeated the process a couple of times. The amount she has eaten wouldn’t keep a gerbil alive, but it’s a start.

I always like to have my cats enjoy as wide a variety as possible: every cat-owner knows how likely it is that their pet will suddenly, and often inexplicably, decide to stop eating food she has eaten for years. Therefore, I want substitutes to fall back on. If I could, I would have my beasts on nothing but tinned food, but that’s not practical with my cats’ preferences. And since Miss Silky is a light eater - though she consumes enough to maintain a good weight and a healthy look - it wouldn’t do her harm to have a side-order of hard-food with her meal.

Imogen’s next challenge: drinking water…