Heading Out!

Well...I likely won't be posting here much over the coming week (if at all). Off to Florida for about ten days of camping and kayaking. Andy and the cats will hold down the fort until we return.

Later!

Andy.

Lilly.

Cairo.

 

See ya later, Alligator!

Comics and Cats!

I'm way too tired and too busy to post much! No essays and no fiction excerpts! Sorry! Maybe in the next few days.

In the meantime, I picked up a nifty book for my collection. And here's a shot of our cat, Lilly, taking advantage of the nice warm bed after Carole got up to get ready for work. Lilly's no dummy!

As usual lately, I got a great deal on this book. I've been told that this issue contains the first professional comics work by John Romita, Sr.! I'm not sure, so I'll have to research it.

Lilly using the TV remote for a pillow! She's not particular!

Kitten Lilly

We've had Lilly for more than five years, now. She is the smartest cat we've ever had. I'm convinced that what I've heard over the years is true: Siamese cats are the most intelligent breed. Our last Siamese, Cinnamon, was also exceptionally smart, and she lived to be almost 21 years old.

If Lilly lives that long, she could outlive me.

She is also the single most affectionate cat that I have ever seen, or ever even heard of. I've seen many cats that are lap babies, but this is far beyond that. The center of her world is, of course, Carole; but when Carole is not around she smothers me with affection in her place.

For your cuteness overload today, here are photos of Lilly not long after we brought her home.

Like just about all kittens, Lilly enjoyed squeezing into any open drawer she could find.

When we first got her, she was brilliant white. Like every Siamese I've seen, she slowly faded to more brown as she aged.

A coy cutie, for sure.

The Boss

What is it about cats? 

Lilly thinks she owns my workspace. My office chair is her favorite spot to nap. Or just to relax. I'm expected to sit on the edge of the seat when I write. Does she move when I do this? Hell, no. She will, however, brace herself against the back of the chair and attempt to push me off with her paws. True story.

Cats and Birds in the Yard

Between bouts of me versus the novel, I took the cats out yesterday for a stroll in the yard. I keep them leashed, both for their own security and to keep them from nabbing any unsuspecting birds.

Lilly tries to climb a tree to get a mourning dove.

It ain't happenin', chump.

Ah, dat boid is too small anyways.

Oo! What's that?!

I yam a gorgeous cardinal, and you're not getting me, either.

Lilly and Cairo

Over the years I became a cat person. Yeah, I started out loving dogs, but then I grew up. Being a mailman makes me even less a fan of dogs. I really like cats. I don't hate dogs (well, not anymore), but I just prefer cats.

Here are two of the cats who live with us:

This is Lilly. This photo was taken soon after we brought her home.

And a more recent photo of Lilly relaxing on the couch.

Andy found Cairo. I took this photo within minutes of her discovery (and adoption by us) in Cairo, West Virginia where we found her. What has amazed me always is how smoothly she adapted to being with us. She acted from the very first moment as if she belonged with us. She never cried or ever seemed surprised or alarmed. It was as if this was the way it was supposed to be.

A more recent photo of Cairo. She's very big and very fat now.

Cairo and Lilly on our new couch (which we had covered with sheets while we were teaching them to leave it alone).

Kitties from the Loft

I like taking photos from the loft (which is now my office). Today I looked down on the new couch to see Cairo and Lilly napping there. We have matching throws coming in for the new furniture, but for now we have to keep them covered to prevent the cats from using them for scratching posts. I know some people have their cats de-clawed, but I think that is a cruelty beyond measure. Imagine if someone removed your fingers because they didn't like the way you handled things. A cat's claws are, in effect, its fingers. So we do things like temporarily toss blankets over the furniture until the covers get back from the seamstress.

Hey, Pop! What you doin' up there?

Cairo and Lilly often sleep side by side. Sophie, however, rarely allows one of the other cats to sleep near her.

Fast asleep. Lilly is one of those cats who can (and will) drift off into a very deep sleep.

Busy

Bob is busy today. He'll blog later.

Kitty

Carole took this one of Cairo and Lilly while she was changing the sheets in the guest bedroom. I love this photo.

There's something about Cairo.

Lilly and Cairo.

Carole took these two shots yesterday.

This is Lilly. I thought that our last Siamese, Cinnamon was a super-intelligent anomaly. But Lilly is equally as intelligent and as loving as Cinnamon was. So I supposed it goes with the breed. She's a treasure.

And here's Cairo, the kitten we found (abandoned in Cairo, WV) last year. She's a lot of fun, too. Very sweet, but not as smart as Lilly.

Writing

I'm trying to finish up two short stories, so no time for any essays or hiking reports.

So here's a photo of Lilly sitting on the back of my chair in my new loft office. She did not appreciate the flash.

Lilly's Bed of Choice

Lilly thinks my office chair is her bed. Quite often I'll sit on the edge of it so that she won't have to wake up. I know...that makes no sense at all, but it's what I do.

"Go get you own seat," says Lilly.

Baby Cats

A pair of videos I made of two of our kittens when they were really tiny. First one is of Lilly, our Siamese who was bought from a breeder in Wisconsin:

The second video is of Cairo, who we found as a very tiny abandoned kitten in Cairo West Virginia (thus, her name). The video was taken on Christmas morning of 2009.

Almost done with the novel. I hope to wrap it up on Tuesday! We'll see how that goes...

Current Kitties

Grouchy, touchy Sophie. She's our oldest kitty. About eleven now, I think.

Cairo, the baby of the trio. Much-o fun.

Cairo and Lilly had been bad, so I wouldn't let them outside. They stared at me with indignation.

The Magnet

Taken about a week before Christmas. The kitties liked me that day. I suppose it must have been a bit chilly in the house.

Our Cats

I took some photos of the cats yesterday. I think the portraits are a bit nicer with the new camera than with the older models we've owned.
This is Sophie. She's a bit strange and has always had some emotional problems. We don't know why--she was like that when we got her at the age of four months. She was born into a household that had a number of kids. My suspicion is that children were constantly harassing her and this made her rather skittish and paranoid. Visitors never see Sophie, for she hides completely when any stranger enters the house. For whatever reason, she is attached to me.

This is Lilly. Queen of the household, for sure. Like all Siamese cats, she is extremely intelligent. For instance, she can get that halter she's wearing off of herself in about two seconds. She puts tension on the leash, turns around, ducks her head, and backing up peels it right off. She's brilliant.

Lilly loves to go outside, but she's so inquisitive that she tends to run off if we don't leash her and watch her. Thus, the somewhat impatient demeanor about her when I took this shot.

Our newest cat, Cairo. She'll be one year old in October. She's still a kitten, really. We just had her "fixed" and we took the sutures out today. She's very sweet. As with Lilly, we have to keep her tethered when she's outside, or else she heads for the timber.

Cairo stalking bugs and such.

Lilly Loves

Lilly resting with Carole.


Lilly believes that Carole is her mother. Of that I have no doubt. Oh, she knows that she's a cat, all right. But somehow she thinks Carole is her mum. Every night she jumps up on the bed, marches across my carcass, and climbs up on Carole's chest where she gives Carole one big kiss after another with her sandpaper tongue. That's a greeting that is reserved specifically for momma.

If Carole is working the night shift delivering babies Lilly will still jump up on the bed at the usual time. And then she is always surprised to find only me there. She looks at the situation with some surprise, marches across my carcass as usual, checks the place where Carole should be, looks once more at me, and then jumps down. I am definitely not the momma.

The only time I'm ever treated with anything like the affection reserved for Carole is when Carole is at work and Lilly is lonesome. Generally these fits of loneliness occur when I'm working on a manuscript. Lilly will come into the office, hop on the desk and stand in front of the video screen and stare at me. Then I have to sit back and allow her to hop into my lap. She will then give me one, very brief kiss on the tip of my nose and settle down in my lap to be rubbed. I'm not the one she needs, but I'll do in the meantime.

Lilly and the cats constantly remind me that animals are persons with emotions and free will. They are not robots. They do not merely respond to the forces around them, but make their own decisions.

A tortoise with compassion. Yeah. It's the real deal.

Covered in Kitty Cats

We're only just now getting our Christmas tree up and decorated. We should be finished by tomorrow afternoon. Then it's time to start wrapping presents and getting those stashed under the tree. This year has seen so much time pressure for us that it's the latest we've ever prepared for the Holidays. I have had almost no real time off and the volume at work has been much heavier than the past two years. Add to this the fact that I just finished with a six-day work week and it hasn't left much time for decorating the house. Carole, too, has had a heavy work load.

Today I came home from work and relaxed in the den, watching some DVDs and hanging out with the cats.

Me and Cairo.

Cairo and Lilly use me for a pillow.

Vacation!

Well, we're heading out to go on vacation for a few days. Until then, I'm leaving Lilly in charge of the joint.

"I'll hold down the fort, dude."

"Yeah, right. We know who's really in charge around here."

Lilly Mourns

I enjoy sharing my home with other animals. The experience deepens my conviction that animals are as capable of emotion and of compassion as any human being.

Our veterinarian had mentioned that Lilly might go into mourning for Marley. And it has proven so.


Lilly loved Marley tremendously. Being of such a mild disposition, Marley took to Lilly with great patience. She was just a tiny kitten when she came into our home, and Marley was fully grown. Still, he never allowed her energy and rambunctious spirit to get the better of him. He played with her most of the times she would attack him or tackle him or grasp him firmly about the neck. Marley put up with her batted blows, with her gnawing about his ears, with her playful kicks. In all of the time of her energetic attempts to get him to engage in play, I only ever saw him chastise her a single time. And that was toward the end, when he was probably feeling poorly and we were just too blind to see. All he did on that occasion was hold her down until she yipped for release.

The past day I have noticed that Lilly has been searching for her friend. Her playmate is nowhere to be found, and she cannot understand this. She goes to the sliding glass door and peers out, waiting to see if he has come home. She waits in the kitchen, expecting him to join her at the food dish, but he does not arrive.

And so, Lilly has taken to moping about. For the first time since we brought her home I have watched as she slumps listlessly. She curls up in the strangest of spots to sleep--places where she's never taken refuge. Today, she went to the foot of the bed and stretched out, lying in a heap, sighing from time to time and never once responding to our touch or to our pleading to get her to play.

Marley is gone, and Lilly is very sad.

I'll never understand people who feel no compassion for animals, nor understand that animals have feelings and emotions, too.