We did the thing again
Did you know the original cat cafe was in Taiwan? Japanese tourists loved the idea and brought it home. There are now maybe 40 cat cafes in Tokyo and even a dog cafe.
I know all this because Uncle B shouted it to me from the other room.
Bunch of skinny little Romanian street kitties at our local, except the one skinny little ginger who was picked up off the street in Portugal by vacationing Italians.
Call me crazy, but I bet it would be cheaper to rehome cats in their country of origin than to fly them all over the world to be rehomed. Surely we have homegrown feral cats.
This is only the second time we’ve been. First time was in December. We’ve meant to come back ever since, but it’s been awkward finding time when we’re free and the kids are in school. Children take the zen atmosphere of a cat cafe and make it squeal.
Today, it was just us, the staff, a young French couple and 13 sleepy kitties drowsing in the sun. Very relaxing.
June 27, 2024 — 5:53 pm
Comments: 1
I have no computer and I must post
My birfday present was a nice fast SSD to put games on and which we could install ourselves in a flash!
Yeah. No. Computer’s at the shop. Might get it back tomorrow. All my stuff is on it, including the old stuff I’ve been posting. So – hello!
I did play the cat game through during the break. It was beautiful and sweet. And weird. (Fair warning, it hurts the cat a couple of times in unavoidable cut scenes).
Also, I did something I’ve never, ever done. I take a tiny sliver of pride playing games through on normal difficulty, old lady though I be. Not resorting to easy or – god forbid! – story mode. What do I look like, a games journalist?
But I gave up and downloaded a cheat trainer for this. That’s what they call them now – cheat trainers. Kitty has to run through swarms of little parasitic creatures and I got sick of hearing him get jumped, scream and die.
Insult to injury, I watched other people play through on YouTube and they had no problem zig-zagging and avoiding trouble. I suck under pressure.
Now, to top it off, I miss the little cat and feel really sad about it. Stupid monkeybrain. Nothing for it but to play through again. When I get my computer back.
May 13, 2024 — 7:33 pm
Comments: 7
People is weird
I don’t work Wednesdays, so I spent an obscene amount of time playing the wizard game today. I’m happy to say the world is stuffed full of cats and you are allowed to pet them. I mean, they’re funky skinny cats (most illustrators just don’t do cats), but better than usual. And, I repeat, you can pet them.
Thinking I can’t be the only one to wonder how many cats there are and whether I get an achievement for petting them all, I had a little google. Turns out, people are big mad that other people like the cats.
Just a heads up, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t a cat collecting sim. But, if you’re prowling around for a purr-fect count, the game doesn’t specify. It’s more about wizards and spells than tallying tails.
Honestly, Hogwarts Legacy is all about that wizarding world charm, not keeping a kitty census.
And then there’s this peculiar article, written as though the wizarding world is a real thing with actual rules, that warns you not to pet the cats because they might be some creepy old wizard pretending to be a cat.
In the game, cats are not meant to be pet as the petting feature suggests, they are meant to practice Avada Kedavra on.
“Don’t pet them, cast the forbidden dark magic murder spell on them instead!” is certainly a take. Honestly, what did I expect from a site called comicbook.com?
I know what I’m playing next. It’s supposed to be gorgeous in VR.
April 24, 2024 — 7:54 pm
Comments: 5
No, really, she’s holding a cat
Why you’d call a black cat Blueberry, I do not know. But meet Blueberry. He disappeared in November of 2019 and turned up this week 200 miles away in the other end of Ireland.
They think he hitched at least one car ride. Maybe several. It’s news because they’re making microchipping cats compulsory here soon.
I have mixed feelings. I’ve had all my cats chipped, but a vet told me the things migrate all over the place. He picked up one low down in a cat’s front leg once. That doesn’t sound comfortable.
February 21, 2024 — 7:29 pm
Comments: 6
My very weird, very fat cat
Enjoy this view of my delicious catloaf.
He’s a very eccentric beast, like most formal ferals. He’s fat and it’s totally not my fault. He will only eat dry Iams, and not a whole lot of that. He won’t eat wet food. Not interested in people food. Eventually, he even refused treats (have you ever known a cat that turned his nose up at Dreamies?).
So it has to be the bunnies and mice doing it. The vet isn’t concerned. I suppose it’s self limiting – get fat enough, can’t chase prey.
At least, he was like that until last week, when began to reject his food. Vocally. Even angrily. We went nuts. Tried five different brands of dry catfood.
In despair, we tried pouches in jelly and…bingo. Except, he licks the jelly off and begs for more. He’s already visibly putting on weight.
I know a woman who swears her cat went diabetic eating Friskies jelly. I also went through the same behavior with my old cat Charlotte, the one I brought with me from the States (coincidentally also a tuxedo cat). At the end of her life, she’d lick the jelly off but refuse the food chunks and pointedly ignore it until the meat mummified in the bowl.
I am so not looking forward to this again…
January 8, 2024 — 8:26 pm
Comments: 5
The night Himself came in from the wilderness
We continue our low-effort stroll down memory lane with the first picture of Kitteh. He strolled into the house one night in July of 2018, screamed and ran out again. I trapped him next day with a squirrel trap and a pouch of food.
About three months old and totally feral, our local kitty rescue (or, rather, the big scary lesbian who runs our local kitty rescue) recommended we keep him in a cage until he was tamer. She even loaned us the cage (pictured).
It was good advice and he tamed down and acclimated to our other two cats in no time.
Today, he’s a lovable, weird, great fat pudding. He does still get that terrified feral look in his eyes from time to time (not pictured).
Rejoice! It is the weekend!
December 29, 2023 — 6:31 pm
Comments: 4
Vampire meows
We went to a popup cat cafe, y’all! It was a trip.
You have to pre-book and pay in one-hour increments. When we turned up, it was full of screaming little girls, which was less than optimum. But the cats were all around five or six months old, so they were just the age to love screaming little girls waving cat toys.
All the cats in this group were from Romania. I guess Romania has an awful track record for animal welfare so they’re working with a charity there. They all come over completely feral, so it was remarkable how socialized they have already become. I didn’t get bitten or growled at once, though Uncle B had his leg climbed like a telegraph pole by a kitten in search of his fruitcake.
We were warned that all the cats are partial to people food. I had to make some quick moves with the milk jug.
The cat in the picture is Ziggy, who was all white with a black spot on his head. His sister is all black with a white tip to her tail.
We didn’t bring anybody home, though.
December 5, 2023 — 7:47 pm
Comments: 7
Where would we be without science?
According to New Scientist, they have finally worked out how cats purr.
It makes sense that the larger the animal, the longer the larynx, the deeper the sounds an animal can make. So how does a little teeny dude like a cat make such a low rumble?
They dissected eight cats (which had been put down due to illness, they swiftly explained lest the internet come down on them like a ton of geeks), blew air through their larynxes and it made a farty sound. This they traced to some flappy cartilege in the windpipe. I may have taken liberties with the language.
So there you have it.
Having solved this important scientific problem, they turned their attention to why do cats like to sit in boxes? No, really.
October 3, 2023 — 7:33 pm
Comments: 8
Let’s end the week on *the cat*
A beast so talented he can roll over and lick his paw at the same time.
This angle doesn’t quite show how fat this boy is. We told the vet it’s not our fault. He doesn’t eat people food. He doesn’t eat treats (can you imagine a cat that spurns Dreamies?). He only gets Iam’s dry kibble and he isn’t hugely fond of that.
It’s bunnies. A pendulous belly composed entirely of adorable baby bunnies he catches himself.
Sometimes we hear the screams. Sometimes we only find disgusting lumps of flesh and fur. And sometimes, surely, they vanish completely without us knowing a thing about it.
The vet didn’t seem worried. I suppose it’s a self-limiting problem. If he gets fat enough, he won’t be able to catch them.
Have a good weekend!
August 18, 2023 — 7:17 pm
Comments: 4
Google Photos is weird
I have no idea how Google Photos chooses which photo to highlight when you open it, but this one is January 25, 2005 and my sweet old cat Charlotte in snowy Rhode Island.
It’s usually a dead pet. Thanks for the gut punch, Google.
Zo! I’m sitting here with a well-deserved G&T in front of me. With one or two little tweaks, I think I’m ready for printing and proofing tomorrow. Last minute fixes early Friday and done.
This is me, skittering around the corner on two wheels.
August 9, 2023 — 7:41 pm
Comments: 3