Thus cat looks like ny sister's cat Persephone.
Bonus points to anyone who can identify what MT module and method I'm looking at, and why.
Today is the fifth anniversary of my mom’s adoption of her two cats, Alcina and Morgana.
Here’s the original announcement from my mom:
On Saturday at the Rockridge street fair I got two absolutely adorable kittens (about 10 weeks old). They are sisters and one is a tabby runt, like the booter! She is very shy and very cute. The other is a beautiful grey with blue-green eyes and a bit more forward. They adore their little furry playthings and growl at them so I think they will be hunters.
They are very much at ease with each other. They hid last night under the banquettes in the kitchen -there was a hole I did not know about! - but now I blocked it up so they have the run of the kitchen which they like.
It’s amazing how established their personalities were even on that first day. They are indeed fierce huntresss and fairly shy, though they are making progress as they get older. Morgana will even allow my mom to pet her sometimes.
Although I have a reputation as a great cat namer in our family, it was actually my sister Annie who came up with their names, after going through the list of famous sisters in opera. Although Alcina and Morgana are pretty high-falutin names, it seemed to suit them.
This morning Trizzle went out as he normally does for a day of doing whatever it is that he does. However, about an hour later I heard him meowing and meowing outside, with great urgency. I went down to the front door and found why he was so eager for my attention--he had caught a small bird and wanted me to admire it. It was about half-eaten and as I stood over him, praising his hunting skills, he proceeded to eat the rest of it, whole (no feathers or even bones were left, oddly. In fact, I'm not even sure that it was a bird--in the brief time I was able to see it before Trizzle started consuming it again, I saw an insectoid wing, so it may have in fact been a giant moth or something; not that I've ever seen a moth in California that big, only in the 'Stryliarian outback. So for all I know Trizzle just consumed an endangered or even nondescript (althogh nowadays people use this word to mean uninteresting or unremarkable in appearance, I'm using it in the Stephen Maturin sense of a species unknown to science) species.
After that he came in and wanted more food and comforting. I picked him up and discovered that he had also somehow contrived to get himself completely soaking wet on the hottest day of the year (so far.)
]]>This is a video I've tried to post before, but Vox wouldn't let me Tonight, though, it worked, so everyone can behold the cuteness of Trizzay, Elektra and Persephone when they were eight week old kittens (aka the age of maximum cuteness.)
Those of you who have read Trizzle's blog may be confused by some of the terms he uses. In transcribing Trizzle's thoughts. I've chosen to keep some of the cat idiom intact since I think they provide an interesting view into the mind of a cat and how they interpret the world.
aus-cat—an intruder cat; a cat who is not part of one's own clan.
aus-creature—any non-cat, non-ground food critter that intrudes on to the cat's territory.
aus-FaPPR–any human being that cats do not identify with the provision of food and petting, and thus of lesser importance. aus-FaPPRs may sometimes be interacted with to determine if they are capable of providing petting, but more normally they are avoided and feared.
Contested Zone—like certain people in the middle east, cats spend a lot of time obsessing about territory and how to keep other people from making use of it. Thus a cat's world is full of contested zones, places where it is not clear which cat maintains control. Typical examples include the kitchen, or the front steps of the house.
dead food—food that is given to cats by their food and petting providers, and also the food that FaPPr's consume themselves, though sushi is an interesting case that confuses cats, causing them to label it "dead food that smells live."
Food and Petting Provider Race—human beings, whom cats regard as a slave race whose only function is to provide food and petting.
glowing rectangle hunting—cats description for what they see human beings do with much of their time, staring intently at glowing rectangles. In the mind of a cat, anything that is not sleeping and that takes a lot of time and attention, so they think that when we are watching TV or working on the computer, that we must be hunting.
glowing rectangle—television or computer.
ground food—mice, rats and anything else that crawls around which is cat edible.
ingress rectangle—a door, either human, or cat, which serves a portal between the Inside and Outside.
Inside—meaning inside the house, though this word has a more profound weight for cats than it does humans (thus the capitalization.) Inside can also mean a hole in the ground, or the womb—basically anywhere warm and protected where the cat feels safe. Insides can contain Insides, so cats use the term to describe a room of the house, as well as the house itself.
live food—food that cats catch themselves.
Loudfast—an automobile, which cats think of as a giant creature that eats and then later regurgitates human beings, possibly because they don't like the taste. Cats are quite afraid of Loudfasts, both because they are dangerous in and of themselves, but also because they are never quite sure if, after their PFaPP has been consumed one, that it will then regurgitate them later. Cats view human beings as fairly hapless creatures since most of their hunting expeditions Outside result in them being promptly consumed by a Loudfast.
Outside—the outer world, where the cat goes to experience hunting and adventure, and possibly interact with aus-creatures and aus-cats. Outside is usually reached by going through an ingress rectangle.
PFaPPr cycle–although cats don't really know or care about the human calendar, they have figured out that with many FaPPers there is a cycle in which for five days in a row they get up earlier and disappear all day to hunt (or get swallowed by a Loudfast) and then return well after sky cat time has begun. Then for two days the FaPPer will sleep later and spend more time Inside.
Primary/Secondary/Tertiary Food and Petting Provider—cats usually designate one person as their Primary Food and Petting Provider, ie, the person they regard as their servant. They may also designate a backup person to provide food and petting in the event that the primary is unavailable, much like NASA build redundancy for all major systems into the space shuttle. Like some aboriginal tribes, cats don't count beyond 2, if a cat is lucky enough to have more than two food and petting providers, then all subsequent ones are called Tertiary Food and Petting Provider.
rectangle—cats use this term generically to refer to human-made items and devices. Examples include a glowing rectangle (TV or computer screen), soft rectangle (towel), elimination rectangle (litter box) or elevated sleeping rectangle (bed.) Cats associate rectangles with the FaPPR though they haven't quite figured out that we produce them.
sky cat time—the night-time.
sky cat—the moon. The sky cat chances the sky mouse across the heavens, but (almost) never catches up to him.
sky food—birds and flying insects.
sky mouse cycle—one complete transit of the sky mouse around the sky. Like Jews and Muslims, the cat's day begins at sundown.
sky mouse time—the daytime.
sky mouse—the sun.
sky water–rain, or any water that falls from above. Being much smaller creatures than us, cats think that a shower is the same as rainfall.
sleeping rectangle—a bed, where human beings sleep. Cats don't actually have a word for bed, since to them any flat space is a potential sleeping spot.