Category Archives: Cats

Entries where I mention or talk about my cats.

Cats, Holidailies 2022, Religion

Day Eighteen: Monsters REALLY Want…

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Papercraft shrub with bells on
A blue shrub! With honey bells!

Narlee is really excited to see the jug of golden syrup, according to today’s narrative. “Golden Goo!” is what he calls it. It’s a mystical substance, apparently. In the mythology of Narlee’s people, when you pour Golden Goo onto trees and shrubs, golden honey bells will appear.

Now, I’m not sure what a honey bell is, or why you’d want one. Snow Monsters love them, though. Maybe for eating. Maybe for wearing.  And where do they come from? Does the syrup make them grow? Or what?

Personally, I like to think that the honey bells have always been there, and that the Golden Goo, like the Silver Key that got Randolph Carter into so much trouble in Lovecraft’s narratives, simply revealed the truth “behind the void” that was always there. Will this revelation drive the adventurers mad? Who’s to say? Stay tuned!

In other news, we finally put the Christmas tree up this morning. We’ve been putting it off because I’ve not been feeling well, and the sheer effort of breathing has been leaving me short of breath. This morning, thanks to a course of Prednisone (boo Prednisone!), I am feeling much better. So the tree’s up! Here’s a picture of resident cat Guffaw investigating half the tree, just to make sure it’s going up properly:

Grey cat in Christmas tree
Guffaw approves

Also, apropos of nothing, here’s a portion of my computer’s desktop wallpaper:

A cartoon penguin in front of a tree
Pancake approved

It’s the Linux penguin! Dressed like Santa! In front of a Christmas tree! Now, I no longer use Linux as my desktop environment (Scrivener 3 was why I moved to Windows 10), but I still use Linux for my server environments. But this is still Pancake approved, I think.

It’s a mystical, fuzzy holidailies!

Advent wreath with four candles lit
Fourth week of Advent

It’s the fourth Sunday of Advent, and today’s entry in the Episcopal Advent Calendar (Worship) reads, “Linger before leaving your worship time today. How is God calling you to hear and sing along with Mary’s Song? Read Luke 1:39-55.”

See, this is why I dislike the song, “Mary, Did You Know?” Because, based on our reading of Luke 1:39-55, we know that she already did.

Anyway, I may not make it to worship today. But, then, I haven’t been able to for a couple of years now. And not for a couple of weeks to come. But this coming year, I plan on making spirituality a focus for the new year, so hopefully I’ll get there more often.

Cats, Holidailies 2022, Religion

Day Eight: At the Mountains of…

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CW: This post contains a kitten death. Much sadness.

papercraft mountain range
At the Mountains of…

It’s only natural, when you think of mountains in Antarctica, to think of early twentieth-century writers of cosmic horror, like H. P. Lovecraft. So you can imagine the chill that went through me when I pulled out today’s papercraft piece from its envelope and unfolded it in front of me. A mountain range! In Antarctica! Assuming these are Antarctic adventures, of course.

The narrative that accompanies today’s papercraft mountains say that mysterious creatures are said to live there. Well, I think I know what creatures they are! Shoggoths! Elder things! The great conical beings of Yith! Ia! Ia!

Ahem.

Anyway, I fear for the dark turns that this tale of Pancake and Pep will take.

Here is a song that encapsulates the feeling precisely:

In other news, we lost a foster kitten the other day. Lyric was a sweet little thing. I have warmer hands than Jennifer, so I was holding her close to my chest while she gasped for breath occasionally, ice cold, trying to warm her up. We fed her Karo (which sometimes helps with kittens in distress), gave her fluids, rubbed her little belly, lay her on top of heating pads. I whispered to her, telling her it was okay if it was time to go. So eventually, she did. I had very little interaction with Lyric while she was with us, but still, I found myself weeping just a little.

Jennifer has a much better written post about this here.

‘Tis a maddening, harrowing, and very sad season of Holidailies!

Today’s Episcopal Advent Calendar is about bless. It reads, “Call or write a letter to a family member with whom you would like to have a closer relationship. Make plans in the new year to chat on the phone or meet over Zoom or in person. Let them know how much you love them and look forward to knowing them better”

I’ll do that later today. I have a hard time keeping up with friends and family when they’re not actually in my presence; this time last year I made a promise that I would actually call someone who was close to me (friend or family) every Sunday. Did I actually follow through? No, of course not. So I plan to make that promise again this year.

Cats, This Random Thing Called Life, Writing

Various Dribs and Drabs

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Not much to report right now.

WRITING

However, I need to let you all know that my creepy short story “Blank” is now up online at Dark Recesses, and you can read it on their webzine here. This represents my second acceptance of the year! I still haven’t signed a contract for the first, so I can’t yet reveal the market that accepted the story, which I also can’t reveal at this time.

In other news, I have been continuing to work on my novel And the Devil Will Drag You Under, adding approximately 500 words per day to this particular revision. This was one of those “tear down and rebuild from the ground up” revisions. I’m hoping future revisions won’t be so drastic, but I’ll have to wait until November when my critique group gets done with it to find out.

I’ve also been working on a new short story, “Meep”. It represents a couple of themes that I’ve been obsessed with for quite awhile. Someday you’ll get to read that one, but first I have to finish it.

And I continue to submit two manuscripts per week to various markets. I admit it’s sort of a buckshot approach, which I think lots of writers employ. Lots of misses, but a few hits.

CATS

Goodness, we’ve got a veritable sickhouse of kitties right now. Our poor resident cat Ruby has an autoimmune disorder which is attacking her red blood cells. Fortunately, this can be controlled with regular cortisone doses. Right now she’s getting a pill a day, but hopefully she’ll be able to get injections every few days soon. She’s a shy little thing, so catching her to pill her can be difficult.

We have a couple of sickly foster kittens right now as well, but they’re hanging in there.

THAT’S ALL

I’ll be at WesterCon in Tonopah, NV, in a couple of weeks. Will any of you be there as well?

 

Cats

RIP Rupert (2009-2022)

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“Gray ones are trouble,” we would say to ourselves, watching Rupert climb the Christmas tree or jump up on top of the refrigerator from the counter.

And he certainly was trouble. He was a feisty gray tabby from the minute we first saw him and his sibling Ingrid at the foster home in 2009, where we’d gone to adopt a pair of kittens. He (and another gray tabby) were careening about the room, literally running sideways on the wall, bouncing off furniture and each other. He was super cute, so we adopted him and Ingrid together.

Tiny kitten Rupert
Rupert as a kitten, six weeks old, 2009

 

We knew that Rupert would never fill the void in our heart left behind by Tangerine and Sebastian, who had died within weeks of each other not long before, but having him in the house certainly brought us joy and laughter. When we put up our Christmas tree in 2009, he zoomed up like nobody’s business. We would look at each other and comment that he’d slow down in a few years.

And eventually he did, though he was always a lovebug. When he wasn’t tearing around the house, he was likely sitting on our laps and purring. Every day at suppertime, he would yell at us about how he was starving and the other cats were starving, couldn’t we see how starving he was, how he hadn’t eaten in eight years since the day before. He wasn’t a big fan of being held, unless it was in a very specific way, and would squirm and let us know that he had things he had to do! Like run up and down the stairs.

He was a good friend to the other kitties when he was at his prime, and would put up with a lot from the foster kittens. (When we got Sherman a few years later, we joked that Rupert had taught Sherman all about being a troublesome gray cat.)

He started vomiting regularly a year or so ago, and wasn’t feeling too well. The vet would give him shots of cortisone every month or so, and that seemed to do the trick for awhile. Then we put him on a daily steroid medicine, and that helped as well. But he continued to lose weight, he started peeing outside the litter box (a good sign that a cat is not happy), and he had horrible diarrhea. He stopped eating some days, would eat more others, but he wasn’t yelling at me at supper time anymore. The vet had initially diagnosed him with inflammatory bowel disease, which can lead to GI lymphoma, which is likely was Rupert had at the end. It’s difficult to detect, but he was clearly not happy, so we knew it was time.

The vet was compassionate and kind. Rupert did not like the first shot, but he went to sleep quickly and calmed down for the last time.

Now, his legacy lives on in Guffaw, who was a foster kitty that we wound up adopting a couple of months ago. Guffaw is a gray cat and therefore trouble, and he learned a lot from his mentor.

Thank you for the laughter, the love, and the memories, Rupert. You were a really good guy, and I will always love and miss you.

Rupert and Guffaw together
Rupert (on the right) with his latest protege Guffaw
Cats, Holidailies, Writing

Cute Cat Picture Alert!

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I’m not much of a photographer, even with the plethora of tools and equipment available to us these days (e.g., a phone with a camera in it), but today I snapped this picture of our foster fails Timmie and Guffaw snuggling together on our loveseat in our living room:

Timmie and Guffaw
Timmie and Guffaw, both foster fails in our home, snuggle together on our loveseat.

I showed it to Jennifer and she said it was ridiculously cute, so I have to post it. So here it is, on my blog.

Timmie is the first of our foster fails. She was found in a water feature in a park in Sacramento, and brought to Happy Tails, the organization we foster through. Because she was found “in a well” she was dubbed Timmie (as in, “What’s that Lassie? Timmy fell down the well again?” and if you don’t understand that reference, that’s okay, I just need to wait until the pain in my back goes away). She has some mild movement issues, but on the whole she is a very healthy and friendly and chonky cat. Guffaw is a more recent foster fail that we adopted because he seems to have chosen me as his person, a rarity. Almost all of our foster kitties glom on to Jennifer, and I haven’t had a cat glom on to me since Tangerine, so this makes my heart warm.

In other news, the contracts have all been signed, so I can officially spread the word that my short story “Arkham House Rules” will be published in an upcoming issue of Sci-Fi Lampoon. I don’t know what the details are, but I’m pleased with this turn of events.

Also, I have developed a pain in my tendon in my right arm, descending from my elbow to my wrist. No injuries occurred. It just sort of started about five days ago. Whee. I’m going to go to the doctor in a couple of days to have it checked out. Fun times.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today.

And a very Happy Holidailies to you!

Cats, Thingadailies

How Dare You!

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Just a wee kitten on a banana bed, looking grumpy because I dared take her picture while she was napping.

No filters except for Android’s native “enhance” filter. I also cropped the photo so that my foot wouldn’t be visible. That blue thing in the lower left corner is the food plate.

That’s all for today. Did I mention that I added a post to my Penguin Scientific blog? Feel free to take a gander.

Kitten photos for Thingadailies!

Cats, Thingadailies, Writing

Speaking of Kaiju

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Tonight we watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which I’d been wanting to watch since it first came out in 2019. We’d seen the other movies in the rebooted Godzilla franchise: Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island, so it was inevitable that we’d see this one. Now we’re all ready to watch Kong Vs. Godzilla when that one comes out next month.

I had listened to an episode of the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast this morning which talked about kaiju movies, and which suggested that, just as the original Gojira was an allegory for the US bombing of Japan in the Second World War, these modern films can be seen as an allegory for climate change. I think this is pretty clear. Or, rather, it’s sledged into us with a sledgehammer. It’s an important message.

On the whole, I liked the movie. I think Jennifer has been less impressed with them than I have.

Speaking of kaiju, I went into the office earlier this evening to hang with the kittens and get pictures. I didn’t get very many. In fact, I only got one that I liked. It’s this one:

This is Misdemeanor poking her head into the tower track toy that they like. Sometimes they will put their whole body in, with just their butt and tail sticking out, and I really wanted that picture but alas the kittens weren’t cooperating. It’s an okay picture. Slightly blurry. The lighting in the office is difficult to work with, but I applied the native “enhance” filter that made it all look slightly less yellow. Enh. Let me know what you think.

In other news, I’ve submitted twenty-five stories this year so far. I’ve gotten eleven rejections so far: nine form rejections, and two personal. A personal rejection is nice, because it generally means it’s made it past the slush team into the hands of an editor. Still, I have fourteen outstanding. I’m aiming for one hundred rejections this year.

Okay, that’s oversimplifying things. Obviously, I want to sell stories so I can make some money off this fiction writing thing. But I got a wee bit of flack on social media; one correspondent commented that if they got that many rejections they would stop and assess their entire writing process, because it meant they were doing something wrong. I disagree with that assessment; there are a lot of stories out there, a lot of writers, and not that many well-paying markets.

Besides, I took 2020 off completely from submitting anything, reassessing my entire fiction output, and that did me no good at all. Well, I did submit one story to a writing contest, but got a standard “didn’t even make it to the next round” letter.

Shooting for 100 rejections doesn’t mean I really want to damage my ego anymore than it already is. It really means 100+ submissions, assuming that at least one of those submissions ends in a sale.

Here’s hoping.

Daily kitten pics for Thingadailies!

Cats, Thingadailies

A wee bit of purrspective

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Despite ample opportunities for kibble (see image to the left) this kitten, Filch, would have you know that he hasn’t eaten in EIGHT YEARS today! Not since noon has he received wet food, which is, in kitten years, approximately forever (give or take). When I opened the door to the office where we keep Filch and his siblings (Pilfer and Misdemeanor, for those who aren’t keeping track), there was much whining and crying going on. We have seen these kittens eat kibble, so we know they know how to do so (though the kittens dispute this; fake mews, and all) and find it yummy enough. They just don’t get to eat wet food as often as they want, which is all the time forever.

Goofy kittens.

These pictures aren’t the best pictures I’ve taken, but in my defense it’s hard to take a good picture of  a kitten who is rapidly chomping down on the few remaining molecules of wet food (Pilfer and Misdemeanor having eaten their fill already). So filters were applied.

Filch is also kind of a meanie. I separate the wet food into three piles when I put it on the floor, because we have seen Filch actually reach out a paw and growl to prevent the others from getting to the food where he is eating. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, in other news, I finally got a photograph of our new (to us) car:

Meet Clovis! It’s a 2017 Toyota Prius. The color is called “sea-foam green”. We weren’t sure when we looked at the initial photos on CarMax. Was it green? Was it blue? When CarMax did the initial inspection, they reported it as “green, with blue flecks”. But it turns out if you have your vehicle’s VIN, you can look it up on Toyota’s website and get all the specs on your car, including paint job. Which is how we found out it’s official color.

Here’s hoping no more trees drop down on our cars.

Cat pictures a day for Thingadailies!

Cats, Thingadailies

Whiners and Diners

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These three little ingrates have done nothing productive all day. They just slept in their fuzzy bed (which you can see in this picture) and occasionally whined at us when it was time to feed them. They have particular desires when it comes to feeding time. One full can of wet food, please, on a large plate so that Filch (in the middle) can eat his without growling at the others.

I took this image on my morning break when I went through the office where these guys are staying to get to the bathroom. I like that they’re all looking up at me. Mostly. I cropped the original picture by about a third and then applied Google’s built-in “Enhance” filter.

Kitten pics for Thingadailies!

Cats, Thingadailies

So you thought…

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…that I would post an entry a day with a kitten (or two) a day for the month of February? Well, so did I. But between school and work and writing and editing stories for Daikaijuzine, I found myself somewhat busy. Still, kittens will kitten, so I took a couple of pictures the other day!

This is Pilfer. I like super close-up pictures of kittens and cats for some reason, so this one (which I actually took in selfie mode because he was facing away from me — fortunately you cannot see my face) I had to keep.

And Misdemeanor! She’s very whiny. I caught her in a thoughtful moment. Who knows what she’s pondering?

I didn’t edit either picture much, aside from applying the phone’s built-in “enhance” filter. The lighting in our home library, where these pictures were taken, is pretty bad, so the filter was necessary to make the pictures tolerable. I think I’m getting better at framing the shots.

Still no pictures of the new car, I’m afraid. Every time I head out to run an errand (approximately once per week in these plague times) I think to myself, as I head out the door, that I ought to take a picture of the car. But something happens when I get to the bottom of the stairs, and the thought flies from my head. Soon, though!

Kittens for Thingadailies!