I am trying to take care of errands and stuff before tomorrow's storm, so am posting a cat video real fast to get in my daily post. <3
December meme: cats!
Dec. 7th, 2013 08:30 pmSecond post for today, catching me up to today...
For![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eviltammy: cats! With mandatory pictures!
Oh, I can talk about cats for days. But I'll restrain myself. *g*
My current cats are a pair of same-litter brothers that I got from a shelter almost two years ago now (wow). I dithered over their names back then, settling tentatively on Darien and Hobbes, which not only stuck, but turned out to be prophetic.
Hobbes, in particular, matches his namesake: he's a bit skittish, a bit paranoid, a lot jealous, and very cuddly.
The jealousy is the thing that cracks me up most. Hobbes wants all the attention. ALL of it. All the time. Even if he doesn't want it right then, if Darien's getting any attention, he needs to come take it away.
( For example! )
( For another example! )
Dari gets his own back, though. He's a burrower; if he were an outdoor cat, he'd be digging all the little rodents out of their dens. So when he thinks Hobbes is under a blanket, he loses his little kitty mind and goes full-on hunter, digging and digging. He manages to pull the blanket away enough to get a paw in under and start whapping at Hobbes, who gets very annoyed -- usually Dari is so hunter-focused that he's whapping too hard, so Hobbes winds up crying and running away.
This is all a little disconcerting when it's happening in your lap, I must say.
( Dari goes all dramatic when he sleeps, like he thinks he's performing Shakespeare or something. )
( Hobbes... does not think he's performing Shakespeare. Ever. )
They seem to still like each other fine, Hobbes' little jealous self aside; there's lots of chasing and wrestling most days. But they're also totally prepared to entertain themselves:
( Dari contemplating how to catch the bug on the ceiling )
( Hobbes doesn't want to contemplate, he just wants that bug )
But sometimes, togetherness is where it's at:
( Hobbes and Dari pondering the best way to tag-team the bug on the wall )
( And if not always cuddly, at least comfortingly nearby )
♥ ♥ ♥
---
Full request list here, still open!
For
eviltammy: cats! With mandatory pictures! Oh, I can talk about cats for days. But I'll restrain myself. *g*
My current cats are a pair of same-litter brothers that I got from a shelter almost two years ago now (wow). I dithered over their names back then, settling tentatively on Darien and Hobbes, which not only stuck, but turned out to be prophetic.
Hobbes, in particular, matches his namesake: he's a bit skittish, a bit paranoid, a lot jealous, and very cuddly.
The jealousy is the thing that cracks me up most. Hobbes wants all the attention. ALL of it. All the time. Even if he doesn't want it right then, if Darien's getting any attention, he needs to come take it away.
( For example! )
( For another example! )
Dari gets his own back, though. He's a burrower; if he were an outdoor cat, he'd be digging all the little rodents out of their dens. So when he thinks Hobbes is under a blanket, he loses his little kitty mind and goes full-on hunter, digging and digging. He manages to pull the blanket away enough to get a paw in under and start whapping at Hobbes, who gets very annoyed -- usually Dari is so hunter-focused that he's whapping too hard, so Hobbes winds up crying and running away.
This is all a little disconcerting when it's happening in your lap, I must say.
( Dari goes all dramatic when he sleeps, like he thinks he's performing Shakespeare or something. )
( Hobbes... does not think he's performing Shakespeare. Ever. )
They seem to still like each other fine, Hobbes' little jealous self aside; there's lots of chasing and wrestling most days. But they're also totally prepared to entertain themselves:
( Dari contemplating how to catch the bug on the ceiling )
( Hobbes doesn't want to contemplate, he just wants that bug )
But sometimes, togetherness is where it's at:
( Hobbes and Dari pondering the best way to tag-team the bug on the wall )
( And if not always cuddly, at least comfortingly nearby )
♥ ♥ ♥
---
Full request list here, still open!
how I spent my fall vacation
Nov. 24th, 2013 04:16 pmAs usual, this was meant to be an errands-and-chores vacation, with a big side of "and this year, I'm going to write my entire Yuletide story before Thanksgiving!!" determination.
Also as usual, most of that didn't happen. I've been so social in the last couple of months that mostly I just sat quietly in my silent apartment, doing I don't even know what, trying to decompress. I think I played a lot of solitaire, maybe watched some mindless tv. And I actually wound up working through some of it, because of a delayed project on a tight deadline, bah. But I did get some cleaning done, and a few errands run.
One of my chores was going to be "put plastic up over all the windows"; I have to do this every year, and while in theory it's not a big job, I don't like doing it, and always put it off as long as possible (or longer). Partly it's because once it's up, that's it: my house is sealed up for the winter, with little hope of fresh air till spring. But also it always takes longer than it should, and I just don't have it in me to spend an entire day going from window to window taking care of this (I have 10 windows that need the plastic). You're also supposed to do it before it gets frigid out, because if your window frame is too cold, the tape won't adhere properly. I got the two kitchen windows done early in the week, but then never got around to the rest - until Saturday, when I discovered that Sunday the temps were going to plummet, and we'd be having wind chills in the single digits. (And holy crap, they weren't kidding. Current wind chill is 8 F / -13.3 C. brr.)
So I'm still not done -- the living room is very drafty and cold right now -- but I did the bathroom, bedroom, and library yesterday afternoon. I can cope with needing blankets to watch tv or read; I can cope less with freezing in the shower, or waking up to an icy bedroom. So woo, go me. \o/
Yeah. I woke up today to the sounds of tearing plastic. Of course. Darien didn't even let the bedroom plastic alone for 24 hours; by the time I looked over there, he'd torn through it enough to climb inside and sit on the windowsill, happy as a furry orange clam.
So I hauled him out and dumped him on the floor. He jumped up and started for the plastic; I dumped him. We repeated this about four times and then he crouched doubtfully on the floor looking up at me while I taped up all the tears he'd made, and eventually he wandered off. Then I went to brush my teeth, cranky but resigned. Most years I at least get a few weeks of clear plastic before a cat goes all "FREEDOMMMM" on me. I start putting out food for the other cat, when I hear the unmistakable sound of more plastic tearing.
I go into the bedroom, and there's Dari, happily sitting inside the plastic on the window sill on the other, used-to-be-untorn side of the window.
( My rotten cat Darien )
So now his claws are trimmed way back -- which he hates, and which usually I don't have to do because he's really good about not using his claws inappropriately -- and I am staring grimly at a shoppping cart full of thermal curtains, with drapery rods to hang them on. Argh.
I've avoided these for years, because a) pricey, omg, even the cheap ones, when you figure I need to put them up over 8 of these windows (the kitchen's just going to have to be cool, I'm not putting anything heavy in there), and b) room-darkening, which I hate, because it gets so damn gloomy in here when I have dark curtains up. I'm on a busy road, both car and foot traffic, with neighbors barely a driveway's width apart on both sides, so I leave my blinds shut almost all the time, just counting on the light coming through them to keep things bright enough. So I've just done light-colored mini blinds with light sheers over them, and plastic for insulation. But clearly that is no longer enough. Beyond the obvious unwillingness to allow plastic insulation this year, both cats have destroyed one of my street-facing blinds in their determination to always be able to see out (never mind that I leave them a few inches at the bottom of almost every window; they want to sit on the back of my chair, and see out from that level on that window). Every time I fix it, one of them comes over and breaks it in a new spot. (Which is actually kind of hysterical. Annoying, but hysterical. Clearly they think this is the "compromise" we've "agreed on" -- they get this one particular window for a higher view, no matter what.)
This is why we can't have nice things, cats!
*listens to the other cat happily trying to pull the strainer out of the sink, sighs*
Oh well. If nothing else, all of this convinced me that this should be a day for a proper pot of tea, so here I sit with a teapot in a cozy (okay really just wrapped up in a towel), one of my mom's wedding-china teacups, and a sugar bowl and creamer on a salver, as civilized as can be.
... omg tactical error. *slaps paper towel and hand over creamer to keep Hobbes out of it*
( My rotten cat Hobbes )
My life, ladies and gentlemen.
Also as usual, most of that didn't happen. I've been so social in the last couple of months that mostly I just sat quietly in my silent apartment, doing I don't even know what, trying to decompress. I think I played a lot of solitaire, maybe watched some mindless tv. And I actually wound up working through some of it, because of a delayed project on a tight deadline, bah. But I did get some cleaning done, and a few errands run.
One of my chores was going to be "put plastic up over all the windows"; I have to do this every year, and while in theory it's not a big job, I don't like doing it, and always put it off as long as possible (or longer). Partly it's because once it's up, that's it: my house is sealed up for the winter, with little hope of fresh air till spring. But also it always takes longer than it should, and I just don't have it in me to spend an entire day going from window to window taking care of this (I have 10 windows that need the plastic). You're also supposed to do it before it gets frigid out, because if your window frame is too cold, the tape won't adhere properly. I got the two kitchen windows done early in the week, but then never got around to the rest - until Saturday, when I discovered that Sunday the temps were going to plummet, and we'd be having wind chills in the single digits. (And holy crap, they weren't kidding. Current wind chill is 8 F / -13.3 C. brr.)
So I'm still not done -- the living room is very drafty and cold right now -- but I did the bathroom, bedroom, and library yesterday afternoon. I can cope with needing blankets to watch tv or read; I can cope less with freezing in the shower, or waking up to an icy bedroom. So woo, go me. \o/
Yeah. I woke up today to the sounds of tearing plastic. Of course. Darien didn't even let the bedroom plastic alone for 24 hours; by the time I looked over there, he'd torn through it enough to climb inside and sit on the windowsill, happy as a furry orange clam.
So I hauled him out and dumped him on the floor. He jumped up and started for the plastic; I dumped him. We repeated this about four times and then he crouched doubtfully on the floor looking up at me while I taped up all the tears he'd made, and eventually he wandered off. Then I went to brush my teeth, cranky but resigned. Most years I at least get a few weeks of clear plastic before a cat goes all "FREEDOMMMM" on me. I start putting out food for the other cat, when I hear the unmistakable sound of more plastic tearing.
I go into the bedroom, and there's Dari, happily sitting inside the plastic on the window sill on the other, used-to-be-untorn side of the window.
( My rotten cat Darien )
So now his claws are trimmed way back -- which he hates, and which usually I don't have to do because he's really good about not using his claws inappropriately -- and I am staring grimly at a shoppping cart full of thermal curtains, with drapery rods to hang them on. Argh.
I've avoided these for years, because a) pricey, omg, even the cheap ones, when you figure I need to put them up over 8 of these windows (the kitchen's just going to have to be cool, I'm not putting anything heavy in there), and b) room-darkening, which I hate, because it gets so damn gloomy in here when I have dark curtains up. I'm on a busy road, both car and foot traffic, with neighbors barely a driveway's width apart on both sides, so I leave my blinds shut almost all the time, just counting on the light coming through them to keep things bright enough. So I've just done light-colored mini blinds with light sheers over them, and plastic for insulation. But clearly that is no longer enough. Beyond the obvious unwillingness to allow plastic insulation this year, both cats have destroyed one of my street-facing blinds in their determination to always be able to see out (never mind that I leave them a few inches at the bottom of almost every window; they want to sit on the back of my chair, and see out from that level on that window). Every time I fix it, one of them comes over and breaks it in a new spot. (Which is actually kind of hysterical. Annoying, but hysterical. Clearly they think this is the "compromise" we've "agreed on" -- they get this one particular window for a higher view, no matter what.)
This is why we can't have nice things, cats!
*listens to the other cat happily trying to pull the strainer out of the sink, sighs*
Oh well. If nothing else, all of this convinced me that this should be a day for a proper pot of tea, so here I sit with a teapot in a cozy (okay really just wrapped up in a towel), one of my mom's wedding-china teacups, and a sugar bowl and creamer on a salver, as civilized as can be.
... omg tactical error. *slaps paper towel and hand over creamer to keep Hobbes out of it*
( My rotten cat Hobbes )
My life, ladies and gentlemen.
I've been caught up in Burn Notice since my post last night; there's nothing like having people tell you they're reacting completely differently to make you sit down and figure out why you're responding to a show in a particular way! Which is fabulous, as the more I think about it, the more this season crystallizes for me. Who knows if I'm right, but man, I'm having fun right now with it. <3
But that also means I haven't been thinking about other things to post, and I suspect linking back to an earlier post doesn't quite count as new content. *g* And it's 20 minutes to midnight.
So, er. Cat video? This is Darien, just barely 2 years old, hanging out in the bathtub at 4am.
(cats: posting equivalent of a saving throw?)
But that also means I haven't been thinking about other things to post, and I suspect linking back to an earlier post doesn't quite count as new content. *g* And it's 20 minutes to midnight.
So, er. Cat video? This is Darien, just barely 2 years old, hanging out in the bathtub at 4am.
(cats: posting equivalent of a saving throw?)
lots of movies
Jul. 20th, 2013 04:34 pmI wrote most of the first part of this up in Day One back on July 9, to test the app out, then never emailed it to myself to post. Tsk. But it seems a waste to have written this much and not posted it, so even though it's now weeks late, what the heck.
Over the holiday (July 4) weekend, I did a bunch of stuff. Mostly I sweated, because it was incredibly hot. And I sorted out videos of my cats (and, um, uploaded some of them to youtube), and I watched a bunch of movies.
On Thursday (the Fourth), I actually remembered to pop my 1776 DVD into the DVD player, and watched it on the correct day and everything; I always intend to do that, but most years don't quite manage. I've loved that movie for years; I saw it in the theater on a school field trip in 1976 for the Bicentennial, and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. Most of all, I love that we have the restored version to look at now. For years, all I'd seen was the abridged version that made it into the theaters.
So I still get a little happy moment every time I see the restored footage, properly merged into the movie on the DVD. (The Laserdisc - which I had a tape of - had the restored footage, too, but it hadn't gone through post-production, so you could really tell what had been cut. Which was verrry interesting in its own way, really.)
Even more fun, though, was pausing the movie and going to Tumblr for the first time in ages. To my surprise and delight, my dash had a lot of 1776 posts on it, with gifsets and quotes and great stuff. For years I thought I was practically the only person who loved this movie, and it's been amazing to find out that I'm really not. I love the Internet a lot.
The next day, I think, I watched almost all of Independence Day. I missed it when it first came out, because I didn't think it was my kind of thing – I'm not into the Top Gun type of entertainment, really – so years later when I finally watched it I had a happy surprise waiting for me. Still lots of fun! Although wow, it was really blatantly obvious that the women's real roles were to run into the heroes' arms at the end (although the scene with the stripper-mom and First Lady Laura Roslin is always fun, and helps balance that out a bit *g*).
On Saturday, I went out to the movies, in an actual theater, withtherienneand mollyamory. We had two options: The Heat, and White House Down. It was my call, because they'd gone out the day before to see World War Z to get away from blistering temps and a house under renovation. I was the one who had suggested The Heat originally (which I still want to see at some point), but when push came to shove, I figured the over-two-hour movie was better than the under-two-hour movie to beat the 98° day.
So we saw White House Down. It was a little too long for the story it was telling, and it wasn't telling anything deep, but I had a lot of fun anyway.
( White House Down spoilers )
Last weekend was not broiling, for once, but Pacific Rim was out, and we'd all been seeing great things about it, so off we went. Two theater movies in two weeks is really unusual for me, but this sounded like too much fun to miss.
( Pacific Rim spoilers )
Okay, and I'm just gonna wrap that up there, because suddenly there is thunder, andmollyamory called a few minutes ago to tell me there are torrential downpours a few miles away from here. I just hope the promised cool front behind these storm cells really exists. Seven straight days of over-90-degree temps, with heat indexes over 100 much of the time, is just way too much heat for Boston. (Seriously - three days above 90 is rare enough to qualify as a heat wave here. Seven in a row? UGH.) Weather people, you better be telling the truth about it actually dipping down below 80 at some point in the not too distant future! (At least at night? Please? I would like to be able to open a window again and get some fresh air in here.)
Over the holiday (July 4) weekend, I did a bunch of stuff. Mostly I sweated, because it was incredibly hot. And I sorted out videos of my cats (and, um, uploaded some of them to youtube), and I watched a bunch of movies.
On Thursday (the Fourth), I actually remembered to pop my 1776 DVD into the DVD player, and watched it on the correct day and everything; I always intend to do that, but most years don't quite manage. I've loved that movie for years; I saw it in the theater on a school field trip in 1976 for the Bicentennial, and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. Most of all, I love that we have the restored version to look at now. For years, all I'd seen was the abridged version that made it into the theaters.
So I still get a little happy moment every time I see the restored footage, properly merged into the movie on the DVD. (The Laserdisc - which I had a tape of - had the restored footage, too, but it hadn't gone through post-production, so you could really tell what had been cut. Which was verrry interesting in its own way, really.)
Even more fun, though, was pausing the movie and going to Tumblr for the first time in ages. To my surprise and delight, my dash had a lot of 1776 posts on it, with gifsets and quotes and great stuff. For years I thought I was practically the only person who loved this movie, and it's been amazing to find out that I'm really not. I love the Internet a lot.
The next day, I think, I watched almost all of Independence Day. I missed it when it first came out, because I didn't think it was my kind of thing – I'm not into the Top Gun type of entertainment, really – so years later when I finally watched it I had a happy surprise waiting for me. Still lots of fun! Although wow, it was really blatantly obvious that the women's real roles were to run into the heroes' arms at the end (although the scene with the stripper-mom and First Lady Laura Roslin is always fun, and helps balance that out a bit *g*).
On Saturday, I went out to the movies, in an actual theater, with
therienneand mollyamory. We had two options: The Heat, and White House Down. It was my call, because they'd gone out the day before to see World War Z to get away from blistering temps and a house under renovation. I was the one who had suggested The Heat originally (which I still want to see at some point), but when push came to shove, I figured the over-two-hour movie was better than the under-two-hour movie to beat the 98° day.So we saw White House Down. It was a little too long for the story it was telling, and it wasn't telling anything deep, but I had a lot of fun anyway.
( White House Down spoilers )
Last weekend was not broiling, for once, but Pacific Rim was out, and we'd all been seeing great things about it, so off we went. Two theater movies in two weeks is really unusual for me, but this sounded like too much fun to miss.
( Pacific Rim spoilers )
Okay, and I'm just gonna wrap that up there, because suddenly there is thunder, and
mollyamory called a few minutes ago to tell me there are torrential downpours a few miles away from here. I just hope the promised cool front behind these storm cells really exists. Seven straight days of over-90-degree temps, with heat indexes over 100 much of the time, is just way too much heat for Boston. (Seriously - three days above 90 is rare enough to qualify as a heat wave here. Seven in a row? UGH.) Weather people, you better be telling the truth about it actually dipping down below 80 at some point in the not too distant future! (At least at night? Please? I would like to be able to open a window again and get some fresh air in here.)One year ago, I went off to a local shelter in search of a bonded pair of young cats, and wound up with a very sweet pair of 8-month-old brothers I named Darien (orange) and Hobbes (brown & black). *points to icon*
They're now 20 months old and in the last month or so have suddenly stopped looking like kittens; they've turned into young cats instead. And they are still so very cute and sweet. <3
So in honor of their adoptaversary, have some pics!
( Lots more below the cut, because I'm still besotted and could only narrow it down so far )
Yeah, pretty much it's all fun and games for these two. <3
I can't believe they've been here a year already!
They're now 20 months old and in the last month or so have suddenly stopped looking like kittens; they've turned into young cats instead. And they are still so very cute and sweet. <3
So in honor of their adoptaversary, have some pics!
( Lots more below the cut, because I'm still besotted and could only narrow it down so far )
Yeah, pretty much it's all fun and games for these two. <3
I can't believe they've been here a year already!
Day of rest
Jun. 29th, 2012 01:20 pmAlmost two months ago, I asked for today off from work, because I know what Vividcon deadline day is like, and there is no way a few hours in the evening is enough time. This was meant to be a day of panic and flail, with last-minute fixes to the vid (or, worst-case, still filling in black space), and then dealing with exporting and aspect ratios and tech fail.
Instead, it's day of rest*, becausetherienne and I finished our vid last night, exported it, and uploaded it more than 24 hours before the deadline.
Vidding Deadline Threat Level: KITTENS.
Unfortunately, Vidding Deadline Threat Level Adrenaline Reaction: BEARS
So we spent the next hour having little bursts of panic at each other, because how is it possible to be done and uploaded before the deadline? Vid farr is not over till the deadline passes!
Then I went home and we got on the phone and panicked at each other more. See above, re: vid farr and bears.
Then I fell asleep in my chair before I could manage to write a post. I may have been a little tired.
And now? I am home, lounging about my apartment with my cats for the first time in weeks. I can clean my pit of a place, and buy groceries omg, and maybe watch some tv, or read...
I still don't quite believe it, and am braced to find out thattherienne has gotten word from Lum and Ian that we screwed something up horribly, and need to fix it right damn now.
But until that email comes in, it is kittens all around. Yay!
* It is not actually that restful a day so far. I got home last night after midnight to the sight of a van from my oil company pulling away from in front of the house, and the scent of oil in my apartment, but no message from my landlord's son, so I figured it was a problem with his tank that had been handled.
Then this morning I got woken up a bit after 10 by a call saying that he'd found a leak in my tank last night (just a tiny pinhole leak), which had been plugged, but today they were coming to drain & remove the old tank, and install & fill a new one.
So now the basement under my feet is full of oil-company guys yelling and banging and drilling and otherwise using implements of destruction to scare the hell out of my cats.
But still. I am not at work! And I am not over attherienne's! I am HOME! \o/
( So have some kittens )
Instead, it's day of rest*, because
therienne and I finished our vid last night, exported it, and uploaded it more than 24 hours before the deadline. Vidding Deadline Threat Level: KITTENS.
Unfortunately, Vidding Deadline Threat Level Adrenaline Reaction: BEARS
So we spent the next hour having little bursts of panic at each other, because how is it possible to be done and uploaded before the deadline? Vid farr is not over till the deadline passes!
Then I went home and we got on the phone and panicked at each other more. See above, re: vid farr and bears.
Then I fell asleep in my chair before I could manage to write a post. I may have been a little tired.
And now? I am home, lounging about my apartment with my cats for the first time in weeks. I can clean my pit of a place, and buy groceries omg, and maybe watch some tv, or read...
I still don't quite believe it, and am braced to find out that
therienne has gotten word from Lum and Ian that we screwed something up horribly, and need to fix it right damn now. But until that email comes in, it is kittens all around. Yay!
* It is not actually that restful a day so far. I got home last night after midnight to the sight of a van from my oil company pulling away from in front of the house, and the scent of oil in my apartment, but no message from my landlord's son, so I figured it was a problem with his tank that had been handled.
Then this morning I got woken up a bit after 10 by a call saying that he'd found a leak in my tank last night (just a tiny pinhole leak), which had been plugged, but today they were coming to drain & remove the old tank, and install & fill a new one.
So now the basement under my feet is full of oil-company guys yelling and banging and drilling and otherwise using implements of destruction to scare the hell out of my cats.
But still. I am not at work! And I am not over at
therienne's! I am HOME! \o/( So have some kittens )
the pitter-patter of medium-sized paws
Mar. 4th, 2012 06:46 pmAbout a month ago, I finally took the plunge and headed up to a local shelter, after months of waiting for the right moment and then weeks of dithering over the cats on their website. I dragged therienne along with me for moral support and drivingness (she'd been there a few months ago to get her new kitten), as well as the loan of one of her sleepypods.
She heroically stuck it out with me for about four hours as I wandered from room to room in an ever-deepening spiral of indecision, despite having pretty quickly narrowed my choices down to four sets of under-2-year-old pairs (I wanted a bonded pair to keep each other company).
But in the end, I went for a pair of 8(ish)-month-old brothers. <3 They'd caught my eye when they showed up on the website a few days earlier, and they were just as cute and appealing in person.
The adoption went relatively smoothly; they were swamped so I had to wait a while, then I got an adoption specialist who told me all the things I was supposed to do (almost none of which I intend to do), down to what brand and flavor of food to buy, and how to clean the litter. *eyeroll* But I nodded earnestly along, tried to clarify the slightly confusing medical records (which took a full month to sort out), and signed where she told me, and then a volunteer brought the boys out.
They were totally silent on the way home except for one forlorn meep from one of them about halfway home, and then were still totally silent at home.therienne and I figured that no one had talked to them when they were small. :( Poor boys. But they were happy to eat a meal, and explore my bedroom, and by that night were already escaping into the rest of the apartment any chance they got. By the next morning, I gave up; ~12 hours' confinement in one room to adapt to being out of a cage/in a new place was going to have to be enough.
I'm terrible at naming cats; my default is LOTR names, but none of the ones available to me really quite work (or I figure the vet staff would never be able to figure them out/spell them). It generally takes me weeks, and this time is no exception. There are still some alternatives that I may fall back on if these turn out not to stick*, but for now...
( Meet Darien, the lanky, flirty, ladies' man: )
( Meet Hobbes, the solid, affectionate, intrepid explorer: )
( Together, They Fight <s>Crime</s> Red Dots! )
♥ ♥ ♥
Hobbes has found his voice, at least a little; he'll let out little cries now and then. Darien is almost entirely silent, although now he'll let himself grunt when he jumps off of something and lands hard. I know he has a voice, though, because he started wailing in the vet's office when they put drops in his ears in case of mites. (Also, for a skinny, wiry, underfed cat, my god he is strong.) (Ahaha I wrote that before I took them back to the vet for followup shots; he outweighs his brother by half a pound now, having gained about 14 ounces while Hobbesie gained... 2. I think he no longer counts as underfed.)
( We had a bit of a health scare the first week... )
But the extended incubation period is finally over, with both boys still active and hungry and therefore safe. \o/ So now it's also safe to post publicly about them.
So far, it's all working out pretty damn well.
♥
* Okay, so maybe Legolas and Gimli are still in the running, a bit; as are Vinnie and Sonny, and Benny and Ray. But all of those have issues; Hobbes is really too cuddly to be a Gimli; Darien is waaaay too sweet to be Sonny; and I would be forever explaining to people in fandom that no, it's for Ray Vecchio, which would get annoying. And I refuse to call him RayV. So. Darien and Hobbes! (And yeah, I know -- but "Bobby" wasn't working, and "Fawkes" wasn't, either, even though Darien has a foxy face and foxy fur, so Fawkesie would be sort of awesomely punny.) back to the rest of the story
therienne along with me for moral support and drivingness (she'd been there a few months ago to get her new kitten), as well as the loan of one of her sleepypods.She heroically stuck it out with me for about four hours as I wandered from room to room in an ever-deepening spiral of indecision, despite having pretty quickly narrowed my choices down to four sets of under-2-year-old pairs (I wanted a bonded pair to keep each other company).
But in the end, I went for a pair of 8(ish)-month-old brothers. <3 They'd caught my eye when they showed up on the website a few days earlier, and they were just as cute and appealing in person.
The adoption went relatively smoothly; they were swamped so I had to wait a while, then I got an adoption specialist who told me all the things I was supposed to do (almost none of which I intend to do), down to what brand and flavor of food to buy, and how to clean the litter. *eyeroll* But I nodded earnestly along, tried to clarify the slightly confusing medical records (which took a full month to sort out), and signed where she told me, and then a volunteer brought the boys out.
They were totally silent on the way home except for one forlorn meep from one of them about halfway home, and then were still totally silent at home.
therienne and I figured that no one had talked to them when they were small. :( Poor boys. But they were happy to eat a meal, and explore my bedroom, and by that night were already escaping into the rest of the apartment any chance they got. By the next morning, I gave up; ~12 hours' confinement in one room to adapt to being out of a cage/in a new place was going to have to be enough.I'm terrible at naming cats; my default is LOTR names, but none of the ones available to me really quite work (or I figure the vet staff would never be able to figure them out/spell them). It generally takes me weeks, and this time is no exception. There are still some alternatives that I may fall back on if these turn out not to stick*, but for now...
( Meet Darien, the lanky, flirty, ladies' man: )
( Meet Hobbes, the solid, affectionate, intrepid explorer: )
( Together, They Fight <s>Crime</s> Red Dots! )
♥ ♥ ♥
Hobbes has found his voice, at least a little; he'll let out little cries now and then. Darien is almost entirely silent, although now he'll let himself grunt when he jumps off of something and lands hard. I know he has a voice, though, because he started wailing in the vet's office when they put drops in his ears in case of mites. (Also, for a skinny, wiry, underfed cat, my god he is strong.) (Ahaha I wrote that before I took them back to the vet for followup shots; he outweighs his brother by half a pound now, having gained about 14 ounces while Hobbesie gained... 2. I think he no longer counts as underfed.)
( We had a bit of a health scare the first week... )
But the extended incubation period is finally over, with both boys still active and hungry and therefore safe. \o/ So now it's also safe to post publicly about them.
So far, it's all working out pretty damn well.
♥
* Okay, so maybe Legolas and Gimli are still in the running, a bit; as are Vinnie and Sonny, and Benny and Ray. But all of those have issues; Hobbes is really too cuddly to be a Gimli; Darien is waaaay too sweet to be Sonny; and I would be forever explaining to people in fandom that no, it's for Ray Vecchio, which would get annoying. And I refuse to call him RayV. So. Darien and Hobbes! (And yeah, I know -- but "Bobby" wasn't working, and "Fawkes" wasn't, either, even though Darien has a foxy face and foxy fur, so Fawkesie would be sort of awesomely punny.) back to the rest of the story
