Sometimes I get the strangest photos because of low light conditions, flash that doesn’t go off, subject moving, me moving, the whole world moving, the rotation of the solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy….and the Big Bang. Some of these results just make me laugh!
Dougy the Alien
The window by the dining room table is Andy’s preserve. That’s where he watches the rose-bush birds and people doing people things outside.
This morning, however, I heard cat chattering, something I haven’t heard Andy do, but Dougy does for any prey he sees and can’t get. The other day, he was chattering at a wasp!
Yes, today, Dougy was on the windowsill chattering, and, presumably (since Andy told me so and I didn’t bother to verify…!) Dougy is the kitty that knocked the plant off the windowsill trying to catch birds through the screen.
Bad boy!
Dougy stopped chattering long enough to check out what I was doing. He hates the flash on my camera, and suspected that was coming next!
The flash didn’t go off, and Dougy soon went back to worrying the house sparrows through the window.
I put the plant back up on its perch before I took these photos, of course. Amazingly enough, it’s remained in place through three cats using that sill for bird watching. Today is the first mishap it’s suffered. Fortunately, it landed in a way that did little damage to it or its pot.
“Good potted plant! As much as I neglect you, you should be dead!” I thought.
Enough for today. Andy just stopped by to get his chin and whiskers rubbed.
For reasons I can’t discern, my computer desk reminds me of the messiness of a life unexamined.
A bit too philosophical for something that, simply, is house cleaning deferred in favor of writing this post. (You aren’t at fault! I’d write it even no one read it!)
This is the Easter Season, and I need some time to reflect on the clutter that stands between living a life that brings glory to God or one that satisfies some temporal, trivial end. The Lenten season, for me, isn’t one of sacrificing chocolate treats for spiritual gain or giving up television for 40 days.
[At this point, most readers are thinking, “A holy roller! Dang! I read this for funny things about his cats, Andy and Dougy! There aren’t any cat photos or videos today, either! Rats!” That’s OK, too, but I remind you Andy is named after Saint Andrew, one of the apostles of Christ and patron saint of Scotland.]
I suppose my upbringing in the Presbyterian church may have something to do with my somewhat dour attitude toward observance of this most important holiday on the Christian calendar.
The way I find best to find expression of my faith and a sense of the true meaning of Easter is to listen once again to J.S. Bach’s “Saint Matthew Passion”. Think of it as soul cleaning. No bunnies need apply.
[The first one has subtitles, but a very tedious tempo I find too slow for my taste; the second has a better tempo, has a cleaner audio track, but lacks subtitles…!]
Listen if you have the time, or to as much as you have time for. Bach is balm for a life-torn soul or a soul looking for more meaning in Easter than Cadbury eggs, the Easter Bunny, and the emphemera of the secular observance of the holiday.
I no sooner posted yesterday’s whine about nothing was happening here, than Dougy committed the most foul of things: He actually spread out on Andy’s new favorite thing, the mailer from Adrian Smith, Nebraska 3rd Congressional District Representative.
Andy was aghast!
You remember the mailer, right?
Andy’s still defending that Smith mailer.
There he was. Dougy noticed Andy’d stepped away from the Smith mailer for a potty break, and plopped right down on “The Mailer”!
I assure you, THIS is not Andy!
La-la-la! Quite pleased with himself, too, that little rascal!
Andy is about to settle Dougy’s account!
Things began to happen faster than my little point-and-shoot Nikon could keep up — notice how less focused the story becomes once Andy pops up!
“Look here, Fluffybutt! I’m going to rip that tail off!”
Andy was not amused. The routing was on, Andy Victorious! RAWR!
Andy oversees the mailer. No Dougy in sight!
Just before Andy got bored guarding his territory and ran off to bird watch out the bathroom window….
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Shortly before I finished this, Andy and Dougy were working as a team to track down and eat some sort of flying insect that slipped in through the open door, most likely through one of the holes Andy (my screen climber) made in the screen.
They have their priorities! Mostly it is to just get along with each other, sleep, eat, wrestle, play “Catch the Antelope”, and to avoid upsetting each other.
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Also, I picked Dougy up this morning, noticed a lump on his butt feathers. Yep! A big mat that managed to slip notice when he was groomed or formed after. I didn’t have anything to trim it out, so pulled gently on the hair till I found the start.
With a small protest from Dougy, I managed to pull it off in one piece since it was mostly made up of loose hair that tangled on a few attached ones. Don’t worry! I was careful to minimize Dougy’s discomfort.
Ordinarily, Dougy is very interested in mats or hair removed from a pet brush. I don’t know what the attraction is, but he’ll eat cat hair if I don’t catch him first!
Dougy and Andy spend a lot of time hanging out with me. Dougy prefers to rest by my arm on my computer desk, but Andy’s become a computer percher, possibly because it makes him taller than me or because of the heat off the machine.
Sometimes, though, Dougy sneaks a perch on Andy’s territory. The infamous tub incidents are examples documented in this blog.
Next to the computer is a mini-stereo that’s part of Andy’s territory. Dougy likes it, too. He took a little time to do some wash up.
Andy wasn’t taking care of business, so Dougy stopped by and perched on Andy’s spot.
Dougy still prefers to snuggle with my arm, so he soon gave up Andy’s perch to join me on the desk.
Andy forgave me after I gave him his medicine. In time, he thought I was safe to be around again, and took a perch on my computer. His tail caught my fancy, Andy’s magical tail…
I should know better than to be mesmerized by Andy’s big, fluffy tail. I’ve see it in action before.
Pretty tail, Andy! Prrretty taaail! 😉
Yesterday was a busy one for the cat brothers. Andy was especially busy watching sparrows fly to and from the yellow rose bush outside the north bathroom window.
It’s a favorite bush of mine, too, though mostly for that short season when it is in flower.
Sparrows and roses! What a plant!
In a few weeks, perhaps, the bush will look like that. Now, it’s just on the verge of putting out leaves.
It is a lovely old fashioned yellow climbing rose with a soft, floral scent.
While Andy was being a good boy, Dougy had other matters on his mind.
Dougy may or may not have knocked over the wastepaper basket — that’s more Andy’s style — but he’s the one I found in the act of scattering trash around.
It was a busy day. 😉
One thing I find fun about editing videos is finding the right combination of length and content.
The two videos below are essentially the same content, other than title, caption, and music. Your job, if you chose, is to decide which better enhances the visual of me waking Dougy while he tries to sleep by my arm when I’m on my computer.
Example ONE: “Wake the Kitty Time!” ~ ~
Example TWO: “Don’t Wake the Kitty!” ~ ~
What do you think?
Nebraska 3rd Congressional District’s Adrian Smith recently mailed his constituents an anti-ACA mailer. I tossed my copy pretty much unread: Nothing new here!
Franked mail from a Congressman: You and I pay for it, and it is one of the many benefits of office.
It took minutes for the boys to find it and retrieve it from the trash.
🙁 Cats!
Little, sharp teeth make retrieving things from the trash a snap!
Of course, once retrieved from the trash, the boys spent the next few minutes playing “king of the mountain” on it — click back to Post 365, to see Andy claiming the mailer yesterday. http://phainopepla95.com/2014/04/05/post-365-a-rippin-good-time/ 🙂
I retossed the mailer several times, but the boys retrieved it from the trash each time. I gave up: this is the most favorite piece of retrieved trash ever!
I take back all those nasty things I said about you, Adrian. My cats think I was out of line: They love your mailer! Mrow!
The evidence of their enthusiasm is there, believe it!
Bite, scratch, chew! What a wonderful plaything is your mailer! Primo stuff!
Andy’s so impressed, he’s calling off his run for your job. Seriously!
Of course, his campaign poster now becomes collectable, a piece of Nebraska political ephemera.
After all you’ve done for my cats, I should mail you one!
My own mother once said, “What your father and I love most about you is your quirky sense of humor!” I thought that was pretty sweet of her to share that, and I mostly agree with the assessment.
Maybe you remember this example of my idea of funny, a “poster” I created from a photo of Andy.
I have no shame: I recycled this image I earlier characterized as a “FAIL”….
The irony, what’s funny (to me), is Andy is a gentle soul, but photographs of him often look like he is angry, the curse of his Persian cat mug.
I suppose I need to recycle a Dougy photo now, for the sake of equal representation of the amusing qualities my boys share.
…but not I: “J’accuse, Monsieur Chat! J’accuse!” Dougy’s perfidy is called out!
For some reason, Dougy being accused in French of perfidious behavior strikes me as amusing…erm…”quirky”! Of course, he looks guilty as heck, too, though his reaction is more like “Is that something to eat?”, not remorse when the Finger of Justice bears down on him for stealing his brother’s tub.
By now, you must be wondering what all that had to do with April Fools’ Day. Well, nothing. I’m not a person who enjoys pranks on others. Further, I am humorless when pranked, something you can verify easily enough at your own peril!
What is interesting about today, though, is this:
A curious note about today, April Fools Day 2014…
I don’t think numbers that read the same forward and back are technically “palindromes”, but it is curiously satisfying, nicely symmetrical, unique for the first day of April and won’t occur again till 4-1-2114. I don’t plan on being around!
“March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb“.
Or comes in like a lamb and leaves like a lion.
Or comes in like a lion, is a lion off and on during the month, and leaves like a lion: Today is another snow day in Western Nebraska!
Andy isn’t sure if he wants to get closer to see the snow out the front door.
Um…! No thanks, says Andy. Dougy’s on the cat tree trying to decide if he wants to look outside or not.
Andy looks out his favorite window roost…snow there, too!
What Andy saw.
Dougy (front) beckons Andy to come see the snow out the back door. (Neither moves from his warm spot in this photo, though.)
It’s blowing hard, but not at blizzard speeds…yet!
Either they’ve seen it before or they don’t want to see it again: The snow continues to accumulate!