[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is curled up on the warmy spot; Major Tom, a big grey tabby, is sitting next to him. Both have their eyes half-closed, and are looking rather sleepy. ]
It’s napping cats pictures season, so here’s some pictures of napping cats.
Loiosh has been ESPECIALLY photogenic lately.
[ Loiosh is curled up at the front corner of the cat bed, tail draped leisurely over the edge, one forepaw with claws dug into the pretty knitted fabric that covers the heating pad. All of his other paws are gathered up against his belly, and his eyes are mostly closed. ]
It’s dark enough in that corner that I need to turn on the light to get decent pictures, even during the day. Loiosh isn’t always thrilled with this.
[ Loiosh is in the same spot, but meatloafed up, with a cranky look on his face. ]
Some days, though, I manage it just fine.
[ Loiosh is sleeping with his chin resting on my hand; his tail is curled up between the camera and his eyes, but his freckled nose is visible. ]
Anyway I’m really glad the boys are, occasionally, willing to share the warmy spot.
[ Both boys are meatloafed. Tom has his eyes open, but doesn’t look very awake. Loiosh has meatloafed his front half almost off of the warmy spot entirely, with his head hanging over the edge. ]
Alas, there’s still more slapfights than snuggles.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a blue bow tie, is tucked under a black folding chair. He’s hunkered down, ears tilted out to the side, looking generally unhappy. ]
Loiosh has had Strong Opinions about the vet office since the time, a bunch of years back, when someone poked a nerve while giving him a shot. I can’t blame him, that HURTS.
I’ve had no luck getting him reconciled to going since then, either. I guess the memory of pain is harder to overcome than the memory of fear. Ahh well; maybe the monthly visits from now on will help.
The January visit did NOT help. He spent a bunch of time at the door, but not with the desire to cause problems on purpose like SOME PEOPLE I COULD MENTION; he just wanted OUT. The blep was simply good luck on my part.
[ Loiosh is standing at the door to the exam room, looking very impatient, except for the part where he’s in the middle of licking his nose and his tongue is all curled. ]
But this visit was worse than most.
Why is that, you ask?
[ Loiosh is laying in the cat stroller, facing the back, ears stuck out to the side. Most of the shot is taken up by his hinder parts. ]
What horrible fate awaited him on this day?
[ A closer view of Loiosh’s head, He’s stubbornly turned his face away from the camera. His ears are angry. ]
He hadda get his EARS CLEANED.
[ Loiosh has finally turned to face the camera, with the most pitiful look on his face. Both ears are still flat but at this angle the damp fur around each one is especially noticeable. This has NOT been a good day. ]
& then the next day when he realized I was gonna KEEP cleaning his ears EVERY DAY?
ANG ER EY (up until he realized how much it was helping & nagged me to do it the couple times I forgot)
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Major Tom, a big grey tabby, is flopped on the exam table at the vet. His ears are back but other than that he’s visibly at ease, one forepaw stretched out in front of himself. ]
I was pretty concerned the first time I took Tom to the vet; he’d only been inside for a couple months, & his only car ride up until then had taken him away from everything he knew to an entirely new place.
… as it turns out, he was entirely comfortable with it all. I guess he decided that car rides meant he was going with, & as long as he was with his person, all was well. Even with the poking. He took his turn on the table with complete equanimity, & then, when he was done & it was Hades’ turn, he prowled the exam room, curious & not at all concerned, even pausing to give the vet tech a friendly leg rub.
He was even okay with the visit after that, which is when he got fixed. I was concerned he’d be mad — he had reason to be! — but he was so calm I set aside the cat carrier I’d been talked into bringing, & walked him, leash & all, past every critter in the waiting room & out to the car.
So these days, when we go to the vet & Tom is entirely serene, I’m not surprised. But it’s still pretty cool.
We were sitting in there for a while, so h got bored & decided to explore.
[ Tom’s hinder end, caught midleap from exam table to counter; his forepaws have just touched down, his tail is up and to the left, and yep, his balls ARE furred in black. ]
He wandered the counter, sniffing at various bottles, dislodging some pretty shells someone had left there, & accidentally weighing himself (about 16 pounds, but he was moving pretty quick). Then he decided it was time to show his appreciation for being allowed to come with, which he expressed, as he always does, by kneading while standing up, or, as a former roommate of mine put it, ‘prancing like a Lipizzaner’.
[ Tom’s sitting on the counter, looking nearly straight up. One forepaw is planted; the other is up in the air and curled tight. ]
Then it was exam time, which went quickly, though he did take a few moments to give various vet personnel headbonks.
& then it was time for Loiosh to have blood taken, which they do elsewhere in the office, which means opening the door, which Tom tried to sneak out of.
Not with any sort of thoughts of escape. No, Tom wanted to be able to 1) explore, & also 2) cause problems on purpose.
After about his fifth attempt he was declared ‘naughty’. I distracted him for a while.
[ Tom’s back on the exam table. He’s facing in the general direction of the camera, getting a good chin scritch. His head is a bit blurry. ]
But then it was apparently naptime, cos he hopped back over to the counter & found himself a good spot.
[ He’s flopped on the counter, visibly at his ease. Part of his vast pale belly is showing, his hindpaws are stretched out, and one forepaw is tucked underneath his chest. He’s looking almost, but not quite, directly at the camera. ]
Now Loiosh wasn’t near so dignified about it all, but that’s a tale for next week.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is laying on a jewelry design board. His head is resting on one paw and his ears are tilted slightly to the side. One forepaw is draped possessively over a necklace made from brown, grey, and turquoise-colored beads. ]
Apparently my HORRIBLE BOY has decided that I’m not allowed to make jewelry. I don’t know what his reasoning is; possibly he just thinks I need a break, which is fair, I DO, but as I’ve explained to him a BUNCH of times, I really enjoy making jewelry, so perhaps he could try interrupting me while I’m doing something a lot less fun? Which, of course, he doesn’t consider a good argument at ALL, because he’s a JERK.
Anyway he spent probably twenty minutes after he jumped up onto the workbench shoving his head into my hands for LOVE, & turning around repeatedly, & hunkering down in various spots, before he actually laid down properly, so I did manage to get that entire necklace strung. But that’s all I was allowed to do — other than take a bunch of pictures, because of COURSE.
[ A closer view of Loiosh in the same spot, focusing on his nose and on the paw that’s denying me the ability to work on things. ]
After a couple minutes, & some annoyed wiggling, he settled down & fell asleep, apparently satisfied that I’d given up. TBH he wasn’t wrong.
[ Loiosh has turned his head to the side so it’s resting on one foreleg, & tucked the other under himself. His ears are relaxed, and his eyes are entirely closed. ]
I did a couple things outside, started the fire, brought Remy in, chatted with Jasper; a half hour, maybe forty minutes went by, & then Loiosh stood up …
… turned himself around and laid back down.
*siiiiiiiiiiiigh*
[ He’s sprawled over even more of the design board now, one hindleg tucked up against his belly, the other stretched out over the edge of the board. His head is resting on a forepaw, which is, in turn, resting on a pair of jewelry pliers. ]
He’s a BIG JERK.
Adorable, though.
[ A closer view of his sweet lil face. ]
I gave up & went upstairs to work on something I was ALLOWED to do.
Bout forty-five minutes later CJ, who’s been itching to make a necklace & decided he was done waiting, sent me this picture:
[ Loiosh is still flopped in the same spot, but he’s picked up his head, and one eye is open. The other is still firmly shut. His ears are perked forward, alert, but he’s definitely glaring at the camera. ]
… what?
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh’s face, skilfully rendered in a digital painting. He’s looking directly at the viewer, one ear tilted slightly back, whiskers on the same side perked forwards. The background is a starfield against a teal, blue and purple nebula; his eyes are starlit blue. ]
A while back a discord friend was bored & asking for suggestions of something to paint, so of course I hauled out a pic of Loiosh. A funny one — remember when I was still taking jewelry pictures outside, & he came over to help? One of the ones where there was a piece of straw on his forehead & I kept giggling about it? Yeah.
& what I got back a couple-three days later was THAT. My HEART, it’s just so beautiful, that’s my BOY. He’s the handsomest, & that’s his beautiful soul shining through.
So very many thanks to Ethemreal, who got bored one day & captured Loiosh’s inner essence in pixel form. Want to see more of its work? (Yes, Ethemreal uses it/its pronouns!) Have a look over here! It does really gorgeous stuff.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, is sitting underneath a metal picnic table, glaring up at the camera. ]
Once I’d separated out the leafpile pictures from the park, what I was left with was … pretty much Loiosh glaring at the camera.
Or looking at it, that’s fairly possible too, but he DOES have his opinions & he’s NOT shy about them, so I’m gonna go with glaring. Anyway that’s funnier.
But … judge for yourself. Look or glare?
[ Loiosh is in the back of the van, sitting next to the open side door. Bright sun is shining on his fur. One ear is tilted just slightly back. He’s looking at the camera. ]
What do you think?
[ He’s sitting on the front passenger seat, facing the driver’s seat. His head’s tilted down a bit but his gaze is still aimed right at the camera. That same ear is tilted just about the same amount. ]
Glare? Look?
[ Loiosh is in the exact same spot, though the camera’s pulled back a bit to show his entire body. He’s sitting up, forepaws neatly collected in front of him, left hindleg stuck just a bit out to the side. His whiskers and ears are both relaxed, and his eyes are closed; he is asleep. ]
To be fair it WAS a lot of walking. I was pretty wiped out too.
Also? Yeah, I giggled at him.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green halter, is caught in the middle of turning around in a pile of autumn leaves that’s been blown into the corner of a chain link fence. The leaves are only up to around his belly. They go with his fur very well. It’s a bright beautiful Colorado day, with glorious amounts of sunshine. ]
A week or two back Loiosh had his annual exam, during which it was discovered that one of his kidney values was slightly high. (All of his other numbers are GREAT, which I keep reminding myself of every time I remember he’s FIFTEEN WTF.) Since his current painkiller can have the side effect of causing kidney troubles, it was clearly time to change his arthritis treatment to something else.
‘Something else’ is a monthly shot, which is VASTLY easier than getting liquid meds into his face every three days, if significantly more expensive ($70/month; buy more soap!). It is, also, it turns out, a LOT more effective. He’s feeling SO MUCH better. (He’s being SUCH an asshole.)
… which means I gotta get him out of the house more. I need to get ME out of the house more, so that’s fine, I’ll just take him to the park once a week or so.
He found a leafpile. & then he found the BEST SPOT.
[ Loiosh, seen side-on to the camera, has his ENTIRE FACE shoved into the leaves. His ears are VERY intent. His whiskers are down there somewhere. ]
I don’t know what smelled so awesome, but it was, apparently. AWESOME. I think I took ten or fifteen pictures while he had his face shoved in there.
But then! Wait! What is that he sees?
[ He’s lifted his head and is looking directly forward. His ears are perked, his whiskers intent. ]
It’s a TREE.
[ He’s looking up the trunk of a grey-barked tree that’s pressing its way into a chain link fence. ]
I offered to help him climb, but he turned me down. There were, it seemed, more leaves to sniff.
[ He’s laying down in the leaves, showing off his blue bow tie. He’s looking just to the left of the camera, eyes squinted just slightly shut, ears and whiskers both relaxed. He looks extremely happy. ]
… what?
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is laying on my footstool, his front half draped possessively over Jasper’s box of fancy cereal. One hindleg is draped casually over the edge of the footstool. ]
Occasionally he’s horrible, but I don’t get pictures of that near as often as I do of him on the warmy spot. That’s because of the shrieking. Which I’m doing. When he’s being horrible. Look, he’s fifteen years old & STILL exhausting.
Jasper did get his cereal back, but it took a while.
ANYWAY peaceful sleeping cat, let’s gooooooo
[ Loiosh is absolutely flopped on the warmy spot, which is now on a pillow, underneath a lovely crocheted fabric in purple, blue, teal, and green, perfect mermaidy colors. One forepaw is curled as if he fell asleep while kneading. Both hind legs trail off the pillow. ]
So. Asleep. He didn’t twitch a whisker when I came in for the closeup.
[ A closeup. He’s got the side of his face smushed into the nice soft fabric. His one visible eye is just barely open, but not like he’s waking up, more like he’s so asleep he forgot to entirely close it. ]
I really do need to get another warmy spot — there are frequent slapfights — but that’s waiting til we have the last four solar panels up. In the meantime, sometimes Loiosh winds up on my pillow. Usually within two(2) inches of my face.
[ A pretty close view of Loiosh’s face, clearly taken with the flash on. He looks mostly asleep but his ears are just slightly tilted to the side. ]
I had to lean WAY BACK to even GET that one, & I only managed one shot before he wiggled his face RIGHT ON TOP OF MINE AGAIN. He’s the WORST.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, sits in a bright yellow toddler swing. It’s not moving. He’s staring straight ahead, off to the left of the shot, ears and whiskers perked forward. ]
Loiosh is seriously the most patient. I couldn’t do this with Tom. Neither Chocolate nor Hades would have put up with it. He usually doesn’t even jump out, though he’s done it once or twice. He just … makes that face.
[ He’s looking down, as if he’s considering jumping out. His ears are just barely tilted out to the side, and his whiskers are tucked downwards. ]
Yep, that face.
I offered to lift him out a couple times, but he just sat there, to all appearances perfectly happy to watch the kids. For ten minutes. I almost sat down to wait for him. But then, welp.
[ He’s looking straight into the camera. Meaningfully. ]
The Look.
Once he deploys The Look, it’s time to go. Specifically, to go walking like halfway around the park, I got tired before he did, APPARENTLY I need to go walkies more often but we did have fun.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Remy, a big black dog with a white stripe down his belly and white toes, is standing outside in the middle of an expanse of firmly-trodden dirt, staring with great interest at the camera. His ears are perked forward, and his tail is wagging. ]
I went outside to get cool frost-on-plants pics, but then there was a Remy, so.
He was like WHATCHA DOIN & also LOVE & I DID go over to pet him but also I took pictures first, so he had a couple opinions about that.
[ Remy’s standing at the corner of the house, forepaws up on a rock, staring intently off to the right at the front door. ]
HEY is PAPA COMING? Where’s Papa? Where’s PAPA? Why aren’t you PETTING ME?
[ Remy’s back about where he was standing before, forepaws delicately placed just behind another rock. It’s really too small for him to stand on, alas. ]
WHAT’S over THERE? Is there a CAR COMING? I think there’s a BIRD. Also you COULD be petting me. Or you could throw my rope toy! ROPE TOY ROPE TOY ROPE TOY
[ He’s staring straight at the camera again. A line of dried dog slobber is visible, crossing his muzzle from left to right, about an inch back from his nose. Look, it’s just like this here. ]
Petting? Rope toy? Broom? You could throw my broom! LOVE I NEED LOVE
why YES I petted him. You don’t leave a love emergency untreated. Then, of course, the rope toy.
Eventually I was allowed to leave, but it sure took a while.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Remy, a big black dog with a white stripe down his belly and white toes, is standing outside in the middle of an expanse of firmly-trodden dirt, staring with great interest at the camera. His ears are perked forward, and his tail is wagging. ]
I went outside to get cool frost-on-plants pics, but then there was a Remy, so.
He was like WHATCHA DOIN & also LOVE & I DID go over to pet him but also I took pictures first, so he had a couple opinions about that.
[ Remy’s standing at the corner of the house, forepaws up on a rock, staring intently off to the right at the front door. ]
HEY is PAPA COMING? Where’s Papa? Where’s PAPA? Why aren’t you PETTING ME?
[ Remy’s back about where he was standing before, forepaws delicately placed just behind another rock. It’s really too small for him to stand on, alas. ]
WHAT’S over THERE? Is there a CAR COMING? I think there’s a BIRD. Also you COULD be petting me. Or you could throw my rope toy! ROPE TOY ROPE TOY ROPE TOY
[ He’s staring straight at the camera again. A line of dried dog slobber is visible, crossing his muzzle from left to right, about an inch back from his nose. Look, it’s just like this here. ]
Petting? Rope toy? Broom? You could throw my broom! LOVE I NEED LOVE
why YES I petted him. You don’t leave a love emergency untreated. Then, of course, the rope toy.
Eventually I was allowed to leave, but it sure took a while.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is flopped halfway out of a cat bed on my bed. One foreleg is stretched out in front of him. He is extremely asleep. ]
(look this is like Loiosh eating grass, there’s just gonna be a LOT of warmy spot pics this winter)
But I mean. They’re both SO SO HAPPY. Look at Tom!
[ Major Tom, a big grey tabby, is curled up in the same bed, though it’s now covered in a cat-sized crocheted (or possibly knitted) blanket in shades of brown, tan, and olive greens. It goes very well with Tom’s coloring. He has one forepaw casually draped over the edge of the bed, ears and whiskers alert but relaxed. He does look very contented. ]
The warmy spot is one of Tom’s favorite things about becoming a housecat, I think. To be fair, he’s got a lot of favorite things — petting, always-full kibble & water bowls, sofas, the roof — but the warmy spot is definitely up there. There have been several slapfights over it already; I need to look into getting a second warmy spot, now that I know we have power for it all year if we’re careful.
That way they could BOTH be this ridiculous.
[ It’s a slightly closer view of Loiosh. He’s still deeply, comprehensively asleep. ]
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is curled up asleep in a cat bed on my bed. His forepaws are draped over the edge of the bed, and his tail is arched over his hindpaws. ]
It’s been well over a year since the boys had their warmy spot.
… it was gonna happen. There wasn’t really a good place for it in the cabin, & once we got here, there wasn’t anything like enough power to run a heating pad all day & all night until VERY recently.
It was long enough that Loiosh kind of … forgot how to sleep in it. All the pictures I took of him hunkered up looking uncomfortable, or standing with three paws in & one out, visibly going HOW, wound up blurry, & I will respect his desire for me to not share them with the general public.
But him being adorable once he remembers the warms & flop protocol? Those pics are fair game.
[ Loiosh has awoken. More or less. His head is up, he’s staring just off to the left of the shot, and one eye is still mostly closed. ]
He doesn’t even get that mad about being woken up, because he might be awake, but his buttparts are still warm.
Also his busted knee, which was most of the reason I dug the thing out; it’s slowly getting worse, & the more he can keep it warm, the happier he is. Also why I’ve finally managed to get back in the habit of putting out gooshyfud for the boys twice a day; Loiosh is now on daily anti-inflammatories for the knee, & given it’s a powder, gooshyfud is the best way to get it into him.
… he’s NOT complaining about this, I mean, it’s gooshyfud.
[ A close view of Loiosh’s forepaws, which are gracefully draped over the edge of the cat bed. ]
In the meantime, the important thing: he’s happy. He has his warmy spot, he gets cuddles, he gets to go into town & see people, though not as often as he might like; sometimes he gets to go outside & lay on a straw bale in the sun. He gets gooshyfud twice a day, & if there’s salmon, he gets a piece. He gets LOTS of naps. He’s my sweetest boy.
[ Loiosh is staring off to the left, eyes mostly closed again. His ears are alert but calm. ]
I didn’t bother him too long. I got the pics I wanted. & he kindly gave me a couple headbonks in between shots.
[ Loiosh is curled back up again, this time with all four paws sticking out over the edge of the bed. One of his hindpaws is doing just a bit of stretchy toes, and the tip of his tail is tucked in between two of his legs. ]
But it was naptime. & far be it from me to interrupt naptime, at least more than is, strictly speaking, necessary for a blog post.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Two brown glass spray bottles are flanked by two squat jars of salve. They sit in mottled sunlight, with sparse desert plant life in the background. ]
Y’all know how I get product pictures — find a good flat spot with something green behind it, & have at.
… I live in the desert.
So it’s been what you might call ‘interesting’ & I call ‘kinda frustrating tbh’. Between the lack of greenery & the EXTREMELY bright sunlight, finding the right time & place for product pictures has been … intermittent.
I did find a bit of a solution, though, no thanks to Loiosh …
[ Most of the shot is taken up by Loiosh’s front legs and belly, which are mostly blurry though his paws are sort of in focus. Directly in front of one forepaw is a small tumbleweed-lookin chunk of bush, and just visible at the right side of the pic is part of a salve jar. ]
… who was VERY HALPFUL, but at least he’s pointing out the bit of bush I cut off & used to make that mottled shade on the jars & bottles.
[ The camera has panned to the right; only one of Loiosh’s forepaws is visible at the left, but all the jars and bottles sit to the right. ]
I’d still rather have had a nice bit of haze over the sun, but usually the way we get that here is called a dust storm, & you know, I don’t LIKE those.
Inspired by this, though, I set about doing something similar for the jewelry I’ve been posting. Not wanting to uproot an entire bush to suspend sunwards of the hunk of steel I’ve been using as a photo background, I instead found something else.
[ It’s green plastic mesh, the kind the big bags of corn or onions or potatoes tend to come in. It’s hung over a hunk of wood, loosely tied on with what used to be the drawstring channel at the top. ]
It made NICE mottled shade, much finer than the poor bush, & at the perfect time of day to get that golden hour hue.
[ To the left, the mesh, hung over a narrow board that’s been stuck between two straw bales so it sticks out between the sun and a sheet of metal that’s leaning against the straw bales. ]
Still had a problem, though. Nothing really wanted to focus. It’s been an ongoing thing with this camera — it often insists on focusing on the background, even when I tap directly on the thing I WANT it to focus on, but this was worse; NOTHING was focused. Eventually I got really cranky & tried something else that’s worked for me before, taking pictures at my desk, using my desk lamp for light. Worked for Jewelry January last year, surely it would work again.
I did want something other than the very dark brown wood of my desktop as the background, though, & something vertical, so I dug up the pallet wood book stand I made a couple-three years back, & stuck some earrings in a convenient crack.
[ A pair of earrings, each bearing a piece of white creek glass, hangs from a crack about halfway up a rough wooden book stand. ]
Now that’s good lighting, a nice background, easy enough to make a hook to sit at the top, everything’s looking fine, except for the BUGGERING PICTURES ARE ALL STILL BLURRY —
— & that’s when I wiped off the camera lens with my t-shirt.
(It’s a cheapass phone camera, chill.)
(also hush, I’ve been really tired lately.)
[ It’s a very close view of one of the earrings. Possibly a bit too close, but it is, at least, not blurry. ]
Anyway mostly things are focusing just fine now.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, sits just next to a stack of straw bales, staring up at the camera with blinky eyes. There’s a small piece of straw on his forehead. ]
Difficulty with taking jewelry pictures: An Catte.
But who could resist the blinky eyes?
Or the demanding paw?
[ Loiosh is standing up on his hind legs, and the demanding paw is just out of frame, but obviously placed very deliberately on my thigh. The piece of straw is still there. ]
I did resist The Paw at least long enough to take plenty of pictures, because that’s how it goes. Loiosh was … somewhat patient about it.
[ That one paw is still on my leg; the other is stretched out, also out of frame, but firmly in the direction of the camera. Straw? Yup. ]
There was stabbing, but it was only mild stabbing; I’ve had far worse.
[ Most of the shot is taken up by one of Loiosh’s forepaws, one claw firmly anchored in my pants. The other, just at the edge of the picture, rests against my knee, claws relaxed. ]
& then there was the Holding of Paws. He does love holding paws.
[ The one forepaw is still on my leg, but the other one is being gently placed into my left hand. Loiosh’s whiskers are forward, his eyes intent, and also, there’s still a piece of straw stuck to his forehead. ]
I love my boy. He really is the very most goodest. Also, well, kind of a dork. But that’s how that goes.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A smallish sheepskin lays atop a picnic table, the kind that’s metal grating coated in some kinda rubber to make it slightly less hard. An open tin of kibble sits on the sheepskin, the lid next to it. ]
Having (vigorously) napped, we all woke up with An Energy. What to do with it? We went to the park.
Fountain Creek Park has a lot of cool spots, including a pair of fishing ponds (Loiosh has been offered fish there SEVERAL times) that also feature quite a bit of lovely shade, but, it being chilly, we went to the more open section of the park instead, under one of the pavilions, & grabbed seats in the sun.
I figured Loiosh would happily curl up on the nice cushy sheepskin.
I was wrong.
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a blue bow tie and trailing a rope lead, is sitting under the picnic table, having wrapped himself around the bench on the other side. ]
I GUESS that’s comfortable. For little naked toe beans. On intermittently wet concrete, I don’t even, why.
Eventually I talked him back up onto the table & even convinced him to stand on the sheepskin, mostly by shaking kibble in his general direction.
[ Loiosh is standing on the sheepskin, eating out of the tin of kibble. ]
Not that he wanted to stay there? For … reasons?
[ Loiosh’s right hindpaw, which is the only one left on the sheepskin he’s in the middle of walking away from. ]
AND THEN the best part of the day: a couple young folk showed up (a kid maybe? eight?? & his older brother, maybe? fifteen??). The kid dragged his older brother over because, you know, there was a cat, & could he pet the cat? & y’all know the entire drill.
EXCEPT FOR THE PART where the kid looked at Loiosh’s face (he was pretty hunkered) & declared that he had a Grinch face.
AND HIS OLDER BROTHER BROKE INTO THE GRINCH SONG.
IN THAT OCTAVE.
PERFECTLY IN KEY.
That thing’s actually pretty damn low, too.
I kinda stared in awe until he was done, then applauded & thanked him because THAT WAS AMAZING also I WILL NEVER FORGET GRINCH FACE & yeah I HAVE told Loiosh he’s doing Grinch Face since then.
No pics or video, ofc, other peoples’ kids & tbh I didn’t think of it in time anyways. But. A DELIGHTFUL memory.
Eventually they wandered off, & eventually Loiosh got comfortable again, if you call this comfortable, which I don’t.
[ Loiosh is hunkered up on the sheepskin, which is now on a corner of the table, in full sun. His eyes are mostly squinched shut but he really doesn’t look comfortable at all. ]
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, is seen from directly above, curled up in a ball on a blue comforter. ]
After the whole ‘mud, snow, & creek glass’ adventure I was ready for a nap. Fortunately, so was everyone else.
Remy was asleep before I even finished sorting all the creek glass out into a handy container & made my way to the back of the van, which is always nice. Jasper was perfectly content to nap in the passenger seat. Loiosh was the only one who needed any convincing, & even he didn’t need much. Though I did have to apologize AGAIN for not taking HIM along to get muddy & wet.
[ Loiosh is staring directly into the camera, both eyes partly closed, one drooping more shut than the other. One foreleg extends towards the camera and out of frame, as if that paw is resting on a convenient leg. ]
He also, as is right & proper, demanded A Love before he let me lay down.
[ Both eyes are almost closed, and his head has drifted downwards a bit. He’s five percent awake at most. ]
We also had to hold paws. He does like holding paws.
[ One of his forepaws is resting on three of my fingers. He’s looking down at my hand, now, and also the sun has come out, so his lovely orange fur is properly lit. ]
After which he laid down on my arm & we both passed out for, like, four hours, it was AWESOME.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Remy, a big black dog with a white chest, is flopped in his crate, which is in the van. He’s wearing a blue halter and looking very alert. ]
Or not, because despite being approximately a quarter lab, Remy DOES NOT LIKE water.
But we were at Fountain Creek, & I wanted to look for creek glass, & Remy was bored, & it was too snowy & muddy for Loiosh (who was BIG MAD but wound up napping about it), so I stuck a leash on Remy & off we went.
They’ve done a lot of work on Fountain Creek in the last several years to help deal with flooding, & maybe half of that is still there (the rest got flooded away), so my usual haunts had gotten VERY rearranged. Add to that the part where, while I don’t mind walking in snow, it’s hard to find creek glass that way, there was really only one place I could get to, & even that spot was tricky.
Remy got his paws wet & also learned that the ground is not always the ground, by which I mean that sometimes trying to stand on snow can be tricky. Plus, you know, running water, & he was definitely at least unnerved. But he was also having a good time, so onward we went.
& finally got to a nice gravel bank, maybe fifty feet wide and a couple hundred feet long, just barely above water level, the perfect spot to find creek glass.
& the first piece I found? Rare blue, an EXCELLENT omen.
I showed it to Remy, so he knew what we were looking for. He tried to eat it.
He also found trash & tried to eat that, but I’m quick. (No I’m not, I took pictures & then hauled him away, I’m just glad he wanted to sniff it good first.)
[ Remy’s standing on a gravel-scattered mud bank, sniffing carefully at what might have once been an orange juice carton. That’s a guess. ]
Some of the time he was VERY EXCITE, smelling everything, pricking ears at birds and cars and the wind and the water, & generally having a LOVELY time.
[ Remy’s staring off into the distance. The distance consists of a broad, shallow creek, more mudflats, and, on the horizon, trees. ]
But several times he got kinda freaked out, & needed reassurance. He is easily reassured by shoving himself up against a human & getting squished. So I squished him. He made it easy.
[ Remy butt, seen from above. The blur across the bottom of the pic is my belly, because he shoved himself between my legs so I could squish him. ]
He made it easy enough that I could squish him AND take pictures, which is the best way for this kind of thing to go.
No pics of the way back to the van, because I was exhausted & it was through, like, a foot of snow. But Remy learned how much fun it is dancing through a foot of VERY fluffy snow! & then he was very tired & we all had a nap.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness with a blue bow tie, is sitting in his blue cat stroller. He and the stroller are both facing to the right; his ears are perked forward. Behind him is the remains of a beautiful Colorado sunset; otherwise it’s getting pretty dark out. ]
Jasper, as always, traveled to OVFF, & as always I had to pick his ass up in Denver afterwards. I’d planned a bunch of errands on the way up, adding extra time to the trip to account for this, & when everything actually went as planned (I know, whaaaaaat) I wound up with about a half hour to kill, just around sunset.
I was in Denver. There was a park two blocks away. That’s just how it goes, in Colorado.
[ Loiosh is still in the stroller, looking more-or-less at the camera now. ]
My boy was perfectly pleased to be decanted from the van into the stroller, covered with my flannel, & wheeled along to the lakeshore trail. I was less pleased; it was COLD, & even with my vest I was cold, & I really wanted my flannel, but Loiosh is old & creaky & you know how THAT goes.
Fortunately for all Loiosh got bored pretty soon.
[ Loiosh, halfway through the process of climbing down from the stroller. One paw’s balanced on the edge, and my flannel is sliding off his hinder parts. ]
I stepped on his leash just long enough to fling my vest off, fling my flannel on, fling the vest back on over it, and shove my hands into my armpits before it was time to follow Loiosh. Who, other than a brief pause to not actually eat grass …
[ Loiosh is standing on a sparsely graveled path, next to a narrow stretch of mostly-frozen grass. Behind him is taller, winter-dry brown grass. with a few houses in the background. Loiosh is intently staring off to the right. ]
… trot trotted the whole way back to the van, & all I had to do was follow him.
[ In the extreme foreground is the front of the stroller; most of the rest of the photo is a very nice concrete path leading off towards a clump of trees in the background. Loiosh, trailing a length of rope, is a few feet ahead off the stroller and to the right, busily trotting along. ]
It was a lovely little break, the perfect spot to stretch my legs, just long enough for the hot chocolate I’d bought to reach a drinkable temperature. & enough exercise for the boy that he slept all through me rearranging stuff in the van before it was time to head to Arrivals. It’s a nice park; I wouldn’t mind living nearby.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
[ A long, narrow black beetle, perhaps an inch long, crouches on bare sandy dirt, butt up in the air. ]
Around here we call this a stink bug.
It’s not actually a stink bug by definition; it’s a beetle, which is a different classification of insects than bugs, & also its stink defense is not ‘stinks when crushed’ (although it probably does), but rather ‘stinks you when you get too close’. Specifically by standing on its head & spraying stink at you.
… they’re not honestly very stinky. The smell certainly hasn’t stopped Remy from trying to make friends with any stink bug that wanders past. What they are, really, is hilarious, & sometimes I gotta write an entire post just so I can yell BUG BUTT BUG BUTT BUG BUTT about it a couple times.
Can’t come up with a good leading question here, but if you wanna join me in yelling BUG BUTT, you’re very welcome to do so.
originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!
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