Good news on several fronts: my back is much better (though still sore), and spring has arrived at last, with temperatures predicted to be in the mid 70s (23º-24ºC) today and tomorrow. The time draws nigh for the Albatross to take wing, and of course I’m nervous, for any criticism of religion is considered blasphemous in the U.S. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Princess is annoyed at the paparazzi, though the cherries are blooming well (a good harbinger for my pie future!):
Hili: You are taking pictures again! Not a moment of privacy.A: Just one, OK?
In Polish:
Hili: Znowu robisz zdjęcia, ani chwili prywatności.
Ja: Tylko jedno, dobrze?
And the lagniappe, from the cherry orchard.
Flowers at the top open last. The blooming orchard, day 6.
Hili loves to climb the trees, but I’m not sure why. There are no mowses up there, and I doubt she gets birds.
So pleased you’re feeling better, Jerry, you heathen blasphemer! = )
Cats certainly love to climb, whether it’s your curtains or a tree. Is it about getting to safe place and a look-out? Or is it about exploring? Those are the best explanations I can think of.
Since I’ve joined WEIT, I’ve always wondered about one thing in particular: Why do you get up so early? The first news of the day always appears before 5 AM. Most students go to bed around the time their professor wakes up. I do like it though, because it allows me to read WEIT while having a lunch.
I could ask other people why they get up so late!
Haha, true! In my case, I read detective novels till midnight and then sleep till 9.
Hill likes a nice vantage point to see the mice!
A queen (or princess) must have suitable parapets whence to survey her vast dominion.
Clearly, Hili goes to the top of the tree for the same reason the bear went over the mountain…to see what she could see!
and all that she could see was…a bunch of bored, sweaty, sunburnt kids being forced to sing bad songs in 100-degree weather at camp.
Looks like Hili gets a little fired up in that first photo. Attacking the photographer…
Re:
“The time draws nigh for the Albatross to take wing, and of course I’m nervous, for any criticism of religion is considered blasphemous in the U.S.”
We know that you researched the content of your book carefully. You are not shooting from the hip. You stand in a line of illustrious critics of the numinous. It’s going to be alright:
“My own opinion is enough for me. And I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, anyplace, anytime. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass.” (at 45:55 minutes)
As for the blasphemy, well, you are a blasphemer (going by the OED definition). Is that illegal in the US? (If so, I’d like to see that case to go to the Supreme Court.)
It is slightly unnerving that the protest letter against the Charlie Hebdo PEN award has by now gathered more than 140 signatures. What is wrong with these people? Do the signatories really don’t understand how free speech works? That we can’t have an “assassin’s veto”?
“In 2011 … Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, was asked if he could understand that moderate Muslims might have been offended by its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. ‘Of course!’ he replied. ‘Myself, when I pass by a mosque, a church or a synagogue, and I hear the idiocies that are spoken in them, I am shocked.'”
Jerry, you should alternate hot packs and cold packs.
My mother once observes, based on the behavior of the family cats, that there are what she called “undercats” and “overcats”. One of our cats was a definite undercat. She liked to lurk under the beds, under whatever furniture she could get beneath, and even liked getting made into the beds. No empty box or bag was safe from her feline inspection and occupation. The other liked to be on top of things – she perched on the backs of chairs and sofas, on the kitchen counter and even the refrigerator. If there was a horizontal surface above floor level, she was on it.
Of my current two cats, Samone is an overcat – as I write, she’s on her favorite perch on the back of the couch. Isa is the first cat I’ve had who seems to be bilocational. Right now, she is also on the back of the couch (at a polite distance from Samone), but she likes to sleep with me under the covers and occupy boxes. When she and Samone tussle, Samone is the pouncer while Isa rolls over so she can bring her hind legs into play (and she has quite a kick). I have a box from my latest shipment of cat food* that has been in my living room for the last five weeks because Isa has made it her private kitty castle. When I bring home groceries in a paper bag, I toss it to the floor. Isa dashes inside and Samone taunts her by pouncing on it.
From the pictures I’ve seen in these dialogues, Hili looks like a definite overcat.
*I order my cat food online from a company in Indiana. It’s $50.00 for a 55 pound bag (which lasts my girls about 3 or 4 months), the price includes shipping and it arrives at my door via UPS either next day or in 2 days. The company claims that all the ingredients are locally sourced, so there’s no Chinese poison in it.
Typo apology: “My mother once observes,” should have been “My mother once observed,”.
Have two full time cats here as well…rescue always.
Emma likes it high but mostly steels every chair I might want to sit in. I do a lot of standing as part of the staff.
Bumper likes it high if on top of my car is high.
I have a standing agreement with every cat I’ve ever had (I’m on my seventh and eighth right now) about where they’re allowed: If I can sit on it, so can they. There are two exceptions to this. The first is my desk chair and the other is my own lap. The reason for the second prohibition is not because I don’t want cats on my lap (I like them there, except when I’m working); the prohibition is on me because I cannot, obviously, sit on my own lap.
However, there is a danger in a cat being on top of a car. Here is a cautionary tale about cats and cars Warning: it could be upsetting to some ailurophiles.
interesting observation and a great reminder not to overlook what is a common behavioral pattern.
Baihu would seem to be both an overcat and an undercat…any invaders show up and he’s under the bed or under the covers, and he also loves being made into the bed. But he also likes to perch on top of the front door, on top of the refrigerator, on the highest shelf of the linen closet, my shoulders….
b&
“My mother once observed, based on the behavior of the family cats, that there are what she called “undercats” and “overcats”.”
Love it! 🙂
I have two overcats.
Glad your back is doing better! Mine on the whole seems better, though there was a bad spell earlier this morning….
b&
Glad the back is better and hope it continues to get more so!
I love the way Hili not only climbs trees but goes all the way up to the teeny tiny branches.
The fact is that Hili has a reckless streak. She has had some dicey dogs in her life, but she–even as a kitten–marched up to them and explained curtly that their beds were now hers and she got away with it. It’s all about body language and self-belief. Admittedly, it took Cyrus a while to see things her way, but he came around in the end.
My kind of cat!
b&
So she’s a tomgirl. 🙂
Which sounds especially wrong when applied to cats.
You tell ’em, Hili!
She’s assertive and fearless, all right, but with one exception, and that is the vet. And perhaps the car, which growls like a lion. And taking the car to the vet..!!
I had a cat, Astrið, who loved riding in a car as long as she was not confined to a carrier. She had three favorite travel positions: stretched out on the front seat next to my leg, paws up on the door looking out the window, or lying on the shelf behind the back seat. Oddly enough, what interested her the most in looking out the window was the sight of buildings – she appeared to realize that coming into a city often meant the end of the trip.
Once I stopped for gas while Astrið was resting in the back window. I noticed these two kids, barely adolescent boys, looking at her. I guess they thought she was a stuffed cat, or maybe one of those ones with eyes that lit up along with the brake lights, because when she stood up and stretched, one of them said, “Holy shit! That’s a real cat!”
Astrið was well-traveled. I took her with me from Wisconsin to Connecticut to Minnesota to Chicago.
She sounds like a wonderful companion! Such happy memories.
Oh noes! That poor, abused little kitty! What she has to put up with to humor her humans!
Not so much abused as spayed and de-wormed and vaccinated. All necessary stuff and For Her Own Good, if only she knew it. How much simpler life would be if you could sit a cat down and explain a thing or two!
I think they sorta get it when you sit down and explain it to them. At least, the general idea of how you know they’re not happy and they have every right to be unhappy, but you’re there and you’re going to do everything you can to make it as not-bad as you can — which, admittedly, still isn’t enough, but you’ll do your best.
b&
So true, Sarah. It’s always so wrenching when you know an animal or a baby is in pain or distress and you can’t reassure them verbally.
Ben, I agree that pets usually are comforted by the presence of their owners–until you’re the one holding them still while they get the shots. 😉