23 December 04
The Modern Working Cat
The other day I went into B & L Bikes downtown and was met by a friendly kitty keeping track of the bright shiny new road and mountain bikes. As remarked upon yesterday, cats also play an important role in many bookstores balancing the astral energies of disgruntled used books. Cats have successfully made the transition to the contemporary workplace in many other venues. Blogger David St Lawrence discusses the vital role cats play in the lives of telecommuters and home office workers:
When you are miles away from the frenetic activity and mayhem of the corporate office, you can get lonely and your productivity will lapse. An office cat will know how to cheer you up and will usually know when to remind you to take a mid morning and mid afternoon coffee break.
The affinity of cats towards technology has often been noted. Cats uncannily home in on computer keyboards: after all, to quote the Jargon File, “it is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature”. Cats also have an interest in other forms of technology such as radio gear, as the cat pages of the store Universal Radio make clear.
Here is a site dedicated to working felines everywhere, and includes a state-by-state directory to many of these cats.
17 December 04
Two Lumps
As it’s catblogging Friday, here’s a cartoon featuring two cats who seem awfully reminiscent of certain ones we know. Definitely fun.
5 December 04
Lunch With Cat
Charlie here is, as always, interested in food, preferably ours rather than his. The sample of the apple proved to be particularly purrworthy.
Our cats are strictly indoor cats, but we’re getting them used to being on a harness and leash, so they can at least sauter a bit outside. Diego is taking to the effort with a lot more enthusiasm than Charlie. Today he explored a patch of grass on the field outside our house.
13 November 04
This Evening’s Entertainment
(A one-sentence post.)
The four of us pursued the fly as it zoomed from halfway up the wall to the lamp and back but it met its end not through any mammalian strategem neither rubber bands nor paws swiping at the ground but rather through the enterprise of a spider two feet down from the ceiling who waited patiently and then wrapped.
12 November 04
Nearly Eight Months Old
The tiny kittens we hauled out of the carport are no longer tiny. They are now outgrowing the green mat on the counter we put there to try and discourage them from sitting on the keyboard. (It doesn’t work.)
Charlie likes eating, corks from winebottles (merlot and grenache preferred, but he’ll take anything), eating, playing with balls especially ones that bounce, eating, sleeping, eating. Diego likes catnip, a feathered toy, the space behind the bathroom door, spitting in fun, getting into the bag of walnuts, and jumping up high to see out. They both like snogging (substitute nursing which I’m guessing at this point will never go away).
1 November 04
The Feline Neighborhood
An entry for the Ecotone Wiki topic on cats and place.
Berkeley owes much to its cats, I once read. Or at least I owe much to them: when I was growing up near there, going on walks and meeting the neighborhood cats was my main contact with the feline deities, since we didn’t have cats at home. I wonder now if there’s a relationship between neighborhoods that are good from a cat’s point of view, and neighborhoods that have been built for walkers. After all, one of life’s great pleasures to go for walk and meet up with a friendly cat. Village Homes, the archetype in this town of a humanely-planned development, certainly has many cats contentedly roaming the interior walkways and sunning themselves on vine-bestrewn wooden fences. The photographer Hans Silvester is justly celebrated for his photographs of Greek village cats. And who wouldn’t want to walk around a Greek island village?
We need to ask the cats their opinion on urban design. Will a feline Christopher Alexander come forward, please?
31 October 04
Cats and Place
This entry is for the Ecotone wiki’s joint blogging topic, Cats and Place.
Never really having been a cat person before it’s been interesting to watch what were two feral kittens grow into something resembling adult cats—with no adult training. They know how to find warm spots in the house; they react to chaos in a chaotic way, attempting to reverse it; they play with all kinds of things they shouldn’t and shun cat-specific toys.
What to learn from a cat: find a place you like and take over; eat; nap a lot. (Don’t go into scholarly publishing, in other words.)
22 October 04
Rats to Cats!
All of a sudden our house is being plagued with these centimeter-long beetles that stink when they’re handled. But the cats are enjoying having live creepy-crawlies to pounce on: not too many moths around these days.
Here is some light verse presented “with Satirical Intent for the Amusement and Edification of Both Fanciers and Detractors of the Feline Specie”. It’s illustrated with lovely pen-and-ink drawings.
30 September 04
Another One
Trapped another cat this morning. This one’s black, gorgeous green eyes. Doc Rock decided his name was Othello (we didn’t know what to do if it turned out to be a she, or rather I put Desdemona down as a question mark at the vet’s this morning, when I took it/him in to get fixed, where he got designated a him).
I don’t know what to do with this one. He’s ten months old, almost certainly too old to be tamed properly. People don’t want black cats much except for cult followers and people seeking halloween accessories, much less semi-wild black cats.
I’ve been lucky again to be surrounded by so much support, Debbie of Feline Lifeline and Catlin and all the folks at work and everyone else too. Thank you all. They’re going to cut the corn tomorrow which will be almost more stressful for the cat than staying inside the crate, so I think we’ll opt for the crate (I might even take it to work to get it out of the hubbub). And though it pains me, a birder, to do this, I think we’ll release him eventually. I might try keeping him for a few days to see how he does, but this requires more time than I have at the moment.
7 September 04
New Horizons In Image Search
Here’s a tabby cat, perhaps on his way to Cheshiredom.
(From LibrarianInBlack)