litter mates

last night karl walked into the bathroom, started cracking up and told me it was my turn to clean the litter box. this is what i saw:
har-har.
okay fine, it was hilarious. and gross. kind of like borat. notice that "dad's" toothbrush is entirely buried and mine, as it had been recently used, got the extra crunchy sprinkles on top.
here is the wonder-cat surveying her damage and checking in on the clean-up crew.through uncontrollable laughter and squeals of "eeeewwww, grooooosssssss" this kitteh got an unconvincingly stern talking to. i suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. our (former) toothbrushes hung in a toothbrush/toothpaste suction cup holder thingie on the big bathroom mirror over the sink. this alone is a recipe for disaster. toothbrushes = dangley, dangley (to a cat) = fair game, suction cup = not very strong, over sink = over cat box (with sink obstacle), extra crap in litter = crap gets buried. the really funny part in all of this is not that she knocked our toothbrushes down (she has already thrown away my glasses and contacts several times since the waste basket is on the other side of the back of the toilet, which was my favorite spot for putting them. i have become accustomed to checking over our trash can in the mornings.) the part that just kills me is that she buried them. ah, so funny.
lily always tries to "make up" by acting extra cute--we weren't even mad at her about this, it was just too ridiculous. now, if i can just figure out how to keep her off of the kitchen counter and the stove, but that is another story.

oh yeah, and Happy Turkey Day!

voting demo-cat

this is a couple of weeks old now, but lily wanted to play her part in the last election:
lending a paw
studying the ballot measures (shhh...don't tell her it's upside down)
done...and moving on to the times

le tigre

here is a quick pic for you that i was playing around with tonight. le tigre in action:
also, if anything looks messed up (i've noticed several things so far) i just changed ("upgraded" they say) to the blogger beta and stuff is a bit gnarly. i switched over to see if the grass really was greener...so far, not so much. i mostly wanted the lables to help people who are searching for specific things. i will clean up the aftermath this weekend (sun-mon, for me).
here is a little goodie for the world-weary, a wired cd (this is sweet) creative commons freebie of fake french by le tigre. (i was actually more excited about david byrne and the beastie boys, but le tigre fits mah theme here--and those guys are there too).

confessions of a catster

today i officially became a crazy cat lady (just in case there was any doubt). i started a catster page for tigerlily and wrote e-vites to other cats so she can have "kitty friends". oh, and i entered a couple of pics in the world's coolest dog & cat show, where you can vote for your favorite pets (or enter them in the competition). not much more than a month ago i would have found this behavior completely absurd and humiliating. i still think it's ridiculous, but i'm doing it anyway...and it is fun. hence the crazy cat lady confession.meanwhile, tigerlily is on an all chicken diet from the vet's latest recommendation. it tastes considerably better than the actual medicine we had been giving her for a while, in fact, she loves it. so since i am cooking up boneless, skinless chicken thighs and shredding them up for her i figured i should get an extra show of cuteness for my efforts. the lily-kins did not disappoint; the standing kitten bit just kills me.

teh daily kitten

did i just say "teh"? what is happening to me?
tigerlily was posted on the daily kitten today and says hello to her new friends (she's checkin' ya out above). i gotta go to work tomorrow morning, er later this morning, so this is just a quick hello and thanks to the good peoples at the daily kitten. grazie mille (say it with an italian accent and it always sounds sexy) and a million thanks to all those non-europhiles. meow!

waterlily

this was tigerlily's entertainment for a while this evening. and wikipedia's listing on bengal cats had some particularly relevant information (excerpt below). the bit about vocalization is very true, as is the game-playing, although i haven't gotten her to play fetch yet (okay, i haven't even tried), but we do a good game of "chase" up and down the hallway. we take turns between chaser and chasee, then she meows at me when i decide i'm done but she isn't. we also do a bit of "hide and seek", but that mostly involves me hiding and then jumping out at her when she comes to find me. i love getting her tail all puffed up--she usually rears back on her hind legs and then jumps around in a circle to entice a chase. she's a total love, but she always wants to be the center of attention. demanding and affectionate.

"Bengal cats can take a great deal of interest in running water and often don't mind getting wet. Most Bengal owners have stories about their cat's affection for running water or even jumping in a sink or tub. Additionally, Bengal cats are very high-energy, intelligent, and curious, and so are particularly interactive with their human housemates, wanting to be in the middle of whatever the human is engaged in, and often following the human around the house as household chores are performed. Bengal cats have been known to play games with their owners, such as "fetch" and "hide-and-seek." As their activity and play requirements are high, this is not a cat best left to its own devices for long periods of time, as they can be quite mischievous and destructive when bored. If an owner is likely to spend much of the day away from the cat, having another high-energy feline companion to occupy your Bengal is an excellent idea. Bengals tend to vocalize to communicate with their humans, and are quite capable of jealousy and spitefulness if they feel that another feline is getting more attention, or if they are being ignored. The other side of this coin is that they are also very affectionate towards and playful with their humans."

a lily and a dahlia

my friend jessy gave me a beautiful dahlia last weekend. i wanted to get a few pictures of before it completely faded. lily liked it too (i think she enjoys being a constant distraction).

the images are either fuzzy (out of focus) or blurry (movement), but she's a cat. you get the idea. i'll pretend i like them this way. i do think the blur works pretty nicely in the last one (mostly because it is actually in focus).

weekend stalking

i spent as much of the weekend (that's sunday-monday to me) as possible alternately playing with and stalking my cat (with my camera). here are some of the good ones:


another appearance of the tigerlily smile ^. i luf her. she makes me talk like an idiot.

tigerlily's sleepy dance

okay, bear with me here. i know nothing about making or editing videos, but i have a "movie" setting on my digital camera. the lighting was terrible, the resolution gruesome--basically everything about the video is shitty--except for a ridiculously cute sleepy kitten. this video was shot just a few days after we got her, so it is close to a month old, but i didn't want to upload it without trying to fix it. the fixing process is a bit more complicated than i was expecting. if i wait to try to get it looking good, nobody will ever see the damn thing, which would be a shame. it makes me smile every time i watch it. who knows, i might even clean it up at some point. so here it is in all of its hideous, dark, pixilated glory.

oh yeah, and for some reason, which i have yet to understand, the audio is out of sync. i'll work on it. i swear.

the sunday kitten

here are some sunday morning kitten pics for ya:

a sweet/guilty little face. this one could go either direction--guilty like an orchid-eater, or sweet like "thanks mom, for getting up early to make me breakfast and play with me".

some toys i fell in love with in prague. i pretended (for a little while) that i was actually going to give them to my nieces, but they were really for me. karl still thinks i'm crazy."may i have this dance? no? okay, fine. i'll settle for trying to bite your face off."

pretty spots. me-wow. [did anyone else play animal crossing? with the kitten that said "me-wow" all the time? yes, i know it's ridiculous. i played it about (4? wow, yeah) 4 years ago in the fall. until the part with the f*ing snow-man. and i've gotten an itch to play it every fall since then. wierd. i am also ready for a new halo release, but we'd have to get a new x-box to play it. karl said he doesn't want a new x-box, which means he won't get one for a couple more months.]
i've been sitting here drinking coffee and eating hit cookies, my balanced and complete breakfast (riiight). at noon. whatever, it's sunday--enjoy!

princess and the pea

cinnamon blond wildcat seeks the royal treatment
snuggles given at my discretion
my pillow must be regularly fluffed
princess? where? i don't see any princess.

how can anyone say no to that little face (and those folded paws)? it's so hard! tigerlily is getting bigger--i think she is going on four pounds now, she was about two pounds when we got her. 100% more kitty, now available 24 hours a day! (and, if you can do a margaret cho voice: pussy play ping-pong!!). wow, my rug is filthy...i think that is mostly catnip from lily's new scratching box. we vacuumed last weekend, *cough* honestly. lil' miss thang is probably gonna wake me up in about five hours. so, um, goodnight.

kitten huffing

i can't help it that my cat smiles--there are never too many kitty smiles. i just thought i'd share a darling little feature of hers and the pink muzzle-puff area with tiny whisker freckles. what more could i ask for? (hm, maybe no dingle-berry on my comforter tomorrow morning).
also, i just learned there is a term for one of my favorite new passtimes, kitten huffing.

lily-kins

lil' miss naughty-pants at work:
what's that?

chomp!

my work here is done.

smitten kitten

according to cute overload my newfound purpose in life is to share pictures of my wonderful little kitten. considering that i had about 17,000 hits (my brain is still exploding over that one) in the last couple of days--less than 48 hours--i will keep posting photos of tigerlily. i get my best pictures of her on the weekends, after i wear her out a bit. i tried to take some tonight after work, but they were nearly all blurry fuzz-butt shots (after work the lighting options are either too dark or too flashy). the next thing i need to figure out is posting some little videos. cute overload has a tremendous readership and i hope to keep a few people interested. i am also happy to share some of what i have been learning about bengal cats and answer any questions i can. the oregon area breeder that i got tigerlily from is sno pride and came highly recommended by a friend of mine who owns a bengal. sno pride posts pictures of available kittens on their site; i would also suggest taking a look at bengal cat rescue, here is the chapter closest to me
california bengal cat rescue. there are some beautiful older kitties that really need good homes. i had some specific reasons for wanting a kitten, as well as a bengal, and the couple of months that we spent researching and deciding payed off very nicely. she is a total handful (i wish i could stay home and play with her all day)--i can't even imagine what it is like to raise a child. i am totally in love with this cat, she is, er, redonkulous.

some cute paw action from the tigerlily

shazam, part deux!!

so...the explosion in hits that i was experiencing last night was actually due to CUTE OVERLOAD! i sent meg my pics over a week ago and i thought she hated me and my little kitty too. then i checked the site again last night and tigerlily made it!! yippee! i depend on cute overload for small doses of pure joy and apparently a lot of other people do too--i got about 7,000 hits in the last 24 hours. i'll keep posting pictures, i'm glad to be able to share her. thank you so much!!

almost fa-mouse

tigerlily made it onto the infinite cat project today. thanks for the suggestion lisa! also a thank you to mike who runs the whole site and posted my cutie's picture. please visit and click on the links!

a nerd is born

nerd-in-training

what's up tigerlily?

we got her, we named her and have fallen head-over-heels in love with tigerlily. lily, lil' bit; here she is: