30 September, 2010

Proof of Life

Gentle readers who have been here a few months may recall that Emmaline had four kittens. I managed to trap three, the fourth, Dreadnought, eluded me and when he stopped even hanging around Emmaline I went ahead and brought her in, afraid all the while that I had doomed Dreadnought to a slow death by starvation, or a quick and terrifying one by predator, or a slow and agonizing one tangling with one of the other adult cats. I’ve been pretty sure I’ve seen him a couple times since then, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I had definitive proof: the wildlife camera caught young Dreadnought coming up for a night-time snack. I was so delighted to see him there! And here, dear gentle readers, are the pictures for proof: two nights in a row the camera has caught Dreadnought snacking.

A grainy black and white infrared picture of the porch and feeding station. Sneaking up behind the legs of the rocking chair is a small tabby and white cat, looking up towards the window where dogs are doubtless pitching a fit. The time-date stamp reads 09-27-10 09:38:25PM.

Mostly hidden behind the waterer that isn't used because it's more trouble than it's worth, Dreadnought looks toward the camera. Timestamp 09-27-10 09:39:49PM

Sitting under the rocking chair with body in profile to the camera, Dreadnought looks toward the end of the porch, over the camera's left shoulder as it were. Timestamp 09-28-10 08:23:32PM

28 September, 2010

Game-scouting camera: coolest invention ever.

The camera works fantastically but heavy rain has kept my primitive satellite internet from staying up long enough to get the best of yesterday’s pics uploaded last night. Flickr Uploadr is working them now, and I have made myself mildly late for my morning routine to post them just for you!. You can see the night-time pics are all grainy black and white, but they do show you a nice view of the plastic pan lid that serves as a water dish, the aluminum pan that holds the dry cat food, and the legs of the rocking chair and the regular chair, plus the little table the food pan sits under. All that stuff is sitting about six feet away from the camera.

A grainy black and white photograph. A tabby and white cat, Noodlehead, stands with body three quarters to the camera but face directly pointed at it. Because she's too close, the infrared flash has blown out all detail of her face and chest except her eyes with their enormous pupils.

I’m not sure what attracted Noodlehead’s attention; the camera makes no noise but does have the infrared flash on it as well as a blinking red LED and a green LED that lights steady when it’s taking a picture. It clearly didn’t startle any of the animals, there were four separate possum incidents and a raccoon as well as Noodlehead, Grace, and Briar Rose. What I find kind of neat is that their eyes brilliantly reflect the infrared flash, just as you’d expect with a regular flash.

First Possum:
First Possum. A skinny possum walks under a rocking chair, stretching its pointy nose to the aluminum cake pan full of dry cat food.

Raccoon:
A skinny coon stands next to the feeding dish, looking just over the camera's left shoulder, as it were.

Second Possum, affectionately named “Pudgy Possum” because he’s clearly been nomming quite a bit of cat food:
A fat possum wanders away from the camera, body at a three quarters angle to the camera. Be grateful I didn't upload all the pictures of possum butt that the camera got in the half hour he was on the porch eating.

Third Possum:
A skinny possum approaches the feeding dish from underneath the rocking chair.

Fourth Possum, note Noodlehead in the background:
A very nice profile shot of a possum headed toward the camera with head turned to keep one eye on Noodlehead, who has evidently just told the possum to get off her porch and stop eating her food.

Five Oh Five Feeding Time:
A woman in a robe, pajamas, and an ankle brace, seen from the waist down as she crouches on the porch to put wet cat food on a plate. She is just completing a pet on Grace, who is eating from the plate but is mostly unseen due to Noodlehead being in the way. That's me!

Grace notices the camera:
Grace, a mostly grey and yellow tortoiseshell cat with a little white, crouches at the wet food plate (hidden behind the water dish) and looks straight at the camera, eye lasers engaged.

27 September, 2010

Lazy blogging, ahoy!

So we’ve already established that I am a lazy blogger, prone to throwing pictures up and calling it a post. I’m here to warn you, gentle reader, that I am about to achieve new heights of lazy blogging. Previously, I usually had to actually take the picture and then re-size it and perhaps fix the exposure or whatever in photoshop, and then post it and type up the post to go with it.

I haven’t yet managed to eliminate all these steps, but today we brought home a Wildgame Innovations 5MP Game Scouting Infrared Camera. We plan on mounting it on the porch, pointed at the Manor Cats feeding station, where it will take pictures day and night. Then every so often I can go pull the little memory card out (the 2GB card holds some 2800 pics or a bunch of video, did I mention it will do video?) and dump them onto my computer, where they can be sorted and queued up. Finally, we can get a definitive count of cats who come up to eat, as well as spotting any non-feline visitors like possums, raccoons, dogs, squirrels, and birds who might come up. Although to be honest while I had quite a few birds in the beginning, they’ve pretty much given up on stealing the cat food since the girlcats have moved onto the porch on a permanent basis. The squirrels have been scarce, too, but then they’ve been scarce in general this year.

So anyway, I have removed the step where first I have to take the pics, woo hoo! The camera looks like it will be a fun toy and I’m kind of interested to see who sneaks up to eat on the porch when no one is looking. It will take pics day and night, rain or shine, so there will be plenty of opportunity for it to spot visitors.

Meanwhile, we actually got some rain yesterday! It wasn’t enough to relieve the drought conditions we’ve got going, but damn, this part of the world needed it badly. There’s hopefully going to be more rain today, fingers crossed. I haven’t mentioned to Daniel that this may mean that he has to mow the lawn a couple times this year, though he may get lucky and the grass may be so traumatized by the recent heat and lack of moisture that it’s afraid to grow at all.

26 September, 2010

State Fair!

Daniel and I went down to the Richmondish area yesterday with my parents for the State Fair, in order to feed Daniel fried fair food and look at livestock. We could have had better timing, it was the last incredibly hot day of the summer (probably) with the sun beating down in merciless fashion. Nonetheless, we did manage to have a good time, and also to eat corndogs, funnel cake, and fried oreos (!!!). The fried oreos were really excellent, like little fried chocolate pies as my mother put it.

We also got to meet Calvin and Hobbes, two enormous oxen who were not yet at their full growth. I’m still waiting on Mom or Daniel to send me the pics of me with the oxen, who really were the giantest things ever. We then wandered through the chicken barn and looked at chickens and I am SO SMITTEN with bantams, seriously. I knew they were smaller than regular chickens but not by how much. They were 1/3rd to 1/5th the size of the big breeds of chickens and just amazing! Leetle teeny perfect chickens with bright eyes, watching the world go by. Daniel and I have talked about getting chickens next spring, I am now thinking that what is in order here is one coop with 3-5 big chickens for the provision of tasty eggs, and a coop of leetle bantam guys just for fun and for helping us till the garden and improve the soil on the back acre.

Today will be much less fun, what with involving things like laundry and going to the grocery store. We’re nearly down to the wire on the wedding, and to make it even more fun I have two midterm exams to take this week. We’re still waiting on Briar Rose to bring us her kittens (if she’s going to) and trying to convince Emmaline not to be a habitual violent offender when the other cats are accessible to her. Life goes on.

21 September, 2010

Thinky thoughts on the adoration of dogs

As I’ve mentioned before, having a 60 minute commute on each end of my day gives me time to think a lot. Today I was pondering dogs and what it is about some of them that makes me fall so helplessly in love; the one bedrock, non-negotiable quality I have to have in a dog if I’m going to not just like the dog but be smitten. What I came up with, of course, is an answer maddeningly vague and imprecise: it’s a certain light in the dog’s eyes. The light is part brains, part capacity for joy, part ability to find fun, and part just sheer love.

Zille, for instance, hit me with the look the first time I threw the ball and she realized that the Dobermans did not want the ball, that she could have all the balls, forever, every time I threw it, it was our special game and no other dogs would jump her for the ball ever again. And there it was, this glow behind her eyes. She still gets it every time I come home from work and whenever a ball comes out. Tink gets it, every time I come in the room or touch her or speak to her. Beowulf gets it for Daniel, not for me, but Beo and I like each other but have never deeply adored each other in the way the girldogs and I do.

Zille’s mother Danca gets it when you have something she wants and she gets an opportunity to do a little work for you; I was smitten by Danca one day when I was holding a piece of chicken jerky in my hand and she offered me a picture-perfect “finish”, snapping into place at my side and sitting and looking up with me, eyes aglow and ears up and I fell for her right there.

It’s indefinable, but I think most dog people would recognize it when they saw it, and probably even know exactly what I’m talking about now. It’s that indefinable light, spirit, soul, whatever you want to call it, that just shines from a dog sometimes. Without that, I can like a dog fine but I won’t fall hard. But I’ve never met a dog who had it that I didn’t love at least a little bit, even if the dog would be totally unsuitable for my family and situation.

20 September, 2010

Dry fall

We’re having a drought here at the moment, the rivers are low and the clay ground is rock-hard and burned to paleness. Jeremiah Swakhammer’s pen needs regular watering to keep him damp and his plants alive. Nonetheless, we picked up a garden claw thing today and I believe if Daniel gets bored enough he plans to start prepping ground for a garden next spring. We also bought some bulbs today while we were out, to add some color to the front yard. Possibly to make things look nice we should also invest in some mulch. And maybe some more hastas next year, who knows!

I’ve kept trying to force Roo to write my posts for me, but the little bugger refuses to be useful. All he came up with this time was “ikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikikik” and I shall leave the meaning of this cryptic utterance as an exercise for the gentle reader.

Saturday we went to Yankees in Falmouth, the only Union-centric Civil War event in the area. There is probably nothing more hilarious than taking your British fiance to such a weirdly US-specific event. This weekend, we’re going down by Richmond for the Virginia State Fair, another quintessentially USian event I feel he needs to experience to get the most from living here. I also put A Christmas Story in our Netflix queue, having discovered that it never jumped the pond. Advice on other Quintessential US Events and Experiences that he needs to have are gratefully accepted!

But for now, it’s time to upset Roo by kicking him out of my lap so we can make the bed. My life is so exciting.

16 September, 2010

Cats: always contrary.

So there was no post yesterday for what you, gentle reader, will probably call the laziest reason ever: I couldn’t get Roo to write it for me. He’s in his room from 0500-0900ish these days since Daniel is home to shuffle cats around, and during that time he likes to tromp all over my keyboard since my computer is now in his Echo Chamber.

Unless, of course, I open up a blank document and leave it there for him to work his authorial magic. I mean, we’re talking a cat who somehow managed to create a whole new folder holding the twitter user icons of everyone who was on my twitter front page at that point, it’s not like he doesn’t know how to use a computer! He’s opened windows on Daniel’s laptop that Daniel, who is way more computer savvy than I am, doesn’t know how to get to. But apparently expecting him to write one little blog post is just too much to ask.

In other news, Zillekins is gradually growing to respect the fact that when Daniel asks her to do something, like come inside, she needs to go ahead and do it. On the other hand, she’s also taken up waking us with frustration barking around 0400, which is annoying as all get out. Tink has resigned herself to sleeping in a dog bed in the bedroom instead of on the people bed, bless her heart, but we’re still negotiating with Rooney Lee over the level of night-time obnoxiousness he’s allowed to present before I get tired of it, get up, and toss him out of the room and close the door. For the record, stabbing me in the thigh with his claws? Not allowed.

Meanwhile the wedding is in three weeks and some change and we’re flailing around doing last minute stuff, like finishing the ceremony and this weekend we’ll go rent Daniel a suit. My poor beloved has either acquired some good ol’ American germs or is deathly allergic to the entire state of Virginia, could go either way really. Beowulf continues to deeply adore him, Tink finds him an acceptable substitute for me when I’m at work, and Braxton Bragg has condescended to snuggle him a few times now in a moving display of not wanting him dead. Brax is many things but not a trusting soul, bless his heart.

14 September, 2010

Pack integration

It’s always interesting bringing a new member into the pack, whether that member is four-footed or not. Right now, of course, we are having an exciting fun time integrating Daniel, which is perhaps best exemplified by the Inside Puppies problem.

“Inside puppies!” is the phrase I use to get dogs in the house. When I chirp it expectantly out in the yard, all the dogs head in with a swiftness. But now there’s a new human in town.

When Daniel declares “Inside puppies!” the Dobes obediently go to the door. Zille, on the other hand, says “Screw you, thumb monkey! I don’t have to listen to you!” Well, no. Zille would not use such language, as she is a gentledog of impeccable breeding. But she is refusing, currently, to return to the house in a timely fashion for my soon-to-be spouse.

I will admit, I find this vaguely hilarious. She does it to my mother, too. I have offered Daniel various dog training suggestions, but ultimately this is going to be his first training challenge: get Zille in the house. She’s convinced if she can just stay outside long enough, you will start playing fetch with her again. It took me weeks of laboriously walking her down and occasionally grabbing her by the collar and dragging her into the house before she would reliably go inside on demand for me.

I’m betting I get more plaintive e-mails about her recalcitrance in the next few weeks. But she’ll learn.

13 September, 2010

I guess I know who loves me…

So Daniel and I were curled up on the futon watching Land of the Dead yesterday afternoon, as it was Zombie Sunday, on which we watch zombie moves. LotD has a few moments in it that reliably make me scream. The Dobes were on the futon with us, Zille was in various spots throughout the film, but every time I screamed, the Dobes jumped up and left the room with an air of “Oh god. There is nothing Dangerous here, and yet she is being loud. WTF.” whereas sweet Zillekins headed straight for me every time, all “OMG MOM ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!?” and asking for reassurance. What a good girl.

In other happy news, we saw Dreadnought Saturday! I have been worried to death about him since bringing Emmaline in, but it was definitely him, playing in the grass across the road. I am so thrilled he’s all right and have not lost hope in terms of catching him and neutering him, at least.

12 September, 2010

My god, I ran out of cat pictures!

But I am still alive, and Daniel is finally here after months and months and months of waiting and dealing with immigration! Huzzah! Yesterday we went down to Blackthorn Kennel to visit Christine and the last remaining puppies of the N and O litters. There, I exercised my mad puppy wrangling skills (hire me today to wrangle YOUR puppies!) and added the use of a flirt pole to my Wrangling Repertoire. The pictorial results of this extravaganza start at this picture right here.

In other news, someone needs to buy Nemo because seriously, that little dude is snuggly AND worky and generally just fantastic. You know you want a snuggly worky dog, gentle reader!

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