The show season is winding down, so there aren’t too many chances to collect more points anytime soon, but based on the judging reactions and the fact that she competed well in a show featuring a higher-than-average number of top cats, she has a bright future in TICA. Hopefully that will translate to CFA as well.

I miss you so much. See you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Nothing you can do, the day can be long
You mind is working overtime, you body’s not too strong

Hold on, hold on
They put you in a box so you can’t get heard
Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred

Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten here
And I will say to you, I will do what I can do

These are photos of Bleujeanne Brigette, a now eight-month-old Chartreux female who we just acquired this afternoon after several weeks of negotiation with her breeder. We’ve both wanted a third Chartreux for some time now, and when we met her in January we both fell in love. The idea is that Brigette will become our show cat, and possibly allow Perri to get back into breeding Chartreux again. There’ll be many more pictures of her in the next few days, I’m sure. (Apologies in advance for the widget-translated French.)

Just testing Flickr’s post-to-weblog tool.

Given the devastation of New Orleans and surrounding area by Hurricane Katrina and its aftereffects, it’s likely that hundreds if not thousands of animals will need rescuing. Please consider making a donation if you can.

UPDATE: The Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana has set up a temporary shelter for animals at the Louisiana State University campus in Shreveport, LA. For donation information, see this page.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi’s site as well.

About a year later, through an ultimately tragic* series of events, I met a girl (not my wife), moved in with her, and had to leave the chair/footstool behind. Life was torture.

Fast-forward to this weekend, where eleven-plus years of denial, laziness, and just plain idocity finally snapped, and I went out and bought a new damned POÄNG, in Kungsvik blue.

Life is idyllic again. (Finally!)

Of course, Zilla immediately determined that the best way to greet the new arrival was to first lull it into a false sense of security by pretending to submit to it…

… and then, as with all things, to claim it as his own in perpetuity.

I’m aware that there’s a certain “Fight Club”-esque materialistic vibe that might arise from obsessing so over an inexpensive laminate wood mass-produced chair, but a) it’s comfortable (although not for 8-10 hours at a time, mind you) and b) it bring back memories of a happy time in my life, when my future looked a bit more wide-open. Besides, it’s a thousand times better than the godawful couch that sat there previously. And, naturally, Zilla loves it.

* for the record: “tragic” as in we ultimately weren’t meant for each other but it took almost six years to figure that out, not “tragic” as in somebody died or anything.

As you can see, he clearly has little to no respect for Apple’s line of consumer portable Macs.

Zilla is a purebred Chartreux cat, one of approximately 3,000-4,000 worldwide. The breed originated in France as early as the 1500s and were hunted for their soft yet highly water-resistant fur, as well as for food when times grew tough (which, in the 1500s, was pretty much all the time).

(He’s big on ancient Duo Docks as well.)

Zilla will turn eleven years old this October, and currently weighs around thirteen pounds. He was as heavy as 20 1/2 pounds a couple of years ago, but he’s developed a minor thyroid condition that dropped him down to below twelve pounds earlier this year. After a quick vet visit and a prescription thyroid medication (yes, you can get prescriptions for cats), he’s doing much better.

And in case you’re wondering, his show name is in fact derived from the Peter Gabriel song.

Sadly, Zilla is the only example of his kind we own at present; his mother passed away two years ago, and our other Chartreux passed away just last March. (For this and other reasons, March has become sort of an unhappy time around the house.)

My wife, who happens to also be Zilla’s owner and breeder, has been thinking about getting back into the breeding scene (it’s most emphatically not a business, and anybody who treats it as such is wrong, but that’s another post) and is looking to add another Chartreux to the family later in the year, or possibly next year. Hopefully it’ll be just as delightfully weird as our sweetie-snookums.

(BTW, that’s a domo-kun next to him. It’s a long story.)

It’s hard to tell from those photos, but she’s gained quite a bit of weight recently; she’s now up to over nine pounds, at least a two-pound gain from when she moved in. She’s developed quite a pronounced stomach area, which isn’t really that much of a problem since she never sits still long enough for us to pick her up. (She’s slightly more tolerant of it now, but it’s still a touchy subject with her, which makes trimming her nails an interesting experience.)

It’s become somewhat apparent that she is, shall we say, not the brightest cat in the world. She’s mostly stopped pining for the outdoors, but at times she’ll come running over to the door when one of us leaves the house, only to run away again before we can get the door open, and then run back to the door after it closes. Yeah.

She’s also quite fond of walking into a room, looking around with a slight air of puzzlement, as though she’d forgotten why she came in in the first place, and then wandering back out again.

By far her favorite activity is Kurokoball, which consists of one of the human household members standing at the foot of the steps and tossing a brightly colored felt ball (with little pellets inside to make it noisy) up the stairs. She’ll leap to the spot where it hit the stairs, pounce on it (occasionally leaping into the air on all fours), and then follow it as it bounces back down the steps. Repeat infinity, or until she becomes confused enough that she lets them bounce off of her as she’s sitting on the stairs. It’s really quite amusing for both cat and owner, I must say.

Anyway, she appears to be settling in nicely enough, although it’s a bit sad that one of her initial housemates is no longer with us. We’ll definitely have to pick up another Chartreux at some point, to give Zilla some company.

Also, if I ever get around to updating to WordPress 1.5, I’ll probably start a separate page or category for the cats. They’re the only thing I ever take pictures of, at any rate.