Wednesday, December 30, 2009
VIEW FROM THE "MOUNTAIN"
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
12-FOOTED FRIENDSHIP
Saturday, October 17, 2009
NERVY LITTLE PUNK
CASUAL PAWS ALIGNMENT
Friday, October 16, 2009
CLASSIC MUBOO
BEING A GOOD CAT
Here's how you do it: Get in a place where you'll look good. Stretch out and close your eyes. Dream about a fish dinner, and if you live at the Animal Ashram in Cochin, it's likely to come true. Tell all your friends.* Everyone seems headed here!
*On second thought, I, Papadi, would rather everyone else but my sister Soan and best cat friend Nerji go somewhere else and we'll deal with the fish surplus here. Thanks.
*Soan Papadi is a famous flaky North Indian sweet.
2 CUTE
Thursday, October 15, 2009
WOOTSER! You've GROWN! Congratulations. Elsewhere on this blog you'll see him as a little blob of black fluff. Now, here's what can happen! Wootser is also know as Wootsie, Woots, Dracula, and Sucky Sucker, the latter due to a kittenhood habit that still persists of sucking human elbowpits (mother substitute) until he falls into a trance with his oh-so-watermelon-colored tongue out and goes to sleep.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
HEADACHE REMEDY
Monday, September 28, 2009
CAT ANALYZES HUMAN
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
BETTER THAN "... A DIAMOND RING AND ALL THOSE THINGS ..."
Sunday, September 20, 2009
THE PLAYERS (in order of arrival)
GYPSY: A big, beautiful orange scaredy cat who has requested a room of her own and creeps out reluctantly once a day when the premises have been clearly of other suspected terrorists for her benefit. Found on a garbare pile next to her all-white sibling's dropped form. Tweets like a baby bird.
DOLBEY: When in a foul mood, this darling black-and-white girl sounds like she's got a built-in amplifier. Tolerates only Suboo-Foobu, off and on. Very affectionate. Found inside the engine of an abandoned vehicle when about four weeks old, complaining incessantly about conditions. Took three people only a couple of hours to fish her out.
SUBOO: Orange-and-white girl half of team Suboo-Toobu; found chasing her brother down a business thoroughfare in Cochin when they were about six weeks old. Hard on other cats but loving with her bro and caretakers.
TOOBU: See above. Grandmother was a borzoi, judging from his looks. Strong, silent type, currently going through identity crisis as he hits the people-equivalent of his late teens.
FUBOO: Won "Miss Personality Cochin" contest as a kitten. Found bounding into an open sewer-drainge ditch following her brother who was contemplating life as a furry fish when his luck turned. She and brother have matching silver-tan-mixed butterfly decorations on heads.
MOOBU: Gentle, peace-loving, face full of people-like expressions, older than his years, a cuddler. Tends to be a worry-wort.
WOOTSIE (alias WOOTSER, DRACULA, SUCKY SUCKER): The official poised black cat at Animal Ashram (AA), parted from his mother somehow at tiny age of about two weeks; reidentified the soft skin inside his caretaker's elbow pit (?) as the closest thing to a mom milk bottle available, despite its unproductivity in that regard. Raised on kitten milk replacer and lived to tell about it. Still seeks out said elbow pit and sucks at it loudly, drooling and making quite a retro scene of himself. Totally funny. Was adopted by Fuboo-Moobu team who came along a little before him. Wootsie was discovered at our front gate, complaining loudly. Neighbor said he had a tiny white sibling with him, which was gone when Wootsie's plight was discovered. People here prefer white cats, are skeptical about black.
SOAN: Female half of the duo Soan Papadi (a flaky North Indian sweet). Put inside our gate when we weren't at home one day, along with her brother Papadi and another sweet tiny sister, Lotsa, who didn't survive malnutrition and an amebic problem at her very tender age of about two weeks. Soan is a soft-shaded calico, very enterprising, loving, and too-clever.
PAPADI: Deep-silver-and-white loving guy. Favorite hang-out: back of neck of caretaker. Favorite food: gold chain on neck of said caretaker, plus anything else. High-horsepower purr. Was very tiny and scrawny like his departed sister, but survived long enough to take to vet where an antibiotic did the trick.
NERJI: BREAKING NEWS! THIS JUST IN! The latest arrival in our house, that is! Wow! Another fantastic male kitten, all white except for a black em dash (fellow editors, you only will recognize this shape) on the top of his head and several hundred black fleas. Our lucky day! Okay, forget flea powder; this is a case for hand-picking with a bottle of skin lotion and tweezers. Immobilize the intruders with a drop of lotion at the end of a search-and-destroy finger, dispatch them with the tweezers, and dunk the tweezers and remains into a cup of water. Shake well. Only took two short hours for this four-incher. Actually, the kitten wasn't all white but all grey and grimy. Got our usually soaping (twice) with the finest Himalaya Shampoo for Normal Hair (that is, normal for a kitten who grew up on a major downtown gutter in India). His first and last bath. The rest are up to him. So thin, could be mistaken for a freshly washed sock. But super fluffy. Hair is almost as long as he is. We took his little self to the nearest vet, another elephant doctor, but any port in a storm. Deworming always a must. Fellow is about 5 weeks old. Will buff him up in no time, until his wants will spiral from thrown-away crusts of street-cart samosas to the whole gamut of South Indian cuisine and high-end (but fresh) junk food. Wonderful to watch someone get lucky! (Named for Banerji Road where he was found.)
AND OUR DARLINGS WE HOPE ARE STILL PLAYING BUT IN A SAFER WORLD: Tingle, b&w, too cute, precocious six-weeks-older and with us only four days, left 'way too soon but taught an invaluable lesson--always take new kittens for worming and antibiotic shot immediately, regardless of no symptoms; orange darling baby Booka, fought poisoning with incredible courage and will-power, almost made it, but her little liver gave out after a month; irrepressible Kalady who found a friend who could play as hard as she could in Hathi; Doony, the little paralyzed kitten in the mountains of Uttarkund who we said yes to before she left anyway; dearest little Lotsa; wanderer and gentle lover Yogi; deeply devoted long-time friend Poodi; serious-funny calico Kittu; the teeny Monsoon Four; never-say-die beautiful Desi; loving, dignified, beautiful and courageous Tuxi; cutest fluffy dear Gunji; gung-ho and gorgeous Chucki; "angel cakes" most innocent Poppy; my brilliant sister Cashew and her lovely loving sister c.b.; and my first childhood doggie, Jolie, who learned to sit up when she was 8 and died rather than be abandoned.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
TAILS OF TWO CATS
Monday, September 14, 2009
GET A GRIP!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
LET ME TELL YOU A S*E*C*R*E*T
COY IS CUTE
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
COURAGEOUS KITTEN ON COW
"THIS CHAIR IS A PERFECT FIT! In front of me is that huge warm, moving thing with the small silver box in front of her nose again. Long dangling poles from either side of her body can have food at the ends. Those are the places to watch from high up like this. If I suddenly jump on her neck, she may scream and drop the food. That happened last time." ---Papadi, Baby Boy Blogger
Monday, August 24, 2009
Uppali (Lord of No Salt)
A YOGA-ENABLED BACK-OF-SELF PHOTO
TAKING THIS PHOTO with a hand-held camera with no help wasn't easy, but we do what we gotta do. Papadi is taking a snooze in one of his favorite (why?) places, upside down on my shoulder. This choice of "beds" is time limited due to space and weight restrictions coming up in the near future, so we have to enjoy it while it lasts!
SCAAAA-RYYY!
SOAN and PAPADI
SOAN the Calico
This female fragment of a calico cat is called Soan, part of the confection called soan papadi. This is a big complement re her sweetness. She's a survivor, found out in the street by a hand cart where people reportedly nudged her away from cars. Then, a neighborhood anonymous person picked up her, her sister (Lotsa; R.I.P., too tiny and sick to survive), and brother Papadi and tucked them under our gate. Why the doberman, boxer, and indigenous dog didn't find and swallow them is another mark of these kitties' good karma.
THIS IS SOAN PAPADI, formerly known as Firstly (boy, left) and MaKa, and still sometimes known as that. The etymology is obscure. "MK" refers to our dearly departed calico Muttu, also known as Kittu, and Firstly was the first of this 3-person family we found placed inside our gate. Firstly's dear sister, Lotsa, very affectionate, died from an ameobic problem that could have been zapped with antibiotics under better circumstances. So the little family had to reboot without her and M. called them after a fine sweet, the little calico girl becoming Soan and the tiny boy, whose future was uncertain, becoming Mr. Papadi. Our cook Kuttiamma buffed him up, as will be seen in later posts. He's become a head-rubber for sure, and now has a giant tummy and is puffed up in general.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
DIGRESSION: TUBOO's GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDMOTHER
Friday, August 14, 2009
WALKING ALONGSIDE THE MASTERS
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
TUBOO the BORZOI
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
CAT RUBIK'S CUBE
Saturday, July 11, 2009
CAT IDENTIFICATION QUIZ
Friday, July 10, 2009
WHAT'S ON THE TUBE? TWO CATS, OBVIOUSLY
Thursday, July 9, 2009
SOME GUYS LIKE TO WEAR CHAINS, SOME LIKE TO EAT THEM! Moobu's in his play box, looking cute as hell as usual, and breaking off his teeth, which is okay with us, pin-cushioned as we have become after raising four litters in a row. Mooie is a lovely boy, a love-bug type and cuddler who has no interest in stalking anybody. Let's hear it for MOOBU!
WOOTIE, left, and MOOBU, what's left, have been chums since the start of their residency on Ashram Lane. Wootie was the late-comer, but Moobu and sister Fuboo still welcomed him into their little circle at about age 2 weeks. Took him a couple of weeks to get big enough to properly play with them, but he figured out how to have fun fast!
SHIRLEY TEMPLE WITHOUT A TAIL
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
TAKE ONE MORE STEP AND YOU'RE FINISHED!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
A GREAT OUT-OF-FOCUS KITTEN
ACTION SHOT
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Announcing ... THE BOOS Series II
Sunday, February 22, 2009
CLOSE RELATIVES
CIRQUE DE SOLEIL HERE WE COME!
PARALLEL PARKING
Yes and no. The photo illustrates Dolby girl in the "no" mode. The statue of this village god in South India makes a perfect vantage point. There is no reason to think he would not appreciate a cat headdress. He seems a bit surprise to suddenly find a cat on his head, but that's only natural. This form of god is found on the outskirts of villages in small wayside shrines, often without the cat hat. Our cook put the pottu on his forehead and the eyeballs one day when we were out. I retaliated by adding the gold ornaments from candy wrappers, which the cats subsequently redesigned. Dolby, by the way, is mentioned in a previous post as the cat who was spayed inadequately. She went in four days ago for a second operation by another vet ... who found that the first had not only left in the one ovary he first admitted to forgetting, then later denied, but both! And still had the gall to charge for the operation! Incredible INDIA!