Nubi on the Woolsack

Actually, the Lord Chancellor of England sits on the Woolsack.  Nubi is sleeping on the sack where I keep my acrylic-mix yarns.  It isn't easy to get a good picture of a long-furred black cat.  Too often it comes out as a black blob or could be mistaken for any other small animal.  Nubi's shy about having his picture taken, too.

I featured his litter mate Tiger a few weeks ago.  I say 'litter mate', since it's fairly obvious different fathers were involved!  Nubi is gentler than Tiger and is the one cat I have who doesn't bite.  The reason for that is a fortunately mild case of gingivitis.  Nobody knows what causes gingivitis in cats or what to do about it, except for expensive steroid shots.  I started mashing up canned food for Nubi, just like I did for Hollywood when he was a baby.  When his mouth is bothering him, Nubi eats by dipping his right forepaw into the food and eating off his paw.  Lately, he hasn't been bothered and even occasionally eats dry food.  If he hurts his mouth, he runs around growling and swearing - you can tell when cats are swearing!  Of course, now the other four cats who share his living area now want their food mashed up and mixed in water.

In crafting news, I have machine washed and dried the bathmat and facecloth I wrote about here, and they came out just wonderful!  The part-hemp face cloth seems even softer than ever.

Also, I've fixed an inadvertent error on Peaypatch.  I had misnamed my online catalog as "Shopping Cart", which I know sounded like you were committing to something.  The label is now "Online Store", and I hope you will enjoy browsing.

What Our Cats Really Think of US

Tiger really looks suspicious, doesn't he?  So how did I get him this close up for a picture?  Well, Tiger has his habits, and I happened to have the camera out at the right time.

I've already written about how I used Kahlua to catch Tiger and his sister Ophelia when I had to sell my mother's house.  Tiger is a young cat, and my folks were too old and feeble to take the time to domesticate him.  He lived in the basement with a number of other cats and ran wild.  After I brought him to my house,  I would take some time every week or so to visit the wilder cats I had acquired (the ones who were upset by the move) and take Tiger into my lap.  He enjoyed the attention and would sit and purr for the longest time.

Eventually, he graduated from the cat room (where I now have two geriatric cats) to roam the house.  Generally, you can't bend down to pet him; he's still skittish.  But he's decided it's his time to sit in my lap when I'm sitting on the bed and the other cats aren't around.  This is what he decided the night I was photographing crafts on the bed.  It doesn't matter that I don't necessarily want a lap full of cat just then.  When he decides to sit in my lap, he does it.  Thus I was able to get this great close-up.  He is really a loving cat, but he does get excited and bite occasionally.

Tiger's mother was a feral cat Mama named Kabuki.  Kabuki was very smart; she knew when it was Monday night.  Mama always caught the cats for spaying or neutering while they were eating on Monday night.  Her favored vet operated on Tuesdays.  We've never figured out how Kabuki knew it was Monday night, but it was about two years before Mama could catch her.  The result is that I now have Ophelia, Tiger, and Nubi.