100% not posed:
I turned around and there it was. Thank goodness the camera had charged batteries and was right next to the computer, so I did not need to move.
I like how they are exploring all the space of the futon. You can still see a pile of furmination remnants in between them. They are using it as a border, I think.
And I hate posting this, because I know you pricks are going to pick on Tunch’s not-so-girlish figure and that will upset me.
xyzzy
Do my eyes deceive me, or is Lily about the same size as Tunch?
ronin122
Tunch is a girl?
Anyway I thought Tunch’s size was part of the cat’s appeal to us. Well, that and it’s apparent laziness and evil stares. Though I didn’t realize that Lily was so small, the cat seems to be bigger.
dmsilev
Notice how the whole futon appears to be tilting down towards the cat end.
-dms
Fencedude
I would have sworn that that dog was bigger than a cat.
R-Jud
I think Tunch looks cuddly. I’m also surprised that Lily is so little.
Laura W
I truly think this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen on this blog.
(The jpg name rocks, too.)
Comrade Stuck
@xyzzy:
Too kind.
The Grand Panjandrum
Jesus! When Tunch hauls ass, does he have to make two trips?
Little Dreamer
Beautiful picture. I’m glad to see they are getting used to each other.
John Cole
@dmsilev: That is the stripes. Optical illusion, damnit.
Lily is a pound to a pound and a half heavier, although probably more now that she is eating well and building muscle (we are up to 8-10 miles a day between morning and night walks). She is much taller than him when she stands up, and much longer, but she is very dainty. Tunch- notsomuch on the dainty side. But she is able to curl herself up into the tiniest little ball when she sleeps. I come home and find her asleep on the couch and she is so teeny tiny, then I say “wanna go for a walk” and it is like she gets inflated.
Really weird.
steve s
Oh, no, it’s a girlish figure.
But the girl in question is K-Lo.
passerby
Yay! Finally, the money shot.
Had no idea they were about the same size. If I blur my eyes, I can make Lily look like a regular sized dog then Tunch looks like a giant, white cat. Or else it looks like a cut and paste job where the proprtions are not quite right.
JL
Lily was a pound heavier but since she is taking long walks now with John in the morning, maybe she burnt off that excess weight. Great pic, John, but next time try to do from a different angle so we can appreciate Lily’s 19 lbs.
linda
lily: i’ll just ignore him and pretend he’s not here…
tunch: i wonder if it’s worth the effort to throw her ass off my futon…. nah, maybe just the evil eye. it works with the big guy…
it’s wonderful to see lily settling in like this; and esp to see that photo of them together (well, at least in proximity to one another).
Comrade Dread
Meh. I’ve seen bigger cats. It’s much harder to get them to drop lbs. since you can’t really walk them.
And you never know if they will reach a point on their diet when they opt to kill you in your sleep and feast upon your entrails.
JL
@John Cole: Moxie is only 18 lbs. She’s big to me though and the smallest dog before was the 50 lb shar pei. Last summer she was running around and eating up a storm and when I went to the vet she had lost 1/4 lb and I got teary eyed. The vet who had seen previous animals, looked at me and said it’s 1/4 of a pound, she’s okay. Best guess is that Moxie was two when I found her and that was eight years ago. My last golden lived until he was 16 so I figure that we have many more years.
dmsilev
@John Cole:
That, and what looks like a slight tilt of the camera. I just couldn’t resist.
And for the record, your cat is far from the heaviest that I’ve seen. A friend of mine had one who I described as resembling a manta ray: one big mass of flesh with a tail sticking out the back. That cat clocked in at something over 20 pounds.
-dms
Colette
I didn’t realize Lily was so small. And I didn’t realize Tunch was actually a specimen of felis obesus, the rare white porcucat.
John O
I love this s**t, John.
Thanks. Life is best enjoyed paying attention to the smell of the proverbial roses, and your place is smelling awfully good to me these days, considering the distance.
MTmofo
Sweet photo. Next thing you know, they’ll be spooning together.
donnah
I can’t wait for the shot where they’re curled up next to each other…
um, do you think that will ever happen?
I have two adopted cats who hate each other with a fury and they will never, ever be caught next to each other. However, I did catch one of the cats with our dog sitting on the sofa together, something I never thought I’d see.
Death By Mosquito Truck
@Comrade Dread:
Throwing them doesn’t work either.
andrea
Was Tunch glaring? A friend has a cat that looks like she swallowed a bowling ball, at least 30 lbs.
Linkmeister
Piffle. I like ’em both.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Ditto — I knew she was small, as John said she was about 17 lbs., but in photos, she always looked more about the size of a small beagle.
I love how Tunch is looking very, very wary, and is keeping a close eye on Lily, whereas Lily is just snoozing and really doesn’t give a shit, ’cause she’s so used to cats that they’re just part of the scenery.
John Cole
I love ’em both. I think I finally understand what my mom meant when she said she loves all of us differently.
Tunch is just Tunch- cranky, sweet, grumpy, soft and purring. Lily goes everywhere with me, and is excited and happy and wants to do things and at the same time timid. They are just different, but I love them both.
Lily has turned into a sniffopotamus on our morning walks. Before she never wanted to smell anything, now she wants to sniff everything. I’m thinking she never spent a lot of time outside. To keep the pace of the walk going, once I get into the woods a bit, I just take the leash off, that way I can keep walking, she can sniff and then when she notices I am getting away from her, tear ass after me at full speed. She likes running. I don’t think she got to do that before.
asiangrrlMN
Wow. This is a great pic. Lily is so small, but Tunch is NOT fat, yo. He’s just a solid guy, so stop picking on him!
I, too, live in hopes that we get a snuggle pic one day, maybe with Tunch grooming Lily.
P.S. gbear! Happy birthday! This is a much better thread in which to say that.
John, that is such a sweet tribute to your babies. You are a softy at heart, despite all your blustering.
Joe
John, is your place on Wall Street, because that fat cat deserves a giant bonus
demkat620
Shorter Lily: I’m taking over. Deal.
Shorter Tunch: Don’t go to sleep, byotch.
gbear
I was going to pick on Tunch for looking like she’s got a little pom-pom stuck to her butt.
R-Jud
@John Cole:
Nice work! I’m only back up to 6-8 myself, and then only 5 days a week. Maybe I should get a dog.
Jeff
I didn’t post in the midst of the election, but I’m delurking now to say:
Tunch is a female? WTH?
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
So basically, Tunch is you and Lily is Devon? :)
Blue Raven
John, I was reminded of Lily this weekend when I saw someone’s chihuahua/Dachshund cross while out shopping. But the other dog’s legs were shorter. Same head, same tail. And I just smiled like crazy, because I love seeing how Lily’s doing and that was an unexpected reminder.
As for the pic, I was waiting for that one. Also, Tunch looks like a pettable fluffball, even if he will someday eat you while you sleep assuming Lily’s nowhere near the scene. That little girl is your death insurance. Mark my words.
John Cole
Tunch is a male.
I was just saying he is not very svelte is all. I say it all the time- “i’ve lost my girlish figure…”
Genine
This is such a sweet photo. They’ll be spooning in no time!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@John Cole:
Do you read Get Fuzzy?
donovong
I am NOT a prick!!
And, Jeebus, that is one FAT CAT!!
feebog
Sorry, but that is one big fucking cat. No offense intended, but any time you have a cat that is as big as your dog, well, you have one big fucking cat.
jl
I am glad that Tunch seems pleased with at least one of his subjects. I hope Mr. Cole learns from Lily’s fine example and learns to obey the Tunchinator in all things.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Depends on the dog, doesn’t it?
Martin
@John Cole:
You’re a female? Damn, never would have guessed.
jl
Maybe Tunch used to be fat. Now he eats a healthful slimming diet (at least, so we are told by one of Tunch’s minions) and is merely ample.
robertdsc
This.
This is a great thread after a painful day. Thanks, John.
shelley matheis
Yes, Lily is quite the petite lass. And she also looks very comfortable. Tunch looks resigned to the situation. At least for now.
Laura W
@John Cole: Speaking as someone who has had to leash her dog 5% of the time over the last 10+ years, (and .01% of that time was during our daily power walks), this is a wonderful sign. To have a dog you can trust off leash to not go crazy, run off, bolt into traffic, etc, is an immense freedom.
It also means that should you ever move out of apt. life, Lily is likely to not need a fence or any sort of outdoor containment system to keep her around her home. People have marveled at Leah for years: “Don’t you worry about her running away?” and I always say: “Where would she go? I am her entire universe.”
Sadly.
I prefer cats. Their self-contained independence and ability to remaining sleeping while I pee appeals to me.
lutton
is there a weird camera angle there or something cause the cats head looks bigger than the dogs head…
not that there arent small dogs, I just hadn’t pictured Lily that small…
Look at the pic here in the car; looks bigger than a cat:
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=22665
or otherwise…that’s a big cat! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If my son adopted a big cat, I’d be just fine with that…
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Exactly. It’s not like you can put a cat on a leash and take it for a walk. It’s a LOT harder to get a cat to lose weight than a dog.
Size notwithstanding, I swear Tunch’s fur makes him look like one of those really expensive, plush Gund stuffed toys. That’s the softest-looking cat I’ve ever seen.
Elroy's Lunch
Yeah, man, another picture of Tunchumus Maximus! Emphasis on max.
That’s okay, I’m sure he’s not concerned about his size or Sanford…
Montysano
@John Cole:
That’s like 2-3 hours of walking. Impressive.
jl
Mere people can babble all they want. ‘Tis like the wind. Tunch will be as Tunch will be, and he cares not. Anyway, Tunch has a lot of responsibility now, what with two amusing but somewhat lesser mammals under his command.
Annie
@linda
You are so right — your comment really made me laugh. It was perfect.
Now, I think I will cry. This is a beautiful picture. Keep them coming. And, thanks. Great way to end the day
ScreaminginAtlanta
@lutton: That picture you linked to of Lily (June 15), I thought at the time she was looking at John and thinking “I think I wuv you”.
Death By Mosquito Truck
@Laura W:
When my dog was about a year old, a little bit after he’d graduated second in his obedience class, he disappeared. Someone had left the garage door open to the back yard and he’d gotten outside by himself and was gone.
A couple days later, we got a call from the animal hospital telling us someone had called them because he has their tag on his collar. They arranged for the folks that had him to call us. Turns out he got out in the street and this couple was walking by with their two dogs and he fell in with them and walked around the entire neighborhood with them and then went home with them. They said he was the best dog, very well trained and even slept in their bed.
When I drove over the six or eight blocks to get him, he was in the backyard with their dogs, behind a chainlink fence, teeth bared, barking at me viciously just like their two dogs. Then they let him out and he approached me warily still growling. When I called his name, he laid down and scooted the last fifteen or so feet, then rolled over and exposed his neck to me.
Mnemosyne
It’s only a matter of time until you walk into the room to find Tunch cleaning behind Lily’s ears. I’ve heard that cats and dogs can actually form very close relationships because, being different species, they don’t have to worry about status with each other.
Morfydd
@Laura W:
I prefer cats. Their self-contained independence and ability to remaining sleeping while I pee appeals to me.
Hahahahaha. I got cats because they weren’t clingy. Haha…whimper. Peeing (as a female) means I am briefly a lap. The last time I mentioned the cats, not clingy, thing, the older one interupted repeatedly with the mewing and the trying to climb my pant leg.
Thank God I never got dogs or I’d be rewriting my will as we speak.
(today I discovered the cats like pringles. Help?)
John Cole
@Morfydd: I would never have gotten Lily if I did not already have Tunch and it was so rewarding.
Dogs are a step up on the commitment scale. At this rate, I might get married by 72.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Damn! That little girl is really going to make you fit, John Cole.
CynDee
Seems like at this time in his life Tunch may have been ready to have someone new to hang his personality on. I’m sure that Lily and the Lily-John connection give Tunch more to “do.”
Emma
Beautiful!! And Tunch is gorgeous.
shelley matheis
KRK
Really great photo. Lily seems to have the “don’t make eye contact and keep your head down” stuff all figured out.
I can’t believe you really let the bastards get to you with their snipes about Tunch’s corporeal bounty. (But then, I also can’t believe you’d give up good ad money in a vain attempt to get the bastards to stop complaining about ads.) Try to look at it from Tunch’s perspective. He wouldn’t deign to acknowledge, let alone be upset by, any cracks about his size.
CaseyL
Coming in a bit late, and I see everyone else has already commented on how Tunch either is, or looks like he is, bigger than Lily.
Which wouldn’t be terribly odd – there are lots of very wee doggies – it’s just that I didn’t know Lily was one of those wee doggies.
I also wonder whether John gets to sit on that futon, ever, or if he’s permanently exiled to his computer desk so the critters can have the comfy place. Or maybe the issue hasn’t arisen yet, and won’t until Football Season starts and John needs to be able to watch TV again.
Gonna be interesting times at Chez Cole come autumn :)
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Everybody’s got to have goals. :)
Death By Mosquito Truck
@shelley matheis:
Yeah, even worse I was out all that money for shots, registration, fence, dog paraphanelia and obedience school.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Exactly. At the most, he’d give you the patented Tunch Glare of Death(tm), and then resume licking his own grundle.
shelley matheis
You mean he moved in with the new family? Bummer.
WMass
Tunch isn’t fat, he is Rubenesque
gex
Who has animals that don’t try to eat the brushed out fur at the first opportunity? That’s weirder than reaching this detente so quickly.
neill
leave that cat aaaallllllloooooooonnnnnnneeeeeee!!!!
(altho…
i’m lookin’ at ’em …
and i’m thinkin’ two bites…)
Ditch Digger
You can just picture the mental conversation they are having:
Lily: Look, i know its your damn futon, but this guy has me walking 9 miles a day, i’m not used to this. How much does he walk you every day?
Tunch: Just keep talking cowboy…
Ken
@John Cole:
I dunno John. it looks like Tunch is sizing up his next meal.
gsp
Shit I think Tunch ate Lily’s puppies. That cat has some back.
Fern
@KRK:
I am absolutely going to use that – being somewhat bounteous of form myself.
numbskull
Pick on Tunch’s figure?? You’re kidding, right? She’s a traditionally built woman as far as Precious Ramotswe is concerned. More power to her!
Joe Max
That is one monster cat.
kommrade reproductive vigor
A song title comes to mind.
Steeplejack
Cole!
That is a sweet, sweet picture.
I think I need a minute. . . . No, no, it’s okay, I just got something in my eye. No, I’m all right, just give me a Kleenex, damn it! [Strangled cough]
A.Political
Good choice all around J Cole…you do end up appreciating the subtleties of each, different but just as equally adorable.
Mayken
Awesome!
Comrade Luke
I think this is one of those trick photos, where they mess with the perspective. Tunch is on the futon, and Lily is actually sitting somewhere in Tennessee.
Either that or Tunch is a descendant of the rare albino panther.
Anne Laurie
According to cats, one of the highest possible callings for a human is “cat mattress“.
P.S. Happy birfday, GBear!
Tim
@xyzzy:
No, Lilly is just much closer to the camera, to make her look larger.
You know, like they did with the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings…
Mister Papercut
John, did you mean to color-coordinate your dog to your cat?
geg6
It’s weird what can make you cry. Like this photo, for instance. I’ve had an extremely busy, stressful, sometimes confrontational week. And weird as it is, the news about Farrah and MJ hit me pretty hard. And they both happened on a day I went to the funeral home for the viewing of a quadraplegic ex-student who died as a direct result of the failure of our health care system. His insurance company cut off covereage and they made him make a choice between his life (he’d been hospitalized with the multiple organ failures that plague quads) and his wife’s ability to keep their home and three rental properties, their only income. He chose to go home and die rather than leave her penniless. All of this made me angry, sad, and on edge. But none of it made me cry. And then I saw this and I’ve been blubbering away ever since. Thanks, John. I needed the catharsis and the smile. I love this blog.
Delia
That’s a fantastic picture. To think that just a few short weeks ago Lily didn’t know what to do on a leash and now she comes running at the offer of a walk, like any other self-respecting dog.
Sigh, you people whose mutts are self-disciplined enough that they’ll just stay in the yard on their own. My guy is an escape artist who is constantly patrolling the perimeter for weaknesses in the fence that he can exploit for his little adventures. Thank goodness he’s friendly and I live in a dog-friendly neighborhood where people will read his collar and call me if they find him out. My neighbors just helped me nail some plywood over his latest holes in the fence.
slag
@Mister Papercut: John clearly prefers blonds.
Adorable blonds.
Indylib
@geg6: Holy hell! That’s really rotten Geg, my sympathies, to you and his family.
Beej
Sorry John, but you are clearly mis-reading this situation. All that canine sweetness and devotion has begun to alter your naturally suspicious nature. While Lily looks quite relaxed and comfortable, Tunch is definitely contemplating something evil. Dog burgers, perhaps.
asiangrrlMN
@geg6: That fucking sucks, geg6. Man. What cold bastards. Sorry for you and his family.
@Morfydd: Ha! Like you, I got cats because I wanted animals who were fond of me, but not clingy. I got two (brothers) so that they would be bonded with each other. Well, they are bonded with each other, but they are also very bonded to me–especially Raven. He has a special, “Where the hell are you” mew that he will let loose if I am not in the same room. Sigh. I can’t imagine my life without them.
Ellid
Tunch is BIGGER??????
*faints*
The Saff
Me too. My three cats are all different but I love them equally. Back in the day, I used to accuse my folks of playing favorites. My mom would declare, “I love all my children equally,” but I didn’t believe her. Now I know what she meant.
Tunch and Lily go to gether like peas and carrots. What a delicious picture. Like someone said a couple weeks ago, “Balloon Juice: come for the politics, stay for the pets.”
Nannergrrl
Is it the angle of the photo or is
Tunch that HUGELily a small dog?Totally needs a frame of reference – position Tunch next to a quarter or something.
(Really though, heartwarming to see them getting along and Lily relaxing into her new family member status. Srsly.)
harlana pepper
Is it just the perspective or is Tunch waaay bigger than Lily? I love this photo, classeek!
Mr Furious
Wow. I also pictured Lily to be a 40-50 lb. small yellow Lab(ish) mutt.
I already knew Tunch was more Hutt than cat.
(For the record, my Maine Coon Cat topped 23 lbs in his heyday—some of that was fat, but he’s still push 20 even if he was doing P90X.)
Mr Furious
A quarter? Tunch would dwarf a roll of quarters…maybe try a Quarter-Pounder—just make sure the camera ready to go.
The Tim Channel
Gotta be perspective making that cat look like something out of a Vegas club act in relation to the new dog?
Svelte and girlish are two of my favorite metrosexual self references. Somehow I managed to outlive Michael by a year (so far) and a nose.
Enjoy.
GReynoldsCT00
Nothing wrong with being “full figured”! I, for one, like a cuddly kitty. They’ll be lying next to each other in no time at all, just wait and see.