His royal highness is being difficult with the posing this evening, so much so that I had to put a bed on the chair to coax him to stay still long enough for a picture. He does feel much better, though, because as he always does after recovering from his grooming session and eating, he joined me for a nap and was very lovey and purred exceedingly loud.
Cat Blogging
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Diversions
Metaphor for me searching the web:
he is Not Good at hunting. cannot overstate pic.twitter.com/q4UO2n5SvO
— maAAAAAAArk?? (@haircut_hippie) October 6, 2021
Elsewhere….
President Biden brought these kids of White House military aides who were promoted today on board Marine One for a quick tour before he departed for a weekend in Delaware. pic.twitter.com/INNpk0eazs
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 8, 2021
It was surprising for the press to walk outside for his Marine One departure and see the president playing with a yo-yo and some kids from military families. pic.twitter.com/2QkmjucNF2
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 8, 2021
BREAKING: U.S. officials will meet with senior Taliban officials this weekend for talks aimed at easing the evacuations of foreign citizens and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. The talks will be held in Doha, Qatar. https://t.co/eFSDFb7jrZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 9, 2021
… The U.S.-Taliban agreement of 2020, which was negotiated by the Trump administration, demanded the Taliban break ties with terrorist groups and guarantee Afghanistan would not again harbor terrorists who could attack the United States and its allies.
It seems certain the two sides will discuss in the weekend talks how to tackle the growing threat. The Taliban have said they do not want U.S. anti-terrorism assistance and have warned Washington against any so-called “over-the -horizon” strikes on Afghan territory from outside the country’s borders.
The United States, meanwhile, would seek to hold Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave Afghanistan, along with Afghans who once worked for the U.S. military or government and other Afghan allies, a U.S. official said…
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Monday Evening Open Thread: Complaints Dept.
This cat absolutely deserves a more expressive voice-over, but ‘I’ve been a perfectly adequate cat for most of my life’ slays me.
Monday Evening Open Thread: Complaints Dept.Post + Comments (84)
Saturday Evening Open Thread: Not Lazy, Just… Uninspired
Lazy Caturday.. pic.twitter.com/531PzT2MtI
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) September 25, 2021
Anybody else suddenly feeling like taking a nap?
Our grey bicolor cat Piper does this when he’s feeling playful… he wants to be repeatedly ‘nudged’ out of the way, but since he’s a big solid dude (15lbs) it’s a bit of a workout for his human partner!
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I Completely Suck. Have Some Champ As An Apology. Tikka Too
It must be said: I suck as a front-pager these days.
Many people have had much worse rides, but it’s been a tricky few months/years for yours truly here in the Hub of the Universe . And thanks for the communal sympathy for the one bit I shared about our family cabins when they were in imminent danger. That all ended as expected, alas, and not well:
That’s what’s left of the larger of the two cabins. The fire burned so hot that the septic tank melted; the county has been informed, and we’re pumping out the hazard as soon as a truck can get in there.
It could be so much worse. Thankfully, no fire fighters or other disaster personnel were hurt while working to save ours and other cabins in the valley; these were summer-only houses, and fire is part of what happens when one chooses to spend time in remote country. (Also, thankfully, not all the houses in the valley burnt. Which is good for our friends and means, inter alia, that the landscape isn’t wholly charred.)
So that’s a part of the reason why I’ve been essentially absent from this site for too long. There’s some other stuff going on which may keep my presence here to a (satisfying to some, I’m sure) minimum. But I hope to take a more active part; we’ll see.
In the meantime, as an apology, take a gander at some great felines:
Here’s Champ, just this evening, objecting as I swapped the chicken that had been in harm’s way for the kale:
And here she is, a mathematical cat, dreaming of topology:
And here’s the cat I serve, Tikka, in his Robert Louis Stevenson moment: the sailor, home from the sea (and no mean hunter, back in the day).
(That was at a holiday house we got to enjoy for a week at the end of August. It was a long enough sojourn that we took the cats. Champ loved it from the moment we unpacked her from the car. Tikka took a couple of days before he’d get out of the drawer he’d found to hide in. He’s an old Spaniard, as Stephen Maturin would describe him: “Let no new thing arise.”)
And last, here’s the boss cat in all his dignity. He is saying, as he so often does, “friends don’t let friends vote Republican”:
And with that, ave et vale. I hope to be a better citizen of the blog soon. In the meantime, the thread is open.
Play nice.
Or not.
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Late Night Open Thread: I Blame ‘Security’
When your entire ‘security’ staff was hired on the grounds of he knew a guy....
You like cat videos?
You like baseball?
You’re welcome https://t.co/oKOb8uhn36
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 3, 2021
Poor alley rabbit. At least he’s in good physical shape!
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Monday Morning Open Thread: Grateful, Regardless
Would you like to meet a doggy who is afraid to leave his toys behind when he goes on vacation?
Well, meet Ollie.
Credit: Imgur/OctopussSevenTwo pic.twitter.com/Tr2GS4k3HG
— Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) July 8, 2021
After days roaming the rubble, Surfside survivor Binx the cat was reunited with his family https://t.co/EYX6awrGq6
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 11, 2021
… The Gonzalez family, one of the many devastated by the collapse of Champlain Towers South, was missing its black cat. Angela Gonzalez and her 16-year-old daughter had fallen several stories when the building collapsed, CBS Miami reported, and Angela broke her pelvis but still managed to drag her child from the rubble…
Sixteen days after the collapse — when the rescue mission had shifted to a recovery, the remaining condos had been knocked down and hope was waning for many — Binx the cat was reunited with his family. A small army of animal lovers made the reunion possible…
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