Confederacy of a Dunce - beasts

Cat invasion

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:54:55 GMT

Stop the presses! Two small cats have adopted the Dunces.

Several months have now passed since Zosi's untimely death in January, and we finally decided that we were ready to admit someone else into our household. Somehow we decided that this time around, we would see if we could adopt a pair of cats (I know, it's a slippery slope towards us becoming "crazy cat ladies"). Possibly even kittens. So we made a journey to North London Cats Protection, the same place we adopted from before, to see who was looking for a home.

When we arrived, there were no kittens around (apparently kitten season = total frenzy), but we were taken straight to a pair of sisters just about a year old. It was pretty clear from the start that they would be moving into our house - one of them was extremely friendly and sociable (although this could always just be "GET ME OUT OF HERE" behavior), and the other one was much more hesitant but too curious to hide away. We couldn't just take them home right away - Cats Protection has a home visit policy. So we had to wait a couple of days for one of their volunteers to come by the house and make sure it was ready for cats, and also make sure that we were aware of the various important things about cat care, introducing the cats to a new place, and so on. Of course this went fine.

On Wednesday we went to collect them (in pouring rain), and brought them back to the living room, which would be their home until they became comfortable there. One of the cats (the sociable one, of course) was ready to be let out right away - totally confident in exploring the room and its various shelves and surfaces, even begging for attention, nudging us and purring. The other was much more nervous - going straight under the recliner and cowering there for quite a while. Although eventually she made it out, carefully exploring the room and even more carefully approaching us.

We had a few people over in the next couple of days, and neither cat seemed particularly bothered. So we let them into the rest of the house on Saturday. Again the same kind of behavior, fitting their personalities. {explore, jump, meow, purr} vs {carefully explore, scurry, hide, peek out}. There is also a lot of cat-on-cat chasing and play-fighting, and it actually seems like the cautious one is slightly dominant (although they clearly like each other best of all).

We have also been agonizing over their names! Not easy at all, and we couldn't really do the same thing we did with Zosi whose name was derived from an interesting saint whose saint's day was the same as the day we adopted her. Well, we could have - after all, we could have chosen from any of the 120 Martyrs of China who are collectively celebrated on that day. But we weren't really keen on any of their adopted western names (mostly biblical) nor did we want to try for Chinese names given our lack of knowledge of Chinese phonology. So we headed in a very different direction. First of all, the little, slightly timid gray one also has incredibly soft fur, so we called her Goya. This is actually not based on the name of the Spanish painter, but is Mrs. Dunce's childhood word for extremely soft things one might like to stroke (Dunce family equivalent might be spelled something like "hih"). The more outgoing one, vaguely Siamese in appearance (and also somewhat resembling a ring-tailed monkey), was much harder. Eventually she chose a Japanese girl's name, Kumi. At least to us it has some sound-symbolism related to her personality, and also some non-coincidental resemblance to the phonology of "monkey". And according to some of the "name meaning" websites (which might just be junk), the name Kumiko (from which Kumi is derived) means "companion child"/"drawing together" - a nice link with her sociable nature - and also derives from (ku) "long time", (mi) "beautiful" and (ko) "child". Anyway all this rambling and no pictures yet! So without further delay:

Kumi on the bookshelf

Goya on the bookshelf

Together on the bookshelf

The cat in the flat

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:13:45 GMT

Since we moved into the new flat, it's taken DunceCat some time to get used to the new situation. Everything smelled different, and there was the gross indignity of being locked inside for a month. But finally things are settling down, especially now that the weather has improved and we can open the front windows. She especially enjoys sitting in the front window spying on the neighbors. And watching us as well.

When I say "spying on the neighbors", well, she does watch people and cats coming and going down at street level. But really her focus is all upon our bird neighbors. There are quite a few of them who hang around the trees, roofs and power lines just above the window. So she spends a lot of her window time making birdcalls: odd, creaking sounds, interspersed with strange meows and chomping jaw movements (not sure whether these are intended to be threatening, or just wishful thinking. In turn, the birds squawk, swoop, and occasionally defecate in her general direction.

And then when she's done, it's time to ditch the window and patrol the rest of the house.

She's confident enough now to do full-speed rampages from one room to another, gripping the carpet for the sharpest turns, and skittering around the kitchen linoleum. But sometimes guarding on two fronts is just too much effort for one lonely cat.

But usually she's right back on duty in a few minutes' time. And woe betide anyone who tries to sneak past her. This is what it looks like if you try to enter a secured area without the correct pass:

None shall pass!

good neighbors!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:58:57 GMT

This weekend saw really nice, springlike weather so we finally got around to cleaning up our shed and back garden a little bit. We also had big plans for the cat: after just over two weeks being cooped up inside, it was to be her first day allowed outside. So we opened the door and waited for her to follow us out. Instead, she just peeked out the back door, then immediately scrambled for safety under the recliner in the living room. Where she stayed for the next five hours or so. Poor kitty.

But that didn't stop us; we lounged around the back garden reading the paper, moving plant pots around, and planting some tomato & zucchini seeds (the previous owner left all sorts of gardening goodies including one of those little portable mini-greenhouses, so we figured we may as well put at least a few of them to good use). Also found a stack of 33rpm records in the shed, unfortunately suffering badly from the shed's missing window (now temporarily repaired). An assortment of classic works including some classical (Beethoven, Chopin), some musicals (Mikado, Oliver!), and quite a bit of folk and traditional songs. We arranged them to dry out; surely some of them can be salvaged.

While we were puttering about in the garden, we got chatting to a neighbor who lives a few doors down (but whose flat shares a wall with ours... explain that if you can!). He's a very nice guy, even invited us over to his place for a BBQ. Conversations with neighbors?! Quite different from our previous homes around London. Turns out he works in the building trades, and bought his flat three years ago for pennies (it was a derelict wreck). He's put thousands into it, and loads of work, and there's still plenty to be done (attic conversion, roof replacement, never mind front stairs and front rooms which are still totally unfinished). But the rooms he's completed (lounge, kitchen, bathroom) gave us all sorts of large-scale ideas we might be able to think about doing sometime in the future (way, way in the future, though). All in all, a very nice meeting-the-neighbors occasion.

And oh yeah, we did have a new hot-water heater installed on Saturday. They arrived bright and early to do the work, and blazed right through without taking a break or anything. Before noon they'd installed the new heater, carted the old one away, and cleaned up at least a little bit of their mess. Except, well, one of our towels was full of solder and filth, assorted icky bits of residue could be found various places, and worst of all they'd made a mess out of our bathroom wall. The old heater had a very large hole for the flue; the new one required only a small hole. So they had to patch the remaining gap, which they did very poorly. I think they just used a large chunk of something wider than the brick in the wall, because it protrudes into the bathroom (giving the wall a lovely bulge). And outside is equally foul; they just did an extremely slapdash job on the wall (quite consistent with the stereotype of the British builder, I'm sorry to say). I really started to regret going with a local company to do the work, but it appears we will get some satisfaction after all; they have pledged to make the job good at no further cost to us. I will, however, reserve judgement until this actually happens.

There goes the neighborhood 2

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 14:23:38 GMT

Since I'm on a roll writing about crimes and criminals, I may as well keep it going, this time to talk about our recent home invasions. I would have thought the rear of our house was fairly secure, being surrounded on all sides by neighbors' back gardens, all of which are separated by (approx.) 5-foot wooden fences (and plenty of windows). But how wrong I was. We have an intruder who comes into the house for the purpose of petty thievery on a daily basis: several times a day in fact.

Fortunately this intruder is not human, but a feline friend of Zosi who lives next door. We've been introduced to him before (at least, we think he's a "him") but his name didn't stick, so we call him Orangey (unimaginatively referring to his color). He's an older cat, fixed and perhaps for that reason quite mellow in his behavior. He gets along quite well with Zosi (not THAT well, thanks to the fixing). But we leave the cat flap open during the day so Zosi can come and go (especially "go": the litter box is barely used these days. Sorry neighbors. I hope you keep the lid on the sandbox.). But this results in access for Orangey as well. Poor Orangey has no cat flap, so he has to stay out once he's been let into the great outdoors. When he gets hungry, well, I guess there aren't many vermin around, because he loves to sneak into our kitchen and snack on Zosi's food. He's quite aware of our routine (letting Zosi out when we first wake up [possibly because she has waken us up]), since he usually has had a snack before we come down for breakfast. He knows he's not supposed to be there (if he sees us, he runs quick-like out the flap and sits on the stairs awaiting his chance to come back in), so it's a serious dash and grab sort of situation. You can tell he's been at the food because he eats like a bulldozer, scattering food everywhere in his rush to eat before he's caught (Fortunately we are a dry-food only household). Sometimes he eats so quickly that he gets a little sick (a cat after my own heart). It's sort of like we have a second cat, but one we don't really have to take care of. Except for the stealing, that is (a scoop or two of food per day, and perhaps a catnip-filled mouse that is nowhere to be seen). I'll try and catch a picture of him in the act, but he's a sneaky little devil.

Dinner plans

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:44:56 GMT

Mrs. Dunce's aunt and uncle are coming for dinner this evening, so we've been thinking a little about what to serve¹. Last night after another highly enjoyable trip to Asakusa (the restaurant, not the place, already reviewed here from our trip just last week [Really, we're not obsessed with it. It was someone else's suggestion, and she's leaving the country quite soon. {Of course we may have influenced her decision processes, but that's another story}]) we stopped by to pick up a few remaining groceries. We shouldn't have bothered, though. Another member of our household had already done the shopping. There was a lovely dead bird resting on the kitchen floor, Zosi's first ever contribution to our larder (I'll not say much about the feathers; fortunately nothing else was scattered around). Unfortunately Epicurious.com didn't offer much help (despite various different search terms [There's ROBIN in "Superfast vegetarian pizza" ?!?!?!]) so maybe we'll just serve a starter of dead bird sashimi. Or maybe we'll stick to our original plan.

¹Looks like Javanese roasted salmon with wilted spinach (recipe here [Mrs Dunce swears by Epicurious and for good reasons]) and wasabi mashed potatoes (this might be the right recipe, but there's really not much need for a recipe, just add some wasabi to mashed potatoes. Mmmm).

The Great Outdoors

Tue, 03 May 2005 12:42:50 GMT

This week-end was a long weekend (yesterday was the fabled "May Bank Holiday") so I had high hopes for all the exciting things or off-the-beaten-track delights I might be able to write about. Instead I caught the flu and sat around the house whining and coughing. Dressed only in a housecoat and slippers, and with my hair up in curlers. Therefore, here are some more cat pictures.

Zosi got to go outside this weekend. She spent a little bit of time sitting in the sun

She spent a lot more time cautiously working her way through the wild underbrush.

But most of her time was spent in a valiant effort to rid our garden of intruders (mostly snails and flies). Here she takes advantage of her natural camouflage to sneak up on a snail supply caravan.

Zosi

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 10:24:28 GMT

As many already know, we have been adopted by a nonhuman companion of feline origin, one Zosi (surname unknown) of "tuxedo" appearance. It is my sincere hope that this blog will not degenerate into the ravings of a lunatic cat lady¹, but now let me post some pictures and accompanying text which may predict otherwise:

Zosi is very friendly although it's hard to get her to look straight at a camera, and when she does, it may be with a slightly surly expression:

Her favorite spot in the whole house is sleeping in the lap of Serge, our large stuffed monkey (who doesn't seem to mind the company at all):

And she especially likes high places, like the tops of doors (photo not available due to uncooperative behavior) or, as pictured here, balancing precariously over a stairway:

¹ Although it is my understanding that one must be female, and live with more than simply a single cat, in order to be a "cat lady", I also understand that the admission of a cat to a household formerly occupied by zero (0) cats can be a gateway to living in squalor surrounded by tens if not hundreds of cats, and wearing only a bathrobe or housecoat at all hours of the day.