cat(etc)blogging: August 2005 Archives

Mrs. Kennedy makes love to my friend Meaghan's jacket...

Birds are cool cuz they can eat all your scraps: the bits of fruit and veg you cut off and would otherwise throw away, the ends of a loaf of bread, some nuts, leftover Cheerios, whatever.

And then, all the money I save on bird food ends up buying some ridiculously expensive bird toy, even though -- like how little kids are often perfectly content to play with the box some toy came in -- the birds are often mostly happy playing with the newspaper lining their cage.

Meet Emmy, up top, and Leonard. They own my friend Brian. All cats act like they’re famous, but Emmy had her actual 15 minutes because of the circumstances of her coming to live with Brian: She was horribly abused by some rotten kids, who lit her on fire and were probably going to through her off the roof of their building (as they’d done with other cats they’d tortured), but she had a fortuitous escape, courtesy of the FDNY, and ended up at an animal shelter, where, Brian says, she won over the staff and "as severely injured as she was (looked like she'd been dipped in oil), she was still affectionate." Emmy was nursed back to health by Brian’s sister, a D.A. who happens to specialize in animal-cruelty cases. Brian says his sister "followed her around with evidence bags... so when Emmy's ears eventually fell off, they were preserved for use in the prosecution which eventually took place." Emmy got her name from her "Missing Ears" (M.E.), and she's been on the news and everything as a New York survivor.

Leonard was also a rescue, never abused but plenty sickly. He’s not doing very well lately, unfortunately, poor mite. He has an enlarged heart that requires regular medication, and it looks like his heart may finally be giving out. Brian says Leonard is "the sweetest, most adorable little creature."

Meet Captain Nemo Tubbs, on the left, and his sister/companion/eternal tormentor Miss Nuala Boots. They live with my best pal and neighbor Bonnie. Nemo is quite possibly the sweetest, most gentle cat in the world: Veterinarians who’ve had to do terrible, painful things to him (for his own good, of course) have had to ask whether he’s been declawed (he hasn’t), because never in all their ministrations does he protest or take a swipe at anyone wielding a pointy needle or a rectal thermometer. Nuala (pronounced "noo-la" -- it’s Celtic for "Christmas") is jealous of the fact that everyone loves Nemo more, and so she takes it out on him: She is equally likely to attack him without provocation as she is to groom him in a way that makes his eyes narrow in pleasure.

Nuala recently took an interdimensional adventure that gave all of us quite a fright, but that’s a story for another Friday.