Late last night I caught Luna appreciating one of my art prints a little bit too intently. That almost always means she has founding some poor unsuspecting creature to hunt. And in this case, there was indeed a rather large spider that had crawled behind the print and then along the nearby wall. You can see Luna and her arachnid target in the photo to the left.
Luna loves to hunt large invertebrates, though she rarely catches them. And anything that high up on a wall is pretty hopeless. But in reality is just a game, a chance for Luna to play with her hunting instincts.
So should one try to coax spiders or insects closer so that she can better play at hunting with them. Or leave them be? My instincts always suggest the latter, letting the bugs get away, despite the desire to bring more small joys into my cat's life.
Of course, this question is not something that keeps me up at night – and I have no innate fear of spiders. But it's interesting, and a good excuse to participate in “Midnight Monday.”
Saw this video on matrixsynth a little back:
Basically, it's a time-lapse video of a doepfer modular being assembled. The cat shows up towards the end, and seems quite curious.
You can watch the video here. Unfortunately, it is in some sort of protected MPEG-4 format that isn't very repost/embed friendly (i.e., like YouTube videos).
Well, time for the second “cat blogging” post this weekend. The Bad Kitty Cats Festival Of Chaos Edition 5 is being hosted by Megan and “Snot Face” Madeline at Disturbed Reality. The theme this week is birds and feathers, so we are pulling out this photo from the CatSynth archives, illustrating Luna's fondness for birds:
Luna loves to track all sorts of creatures, feathered or otherwise, though her favorite bedroom and studio windows.
Getting away from the offical theme, this really has been a weekend of discontent on so many fronts. And while I'm trying to spend as much of it outdoors, time inside being cuddly with Luna remains a great refuge. This photo was taken w/ the built-in camera on my MacBook when Luna decided to park herself on my lap for some serious affection and purrs:
She really is a remarkable creature, sweet and loving in additional that sleek body and perfectly manicured fur. The astute viewer may also notice her affectionately extended paw against the black background.
More feline escapes can be found at the festival of chaos, as well as Carnival of the Cats hosted by Grace and Kittens.
This weekend is nominally being hosted by our friend Upsie, Sundance and Sher at What Did You Eat:
However, there is sad news about Sundance – for those who haven't followed the Weekend Cat Blogging, he is the orange kitten. He has been very ill this week, and it turns out he has FIP, a horrible disease, that is almost always fatal. He has quickly gone from being an energetic and mischievous kitten to unable to eat and drink on his own.
UPDATE: Sher and family made the difficult decision yesterday to let Sundance go. He is gone, but no longer suffering or in pain.
Our thoughts here at CatSynth will be with Sher and family this weekend. We, too, will miss Sundance – he was a sweet kitten we watched grow on Weekend Cat Blogging, and saying good-bye is very sad. We echo Sher's words:
He always seemed delighted when he saw us and brought great happiness and laughter to our lives. And that is why it was worth having him with us, even for such a brief time.
WCB is going on at What did you Eat, where Sundance is remembered with words and photos. We are also participating in the Friday Ark #151. We will have a separate post for Bad Kitty Chaos and Carnival of the Cats later this weekend.
Another (strange) case of violence against pets:
PUYALLUP, Wash. — Two cats have been shot and injured with arrows in Puyallup and another one is missing, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.
Authorities said they are offering a reward in the hopes someone will come forward and with information to help stop the attacks on neighborhood pets.
Ryan Campbell?s cat, Yaeger, stumbled in last week impaled by a carbon-shaft arrow…The cat is going to be OK, but Campbell had to pay hundreds in vet bills…
…Cody Kuzmer lives next door to Campbell. He said his cat, Bracelets, was shot by an arrow the night after Yaeger was attacked.
There are photos with the the original story. Because they contain “evidence” of the attacks, I opted not to repost them here.
Happily, both cats survived, and we hope they recover quickly. But there is still one missing, and might have also been a victim. I haven't seen any follow-up stories yet. I always wonder who does something like this? Kids looking for easy targets for their new “toy” (and why do people let their kids have weapons like that)? Or a neighborhood cat-hater with a grudge? There is no way something like this is an accident, especially with multiple cases.
I was searching for track to feature tonight in honor of the Music and Cats theme of the Bad Kitty Chaos Festival, and eventually settled on this selection from Bast Babylone by zlknf:
lknf: free noise from an autonomous organism.
territory of new sonic landscapes in permanent questioning and mutation, quasi-silence purity to gliding noisaural imensitudes.
Bast Babylon EP available through Merzbau.
In this case, I am interpreting the theme as more “inspirational” than literal, i.e., music inspired by cats rather than created from cat sounds. Certainly, the references to Bast suggest a feline connection, as do the following quotes from the credits:
bast babylone is dedicated to bosch and sybilla.
zlknf thanks the electric masters for their gates are open,
her cats for their love is unconditional, merzbau for the immediate
cooperation and sympathy, and the Friends – AGAPE
Musically, this track reminds me a lot of the piece I did for Dorian Grey's Box, as well as several works in 2 1/2. Disturbingly so. Most likely it is common elements inspired by listening to computer music (ala ICMC and SEAMUS), but perhaps there is also a common element of the cats…
For subscription and listening options, click the “CatSynth Channel” icon in the upper right or the subscription link at the top of this post. And as always, enjoy!
&cWell, it's Sunday afternoon and time for the round-up of the Bad Kitty Chaos Festival #4. The theme is Music and Cats, and Luna starts us off with a “CatSynth pose” next to a soon-to-be-bent Casio SK-10:
Meanwhile, Willow from sammawow has her own keyboard shot, where she channels the Ramones. Gotta love those 70s haircuts. We will probably feature some more photos of Willow as part of our regular “CatSynth pic” series.
Luna doesn't really play much, she mostly just likes to hang in the studio, as we've seen many times in the past:
For Gree, music is about purrrs. Purrs can indeed be a wonderful musical sound, there are several electronic treatments of purrs in the album I am currently working on entitled 2 1/2.
Next we take a little detour from art towards science. Living the Scientific Life asks the question “Can Animals Predict Impending Death?”, and features the much discussed case of Oscar who seemed to predict when residents at a nursing home were near death.
Oscar is also the subject of this week's contribution by TherapyDoc.
More music (or “mewsic”) can be found at the home of Kashim and Othello, where the boys try their own version of a faux reggae classic.
Meanwhile Victor Tabbycat presents Fursday along with Bonnie Underfoot.
Those Bengals are back, with all the Bengal cuteness, over at Pet's Garden Blog.
Mouse takes on the competition in this slideshow at This, That and The Other Thing (who hosted Carnival of the Cats last weekend). Don't worry Mouse, the toys are no match for you.
“When you?ve gotten bored of attacking your toys, there?s always your own foot to play with…”, as we are reminded at Dophin's Dock. Sage advice.
Have you ever considered a cat's whistkers? Well, you should. And this contribution from the Magick Cat Cauldron will help introduce you this amazing piece of feline machinery.
Samantha says thank you to everyone who helped with her surprise party. Sounds like it was a smashing success.
At Self Help for Cats, Herman Panther likes to sleep cuddled with his humans, “like a lover.” Reminds me of a bit of “kitty live” with our own little panther here, who loves to snuggle up in bed on my left side and fall asleep purring.
Aloysius joins our cats-and-music theme with his epic poem. Sing, Great Cat, the tale of Aloysius, mighty hunter of the line of Pangur Ban!.
Gemini sets off a bit of an argument at Chey's Place. Maybe time for her own blog? After all, there is no such thing as too many cat blogs.
Over at the Cat Realm, Karl dares us all with a challenge. Visit them to find out more. Oh, by the way, nice shades!
Finally, Biscuit has not come home, and Megan and bad kitty cats are losing hope that she will return. This is really sad news for our friends who started this “festival” – we hope that she does defy the odds and return, but our sympathies are with them now.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this week's Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos. Next weekend, we'll be hosting the old favorite Weekend Cat Blogging.
