Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging with Marlon…and Sophia

Today we visit with our feline friends in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland.  First up is Marlon, formerly known as “Fluffy.”

Despite living outdoors, he is healthy and well-fed, and clearly has a past that includes life as a pet cat.  He loves people and didn’t need much convincing to spend time indoors.  Indeed, he is living it up with his indoor time, getting food and scritches and soft blankets to relax on.

He is a big fellow but has a tiny voice that sounds more like “merp” than “meow”.  I don’t yet have any video of his vocals, but you can see him thoroughly enjoying himself in this Instagram video with the music of John Schott playing in the background.

You can hear more of John Schott and his Actual Trio in this CatSynth TV video.  In the meantime, let’s check in with Sophia, formerly known as “Hissy.”

As one can see in this photo, she is a beautiful cat, with Siamese-like markings and a graceful bearing.  We think she might have once been a pet as well, but she is still extremely skittish around people.  I mostly just get a glimpse of her from a distance and she runs off at any attempts to get closer.  But she usually remains hidden nearby when Marlon is around.  The two of them seem to have a special bond, despite their divergent attitudes towards humans.

We hope all our human and feline friends have a lovely weekend.

CatSynth 12th Anniversary

It’s our twelfth anniversary!  It’s hard to believe that this little project I started as a lark in 2006 is still going and expanding.  Here is that first picture of Luna that went up on July 19, 2006!

As always, we look to the anniversary as a moment for reflection and for changes.  We don’t have compiled detailed stats this year, but we do have several high-level milestones.  Most notably, we launched CatSynth TV last October, and since then have shared 74 videos! More are on the way.  We have continued to develop our apps, including the original CatSynth: The App! and Highway☆, though there is so much more we want to do there, both with existing and new apps.  And Sam Sam has blossomed into the new star of CatSynth!  With so many facets competing for our attention, there has been less time for the long-form reviews that once dominated this site, though we still write long-form articles when we can.  So with that, we make some announcements:

  • Sam Sam finally takes her rightful place on the masthead alongside the late great Luna!  It’s a change that is long overdue.  And appropriately, we are featuring one of her scratch’n’roll poses.
  • We are going to open up the site to new voices.  We have already had a couple of guest music reviews, and of course the semi-regular Mensa Cats cartoon series.  This is going to expand in the coming months.  If you have an idea for an article you would like to contribute, please let us know.
  • And as always, please keep sending us your cat-and-gear pics.

So please join Sam Sam and me in celebrating twelve years of CatSynth!  We look forward to sharing many more with all of you.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Fluffy and Hissy

We introduce two new kitty pals today: Fluffy and Hissy.  They are outdoor kitties who live in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, California.

This is Fluffy.  He is a big fellow, and quite friendly.  As far as we know, he lives outdoors full time, but he is very comfortable around humans, especially when they provide food.

By contrast, Hissy is much more skittish around people, and it is quite difficult to photograph her.

Usually, Hissy backs away, but if one does get close, she lives up to her name.

Both Fluffy and Hissy seem to be healthy and well fed in comparison to some of the street cats I have encountered in the neighborhood, so they probably have a network of food and safety options, beyond our “satellite office” in the neighborhood.

We hope to get some better photographs of them soon.

 

Weekend Cat Blogging with Sam Sam: The New Neighbor

It looks like we have a new neighbor at CatSynth!

We have been noticing a new feline presence around CatSynth HQ, through sounds and bits of motion.  But this is the first time we saw him/her on the patio ledge.  It’s a little tuxedo cat, like Sam Sam.

Closeup of neighbor cat

This cat presumably lives in one of the apartments just beyond our patio.  We often see him sitting on the ledge behind this glass-brick window.

As one might imagine, Sam Sam is rather curious about this new cat outside her windows.

Sam Sam and the new neighbor

She is a bit anxious and agitated by the cat’s presence, and often jumps up on this sideboard and even the window ledge above!  Her is always fully fluffed during these encounters.  I suspect she is feeling both intrigued and territorial at the same time.  (We have already started clearing off the most fragile items and tchotchkes from the glass table).

We hope you have a great weekend.  And we’d love to hear about adventures your cats have with their feline neighbors 😺

CatSynth Pic: Yoli and Moog Sub Phatty

Beautiful white cat Yoli is making a monophonic drone on a Moog Sub Phatty synthesizer.  From yolanda.yolanda.yolanda on Instagram.

The Sub Phatty is perhaps the most under-appreciated member of Moog’s Phatty line of synthesizers, which includes the popular Sub37.  We have one at CatSynth, and it has served us well both in the studio and in live performance. You can view my recent video on the hidden features of the instrument below.

It has been a frequent setting for CatSynth pics over the years featuring many different cats, including CatSynth Video: Moog Sub Phatty Purrs.