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Tag: Luna

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #76 Roundup

    Well, it seems like we have a bit of a theme going here this weekend:

    At this moment, I'm lying on the couch w/ a purring Luna and a purring iBook resting on top. Life is good.

    But I guess it's time to get up off our furry butts and start the Weekend Cat Blogging #76 Roundup. If you would like to be included, please leave a comment here or contact me.

    At Jelly Pizza, a routine checkup for Taboo becomes anything but after she makes a snack out of a skink. So far so good, but hope she remains OK. Also, a reminder that googling for cat dangers and diseases can by very scary.

    Cuteness alert! Chris Dolley presents Kai searching for Tribbles in all the wrong places. That last photo of Kai, Xena and a “tribble” is great!

    It can be difficult for a cat to find good recipes in primate cookbooks, but over at burékaboy we have chez chaton culinaire. Luna's birthday is coming up soon and I was looking for somegood dinner options…

    Ostara reports that it has been a gray and rainy week in Toronto, but that is good excuse for Sam to join us in our comfy napping. He also dreams of mailing himself to a warmer climate – it's pretty nice here in California right now.

    Nothing is more exciting to a house cat than a forrrrbiiiiden roooooom. Over at Music and Cats, the McKittens get to explore the newly remodeled kitchen. Maybe they can try out some of those recipies from chez chaton culinaire?

    The House of (Mostly) Black Cats treats us to one of those “separated at birth?” posts featuring Gree and Sophia. That a purrty good likeness, almost as good as that one I posted with the pope and the emperor from Star Wars…

    Upsie is having a bad weekend because sher is sick with a fever and spending more time with two feral kitties learning to trust humans. Cheer up, Upsie. We at CatSynth recommend a nice nap!

    Triple threat from thefoodpornographer: Pixel poses in her summer office, Billy Lee gets busted on the forbidden couch, and Pixel pops her head out of a box.

    From Lali, Miss Prout sleeps with her friend Petit Tigré. Très mignon, indeed!

    Kate in the Kitchen presents Animal Capers, the winter edition. Bustopher seems to enjoy being out in the cold, something that we at CatSynth have trouble understanding. We'll stay nice and warm inside, thank you. Also, a reminder that squirrels need food during the winter, too.

    The comfy-resting-place theme continues. At A Cat in the Kitchen, Yoshi sits in his favorite spot, the “now broken” tumble dryer.

    Tiggy the Tiny Tiger worries about mom Sarah going off to Japan. Don't worry, Tiggy, your Mom loves you, and Luna seemed to have a good time with the cat sitter last week, and probably will next week, too, when I go back to New York for the thanksgiving holiday weekend.

    At Restaurant Window, we have some great pictures of the recently adopted Marble. Love those friendly tiger-kitty faces.

    While most of us are enjoying a nice afternoon nap, over at The Westering Hills Colin hunts the laser pointer. There is a cute video of him making that clicking/squeaking sound that seems to be associated with hunting/stalking. Luna does the same thing when she hunts bugs or tracks critters through the window.

    Looks like we've got a couple of “food-obsessed voyeurs” over at Rosa's Yummy Yums. But at least they are able to forget food long enough to join us for a weekend nap.

    At xenogere, Vazra plans a great escape, albeit through a space not quite large enough for his head.

    Sad news from Bonnie and the Charlottesville SPCA that their big, beautiful, and beloved Maine Coon cat, Hans, has passed over The Rainbow Bridge. Our sympathies go out to his friends who loved him deeply.

    Voting is now open for the Skeezix the Cat's Tales of Devoshun Kontest. But it's not too late to enter!

    Speaking of tales of devotion, Mao Nichols finds out that his mom likes him best after reading her entry. Unfortunately, he is inelegible as a member of Skeezix's household. Grrr on those pesky ethics rules.

    More contest fun – Rocky the Gutter Cat is slumming for votes as a finalist in the World's Coolest Cat contest. Looks like the competition is pretty stiff – I think some of the New Orleans “cool cats” should have entered, too.

    We have a birthday girl this weekend! Glinda turns two years old, and you can see her over at annesfood, along with some baby photos with her littermates. Looks like Glinda is celebrating her birthday the way we are, with a nap.

    Over at I Got Two Shoes, Kamikaze has his laser eyes ready to zap. Hmmm, if this is what passes for “contemplative,” I'd hate to run into him in an angry mood…

    Pia lightens the mood with a a basket of kittens. No one can resist a basket of kittens. No one.

    Well, that will do it for this weekend. Thanks to all those who participated. Time for a nap…






  • Weekend Cat Blogging #76

    Well, it's been a tiring week here since my return – both Luna and I really just want to curl up and rest. But we at CatSynth are dedicated to doing Weekend Cat Blogging #76. Thanks to those who already sent in their links. You either leave a comment with your link on this entry, or send me a message.

    Also, if you haven't had a chance, please check out last week's post featuring an article on the cats of New Orleans.





  • Weekend Cat Blogging #74: Preparing for New Orleans radio performance

    Lali at Lali et Cie is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging soixante-dix quatre (I never could get the hang of French numbers). And how appropriate to be blogging this weekend from one of America's great cities with French heritage, New Orleans. I am here attending the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), and will be performing a piece live on local public radio WTUL FM. For anyone interested in listening in, it will be streaming live online, next Friday at 1PM CST US (check out my main site for more info.

    Needless to say, I've been scrambling a bit to get ready for the trip in general, and the performance in particular. I'll post more about the music and technology later this weekend, but for now it's enough to appreciate that Luna has been keeping me company in the studio as I work out some nasty bugs in the software for the piece:

    She seems to enjoy sitting on my lap while I work. And it's great to have her sharing in some small part of the creative process.

    I think this closeup qualifies as a “catsynth pic.” Luna poses with laptop, E-MU Xboard, E-MU Vintage Pro and circuit-bent VTech toy phone.

    In my absence, Luna is being well cared for courtesy of Ronni West's Happy At Home Cat Sitting.

  • Halloween Weekend Cat Blogging: Black Cat Appreciation

    This special Halloween edition of Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Linda and Aggie over at kayaksoup. It is a lovely warm sunny October afternoon here on the left coast, and Luna has some lovely harvest-themed pictures to share:

    Here Luna obliges us with the traditional Halloween pose:

    Sadly, Halloween can be a difficult time for cats in the United States, especially black kitties. The image of the black cat as “bad luck” or witches' familiars permeate folklore as well as the pop culture and commerce surrounding Halloween. Ritual sacrifice and harm to black cats is largely documented to be an urban legend, but the fiction can influence kids. Indeed, animal killing and abuse does rise around halloween mostly because of “poorly-behaved kids” influenced by the folk and popular images:

    Far too often, the animals are tortured and sacrificed during pseudo satanic-based rituals.

    “But not by the real religious satanic groups,” [Lillian Dubois-Tercero, president and executive director of Arizona Pet Line] stressed. “They don't sacrifice cats and dogs. It's the idiot juveniles (who are) responsible who don't know what they're doing.”

    This is one reason why many shelters control (or ban) adoptions of black cats in the weeks leading up to and immediately after Halloween. However, shelters are trying to minimize another problem faced by black cats around Halloween – people “adopting” them as living decorations, trying to go one better than the ubiquitous paper cutouts. Even if not specifically “hurt,” many of these cats are apparently returned to the shelters after Halloween. Such “shelter whiplash” can be traumatic, and if I were a cat I would lose some of my trust in humans.

    About.com has an excellent article on The Perils of Halloween for Black Cats. We join the author in dubbing October as Black Cat Appreciation Month. Of course, here at CatSynth every day is Black Cat Appreciation Day.

    So be kind to kitties you meet these week, and keep your own feline companions indoors. Might want to keep an eye on some of those kids, too…

    UPDATE (Oct 29): AP has an article today entitled “Black cat adoptions banned on Halloween”, which discusses both the practice as well as potential downsides for already stigmatized black cats:

    Janet, a black cat up for adoption, pauses on a wall ledge at the Kootenai Humane Society, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006, in Hayden, Idaho. The Kootenai Humane Society is prohibiting all black cat adoptions from mid-October to Nov. 2, fearing the ebony animals could be mistreated as a Halloween prank, or worse, be used in a satanic sacrifice. (AP Photo/ Kirk Mastin)

    Doesn't Janet look a lot like Luna? Such a sweet face…








  • Weekend Cat Blogging #72: The furry encounter

    Jelly and Kamikazee over at I got Two Shoes host this weekend's roundup. Uncle Kamikazee is up to his old antics again.

    We had our own little drama here earlier. Luna was looking out one of her favorite windows here in the studio when one of our neighbors showed up:

    This tuxedo kitty has been in the neighborhood a lot longer than I have, and, well, he thinks he owns the place. That being said, Luna has her own claims to the view out the window, and attempts to let him know who's the queen of this domain. She has a unique sound she uses for encounters with other felines, as can be heard in this Catster video:



    This is as good a time as any to let folks know that Luna has her own profile and blog at Catster, where you can read about this episode from her perspective and watch Furry Encounter Part 2.








  • Weekend Cat Blogging #67

    Luna blends in perfectly with her dad's decor while getting warm on a table above our main heater. The temperature this morning was 49F (10C)! That is a travesty in September, usually the hottest month of the year along the California coast. It's not helping my recovery from whatever ailment has befallen me this week, either.

    Anyhow, being stuck home gives me plenty of time to host Weekend Cat Blogging #67, taking over from last week's host, chefsarahjane. Assuming I'm feeling better over the weekend and things warm up a bit, I'll be spending as much time as I can outside – but that shouldn't stop me from posting updates.

    So send us your feline articles and photos; either leave a comment on this post, or send me a message. Bonus points if you can fit into the cats-with-music-and-art theme of this forum.







  • Weekend Kitty Blogging #71: Silliness and The Mighty Hunter

    This weekend's round-up is being hosted at Rosa's Yummy Yums, featuring Fridolin and Maruschka taking turns with a knit bonnet and looking quite embarrassed. Check out this week's round-up of silly and crazy, but nonetheless extremely cute felines.

    Luna is quite the sophisticated cat, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her silly moments, such as her fun with boxes last week. She also loves to play with her toy mousies, and goes at them with reckless abandon:

    One of her favorite games is to push them under the couch farther than she can reach, which often leads to amusing scenes like this:

    Indeed, Luna can be quite silly and obsessive when she plays the mighty hunter. I snapped this pic while she was engrossed for 15 to 20 minutes with a bug that fell behind the dresser after she succeeding in swatting it:

    Sweetie, just let it go…








  • Weekend Cat Blogging #66: More Luna in Action

    WCB #66 is being hosted this week by Sarah over at chefsarahjane. Sounds like she is going away on Sunday, and I'm busy today preparing for my set at the headphone festival in SF (see the previous post). Thus, I looked back in my rather extensive collection of Luna photos and came up with this action sequence from last February:




    It was around Valentine's Day and I saw that little pink-heart toy during a routine pet-store run – it was pretty inevitable that I would buy it for her, and as you can see she loved it!

    The toy is still around (probably under the sofa) though the black strings are long gone.





  • Weekend Cat Blogging #70: Cat in a Box

    This weekend's hosts, Boots, Tess and D at The Hidden Paw, have challenged us to produce Cat-in-a-Box submissions for WCB 70. That's not too hard for us, as Luna is quite fond of boxes:

    In the photo above, she is caught in the act of chewing on pieces of her favorite box from Ikea. This is one of her guilty pleasures in life.

    Here, we have Luna encountering an Amazon box in the hallway. I wonder how that got there…


    Visit the round-up for more adorable pictures of cats in boxes, bags, and other sundry containers.








  • virtual pet luna

    Just a random little code-generator I encountered this evening. It seems harmless enough and is too cute not to post, so here it is. Enjoy:

    adopt your own virtual pet!

    Meanwhile, of course, the real Luna wants in on the action, and no virtual imitation compares to the real deal, so over and out.