Three, four, five, look at him jive

The simplest ideas, eh? A chap, Juergen, got to wondering what his cat, Mr Lee, got up to all day. So he rigged up a collar-cam and sent him off. The result? Strangely enthralling shots of a day in the life of a cat.

In the forum, a viewer asked about the striking lack of people in the shots. Juergen responds: “I have never seen people on the CatCam photos. I guess one reason is the location. We are living in the USA. Here it is not usual to walk around. If people move then by car… “. I don’t know how accurate that is. The last time I stayed in the States for any length of time was in 1990-1991, in Durham NC, and I do remember very few people walking around though. At the time I thought perhaps it was a little chilly for some.

Filed under: fun, pets

Return of the Friday Furry (with bonus ad hoc hoyden!)

I believe some of you have been suffering withdrawals (that’s my excuse to justify how I’ve been missing playing around with my image collection anyway).

Stabled (1990) William Wegman

Wegman is the Weimaraner photographer, who’s taken umpty-zillion shots of his soulful hounds over the years. They must be amazingly well trained.

The hoyden photos for today are of Katharine Hepburn. Choosing which ones to display for the blog banners was difficult, as Hepburn nearly always displays the exuberant insouciance which is the root of hoydenism. To start, here’s one to keep slightly on the Friday Furry theme:

From Bringing Up Baby

Filed under: moral panics, performance, pets, photoblog

Grieving again

The fabulous picture above was done by Olduvai George a few years ago, portraying Chris Clarke and his dog Zeke in the Pleistocene Death Valley. (hat-tip, Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony)

A few days ago I found out through my blogfeed subscriptions that Zeke sadly had to be put down, after a long period of failing health. This was not a surprise: Chris blogged his heartbreak over Zeke’s decline just as he had blogged his loving companionship with Zeke for years, and his readers’ hearts broke with him.

I haven’t been able to comment over there since Zeke’s death, because I find myself reliving a trauma from not quite a year ago. Chris was able to hold Zeke while he was put down, so that the last face Zeke saw was his trusted human, and I so envy him the comfort of that. I am so envious that I am shaking, although most of that is continued rage.

Filed under: ethics, pets

Back, jetlagged

Arrived 6:25 yesterday (Monday) am from Heathrow after spending a few days in the old haunts around Wales (one afternoon with our neighbours and I had the lilt back again).

Slept midmorning 1:30pm, out for lunch at the beach with kids falling asleep while sucking milkshakes, back home and back to sleep. Woke up for West Wing and Black Books and a bit of pottering around the house, but about to go back to bed now. May possibly feel human again by Wednesday.

Cat v. glad to see us and v. sooky. She left us a belated Giftmas present of mummified half a mouse in the laundry. So thoughtful.

Filed under: pets, travel

Belated Friday Furry: a confusion of cuteness

Original caption: Fudge the cat says “so which are my kittens!”
originally uploaded here

Filed under: pets, photoblog

Friday Furry: disapproving bunnies

Cinnamon disapproves of what you’re doing on the Internet.

Originally uploaded at Disapproving Rabbits! by Birdchick

Filed under: pets

Ugly

That’s the only word for some of the recent spats in what were previously some of my favourite corners of cyberspace. First there were the feminister-than-thou wars about lipstick and marriage (see Pandagon and Feministe), then there were the pseudonymity wars about accountability, stalking and outing (complete with accusations of defamation) (see Feministe for why zuzu’s taken a hiatus), and now there’s people threatening to kill a blogger’s dog.

This sucks. Really sucks.

I wish I had something clever and powerful and memorable to say that would just make people stop getting revoltingly horrible over what other people write. Of course we’re going to disagree, and rightly so (a world of uniformity is an horrific idea). The arena of ideas ought to be vigorous and opinionated. Rhetoric and polemic are not only worthwhile disciplines in the art of persuasion, they are art forms sometimes worth pursuing for their own sake. Some people play flame wars just for fun.

Even creepy cyberstalking, while disturbing, is fairly harmless. Moving on into threats against the wellbeing of people and their families and pets crosses a far starker line.

Filed under: Sociology, ethics, interblog, pets, vitriol

Blogiversary! that means food, flowers, feminism and of course, catblogging

Yes, it was a year ago today that the brave ship tigtogblog first set sail! Looking back on ye auld archives, I am struck by my neglect of food and garden stuff recently. V.slack and shame-making.

Food: Truffles (thanks to ABC radio and some chaps in Tasmania who are going to make an absolute bomb now they’re getting in a good harvest – they’ll be able to send fresh “black gold” to Europe out of season). They discussed how to use truffles in cooking, and it all sounded v. finicky – grating slivers on to this and that, and needing something creamy or oily as a base to bring out the truffle flavour and spread it around. Sounds fatmaking, thought I.

But then they mentioned truffle oil.

Filed under: Meta, food/drink, garden, pets