Category Archives: Loki

It’s surreal and other mental spillage

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The news began with breaking coverage of a fatal 18-wheeler accident involving a wandering donkey.  They rushed to live helicopter coverage of the ongoing attempt to apprehend the killer equine.  It was like watching cannibals prepare dinner: surreal, bizarre, and completely engaging.  I am embarrassed to say that live coverage shamefully displayed real Texas cowboys failing to rope and stop this terrorist.  With murderous hooves clopping along freely through local fields and back roads, one could actually make out blood dripping from the ravenously mad smile gleaming with too many intimidating teeth.  My eyes blurred at the sight of the thing.  It was horrific to witness the ghastly creature expending little energy evading horseback riders from the Lone Star State.  My cheeks flush with embarrassment, I had to turn away from the grotesque carnage.  Only after several minutes and other news items did they interrupt again to proclaim victory.  The evil beast was apprehended and already en route to detention facilities!  I spilled my drink and lost my crack pipe as I leaped to my feet and applauded through tears of joy.  We again would be safe…

Ants seem intent on treating my patio as free-range territory ripe for plundering.  This presents a quandary: How do I stop them without endangering all the other wildlife?  Raccoons, opossums, armadillos, cats, birds of many feathers, badgers, most other bugs, and basically anything else not specifically an ant.  You know, the good stuff.  Is there some manner of control that is ecologically sound yet unrelenting when it comes to ants?  The shadows in my mind desire to fill their eyes with mass Formicidae murder.  I must clarify that those voices only wish to stop interlopers with an unmistakable impasse.  To wit: the insect version of an electric fence and strategic Keep Out signs.  Just askin’.

Chira and Vazra are both MIA.  I have not seen Chira since May 28.  I have not seen Vazra since May 31.  There are many cats in this area — I have pictures of some of them that I will be posting — and there certainly is reason to believe that feline interference is at play.  But there are certainly a lot of options including foxes, some measure of the previous wildlife list, dogs, people, cars, disease, parasites, and a great many other dangers.  Chira was a bit thinner the last time I saw him.  Vazra’s painful knots were increasing their assault.  Now, I can do nothing about either problem.  I find the situation frustrating and a bit worrisome.  This is precisely why The Kids stay inside except when absolutely necessary (e.g., going to the vet).  There are too many threats and dangerous distractions in that world; they need not be subjected to it.

I have a somewhat cluttered week taking shape.  Rick and Alice are going out of town Wednesday morning on business and will not be back until early next week, so I will be dog- and house-sitting for him.  Presently, there is construction work taking place at his house at least through Friday, so I will also be monitoring that and standing in as the second-shift manager.  You no doubt comprehend what a thrill that prospect represents.

All things considered and being equal, Wylie and I will go to Plano this weekend to visit my godson (which, incidentally, would equate to a visit with xocobra and LD).  Friday night, perhaps, all things…

My quest for experiences has proposed a road trip to Austin — tomorrow! — to see the Congress Avenue Bridge bat colony.  This measure has been taken up by the board and is being given serious consideration.  That means the voices within are discussing it.  I have found this a reasonable approach to decisions where opinions may vary, and these mental inhabitants are amicable to the practice.  If I do journey to our state’s capital, I would leave in the afternoon and, all things, would be back around midnight.  All of this assumes, of course, that the world really isn’t coming to a grinding halt tomorrow.  We shall see about that and the board’s final decision on the idea.

I will likely go out to East Texas the weekend of June 10-11.  This also is being considered by the board.

As I type this, Loki is asleep on the desk with his back legs resting on my arm.  There is something about the way he has thrown himself into position that resembles a lifeless rag doll.  He powernaps.  It is a word created many years ago for the way he survives with significantly less sleep than other cats.  When he sleeps, however, he sleeps deeply.  I once mistook it for death and began crying.  His head dangled over the edge of a piece of cat furniture.  I lifted his head.  He did not move.  I lowered his head before lifting it again.  He still did not move.  I repeatedly raised and lowered his head as the volume increased in my repeating interrogatory of “Loki?”  It took 15 or 20 seconds for him to wake up.  I was in tears and practically screaming by then.  Very slowly, eyes only partially open and already showing disinterest and annoyance, he looked at me.  I learned then the depth of the place to which he goes.  It seems a fun place despite abyssal reaches for he runs, talks, twitches, chases, fights, and otherwise experiences the fullness of life while he is there.  His dreams, from the outside anyway, are vivid and vast.  They all dream, of course, and each in their own way.  Despite the commonality, Loki’s dreams always intrigue me the most due to his very non-feline sleeping habits.  I believe they spring from the trust he has of this environment and its inhabitants; consequently, there is great comfort in watching him sleep.

I need to contact Wayne and schedule a shindig of some kind.  Perhaps he and the wife would like to go to dinner, or just get together and hang like the badasses we are, or run naked through fields of thorny bushes, or whatever it is that might give us pause to visit.  Alright, I admit I have no interest in the thorny bush idea.  That was submitted by the board and not checked for content before publication.  The point stands amended.  We apologize for any confusion.

After posting the video of Kazon, I perused what I have online already and realized it favors Kazon.  This is not indicative of playing favorites or lack of content.  I have several dozen videos yet to review.  They have just worked out the way they have worked out through no intentional design.  Allow me to offer that I have videos on many subjects besides The Kids.  As I get time…  Regarding that video of Kazon taken today, he pulled a double-whammy on me and later used the other kind of asking: the begging, pleading, almost mournful asking that also can not be refused.  It repeatedly declares “Oh Daddy woe is me I’m the poor pitiful Puppy who is starving and hasn’t eaten for a very long time and I’m already too weak to make it back to the food and water bowls and you can’t count that snack earlier because it was a treat and isn’t really a meal and golly since I’m in the kitchen and you’re in the kitchen too do you think you could find something else for us oh thank you very much Daddy do you know how much I love you Daddy ooh was that my stomach growling…”  It is a purely selfish moment as he plays me like a master violinist might play a Stradivarius.

This post has been cathartic in unexpected ways.  You know, like an enema for the synapses.

The Persian kitty

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First, I am assuming he is a male given his personality and demeanor.  If and when I get him to the vet, I’ll know for certain either way.  I’m forced to make this assumption until and unless I find out otherwise because Persians have such long hair and I do not know him well enough to go poking around his business end.

Second, I’ve named him Vazra.  In Old Persian, vazraka means “great” and was often used as part of the Old Persian name for Cyrus the Great: Khorvash Vazraka (Kourosh-e Bozorg in modern Persian).

By the way, that’s pronounced just like Basra except — and obviously — with a V instead of a B.  To wit: väs’ rə or vaaz’ ruh.

Why did I name him Vazra?  As you may have guessed already, it’s a reference to Cyrus the Great (a.k.a. Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder) who founded the Persian Empire and subsequently conquered Babylon.  I was looking for a name to represent both his being a Persian cat as well as his proclivity for excessive talking.  Since Babylon played into that (think “babble on”), I wanted to integrate both ideas into a single name.

Cyrus the Great would be the best reference point to both Persia and Babylon since he founded one and conquered the other.  Therefore, his name was my starting point.  That left me with the following options:

  • Cyrus (Latin)
  • Kyros (Greek)
  • Kourosh-e Bozorg (modern Persian-derived)
  • Koresh (Hebrew)
  • Khorvash Vazraka (Old Persian)
  • Kabir (modern Persian for “great”)

My logic went thusly:

LD has a son named Cyrus (xocobra’s stepson), so that name automatically was dropped from consideration.

Anything beginning with the letter K also was dropped since I already have Kako and Kazon, an intentional use of similar names since they are The Twins.

Koresh not only lost because of the K issue, but it also lost because of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians (a.k.a. Waco Davidians).  That name never had a chance.

Bozorg was dropped since it looks and sounds too much like the Borg from Star Trek.

Vash (a derivative of Khorvash), which technically means “like” in Old Persian, is the name of a character from Star Trek who in no way represents the kitty.

That left vazraka, but I didn’t particularly like the way it sounded — until I dropped the “ka” at the end.  Suddenly I had Vazra, a name pleasing to the ears, easy on the tongue, and it still means something specific to the cat.

And yes, I am quite anal about naming pets.  Names should mean something in my opinion.  Each of The Kids was named after careful consideration.  I already explained Kako and Kazon, and you can see the explanation for Chira’s name in this post.  Grendel and Loki are explained on their respective pages found at those links.

As for my burgeoning relationship with Vazra, that is going quite well.  In fact, I believe I will be able to get him to the vet in the next one or two weeks.  That is making some large assumptions, of course, but things are going quite well with my attempts.  He’s an extremely friendly cat; that’s why I suspect he was dumped (he’s not feral).  He loves attention, he tells you what’s on his mind, he’s very affectionate, and he is drawn to people rather than fearful of them.  I can’t make any guesses as to how he might react to the rest of The Kids since I have only observed their interaction through the windows.  He’s never tried to attack them, so that’s a good sign.

Anyhow, as long as he does not pose a health risk to the rest of the fur people, I will try to adopt him.  It’ll require time and will be ugly now and again.  Of that I’m sure given it’s an introduction of one adult feline into a home of four adult felines.  Kittens are easier under such circumstances since they don’t represent a challenge to the existing group.  In addition, they are not set in their ways, so they adapt to the household.  Adult cats, however, already have habits that may or may not fit into the existing family.  Such circumstances tend to mean more fights and animosity.  It will be important to ensure Vazra does not become miserable because the other four are ganging up on him.  It’s equally important to make sure the other four do not feel threatened or jealous should he come inside as that would increase the tension between them and toward him.  It’s a balancing act.

I will keep you posted since I have much hope that he can become a member of the family barring health issues.  If he does pose a risk to the rest of The Kids, however, I will still adopt him as my outside cat.

As David and Libby mentioned this morning, my description of all of this makes it sound as though he already is my cat.  I suspect that’s true.  He’s already adopted me to a great degree, so perhaps I’m the only one who didn’t realize the adoption already had taken place.  I can be slow sometimes…

Please note I’ve not forgotten I need to grab some photos of him.  I will try to do that in the next few days.  If nothing else, it will demonstrate how terrible the hair knots are and the kind of damage they’ve done to him.  It’s painful to even look at it.  Still, a good grooming should solve all of that, and I intend to make that happen as soon as possible.

Last but not least…  I still have not seen Chira.  It’s now been 10 days since his last visit.  From the first day I started to befriend him he’s never been gone longer than two days, and even at that I can not be certain he was gone since he may well have visited while I was out, busy, not paying attention, or otherwise occupied.  Regardless of the circumstances, no more than two days would go by before I would see him again, and there is always food available on the patio to make sure he knew he could come here for a meal and safety.  I am very — VERY — concerned about him.  I want desperately to believe he’s been adopted and is being cared for by someone; I fear the worst.

Playing fetch

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Kako and Loki both enjoy playing fetch.  That is to say, they both love for me to throw a ball which they then chase, play with, retrieve, and ultimately return to me so that I might throw it again.  I don’t find this unusual for cats as Henry always did the same thing, and in his case it was most evident with balls made from aluminum foil.

The photos below are of Kako returning the ball to me after I already threw it.  She especially loves this game, so much so that it is not unusual for me to wake up in the morning with anywhere from a few to more than half-a-dozen balls resting in bed with me, evidence that she kept bringing them to me during the night, taking my lack of action as disinterest in the ball(s) she already brought to me, and forcing her to keep bringing those of different colors in the hopes of finding one with which I might want to play.  She’s funny that way.

Kako bringing the ball back to me so we can play fetch (141_4144)

Kako with a ball coming from the kitchen.

Kako again bringing the ball back to me so we can play fetch (142_4276)

Kako with a ball coming from the living room.

And yes, she always carries the balls on one side or the other, almost always on her right but nonetheless also carried on her left from time to time.

Sometimes happiness is that simple

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There are times when just watching The Kids at play entails pure joy for me.  This video captures just such a moment.

I recorded this a day before Christmas 2003.  Derek had been in the hospital almost all year, was quite sick, and most distressing for him was how much he missed The Kids.  Related conversations increasingly became the quickest path to his heartfelt lamentations.  Nothing cut him quite as deeply as tears borne of missing them.  Jenny and I both knew how much he was upset about his failing condition and how much he missed the simple yet magnificent delights to be found with the four furry rulers of the cosmos.  More poignantly, he knew Christmas was always an over-the-top opportunity to spoil them, so the idea of missing it hurt him most.

Once it became clear he would not be home for Christmas and would have been away from The Kids for almost a full year, I decided one of his gifts from me would be a CD of photographs and videos of the feline members of our home.  I began the project during the summer of 2003.  It was a dedicated effort to capture as many digital moments as I could.  By the time I put the CD together for him, it contained dozens of videos and hundreds of pictures.  Luckily, it was ready just before Jenny and I spent December 25 at the hospital (we took with us an enormous and enjoyable Christmas meal and a plethora of gifts, wowing everyone including Derek).

Much later in time, after a brief and unsuccessful stint at home in spring of 2004, Derek lived his final months where he had spent so much of the last two years: in the hospital.  His condition worsened, a three-year expedition to identify the limits of human existence by way of pain and suffering.  Though he did see The Kids for a few weeks when he was allowed finally to leave the hospital before his health forced his return, he always looked to that CD for the emotional uplift he needed and knew The Kids could provide.  Many of the nurses who cared for him regularly would speak about the cats as though they knew them.  Ah, but they did know them; that familiarity came from Derek who spoke of them often and was always more than happy to give people the CD-of-The-Kids tour.  Not only that, but he frequently mentioned visiting my blog to see whatever new pictures and stories about our holy eminencies I might have posted since his last visit.  He likewise included returns time and again to enjoy his personal favorites.

I celebrated Christmas early in 2003: on December 24.  I wanted to record for posterity the holiday most envied by cats around the world (or, at least, by the masters of my universe).  Since we would be at the hospital for the holiday and the CD had to be included in the gifts we were taking to Derek, an early exploration of the goodies under the tree was necessary so I could include the enjoyment for the one person who most deserved to see it but would be unable to.

It starts with Loki playing with a new toy.  Despite his appearance in the video, there is no death, no destruction, no mass hysteria, no bloody battles for the souls of humankind, no end to civilization as we know it, and no levitation.  I’m sorry, but this was truly one of our simple moments.  I guess Satan chose not to inundate this historic record with his usual disregard for life and decorum.

Soon after it begins, Kazon and Kako get involved, steal the toy from Loki, and then inadvertently pass it back and forth.  He Who Should Not Be Named eventually finds a place to rest while watching the next generation act like fools.

Finally, it ends with Kazon collapsing with contentment.  It is then you see Grendel lying in a box in the background watching all the shenanigans as they unfold.  The Twins sure are silly, huh, Grendel?

This video is in Windows Media Player (WMV) format.  It’s 1:58 (one minute and fifty-eight seconds) in length and is about 5.27 MB (so be prepared for the download if you’re using dial-up).  And I’m still interested in changing all of these to MPG format; I just need to get off my duff, evaluate the software options, and buy something.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Adobe Premiere Pro the best option for this (video editing)?  Any other suggestions?

[Update] I originally concatenated three videos into a single WMV file.  I’m now including all three as separate YouTube entries below.