This is another video I accidentally shot with the camera on its side (sometimes I do that thinking of it like a picture that can easily be rotated, and only later do I kick myself for having done so).  That means I had to rotate it and add the black blocks on either side in order to maintain the original aspect ratio.  So it’s a bit smaller than usual, but I think you can see it clearly enough.

Words aren’t always necessary to communicate what we want.  Perhaps it’s a gesture or a glance, but we humans pride ourselves in being able to say without our voices precisely what’s on our minds.

Yet it’s another aspect of our unjustified hubris to think such abilities are solely the purview of clumsy upright apes with the ability to speak (but not to think, which should be obvious).

With my fanny firmly planted on the floor one day as I snapped photos and captured videos of The Kids, eventually Grendel had enough and made it abundantly obvious camera time was over.  You can see he kept trying to push it out of the way so we could focus our attention on some quality time.

And when that didn’t work?  Try a little affectionate rubbing for good measure.

Only at the end, and only if you listen very closely, you can hear him purring.  That’s the only sound he made during the entire exchange.  Everything else—volumes of information—came across just fine in touches, glances, and all manner of words unspoken.  And I heard every one of them.

[video is 0:14]

This is just a brief moment of Grendel at play.  I love simple pleasures . . .

[video is 0:11 in length; I had to lighten it, so pardon the grainy and washed out appearance]

Can it be more simple than the pleasure of enjoying some new catnip toys?  While this video is mainly of Grendel, note that Loki can be seen in the background and Kako gives us a drive-by cameo.  This video was lightened due to the original being excessively dark.

[I have decided to drop support for the AVI format and raw footage.  This is based entirely on size and bandwidth usage, and also in no small part due to very little use.]

One of Grendel’s nicknames is Sponge.  This video shows where that moniker came from.

And yes, that’s my dorky snickering and craptastic voice in the background.  Like most, I hate the way I sound on recordings.

I was capturing some video of Vazra who was sitting at the patio door in the bedroom.  As luck would have it, he was doing absolutely nothing but sitting there looking outside.  With less than 20 seconds worth of video of him doing just that, I was ready to give up and stop the camera.

Never one to miss an opportunity to steal the spotlight, Grendel shows up right as I hit the button.  That’s how it ends.  Hence, it’s a blooper reel (I assure you, I wind up with a lot of these!).

Remember Kazon havin’ some bottle cap?  Well, he’s still doin’ it.  I have yet to determine what it is about these little pieces of plastic refuse that intrigues him so, but Kazon still loves them, hits them like coffee and cigarettes right after he awakes, can occupy several minutes of his time when indulging, and otherwise finds some kind of wonderful treat in licking the inside of them ad nauseam.  I just don’t get it.

Never one to hide our family’s shameful and embarrassing secrets, here’s another video of Kazon doin’ his thing.

And that’s Grendel who graces us with his visual presence during the making of this film.  He was not interested in being on camera; he was only interested in having the cameraman give him some attention.  His request was obediently fulfilled.

This video is in Windows Media Player (WMV) format.  It’s 0:32 (thirty-two seconds) in length and is about 1 MB (so be prepared for the download if you’re using dial-up).

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.

This is a video from Christmas 2003.  Nothing fancy here; just Grendel playing and having fun.  Sometimes the simple pleasures in life are the most important, including childlike play.  I am a strong advocate for remaining in touch with our inner child…

[that is Kazon who makes a brief appearance with Grendel]