Unlike his normal approach whereby he takes what he wants and uses whatever force is necessary in order to get it, I captured a brief video showing the softer side of Loki.  It’s like watching something alien.

I had already taken a long walk and returned home refreshed, yet I still needed something.

Time with the cats!  Yes, that was it.  I needed to give and get some lovin’.

So I sat on the bedroom floor.  From there, I encouraged them to come visit me before I was forced to pester each one of them in turn.

Loki had been sitting atop the cat tree beside the bed and immediately hopped down.  He sat behind me, though, so I turned on the camera and just watched him.

That’s when he began asking for some attention.

Although I normally expect him to brutally appropriate whatever he wants, this time he respectfully asked.  When I didn’t respond, he came to me while continuing to ask—in a hushed, gentle voice.

After I stopped the camera, I sat and petted him for some time, but then he became excited and started beating up on me.  Typical.

But I do love that last little sweet request he gives at the end.  There is a softer side to Loki—rarely.

About two-thirds of the way through the video you see a brief glimpse of Kako lying in the background.  It’s that steely gaze of hers that really stands out.  Other than watching disdainfully, however, she never moves.

And pardon the gloomy atmosphere.  We hadn’t seen the sun in ages and I took the video using what little light filtered through the clouds and in the windows.

[video is 0:21]

Remember when I said Vazra was insane?  I said that because, among many other reasons, he plays in the bathtub with gleeful abandon—but he’s playing with the bathtub and not in it with something else.  Well, now I can show you the proof.

Both of these videos were captured yesterday morning.  Keep in mind I had to lighten them since the shower area gets indirect incandescent light and doesn’t make for a good video environment.  The color is also a bit off due to lighting and the surrounding surfaces.  Nevertheless, both show Vazra doing what he loves to do when he goes in the bathroom: jump in the bathtub and excitedly chase invisible rodents.

Odd cat, that one.

The first video is thirty-six seconds long.  You can hear Loki talking as he enters near the end of the clip, and then you see his tail cut through the bottom of the screen.  He didn’t want to be left out of whatever fun was to be had.

The second video is thirty-one seconds long.  Since by this time everyone was in the bathroom and because I was paying attention to the camera instead of who was doing what around me, I don’t know which fur person’s tail swings through the frame near the end of this one.

Vazra’s habit of entertaining himself with the bathtub is quite a sight when he really gets going.  There are times when I laugh until I cry because he turns into a wild animal—and all while chasing insubstantial vapors sneaking about the shower, ghouls and goblins only he can see.

[Update] I’ve uploaded new versions of the videos and changed the embedded players above to point to the latest versions.  The original MOV files I uploaded created an out-of-sync state with the YouTube audio and visual components, so hopefully uploading AVI versions of the videos has resolved that.  I’ll have to remember this in the future.  And another thing: the conversion from AVI to MOV (to lighten it) and back to AVI (to upload a working copy) has degraded the quality a bit.  That’s something else for me to watch out for.

Both Kako and Kazon had terrible infestations of ear mites when I first adopted them (among several other problems).  The damage to their ears was so extensive at an early age that they now have sensitive ears.  But Kako’s are more sensitive than Kazon’s.  In fact, she often cries out in pain when she scratches her own ears, and watching her try to address an itch in either of them is akin to watching the torture of a defenseless animal.  It just hurts.

The most I can do to alleviate that suffering is to keep them as clean as possible through regular douses with OtiCalm, an ear cleaning solution that gently breaks up buildup.  This, as you can guess, is not a popular activity, but I know it’s best for them and helps circumvent unnecessary pain and discomfort.

One of the interesting things about their delicate ears is Kako’s eargasms.  Although sticking her hind foot in them to scratch an itch is a sure way to elicit painful cries, the same is not true when it comes time to bathe.  It feels sickly voyeuristic to watch her hit that just right position that rubs an ear in heavenly ways.

This is never more true than when she lies on the ground and starts bathing with her front paws.  If you’ve ever seen a cat cleaning in this manner, you know they lick their paw before using it to clean their face, ears, and other body parts.  With Kako, however, the truest joy comes from her head resting on the ground against one of her ears.  Each time she licks her paw, she moves her head, and that in turn rubs her ear into the floor.  That, poppets, is obviously one of the greater joys she can experience.

The funny thing is this: very little bathing takes place except for the paw she’s trying to use to clean herself.  You see, she becomes so entranced with the eargasm that she ends up licking the paw ad infinitum without accomplishing much with it.  Instead, she just keeps moving her head back and forth to work her ear against the ground.

I suppose she has the cleanest paws in town because of this.  They get a good working over no matter what pieces and parts are skipped in favor of the eargasm.

And when she finally gets that paw working against an ear?  Well, bliss ensues.  Usually, her entire body gets into the writhing caused by her ecstasy.

That is what you will see in this video.  I caught her lying in front of the fireplace as she began to take a bath.  I simply turned the camera on and let it record what actually happened.  I did stop it right at the end when she stood up to scratch the ear she’d been grinding into the ground.  Knowing what that would cause, I saw no reason to record it.

Note that Loki makes a brief drive-by in the background near the beginning of the video as he makes his way to the cat castle off-screen to the left.

[video is 2:30 in length; I had to lighten it greatly, so I apologize in advance for its grainy and washed-out appearance; yes, that's an episode of Stargate SG-1 playing faintly in the background]

Just a quick little video of Loki hanging out on top of me while I lie on the floor.  He spends most of it looking around and trying to decide what to do with himself.  When he realizes my attention is focused on him . . .  Well, see for yourself.

And check out those whiskers!

Can you hear his purr right at the very end when he gets close to the camera?

When Kako first was introduced to the fireplace, she ran like a wild woman.  It scared her for reasons I couldn’t possibly understand.  She’d never been around fire, never been hurt by it, yet she was the epitome of pyrophobia.  If the fireplace was active, she made a point of going around it by whatever means would take her the furthest from its reach.  She’d climb over furniture, she’d slink around the perimeter of the room, and she’d dash by it as if pursued by the devil himself.  In one way, it was funny; in another, it wasn’t funny at all.

But time took its toll and she eventually came to enjoy it.  Most important, I’m sure, was the heat.  She’s the smallest cat in the house and has fine hair as a coat, so she tends to get cold easier than the others.  Once she realized the fireplace would not reach out and grab her in paws of fiery fury, she began investigating it.  She grew comfortable around it and, before long, fell in love with it.  The transition provided a wonderful process to behold.

When she overcame her phobia and reversed it into mania, she then became obsessive about being near the fireplace when it was active.  This video shows just such a time.  What you’ll notice is that she sits there—just sits there and stares at the flames.  Ah, but things are not always as they seem.  Kako loves her reflection.  She thinks—no, she knows she’s the hottest momma on the planet, the purtiest feline ever to set foot on Mother Earth.  Nothing will convince me she wasn’t sitting in front of the glass looking at her reflection while simultaneously bathing in the warmth it offered.  You can almost hear her bestowing all manner of praise on that fine-ass feline she saw in the reflection.

A few notes: I had to lighten the video, so keep that in mind as to its somewhat washed-out quality.  Loki makes a very brief appearance as he walks by and slips through the bottom-left corner of the frame; he’s almost unrecognizable because it’s so quick and you see so little of him.  That is an episode of Stargate SG-1 playing in the background.  Finally, the video is three minutes long for those who want to see the full thing; for everyone else, you can watch the first minute or so and understand what’s in the last two minutes.  I already said she’d just sit there and stare at herself.  What were you expecting, a song and dance routine?

Cats love boxes as much as they love bags and anything else they can get inside of to sleep or play.  Better than even those options is one of them with a toy inside.  Loki finds a toy in a box and promptly turns it into the kind of fun that only a cat could enjoy.

By the way, because of the quality of the original video (very dark), I can’t really tell whose head that is on the left side of the screen at the very beginning of the video.  Also, I’ve had to lighten it tremendously to make it viewable.  With Quicktime, I have more control over that process and can manipulate the contrast along with the brightness, so the MOV version is a bit better than the WMV (Microsoft only lets me lighten or darken the video, but there is no way to control the contrast).  Nevertheless, both videos are the video is a bit washed out because of how much lightening I had to do to make them it usable.  Sorry.  This video was recorded in December 2003 when I was not very familiar with the new camera or its various settings, so that means a lot of the photos and videos from then were more experimental and of lower quality than what I’m able to do now.  Live and learn.

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.]

Loki and Kazon are buddies (I call the two of them together The Buds).  They hang out, they play, they explore, and they generally act like best of friends.  Of course, Kazon gets along with everyone because he’s just a kid.  But these two have always been close.

I was sitting at my desk one day and they both stopped by.  After a drink of water from my glass, they sat next to me quietly.  Loki began grooming Kazon, licking his ear and head and generally being very sweet.  Don’t be fooled.  Loki is not a sweet cat.  He’s devious.  He can be sweet, don’t get me wrong, yet more often than not, he’s up to something or will pull something to shatter your notion of him being pleasant.  This is just such a moment.

Watch him gently grooming Kazon while Kazon is suspicious of the whole thing—still enjoying it, of course, but suspicious nonetheless.  He was right to be.  Near the end, Loki proves exactly why he can’t be trusted.  Chomp!

[yes, the WMV file sucks as usual; both the audio and video are washed out, and that's the "high quality" setting from MS; crap!; the MOV file is smaller and still is of a much higher quality; oh, and I think it's extremely hysterical Stephen King's Storm of the Century is playing in the background]

Just what I needed on a hot summer day: a glass of ice-cold water.  Only, I assumed it was for me.  Silly human…  Instead, I get a bunch of tongue action in my glass.

Earlier today, I gave The Kids a treat.  It was their favorite, and that worries me as it’s not exotic.  Take two cans of the “wet” version of their normal food, prescription c/d, the dry mutation of which is always available to them, and add a seductive sprinkling of Kitty Kaviar, “an all-natural fish treat for cats of all ages … made from dried Bonito filets, carved paper thin, [with] no additives, preservatives, or by-products.”  It’s that simple.  And they love it.  Odd little creatures…  (They’ll abuse me for that remark.)

Tangent aside, they had their treat.  Loki, his belly filled with scrumptious yumminess, sat on the desk beside me.  Before the expected after-meal bath, is not a drink in order?  Of course.  A glass of ice water would be quite welcome, thank you.  As luck would have it, Daddy just sat down with one.

And so he drinks from mine.  But no panic.  They all do the same thing.  All the time.  In fact, there’s somewhat of a competition about it when first I go to the refrigerator to fetch a fresh helping.  Funny kids…

[I still haven't a clue which video format to use; I like MOV for the versatility, but it's not kept up to date automatically by Windoze and, as xocobra pointed out in his comment on the last video post, I'm using the latest version of Quicktime that requires an up-to-date version of the Quicktime player; using Microsoft's WMV format at least means I hit a large market that has an updated player/set of codecs (at least I assume so); anyway, I'm still trying to figure out the best option...]

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.