Vazra begged and begged for me to take him to get his nails done.  Every refined feline needs a manicure and pedicure now and again, right?

But I told him money was tight and he’d have to tend to it himself.

So he did.

And he was not happy when he found out it was on video, and he was even less happy when he found out I intended to post it.

Now I have to go sit in the corner because I’m being punished.  As usual.

[video is 0:11]

Oh, the answer is yes if you really must know.  I’m always fascinated by the simplest of things just as I’m fascinated by the most complex of things.  Whether it’s one of The Kids sleeping or grooming, a grain of sand on the beach or a pebble on the shore, a bird in the tree, an insect on the ground, two galaxies colliding hundreds of light years away, a black hole gobbling up planets in a solar system we’ll never reach, or a wisp of cloud in the sky—not to mention a trillion other things both ordinary and exotic—the cosmos fascinates me no matter what form it takes, no matter how banal or bizarre its display, no matter how mundane or magnificent its form.  So sue me.

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.

Need I explain this video?  It’s short and sweet, and I believe you’ll find it self-explanatory.  All I can say is this: Vazra has the right idea, and would that we all could be lucky enough to enjoy such carefree days.

I said before how happy I was to learn Vazra was quite comfortable drinking from my glass of ice water.  They all do, but I was especially happy to see he would from the moment I brought him inside.  Well, here’s proof.

[by the way, the song playing in the background is "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars; I may have mentioned them before considering that hunka burnin' love Jared Leto is the front man for the group and is a lyricist and musician to boot; be still my pitter-pattering heart . . .; dare I say finger lickin' good?; anyway, the song is from A Beautiful Lie, their most recent album, and I can't recommend it enough; there's not a song on it that I don't like; oh, did I already mention Jared Leto?; mmmm mmmm . . .]

Vazra loves to talk.  He’s very responsive when I talk to him, and he’s equally fond of starting conversations on his own.  In addition, he talks to anything moving about outside.  Whether it’s a wild animal or another cat, he’ll talk to it and will follow it around the windows so he can keep talking to it.

One day as I sat at the desk, I could hear him talking to something outside.  He rushed out of the bedroom long before I was able to go investigate.  Before I knew it, he was in the window next to me chattering away to Larenti who had decided to lie down right outside.

Although I missed most of the conversation while scrambling to get the camera, replace the dead battery with a charged one, and get myself situated to grab some photos and video, here’s a snippet of him after he got situated right next to her.  You can see her head through the window as she looks about while Vazra tries to communicate first with her, and then with me (after he noticed I was standing above him).

[do I have to bash the WMV file again?; yes, I do; it made Vazra's voice sound so tinny and artificial; it also added all manner of conversion artifacts to both the audio and video; and the MOV file is so much smaller yet offers much better quality; I don't know how to make the MS files better given I'm using the highest setting for the output; piece of shit . . .]

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!).

This is Vazra’s film debut.  As far as I know, that is.

He has a desire to go back outside and occasionally stands in a window or at a door and meows while watching the goings on outside.  This video is just that kind of moment taken at the patio door in the bedroom.  It was captured today, only two days after he arrived home.  This is still a new and alien place for him.  Likewise, being inside all the time is undoubtedly strange and different, although I don’t know how long he was living outside before I captured and adopted him.  It was at least long enough for him to feel that that is the safest and most familiar place for him.  He’s lucky in that I know better, but he’s unlucky in that it will take time before he realizes it.

One thing you’ll notice when he turns to face the camera is that he no longer has any top canine teeth.  He was missing one when I met him (as mentioned in April and again in May); he had the other one removed because of its poor condition.  He’s missing quite a few teeth now, in fact, but at least that means the constant pain will go away and he’ll not be as sensitive to eating and drinking, not to mention any contact with his face.

Another trait to watch is his tail.  As long as he’s awake, his tail is constantly moving.  He’s quite expressive that way.  This isn’t the best example of it since it’s a very relaxed moment.  I’ll capture more as time goes on so you can see it’s the perfect example of perpetual motion as it’s always expressing something.

Finally, it’s now in question whether he’s a purebred Persian.  Even several vets and techs can’t figure it out.  He could be any number of Persian breeds, but he might also be any number of Himalayan breeds, not to mention several exotic domestic breeds.  Because his face isn’t quite as smashed in as one would expect — although that is not a definitive indication — and his hair is not long enough, there’s also the possibility that only one parent is purebred and the other is a general domestic (DSH or DMH).  Until he’s been inside long enough to stabilize his diet and environment, something that will cause his hair to grow back in its normal and expected condition, guessing is futile.  I’ll admit it may be futile even after he’s physically conditioned to normalcy since a mixed breed will be impossible to identify.

[again, the WMV file sucks; the video is washed out and the audio lacks any depth whatsoever; I tried both of the highest quality options and still got crap in response; the MOV file is much better, and it's significantly smaller (by more than a third); Microsoft should be ashamed]