hillel's weekend started out pretty slow.
then ben found his "teeny sardinie" toy with the swiffer, and things really heated up!
...he knows he should be NOWHERE NEAR that large knitted pillow. he knows -- look at his face. they all know that that pillow is THE most off-limits thing in the whole den!
you know he knows that. and yet, there he is.
we admit, we got the new staircase mostly for the dogs. the problem is, they both hate it. flannery will go up, but doesn't like getting past the newel at the top to come down. and ripley -- ripley prefers a carpeted step. these will get carpet runners after they are stained and sealed, but for now, we thought we'd get her practicing a bit.
right after the last picture, of course, she fell down, limped about tragically for a few minutes, and we haven't seen her go up again since. we'll get there.
it's entirely possible that this is contributing to her performance anxiety. the cats are offended that we are teaching the dog to climb the staircase. they are in for a rude awakening when she gets good at it.
we don't get pictures this silly everyday. i think gib and hillel are making their stance on this whole thing pretty clear.
say goodbye to that ugly staircase (after the holidays) -- it's outta here! and new ductless AC units in next week! improve improve improve.
here is hillel and his doppelganger, awfulmad.
awfulmad was the peace offering/christmas gift that ripley gave to flannery last year (remember, we got ripley ten days before christmas.) flan had many of those type/brand of soft floppy toys, but never one THAT big! now, when flanny visits, awfulmad visits, and i have to set awfulmad up against the dog bed in our bedroom so that flan is more or less sleeping in his arms. if i don't set it up right, flannery stands there like a vulture until i do it.
i didn't notice until i saw them together how similar awfulmad and hillel are!
here you see ripley in the backyard, hanging out with her best cat friend frankie from next door -- while hillel looks on from the inside. hillel thinks he wants to go outside, but hillel is wrong. i'm sure he wouldn't like it. i'm sure it would bring back many bad memories. but he does like to watch!
hillel has a new orange blankie. you got that? hillel has it. not you or anyone you know -- hillel.
he keeps his orange blankie on his couch. his couch. get the picture?
and he keeps his yarn scraps in the remote control caddy. yes, his yarn scraps.
it has been one whole year since hillel came into our lives!
let's celebrate by singing his theme song!
the kitten hillel,
the kitten hillel.
he is a kitten,
and his name is hillel.
okay, it isn't much of a song, but we have been singing it to him for as long as we have had him. after all, when he came to us -- so filthy and pathetic -- what was more important than reiterating to him (musically) that he WAS a kitten and his name WAS hillel? nothing seemed more important at the time.
he still responds to the song, more or less the same as if you called his name.
he's a good boy.
yes, hillel is truly an amazing cat.
ha ha ha. you KNEW i meant ben. and so did ben.
here is ben up on the roof of the powder room -- an addition to the original house that isn't even as big as a double bed, but has its own roof nonetheless -- putting some sealant on it. the air conditioner drips onto this little roof (which we were told in inspection wasn't long for this world) and we are getting some drips in the powder room. eventually, it will be replaced, but for now, sealant is fine.
poor ben, out there on the roof with a nasty summer cold. the best cure: a nap with a puppy.
he knew i was going to post that, too.
hillel and ripley spent part of sunday afternoon battling it out over a large fly that had come in through the back screen door. each of them wanted it desperately, slapping at each other like moe and shemp, knocking things down in an attempt to get the bug.
hillel caught it and killed it -- and within seconds, ripley had eaten it right under his nose!
he spent the next fifteen minutes looking for it in disbelief.
do you know that hillel is so handsome?
you should know, because he is.
crappity crappity crap.
once valentine's day has come and gone, i have no use for this winter thing. so tired of the grey, achey feeling; so tired of the soup and the stew; so tired of the dry itchy skin; so tired of the piles of coats and sweaters and gloves and hats.
what to do?
but huddle up on the couch with a little live courtroom coverage via court tv (ripley has a crush on vinnie politan...)
or, chase the beam of a laser pointer around the room. but it seems i'd be late getting on the bandwagon where that is concerned.
ho hum. we REALLY need some sun, and a few crocuses.
that was ben's request for a title for this year's hanukkah posting. there is a reason for this, although the reason is hard to photograph. it's the thing on the right; it's what i gave ben on the first night of hanukkah.
it's a menorah, and i think that's obvious. it's one of those "bubble light" things evocative of the 1940's (and ben and i do make an effort to pretend to be living in the 1940's as much as possible). i got it from the vermont country store, where ben and i have purchased many gifts for one another over the years -- hot water bottles, walnettos candies, brown bread in cans, jadeite mixing bowls. it's a lovely quaint site. and i was so excited to find this bubble menorah!
but a little perplexed when it finally arrived. because the box that it came in is labelled CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS is printed all over the box.
we were both mystified. it's pretty obvious that this is a menorah, isn't it? even in the half darkness?
this is our "regular" menorah, which, of course, we will still always use. the cats love it.
this is maybe not the best photo of the cats "loving" hanukkah, but we swear, they come running when they hear ben singing that prayer and striking a match.
right down dismantled claws lane. our little post-op patient with his sign of protest.
he did very well, and is very happy to be home. those claws were really getting out of control -- as was his testosterone. a few weeks ago, he punctured the therapy ball i sit on when i work at the computer. after replacing that, we prepped hillel for his surgeries-to-come by kicking the ball at him while shouting NO BALLS FOR HILLEL! so you can't say he wasn't warned.
i can't believe this big hairy foie gras is what used to be our little orange kitten!
taking a good picture in our dark den is a challenge, but we think the point gets across here. this is gib and hillel watching "their tape", which was given to us by my friend marlene. it's footage of birds and squirrels, nothing else. and as you see, the boys love it.
what exactly was our reasoning for not getting a second cat? (other than that we really didn't want one?)
i think gibson is happier than he has ever been. he loves hillel so much. we hear him using "words" we had never heard him say before, when calling to the kitten.
i wonder, though, if gib has any rudimentary way of noting to himself, "this kitten used to be much SMALLER than me. and now it seems to be getting LARGER." because hillel, assuredly, is going to be a much bigger cat than gibson will ever be.
here's hillel with a battery-operated bat from the craft store. believe me when i say hillel needs to learn to be terrified of something in this world. "bats" are apparently topping that list now.
you may have noticed, as we have, that hillel warren is no longer what you'd call a "kitten".
we called him a "kit" for a week or so. last week, he was a "catten". this week, like agent starling said of hannibal lecter, "they don't have a name for what he is."
but, hillel is here to tell you:
considering the fact that, by mid-october at the latest we will need to have:
- moved into our new home
- finished knitting most of our halloween costumes
- begun to package and ship new knitting tarot shirts and totes
- completed the printing of a holiday-oriented letterpressed book AND our change of address/halloween announcements...
...you'll not be seeing TOO much new posted here for awhile. but, knowing me as you might, be sure to check back before october 31!
i didn't do this.
i didn't bring the squirrel toy over in front of the cat dish and leave it there, and i certainly didn't stand it up on its feet. hillel did this.
hillel continues to astound. in his babyhood he was something of a combination of both calvin and hobbes, rolled into one. in the past week or so, he has become more of a swaggering young mick jagger. his latest trick, although we have not caught it on camera, is sitting up on his hind legs like a prairie dog. he can do this for a pretty long time, and he can rotate his body -- listening to and looking at things on either side of him -- while he does it. he also uses this position to study one of his new favorite mysteries of life -- the urinating human male. to which, of course, he grants himself full access.
it's real popular.
trying to write yesterday morning, i almost threw hillel out of a window. bag bag bag. cord cord cord. box box box. bite bite bite. he seems to be in a constant state of preparation for some production of west side story, fighting and dancing his way through every moment of the day.
then he found the toy i had attached to the office door weeks ago. thank god. catch the refreshment here and here.
after a long friday night of letterpress printing, i looked up to see this on our front window: and, of course, ran outside to photograph her.
this is our "big girl", the mantis we've been seeing the most of these days. we haven't seen a male in weeks, come to think of it. ben has been seeing what he assumed was another female in the backyard -- now he thinks it was this one, since she's such a mover.
she would look down at me with the camera, with her big dark nighttime eyes, and then look back up to watch a car go down the street. very regal, very composed, very beautiful.
the boys got in the window, to see what we were up to. they might have seen the mantis, but were quickly distracted by the cords to the blinds.
our girl looked as though she would have been happy to play with a blind cord too. what a sweetie!
hey, that's not your leg -- that's hillel!
we had a pajama-party saturday, all day. cooking, reading, napping, watching movies with "hell" in the title. the kitten appreciated the time with people.
he seems to get cuter and cuter everyday, and always seems tinier and dearer when you have to go out to the store or something. it's almost impossible to tear oneself away.
what do you get when you cross this...
with this?
we had hoped it would yield a really good short movie, but it didn't.
a whole set of wind-up sushi were gibson's birthday present last year. he has always been equivocal about them, as is hillel-tail.
he can also do this...there is probably some sort of measurable change that your body chemistry undergoes when you look at something this cute for so many minutes of the day. and wake up with it in your face.
don't write that...
write this!
god.
if you think it's hard writing around a kitten, try setting ten point lead type around a kitten. a kitten who is attached to your thigh with his claws. and is screaming like nancy spungen still. SID!!!!!
i keep taking him out and plunking him down in front of gibson. they are getting along very well -- lots of playing.
me, i'm maybe not getting as much done as i might like. but sometimes those days are better.
by the way:
hillel warren sidecar dorko levin reminds you: DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER (OR STREET) PETS DIE. buying designer breeds from puppy mills (or kitten mills) is vainglorious and shallow. letting your own pet breed, to experience "the miracle of life", is selfish and without conscience!
the ONLY "miracle of life" is the way we will all feel on the stormy night when we know for sure that there isn't a dog or cat out there on the streets, in need of warmth, shelter, food and love!
having said that, SOMEBODY COME GET THIS FUCKING KITTEN OFF OF MY DESK.
a kitten on your foot really stimulates believable character development.
got a kitten between you and your keyboard? simply think of it as an "interface" between you and your fictional world! that's what i do!
need a stapler? a highlighter? a french dictionary? a kitten can find them.
oh look, he appears to have fallen into a box of my old journals. and is having trouble getting out. or perhaps he is just reading the juicy parts. i think i won't disturb him. god knows he would show me the same consideration.
hillel is getting himself acclimated to the house. jan came to visit him again, but hillel was under a shelf or something and didn't come out. tim came to visit him, and hillel for the most part ran around screaming. he reminds me of nancy in the movie "sid and nancy". sid! what about the farewell drugs?!? SID!!
he is a street cat, after all.
ben and hillel did a little bonding last night on the couch...
and for those of you who care about such things, we have had a 100% rate of success with using our "big boy" box!
gibson, of course, is still getting used to all this. he is currently unavailable for comment.
hillel slept under the bed last night, waking up every few hours to spew chirpy little expletives at us for a half-hour at a time. this morning, he figured out how to get into the bed.
"hillel is tired," ben informed me, as the kitten cavorted spasmodically across his face and chest. that's ben, always thinking of others.
okay.
so today, having been feeling stressed and crappy this week, ben and i both called out sick from work, to do a little recovery.
it was about ten thirty in the morning. i went to adjust a window. "oh, look, there's jan," i said.
so it began.
jan came in to inform us she was about to take the kitten she had found yesterday to the morris animal refuge. and were we sure we didn't want to take a look at him first?
just as we went around the corner to jan's studio, we ran into our new neighbors, stacey and mike. stacey came with us to see the kitten as well.
in jan's beautiful studio, surrounded by jan's amazing paintings, we first laid eyes on this little orange scribble with a nose like sammy david jr.... you know how some cats just have that "human" nose?
it didn't take too long to realize... what with the big new house and all... that this kitten was for us.
we call him hillel.
two hours, and one vet visit later (he has ear mites, fleas, conjuctivitis in both eyes), he's home! he has a BIG mouth and is very talkative and very LOUD. and very hungry. and right now, under a bookshelf. his head and neck are annointed with so many medicines and ointments that he's barely recognizeable. but he's leukemia and FIV negative, and he is part of the family! welcome hillel!