And -- Happy Birthday, Your Majesty ... Now We Are 10!

 

Difficult to believe ... very, very difficult! ... but Miss Zolie turned ten years old today. Ten! She's in fine fettle; there doesn't seem to be any sign of age about her, but I guess the calendar doesn't lie. Ten. Where does time go? What can you say? Happy Birthday, Zolie!

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty -- Now We Are Nine!

 

...and the birthday card says it all Another year has flown by, and here we are ... nine!

Just a comparative handful of pictures this time, because her year, and her world, are pretty much the same as always. She had loads of fun at Christmas, when she got a new copra-type mat to tear into, with our blessing ... she's had fun wit boxes, with kitchen paper ... she loves to "help" make the bed, and as for for the Christmas tree -- oh, boy!

So, this was Zolie's year, not counting vast amounts of time spent in her personal jungle (the garden), which, for some odd reason, we didn't seem to photograph this time around...

Playing Catch-Up With Myself: August 2022

 

August 1, 2022

It's that time of the year again ... I find myself missing Bagheera as ever. It's eight years since he scampered over that rainbow bridge that waits for us all. July 29, 2014. Eight years! Seems like only yesterday. Sleep well, little one ... until we meet again.

There really isn't anything to add to that. The whole album is posted here, and I often scroll through it, remembering times that were. Sigh.

August 5, 2022

And then, it was Welcome Home Zolie ... and I guess the rest is history. Eight years has gone by so fast, I can scarcely believe it. Knock on wood, she's fighting fit, never seems to skip a beat, and aside from needing to have her teeth cleaned every year or two, she's our basic princess...

ooOOOoooOOOoo

..and that was the last I posted for a very, very long time -- necessitating the catch-up for this blog, if I plan to pick up the threads and go on with it. This last post to facebook, in early August, marked the beginning of a period of the "moody blues," or "cabin fever," or SAD ... no matter what you call it, it was impossible to shake.

I didn't post. I didn't write. I did keep up with photography, with the effect that I ended up with over 6,000 photos backlogged and not even glanced at. As I write this in January '23, I till haven't caught up with those photos, but ... I'm trying.

So, August was a miasma of SAD as the third consecutive La Nina turned our world grey and murky. Too much for too long, was it, piled on top of the Covid? Could be. But for us, in August, Covid was still something that happened to other people. Then, in September, Dave brought it home from work with him. It came on a flying visit, and decided to outstay its welcome.

I'll cover September in a separate post...

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty -- now we are eight!

It doesn't seem possible, but here we are again ... celebrating Zolie's year in photos. It's been quite a year for her ladyship ... a year of good health, being the lady and mistress of all she surveys, and certainly the head of staff in this establishment! It's been a year of  .industrial-grade naps (with and without the laser eyes of two different colours) --

And a year of being involved with absolutely everything in the house, carport, garden ... presents, Christmas tree, bikes, making beds, summiting on cat trees, you name it, Zolie was into it:

Then again it was also a year of pocket-size adventures (which were no less grand for being pocket-sized). There were trees to climb, butterflies to chase, patches of dust to roll in ... and the responsibility of  being left to guard the citadel when the hoomans went to the park for the morning, and kitty cats couldn't come aloge (because them's the rules!) ...

But it was also a year of  NAPS. Big ones, small ones, epic naps, catnaps, every kind, in every place. Soooo many places to nap ... an embarrassment of kitty cat riches. Beds, chairs, rugs, and of course the box at the very top of the two-metre cat tree...

But wait, there's more! It was a year of desserts ... of bowls of cream, juuust the right size, set out when the hoomies are having their dessert! A certain look (a needle-claw in the knee...) and one just knows that Her Majesty would like her dessert too, if you don't mind --

After all, she's royalty. Empress of the Universe What's that, you don't believe me? Empress of The Universe, you say? Why, yes. They made a movie about it: Zolie Rescues Flash Gordon. In Technicolor, and Surround Sound, and Super Panavision 70. What, you didn't see it? Well, here's the proof!

There you are ... it was the year when Her Majesty became a big movie star!

And... that's all, folks!

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty ... Now we are Seven!

 

It's been a big year in the life of our resident royalty. Life's an adventure, full of explorations, and naps, and guarding the citadel, and naps, and stalking the jungle trails, and (did I mention?) naps. It all began twelve months ago, with a van in the street and a knock at the door...

Ooooh! You got me a new mattress! Wonderful! Uh, where are you going to sleep?

But of course, there's much more to life than merely taking one's leisure...

All manner of exotic creatures inhabit the jungle. Lizzie (the plaster lizard) doesn't say much...

And of course, in one's forest fastness, one enjoys intellectual pursuits...

...also dessert. Chocolate bunnies swiftly succumb to laser eyes!

But one does like to help around the house occasionally; and let's be honest, these humans can't be trusted to make beds by themselves. Leaving them to do it without supervision? Unthinkable! So --

And since we're in the mood for a little housework, let's give the peasants a hand with the vacuum cleaning...

...helping with the vacuuming is only fair, after all, when one's feline duty, recorded in a charter back in the days of Ramses II, is to shed on everything, allathe time...

And of course, chairs belong to royalty. All of them. 24/7-365 --

It's MY chair. MINE, y'understand? Now buzz off, lemme take naps!

All that sleeping charges the batteries, awakens the spirit of Lion, of Tiger, of Panther, in the breast of the feline. A stretch, a yawn, and it's time to explore, to stalk those jungle trails. Good thing the jungle begins right outside the backdoor!

On the trackless ways, in search of adventure --

Never forget ... Tiger is an ambush predator. Channelling Tiger...

Deep in the jungle, at the watering hole --

-- and if adventure should be just too hard to find, well, bark was made for rolling in!

A puddytat's adventures lead to the roof, and the neighbour's roof, (though they've ruined it with acres of solar panels: kitties don't like it so much lately), and occasionally into alien territory: the front garden, when strange creatures pass by, but seldom stop. It's important to patrol there, and be vigilant:

Always vigilance. Take notes, kids: this is how you guard the citadel!

Ah, so nice to return from the wilds. Glad to be home from the war...

Home from the wars, and -- hey, what's this? How long's this been here? You say it's been here since before I was born? Can't have been! I never saw it before -- what is it?

Its good to be home from the wars, yeah? Nothing beats being in the big, warm cave, safe in the bosom of one's family and taking one's ease...

...even if, occasionally the humans do something unspeakable. They put you in the carry case, and you take a short ride to the Puddytat Repair Shop, where they check your teeth, take your temperature, stick something sharp in the back of your neck, and pronounce you good to go for another year of adventures ... I mean, what's that about? 

Best to humour the pink monkeys, make nice and pretend the yearly physical's no biggie. We're cool. we're all cool here, man. Like, groovy. Yeah. And then just show them how kewl you are -- not to mention how divinely beautiful. Pose among the flowers ... what a good idea!

And if you're really good (or good at pretending to be good), Christmas comes early. Took you seven years to get the old cat tree shredded to purrrrfection, and what do they do? They chuck it in the bin, and this happens! Then again ... 

This is neat! It must be Christmas! Yay!

Actually, this was Christmas!

And this year, we managed to get through the whole holiday season without demolishing the entire tree, though a pretty good job was done on the lower branches. (For some reasons the humans get into a snit when the tree keels over. Why would they do that?!) This is altogether too much work. Time for naps, I believe...

So many places to nap, so little time! Anything happen when I was asleep? Hey --

-- it rained! The pavers are wet ... that's diabolical. Harrumph.  

Yes, they're not all sunny days ... but the rainy ones make the sunny ones all the brighter, and after the heat of summer, what's a few drops of water? A good shower, and the garden -- excuse me, the jungle -- blooms! Tiger is in her natural habitat...

And that's the life of the Queen of the Jungle, for another year! Easy. Nothing to it. You just look cute, take naps, let the humans think they're in charge, and ... cruise. Yeaaaaah.

And that's all, folks!