| Author | Message | ||
     Notehead |
That's a cool kid. Hmmm... I'm visualizing a marimba on big air-filled wheels that gets pushed along while marching. I could be onto something here... | ||
| Notehead |
Today's haiku is dedicated to my friend Lu Ann, along with other close friends who were unable to make it to my recent party (and are FULL of regret!): Life's maelstrom whirls wild, Blowing closed doors between friends, But love is unblocked. | ||
| Notehead |
More fave albums: Jonatha Brooke & The Story - "Angel In The House", "10-Cent Wings", "Steady Pull" Sting - "Nothing Like The Sun" Modern Mandolin Quartet - "Pan-American Journeys" Cheikh Lo - "Ne La Thiass" Radio Tarifa - "Rumba Argelina" William Ackerman - "Past Light" Dag Jensen & Midori Kitagawa - "Musique pour Basson et Piano" Ziggy Marley - "Jahmeyka" Dag - "Righteous" Donald Fagen - "The Nightfly" Yellowjackets - "Politics" Take 6 - "Take 6" Frank Zappa - "Sheik Yerbouti", "The Yellow Shark" Okay, now I am definitely going to get back to work!! | ||
| Shh |
Hi Mark, Just passed your e-mail address along to my friend I mentioned above. Her name is Stephanie, her e-mail is jjringel@aol.com. (She will kill me for this.) As I mentioned, she is a SWJF, 31, smart, into music, works for a commercial prod. co. She is also very well read, petite, adorable--very Carly Simon-esque as far as looks go. I HOPE she e-mails you. I don't know why she hasn't been swooped up already by some dashing computer programmer! (You are dashing, aren't you?) | ||
| Notehead |
As a matter of fact, I was dashing just a minute ago, trying to get past all the traffic and into my office. It was a very fine dash, you shoulda seen me. I hope that Stephanie doesn't kill you, personally I think it's very sweet of you to do this. | ||
| Notehead |
Just got back from 4 days of camping at Newcomb Lake, NY. It's about an hour further up Route 87 past the Lake George area. I hadn't camped since high school, and it was absolutely fantastic to get out into the woods with a bunch of friends and relax. I say "relax" and yet that was the most strenuous 4 days I've experienced in a long, long time -- but my body was so glad to have the exercise that I don't even mind the soreness now. I think I had a slow trickle of endorphins running from the moment I put my (45-pound) pack on and started on the trail to the site. The hike in was psychologically reminiscent of the cross-country races I used to run in high school... after the first 5 or 10 minutes, I felt like I was surely incapable of finishing; my mind started sorting through possible excuses to give after my imminent collapse. But after about 20 minutes my mind and body both got in tune with the task at hand, some of the initial soreness started to fade, and I found that I wasn't panting any more. It was about 2 hours on the first trail, which was actually more like a dirt road. Then we had another hour of much rougher, damper stuff before we got to "Fish Rock" where the views and the perfection of the layout made all the effort worthwile. For the next few days we paddled a canoe all over the huge lake, explored little islands, basked on the rocks, talked about every possible subject, foraged firewood, cooked camping food, stashed all our edibles way up a tree in a "bear bag," laughed at everything, sang along with the CD's we brought, and just let all the everyday stresses of our lives sublimate away. We watched the sun and moon rise and fall. We attempted conversation with the loons and felt confident that meaningful exchanges of ideas took place. I'm thinking that I may need to buy a canoe, and find some nice place to take it for long weekends a few times a year - it was that much fun. I could have easily stayed a few more days, but I have a lot of fun things going on at home, too, and I feel refreshed. My jungle cat was very glad to see me -- none of that "talk to the tail" stuff that other cats might give you after you've been away. She did, however, wake me up at least twice during the night grooming my head and trying to explain to me in jungle cat language how she felt about my absence. And I must admit that a real shower and a real bed felt mighty, mighty good. | ||
| Alia |
That is some cat - I saw the photos. What prompted you to get her? More about Ella, please, I am so curious... | ||
| Notehead |
Ah... didn't check in here for a little while, but I'm always glad to elocute on the amazing and incredible Ella Fitzgerald, Fearsome Jungle Doofus, Bane of Flies and Spiders, Hider of Toys and Important Things, Eared and Befeared, Furred and Preferred, Tailed but not Curtailed, Stealer of Sandwiches, Ransacker of Garbage Bags, Muscular and Crepuscular, and General Assistant In All Things Involving Noise, Action, or Foody Smells. There are 36 species of wild cat in the entire world -- the Siberian Tiger is the biggest, coming in at over 9 feet in length, excluding the tail. The smallest is probably the Asian Rusty-Spotted Cat, which typically is under a foot long excluding the tail, according to a book of mine. The African Jungle Cat is in the middle of the pack with females often reaching 25 pounds, and males often reaching 35 pounds. Despite the "African" in the name, they are really from North Africa and Southern Asia -- India, Bangladesh, Egypt, etc, and there are 7 subspecies with varying colorations. For a long time they were thought to be the species from which domestic cats are derived, although DNA testing has recently disproved that. Wild jungle cats eat just about anything -- birds, snakes, fish, insects, small animals. Males can take down a swamp deer weighing over 70 pounds, and jungle cats have been observed actually diving down into water to catch fish. I don't know if many other feline species can interbreed with domestic cats, but African Jungle Cats can. The cats resulting from this cross are often called Chausies, although as I understand it that requires very specific characteristics. A more generic term is simply "Jungle Cat Hybrid". I first heard about them while reading an issue of Cat Fancy on the train, and I decided to look into getting one. I didn't want something that acted wild or had difficult requirements, but I loved the wild look and bigger size. Jungle cat hybrids get the same shots as regular cats, although they need super-premium food to meet their higher nutrition requirements. I feed Ella a kibble called "Mazuri" which is used by zoos to feed ocelots and jaguars and other medium-sized wild cats, although whenever I eat chicken or turkey, Ella does too. The breeder that I got Ella from is a fabulous guy, and one of the original experts on this particular hybrid. His cubs are raised "underfoot" as they say in the trade and he breeds for size and friendly temperament. Although Ella was the largest cub in her litter, her size hasn't increased much since she hit around 14 pounds, although some of her sisters are over 20 pounds. Her father, a full-blooded jungle cat named Mongo, is HUGE at 35+ pounds. Ella is gradually getting a little more tolerant of other people, although so far she has basically been a one-person cat. In fact, she still regards my housemates as enemies, even though they've been around for over a year. So, it's rare for other people to see what a caring, playful sweetheart she is, but she really is, I assure you. She was a major handful at first: pure energy, climbing onto everything, knocking everything over, playing too rough, but she has mellowed out. Every time I come home or wake up in the morning, she comes over to greet me. Her tail has a dark tip so that a momma jungle cat could spot it easier in the tall grass, and she sticks it straight up and shakes it to say "here I am!" From across the room I can say "Ella... kiss!" and she'll come over and rub her cheek on mine. She has quite a lot of different vocalizations to say things like "I'm bored" or "I want that" or "where've you been?", although her voice is usually more like a bobcat than a housecat. She has toys all over the house, and she'll find one and bring it over for me to throw -- sometimes at 3 in the morning! Jungle cats are "crepuscular" which means that they are especially active during twilight hours, although she is more on a human schedule now. She has, on several occasions, totally chewed up stuff of mine like a teething dog. She will also sneak her face into somebody's water glass whenever possible. She will not call out for help as a normal cat would, so a couple times I've accidentally locked her into a closet all day and become frantic looking for her. Eventually, I opened the closet, and Ella strolled out with a nonplussed look that said "Oh, right, I was just finishing up in there." She gets along just fine with Barnabus, our domestic cat, but when they're chasing each other you better get out of the way! Sometimes when I'm on the phone pacing around, she ambushes me -- jumping out to grab my leg, and dashing away. She's a ton of fun, and really beautiful. I'm looking forward to about 14 more years of feline antics with her. Now, Alia, if my boss is wondering what I've been doing all afternoon, I may have him call you and you must pretend to be somebody from the Marketing Department!! | ||
| Notehead |
I would like to apologize for my silliness elsewhere on MOL today. I think it was due, in part, to my consumption of half a tub of candy corn. Also, this concept of "humor" you have on this planet takes some getting used to. But, D A M N... I'm cool. (chortle, chortle) | ||
| Shh |
No way, Notehead. No apologies necessary. Your coolness has been SO proven. (I've told my friend to e-mail you a million times. She's being so uncool! Recent events have made her a little off, my friend.) Anyway, maybe you should check out Sammy. You two seem to have a little thing going on in the "Who's Cool" thread. | ||
| Tabby |
Wow, if I wasn't already happily married, I would go out with you! (Okay, I am a bit over 40 but age is just a number, right?) My husband and I are "animal people" especially cats. We have 4 cats, and yes that is why I chose "Tabby" for MOL. 2 males 2 females, all fixed, all very affectionate. Would love to see pictures of your Ella. Would you please post some? Tabby | ||
| Notehead |
Aw... Tabby, that was really sweet of you to say. I will post some pics of Ella the Omnivorous Jungle Doofus asap. | ||
| Notehead |
I just got home from the airport with this 9-week-old Jungle Cat Hybrid cub. Her expression says to me, "I don't know what's going on, but I am way too cute for you to do anything bad to me."  | ||
| Notehead |
This shot is titled "Lil Snoozer". She loves laying on the back of the couch. Unfortunately, she also loved chewing on the edges of the cushions like a puppy. Oh well, eventually I bought a slipcover! She's about 10 weeks old here. Note the huge paws and the spotting and striping which make her less visible to predators.  | ||
| Notehead |
I'll leave you for now with this third one, where she's still around 10 or 11 weeks old.  | ||
| Tabby |
Dear Notehead, WOW, love the pictures of Ms. Jungle Kitty!! What a sweetie. I can see where she will get much bigger by the size of the paws. One of our males had big paws when he was young and he grew into them. How do you trim her claws? Can you use a standard cat claw trimmer? Do you ever take her for a walk on a leash? Would love to see her in (feline) person. Tabby | ||
| Notehead |
Yup, she's growing into her paws pretty well now. The last time I took her to the vet, he said "Oh my god, that's not a cat, that's TWO cats." I had grand intentions of walking Ella on a leash all the time. But the half-dozen times I put her in her harness and tried it out, she promptly laid down and refused to move. Obviously, this was a major violation of her freedom. She loves it if I take her in my arms and walk around the yard, though. How do I trim her claws? I don't trim her claws. She'd have to be shot with a tranquilizer dart before her claws could be trimmed by anybody. When I brought her in to be spayed, they had to jab her through a hole in the carrier, because she was just too wild and tough, and she was under 10 pounds at that point! (I swear to god, she is a total sweetheart with me!) Fortunately, she's pretty good about not clawing the furniture, especially since I made her a couple of GIANT scratching posts out of landscaping timbers covered with carpet. I'll post more pics soon. | ||
| Notehead |
Notice how she's getting a bit bigger...  | ||
| Notehead |
It was a HUGE accomplishment for her to make the jump onto the counter at this size.  | ||
| Notehead |
Is this as cute as it gets, or what?  |
