Thoughts In Grey

Meet Emiko!

Say hello to Emiko!

Also known already as Emi-Cat, Squeeky-Cat, Sweetie-Cat and any number of other ridiculous names as they strike me.

Chaos handled Clio's passing even less well than I did, and for a time I had him on Prozac because he was so miserable. After some time passed, and when I was done skiing for the winter, it seemed like a decent time to introduce somebody new to keep him company, or at the very least to keep his life a little more exciting and varied.

After a semi-exhaustive search for just the right not-too-active older female to keep him company, I found her with the good people at Stray Cat Alliance, where she had been known as Squeek. Her former keeper had been forced to give her up due to the loss of his home and never returned to reclaim her. Eventually she was put up for adoption.

I was not looking for another black cat, though in retrospect having two the same color makes it a lot easier to pick furniture and bedding that doesn't show their fur too much. In truth, I was looking for a cat very much not like Clio. Certainly I was not looking for another tuxedo girl, and even a black girl with very minor white markings felt a bit weird. But her personality grew on me right away when I met her. The paperwork and various other checks took a bit of time but on April 10th she arrived and settled into my bathroom for a slow adjustment process.

At this time she's about ten and in good health. She had one minor tooth problem that required an extraction (par for the course at her age) and a bit of arthritis in the knees (ditto) that I'm treating with the same supplement I give myself. She's more or less made the living room her own. I rebuilt my Ikea wardrobe/coat closet into a makeshift cat tree that she enjoys. It's now fully carpeted on top and I've added some other shelves to the walls around it for her to climb on. She seems to enjoy being up high and looking down. Chaos sometimes "pulls rank" by climbing up into my sleep area, getting up on the railing and looking down at her.

I had not initially planned to change her name. But over time it changed nonetheless. I still refer to her sometimes as Squeeky-Cat, but somehow the name never really fit. She squeaks from time to time, but is mostly a pretty quiet girl. After the tragedy in feline-friendly Japan, and considering my brother's affection for the place, going with something Japanese just seemed right. The name Emiko is -- like so many things Japanese -- associated with many translations in English. Smiling Child, Beautiful Child, Blessed Child, and Beautiful Blessing are many that I have found.

Emi was also my dad's nickname.

She's got odd quirks like any cat. She has a way of stretching out that involves putting one back leg up and out, almost ballerina-style. It's different from the normal stretches my other cats have done. My vet diagnosed that one: apparently she has a slightly loose kneecap, just like her skier dad. That straight-out extension helps them slide right back into place. She's weird about her food. I've learned that the canned food has to be placed away from other things because if there's any left when she's done eating, she will try to "bury" it with whatever else is around, just like a lion might do to hide uneaten prey in the wild. I was going nuts trying to figure out why she was constantly brushing the dry food out of its dish, when I noticed that if I fed her near a folded towel or piece of fleece, she'd claw at that and try to drag it over her food bowl too! Now I just keep the canned food away from anything that might be dragged into it.

Like any good girlfriend, she's figured out how to stretch out in a way that leaves absolutely no room for me on the sofa. With Chaos now sometimes willing to share some space with her, I am frequently forced to read elsewhere. So far she hasn't ventured upstairs much and hasn't slept on my bed. Chaos did work that out with Clio and I'm sure he and Emiko will work it out too, but I'm equally sure that when it happens the loser will be me. Clio used to like to tunnel in under the covers and Emiko seems to be a bit of a tunneler too. I wonder if she'll do the same thing?

In many ways, Chaos is still getting used to the idea of not being the only cat. He's always been difficult at times, a product of an early life that I suspect was never especially happy. He has good days, bad days, and days where he feels compelled to "mark" his territory when she annoys him. But it's improving slowly over time and sometimes he can be downright friendly to her, especially if I'm around.

Unfortunately, Emiko's not the same kind of catnip fiend that Clio was, and I'm somewhat at a loss for what to do with my rather extensive plantation.

Christmas Eve 2010 Brief Notes

As I'm Jewish, this time of year always has me feeling a bit left out. So I'm taking it easy and trying not to think too much about anything too serious, which is always tough for me.

• Clio's death continues to rattle through my consciousness. I've gone back and forth about the notion of finding a new girl to round out the household, but for now am holding off. For starters, I just don't feel all that enthusiastic about another cat, and going to "meet" them has mostly left me depressed. More importantly, Chaos seems to be slowly coming into his own and I'm seeing a side of him that has never been there before. Getting to know him on his own terms seems worthwhile.
• Markets have been doing not much of anything. While the bubbleheads on CNBC find something to be excited about every day, the reality is that what little movement we've had recently is fairly inconsequential. Yet I'm feeling somewhat uneasy about the complacency that seems to be out there. Between Europe, our municipalities and the employment rate, there is stuff to worry about out there!
• As usual, the Venice Canals Holiday Boat Parade was a blast and I had the usual party before and after. Unfortunately, no other paddlers this year, but I got to go out there on my own anyway and my neighbor "Mommy Whorebucks" decided to dress up and directed me to tow her. The best part is that rather than the cold and rainy weather we had last year, it was over 80 degrees! Even in LA, paddling in a kayak in the evening in December in shorts is not really all that common. [Pictures below.] Over the course of the past four  years, I seem to have become an institution around here. Kids see me coming and start yelling that they want candy. Those post-Halloween sales pay off! 
• One of the more interesting things about the parade is that our local councilman, Bill Rosendahl, showed up to open the festivities. A few months ago his relationship with the Canals Association could have best been described as rocky. The fact that he was invited to open things shows how much the political winds have changed around here.
• Much of the change has been driven by the web, and most particularly by a lot of "citizen journalism" and discussion on our local info website, YoVenice! Formerly, others owned the agenda. That has changed, and fast.
• Since I've lived here, I've wanted to go out at dawn to capture some images in the neighborhood, especially in the canals. somehow I never have done it. Tomorrow should be suitably abandoned and empty for me to try, and maybe experiment with some HDR imaging as well. Sunday may be even better, with some interesting weather expected.
• Jon's back from Tokyo on Monday morning. High time. Got to head over to his place and plug in the refrigerator tomorrow.
• Annual garage cleanup has revealed some gems. It seems I have an extra set of Oakely sunglasses, two extra sets of snow goggles, a pair of old skis I really don't think I want anymore and a bunch of tools I completely forgot about. I don't even remember buying some of this stuff and suspect some items were just abandoned in my car, my locker, or some other location where it was forgotten.
• I've got a refrigerator full of food and am cooking slowly. Not so much because I'm interested in a holiday meal as that it's just feeling nice to do it. First time since Clio's death that I've felt like cooking much. Chaos seems to appreciate the fresh scraps.
• For some reason, I was so tired last night I couldn't even think of any grievances to air. Not going to let that happen again.

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Clio

Clio died peacefully on the morning of Nov. 27th after a brief struggle with an aggressive bone marrow cancer. I was with her, as was her wonderful cat sitter, who has always been "aunt Marie" to her.

Her vet, Dr. Beth Hagenlocker of the Cat Practice, spent hours of mostly uncompensated time during Clio's final weeks, reviewing test results, consulting with experts and looking for treatment possibilities, often calling me long after office hours to let me know what she had found. Marie was always there, either in person or sometimes just watching her on one of the webcams I set up and calling to let me know what was going on when I couldn't be watching. She had online fans from Tokyo to New York for those final days and weeks.

I adopted Clio from the Los Angeles East Valley shelter in June of 2003. She had been with me for just about seven and a half years and was probably between nine and ten years old.

I suspect I'll have more to say about this as I can slowly collect my thoughts and commit them to "paper." In the meantime, this is the last photoset I have of her, taken mostly in the day or two after she came home from intensive care. She spent much of her final days enjoying the sun and partaking of her "medicinal catnip." (Here in Venice Beach, it's legal for cancer patients, of course.)

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Brief Notes

It's been a rough few weeks, dominated by difficult "family" situation.

• Clio being diagnosed with cancer seems to have cost me about two weeks of my life. As is always the case with me, the tough part was the 5-6 days during which we didn't know what was going on. Now the challenge is to find the best course going forward, for however long that may be.
• But going to use this as an opportunity to get back online.
• Can't really say I care much about the GM IPO today, except to note that Barry again has it right. It's what we should have done to the banks.
• My brother's been having fun in Tokyo. Check out Jon's Tokyo Diary.
• My new Mac has been really showing its colors as I slowly scan and start processing some of my old negatives, to recreate the stuff I once was able to do only in the darkroom with noxious chemicals.
• But it really does suck that Nikon no longer supports their film scanners on current Macs. I understand that some companies cant be bothered to writer drivers for newer operating systems. With consumer products, more often than not it just isn't worth the trouble, but these are professional photo equipment, used by their "best customers," and they've terminated support on the platform used by most professionals? The same professionals who Nikon wants to retain as customers for high-end photo gear of all sorts? Dumb.
  The ill-will this obviously generates (just check out the various messageboards discussing the topic) would have been worth the cost of writing a stupid driver. The reason I've stuck with Nikon cameras for so long is that they DO still support my photo equipment roughly back to the beginning of time! If that's no longer the policy, maybe I don't need to be quite so loyal?
• Was really looking forward to finally skiing this weekend, but looks like I'll have to hold off for a bit due to the cat craziness around here. Snow base still not all that great anyway.
• Perseid meteor shower tonight! Hoping some of these clouds go away.

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Growing Catnip

Yeah, I know. Off-topic for this blog. But I've been having fun with it so feel free to skip on to the next thing if you like.

Want to do something really cool for your cat and have fun growing something on your own? Grow catnip. I've done a lot of this for my cats over the years and have come up with a variety of options for growing it, some better than others. I'm illustrating a couple of variations here.

Fresh catnip is a lot more fun and usually a lot more potent than the dried stuff you buy at the pet store. For the appropriately sensitive feline, there's nothing quite like it. Even big cats like tigers and mountain lions seem to have an interest.

First, you need catnip seed. I get mine from The Catnip Farm, who sell their own strain of Mr. Nipster brand fully organic and very hardy catnip seed. I have seen and purchased catnip seed in the past from other sources, but the Mr. Nipster seed is the best. It's also by far the most economical solution, as most "grow your own" catnip is sold in pet stores as part of a kit that includes small overpriced quantities of soil or peat discs, a pot and some other things that you may already have and certainly won't need to buy every time if you grow the stuff regularly.

Some pet stores also sell small pots with catnip seedlings in them that you can transplant. Personally I find that much less satisfying. Growing seeds from scratch -- whether it's catnip or something I'm going to eat -- is incredibly fun, in a very zen way. I have to work for it and wait for it, which makes me feel so much more attached to the rhythm of natural life that the cats are still so much closer to than I am.

Growing things brings me closer to nature. As Doug Peacock said recently about something slightly different: "All of a sudden you're part of an ancient system again: You stop, listen more often, scent the wind... You're part of the original landscape, a far older more faded world."

Yes, even if you're just growing catnip and herbs on a patio in Venice Beach.

It's an old, necessary art form that everybody should experience.

Method 1: Small planter pots

One way of growing catnip is in plain old little planter pots. These two are left over from other plants that I purchased and transplanted. They work just fine. I filled them with a mix of potting soil and organic peat moss that I had lying around from a previous project, keeping a fine layer of the peat on top where the seeds get planted. It's important (especially with peat moss) that everything be soaked through fully before you try to plant the seeds.

[Click on all photos for larger]

I keep the pots in some kind of a shallow dish or tray. I find that it's easiest to water them without disturbing the seeds by filling the dishes with water and moistening the soil from below rather than by pouring water over the seeds which might be washed to the sides of the pot or into other locations where they bunch up and make for much less even growth.

I take a small number of seeds and place them in a folded piece of cardboard, in this case it's just the folded label from the top of a bag of Mr. Nipster seeds. It works well for holding the tiny seeds.

Brief notes

I've been offline and mostly sick for over a week, so just to catch up quickly:

• The big news is the Mac that I'm writing this on. See below for my first impressions.
• Markets continue to move up and down rather aimlessly. My own take is that people (both of the "political" and "business" camps) want to try to take us back to a place which we can't go back to.
• The same is true for housing. As the Tom Petruno suggests in the LA Times today, it may finally be time to stop trying to support the unsupportable and allow housing to decline to a market clearing price. Yes, it would be painful, but the pain will happen no matter what. Let's get it over with.
• I really enjoyed my friend Nigel Swaby's presentation at Ignite Salt Lake about his involvement with Casey Serin. The online discussions of Casey are where I got to know Nigel, and really regretted having to watch the video feed from home because I was too sick to fly out. Casey was, and in many ways still is, the personification of the financial delusions that have led us to where we are today. I found his bizarre "how the hell could this happen?" story to be as fascinating in it's own way as that of Martin Frankel.
• Chaos is on Prozac. Not something I really relished doing, as he's just being a cat after all. Unfortunately, he's gotten into a very bad anxious cycle since major surgery in March. Hopefully we'll get him back to a normal routine and slowly wean him off it.
• Dr. Beth Hagenlocker at The Cat Practice is amazing!
• I've been slowly continuing my energy audit. The results are not particularly shocking. The refrigerator is using about 30% less electricity after a good coil cleaning and slight increase in temperature. The cable boxes continue to be a major culprit. Simplifying my desk around the new Mac should also help.
• Credit is still there if your credit is good, though they're obviously still fishing for people who will make a mistake and pay hundreds of dollars in interest on a "zero interest" deal. Apple's credit parter Barclays gave me double what I needed for my Mac purchase. They're certainly betting I'll miss a minimum payment and not survive the "12 months interest free." I'll certainly schedule payments to make sure I do.
• This year's birthday trip was pretty light-weight. A few days with friends on the American River. A day in a raft, a couple of others in an inner tube. Just what I needed.
• Looking forward to the Bay Area, Utah and maybe Denver in September. New York in August. Haven't been away for a while.

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Cat Matters

Chaos
Originally uploaded by MichaelGat

Chaos has been having problems lately. Some major dental problems led to significant surgery a few weeks ago. Since then he's been on serious antibiotics to get at the inflammation in the bone and has been rapidly coming back to being his normal old self.

This morning's vet visit confirmed that he's doing much better, and while there are still some questions to be answered in the next month or so, he seems oblivious and pretty happy. Dr. Beth Hagenlocker at The Cat Practice in Marina Del Rey was quite happy with his progress.

The best sign? He was far more feisty and less inclined to be easily put into his carrier this morning than anytime in the recent past. That's progress.

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