kitty love and fish lips
Jan. 8th, 2005 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
summer_jackelPouncival is growing up beautiful, all deep, wild spots and dark black necklace and bracelets. He's such a suave little leopard...although his "call name" may be getting shortened to "Ti", as he responds to it far more easily. I'm beginning to teach him all the dog's tricks...:D...this is a *smart* cat, believe everything you hear about the intelligence of Bengals. He's already almost as good at "sitting up" as the dogs, although I haven't tried the command without the treat yet. He is very interested in it. (His full registered name, btw, will be Basts Pouncival Titanium Tiger, at least when I actually send in his blue slip in a couple of weeks...I have been saving every penny to make FurCon feasable.)
Speaking of lovely cat stuff. Pounce boy and Rogue, our girlie little sheltie, play in the cutest way, tussling in front of the fire. He is surprisingly gentle with her (yes, between the two of them, the cat is the rough one, Rogue is very tender) and he likes to nibble her ruff and grab her with his paws. Today I watched him stroll up to her, kiss her on the muzzle, and walk off. I mean, it's so obviously love. awwww.
And! I just got my paws on a digital camera, which means that, as soon as I get a charger for it, many more photos are forthcoming. It's an older camera, but still quite workable for awhile, and I am extremely excited. squee!!!!!!!! Many precious pics of spot cat and fluff dog makin' out soon. I need a site to host photos, though. ideas?
Speaking of cute, the fishies are in the way that only fishies can be. The gouramis are settling down, though the three-spotted (who I'm beginning to think of as "Bitch Fishy") still bullies the golden a little, though it has gotten much better. It turns out that they are color morphs of the same species, so maybe they just need to get their pecking order issues settled out. BF is nonetheless a really dom fish to everyone else in the tank. Apparently, she and the golden are both color morphs of a blue gourami, which get pretty big. I'm excited about that, as I like big fish. Hopefully BF dosen't harry the golden to death...if she does, she is not getting another conspecific tank mate, no matter if the species is supposedly happier kept with others of its kind.
When the gouramis eat, they make little smacking noises as they swarm the food, and stick their snouts out of the water. I love that.
Thanks to Shoka's heads-up on the sociality of cory cats, I picked up three new ones yesterday: a spotted, albino and a panda. The spotted and my current one started hangin' out right away...very fun, buddies at first sight. They really are social. The albino is very small and dosen't move around much or interact with anyone...I fear that the move may have shocked her, but I hope she makes it. The panda is this ****tiny**** little 'kitten', the ittiest bittiest catfish I've ever seen...but she is very active and seems to be adjusting well. Frikkin' adorable. The 2 little ones don't 'herd' much with the 2 bigger ones, though, at least not yet.
The last Australian rainbow has passed on, and I am sad. They were beautiful, but I do not think I will be getting any more. Expensive and short lived, or maybe they need different water conditions. I'm not a good enough aquarist to deal with fish who need specialized ph levels. I need tough, general guys. Apparently, the gouramis can be found wild even in polluted ditches (In SE Asia/Thailand, for the curious. Yes I've been reading up, I know that one should do that BEFORE bringing the critter home, but hey. Learned some cool stuff, like that silver dollars taste good and in the Amazon are in fact fished for regularly, and can get to be 6 pounders...! But thankfully not generally in aquariums.)
So yes, tough. That makes 'em ideal. Hard to kill is something I like in a tropical fish. Don't get me wrong, the aquarium is very well filtered and clean, but how often do I do a ph test on it? um...er...once last year?
Plus gouramis are the best because of the afformentioned smacking sounds when they eat. I just love that. I think that they can be trained to take food from my fingers.
One of my happiest memories is being nibbled gently by a shoal of trout in the Merced river. So good. It makes me feel warm and happy just thinking about it. That may have been one of the best single days I have ever lived.
Of course, Pounce-Ti enjoys the aquarium, too. I catch him sometimes watching it like a TV. Thankfuly there is a lid on it, or a smart cat with a dexterous paw could have some easy, illicit snacks.
And that, I think, is enough silly rambling about my pets. I just came back from the most exquisite tandem ride...we got out for 3 hours right before the storm, and rode Sweetwater Springs road, which is always amazing (and so so steep) with its redwood groves and rolling hills. Watched the storm come in over the mountains. Gods. Beautiful. And so now I'm a bit delerious, I think. (yeah, Delerium's realm, with her hundred tiny, multicolored fish, each singing their perfect, single note. Either you've read the book and right now are going, yes, perfect, that is it exactly, or you think I've gone utterly nuts. It's the bike, I tell you, it does strange things to your brain.)
And yes, here comes the storm, hard and gray and magnificent in its intensity. I love the natural world. So, so beautiful.
Peace and many smacky little fish lips,
Jackel
Speaking of lovely cat stuff. Pounce boy and Rogue, our girlie little sheltie, play in the cutest way, tussling in front of the fire. He is surprisingly gentle with her (yes, between the two of them, the cat is the rough one, Rogue is very tender) and he likes to nibble her ruff and grab her with his paws. Today I watched him stroll up to her, kiss her on the muzzle, and walk off. I mean, it's so obviously love. awwww.
And! I just got my paws on a digital camera, which means that, as soon as I get a charger for it, many more photos are forthcoming. It's an older camera, but still quite workable for awhile, and I am extremely excited. squee!!!!!!!! Many precious pics of spot cat and fluff dog makin' out soon. I need a site to host photos, though. ideas?
Speaking of cute, the fishies are in the way that only fishies can be. The gouramis are settling down, though the three-spotted (who I'm beginning to think of as "Bitch Fishy") still bullies the golden a little, though it has gotten much better. It turns out that they are color morphs of the same species, so maybe they just need to get their pecking order issues settled out. BF is nonetheless a really dom fish to everyone else in the tank. Apparently, she and the golden are both color morphs of a blue gourami, which get pretty big. I'm excited about that, as I like big fish. Hopefully BF dosen't harry the golden to death...if she does, she is not getting another conspecific tank mate, no matter if the species is supposedly happier kept with others of its kind.
When the gouramis eat, they make little smacking noises as they swarm the food, and stick their snouts out of the water. I love that.
Thanks to Shoka's heads-up on the sociality of cory cats, I picked up three new ones yesterday: a spotted, albino and a panda. The spotted and my current one started hangin' out right away...very fun, buddies at first sight. They really are social. The albino is very small and dosen't move around much or interact with anyone...I fear that the move may have shocked her, but I hope she makes it. The panda is this ****tiny**** little 'kitten', the ittiest bittiest catfish I've ever seen...but she is very active and seems to be adjusting well. Frikkin' adorable. The 2 little ones don't 'herd' much with the 2 bigger ones, though, at least not yet.
The last Australian rainbow has passed on, and I am sad. They were beautiful, but I do not think I will be getting any more. Expensive and short lived, or maybe they need different water conditions. I'm not a good enough aquarist to deal with fish who need specialized ph levels. I need tough, general guys. Apparently, the gouramis can be found wild even in polluted ditches (In SE Asia/Thailand, for the curious. Yes I've been reading up, I know that one should do that BEFORE bringing the critter home, but hey. Learned some cool stuff, like that silver dollars taste good and in the Amazon are in fact fished for regularly, and can get to be 6 pounders...! But thankfully not generally in aquariums.)
So yes, tough. That makes 'em ideal. Hard to kill is something I like in a tropical fish. Don't get me wrong, the aquarium is very well filtered and clean, but how often do I do a ph test on it? um...er...once last year?
Plus gouramis are the best because of the afformentioned smacking sounds when they eat. I just love that. I think that they can be trained to take food from my fingers.
One of my happiest memories is being nibbled gently by a shoal of trout in the Merced river. So good. It makes me feel warm and happy just thinking about it. That may have been one of the best single days I have ever lived.
Of course, Pounce-Ti enjoys the aquarium, too. I catch him sometimes watching it like a TV. Thankfuly there is a lid on it, or a smart cat with a dexterous paw could have some easy, illicit snacks.
And that, I think, is enough silly rambling about my pets. I just came back from the most exquisite tandem ride...we got out for 3 hours right before the storm, and rode Sweetwater Springs road, which is always amazing (and so so steep) with its redwood groves and rolling hills. Watched the storm come in over the mountains. Gods. Beautiful. And so now I'm a bit delerious, I think. (yeah, Delerium's realm, with her hundred tiny, multicolored fish, each singing their perfect, single note. Either you've read the book and right now are going, yes, perfect, that is it exactly, or you think I've gone utterly nuts. It's the bike, I tell you, it does strange things to your brain.)
And yes, here comes the storm, hard and gray and magnificent in its intensity. I love the natural world. So, so beautiful.
Peace and many smacky little fish lips,
Jackel
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-09 12:30 am (UTC)Make sure to stop by the table at the con!! Yes, I will have copies of City of ice 3.5 there, and i can fill you in on some other stuff I'll be doing.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:22 pm (UTC)purrrr
Date: 2005-01-09 11:01 am (UTC)Right now Riot, Delilah, and Stealth are sharing a room and family bonding. It's so sweet, daddy and baby love each other so!!! I did this so they could cuddle and keep warm together while it gets chilly at night. I need to take pictures.
Reformatted my computer earlier this week and sorting through picture files =)
I'm going to make you a cd of 'family photos' for your baby. I haven't forgotten the pedigree! I'm so gonna spoil you with loads and loads of images.
*licks summer onna nose*
Mooncat >^,,^<
Re: purrrr
Date: 2005-01-11 03:28 pm (UTC)Sweet baby pounce is now sleek, intense, in-your-face Pounce. ;) Still ever so sweet, though.
Pedigree CD...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *bounce*
I am impatient...am getting a charger for my camera on Ebay because the ones at the store are $68 (wince) and on ebay somewhere in the $14-25 range. And I'm really trying to finance this con and finish up the vet bills. (sigh) However...digital camera happiness will soon be mine, and pics of the lap leopard ad infinitum, the world's. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 01:55 am (UTC)On fish making smakcing noises: does your pleco ever try to eat flake food floating on the surface of the water? One of ours does. He'll hang vertically with his lips just below the surface and hoover in the flakes, making this smacking, slurping sound.
Take many pictures of the kitty and then share so we can all see them.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 03:30 pm (UTC)I've never seen my pleco do that...though I wish he would, it sounds hilarious. He spends most of his time being a still, ominous presence in one corner of the tank.
Pouncival-kitty pics will be up soon! (though probably not til after the con.)