A good place for Mister G

Gato on morning birdwatch

Homegrown tomatoes: Is there anything they can't do?

I love it when she knits

Contents may have settled during shipment

From the home office...

Helpful cat iz helpful.

Briefly mentioned

Ah, late spring in North Carolina - you never know whether you're going to be using the air conditioner, the heat, or both (conceivably on the same day).

To borrow a trope from blogfriend Buck, here's the weather forecast for Chapel Hill, North Carolina.



It has been warm enough in the middle of the day for the last few weeks that the central A/C has run pretty often.

Last night, it got down to 41 and I had to get up in the night and turn the heat on... it was either that or wake my wife up to find out where she put away the comforters.

Friend Ron came over for dinner last night. Ron, in addition to his many other talents, is a Cat Whisperer.

Mister Gato was skeptical of Ron at first.



But in the end, he gave him his highest endorsement.

Morning bath

I really love how his head is sort of blurred in this shot - it was taken with no flash, and his head was moving pretty vigorously.

Sunday morning naptime

Sunbath

Rainy morning in the home office

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I don't think we'll have to worry about this any longer

In a comment to an earlier post, Bunny admonishes me:

My only complaint, Barry, is the lack of cat and / or chow content in these photos. Don't let it happen again.

Well, after recuperating at home this weekend (from nothing unusual - just the daily slings and arrows that the flesh is heir to) - I don't think this is going to be a problem. 

The animals are settled into a routine of following us from room to room, occasionally taking a little time off to explore the novelty of solitude (an option only sporadically available to all of us until recently). 

At any rate, Bunny - I am reasonably certain that this is the last picture anyone will ever see of this chair without a cat in it:



My desk chair (an Aeron with curiously claw-proof nylon mesh seating) was "his" chair at the apartment.

He has definitely traded up here, but to something uplholstered. Yikes.

Few beverages are safe from him

And certainly not water.

Feed the cat first

This is a feline intervention, staged by Mister Gato.

"You're not going to check your work e-mail yet. You've made coffee... but didn't you forget something?"

"My dish won't fill itself with nuggets."

(See The Modulator and The Carnival of the Cats for more bloggers' cats from around the world.)

Thinking Inside The Box

Thinking Inside The Box
Originally uploaded by enrevanche.

"Please explain to me what's so wonderful about thinking outside of the box. I *like* it in this box. The cardboard is nicely shredded, and the old sheets and towels make a lovely, soft bed. Why would anyone want to be outside this box?"

A team player

Please take me to work with you, Pops.


There's room in the briefcase.

99 problems but a rat ain't one

Got the cat patrol on the rat patrol (with apologies to Jay-Z):

They are the homeless of the domestic animal world -- colonies of feral cats that roam residential neighborhoods and lurk around office buildings and commercial garages, scavenging for food.

Unlike other strays that might rub up against a leg hoping for a crumb or a head rub, these felines are so unaccustomed to human contact that they dart away when people approach. Feral cats cannot be turned into house pets. When they end up in municipal shelters, they have little hope of coming out alive.

But one animal welfare group has figured out a way to save their lives and put them to work in Los Angeles. The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals, a Los Angeles-based animal advocacy and rescue group, has placed feral cats in a handful of police stations with rodent problems, just as the group placed cats in the rat-plagued downtown flower district several years ago -- to great effect.

Six feral cats were recently installed as ratters in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Division, and another group will be housed at the Central Division early in the new year.

LAPD enlists feral cats for rat patrol (LA Times, 29 December 2007)

For more information: The Working Cats Program of the Voice for the Animals Foundation

A working class hero is something to be

Across the city, delis and bodegas are a familiar and vital part of the streetscape, modest places where customers can pick up necessities, a container of milk, a can of soup, a loaf of bread.

Amid the goods found in the stores, there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: their cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons.

[...]

But as efficient as the cats may be, their presence in stores can lead to legal trouble. The city’s health code and state law forbid animals in places where food or beverages are sold for human consumption. Fines range from $300 for a first offense to $2,000 or higher for subsequent offenses.

“Any animal around food presents a food contamination threat,” said Robert M. Corrigan, a rodentologist and research scientist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “And so that means anything from animal pieces and parts to hair and excrement could end up in food, and that alone, of course, is a violation of the health code.”

To Dismay Of Inspectors, Prowling Cats Keep Rodents On The Run At City Delis (New York Times, 22 December 2007)

Because, of course, it's much healthier to have the rats and mice in the store. Thank God our tireless city government health inspectors are trying to rid us of the feline menace.

Idiots.

Just another instance where I'm speechlessly grateful that city government is so goddamned inefficient... if I were getting all the New York City government I'm paying for, I doubt I could stand it.

Related: Working Class Cats (a blog about store cats in NYC)

Gato on guard duty

Been a while since we've had any Mister Gato photos around here. Time to rectify that.

Our menagerie includes not only one irascible tomcat, but two Chow Chows.

An important part of a Chow's job description is to always be between you and the front door. They were bred as guard dogs, and those instincts run deep. Chow Bella and Chow Fun trade off on door-guard duty as a general rule.

But now that Mister Gato is a full-fledged member of the household pack (and universally acknowledged feline badass) he takes regular shifts guarding the door too.

Mister Gato on door duty.

Of course, he's not without backup. Here's a little more context on that photo:

Chow Bella has Mister Gato's back.

Be sure to check out The Modulator's Friday Ark for other pictures of bloggers' pets... and the Carnival of the Cats, this Sunday, at Bad Kitty Cats.

The nuggets must be guarded

A plastic dispensary pitcher holding Iams Original For Cats is Mister Gato's favorite perch in the "pantry corner" of our kitchen.

I like knowing where my next meal is coming from.

See more bloggers' pets at The Modulator's Friday Ark; this Sunday, the Carnival of the Cats is hosted by Life From A Cat's Perspective.