Tag Archives: my kittens

Kittens in cones

Posted on February 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

We took Comma and Sir William Purrington to the vet to get neutered yesterday. They love the carriers; as soon as I bring them out, they jump in. (To play, not because they know we’re taking them somewhere.)

Case in point: Bag O’ Comma.

When we picked them up post-surgery, they were both wearing cones. Cats use their whiskers for navigation, so as soon as we got them home, they proceeded to walk right into stuff: chair legs, walls, our legs. Add to that the fact that they were walking bow-legged, like little cowboys, and it looked like we’d gotten our kittens drunk.

Then they had to figure out how to eat and drink with the cones on. That was a messy lesson.

They’re not supposed to be running around, jumping, or play fighting, but of course they did all three of those things within minutes of arriving home. YOU try explaining “bed rest” to kittens!

They love it when we scratch them inside the cones, though. Pure bliss:

More pictures of the adorably-coned kittens on my Flickr!

Bonus kitten pictures

Posted on February 23, 2011 | 3 comments

Ok, so I promised to post weekly and then let over three weeks go by. In my defense, fiction writers are very good liars. Technically it counts as “honing the craft.”

But writers are not immune to guilt. So please allow me to bribe you with some bonus kitten pictures. I even lolcat’d them for you, because that’s how much I care. They’re all of Sir William–what can I say, he’s just more photogenic than Comma. (Don’t tell Comma.)

In other news, both kittens are getting neutered tomorrow. I don’t know if they’ll be getting Cones of Shame, but if they do, you can bet there’ll be pictures. Don’t worry–I’ll be giving them all the catnip they can handle until they’re back to their old selves!

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Posted in my kittens

Tagged cats, cute, my kittens

Happy holidays

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 3 comments

So, how did everyone’s holidays go? Toronto escaped the snowstorms that incapacitated the east coast–even the light snow forecast for Christmas Day never showed up. I spent a quiet Christmas at home with Julian and the kittens. They’re settling in quite nicely, and I have high hopes that they will learn to stop stepping on our heads when we’re trying to sleep.

Here they are as reindeer, bugging Santa-Julian:

In book news, Fractured received a wonderful review from Pamela at At Home Between the Pages, and I was also interviewed by the lovely Claudia Osmond on her blog.

My big Christmas present this year was an ereader: the Kobo, to be exact. The first ebook I read on it was Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

Pros:

I found the eInk reading experience to be just as satisfying and immersive as reading on paper–no eyestrain
Kobo is lighter than a book, and more compact than Kindle or iPad
Don’t have to hold Kobo open–much easier to read one-handed
Can carry around thousands of books with you: great for travel
Can download books without going to a bookstore (I looove bookstores, but I also love getting to read a book the minute I decide to buy it, rather than having to go pick it up or wait for it be delivered)
Can add multiple bookmarks
Can sync between computer, ereader, and iPhone so that I can pick up where I left off even if I leave my ereader at home
More space on my bookshelves! So much easier if I ever move again!

Cons (of ereaders in general and the Kobo in particular):

eInk is black-and-white, so covers/illustrations look horrible
Can freeze or run out of battery power, cutting off access to your entire library at once
No touch screen: can be annoying to have to use buttons to scroll through a long menu rather than just tapping the option you want (the iPhone has spoiled me!)
Somewhat slow page refresh can break the reading flow sometimes, especially when starting a new chapter
No lending capability yet, nor can I re-sell my “used” ebooks
Prices still seem high (about the price of a paperback), considering that I can’t re-sell, lend, or give away an ebook once I’ve bought it

Do you have an ereader? If so, which one? What do you love about it, and what do you wish was different?

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Posted in ebooks, Fractured, my kittens

Tagged ebooks, holidays, my kittens, reindeer kittens

Meet the kittens!

Posted on December 18, 2010 | 2 comments

I am a dog person. I swear! But dogs require more time and attention than I can spare right now: they need to be housebroken, trained, taken out to pee at least twice a day, and exercised at least an hour a day. Otherwise, you end up with a frustrated, unhappy pup on your hands.

I finally had to bite the bullet and admit it: if I wanted pets, my lifestyle was much more suited to cats. So I perused the “kittens available for adoption” section of the Toronto Cat Rescue website, and lo and behold: there was a litter of 3-month-old kittens who the foster person described as “cuddle machines.” My partner Julian, a crazy cat lady in his own right, agreed that we should adopt two brothers (so they’d have company when we were off at work).

Yesterday my cat-loving coworker (the one who introduced me to the Toronto Cat Rescue website in the first place) took me to go pick up the kittens. There were six in the litter, and as soon as we entered the room, they all ran to us and started purring and cuddling. I took home a black one with a tiny white patch on his chest (Comma) and a black and white one (Sir William Purrington III–don’t blame me, Julian named that one!).

They’re settling in nicely. They quickly converted Julian’s winter accessory shelves into beds: