Black nemesis

It's five years today since I had to say goodbye to Ponder.
I'm still struggling so much with that. I hadn't been prepared for it and so wasn't ready for it and he left the biggest hole ever.
It also reminded me that the story of Ponder and Esme moving in here has never been shared before, not on his blog, not on mine, and it felt like this would be the right moment to do that.

Imagine an ordinary Saturday at our little local zoo whose name literally translates to "animal park".
A lady comes down the path to the entrance. She stops me and asks me if we are the "animal home" - that's what we call the shelter. I tell her that people often confuse us, but no, that's not us and as far as I know the shelter isn't open that day.
She makes an impatient sound and informs me she has two black kittens in the car that she needs to drop off immediately. They can't keep them, they are trouble-makers (kittens, now there's a surprise), and she should never have given in to the pleas of her children when her friend's cat had kittens. They already have a grown-up cat and also one of the kittens has been dancing around on the balcony railing (I always thought that must have been Ponder).

To say that I didn't get a good feeling from this would be putting it extremely nicely. Just the thought of a kitten being allowed on a balcony, so it could jump on the railing, made me want to ... well ...
To this day, I'm deeply convinced that she would just have opened the car door on the way home if I hadn't said I wanted to have a look.
By now, the ex had joined me and when I said "black kittens", he just sighed and said, yes, let's have a look.

We got to the car in which her young daughter sat with a sad face, two kittens in her arms.
There was no crate, no blanket, nothing, which just convinced me even more that they would not have made it back home.
A short look to the ex - not that I would have cared even a bit if he had tried to say no - and I gently took them from her. You could tell she tried to be brave, but it was definitely the right choice for me to take them even if she didn't know.

Obviously the first step was to get them both home, this time me sitting in a car with two kittens in my arms one of which was clearly wrigglier than the other. We could have taken a crate from the zoo, but we lived pretty much around the corner and didn't want to confuse them with zoo scents, so the ex dropped me off at home where I put those two in quarantine in the bunny room for now and stayed with them until they fell asleep.

At the time we already had four cats, Gandalf, Merlin, Meffi, and Greebo, and we hadn't planned on two more, but a colleague of mine had asked me some time before if we knew of a kitten for a friend of hers. Maybe that friend would take two?
Let's be honest, I knew I wasn't going to ask her and so did the ex. He had seen my look when I told him they were black. Possibly I drooled a little over the mere thought.
Also I went to the chat of the cat diabetes forum right away and believe me, those ladies didn't encourage me to give them up, either.

At least they weren't sick and not too young, either, probably around ten to twelve weeks, something to be grateful for. Not only didn't they need milk anymore, they also ate like big cats, especially the boy. I have to admit that I don't remember if I named them secretly right away or officially which would already have been a sign they wouldn't go anywhere - named after a wizard and a witch as was tradition in our house.
Ponder was an escape artist even at that age. When someone opened the door to the quarantine room, the little fellow was out like a rocket and jumped right into the big cat crowd to steal their food. They were usually so confused that they didn't even try to put him in his place. Esme followed if you let her, a bit slower, but not less confident. I really wish there were videos of that.
After that had happened several times, the ex gave me a weary look and told me to leave the door open because "we both know they won't be going anywhere".
Believe me, he just played the victim. Just like Meffi, Esme fell in love with him right away which he loved and Ponder was my buddy from the start.

Ponder and Esme both grew to be big cats. When I looked down at them from the floor above, it felt like watching two panthers roam the flat, sometimes it was even a bit spooky which is why I gave them different names, such as "black nemesis". It often made me wonder what their parents looked like.
Ponder was loving and clingy and his loud voice and his nose reminded me of Siamese, Esme could bite for a warning if she hated something (like me taking pictures of things on the "cursed" chest of drawers or daring to whistle), her round head and cute little nose (not flat!) made me think of Persian cats. Ponder had the white spots on chest and belly that black cats often have, Esme was all black.
Ponder loved being picked up and snuggled and I loved to dance with him (sometimes even with him and Greebo at the same time), Esme tolerated it if she was in a good mood, but didn't jump into your arms.
Only after the ex left, she found out that I was a pretty good snuggler and loved falling asleep with her legs curled around my arm, my hand on her belly.

I could tell endless stories about those two, but cat fanatics can get a bit exhausting, I know.
Some of the stories are already on Ponder's blog and maybe there will be more to follow.

Sometimes I think Ponder sent den Dekan to me as a big joke or because he didn't want Gundel and me to get bored, couch potatoes that we are. Esme didn't get to know Gundel because I lost her four years before Ponder, but I remember Ponder and Gundel chasing each other once she had warmed up after getting off the streets. She kept giving him cheeky little slaps on the butt and then turned around and ran, and it looked so funny seeing my big boy running after that small girl, it was even funnier the other way round.

I think it must have been fate that the lady turned up at the zoo on a Saturday when we happened to be there and that I was the first one she ran into.
Ponder and Esme brought something special to the cat gang and I'm glad we didn't miss that.
Sometimes I call Gundel Esme by mistake ... when she falls asleep next to me with her legs around my arm, my hand on her belly.
I miss my gorgeous panthers.

Random Saturday - Three million balls

We have three million knobbly balls in this house. Believe me, I know. This kind of balls has been around here since 2011 when we first got some as an extra with cat food. How I know? I looked it up because I don't have a life.
What I don't know, however, is where they are. I never threw one of them away, but I kept getting new ones because they are an essential part of cat life here.
This was Esme in the middle of a night in 2012.

This was Gundel in 2017. Look familiar?

I even complained about the typical thunk thunk sound of a ball dropped on the floor in one of Ponder's blog posts before.
Meffi and the boys liked to play with them as well, but Meffi was too dignified to fetch and Ponder was too quick for me to a better picture than this. Greebo played ball, but he only fetched his very special extra big household rubber band.

Esme preferred the yellow balls, Gundel doesn't make a difference. I sometimes think she can't see the yellow ball that well, but often I can't myself on the wooden floors or the floor in the hallway. Esme used to drop her ball on my desk when she wanted to play or brought it to my bed. How often had I wondered at night why Esme was sitting so patiently next to me telling her she should bring me a ball, and then I would find one of them tucked into my blankets the next morning. It made me feel bad every time until I finally learned to check for those balls if the Silent Black Cat was sitting next to me.
Ponder brought them to bed, but he dropped them right on me because he knew what a fool I was and had zero trust in my ever being able to learn.
Gundel brings them to bed sometimes, but mostly to my computer chair if I sit there. She also loves to dribble them through the flat when I'm in bed.

I'm great with knobbly balls. I try to throw them exclusively up or down the hallway because chances are better I'll be able to find them again. The point of them being knobbly, though, is that you don't know which way there are going to bounce which is more fun for a cat. Over time I taught myself some great trick shots.
Okay. It's all a lie. I suck at throwing balls. My trick shots are accidents. The balls end up in pockets of jackets on my wardrobe, they get stuck between jackets or even in folds, they hit water and food bowls. I throw them in a way that come back to me landing before my feet. A while ago the guy who worked on the heating found some behind the washing machine. They are under the bed, under sideboards, behind doors, under the wardrobe and I don't know where else.
Almost nine years of balls, balls, balls, and even though I did the big round today and crawled around on the floor like an idiot (Ponder would have loved that) while Gundel waited for me in the hallway wondering when I was finally going to turn up for play hour, these were the only ones I could find. Only two days ago I still had four of the blue ones, how ... where .... why?? And where is the ball hiding that bounced into the bathroom today? Neither Gundel nor I could find it!
For now I hid them and left just one out for Gundel, so we can really have fun again tomorrow!

By the way, if you noticed the difference of the balls within the same color - matte and shiny -  that is because the company had to change the rubber mix. Luckily none of my cats ever did it, but there were cats who chewed on those balls and managed to bite little pieces off and even swallow them. Now the rubber isn't as soft anymore to avoid that, but that also means the balls don't jump as high anymore. Hmmm ... now I wonder if I should maybe check higher areas for those old specimens ...

I'm so glad ...

... that jewelry doesn't move when I try to take a picture. As you can see I'm not as lucky with the cats, in this case Esme ...

Look!

Look! This is Jane. She is wearing her favorite red dress.

Look! There is Jane's cat. It's a girl cat. Her name is Blacky. Blacky likes to play with her cat toys.

So does Esme. Look! This is Esme's favorite toy these days, a knobbly, yellow ball, going thunk, thunk, thunk on the wooden floor ... early in the morning, late at night. For months this ball was as uninteresting as the organic cat kibbles I dared to offer the lady, but suddenly it turned up again. It falls down the stairs and gets carried back up.

As soon as I try to take a picture of the fascinating dribbling games I get to witness however, this is what I get instead ... a face with no expression whatsoever and a lonely ball wondering what it did wrong to suddenly be ignored.

"What? Ball? What ball?"

"That's not mine. I have never seen it in my life."

Not for long, though ... (no joke, of about 30 pictures I shot into the darkness this was the only one showing her with her paw actually touching the ball)

And if you want to know what else I am doing beside drawing stick girls and their cats and watching Esme playing with her ball (and listening!), here you go.

I'm taking beads and put them in wire knit tubes. They are not knobbly, but just that addictive (and some of them are already listed, here for example) ;-)

What have I been doing lately ...

... hm, that's a pretty good question and I wish I had a good answer.

Instead let me show you just a few pictures to give you an impression.

Any questions? ;-)

Five hours ago ...

... I was terribly tired. It was too late for a nap and too early for bed.

Now I'm suddenly awake again and still sitting here trying to get things done. Monday it's off to work again and I guess I feel as if I have to pack stuff into the days before that, only the more stuff I'm packing, the less I unpack again to actually get it done.

It's not as if I haven't done anything today and it's not as if I didn't have an excuse for the time when I didn't do anything and by the way, who cares if I do anything in the middle of the night?

Everyone around here is asleep but me.

Know what? I think I'll treat myself to a drink and then decide what I want to do.

Oh, by the way ... my excuse! ;-)

Excuses

I could tell you a lot of things while I'm such a lazy blog writer lately and all of them would be true, but it wouldn't make a difference, right?

So I'll just blame it all on Esme. No way I can work well at the computer with a giant cat like that, taking over everything? ;-)

Fraud

This is not what you might be thinking of now. No online fraud, my bank card did not get stuck in the cash machine and I got the right change at checkout in the supermarket.

No, even if it's hard to admit - I'm the fraud.

Maybe you wonder why you didn't hear about my kitties for a while. Ponder has his own blog now and there he's telling it like it is. Before he's giving Esme the chance to call me out over there, though ... well, I decided I had to do it myself. Here's the photo that could ruin my reputation.

Esme claims I rented the place out as a two bedroom flat. And she was not happy with her bedroom. Mainly because there was no bed there, just a floor. With carpet, but not by far as nice as her brother's bedroom, a nice old big office chair with a clean blanket ... with kitties on it!!

So I guess I'll just apologize officially to Esme. I know she will keep me under surveillance very closely for a long time now.

Wish me luck.

The weekend is almost over ...

... which means the day job is waiting for me around the corner. It's going to be so hard to get up really early again!

As I don't know if Mabel will be overwhelmed by this fact (I found muses can get bored easily) and run away to Maui or Australia (in which case she could bring me some opals) , I took the chance to quickly work on another piece, a huge cross with lots of Swarovski crystals - blue and clear - and a faceted midnight blue glass bead as focal.

The addiction has taken over, that went quickly.

Here it is, if you want to see more pictures, you can find it here in my ArtFire studio.

P.S. "She has been telling stories about us again." "Nah, you are kidding, what did she say this time?" "She said we don't use the new box." "Doh, what does she know? Let's show her."

And that's what they did this evening. In abundance. Greebo, Esme and Ponder.

Here's just one example. Let's make the human look like a fool. Well done indeed.

Wondering ...

What it is wrong about this picture? After I almost tripped over this box for the fifth time today, I felt something was not quite right. Then suddenly I knew. There is no cat in there!!

As in all households ruled by feline emperors new boxes don't stay empty for long here. I have enough examples to prove it.

Esme often prefers her boxes not empty as in this case. I'm not sure if she ever read those books, but she camped out with them for weeks until she chose a new place to chill.

There had been another box resident before her. Gandalf still had a towel in it then that you could also use as a roof when he demanded absolute peace. Doesn't it look cosy?

I am not sure what Greebo had in mind here. At any case he looks highly concentrated. Maybe he tried to make the box take off by sheer willpower?

There are lots of pictures of Ponder in various boxes. My favorite one is this although he scared me a little with that determined look of his.

Meffi looks as if she was ready to get packed up in this picture. This is an unusual picture, the little diva prefers baskets usually in which being carried around she loves.

I have no doubt that Merlin slept in this box very comfortably. Not. You know how cats are. They never cease to amaze us.

So now back to my question.

What is wrong with that big and new and lovely box that none of our cats wants to try it out .....?

Any theories?

Can you see me?

Ignore the cat behind the curtain .... ignore the cat behind the curtain ...

Ugly beads - a challenge, Part 2

I didn't think I'd be back so soon. Seems that Mabel did some overtime and she came up with a few ugly bead designs.
I have to warn you, two of them are not really me. As I said, this challenge is pushing me over my personal limits. Yes, it's true, I did NOT use a crochet hook for them. Don't worry, it didn't take me long to go back to my beloved hooks as you will see on piece #3.

1. The green beads with the black spirals on them
Actually I like these beads although I'm not much of a green lover. Had they been a little smaller, I might have tried to combine them with crochet beads, but somehow I felt I had to pick up the spiral pattern. And maybe the 70s worked their way up in my brain again ... or in Mabel's ...
I did a little test and although it doesn't "flow" on your neck, due to the slightly springy nature, it's amazingly comfortable.


2. The "painter palette" beads
One problem with these beads is the "filling". While the powder in the green beads cleaned out pretty nicely in vinegar, the palettes have something inside that almost looks like concrete. I tried to clean it out as much as I could, but I was a little afraid to break them (in fact when I dropped one, not even from very high, it broke), so I looked for a way to cover the holes. My Bali silver beads were too small, the Bali cubes were not at hand which is always a problem if you have a sleeping feline on your feet and are too scared for your life to move, so I settled for seed beads instead which turned out quite pretty, I think. Probably the silver even would have been a little dull in the combination. Strung on silver and finished off with a black double suede cord it didn't look ugly to me.


3. The vase
Everyone saw vases in these beads. But what to put into the vase? Flowers, yes, but how? This is what I came up with. Crocheted blossoms with seed beads, green leaves and everything held together by sterling silver wire through the hole of the bead. It's a pity that the beads are so heavy, they would make nice earrings otherwise!


Now all that is left are the matryoshka beads and four more vase beads. I have another idea for the vases, but that will take a little longer, as for the matryoshkas I'm still pretty much at a loss. Some wire, some earwires, I know, but that would be so unoriginal, don't you think?
Again - I'll keep you updated ;-)

P.S. And while I struggled and worked and thought and designed today (I haven't even shown you my beach pebble pendants yet!), someone else took the chance to occupy my computer chair and to look adorable. Esme, my half vampirette (she lost one of her fangs recently, therefore half).

Mode of annoying the human - on!

In my jewelry forum, Starving Jewelry Artists, there's always a daily topic that does not necessarily have to do with jewelry, just to get to know each other better. Yesterday the topic was pets and how they annoy you sometimes. First I was afraid to answer because I thought I might never be able to stop again. Oh yes, as much as I love the furry beasts, I regularly threaten to sell them. I'm not sure if I interpret their looks right, but to me it looks like "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". I shouldn't quote movies that much around them, they only use it against me.

But what do they do to annoy me most? Let's see.

- Meffi and Greebo are "lickers". One of this days I'll post a picture of me, but I won't have a nose and I won't have arms, only bones sticking out because they licked all flesh off me. Oh, I forgot, I also won't have hair as Greebo does his best to eat it whenever he gets a chance. Don't worry about them, it's not a sign of malnutrition, I had that checked. They are just weird.


- Esme and her "five minutes". Besides the fact that she can't stand me whistling - which earned her a blog post already if you remember - she thinks she's allowed to annoy me with her squeaking. If stupid human Mom doesn't understand right away, she can get so mad that she starts jumping up, aiming for my arm. She doesn't bite, it's more like "Listen to meeeeee". Which I gladly would if I had any idea what she wants. It's usually not food, not playing, not snuggling. What else is there??


- Esme and her behavior when I try to take a photo on the chest of drawers in the tall guy's playroom. LOUD squeaking, jumping me, the chair, the table, the chest. Up, down, up, down, getting louder by the minute. If I take a picture anywhere else, no problem. One opinion about this is: The chest is haunted and she wants to warn me. Ungh.

- Ponder and Esme think my keyboard belongs to them. Have I ever told you that once I thought my monitor was broken because it suddenly was black when I looked up? My only excuse, it was dark and the cat in question that blocked the view is black. And big. And silly. Ponder, who else. I almost got a heart attack when the "black monitor" suddenly moved. They are usually so loud, but also they can materialize in half a second and without the smallest sound.
The other day Ponder had parked his big head on my ctrl-key which I hadn't noticed. I had to use the + and the writing on the screen became bigger and bigger. After being confused for a bit I saw Ponder moving. On the key. He was not amused that I dared to move him then!


- Bedtime. Why is it that Meffi and Ponder always have to use me as a trampoline?? Why does Greebo think my side of the bed belongs to him? I have woken up before with one leg in the bed and the other foot firmly on the floor outside the bed while my cat stretches as if he's going for an entry in the Guinness book as the world's biggest cat.

- T-shirts have to have holes, don't they? The boys love to cling to me with everything they've got. Everything meaning some very sharp claws. They don't want to hurt me, I'm sure, they just want to hold on to me. Greebo is so afraid of losing me that once my dermatologist asked me if I had a bad itch. I said no, why and he pointed out the heavy scratches on my shoulders. His look when I said it was my cat told me everything. I don't even want to know what exactly he thinks I'm into. I have thought about bringing Greebo as proof the next time.


You know I could go on, but just now the big, black, silly cat landed in the hammock. The purring and the adoring look (what actors they all are!) makes me forget all the annoying things for now. I'll just enjoy cuddling with one of the four best cats in my world ;-)

The hammock

I often hear about cats scolding their humans because they spend too much time at the computer.
When I settle down in my armchair, I need to wrap a blanket around my legs. I call it the hammock because usually, as soon as I sit and many times even before I'm really ready, my black panther invades it lying down as if it is one. He stretches out, trusting I won't let him fall, rests his head on my arm (preferrably the right one, on rare occasions he chooses to lie the other way round) and starts purring.
And then the black panther, aka Ponder, turns into a sweet, adorable, harmless, innocent little kitten. The cat going through the house like a rocket on doping gets all snuggly and sleepy. The monster that likes to dig his claws into most delicate spots softly puts his paw on my shoulder.
He can stay there for hours and as the cat slave you already know I am it's hard for me to make him go, even if my legs start hurting, if I'm thirsty or hungry. How could I resist him?
I'm doomed.


On the other hand, what better excuse do you get for long computer sessions? ;-)

P.S. Just now his sister Esme made one of her more rare hammock visits. For your information an "archive picture" .....

A yoghurt, a kitty and I

First of all I'd like to apologize for the quality of the pictures. It's not easy taking a picture with an arm extended trying to get a moving cat into focus without being able to look at the display or use both hands.

The following didn't happen today, but it happens everytime I dare to eat yoghurt.
Suddenly a furry girl with large round eyes sits next to me and hypnotizes me. Esme loves yoghurt.
You'll see.


Gee, Mom, that is good. That's organic yoghurt, ain't it?


Mmmmmmm, thanks for leaving so much for me!


I just wish it was easier to get in there with my tongue!


Don't pull away, there is a bit left here at the rim.


It does look empty now, what a shame!


What do you mean, clean my face off?


Oh, all right. Calm down!

P.S. I wish I had caught the cross-eyed look yet that she usually gets when she really concentrates on getting in there. I promise as soon as I have a picture of that, I'll let you know. It's worth it, she is adorable when looking like it.