It is a well known fact that cats make excellent temporary bookends.
Neighbouring cat, Lilly Jaggs, who treated our place as her own.
Tag Archives: cats
Old Friends & Bookends
Friend and neighbour Lilly Jaggs helping out as a bookend
Schrodinger Missed The Obvious
The Obvious Is Not Always Obvious.
I was drifting in Dublin the other week, happy to wander the streets. I chanced upon Merrion Square, a place I hadn’t been in many years. Could I find what I was looking for? Did I dream it? There it is! The house of the famous theoretician Erwin Schrodinger.
As most of you will know, Erwin made a famous ‘thought experiment’ to prove a point about Quantum Mechanics. You need capital letters for Big Ideas like those. I wont go into it, it’s too complex, but essentially, he was able to prove that things, especially cats, can be in two states simultaneously. This involves putting cats in boxes… never an easy task.
The boxed cat can be said to exist or not exist, or both. I don’t know why he went to such trouble to work this out… he’d obviously never lived with a cat. When you’re talking to a cat that isn’t listening (talking at a cat) it will make it quite clear that, despite appearances, it doesn’t exist at the moment. You don’t exist either, as far as the cat is concerned.
Given a different aspect of that other dimension, time, the cat will choose to exist. This can easily be seen at dinner time.
I have known for a long time that cats can exist in many states simultaneously. They can also travel through time, but that’s another story. You may have noticed a cat clamouring at the door to got out… ‘Didn’t I just let you out… or in?’ If you’re really lucky you might spot your cat at both sides of the door howling to come in/go out. It’s a minor temporal anomaly.
Schrodinger spent decades trying to establish the bleedin’ obvious. Just ask a cat.
Postscript. In later life Erwin found himself a nice white cat and became a Bond Villain.
A Cat’s Cravings
A Word From Choupette.
She may not look like it, but Choupette is the Queen of the local strays, always first on the scene when there’s dinner around. The cats of La Curie have a devoted coterie of humans who deliver food at regular intervals.
Hey, its me, I’m back. Got any food? I like your stuff, it’s different. Good old Gloria gets us fresh meat from the butchers, well and good, but hmmmm. Bit samey. Depends on what’s spare that day, don’t always get the boeuf d’Aubrac, you know?
Biscuits, yeah plenty of them. Biscuit Lady is pretty punctual, we won’t starve, right?
But you man, those sachets! You don’t speak French too well, I know that, but you got it right. Lots of gelée…. good greasy stuff to lick off the chops. Fishy sometimes too, that makes a change. Plus the human stuff….. we cats like variety. Your poulet roti is getting better and hey… we loved the bit of mousse de canard last week, almost like proper cat food.
Craving? Well, a girl’s gotta eat, round here we eat as often as we can. Wish you spoke a bit more French though dude. You got any of that saucisse de toulouse round the place?
Side by side in the sunlight
Taken from my window in France… partners.
Bon Anniversaire!
WordPress tells me I’ve been doing this for two years now. Time flies! I’ve managed around 300 posts. I’ve amassed some 560 followers, really nice folk from all around the world. There’s been over 7000 likes, well over 20000 views now. I’ve also seen some great photos from like minded souls around the planet.
I’ve loved every minute. I’m obviously not going to stop now! So, in keeping with Drifter house rules, there must be a photo. But what? I’m lost with a photo challenge. Oh alright, a cat, haven’t done a cat for ages. There’s still not enough cats on the internet.
This is Odin, a bright young man about town, one of my neighbours. He’s fairly new to the game, but already he’s quite the dude.
Odin, Dangar Island, Australia
Cats Need Sunshine
Interview, Ms Fabulous Speaks
Conduct your Q & A as an informal dialogue and write it down from memory, or compose a story in which this conversation assumes a central role.
As you may know, cats really dont do questions. I find it easier to get them to relax and tell me their story, it’s a useful technique. We dont often get socialites passing through, but I believe this one was heading home from George & Amal’s little shindig in Venice.
I am Fabergé Sapphire Dusky Moonlight. You know what that funny little line above the e means darling? That means class. My cat friends call me Fab I’ve got Papers you know, you’re looking at real breeding here. Look, I’m not really a snob, I’m just a regular mog really. I like to keep in touch with the street folk, one does like to keep it real. You know some of the local toms round here are refreshingly direct. Plus, my people darling…. appalling! Same dinner every night, a girl can get fed up with minced fresh rabbit with vitamin supplement.
You got some chicken? Love chicken! Anything real greasy? It’s good for my fur you know. You wanna photo? That’s going to cost…. you got sausages? I could really go a sausage!
By the way darling, thanks awfully for the soft focus shot. Everyone’s so photoshopped these days, it’s all those instagram filters or whatever. Anyway, a girl does like to feel up to date with these things.
Down by the bins. Fab slumming it in Figeac, France.
Daily Prompt: Screeching In The Night
How do you handle conflict? Boldly and directly? Or, do you prefer a more subtle approach?
My immediate neighbours seem to know a lot about this. There’s a lot of howling and snarling going on after dark, but no one seems to have lost an ear.
Gingembre tells it like it is
First rule, man, dont get involved if you dont need to be. See me now? I half close my eyes, it means I aint gonna fight you. You did OK for a human, look away now and again. Like dude, just dont stare at people, puts them on edge.
Course, round here there’s always a bit of argy bargy going down. There’s territory….. you know? It’s like, I dont really own this patch, but I got my time. All of us big guys try to time it so’s we dont bump into each other. It’s respect…. like the song says R E S P E C T. The guys down by the bins know that. We’re all cool, usually.
Then again, at night you get blow ins, some guy wanders in tryin’ to throw his weight around. Weight? Hey look at me … look at me! I got weight man!
First thing is to bulk up, tail up and fluff out. I wont show you, ‘cos you’d be runnin’ away right now. But that’s the main thing, look big, be big. Then I’m gonna shout….. make ’em know who they’re dealing with. He’s gonna shout back, of course, but this is my patch. Plus, trust me, I got the weight round here. That does the trick after a while.
Then you gotta let him go. I think you guys call it ‘saving face’. He’s probably not going to leg it, he’ll just swagger away slowly. That’s cool by me. I aint lost no fur, so it doesnt matter what he tells his friends. I still got my turf.
Hell man, I also got my looks to consider. I’m proud of these ears, let me tell you. No one’s got time for some raggedy old tom cat. I gotta look my best. I got people! Cant come home with a shredded nose! I might get kept in again.
Gingembre is one of the locals here in La Curie. He’s a cool dude… like he says, he’s got People.
Click to enlarge… he’s a pretty big boy!
My planet? This one!
You get to design your own planet: tell us all about your planet — the weather, the seasons, the inhabitants. Go.Photographers, artists, poets: show us SPACE.
I think I’m quite happy with this planet. I’ve seen a bit of it and it’s diverse enough for my tastes. There’s lots of it I havent seen, but the photos look good. Like a lot of people, I believe we need to take more care of it… but I’m sure it will outlast us anyway.
I know that there’s no such think as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. I like rain, I dont mind some snow.
The people are alright, most of them get on with each other. I wouldnt want a planet where we all agree all of the time. Nothing would change, there’d be no progress. We need many viewpoints. We’ve invented language, so we can exchange ideas. The internet is just an extension of language. Ideas can get around much quicker and easier. Injustice exists, but the more we know of it, the easier it is to remedy.
So, my response? Happy with this one thanks.
Here’s one of the inhabitants of my preferred planet.
click to enlarge
The Ambitious Drifter 
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