Kitten resolution, Kitty Surprise, Propaganda wallpapers
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
I have good news about our kitten situation. We have found a home for the white-booted tabby named Peter (AKA Repete). A coworker has graciously agreed to let Repete live on her large property in rural Albany. We dropped him off this evening. There are two other well-fed indoor/outdoor cats that live at her house and Repete will have plenty of room to hunt mice and birds and generally wreak havoc in their large open fields. (Also, Repete’s new owner’s 5-year-old granddaughter will officially rename him this week.)
Here are a couple of pictures of Repete from last night, after he crawled inside our phone stand:
And here are a few pictures of my kitten, Eli (who, by the way, has learned to make bird-like clicking and chirping sounds at his feather-based toys):
Also, Penelope, the feral mother of our kittens stopped by again last night (as if to say goodbye to Repete), looking like she was going to burst with her latest ovenload of kittens. She was acting even friendlier than usual and desperately wanted to come inside our apartment, most likely to give birth to her babies in a safe place. Her maternal instincts are very strong. We were able to resist her advances, but somehow I expect we will be dealing with her kittens in a couple of months anyway (and I think at least some of them will have orange in their fur coats this time . . . it’s just a hunch . . . I’ve seen and heard things outside our window). I’m also hoping that Penelope returns before she gets knocked up and ginormously pregnant again, so that we can attempt to get her spayed at a local vet clinic. Here are a couple of photos of her taken last night:
Yes, Penelope looked like she had swallowed a cantaloupe.
Seeing her reminded me of Hasbro’s Kitty Surprise from the early 1990s, which was a plush cat with a Velcro belly that (once purchased) you could open up to see how many kittens were inside. The commercial jingle went something like this: “Kitty Surprise, Kitty Surprise / How many kittens are there inside? / There could be three, or four, or FIVE!” When I was in junior high school (or thereabouts), my kid sisters had both Puppy Surprise and Kitty Surprise. I think we got screwed both times and each of our stuffed animals only gave “birth” (via Velcro Caesarean section) to three babies, which were promptly lost or destroyed . . . just like in real life!
The only other thing I want to mention today are Bowie J. Poag’s Propaganda wallpapers from 1999, which I remembered existed last week and figured I’d share (before I forget about them for another decade), in case you haven’t seen these cool “seamless tiles” before.
Propaganda is a set of 14 volumes of desktop wallpaper graphics, painted with GIMP in a wide variety of styles, textures, and sizes. (I used to design my own seamless wallpapers as well, back in the day.)
Here’s a quote about the bizarre Propaganda storyline involving President John F. Kennedy (or “Jack”) that accompanied the wallpaper downloads:
“Jack”, as frequent visitors to Propaganda’s web site know, faked his own assassination in 1963, and placed himself into cryogenic suspension so that his leadership abilities could be put to better use in the future — To lead the charge for Linux, and to promote the virtues of Linux over its competitors. Jack serves as a figurehead for the whole movement, spouting pro-Linux rhetoric and devoting his life to destroying anything that stands in the way of the future success of Linux.
You can read the rest of on the Propaganda mythology on the Propaganda wallpapers site archive. Freshen up your desktop today!
I will conclude with a brief return to our feline friends. I’m just glad we’re back down to two cats in the apartment and that Repete has found a good home (that’s not ours). It remains to be seen how serious Eli’s separation anxiety from his brother will be; he’s been acting rather crazy and codependent tonight. Here are a couple more photos of Eli (the 3-month-old kitten) and Smokey (the skittish 7-year-old black house-puma) learning to get along:
Maybe soon Smokey will stop periodically punching Eli in the face. That will be nice.