Tiger tattoo

I’m back from Australia! and the tattoo has healed up nicely. Forest did a FANTASTIC job!

Here are some pictures of the tattoo in progress (it was fun to watch it grow!):

And here it is fully healed:

TOTALLY worth a trip to Australia.

My friend Lieven took these beautiful portraits of me, featuring both tattoos:

I LOVE them – the pictures AND the tattoos!

What have I been up to since I got back? A lot more unpacking and organization. (If I had a dime for every time I’ve said “I think I’m almost unpacked!” I’d be retired and water skiing in the Caribbean right now.)

But also some fun stuff. I tie-dyed a queen-sized blanket for my bed earlier this week, plus two throws for my ex-wife. They are midway through the rinse process, but I’ll post pix once they’re out.

And of course there are KITTENS!! Here they are with their latest toy: a puzzle feeder.

Actually they have FOUR puzzle feeders, because they enjoy them so much. It’s a pleasure to see how excited they get when I fill them with kibble and cat treats – and it gives them something to play with during the day. I have a few more puzzle feeders up my sleeve for when they get bored with these.

Because my place is small, and I want to give them the maximum amount of space, I’ve installed cat wall furniture wherever possible. I also turned the back hallway into a kitten playground:

They LOVE crumpled-up packing paper. So, I’m actually stocking the stuff so that when a batch of packing-paper wears out, I can replace it with nice, fresh packing paper. There is a lot of CRASH! CRASH! PA-THUD! going on these days as they romp around in it. And lots of cat toys, of course.

They may not be the most spoiled cats ever, but not for lack of human effort. 🙂

Here’s a pic of Nutmeg (nee Macie) curled up in her favorite basket:

And Pepper, perched on her human:

They’re now about 10 months old, and pretty close to full-grown cats. They’ll grow maybe another 10% from here and then settle into their adult weights.

I am, obviously, completely gaga over them and doing my best to keep them happy, engaged, and entertained. They get a play session every morning, and if they manage to grab the toy any time during the rest of the day, they get another play session right then.

Which leads to shenanigans whenever I sit down to eat:

(Caption: When She Thinks Mom Isn’t Looking)

We both like the game, though. As typical with most cat-human interactions, the cat wins most of the time, so we both get to have fun!

That’s it for today! More once I get those tie-dyes rinsed out and (finally!) get started on weaving.