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.

Today is a day of celebration! Huge congratulations to Tigress and Fritz, who exactly eight years ago came home from their first successful hunt. And what a hunt it was! They “bagged” not just one, but TWO humans to adore, worship, and serve them for the rest of their lives.

Here are the mighty hunters the evening they arrived:

And here they are a few days ago, snuggled up together:

Fritz still loves his belly rubs:

And Tigress still likes to sleep at the top of shelves. (It’s nice to have friends in high places!)

She’s very Zen, so perhaps she’s engaged in sectarian dialogue with HH the Dalai Lama while she naps?

As a spiritual master, Tigress would be the first to tell you that if you love something, you must let it go free. If you don’t, how could you chase and kill it again???

Yes, it’s been eight wonderful years. Eight years of being sat on, meowed at, mercilessly ordered to hand out the cat treats, and subjected to arbitrary demands from a tyrannical and utterly marvelous pair of cats. Here’s to many more years of “supervision” from our wonderful cats, Fritz and Tigress!

Yes, it’s now been six turns around the wheel with these adorable kittens:

They are now middle-aged kitties, with occasional middle-aged-kitty health issues: Fritz went to the vet earlier this year with a urinary tract blockage, and Tigress needed anesthesia for a periodontal deep-cleaning, though fortunately she didn’t need any teeth removed. We are not looking forward to brushing her teeth for her!

(Fritz’s teeth were just fine – apparently his fetish for chewing on cardboard and packing tape is good for something!)

The cats, however, are still eager studio assistants. Here’s Tigress assisting with a studio shoot, by guarding my samples from would-be sample molesters (i.e., me!):

Of course, every photo looks better with a cat photobombing it, especially if the cat is wrinkling the silly little bits of fabric and getting cat hair all over them! But somehow humans never seem to understand that. Go figure.

Also, sometimes humans get their priorities wrong and need to be reminded of who’s in charge. Here Fritz is laying down the law in the middle of a photo shoot (yes, he did get his belly rub!):

The cats, of course, continue to excel at cat things. Here’s Fritz, practicing the ancient art of Taking Up Enormous Expanses of Bed:

And here’s Tigress, mere moments before the human decided that perhaps all that yarn needed to be relocated:

Lest you think this mere paranoia, this had happened to an innocent skein of yarn earlier in the week:

So yeah, it’s a good thing that our little furry fiend…

….is also infinitely adorable:

Here’s to six wonderful years, and hopefully many more to come!

Five years ago, one of the last bastions of human freedom fell to invading aliens…

…and there was much rejoicing.

Of course they were the kings and queens of all they surveyed:

They were yin to each other’s yang:

They watched TV together:

Napped together:

And hunted self-driving android mice together:

They became expert photobombers:

And, of course, they ruled the household with an iron paw:

Needless to say, we are thoroughly besotted with our despotic alien tyrants adorable cats, and look forward to many more years with both Fritz and Tigress!

Happy cat-iversary to us!!