Nounours is a badass in Nounours clothing, and other kitty updates.

June 10, 2016June 10, 2016That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

These last two weeks, man.

I went to my eye doctor – my REAL eye doctor this time, for the first time in years – had all of the tests done in a full examination, and ordered some new glasses that I’m excited about. That’s the plus. The minus is that the tests yielded some disappointing outcomes. (More on this later, perhaps.)

That along with national news items more sickening than usual, and I’m very glad to post a kitty update post today… pics included, of course!

Nenette’s New Things:

~Stalking and stealing my hair ties.

~Drinking from our glasses of water… to the point where she mostly shuns her water bowls. To the point where she’s trained us to set out glasses of water in certain areas around the house. But hey! Providing Nenette with glasses of water (25% room temperature, 75% chilled, mind you) in hot weather is a small thing to do for a thirsty kitty.

~Jumping up on my desk and posing exactly like the white porcelain cat. She does this a lot, and it’s slightly disturbing in a cute sort of way:

Nenette: “WHY does this weird white cat copy everything I do?!”

Still impossible to say no to this face.

Nenette’s halo was cut off in this pic, but you can imagine it there.

All of the cool, flat surfaces, all of the time.

Nounours’ New Things:

~Nothing.

Nounours is Nounours, and we’re just fine with that. The big purr-monster is perfect the way he is!

All of the rugs, all of the time.

Nounours naps like a boss.

Nounours: “I’m a badass in Nounours clothing.”

Cita’s New Things:

~Winning at adopting us. Closely related New Thing: being spoiled with love and concern, as every kitty should be.

~Methodically guarding the perimeter of her territory (our backyard) every night after dinner.

~Spending her days napping in the fort I made for her under the lounge chair on the back patio. She also enjoys hanging out next to the hibiscus plants.

All of the shade, all of the time.

Cita looking more and more like the cherished little girl that she is:

Cita: “Beneath my tough street kid exterior I’m really a pampered house cat.”

Like Nenette, Cita has a way of imitating non-animate cats.

Le Chat Noir on the left. Cita on the right. NOT UNLIKE.

To be Continued!

It’s a feline wonderland. (Kitty updates!)

May 6, 2016May 6, 2016That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

Wow, guys… particularly you kitty-update-loving guys… my apologies. It’s been exactly seven weeks since my last kitty update post. I’ve been slacking.

Not to point the finger at anyone in particular, but NOUNOURS. That big purring ball of affection manages to look the same in every picture, and I don’t have time to stalk him with the camera all day waiting for a fluke to happen so I can get a pic that’s different… and I can’t do a kitty update post without pics of him! I have been trying, though.

Nounours’ eyes are bluer than yours.

[Sidenote: that hen hiding in the shadows in the back of the lower shelf? That’s a door-stop from France that I’d been trying to find. I only found it upon examination of this pic. Thank you, Nounours.]

One of Nounours’ favorite things is to snuggle up to articles of clothing the second they land on the bed.

Nounours snuggling Daddy’s jeans, because that is how the Nounours do. (nod to zfrank1)

Then there’s Nenette…

Nenette chilling on my side of the bed… or, should I say, modeling.

And look at this. YOU try to tell her “no” and shoo her out of the linen closet!

Nenette likes to jump up into the linen closet when I’m putting clean towels away. This is her idea of “helping” Mommy with the laundry.

She can’t even take a bad picture when she comes up and sticks her face in front of the camera.

Nenette in a split-second candid shot as she stretches her paw out to me.

One of Nenette’s new things is rounding up a few of her scattered toys and lining them up like toy soldiers. I kid you not:

Kitty toy soldiers.

Is it just us being proud kitty parents, or does everyone find this ridiculously cute?

Meanwhile in the backyard, Cita, our unofficially-ours kitty, has made herself more ours than ever. We’re besides ourselves about what to do at this point.

And so here, I guess, is her first real appearance in TALC:

Meet Cita!

I’ve been making it a point to spend time with her throughout the day, because she craves our company, of course… but not much arm-twisting goes into that. She is precious.

My attempt at a selfie with Cita. Awkward.

Cita has a small collection of toys, too. They’re cloth, stuffed, but they’re little stuffed shapes rather than stuffed animals. Several times a day, I go around the yard gathering them so I can group them together where she likes them (on the patio). The strawberry-shaped one is her favorite. It’s my favorite, as well… it’s red and easily detectable in the gravel. The donut-shaped one, though, is a different story. It’s brown and spotted and sometimes it’s a good while before I can find it. It would be so much faster if I had bionic eyes.

I took a picture one time when the donut finally materialized after I spent 10 minutes walking all over the backyard searching for it:

Found it!

It’s like staring at one of those pictures you used to see in the malls in the 80’s, where you stare at the finely detailed recurring pattern until the 3D picture comes into view. Remember those? Your friends could always find the sailboat. You couldn’t.

The donut on closer inspection…

I looked up those pictures; they’re called “autostereograms.”

and closer…

THE DONUT.

Alright, folks… kitty update post out! Until next time, then.

What’s new in the Kittyverse? (Nounours and Nenette updates!)

March 18, 2016March 18, 2016That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Today, I come to you with a much-requested kitty update. By popular demand, here’s what’s new in the Kittyverse chez nous!

Nounours: Callaghan and I have noticed that when we text Nounours’ name, the auto-correct changes his name to “NonUsers.” Yes. Non-Users. This cracks us up because it’s so fitting… Nounours’ merits are sweetness, lovableness, huggableness, and companionableness. Smarts don’t figure into the equation of the Nounours, and the only real emotion we can ever see behind his big, blue eyes is jealousy. But that’s okay. He’s an armful of loudly purring teddy bear. He’s the teddy bear your five-year-old self always wanted to come to life.

Nounours’ superhero power: Shedding and teleporting his fur to far-off places for you to find when you least expect it. This is his way of making sure that you never forget him.

Nenette: In the spring weather we’ve been having, she’s been enjoying catching mosquitoes… those big, floofy male ones you see in the house from time to time. We can’t understand how she does it. The mosquito will be lightly bouncing along the wall high up by the ceiling, like they do; Nenette will be sitting patiently beneath it, and next thing we know, it’s in her mouth and she’s chomping away. She’s also extremely playful, despite being eight months older now. She actually makes up sophisticated games and teaches us how to play them.

Nenette’s superhero power: Solving complex differential equations and writing ground-breaking mathematical proofs in her sleep.

Together, Nounours and Nenette have reached a point in their relationship where they have four modes: Tolerating each other, glaring at each other, “playing” (Nounours and Nenette-speak for chasing each other around and clearly having no fun at all, and sometimes, every once in a very great while, actually reposing near each other for no apparent reason.

Nenette and Nounours, together in their pod. They even look like peas.

I’m sorry to say that in the weeks since my last kitty update, I’ve tried to snap good pics of Nounours, but it’s so difficult. He’s difficult to photograph. For one thing, he usually doesn’t stay put long enough for me to get a clear shot. But I thought this was cute:

Nounours holding my hand is pretty much the sweetest thing ever.

Then there’s Nenette, who’s a natural in front of a camera and couldn’t take a bad picture if she tried.

Nenette reading Anne Sexton’s letters up on the bookcase.

Nenette trying to keep me from going to work. (*winks at Aunty Carol*)

We bought this giant toy rat for Nounours, but he doesn’t know what to do with it except ignore it. Nenette, on the other hand, likes to pull it toward her to use as a pillow.

Nenette and her rat pillow.

Nenette playing E.T. with some of her toys.

Nenette chewing her toes with great concentration.

Nenette, the epitome of a girly-girl.

I truly wish I could get as many pics of Nounours. I’ll keep trying!

Kitty updates in Haiku (Haiku 1: Cats) (Sharing original poems.)

February 5, 2016September 17, 2021That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

Kitty updates today! I was feeling a pull toward something different when I sat down to write last night, so I went with it. What ended up happening was I wrote about Nounours and Nenette in haiku. It was a fun change of kitty-update pace, plus I’ve been thinking it’s kind of sad that I’ve written so few poems since getting my M.F.A. in Creative Writing with a Poetry concentration.

If you’re not into haiku or poetry in general, just scroll on down… I added a paragraph of non-haiku kitty updates under the last pic.

Haiku 1: Cats

(by Kristi Garboushian)

Bedtime ritual –
the voyeur of espresso,
wicker ball, a lyre.

Nenette cleaning her feet at bedtime.

His roaring soft self
to curl, melt the desert bright
in pastoral glow.

Nounours in the nest Daddy made.

A swing, a feather
like a river marring stars:
Possibility.

Nenette deciding which toy.

The round vacancy –
morning routine, following
the feral other.

Nenette and Nounours enjoying a sunbeam.

In plain speech, Nounours and Nenette have been happily snuggling down in their special nighttime beds that we put together for them: Nenette on her padded bar-stool (in the bedroom corner next to my side of the bed) that I’d swathed in t-shirts I’d worn, and Nounours in the couch nest that Callaghan made with a serape and random cushions.

Nenette still loves her toy corner in the living room more than anything! She studies her toy basket and paws at the toys she wants, lifting them out with her teeth.

On weekend mornings, I’m home to watch both kitties winter sunbathing in beams on the floor.

They’re doing well.

Happy New Year from Nounours and Nenette! 2016 begins with a kitty update.

January 1, 2016January 1, 2016That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Nounours and Nenette unwittingly posed for some super adorable pics recently (says their totally unbiased Mom). Here they are… the last pics of the fur-kids of 2015!

Kitties enjoyed ALL of their Christmas.

Here’s Mr. Blue Eyes with the stockings… his was the red one, and the green one was Nenette’s:

Nounours with stockings.

I was so pleased to have captured this next pic… this is probably my all-time favorite pic of Nounours:

Nounours sniffing our tiny pinecone Christmas tree.

You may or may not have already seen this one of Nenette, but I thought I’d post it again here…

Nenette stationed at the presents, just in case.

This girl, I’m telling you.

Nenette hugging her new mousie.

What do you even do with this much cute?

PET ME, I’M SOFT

Nenette loved her first Christmas.

Nenette has been absolutely thriving since we got back from France. She’s more trusting and affectionate than ever. She’s a happy girl!

Content Nenette.

Happy New Year!

Cold weather joy!

December 18, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

This last week we’ve had quite the cold snap here in Phoenix Metro, which I believe we can actually attribute to El Niño. A few days ago, our state registered the coldest temperatures in the U.S. while everyone else basked in unusual warmth. Hell has frozen over here in Sun Devil country!

It’s all good, though, because cold weather means a lot of enjoyable things. Such as:

1). Cold weather means I can light a lot of candles in my office at home.

Forest of candles.

It’s normally too warm for so many candles at once, obviously.

2). Cold weather makes savory, hot food even heartier.

Bocca burger at Red Robin (with iced tea, which I love in all kinds of weather).

We eat stuff like this year-round, but I find it most fulfilling when it’s cold outside. This particular visit to Red Robin was especially welcome because it was the day after we got back from France, where I’d spent over a week subsisting mostly on salads, bread, and the Larabars I’d packed. Those salads were wonderful, for sure, but by the time we got back I was ready to sink my teeth into something savory and hot!

Roasted purple potatoes.

Pinto beans in the slow cooker.

Pinto tacos!

Side-note: Did you know that Field Roast makes vegan cheese? I didn’t know until we found it at the store last night. It was great in these tacos! My favorite vegan cheeses have been Follow Your Heart and Daiya, but now there’s Field Roast. Daiya probably still works best on pizza, though. I might have to do an experiment to find out. There are other vegan cheeses out there, too.

3). Cold weather means that chocolate tastes like Christmas.

Stonegrindz Chocolate

This chocolate is made locally, and it is delicious. Somehow, cold weather and Stonegrindz’ midnight dark chocolate really go together. Callaghan even likes it, and he generally doesn’t care for dark chocolate! We get it at the Farmer’s Market down the street, of course.

4). Cold weather makes garage workouts possible.

You know it’s been cold if you see that my elbows are bruised… it means that I’ve been working out on heavy-bags in the garage, a thing you can’t do in Arizona heat if there’s no A/C out there.

I waited seven months for this.

(A selfie was going to be impossible, so I took these pics with the web cam… that’s why they’re kind of grainy and dark.)

Garage workouts once again!

Because let’s be honest… there’s nothing like an intense workout on heavy-bags to relieve your frustrations. Any shrink would back me up on that, I’m guessing.

The cold also means that I can lift weights in the garage, since we have some dumbbells out there. I need to build up some strength.

Did I mention, by the way, that my strength-training attempts at the work gym ended in failure? The plan was to go during lunch, but evidently the rest of the world had the same idea. I couldn’t get the weights I needed because they were always in use, and I didn’t have time to wait. I gave up after three or four days.

5). Cozy winter kitties.

Nenette in her favorite windowsill sunbeam on a cold day.

Nenette asleep on the back of the couch, one of her favorite spots.

Sleepy Nounours and his little pink freckled nose.

Blanket weather!

It’s supposed to warm up a little starting today, but it’ll still be cold enough to be magical!

Looks like this turned out to be something of a “favorites” post, which I didn’t intend, but it’s great because I wasn’t going to do one for December. (At the end of the month I’ll do a “best of 2015,” instead.)

Thanksgiving, TALC-versary, NEW KITTY PICS!

November 27, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Today falls between two days of significance: Thanksgiving and my TALC-versary, the latter being more of personal significance, of course.

So, happy belated Thanksgiving, American readers!

And happy 3-year TALC-versay to me, which actually feels like an extension of Thanksgiving, because I’m grateful for this blog. I’m especially grateful for all of you who read it. I wrote my first post on November 28, 2012 after creating my WordPress account sans clear idea of what it would involve. Sometimes it’s more fun not knowing, though, and fun, it has been. I can’t say it enough: Thank you all for reading! Here’s to the next three years!

Yesterday marked our first Thanksgiving here in the Land of AZ since we moved back. It was just the two of us and kitties this year. We talked to Mom and Dad on Skype and then did the traditional thing of eating a lot and catching up on Scream Queens.

For the food, I kept things simple and made savory dishes to satisfy the palate the same way as the traditional Thanksgiving spread. I made quinoa and brown rice pilaf with sautéed mushrooms and garlic, roasted baby red-skinned potatoes and onions, roasted Brussels sprouts, and thick eggplant slices lightly fried in olive oil. We had fresh, cooked broccoli with Veganaise for an appetizer, and fresh raspberries for dessert.

Thanksgiving dinner 2015.

Now for some pics for a mini visual kitty update!

No one lounges like the Nounours.

No one poses better than la petite Nenette.

I managed to catch Nounours in a rare moment of being properly illuminated for the camera. You can even see the blue of his eyes!

Nenette has taken to resting on the back of the couch to be near us.

It’s funny how these two often sit near each other on this end of the couch.

Also! Kitties’ Aunty Carol captioned one of Nenette’s pics from the last update:

“What is HE doing here????”

Yes, Nenette really says that sometimes when she’s in the same space as Nounours, and he says the same thing of her. Their dynamic is mysterious and Callaghan and I mostly try to avoid intervening too much, but I admit that I’m a helicopter cat mom who sometimes hovers over the furbabies to make sure Nounours keeps his intimidation tactics to a minimum.

Today, we’re hiding from Black Friday madness. It feels like the day after Christmas, and that’s awesome.

Seasons according to cats.

November 13, 2015November 13, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Today, I present – by popular demand – a kitty update.

Nounours and Nenette have continued to progress in their relationship with each other, but the biggest thing going on in their lives right now is that the seasons have changed. It’s officially sunbeam. If that sounds strange to you, it’s because you’re not up on your kittyese, or Catian, let’s say, which includes seasons according to cats.

In case you don’t already know, seasons according to cats are thus:

Sunbeam (fall)
Blanket (winter)
Shedding (spring)
Tabletop (summer)

In sunbeam, it’s chilly in the house, but the heater hasn’t been turned on yet. Cats seek out the sunbeams so they can lay in them and soak up the heat. (They also enjoy having their cold ears massaged by warm human fingers.)

In blanket, it’s colder… as cold as it’s going to get in the desert, which can be pretty cold, though there’s no snow. Cats have grown in their winter coats. At night, they either burrow under the blanket to sleep up against us, or they make a nest on top of the blanket, where they stay much of the day. Wherever there’s a blanket, there’s a cat curled up on it, cozily ensconced in its folds.

In shedding, it’s warming up, and cats begin to discard their winter coats, which come off in billions of little hairs that coat the whole house.

In tabletop, it’s hot. Cats seek out cool, flat surfaces, such as glass tabletops.

So it’s sunbeam season now, and I, of course, have failed to take pics of the hedonistic sunbeam-fest going on around here.

I do have these, though:

Nenette chewing her toes, as babies do.

We now suspect that little Nenette was even younger than we’d all thought when we adopted her, because we swear she’s grown larger, frame-wise, in the four months that we’ve had her. We were told that she was six years old. Our vet said she thought Nenette was three or four years old. Now, we think she may have been closer to just one year old. No one really knows, but she’s definitely taking on more of an adult cat shape. She’s still bouncing around like a bunny with her little tailless Manx butt, though.

I took the next two pics while Callaghan was in France and the three of us were enjoying a lazy Sunday morning in bed:

Nounours sleeping on the bed.

A break-through: Nenette on the bed!

Yes! While Callaghan was away, Nenette finally ventured onto the bed on a regular basis. The biggest break-through of all was that she actually slept next to me on Callaghan’s pillow at night.

Now that Callaghan is back, she’s having to adjust to his presence again. She loves him, and she loves to play with him, but she’s afraid of him. It’s kind of heart-breaking to see because it clearly shows that she’d been terrorized by some man in her former life.

Nounours being his lovable goof-ball self.

This guy, I’m telling you. Nounours is the dorkiest, huggiest guy!

Here’s another one of Nenette:

Tiny Nenette hanging out in a bookcase cube.

Next, we have the two of them together!

This was a special evening for Nounours and Nenette.

The angle of this next one makes the lamp look crooked, but look at how they’re looking at each other…

So far, this is my favorite pic of Nounours and Nenette together.

So sweet!

But wait – I found a sunbeam pic I’d forgotten about…

Nenette laying in a sunbeam, bathing her growing winter coat.

And this concludes our November edition of Friday Fluff: Nounours and Nenette update.

Moving into blanket season!

The state of the kittyverse chez nous.

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

I’ve accumulated some furbaby pictures over the last couple of months, so I thought I’d post a few, along with some intelligence from the home front. I’m mainly talking about Nenette, who has been making tentative strides in her transition to life with a family who actually cares for her and adores her, in a house in which she’s free to do what she wants and go where she pleases. We get the impression that this wasn’t the case before.

Nenette has come a long way, but there’s a final frontier: our bed. She’s reposed on the bed on several occasions, during the day, when the bed is made, but she’s afraid to go near it at night when we’re in it. It seems likely that at her former residence, she’d been chased off the bed and menaced away from it.

If we pick her up and gently place her on the bed at night, she’ll leap away like we’d set her down on a bed of hot coals. We’ve been working on it, and we’re happy to be seeing some progress now. Last night, she stood on the bed for a good minute. We watched her and saw the wheels turning (it’s funny how you can see this little girl’s mind working) as she surveyed the landscape and studied Nounours, who was asleep on the blanket at the foot of the bed. It was like she assessed the whole situation and thought about it before she left.

This morning, I woke up to find her sleeping on Ronnie James’ barstool near my side of the bed, which she’s been doing lately – another good sign. If she’s not sleeping with us on the bed, she’s at least sleeping near us. She’s gaining confidence!

Nenette hit her three-month-versary with us three days ago. She’s put on a little weight, she’s learned her name, she’s become significantly more comfortable with us, and, most recently, she’s started to play with Nounours, which is the best thing of all. Managing that situation has been another challenge, though, as Nounours is much larger than Nenette… and Nenette being declawed means that they can’t play on equal ground. He can actually hurt her and not get hurt back. We keep his claws trimmed. We keep an eye on things as they chase each other around, and if they start to tussle the way cats do, we firmly assert the need to play nice if it starts getting too rough. (In French… Nounours knows “Gentil!” better than he knows “Be nice!” Nounours is a French cat.)

So, pics, starting with Nounours.

This is the one that would mortify him if we were to show it to his girlfriend, if he had one:

Nounours hugging his toy, asleep with his mouth open.

Just to show that I’m not a totally mean Mommy, here’s a more dignified one of him:

Nounours, the teddy bear lion who was made to be hugged and assaulted with kisses.

Well, almost dignified. It’s not MY fault that he decided to lift his leg at exactly that moment.

Here’s Nenette:

Little Nenette, aka Bunny-Butt.

This one’s from August:

Nenette and her toys and her necklace of informative hearts.

And here they are together! This was a case of Instagram saving the pic from its bad lighting:

Nounours and Nenette, as close as we’ve seen them so far.

It’s a rare opportunity to get a shot of them together, but we’re getting there!. One day, I’ll be able to post a pic of them snuggling together… on the bed.

Nounours had dental work.

September 18, 2015September 18, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

Three weeks ago, the fur-kids went to the vet for check-ups and vaccinations, and two things came of it: Nounours had to have dental work, and he had to go on a diet. We’d known he needed to lose a few pounds, so that part wasn’t a surprise. We’d suspected that he was due for a teeth-cleaning, so that wasn’t much of a surprise, either. We were fully surprised, though, to learn that he needed to have at least one tooth extracted. Pauvre Nounours!

We got home and entered the house with Nenette thrilled that we brought her back with us (she has residual abandonment issues, poor little thing), Nounours happily unaware that he was scheduled for major dental work in the next few days, and Callaghan and I feeling like the most terrible, negligent cat parents in the world. How could we not have known that he had a mangled tooth rotting in his mouth? He must have been in pain or at least uncomfortable for a while, and we could have helped him a lot sooner. But we finally took him in, and he had his dental work. The doctor ended up having to extract two teeth, but the operation went well, and the rest of his teeth “cleaned up beautifully.”

Nounours had dental work, and he’s on a diet.

Dieting Nounours minus two teeth.

Nounours had dental work, and the cops are always at the downtown Tempe CVS.

Nounours had dental work, and he and Nenette will now occupy the kitty chairs at the same time in tacit acceptance of each other’s presence.

Mine. Yours. ~Nenette
Whatever. I’m sleeping. ~Nounours

Nounours had dental work, and by 5:30pm last Friday, a stack of fake IDs had already been confiscated at the place where we met with work friends.

thatasianlookingchick.com-confiscatedIDs

That’s a lot of fake IDs so early in the evening.

Nounours had dental work, and there are parrots in the trees on campus.

He almost blends in!

Nounours had dental work, and Mommy got new reading glasses from Fry’s Electronics, of all places.

Nounours had dental work, and now he bears some resemblance to the Dos Equis Guy.

Same attitude. Same eyebrows. Same bottle of Dos Equis.

Happy Friday, All!

Fitness routine changes afoot! (Also, what’s new with Nenette)

August 21, 2015August 21, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Fitness update! This may only be interesting to me, but I’m excited about it, so I’m sharing it. AT LONG LAST, I’m going to round out my workout routine with weights. I mean, I believe I’ve figured out how I can fit it into my day.

I hadn’t added a strength-training component to my routine yet due to limited time, and Body Combat three times a week is non-negotiable. This last week, I finally applied some serious thought as to how it could be done.

My friend and Body Combat instructor Izzy the Trainer inspired me when she posted a fitness selfie during her lunch-hour workout. She’s eight weeks post-partum, and she seriously looks like she could take the competition stage in a month! I wish I could train in the middle of the day, I thought, marveling at her drive. Then it occurred to me that my recent move to a new office put me within walking distance of the gym on campus. I did a re-con a few days ago and found that the walk is a mere eight minutes. The idea of working out over my lunch hour started to take serious shape. It is feasible. I can do this.

Still, I vacillated. There’s a small financial commitment involved, and though it’s really not much, I balked at the idea of paying for two different gyms. I got to the point, though, where I decided that the investment would be worth it.

I haven’t jumped in just yet… I’ve been giving thought as to how I could maximize the time I’d have, when and how it would be the most beneficial to work what muscle groups, how often I’d go, and how I’d manage the gym attire/personal hygiene aspect in the middle of my workday. I wouldn’t do a workout that leaves me dripping with sweat, but still, I’d want to clean up somehow before returning to work, of course.

Updates to come!

In kitty news, Nounours and Nenette have been good. We’ve been seeing Nenette’s playful side emerge, and that’s been a lot of fun. The nature of her playfulness actually calls her age into question even more… she really seems more like three or four, rather than the six years old we were told.

Here are a few pics:

This made us laugh… Nenette playing with Nounours’ tail! He seemed to be flipping it around on purpose.

So many toys! Too many decisions! Just like the Wrah-Wrah.

The gold heart tag is new… it’s her microchip tag. Her pink I.D. heart is on the other side.

Nounours, the blue-eyed photobomb master!

In this picture, Nenette reminds me of Louise from Bob’s Burgers.

(I was slightly traumatized last night when I went online looking for an image of Bob’s Burgers’ Louise for a possible “Not Unlike” of Louise and Nenette. In the process, I accidentally traumatized Callaghan. Needless to say, I didn’t find what I needed for the “Not Unlike.” Oh, well.)

Nenette discovered that she loves playing with this black string.

Tomorrow, both Nounours and Nenette are going to our vet for checkups and updated vaccinations. We also need to get Nounours’ international microchip scanned so we can finally register it to us. We’re hoping to discover Nenette’s actual age… or that she really is six.

Happy Friday, All!

Fearless Nenette will save us all.

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

In this week’s kitty news, we found out that our sweet little Nenette is a badass in tiny-pretty-girl clothing.

I’ll tell you all about it, but first things first (speaking of clothing)!

Many thanks to our friend Eddie W. of Round Rock, TX for adorning Nenette’s tailless butt with Eeyore’s tail! She loves it, and so do we.

After two weeks of gradual, steady confidence-building with us, Nenette suddenly turned a big corner last weekend. With her newfound trust came the understanding that this is HER home and we are HER parents and Nounours is HER brother, and with that came a fierce determination to protect us all.

Like a good soldier on guard duty, Nenette stations herself at her post (on the table under the living room window) every night, and she watches. Her vigilance is unflinching.

Nenette demonstrating her watching skills.

Except when sleep overtakes her.

Because guard duty is tiring.

But when she’s not asleep – and I believe she has a sixth sense that tells her when she can sleep – she’s unfailing in her self-imposed responsibilities.

It started like this:

On Sunday night, a random neighborhood tomcat strolled onto our front patio. When he approached the living room window, Nenette, who happened to be watching from the table on the inside, bunched herself up and launched herself at the window with a mighty ki-yah that would make any Tae Kwan Do master proud.

This was the first time we’d seen anything like this. We saw that Nenette’s “This is MY Home and These are MY Parents and This is MY Nounours and YOU BETTER STAY AWAY!!!” mode is formidable, truly a force to be reckoned with.

Yowling as she charged the tomcat, Nenette slammed into the window violently (yes, we were worried!) and scrapped at it with her velvety little declawed paws. We were dumbstruck, but we shouldn’t have been. Remember how we couldn’t believe the volume of her yowling in the car when we brought her home? The yowling that seemed incongruous coming from such a dainty, petite package wrapped in soft fur? Yeah, that was a good indicator.

“She’s just like her Mommy,” Callaghan declared, making me snort with laughter.

That’s how it went down. And that’s how it came to be that Nenette keeps vigil at the window every night.

When I told my friend Caroline about Nenette’s new role as Protector of Her Territory and Family, she commented, “She needs to relax. Totally becoming rambo kitty.”

Then she added, “She tricked us into thinking she was all sweet and mellow and now the gloves are off and she is rambo kitty!!!!”

On his part, Nounours, aka The Dude, is just as laid-back and oblivious as ever. But he was there to witness Nenette charging toward the face of the interloper outside, and since then, he’s been seeking out her company even more than before. Nounours understands that Nenette has accepted him as a part of her family, and he’s feeling the love! We are, too. It’s rather a privilege knowing that Nenette has claimed us as her family.

We are concerned, though… we don’t want her to hurt herself on that window. During the incident on Sunday night, we had to stage an intervention by dramatically opening the front door in order to scare away the tomcat. We had to. Nenette was going berserk.

Who knew this little girl could be so fearless and aggressive?

We thought we’d seen the extent of it, but on Tuesday night, Nenette took it to the next level, and we got to see a demonstration of her intelligence in the process.

I was sitting here in my office when she suddenly raced in, leaped up onto the futon under the window and bounced up onto the windowsill. She perched there with complete concentration, very alert and very still. I went to see what she was staring at so intensely.

It was that same tomcat. The second I spotted him, Nenette began to growl a low, menacing growl in the back of her throat. Once again, I went to the front door to hasten the departure of her foe.

The thing is, she knew that he was there, and she figured out that she’d be able to see him from the window in my office! That’s how smart she is. We knew the other cat hadn’t appeared at the living room window where Nenette had been keeping watch, because she’d have made a commotion, and we would have heard it. Somehow, with her feline super-powers, she’d been able to perceive the unwelcome cat lurking in the shadows near the house on the other side of the front door.

Needless to say, Nenette has gotten quite comfortable here in the last five days!

Here are a few more pics from the week:

Abyssianian/Manx-mix Nenette, sitting like a statue

“Don’t go!!” ~Nenette

“Out, damned itch!” (Complete with Shakespeare in the background)

Le Nounours (The teddy bear!)

Cleaning the hand, Nounours-style.

Nounours snuggling with his Daddy in the morning.

And here’s one for size comparison:

Nounours and Nenette in the early morning haze.

Still no pics of the two of them snuggling together… yet. It will happen one day!

In which Nounours orders espresso and Nenette poses with her tailless butt.

July 17, 2015That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

Fur-children update! Some progress on home-front dynamics has been made since I posted about the arrival of Nenette a week and a half ago. Our new girl has already put on some weight, which is good. She’s still somewhat nervous, but she’s slowly gaining trust in us… it’s like, the more time that passes and she’s still here, the more she trusts that we’re not taking her back to the adoption center. She talks to us softly in her tiny conversational voice as we stroke and nuzzle her, and she purrs readily. It’s truly a pleasure to watch her personality blossom as her confidence grows.

“Why are you holding that phone in front of my face instead of petting me?” ~Nenette

Nounours remains calmer with the presence of another feline in the house, but his restored contentment glows like dappled sunlight in a pool of emotions, including impatience (because he wants to snuggle with Nenette, but she’s not quite there yet), and jealousy (just as he was always inclined to be jealous when we’d love on the Wrah-Wrah… it’s just a part of Nounours’ personality).

We can see that Nounours still misses his Wrah-Wrah, but he’s definitely more relaxed now. He even sits in his kitty chair again, something he hasn’t done in a very long time.

“Excusez-moi, faites moi un double espresso, s’il vous plaît!” (Nounours asking for a double espresso in his native French)

Above all, Nounours wants to get close to his new sister. He was gratified when he was able to join her at the living room window one morning (Thursday last week):

This was the first time we witnessed Nounours and Nenette being companionable, lounging together at the living room window after breakfast.

This was at around 6:30 in the morning. I was happy to be home to capture the moment!

Speaking of capturing moments, let me digress for a second to show you Nenette’s tailless butt, which I swear she deliberately put on display for me the other night when I said, “Nenette, let’s get a picture of your tailless butt!” She totally responded by posing like this: