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Pet Photos: Jinx | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 ontinuing
the Jinxie story in her adolescence, with the kitten days left behind...
Go back to Jinx Page One to see her as a kitten, doing cute kitten
things, and find links to all of the blogs talking about her early days,
Dusty's freak out, and much more.
For some quick background, we wanted a second cat, both so we could have two, and so Dusty would have a playmate. To that end we shopped around quite a bit, looking for one we really liked, and settled on Jinx, based on how active she was in her cage at the humane society. She came home with us on September 22, 2003, aged about 2 months. Jinx caught our eye immediately due to her being so active, and that's never really changed, though she's added sprawling, drinking straight from the sink faucet, begging cutely, and chasing around after Dusty to her repertoire. This page shows her from about 9 months of age until the present, and no, the cuteness never really ends. The lap-sitting did though, and after spending her first few months sitting constantly on my lap whenever it was available, she's never held still on a human lap since then, unless held down. Oddly, she sleeps all over our feet and legs in the bed at night, and she's perfectly happy sleeping beside us on the couch and being petted while lying there -- just not right on top of us. We're hoping this will change as she matures and settles down, even as we regularly curse Dusty's extreme lap urges, and how annoying it is, in a touching sort of way, to have him plowing into our laps (mostly Malaya's) when we're just sitting down for a minute, or are working on something that a heavy cat interferes with. Jinx has been discussed in the blog many, many times, and there are dozens of pictures and stories about her that you won't find on this page. Check the following links for (far) more details.
More recent photos are
added to the bottom of this page. Scroll down for the newest stuff.
This is what I see pretty much the entire time I'm standing at the counter, preparing food. Kitty is sure there's something for her, even if I'm cutting up entirely vegetarian salad. Dusty sometimes helps, and you should see them on the rare occasions we're actually preparing meat. The photo on the right isn't really related, other than being taken in the kitchen. I only like it for the weird blurring effect she caused with a sudden head twist. Demon kitty!
One of her favorite
toys is a mousie (much mangled here) suspended from a hook, with
stretchy cord, from the middle of the living room ceiling. It can be
batted at, grabbed and tugged until it snaps back, and leaped at. It's
also quite a bit of fun to just lie on your back in the purple chair
and bat at it while a human swings it around.
We never eat off of our kitchen table; using it exclusively for storage of napkins, fruit, vitamins, and other such things. And now you know why.
While Jinx hasn't learned the word yet, she certainly knows what to do with a mousie, especially if it's a black and white one with pink ears and multi-colored feather tails. First of all, she eats the tails off first of all, as you can see from the pathetic little stumps left behind. She's undeterred by that though, and will bat one around for an hour all by herself, or eagerly, frantically, race full speed after one no matter what direction it's thrown in. Under the table, up on the table, down the hallway, over the couch, etc. She also likes it quite a bit when the humans throw it over her head. Or at least when we try too, since she's very adept and getting up and swatting it out of the sky. The scary part is when she leaps four feet straight up, does a back flip, catches it with paws and mouth, transfers it to her mouth in mid air, and lands with it in her jaws. She'll do that half a dozen times in a row, as long as her interest level holds strong. Since she never stops playing with the mousies (just pauses from time to time) we have to store them out of her reach, or else they all end up way back under the couch, or under a desk, or lost somewhere else that she can't reach them and we can't see them. Sticking them atop the ugly hallway gas radiator our apartment is cursed with is a decent way to keep them near at hand, but out of her reach. Of course it's also no fun, since she knows they're up there, but she can't reach them. More fun is to stick them in between the metal vents, just a bit higher than she can leap. The problem is getting them high enough; she can reach them in the vent they're stuck in in the photos above. Yes, really, that little gray cat can jump up almost to the top of the radiator and smack the mousies clear, if we leave them in sight. The top of it is just at my eye level; more than five and a half feet up there. The downside? Every time she leaps she falls back down with her claws dragging over the radiator vents, which creates an incredibly-loud and discordant xylophone type of sound. It's a good thing the radiator vents point down, or else she'd be up on top of the whole thing every five minutes, posing in the one place the far less nimble and adventurous Dusty could never hope to reach.
Most cats sit like this constantly. Jinxie hardly ever does, much preferring the undignified sprawl, as documented below. Which is why she's cute in this pose. Plus she looks about 50% smaller like this, reminding us that she's not really all that big. Yet.
Some time around 8 months, Jinx discovered the joys of sprawling. She's 12 months as I'm writing this, and she's still reveling in those joys. Finding her sitting upright, or curled in a neat ball, is as rare as not getting at least one cat hair in our food.
More sprawling:
She started out licking from the bathtub, like Dusty does. Then, at some point, she realized there was water to be had in the bathroom sink as well, and she started leaping up there and licking up the splattered drops from the porcelain. Then, mostly to amuse ourselves, we began turning on the water while she was there -- just a trickle.
At first she just sniffed and hovered there in confusion. Then she began pawing at it, perplexed by the wet she could feel, but not catch. She spent a few days biting at it, angrily, snorting when it got in her nose, and generally sending the humans into convulsions of laughter. Given that history of events, we can hardly complain now that she's taken to drinking from the sink for 90% of her water needs, and that she comes running in and hurdles up onto the sink every time I go into the bathroom. If I'm standing to pee or brush my teeth or shave or whatever, she comes running and leaps from about five feet out in the hallway. If I've got the door closed she arrives with a screech of claws and immediately sets to pawing at the closed portal, extending just enough claw to make the noise impossible to ignore. If we could just teach her to turn off the water when she's done, all would be well. Seriously, I would have
a motion detector installed, like the ones most restaurants now have on
their sinks. One that turned on a very thin trickle of water whenever a
cat was on the sink, and turned it off once she moved. It's far from a
self-cleaning litter box, but hey, the sink waters the cat; that's one
less thing we've got to worry about.
Nothing unusual about this view; we see it one hundred times a day, since she's always sprawling on the carpet somewhere. I just liked the shot for the excellent focus on her eyes and face. You really can tell the difference between the old camera (the rest of this page) and the new camera (any shots from here on down); at least when it's a tough shot in low light. This one would be dingy and lack detail if I'd taken it with the old 2megapixel camera, but it's crisp and clear and bright with the new 4megapixel one.
When you're a fierce little silver kitty and you're busy pursuing your mousie, you do not let mere throw rugs slow you down. Though they can sort of add to the fun if you pretend you've got to claw through them to reach your mousie in the first place, or you manage to bat it underneath.
It's not a very
well-focused photo, and I have no idea what Malaya's feeding her here
(chicken?) but I liked it for the psycho kitty eyes, and the gaping,
tongue-licking piehole.
As far as Jinx is
concerned, they shouldn't put holes in boxes if they don't want kitties
trying to force their way through those holes. Afterwards she's
never less than pleased with herself.
It's the
languidly-draped arms that give her the lord 'o the manor appearance.
Looking well-groomed
and sedate, for a change. Just a bit of red (green) eye to keep this
from being a perfect portrait.
An unhappy and noisy
kitty in Malaya's backseat, on the way to her mom's house. Of course
when she's home and the door's open, she'll lounge in the kitty prison
all day. But put her in the car and it's fire alarm-kitty for the
duration of the drive. Someday I'm going to drive like 3 hours, just to
see if there's any limit to how long she'll continuously meow for.
Because the whole point
in being a cat is squeezing yourself into places you shouldn't sit. And
looking completely unimpressed once you're there.
Jinx likes heights, and
soft places to lie down. The linen closet is a particular favorite,
especially the upper-most shelf. Yes, she can jump and then climb up
there by herself, though she prefers a lift up and back down again.
Jinx was eager to help
unwrap mom's present, last Xmas. We have no idea why, since this one
turned out to contain a new blanket for the bed. It was not
ham-flavored.
Years ago we spent $50 on one of those Drinkwell cat watering devices. They wouldn't touch it. Hated it. Waited hours for us to open the bathroom door so they could go in and drink from the tub. So we got rid of it and went back to a bowl on the floor, until we redecorated in late 2005 and moved this water sculpture from a shelf in the bedroom to a table in the living room. Ever since, it's been the cats' favorite water dispenser, to the point that I have to pour a full bottle of water in there every day, to keep it full enough that the engine won't burn out. Jinx drinks right from
the falls, lapping at the flowing water, while Dusty hasn't figured this
out, and just drinks from the base, angling his head in sideways like a
vulture working on a wildebeest's ribcage.
The millionth upside
down Jinxie photo. I like it for her weird shiny toes and her
scary-bright yellow eyes. Her splayed arms and scruffled chest fur is a
constant in her sprawling, so we hardly even notice those anymore.
More to come... |
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