Posts tagged with "tazendra" - Faerye Net

Tell me you don't see it.

2007-07-25T22:36:40+00:00

My kitten and I were outside yesterday. Since her return to indoor living, she has regained more of her bravo spirit, and she likes to climb trees when allowed.

Doesn’t she remind you of something?

Theorizing

2007-04-06T23:17:29+00:00

Theory: cat tranquilizers are placebos. They are intended to make your cat sleepy by inducing her to fight you tooth and nail to avoid swallowing the pill, thus tiring her.

Data points collected: It took 45 minutes to force-feed the pill to Qubit, who wails on car rides. She mewed three times total. Tazendra, who usually is barely annoying at all on car rides, swallowed her tranq on the first try, and whined a third of the time.

Inconceivable!

2006-09-30T18:55:30+00:00

Peaceful coexistence!

Ibuprofen is splendid, and so is my kitten!

2006-09-29T14:33:25+00:00

So far my glorious range of medical malfunctions have had the kindness to avoid the days I’m scheduled to work at Queequeg’s Qoffee Qasa. However, today I have no hours, and my body’s taken the chance to pounce on me.

Luckily, however, I have the two best cures in the world on hand; glorious Ibuprofen, which (once you manage to eat food) makes the symptoms go away, and a beautiful Tazendra to curl up by my side and knead me into wellbeing. She’s being so very cuddly and so very sweet that I can only conclude that it’s a trick designed to convince me that I should quit my job, quit my graduate school and spend every day cuddling with her and doing nothing. The other explanation is that she just REALLY loves this bathrobe.

In other news, she’s losing her baby teeth:

Musick hath Charms to sooth a savage Breast

2006-09-14T21:46:41+00:00

Here in our house, one of us amuses herself by captioning the small furry inhabitants. Often this goes something like this:

T: Someday, I will defeat you, Old Master! I will master your Ear Fang Grasp Technique and use it to bring the world to heel!
Q: You are confident but foolish, young one! No one can stand against my sleeping wrath!

Sometimes it is less dramatic, and more like this:

T: Whatcha doooin’?
Q: Eating your food. Leave me alone.
T: Will you be my frieeeeend?
Q: No! You smell bad! Learn to wash!

As you can tell, Qubit is grumpy a lot of late.

But today, the dynamic was different, for today there was a soundtrack. I took out my hautboy and decided, rather than playing in my messy playspace, to play out on the landing — if not en plein air, then, optimistically speaking, en demi-plein air (half full air! I kill me.) The response from the felines was immediate. Whilst we of the double reed are more used to being told we sound like snake charmers — and, indeed, to emulating them in some pieces — the mammalian audience was fascinated. They paced back and forth looking curiously at the instrument. Each of them in turn climbed a nearby desk and put out the super-tentative ‘is it alive?’ paw to touch the bell of the instrument. Neither seemed particularly to trust the sound, but neither was particularly inclined to leave, either.

That was while I was warming up and playing exercises. When I broke out my adored Mozart Concerto (K 314), things changed. Soon, Tazendra started circling me and mewing in a desolate tone little befitting a warrior. Just as I was beginning to think the mewing meant something was actually amiss, Qubit charged the kitten and…started washing her face. For the rest of the oboe practice, Tazendra continued to stare at me in a disturbed manner and occasionally mew plaintively, and Qubit continued to snuggle up against her, wash her reassuringly, and generally act as if she actually liked her. She also wreathed my calves appreciatively.

It was simply bizarre. Odder yet, Qubit looked at me longingly after I stopped playing, and haunted the site where the music stand had been until at last she concluded I wasn’t going to play anymore. At that point, she ran across the room and started a fight with Tazendra. So apparently Qubit likes Mozart to the point of personality change…. That’s actually kind of creepy.

Oh my goodness!

2006-08-07T17:06:58+00:00

I went to Seattle for a few days, and I came back to discover my kitten has grown! She is visibly bigger, has filled out, and can now leap to the backs of chairs from a full stop, whereas laps were only JUST accessible by leap before! She’s getting so big! sniff

Give us back our kitten!

2006-07-26T09:38:07+00:00

Qubit and Tazendra had, at first, a rather distant relationship; that is, if you can call something a ‘relationship’ which consists largely of hissing from ten feet away. Gradually, the big scaredy-Qubit realized that, despite her youthful exuberance, Tazendra was a little slip of a thing and could not harm her, Qubit, in any meaningful way. Diplomatic relations were established:

Boundaries were established and tested:

But these days, it seems that the Qubit-Tazendra relationship, while still largely centered on wrasslin’, is cordial and affectionate. Qubit will begin the tussling herself, and even exit the sanctum of wonko’s computer room in order to pounce on her playmate. Qubit occasionally sniffs and nuzzles at Tazendra in a sweet manner, as if, if only Tazendra did not respond to all attention from her elder with a mad pounce, she might consider washing her.

Yesterday, I had to take the little tyke back to the shelter to get spayed. She was brave and silent on the car ride over. This procedure done, I shall officially adopt her, and there will be much rejoicing. However, in the meantime, Qubit and I are mopey. There is no little bundle of chaos ready to pounce on us, knock over our dishes, or please us with her loud and ready purring. Last night, Qubit looked high and low for her little friend, but she was nowhere to be found.

They are probably operating on her right now. We cannot wait. We want our Tazendra back NOW.

ZOMG KITTENS!

2006-06-22T21:42:02+00:00

Day before yesterday I got back from grad school; today I got myself a brand-new kitten. I act fast! I went to the Bonnie Hays Shelter in Hillsboro and played with a couple of kittens. One was adventurous and playful. She had ocelot stripes in her tabby coat, and black war-stripes by her eyes, and perhaps it was just that I’d been rereading The Phoenix Guards, but this headlong, warlike little girl called out to be named Tazendra and taken home.

So I did both!

Tazendra, the Dzurlord created by Stephen Brust, is so fearless that she laments the unfairness of having five on her side against an army—she’d rather do it by herself. Tazendra, the tiny kitten in my lap, is so fearless that she explored her entire room of the house in the first 90 seconds and wants to get out and explore the parts of the house occupied by Qubit. Qubit isn’t terribly pleased about the whole other-cat smell and so forth. We’re hoping they’ll get used to each other’s smell under the door before Tazendra gets TOO stir-crazy. So, for the record, adult Qubit takes 3 hours to decide a room is safe enough to stop cowering under the couch; kitten Tazendra took 3 minutes to decide she wanted to go out into the unknown where an adult cat was hissing. Yeah, I named her well.

Here’s the little sweetie that’s been climbing my pant legs, walking across my keyboard, and purring like a tiny airplane in my lap:

More photos!