rufus wainwright will believe in love and all that it's supposed to be ...

little buddy - you always stand just outside the kitchen with your muzzle pressed up against the bars of the baby gate i use to keep you away from the burning stove. the bars cover your eyes, i can't see anything but your nose and the giant skull looming behind it. you sit there impatiently, somehow still staring intently even with your vision barred. bear sits behind you and groans, her suffering so audibly intense. you butt slips away on the wood floors, so you constantly shift to keep as close as possible to the delicious smells.

you are still skinny, but you shit better than ever, hooray for low-residue iams. it stinks of fish, and it makes you fart, but it's an improvement.

you're still urchiny, but so much better than when you first got to us, i hope it doesn't worry people that your bones stick out and the scabs on your ankles and elbows aren't totally gone. at least running around in the sand and pebbles of the park have scrapped off most of that nasty fungus growing on your claws. haha, did i mention you still look like a refugee? i guess you still are..

i love taking you to the dog run and watching you play with the small sweet dogs, or run full speed to chase me. at night, when you gaze up in the branches looking for rodents or stars or something i almost feel you're mine. but - you soak up love and affection w/o prejudice. you love everyone, you love anyone. so it's up to a family to decide you'll be theirs forever; you'll be a sweet boy wherever you go, someone just has to claim you once and for all. in a few days we'll see if the first family in line to meet you is going to be the one you finally go home to...

going to the dogs

bear's new little buddy is our foster named star. little bud is not the aggressive type. he is a little pushy so he does get told off by the offended party quite a bit...but all he does in retaliation is whine in this nasal high pitched way. it sounds like he's repeatedly saying "suey" - kindof what you'd hear from the dude who didn't even qualify to participate in the hog call competition and now has constant and vivid but very quiet nightmares about this failure.

that whine is his go-to response to just about everything, the poor dude is perpetually on the verge of a nervous breakdown caused by fear, anxiety, excitement, and a crazy resident that alternately snarks at him for any perceived transgression and flies over him repeatedly in her attempts to play as she bounds from one piece of furniture to another....to another, to another....and sometimes the dog makes him nervous too.

the only thing worse than his sad little whine is his constant barking when he feels abandoned or trapped. worse because if we lose our apartment because of noise complaints, i'll have to change my mailing address again.

the day after his arrival, he was put in a room with a door we used for safely introducing animals - it has a panel cut out but gated over, and it should be enough of a portal to the rest of the apartment so an anxious dog doesn't need to freak out. but freak out he did. this is how i found the door when i got back 4hrs later, during lunch:



he'd been too busy tearing apart hollowcore doors to bark the whole time i was away that day, just the ENTIRE 20minutes i was walking the other dog.

but then we spent 3 blissful days together over the holiday weekend, where the separation and the barking was minimal. today's the first day back at work, and it's almost lunchtime...

foster cat update (bon voyage!)

little kendra and bob were adopted, and sally's home alone (with us) for a few months now. i've put up flyers and posted ads on craigslist but not a single person has shown interest. there has to be all sorts of people that are looking for a sweet adult cat companion, but i can't seem to find a single one...

so now sally is going to live with another foster family..and hopefully she'll find her for-all-the-time family very soon after.

no gypsy psychics need apply

if you think psychic readings are a reasonable substitute for medical care, you may not be a right fit for these cats.

sally cat

sally is a white, dark grey/black, and tiger striped 2yr, 2month old cat currently being fostered with her kittens. sally was rated "no concern" at the city shelter, and as soon as i got her home for foster, it proved very true - she was friendly with everyone she met, always open to affection and even let us all handle her week-old kittens as we got them all settled in. she is very protective nonetheless, and when she feels threatened (pretty much only when any dog is around) she'll hiss to keep any danger away from her babies.

so sally is generally a mellow cat...and i think she rolls over for affection even more than my dog. she's happy to sit next to you when you're in the room, or at your feet, whether your acquiesce to her chin rub demands or not, although when she wants to be particularly close she will climb into your lap.

otherwise she's content to lie in a cool place and groom herself, and grab onto any kitten that happens by and groom them too. when there's a lull in the day, and her kittens are asleep, she'll sit by a window and watch all the outdoor action for hours.

as you can see in the picture(s), sally's coloring is one big jackpot of white, tiger, & black (or is that dark grey?). although she's mostly white, she has plotches of tiger on her head, ears, nose, tail & back, and a stripe of grey/black & white shoots down her spine as well. her light green eyes are gorgeous and big, but you can definitely get distracted from staring into them when she takes on a particular pose or if you find her mid-lick.

[reminiscent of jaba the hut?]

sally was picked up as a stray, and was very emaciated when i got her home - her shoulders and hip bones stuck out far too much. in the past few months she's gotten over an upper respiratory infection, been de-wormed, and gained plenty of weight (reference the reclining pose above). it's clear that her maternal instinct is quite strong, and whether sickly & thin or healthy and well-fed, her main concern has been that the kittens are fed, clean, and out of harm's way. i think currently they're all she has to focus on, and so she is quite attached, but perhaps she's ready to find a home where she no longer has to protect and defend, and can focus on being the baby of the family.

sally wants your chin rubs dammit, and she'll lock you up in chains and put you in a bikini if you don't comply!

bob kitten

bob is an 11week old kitten that's being fostered with kendra and their mother. they're all now ready for adoption.

when they all came home with me, the kittens were just a week old and i couldn't keep track of which was which - they were all tiny, ears not fully developed, were hardly able to move on their own and getting increasingly sick. they were easy to tell apart because they were all different colors and patterns, but who was it that last sneezed? did kendra start biting on bob or was that karen? who just had breakfast? who should i make sure gets some food next?

while they all shared the same symptoms at first, one morning i noticed one of bob's eyes would not open. it was a little encrusted and bob was meowing miserably. that's when bob and i started to get to know each other very well and i never again had problem tracking his progress....

every morning, every afternoon, everytime i noticed his eye (left) sealing shut, i had to get a clean towel under warm water and use it to loosen open that sucker, and wipe away any of the gunk that was there. and because he was sick bob wouldn't eat - so each time i opened his eye up, i'd have to sit there with kitten formula and a syringe or bottle for at least 20 minutes before he'd keep down a few milliliters of the stuff.

while none of the kittens liked being hand-fed, they all ate even as they angrily chewed on the syringe ends. bob, on the other hand, would put up a real struggle to escape. then he'd stay stock still, offering no resistance at all. but feeding success would not come easily even then...bob would decide not to react at all - not even to swallow! so food would go in, and then dribble right back out of his little mouth. eventually, bob would accidentally eat some food and i could stop the torture a few hours.

i started to think that bob was a very, very irritating kitten who did not AT ALL appreciate the things i was doing for him! and bob in turn, did not appreciate it when the daily routine had to be stepped up; i had to start opening up BOTH of his crusted over eyes AND give him eye drops several times a day on top of everything else. but his pouting was so ridiculous and cute, i found myself looking forward to these appointments with my little emo bob...the little dark grey smudges on his nose, the grey chin contrasting against his mostly white face, it was like tears had smeared his mascara and chalky face paint. robert smith momentarily re-incarnated as a tiny, whiskered, stray.

his eye infection started clearing up after a couple of weeks (!), but the originally infected eye was healing very slowly...it was still sealing shut every once in a while, and when it was not crusted over, it was barely open and inside his eye was irritated and cloudy. what if this eye had been damaged beyond repair? would his vision be impared? would he have to get surgery and lose an eye!? being so young, and still sick, i'd have to wait until he was much better before any further treatments could even be considered.

happily, bob's eye began clearing up and at 7 weeks, both his eyes were crystal clear

[the black lipstick is still there tho]

bob happily left his days of illness behind him and is enjoying his kittenhood. he likes to say hello when you come into the room, then meow to himself a bit longer as he gets back to his exploring. when he gets a bit of extra energy in him he's ferocious with his toys, and will leap onto you, hang on and then start sniffing. little bob is a about 3.5 lbs, a little over 2 months old, and although he likes to respond to your close approach like it is a tactical attack, he'll purr like a madman when you rebuff his defenses and rub his neck and chin and belly.

don't worry, he hasn't lost his edge, bob still likes to show just how terribly he's "suffering"

kendra kitten

kendra is a 11week old white and dark grey kitten - she is currently fostered with her brother and mom, and she is ready to find her permanent home.

this little family has been through a lot in a very short time - after they were found as strays when the kittens were just a few days old, they all fought off upper respiratory infections, took antibiotics to keep bacterial infections at bay, and have had to endure a lot of strangeness all around (vet visits, train rides, adoption vans, crate & litter training, and a constant stream of new people taking care of them).

throughout it all kendra has been most resilient - there's not much that can stop her from being a playful & curious little cat. she's been an avid wrestler since she was 6 days old, and always full of energy. nonetheless she's not at all a spaz; she runs, climbs, and plays at top speed, but she is always in control. still - she'll climb amazing heights to hang off the side of a door and play with something sticking out of the hinges, so it's always fun to see what precarious situation she'll end up in next.

kendra is also the easiest to handle, which says a lot because they all are very easy to pick up and pet, or play with. still, it's kendra that's most amenable to almost anything you've got going, even an ear cleaning is too fascinating to pull away from. and you can wrestle with her a bit and all she'll do is pretend to take a nibble of your finger in order to get in an exploratory lick (maybe there's cat food on there). the best part about it is that she's this way with everyone she meets, she's never run away from any new person coming by to say hello, and is happy to play with whatever you offer her.


it's wonderful to see such a smart, strong, and gentle kitten flourish, and we want to do the best we can to ensure that the rest of her life will be a great one with her new family. you can visit kendra in greenwich village where she's being fostered, or else at one of the many upcoming anjellicle adoption events.

for more information go to anjelliclecats.com - there you can get info on upcoming events, updates on fostered cats, and learn all about the adoption process. kendra has been given medication against parasites (like heartworm), and every cat adopted through this rescue organization is tested for the Feline Leukemia and FIV virus, vaccinated and spayed or neutered, so she's ready whenever you are!

share your 'tude

i want to let the world know what i'm feeling.

in a very specific single message trasmitted from lilypad arduino over bluetooth to a nokia n80 that will text a message to twitter using python for the symbian s60 platform fashion (i know, sorry).

the thing


the phone and snake


link to the twitter account
and the link to the class project page

and here it is on my canine


she's definitely got a lot to share...

kitten season

7/18 UPDATE - karen went home to staten island this past week, to a couple and 1 older cat bro. it's great to know she's got a permanent home, especially because it's with people who are so enthusiastic about her (they couldn't wait to get her home and get playing). nice huh?


lock up your daughters, it's the available-for-adoption posse.

kendra is the quintessential cat - she moves gracefully and is a master at balancing precariously on high objects, climbing, and darting around at top speeds. she's also very observant, always the first to come up to you when you enter the room, watching every thing you do like it was a performance; she'll be completely fascinated each time the litter box is cleaned, by the amazing way you sit in a chair, or how your shoes are there, on your feet....she makes a very careful study of the odd creatures who bring her food and wave around toys on strings.



karen is absolutely brazen - she spends her days furiously chasing, pouncing, wiggling all over the place, whether or not there's anything around to rile her up. it's like shadow boxing but a lot more enthusiastic (and adorable). she's not as good as kendra at balancing on precarious objects, but she makes up for it by being fearless - climbing up and down anything even if she stumbles a bit along the way



bob is a sensitive boy - quieter than the others, often swatting at anything that moves or threatens to move a little less enthusiastically than the girls. he is also more cautious than the other two - he doesn't readily do what's asked of him; when he first needed to be hand-fed he would sit absolutely still after each "bite" with his eyes screwed shut, letting the delicious kitten mush drip out of the sides of his mouth in a sort of hunger strike protest. but once he figured out the delicious kitten mush was in fact delicious he was happy to eat it and began to trust that anything i would send his way was going to be tasty (can't blame a guy for being careful right?)



and finally, mom cat sally. when we first met we could tell she was a small cat, but at the time she was way too small, all skin and bones and hardly able to keep making milk for her kittens. now she's got all the tasty food she needs and a much nicer figure (to better match her personality). and while her health has changed over time, her personality has been steady - sally likes people as much as she likes the fact that they bring her food! she'll come running at the sign of a meal, but even after the grub is presented she sticks around and shows you some love before she eats. and she makes no secret of her requests for affection, dramatically flopping over on her back for belly rubs and chin scratches.




sally-mom is approximately 2years old and is easy to handle; on top of that she's been a very good mother, having equipped her babies with the skills to use the litter box and eat solid food on their own. they're also master groomers thanks to her (she never misses a chance at cleaning her little ones). the kittens are now about 9 weeks old and all four are ready to be adopted!

more pictures are being hosted on flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/87392641@N00/sets/72157605926908068/


about the rescue organization:

anjelliclecats.com is a non-profit, no kill cat rescue and adoption organization housed out of the spoiled brats pet store on west 49th street. there is a required adoption donation of $125 ($225 for two cats).

from the website:

"All cats have been tested for the Feline Leukemia and FIV virus, vaccinated and spayed or neutered. We believe it is much kinder to adopt kittens with another kitten or cat unless there is already a cat in their new household."

p.s. go ahead and unlock those daughters now