2020

June 3, 2020 Timothy Price80 Comments

I would wake up every morning with Lola lying on my chest smiling at me and purring.

I brought Lola home to a full moon rising over the Sandias on April 3, 2015. I buried Lola at sunrise this morning June 3, 2020. We had five wonderful years with Lola. Lola was doing the best she could with her rheumatoid arthritis, and we were doing the best we could treating her with steroids and Gabapentin, but she succumbed peacefully last night.

https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/4/moonrise-lola-and-the-neon-tulip

Lola originally belonged to our neighbor. They got her when she was about a year old in 2010. Lola used to spend a lot of time at our house because the neighbors had dogs that bullied her, and our neighbor’s didn’t like cats as much as dogs. We ended up taking Lola after our neighbor’s moved to New Zealand. Moving in with us was a dream come true for Lola.

Lola helping me with cleanup after the raccoons ransacked our outdoor kitchen in 2011.

Lola was always a Catzilla type cat. She never liked other cats much, but she loved people. https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/4/catzilla

Lola was a really good sport and a good kitty model. She actually seemed to like my limp celery on cats project. https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2016/12/lola-loves-limp-celery

She was often surprised by Spunk’s magic tricks: https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2016/5/spunk-magic

We really miss Lola. Rest in peace Lola.

Feline Matchmaking

June 1, 2020March 12, 2023 Timothy Price62 Comments

Resa, who has the Art Gowns blog, and Spunk have had a thing going for a while now. When I posted The Persistence of Spunkery a couple of weeks ago, Holly and Marina got confused and thought that Resa’s cat Jeep* and Spunk had a thing going. With inspiration from Holly and Marina and collaboration with Resa, I wrote a song about our feline matchmaking and creating a modern, virtual, long-distance romance during these times of Covid cooties between Jeep and Spunk.

Feline Matchmaking
Music & Lyrics by Timothy Price
Inspired by Holly and Marina
Collaboration between Resa and Timothy

Intro
Can we have long-distance love
For kitties locked down, locked in, Zoomed?

Verse
Jeep’s up north to the east
Spunk’s down south to the west

Jeep says meuw, not meow
Spunk says mew followed by a growl

Jeep is four dimensions in three
Spunk’s dimensions? Egyptian eyes
Jeep is a sweet girly whirly
Spunk has his destructive manly ways

Bridge
Girly/Manly ways attract
Equals
Virtual romance for a matter-of-fact

Chorus
Feline matchmaking during Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene

Bridge
Virtual love and Covid Cooties
Modern romance oh so beauti…
Full of screen-time Zoom Zoom Zoomed

Chorus
Feline matchmaking, Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene

*Jeep is named after Eugene the Jeep in the Popeye comic strip[1]. The vehicle we know of as a Jeep was also named after Eugene the Jeep by soldiers during WWII who thought the Willys MB light utility vehicle was “small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems”[2].

Boyz Night Out

May 28, 2020 Timothy Price42 Comments

Spunk, Loki, and Silver after a boyz night out.

Cat In Grass

May 26, 2020 Timothy Price89 Comments

Silver Striping

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 Timothy Price57 Comments

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Challenges

May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 Timothy Price53 Comments

There seems to be all kinds of challenges in the blogosphere, mostly photo challenges, and writing challenges. Here are a few challenges I recorded.

The first challenge was the song that started out as a drum track that Joel put together. He sent me the track and gave me the challenge to make a song out of it. I laid down a bass track, followed by a rhythm guitar track. I made up a vocal track on the spot, so I have not written down the lyrics, then I laid down the lead guitar track. One take for each track. I named the song Joel’s Beat.

The second challenge was when I was finally able to get my car washed (car washes had been closed under the lockdown). I washed my car and what did I get? Dust and muddy kitty prints all over the lid.

The third challenge was for Big Baby Owl who had flown over to another branch on the cottonwood tree, then decided to climb the trunk of the tree to get up where Mama Owl was perched high above her. Big Baby Owl climbed and climbed, flapped her wings over the more difficult parts, and finally got into a fork in the tree about 10 feet from Mama Owl. She looked up at Mama Owl and Mama Owl flew off. Big Baby Owl was devastated. She just stood in the fork of the tree with her head bowed (click on the photos for an enlarged slide show).

The fourth challenge was photographing black Irises that are bleached purple in our intense sunshine. The irises look almost black to the naked eye, but properly exposed photos show how purple black really is.

The fifth challenge was doing super wide-angle photos of Spunk and living to write about it and post the photos.

The Persistence of Spunkery

May 13, 2020 Timothy Price61 Comments

Rail Lounging

April 30, 2020 Timothy Price55 Comments

Spunk and Silver each have their own style of rail lounging.

LOL Cat

April 29, 2020 Timothy Price54 Comments

Lola looking on the bright side after spending the day at the vet getting x-rayed, poked, tested, and re-splinted.

Since people have been asking about Lola, here’s the latest update. Lola had her two-week checkup today. Since she had been lethargic and not eating well over the past several days, the vet did an expanded radiograph and expanded blood tests. We knew she had degenerative arthritis from the x-rays of her paws, but the expanded tests show she has rheumatoid arthritis, and all her joints are affected. Therefore, she has not been feeling well since the last steroid shot had worn off.

Her treatment from now on will be wearing the splint so she can walk, getting steroid shots every three to four weeks and continued doses of Gabapentin twice daily.

Lola is a real trooper. She curls up with me at night and purrs both of us to sleep. Laurie says that when she wakes up in the middle of the night Lola will be curled up in my arm still purring. We will do our best to keep Lola comfortable so she can be as active as possible. She seems to always be happy and purring, as she looks on the bright side of life.

Outside The House In The Rising Sun

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Timothy Price43 Comments

0A6A0250 — Silver is catching a sunbeam as it spills over the irrigation border.

I opened the kitty door a little before sunrise. I tied up the trash and walked outside to find the sun peeking over the Sandias. All the kitties, except for Lola†, were lounging outside the house in the rising sun.