Santa’s Taking The Presents From The Sack

In keeping with the theme of surgeries, young Toby is getting neutered today.

Harness the Power

I introduced Toby to a harness yesterday. Harness training with Sydney went really smoothly, and I was hoping Toby might accept the harness without complaint. But boy did Toby hate that harness! Toby spent the rest of the afternoon doing rolls and trying to buck the harness of his back (obviously this was unsuccessful). I had Sydney wear his harness too in a show of support, but somehow Sydney has figured out how to bite the back clip in just the right way to release it… It’s hard for him to do, but occasionally he succeeds. This isn’t looking so good for my dream of a cat-drawn sled.

Speaking of which, we had our first flurries this morning.

Toby Video

It took a while to figure out how to encode video, but it was rather easy with DivX. It came out really nicely, but the quality decreased when I uploaded it to Veoh. Still, it came out much better than when I uploaded it on Google Video. The video recording on the Canon S5 IS is incredible!

The compression rate was quite good, as it dropped from about 120 Mb down to about 10 Mb. It was hard to record and wave the cat toy at the same time, but I was just testing to see how good the frame rate was.

Cat Alarm

Ughhh, so tired today. Woke up this morning to Toby’s morning ritual of walking up and down my face repeatedly the entire morning. It’s sorta cute, but really they should make kittens with snooze buttons. Toby just keeps walking up and down your face and making that weird mew-grenade sound constantly.

Sydney tried to do a front-side 360 on the ironing board again and busted it. We need to get a new ironing board now, as it barely stands up. I know the metal is not that strong (I can bend it back into shape with my bare hands), but this is ridiculous.

Status of the Cats

It’s the last day we are spending in the temporary apartment, and tomorrow morning we will be moved back into our actual apartment. We took a sneak peak, and the tiles look fantastic, so we’re very pleased. However, unpacking is going to suck so badly, and the cats are going to have to get used to less territory. In the temporary apartment, we let Sydney have free access of most of the house (although there was an empty room we could put him in), while Toby is usually in the bedroom when we are at work.

So far, the two of them have been getting along, even though Toby is a little trouble-maker. I don’t know if Catnip slipped him some sabotage money, but Toby hopped over some obstacles to bite through the wire that connects the Wii to the sensor bar. We’d be more upset if there were actually some new games for the Wii. Toby is definitely more of a climber than Sydney ever was (because Sydney as a kitten was probably bigger than Toby is ever going to be…). Toby likes to find people who are sitting, and climb up their backs to perch on their shoulder. It’s pretty cute. I’m glad Sydney doesn’t try this, because whenever Sydney jumps on my chest, I feel like I’ve just had a medicine ball dropped on me.

We read that Birmans don’t talk much, but Toby talks constantly. It is this highly annoying whine noise that sounds kinda like those cheap sound-makers that “reproduce” the sound of a grenade being thrown. We hope he gets a nicer voice as he grows up, because it is really annoying right now. Still, Toby is very cute and very loving, so Bunky is really happy with him. The lines have been drawn up and since Bunky is totally on Toby’s side, it’s up to me to watch Sydney’s back. Last night I was petting Sydney when I noticed he had a scab on his head. It turns out that Toby had assaulted him! I am very suspicious of our new Birman, as whenever they start wrestling, Toby will cry wolf (even if Sydney isn’t doing anything) so that Sydney gets sprayed in the face with the water bottle.

I Like To Move It, Move It

It’s been such a tiring week, as over the weekend we have to temporarily move out of our apartment. The entire building is being retrofitted with sound insulation under all hardwood and tile surfaces, and so every two weeks anothe resident has to go live in one of the empty, unsold apartments. Naturally, this is the apartment that faces the train tracks while sitting above the loading dock. It is also the smallest 2BR apartment, but that is not too big a deal considering that we normally live in a 1BR apartment. We are going to be in the temporary apartment for 11-14 days, supposedly, while they redo the floors and the HVAC unit. Our walls won’t need to be touched, as they inserted the sound insulation in our walls from our neighboring apartments (which were empty). The nice thing is that we get to upgrade our flooring to some really nice ceramic tiling for free, but this is still a big pain.

The move was actually fairly quick, because they sent a moving company to pack and move our stuff. It took them a few hours, although I did move some of the more valuable stuff (e.g. my computer). Unpacking has been kinda annoying, though, and I can’t really find everything. Also, every bowl and cup was individually wrapped up carefully, so the dish box is only half unpacked. As for the apartment itself, while we do appreciate the extra space, the apartment is laid out extremely poorly. Many of the doors hit each other when opened. Sydney got a whole bedroom and closet to himself, since he has to be shut away while Bunky and I are at work. Toby goes in our bedroom while we are away. The living room is empty during the day, since we don’t want the cats eating the wires.

Sydney didn’t really adjust too well the first day, and spent most of the day growling under the couch. Every little noise (and this new apartment is very noisy) scared him, so at first he hid in his litter box, and then later he hid under the couch. He’s a lot better now, but he’s still kinda skittish. Being a foolish kitten, Toby has not had to make much of an adjustment. The only problem Toby has had is that the main area of the 2BR apartment is hardwood flooring, and so whenever Toby tries to run, it looks like he is on a treadmill and not actually moving. The two are getting along really well so far, and yesterday Sydney went ahead and groomed Toby by licking Toby’s butt clean. Toby thanked Sydney by seeing how much of Sydney’s tail he could fit into his little mouth. Ah, best friends forever.