Remembering Austin

Karen Jo:  Here is Austin in action, which is how I most remember him.  There are things about Austin that I never got around to blogging about, so I thought I would do a remembrance post about him.  He was the most silent cat I have ever known.  All I ever heard out of him were the oofs and hunhs he made while rasslin'.  I never heard him meow at all.  He had other ways of communicating with me.  When he wanted to remind me that it was time to feed the kitties he would just stand and stare at me.  Every kitty here has a flat dish for canned food and a bowl for kibble.  Austin knew which ones were his and always ate out of his first.  When I would pick up his canned food dish, he would leap up and grab it.  I would show him that it was still empty and he would stand by where I would put it down full.  Sometimes he would run into the kitchen to watch me fill it, then run back to his room to wait for it.  This didn't stop him from sampling Rocio's dish as soon as I put it down and often Rocio would eat out of Austin's dish while Austin tried his.  As far as I know Austin only ate kibble out of his bowl.

I wear fuzzy plush socks to bed to keep my feet warm.  Austin thought they made great toys while they were on my feet.  He would grab at them and gently bite my toes.  He would rub his head all over them.  Once I took them off, he had no interest in them.  He never got tired of rasslin'.  Once he finished with Rocio (meaning Rocio ran off) he would look around for Spyro for another round.  After Spyro ran off, he would check to see if Oja was around.  She rarely was.  She knew what was coming and wanted no part of it.

I don't remember Austin being terribly interested in the toys on the floor, though he would play with them.  He loved the wand toys and would leap up to get them.  Da Bird is much in need of new feathers now, he played so hard with it.  He was just so full of life and fun that it is very sad to remember that he is gone.  I have some nice photos and memories of him and he might have send a present from the Bridge.  There is a new kitty in the house named Bambino.

Fuzzy Friday

 Karen Jo:  I was going to dedicate Fridays to Femme Friday with just Oja and not the boys, but she hasn't done anything noteworthy since yesterday.

Oja:  How would you know?  You were gone most of the day.

Karen Jo:  That's true.  I had a doctor's appointment, my allergy shots, shopping for a new handle for the screen door, putting the handle on, taking the handle off and exchanging it for one that worked, putting the new new handle on and picking up my prescriptions.  So let's just say that I didn't see you doing anything blogworthy, OK?

Oja:  Oh, all right.  But I better get next Friday.

Karen Jo:  I thought it might be fun to post the pictures that I took that didn't turn out as planned.  Spyro loves to shake his head as I push the button.

 I wanted to record Emma's ascent to the top of  Spyro's tower (a bunch of storage boxes piled on an end table), but she was in a hurry to get down after she saw me.  She didn't want me to know how high she can get now.

 This one was due to my shaky hands.  Hopefully there will be less of this.  I bought a new camera.  It's bigger and heavier, but it is a big step up from the little point and shoots that I have been using up until now.  It also has an anti-shake setting, which I will be using all the time.  In case you can't tell, this is Austin.

:Rocio has been taking camera-avoidance lessons from Spyro.