Cat Conclave

I finished playing with the wand toy and left it on the sofa and it eventually collected every cat out and about to sit around it.

Keeping an eye on the feather.

Wrong Idea

For the last few months I have been letting the cats through the door into the garage for exploring.  With cooler weather I went further and sometimes open the cat door with the door closed.  I think all of them know how to get through it, but I haven’t left it unblocked when I’m not around.

Sunday at bedtime I noticed that Sherman wasn’t around, which is a bit unusual.  He isn’t always underfoot, but as I get ready for bed he usually shows up to visit Anna, or watch me take out contacts and the like.

The final nail was that Davout came up to me in bed and was hanging around.  He’s been getting more expressive in making his moods known, but doing it at this time and place was new.

Bath Time

Davout takes a little bath.

Grant might have lost a bit of shadow striping on his sides, but still has tail rings.  He likely won’t go full golden like the breeders want, but he still is a striking boy.

Spotty Paws

Sherman and his muddy boots.

Grant isn’t much into cuddling but can be lured close by the camera strap.

New Year

Things have puttered around normally here over the last few weeks.  I’ve spent less time taking and even less time posting photos, and somewhat more interacting with the kitties.

Davout has started to be bolder about asking for things directly, although sometimes I’m not sure what.  I’ve opened up the cat door to the garage a few times and while he isn’t the first to pass through, he does seem to consider himself a gate keeper.  He will come and notify me if one of the kittens, usually Sherman, has been out there too long.

He’s also started coming up for pets and scratches on his own, although if I make a sudden move he still darts off.

Sherman has continued his sociable ways and Anna has almost no trouble with him.  She was getting very good about not hissing at the other cats for a few weeks there, but then a while back Rhea rushed Anna and they had a loud scrap.

All the young cats have been weighed recently and they seem to be leveling off at the 8 pound range.  Most size differences with them are related to fluff volume and body shape.   Sherman is decidedly stockier in the body than Rhea and Davout, although he doesn’t have the shorter tail of a Persian.

Teefies

Davout’s slightly off kilter teeth….

Close up!

Sweeping On

Most of Thomas Fires’ movement is through the hills above Carpinteria now sweeping west. This still could be very dangerous to the beach towns if the Santa Anas blow strongly in the next few days.  Santa Barbara isn’t too far off – about 8 miles from Summerland.

Sherman on the prowl for fun with cat toys…

Pretty Rhea Eyes.   She decided to sleep at the foot of my chair today for some reason.  I had to check whenever I got up.

Sleepy Girl

Thomas fire is still spreading slowly, the upper arm towards the coast and Carpinteria,   On the plus side Ojai seems safer, and the lower arm is being pushed back from Carpinteria.

Rhea was doing some careful “casual” posing while napping.

She even knows when photos are being taken.

Thomas Fire Days

I thought I’d post an update on the fire news.  Thanks for the concern, but this time there is little to fear on my personal account.  The above map is the USGS satellite maps of heat signatures displayed on the GeoMAC viewer.  Updates are about every 12 hours.  Red circles are current hot spots, orange and yellow are from previous days if not still hot there, and black is 2 days old.  The Triangle is where the fire started Sunday or Monday.  The yellow is the official burn zone…the recent detections are outside the area.  It can move fast – those two “arms” of recent burning all formed in 2 days.  Ojai (between the arms) and Carpinteria (on the coast) are the real danger zones.  The winds weren’t as bad as feared these last days and were in a “good” direction, if there is such a thing.

The ridges also form good places to try and hold a fire, and the lay of the land gives several stop positions along the general N to S path of the Santa Ana winds.

I live about where the “Thousand Oaks” name is, and work where Camarillo name is.  The two are about 15 miles apart.  To get to me personally would have to go through about 150 thousand homes.  There was a tiny fire near the 101 in T.O. that was stamped out quickly.

In 2003, that entire area between Santa Paula and Moorpark and off map to the east burned, and it jumped the highway near the Moorpark label and burned some in that area. That had me watching the map updates carefully and thinking evacuation.  A few years later there were fires above the “Oaks” in T.O.  burning my way.  There was ash falling like snow but I wasn’t as worried.  And a few years back the hills south of Camarillo burned.  In these virtually no structures were lost, and few outbuildings.  The Thomas fire has been worse, with 150 to perhaps 400 buildings lost or damaged, mostly in Ventura on the first days.

Today at lunch there was a wind shift that blew smoke over us in Camarillo.  Since it gave the fighters on the front lines a break from having it blowing to them it was a good thing.

Tonight I was upstairs visiting with Anna and remembered I hadn’t posted.  So I decided to use my gaming PC and use some old pictures to give a fire update.  Anna and Sherman were in that room so I shut us up in here.

Anna is pretty good with Sherman, only giving him normal warning hisses if he gets too pushy about getting close.  She’s willing to lie down and relax and isn’t fretting over who might be at the door.  I may do this more often in the future.

Wild Night

Kitties are a little antsy because there are high winds tonight.  There was a gust of 80 miles an hour in the hills to the south.  There are wildfires loose tonight as well.

This time the fires aren’t that close to the house, which is good because the firefighters might have to let some buildings go.  I’ve really been amazed how there have been fires covering tens of miles with no houses and something like three outbuildings lost.

The Thomas fire to the west is about 20 miles by 10 miles in extent.  The near edge is something like 40 miles off, quite a bit closer to work.