Grand opening, grand closing

The time has come to stop writing on this humble blog of mine. After three years, 176 posts, and 60,326 views, I’ve come to the end of writing about cats. Yes, pick your jaw off the floor, it’s true. There only so much I can say about these wonderful creatures that I will continue to be obsessed with. Even this great video by The Union could not help me: How To Put The Spark Back Into Your Relationship With Your Cat

I am thinking about starting another blog which will be more like Stuff ‘n Cats; more about my obsession with new media, archiving, music, life in general, and sometimes cats. It will not be linked to this one, since I would like to keep my personal musings anonymous (save for a small group of friends I will inform of this new blaaaag). One could ask: then why not just keep a diary for yourself? Good point. I’ve asked myself this question many times. Maybe it’s vanity (look at me, I’m so interesting and cool!), maybe it’s just a sense of wanting to share stuff with others (even if no-one will read it). All I know is that this blog has been great fun and I love all the friends, family and strangers that have for some reason seemed to enjoy it too.

About as old as Moef

Yaaaay! Cats ‘n Stuff is three years old today. And it’s also the day on which I met Moef for the first time. And she is about three and a half years old. Yes, a bit of a stretch, but there’s the connection for you.

And like Moef, Cats ‘n Stuff has her dark moments…

….a habit of ignoring annoying people…

…and a tendency to not back down from an intense staring contest.

But only I have, and will continue to make the greatest art form in the world: the animated GIF.

Marilyn Mockingbird

Marilyn Mockingbird

Originally uploaded by hawk person

Once again, my friend and picture-taker extraordinaire took a great shot that I just had to share with you. The named the picture Marilyn Mockingbird, because what else could you name it? Nothing! It’s perfect.

A happy and naggy 2010

It’s the third day of the new year, and it’s slowly dawning on me that we live in 2010. What a weird feeling. Feels all fresh, starting anew in a year that ends with a zero. And on the other hand it’s of course totally meaningless and just a sense of time that we bestow on it. Anyway, before we get all nihilistic, let me wish you all a very happy new year. May it be filled with nice people and good food.

Rummaging through my cat picture archive I found some nice ones of Roefes. Time to digitally dust those off! In these pictures he’s ignoring me, nagging and sunbathing. In other words: the usual.

Food coma

Cats ‘n stuff is in a wonderful, delirious food coma. Not that I’ve eaten that much during Christmas, but it’s plenty to induce a state of catatonia. So no long post, but an animated gif that represents my current state of being.

Thanks for the pics Fedor!

The Snow Cats (They’re so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty!)

It’s Christmas time! For Cats ‘n stuff this means baking lemon meringue pie, chilling with loved ones (including Arie and Bernard) and doing absolutely nothing productive for the coming three days. Which in turn will make me more productive in the long run, so it all works out.

It has been all wintery around these parts the last week, which has lead to snowball fights and snowmen popping up everywhere. One of my colleagues was creative enough to make two very special ones: snow cats!

Happy Sinterklaas – Annoyed Kitty Day

Aaahh, it’s that time of year again, 5 December, Sinterklaas. When people lie to their children and say that there is a man with a white beard that brings them gifts. That this Sinterklaas lives in Spain, and comes to The Netherlands with his black-faced helpers to spread gifts, chocolate letters and pepernoten. Now, don’t forget to leave carrots the old man’s horse, which he rides across rooftops. I know, it’s a little confusing and hard to explain, but that in a nutshell is Sinterklaas.

Since I don’t celebrate Sinterklaas at all, but don’t want to miss out on the holiday cheer, I decided to start my 5 December own tradition: Annoyed Kitty Day. Feel free to share your annoyed cat pics with me, ’tis the season! Astute readers may say: “But catsnstuff, for you, every day is Annoyed Kitty Day!”. Very, very true indeed. My answer to you is that AKD will be celebrated throughout the year, but that on December 5 each year one truly peeved cat will feature prominently here. Now shut it and let me get to these great inaugural Annoyed Kitty Day pictures.

This photo series started with me stalking a cat in the streets, a.k.a. business as usual:

This was followed by my standing in front of the cat in order to get a good shot. This was no mean feat:

I know, these pictures are not up to scratch to the level required to celebrate Annoyed Kitty Day, but they serve as an instruction as to how to get the cat to the stage where the annoyance reaches a true great level. Follow me…

Fluid taxonomy – Cattitude edition

As some of you may know, I am a total archive geek. Therefore, I love organising and pondering taxonomies and other information structures. So much so, that I am dedicating an entire post to a minute change in my categorising system. There’ll be a real cat post tomorrow that sparked this change, so bear with me.

Two years ago I wrote a post called ‘The ‘ears backward’ move”, in which I stated one can determine the level of annoyance in a cat by the degree in which his or her ears are pointing backward. This is closely related cats ignoring people, another cat trait to which I dedicated a special category. While writing my new post (yes, it’s coming), I noticed I did not have a special ‘ears backward move’ category yet. I know, incredible right?!

So, from now on, both classifications can be found in a brand new parent category ‘Cattitude’. I immediately concede that ignoring is often found in tandem with the ears backward move, but it’s my blog and my taxonomy, so I will change it up and be as illogical as I please. Next up: a REALLY annoyed cat. Yay!

World domination kitty

Many cats plan on taking over the world. The only problem is that they are too lazy to do it. But sometimes you catch one in the (perpetual) planning phase.*

This young kitty Kätze was so close to being the first feline to actually rule the planet. Thankfully, I had a piece of string ready… Crisis averted!

* Yes, I love the word ‘perpetual’ and alliteration. Combining the two makes me happy.

Perpetual paws

Ok you guys, I’ve got nothing. But also, I don’t want to leave my beloved blog empty for too long. Therefore, I shall entertain you with the mesmerising gif of a happy kitty:

(nb: original link here)