Friday Catblogging

July 13, 2007

While I was filling in for Kevin Drum recently, Political Animal readers demanded the cat blogging they have come to expect and enjoy. Not one to let readers down, I did my best, adding a couple of posts of the greatest cat to ever live, my cat, Smithers.
Smithers playing with a toy crafted by our friend Crafty Hedgehog (Etsy).

I was pleasantly surprised by see that people not only liked pictures of Smithers, but wanted more. As such, here is the first installment of Friday Catblogging — Carpetbagger Style.

In this shot, Smithers is playing with a knit toy, lovingly crafted by our good friend, The Crafty Hedgehog. Cute, eh?

I should also note that it wasn’t just readers that demanded Friday Catblogging; I’m afraid the attention from Washington Monthly has gone straight to Smithers’ head. Indeed, because CBS News routinely publishes Kevin’s posts, one of my catblogging items ended up running on the site of one of the nation’s largest news outlets.

This, of course, led Smithers to think she’s some kind of celebrity. She’s making veiled references to getting an agent, and has asked about the profit margin at Cafe Press.

Kevin, this is all your fault.

Danger Will Robbinson. Danger. I love ya, CB, but I feel a surge coming up.

  • So cute! I have two kitties of my own. One is black as well. Thanks – it was so nice to come here and smile for once. What a nice way to end the week.

  • OMG this is an awesome idea! CB and Smithers, you’ve inspired my cats to start their own blog. You can meet them here:

    Iris

    Iris is fat and sassy. She is very gregarious and makes friends easily. She sings while her humans are in the shower (which consists entirely of a string of meows) and she loves to smell all kinds of food, but will only eat dairy products such as cheese or sour cream.

    Mila

    Mila is timid and oh-so-adorable. She only comes out for her humans and hides under the bed when any other humans are around. She meows gently like a kitten and loves to be petted on chairs and on the floor but never picked up. You can always tell when she is hungry because she acts ten times as cute. She also knows when you are about to leave for the day because she will crank up the cuteness and prevent you from getting to work on time, for which she has earned the nickname “The Distraction”. She will eat almost anything, often without a second thought, and especially loves to eat ribbon.

  • I get the impression that Smithers is a “Secular Progressive” in favor of impeaching Dick&Bush. Good kitty.

    But, CB, you’re flying in the face of superstition — a black cat on Friday the 13th!

  • Is this going to take the place of the open thread?

    Never. Just a little Friday-afternoon diversion before the open thread.

  • Yeah, JKap. All day long, I managed to stay away from ladders, only to be confronted by a black cat in the afternoon… You cannot escape fate, I guess (case of: your karma ran over my dogma?).

    Wonder if herding cats is any easier if they’re harnessed…

  • I’ve had two black cats in my life. One, whose name I don’t remember, was “my” very first pet as a 7 year old (the family had other pets — this one was “mine”). S/he was killed by a car on a rainy day when we got sent home from school early (11/22/1963). The other I had to put to sleep after he suffered too long, due to me not wanting him to go, from cancer. He was an asshole but I loved him a lot. They’re hard to photograph, though, which adds to their mystique. Smithers is awesome, Steve and Mrs. CB.

  • OK, I just went back and looked at the link Rian posted. Let me be the first to say that the “dramatic chipmunk/hamster/gerbil/vole” phenomenon has jumped the shark.

  • The linked picture is the best! Take THAT Republican legislators.

    This, of course, led Smithers to think she’s some kind of celebrity.

    Ahem. All cats know they are celebrities. (My cats made me type that.)

  • Well… her fur is a “heck of a lot” nicer than John Edwards’s hair.

    How much are you paying to get her coifed for these Friday shots?
    Eh?
    Eh?

    [Side note:
    Warning Will Robinson! Warning!
    Cick that link!
    Because Dem John is cooked folks…
    As cooked as is Repug John in his cardigans.
    Sorry…
    But that’s the truth.
    The real betting is on: Which John sees the truth first and abandons?]

  • Thanks for the kitty, CB. Reminds me of mine, long gone–Sweat Socks and Vicky. Now I’ve got the sweetest dog–Janie Hoppy Gracie. Even she hates Bush.

  • The tuxedo cat who currently retains Karen and me, Edgar (Martinez) Louise Stephan (all our cats have had the middle name Louise), congratulates Smithers on her catblog, as does his substitute Mommy, our Samoyed Lulu. But Edgar does wonder whether such open communication is all that wise. After all, there is some slight evidence that non-cats can engage in elementary thought and perhaps even a primitive form of logic. And some even show signs of catlike amorality.

    On the other hand, Mrs Fifi Greywhiskers’ Living with the Lama (translated from the Siamese), doesn’t seem to have revealed any essential secrets. And famous cats seem to have trusted their people with intimacy. One thinks of Blackie’s Winston Churchill, William & Willemina’s Charles Dickens; Rybolov’s Alexander Borodin; Mitsou’s Marilyn Monroe; Crazy Christian’s Ernest Hemingway; Topaz’s Tennesse William; Poppet’s Joe Namath; Lilly’s Samuel Johnson; Apollinaris’ & Beelzebub’s Mark Twain, Timothy’s Dorothy Sayers; Sarah Snow’s Kingsley Amis; Fritzi’s Paul Klee; Magritte’s Gloria Steinem; Félimare’s Cardinal Richelieu, George Pushdragon’s T.S. Eliot; Punky’s Doris Day … not to mention (which of course we already have) Smithers’ Steve (and Mrs.) Benen.

    Well, it’s Friday and past five o’clock. So Edgar and I are going to snort some catnip and ponder the wisdom of allowing non-cats like those who allowed the Shrub to get into office to have access to all the secrets of Felinity. Edgar’s still hesitant, but another shot of Tuna-Catnip Surprise should soften him up.

  • i love kevin’s cat blogging ,

    and i encourage smithers to keep waking you up at five in the a.m. by jumping up on your bed,

    to keep you honest about your promise to make her a star.

    you’re quite beautiful, smithers.

    i wouldn’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t say as much for your can open-er.

    p.s. it’s nice to have enjoy some everyday pleasures amidst the chaos george bush rains on us weekly

  • Why would a knitter encourage cats to play with knitwear?

    My wife has had to carefully set and enforce certain limits. They are allowed to look at dangling yarn but only if they’re eyes don’t start bulging and their hind limbs don’t ready for a pounce.

  • Cats? Our family has three cats. We too have a tuxedo cat. The two others I would put up against Smithers–or any cat, any day. Fred and Merlin are stellar. Merlin is three years old and his spot on Mt. Olympus is already reserved. Our camera is down, so I can’t publish a photo. Merlin is a faux Russian Blue (he’s a gray long-hair with a white tuff on his chest), and he has personality to spare. Merlin’s a total sweety (and I’ve embarrassed myself–though not like David Vitter).

  • I, too, have a cat– a wonderful little grey tabby with a bit of Abyssinian in him, whom I rescued off the streets of post-Katrina New Orleans. I named him Tchoupitoulas (the name of the street that runs alongside the river in NoLa,) but I call him Choppy for short. He is very happy to be living in New York city now, after having witnessed the disasters first-hand (er, first-paw?) Needless to say, he’s definitely a Demo-Cat! Now, if only our new majority in Congress could have the fearlessness, the chutzpah, and the unbridled energy of my Choppy, we’d have already impeached Cheney and Bush!

  • But it’s not just catblogging, kids. It’s a picture/graphic embedded into a CB post. Is this a first? The start of something new? Inquiring minds want to know, Steve!

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