Neko cafes: cats rule, OK?

The King of Darlinghurst (aka Max the Duster) is not known for his friendliness to strangers. Or even the staff.
This could be an impediment to him taking a role in a Neko (cat) cafe.
Neko cafes (see pic, at left, from the Curl Up cafe) are apparently the rage in Tokyo, where people live in apartments not big enough or suitable for cats. So people who like cats (mainly girls and women, according to my Japanese source) go and get their feline fix at a Neko cafe.
From the linked article, the owner (who didn't want to be named) is quoted as saying: "I take utmost care in hygiene so as not to bring in any germs harmful to the cats. That's why I always keep the cats and the room clean and ask visitors to wash their hands before entering the cafe space."
She said the cafe welcomes anyone and the rules - including not doing things the cats would dislike -are observed. Natch.

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King of Darlinghurst in Sockington's 500K video

Sockington 500,000 Followers from Jason Scott on Vimeo. Enormous excitement in the Kingdom of Darlinghurst as the Cyber Cat of them all, Sockington, includes Max the Duster aka the King of Darlinghurst in the video marking his 500,000th follower.

We are overjoyed, banging our paws together with delight.

Watch out for Max in the Socks Rocks hat.

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A cat's map of the bed

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Now Max and I are sharing the bed again, I'm reminded of something.

Click on the pic to see the detail. Hilare.

Back in Darlo

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Having returned to Darlinghurst late last night, I went to pick up the King from Cat Camp this morning. Apparently he bit one of the vet nurses earlier today when she put her hand in his cage.
Max has been home for three hours now and after a lengthy monologue moaning about the conditions at Cat Camp and everything that has happened in the past week, he's adjusting to life in the castle again.
I took him outside in my arms before and he wanted desperately to leap when he spotted the cat next door, Bill, taking advantage of our garden. But until the King is a little more adjusted to being home, I'll keep him inside.
Hopefully he can go out for a short wander later. He'll be as good as gold tomorrow.

Charlie catching raindrops on his tongue

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Charlie is a big boy now - at least twice as old as he is here. I searched this pic out recently when I needed some weather photos for a project.

And it's such a lovely shot, taken in the City of Sydney, when rain used to fall and kids needed raincoats. Ha!

Off to Melbourne tomorrow (even less rain) to do some catching up. Max is going to Cat Camp. He doesn't like it much, but he's safe there - and loved. Safety first!

Doing the cats' dirty work

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Time to fess up. I had to do Max and Sam's dirty work last week.

Max (above left) brought home some very lively wildlife one morning before I left for work. Squeaking wildlife. Whether baby rat or giant mouse has not been minuted.

He deposited it in the Perfectly Clean and Ordered House ready for Peter's arrival. And it took off, making its way into the farthest reaches of rolled drawings.

So I invited neighbour cat Sam in, figuring that between Max and Sam, they would speedily despatch of the little critter with teamwork.

The pair of them were Entirely Useless in the manner of cartoon cats. At one point Sam prodded the Critter, it screeched and jumped in the air (in the shower stall at this stage) and then the Critter ran to hide between Sam and the tiled wall. Sam flinched. More prodding and squeaking.

I had to put a plastic container on top of Critter and then enlist human aid to extract Critter from my place. All I'm saying is that it is now buried in the herb garden along with its relatives in the Critter Graveyard.

We've got great herbs. If you've ever had my pesto, you know this to be true.

What bird is that?

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For about a week, at something like 4 in the morning, a bird has started calling from a neighbour's tree. And I mean calling. It's pretty relentless for the next three hours. And the feathered friend is back in the evening - with the same plaintive cry.

It's so loud, it's unbelievable. So loud, it's comical.

A neighbour and I were falling about with laughter tonight about the outrageously penetrating nature of its call. As part of my quest to find the culprit, I had the binoculars out on Sunday and it looked like a big black bird with a dash of red on the side of its head, way up high in a flame tree.

It has a hooting kind of call - with something like seven to 10 hoots in a row. Then it rests. Then it hoots again. I don't have much of an ear for music, so I can't work out if it's going up or down the scale, but the hoots seem to change.

I'm going to find out what it is. Needless to say, I've joked with Max about how he could solve the sleeping problems of the neighbourhood. Me-ow!

Hoots mon! Bring on the earplugs. Nature is calling.

Chocolate box kittens

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By way of thanks for the birthday wishes, I've located a picture of Max and his brothers when they were kittens (from left, Jason. Jeffrey and Max) from the family archives.

If they were any sweeter, they would be on the front of a chocolate box.

The last day of winter

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The last day of winter seems as good a time as any to start a blog. The significance of September 1 is spring-loaded.

An amusing highlight of this weekend has been turning the Roman blinds in the bedroom and loungeroom around. What were they doing with all the workings exposed to the room? I guess it happened when they came down a few months ago to repaint.

Amusing, because the wonderful pulley system of Roman blinds is something akin to a mathematical challenge for me. Once I have taken all the cords out of the guiding loops, I am completely lost as to how to thread them up again. So I have to use the other Roman blind that is hanging up to show me how they work. Except one is wider than the other, so what should be simple is simply confusing. To me.

Enter Max the Duster (aka the King of Darlinghurst), who contributed to the situation by mistaking the cords as Excellent Playthings. Which turned amusing into hysterical.

Max has been hanging at the palace today, after a morning stroll around the kingdom.