Beware the mighty roar of Pan!
Year: 2016
Seven Years of Pan’s Antics
I’ve finally edited together numerous videos of Pan’s antics, dating back to June of 2009. Enjoy!
If you need to see more of Pan (and who could blame you?), here’s some early photos and video of him from his first few months with me.
The Tower of Frustration
Heard of the Tower of Terror? How about The Tower of Frustration? (Otherwise known as the CatIt Senses Food Tree 2.0.) Seemed like a cool idea since Hera is constantly bugging me for food or treats. Not surprisingly, Pan wasn’t interested in it all but then he doesn’t really care about food or treats. Hera, on the other hand, went at it with gusto and almost immediately knocked it over – and scored some treats!
I then braced it while continuing to film her initial efforts and added some weights afterward so I could leave it unattended. It was clear she had great difficulty with “paw to eye” coordination, looking at one level of the puzzle and reaching blindly elsewhere. After her initial 30 minutes of frustrated efforts she completely gave up on it and I couldn’t get her interested any more. Over the subsequent weeks, she would still cry for treats as usual but would never make any more effort to extract them from The Tower of Frustration, despite any prodding or just leaving them out, tempting her 24/7.
I eventually gave up as well and gave it away to Kathie and Dave. Looks like their Penny has absolutely no trouble with it!
Pan and Hera
It’s been quite a while since I’ve put up a gallery of Pan and Hera pictures, so…
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Click through for the full gallery.
Monarch Butterflies at Natural Bridges
Some pictures and video from a December visit to see the Monarch butterflies wintering at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz:
They winter here from November through February, depending on the weather. If you go, choose to get here during the warmth of the middle of the day or they won’t be very active. And bring binoculars and a long telephoto because they’ll be mostly way up in the eucalyptus trees.
Little Cat House on the Coast
After Thanksgiving day, Darlene and I loaded up the Traveling Cat Adventure Vehicle and headed down the coast south of Monterey. My intention was for us to stay a couple of nights at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park campground, but I forgot it was still closed from the impact of the Soberanes fire earlier this year. D’oh! So we kept heading south as the sun set (there’s no overnight parking allowed along the highway here), passing several alternate, full campgrounds until we found space at the San Simeon State Park campground. We walked to the beach in the rain the next morning before heading out, stopped to let the cats out for a scary adventure when the rain let up later, caught a tour of “Nitt Witt Ridge” in Cambria and made it to Morro Bay by nightfall. On Saturday night, the campgrounds were full so we found a nice out-of-the-way spot to boondock for the night. On Sunday, we visited the bay, the rock, the natural history museum and the Monarch butterflies before heading home in the evening up 101.
Click through for the full gallery.
Kathie’s Birthday
Pictures from last night’s Halloween/birthday dinner party for Kathie – with Dave, Rachel, Dan, Lisa, Kevin, Vanessa, Darlene and myself:
Little Cat House in the Forest
Just some pictures from another little overnight excursion with Pan and Hera in the Traveling Cat Adventure Vehicle, this time in the redwoods of Butano State Park.
We’re slowly building up to longer outings with them and they do seem to be adapting to it as a second home. They’re also learning to go out for a little exploration in their harnesses. Hera’s become quite the little explorer while Pan is still pretty nervous and reluctant. Neither of them are happy about being in the vehicle while it’s in motion though.