The Virtual Stoa

Here’s what my final-year undergraduates gave me at the end of term, with a very sleepy Enkidu on one side…

… and a very small, sleepy Andromache on the other…

Here’s Enkidu, a few moments ago:

There haven’t been many cat pictures recently. Andromache’s still pretty hard to photograph indoors, and as the weather’s been getting better, Enkidu in particular has been spending longer and longer outside, away from my camera lens. (Although I think if it stays as warm as this, they’ll be spending more time back indoors, as I doubt it’s that much fun being a furry animal in bright sunshine.) Anyway: here’s Enkidu:

And here’s Andromache:

Enkidu and Andromache have just had their first birthday, over the week-end, so I’m now going officially to consider them cats rather than kittens, even though they are still quite small, at least compared to the enormous beasts that roam the streets of North Oxford.

By way of celebration, here’s the earliest picture I have of them, taken on 15 May last year when they were all of two days old. It’s pretty obvious which one Enkidu is; a little harder in the case of Andromache.

Andromache is proving really tricky to photograph these days — either I leave the flash off, and she comes out a blur, or I leave it on, and she’s too shiny. She also has an awkward habit of wandering towards the camera lens as soon as she sees that it’s pointed towards her, and this can make things difficult. I think I need to follow her into the garden and photograph her there.

Enkidu, on the other hand, is continuing his love affair with the camera:

UPDATE: Success!

Do cats have metatarsals? I think that may be what Enkidu broke last year, though I’m not really sure. He certainly wouldn’t have been able to play in a World Cup quarter-final only six weeks after his accident. (I wonder whether Wayne Rooney will have to wear a stupid plastic cone?)

Three pictures of Enkidu, for Easter Sunday.

First:

Second:

Third:

You might conclude from the photographic evidence that he hasn’t moved much in the last couple of weeks (scroll down). He has, in fact, been out and about quite a bit recently, as the weather gets better, and I met him in the street for the first time last week, while returning from the pub.

Andromache:

Here’s Enkidu, engaged in mortal combat with a stripy green catnip mouse:

Here’s Enkidu, again:

And here’s Andromache:

Enkidu has found a way of getting up onto the roofs of the houses in Victor Street. Fortunately for my nerves, he has also found a way of getting back down off them. Here he is, not on a roof:

It’s a while since we had one of these, so here’s a recent image of Andromache, who continues to inspire and delight:

Here’s Enkidu, this afternoon, after France v Italy, but before Scotland v England:

Somebody has been leaving muddy pawprints in the bathtub.

Enkidu is posing for another of these photographing-kittens-without-flash experiments:

Andromache wrestles with a grey mouse:

Here’s Enkidu, reaching for the remote control:

(I’m experimenting with photographing kittens without flash, hence the general darkness and fuzziness of the image. I may get better at it one day.)

Here’s Andromache, taking a short break from her laptop in order to pose with a new friend, who apparently goes by the name of Sammy the Lamby:

Enkidu’s buggered off outside, and I haven’t seen much of him today, but it’s high time we had a TKB Andromache Special Edition. So here she is, surveying the chaos of my desk, with the collected works of Adam Smith clearly visible on the right of the picture:

And here she is again, on the stairs:

Here are some photos from the very recent past. First, we have Andromache, the cat on a cold shed roof:

Second, we have a couple of kittens curled up on a bed:

Third, we have Enkidu in his box. “Again?”, I hear you say. Well, this is Enkidu in his box in the early moments of the New Year. People were letting off fireworks around midnight, possibly on Port Meadow, and Enkidu decided, understandably enough, that it was safer to be in a cardboard box quite near a radiator.

Here’s Enkidu, yesterday, exploring a bag containing a Christmas present:

Now for more recent feline activity. A stripy green mouse has been tied to one of the stairs. Kittens investigate:

Notice in the picture below how well Andromache’s fur is growing back after last week’s operation (her stitches will come out next week):

Not sure what Enkidu’s doing here: it may be an attempt at some kind of outflanking manoeuvre.

UPDATE [9pm, 29.12.2005]: Andromache has worked out that if she stands on the stair, she can haul up the mouse along its cord, in order to gain possession. She is not being helped, however, by Enkidu, who is sitting a couple of steps further down, and who repeatedly knocks it back down again as soon as it comes within reach of his outstretched paw.

Enkidu, everyone’s favourite young offender, has just been tagged, a microchip being inserted between his shoulder-blades.

Here’s Enkidu (now minus testicles), settling down a few minutes ago in the cardboard box in the corner of the room where I’ve been working this afternoon. Careful observers will notice (in addition to various books published by C.U.P., the copy of last year’s Wisden, the broken lampshade and the bottle of Marsala, yum) the large document directly above his head, which is the full text of Judge Jones beating up on the partisans of Intelligent Design, which I’m looking forward to reading over a curry or equivalent in the not too distant future.

UPDATE [9pm]: It’s Enkidu Evening here at the Virtual Stoa. So first of all he comes back into my office (well, the room where I’ve got a lot of books and a plank of wood that serves as a desk) and finds a way of settling down that doesn’t actually get in my way:

Then he poses for photographs:

Then he gets back into his box, but this time he tries (unsuccessfully) to eat it (notice the teeth marks):

Then he’s off again, probably to settle down on the sofa downstairs.

UPDATE [9.15pm]: Hmm, actually the teeth-marks are visible in the first picture, too, so maybe he’s been trying to eat the box for a while, but never shamelessly in front of me before as a moment ago.

Here’s Andromache:

And here’s Enkidu:

Enkidu still continues to be a bit of a cause for concern: we took him in to chat to our new vet yesterday afternoon after the triple combination of (i) a bit of a limp on his previously-broken paw showing itself from time to time, (ii) a spot of bowel trouble a couple of days ago, and (iii) evidence of his first proper fight, in the form of a nasty-looking cut around the edge of his mouth. It was a very helpful chat, and he had a shot of antibiotics to help with the infection around his mouth, and he’s already looking much happier after spending most of today indoors.

Enkidu even sat in his new cat-bed earlier this afternoon, but when I popped upstairs to grab the camera, he hopped out again, and sat on the back of the sofa, where you can see him here:

Andromache, on the other hand, continues to generate no animal husbandry problems at all. Here she is, flexing her claws up in the attic:

One of the things we did in San Francisco was visit Best in Show, a few blocks away from where we were staying in the Castro. It’s an excellent pet shop. And we bought something that looks a bit like this, but in the purple colour (to match our sofa; scroll down), as our cats didn’t have a bed of their own.

(Well, they did have a nasty cheap one which I bought back in July, but Enkidu decided early on that it was a latrine, back in the days when his digestive system wasn’t entirely in working order, and we ended up throwing it out, unlamented by all.)

So the question for the cat psychologists out there is this: how do you induce kittens to start using their lovely new bed, imported all the way from California, instead of their usual sleeping places (at the top of the stairs, on top of my head, wherever)?

Andromache will occasionally rest in it for a few minutes when she’s placed in it; Enkidu just marches off immediately if we put him in it. I know several Cat Experts read this site, so any advice gratefully received.

(We did think about putting some catnip in it, but my guess is that that would overstimulate them just when you want them to be feeling calm and relaxed.)