Stowaway!

Beppe is in so much trouble now.  Oh boy.

I went down to visit the Southern Domicile on Friday, as well as to take care of a few things and go salsa-dancing with AJD and EHC (who was also visiting).  I opened my suitcase to take out my toothbrush, and guess who popped out?

Of course it was Beppe.  He was so glad to be there, too; the moment AJD came in to see what the deal was, Beppe launched himself at him in a flurry of excited yips.  I'm really not sure how he managed to stay quiet for the whole bus trip from NYC to Philly, although I guess he spent the bus journey proper in the baggage hold where no one would hear him.

 

 

Rochester and the Fox gave Beppe a very stern talking-to.  He was initially unrepentant, but after a few minutes he started feeling more contrite.

Beppe unrepentant

Beppe contrite

We could just see Alfredo freaking out and the temporary Northern Domicile crawling with questing fluffies.  This is every parent's nightmare, after all.  While Rochester and the Fox were lecturing Beppe, Quixley immediately hurried to the computer to email Alfredo that everything was all right.  Then we just had to hope that Alfredo got the email, as I had taken my laptop south and the new computer system won't materialise until we have a permanent NYC abode.  Alfredo has a BlackBerry, but he's not very good at using it yet.  We could only suppose that he'd have Magick and Murchison glued to their iPhones.

Here's a close up of the text of Quixley's email.  You should be able to read it if you zoom in.  Note that Quixley prefers Gmail's "Ninja" theme.

A Qmail

Barry seized advantage of the opportunity to grill Beppe about whether or not he's seen Duke Ellington.  This was a complete failure, as Beppe had no clue what he was talking about.

So this morning I left Philly on a much earlier bus than I'd intended to, in hopes of preventing Alfredo from having a heart attack.  I got to my 8.30 bus so early they put me on an 8.00 bus, and I was home a little before 11.  Quixley's email had been received, thanks to Murchison lending Alfredo his iPhone, but Alfredo was nonetheless visibly agitated until Beppe popped out of the bag.  Naturally Beppe got another series of major talking-tos, first from his father and then from Desmond, Jasper, and Lady Faraday.  Moreover, Alfredo has informed him that he's not to be allowed out of his father's sight until after we find a permanent Northern Domicile.  He seems to be finally understanding that stowing away was maybe not a brilliant idea... but he still enjoyed every minute of it.

Laura's Eyes

As I said in a recent post, Alfredo worries about Beppe a lot, because e's convinced that he's dooming his son to a lifetime of psychological problems because he's a single parent.  Beppe, as far as we can tell, shows no signs of deep psychological damage; he behaves just like any puppy of his age should.

Nevertheless, Beppe has of course been affected by his mother's death.  He was telling us the other day that he can't really remember her anymore, and he feels pretty sad about that; he wishes he had at least one clear memory of her.  So I pointed out to him that he has his mother's eyes.  

Alfredo's eyes are amber, but Beppe's are very blue, just like Laura's were; Alfredo has told us before that he's very glad about this, because he can see a little bit of Laura whenever he looks at Beppe.  I told Beppe what his father had said, and suggested that whenever he feels a bit sad because of his mother, he can go look at himself in the mirror, and know that his eyes are just like hers.  It's not the same as havivng real memories of her, of course, but it's similar, and he'll always be able to do that.

Beppe immediately brightened.  His father doesn't tell him constantly how much his eyes are like hers, and so he'd forgotten it.  He says he feels much better knowing that he has her eyes, even without the mirror strategy.  This didn't stop him from trying the mirror idea too.

Happily, this experiment was also a success.  Beppe was so delighted that he hurried off to tell Alfredo about it, which made Alfredo conspicuously misty-eyed.

They Call It Puppy Love

When Beppe likes you, he doesn't really leave it much in doubt.

Father's Day Romping

Yesterday was a big day for Alfredo - I'll explain why in my next post - but he still took time out to spend some quality time with Beppe. 

Here they are playing the time-honoured game of Chase Your Father's Tail.  This is the sort of game that is more or less exactly what it says on the label; there aren't any rules as far as we can tell.  Nor is there a winner or loser; Beppe was very happy whenever he caught the tail, but so was Alfredo.

It's just a bit tricky to work out what is going on in these two tail-chasing pictures, because Alfredo and Beppe are the same colour and Beppe is essentially composed entirely of fluffy.  Any picture we have ever taken of Beppe makes him look like a ball of fur with ears.  So keep your eye on the black spot.  That's the tip of Alfredo's tail.

Alfredo worries a lot about not being a good parent.  He's always worried that he's not spending enough time with his son because he has so many responsibilities and takes them all so seriously.  Although he almost never mentions his wife, you kind of know he's thinking that if she were only here, Beppe would be much happier.  He's really afraid of screwing Beppe up forever; he's never sure whether he's being too strict with him or too lax, and he's sure that if Laura were here, he'd do a better job.  Alfredo sometimes lies awake at night with visions of poor Beppe needing lots of therapy because he lost his mother and his father didn't know what he was doing.  This is very Alfredo.

It's true that Beppe's got an excessive amount of energy and is prone to do silly things, but he's very very young and he's also a puppy, and that's par for the course.  As far as we can tell, Alfredo's doing just fine. 

Lady Faraday Teaches Yahtzee

After Angel Joe's investiture was over, and the reception was coming to a natural end, Magick asked whether anyone else wanted to play poker, and found a few takers.  Lady Faraday did not want the younger denizens of the Wild Republic getting too interesting in this poker game, as she could see that this would undoubtedly lead to some sort of disaster, so she decided to distract them by teaching them all how to play Yahtzee, and that is precisely what she did.

In the end, her pupils were just the kittens and Tibby; the polar bears and Beppe were already having a blast doing something else, and Beppe is still too young anyway.  This still left six players, and Lady Faraday thought that the game would be too long with six, especially since none of them had ever played before, so she decided that only four players would start, and then had them all roll dice to see who would be in the first game.  That's what they're doing in this first picture.

Flurry, Rusty, Cami, and Khamsin won, which left Navarre and Tibby to watch.  They were intrigued enough by the game that they only minded a little bit.  It took Lady Faraday a while to explain the rules, though, because Flurry is young enough that he found them tricky to understand.

I'm not sure quite what it was that Flurry had so much trouble understanding; I think it had something to do with the stuff on the bottom half.  Lady Faraday thought it would be best if he sat next to her so he could watch her keep score. 

Finally the game got underway.  Here, Rusty has rolled a large straight.  He was very pleased with himself.

A little bit later, the first Yahtzee of the game was rolled, by Flurry, which made everyone tremendously excited, although Rusty was a little sore about it because he'd wanted to get the first one.

Flurry was happy that it was fives rather than some lower number; he never did quite understand that a Yahtzee is a Yahtzee is a Yahtzee.  Tibby's keeping score now, as you can see, with Lady Faraday's help.

Almost immediately after Flurry's Yahtzee, Khamsin rolled one too.  It was sixes!  Flurry was so very impressed.  Rusty was getting kind of anxious about everyone else getting Yahtzees.

Sadly, Rusty never got his Yahtzee, and Cami never got one either.  But the rest of the game was not without excitement, albeit of a rather different kind.  Beppe, who had been hanging out with the polar bears, got bored of doing that and came to see what the kittens were up to.  He burst right into the thick of things and ran off with two of the dice.

Cheetahs are really useful to have around when these sorts of thing happen.  You can see in the picture above that Khamsin is already in hot pursuit; he was able to successfully overtake and pounce on Beppe before the puppy got too far.  I suspect he rather enjoyed it.  He didn't let Beppe up in a hurry, either; he held him down long enough for Lady Faraday to arrive and reclaim the dice.

After that episode, the rest of the game was almost anticlimactic; as I said, no one else got a Yahtzee.  Flurry won, which made him very happy.  It almost makes up for him causing his team to lose the Izit-Football match.  Here everyone is congratulating him, except Rusty, who was a bit sore about losing.

One might think that losing would make Rusty disinclined to play again, but in fact the opposite was true: losing whetted his appetite for a win, and he insisted that everyone keep playing.  The others had had a good time anyway - and Navarre and Tibby were eager for a chance to play - and so they kept playing Yahtzee quite happily until it was time for them to go to bed, and Lady Faraday was able to leave them to it with a clear conscience.

Speaking of clear consciences, Alfredo insisted that Beppe apologise to her for interrupting the game, muttering darkly about how he is being negligent in his duties as a parent and wishes his wife were alive because she would do so much better.  I'm not sure Beppe was exactly sorry, but he certainly was contrite.  You can tell by his subjugated posture.  She accepted his apology very graciously, of course.  Lady Faraday is always gracious.

The poker game was still going on, by the way.  It went on well into the night, long after the kittens had fallen asleep.  But I'll tell you about that later.

Puppy Things

You know how puppies have a nasty habit of chewing on their humans' slippers?  Well, Wild Republican puppies turn out to be no different.  Look:

Alfredo appears to be pretending not to have noticed. Fortunately these are AJD's old slippers and not his new ones. 

We didn't alert Beppe to the presence of the slippers in any way; we just looked over and there he was. 

Bored Puppies Do Odd Things; or, Beppe Undercover

Gilly and Beppe have finished the first book in the Wheel of Time series, and Gilly doesn't want to start in on the next one because Beppe will be going back to the north room before they have a chance to finish it.  This means that Beppe is bored and at loose ends.  His quest for interesting entertainment has led him to odd places.

You can't tell from the picture, but he's dangling about a foot above the floor here.  We're not sure what he's doing, exactly.  Is he looking for something?  Does he think that since he can't see us, we can't see him?  He's picked up a bit of Sleepyhead's James Bond complex; is this connected?

It's certainly cute.  It's also probably a sign that he's ready to go back to the north room, where there are more individuals to entertain him.  I hope the individuals are prepared.

Photographic Support for a Previous Post

In my most recent post, I mentioned that there have been some eccentric happenings in my room lately: Gilly is reading Beppe the first volume of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (Beppe really likes the parts about wolves), and Sleepyhead mysteriously ended up on one of my bookshelves.  I can now offer photographic evidence.

Here you get the sort of panoramic view, loosely speaking.  (You can see bits of Humphrey, Lady Faraday, and Seal in the foreground.) 

I'm still not quite sure how Sleepyhead got up there, but I have vague suspicions which centre on Sir Tristan.

Here's a closer view of Gilly and Beppe:

Beppe's still in my room; the others (except Sleepyhead and Seal) have returned to the north room.  He can get away with this because he's the youngest here.  The other young ones are here for an education, but he's really here because he's Alfredo's son, although the plan is that he'll be educated here once he's old enough.  He picks up a little here and there (it would be hard to avoid), but he's not formally a student yet, apart from his singing lessons.  So he's not missing anything by being in here, and the others get a chance to breathe.  Beppe is sort of hyperactive, being a puppy and all.  Alfredo is going to want him back soon, though.

The Wolves Are Intrigued

Not long ago, on the recommendation of KH (who edited them) I read the first two instalments of Robert Redick's (totally awesome) fantasy epic, the first volume of which is entitled The Red Wolf Conspiracy.  AJD wanted to read them after me, so I passed them along.  Alfredo and Beppe saw the book on his bed and were highly intrigued by it.  

Here they are, being intrigued:

That's Alfredo on the left, the one who looks more recognisably lupine.  Beppe really does look more or less like a ball of fur like that; AJD's first words after laying eyes on him were, 'He's rather hairy, isn't he?'

Their intention is to read The Red Wolf Conspiracy after AJD has finished it; they're very curious about the nature of a conspiracy involving wolves.  Alfredo is particularly interested, because he doesn't believe wolves are naturally part of conspiracies; his job, as he sees it, is to keep everyone in line.  If it were The Arctic Fox Conspiracy, Alfredo would merely nod sagely (and Murchison would be highly flattered).

Romance in the Wild Republic; or I Am Slightly Pathetic

There's not much in the way of romance in our particular chapter of the Wild Republic.  This is partly because the denizens of our chapter are predominantly male (by which I actually mean that they're all male), and partly because I am not a furry, and therefore I'm not particularly inclined to speculate about the sex lives of my stuffed animals.  It just seems wrong.

This is not to say that there is no romance at all.  I mean, Skandar (the white tiger) and Sithri (the Siamese cat) have been together ever since I brought Sithri home four years ago, and they've barely come up for air since.  But their romance just sort of made sense to me.  Skandar's this tough, scrappy, bad-ass tiger, and Sithri's this pampered, blue-blooded, opera diva Siamese, and I just sort of knew they were made for each other.  It was all very Lady and the Tramp, and I've always loved that movie.

Also, I've always kind of suspected there was something going on between Casper and Seymour, but since Casper and Seymour are both highly reserved, private individuals, as well as consummate gentlemen, I've never been entirely sure, and it seemed impolite to ask.

But these four are all private citizens, not citizens of the Wild Republic.  There hasn't really been any romance in the Wild Republic proper.  Not here, anyway.  However, there have been two offstage romances, so to speak, and both of them have recently borne fruit.  I'll almost certainly devote an entire post to both of them at some point, so I won't go into any details now, but I should at least allude to their existence.

First, there is the tragic romance in Alfredo's past.  Alfredo is the leader of the local chapter of the Wild Republic, which is appropriate because he is an alpha wolf.  He's also a widower.  His wife, Laura, died tragically and heroically in the line of duty a few months before Alfredo was sent to us, and he's still grieving because they were very much in love.  Wolves are devoted to their mates that way.  He'll probably never love again.

I felt so guilty about doing this to Alfredo that I went to great lengths to reunite him with his son, Giuseppe, whom everyone calls Beppe.  Beppe arrived here exactly a week ago, having spent the last few months competing in some highly prestigious singing competitions.  He has his mother's eyes.  It's very sad.  But Alfredo is much happier now that his son is here.

The second romance involves Sir Tristan, the emissary from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy.  See, he has a girlfriend - she's a serval - who is also highly ranked in the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, and so when he was posted here about a year and a half ago, she couldn't come with him because she had an important job of her own to do.  They do write lots of letters to each other, which sometimes goes horribly awry because Plouie is still postmaster general.  Sir Tristan has missed her terribly.

But all will soon be well, because I felt almost as guilty about separating Sir Tristan from his beloved as I did about Laura's death.  In other words, the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, delighted with the success of Sir Tristan's mission, has decided to send some of his colleagues to join him, and - hurrah! - Sir Tristan's girlfriend will be among them.  So they will be reunited before too long, and hopefully everything will be happy.

"Hopefully" is apropos, because of course she will be the only female member of the active set, and I'm not sure what this will do to the group dynamics, particularly among the adolescent cats.  Also, two of the other members of the new delegation are adult male felines. One of them is Sir Tristan's best friend, but the other is an unknown quantity, and I'm not sure what either of their relationships to her are like.  I hope there's no rivalry involved, genteel or otherwise, because I'd rather the romantic elements of my animals' lives remained low-key.

But yes, I worry so much about my stuffed animals not being happy enough that I shell out money to bring other animals in to make them happy.  I know.  You don't have to say it.