AJD and The Eleventh Hour

There's a lovely book called The Eleventh Hour, by Graeme Base, about an elephant who has a party for his eleventh birthday, with his ten best friends and eleven games, only to find that someone had eaten the entire birthday feast.  The reader has to piece together the mystery based on clues in the illustrations.

It occurred to AJD that some of the denizens of the Wild Republic might appreciate The Eleventh Hour, particularly Barry and Rusty (the characters include an elephant and a tiger), and the younger ones.  So he snagged Barry and the juveniles and started reading, and it turned out everyone else was interested too.  The winter animals even came back from their snow-watch vigil.

Notice how Leprosy has appropriated a prime position for himself, and how Plouie seems to have misunderstood where the action is supposed to be.

He had to turn the pages himself; it would have been cuter if the others had helped, but they were too enraptured.

Afterwards, of course, the reading party turned into a general cuddling party.  I love how happy they all look.

Angel Joe and Navarre are ensuring that Nicodemus doesn't get too near to the book.

Something Sweet

In the interest of offering decisive evidence that Plouie is capable of more than simply crazy freak-outs, here is a picture of him on snow-watch vigil with Vim. 

Plouie can actually be very sweet, when he's calmer.  (He is, after all, essentially a ball of cuddly fluff.)  One of the ways to get him calmer is to set him watching for snow.  The appearance of snow, whether it's falling or fallen, particularly calms him, but even if there's no snow on the horizon, just the prospect of potential snow does the trick.  There's no snow around here anymore, what with the warming weather (touch wood), but Plouie's still content to watch for it.  His attention span is short enough that he doesn't get distressed if it doesn't appear.

At first we were concerned that the snow would actually wind him up; like AJD pointed out, he's from the southern hemisphere, so he might not be expecting to see snow this time of year.  Things are different in Antarctica, though; he's probably used to seeing snow all year round, so maybe the time of year doesn't matter.  Besides, Plouie doesn't really have a concept of time anyhow.

Plush Kittens Are Silly Too

Just to prove that plush kittens are every bit as capable of being adorably silly as live kittens, I present the following cat pyramid:

Top: Flurry

Medium, left to right: Khamsin, Navarre

Bottom, left to right: Cami, Mahler, Rusty

Flurry got to be on top because he's the youngest, and he was really excited about that.  Rusty kind of wanted to be on top, but then he realised that being on the bottom meant he was one of the strongest, and decided that this was even more awesome.

The Royal Seal; or, In Honour of March

Navarre and Nicodemus have recently developed an interest in AJD's computer.  More specifically, they've developed an interest in watching AJD and Sir Theo playing online Dominion, which has been generalised into an interest in the computer.  We've been encouraging this interest in Nicki's case because it keeps him from eating things.

When Navarre and Nicodemus frame AJD's laptop, they look kind of like the Royal Seal of Great Britain.  Here, I'll show you:

The alternative title of this photograph is In like a lion, out like a lamb, in honour of the old adage, 'March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb,' which is extremely relevant because we are in fact at the beginning of March.

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.

Even My Owl Is Sick of My Dissertation

Lord Twilby has been attempting to help me with my dissertation the last couple of weeks.  Here he is:

This picture illustrates quite nicely the emotional states of both myself and Twilby at the moment, with respect to my dissertation.  We're of one mind in this: we're thinking of running away and joining the circus together. (Woman and Owl!  A fabulous double-act!) But he at least doesn't have to feel guilty when he decides to fall asleep rather than work on the blasted thing.

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.