After a long day of relaxing in the sun and cool grass, what’s better than a little after dinner catnip buzz:
It’s good to be the king. I just love this cat. I hope I never ever have a skinny cat. I want them big and lazy and fluffy. This is what housecats are meant to do.
Josie
You know, John, I think Tunch actually likes his kitty tower. In all your recent pictures, he is relaxing very close to it. He would probably miss it if you took it away.
Ahasuerus
Those pictures make me believe that if we are very very lucky we get reincarnated as cats.
WereBear
@Ahasuerus: A cat someone loves. The alternative is terrible!
My friends say they want to come back as one of my cats.
PeakVT
This is what housecats are meant to do.
I bet the floor holds itself down pretty well on its own.
Litlebritdifrnt
Meet Skeeter!
http://crittersbybritty.com/2013/05/19/meet-skeeter/
Hopefully Flossie and the cats will love him.
pokeyblow
My cat is a hairy fatass. I had the groomer give him a “lion cut” and was looking forward to how silly he’d look, all skinny with a big hairy bubble head.
Well, he’s so fat he basically looks the same… just with shorter hair.
Dead Ernest
‘Having always been skeptical about the old canard, that cats will always land on their feet,Tunch decided to climb up the Everest-like foolishness his human had lugged into the house.
He jumped.
While he had the wind knocked out of him, and a couple of Tribbles as well, he was more pleased to see that his cynicism was warranted.
And that the human was every bit as goofy as he had thought.’
Dee Loralei
@Litlebritdifrnt: he is totally adorable. Congrats! And also to ImOnlyLurking for his new dog.
Yatsuno
@Litlebritdifrnt: PUPPEH!!!
Oh and certain parties have been notified and should be along shortly.
gogol's wife
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Squee! He looks so thoughtful.
Tunch is the king. I love fat cats too (I know, I know, they tend to have health problems, so do starving cats on the street, which is what my cat would be if I hadn’t taken him in, and I don’t overfeed him, witness his svelte little sister who gets the same food he does). We refer to Louis as “the Normandie” when he’s in that pose.
asiangrrlMN
There’s my fluffy, handsome, lovable boy! I just want to blow a big raspberry on that belleh. You spoil me, Cole. You really do. Thanks!
@Dee Loralei: Thanks for the heads up. I love seeing Tunchie in all his resplendent glory!
@Litlebritdifrnt: Aw, what a handsome boy! Congrats to you and Skeeter.
@Yatsuno: Dee Lorelei beat you by a whisker!
ETA: Hon, why are you spelling your name wrong now?
Dee Loralei
@Yatsuno: Yea I sent her the “Cat Signal” alert, too.
WereBear
Actually, since an activity is very good for cats. Last night’s My Cat From Hell featured a 9 month old Siamese whose people did not get that. It’s like leaving a cat battery charging for too long.
Cats need to crank it up and let it wind down, regularly.
What makes our cats explode?
Suzanne
God, I love that cat so much. I like them fat, too. My cats, one of whom is a pudgeball (though nowhere near Tunch’s proportions), went on a hunger strike a few months ago. She got all skinny. Once we switched their food, she got herself all gloriously round again. It’s charming. Though she seems to really want pets and affection while I am using the bathroom, which seems inappropriate.
Yatsuno
@Dee Loralei: I’m obligated, it’s in the fake wedding vows. Plus if I don’t alert her I hear about it for days. Not. Fun.
@asiangrrlMN: FYWP decided out of nowhere it would be a hoot to send people into mod hell for replying to me. Not everyone, just certain lucky specimens. So I disemvoweled myself. It seemed to clear up the issue.
I’m quite upset at efgoldman. He spake blasphemy about me!
Just Some Fuckhead
My cat hunts me about a half-dozen toys every night so he stays in shape by bringing pens and pencils and rubber bands and markers from downstairs to upstairs and placing them in a pile on the floor beside whichever side of the bed I’m sleeping on.
Roger Moore
In the post household being taken over by vermin age, at least. I’d add serving as a lap warmer, also, too.
WereBear
@Litlebritdifrnt: Awww, who wouldn’t love him! He has that wrinkled forehead, too; I’m such a pushover for that.
Roger Moore
@Yatsuno:
You fired up the cat signal?
Anne Laurie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Congratulations.
Looking at the photo (and having lived with adolescent dogs before), Flossie, the cats, your legs, and the furniture are going to get many opportunities to be “loved” (or at least humped) by him. You’re experienced Boxer people, so I’m sure you’ll deal efficiently…
Suffern ACE
@Litlebritdifrnt: I had a boxer mix who looked almost like that growing up. She lived to be 18 and I miss her. But…do not be fooled when that doggie furrows its brow like that into thinking that the dog being adorable and inquisitive. That may be so. But chemists also furrow their brows while inventing high explosives. Just saying.
gogol's wife
@Suzanne:
My cats’ motto is the family that pees together, squees together. Or something like that.
raven
So having unhealthily overweight animals is cool because they are cute?
raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Skeeter got’s a woody.
khead
KITTEH and PUPPEH goodness.
Suzanne
@raven: Yes. Duh.
raven
@Suzanne: Till you bury them years early.
Suzanne
I would like to once again note that the iPad site SUCKS and that users cannot click links or copy/paste test from this POS, and so I cannot see Skeeter. DAMNIT. I am sure he is adorable.
dewzke
I miss my beagle/basset/whatever else mix.
Litlebritdifrnt
@raven: Yeah Skeeter ain’t been snipped yet, but he will be soon, luckily Flossie is already spayed otherwise there is no way we would let him in the house.
wmd
Finally some pictures that show off the new theme. Looks good and now with moar Tunch.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: It’s a balancing act. Do I make them lose weight, or do I make sure that I get a decent night’s sleep so I can keep making the mortgage payments?
Violet
Love Tunch! He’s perfectly content and seems to love his cat tower. I bet he’d be sad if you got rid of it.
@Litlebritdifrnt:
What a cutie! Can’t wait to see more pictures. Hope all goes well.
raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Bohdi has been fixed for 9 years and he still sprouts one now and then.
Howard Beale IV
There’s always My Ozzie, the featured smooshed-face orange Persian in the October page of the 2013 Pets of Balloon Juice Wall Ccalendar….
Wolfdaughter
@pokeyblow: My friends have 4 felines, 2 Maine Coon mixes, a male and a female; a Siamese who is entirely brown w/green eyes, named Coco; and a black-and-gray tabby, a huge former tom who loves parties. The male Maine Coon just got a “lion cut”. He doesn’t look anywhere near as big because his fur made him look huge. My friends feel sorry for him the way he looks now, but I don’t. To me he looks raffish, sort of like a street tough but in a Disneyish way.
My kitty, a big long-haired orange tabby with white on his face and belly, likes to lie on the rug just like Tunch. In fact, he’s learned to do what I call “cute kitty”. If I say to him, “Do cute kitty”, and especially if I curl up my front paws to my chest, he’ll roll on his back and curl his front paws, with his back paws also up in the air. So I croon to him, over and over again, “Cute kitty! Cute kitty!” and he’ll roll to one side and the other, pausing meantime on his back with his paws in the air. I also croon all sorts of other loving things.
This little guy is the most entertaining cat I’ve lived with. I’ll bore you all with other stories when appropriate.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ahasuerus: Love your nym. By any chance are you a Dorothy L. Sayers/Lord Peter Wimsey fan?
Reason I ask, Peter’s mother (Honoria Lucasta, Dowager Duchess of Denver) had a notorious cat named Ahasuerus, who famously scratched or bit every visitor to the Dower House according to several books in the Wimsey canon.
sacrablue
@Litlebritdifrnt: He’s a lucky little boy. Congrats!
pokeyblow
@Wolfdaughter: Your cat’s markings are like mine’s (the fat one)… orange and white. He’s adorable… it’s been noted more than once that he looks like Ted Kennedy.
As for the lion cut, I’m guessing they like it in warm weather, less so if cold. In a regular 68- or 70-degree household it’s probably not a problem.
SiubhanDuinne
@Litlebritdifrnt: He is adorable! I know he’ll fit right in. Keep us well supplied with pictures and anecdotes, please?
Violet
@pokeyblow:
Do you live in a cold climate? Here in the heat and humidity, 77 degrees is as low as I’ll turn the a/c during the summer. I try to keep it higher to save money, but it does get warm. Keep the ceiling fans going to make it feel cooler.
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne: I wonder why you are having that trouble. I use the iPad almost exclusively and apart from a few little hiccups the first day or so of the rebuild, I haven’t had any issues — in fact, I like it much better than previously.
asiangrrlMN
@Yatsuno: The obligatory FYWP inserted here. What did efgoldman say?!?
pokeyblow
@Violet: Just a figure of speech, having heard numerous times that those were “comfortable room temperatures.” Come Winter, I turn the heat down to 63 or 64 (but use a space heater in my bedroom because cold air sleeping gives me problems), Summertime it’s the opposite, but use fans. I’m not a big A/C person.
schrodinger's cat
Yay Tunch! I want squish him and snorgle him. Belly floof photos FTW!
My Tunchesque kitteh who went through an ordeal recently and lost weight because of it, is doing much better. Her excess weight was making her unhappy, she seems so much happier now. She is more confident and playful. Now the challenge will be to keep her at this weight.
pokeyblow
@Violet: By the way, to repeat this finding for the millionth time, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. Eighty degrees dry with a fan is no problem.
karen
Has anyone here watched “My Cat From Hell” on Animal Planet? I wonder what Jackson Galaxy would think of Tunch!
WereBear
Big fan here. He has a book out about how he got into it and what drives him; very heart-tugging.
TaMara (BHF)
Kittehs and puppies to end an already excellent day. Thank you.
Persia
@Suzanne: I had a fat cat and he was fantastic. I have two average-weight cats now, and they’re also fantastic. Fluffy’s a must though. I’m not sure I could have a short-haired cat.
imonlylurking
Let me try it again:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z45/imonlylurking/dogonthefloor.jpg
ETA: It worked! Now you guys can see our Huskie/Frost Giant mix.
WereBear
@Persia: We had three longhairs (pretty common in the NE) and then we fostered a 3 week old. Who had short hair. Who we kept.
Well, just look at him. The Baby
WereBear
@Persia: Tristan now, helping with the podcast.
Tristan helps with everything!
WereBear
@imonlylurking: I love sled dogs. I had a Malamute mix who was fantastic!
WereBear
@efgoldman: It was because he was found in a field, an orphan.
A potential Isolde would be very disappointed now, ifyouknowhatImean.
imonlylurking
@WereBear: He really is adorable. My roommate got the contact information for his vet so he gets to meet our vet this week.
Odie Hugh Manatee
The poor guy looks like he rolled on his back and his weight has pinned him in place. ;p
Someone needs to ‘shop the caption “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” into the photo.
Ahasuerus
@SiubhanDuinne: I confess to minimal knowledge of Ms. Sayers and her Lord Peter Wimsey oeuvre, but I am pleased to share a name with so worthy a denizen. It gives me something to which I can aspire.
trollhattan
I haz moderation? Again, try I.
Lawd, lawd, where iz mah diggnatah?
Tunch haz eated it.
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the tub.
Todd
@Just Some Fuckhead:
When mine was younger, all he’d ever bring from his nightly outdoor wanderings was mouse guts, which he planted by the front door so I could step on them in bare feet. Now that he’s older, he picks the carpet ragged at my bedroom door at 4 am, because he knows I’ll throw his fat ass outdoors where he wants to be, killing things and fighting raccoons and other cats.
Bonnie
I agree with you. I love your cat. I have a fat, roly-poly calico.
schrodinger's cat
In the first photo, is Tunch giving you a come hither look and telling you to draw him like your french kitteh?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@schrodinger’s cat:
I think Tunch is using that look to draw John closer to trap him in his gravitational well.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
I was going to say, “I think she’d expect it,” but I was thinking of Heloise and Abelard.
WaterGIrl
I have been summoned for jury duty, beginning tomorrow. No phone, no iPad, no computer, no iPod, no electronic devices of any kind. What the hell are they thinking???
pat
@WaterGIrl:
Tell them you can tell just by looking at the crook that he is guilty. Should get you excused…?
Mnemosyne
@WaterGIrl:
And I thought it was bad that the LA county courthouses have banned knitting needles. (Crochet hooks were okay, but no knitting.) Heck, the jury waiting areas have free wi-fi here!
Maybe they were having problems with jurors checking their email during trials?
danah gaz
It looks like maybe Tunch is digesting Rosie.
Has he put on weight?
SIA
@SiubhanDuinne: But didn’t the cat like Miss Harriet Vane?
Maude
Tunch is floofy.