Happy Birthday Michelle!!

You are fabulous and an inspiration to us all.

kai, thx, bai

Eeeeeep!! rare leopard cubs in Paris!!!

h/t to Plum P.

For a month and a half, the Jardin des Plantes in Paris has kept the birth of two Chinese panther babies under wraps "to confirm the health of the mother and cubs." But now the cat's out of the bag.

Your daily kittehs - caturday edition

Space!!!!

We haven't had a pretty space picture lately. This absolutely stunning image was released by the Hubble peeps yesterday.

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside over 10,000 light-years away, in the southern constellation Pyxis (the Compass).

NGC 2818 is one of very few planetary nebulae in our galaxy located within an open cluster. Open clusters, in general, are loosely bound and they disperse over hundreds of millions of years. Stars that form planetary nebulae typically live for billions of years. Hence, it is rare that an open cluster survives long enough for one of its members to form a planetary nebula. This open cluster is particularly ancient, estimated to be nearly one billion years old.

The spectacular structure of NGC 2818 (also known as PLN 261+8.1) contains the outer layers of a sun-like star that were sent off into interstellar space during the star's final stages of life. These glowing gaseous shrouds were shed by the star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core.

Planetary nebulae can have extremely varied structures. NGC 2818 has a complex shape that is difficult to interpret. However, because of its location within the cluster, astronomers have access to information about the nebula, such as its age and distance, that might not otherwise be known.

Planetary nebulae fade away gradually over tens of thousands of years. The hot, remnant stellar core of NGC 2818 will eventually cool off for billions of years as a white dwarf. Our own sun will undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so.

This Hubble image was taken in November 2008 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colors in the image represent a range of emissions coming from the clouds of the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen.

Link to Hubble page here. Please click on the image and enjoy the full resolution version - it's lovely.

And how happy for all of us that our new president actually believes in science? YAY!!

DOAN BE SAD....

...buckeye... many shelter kittehs find wonderful forever homes and live happily evah after. Like our Ripley.

Iz HUMP dai...

U can haz NU pictures everydai of da week!!

More noir kitteh

Maddie is still freaking...

Ripley, nos sTiL pink

Wut??

I can be mysterious 2

and artsy!!

Iz Monday

And we iz sTiL outrageously cute. Kai, thx, bai

Halloooooo!!

Exhibit A of why we doan play "laser pointer" very often. Maddie gets too worked up.

Finally, the girls get back to their skoool werk after a long holiday break.

Ripley sez, "I haz ALL DA TOYS!!"

Maxx Blogging! and WHY I SUCK

Sorry for the lack of posts this week - after a fall dominated by the election and too much work, I've been trying to get my life in order. I atone by delving into my photo archives for some early photos of Maxx.

I took this one on the very first night he came to live with me. He's squinting because this was pre-SLR and he wasn't liking the FLASHY-THINGY.

Poor kitteh- here he is the day he got shaved at the vet - his fur was so matted there was no way around it. He didn't seem to mind, but he sure did look silly.

This photo is about 6 weeks in - he'd survived the awful surgery, was recovering, getting healthy and enjoying a plethora of kitteh toys.

And this might be one of my all time favorite photos - not because it's such a great photo (it's not) but because of what he's doing in the picture. I took this while he was watching a show on Discovery Channel about Humboldt Squid. It was the damnedest thing I'd ever seen - he watched the entire show from start to finish, completely fascinated. When the squids would appear out of the depths he would literally drop his jaw open a bit as if to say, "oooooh! look at that!" Anytime the show aired I'd put it on and he'd faithfully watch it. To this day I don't know what he found so interesting (from a cat's perspective). It's not like he knew what a squid was - they aren't actually the natural prey of kittehs.

Another thing he watched from start to finish was the movie "Kingdom of God." You noes the one, with Orlando Bloom about the crusades and Saladin besieging Jerusalem. Your guess is as good as mine. He was even rapt during the slow parts. He was a funny little guy.

I still miss him everyday.

Plushy gurlz will return later tonight.

It's a plushy new year

'tis a veritable plushycouppia! (photos are high resolution, btw)

New Year's Eve kittehs

...are ready to party down. What R all of U up to tonight?

Anyone gotz any good resolutions?

Sorry - we're back!

Sorry - family stuff has interfered with plushy posting related program activities since xmas day.

Pics are high resolution for your plushy viewing pleasure.

Christmas Eve Ripley

Why, you ask, are there no pictures of Maddie? why because everytime I pointed the camera at her she jumped down and ran off to chase a spot of light on the carpet that was reflecting off the camera. BAD MADDIE!!

Photos of Ripley are high resolution (click on them) and yes, I know the first one is a little out of focus - she wasn't being particularly helpful either. I gave up after 5 frames.

Happy Holidays!!

Memorial Mid-week Maxx blogging

He was such a boy kitteh.

CATURDAY!!! CATURDAY!!!!

Scritch scritch scratch!

I spies a birdie outside

I put mah right footie in.... noes, I not does teh hokey pokey.

I sees birdies in da air...
...dey flies away. Feh.

Another day in chez fourlegs