Alex

I don't know if I'm ready, but this little guy still needs a home.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll ever get over Maxx. Who knows how long the adoption process will take? Maybe I'll be ready by then.

What do you guys think? He's terribly cute, eh?

Update: I'm going to meet Alex this weekend. When I talked to his foster mom she said hardly anyone has been interested in him.

Maybe he does need me.

Popularity

AP: President Bush examines cancer cells under a microscrope at the NIH.

"So these are the guys who are more popular than me!

Big Teeth

AP/EyePress

Just a friendly reminder of why it's not smart to mess with watertiger.

Saving the Tiger

AFP/Peter Parks

Great news on the siberian tiger front. Chinese Scientists have launched an artificial insemination program in a bid to rescue the endangered siberian tiger.

Scientists at China's Henghedaozi Feline Breeding Center in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang artificially inseminated a four-year-old tigress with sperm from a healthy older male on Saturday, Xinhua said.

Only about 400 tigers remain in the wild.

China has been spectacularly successful in breeding the chinese panda in captivity. Let's hope they have similar success with the siberian tiger.

Snow Leopards!!

Reuters/Siggi Bucher

The beautiful cub lives in a zoo in Zurich. Kittenz of all species are unbelievably cute, eh? I loves me the big feeties.

Kittie Pileup

These kitties live with taleoftwokitties. Left to right: Weege, Mimulus, and Bluto.

More Kitties!!

The rest of Political Cat's crew. Back to front: Zingiber, Gogira, and Madu. They live with that beast Bandicoot. No wonder they're huddled together on the bed.

(I keed, I keed)

Feral Kitties

Well, not really feral, these are the kitties that own FeralLiberal. Pippen (top) and Emma in a tree.

Last Ice Picture

This one looks a little like a waterfall. And to be clear, not everything here is shrouded in inches of ice. Most of these ice formations are caused by excess drainage off of drainspouts or something onto an unfortunate piece of vegetation that was unable to move out of the way.

You'd think the world was coming to an end.

Iraqis, "Thanks America!!"

Attending university in America:



Attending university in Baghdad:

Ghetty Images/Walhiq Khuzaie

Bush is right! They have so much to be grateful for. Iraqi students would never have gotten this intense, real-world, gritty experience without us.

3 Bombs Kill at Least 70 at University in Baghdad

Missing your plush fix?

If you're missing your daily happy Maxx photo, just look on the side bar and click on the "My Photo Albums" link. On the Yahoo page, there's a "Lion Kitty Maxx" photo album.

Browse the plushiness to your heart's content. I'll be adding photos as I find time.

Even more ice!!

To celebrate my additional day off tomorrow. Damn but I likes me some ice. Oh, and the camera isn't tilted in this photo, the wind, and gravity, combined to create this elegant display. Our amazing planet.

Don't these photos look like stuff Eli might have taken?

More Ice

More ice pictures. Because it's pretty and makes nice sculptural shapes.

Winter Storm!!

I was hoping for enough snow to create some lovely winter scenes in my neighborhood. Alas, it was not to be. Instead I took pictures of icicles.

I have high hopes for some snow this evening!

Return of Cat Blogging

How delightful! Kevin Drum and his wife have acquired a new kitty from their local shelter to replace their late kitty Jasmine. She doesn't have a name yet, but Kevin is taking suggestions.

Stop by and congratulate him. The triumphant return of cat blogging!!

Florida kitties

The top kitty is Otto, also known as Snoppo, Charley's late kitty. The adorable little grey kitty in the bottom frame is Steve, who grew up to be a bruiser who rules the Florida neighborhood where he lives with Charley and his sister Tai.

Charley adopted Tai and Steve after Otto went to kitty heaven.

I don't know about you guys, but seeing all of our plush life kitty buddies makes my heart feel better.

British Kitties

The lovely Moonbotica's abyssinian kitties. George (top) and Heidi (middle).

Separated at birth

Pictures of Mrstrailerco's late kitty, who looked remarkably like Maxx.

Oh, if they could only stay with us forever.

Tidbit

Had to steal this photo. From cuteoverload.com. Is there anything on earth cuter than a teensy little kitten?

hat tip to watertiger.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Copyright: Juan Casado (skylook.net)

This amazing photo of Maxx's comet, vertically compressed, was taken at sunset last Friday from mountains above Catalonia, Spain.

(Yes, it's actually McNaught's Comet, but only because the astronomy world hasn't been clued in yet.) Hat tip to Cardamon in comments.

Decapitatage

Via BBC News, Saddam Hussein's top aides hanged:

Two of Saddam Hussein's key aides have been hanged in Baghdad, two weeks after the chaotic execution of the former Iraqi president.

There were "no violations" this time, officials said, but Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, was decapitated as he was hanged.

Well, he wasn't taunted, but they did rip his head off. I guess that's alright then. / snark

Jesus fucking christ. Maybe this is why the civilized world has abandonned capital punishment. What's next? boiling in oil? drawing and quartering?

Bring it On

AP/Charles Dharapak

Bush and his chief controller, Darth Cheney, are vowing to escalate the war no matter what Congress or the American people want. Via the WAPO - Bush: 'We're Going Forward':

In an interview broadcast last night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition.

"In this situation, I do, yeah," Bush said. "I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward."

Sounds like a "Bring It On!" moment to me. Someone should remind Bush what happened the last time he threw the gauntlet down like this. Hey chimpy!! "how's that working out for you bud?"

If chimpy continues to thumb his nose at the public and the congress, I predict that even republican senators and congressmen will finally get sick of him and pull the plug.

Too bad they'll be about 5 years too late.

Note: I chose the photo above because it's the perfect illustration of just how alone Bush is with his Iraq escalation policy and a good example of how powerful a well-composed environmental portrait can be.

Henriette

Henriette is ready for her close-up Mr. DeMille.

The lovely and talented Henriette lives with the lovely and talented Plum P. in Canada.

The Little Sociopath

If you never thought that Bush was pathological, you need to see the tape of Bush on 60 Minutes. He said this evening:

"The Iraqi people owe us a debt of gratitude."

Really? We invaded, uninvited, and broke their country. At least a 150,000 Iraqi civilians have died, the country is in ruins, and there is no end in sight.

Iraqi civilians are fleeing the country at the rate of 10,000 per month, and those who are too poor, or are unable to flee are basically "queing up to die," in the words of one correspondant.

Ethnic cleansing is a fact of life.

Things couldn't get much worse. (Well, aliens could land, I suppose, and unleash a plague or something.) And yet, Bush says they owe us a debt of gratitude.

Fuck you Mr. Bush. Fuck you.

Maxx's Comet, the Comet McNaught

AP/Jeff McIntosh

The Comet McNaught, photographed over Devil's Head Mountain (Alberta) in the Canadian Rockies on January 11, 2007.

Pretty Picture of the Day

Reuters/Jason Lee

From the International Ice Festival in China. Lovely.

Ntodd's kiddenz

Sam! who was found as a teeny little guy in Ntodd's garage. Two years, whoops, three years later, he is the elegant young teen you see today nesting in Ntodd's office.



Lola, who is actually a boy, and one of the punkz.



Vinnie, the other punk.

Wolcott's Cats

James Wolcott, the god of snark, has been very selfish in not sharing his delightful bengal kitties with us. So, in the interests of the blogosphere, I've decided to post pictures of what I think his kitties might look like.

Here's one of them, lounging in Wolcott's upper westside apartment.



And here's the two older ones, after reading Wolcott's latest blog post:



And lastly, here is Wolcott's newest bengal kitten:



Now I realize that Wolcott doesn't read this blog, but if he should happen to, if he'd kindly send me some jpegs of the real Wolcott kitties, I'll be happy to post them.

Plushy blogging - the final session

I've been staring at my camera all week, knowing there were a few frames of Maxx still on there. I just didn't have the heart to download them before tonight.

This photo was taken on the sixth. (yes, there were originally two photos up on the post, but I felt like the second was an invasion of Maxx's privacy) I used to love how he'd catch his little tongue between his teeth like that. RIP sweet buddy.

Update: Barry mentions in comments that the comet McNaught became prominently visible about the day of Maxx's death, and that maybe the comet appeared to take him off to the stars. I only hope his spirit is somewhere where he feels safe and warm.


The Comet McNaught, photographed on January 6th. Copyright © 2007 by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann (Austria)

Cassie's housemates

Here is Bella (top) and Romeo who live with Ilze and Cassie.

Fiona!!

Lovely Fiona lives with Dave™ and his family in California. If I remember the story correctly, Dave and his wife had just lost one of their kitties to old age, and the very next day they heard a tiny voice crying from under their front porch. It was Fiona, who has grown up to be a lovely kitty.

Plush Life Buddies

I'd like to continue the tradition of posting photos of some of the plush life family's kittenz. It certainly will make me feel better. So I'll start with photos of Odin, who lives with geor3ge in Indiana.





Please send me your own pics.

Eschaton Refugees, Welcome

Haloscan sucks ass. Feel free to vent here if you'd like about Pat Buchanan's insanity, chimpy idiocy, or any other subject.