Cats – Robot Claw

Advent

December 1, 2023

Advent is upon us (well… in two days it is) and you know what that means: Advent Calendars! This year, somehow, we have five.

This is perhaps the most mundane: 24 days of various skincare products. KLS bought this one for herself and started opening it about 5 days ago so she will finish it before we travel. It’s mostly small or sample-sized cosmetics.

She also got this super-fancy (and expensive) Florasis calendar, which shipped from China. It’s a sturdy box with a magnetic clasp and though it’s not visible in the photo has a lustrous coating that sparkles in the light.

Inside each of the 12 doors is a high-quality cosmetic item. As you can see door 1 was opened this morning, and contained a bottle of ‘Botanical Hydra-Sooth Balancing Cleansing Oil‘.

Since cats are well-known for their love of ceremony, naturally we got them an advent calendar as well!

It’s another fancy affair: well constructed with a meal behind each of the 24 doors.

Zoffy approved of day 1, which was a chicken pate 🙂

And look at this: a second advent calendar for our kitties. This was a gift from JK and is a dry treat version. I’m pretty sure Loppi will be a big fan since she love treats. We’ll open the first door when KLS gets home later.

Lastly there is this guy: ‘The Star Chaser‘. This is a jigsaw puzzle advent calendar!

It’s got 24 doors but only 19 puzzles since some doors contain portions of a larger puzzle. It seems each day is part of a story and the goal is to ‘find’ a magical Christmas star.

The box warns me not to open more than one box a day lest I interfere with the magic. Maybe I’ll break that oath since I want to finish it before we travel 🙂

The day 1 puzzle was a big surprise since it’s not only a postcard but also double-sided. Since this is a plastic Pintoo puzzle, the quality is sky-high and it was fun to put together. The calendar includes no instructions or images (you can get them online) but I didn’t earn my nickname of The Prodigy of Puzzles without reason and I knocked this one together in only a moment.

Did you get any advent calendars this year? If so, which ones? And will you be good and open only one door a day?

Chitocerium

September 6, 2021

It’s time for a new model kit. I don’t often do posts about kits these days, but this one is unusual:

It’s a tiny cat kit! This is one of several kits in a new line called Chitocerium, which apparently means ‘the protectors of the gates between worlds’. Yes it’s silly, but the kits are cool.

This kit is small and inexpensive (about $10) and all the pieces fit in the palm of your hand. It’s an easy one to build, but sandpapering down the flash was a little tricky due to the tiny scale. This segment for instance was made from 5 different pieces:

About a quarter of the total pieces in the kits are tails! There’s 8 to choose from; which one would you pick:

It took me only about ten minutes to assemble, and is very small but can be posed in many familiar cat poses. It’s an extraordinary kit for its size. Here it is next to a LEGO minifig;

As the box suggests this comes in two colours, and the line also includes some extraordinary figure kits of android girls (one of which I have). Given that this is a line from a company (Good Smile) not necessarily known for plastic model kits, I’m impressed.

Loppi Update

June 1, 2021

We’ve had Loppi for a couple of months now and it’s time for an update!

Short version: she’s great 🙂

While she was a little more nervous than most when we got her, this only lasted a few days and before we knew it she followed us everywhere. We are both fascinating to her and this quickly overcame her nervousness.

She spends about half her time playing and the rest watching critters out the window. Her favorite ‘toy’ is Zoffy, and thankfully Zoffy thinks Loppi is a lot of fun as well. They play together every day!

Loppi has grown quite a bit since we got her, and is probably about 7 lbs now. She’s got a way to go to catch up to Zoffy (who is about 11.5) but since Loppi loves food I don’t doubt she’ll get there one day.

She didn’t take long to become a lap cat either, and spends many evenings sleeping in Kristins lap. Isn’t she cute?