Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

got thru storm ok, all cats rattled but intact, power still out. only losses are food in fridge and a few diplomatic levels with poor cj, long story

aaaand now the main issue is sugarfoot being hissy all over again -- i don't think the family reunion is as warm as i had hoped...

@anthracite And just helping you update -- Peebles and CJ are now accounted for! That just leaves Shadow, the one I trust most to handle this on her own.

@xinjinmeng Yikes and happy birthday. <3

Welp, they all missed food call. I guess they've already chosen other spots to hunker down in.

That's OK. I seem to remember "community cat" advice sites plus some of you folks saying cats are instinctively pretty good at handling this stuff.

Last time we had a near-miss, Shadow and CJ missed last call and turned up fine the next morning. This storm is supposed to be rather worse, but I suspect they'll all figure out what to do. (Among other things, they seem to have annexed the abandoned basement next door to their territory, and it's probably full of good places to hide.)

And if anybody shows up at our door mewling (which honestly I kinda hope they don't, simply 'cause those winds are getting nasty), they'll be given the VIP treatment. Hopefully, we'll see everybody at breakfast tomorrow.

Current forecast is a Category 1 but it's gonna hit us right on the nose. Widespread power outages expected. Apparently the rest comes down to whether the winds are northeast or southeast. Definitely taking the cats inside. Not too worried. Intend to spend the day as stoned as possible. :p

@kelseyhusky I was skeptical when I saw the title because, I mean, Chadwick Boseman, but... yeah. Yeah. I would be all over this.

*some of the above story might be a lie; there's a reason that "tigers" rhymes perfectly with "liars" 🐯​

Also some of you may be pleased to know that the first thing I did when I came home from the supermarket with cat litter and supplies in tow, which I hand-carried rather than wake Peg up for bike services, was storm into the bedroom and announce "ENOUGH OF YOUR THESEUS, ACHILLES, AND ULYSSES! THE MIGHTIEST OF HEROES IS REZEYA MONTECORE SAINT HOBBES, NOBLE HALF-TIGRESS HALF-DAGO OF LEGEND! I BRING MAGICAL BOONS TO WARD YOU FROM THE IMPENDING STORM OF CAT!"

Apparently, as far as my incredibly soft-hearted boss is concerned, taking care of eight rambunctious cats in a hurricane counts as "family" for Family Health Leave. <3

@JulieSqveakaroo And yeah. she's doing a lot better today! Has been sharking my ankles again and seemed to enjoy a scritch while she was in the Mother Box. Still trusts me to pet the kittens, too, which is a good sign!

@JulieSqveakaroo re-kitterate? <3

My day so far: walk halfway to Petco, realize I forgot my mask, feed cats in exchange for permission to enter my own home, walk back out, discover Petco is closed, hustle to supermarket for the closest thing I can find to a litterbox, then carry that and some toys and a 14 lb. box of litter home.

(This is your donation money at work. <3 <3 <3 <3 )

Yeah. So, Zeta's gonna hit us right on the nose. We should be OK, but at a likely Cat 2, this is my first real hurricane and we are definitely gonna try to rustle up the cats for it. Which is gonna be fun, since Shadow and Shemp have both been bullying the younger cats and we'll probably have to have two different Cat Refuges set up (hence the extra litterbox).

Luckily, the storm seems to be a line drive and should pass overhead fairly quickly. Biggest concerns right now are power outages and OH GOD SO MANY ORNERY CATS.

Sugarfoot has settled down, though. Over the last 12 hours her record for not trying to slash me when I scriffle her neck is 4-1. :) I'm just so grateful the kittens have NOT apparently picked today to learn how to jump.

Pray to Bast for us. :)

Meh, Sugarfoot is still hissy and bitey and not receiving pets. She's *never* hissed at me before today, and it's really upsetting.

It's triggering the hell out of my neuroses, honestly. The three rules of stress according to my brain are:

(1) It's your fault
(2) It's going to happen forever
(3) If you fiddle with it obsessively right now, maybe you will fix it and I will stop tormenting you

This clearly does NOT work with cats. Giving Sugarfoot space and not testing the waters has been the most difficult thing, especially because I'm as much worried about her as I am annoyed, and very concerned that I did something wrong.

I know, I know. Other Cat People have already assured me this is fairly normal, but I've never had to deal with it in Sugarfoot before and... honestly, I miss scritching her and getting a purr.

"STRE-EH-EH-EHS EATING?"

(yes i think i'm hitting up grubhub for a very foolish peer-2-food life choice behavior)

i'm having kind of a stressful day but it was distinctly improved by these two gay lion boys on a discount store in yamagata, japan, who I think may have both just taken some kind of ghost pepper challenge.

https://goo.gl/maps/JY4PY9BukU6oYwm66

@Phorm @anthracite I'm still hopeful and VERY cautiously optimistic. Trump's last couple of attempts at an October Surprise flopped big-time and I definitely smell weakness. Plus Biden's polls are at least out of standard margin-of-error and 2016-error ranges, though I don't like how close things are in Pennsylvania one bit. I'm ready for anything, but still very tempted to place a large wager on Trump winning just to get Murphy's Law on our side...

From the producers of the Neon Genesis Evangelion reboot comes a bewildering existentialist kids' movie for all ages:

Schrodinger's Cats Can (Not) Dance!

Hey, folks. Peg sent out another round of requests for comments and opinions from some of her comic-industry friends, so I thought I might as well share the request out and see if any of you would like to give our current work a skim...

https://egypt.urnash.com/parallax-1-preview/

In particular, if any of you care one way or the other, we're thinking of rewriting and expanding the first-encounter scene(s) to clarify them a little bit. Any details you can give us about any part of the plot you had trouble with would be very welcome. <3