Safely in Seattle, land of Catzilla.

[seanan_mcguire]

After a completely uneventful flight -- my in-flight entertainment deck was busted, so I put on my iPod, cued up my "all 'Rain King,' all the time" playlist, which is ninety-plus minutes of versions of the same song, put my head down, and passed out -- I landed safely in Seattle at a little past eleven o'clock last night. I was promptly met by Satyr and Sandi, the editors of Ravens in the Library, as well as good friends of mine, who bore me boldly off to Chez Tinney, hence to be united with my new giant feline companion.

(Alice is, in fact, giant. She's more than doubled in size since the last time I saw her, and may actually be bigger than my mother's new puppy, Smudge. She's also fluffy as hell, and possessed of the world's plumiest tail. I'm afraid there may be truth to my mother's accusation of my desire for a Maine Coon being born partially out of tail withdrawal.)

Today, my plans include "finishing the new Vel story" and "dealing with kitten contracts," as well as a healthy, happy dose of "work on art cards." Life is pretty good. I'll be here in the Pacific Northwest through Sunday, when I'll fly home to begin the laborious process of introducing Lilly and Alice to one another. Since they're both pretty mellow cats with vast amounts of fur, I'm not anticipating much trouble, although you should be anticipating kitten pictures sometime early in the next week.

Oh, and since I seem to have forgotten to announce it -- my mother got a puppy! Her name is Smudge, after jim_hines's fabulous fire spider, and she's gorgeous. She's half Malamute, half Rottweiler, and has those amazing crystal blue Malamute eyes. She was taken from her mother too young, but I've hand-raised kittens, and was able to bully my mother into going to the pet store for puppy formula. (I try not to bully my mother. But when the puppy's too young, we buy it the formula. This is how the game works.) Smudge is doing fabulously, and she's getting bigger by the day. We're introducing her to Lilly a little at a time, since she's likely to accompany my mother when Mom comes over to clean at my place.

So I'm safe, alive, and doing just fine, thanks to the wonderful people at Virgin America and their wonderful flying machines. How's everybody else, out there in the world? I lack deep thoughts today. Give me yours.

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Goblin fans everywhere humbly submit a request for Smudge pics :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

She is crazy adorable. I should be able to post pictures of her very soon. Now stop corrupting my mother before I'm forced to come to your home state and have words with you!

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Aha! Now the real reason for your trip comes out :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Well duh.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you have a gorgeous kitten and your mom has a great puppy.
Young animals Everywhere. Ded from teh cute.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

They're really fantastic. I couldn't be happier.

[snowcoma.livejournal.com]

If she's anything like my Toaster, when she's in your lap you'll have to periodically pull her tail out of your mouth. Ah, fluffy cats, so exasperating, so worth every minute of it. *pets her furry babies*

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

And Maine Coons have such amazing voices! When Alias was little, she used to ring like a telephone. I forget how many times I tried to answer the cat.

[snowcoma.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* Hey, at least it was for you!

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Nah, my husband. He's the one who feeds the cats. l)

When Alias was little I thought she was mute. The whole time she was with her littermates at myparents' I never heard a peep out of her. When she was weaned we took her home and set her up with food, litter, etc in one room...
...and as soon as we left the room that little fluffball howled like a fire siren.

She still has an amazing repertoire of sounds- with conversational inflections, too!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I have mockingbirds outside my window filling that particular niche. It's tedious.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

She's almost as much tail as cat. It's daunting.

[ravenclawed.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see pics of Alice (Smudge too)!

I got my copy of Ravens in the Library on Wednesday. I plan on starting it this weekend.

I'm off next week! A whole week to catch up on my cleaning, cross-stitching, and DVD watching.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yay Ravens in the Library!

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Malamutes don't have blue eyes. It's a disqualification in the breed standard. Siberians have blue eyes, Malamutes have brown eyes.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

While it is a disqualification from the show-quality breed standard, it does happen, possibly because of Siberian further back in the lines, and the Malamute blue is a different color from Siberian blue. We found photo reference. Her eyes are Malamute blue.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Okay, fair enough.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I recieved my Toby-inna-pond on Monday, and picked up my Ravens from my US maildrop on Wednesday. Squee indeed.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

[kyrielle]

I'm back at work. I'm valuable, and I'm learning what's changed but I still know what I'm doing.

The commute in the afternoon still stinks, tho. Not that I really expected THAT to change in three months.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

That's awesome.