Weekend Plans Post: Learning to Tell Them Apart
The three brothers were all from the same litter and the first week we had them, we could barely tell them apart.
The vet came earlier this week for the rabies shot and we noticed that we can tell Ruckus apart from the other two by sight, but we still need a second to figure out if we had picked up Radar or Rumpus. I mean, Radar is built like a long-distance runner and Rumpus has more of a cuddlebuddy dad-bod thing going on but if they’re lying down, you’re not going to immediately recognize which is which until they walk over and demand attention.
We explained our predicament to the vet and she gave the kitties a once-over and figured out how we can do it at a glance.
It has to do with their stripeys on their cheeks.
Rumpus’s cheek lines touch, Radar’s don’t.
Here’s Rumpus:
And here’s Radar:
The mnemonic: The guy who likes to cuddle has lines that touch. Touching == Rumpus.
(By comparison, here’s Ruckus. He’s easy to tell on sight. He’s the one who looks like Charles Bronson. I tried to get a couple of shots of him like I got from the other two but he was *NOT* having it.)
Now I know that most of you all will never have to use this in your day to day life but, seriously, learning this was the highlight of my week. Of course, I still can’t tell the difference of them head on… but, in profile, I now know what name to call.
This weekend will include more practice, I tell you what.
Also, more time wrestling with Baldur’s Gate 3. Dang, that game is good. (But it’s one heck of a time commitment! Like, if you want to advance the story? It’ll take at least an hour.)
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “All Four Of Us”. Photo taken by Maribou.)
Charles Bronson. That’s funny.
My 32nd season of football officiating starts tonight with a scrimmage out in the ‘burbs. The crew goal is to get a championship in the next several years. Either way, I’ll be hanging it up soon.
Also, I’m hoping to get a jump on cleaning out the basement so it can be painted ahead of putting the house on the market. 30 years is a long time to accumulate stuff, and I’m not looking forward to the chore.Report
My brother in law and I cleaned out my mother in laws basement when my father in law passed. It had been accumulating for 25 years and good Lord was there a lot of sh*t down there.Report
Yeah, definitely not looking forward to it!Report
Our old cat passed away two years ago. Ever since, I’ve had to suppress the involuntary thoughts of I-should-get-a-kitten-I-need-to-get-a-kitten-I-SO-have-to-get.a.kitten!
Now I want to have kittens. Plural. Three of them.Report
The main thing that I have noticed is that the last time that I had kittens was 15 years ago and bending over to swoop something off of the floor worked completely differently at age 35 than it does at 50.Report
It gets worse.
I’ve been keeping granddaughters #1 and #2 on Wednesdays this summer. One of the things we do each time is go to the nearby city park. Being a Fort Collins park there’s all sorts of climbing things, with the showpiece a 20-foot-tall construct with ramps and ropes (and a four-foot tall climbing wall) and a huge enclosed twisty slide from the highest level. There’s nowhere inside the monster where you can fall more than about four feet.
The girls extracted a promise from me to climb up inside with them and go down the slide once, but only if the park was deserted. This week it was (their school starts a few days later than most). It is NOT sized for someone as tall as me, or with shoulders as wide as mine, carrying the weight I am, who will be 70 in a couple months. I made it, but it was a lot of work. I may make it a part of my walks now that school has started.Report
We had some siding replaced and a windowsill that was rotten, so I need to do a little painting.
Tomorrow should be a board game meetup. I have missed a few, so it will be nice to get back to it. We also have to take the kitten to the vet for her next vaccination.Report
He totally looks like Charles Bronson!
Youngest boy got moved into his apartment ahead of college classes starting before the end of the month. My task today is to make the short drive to bring him home for the weekend, and maybe stop at the Swedish Cheap Furniture Store to exchange the top to his new desk for one that isn’t cracked.
In Baldur’s Gate 3 I’m working on ridding the immediate area of the goblin scourge. It’s going well. Yesterday I had an epic battle with one of the leaders and her Very Large With Lots Of Hit Points body guard. What made the fight so much fun is that my character got separated from the party and was trying to fight them on his own, and not doing a very good job of it. I switched back to the rest of the party and had them explore until they found him, cornered and near death, and were able to turn the tide and win the fight.
What I really loved about that fight is that I could hear the Dungeon Master in my head saying, “Ok, let’s switch back to the rest of the party…What are you all doing?” And then the rest of the party role-plays rushing into the structure, searching for their friend and finding him just in time to save the day. It was easily my favorite scene of the game so far, and even better because the encounter wasn’t necessarily designed that way but I made it that way through game play and my little headcanon. Such a fantastic game.Report
Call me Golden Earing because that pic is a thing called Radar love.
Our two older cats are from the same litter and at a glance it is hard to tell them apart. The boy (Luke) has always been bigger than the girl (Leia) which was useful when both were younger and smaller after the first year it wasn’t a trivial distinction if they were just lying like lumps on the floor. When they move, it’s fairly easy to tell them apart, and also Leia just simply refused to wear any collar after a few months so that’s the go to distinction now.Report
The last two cats my parents had – littermates, Siamese – would have been easy enough to tell apart by behavior if their coloring hadn’t been different. Cleo was the sweet one, Patty was the smart one. My brother (he later confessed that he did it by sticking a suction-cup toy progressively higher on the wall) taught Patty how to climb the living room drapes as a kitten, and she would go up there and pull out the drapery pins (big weird metal doohickeys kind of like a paperclip bent weird) and Cleo would pick them up and carry them to my mom. That was about the smartest thing Cleo did. Like I said, she was the “sweet” one.
Classes start Monday for me and this weekend is going to be death hot so other than a quick grocery store run I don’t have any plans other than staying home in the AC.Report
Testing… Should go directly to moderation.Report
it didReport
Testing… This should also go directly to moderation, but for a different reason.
ETA: It went to moderation properly, I fished it out.Report
Testing things. This comment should not go to moderation.
ETA: It didn’t, so everything is working properly so far.Report
Testing comment-related code is more difficult when there’s not a steady stream of comments :^)Report
You should’ve posted something on abortion or Israel/Palestine right before you were ready to test.Report
Testing through the Tor network.Report
Testing again…Report
And once more…Report
Quick test…Report
Joan Armatrading is one of those singers who probably deserves a series of threads… one for each album.
She’s one of those songwriters that will make pretty much everybody say “Oh, that’s her? I knew that song but I just didn’t know the person who sang it.”
Alas.
I’m unable to provide her talent with what it deserves.
Here’s Drop the Pilot:
Here’s Call Me Names:
Here’s Me Myself I:
Report