Category Archives: video

A surprise in the evening sky

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The crows, the crows!

From Portland Audubon:

For more than a decade, crows have been gathering throughout the fall and winter to roost in downtown Portland. This roost has been gradually growing over time to the point where today, at its peak, it can exceed 15,000 birds. The sight of thousands of birds converging on the downtown area is truly spectacular. Portland Audubon has worked with the City, Downtown Clean and Safe and other partners for years to protect this roost and to find humane, innovative solutions for conflicts that have arisen. Portland is currently setting a national example for living with crows in an urban environment.

We were walking to find a place for dinner last night around 6:30 pm. It was twilight, about 25 minutes after sunset. As we walked along Morrison Street, we heard the cawing of crows. Looking up, OMG! There they were. By the dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands, streaming towards their evening roosts.

I had the good sense to grab my phone and get a video of some of the action.

Great viewing! But I’m glad we don’t have a car parked beneath any of their roosting spots!

Flashback: Labor Day Dogs, September 5, 2011

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We’ve been enjoying neighborhood dogs for a long time.

This little video was taken eleven years ago, Labor Day in 2011, when we were living in Kaaawa.

It’s fun to see this cohort of Kaaawa dogs, now all long gone.

You’ll notice that back in those days, we distributed large Kirkland dog biscuits from Costco, not the “Small” MilkBones we carry now. In Kaaawa, I carried a bag on our walk to hold the day’s supply of big dog biscuits.

Oh, they liked to see us coming!

Anyway, here’s to the morning dogs, then and now.

Celebrating Kinikini’s first year with us!

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[Note: Video fixed at about 8 am, so if you were here earlier, please try it again!]

Happy adoption anniversary, Mr. Kinikini!

One year ago, on April 4, 2021, I drove up to a home near the top of Aiea Heights, where Kinikini was being temporarily housed pending adoption. Without much fuss, he was dropped into the carrier and loaded into our car for the drive home.

We arrived at home at about 11:50 a.m., and made our way into the house.

Kali was right there, waiting to check out the new arrival.

I released Kini into our front room, for the time being converted into his private spa. Overnight, my kitty cam caught a few glimpses of him as he explored the room under cover of darkness.

But I was up early, and although he was in a defensive position under the futon, he didn’t run when I appeared and turned on the lights. And this was the first “real” photo he posed for.

Now, here comes a 57-second video of a very happy Kinikini taken over the weekend. He was obviously in the zone, totally and happily engaged in kneading on the comforter. In the first several seconds, pay close attention and you’ll see he’s so happy that he’s drooling, and has to shake his head to get rid of that pesky drop of drool.

A year after his arrival, he has proved to be an excellent cat in all respects!!

Introducing Ms. Bessie

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“The Cat Currently Known as Bessie” has been in our house for about 44 hours. She is making herself at home in our spare room during some decompression time, before we introduce her to the other cats.

She hid until 6:58 am Thursday morning, at which time I went into her room and found her looking out the high window. She then jumped down, strolled across the futon to where I was sitting, and made herself available for petting. Well, to be honest, she sought out some petting, and I was glad to oblige.

This video was taken a bit over 24-hours later, just to introduce her to a wider audience.

Just after this video was taken, we put Kali and Kinikini in our bedroom, and let Bessie out to explore the rest of the house. She was ready and waiting! She did her first pass through the house, inspected one window ledge, checked out the kitchen counter, did a quick pass through the laundry room and our small storeroom, did several nose-to-nose introductions to Romeo, who showed considerable interest, and eventually scurried back to make sure she could still find “her” room.

We didn’t expect to get this far until well into her first week. Now we’ll have to adjust our plans.

She is, I expect, going to prove to be a very good cat.

[Note: Feline Friday is coming “soon.”]