curious cat

Russell spotted Eloise napping in her car seat and he went for a little peak. He thought he was being sneaky but I saw what he was doing. I'm watching you Russell!

Russell is Gabe and May's adorable 'baby'.

Mea in things

We find her in the sneakiest places.

In baskets that barely fit her.

Or the basket of laundry (full of clean clothes, of course.)

I love this collection of photographs of Maddie the dog on things (via Gabe)

a new record

This is the closest I have ever seen them hanging out together.

So close that I actually got them both in the same frame!

I might be wishing for too much but maybe some day they will cuddle?

A Christmas Surprise

All I want for Christmas is a Mojo bouffant for me and a salt and pepper Mea beard for Jinny!

A little while ago, Jin and I commissioned Melinda & Chris to do collaborative cat portraits of Mea and Mojo with no rush of a timeline. We were surprised when they handed us two lovely packages in time for Christmas and were even more surprised when we opened them to find that they snuck Jin and I in the portraits too!!

Just imagine howls of laughter when the paintings were revealed to us! Jin and I were completely blown away! And for the cherry on top, Chris handmade the frames for the paintings! What an amazing Christmas surprise!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas from Jinny, Mea, Mojo and I (and char siu bao is hiding in there!), courtesy of Melinda & Chris!! This year has been an amazing and eventful one for our growing little family and I am very much looking forward to spending time with our family and a few quiet days at home with Jinny and Mea and Mojo this week.

Now I must head back to our Christmas festivities (which translates to "eating all day")! Bye everyone!

(I replaced the images of the paintings with scans Melinda provided me. They are much more accurate to the real paintings!)

(Thank you Henry for taking the photo of Jinny and I!)

mojo's lazy weekend

He found sunny spots to hang out in and soft spots to nap in.

He decided to be nice and share the bed with Mea one morning (the sight of them together made me laugh when I woke up to find them staring at me!).

And he loves hanging out with his daddy when he is working on the computer.

Jin and I had a really fun weekend spending time together and Mojo made sure he was always present! oh Mojo!

cat watching

I wonder how that orange cat got a nib for a tail.

Mojo is probably wondering how to escape to the outside world....

A boy can dream.

Kinfolk

The cats gathered around as I opened this lovely package I received from Nathan in the mail. I think they sensed how excited I was to take a peak at the first issue of Kinfolk Magazine.

Nathan compiled an amazing group of people for the first issue; I have read all the articles, poured over every image and I am so inspired by each piece. Congratulations to everyone involved!

I was lucky to be part of the first issue in a small way. My photo of a house from our travels is placed at the end for farewell. I quite love it in that spot.

I spent the evening reading through the magazine with the cats sitting close by. I mentioned before that I never really had success getting Mea and Mojo in the same photograph together but for one reason or another, they both decided to sit with me that day. I loved that I was spending time with my cats while reading about time spent with yourself, or with loved ones.

summer makeover

Goodmorning!

How was your weekend?

I got a little hair cut (more like a trim) on Friday and I already feel lighter, but I must say, Mea stole the stage for impressive summer looks in our house by far!

Even though the process of getting her hair cut was not so pleasant, I think she feels much happier now with her new do! I am starting to think we should do this every summer! What do you think Mea?

back to real life

We eased back into our regular lives pretty easily thanks to Gabe and May who looked after the Mea and Mojo and our house while we were away. Knowing that the cats were well loved when we were not there really eased my mind. Thank you so much Gabe and May! What would we do without you??

It was the beginning of spring when we came back to Toronto so easing back into our lives consisted of biking around the city again, making friends with neighbourhood cats, spending much needed time with Mea and Mojo, and some girl brunch.

We also flew back just in time for the busy wedding season and I have some new work I cannot wait to show you!

And I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me share so many stories from our adventures in Hong Kong and Korea. This was more special to me than any other holiday we have ever taken. I have so many more stories I haven't told but I feel like it is time to get back to my daily routine here. Perhaps I will pull something out from the archives in the future.

One more story though. Almost everyone asked about the photo of the fish tied up with yellow string in my previous post. Jin said they are salted fish (I believe it is Yellow Croaker. Very delicious!) eaten as a side dish and he thinks you buy them by the strand at the market. A long time ago, they used to tie the fish using some sort of straw or twine, but this one is tied with yellow nylon string. They use nylon string for everything in asia!

boy time

When Jinny sits down to do some work on the computer, Mojo will climb on his desk and sit right in front of him, just like so.

He likes to be the centre of attention, and I suspect Jinny doesn't mind giving it to him.

He is such a sweet boy.

sweet girl

Watch out Mea! There is someone behind you!

Mea loves sitting in that ratty old box, and Mojo always claims his spot on the bed.

I can never get the two of them in the same picture, but this is pretty close.

cake & treats for breakfast

Yesterday, Juli and John came over for dinner and now we have chocolate cake leftovers, which I ate guiltily for breakfast this morning.

Mea & Mojo had treats for breakfast. They ate that guilt free I am sure.

Happy Sunday!

(The chocolate cake is from Saucier Foods, it was really delicious!)

purr purr purr

soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur,
lazy kitty, pretty kitty, purr purr purr

I have the best friends. Look what I found in the mail this week? The cutest illustration of Mea & Mojo from Jen Hsieh. That was the adorable rhyme written on the back.

I squealed out loud when I opened it! Thank you Jen! I can't wait to frame it!

cat food

I hope we dont' sound like 'crazy cat people' when I tell you this, but I am so happy with our results, I thought I would spread the good news. We recently switched Mea and Mojo's food from cat kibble to raw meat.

Several events led us to try this, but the main reason was because Mea got sick a couple months ago. We still don't know what happened, but it had something to do with her digestive track. She wasn't eating anything for awhile, and the vet told us that it is very important to make her eat anything, even treats and other cat junk food. A cat will start to decompose its' own body after 24 hours of no food consumption. That sounds really really scary!

While I was looking for things that cats find delicious, I came across sites that talked about the benefits of raw food for cats. All their reasons made sense, but some solutions were really intense. Some diets involved grinding whole chickens (bones included!!) at home and adding supplements bought from health food stores. Jin and I simply do not have time for that!

I scoured the internet for a less intense alternative, and I found this forumla for cats (http://rawmeatcatfood.com/) where you mix it with ground meat, and then it is ready to serve! Mojo loved it immediately (as we suspected he would) but Mea took a little time to convert (princess).

Now that we have finally converted them to a completely raw meat diet, we can already see the benefits! Their coat is shinier and softer, and they seem to have a lot more energy. I am hoping Mojo will slim down a little too. Our vet said he was getting concerningly heavy for his age! Poor boy!

What can I say? they are the real king and queen of our house!

I want this cat to be part of our home. (via)

favourite spots

They have their favourite spots around the house, and they rotate between them.

Lately, they like to hang out all day on our bed, or around it.

I like our yellow sheets. They make the room feel really sunny. That is important for this time of year as our time with the sun decreases.

Thank you for all your really sweet comments and e-mails on Melinda + Chris's engagement session! I had a really amazing week because of it!