Sleepless Nights Lead to Snoozy Sundays - with Shimshi

Well, here We go again, Effurrybuddies!

After several sleepless nights, We got through last night without any boomies, except that Mummy woke up anyway at about 4 am, because She needed to go to the bathroom. Of course She took her phone with her, and started scrolling down to check the news reports and so She found out that USAF bombers had finally joined in the attacks on Iran. So then, naturally, She turned on the TV and didn't get back to bed for at least another hour, wondering how much sleep She would get before the boomies started again.

Not much! At 7:30 am, She got the early-warning alert, leapt out of bed (She has been sleeping in her clothes these past few days!), grabbed her Go-Bag and headed down to the shelter. The sirens started 12 minutes later, and after a slightly longer than usual stay in the shelter, she got back upstairs to Us at about 8:15 am. She fed Us and then had some of that brown drink She calls "My Precious" and had a furry quick shower (in case the boomies started again) and got on with the things She usually does on Sundays.

We would like to say, We are furry thankful the American Purrsident decided to join in and help Us. We are, of course, truly sorry if any innocent Purrsian kitties have been hurt. As We have often stated, We like and admire Purrsian kitties! But they don't seem to have much control over their Humans, do they?

We don't want to write more about pawliticks just now, but sometimes, it's just unavoidable. In any case, Mummy will purrobably write more about that on her own bloggie later in the week. We just wanted to let Our Furriends know We are all right for now, and to take part in the weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Deliciously and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We chose two pictures of My Handsome Self, and made two artifications of each, one with LunaPic and one with BeFunky. 

Here is the furrst:

Here is the LunaPic artification, for which She used the Dark effect at 47%, overlaid with Illusion at 24%:

And here is the BeFunky version, using Cartoonizer GFX:

In this next picture, I am having a little snooze. Well, who can blame me? These days, I have to catch a bit of Shut-Eye wheneffur and whereffur I can, as do We all:

Here is the LunaPic artification, using a combination of Leather and Beauty, at 32% and 17% respectively:

And here is the BeFunky version, using the Impressionist filter. Mummy did the Befunky versions on her meowbile phone and She must have been half asleep herself, as She managed to chop off part of My Head!!! 

If She weren't so tired from all the sleepless nights, as well as being rather lightheaded from flu, I would have made her re-do it, but I could see what a state She was in and, as her purrymedic, I have to take care of her.

Here now here are the blog hop badges:

        

There is one other thing Mummy should have mentioned last week, only it was driven right out of her head by all the craziness that is going on and, especially, by the fact that there was a Missile Alert even as She was writing the blog. June 12th was the 30th anniversary of the departure of Minxie, Mummy's furrst kitty, for the Rainbow Bridge, three days before what would have been her 15th birthday. We know She had a wonderful Birthday Pawty at the Bridge with the other "Befores", Pixie and Possum. Mummy still misses all three of them furry much - and We too, although We neffur knew them, will always be grateful to them and especially to Minxie, because it is thanks to her that Mummy is now a Cat Purrson.


Now it is time to sign off and see how many of Our Furriends We can visit before Exhaustion catches up with Mummy and She falls asleep on her Feets. See you next week, COD willing - same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

It Started on Friday the 13th...

Greetings,Effurryone!

This is going to be a long-ish post, and We aren't sure We'll be able to come and visit as many of you as We would like today, because things are all at Sixes and Sevens around here.

It all started in the early hours of the meowning of Furriday the Furteenth of June - just a little over 2 days ago. We were rudely awakened by the wailing of air raid sirens. Mummy jumped out of bed, grabbed her phone and ran to her (sort-of) Safe Space in the corridor where She sat on the floor (she always forgets to grab a cushion) and waited for the requisite 10 minutes - assuming that this was yet another pathetic attempt by the Houthis in Yemen to scare Us. Then She ventured into the living-room and turned on the TV. All this while, She was WhatsApping her siblings, especially Uncle D. in London, who has the Israeli Civil Defence app on his phone and so got the alert at the same time as We did.

Turns out We weren't actually under attack at the time, but were ourselves attacking nuclear and military installations in Iran, in a pre-emptive strike, before the Iranians can build a nuclear bomb. Our Defence Minister had just proclaimed an emergency situation and the sirens were a precaution against the expected immediate Iranian response. Mummy went back to bed but not too long after, there was another alert. Mummy is a bit confused about the order of things after that, but, in short, Civil Defence instructions have been changed, it's no longer safe to find a relatively purrtected space inside the apartment, if you don't have a standard Safe Room, you need to go down to the shelter. If you don't have a Safe Room or a proper shelter in the building (fortunately, We do have a communal shelter - 3 floors down in the basement), you need to go to the nearest public shelter. To give people time to do so, additional early warnings have been put in place. As soon as the IDF identifies signs of an impending missile launch (Mummy doesn't know how, exactly, but She says their technological capabilities are AMAZING), they send out an early warning to every citizen with a phone (ANY phone, doesn't have to be a smartphone) to remain in close proximity to a shelter. That's about 15 - 20 minutes before the expected strike. Once they identify an actual launch, they send out a second warning that we will shortly be hearing sirens in our area. Then, about 5 minutes later, when they have a clearer idea of where the missiles (or drones) are likely to fall, the sirens go off in those areas with a (usually) simultaneous alert to our phones. Then you have (in Our area, at least) 90 seconds before the missile hits. Once that happens, you are supposed to stay in the shelter till you get another message from Civil Defence that it's safe to leave - and that could take a lot longer than 10 minutes.

Mummy has packed a "go-bag" with emergency supplies such as a flashlight, a battery-operated radio, her medications, a power bank for topping up her phone (there's electricity in the shelter, but a missile strike could knock out power lines), a packet of savoury crackers in case She's stuck in the shelter for hours, a bottle of drinking water (in fact, some of the neighbours already made sure there are bottles of mineral water down there), toilet paper (though the toilets down there don't work, She says) and a book to read.

A bit later in the morning, they announced on TV that 100 Iranian drones were headed our way, and that it would be several hours before they arrived. But apparently, they were all shot down as they never did arrive. Then, on Furriday evening the expected Iranian response arrived in full force and Mummy had to run down to the shelter, where She discovered to her annoyance that reception, both for internet and the radio, was very dodgy. She could send text messages, but that was about it. Other neighbours had varied results. 

After Civil Defence authorised leaving the shelter, She came back upstairs but didn't get much more than an hour's sleep before having to run down to the shelter again. This time, she was back after only half an hour or so. 

It seems three people (all civilians) were killed in one of those two attacks.

Last night it was much the same story. Twice Mummy ran down to the shelter. 10 people were killed in those attacks, all civilians, including 2 children aged 8 and 10, and an old lady of 80.

4 more are still missing, believed dead, buried under the rubble.

We know many of you will be wondering why Mummy didn't take Us down to the shelter. Well, as soon as We sensed her anxiety, We scattered and hid, each one of Us in a different place. She would neffur have managed it. We aren't like the neighbours' little woofie who comes meekly to heel when called. 

Tonight, We  are expecting more of the same, so We are going to wrap up now with Our Entry in this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightful and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

I, Caspurr the Snuggle Bug, have chosen 3 selfies, all of which have been artified with beautiful LunaPic filters - and here they are:

This furrst picture, where I am clearly demanding tummy rubs, was artified using the Leather effect at 56%:

In this next one, you can see that I was already a little concerned about the events of the past couple of days. You can read it in my eyes, can't you?

Here is the artsy-fartsy version, using the relatively new Skeletor filter at 37%:

And last, but not least, here I am, overcome with exhaustion at last night's events, trying to sleep a bit:

And here is the artification, which used Ceremony at 42%:

And here are the blog hop badges:

        

********

We thought We'd be able to visit some of you before Mummy takes a nap. There's no Caterwauling Purractice this evening because of the Situation, but Mummy thought She'd try and get some sleep before this evening's barrages begin.

Unfortunately, She was caught napping by a Missile attack. They've started early today. Mummy missed the Furrst Alert, and there were only about 4 minutes between the 2nd alert, which She did catch, and the sirens. She only just made it down to the shelter in time. However, nothing seems to have fallen in Jerusalem and there are no reports (so far) of anyone being injured anywhere else. 

Mummy is sure this is only an opening salvo for the day, there are bound to be more attacks this evening and during the night so She is sure you will understand if We don't visit anyone today but let Mummy try to have a nap before the Real "Fun" starts later in the evening.

COD willing, We will see you again next week, same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Looking Forward to a Busy Week

Greetings, Effurrybody!

No, it isn't Us who are expecting a Busy Week. It's Mummy. She has FIVE rehearsals coming up, including TWO on Furrsday! That's right! Two with her smaller caterwauling group, two with her larger caterwauling group and one with The Jerusalem Opera, which will be staging a production of a rarely-shown o-purra by Saint-Saens at the end of the month. The Mewsical Director of the Jerusalem Opera is also the Conductor of Mummy's large caterwauling group and he invited Mummy and a couple of others from the group to take part in the o-purra. Mummy thought it would be fun - but She didn't take into account the amount of time She would be neglecting Us, obviously!!!

We shall have to make the best of it. Maybe Shimshi will take the oppurrtunity to devise some new and innovative Mischiefs! Caspurr and I will be happy to help him (mol)!

Meanwhile, it is My Turn to lead My Fellow J-Cats on this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightful and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

So, here is My Selfie:

As you can purrobably guess, I was chillaxing with Mummy in front of the TeeVee.

We made a couple of artifications for this with LunaPic, and a couple more with BeFunky.

Furrst of all, LunaPic. One of Our Favourite artsy-fartsy effects is, as you know, Dark. In this furrst artification, We set it to 54% and then added an overlay of Skeletor, at 18%:

 

We love the aura of Mystery this combination produces, don't you?

Still staying with LunaPic, we tried a combination of Homer at 52% and Tuscany at 24%:

We then popped over to BeFunky and made an artsy-fartsy version using their Vector Pop GFX filter at about 50%:

We think it shows up My Jewel-like Eyes furry nicely, don't you agree?

Our fourth and last artification, still at BeFunky, uses the Oil Painting 4 filter, again at about 50%:

Nice and colourful, in Our (not at all) Humble Opinion.

So, which do YOU prefurr, Dark and Mysterious or Vibrant and Colourful?

In other news - Mummy had a bit of a fur-raising expurrience coming home from Caterwauling Practice last Furrsday. For the furrst time She can remember since the War broke out on October 7th, 2023, a Missile Alert caught her Out In The Open. At least, She was in a taxi, on Her way home to Us. In such a case, one is supposed to stop the vehicle, get out and lie on the ground with your arms covering your head. Only nobody else seemed to be doing any such thing - and neither did Mummy's taxi driver. So Mummy said "Okay. You drive and I'll pray". And that's what they did. Of course, as you will have realised, since We are posting this now, She made it home safely and We haven't heard of any damage here in Jerusalem or of anyone being hurt by falling debris from the intercepted missile. 

Now, here are the blog hop badges:

        

That's all for now, Dear Furriends. See you next week, same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. 

Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all!

Shimshi is Ready for Shavuot

Greetings, Effurrybuddies!

We are posting terribly late today, because Mummy has been busy all morning cooking for the festive Shavuot family meal she is hosting tomorrow. Mummy traditionally hosts the family for a buffet lunch on Shavuot, for all sorts of reasons which We won't go into here. As I said, She was furry busy till now. We were good, and snoopervised from a distance. They are having salmon tomorrow, and, while We hope She will give Us some, We will be having Our Own Lunch at 1 pm up in the Enchanted Forest and will be happy to see as many of you there as can make it. Pawty Season is in full swing now, as you must have observed (mol)!

We especially like Shavuot Eve (which is tonight), because, as We have mentioned before, there is an old Mewish tradition that at midnight on the eve of Shavuot, the sky splits open for a few moments, and during that time, if you are looking in exactly the right place, and if you happen not to blink, you may catch a glimpse of the Great Cat in the Sky and of all the Angels. And if you are lucky enough to see that, you can wish for anything your heart desires.

Now, back to business. It is My turn to lead the J-Cats on this week-end's blog hops - the Caturday Art blog hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies blog hop, hosted by the Delightfully and Predictably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Mummy got in a bit of a mess here, because She artified the pictures on her phone and forgot to write down which photos She used - and several of the photos were almost identical. And since, when She artified them, She renamed them, their original names, by which She could have identified them, got erased. Silly Mummy!

Well, We'll just have to hope She's got them right. 

Here is my Dangly Paws selfie:

We made two artifications of this one, using LunaPic effects. The furrst one used a combination of Ceremony at 75% and Crayon at 33%:

The second used Watercolour at 70%, followed by (if Mummy remembers rightly - which is by no means certain) Colour Sketch - or maybe it was Scribble - at 68%:

It's a pity She didn't write it down immediately, because We rather like this one!

In the second selfie, I seem to be rather shy (I'm not really, not at all, but I know She loves pictures of Me like that, She says they're so cute!)

Now this is where She got really mixed up, because there were at least half a dozen shots of Me in that pose, one after another and We aren't even sure She used the same picture for both the artsy-fartsy versions - from Befunky, this time. Here is the furrst. It uses Pastel GFX:

The second one uses Crayon GFX:

So, what do you think?

Now, here are the blog hop badges:

         

Ooof. We were just finishing up here when the missile alert sirens went off and We had to dash for shelter. #%&*^#$ Houthis again, Mummy says, shooting ballistic missiles at Us from Yemen.
No damage, fortunately!

Time to wrap up now as Mummy still has a few things to prepare for tomorrow's festive lunch.  Because She is so busy, We might not have time to visit any of you today, so We hope to be able to remedy that later in the week. At any rate, We hope you will come to Our Festive Picnic Lunch tomorrow in the Enchanted Forest!
And We will certainly see you all again next week, COD willing - same Cat Time, same Cat Channel. Till then, be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Chag Sameach! חג שמח