[Major Tom, a big grey tabby, lounges on his side under a camping chair. Sparse, yellow-green grass grows around him. He’s staring just to the right of the camera, whiskers perked but ears at ease.]
Major Tom did really well, & I’m proud of him! But it took him a couple of days.
He didn’t want to leave the van at all, during setup. He was perfectly happy there — purring, kneading, entirely content with his life — but actually _leaving_ the van was apparently Right Out. I had to pry him out eventually, of course, but I waited til it was time to park the van, & he had his Uncle Ivar to keep an eye on him. Once I was back, he actually came out far enough to realize that Uncle Ivar has a vardo, & decide that it was just as congenial a spot for a tomcat as my vardo is.
The next day he barely left the sleeping tent, but I hadn’t expected him to. He peeked out a couple times, & ventured over to Ivar’s vardo again, thus setting the pattern for the rest of the week, which was ‘spend as much time in a vardo as he’s allowed to’. Alas, the vardo in question is enough smaller than Tyrava that it heats up quite a lot more, so we had to pry him out in the early afternoon every day. He didn’t love it, but he accepted his fate.
… what worked to get him to actually stand up & head outside every time? Me telling him that his public was waiting for him.
He’s getting the hang of it.
[Major Tom, seen from above, is flopped on a pile of red, white, and grey fabric. His ears are firmly stuck out to the side.]
He also, of course, interfered with my sewing, but that’s what he’s a cat for.
Loiosh had his usual excellent time, spending most of his days asleep, & also a lot of his nights, but then, he’s an old man.
[Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness, is half-curled up, asleep, on top of a patchwork wool blanket. The end of his tail is curled round til it’s almost a spiral.]
He did have his usual shenanigans, which I mostly failed to get pictures of, but he did enjoy thwarting CJ’s attempts to keep him from being A Pest.
[CJ is sitting between the display tables; he’s wearing a long blue tunic and a white linen coif. Loiosh is standing on his lap, wiggling to try to get free of CJ’s arms, which are loosely wrapped around him. One of Loiosh’s forepaws sits right at CJ’s elbow, a claw stuck in the fabric; his head, twisted around to stare grimly away from CJ, is all the way over at CJ’s hand.]
But then, that’s the boy.
[Loiosh has unstuck his claw, and is now leaning dejectedly against CJ’s arms, head turned just far enough that he’s still not looking at CJ’s face.]
He also got to meet Marisol’s sister Alexx, who travels with Morgyn’s mom, & instead of promptly chasing her out of the booth he gave her a good long sniff — she actually growled at him first! So she absolutely smelled familiar. Alas that Alexx wasn’t feeling near so potentially friendly …
