Neko and Kuro

PowerBook Strap: TiStrap V1 TiStrap V2 TiStrap V3
Other Projects: Coat Mods Coat Hanger Ring Table DeLorean

Neko (long 'e') is a grey taby from the animal shelter in Morrisville, VT, born on August 15th, 2004. Kuro is probably a Maine Coone rescued by the St. John's Feral Cat Fund in Platsburgh, NY, born in mid-August, 2004. Apparently Maine Coons get quite large. Both are named after Lord Black Cat, Kuroneko-sama, who appears randomly in the anime series Trigun.

Neko	Neko on the window sill	Neko
Kuro	Neko and Kuro resting	Kuro hunting bugs on the window
	Kuro and Neko, with a CD for scale

Shampoo

Shampoo and her brother Moouse were rescued from the animal shelter in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1996. Unfortunately, Moouse disappeared in 1998 very soon after arriving in California.

Since Shampoo is an indoor/outdoor cat, but we didn't want her to roam in the rest of the house, we had to rig up something so she could get from my loft to the outside. We came up with this Catchinka ramp, a series of overlapping ramps that go from the second floor to the first. This allowed her to keep up her quota of one small animal present every 2 days, although reall that's more of an argument for not having a way for her to get outside...

This ramp was only in use for a few months; in mid August, Shampoo disappeared. Our best guess is that she encountered a ferry cat, the local bobcat variant. The kittens will be indoor-only to avoid any similar incidents.

Catchinka Ramp, second floor interface	Catchinka Ramp, Final Design	Catchinka Ramp, carpeted for traction
	Shampoo Sleeping

Catchinka Video

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This video shows Shampoo navigating from the top of the ramp to the bottom, taking a look outside, then going back up to the top again. She could navigate the ramp quite quickly, but the camera's light seems to have spooked her a little. We put the ramps a little too close to each other, but she seems to have no problem navigating them, even while carrying other small animals in her mounth.