September 22nd, 2025
posted by [syndicated profile] asknicola_feed at 02:00pm on 22/09/2025

Posted by Nicola Griffith

Tabby cat draped leopard like over the back of a leather armchair displays many shaved patches of fur and glares, though looks very soft and fetching against the sun coming through the window

This is Charlie playing leopard-draped-on-a-tree-branch and enjoying end-of-summer sun here in Broadview. He’s giving me a baleful look for two reasons. One, he doesn’t entirely trust the unseasonal sunshine; he’s knows autumn is stealing through the trees towards us. And, two, he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to be photographed until his fur is back to to its full magnificence but, eh, he’s not longer Carolus.Imp but a mere Baron of Beasts, so I risked his displeasure.

Two closeups illustrate just how well his scars are healing now. This is his right side, where he had two lesser wounds: one so shallow it’s already vanished, the other small enough to just require a bit of a shave and a good clean but no stitching. As you can see, it’s almost perfectly healed.

Tabby cat showing small shaved patch on his right shoulder

Of course it was the left that was the problem. The vet had to shave his foreleg to get the IV in and though the fur is just beginning to come back in, the gap makes him look as though he’s wearing a little blond mitten on his paw. (But, oh, if you want to see *baleful*, call him Sweet Kitten Mitten…) You can’t really see it from this angle, but if you go back to that first photo and click through to embiggen you can see the scar is doing really well. That central quadrant messiness is just bits of old skin that aren’t quite ready to come off yet, but now even the superficial opening in that section is closing. In a few weeks no one would ever know anyone of this happened.

Tabbycat showing two shaved patches, one small one like a shave wristlet around his left foreleg, one very large one covering this left shoulder and upper leg

George meanwhile, has been enjoying the last days of sun here in Seattle though the other evening he deigned to make a brief appearance and consented to a single photo—after all, as a Gentleman Spy and International Cat of Mystery, it simply doesn’t do to permit one’s likeness to be bruited about the internet for the consumption of hoi polloi—not to mention the nefarious purposes of the other side’s Bad Actors. He and his neighbourhood asset, the Tabby Pimpernel, take seriously their mission to keep the cul de sac free of infiltrators.

Dashing-looking tabby cat puts his head and shoulders through green velvet curtains; he has a small, tasteful Heidelburg-duelling-scar style mark on his nose

As you can see, he is as debonair as ever—note the handsome though tastefully understated duelling scar.

The summer, though, is coming to an end. This was the sun earlier this week on the drive home—there’s something about those colours that can be nothing but that rich, mellow moment where the world hangs between harvest-is-in and winter-must-be-readied-for…

And here it is, right over our house.

Earlier that same day, this was the state of the flowers on the back deck:

Some things are still blooming—but fewer, and the colours are a little less vibrant. The hummingbirds and bees, though, are still very much enjoying the different salvia—and of course the four-footed members of our household are enjoying planning their demise. (It won’t happen—we try to make sure that things grow in such a way that predatory leaps are difficult. But it’s endlessly entertaining for all.)

And so, as autumn beings, that’s the state of play here in the Griffith-Eskridge household. I have plenty of other news to share in the coming days, but for now, carpe the sweet richness of the harvest and the last lingering of light and warmth as the world turns…

September 17th, 2025
posted by [syndicated profile] asknicola_feed at 07:01pm on 17/09/2025

Posted by Nicola Griffith

Charlie’s stitches are out, his imperial purple retired, and he’s now reduced from Carolus Imperator to his more usual titles, Charlie Bean, the Bean of Beans and Baron of Beasts.

Having said all that, he has three shaved patches, one quite large, and here in Seattle the weather recently gave us a taste of autumn, wet and cold, so for a while he looked less lordly than like a bedraggled and mange-riddled alley cat. His fur will grow back—and at least his skin is very dark, so the shaved patches don’t stand out too starkly (unlike the last time George got hurt).

As you can see, the main scar is pretty big, but much of its length is already almost perfectly healed—just that middle quadrant that’s less than pretty.

Tabby cat curled on a patio chair displaying a human hand-sized shaved left shoulder with impressive scar

The first day freed from his suit he limped a bit, but that’s a thing of the past—cats are such creatures of the Now—and he’s back to his sentry duties.

Tabby cat sitting like a sentinel on a deck with sunshine highlighting a human hand-sized shaved left shoulder with impressive scar

Having said that, he’s not above looking pitifully at his bigger brother every now and again until George takes over for a while and Charlie can retire for a quick snooze behind the big jasmine pot.

Big tabby cat sitting on a deck surrounded by flower pots and watching the ramp for intruders

Sadly, one of his duties that he has not felt able to relinquish is Warmer of the Wheelchair. Here he is on Saturday—before the rain started (and back in the same position yesterday, the day after the rain stopped)—vigilantly ensuring I must stay on the deck in the sunshine to read rather than doing some work.

Tabby cat sitting on a wheelchair in the sun

So, basically, everything’s back to normal except the fur. And time will take care of that.

September 10th, 2025
posted by [syndicated profile] asknicola_feed at 02:00pm on 10/09/2025

Posted by Nicola Griffith

Grumpy tabby cat in purple tie-dye surgical suit, sitting on the top platform of a cat condo looking right through the lens and wishing imperiously that the photographer would burn in hell. Beneath the cat is a purple plaque stamped in Roman-style font "Carolus Imp"
Wearing the purple

So, despite Charlie’s nifty surgical suitical—in fetching purple tie-dye—he’s still managed to get rid of a stitch or two. So today back to the vet he went to see if we could get the rest out. The answer? Nope. Nopey old nope. He’s healing well, but the last stitches can’t come out for another 2-6 (!) days.

HE. IS. NOT. HAPPY.

There again, as we’ve told him (and it does seem to soothe his pride), he looks great in purple, very imperious—very imperial. In Late Antique/Sub-Roman/Early Medieval Britain, Emperor Charlie might translate to Carolus Imperator—or, as they would stamp it on a coin or cut it in stone for his Triumphal Arch, CAROLUS.IMP.

Omnes Carolum imperatorem salvete!

September 9th, 2025
posted by [syndicated profile] asknicola_feed at 06:16pm on 09/09/2025

Posted by Nicola Griffith

Over on Autostraddle me, Tess Sharpe and Katrina Carrasco got together to talk about queering genres, queering worlds, queering time and space and minds—whether in crime fiction, SFF, contemporary or historical fiction. We all agree: surviving isn’t enough. Queer characters, just like queer folk in the real world, deserve joy. We deserve to thrive, to be the Big Damn Heroes.

We had fun. I hope you do, too, that you enjoy “this very queer conversation between three brilliant minds!”

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