photos with captions

in cat news, they are definitely getting bigger. it is easy to tell the boy from the girl now as the boy is developing and orange tint to his coat, his head is growing huge and wide, and when you play with him, he uses his nails and teeth. not so much as to hurt you, but enough to let you know that he would like to be hunting. poor cat. there are no mice here. the girl on the other hand remains sleek, just taller. we cant tell if she is skinnier because she is the girl, or because she is the girl, the boy slaps her around when she tries to eat, takes her food, and thats why she is skinny. nonetheless, she is calm and likes to
play too, but doesnt use her nails.
the real tragedy of the whole cat situation is that now that they are getting older, they are coming to certain realizations about life and love and are beginning to show the inklings of needing to satisfy certain sexual desires they may have. sure, they are brother and sister, but i dont get they impression that cat culture is as hung up on these things as human culture is. so there was a disturbingly graphic display on the dining room table yesterday morning as the humans were enjoying their coffee. it will soon be time to take these cats to meet other cats, i think.
this is pondue. he belongs to the estate of our friends. well, it isnt their estate, but the fence you see here in the picture holds behind it about 4 or 5 residences, all owned by the same family. one such residents is rented out to our friends. once we got to know pondue, this is how he has greeted us at the fence each time we come. standing on his hind legs, allowing us to pet him as his tail wags. our friends told us that really he is viscious, but only to people he doesnt know. protective, i suppose. each time we our over our friends house and then leave, pondue wants to come but is held back so that he can stay inside the property. he whimpers a bit, but stays. he does get out sometimes, however, because he is sometimes lying on the ground outside the gate when we arrive. sometimes chasing cars down the street and barking at them for no reason...
one night, recently, it was about 3 in the morning and anna and i were walking down the street to our house. it was dark and the streets were deserted, but anna and i were oblivious to any impending danger. then, from across the street and ahead of us a bit, a dog came charging at us. anna hid behind be and gasped. but i recognized the dog as pondue. he has a distinctive tail that shoots straight up in the air, for some reason. sure, it was strange to see pondue walking the streets, but it was nice. we petted him and he walked close to us up to our avenue, at which point he bolted diagonally across the street and began barking wildly at a group of about 4 or 5 other dogs who were gathered there perhaps hoping to attack us. pondue barked and then ran over to us and barked at us, but in a different way, as though to tell us to get to our door quickly. then, went back and staved off the slobbering pack.
two of the faces of anna.

we made it to a rodeo this weekend. it was a pretty cool event. it was part of the cuenca holidays fo independence day. just last week at this time, i was worried that cuencans did not know how to celebrate to my liking. however, during this festival, all my worries were proven unfounded. the thing i have to remember about cuenca from now on is that the bulk of the cool stuf does not take place in the center. on the first day of the festival, anna and i walked to the main square with the big church, which in most small colonial cities in latin america means that it is the place where everything happens. not so here. however, when we got out of town a little bit, we found all the roasted guinea pigs and fried pig products that you could possibly want. there was a makeshift amusement park, musical performances, farm animals on display, and about 25000 people walking around. the culmination was a night of rodeo and mariachi music. and it turns out that here in ecuador, people like mariachi music. all of the songs seemed familiar and the whole stadium that fit about 10000 people (i didnt know this stadium existed) was dancing and singing and drinking cheap alcohol. it was fun. the music accompanied the rodeo and people rode pretty well, i think.