HAPPY GOTCHA DAY/BIRTHDAY TO BOBA
She's 40 years old in human years. 😭
I’ve never been great at celebrating my cats’ birthdays, let alone their “gotcha” (i.e., adoption) day, despite parading them all over Instagram or talking about them to anyone who’s interested. I’ve always admired my sister for celebrating her many pets’ birthdays and knowing the actual date.
I don’t know when Boba was born, but the adoption agency said she was already 2 years old by the time she arrived on our doorstep in 2021, which means she must have been born in 2019. I’m sure horoscope aficionados will know what month she’s born in based on her personality, but I don’t care enough to research.
Boba was adopted on November 27th, which I find a fitting birthdate for her witchy lore. As much as she loves the summer sun, she gives off fall vibes.
Spyder and I watched many movies together in Hong Kong. ❤️
As with any pet parent, I made mistakes with my firstborn and vowed to do better with my next child. With Spyder, I only fed him dry food because wet food made him prone to violence. I would also fill up his bowl to the brim twice a day. He was large cat who loved food, so who was I to argue with that? I was merely there to do his bidding.
We also took Spyder to the vet only when we felt he had to go. Which meant rarely, until his health declined rapidly and we were rushing to the vet almost every 2 weeks. Spyder’s passing made me realize that no, cats are resilient but they’re not immortal, and it’s up to the parent to facilitate their lifestyle.
With Boba, we take her to the vet every year. She has 3 small meals a day, because we know exactly how much she eats per meal. Put too much wet food, she won’t finish it and it’ll just go to waste. For breakfast and lunch, she eats a variety of meats. Just this past week we bought two different brands and mixed up the order because if she eats the same flavor for one week straight, she will go on a hunger strike until we change up the menu.
For dinner she has dry food, grain-free (as per the foster mom’s orders), which we follow until today. We pour in 30 grams, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but she likes to ration it throughout the night.
All that to say, I’m trying to do better. I want her to live a long and healthy life. She has so many toys, tons of beds, and we’re always trying to keep her entertained. And now, I celebrate her Gotcha Day, which I also deem her birthday, once a year.
Boba striking a pose on the emptied dining table after all the guests have left.
Dinner and a Movie
Back in Hong Kong, I made friends with people who loved movies. We went to many film festivals together, and I watched so many movies with Spyder on my laptop in my tiny flat. My Hong Kong life was really my era of movies, similarly to when I worked at the public library back in college and read so. many. books. (Mostly YA and graphic novels).
With one friend, we would pick a film and cook up a meal inspired by the movie. We ended up watching a lot of international films that way so we could try all sorts of cuisines.
During my halloween party, I noticed that this group of friends I’d invited enjoyed talking about movies and series, so I shared my dinner and a movie idea with them and asked if they’d be interested. I was delighted when they agreed, and used Boba’s birthday as the inaugural launch.
Invitation I sent out.
We watched the movie Flow (2024). I picked the movie based on the poster and that it won many awards. Other than that, I had no idea what the movie was about.
For the food theme, I chose fish or anything in the sea.
Our delicious spread of fish-themed dishes.
Viki made this baked salmon dish topped with generous amounts of spinach, feta, tomatoes and pine nuts. It was delicious.
Store-bought bungeoppang that I microwaved. Came in both sweet potato and azuki. A real winner.
Couldn't resist buying these little custard cream-filled taiyakis.
Daniel's "octopus" sausages that were quite difficult to make. 🐙
I placed my most sea-worthy napkins and store-bought custard cream taiyakis for each of the guests. I also bought two types bungeoppang (the Korean version), one filled with sweet potato and the other with azuki beans.
Daniel made the “tako” (“octopus” in Japanese) sausages, which I helped decorate and plate because he gave up adding the sesame seed eyes and just stabbed them with bits of cheese, so it looked like a massacre.
Viki made a very delicious baked salmon dish topped with spinach, tomatoes, and feta cheese, paired with mashed potatoes and peas.
The movie itself was very beautiful. Since this isn’t a review I won’t get into too much. But to summarize, it’s about a cat who meets a bunch of animals as they survive a massive flood that takes place in a post-human world. There is no dialog and the animals behave like real animals, so you have to focus on their interactions to understand what is going on. It was puzzling at first and I found myself concentrating very hard to follow along. However, I woke up the next morning still thinking about the movie and what the message was, which is always a good sign.
After the movie, I gave out black sesame and white chocolate chip cookies I had baked the night before, using this recipe. I had watched a reel on Instagram about forming the dough into cones rather than just rolling them up into balls, and that made all the difference! It looked and tasted like those gourmet, expensive cookies that are currently trending in Switzerland.
Before and after of the black sesame cookies.
Since I hosted the last two dinner parties, our friends will host our Christmas gathering. I’m trying to be more lax and said that whoever hosts can pick the theme and movie/event, since I think some of them want to play boardgames too.
Just know that whenever I host, it will be dinner and a movie night. I used to enforce dressing up to my themed parties, but I don’t want to scare people away so only I dressed up as a sailor. No pictures, unfortunately.