Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

5:22 p.m. - 2002-11-24
Now, Stop Groaning!
This is my 101st entry in this diary!

A little technical note: The new sidebar that says "Sign My Guestbook" is actually not a joke. I really do have a guestbook now, and you can really go and sign it if you wish. I don't expect it will see much action but it has been brought to my attention on a number of occasions that the "Contact Me" bar does not, in fact, contact me at all. Instead, it breeds frustration and gnashing of teeth, and people who want to reply to something I've said here have to actually use my other email address, should they actually know it, or just give up and keep their thoughts to themselves.

So there you are. I do try to be accomodating. And since everyone reading this probably knows eachother you can all have running conversations in there if you want to! In case you're wondering, Ursus Major is Bruce.

**********************************

The word technical reminds me of one of my favorite experiences from childhood. I was watching TV one day when I was probably about five years old, and the screen went fuzzy. An announcer came on and apologised for the "technical difficulties", but still the screen stayed blank. There was silence for a few minutes and then the announcer said: "I don't know if I should keep talking. I think the sound is gone." Another voice in the background yelled something, and then the announcer said "Is anybody there? Hello out there in TV Land!!" and then started making stupid jokes, obviously thinking that the sound was gone and no one could hear him except the people in the TV studio.

Oh for the innocent days of television. For weeks my favorite phrase was "Hello out there in TV land!"

*************************************

I have my old calendar book out, because I've been thinking about starting up the calendar again. Hey, Seth, did you know that on this day in 1898 Scott Joplin was born? Urm, you did? Oh, yes, I think you were the one who told me that....

*************************************

Sigh. Ok, I can't avoid it any longer. There is something I'm hemming and hawing about telling you all, because I know when I say this you are all going to sigh and groan and roll your eyes. Even my mother groaned, and she was Miss World Cat Lady of 1973. I guess I just have to be out with it.

We're adopting another cat.

Now stop it! STOP IT! I can hear you all the way in Alabama! We have room for another cat! We have 3000 square feet in this house, and even considering that about 1000 of it is off limits to cats, that leaves one cat per 400 square feet. I just don't think that's overdoing it!

She is kind of a desperate case: a feral, of course. Do we ever adopt normal, well-socialised cats? She has been living in the back of Bare Hands, having litter after litter of kittens which Wendy has been able to trap and find homes for. Mama cat has eluded capture, however, until last week, when she finally got so desperate for food that she crawled into the trap. Wendy hauled her off to the vets for neutering and shots and was sadly telling me that she didn't know what to do except release her back outside again when it was done. Mama is not at all friendly and trying to find a home for her was a lost cause.

Bruce and I seem to specialise in lost causes. As Bruce said, if we can tame Athena we can tame anybody.

I didn't point out to him that I often question whether Athena is actually tame.

Anyway, we went to pick her up at the vets on Saturday but when we got there we found the vet looking disturbed. "Are you releasing this cat outside?" he asked guardedly.

"No, taking her home. We've dealt with ferals before, so we're going to adopt her."

He looked distinctly relieved. "That's great, because she's just chewed her stitches out. We just had to do emergency surgery because her intestines were exposed. She'll really need to be watched. I was actually hoping you'd let us keep her till Monday."

So Mama is still at the vets. This is the story of Bruce and I and every cat we've ever adopted. They all seem to have some psycho problem! Chewing stitches out actually seems pretty normal, compared to Burroughs and his smashed leg, Zesto's deafness and Athena's horribly debilitated condition, including being pregnant with dead kittens. And did I mention Tylenol's obsessive-compulsive disorder?

The vets other comment? "She's a nice looking cat. But she's pretty wild. You'll have your hands full."

***************************************

So now we're on I think about Chapter 23 of "What Should We Name The New Pet?" We haven't come to any conclusions.

She's a black cat, so we started thinking about spooky names. Persephone, Goddess of the Underworld. Oona, after one of the Irish Faery Queens whose husband, Finvarra, led the Wild Hunt which collected the souls of the dead. Lilith, well, Lilith did have lots of kids. It's appropriate for a cat whose had many littters of kittens.

We've been joking about naming a cat Fuelrod for years, so I brought that up again. "Nah, said Bruce. "That's a Tomcat name."

What about Eartha? After Eartha Kitt? Get it? Eartha Kitt(en)? And she was the original Catwoman on Batman!

Bruce doesn't like it.

There's also the nickname to be considered. I briefly thought of Titania and then realised her nickname would inevitably be "Titty".It's amazing what names morph into. Burroughs has become Burbear, Athena is Weena. Tylenol is inexplicably called The Weasel, and if we had realised Zesto would turn into Toady or Spodey we probably would have called him...oh, I don't know, maybe Fuelrod.

Remedios? Leonora? Vampira? Any suggestions, folks?


0 comments

 

 

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!