As I type, I am being assailed by a very old tomcat who has convinced himself that he'd enjoy cinnamon toast. Probably not, old pal, and in any event, it's
my breakfast and you've already had yours. It's not so much that he really wants it and he's certainly not hungry; but Mom's having it, so it must be good.
This is one of the risks you run when your elderly cats -- Tam has dubbed them "geriatricats" -- take up residence on your desk; the advent of flat-screen monitors left a nice space on a slightly elevated shelf, which they have claimed, despite Slinky's inability to get on the desk by herself. (Tommy still manages, by climbing onto my chair or a cat-carrier stores beside the desk). What the heck, it's safe, warm, and they're close by.
* * *Finished
Project Mars. Von Braun would've had a better yarn if he'd left his Martians out; there are several lumps of sententious moralizing that do nothing to advance the plot, though they are a fascinating glimpse at some of the inclinations that kept him playing along with the German army 'til it was much too late to back out. Interesting translation quibble: at one point, he's writing of the attitudes and drives that give rise to human and Martian behavior and names a couple of notions as the "sire and dam" of the urge to explore; but uses the words in the form "siring and
damming..." Tsk. That does not play so well in English.
* * *Word is
the next Indiana BlogMeet will be 9 August, just in time for Farmer Frank's sweet corn harvest! Probably at Broad Ripple Brew Pub.
* * *No time to check this for the inevitable typos, so enjoy 'em! More later, I hope.
9 comments:
Story of your cat reminds me of an incident I dealt with a few years ago, when I did tech support for a printer company. A woman's cat liked napping on top of her laser printer because (as anyone who has owned a cat knows) they love sleeping in warm spots. Just before she called me, as she attempted to print something, there was a terrible screeching and grinding sound; the cat's tail had gotten caught and it was being pulled into the machine. Luckily she was able to rescue the cat with nothing more than a bruised tail, but the printer was in bad shape. The incident really did not come under a warranty situation, but my supervisor had it repaired free anyway, just it was a novel situation that made him laugh.
"...despite Slinky's inability to get on the desk by herself."
I used to rule the world, now I'm a cat elevator. :o
My 8-year old cat, black named "Snowflake" by my wife, likes to wake me up in the morning. There's nothing like a cold nose in the ear to pop that dream currently running in your head. If Snowflake is doing the nose-in-ear routine, she'll sit next to the head of the bed and yowls a bit.
Who said cats were low maintenance?
Both of our (the boyz) cats like to climb onto or be near the computers, especially when I am using them,
Lay on the keyboard? Okay! While your using it? No problem!!
Breakfast? Well lets share that okay!!
Or at 5 am we get one or both in bed with us and the tom seems to think my hair is always dirty!!
Cats....I used to hate them!!
Yeah, a cat wants what you're eating, and if you break off a piece and put it in front of the cat, it has no interest and keeps going for your portion. Then I tap the cat on the noggin with the spoon (which makes a bell sound and a disgusted look on the cat, both of which get me to laugh), and all of a sudden I'm the bad guy.
I don't have a dog because I wouldn't be home enough for it to be properly cared for emotionally, and I don't have a cat because I can't be away from home to be away from it that much.
Zydeco is allowed on my desk but not Stingray's. Guess who has to fight a campaign for possession of her lunch every noontime? It doesn't matter how many times he's yelled at, growled at, scruffed, dropped, evicted, or spanked, he presses in like a fuzzy, angry glacier until his nose is just hovering above my portion and I lose my patience for the umpteenth time.
He used to sleep on top of my monitor. Then I finally got a flatscreen. It's been a year and I STILL have to yell at him to stop him from climbing up there to see if it magically develops a sleepable surface once he reaches the top.
It's funny how many cats I've known over the years became affectionate in their dotage.
In a couple of cases, the old toms in question would claim any available lap, even those of humans that they had previously ignored.
One time, my fifteen year old handle-sake jumped into my grandfather's lap within seconds of him sitting down. The look on his face was hilarious.
To that old farmer, cats were just to keep the vermin down. If there got to be too many, he had plenty of burlap sacks . . .
It matters not what I'm chopping on the ol' block, Rooster thinks he's entitled to whatever it is. I think he's a Democrat.
As much as mine are oppressive furry tyrants, they don't really bother me for my lunch. Odd.
Jim
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