Cat adventure
February 23, 2009 • 1 Comment
I had the best job in the world this Saturday. My task was to tag along with a friend and help her make wise decisions about cat adoption. Notice I used the singular.
This was a bit like taking a tippler to a wine tasting. Temptation was compounded by the fact that I wasn’t the one smuggling a hard luck story home and trying to explain it my furbles. This was fun shopping entirely on someone else’s dime.
To make a long story short, we ended up at the pound, just to look. They had a half-dozen or so strays there, but there are hundreds of unwanted cats and kittens in the city that have landed in shelters. Most are volunteer-run organizations. This was a very small sampling—lucky for us, because it was heartbreaking enough as it was.
We went into the back area with the cat kennels and met Samson. He resembles Sylvester, if Sylvester had a bad accident with a weed whacker and was subsequently electrocuted. He’s a long-haired boy about five years old who was living wild, but he was obviously a spoiled pet at some point. He reminds me of a swashbuckling cavalier fallen on hard times. Once the matted fur is taken care of, he’s going to be gorgeous.
And then there was a female chocolate point ragdoll named Rosebud (the name has to change). She had been dumped in the wild, probably because she needs medical attention for one eye. Like Samson, she’s an affectionate, purring sort who had a good home once upon a time. She is a beautiful, elegant animal that really needs a crystal food bowl and silk cushions to complete the look.
After a masterful job of justification, we took both home. Samson was in my lap in no time, playing Velcro kitty. Rosie took a little bit longer to gain confidence, but was checking things out by the time I left that night.
Yes, I really did an excellent job making sure my friend just looked and didn’t take anyone home. However, two needy cats that were abandoned by their former owners found a loving guardian. This was a happy ending. I wish we could have taken them all.
The Demon Lord Speaks
January 13, 2009 • No Comments
Check out the interview with the Demon Lord of Kitty Badness at the Chatty Cat Cafe here: http://myblog.susannesaville.com/ and enter to win a copy of RAVENOUS
Don’t try this with the Demon Lord of Kitty Badness
October 21, 2008 • No Comments
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3229125/Swimming-with-tigers.html
I thought this was just too cool. After dancing with wolves, we can now swim with tigers ….
Demons, Kitty and otherwise
July 3, 2008 • 1 Comment
The Demon Lord of Kitty Badness has discovered how to open cupboard doors. Which close with a bonk as soon as he lets them go. Repeatedly. At four a.m.
So I stumble into the kitchen to wring his fuzzy neck and discover he’s bowling with muffins. Glad to know my baking is so entertaining.
It was the perfect ending to day in which a) my iPod dumped all my music b) I spent six hours at the computer trying to convince a demon and a vampire to kiss (what, like they have a right to be fussy?) and c) the reference book I wanted turned out to be $358 used.
On the upside, it is only a 2.5 day work week. I could get used to that, if I could keep the whole paycheque ….
The queen, unamused
May 13, 2008 • No Comments
The queen
I’m finally getting around to posting some shots of The Queen. She and the Demon Lord of Kitty Badness (DLKB) are not on speaking terms, mostly because he bounces too much and tries to eat all her food. Not easy to see in these shots, but she has the approximate configuration of a bowling ball on tiny, dainty paws.
DLKB
Leaky cats
May 11, 2008 • No Comments
My good friend has an elderly cat. I shared house space with Mr. H (the cat) and his brother for the first many years of his life. Now that he is of a curmudgeonly age (the cat, not my friend), I am one of the auxiliary humans called upon when something medical needs doing.
Lately, this something has involved pumping fluids into him via subcutaneous injection. The ritual involves swathing Mr. H in a large yellow towel and clinging on for dear life while my friend stabs him with a needle. Then we assume the position long enough for the drip to happen. If the Paws of Death do not emerge from the towel–one sneaky claw at a time–about twenty minutes later we emerge unbloodied and the cat sloshes away. Mr. H looks weird with one side bulging full of ringer’s solution, sort of like half a sumo cat. The good part is it perks him right up.
This is not without its ridiculous side. The other night I was sitting there with a half-nelson on Mr. H and thought, “great, he’s fighting back with his bladder.” Turned out the needle had gone in and right out the other side of the fold of skin. We were hydrating my pant leg instead of the cat. My friend withdrew the needle and started over, only to discover the solution still trickling out of Mr. H like a half-hearted garden fountain. I always assumed skin would heal over a needle prick instantly, but he’d sprung a leak where the extra puncture had been. Happily, he did not start leaking air and whizz around the ceiling like a burst balloon.
All’s well that ended well – when we were done Mr. H still chased his kibble around the floor like a maniac.
Finally up and running, sort of
April 20, 2008 • 3 Comments
My temporary web site is up at www.sharonashwood.com. There’s not much there yet because, let’s face it, until I at least get a cover design for my book there’s not much to include. However, having someplace to put all that good stuff once it arrives makes me feel better. I’m on the web; therefore, I exist and can move on to other things. It’ll be nice when the official and better designed site gets up and running, but this at least gives me a place to hang out.
I’ve wanted to spend time on this blog relating interesting tidbits about the supernatural in the news. However, I’ve suddenly been hearing a lot about nanofoods. Not exactly paranormal, but not exactly normal either, and worth a thought.
Nanofood is, apparently, food with enhanced molecular “extras.” The point is to change the properties of food to, say, taste like whole fat mayo when it’s mostly water or make something whip to a froth that isn’t supposed to. The possibilities for enhanced nutrient contents or really good “diet” foods is huge, what one writer described as a new industrial revolution.
What nobody knows at this point is the long term effects of this stuff and, after the outcry against genetically modified foods, it seems the development of nanofoods is happening in a quiet way. I read one oblique reference to a problem with the nanobits unexpectedly going diving in the nucleii of nearby cells–something the researchers viewed with understandable concern. Extra bits swimming in the DNA. Can’t be good.
I might be excused for thinking of the Borg. Already I have enough problems walking past a bakery and thinking “resistance is futile.”
And this all goes to prove that, whatever I dream up as a writer, reality is much more strange.