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dmarleyFirst things first:
As I previously mentioned, my family was relatively unaffected by the flooding in Nashville. But I know someone who lost her home and possessions and every day I learn about new groups of people who are having difficulties getting back on their feet. As always, it seems that those who can least afford it have lost the most.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elizah_jane has a very good post with resources and links for making donations (thanks to coreopsis for the link). There is also a follow-up post with more information. Tomorrow I plan to take my O-neg self down to the Red Cross. It's been so long since I've had the energy to even come close to qualify for donating, and now seems like an excellent time to go back.
In more benign news:
This morning, Boo asked what "If your cat likes Cat Chow they might like this" meant (it was written on our bag of cat food). Since we had been discussing proprietary formulas the day before (don't ask), this led to a talk about brand names, which led to patents, which led to trademarks, which led to copyright. That took up the first half hour of the forty-five minute drive to school, after which we switched to the Kuiper Belt.
The problem? I meant to review the words for her weekly spelling test today.
So, yeah, she'll be fine if the teacher asks her about trademark law, but won't be able to spell "butterfly" or whatever the hell it is I was actually supposed to help her with. Crap.
In other news, Tom the cat is doing very well. He continues to be in quarantine in the garage but doesn't seem to be suffering too much. I've tried to interest him in hunting games and bought him an interactive toy that spills out treats when he (theoretically) bats it around, but so far all he wants when I visit is love. He doesn't really enjoy being picked up, but that seems to be a personality thing rather than a tameness thing. Greebo doesn't really like being held, either. Both of them seem to prefer sprawling while they are petted.
Another area in which they are similar appears to be intelligence. My first cat, Sylvester, was capable of forming multi-step plans involving tools to get things he wanted. Greebo has problems figuring out how to get through doors where all he has to do is push, bless his heart. The jury is still out on Tom, but the aforementioned interactive toy, where the treats fall out of a hole when he moves it around, seems to have stumped him. He also doesn't seem to have worked out that his extra food is sometimes kept in an open container on top of the chest freezer, an easy jump of a similar height to ones I've seen him make before. This is a good thing, really, because--as much as I loved Sylvester and had a hard time getting over losing him--I don't know that I'd want to inflict another diabolical genius on poor easy-going Greebo.
I did take Tom in last week when Greebo got his second FIV booster. Tom drinks (and consequently pees) about twice the volume of Greebo. Considering that, size-wise, Greebo is the equivalent of a 6'8" human and Tom is about a six-footer, it's likely not a difference in relative bladder size and I was concerned about diabetes. The vet needed to draw blood, which meant that he had to stick a needle in Tom's leg for a good thirty seconds after sticking a needle in his bladder to draw a urine sample. Tom's response? He sprawled there like a big old rug and purred. Good kitty. :) And the tests were all negative, too.
As I previously mentioned, my family was relatively unaffected by the flooding in Nashville. But I know someone who lost her home and possessions and every day I learn about new groups of people who are having difficulties getting back on their feet. As always, it seems that those who can least afford it have lost the most.
elizah_jane has a very good post with resources and links for making donations (thanks to coreopsis for the link). There is also a follow-up post with more information. Tomorrow I plan to take my O-neg self down to the Red Cross. It's been so long since I've had the energy to even come close to qualify for donating, and now seems like an excellent time to go back.In more benign news:
This morning, Boo asked what "If your cat likes Cat Chow they might like this" meant (it was written on our bag of cat food). Since we had been discussing proprietary formulas the day before (don't ask), this led to a talk about brand names, which led to patents, which led to trademarks, which led to copyright. That took up the first half hour of the forty-five minute drive to school, after which we switched to the Kuiper Belt.
The problem? I meant to review the words for her weekly spelling test today.
So, yeah, she'll be fine if the teacher asks her about trademark law, but won't be able to spell "butterfly" or whatever the hell it is I was actually supposed to help her with. Crap.
In other news, Tom the cat is doing very well. He continues to be in quarantine in the garage but doesn't seem to be suffering too much. I've tried to interest him in hunting games and bought him an interactive toy that spills out treats when he (theoretically) bats it around, but so far all he wants when I visit is love. He doesn't really enjoy being picked up, but that seems to be a personality thing rather than a tameness thing. Greebo doesn't really like being held, either. Both of them seem to prefer sprawling while they are petted.
Another area in which they are similar appears to be intelligence. My first cat, Sylvester, was capable of forming multi-step plans involving tools to get things he wanted. Greebo has problems figuring out how to get through doors where all he has to do is push, bless his heart. The jury is still out on Tom, but the aforementioned interactive toy, where the treats fall out of a hole when he moves it around, seems to have stumped him. He also doesn't seem to have worked out that his extra food is sometimes kept in an open container on top of the chest freezer, an easy jump of a similar height to ones I've seen him make before. This is a good thing, really, because--as much as I loved Sylvester and had a hard time getting over losing him--I don't know that I'd want to inflict another diabolical genius on poor easy-going Greebo.
I did take Tom in last week when Greebo got his second FIV booster. Tom drinks (and consequently pees) about twice the volume of Greebo. Considering that, size-wise, Greebo is the equivalent of a 6'8" human and Tom is about a six-footer, it's likely not a difference in relative bladder size and I was concerned about diabetes. The vet needed to draw blood, which meant that he had to stick a needle in Tom's leg for a good thirty seconds after sticking a needle in his bladder to draw a urine sample. Tom's response? He sprawled there like a big old rug and purred. Good kitty. :) And the tests were all negative, too.