Got the cat carrier out of my storage locker in the basement. I get anxiety going into my storage locker. There's stuff in there from my Gran's and my Uncle Steve's estates that I've never really looked at or dealt with, plus the cat carrier. If you watch "Hoarders," you know that one of the primary reasons people cram their homes with boxes is ( Read more... )

My cat Oswald is an orphan who's been in my care since he was 48 hours old.  He was the first orphan that the Progressive Animal Welfare Society had entrusted me with, and having no idea what I was doing, I bought a copy of "Hand-Raising the Orphaned Kitten."  I still have it; the edges of its cover are perforated with holes from when he was ( Read more... )

The leopard-print fleece throw is Oswald's favorite daytime hangout. Let's see what happens when the professional usurper decides he wants the best seat in the house ( Read more... )

In addition to pulling the plug on my laptop, Gus also steals pens for attention. (Once one has eliminated the contemporary writing implement, it's only natural to go after the traditional one.) Again, I know I feed this impulse by laughing at his antics and chasing him, but you try to resist pursuing a cat with saucer-big eyes who's brandishing a ( Read more... )

One of Gus's latest tricks for getting my attention is to pull out the power cord on my laptop.  (The MacBook power supply, unlike my old iBook, doesn't have a clickstop connector, but a magnetic port.  This bothers me a bit, having grown up in an era in which it was thought that even having a magnet in the same room as a floppy disk risked data ( Read more... )

The neighbor who left a note under my door last week slipped a beautiful followup thank-you note over my threshold tonight. I was home at the time and considered tearing open the door to positively identify the neighbor, but I wanted to read the note first, just to ensure that it wasn't inscribed The next time I see you, you'll be dead.

Not even! ( Read more... )

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