Today, I got up and saw that the expected snowstorm arrived right on time. We hit the grocery store last night in preparation, so we're ready for whatever it brings. :)

I wanted soup. So I put on a pot of vegetable soup with sausage and beef. It's got carrots, onions, celery, corn, green beans, peas, kidney beans and diced tomatoes with mild chilis (which gives it just a little spicy kick which I really like.) It's starting to smell good! The trouble is, I was hungry NOW, and even more so after smelling the garlic and onions sauteing and the beef browning!

So even though it was well after noon, we decided to have oatmeal for lunch. Stovetop, not instant, cooked with milk. I added cinnamon, brown sugar, a bit of nutmeg, and a spoonful of pureed rodent butts from the properly-labeled jar in the cupboard (mole-asses, for those that don't know. Yes, I know moles are actually insectivores, not rodents.) :)

Currently, I'm goofing around online and watching guinea pigs squabble over hay and parsley.

It's been a good day so far!

My new year's project is to try and learn to cook. I know a few basics, there are a few things I can do, but I've never really cared much about learning to be a decent cook. I've decided to try and change that for a few reasons. Money is REALLY tight right now, which means going out to eat isn't an option. There's only so much Hamburger Helper one person can take -- if I want variety, I need to learn to make it myself. Also, in general it's a lot less expensive to buy a few staple ingredients and cook for myself than to buy processed, boxed food like I usually do. For example, for the cost of one pizza from a pizza place, I can use the bread dough I keep in the fridge now and make 4-5 pizzas. With the freezer in the basement, I can buy things like meat and veggies on sale and freeze them till I need them.

The kidlets are visiting this weekend, and I needed something inexpensive but filling for dinner. It's a cold day, and I was craving soup so I figured I'd give it a try. I started off with a pound of stew meat. I browned it with garlic and onion in a little bit of olive oil and added plenty of salt and black pepper. I tossed the meat, garlic and onion into a big stewpot with some of the frozen turkey broth I had on hand. I then added about half a bag each of frozen corn, green beans and carrots and roughly 4 stalks of chopped celery. A can each of diced tomatoes with green chilies and kidney beans. At the guys' request, I also added in a pound of smoked sausage. I seasoned with salt, black pepper and a bay leaf. About half an hour before I served it, I added about half a pound of ditilini pasta. I served it with homemade cheddar garlic rolls. It was VERY tasty!

Me cooking? It's madness! It's like cats and dogs living together! George and Lewis show the real results of such things:

( Pictures of MADNESS! )

Animals remember. They have some concept of the simple past, but they live triumphantly in the present. Few of us do.

-- Rita Mae Brown

I'm insomniacing again tonight, and I've spent far too much of the night being argumentative.

As penance, I shall now post a kitten picture, taken tonight:



Boogie is sacked out with 4 out of 5 of the A-Team: Andy, Amber, Archie, and Arnold. Abby was unceremoniously dumped off my chest to get the picture. :)

We may not ever resolve the divide between liberal and conservative, find a compromise that everyone can live happily with on the proper role of religion in public life, or agree on evolution, gay marriage or the meaning of Christmas.

But hopefully, we can all agree that this is just stinkin' CUTE. :)

I wonder how many of the people that have signed the infamous petition supporting Roman Polanski, and how many people that oppose his detention, would be willing to have a known sex offender that drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl move in across the street. I find it very curious that while stories hit the news almost daily of people living under bridges and in tent cities because they can't find other housing due to the laws that restrict where sex offenders can live - yet many of these people did not commit crimes as reprehensible as that of Polanski.

Polanski's rape of a child is a crime that should have been punished decades ago. An offender without the money and fame to flee and live abroad for so many years would have spent years in prison. Polanski may have talent, but talent does not place him above the law. Hopefully, in next few weeks that he will be hauled back and thrown in a deep, dark prison for a very long time. He's lived for over 30 years on borrowed time - it's time that he pays for his crime.

I'm happy to say that, if IMDB is accurate, I have not seen any work in which this man has been involved. I intend to make sure it stays that way. It seems I may soon need to add many signers of the petition in question to that list.

We lost Anya today.

This wasn't something we were expecting - she wasn't even a year old. She'd been doing just fine. The kittens are pretty much weaned, just nursing for comfort now and then, and she disappeared for a day or two, hiding upstairs instead of spending time downstairs with us. We figured she was getting away from the kittens, to complete weaning, and didn't think much of it. Yesterday, she came back down and I picked her up and was shocked - she was light as a feather, skin and bones. The long coat covered the weight loss so that you didn't really see it unless you picked her up, but she'd lost a LOT of weight. I checked, and she was dehydrated, with gums almost white.

I notified roane, who called the foster coordinator and the shelter vet on call, and began giving her fluids orally. We talked to a vet here in town, who had us give her a dose of amoxicillin. She perked up some after the fluids, and I had some hope that she'd be ok. This morning, roane took her in to see the vet. She was down to about 3.5 pounds - she'd lost half of her body weight. They felt a mass in her abdomen and did surgery to figure out what was going on. It turns out it was a severe intestinal infection. They attempted to save her, removing the infected part of the intestine, but she didn't make it through surgery.

We've been assured that there was nothing we could've done - the infection was probably there when we got her, and the vet said even if she'd found it sooner, she might not could've saved her. It's really, really hard not to ask "what if", though. I just really hope she wasn't suffering in the last couple of days. The infection is not something that's contagious - the other cats in the household and her kittens are all safe and in good health. I can't help but wonder if she stayed with us as long as she did to make sure that her kittens would be ok.



Anya was an absolutely beautiful girl, inside and out. She was the undisputed queen of the household, lording over cats, dogs and humans alike, and the most caring, loving mother you could hope for. She was a true ragdoll, who would go limp in your arms and purr blissfully when you held or petted her. Her life was far too short, but I hope she had some happiness in the time she spent with us. She was certainly loved while she was here.

So Saturday night, we let the foster kittens out to romp. Nellie's been doing a lot better, and so we decided to let her run as well. She's had freetime before with no major problems. At the end of the evening, we gather everybody up. Uh oh - no Nellie. We looked for her, but no sign of her. We assume she's curled up asleep somewhere and don't worry overmuch - this happens not uncommonly with kittens.

By Sunday morning, we've still seen no sign of her, and are a little worried. I did a fairly systematic search of the upstairs and main floor - no Nellie. Later that afternoon, I was taking some stuff down to the basement, and find her sitting out in the middle of the basement's main room. The instant she sees me, she scoots off and hides. I searched for her, but couldn't find her in the stuff stored down there. I put a can of food down for her, figuring that if we haven't caught her by Tuesday, we'll borrow a live trap from HSHV to get her.

This morning, roane took some laundry downstairs, and saw her again. This time, she managed to see where she ran to - the coal bin. This is a pretty good thing, as the coal bin's the smallest room of the basement, with only one way in or out. The downside is, there's a LOT of stuff in there to hide under and behind. I slip into the coal bin, and roane blocks the door behind me. After looking around a bit, I determine where she's hiding - behind a stack of doors leaning against the far wall. I manage to scare her out once, but she runs behind a pile of boxes and nearly escapes by climbing the frame of the door to slip out through the gap at the top of the door.

So first, I move all the boxes so that there's no cover along the route along which she first ran out. I then take an old window screen and place it horizontally in the gap at the top of the door, so that if she does climb up there, it'll at least slow her down before she can get out through the gap. I also used another screen to try and create a blockade in the to trap her against, or slow her down. Next, I begin moving the pile of doors she's hidden behind. One by one, turning them back against the wall until finally, they're all moved and she's huddled next to the back wall. I reach for her, and she takes off. She leaps the blockade, and once more climbs the door frame, making it all the way up this time - running into the screen at the top. I managed to grab her, getting a pretty good scratch on the hand and wrist, before I can finally get her scruffed and under control.

She's now back safely with her brother, who has definitely missed her!

There's some evidence that she's regressed some, in her time downstairs. We should be able to overcome that, though. In any case, no more free time for Little Miss unless we're in a controlled environment!

We keep our foster kittens caged in large dog crates when we can't supervise them. They're turned loose to run amok when we're there to keep an eye on them. When it's time to go home, it can be difficult to convince kittens that would MUCH rather stay out to head back into the cages. To get around this, we've taken to feeding them their canned food at the end of free time. Instead of having to find them all, chase them down, round them up, and repatriate them into the cages ourselves, we can usually just stick a plate of wet food into the cage and the kittens materialize from all over the house to hurl themselves into the cage, face-first into the grub.

As I told roane tonight, we have:

One can* to feed them all,
One can to find them.
One can to bring them all,
And in the dog crate bind them.

I was amused.

*One can per cage. :)

The adoption paperwork's gotta be done (though I'm not worried about it going through), but Piper and Peanut have a home! The Pterodactyls go in for their surgeries on Tuesday, at which time Posy and Penny will stay at the shelter to find their new homes. Anyone want a SWEET little orange or buff girl? :)

Around these parts, we try to make sure that our fosters grow up with a healthy amount of fear. Take Piper, for example. Can you find Piper in this pic?



Of course not! Piper has carefully hidden himself behind Nikki and Reecie, because he is clearly terrified of dogs, as all cats should be. EVERYONE knows that dogs and cats just can't get along! Peanut is also appropriately afraid of Reecie:



A kitten is never too young to learn to be afraid. Here, Andy and Arnold demonstrate their great fear of vacuum cleaners:



I figure if that whole "pampered pet" gig we want for 'em doesn't work out, they've got a real future as Dyson spokesmodels. They're definitely not fur slugs anymore!

The Pterodactyls are now scheduled for their surgeries. Penny and Piper are up to 2 pounds, Posy and Peanut are each 1 lb, 13 oz. They'll go in on Sep 8, which gives the two smaller girls time to gain those last few ounces. I'm really hoping I have a home for two of them lined up (though which two is currently undecided.) The other two will stay at the shelter after their surgery. It's hard to believe that they're almost ready to go!

The A-Team went in for their first set of shots today. They were NOT amused. That mean old roane stuffed them in a box! And put them in a car! With no Mom in that box! And took them to someplace where they got poked with needles! And had thermometers stuck up their butts! They squeaked with indignity! And charmed the entire clinic staff in the process!

Related to the A-Team's first visit, we have had our first major fail where our foster kittens are concerned. I knew it would happen eventually, especially with as young as some of these babies were when they came in, but it's still a little humbling when it happens. It turns out that we do not have 3 boys and 2 girls. We have 4 boys and 1 girl. In my defense, it's REALLY hard to tell on extremely young kittens, and Abby's long hair has made it even harder since he's aged. He's definitely inherited his mom's long coat! After some consultation, we decided to keep his name "Abby" - it's just short for "Abner" now instead of "Abigail". Now we just have to get out of the habit of referring to him as "she"!

Neville and Nellie also went in for shots today. Nellie's all done with her medical stuff - as soon as she's ready for adoption, temperment-wise, she's ready to go! Neville was NOT IMPRESSED. He spent most of his time huddled down with airplane ears.

In other news, Nikki was just scared out of her favorite perch (with much grumbling) by a 7-week-old kitten. That's our alpha dog!

If the rain holds off, I'll be going to a Lansing Lugnuts game tonight! It should be a lot of fun!

Efforts continue apace to convince Neville that I'm not going to eat him. He's still unconvinced.

The main problem I'm running into is that he's making such slow progress that the size of the cage we're having to house him in for now is becoming an issue. Most of our foster kittens stay caged while we're working and sleeping (the cages are roomy, with lots of toys), but come out to run amok when we're around and can keep an eye on them. The completely untamed ferals, however, can't be trusted to do this. You bring a feral out, and he'll just find a place to hide. Getting him back can be difficult, and the entire exercise does nothing towards taming him and getting him adoptable.

The issue, though, is that Neville's making very slow progress. I'm uncomfortable keeping him caged 24/7 when there's not currently an end in sight for when he'll be able to have more freedom. Enter the compromise.

We have a small screened-in front porch on the house. It's big enough to run amok in, but not so big that he can get away and hide. All of the furniture stands high off the ground, with no way to hide somewhere he can't be easily retrieved. Last night, I took Neville, Nellie, and the Pterodactyls out there, along with the Pterodactyl's climber and a handful of jingle balls and other cat toys.

It was a huge hit. Nellie and the Pterodactyls have been playing together a good bit lately, so they were jumping on each others' heads almost immediately. Neville seemed unsure about all this at first, but before too long, he was running and chasing and pouncing and climbing with the others. He turned from a scared little cat back into a kitten. I took my laptop out and stayed out there with them for a couple hours (minus the time that I left them out there and cleaned their cages inside.) He still wanted no part of being picked up or held, but he forgot I was there and ran over and under my feet several times while playing. These are all signs of progress.

One of my biggest concerns about Neville has been that he didn't seem to care much about getting out and romping with the other kittens. With the other ferals we've tamed, that's always been a key component of getting them to settle down - they wanted GO, and they quickly learned when picked up that relaxing and purring meant they were put down to play faster. They'd quickly get to where they purred immediately when picked up. Hopefully, by finding a place that we can give Neville a little more freedom and a chance to romp and play and have fun, we'll be able to motivate him to begin relaxing more quickly when picked up. Between this and the fact that he seems to REALLY like turkey baby food, we've hopefully got some tools to motivate him.

In other news, last night was another nail-biting attempt by the Tigers to choke away a game, but another win in the end. I swear, Fernando Rodney's gonna give me ulcers yet, putting men on 1st and 3rd with no outs in the bottom of the 9th with only a 2 run lead! He pulled it off, though, without letting anyone score. I guess you can't argue that he's a boring pitcher to watch! The White Sox lost to the Red Sox again last night, so this win moves us further into first place. In other news, the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth you may be hearing right now is me being forced to root for Boston. Blech. I feel a little dirty.

The Pterodactyls continue to put on weight. I'm thinking another week or two, at most, and they'll be ready to go up for adoption. I'm gonna miss those kids!

Anya seems to be just about done with this whole "mommy" thing. She's been spending more and more time away from the babies, and is much grumpier with them now when they try to nurse. We know for sure that at least three of them (Archie, Arnold and Abby) are eating solid food now, and are pretty sure the other two (Andy and Amber) are as well, though we're watching very closely to make sure. The babies are back in the upstairs apartment, since they're now big enough to climb the baby gate that was keeping them in the downstairs bathroom!

The big news of the night is that Neville has decided that he likes turkey baby food JUST FINE. After eating about 3/4 of a jar, licking up a fingerful at a time, he proceeded to fall sound asleep on my chest:

( Neville pic! )

We may get this boy tamed yet!

In other news, the Tigers tried hard to choke tonight, but managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth to their 10-0 lead to win 10-7. I'll take any win tonight, especially since Chicago lost. We're not so far ahead in the division that we can throw games away! It ended well, if nerve-wrackingly!

Roger Ebert, being far more eloquent than I could ever be, talks about morality and universal healthcare. It's worth reading.

I don't care who you are. I don't care what your politics are. I don't care how many issues on which you may agree with Justice Antonin Scalia. His statements in his dissenting opinion in Davis v. Georgia should cause the blood of any rational, thinking citizen to run cold:

“This court has never held,” Justice Scalia wrote, “that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.”

I have read Scalia's full opinion, hoping that this was simply taken out of context, and wasn't as bad as it seems - that Scalia was not actually stating that the execution of a person who is innocent of the crime of which he was convicted is perfectly constitutional. The NYT has a good overview of the case and the US Supreme Court's action to which Scalia is in dissent - this article is where the quote above originates.

I don't know the full details of the case in question, but it seems to me that if Scalia truly believes that the execution of an innocent person is not unconstitutional, he needs to be removed from the bench immediately. By his logic, any person can be convicted of trumped up charges in a kangaroo court, and die to an executioner's needle despite his or her innocence if the proceedings can be described as "full and fair". A court proceeding that convicts an innocent person is neither full nor fair.

Davis doesn't sound like an angel, but there are some serious doubts as to whether or not he is actually guilty of the murder for which he was scheduled to die. If there is ANY doubt about the guilt or innocence of a person about to be executed, the court, and Scalia as a member of the court, has a responsibility to postpone the execution. Death cannot be reversed; justice is better served if a murderer goes free than when an innocent man is executed.

If Scalia can't see that one simple fact, he needs to find some other employment, far from the bench. His bloodlust can hurt far too many people where he is today.

Things are chugging right along here in foster land. Last weekend, we rearranged our den to allow us to fit a third kitten cage in, since Anya's family is now big enough to move downstairs. We both really like the new arrangement - it makes the den feel bigger, and allows us to open one of the French doors, giving a lot more airflow!

( Cut for lotsa pics )

Overall, everyone's doing really well!

Vienna Teng's "The Tower". I love this song so very, very much. There's been a lot of my life I've identified with this pretty strongly. I love Vienna Teng so very, very much. Next time she's in Ann Arbor, I AM NOT MISSING the concert, dammit!

( Song lyrics )

In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic by Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld

Listened to an interview with Peter Berger on the Diane Rehm show today - he sounds like one of the most common-sense folks I've heard in quite a long time. I'm very, very interested in checking the book out.

My favorite quote from the interview (possibly paraphrased): "Doubt is not the enemy of truth. Doubt is truth's best friend."

A link worth reading, with a response to Sarah "Why-Won't-She-Just-Shut-Up-and-GO-AWAY" Palin's fearmongering about "death panels".

The thing is, these panels already exist. They meet in corporate boardrooms at health insurance companies, and ration care by denying claims and vetoing treatment. Ultimately, the decision is made, not based on what's medically best, but what's most profitable for the company. The most profitable way to do business is to collect premiums while minimizing the number of claims paid.

Talk all you want about big, scary bureaucracy, but frankly, I'm a heck of a lot more afraid of the treatment I need standing between a big company and its profit margin than I will ever be of red tape.

Miss Lucy would like you all to know that it's REALLY HARD living in a house with two people that obviously don't like cats. Because what else can explain the fact that she's SO NEGLECTED that she must seek love by headbutting me awake repeatedly at 6:30am? Clearly, she's angling to go live with her Auntie Shirl in Tulsa! Or maybe she can go keep Calliope company at custardfairy's house. She's lucky she's cute. :P

In other news, yay kitten season. Due to a lack of enough foster homes, we have two more hissy-spitty feral babies in the house now. Neville is one of the most gorgeous tabbies I've ever seen - he's spotty all over, though he's far too thin. Nellie is a little black-and-white tuxedo kittie. Her little white toes are just beautiful. They're older than our other foster babies, and will be with us until we can get them socialized and ready for adoption.

All of the other babies in the house are doing really well. Anya's babies are rapidly progressing out of "fur slug" territory and turning into real kittens. The other group of babies in the house is just adorable - they've moved down into the bigger, lower apartment. They continue to do well. We're a full house right now!