ERROR!

My work computer needs a big, red, flashing ERROR! box for its screen. That would really help on days like this. I could come traipsing into the office first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, and know right away that the day is going to suck. Then I could decide if I want to deal with whatever disaster awaits me behind the flashing ERROR! sign, or drop my half-drunk coffee in the garbage and declare, "It is a good day to go back home and feed cheese to the cats."

A surreal farewell

Leia went back to the shelter last night (and took it about as badly as expected). Before she left though, she decided to make our day just a bit more surreal.



When atara and I got home from work yesterday, the first thing we heard when we opened the back door was the mechanical "whirr" of a running vacuum cleaner. My first thought was, "Somebody has broken into the house! ... and they're cleaning it for us...?"

A more obvious explanation was that the cats were using the vacuum to clean up incriminating evidence of some sort. On further reflection that didn't make a lot of sense either, as cats usually don't care if you know what they've done. "I left a juicy hairball on your pillow, yo!"

Speculation aside, there was definitely a canister vacuum cleaner running in the basement and Jaws (who is deathly afraid of the same) was sauntering nonchalantly up the basement stairs as we came in the door. The fact that she was not the least bit disturbed by the vacuum suggested that it had been running for some time.

While I went downstairs to turn off (and unplug) the cleaner, atara discovered another important anomaly; the door to the foster cat's room was wide open, and the foster - who is normally an accomplished escape artist - was perched in her usual place on top of the wardrobe, greeting us with friendly chirps. Her food dishes were licked clean.

I suspect the sequence of events went something like this: Merry, who is a big, muscular, gentle giant of a cat, was playing with the foster cat under the door (as they were wont to do) when she accidentally pushed the door open. She has managed to do this once before. The foster cat then bolted out of the room to explore the house, while Merry wandered into the room and helped herself to every exposed scrap of food (Tis no cat, 'tis a remorseless eatin' machine!). At some point - possible after both Belladonna and Jaws took exception to her existence - she wandered downstairs to explore the basement. She probably tried to use the vacuum cleaner as a launch pad to jump onto the basement refrigerator, and accidentally hit the on switch in the process. Spooked by both the noise, and by a pair of angry cats who were stalking the house radiating dislike, she probably took refuge in "her" room again for the rest of the afternoon.

tainted pet food

This pet food scandal just gets worse with each telling. First, the manufacturer apparently knew there was something wrong with it a month before they went public. "Gee, our test animals are dying after eating this stuff. The animals must be defective or something..."

Now they're saying that they're not entirely sure of the scope of the problem - it could extend outside the dates they listed.

Oh -- and apparently the source of the taint is rat poison. The cheap wheat they imported from China (because we have such a severe shortage of wheat in North America) was laden with a banned rodenticide.

Cuts like a knife... er, a flame.

The idea is intriguing, but I don't want to think too hard about how this place must smell.




More pictures here.