I begin to write this on September 13th. I can't post it till the 24th. That's because there are surprises to protect. Youngest daughter "M" is coming home for a visit and we have decided not to tell her what's been going on here for the last week. That's why YOU don't know about it either - until I post this. I have to tell a very recent story
Yoda is, of course, still missing in inaction. When this story begins, he has been gone about 9 days.
The acting manager at the NSLC (the real one retired in May and has not been replaced yet) has a son, who has a boss, who knew somebody who was going to drown some kittens. At that remove, of course, the story gets a bit fuzzy around the edges but, basically, Son, being that sorta guy, utters the maritime equivalent of "No way, Jose", acquires aforementioned kittens (undrowned) and takes them home to Mum. Mother and son say "but...." to each other for a while until she, being that sort of Mum, takes the kittens and the box they came in to the local farmers' market, tries to give them away, succeeds only partially, brings the last three to the NSLC (for verily, t'was her weekend off) and suggests to me that, since she can't keep them all, one or more might help ease the pain of Yoda's loss, and they were going to be drowned and who could do that and what else could I do and damn that son of mine and aren't they cute and I like that one best and whaddya think, good idea eh?
I replied that yes, it might help, and yes, they were SERIOUSLY cute but my wife, broken up over Yoda, had categorically said NO MORE CATS. You can't keep them in, she said, it's not right. You can't let them out, she continued, it's too dangerous. We shouldn't have them at all, she concluded. it's just not fair, either way, to anybody, cats included, and that's final. I had agreed but suggested to"Mum" (just to keep the naming simple for the confused reader. I trust you understand she's not MY Mum, of whom more at a later time) that she should take them round to our place at her leisure, just so my wife could SEE them, and, who knows, maybe she'll change her mind.
We have two of them.
They were VERY young, probably five ananarf weeks, and should still be with THEIR mum but they are doing really well. They've been here a week as I write this and are already noticeably bigger. I won't attempt to describe them - pictures will be added - but they are, as advertized, seriously cute.
ENGAGE TIME WARP!
It's now October 1st, youngest daughter went home today, so the cat, so to speak, can come out of the bag now.
The day after the kittens arrived (they were named, incidentally, "Rez" & "Q" (RezQ, geddit?) by my wife who has a talent for such things) was Labour Day (or "Labor Day" if you live in the land that still discriminates against U).
On that day, our neighbo(u)r told us that mutual friends had a problem with a dog. The mother of a friend of theirs was suffering from Alzheimer's, one of the lesser known symptoms of which is a complete inability to look after dogs. For many, this is not a problem. Some do not even notice. But this particular lady HAD a dog and researchers have found that that drastically increases the chances that this particular symptom will present, so it was. Her daughter had tried to take the dog but couldn't keep it in her apartment so she put him in a kennel so she would have sufficient free hands to scratch her head and think about what else to do.
Some while later, she met our mutual friends and explained all this. They offered to try and take the dog (let's call him "Teddy", if only because it's his name) but THEIR dog, a young boxer who, by similar logic, we shall refer to as "Lucy", was having none of it. So little of it was she having, in fact, that she DID have some of Teddy; a small piece of his head, to be precise.
And so it was that, on Labo(u)r Day afternoon, Teddy came to visit to see how he got on with our existing canine residents, Bu & Mokey (see previous posts). He's still here. He's family now. He's a stone deaf, 12 year old Corgi/Jack Russell cross (possibly blended with other genetic material of unknown provenance) and he's an absolute delight. The poodles accepted him with nary a second glance and he follows everybody around, presumably waiting for them to say something (which, of course, they never seem to do on account of the whole stone deaf thing). He barks when he thinks it's appropriate so to do, but he's almost always wrong.
So, we are still missing Yoda, but Rez & Q are twice the size they were when I started this post and developing quite distict little characters, Teddy has settled in and all seems well.
Astute readers will have worked out the reason for the delay in posting this. We shocked the pants off hono(u)rable #3 daughter when she got here. Introduced her to Teddy and told her the story. Warned her that Ricardo (who is really HER cat, after all) had "lost weight lately" and promptly handed her Q (who, apart from the fact that he was about 0.03% of the size of Ricardo, at least shares his black and white colo(u)ring). Waited till she was all cooey over him and then casually produced Rez (GREY and white) and asked her which was cuter. We await, still, the answer.
Off to add pictures, enjoy.
Next time, probably, The Saga Of Mum. Stay tuned.
