Cat Scratch Fever

I was reading a story - this lady had a couple of cats and they were destroying her furniture with their claws. Like many people she decided the solution was to have the cats declawed.

Stupid lady. They call it declawing, but it's really "cutting off their toes" - sounds less pleasant, doesn't it? It reminded me of something a friend of a friend said one night - "they use a laser, so it's ok." Right. Lasers make it ok. It's part of their foot; it's not ok (but getting them fixed is, hmmm). Maybe you should get a goldfish instead.

It reminded me of a movie - not a favorite, but one that will be forever burned in my mind, much like when Ray first appeared legless in ER.

Merry Christmas Willy

I wasn't always a crazy cat lady. Willy and her siblings started it. Here's a shot of Willy I took earlier today:


Willy's mother (Mrs. Weber) was living under the grill in our backyard (get it? that's where the name comes from). We started feeding her so she would stop crapping in our flowers. The theory was that a cat won't crap where it eats. The theory held water. What the theory doesn't tell you is that a happy, well fed cat will give birth to a littler of adorable kittens.

In Mrs. Weber's case, the kittens were Ping, Pong, Willy and Ling Ling. Like most (all?) kittens, they were adorable. We used to spend hours watching them splayed out in the backyard, like lions on a savanna (ok, not hours, probably only minutes), or fighting over who gets to be in the hammock (Ling Ling always won).

After we moved, I would go back and feed them, but eventually new people moved in. It's nice to know that someone is taking care of the cats (though Willy looks like she could use a brushing :)