At least it doesn’t involve Ysabel. But this kitten is almost too much for Seishi, who finally gets enough and goes for a bolt hole where he can slap Eushu’s nose. Seishi’s claws are clipped very short. Eushu’s, not so much. I’ll tell you, I am not keen on somebody getting an eye scratched, which is where Ysabel got conjunctivitis. And she’s allergic to the antibiotic ointment. So I’m going to ask the vet if I can (without another vet visit) pick up some meds OSG recommended as little likely to provoke allergy: not as if she hasn’t been diagnosed. Meanwhile I’ve been using a belladonna drop (Simulsan) made for pinkeye, and it has given Ysabel some relief, poor girl.
I try to defend Seishi from the Demon Kitten, but then Seishi darts out to play hare to Shu’s hound, and there we go again! I don’t think he’s feeling too threatened.
Sei is NOT welcome on my bed: ask Ysabel. She’ll put him off that. But otherwise they’re getting along quite nicely, just a little exchange when I filled Sei’s dish and Ysabel thought it should be HER dish.
Well, that’s the kitteh politics. We have discovered Sei is ALSO fascinated by the marine tank. As well as Shu jumps, we figure sooner or later we’re going to have a kitteh half-soaked. Sei does not jump so well. His big feet (his breed has huge feet) are not good for fine footwork in delicate places.
We had a nice breakfast in the rain, under the patio umbrella. And Jane has what we hope will be her follow-up hematology appointment on Wednesday. It would be nice to get a clean bill and be told to tootle off.
May you always live in interesting times!
It sounds like Seishi is holding his own with Shu-Shu and learning to play. His new home must be quite a revelation for him having never been outside a cattery. I’ve had several kittehs in the past who would just walk away when they got tired of younger sibling teasing. They always seemed to be my calmest and most secure guys.
The latest trick is all three kittehs trying to climb windows when there are bugs outside at night.I am now replacing my screens with reinforced fiberglass screening. Kiki and Aloysius have figured out that they can destroy a door screen in about five minutes using claws and teeth. I think they are learning to use tools.
Toes crossed that all goes well with Jane’s appointment on Wednesday. This has not been an easy summer for you. May August be better.
Next evolutionary step towards hani? Have you found an open Leatherman next to the damaged door?
Jane getting a clean bill of health… three kittehs adapting well to living with each other… no involuntary home improvement projects… Let us hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train!
Ah, those involuntary home improvement things…the recent fun was the front storm door lock. We’ve never had a key for it and the front door itself hasn’t got a deadbolt, so we’ve been having to go out the back door any time we wanted to leave the house secure. I finally decided to just replace the handle and lock on the front. Naturally, in the years since the door was put in, the specs on these lock have changed…by maybe 1/32″ in some cases, but a very significant 1/32″ in a place without a lot of wiggle room for error. Shall we say, what should have been a half hour job turned into most of the day as I had to finesse holes by hand rather than go after them with power tools. I also discovered…once I went online looking for installation instructions…which were missing in the packet and not online…that it could be rekeyed to work with the key to the new back door, so a trip back to Lowes was part of the time sinque. I also got a photocopy of the instructions from another packet.
If I have one real complaint about Lowes, it’s their tendency to restock returned items without really checking to make sure all the significant parts are there and in good shape. This one also had part of the spindle (it’s a part that goes through the door and has places to cut it for different sized doors) cut off, but fortunately our door was slightly skinnier than the previous non-owner, so I had to cut it down still more. But the lack of instructions…turns out I’d figured everything out correctly, but instructions are so you don’t have to waste time head scratching.
But the main thing is, we have a lovely new lock, and will now be able to leave out the front door!
We earnestly hope!
crossing fingers for all those things
I had a cat jump into a fish tank before! He was so amusing to see soaked and embarrassed, running for the safety of the next room. I bought a glass cover for that tank and didn’t have the problem after that.
I hope the cats adjust to each other soon.
Alas, a marine tank can’t have a cover. That’s why a kitteh jumping to land on the lid is doomed to a salty surprise. Doesn’t hurt the tank usually, and the cat gets really tired of salt.
*snicker*
I would still expect both Eushu and Seishi will try for the marine tank and both learn this is a fine way to get soaked and salty.
(Hmm, I don’t yet know if one can say, “Shu-chan” or “Sei-chan” to refer to a boy or teenage boy with a friendly diminutive. That might be too “girly” or otherwise not the right thing to call a young male, especially by an older male. Haven’t learned enough Japanese yet to know.)
Heh, I wouldn’t get too worried about the screens until you start seeing wire cutters or blowtorches and little, tiny goggles and face shields and hardhats. But if you do, make sure they don’t charge you for a full vane and engine pack replacement. Or make sure it’s billed to, well, the nearest obstructive captain or station office….
Heh, my two were very into tearing up my blinds. Still have to replace my blinds with verticals, which should be harder to render disarranged and disreputable and just generally dis- and dys- all around.
Good luck to Jane for her appt. upcoming! Though one hopes “tootle off” doesn’t get mistranslated…. You never know when someone might want to tell you where to go, haha.
Also, very good luck to Ysabel’s recovery.
I get the feeling that although Seishi is feeling a bit put upon, he will discover what his tolerance limit is, and make young master Eushu behave. (Unless, of course, he turns out to be not-the-alpha, like Goober.) Just walking away, though, and remaining out of reach and aloof from young pranksters, is an acceptable way for a young gentleman to handle the kid.
Time to check on my twosome. My refrigerator is problematic, more of that “dis-/dys-” going on, and after over an hour of screwing around with it, finally accompanied by hurled invective and a couple of punches at the hunk of dang-fool machinery (silly and juvenile, but sure made my hormones feel better) they decided to be temporarily elsewhere. (After the youngster was way *too* present and interested in the goings-on for his safety, I thought.) So, time to check on them. Most likely they are happy and otherwise occupied, since that was, oh, some thirty minutes ago, and no more excitement. (I gave up on the useless hunk o’ junk for now. Will need either a repairman or a new fridge. My patience and temper could use a new fuse, too.)
Gah, 3:00pm already. Time to get things ready to go, so I don’t have to fidget later.
Then to find the papers on the frelling fridge, if I can. It’s only five or six years old, I think.
I’ve been trying to figure out the “chan” thing for years. There seems to be the “correct” way of using it, i.e. what the learn Japanese books will give you, and the “street” way of using it, which is what I seem to catch watching anime, where you’ll occasionally hear it used in conjunction with a young male character.
Anyone fluent in Japanese who can give us a definitive answer…it w/b appreciated here as well!
Used to do some fanfic for Gravitation (It’s where Shu’s name comes from for those who didn’t read that post), and I can tell you for certain that Yuki calls Shuuichi Shu-chan in the anime and in the manga, but then, they are also in a relationship and Yuki has a tendency to talk down to Shu (he being a rich and famous author and Shu being a mere nutcase of a singer who just happens to hold the keys to Yuki’s sanity). But I call Shu Shu-chan all the time, and give you leave to do so as well (much easier to say than Eushu-kun). Afterall, in another month or so…
I came awake this morning with an odd idea for a story. Something about an elderly queen saddled with an untamed, unruly young heir. In a fit of desperation, she orders that a noble house send him a companion. One house has a young man they’d just as soon be rid of — timid, scholarly, and useless (so they think) in a land where they’re guarding the dangerous borderland. So off he goes to live at the High Court.
Intimidated by the queen and worried that he might overstep the line with the heir, he finds he must call on the military training forced on him in previous years to take command and on his love of all things scholarly to draw the attention of the boy.
And then what? Does the young heir, tired of the life he never wanted, take off and the companion has to find him? Is the boy kidnapped? Is it all part of a plot and the prelude to an invasion? Are they the two who must go back to rescue the queen?
AAAAIIIIEEEE. I really don’t need a new plot bunny. But there it is, staring me in the face. I wonder if I could twist this around into an sf story, despite the fantasy feel. I am overrun with fantasy right now.
Hmmm. Or an Urban fantasy of some sort?
Still. AAAAIIIIEEEEE.
You stole my plot! 😀 ARGH!!!!
(But that’s OK. Looks like I’m never going to have time to write it and if I did, heck, ideas are a dime a dozen right? Maybe we should start a whole new anthology: stories based on the Tau-Ceti triumvirate! 😀 😀 😀 )
Oh eek. Sorry! But, as I’ve told everyone at the writing site I run, we could all start with the exact same idea and none of us would write the same story. Still, if you are serious, just say so. I can drop this one. Or write it just for me to get it out of my head where it has been growing for the last couple days. I’m still going through all the possible cultures, from Egyptian to Steam-punk to Urban fantasy. (An Egyptian Urban Steam-punk fantasy? No, no, no.) I adore this part of the writing process.
Oh…
Tau-Ceti triumvirate? (Missed that part in my initial worry over taking your story.)
Why, Zette, wherever DO you get your ideas? 🙂
LOL. I get them where I am least looking for them far too often.
I’ll be starting the outline tonight, I fear.
“The Quest of Gil and Enki”, perchance? 😀
Alas, the myth of Gilgamesh has never been one of my favorites. But the story is growing there in my brain. It will find it’s own path eventually.
Our goldfish tank is open to the air, sitting on a half-bookcase by the sofa. Our cats think the every-flowing (from the filter) water is delightful to drink. Sometimes the fish come up to investigate. Several times, Froggie (yes, one of our cats) has gotten so fascinated/attracted by the moving fish he has plunged his paw or face into the water. The look as he pulls it out! “Are you aware this stuff is wet — all the way down?!” We’re not too worried about fish kills.
As a kid, we had a similar goldfish set-up and my family’s cats drank out of that tank too. The goldfish would come up and bump the cat on the nose, I suspect now because the tank was unfiltered and the lapping of the cat’s tongue oxygenated the water.
Lol—we have photographic evidence of the Demon Kitten drinking from the bichir tank…African ph and mineralization. Dunno about his kidneys. At least it’s not salt water!
He might *like* the salt, if it is not hyper-saline and otherwise tasty.
Smokey still thinks if he’s on my desk and I’m eating there, I should share. Haven’t yet convinced hi, that swiping out a paw to grab a taste is not quite good manners. He’s highly curious and smart, very optimistic and self-assured, and not usually a brat, but always getting in trouble. I like his nature, it seems healthy, and I don,t want to discourage him from learning and communicating. But hah, gotta get across that he doesn’t want to cross *my* boundaries, take my food, or boss me. Working on it. The odd thing, he has a certain polite finesse to it, even though it’s an “I want some too, is that good to eat?” behavior. Darn charming, even misbehaving.
—-
That story idea…. It sounds as though both the untamed heir and the bookish noble need a bit more in depth/layering of char and motives.
If we’re assuming medieval Europeans, then scholarly training would’ve involved a mix of ancient Greco-Roman and Church scholarly training, from child to university, and some inevitable military arts and sciences as a noble-born male…even if he’s not great at athletics, he’d still need to learn some. What other interests does this young lord have? What age? What level of responsibility, independence, power of himself, versus his family connections. How related to the queen and heir, or is he? What other interests? What kind of person?
What about this untamed heir? Just how wild and in what ways? How old? Personality and interests? Support and ties of other people?
Is there a basis for the boys / young men to become friends? Rivals? Enemies? Love? Other relationship possibilities? How would that change?
What’s the mighty queen’s intention for the.two, and are both in her thinking or just the heir? What plans or needs does she have, personally or business/politics/martially? What is thrust on her by the surroundings, internal to their territory or external? What is she like?
Would a non-European setting offer other choices story-wise?
Fantasy or more historical fiction, are there such beings as the various kinds of fair/wee folk we usually think of from European lore? Other, more ancient? None such? Is there magic? What about mythical (or not so mythical) beasts? Conflict between Church, secular, and older indigenous beliefs and folkways? Are there ethnic rivaries between/among the ruled territories, ruling groups versus ruled groups?
Just because it’s the queen’s idea…is she right? Is the heir? Or the companion? All wrong? All right? Some mix?
What happens when Milord the Heir or Milord the Companion are faced with reality instead of their dearly held favorite approaches?
Uh, whew, plenty of room for a story!
ShuShu does that too. He was heartbroken when I stopped giving him little bits of my yogurt (turns out artificial sweeteners are BAD for kitteh-boys) but reconciled when I brought out a tube of cream cheese and gave him little bits while I had my yogurt.
Can you say SPOILED? 😀
I seem to have taught Aloysius to enjoy oatmeal, which I eat several times a week. I thought at first it was the plain Greek yogurt he liked, but no, he just likes the oatmeal, as I found out when I was out of yogurt and milk and had to eat something before heading off to the market. These are the most omnivorous kittehs I have ever had, also the only ones I cannot leave kibble out for as they will eat until they throw up. I think it comes from their being rescued cats and having to fend and fight for food. It could no not ever be a result of spoiling the poor things.
ShuShu is finally starting to plump up a bit. I think the worms had done a real number on his gut. He’s also the most delicate eater I’ve ever raised. I’ve always had to go through a little snatch and grab stage hand feeding tidbits, but not with him. He wants his treats…oh, how he wants them, but he doesn’t snap to get them. Curious, considering how energetically he wrestles. But he’s pretty omnivorous as well. Likes bread and crackers. I imagine he’ll gobble up oatmeal as well.
Let’s hope he never stops playing! He’ll become a meatloaf kitteh in no time!
Let’s hear it for kittehs who like people food!
Jane, you might try plain, unsweetened yogurt (for Shu-chan) which I have seen available, well, somewhere in the store before. I don’t think the yogurt is a problem for cats unless they have too much at once.
I agree, when a cat has been a street cat or otherwise maltreated, they are probably always going to pig out. I got Smokey when he was a kitten, just old enough to be separated from his mama, and half-starved. Went through the usual kitten and adolescent bottomless pit stages, only magnified and, at times, obviously anxious about the food. My grandmother’s cat, who arrived a stray, half-grown, with his collar so tight he must’ve *grown* with it, is, at six now, a chow hound of a cat (and badly overweight: he gets fed by lots of neighbors and he hunts avidly). Smokey also has anxiety over separation and joy when I return. It all makes me think how it must affect people who get homeless or impoverished or abused. There’s a line in one of Bruce Springsteen’s songs, “End up like a dog who’s been beat too much / ‘Til you spend half your life just a-coverin’ up.” (“Born in the U.S.A.”)
…It makes the sweet and friendly disposition that much more special. Manners, even. Appreciation of what they’ve got, now that they have a good home. (That seems the case for both Eushu and Seishi.)
Hmm, delicacy about it could also be a holdover from, “is this new treat going to make my stomach upset?” But once he’s used to something, it’s manners. — Smokey took a long time learning to pull in his claws, but now he nearly always does, playing or asking for attention. Much nicer. Goober has never learned to pull in his claws when paddy-pawing (milk treading / kneading). Ow, kitty, I love you too, but take it easy, huh?
— this past weekend, I found out one computer objects to the Region 0 encoding on some DVD’s, and it wanted to switch from Region 1 (US/CAN) but can only do that 5 times. I’ll be trying out that DVD set on another computer.
— I’d really welcome a good explanation of “-chan” and “-kun” and “-san” from a native Japanese speaker. There are always things a speaker can tell, because he/she feels the language, versus the politely sanitized and proper “textbook” explanation, which always will vary from any level of actual usage.
Funny on the cats and the fish bowl/tank stuff. I always thought fish would be interesting to have. Since I always had cats, I decided it would not be a good idea.
As for the story — trust me, my own plot is hatching (so to speak) as I think this through. I only thought it amusing that the idea came from such an odd spot. But then again, ideas come from everywhere and anywhere if you’re open to them. And the characters are growing all on their own as well. Lots to consider. I’ve written a large number of novels and I know how my process works. Soon it’ll be notes everywhere and the start of some research. LOL. In the end, the story might not resemble what I mentioned here much at all.
Amusing that I’ve seen Sumerian and Medieval backgrounds suggested here, though.
(And now, no more about my writing stuff.)
If you have to give a cat oral antibiotics, plain unsweetened yogurt is good at reinstating the intestinal bugs that are needed. A couple of hours after the meds is best.
Good idea.