I was trying to move Owl's large furry butt off the escape key, where he loves to rest himself. As I tried to push him to one side, he stuck out a foot, hit my battery back-up and turned off the blasted computer while I was in the middle of FTP'ing something. ARRGGGHH!

Although I checked Nefreet over for other injuries, I managed to miss the worst one. Randy felt a tiny bit of something in her right "armpit". When I began cleaning the area with hydrogen peroxide, it opened up into a large, gaping fang-gash that had matted closed. Randy had to help me hold onto her, because she was spitting mad about the pain, but I had to shave the area, then get it thoroughly opened and cleaned. That's exactly the kind of injury that causes nasty abscesses.

Nefreet seems to be doing all right. She was pretty wiped out yesterday and I'm not letting her go outside until her eye has healed up enough. The upper eyelid was slightly swollen this morning, but it's getting better.

Fluffball Tribble is sitting by the closed cat door whining to go back outside into the 100 degree plus heat. Totally insane, that cat.

Let me set the stage here. I've been sick as hell for six days. I have breakfast, go to the doctor's, spend over an hour waiting at the pharmacy for all the meds, get home around 2 pm and for the first time in days, I'm actually hungry again. Starving, in fact.

I sat down and took about two bites of my late lunch when I heard cats wailing and screaming at one another. I raced outside. Puck and Uni were fully inflated, facing off in battle mode and ready to attack. I sent Puck off in another direction and the next thing I knew he had jumped on Sly and they were off and fighting. They tumbled down the driveway in a ball of fur, dust and fangs while I looked for a safe way to separate them. I know from painful past experience what that's like.

Finally, I managed to shear Puck away and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck right outside my office. I held him down and lectured him sternly until he slowly came out of berserker mode.

Then I had to check everyone for injuries. Puck looked ok, Uni looked untouched, Sly mercifully unscathed. I thought that was it. I had just finished my lunch when Randy came home. He located Nefreet and it turns out that this must be where the fight started. Nefreet, of course, antagonizes any other cat and is willing to fight anybody.

This time she got the worst of it. She has a couple of bite punctures on her head, luckily not deep or severe. She must have taken a claw into the eyelid, because she has a nasty slit in the lower eyelid of her right eye. We took her inside and cleaned her up. I found some anti-baterical eye ointment left over from one of the other cats and got the vet's ok to use it, and I have some Amoxicillin to give her for the next few days.

Hours later, Puck is curled up next to me on the desk looking as innocent as an angel. It was something I sure could have done without when I'm this sick. Or any other time, for that matter.

It's so hot, none of my moggies wanted to be outside. Even Puck was already inside when I came down to the office after lunch.

I found Theseus crouched over a large, beautiful lizard. It had blue and yellow on its back and royal blue on its belly. I've been told that this type of lizard can make a cat sick, but I would have rescued him anyway. He played dead until I got him outside in the warm sun, then scurried off.

And now, in the Weird News Category. My only comment is, I want to know what happened to the poor cats!

Cats thrown in woman’s face in Santa Fe
Last Update: 07/24/2003 6:21:05 PM
By: Todd Dukart

Santa Fe police are searching for suspects who allegedly threw cats in a woman’s face.

The 23-year-old woman, who does not want to be identified, was attacked early Monday morning when she answered a knock at her front door, thinking it was her cousin who was expected. One or more people allegedly threw cats at her, and ran off.

She went to the hospital to be treated for the scratches, and was given antibiotics because they were infected. Now, police are searching for the attacker or attackers. The woman was not able to see who threw the cats.

Late in the afternoon, I was watering the plants along the back of the house and filling the birdbath, when I glanced up at the deck and saw a rat scurry across the top step toward the house.

I dropped the hose and raced over. The rat went beneath the steps, saw me and began to run away underneath the deck. He didn't get very far when he had a brief encounter with Unicom who showed minimal interest. The rat ran back toward me, then decided to take his chances with the half-assed cat. This time, the rat managed to get past Uni, who sauntered out and plopped down by me. "Why didn't you get the blasted rat," I lectured. He gave me that look that says, "I'm a Specialist. I only do gophers."

Pat Cadigan gave me permission to post this:

A True Story by Pat Cadigan

Last year, I got Chris a combination DVD/VCR for his birthday. We hooked it up--or thought we hooked it up--as best we could, but never managed to figure out how to make it work. For over twelve months, we have been fidgeting with the thing in our spare time. It became a family hobby--fidget with the DVD/VCR, see if you can get it to work.

Today, not fifteen minutes ago, the cat figured it out.

While I was fidgeting with the DVD/VCR (by way of unwinding after several hours of writing), the cat walked over to have a look at me. She gave me that pitying you-pathetic-human-how-puny-you-are, then stepped on the remote for the cable box, hitting the power button and switching it off.

Instant DVD playback. Duh. In order to play DVDs, we must switch off the cable box. We didn't know that. The cat knew it.

I'm not going to ask her *how* she knew it. I'm afraid she'll tell me.

The cats were extremely happy to be set free after four days of being locked inside. Uni decided to snub us initially. I can't entirely blame him, after being trapped in the house with his insane nemesis, Nefreet. Poor boy.

I picked some flower buds off the catnip and tossed them onto the patio. Pretty soon, Owl, Blue, Puck and Theseus were rolling around en masse in stoned pleasure.

I have new scars. Diva was startled out of a deep sleep and set off a Cat Grenade, which included Puck who was up until then standing quietly on my lap. He launched into orbit, using my right thigh as his launching pad. I have a nice set of puncture marks to show for it.

I've changed my pattern somewhat in order to give the moggies more time outside in the morning. Right after I get up, I go down to the office, give pills, and let the Horde outside. Then I do the rest of the cat chores after breakfast.

But first I let Uni and Nefreet outside. Today, I let both of them out on the front porch. Several minutes later, as I went outside to head down to the office, I glanced over and saw that something was going on. Nefreet was up at the fence line, beyond which is a line of oleander bushes, the driveway to the house further up the hill, and wilderness. She was deeply intent. As I stepped over that way, I saw something cat-like go bounding off. I wasn't able to get another look at it. From the way it instantly vanished, I'd say it was something wild, rather than the stray cat which would have headed downhill.

Nefreet started to chase it, too, except that I yelled her name. She trotted over with her tail POUFFED OUT as far as it would go. I saw that Uni was wisely back at the front porch with his hair inflated to the max.

I'm guessing that Nefreet had a close encounter with a small bobcat. She thinks she's a damned 600 lb. cougar. Maybe the bobcat is in love with her. That would be about right.

Right after I saw down at my desk, Katie placed herself next to the keyboard and shook an entire cloud of fine dust all over the keys, the desk and me. Computer companies really should pay me to test their equipment under these conditions. If they can survive this, they can survive anything.

I've had to settle into a pattern of locating Puck every day after lunch, then carrying him down to my office. Usually, he isn't too terribly hard to find, and he never gives me any trouble about being carried down. He's usually purring when I sling him over my shoulder.

Today, however, he decided to flail around. I think it's because Uni was lying nearby, even though Uni wasn't doing anything at all. But Puck flailed around anyway and managed to run a couple of his claws down the center of my forehead.

Great. In two days, I'm going to a gigantic trade convention where I need to see and be seen, network with friends and business associates, make new contacts, impress my existence into the right minds, and Puck gives me this going-away present -- a nice, long scratch RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FOREHEAD with another smaller one to the right of it.

I'm totally disgusted, I tell you.

On a cheerier note, I've added a new picture to the Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics. Roscoe will make you chuckle.

Go to: The Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics