Kate is home, having made barely a peep on the drive. Yet another cat to give pills to twice a day, and I'll bet she's going to be a tough one. I asked about her weight as she felt pretty hefty in the carrier. She's gained weight since the last time I had her in. The Wild Abyssinian Blimp is up to 15.5 lbs.

I was woken way too early by a call-back from the vet's. I wasn't terribly coherent, but I got the gist of it. The vet was totally booked and my only option was to drop Kate off as soon as possible and leave her to be looked at whenever the vet could find a spare minute. I dragged myself out of bed, didn't even bother with breakfast and hauled the furry blimp that is Kate into town.

Kate is one of those cats that never makes a sound. She has a silent meow, or at best, she'll sound as though her hinges need a drop of oil. It is only when she's in the car being taken to the vet that she exhibits Voice. Suddenly, out of nowhere, come piteous meows from the Girl Who Does Not Talk. This time, though, her voice sounded rather strained.

A couple hours later, the vet called to say, yes, the signs are certainly vague. They did a blood test and everything looked fine. In general, no obvious problems except the swallowing and a wheeze when Kate's head was turned a certain way. Best guess is that she has a throat infection of some kind. She'll be on anti-biotics, with a warning to bring her back in if she doesn't improve in 3-4 days.

When I got home, Randy displayed about a two-inch scratch down the side of his face, just to side of his left eye.

"What happened?"

"I was playing 'doggy' with Nefreet."

"Then you got what you deserve."

"Yeah. It itches," said the man who is allergic to cats.

Randy likes to tease Nefreet by panting like a dog. It drives her nuts...more nuts than she already is. Usually, she just bites his hand or tries to take a piece out of his pants leg. This time, she got his face. If you're going to tease a Psycho-Kitty, you must be prepared for the consequences.

I'm a bit worried about Kate. The past couple of days I've heard her making a low growl, which is unusual enough, but then I noticed she wasn't necessarily making it for any obvious reason such as another cat bothering her. I began paying more attention to it and I think she's suffering some kind of vague distress. She might have something caught in her throat, because she's making choke-like sounds, too. Or it might be something internal that's hurting her. She seems fine in every other respect.

I've put in a call to the vet's. Looks another vet bill is coming up.

Lady Tosca-bella has come inside to lie on the desk next to me. Her back is adorned with a fetching decoration of cobwebs. I won't ask where she got them.

The moggies are enjoying the lovely weather. Gophers are being duly slain. My back deck has an area mottled with gopher blood where Uni likes to eat his victims.

I've been more consistent about giving Owl two anti-histamine a day and the fur on his back is growing in dark and luxuriant. There are still a couple of small spots he goes after and thins out, but they're minor compared to what he was doing.

The Great Chicken Feed Cat Litter Experiment is now a month old and I have yet to see any kind of insect or moth appear in the boxes.

With my lifemate out of town for a couple of days, Unicom is put out at having a large chunk of his HAQ (Human Adoration Quota) missing. When I went to bed last night, Uni picked a fight with Nefreet so that when I opened the door to intervene, he could muscle his way inside. He jumped onto the bed and proceeded to complain vocally about the deviation from schedule and the lack of other human.

I felt so sorry for Uni that I let him spend the night on the bed with me. I had to shut the door or Nefreet would come in and there would be more feline fuss and bother. This was a mistake since Uni decided he wanted out of the bedroom at 5:30 am, just when I was getting some deep sleep, and woke me up open the door. I won't be doing that again tonight.


If you're in need of a good laugh, you must check out CAT PRIN. Turn your cat into a frog! Or, alternatively, a sheep, a rabbit, a chicken or Anne of Seven Gables. It's hysterical. Go see.

One of my first actions of the morning was to rescue an unfortunate lizard that Diva had discovered. She had tossed it around a little bit, but it was unhurt and even had its tail intact.

I have been remiss, however, in celebrating some birthdays.

Tribble was born May 1, 1989, so he has just turned 14.

Querida's birthday is unknown, so I'm going to let her share her son's birthday of May 1st, which means she's has just turned 16, though she could actually be as old as 17 since I'm not quite sure of her birth year.

Knobby and Kate were born on or about 4/18/91, so they've both recently turned 12.

Unicom's birthdate is unknown, so I think I'll let him share the May 1st date, which means he just turned 13.

Nefreet, Uni's nemesis, is possibly 11, though she could be older.

Blue and Artemis, were born sometime in May-June 1995, so they're 8.

Theseus, Tosca, Diva and Sly have even more uncertain birth years and I have little to go on for even guessing at birthdays for them. Best guesses are: Theseus 9, Tosca 8, Diva 7, and Sly 10 or 11.

I don't have any birthday for Owl, either, but he has to be at least 10 now.

Which brings me to the youngster, Puck. Puck's actual birthday is unknown, of course, but it was in April of last year that I finally took charge of having him fixed. He would have been around a year old then. Given his nature as the Prince of Mischief, I've decided to give him the honorary birthday of April 1st, which means he is now 2 years and a couple of months old.

Unicom was extremely upset at being brought inside last night around ten. It was a full moon, a hunter's moon, and he was NOT ready to be incarcerated. He prowled restlessly around the house, refused to sit with us on the sofa, sat by the door, and made a lot of irritated, complaining noises, which for some odd reason we find quite endearing.

By this morning, all was forgiven and he came into the bedroom for his usual bout of Adoration by the Human Slaves.

I discovered that he'd left most of a gopher on the back deck. After I let the Horde loose from the office, Tribble quickly found it and had it for breakfast. That was not endearing. That was disgusting. But that's a cat for you. Nefreet will turn up her pert little nose at many of the treats we offer her, but she'll eat day old gopher guts.

I was trying to concentrate on writing a piece of game dialogue when Puck, Lord of Mischief, decided it was time to savage my ponytail. He stood with his hind legs on the side wing of the desk, his front legs on the back of my chair, and delivered my ponytail a serious thrashing.

Satisfied he had slain the vicious ponytail, Puck curled up in my lap for a nap. A few minutes later, he launched out of my lap (digging into my legs as he went) and bounded over to an open window where a large lizard was sunning itself on the screen. The lizard was on a part of the screen covered by glass, so it was entirely safe, much to the Puckster's frustration.

The Great Chicken Feed Experiment continues. I heard secondhand that one of the problems with using chicken feed for cat litter is that it develops bugs and worms. I had a long discussion with the guy at the feed store who confirmed that a) if I had a big chest-style freezer (which I don't) I could freeze the feed for a couple of days and that would prevent the bugs; and b) the bugs are the exact same tiny moths that appear in old boxes of flour or grains. Quite harmless.

I have yet to see anything appear. Of the four large tubs I used for cat boxes, two have lay crumbles while the other two have a 50-50 mix of lay crumbles and clumping cat litter. The 50-50 mix works every bit as well as the plain chicken feed.

I was sitting at my desk about to email some files, when I heard the loud and pitiful screams of terror of a bird right outside my office. It was late afternoon, so all of the office cats had been inside for hours. Uni never shows interest in birds. That left only one very likely culprit.

As quickly as I could hit "send", I jumped up and ran outside. Sure enough, there was Nefreet perched on one of the railroad ties that outline a parking area across from my office. As soon as she saw me, she hopped off the tie and trotted over to me. I investigated where she had been sitting. There were feathers everywhere in the long, tangled masses of native grasses and wildflowers. Lots of tremendously upset quail were skittering out of the grasses and making distressed sounds in the trees.

I looked carefully. There was a batch of large feathers and a lot of small, soft downy feathers, but there was no body. Nefreet wouldn't have had time to eat anything in the half a minute between me hearing the cries and getting outside. My best guess is that a lucky quail had a close call and is quivering in a tree contemplating the loss of quite a few feathers. I hope that's all it lost.

I'm not sure which is better on a rainy day -- letting the Horde go outside or not letting them. It's a choice between bored, antsy cats wanting to go out or satisfied cats trampling all over my desk with their little muddy feet.

Uni and Nefreet simply slept the day away.