Songs from the Little Bird

I'm not sure what the caption should be, but my cat keeps trying to pose for Lolcats.



(Why, yes, I color-coordinated my furniture with my cat. Doesn't everybody?)

I called Pacifica to deal with some bureaucracy. Then I made online reservations for my holidays. Then I called Delta to confirm/reserve space on my flights for a pet, since I take Samhain with me when I'm gone for two weeks.  Samhain was in the "oh noes, she's taking me to the vet!" crouch on the living room floor when I got off the phone, and as I type she is slinking furtively behind me to go hide under the bed. I'd go comfort her, but there's a chance she might think I was trying to extract her, and then she'd pee. So I'm leaving her alone.

How did she KNOW? Normally she talks up a storm when I'm on the phone, even when making reservations.

Example 2) Once I was leaving on a shorter trip, and my flight was scheduled first thing in the morning, so the day before I was going to take her to the vet to be boarded. Around 1PM I was reading a Latin book on the sofa, glanced up, saw her snoozing on the window ledge, and thought, "Hm, now might be a good time to take her to the vet." As I looked over, she woke up, gave me a bugeyed stare, vaulted off the perch and bolted for the bedroom.

Example 3) I've had some dumb cats in my day, but Galena's another mind-reader. The most conspicuous of many incidents is that one time she'd hopped up on the hood of the antique car my parents' realtor drove (nice guy, helped them sell their house) and Mom said, "Galena, Frank's got a nice car. Why don't you get off of his car and go sit on mine?" The cat looked at her, pondered, hopped down and hopped up on her car, then went back to sleep.

O.o


In other news, the little black ants have been beaten back. That rain last week caused the colonies to explode. They're not native -- they're an invasive species that's pushed out almost all the native species and is actually causing a decline in spiders, lizards, and other insect-eaters in the area, so I feel NO twinge of Buddhist remorse. On Monday they went after my fresh-baked Challah, and I declared war.

FWIW, to avoid spraying poison in the house, I get those enclosed pet-resistant ant-bait traps which entice ants to carry poison-laced food back to the hive. I placed the traps at intervals in the area where the ant superhighways were running across my kitchen counter, then laid down thin lines of dish soap between each trap to make them seem like the best route. (Ants don't cross dish soap. Apparently it obliterates their scent trail.) The result looked like Roman fortification walls with little round towers.

Within 24 hours, the invaders were reduced to a few lonely ants, and now there are none. Although one did crawl on my hand while I was SLEEPING last night (ugh) so I have now stuffed a few traps in the bedframe.