h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wish it would work like that for ball-point pens.

Dewey's been very lethargic today First off he didn't wake us up at 6am In fact when I got up at around 7.45 he was fast asleep on Mrs Gosho's computer chair and didn't stir when I walked into the room. I was a bit worried there for a moment or two Then he went out for his usual early morning constitutional but came back sooner than usual. Right now he's back on the chair and flaked out (I see paws twitching - must be having a dream).

What *could* he have been up to all day yesterday?

Any burgleries in your area? Perhaps he is a second-story cat?

I think we can rule out the possibility that he was doing anything beneficial.

I think we can take that as a given

My niece's pure-bred Siamese escaped from the house and disappeared a few days ago. She asked Mom to go down to the Humane Society and have a look there for her.

She was there, and thank God, in one piece. Apparently, she had been set-upon by a pack of feral dogs that roams the countryside between the East end of Ottawa and several towns distant. The man who rescued her said the the only thing saving her was that she had jumped into a box and they weren't able to get her. The man drove the dogs off her and took her to the Humane Society.

They "fixed" her (my niece had made an appointment to do so, but she escaped and got pregnant. She had just made another one for her) and "chipped her". She is shaken, but otherwise unhurt. I hope this curbs her wandering ways.

If she was shaken up (the cat, not your niece), she probably will stick close to home.

: There's no place like home, Aunty Em.

Very true...

This is Misty The Lucky: http://public.fotki.com/Mudhooks/benjamin_and_other/misty.html

Somewhere, under the green bow,
Way up high....

Misty is now suffering from an Upper Respiratory Infection. Apparently, the intake area of the Humane Society is in the midst of an outbreak and that is obviously how she picked it up.

Not having $800 for overnight care, IV, etc., my niece had to opt for taking her home after an IV and antibiotics. Misty perked up after getting the IV and ate something, so, we will have to see what her vet says on Monday.

Look at me.
I'm as helpless as a kitten on IV

Weird thing late last night, with Benjamin,

I had gone out to the all-night drug-store to get a card for Mom, and to put up the big sign on the porch (which she LOVED this morning) and Benjamin did his magic escape routine. I tried to lure him back in about an hour later when I got back, but he wouldn't. So, I left the back screen open and the slidey-door open a bit. Much, much later (2-ish), I heard him yowl and went downstairs.

He was cowering under a chair and seemingly trying to get rid of something unpleasnat in his mouth. I reached down to pet him and he growled at me. Then he started pacing about the downstairs with his tail twitching, sniffing about, obviously hunting for something.

There was a very slight skunky smell in the living-room, but I could smell nothing outside. I picked him up at one point and his tail went all big and he was obviously not pleased. I looked fairly thoroughly on the main floor but found no 4-legged intruders. I finally shut the patio door and left him to prowl around.

He was fine this morning, but I am baffled.

Maybe there was an intruder, and it had gone by the time you got downstairs? Shot out a window somewhere?

I'm thinking that. I wondered if, because Benjamin was under a chair very near the open door, the skunk (we have a LOT of them in our little neighbourhood) had just started coming in and still had the "business end" outside. If they came face-to-face, he might just have scooted back out without turning around. Benjamin was certainly sniffing at the curtains, so there must have been something there. It may even have been a very young one who hasn't yet got the knack of letting loose with both barrels.

I was kind of worried that I might have locked the critter in rather than out when I finally closed the door. THAT would have been a rude awakening. The dog next door got sprayed in the early part of Spring. It still smells a bit in the area where the encounter took place. Having had a cat that was sprayed outside run around the inside of the house, I dread to think what it would smell like with the added "benefit" of being sprayed indoors.

All the more reason for the genetic scientists to go cautiously. We don't want them cloning skunks orf designing flying skunks.

Yeah, I've seen skunks run under my mobile home. I really, really, *REALLY* don't want skunks breeding beneath my feet.

I'll wager they are quieter than having a couple of goats under your moblie home.....

Trust me.

Bang, bang, rustle, rustle, CLUNK, silence, silence, BANG, clunk, rustle, knock, knock, knock, rustle rusle, clunk, thump, thump, thump, rustle, rustle, thump, silence, THUMP, THUMP, silence, THUMP, rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle, BANG..... repeat for hours on end all night long.....

We lived in a rented farmhouse in Virginia at one time. The place was very old, and sort of crumbling around us, but there wasn't much else to rent at the time. There were holes in the foundation so that animals could get under the kitchen and dining room area.

So of course a skunk got under there one time and sprayed. What a mess. I know you can get skunk smell off of a dog by bathing it in tomato juice, but what do you do when the whole house smells like skunk? It was awful, and took a couple weeks for the odor to finally go away.

From what I understand, skunks do a lot more threatening than actually spraying. It would seem they hope that the threat will be enough to scare off any predator, not to mention that once they've sprayed, it's a couple weeks before the scent glands are capable of producing another dose.