Told you cats are contrary !

I'd like to move somewhere I could have a catflap, so they explore outdoors at leisure. I'm not too bothered about corpses - or even half-corpses. I just dislike the mess of clearing up feathers. You wouldn't believe how many feathers there are on a sparrow !

Oh yes I would.

BTW baby pigeons look just like little dodos. (Yes, Jack again) It's easy to see that they are the same family.

I am seriously considering putting up a small outbuilding to which the cats could have access, probably via a magnetic catflap, so that they could be fed in there during my absence and wouldn't have to come into the house if they didn't like to do so without me.

Actually, I'm amazed at how well they all look. Chomsky, who used to be the world's biggest couch potato and had to be more or less thrown out from time to time just so he got some exercise, has suddenly discovered that the Great Outdoors is not such a bad place after all; he's been out voluntarily for extended periods since I got back, rather than gluing himself to my leg as he normally does when I've been away. His fur looks a great deal better for it. Klinsmann and Heidi are acting as though I'd never been gone, and Minsky is just his normal splendidly well-adjusted self.

Meanwhile, the small child who was behaving a great deal worse than the cats has turned up and genuinely apologised. To be honest, I'm far more surprised by that than I am by anything concerning the cats!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Sarah_
Welcome back. Glad to read that everything's OK on the cat front. By the way, do your parents have any cats (or vice versa) too or was your last week more-or-less feline-free?

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Post Edited (08-11-03 13:20)

Sadly, my parents have no cats. I think Mum would have one if it weren't for Dad, but Dad, though not actually hostile to cats, views them with a mixture of vague distrust and blank incomprehension.



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

That's great that the cats are well Sarah - and the apology! Brilliant! (She must've missed you.)



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Glad you're back in Sheffield. Must meet up soon, I got something for you at the cat show - no, it isn't a cat.

Re penguins, I was at Edinburgh zoo yesterday and took many pictures of them. Specially the evil rockhopper ones. They're so cute! And there was a water spray on because it was hot, so they were playing in that... No babies though.

But there were baby meerkats and otters, and they were fantastic. (One of the otters thought it was a meerkat, too, and kept standing on its hind legs.

And gorillas, and tigers, and and and tons of stuff! Whee!

(I took 80-odd photos. Maybe a digital camera isn't such a good idea for me.)



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Do something pretty while you can...

No, you're ok dante - digital cameras are particularly good for taking odd photos ;)

Oooooh. I love otters. I was watching them in Shetland last month. They're always facinating. And digital cameras are spiffy for wildlife photos. You can tell straight away if the creature was in shot etc, rather than when you get them developed and it is far too late. You tend to take much fewer disappointing pictures.

I had one of my rare good ideas last time I went to the zoo. Baboons are commonly perceived as the most unpleasant of the ape family, and a lot of that stems from the fact that these poor, misrepresented primates have hideously ugly bottoms. So why not start up a business creating the "bum toupee" - all it would require would be two nicely curved patches of lifelike baboon fur and some wig glue. Plus maybe coloured variants for those special occasions.

Oh, is it time for my medicine already? Thanks, nurse...

Ptolemy - And who would be the lucky individual to glue all that lovely lifelike baboon fur on those hideously ugly bottoms?

Is this a position you would like to take on yourself?

I worried about you before, now, I'm deeply concerned.

Hey Tracy, no it's OK! You thought of it first, you can have the job. That's perfectly OK with me. I'll just concentrate on coming up with ideas and you can run with the marketing since you obviously have an eye for detail there.

I was also thinking of doing a line in casual penguin suits. Seems a shame that they have to go about dressed in formal attire all the time, so it might be good to offer them the option of something more informal - a Hawaiian shirt for instance for when the attend barbeques.

I have a whole bunch of photos of blurry blobs, because I was trying to get ones of the baby diana monkey (which was teeny tiny and wonderfully cute) but it was too damn fast. I don't know if my camera does different shutter speeds...haven't looked at the manual yet. And I couldn't figure out how to get it to do video, either.

I've got some nice photos of the otters, and of a rat on a tightrope thing, and the rhinos - oh, and a camel that has a squint hump.



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Do something pretty while you can...

No really Ptolemy, it was your idea, you take the job. I really wouldn't want to be accused later of stealing it right out from under your nose.

Now, the penguin suit thing. Would this also include casual work wear?

Oh... OK. Well maybe we'll have to recruit someone then.

As for casual work wear, but of course! Why not?

Um... just what work DO penguins do, incidentally?

Why the publish books Ptolemy. You have heard of "Penguin" haven't you?

Well yeah (good point! Derrrrrrrr!)

So we make them green, orange and blue and white suits - right?

Definitely orange. The green is definitely possible and white is a must, I'm just not sure about the blue.

Wilfred's got a tabard. It's made of green felt, with orange lettering and adorned with ribbon and beads. On the front it says "I'm a Dodo" because Wilfred has a bit of an identity crisis, and on the back it says "Plick!" because he normally says "hic!" all the time and he couldn't quite manage "plock!".

It's not so much casual wear as special occasion wear.



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah