Pimping

A fellow student's cat was seriously injured last week, incurring a vet bill which is far too much for most students to afford.

I pledged to send her money if she kept the cat indoors from now on, and she agreed.

If you can help donate to defray her costs, that would be great. Info is here.

And I'll use this as a reminder to my f-list to always keep your cats indoors. The Humane Society recommends that all domestic cats be indoors-only, for their safety, and the safety of other wildlife. Outdoor cats, even when not feral, have an average lifespan of only 2-5 years, compared with 15+ years for indoor-only cats.

All four of my babies are indoor-only, three of whom started life outdoors, and while they occasionally whine about that, they're much happier and healthier than they would be otherwise. Our oldest, Kitty Bob, is going on 16, Punky is almost 14, Penny is 10 and Familiar is about 6. They'd never have lived this long if I let them roam.

Yeesh

Man, we have one heck of a storm blowing in. It's gusting up to over 30 mph. And going by the sattelite, there's a bunch more where this came from, sitting right off the coast. This is nothing compared to a hurricane, of course, but it's a lot more than we usually get around here. Up here on the third floor, facing a courtyard, it feels really damned weird. But so far, this spiffy new building seems to be holding tight.

I'm taking a short break from writing up my latest article and studying for my history mid-term. I finally got back some of my previous articles, and it looks like they got decent scores, even if they didn't make print. That makes me feel a heck of a lot better about my chances of passing. By my figuring, I need to write about 3 more articles (not including the one I'm doing now) if I want the bare minimum C-, and about 6 more if I want a B-. I can probably do that, if I get enough assignments. Counting this one, I've written 6 articles so far (though one wasn't turned in) so I think another 6 in the second half of the term is reasonable, especially since I'm finally getting the hang of how this works.

Oh, one weird little "I'm not in the burbs anymore" thing-- I was half-asleep last night when I saw some odd motion out my window. I put on my glasses, and lo and behold, a doe was walking through the parking lot and then down the street. There's a fairly extensive wilderness area nearby, so I shouldn't be surprised, but it was cool anyway.