Cat Tales

This morning Freyja flirted with Usna. Really and truly. Definitely. She walked just in front of him and flicked her tail in his face. She usually only does that with Merlin...or the humans. Hell, I get the tail in the face ALL the damn time. :)

Of course, she turned around 15 minutes later and hissed at him because he was looking at her.

But progress has been made.

Cat Tales, part deux

Usna seems to be having some trouble with the *you snooze, you lose* ethos that Odhinn & Freyja both subscribe to. Each day I give the three of them a tasty dental chew. They LOVE them...they beg for them...if I walk anywhere near the Amish entertainment center where they're kept, they all start to whimper. It's a thing.

It amuses me no end that these *dental treats* which are supposed to help the cats' teeth are more or less inhaled...not chewed. Freyja & Odhinn both race to get them down, just in case the other will try to steal it. But Usna likes to take his time, play with it a bit and nibble it. Doesn't work in this house. Yesterday, Odhinn stole it out from under his nose and ran into the kitchen...I intervened, but I probably should have just let him eat what he'd rightfully stolen. :)

Today, both Freyja and Odhinn tried a pincer movement...although if only one had actually gotten the treat, it would have been all over but the screaming. It didn't work, because Usna had positioned himself by the front door, and I was on my way to work at the time. But he's going to lose a few if he doesn't wise up.

Oops, must go to admire the dead toy mouse that Freyja's just killed. She's doing the *I am a mighty hunter, come, see what I've killed* call. :)

Cats, gotta love 'em.

(no subject)

This morning I was reading in bed. I try to take a few minutes, lay down, put up my feet and read before wading into the insanity that is trying to get kids to school.

I'm re-reading a lovely book. Second Nature by Michael Pollan. I lent my copy out several years ago. It never made its way home, but I recently bought another copy from Amazon Marketplace because I've been wanting to re-read it. It's a meditation on gardening, and how gardening brings one to a sense of one's place in the world (broad generalization, that).

But this morning, one of the passages jumped out at me...particularly in light of some stuff that's been going on with wynkat1313, and I thought I'd share. :)

"When I say his [the gardener's] method resembles evolution's, I don't just mean he practices a form of survival of the fittest. Evolution has a double rhythm: only after nature, in her promiscuous creativity, throws up countless new possibilities and combinations does natural selection (her critical impulse, if you will) step in to determine which work best under the circumstances. This colossally wasteful and extravagant process is what makes possible the extravagant beauty of the rose, which far exceeds any possible utility--much more modest flowers attract bumblebees equally well. Nature creates without an end in view; fitness is but an afterthought. The gardener in his own little world, like the artist in his, performs both functions, hatching the trials and then culling the errors.

"But as much as he seems like a god in his garden, practicing his own local brand of natural selection, the green thumb entertains no illusions of omniscience or omnipotence. If he's any kind of god it's a Greek god, one whose power is sharply circumscribed by the willfullness of men and other gods. Unlike Yahweh, Athena bargains, cajoles, even loses one now and then; mortals can keep secrets from her. The green thumb know he doesn't pull all the strings in his garden and, equally important, he prefers it that way."

Of course, Yahweh DOES bargain, threaten and cajole, just like all the other Gods. He just has more minions to carry out his wishes...for the present. :)

I DO like the book. And I think I'll go read some more now. 'nighty night.