Thank God that Sergie doesn't do Valentines!!

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Who's Going To Clean Up This Romantic Gesture?

Why Sergie Must Work in the Fashion Industry

See, this is what living with him is like:

We were watching the new Bond flick on the big screen. We got to the part where Mr. Bond discovers that he has been given a new suit. Miss Vesper says something like "There are dinner jackets and dinner jackets. That is the second type. I need you to look like you belong at that table."
Next scene: James is admiring himself in the bathroom mirror. And he looks good, damn good. So, I lean over and whisper "Nice."

Sergie leans over and whispers back "Brioni."

Fat Boy Retires

Fat Boy (a family-owned and operated, single location, fast food restaurant in Smyrna) is an exemplar of the American Dream.

It was started in the 1960's by a Greek Merchant Marine who jumped ship in New York City, moved to Atlanta to stay with relatives, and worked his way up from "menial" restaurant jobs to owning his own restaurant.

Unfortunately, it will close its doors December 30th, 2006 at 8:30 p.m.

In memorium: farewell to fresh cheeseburgers, tasty fries, great prices and the best milkshakes money can buy. As well as all of the meals and deli sandwiches that I'll never get to try. Smyna will miss you!

Are you crazy or just plain stupid?

Often one of my Atlanta friends would say to me (or I'd say to them) that it would be really cool to take a day and bike the Silver Comet trail. Four hours up, eat lunch, then four hours back. The other would respond, "Yeah, that's great! Let's do that sometime!"

Today, I did just that. Let's say I have a slightly different answer now.

Actually, I didn't ride for four hours. I counted the hours between the time I started (11:30 am) and the time the sun goes down (6 pm), divided that in half and subtracted 1/2 an hour (1/2 hour for lunch and 1/2 hour for slowness on the way back). So, my turn-around point was supposed to be at 2:30, which is 3 hours of riding.

A few lessons learned:

1) A person who hasn't touched their bike in months cannot ride for three hours straight. According to my records, she can ride for two hours, which includes pushing her bike up the super-steep hills on the way to the S.C., and water breaks. This will get her to the 16.99 mile point (starting at 2.4 - the Concord Road access).
2) Diet Coke with Splenda and water are not ideal take-along drinks. Gatorade or Coke Classic or something with sugar is a better idea.
3) Those nasty energy gel things would also be a good idea.
4) The tuna fish sandwiches and baked Lays were really yummy. What would have been even better is cherry tomatoes. I packed tuna into a plastic container, toasted bread into a sandwich bag and the chips into a ziplock bag. I also included a plastic fork.
5) Using masking tape to fasten a Publix bag to your rear bike rack works just fine as a lunch container.
6) Not that anything happened, but it would have been a heck of a lot smarter to have included a tire patch kit and a first aid kit. Though I was smart enough to bring my phone, i.d., credit card and cash. 911 will get you help just about anywhere on the trail.
7) Exercise or padded bike gloves would have been nice. My hands hurt almost more than my butt. I did bring running gloves because I thought the air against my hand might chap them, but that wasn't a concern (I think it was around 70 today).
8) Dressing in layers was ideal, as riding a bike was a lot cooler than walking. Padded bike pants might be worth looking in to.
9) Helicopter support would have been nice, but wasn't necessary. I think the trail is canted slightly upward outbounds, which was just enough to make it possible for me to get home. On the homeward journey, I stopped to stretch (also to try to get feeling back into my pinkies). I also stopped for Gatorade at the Depot.
10) A pad of paper and a pencil would have been surprisingly handy. Lots of good thoughts.
11) Be warned: after Powder Springs, the trail accepts equestrians. I'm not going to say, what you think I'm going to say. What I'm going to say is that the pavement becomes slightly textured which makes for a less smooth ride. About the other thing, dogs caused more "problems" than horses.
12) Ride with a helmet! This was my first time ever. My brain is finally smart enough to protect itself, thus proving that it is worthy of being protected. Honestly, I didn't really notice it (the helmet, not my brain).
13) Kleenex.
14) One great thing about the S.C: it's flat. This means that the ride is easy. I think I averaged around 7 miles an hour.
15) One drawback to the S.C: it's flat. This mean that you have to pedal the entire time (which, as I mentioned, is more true going out than in).
16) The Epsom Salts bath at the end is worth any pain experienced tomorrow.
17) The S.C. is the finest place on earth. Go see it for yourself!

Note: December 20th, 2006: Per my car's odometer, the S.C. trail is almost exactly 2 miles away via the route I bike. This gave me a 33 mile bike ride yesteday. My last two fingers are still numb, my knees are sore, but "other areas" hurt surprisingly little.

Old Man River just keeps rolling along...

Henry had another growth spurt. He came up behind me when I was feeding them on Thursday. I put my hand down to pet him and encountered a head that was much bigger and further off the floor than I'm used to. He is tons bigger than his mom now and might end up rivaling Orpheus.

He has also chosen to abandon all of his feral habits. When Amie came to visit on Thanksgiving, he greeted her, along with Sergie, me, his mom and the O-man each time he entered the house. Which is terrific as Amie is quite allergic to cats. I didn't do anything to dissuade him. After all, his mom hisses, growls, swats at his ears and threatens to bite him every time he greets her. Not sure what more I can do as he's not exactly taking his mom's "hints."

Orpheus's entire coat is becoming speckled with white. And his whiskers are beginning to turn grey. He must be 10 or 12 now. It's hard to believe, since we've had him such a short time. He's lifetimes older than the other two. I'm betting he'll live to a solid 20.

Alma is doing fine. No sign of any side effects from her FIV. Contrarily, her coat has become completely luxurious over the past week - sleek, plush, warm. I'm not sure whether it's the flea/worm treatments, or the colder weather. She's my top candidate for being turned into a coat. And if she continues eating the way she does, she'll be the right size in just a few more years.

I don't have an MP3 player

I've just bought my first country song: Jason Aldine's Amarillo Sky. And I got it off the internet.

Amarillo Sky's a funny one for me 'cause it's got a fairly heavy country rythmn and sound (i.e. it uses a violin) though it's still "New Country." So, the first time I heard it, I liked the song, but I was sceptical about liking the sound. Now, I'm addicted.

So, I wanted to buy the song, not the album. I wanted to be able to burn the song to CD (for my personal use) or load it to an MP3 player, which I'll get sometime after the next coolest thing has hit the music industry. I-Tunes is great, if you have an I-Pod, but they're just too darn proprietary for my taste. Computers are all about personal choice, right? Who to choose, who to choose?

I picked Napster. After all, they've already had a well-publicized lawsuit, so they've probably got it down by now.

The one thing I'm worried about, is that Aldine's song Hicktown (which I also like) is listed as a "Radio Edit." I really want the ability to buy whatever version I want as computers are about personal choice, but I'm not worrying about that for now.

Also, it took a little bit to figure out the site. After all, I want to purchase on a song-by-song basis and Napster wants me to pay monthly, though they do offer "Napster Light" which is exactly what I want. Here are the steps I used, if you want to know:

1. Register on Napster.
2. Find a song you like.
3. Click "Buy Track." This will prompt you to download the Napster software (which requires a restart).
4. Go back to Napster, login and find a song you like.

1. Click "Buy Track." You will be given payment options.
2. Click the Library button on the top, right hand corner and watch your song download.
3. Click the Purchased Tracks folder, once the song has finished downloading, and play your song.

Meowie, Owie, Owie.

I've spent today getting taking Alma to the vet, then getting everybody dewormed and deflea'd. This is one of those things that is negligble for one cat, but wallet-busting with three: about $45/cat. Ouch.

Though, thank god, it wasn't ouch in all the ways it could have been. Sergie is a master cat-piller. He wraps them up in a towel, sticks the pill in their mouths, then kinda shifts the cat around until they swallow. No holding their mouths closed, no tapping on the throat or holding their nostrils. They just swallow. And they're not real pissed afterwards either. I heard that Time magazine is looking for a Man of the Year...

What did piss them off was the Advantage for fleas. I do admit it doesn't feel real good when I spill some on myself, but it's got to be done. Alma's sitting on my lap again, which isn't exactly great as she smells strongly of Advantage, but it also means that she's not hiding from me. Maybe getting rid of the worms will help her deflate a little.

I'm sure Orpheus will forgive me sometime between now and next Thursday.

Racewalking

I've finally made the commitment to learn how to racewalk.

For those I haven't bored with the story:

On Saturday, I completed a 5k. Ahead of me were two middle-aged women who were walking (really walking, not just strolling in their jeans and Macy's sneakers). Since I'm most motivated by the competition in a race - that's why I love races - I thought that I would use the ladies to set my pace. If I could keep them in sight (or maybe even pass them) I'd be good.

I was left in the dust. I lost sight of them in the first 5 minutes, they were going that fast. This particular course doubled back on itself, so they both passed me coming back. They were super-nice, giving me a thumb's-up and words of encouragement (they could speak!! at the pace they were going. I was puffing.). So, when I found that they were parked right behind me, I went over to introduce myself and commend their athleticism.

Turns out that they'd both been racewalking for years. The best part (for me) was that they assumed I had been racewalking too. How flattering! Learning to racewalk is something that I've been toying with for the past year or two. I love walking. I love walking in races. I'm probably not going to get below a 12 minute mile as a fitness walker. So, in order to keep pushing myself, I have to either walk longer distances as a fitness walker, or learn a new way of walking. And, by racewalking, I would be an athlete. I mean, racewalking is an Olympic event.

My main hurdle is that I'm completely unathletic. I can't tell you how many times I've been worst in a dance class and couldn't get better because my body couldn't understand the instructions that I was getting. What if I sucked at racewalking too? What if I totally didn't enjoy it? I find failure in the physical arena completely humiliating. Why put myself through that if just walking was fun enough.

So, my new racewalking friends gave me just the right push. After all, if I was close enough that they mistook my fitness walking as racewalking, then I don't suck and I do enjoy it. They offered to get together with me on the weekends and show me what they know. I mean these ladies are great!

I was so excited that I had to find out if there were any clinics or lessons in Houston. Hallelujah! Houston is flat, so racewalking is big and there's something almost every day of the week including an actual class on Tuesdays. Since Tuesday was Halloween, I called to see if they were still holding class. And they were! Turns out that Dave Gwen, one of the instructors, came out just for me. What a giving group of people.

I told Dave about the feedback I got on Saturday. He rolled his eyes just a bit; I'm sure he's heard all that before. Then he showed me the basics. Turns out that I did pick up on everything more quickly than average. As a matter of fact, he asked if I'd been practicing. I told him that I had experimented with some of the tips in Prevention's Complete Book of Walking from the Rodale press. I can do it!

That's not to say it was easy. Racewalking is NOT really walking. It's more like a modified jog. There's a lot of tricks to learn and a lot of new muscles to develop. And I'm going to have to learn to work through my shin splints. With walkers, they'll go away in about 15 minutes if you just keep going. (Runners get them for different reasons, so they might have to treat them differently.)

Now that I know what physical attributes are necessary for racewalking, I can see how some of it is natural for me. I tend to keep my shoulders very still, and have a lot of movement in my hips. Bad for ballet. Bad for most sports. Ideal for racewalking. I'll still have to work with the pronation with my left foot, but even that is easier to control by the way you push your leg straight and let your hips take a lot of the upward motion.

One interesting thing I've noticed is that the walker-specific stretches seem to do a lot more for me than the dance, yoga, etc. stretches I've done before. Dave showed me a hamstring stretch, something that I've been working to loosen for YEARS. Did it yesterday when he showed it to me. Did it today after I warmed up and after I finished walking. Wham! I can bend over and touch my toes with my knees completely straight. I swear to you, that is a very rare thing for me. I can usually only touch my toes after months of stretching every day. Also, the DBX stretches in the back of Prevention's book do an awful lot for me. There's just something about the way you use your body that is very right for me.

Right now, I'd like to learn to really racewalk, possibly even in judged competitions. I'd ALSO like to apply the techniques to fitness walking. I'd fitness walk in run/walks, which tend to be hilly in North Georgia, so it's more difficult or even impossible to racewalk. Also, according to Dave, you can actually go faster walking than racewalking, as racewalking has form being judged too. So, I could really work against the clock in non-judged competitions. This is so cool!

No More Fat Cats

Check out this IFilm video for the answer to overweight indoor cats.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2777180

If I could dance to just one song (a list)

Here's a list of songs that I would give anything be able to boogie down to:

• Save a horse, ride a cowboy - Big and Rich
• Just my imagination - The Temptations (requires a soft, satin halter neck dress with a plunge back, and a bias-cut, ankle-length skirt. Not sure about the shoes.)
  

Praise God Fasting

Per Slate Magazine, Bush offers his support of Dennis Hastert:

Everyone notes that President Bush appeared at a fund-raiser with
embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert. It was the first time the two have been
seen together since Hastert became the target of criticism that he dropped the
ball on the congressional page scandal. "I am proud to be standing with the
current speaker of the House who is going to be the future speaker of the
House," Bush said.

Is it just me or has this, historically, been the signal for the Bush supportee to leave their office under a cloud?

It's still Texas

On the talk-radio show this morning, there was a discussion about what should be done about the shootings that are happening in our schools. Here's a few choice quotes:

• In a discussion about the feasibility of arming teachers, the statement was made that some teachers might not be able to "draw" (point a gun with intent to shoot) on a person. That is ok, because they could be responsible for directing the other children to safe areas. But that the teachers who CAN "draw" on a person should be identified and armed. My thought: do we really want to hire teachers who are capable of shooting children?
• A caller suggested arming teachers with stun guns and putting electronic locks on all the doors, to instantly seal off the school into areas. My thought: Perhaps we should ban all metal objects and shoe laces as well, to better prepare our kids for life in prison.
• Another caller asked where the heck could a thirteen-year-old get an AK-47. "Great question!" I thought. He then went on to say, "I have guns in my house, but my children are taught never to touch them." My thought: That answers your question; they get AK-47s from family members and neighbors.

I might not have an answer to school shootings. We have metal detectors and rules that students can't access their lockers. We have adults breaking into schools and taking hostages. I'm not sure that there is a complete answer. But exploring the question "Where in the heck cold a thirteen-year-old get an AK-47?" might offer a part of the solution.

Is Texas Part of the South?

I was once told by a native Georgian that Texas was more a part of the South than Virginia. Virginia was more “East.”

After a few question, I was told by my beloved late Aunt Margaret, in her pristine, soft, elegant accent that she was a Southerner. She was born in Virginia and Virginia is part of the South. That tone of voice admitted no argument.

So what about Texas, then?

I’m commuting to Houston. Grits are served in all restaurants, but there are only two establishments where sweet tea can be found - one of which is the airport McDonald's. This is deplorable for a Southern city. I’m told by people from places like Baltimore and Philadelphia this is NOT deplorable is because Texas is NOT southern (I think they use the lower-case spelling).

So, here's my Pros and Cons...

Texas is Southern:
· Trucks
· Grits
· Belles
· Jefferson Davis County

Texas is not Southern:
· A serious lack of sweet tea
· Twang instead of drawl
· People refer to themselves as “Texan” not Southern

What do you think?

Lost - Athena

Athena ran away on Friday, April 14th.

I left the basement door open, like I always do.

I should have known better because she'd been showing more interest in the outside.

She was just beginning to let me pet her.

Anyway, I spoke to an expert. He suggested that I put up posters formatted exactly as shown. I got a few calls at first (more than I'd ever gotten in response to a poster before). None of them were her.

If you don't mind, I think I'm not going to post on this blog for awhile. The cool stuff happening in my backyard pales in comparison to Athena's loss.

Poison Ivy

Yikes!

After learning to identify the plant (click here), I realize that I have a poison ivy LAWN in my backyard. And a nice healthy sample next to my front step.

I've done a bit of research on methods of killing it.

You have to root it out, otherwise it will grow back quickly. As I posted earlier, this is impossible as it hides under immovable objects. Like one's house.

There are organic herbicides that use clove oil, but it sounds like they do diddley-squat.

According to Mike McGrath, former editor of Organic Gardening (immediately before the magazine went down-hill with Maria Rodale), pulling as much as you can get works ok. Which is my general Plan A. The problem with THAT is that I have so much and I don't want to continually pull out plants from the same roots. I want to kill the roots.

That leaves Round-Up and Brush-B-Gone. My impression is that Southern gardeners swear by BBG. One lady fills up an eye-dropper with Round-Up and carefully places a drop on the cut stem. Others put a small amount in a coffee can and dip the poison ivy in the can. It is then absorbed by the leaves into the roots, thereby killing the plant from the roots.

So, I think I'll go out and pull. If I can't get the root out, I'll put a drop of Brush-B-Gone on the cut end. If poison ivy comes back into areas I've cleared, I'll try a careful method of using the Brush-B-Gone to kill the root. MINIMAL toxins. gardenweb has studies posted about the long term effects of Round-Up. Yikes! On the other hand, I have just as much right to enjoy my backyard as the frogs.

As an aside (Have you noticed how recognizing the plant and the rash, and getting rid of the plant and the rash are topics of ALL articles published about poison ivy. There's nothing out there - including this post - JUST about getting rid of the plant.) , washing with Aveeno Body Wash seems to be a necessary ingrediant for the long-term efficacy of Ivarest.

Garden Pests

It's like a blues song.

I got aphids on my roses... da da da dum.

So, I need to get some Safer Insecticidal Soap, which I just saw somewhere. Home Depot? Lowe's? I remember being surprised.

And there's the poison ivy. da da da dum. I'm pulling it, then showering in luke-warm water with CVS brand Poison Ivy Anti-Itch Scrub. This might be working, it seems like I'm getting less of a rash than I should be. Of course, the true test - rubbing ivy on both wrists and only washing one - isn't going to happen, so I don't really know for sure. I'm rubbing on Caladryl Clear afterwards, which doesn't seem to work at all. Ivarest is what I use for the areas that break out. It says "8 hour relief on the package. I seem to get 10 if I use it right after showering. Of course, it flakes off EVERYWHERE. But it's better than itching!

So I have a little bit of rash on both wrists, but it's no big deal. And there's that one spot on my temple : (

2006: the year of the itch. Since I'm no longer as terrified of poison ivy as I was after my HORRIBLE experience last year, I'm pulling it up like gangbusters. Unfortunately, you can't really dig it up, because it's always rooted under something like a sidewalk or a tree. So I'm considering pulling it back as far as I can, then treating the broken end with a poison.

Let me clarify: I identify myself as an organic gardener. I spray my roses with fish emulsion and have a compost pile. I mulch and use the square foot method to control weeds and water usage. But, as I would use chemotherapy to treat existing cancer (though I'd try to prevent it homeopathically), or would call in an exterminator if my house had termites (though I have a brick house), so I believe in using poisons to remove plants and animals that cause horrible or deadly conditions. For example, the last time I was bit by a fire ant, my entire leg swelled. Every time I've gotten bitten by a fire ant, my reaction has been markedly worse. Thus, I'd use a fire ant killer. On the other hand, I will not use a toxin on wasps. Neither I nor Sergie are allergic to wasp bites. So we can afford to mess around with discouragement techniques. My entire backyard, and parts of my front yard are covered in poison ivy. I'm at the point of reaching "last ditch" techniques.

Like many gardeners I use floating row cover to discourage weeds and noxious insects. And any mammals that might have designs on my vegies. So, imagine my surprise when I see a shadow in my garden. It's furry. It's black. It's Henry!!

He's looking at me like "Yum, it's warm in here." Thanks, Henry. Your butt is on my tomato.

He had managed to find a place that I hadn't clothespinned quite tightly enough.
(Maybe I should try the Cat Stop Willow Barrier. You think they'd even notice? Perhaps it's electrified?)

So, I drag him out of the garden.

Then he decides to go irritate the bumble bees that are pollenating my blueberries. Leaps 5 feet into the air to try and catch them. I figure that there's a fast way and an easy way to learn about bumble bees. And, given the don't-listen-to-a-word-I-say cat he's grown up to be, he'll just have to learn the fast way.

Biggest Purrs in the World

I'm getting Athena-sugar now!

We're not even pretending that the treat container is scratching her behind the ears. It's very much on her terms, but that's how it should be.

I'm getting about 15 seconds at night, but she's also approaching me in the basement (which didn't happen before) and becoming much more confident everywhere. She just let me touch her in the morning! in the dining room! So, every day means progress.

There's been a lot of little things I've had to learn:

• Shoe heels on the floor scare her. Henry gets worried too, if it's somebody he doesn't know. Maybe that's early memories of being under the porch? I wear softer shoes now.
• No grabbing at all. Even if the reason my hand is moving toward her is that Henry is pushing it from the other side.
• If she starts looking anxious, I'M the one that needs to run away.

my CATS have FLEAS

'though it's hard to tell around the poison ivy rash.

I'm willing to bear the pain - I think I exterminated the ivy that got me last year. Yea!!

The thing about cats and poison ivy is that it's ivy, it's a vine. So, it's long and string-like. This means that after you pull a tendril and it breaks off above the root, you need to dispose of it immediately. Otherwise you'll look around to find a kitty rolling in it and biting it as if it were a ball of yarn. Pulling it has it's own dangers. It sends the vine snaking through the grass like a particularly attractive rodent.

Luckily, no adverse effects. On the cats.

Not being willing to gain the 20 pounds I did last year, I'm forgoing the prednesone and helping the itch with Aveeno Body Wash and Benedryl Itch Stopping Cream. They help enough - for about two hours after I wash and apply the cream, I'm fine. Then I reapply the cream as necessary.

So, my cats have fleas. My plan is to go to the vet's before work and get that (expensive, but effective) Advantage Flea Control. So, I went to bed between 10 and 11, thinking I'd get up between 7 and 7:30 (when the vet's office opens). Sweet dreams. Henry started yowling for his wet food at 6:30. So I rolled over and put in an ear plug. At 6:45, Orpheus, who's allowed in the bedroom started wreaking havoc. This isn't fair. On the other hand, they hate the flea stuff. And I'm not going to feel one bit guilty about applying it to the little b@$%@&*s.

On the knitting front: I went to see the knitting guru, Jolie, at Purly Gates. You know how my collar folded over on my first adult sweater? It was because I sewed it so that you couldn't see the edges, so they came together like this: = , on the inside of the sweater. This was pushing the collar over. I picked off the back part and re-sewed it to display my sloppy edges.

Jolie shares my passion for the knitted, three-dimensional construction of cloth. What gets her going is flawless technical knitting. She's doing a cardigan that is knitted and folds in such a way to create no seams. A knitter's knitter. I, on the other hand, am in my third year and have huge mistakes in each of my pieces. Thankfully, knitting is forgiving and I can quietly repair and hide my boo-boos. Except for that short-rowed jog on the bottom of my 1st adult sweater.

I showed her my lace cardigan, the bottoms of the sleeves are curling. Yes, I bound off my picot too tightly. She recommends steam and, if that doesn't work, backing out and binding off more loosely. Jolie suggested either going up two needle sizes, or (how do I explain?) not dropping my bound off stitch from the needle right away. You work the second stitch on the left hand needle before dropping off the first stitch. Then you work the third stitch before dropping off the second stitch.

They got in some more of that el cheapo acrylic mohair, so I am going to be able to do the reversible-ribbed cabled shawl in the Vogue book. We'll call it the Vogue shawl, since I'm not yet doing garments that have names. This will be a nice stepping stone to the complicated cables in Rogue. Sigh. Which is what I'm working up to with the socks and all.

BTW, I LOVE socks. Fast and simple, yet intimidating for most knitters (little do they know). Lovely. I've just completed 1 1/2 of my first pair, using the wonderful, wonderful directions in Simple Socks. I'm planning to do a pair for a Friend. A pale blue merino, with a design done in a self-striping yarn. I'm considering buying an hour of 0ne-on-one from Jolie to learn to do instarsia. I do pretty well out of books and off of patterns, but I always miss something small that's just not there.

Anyway, it's 8 am and I'm already running late.

Athena got petted!

Last week, Athena rubbed her head against my hand.

Since then, she hasn't allowed her to pet me.

On the other hand, I've perfected the art of scratching with two fingers while holding a bag of treats. After she's rubbed her head on the treats, and my hand is behind her head, I flip out two fingers and scratch her shoulder blades. BIG purrs.

BUT, she's still offended when she realizes my hand is involved.

Today, she actually rubbed against my hand and let me scratch her behind the ears!! Like, realized that I was petting her with my HAND and allowed it. And purred!

We're still working out the finer points. But if SHE approached ME and asked for it once, the second time is right around the corner. Whooo Hooo!

The Lion King

You know, in Disney's The Lion King, how Simba runs away from his pride after his father gets killed. Then, the next time we see him, he's a young male?

That's what happened to Henry when I went to Aberdeen for a week. He's bigger than Alma now. Both the kittens are almost a year old.

Henry has more-or-less figured out the no biting, no scratching rule of being petted and played with. It's kind of crazy, there are animal shelters that won't take or will automatically put down cats that bite.

Four out of four cats in Varda's household bite. What's the problem? Cats bite. They just shouldn't draw blood.

On that note, the Black and White cat up the street needs to get the memo about not drawing blood. I think he's the one that bit Henry. Which required surgery. Ouch.

I'm considering a guerilla neutering.