Something quick and funny

Our adored dog has been so patient with us, for nine years now. It must help that we go through a lot of canned "land tuna," (aka chicken), and when each can is emptied (to prepare gallons of chicken salad, also known as "land tuna"), it gets placed lovingly on the kitchen floor.

Ms. Roosevelt carries the cans away, returning them shiny clean after a few minutes.

Today, though, there was more than the usual clanging, and when she got to the kitchen, one of the cans was stuck on the dog-door magnet key she wears around her neck. Hanging, jangling, like costume jewelry. I think I heard her sigh.

Perspectives On Fever

Our son asks why a fever has to be achy, to make you feel bad?

"To get you to sit still so all your energy can be used to fight the illness," a grown up says.

The 7 year old finds this to be poor design.

"Why don't the guys who are fighting, like it's a football game between good guys and bad guys inside your body, and there would be these little pipes all around the fight, and vibrations would come out of the fighting place every once in awhile and out to your body, to remind you you are sick, and then you know to be still."

70% chance of cats, and LQ heading up

Day 3 and no repeat of itchy swelly sneezy face of son. They did spend two hours at the animal shelter on the day of allergic reaction...The nose has declared a 70% - and climbing - chance of cats.

For any of you who thinks like I do these days, with a tendency to see everything through the lens of household management of small objects, let me give you some figures:
-2 adults, 2 children, 1 dog, 3 cats, 14 fish, and no rodents
-80 fingernails and 80 toenails
-16 nostrils (excludes fish, who seem immune to the woes of living in allergy alley, usa)
-44 openings through which food should pass regularly

Related to the LQ (love quotient), here are the counts:
-22 heartbeats
-excluding inter- and intra-fish affections, a minimum daily available snuggle rate of 11 per heart
-depending on whether it's a school day or a stay-home day, and a person's appetite, the available eyes to meet lovingly spans from sufficient to heavenly
-22 souls to tell about your day, 18 of which absolutely are guaranteed to show genuine interest if you wear shrimp perfume.

Rats, Cats, Bliss, and Noses

OK, so we love cats.

We've been hoping for our wayward cat who disappeared in October to come home. Last week, learning our attic had been certified rat-friendly AAA+ by the Society Seeking Shelter for Rodents and Other Small Animals, we picked up the pace of feline pursuit.

("What are all those little flat pieces of wood with springs and metal stuff on top?" girl child asks the uniformed man heading up the attic stairs. "Just stuff to help with the couple of mice in the attic," the very smart man says.)

Cats are small, and it is hard to get just one. Especially at the shelter, knowing what we know about the shelter. So welcome triplets: Juno, Luna, and JoJo.

Luna spent an hour on the belly - this is the bliss part.

Boy child spent almost that entire hour with Juno in the other room, and emerged nose swollen, face red, and neck itching. Oh my. Needless to say this has not happened with our other cats. Blowing his nose and applying chilled benadryl gel to his face, I'm surprised at his "no" answer when I ask if he's had his face nuzzled in the cat. "OK, maybe a couple of times, he says."

A bifurcated night ensues, son and mom finishing homework and then watching a consolation-prize few minutes of cartoons in dog-only zoned living room, and father and daughter thick in cats at the other end of the house.

Cat ownership forecast? Only the nose knows.