Labra-kitty

Labradors are notorious for their alimentary prowess. I’ve personally known Labs who’ve eaten, among other things, shoes, snakes, broccoli, onions, rocks, umbrellas (the metal part), couches, napkins and more! Samson, our Labrador in Residence, is no exception. He has, however, mostly gotten over his “eating non-food items in the house” habit. He hasn’t eaten a sock in months!

Imagine my surprise the other morning to find one of my favorite slipper socks half-eaten. After a thorough investigation, however, the culprit turned out to be Nenya kitty! We came to this conclusion based on two items of evidence.

First – Though he sometimes acts like a B-A-D D-O-G (don’t say it out loud unless he is acting like one – it will make him feel quite awful), when confronted with evidence of his misbehavior (e.g. pointing to the bed he laid on while you were out) he cowers in the most pathetic manner. If you aren’t sure whether he ate the sandwich you left on the counter or was hanging out on the couch before you walked into the room, just stand by the item and look at him somewhat sharply. If he was a good dog he’ll stay his happy bone-headed self and never really note the stern look. If, however, he was being B-A-D he’ll cower instantly. When presented with the half-eaten slipper sock Sam sniffed at and licked it, but didn’t cower.

Second – Sam never eats “part” of a sock. In fact, he doesn’t even chew them. He ate our friend Abigail’s favorite wool socks and they slid through him unscathed. We know this because when they came out the other end, she washed and continued to use them. (EWE!)

Nenya kitty, on the other hand had been up and about during the night and I had a vague half-sleep remembrance of her doing “something” on the bed in the middle of the night. By process of elimination (I know it wasn’t me, my Christopher or Samson), that leaves the new baby as the only possible culprit. Cats do have a filthy affinity to things such as sweaty socks. When I was little, a cat of ours used to crawl into the laundry basket and suck on the armpits of dirty undershirts. Something to do with wanting to be close to us I guess.

So I’ll take Nenya’s demolition of my favorite slipper sock as a positive sign that she likes me. And from now on we are being more vigilant about keeping clothes and towels and such picked up!

BAD KITTY! Don't worry, you can say that one out loud - she's a cat and doesn't much care what you think.

Obama speech

I like him more and more.

What Made Obama's Speech Great

By George Lakoff . Posted March 26, 2008.

The true power of the speech is that it does what it says. It not only talks about empathy, it creates it.

We are on the cusp of a new politics in America. It should be dated from March 18, 2008, the date of Barack Obama's landmark speech "A More Perfect Union." The usual pundits have looked mainly at the speech's surface theme: race. They weren't wrong. It was indeed the most important statement about race in recent history.

But it was much more. It was a general call to a new politics and an outline for what it needs to be. Just as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was about much more than the war dead on that battlefield, so Obama's speech -- widely hailed as in the same ballpark as Lincoln's -- went beyond race to the nature of America, its ideals and its future...

Read more: What Made Obama's Speech Great

Nenya kitty

My cat Boogie died when I was twelve. Since then I've been pining away for another kitty. Due to my, shall we say "wayward" nature, I've not been able to have a cat for the last decade and a half. Now, however, we find this princess a home-owner, engaged to be married, and finally able to take care of another creature.

So Friday night we went to the Oregon Humane Society and got us a kitty cat! We spent about two hours there hanging out with different cats before coming home with Nenya - a jet black two-year-old with sparkling emerald eyes.



She is a sweet little thing who really likes hanging out with people, but doesn't cling like one of the other cats we interviewed. She is super silky, has a soft little chirpy meow and so far is proving to be incredibly trainable. She comes when we call and hasn't done something "bad" a second time. We are slowly introducing her to Samson, the pup, and so far they seem curious and interested in each other, though a little cautious.


We thought about picking our own name for her, but Nenya is a pretty cool name (a reference to one of the rings of power in Lord of the Rings) and we can't think of one that would be more appropriate, so it'll probably stick.

What I think of as "Nenya Panther"



"Mamma & Baby" (Yes I AM one of those crazy cat ladies who has no children and refers to her kitty as her "baby.")