They're marketing laser pointers as pet toys now. The surprising thing is, it's become the cat's favorite toy very quickly. She's bouncing about trying to catch that little red dot.

Scientists Link Housecats to Wildcat Subspecies
New York Times
Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wild cat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats, and the rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey for her...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/science/28cnd-cat.html?ref=science

This month's books seem to cover a wide range.

( May's Books )

Watching the family cat I started to figure out what the sports would be in a feline olympics. So far, I've come up with the following:
Sleeping - would be hard to judge as every cat is so good at it.
Pouncing - Would probably be won by either a stray or a mother with kittens.
Leaping - both horizontal and high-jump.
Climbing - Probably the gold medalist would be an Absynnian.
Stretching - Same as sleeping.
Washing - I think I have the cat who would be the gold medalist.
Hunting - Again, I thought I would have the gold medalist. However, Desmond Morris's book showed me that our cat is nowhere near the record setter.

http://www.randomkittengenerator.com/

Too cute for words. Copied from shirebound.

Had my first day at work today. I'm working for a local gardening/landscaping company. I'll be weeding, raking, mowing etc. Today it was weeding and raking for five hours (or thereabouts). At least the place had plenty of shade, but it was still hot (it's in the mid 20's here now). Lots of fun, despite the heat, and the people are great.

I'll definitely be working again next Friday, and I hope sooner as well.

I'm not looking forward to the soreness tomorrow.

Saw a funny doormat though (still giggling):

This is not a joke
Give me five pounds of fresh salmon in a brown paper bag if you ever want to see these people again.
The Cat

I know the site hasn't been updated in a while, but I've got reasons (excuses).

Two thunderstorms this week, with a combinnation of fork and sheet lightning, one of which did some weird stuff. I had the radio on (AM) and I guess it was a power surge, but it re-set itself to 'standby'. That's never happened before. It was pretty spectacular!

The cat. We now know who owns said cat (the next door neigbor), and it's name, which has shown up every day for the last two weeks. Loki lives up to his name. We can't leave him alone in the kitchen, or he'll be on the stove or the counter.

I've been trying to database my book collection, so my computer is set up for that, and not the internet right now (meaning that it's in the room with the books instead of the phone jack).

Probably the biggest reason there's been no update is that I got Highlander season Three. So far, the best episode is the Brian Cullen one called Courage. And, of course, generally the commentary and interviews are more interesting than some of the episodes. I'm up to the Anthony De Longis interview for Blackmail. What's really neat are the Watcher Chronicles for each episode. Some of them seem to have the personality of the writers such as Joe Dawson.

However, I've got part of the chapter five summary written up on the other computer, for those of you who are following the discussion of The Hobbit on the messageboard, and I'm re-working the javascript for the bullets on the site map to make it easier to add new items. At the moment it's set to 'image*' (the * meaning the number of the bullet) and that number hit 150, so adding things was nearly impossible.

This is weird. A while ago, I wrote that the radio on my stereo wasn't working properly and when I took it in to be repaired, the guy at the shop said it would be too expensive to repair. Well, my Dad just decided to try it, and the radio works perfectly again on AM and FM.

That cat's been back every day since I last posted. He's really making himself at home here.

Other than that, I recreated a garden bed that last existed twenty-five years ago. This is rocky (try more like boulders) soil filled with roots, weeds and moss and it last saw a shovel the said quarter century ago. I ended up removing a stump as well. However, it is now filled with lillies and irises as well as other perenial plants.

I'm stiff and sore, but already planning what I hope to do to other areas of the garden.

Also, I've been working on a LOTR fanfic, to go with Wizards. No wonder there's been no updates to the website.

Just a thought on the previous post. Perhaps my last statemenot on cats owners isn't accurate. I just remembered a saying I saw on a poster: "Dogs have owners, Cats have staff". Perhaps I should have said homes instead of owners.

My home neighborhood has at least five or six cats (that I've seen) and they all seem to consider our yard as neutral territory. At least two orange cats, one of which is a longhair, a fluffy tabby and a grey tabby (identifying marks are rings on it's tail) and a tortoiseshell/tabby. Thing is, we used to feed the birds (probably why the cats love the yard) and none of these cats has a bell.

Three of the cats are wandering into the house now and making themselves at home (jumping up on our windowsills, using the doormat as a scratching post etc). I'm fairly sure none of them are strays and all have owners. Do cats ever decide to just change owners in a neighborhood?