A true cat story

INT: KITCHEN - DAY

HUMAN stands at the stove, cooking herself some eggs for lunch. Behind her, the cat door clatters open and BIG BLACK CAT enters.

HUMAN

Hello, housemate's Big Black Cat. You are absolutely covered in dirt, as you often are.

Cat makes a beeline across the open-plan house and stops in front of the front door.

CAT

Meow

(subtitles: Lemme out!)

HUMAN

You just came in from outside, you doof.

CAT

Mow meow MOW MOW

(subtitles: Oh god oh god why won't you let me outside right now you horrible person it hurts!)

Human crosses to front door and opens it.

HUMAN

Fine, you stupid beast, but I'll remind you that this is the same damn outside you just came in from.

CAT

Mow.

Cat stands uncertainly in doorway.

HUMAN

In or out, your choice, but please pick one before my eggs overcook.

Cat backs up a step.

HUMAN

Okay, inside it is.

The cat dashes out through the closing screen door.

CAT

Meow!

(subtitle: Gotcha, sucker!)

HUMAN

Stupid cat.

What I did today

Today at work, I counted bits of brightly colored paper. For the entire 3.5 hours. (Well, no. Also I looked up an email address for my boss).

See, the organization I'm working for hosted Big Public Party on the 4th of July. To get into this party you had to purchase a ticket, and of course turn it over at the gate.

Now, for reasons which I'm not entirely certain on, those tickets now need to be counted. Guess who gets to do that? Me! So, yesterday afternoon I started counting. I counted 2,100 little pieces of paper.

Today I got to work and was told that not only was I supposed to be counting the tickets but also separating the two different types of tickets. So, I sorted through the previously-counted 2,100 tickets. Then I kept sorting, and counting. And sorting. And counting. And counting and sorting. And so on.

So that's what I did this morning. But I also met a lovely dog, and got a pair of nice capris for cheap at REI this afternoon, so overall I say a win.

A trip to the zoo.

Today, owing to the fortuitous combination of not having any classes, work first thing in the morning, and a desire to GET OUT OF HERE, I went to the zoo in Albuquerque.

I took the new-ish train there, because Santa Fe residents ride free until the end of this month, and also I don't have a car. Really all you need to know about it is that when the doors on the Rail Runner are about to close, the audio warning is "meepmeep." Like a road runner. Which is just a tiny thing that is overflowing with joy.

Albuquerque seems so strange to me. On the one hand, it has the feel of a City with a big university and tall buildings and, you know, connections to the rest of the world through a variety of transportation options. On the other hand, everything is fauxdobe-colored and there are big wide streets and separate houses, and it kind of [i]feels[/i] like it wants to be a sleepy western town. I walked from the train station to the zoo - it's only about ten blocks or so - and didn't venture into the older part of the city - but it still doesn't feel like a proper city to me.

The zoo itself was fun, and practically empty. The only other zoo I've been to since I was about four years old is the National Zoo in DC, which sets the bar kind of high, so this was tiny by comparison. I kind of worried a bit about the polar bears; they didn't look terribly pleased, and one of them had a barrel stuck on it's head. I guess they give them big empty plastic barrels to play with, and this guy had flattened one out completely and was playing around with it. Then he stuck his head in it and seemed to be displeased with that turn of events. (He seemed fine in the long run).

They get bonus points for having capybaras there, because capybaras are [i]awesome[/i]. (It's a guinea pig. A four-foot-tall, hundred-and-some-pound guinea pig.) Also, lions, tigers, kangaroos, elephants, parrots, etc. The only thing that struck me as somewhat remarkable was the raptors; they have two bald eagles, which is neat.

It seemed really kid-friendly, and it's small, so I imagine that if I were fifteen years younger or so it would be probably the coolest place in New Mexico. As it is, it was fun, and I got to see polar bears and capybaras, so that's a win. A little bit pricey for the size, but I was more upset at paying five bucks for a box of lettuce for lunch.

Photos may or may not be posted when I get around to pulling them off my phone, but I don't feel like futzing around with that right now.

Also, entirely unsurprisingly, I got sunburned on my face. It wasn't even very sunny today. Curse you, New Mexico!

More evidence

Giant, alienish, unspeakably freaky ocean beast. "Squid" and "elbow" are two words that have no right being used together.

And now I'm glad again to be up on a mountain in the middle of the desert.

And now, a picture of a puppy in a graduation cap

He's adorable, and a puppy school graduate! (though one of my parents needs to clean the lens of their camera or something.)

A trip to the zoo!

Starring, of course, Ailuropoda melanoleuca!

Also, some tigers:

Dog!

This is Clark (for now, the name may change).  He now is my parent's dog.

Apparently he already fetches, which makes my dad extremely happy.  He's mostly house trained and extremely sweet.  He also likes our dearly-departed Tammy's chew toys, which is nice that they're still being used.  

I now cannot wait to go visit in August to meet him.  

*melty*

Here is a King Charles Spaniel that adopted some orphaned baby bunnies.  

Awwwwww.  

The cutest police officer I've ever seen

The British Transportation Police at King's Cross have adopted a cat in order to deal with the mouse problem.

(the cat's the cute one, obviously).

Awww

The combination of school keeping me very busy and absolute disgust with The System has lead to me dreading reading the news every day. So this is not a blog entry about politics.

Instead, here's a link to a story about tiny pigs, apparently in pumpkins. The pictures are well worth clicking through. Now I kind of want to go buy a pumpkin to see if there's a teeny little piglet inside (and somewhere, my high school biology teacher cries out in pain...)

Phoenix's finest, now murdering more dogs!

I grant that I'm naturally inclined to view using police dogs as slightly inhumane to begin with. It's inhumane to the dogs to put them at that risk, and it's inhumane to whoever Officer Jackboots decides needs to be taken down. I'm not a huge fan, but I do admit that there are some legitimate uses (bomb detection, mostly, and rescue efforts).

And whenever a police dog dies, there's inevitably some human interest feature in the local paper about how Buddy or Dingo was such a great member of the police force, and the handler cries. There's a whole big PR show from the police department about how well-treated and loved these dogs are and such, right?

Right.

Because obviously you show your love and respect to a dedicated, well-trained animal by leaving it locked in a car for TWELVE HOURS in the Phoenix heat.

“I am certain Sgt. Lovejoy has suffered greatly from leaving his police dog in a sweltering car,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in a statement. “I do not relish the idea of compounding his sadness. However, Lovejoy must be treated like anyone else in similar circumstances.”

Oh, like hell the officer - who could have, you know, not locked his dog in a car - suffered. The dog suffered.

Who here is willing to bet that Officer Lovejoy will get, at absolute most, a mild scolding? Anyone else would be charged with a felony. If this guy doesn't at least get hit with every penalty in the code it's a serious injustice; I personally think he should lose his badge, permanently. ("Oh, you directly and intentionally caused a dog a slow, painful death? Sure, keep your gun and your de facto right to do whatever the hell you want in the name of 'public safety'!")

Bonus quote from the Animal Defense League of Arizona:

If an animal's life is in immediate danger, call 911*
If not a life-threatening emergency, click here for info on reporting cruelty and neglect.
*It may be necessary to remind the 911 representative that Arizona law mandates that police enforce the state's animal cruelty statutes.

*sigh*.