It was not Baxter!

Here is chapter 2 of our stray cat story.

We left off with "Baxter" returning to his place on our back porch, shortly after the kids returned him to his owner -- the next door neighbor. The cat spent the night at our house, and this morning was again begging for food and acting desperate to be let inside and loved. As soon as we noticed our neighbor returning from work in the afternoon, Kaylee took the cat over to see why they had been so negligent with him. He laughed and explained that it was actually not their cat. He called his cat to come, and sure enough, a cat looking almost identical to our stray appeared from their living room. He told the kids how funny it was when, after he had brought the cat inside, the true Baxter had come into the room to check out who the new visitor was. Of course, when Marty realized his mistake, the imposter was promptly put back outside.

So now we are still stuck with an alpha male cat, who periodically tries to push Duma around. The kids have visited yet another neighborhood -- going house to house. We checked the newspaper for adds about lost cats. Nothing. What are we going to do? I think I am the only one who truly wants to find the thing his real home. Everyone else is back to discussing suitable names, and asking when I 'll take him to the vet. Although I wouldn't classify this as a "trial" it is definitely a distraction that is taking up time and brain power that I had not planned on allocating for such a use.

Keep your fingers crossed for us (and the cat) that we can find a happy end to this story soon!

Another Mouth to Feed

I never wrote about this, but in October, for Jilian's birthday, we got her a kitten. A friend who lives on a farm had a barn cat who had kittens. We got it with the hope that it would become a predominantly outside cat, and that it would provide territorial protection against rodents. So far so good. His name is Duma (after the movie about the cheetah named Duma) He has even quit using his indoor litter box and goes potty outside most of the time. (Much to the relief of the person in charge of emptying the kitty little each week!) He loves to be outside.

Last week another cat started hanging around our yard and was menacing Duma. We tried every way we knew to scare it away, but it kept coming back. Finally the 2 cats got used to each other, and have quit fighting. About 4 days ago it started really whining by our back door and was insistent about coming in. We felt sorry for it and fed it and laid out a blanket for it on the back porch. It stayed there the entire day sleeping like a log. It gobbled up the food frantically whenever we fed it. The baffling thing was that it was obviously well cared for. It's fur was clean and soft, no fleas, etc. It loved to be petted and held by the kids and would readily purr. After 2 days of this the kids named him and decided we would consider him ours.

Today, the girls went around the neighborhood asking everyone if it was their cat. After about 20 homes, they decided they would try the next cul-de-sac over. As they were walking there, they saw our next door neighbor pull into his driveway. "Do you know whose cat this is?" They asked. "Baxter!" The neighbor exclaimed. It turns out that "the stray" belonged next door. He was an exclusively indoor cat. Apparently he had gotten out right before they had left town for a week. They didn't know he was outside, and just returned today. The kids returned him to his proper family. Maddy was really sad. The funniest thing about it, is that about an hour after they took him back, we looked outside, and Baxter was back in his spot on our back porch. Maddy was delighted. The kids hope the neighbor will continue to let him outside from now on! I am glad that we don't have to continue feeding him.

Caution: The following post is a steam vent release in proportion to Old Faithful. Stand back 50 feet while reading.

I will now proceed to rant about USB type cable connections:

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT ALL THE USB CABLE CONNECTIONS BE ONE STANDARD SIZE?!!!

I am positive that the makers of all the cell phones, cameras, mp3 players and every other computer linkable device are in a giant conspiracy to never use the same fitting shape twice. It is so dang aggravating to have to search through piles of cables to find the right one. I also believe these cables, like metal hangers, multiply their tangly little selves while we are not looking!

Now, least you think, "Well, you should just be more organized with them." Let me tell you that we ARE organized. Matt has used the handy dandy label-maker that Mark gave us, and he has nicely rubber-banded each cord into a compact little bundle. The trouble is that there are 50 million little bundles. Some of them are to devices that we don't even have anymore. And in the last month or so we have added a few that are not labeled. The one that I want -- the one that YOU should want me to find -- is the cable for the new camera. We have taken a lot of wonderful pictures and now I can't find the cable so I can download the pictures onto the computer! I wanted to spend a nice Sunday evening blogging with photos. Instead I am searching for a cable that I don't even know what it looks like! (besides black and USBish)

So, how can I solve this problem? Maybe I should write to my congressman and ask them to pass legislation on regulation of USB cable connections. Here in our lovely state of over regulation, I'm sure someone would be willing to clamp down on this out of control situation. Can't they fight against corporate greed by forcing cable makers to comply to a specific, uniform model? If I start a petition will you sign it and pass it around the internet to all your friends?

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG! Where is that cable!!!!!!!!

I will now go search some more. When I find it, I will super-glue it into the computer so that it will always be were I can find it.

Cross your fingers for me. I don't want to have to write 1,000 words to take the place of every picture I could have posted. You probably don't want to read 1,000 of my words.

End of explosion.

Deanne