CritterKeeper

1) Spent a weekend with my mom and sister. 2) The announcement of who the next Doctor will be on Doctor Who. 3) They were doing a free HBO weekend, so I got to record the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones, which may or may not make me happy, but I'm glad to get to find out!

I proved I was the biggest nerd in a large roomful of nerds geeky enough to be attending a live recording of an episode of a podcast about nerdity. In the auditorium at the Cards Against Humanity HQ. I got the only 8 out of 10 on an extremely nerdy trivia quiz.

I've never been a coffee drinker. I'm one of those who finds the taste an incredible betrayal of the promise of the scent. It just tastes awful, no matter how good a dessert it's added to it will ruin it, and no amount of cream and sugar can salvage even the mildest coffee I've tried. However, once, at an Eritrean restaurant, after an excellent meal of unfamiliar but tasty foods, when they offered an Eritrean coffee, I accepted, and tried it, and didn't hate it. It wasn't an Earth-shattering revelation, but I did like it enough to finish my portion. What's weird is that it was a very intense brew, like an espresso, but also what should have been overcooked as well. I have no idea why this particular coffee didn't get my usual reaction. I'd go back there and try it again, except the place closed shortly afterwards.

Oh, right. Also a wizard. Tedd is problematic. Magic marks disappear when the marked person awakens, and someone who's already awakened shouldn't be Mark-able. Tedd is apparently already a wizard who can do major enchantments on wands/watches/etc, but he only has the one spell of his own that he can cast without tech as an intermediary. Tedd said a wizard can cast other peoples' spells after they've awakened. It's rather mixed signals, which seems appropriate for Tedd.

Am I the only one getting tired of these rather academic strips? Personally, I'd rather have Ellen explaining this stuff to someone, preferably within the context of wacky hijinks....

If Noriko just couldn't get past Tedd's "magical impairment", to the point that she was scanning him so many times he developed a complex about it....then leaving may have been the best thing she could do for him. Better to be raised by one parent who could accept and support him, than to have a second parent in his life who was constantly disappointed in him and unable to hide the fact. Adrian may even have been the one who eventually told her this, thus being the reason there was no chance of Noriko and Edward reconciling -- because it would have been at Tedd's expense if they had. It's easy enough to say "Noriko should have just gotten over it and accepted Tedd as (she thought) he was, but if she just couldn't do it, then better to go.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but you could try slowing down your moving his food dishes. Especially as you say the full introduction will have to wait a few more days, what's the rush? Let him adjust to the new situation a little longer, before you push him further. It really isn't a race. Better to go slower and have happier cats when the meeting finally comes.

Sorry to hear it. Pity the vet doesn't have a way to put the bloodwork on an Amazon wish list. Perhaps there's some everyday expense which could be, so that I could help pay for bloodwork indirectly? It does sound like a urine culture and a CBC/Chem/T4 would be a good idea. Keep in mind that 104°F isn't as high a fever for them as it is for us, since their normal temperature averages 101.5°.

Amy: Then why am I here? The Doctor: Because...Because I can't see it anymore... Amy: See what? The Doctor: I'm 907. After a while you just can't see it anymore. Amy: See what? The Doctor: Everything. I look at a star and it's just a big ball of burning gas, and I know how it began, I know how it ends... and I was probably there both times. You know, after a while, everything is just stuff. That's the problem, you make all of space and time your backyard and what do you have? A backyard. But you, you can see it. And when you see it, I see it.

Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor) asked me to be his Companion! Well, okay, it was a Q&A, and when I asked who his next Companion would be, he replied by asking if I was free. I say that counts! ;-P Prof, to me, the original Prey is a TV series. Which had Vincent Ventresca as a main character, and I hung out with him on the Invisible Man set, so that comment totally fits this thread. Don, I used to hang out in filk rooms till they gave up in the wee (or sometimes adolescent) hours. My hometown hosted a relaxacon which is heavy on filk, and when I was a kid that was the only Con I could get to most years, so I'd bring a tape recorder and then spend the rest of the year listening to them. I didn't know who the big names were, or who was singing what by whom, and most of the time I didn't even know the official title and had to guess when labeling them. Still some of my treasured memories. These days, I usually go to the room parties, and by the time I've finished hanging out there, I'm too tired to stay and filk, considering that I often have to be at work the next morning. Still, when I can make it, often at the Dead Dog, it's a blast!

Hey, if venting about how much you feel you're venting helps, then vent away! ;-)

Hmm, sometimes when I spray Feliway on a towel I notice the scent, but I guess I've never smelled it that strongly in a small enclosed space. Perhaps you could plug it in for half an hour once a day, or whatever leads to a more tolerable level. At least all the pheromones released into the room should linger for a bit and help him feel at home! Sounds like things are proceeding well overall. Having a familiar thing and having familiar, supportive people around him will definitely help Loudmouth's confidence. Have you brought something with Baker's scent into Loudmouth's room, other than yourselves, yet, to see how he reacts? I know you're nowhere near there yet, but when you do eventually let them meet face to face, I highly recommend having a couple of big fluffy towels or blankets and a broom handy, just in case; much safer to try to separate fighting cats, or to steer them apart if a fight seems likely, with an inanimate object within biting range instead of using your hands! And veterinary superstition holds that if you are prepared, everything will go smoothly, but if you think of potential problems and don't prepare for them, you're just inviting them to happen. ;-)

We once had a cat left on our doorstep at work, who turned out to be hyperthyroid, which has vomiting, diarrhea, and weight loss as the main signs. The boss decided to do the surgery to remove the overactive gland -- they have one on either side of the neck, so if one is overactive, you can take it out and the other one can still do the job just fine. Shaved her neck prior to surgery...and found she already had a scar from one side being taken out. We figured her owners paid for surgery the first time, but couldn't afford to get it done a second time. (If you ever have a hyperthyroid cat, getting the I131 treatment can get to overactive tissue even if it's ectopic in the chest, and leaves the surrounding normal tissue alone even within the same side.) She did the surgery anyway, BTW, and sure enough, she had enough thyroid tissue left to be perfectly fine, was adopted by one of our kennel kids. Do not leave a pet on anyone's doorstep, ever....but if you do, please leave a note with basic info like age and medical history!

In the page you linked, Mr. Kitsune has lighter hair, but he does have the same eye shape as the rest of the family, which Dan uses for Asian descent. Based on that, I'd guess he's part Japanese.

I had a similar experience with a group of friends from an online message board about the TV show The Invisible Man back in 2001. We talked about the show, but also about other things, much like this board, and decided it would be fun to get together in real life. The show was filmed in San Diego, and the entire cast was thus available for Comic-Con, so we decided to all go to the convention and try to get into their panel together. Well, after arriving a couple of days before the Con so we could hang out together, one of the group who actually lived in San Diego revealed that she'd found a whole bunch of locations from the show, and planned out a walking tour of them. We had a blast. Thanks to the help of a then-minor character's actor, who had occasionally visited us online, we soon learned we were going to get to visit the actual studio, and tour sets that weren't in use and see some of the props. The crew we met were amazing, very friendly, and did little things like get out the rubber stamp they used to create the monitor tattoo the main character had on his wrist, and stamp all of our wrists with it! We were so happy just to get that close to the show we loved. We even got to see a couple of sets that gave away big spoilers for upcoming episodes. As we were finishing the tour, ready to go home happy, we then found ourselves coinciding with a break in filming, and suddenly we were talking with the stars themselves, just outside the stage they'd been filming in (any fellow fans may be amused to know it was Stage Five). It was only for five or ten minutes, but just imagine a small group of Trekkies getting to hang around with the actors playing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov! ....and then imagine them getting to hang out on the bridge of the Enterprise set while they set up the next bit, and then watch them film it! In our case, it was the Keeper's lab. We took each others' pictures in the equivalent of Kirk's command chair, and I personally got the bonus of discovering that the binders sitting on a shelf weren't just empty props, they contained scripts. For episodes we hadn't seen yet. And I quietly read through one of them, not daring to attract attention by showing anyone else. And to top it all off, when they broke for lunch, they invited us to join them at Craft Services too! This time we were hanging out with them, actually sitting down to a meal with them, for more like half an hour. I don't think the Nerdgasm Happiness Meter can go much higher. They did everything short of putting us in the show itself, and I get the feeling the only reason they didn't was that the episode they were working on didn't call for anyone outside main cast. When we went to the show's panel later that weekend, the star mentioned our group, and we all held up our wrists with the tattoo, most of them colored in with Sharpies, in thanks. When they did what was supposed to be an hour-long autograph session, it was still going strong at the four hour mark. And a personal favorite, I got to meet the writer of some of my favorite episodes, and he said when he signed a script for me that it was his very first autograph! As you might be able to tell, even after all these years, it still makes me very happy just remembering that weekend. :-D

Good luck! If Loudmouth urinates on the bed again, I'd take him in for bloodwork and a urinalysis, just in case. Better to find out early if it's actually a medical problem and not just behavioral. If he's got idiopathic cystitis, stress can trigger episodes, but anti-anxiety meds and/or pain meds can help a lot! Young cats, it's almost always not a bladder infection, but as they get older the odds of it actually being an infection go up. As for the Jackson Galaxy stuff, I find highly suspect any product line that boasts of how a product "helps release toxins and stuck energies in respiratory system." If a cat has parasites, I'd rather give them a dewormer I know will actually kill the parasites, rather than something that "helps clear energy imbalances that allow parasites to colonize the physical body." If my cat were declawed, I'd rather give them pain meds as they recover than spend my money on something that "helps "rebuild" energetic balance in the paws." If they're upset introducing a new pet, anti-anxiety meds are proven to have an effect -- you have to prove both safety and efficacy to get FDA approval, something none of these "flower essence" products has been able to achieve. I'll believe they work when I see the double-blinded clinical trial in a peer-reviewed journal! Hmm, maybe I'll have to redirect any further discussion to the Politics thread, although homeopathy and the like seem much more akin to religion....

I'd be wondering why it keeps getting infected, and/or why there's an ongoing infection not being cleared up by the antibiotics. My instinct would be to try a different class of antibiotic (assuming I couldn't get a culture, which it doesn't sound like there's any place to get one from), but then, I'd probably be reaching for Baytril, which the species in question can't take, so.... ;-) Huh. I always thought pigeon-toed meant someone whose feet turned outward, so their toes were further apart than their heels. I have a very high arch myself, and have been wearing orthotic inserts in my shoes since sixth grade. If the glued-on support helps, maybe once you're healed he can get you something like that to keep your feet happy. Can you get it on yourself? If not, how likely are you to need to get up during the night or before Mrs. Prof gets up and can boot you? And once again, don't worry about bringing anyone down, this is exactly what this thread is for. The politics thread, on the other hand, is where I would have to take a reply rant about how messed up our "schedule" system is for controlled substances.... Like Hack, I've fallen behind, although it's more of a regular thing with me, but I do like to hear how you're doing when I do get to catch up. :-)

Start a blog on each. Who knows, someone might decide to either sponsor you or hire you outright for one or the other. And in the meantime, you'd be writing about something you enjoy, for others who enjoy the same thing.

And I just noticed the "wand" has what looks like a battery compartment cover on its back in that page. Interesting thought. Wonder what sort of person Magic was really trying to get the attention of that time?

Once again, Dan surprises us by having characters talk to each other and share important information. You'd think we'd be expecting this more by now!

We had a lot of thunder and lightning last night, for several hours, but the rain itself was mostly one big blast in the wee hours. Today it's been overcast with an occasional barely-a-sprinkle.

"The Appropriaton of Cultures", an excellent short story by Percival Everett which I first heard read aloud on public radio years ago. At the time, I went hunting for it but couldn't figure out what show it had been on and couldn't find it anywhere. This time, Google came through first try!

You've got plenty of time, hopefully they'll be there the rest of their lives! :-) Kidney values would be on a chemistry panel; even the most basic would include BUN/Creat, and Idexx also has a new test, SDMA, that's supposed to be able to detect the early stages even better. Glucose is also on all the basic chem panels. They can also get urinary tract infections, not very common when they're young but moreso as they get older, so a urinalysis would also be in order if you take him in.

A sudden change in diet can lead to upset stomach, no question. I should have thought to cover that. Cats can also be a lot more stubborn than dogs about eating. Sounds like the gradual move and gradual change from dry to wet are both a good idea for him. There's a product called Feliway that can really help stressed cats and introductions. It's got the pheromones that cats use when they rub their jaw against things to scent-mark them, so if you spray it in the hall near Loudmouth's door, or put in a plug-in diffuser, that might help Baker feel like he's not losing territory. If he's really getting stressed, your vet might be willing to give him some alprazolam to take the edge off, just until they get used to each other -- it reduces anxiety itself, rather than sedating him and masking it. What kind of wet food to feed isn't too big a deal unless someone has food allergies or other medical needs. You can go for something really low-carb, like Evo, or just stick with the brands that are the most open about their ingredients and complete nutritional information, and have put money into figuring out what to feed sick cats etc., which would be Iams, Hill's, Purina, and Royal Canin. Their veterinary diets have helped keep a lot of cats and dogs healthier longer, so I tend to like to support that. :-) Gorgeous kitty! I just had a long-time client bring in a new kitty this morning who was very similar, a sweetheart who loved everyone, wanted everyone to pet him, and put up with a blood draw and implanting a microchip nonchalantly. She'd just lost a cat a month or two ago, so it was good to see her with such a cool successor! Lucky person to find him, lucky cat to find her!

Are you still in touch with some sort of bariatric surgery person? I worry there are quirks to the rearranged gut that a PCP might not be familiar enough with. Either way, sounds like this is happening often enough that you should be mentioning it to someone. Best of luck with your meds! Every time I need (real) Sudafed after hours I make the same grumbles about those darn meth cookers.