CritterKeeper

Hmm, I've often heard Siamese cats described as sounding like a rusty door. He doesn't look like he's got any sign of points (the darker color on ears, feet, tail, etc.) but there's something about his face shape that reminds me of certain Siamese I've known. Wonder if the face shape is closely related to those particular vocal qualities? Yes, if you're giving extra canned, you really should cut back on dry food to compensate, if nothing else to keep Baker from gaining a bunch of weight! There's a lot of cat experts who recommend more wet food these days anyway, both to give their kidneys more water to work with day to day, and because canned food tends to be lower carb than dry (lots of jokes about putting them on Catkins diets), lower carb being more what their whole digestive system is designed for. Hard not being able to participate in the addition of a new family member. Once Loudmouth is allowed out, you'll get your chance to bond with him! A nice warm human to sit on and be petted by. Cat toys within easy reach, maybe a laser pointer, and maybe feeding next to *you* for a while to create good associations. :-)

Yes, when they were little kids. People can drift apart, through no fault of either of them. We know Elliot is pretty passive; he and Sarah didn't even speak for several days, while they were supposed to be dating, because Sarah was waiting for him to call her. If Tedd had stayed near-mute, he wouldn't have been any competiton for Elliot's attenton versus people he'd meet at ASMA, school, etc.

I've heard two different popular songs lately that talk about drinking hard liquor at the age of fifteen, in a nostalgic manner. It makes me sad that the writers and their friends had nothing better to do at fifteen than waste time getting drunk. That they thought so little of their futures and opportunities that they already sought escape in alcohol as a regular thing. And that their lives right now are sad enough that they think back on those days as the good old days. Also, we euthanized a dog who's been a patient if ours for many years, through many health problems. When she was younger, she would run into the office with such enthusiasm, wagging and happy to see her friends. When she became diabetic, she didn't like the shots and her owner had to put a muzzle on her begore giving them for a while, until she chilled out about them. She was never a completely easy to handle patient, but she was still a sweetheart the rest of the time, and boarded with us a fair bit. Sometimes the bratty ones are all the more endearing for it. She's finally basically gone senile, as well as blind, and a couple of days ago she bit her owner badly in the hand. Her owner already has fingers twisted from arthritis, so one hand being almost unusable is an extra blow. We agreed that Little Miss wasn't really Little Miss any more, that she's not happy and not getting much out of life. I know how hard this must be on her owner, how heartbreaking a decision it is, no matter how obviously right a decision it is.

I expect plenty of pictures of Loudmouth, and hopefully of him and Baker snuggling someday! You did say Mrs Prof would be putting the trail camera in with him at some point, didn't you?

With so many universes and Tedds, we could be headed towards both!

And a long-discussed theory is, well, at least mentioned in canon. Lord Tedd may be what Tedd would turn into without Elliott, and, less discussed, the rest of his friends. Perhaps if Tedd had been more restricted in his tinkering with the TFG, and thus never got relief from her dysphoria when she felt female, Tedd would have stayed super-withdrawn and never made real friendships. Also, I love how Pandora's ears go back to normal as soon as she gets herself back under control. :-)

The good news is, immunity to FeLV gets better with age. It's mostly cats under 1-2 years that catch it. If Baker has been vaccinated, that makes it even less likely he'd catch it. Hard to find numbers; I did find mention of a study that said unvaccinated cats in the same household as a positive cat had a 10-15% chance of catching it eventually, but I don't know how much that drops with vaccination, or whether "infected" means caught it at all, even if they fought it off and didn't become carriers, or if they only meant going on to shed virus themselves. They do require that a vaccine prove that it works before they'll approve it, but nothing is 100%, so although I can't say absolutely that Baker won't eventually catch FeLV from Loudmouth, it does sound like the odds are pretty low. Speaking of "nothing is 100%," the in-office snap tests for FeLV are pretty darn sensitive and specific, but they do recommend checking again a few weeks later, preferably by another test called IFA, to confirm whether the positive cat is really positive and staying positive. Cats that fight off the virus and test negative after the initial viremia are *not* shedding virus and can't give it to anyone else. So, if he *is* one of those rare cats that catches it as an adult, it's just possible he'd be negative in a few weeks, and you'd have no problems. The caveat I'd have there is, if the result of the test isn't going to change what you do, then you should consider whether to spend the money on the test. If it's going to affect either your decision whether to keep him, or your peace of mind, then do it; otherwise save the money for other things. The bad news is, cats that are positive on the tests tend to be shedding virus, and also are the ones who might get sick or get cancer secondary to the virus. Cats that don't shed don't test positive either. If he caught it when young, and has made it to be an older cat, then maybe he's one of the lucky ones, but if he tests positive again, he *is* likely shedding virus in his saliva and is among those who are at higher risk for a wide variety of things. They recommend positive cats get a CBC twice a year and a chemistry with it once a year, as well as anti-heartworm/anti-parasite treatments monthly (the Revolution she already applied is good for most of that). Avoid steroids or anything else immunosuppressive whenever possible and he'll need antibiotics started ahead of time if he gets a dental or surgery. So, a bit more expensive than your average cat, but not too bad. Really, it's not that different from adopting a cat you know is eighteen years old would be, you can expect he might not live too many years with you and he's more likely to get various bad things than a young cat would be, but if you choose to give him a happy, loving home for whatever time he does have, and accept the likelihood he'll get something (from being older as well as being FeLV+) eventually, then he can be as wonderful a pet as any other. Moreso, really, if you already know he has such a great personality! So, risk to Baker isn't zero, can't ever say it's zero, but it's pretty darn small! Looney, thank you so much for offering to take Loudmouth if they can't keep him, I'm glad to know he's got options!

I'll look into it today, let you know what I find out. It's transmitted through close contact, most often bite wounds, but I believe it's a little easier to catch than FIV; it might depend on how well they get along.

At lunchtime, they were predicting cloudy but very little chance of actual rain tonight. Then I put my bicycle onto the rack on my car. The area makerspace is having an open bicycle night, and my front brake isn't releasing properly, so I'm hoping to find enough tools and advice to be able to figure out how to fix it. Guess what's appeared on the radar, heading our way?

The cat tree would also be another way of exchanging scents. You could try one of those cardboard box scratch pads, the sort you can hang from the doorknob. Let one cat scratch-mark it for a while, then move it to the other cat's turf, etc. Hey, what counts is what works! Just keep in mind that sometimes, the cat's preference is strong enough to make the difference. Don't sweat the details. I've made successful introductions with only one of me. She can put the food on one side, then the other, and alternate which side she ends up on and thus which cat she ends up petting, and can praise the other through the door if they don't get confused and jealous about their names. Fingers crossed! If he does turn out to be FIV or FeLV positive, you may be able to find a rescue that specifically works with that, finding homes that already have a positive cat and would like another. But it sounds like she's really got her heart set on him joining your family, and I get the impression Loudmouth is winning you over too. (Shh, don't worry, I won't tell her! ;-)

Yea!

Chicago being home to the International Mister Leather competition, I find myself making certain speculations about a very muscled guy who keeps looking at another muscled guy working out.... ;-)

A wizard is a spellcaster who may or may not have spells of their own.... I was just re-reading that section. :-) (skipped a bunch of posts I'll have to finish later, hope I'm not duplicating)

Oh. Darn, didn't realize it was an app, not a web page.

Ick. Back to the ridiculously oversized.

Could you post a link to Discord? I'm familiar with the Facebook page and have a link to the reddit here somewhere, but don't have Discord.

I was thinking more along the lines of The Last Starfighter having all its spaceships done on a Cray XMP supercomputer. Or the Video Toaster used for the graphics for Babylon 5. *Creating* the graphics, not just playing them.

Last week, and again this week, I was tired of waiting for my usual podcasts to update, so I started looking on YouTube for reviews of that weekend's new Doctor Who episode. Instead of looking at the most popular channels and videos, which usually come up first on searches, I scrolled down to some with under a hundred views. I found these to be just as enjoyable as the "big name" reviewers, and very appreciative of Likes and comments. They weren't always up on the facts and history of the show, and at least one was relentlessly negative based on several things he clearly either didn't understand or misunderstood (with the underlying cause of not liking one of the characters so being inclined to negativity about anything related to her), but it was still refreshing to see so many new perspectives on the series. Plus, the videos were usually a lot shorter than the multi-reviewer "big names" which are often as long as the episode was, so I could watch more of them in the time I had.

Not sure if it would help, tax-wise, to create a channel in their name, or not.

Tell her if you put a low level if commercials on the channel, the proceeds could be used to support the kitties. You know how popular cat videos are on the internet!

Probably relates to the speed of sound versus speed of electricity. The lightning caused a blip in the power flow, which arrived first, then it ended just as the sound wave arrived. And I've seen power blips a couple of times that dimmed the supply enough for some things to be affected but not others. Or come home to some clocks blinking 12:00 and some not. Yeah, yeah. It's probably a conspiracy between your dishwasher and that cute blender down the street.

Even though it's been years for them, a letter from you to his family would be a nice gesture, if/when you're up to it. Tell them how much his friendship meant to you and how many fond memories you have of him. Having lost my grandparents years ago, and my father earlier this year, I know I would appreciate such a letter, no matter how long after the fact. It's always good to know someone else loved someone you still love and miss. And I suspect writing it will help you, too. *hugs*

Good question. One Nanase may have thought to check after learning Susan can summon multiple fairy dolls.

Perhaps normal wand-makers are limited to making wands with their spells, and it's being a wizard wand-maker that makes Tedd unique? I could see having to either have single-use wands, or having several different wand-makers add their enchantment to a given wand (perhaps with more risk of unfortunate interactions the more spells you put on it) in order to get a multi-purpose wand. What have we seen wands do, other than blast people? We need a list, of who used a wand to achieve what effect.... It's also possible a wizard can use the stored energy in a wand to cast the wizard's own spells without depleting their own energy, or for enough of a boost to be able to cast a spell normally beyond their personal power store. That might explain some of the times Edward, for example, has used a wand. Hmmm.

So when are we going to be able to get a cheap and easy-to-use computer graphics program capable of making a full-length feature film's special effects, that fits on our smart phones? ;-)