I didn't find any good links on 9.20.26, that's why.
Animals
The New York City animal shelter(s) are so overcrowded they're giving dogs away with Chewy starter subscriptions. For some reason "First prize, one Chewy subscription; second prize, two Chewy subscriptions" is coming to mind, but some people don't mind pushy marketers and NYC is probably where those people live. Anyway, last week I was shown this site for people who want to save the animals who will otherwise be killed. These animals have not been on display for adoption; they've been held in a back room where they've been reacting to stress by not recovering from disease conditions (seriously, ringworm?) fast enough (I mean they don't mention even trying coconut oil on the kitten with ringworm), or just acting stressed out. Some of them hide in the backs of their cages. Some of them growl. They've also acted like lovable pets, under less (to them) horrific circumstances, but there's just a fear that they might growl, or scratch, or bite, and the shelter might be sued if these animals were adopted.
Some of these animals who might bite are the kind of big dogs whose play bites leave scars that last for years. And they may pull on a leash, and their weight and strength may be enough to drag their human around or, in the case of a small or fragile human, jerk person off per feet. Still, there's a difference between a friendly chomp on the arm and a serious, desperate attack on the eyes or throat.
What got to me was that a cat called Mia sounds like a daughter Serena might have had and never told me about. Seriously. She even looks like Serena. Same coloring, and same temperament. "Don't be soppy! I had a mother, thank you just the same. Let's play a good fast game now. I love you, therefore I chomp you."
During Serena's chomping phase, which she's outgrown actually, what she got was "Why don't you chomp on a stick?" or "Ouch, that hurt," depending. She learned. (Mia is also recognized as an unusually clever cat.) She is a kindhearted animal, and she's shown that she cares about me; she just instinctively chomped and clawed the way kittens (and cats) do with their siblings and best pals. Humans don't have fur, so instead of a nice scratch or squeeze we feel pain as our thin, brittle skins tear open. If we patiently remind kittens about this, they'll patiently try to play gently.
Mia's humans, unfortunately, wanted to reproduce so they just dumped their cat at a shelter. She felt bored and left out; she bit her humans' ankles. I pity their child. I wouldn't want to have a baby in a New York flat with Serena, and if I had to choose I'd choose to keep the dependent who's physically related to me--that part makes sense--but I'd find a sympathetic friend for Serena to move in with, if I suddenly had to adopt an infant great-niece.
And because Mia might have bitten or scratched strangers who grabbed her and violated her personal space, she was "sedated for examination" and put on gabapentin while in the shelter. Gabapentin is legitimately used to control painful seizures but Mia wasn't having those; there was just this fear that she might, heavenforbidandfend, defend herself. As Serena or any cat of spirit would do.
Some claim that cats don't have a neurological circuit for "play biting," specifically, but they do have a way to feel the difference between biting down to the bone in fear for their life, and biting hard enough to cause pain as a warning, a punishment, or an invitation to play fighting or chasing games. Most cats will only ever do the harmless warning kind of biting in their lifetimes. Mia has only done the harmless warning kind of biting. Veterinarians and their assistants can't afford to have open wounds on their hands as they move from patient to patient, but for the human who's going to live with a cat, the way to manage this behavior is to push into the bite, pushing the cat's head up and back, which warns the cat that biting is not going to win this fight. So you have a scratch. So you can wash it, apply a mini-Band-Aid if you really want to, and let it heal; it should heal in a day or two.
Gabapentin works through a different mechanism than carbamazepine, aka Tegretol, the other popular anti-seizure pill for humans, but in humans both are known to cause obsessive thoughts of suicide. Who knows how that reaction feels to a cat.
Mia didn't warm up to what she undoubtedly perceives as the kidnappers and torturers in the shelter, so she was never even offered to the public for adoption. She got exactly 42 hours with her photo and history displayed on that web page for problem pets who are about to be killed.
By the time this post goes live, Mia will probably be dead.
I couldn't take her, even if someone were paying me to be her foster human. Serena chooses her own friends. She's the perfect hostess with some visiting cats, willing to adopt some kittens, unwilling to bring some of her own friends home or feed some of her own kittens. She might adopt a shy, docile junior female but I can't imagine her welcoming a doppelganger. She has zero tolerance for rival females. Mia is a Queen Cat too. Serena wouldn't have that.
But because not enough people read the web page that has the inside stories of "pets at risk," somebody in New York City, possibly a reader of this web page who's read all the cat posts and appreciated the sweetness and spiciness of Serena, is going to miss out on the experience of living with her kind of cat. And it's an experience of delight. If you're smart enough to figure out what a sassy, energetic Queen Cat is telling you, you can reasonably congratulate yourself, and also a cat like Serena will love you back in ways normal cats probably don't have the brainpower to think about.
I've loved Serena from the day she was born. Looking at her face has never failed to brighten my mood. Even though, as a kitten, she used to bite me in a playful affectionate way, and as a big strong cat, she still bares her teeth and lets me feel them if she doesn't want to be groomed or petted. (This is just letting the teeth be felt, not gripping or biting down--a special, gentle warning for her human.) There've been times when I've had to throw something around her and hold her down, when she's been ill, but there's never been a moment when I would have heard a word about doping her.
She's getting old, in cat years. So far she agrees with me that nine cat years, which according to the old saw corresponds to age 63 for humans, is not old enough to stop running, climbing, or anything else one did when one was young. But it doesn't leave her a lot of years. One day I'll probably try to bond with other cats, even other social cats, and think that they're sort of tame and boring.
If you're used to living with a dog or cat and aren't going to panic if an animal who's just had a rabies shot bites you, and you can drive or get someone to drive you to New York City, go here.
You can't commit to adopting them all but you can get a few of them out of the shelter and offer them foster homes, free of charge, possibly with food and vet bills paid for you, while finding their pawmanent/purrmanent homes.
Art
They don't claim it's easy, but it is possible:.
Music
Wu Fei.
Bon Jovi.
Tech
Real Men's Liberation forever! Even though women are capable of learning the skills (though the work is much harder for most of us since most things are built to fit men)...there's something dead sexy about a man who can, alone or with help from a friend, fix things.
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