chickenfeet

We are finally getting around to the long overdue renovation of our apartment.  Basically we will need to be out of the place for November and December.  This means we need to find a place to live.  Ideally it would be an unfurnished sublet not too far from downtown Toronto.  It also has to be cat friendly.  If anyone has any leads on something like that I'd appreciate a heads up.  Alternatively, if there's anyone local who's cat friendly and cat free and who would like feline company for two months that would simplify things a lot.

Six years ago today the little grey kitten later to be known as lady Jane Grey arrived from the Humane Society.

She's so grown up now:

I have a snuggly grey cat on my lap and, like the bengals, she is healthy and hasn't been eating tainted catfood. This makes me very happy though my sympathies go to those of you with high temperature bengals or cats who have been eating the recalled brands. I hope everybody makes it through OK.

I've been reading physics again. This time it was Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics. It's the kind of book that disturbs me on many levels. There's the physics of course and I'll admit to prior biases in favour of Smolin's position. It does seem clear to me that any viable theory of quantum gravity is likely to be background independent. There's also the sociology. If physics is as prone to groupthink as Smolin suggests, what hope for disciplines that have a less strong tradition of objectivity. If physics can descend into pomo bullshit then we really are in trouble.

I would love to be able to talk about this with the beloved lemur but I can't. She has her spheres of interest and she isn't about to invest the huge amount of time in maths and physics that I have done. I understand that but I can't help wishing.

I was at the St. Lawrence market earlier. I really love that place. I see the same vendors and they know me. They also know and care about what they are selling. I think that's important.

I watched the trailer for 300 yesterday. I shan't be watching the flick. I was impressed by the armoured war rhino but the rest... with apologies to Simonides:

Go tell the Spartans,
Stranger passing by,
That here, in our bondage gear,
We lie.

Up until now we've been putting the kittens in the kitten condo at night. With the tabbies having GI problems it just made sense to make sure that when they were unsupervised they were close to a litter box. Last night though, with just the black and white here at present we gave her the run of the apartment. Normally this results in much kitten mayhem as the kitten discovers how much fun can be had with sleeping monkeys. Last night it didn't happen and I don't recall being disturbed by the kitten at any point. I don't know whether things are different now that that LJG has taken on the permanent role of bed-guard cat (she always sleeps at my feet, behind my knees or on my legs).

In other news, I cleaned all four litter boxes this morning and that will likely be the highlight of my day.

I was out running again this morning which, incidentally, is not much fun in the prevailing heat and humidity. There's a buffet restaurant built from old rail cars on Queen's Quay that I regularly run past. It houses a largish feral cat colony. This morning one of them was lying dead on the grass right next to the sidewalk. There was no obvious trauma so I guess it was probably natural causes. I didn't look too closely as it was already covered in flies.

Yesterday lemur_catta and I hooked up with oakenguy who had driven up from Boston for the circus festival. One clown seemed very perplexed by us. I think it was when I suggested that the red and white "Canada" umbrella he was wearing on his head probably indicated that he was CSIS agent secretly infiltrating a terrorist clown cell. He was certainly lurking suspiciously close to the pie shop. More clowns and other circusy things today I expect.

All cats are different. This batch of kittens for instance do stuff I've not come across in other kittens. For a start they are incredibly noisy. If one goes into the kitchen and does anything even vaguely food related they sit in a ring and yowl like a nestful of starling chicks. They also sleep in the middle of the floor. In my experience cats will sleep almost anywhere but usually they want a bit of cover and/or comfort. These guys will curl ,up in the middle of a tile or hardwood floor. It's quite disturbing. The little black and white guy is also the most assertive kitten ever. More so even than LJG. We have to shut him in another room if we want to eat in anything like peace because otherwise he just won't take no for an answer.

Talking of my darling Lady Jane, I think (hope!) she's going through a bit of a phase. She's always been very assertive, even a bit aggressive, but recently she has definitely been getting too rough with the kittens. It doesn't usually last long before she's back to being a snuggle kitten but it isn't especially pretty while it lasts. I really wonder what happened to her during her first few weeks. She was in poor shape when we got her and her sibs appear to have died. She often shies away when one extends a hand towards her which is odd for a cat who loves to jump up in my lap for scritches and cuddles. I guess we'll never know.