Kitten update

Yesterday morning we decided that the kittens' breathing was a bit laboured so we took them into the vet. They are now both on oral antibiotics and we are making a special effort to keep Padmini away from them (much yowling!). Otherwise they still seem to be doing fine. While we were in the waiting room at the vet we got talking to a woman who had taken five week old kittens to foster. It was also her first time fostering kittens. Not surprisingly after a week she was totally frazzled and was bringing three of the kittens back to the shelter. We did our best to make her feel OK about it. Five new borns is way too much for one person. lemur_catta and I have decided that three bottle feeders is the most we could manage at once and we have at least some experience.

Recent reading

Memoirs of a British Agent by RJ Bruce-Lockhart.

This is a fascinating book. Imagine Richard Hannay's memoirs but true. B-L was British Consul-General in Moscow during WW1 and later the British government's official but not officially admitted representative to the Bolshevik government. He met and knew everybody; Prince Lvov, Kropotkina, Kerensky, Trotsky, Lenin and dozens of others. His insights into the nature of Bolshevism and the impact of the allied interventions are fascinating.

Perhaps the issue of most contemporary relevance is his vivid descriptions of how well-informed observers in Russia were consistently ignored in favour of ideologues in London, Paris and Washington. The depth of non-understanding and self-delusion was positively Rumsfeldian. Best example, the Permanent Secretary at the FO was convinced that Lenin and Trotsky were German staff officers in disguise!

Much of what B-L was up to isn't in the memoirs for obvious security reasons and apparently the FO has 'mislaid' most of his papers. Any historian of the period would give his/her eye teeth to get a look at them.