Herding Cats

What is the ultimate cat toy? The laser pointer. His Lordship does seem to see red as he chases that little dot madly around the floor, walls, ceiling.

He regularly ignores most of his toys, but the laser pointer never fails. Wherever that little red dot appears he must KILL KILL KILL! This is particularly useful when you want him to move. Just point the pointer and voilá - it really is like herding cats.

However, I have had to be a spoilsport and ration his use of the laser pointer, as he tends to get slightly over-excited. When I put it away, he can spend up to an hour staring at the spot where he had his last confirmed visual. Pavlov's cat also crouches down in hunt mode as soon as he hears the (to me) barely audible click of the pen.

I have seen the same trick work on a Rottweiler, but a friend amazed me yesterday as she recounted the tale of a spider being guided to kill a mosquito using a laser pointer. How many species are lured by the laser pointer and is this instinct confined to predators?

I now have one evil thought running through my mind: Daddy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow…

At the End of the Snowbow

There were a couple of absolutely gorgeous winter days in January that have sadly not been repeated this month. (I’m glad they weren’t repeated, otherwise I’d have to re-live several work days from Hell.) However, if we could have some of that sun back I wouldn’t mind the cold (too much).

On one of those mornings, I came across this bizarre phenomenon, which I’ve christened the snowbow. The temperature was hanging around minus fifteen. It wasn’t snowing, but the air was filled with tiny ice crystals that you could only see when the light hit them just so.

And when it hit them in a certain way, this snowbow was born. The full snowbow formed a traditional arc, but I would have had to climb onto the roof to get a decent shot of it. This is just the tail end.

No crock of gold at the end of the snowbow, but there were some cigarette butts.

TO-DO Mosaic

Life for the past month has been lived under the tyranny of the never-ending TO-DO list, hence the sudden neglect of my blog (and many other things).

My Mac comes with a handy feature that allows you to cover the ‘dashboard’ with electronic post-it notes. The dreaded TO-DO list has evolved into an ungainly mosaic obscuring almost the entire screen. Post-it notes were originally organised and thematic. Now, anything goes.

There’s some stuff on there that’s become a mystery even to me (e.g. bookcase thingies). However, one of the best notes forms a little poem that I’d like to dedicate to myself in these long times of misery and endless toil:

clean bathroom
chase ruus clan
finish hill
forgive

Feline Psychiatrist

Odd things the cat does:

- chews on metal objects
- hunts invisible prey
- sleeps in the sink
- drinks from the water glass on my night table
- buries his unfinished food with invisible dirt
- attacks office equipment, especially the printer
- must KILL KILL KILL all laser beams
- tries to chew my hand off, affectionately

That cat needs therapy!