Scooter Blogging: (0) So long, old friend

When my household in suburban Oakland had two cats, neither one would ask me to refill their food bowls until one was empty.  By that time, the other bowl had only a few kibbles left, so I refilled both.  Once Galadriel passed away, though, Scooter changed her habit.  She still finished off her bowls, but after every refill, she came to me to ask for new food.  It took me a while, but I figured out that even a dozen new kibbles satisfied her demand.  Scooter wasn't really hungry; she just wanted the attention.

About six weeks ago, her odd little requests stopped.  This had happened before, only to resume later; so I thought nothing of it.  Sadly, it turned out to be the harbinger of something far worse.  Her liver was failing, and her eating itself was steadily slowing.  By the time anyone noticed something was wrong, it was too late; the only option was to keep her comfortable as her appetite vanished completely and her body shut down.

Tonight, about seven weeks shy of her 15th birthday, Scooter crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  She had lost the ability to jump to or from her corner of my bed, and the pain had become just too much.  At about 21:15 Central time, a veterinarian performed the euthanasia.  In her final minutes, she wanted nothing but ear scratches from me, and those were probably the last things she felt.

So long, Scooter, you Cat of Many Colors.  And thanks for being my friend for 14 years.

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Birthday kitteh!

Here is Scooter, sleeping in a new spot.  That blue comforter Scooter loves is now serving as an everyday bed cover, so she now sleeps everywhere on the bed, not just the corner where her blanket lives.

I don't really care where she sleeps, actually.  I'm just grateful she made it through a rough winter that included two illnesses and a pair of huge guest dogs that (shockingly) didn't submit to her will.  It all left her a bit traumatized, but she's slowly started to reclaim her old napping spots outside my bedroom.  As of two days ago, she's graced my life for thirteen years.  She was about a year old when I adopted her, so now she's 14 years old.  Here's hoping she has quite a few more left with me.

Happy 14th birthday, Scooter.

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Late Friday Double: Here, have some popcorn.

I'm not sure what to make of Harold Camping's prophecy marketing campaign for his impressively wealthy radio network has been deafening.  Given that natural disasters just don't respect time-zone boundaries, his forecast of worldwide earthquakes was ridiculous on its face.  If there must be a Rapture, I'd rather see it occur this way.

On the other hand, I did discover this version of "Popcorn" this morning.  Even though the Orquesta Cubana De Música Moderna covered Gershon Kingsley's famous instrumental way back in 1972, it's still a surer sign of the apocalypse than anything Family Radio could put out.


Here's the version that became an international hit, from Hot Butter.


My cat Scooter was watching the Sharks-Canucks game rather intently last night.  That's about as much rapture as I expect to witness this weekend.

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Scooter blogging: (3) The blanket is mine!

As Scooter has been demonstrating all winter, cats aren't completely colorblind.

I make my bed when I get up on weekday mornings.  On some weekends, though, I do laundry.  Since I have to climb onto the bed to get to the clothes I'll be cleaning, it makes sense to leave it undone until I'm done putting away the newly cleaned articles.

That pale green patch at the bottom of this picture is Scooter's blanket.  She's grown to love it since inheriting it from her late stepsister Galadriel.  I keep it folded on the corner of my bed, and that's where she spends much of her day, asleep.

The bed itself is on the same wall as a window that leaks cold air on windy days, so one side needs insulation.  That's why the electric-blue comforter is present.  This winter, it's served as the insulation by day, and as an extra blanket by night.

One night last October, I left the blue comforter, freshly cleaned and folded, on the bed.  Within minutes, Scooter got up from her usual blanket and laid down on the blue comforter.  Ever since then, whenever I lay the comforter out, she's moved to lie down on it.

Must be the color.

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Scooter Blogging: (2) Wednesday Football

Watch.  Glare.  Watch.

My father and two sisters went to Texas for a family event, and (partly to care for Scooter) I decided to stay and house sit. I finished tilling the backyard garden today, and a few more small outdoor tasks remain ahead of the first winter snows. Last week, we were in shirt sleeves, but the cooling has finally begun for good.

As you can see from these pictures taken today, Scooter is just fine.  She's engaged in that favorite afternoon activity, sleeping on her blanket.  Here, little naps alternate with bits of today's South Africa-United States men's soccer match.  The thunderous din of 51,000 vuvuzelas didn't bother her nearly as much as her dad's presence with a camera.

Likewise, Ian Darke's voice on ESPN didn't perturb The Cat of May Colors™.  On the other hand, Darke has annoyed me in the past; but apparently, he's secured the post of voice of the American men's national team on U.S. TV.  He didn't say anything obviously colonialist on today's ESPN broadcast, so I might actually get used to him.

The game itself ended in a 1-0 win for the U.S., but both sides were trying out new players.  It felt less like an international friendly than the second half of an NFL exhibition game.

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Fantasy update:   Real life, abetted by schedule confusion on my part, hurt my teams this week.  With the family trip coming in two days, I spent a good chunk of last Thursday helping my father get ready.  By the time we were done and I had taken a nap, the Ravens-Falcons game had kicked off.

Oops.  I'd forgotten about that early game.

The Fluttering Horde was to have dropped Atlanta kicker Matt Bryant, as Horde regular Rob Bironas was back from his bye week.  On top of that, with no one to pass to, Peyton Manning was headed to the Horde bench in favor of Bryant's teammate, Matt Ryan.

Meanwhile, no one in the public league cared to trade for Michael Vick, so maybe he'd start for the Middlemen this week.  Why not?  Vick was up against Washington, while Middlemen regular Joe Flacco faced the Falcons.

Neither substitution went through.  Thursday night was too late.

The Horde did just fine.  My permanent receiver corps racked up 60 points, including Mike Thomas's hail-Mary touchdown, and despite missing Ryan's best performance of the year, the Horde defeated the Southside Hitmen, 121-106.  At 6-4 in a two-division league, the Horde is likely headed to the playoffs.

The Middlemen?  Not so much.  Vick was the 'I win' card, breaking fantasy-football records, but he was still on my bench.  In a bizarre match that also saw both sides reduced to eight men, the Middlemen fell 110-100 to the Dallas Drunks.  Their 6-4 record is still good for a playoff spot, but it's the last one.  Aaarrrrrgh.

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Tuesday Football: Nothing but net

More Scooter, with tennis:  Let it be known that Scooter has taste, or at least an eye for gridiron.  For the second Monday night in a row, my cat watched 30 minutes of gridiron with me.  This time, it was the second half of the Ravens-Jets game.  Instead of actually watching the action, though, she faced away from the TV and waited for me to scratch her ears.  Clearly, she recognized how horrible the Jets were on offense.  She went off to her nightly mousing well before the final gun sounded.

It wasn't much prettier to me, either, and I ended up switching to the last set of the 2010 U.S. Open men's tennis final.  That's champion Rafael Nadal at the left, pulling yet another incredible winner.  Everyone marveled at his tricks, including Novak Djorkavic, who managed to kick ass and still lose.

I bring the tennis up because it showed up on a channel where it normally doesn't belong.  Usually, the men's final at Flushing Meadows airs on CBS on Sunday afternoon.  That was the plan this year, too, but rain pushed the match back to Monday.  With an event so important to tennis, you'd think that CBS would preempt its normal Monday programs to show the delayed match live.  Unfortunately, this week's episodes of CSI: Modesto and Survivor: Northern Marianas Islands were more important; so the match ended up on ESPN2.

Even worse, ESPN2 warned that, if it hadn't ended by 21:15 CDT, the match would then move to ESPN Classic.  (Match point fell just after 21:00, so that didn't happen.)  In short:  the U.S. Open men's tennis final was about to fall from a broadcast network all the way to a channel that wasn't even on basic cable.  To say the least, this does not bode well for the sport of tennis (at least not in the U.S.).

A little personal landmark: The Chicago Bears opened Sunday with a 19-14 win over Detroit on a Calvin Johnson mistake.  It's worrying to see my beloved Bears struggle with the Lolcats Lions, but that wasn't the important part this week.  The big news is that, for the first time, I wore a Bears jersey while watching the game.  It's an orange Brian Urlacher replica, given to me as a birthday present last May.  I also got a coach's polo shirt, which I plan to wear for road games.

Yep, I'm now not just an NFL fan.  I'm an obsessed NFL fan.  Um, hooray?

Fantasy football update:  I opened with wins in both my leagues.  In the family league, Peyton Manning and Wes Welker combined for five touchdowns to lead the Fluttering Horde to a 99-73 upset of the defending league champions, the Smoking Popes.  Andre Johnson had only 33 receiving yards, but I didn't need him any more than the Houston Texans did.

In the public league, I left Bears RB Matt Forte and his 30 points on the bench, yet still coasted to a 102-88 win over the Dallas Drunks.  Woo-hoo!

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Tuesday Football: Of horses and butterflies

Scooter the BCS fan:  Last night's Boise State win over Virginia Tech was such a compelling game, my cat Scooter saw fit to watch the entire second half with me.  She made herself comfortable next to me as I watched the game, and she kept her eyes on the game the whole time.  When Virginia Tech missed its last fourth down, she up and left, returning to her nightly mousing duties.  To be fair, she was in an unusually friendly mood yesterday, but that doesn't explain her actually watching the game.  Very weird.

The game was close, and it made compelling drama, but it wasn't very well played.  Boise had to beat itself as well as the Hokies.  Now, some requests:

• Virginia Tech:  Please, never let me see those black jerseys again.  In fact, the next school that wears black when it isn't one of its colors ought to lose a scholarship or two.  [See:  Oregon football, Duke basketball, and too many others.]
• Boise State:  Neat helmets, but do your road uniforms really need 37 shades of gray?  Put some orange back, for heaven's sake!
• Brent Musberger:  How stupid do you think the TV audience is?  "Boise State's not used to this weather"?  In the first place, the vaunted humidity in Landover was only 43%.  In the second, Boise is in Idaho, not freakin' Arizona.  On top of that, BSU is still in the same league as Hawai'i and Louisiana Tech, places where 43% humidity is often a relief.  Sheesh.

Behold!  The Fluttering Horde!  My original fantasy-football team is back, complete with new name, new logo and new players.  I named the Horde after another set of characters from the Venture Bros. cartoon, namely, The Monarch's minions.  The monarch-butterfly wings on the helmet are sure to strike fear into my opponents.  Otherwise, they will have to deal with Peyton Manning passing to Texan WR Andre Johnson and 49er TE Vernon Davis.  I did better in mock drafts, but those assumed 8- and 10-team leagues, and we ended up with two six-team divisions.

It'll be a tough opener, against my league's defending champions, the Smoking Popes.

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World Cup quarterfinal purring

So Germany blows Argentina halfway back across the Atlantic.

For once, loudmouthed Diego Maradona is at a loss for words.

 Purr, purr, purr!

And what'll you know?  Spain actually gets out of a quarterfinal stage!

The Tholians Paraguayans made them work, and there was that penalty-kick wackiness.

But finally, La Fúria are through to a luscious semifinal with der Mannschaft.

 Purr, purr, purr!

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Scooter Blogging: (1) Hey! A toy she likes!

 

This is my cat Scooter.  When she was younger, her favorite toy was a sort of fishing pole.  When I moved the pole at its handle end, it would pull a long piece of string.  Scooter then chased after the fake mouse at the other end of the string.  Alas, she's gotten bored with this toy more quickly over the years, so I searched for a new toy that she would like.

And then, I found something like this:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

While replenishing her treat supply at a pet store, I ran across a $2 laser toy.  It couldn't hurt, I reasoned.  (Especially not with a power rating of 5 mW.)  The cat might actually like it.  Well, that proved to be an understatement!  Scooter chases the little red dot everywhere, even on the walls.  She has even learned to beg me -- not for food, but for that little red dot!  She even recognizes the laser pointer when I pick it up off a table.  It's high-tech catnip.

The laser, it seems, has now gone the way of the flying car, another device that hasn't materialized the way science fiction once said it would.  Lasers were for killing and destroying, not useful functions like complimenting rulers, cutting metal or protecting homes from thieves.  They certainly weren't envisioned as pet toys that even little kids can safely wield.

But there you have it.  Scooter sure doesn't mind!

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