The Cats Are Friends Again!

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Soft-launch Announcement

This must be a bit like what pregnant women feel like: They don't want to announce their pregnancies till they're far enough along, but I figure I can declare it here, since lately, only an average of 12 people a day view my blog:

Phoebe and Toonces, >7-year-old sister-cats from the same litter are friends after being enemies throughout the winter. The vet said no, but I'm still wondering if I caused a psychotic break in Toonces last November 5th, by waving a rubber ball on a string, which featured colored, flashing lights inside it. It was a party-favor from my cousin's Bat Mitzvah.

Prior to that action on my part, the girls were good friends and good sisters. About 10-20 minutes after my silly game-playing, a chilling cat-fight began; it was not silent like all of the other play-fights. The noise was that of enemies, trying to kill each other. Phoebe chased Toonces (who likely started it) up the stairs and a haunted/hunted Toonces left a trail of urine on the steps as she ran away from her sister in terror.

From then on, we kept them separated in the house, except for very short visits. They cried and complained, but whenever they saw each other, they'd begin that low-voiced purrmuring and then hissing. We wanted no more urine-trails of terror, so they were deprived all winter.

A few days ago, we experimented. And they were good. And we pledged that if they fought, from now on, they'd just have to work it out. There have been no fights with noise ever since we freed them to be in the same place at the same time.

Makes the house so much more haymish again.

Snow Blanket...

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

And a Cat Coverlet

Phoebe's eyes match my green sweater perfectly. She is draped on my lap like the snow's draped on the tree-branches outside my window.

When I see her little face looking up at me, as it has been doing these past several minutes, I understand motherhood a little bit.

"I'm going to have a son," a 15-year-old declared yesterday when I asked her whether she thought she might want to have children someday. "When I'm good and ready," she said, "Boys are less work than girls."

So Brief...

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

...It Ought to Be a Tweet

Earlier in the week, I looked adoringly at one of our cats and she returned my glance, and it struck me that we love each other even though we cannot speak each other's language.