Well, the copyediting is mostly done. It was a quite a bit more grueling than I expected it to be. Sitting down and reading your own work that closely is like examining your face in one of those super-high-magnification mirrors. Pretty ugly. You come across some desperately infelicitous crap. But thank God, you get the chance to fix it.
In other news … I found a cat today. Someone had left him in a cardboard box in the park by Clackamette Cove where I often walk Sugar Cookie. They left him with two cans of food and a towel. I don’t know how long he’d been there, but it was long enough for the box to get wet and for him to eat both cans of the food. Which doesn’t take long for a cat, I know.
There was a time that I would have thought pretty mean thoughts about the people who’d left him to fend for himself, but these days people are having to make rotten decisions. Whoever left him seemed to care about him, given the food and the towel, and probably thought he’d have a better chance of having someone pick him up than if they took him to the pound.
Anyway, he’s a very friendly little guy, but riddled with fleas and flea-scabs and horribly skinny. I took him in to the Oregon City Veterinary Clinic (I take all my pets there, they’re the best vet clinic I’ve ever worked with) and they gave him the once-over. Said he’d been fixed, had no chip and looked lively and healthy enough. He said that pet abandonment was becoming much more common, given the state of the economy. He gave the little guy a dose of Advantage to get rid of the fleas, and sent me on my way free of charge. Is that awesome or what? (This is not to suggest anyone should take stray cats to Oregon City Veterinary Clinic expecting freebies, but I thought the generosity was noteworthy and deserving of applause.)
He’s outside in the dog crate on our front porch (gotta let the Advantage do its work), with a big bowl of food and some water. I put a litter box in there, and it’s obvious he’s used to being an inside cat because he jumped right into it and took a dump. Also, the fact that he was still in the cardboard box when I found him also seems to support that theory, because either one of my outdoor cats would have been out of that soggy thing within seconds of me driving off. Hopefully the other neighborhood cats will come and visit him in his confinement—nicely.
What does the future hold for this little gent? Well, I’m going to feed him up for a week, and probably worm him, and then we shall see what we shall see.
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Hey, what are you using to pull your blog posts into FB? Because what I’ve been using takes about seventy-five hours to happen.
Oh duh: Wordbooker. Sorry: back out, mind out.
Wordbooker is great, fwiw.
Getting rid of old shit and installing new shit, now. Thanks, M.
Aw, kitty. Yay you! He is very pretty.
you are a Hero of revolutions editorial and animal.
You have a cat now…you have a cat now. How can you abandon the cat now? Don't you have abandonment issues?
Dude, that is One Awesome Vet. And you are pretty amazing, too, for being the one who took the poor guy home (cat, not vet).
Aw, your new kitteh friend is gorgeous
My best wishes to the little guy.
Correction, I have THREE cats now. This young man is just the newest addition. I just don't know if I can handle an indoor cat, which is what he seems to be. I like my cats to be maximally self-sufficient.
Oh, how could I not? It's one of those tests the universe presents you with that you must not fail.
He'll be prettier without all the scabs, poor bugger.
And sweet, too.
And he sends his best wishes right back to you. (P.S. Locus & envelope arrived safely today … thanks!!)
That's a sweet little cat for certain. Kudos to you and to the vet clinic, and keep us posted. (That's how Zachary and I became the willing slaves of Xerxes, by the way. His former owners–who must have treated him with kindness, maybe even love, to judge by his affectionate nature and good manners–abandoned him in the park atop Rocky Butte when he was sick. Breaks my heart to think of it. But now he is healthy and totally the boss of us.)
AWWWW KITTEY!!!!!! KEEP HIM!!!!!!!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!