Journal of a Sabbatical

February 17, 2000

interlude

Adopt these cats -they're filling up my hard drive!

Today's photos courtesy of Bonnie Buckley at: Adopt Homeless Paws

Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Reading: The Wandering Albatross by William Jameson, Winter: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O Blake, Beach Grass by Charles Wendell Townsend

Yet more evidence that Althea is a real cat and not a little round space alien. She's way less scared than when she first came. Well, I suppose she could be a space alien, 'cause we really don't know what they look like. And if they're that superior to us they could disguise themselves as cats to get access to humans' houses... :-) That blue thing behind her head is not a third ear or a space age communication device. It's the shadow of her cat bed on the wall of the cage.

Newsflash - Shanti approaches a human, in this case Kendra. Who could resist Shanti's pugnacious little face? Plus she grunts like a pig. She's just too cute.  I think the broad face is what does it on the cuteness scale. Supposedly humans like things with big heads because they remind us of babies. I have no idea where I read that but at least two different places. Ever notice how stuffies have huge heads? So I think part of Shanti's appeal is the size of her head. I like Shanti a lot. She used to be terrifyingly mean, but now she's just kind of standoffish. She doesn't hoard toys and defend them to the death anymore. Either she's finally had enough toys, or she's realized her deep emotional needs can be met some other way. Like with people maybe?

Sandy, whom I mentioned failing to photograph yesterday. He's real lovey. Of course orange boys are my favorite so maybe I'm a little prejudiced. Sometimes really lovey orange boys bite - they think they're being affectionate or something. Wilbur used to bite people when he was at the shelter. He still bites me from time to time but not really very often and never very hard. I don't know whether Sandy bites. I'm guessing that's what the people who surrendered him meant by aggressive. I just met Sandy yesterday so haven't really had a chance to form an informed opinion.

Spot has a very expressive face. He looks wise and gruff and a little like Wilford Brimley. Can't you just imagine Spot making a Quaker Oatmeal commercial?

On a completely other subject, about this study showing that people who spent 5 hours online had fewer social interactions and were more depressed: exactly how did they conclude that the time spent online was taken away from social interaction rather than work, sleep, eating, cleaning, exercise, commuting, meditating, or any of the other ways a body could choose to spend any given hour? And all of the people studied live in Pittsburgh. Did the researchers control for factors having to do with living in Pittsburgh? I really wish reports like this would include more about the design of the experiment, the demographics of the control group (was there a control group?) and so on.

Gotta go. I'm starting to feel socially isolated.