Day: May 14, 2006

Our pregnant mare, Hannah, has been showing signs that she’s about to foal, so my wife is spending the night at the farm. Actually, no, to be more precise, she’s spending the night in the barn with Hannah. We love our critters.
In the meantime, I’ve declared it Kitties’ Night Out here at the house, and both Othello and Olivia are moving about freely. They’ve been playing quite a bit, though I think Othello’s feeling his age around this nutty kid who considers any moving limb – even a human ankle – something viable to play with. Any twitch of the tail, any paw moved, is likely to earn to poor guy a kitten pounce. He’s put her in her place a couple of times too, without hurting her. (He doesn’t have front claws, so there really isn’t much he can do. She, on the other hand…) The one thing that has calmed Olivia down has been letting Xena in for a bit, but Xena’s so much bigger than her that it just completely terrifies the kitten, which she then expresses by climbing up my bare legs with her little kitten claws. My favorite part of the evening has been going to bed (a bit early for me, especially on a Saturday night), and waking up with two sleeping cats next to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve woken up with two sleeping cats – the last time that happened, it was Othello and Iago.
Anyway, as of about 2:30am, I’ve put Olivia in the bedroom – with the door closed – so she can get some sleep. As long as I’m awake and there are lights on, she can’t/won’t sleep, even though her sleepy little kitten eyes tell a completely different story. She’s also discovered how to reach the top of my desk (after evicting Othello from his “co-pilot’s chair” next to the desk!).
One of Hannah’s stablemates gave birth to another filly this week, but did so unexpectedly (apparently the approaching thunderstorms didn’t do her any favors) and the filly was literally born in a less than clean environment (well, okay, a pile of manure); as a result, both are at the vet because an infection has set in. At last report, though, everyone will pull through just fine. So now that we’ve put the baby down, Othello’s sitting across my arms – a helpful talent shared by all cats – as I listen to some Mike Oldfield and work on the cover illustration for an upcoming new Odyssey2 cartridge from Packrat Video Games called … Read more