En"gendered"

The roller coaster continues.

Gabriel, the very sickly little guy, is hanging in. After a day of nothing but sugar water and IV fluids, he started eating. He's still getting fluids, as he is nothing but skin and bones, and the sugar water will continue a bit longer, too. He is walking, though, and showing a preference for a specific warm spot in front of the refrigerator.

His sister, Emma, is also holding her own. Tara is barely 3 weeks old and trying to imitate the big kittens, using the box and attempting to nibble the hard food! Never have i seen one try so young. When i can, i'll have to get her some Baby Cat, a special kibble sized for the tiniest ones.

Also, we have made a startling discovery. Hephaestus, nicknamed 'Festus, was busily playing when Bigger Girl snatched the kitten up and turned it over and -- well, we need a name change, because 'Festus won't work for a girl.

This does happen sometimes. It can be very hard to tell boy from girl when they are tiny-eyes-still-closed-little-things.

While caulking the bathtub, the nice young mother called back, and asked me to please raise the babies for her. So now there are 13 kittens in the house. Eight are weaned. We are still not stretched to capacity.

The burn on my hand is looking nasty, and now i have a very bad blister on one finger of that hand due to the scissors catching it when i cut the top off the caulk tube. Add the cut on another finger from the blender falling on it when i tried to balance it with one hand and move the IV kit with the other, and my right hand is covered in bandages. Could be worse. Could have had all that happen in winter.

My take on it all is, as long as i can hold a kitten to feed it, i'm doing just fine.


In honor of National Humor Month:

If a person gets amnesia and is then cured, will he remember that he forgot?

You might be a Cajun if:
You take a bite of Texas 5-Alarm chili and reach for the Tabasco.
You think a lobster is a crawfish on steroids.
You start every recipe with, "First, you make a roux..."
You gave up Tabasco for Lent.
You think the four seasons are duck, rabbit, deer, and squirrel.
You know the difference between Zatarain's, Zapp's, and zydeco.


Today is

Arbor Day

Cheng Cheng Kung Landing Day -- Taiwan

Feast of the Secret Masters (can't find any real info on this one, but it is fun to think about)

International Dance Day

Milk-Curdling Sunday -- Fairy Calendar, Gremlins, and not always on a Sunday

National Hairball Awareness Day -- yes, really, because hairballs are not fun for cats

National Shrimp Scampi Day

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

Ninth Day of Ridvan -- Baha'i

Queen's Night -- Netherlands

Runic Half Month of Lagu (water) begins

Showa Day -- Japan, begins the Golden Week holiday period

St. Catherine of Siena's Day (patron of Italy; against fire)


Anniversaries Today:

Princess Irene marries Prince Carel Hugo de Bourbon Parma, 1964


Birthdays Today:

Andre Agassi, 1970
Uma Thurman, 1970
Michelle Pfeiffer, 1958
Daniel Day-Lewis, 1957
Kate Mulgrew, 1955
Jerry Seinfeld, 1954
Dale Earnhardt, 1951
Johnny Miller, 1947
Zubin Mehta, 1936
Lane Smith, 1936
Celeste Holm, 1919
Tom Ewell, 1909
Hirohito, 1901
Duke Ellington, 1899
William Randolph Hearst, 1863


Today in History:

The Moors arrive at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, 711
Joan of Arc arrives at Orleans to relieve the siege, 1492
Francis Drake leads a raid in the Bay of Cádiz, sinking at least 23 ships of the Spanish fleet, 1587
Eleven Dutch ships depart for the conquest of Peru, 1623
The Ming Dynasty occupies Taiwan, 1661
James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia, 1770
The French Fleet prevents Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope, 1781
Peter Roget publishes the first edition of his Thesaurus, 1852
The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus – is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin, 1882
Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, NJ, receives a patent for the zipper, 1913
The North Sea floodgate at Ijmuiden, the biggest in world, officially opens, 1930
The telephone connection of England-Australia goes into service, 1930
The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast airs, and episode of "Space Patrol" shown over ABC affiliate KECA in Los Angeles, 1953
The first military nuclear power plant opens, in Ft. Belvoir 1957
A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 mph, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless, 1991
Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production, 2004