Quadruple the Fun

After trying for several days, i finally got in touch with the lady for whom we are bottle raising Datsig. The little guy is nibbling dry food soaked in milk, and will be ready for a new home soon.

So i was not very happy to find out that she suddenly has cat allergies and doesn't want him back. If she had said that at the beginning, i could have already had him in a foster program.

Thus when Miss Betty called, it was at a very fortunate time. She is the one who asked me to take Mikey, who is about a week younger than Datsig and has become inseparable from his foster brother.

It was, of course, a call for the usual reason. Some flower of humanity had dropped a box of very tiny kittens in the pet store parking lot, and could i take them?

Naturally i could, and could she also accept Datsig as a foster? Yes, i told her yes before i asked. If she had said they really couldn't swing it right now, i still would take these new ones. Unless i am dying myself i'm not going to let babies starve.

Now we have them. Four of the stinkiest, filthiest female kittens, all black and white tuxedos, just like Mikey and our own HiCat.

Eye infection in one, fleas on all. Plus, joy of joys, they all have the runs already.

We are hanging on, these are going to give us a run for the money, but they should be beautiful, loving girls in spite of their rough start.


Today is:

Boss' Day -- traditional date; either celebrate, or roll your eyes, both are acceptable responses

Chrysanthemum Festival -- Japan (various shrines; through Nov. 15)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day -- internet generated, and we're getting a bit overboard here, aren't we?

Day of Pope John Paul II -- Poland

Dictionary Day (Noah Webster's birthday)

Ether Day (first demonstrated use, see History)

National Feral Cat Day -- US

National Liqueur Day

Sennin Musha Gyoretsu -- Tochigi, Japan (procession of 1,000 warriors; through tomorrow)

St. Hedwig's Day (Patron of orphaned children)

Teachers' Day -- Chile

World Food Day -- International


Anniversaries Today:

Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women, 1869
Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah, 1875


Birthdays Today:

John Mayer, 1977
Kellie Martin, 1975
Flea, 1962
Tim Robbins, 1958
Suzanne Somers, 1946
Angela Lansbury, 1925
Eugene O'Neill, 1888
Oscar Wilde, 1854
Noah Webster, 1758


Today in History:

Jadwiga (yes, a she) is crowned King of Poland, 1384
Olivier van Noorts' ships reach the Philippines, 1600
George Washington takes Yorktown, 1781
Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, is guillotined, 1793
Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers, 1843
Dentist William T. Morton demonstrates the effectiveness of ether, 1846
Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is published, 1847
John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 1859
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered", 1869
John Harwood takes out a patent on a self-winding watch, 1923
The Disney Company is founded, 1923
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army, 1940
Fidel Castro is sentenced in Havana to 15 years in prison, 1953
The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1964
In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, 1970
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1973
Pope John Paul II is elected after the October 1978 Papal conclave, 1978
Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1978
Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders, 1986
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated, 2002