short takes

[cellio]

A few days ago I was petting Erik and suddenly noticed he was naked -- his collar was missing. In the 14+ years I've had him he's never before divested himself of his collar, so I'm mystified. A search of his usual hiding spots didn't turn it up, nor did a cursory look around Mary's house (where he spent last week). How weird! I bought a new collar at the grocery store (and even cut the obligatory bell off); since ordering a tag takes time I applied a Sharpie to the back of the newest rabies tag, there being enough room for a phone number. He's never gotten out, but of course it would be my luck that he would while sans tags, so better safe than sorry.

Speaking of cats, I found this story about Oscar the death-sensing cat interesting. I wonder what he's reacting to. (The article doesn't address the question of whether Oscar is the cause rather than the sensor.)

This story about a man whose house was condemned because of his books (link from caryabend) makes me scratch my head. 3000 books isn't that many. What's really going on? A little googling didn't turn up more details.

This photographic evidence of a packrat made me laugh out loud. Fortunately, they don't condemn cars. :-)

Comments

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I didn't hear about that bookstore guy before! It doesn't surprise me to see Wilkes Barre pulling something like that, though. That whole county (Luzerne, just south of me) is corrupt, anti-intellectual, backwards, provincial, and nepotistic. Scranton is no picnic but at least we're not that bad. ;)