The news began with breaking coverage of a fatal 18-wheeler accident involving a wandering donkey.  They rushed to live helicopter coverage of the ongoing attempt to apprehend the killer equine.  It was like watching cannibals prepare dinner: surreal, bizarre, and completely engaging.  I am embarrassed to say that live coverage shamefully displayed real Texas cowboys failing to rope and stop this terrorist.  With murderous hooves clopping along freely through local fields and back roads, one could actually make out blood dripping from the ravenously mad smile gleaming with too many intimidating teeth.  My eyes blurred at the sight of the thing.  It was horrific to witness the ghastly creature expending little energy evading horseback riders from the Lone Star State.  My cheeks flush with embarrassment, I had to turn away from the grotesque carnage.  Only after several minutes and other news items did they interrupt again to proclaim victory.  The evil beast was apprehended and already en route to detention facilities!  I spilled my drink and lost my crack pipe as I leaped to my feet and applauded through tears of joy.  We again would be safe…

Ants seem intent on treating my patio as free-range territory ripe for plundering.  This presents a quandary: How do I stop them without endangering all the other wildlife?  Raccoons, opossums, armadillos, cats, birds of many feathers, badgers, most other bugs, and basically anything else not specifically an ant.  You know, the good stuff.  Is there some manner of control that is ecologically sound yet unrelenting when it comes to ants?  The shadows in my mind desire to fill their eyes with mass Formicidae murder.  I must clarify that those voices only wish to stop interlopers with an unmistakable impasse.  To wit: the insect version of an electric fence and strategic Keep Out signs.  Just askin’.

Chira and Vazra are both MIA.  I have not seen Chira since May 28.  I have not seen Vazra since May 31.  There are many cats in this area — I have pictures of some of them that I will be posting — and there certainly is reason to believe that feline interference is at play.  But there are certainly a lot of options including foxes, some measure of the previous wildlife list, dogs, people, cars, disease, parasites, and a great many other dangers.  Chira was a bit thinner the last time I saw him.  Vazra’s painful knots were increasing their assault.  Now, I can do nothing about either problem.  I find the situation frustrating and a bit worrisome.  This is precisely why The Kids stay inside except when absolutely necessary (e.g., going to the vet).  There are too many threats and dangerous distractions in that world; they need not be subjected to it.

I have a somewhat cluttered week taking shape.  Rick and Alice are going out of town Wednesday morning on business and will not be back until early next week, so I will be dog- and house-sitting for him.  Presently, there is construction work taking place at his house at least through Friday, so I will also be monitoring that and standing in as the second-shift manager.  You no doubt comprehend what a thrill that prospect represents.

All things considered and being equal, Wylie and I will go to Plano this weekend to visit my godson (which, incidentally, would equate to a visit with xocobra and LD).  Friday night, perhaps, all things…

My quest for experiences has proposed a road trip to Austin — tomorrow! — to see the Congress Avenue Bridge bat colony.  This measure has been taken up by the board and is being given serious consideration.  That means the voices within are discussing it.  I have found this a reasonable approach to decisions where opinions may vary, and these mental inhabitants are amicable to the practice.  If I do journey to our state’s capital, I would leave in the afternoon and, all things, would be back around midnight.  All of this assumes, of course, that the world really isn’t coming to a grinding halt tomorrow.  We shall see about that and the board’s final decision on the idea.

I will likely go out to East Texas the weekend of June 10-11.  This also is being considered by the board.

As I type this, Loki is asleep on the desk with his back legs resting on my arm.  There is something about the way he has thrown himself into position that resembles a lifeless rag doll.  He powernaps.  It is a word created many years ago for the way he survives with significantly less sleep than other cats.  When he sleeps, however, he sleeps deeply.  I once mistook it for death and began crying.  His head dangled over the edge of a piece of cat furniture.  I lifted his head.  He did not move.  I lowered his head before lifting it again.  He still did not move.  I repeatedly raised and lowered his head as the volume increased in my repeating interrogatory of “Loki?”  It took 15 or 20 seconds for him to wake up.  I was in tears and practically screaming by then.  Very slowly, eyes only partially open and already showing disinterest and annoyance, he looked at me.  I learned then the depth of the place to which he goes.  It seems a fun place despite abyssal reaches for he runs, talks, twitches, chases, fights, and otherwise experiences the fullness of life while he is there.  His dreams, from the outside anyway, are vivid and vast.  They all dream, of course, and each in their own way.  Despite the commonality, Loki’s dreams always intrigue me the most due to his very non-feline sleeping habits.  I believe they spring from the trust he has of this environment and its inhabitants; consequently, there is great comfort in watching him sleep.

I need to contact Wayne and schedule a shindig of some kind.  Perhaps he and the wife would like to go to dinner, or just get together and hang like the badasses we are, or run naked through fields of thorny bushes, or whatever it is that might give us pause to visit.  Alright, I admit I have no interest in the thorny bush idea.  That was submitted by the board and not checked for content before publication.  The point stands amended.  We apologize for any confusion.

After posting the video of Kazon, I perused what I have online already and realized it favors Kazon.  This is not indicative of playing favorites or lack of content.  I have several dozen videos yet to review.  They have just worked out the way they have worked out through no intentional design.  Allow me to offer that I have videos on many subjects besides The Kids.  As I get time…  Regarding that video of Kazon taken today, he pulled a double-whammy on me and later used the other kind of asking: the begging, pleading, almost mournful asking that also can not be refused.  It repeatedly declares “Oh Daddy woe is me I’m the poor pitiful Puppy who is starving and hasn’t eaten for a very long time and I’m already too weak to make it back to the food and water bowls and you can’t count that snack earlier because it was a treat and isn’t really a meal and golly since I’m in the kitchen and you’re in the kitchen too do you think you could find something else for us oh thank you very much Daddy do you know how much I love you Daddy ooh was that my stomach growling…”  It is a purely selfish moment as he plays me like a master violinist might play a Stradivarius.

This post has been cathartic in unexpected ways.  You know, like an enema for the synapses.