Category Archives: Loki

Four felines ferried forth and from

Nary a moment will pass during these next few weeks when I can enjoy a bit of peace.  Or rest, rather, if you must.

Grendel, Kazon, Loki, and Vazra must all pay homage to the gods of veterinary health by suffering through their annual examinations and vaccinations.  Some are already due while others are rapidly approaching the same state.  Beginning this Saturday and continuing through September 15, I will be ferrying felines betwixt home and vet on four of those weekend days.

Why not take them all in at once?  Are you kidding?!?!?  I’d never survive such an endeavor, at least not with all my limbs intact, so I shall forgo even attempting it and will instead continue on with my normal one-cat-per-visit approach.  While I’d like to enjoy some financial leniency and the knowledge that all of them are done, subjecting them and myself to such terror will never happen.  For their sake and mine.

And all the while, I have growing tasks at work that will consume more and more of my personal time.  For example, unless plans change, I will work this weekend on a server migration project, and the first two weeks of September will be filled with late nights as I begin our implementation of a new monitoring and management system.

But the fun doesn’t end there, I’m afraid.

I find the year growing late too quickly to offer respite from my quest to relocate.  Shelter and employment both must be secured in the near future.  There is a financial incentive to make that happen prior to the end of September, yet I’m not foolish enough to believe it even possible.

Then there’s the planning and plotting for a successful adoption of Larenti.  I will not leave her here when I move; therefore, it’s quite necessary to begin work on capturing her and getting her to the vet for a full examination.  Unless her health poses a risk to The Kids (e.g., disease), she will then join the existing family for the remainder of her life.  On the other hand, if she does in fact have some ailment that prohibits bringing her inside, she will be adopted as the sole outside cat—but only in a way post-move that keeps her safe from an alien environment and the many wilds and dangers that will surround us.

I must needs take another trip to the family farm soon.  How soon I don’t know at present, but I do know it needs to happen before the end of September.

And the list goes on. . .  Life offers days overflowing with responsibilities and nights too short for restful sleep.  I must still make my way through this vexing obstacle course if I am to survive.

What question lies within your heart?

Loki sitting in front of the window with an inquisitive look on his face (176_7674)

Ne’er has there been, nor ever will there be, a more inquisitive creature than a feline.  But curiosity rests not at the pinnacle of this trait, although it likely represents a vast majority.

How often I comprehend from just a look the inquiry hiding behind the predator’s eyes.  How easily I discern from a simple meow the probing to which I submit myself.  How cunning the interrogator as they manipulate me at depths I ne’er before comprehended.

A treat, you say?  Throw the ball?  Pet you until your purring rumbles the furniture about the room?

These things and a great many other clear requests—sometimes demands—flow through the air betwixt cat and me as easily as water streams between riparian grounds.  By look or voice, or both, questions stream forth clear as the typed word.

And I answer, for it is mine to do so… my obligation, my right, my joy.

Could—would—any other be so inclined or capable?

[Loki]

Full of secrets

“A computer and a cat are somewhat alike; they both purr, and like to be stroked, and spend a lot of the day motionless. They also have secrets they don’t necessarily share.”

— John Updike

A close-up of Loki as he rests on the bed (200_0050)

[Loki]