An Unwanted Kitten

 

Having rescued many a kitten and cat over the years, I was in no mood to do so again.  The last two rescues had to be put down after trying to kill another cat and cleaning up blood stains from the murder attempts is not something I wanted to repeat. With the object of the attacks now full grown, I found myself praying not to have to deal with another kitten anytime soon.

Enter one abandoned kitten on the property with no sign of siblings or mother.  This happened two weeks after the afore mentioned prayer, so let no one tell you that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. After howling for two days in the barn (loud enough to be heard from the kitchen) my dad decided to let me know about it.  He said he heard a cat in the barn and that it had been going on for some time.  The moment I heard it I said, “That’s not a cat, that’s a kitten.”

Yes it was so loud only an adult could make that kind of noise, but the voice was far too young.  I figured it was a month or more old by the volume.  When we got out there, I managed to open the top half of the broken barn door and looked around.  The loud cry started again, earsplitting and right on top of me. A glance down revealed a tiny little yellow kitten – a very young kitten.

Not only did the young age surprise me, but the fact that the critter looked me in the eyes and came back to my voice after being startled. Not normal for an obviously feral kitten. Little did I know that was only the beginning of not normal behavior from him.

I easily picked him up and he began purring immediately and I knew he’d have to be cared for as the abandoned barn is not a safe place for kittens thanks to raccoons and roving tomcats.  He was strong and very feisty, but his eyes were dark blue, the ears only just upright, and his side teeth hadn’t come in.  Looking up info online, I decided he was between 3 and 3 1/2 weeks old, which meant formula as he wasn’t weaned and eating hard food.

So we gave him formula with a dropper and he wasn’t cooperative. Taking a gamble born of desperation, I soaked cat food in warm water hoping he could take that in.  Oh he liked the broth from it and had a hard time learning to drink it, but I was still concerned. 

I shouldn’t have worried. In a couple of days he had watched the hostile older cats and decided that he was a big cat now.

I’ve heard of two fisted drinkers and now witnessed the phenomena of the four pawed eater.

Precocious barely scratches the surface with this kitten.  We couldn’t find a box that could contain him and he went berserk when put in the cat carrier.   He was young enough to not be running or jumping, but his upper body strength was abnormal so he was able to climb almost anything. That meant having to sleep with the tiny character and not crush him by accident.

After a week, it was clear he wasn’t the runt of the litter and was probably the alpha. Wrestling, spitting, challenging, and tackling are his favorite pastimes being a typical boy cat.  One problem is that he bites everything and everyone.  I’ll be glad when he starts mellowing out even though he is good about not biting through the skin.

He’s come a long way despite an epic war of wills over the litter box.  Brighter than the average kitten, he understood its use right away but would only use it if I went to the bathroom too. Then he decided it would be a funny game to resist being put in the box when caught peeing or crapping in the living room.  Out he’d jump and arch his back, prancing at me before running to a corner of the bathroom.

I wasn’t amused.

At the time of writing this, it has been several days without an apparent “accident” and the litter box is needing constant cleaning.  I may have won the battle but this is a smart kitten and only time will tell.

Naming him has been a difficult endeavor and it came down to one of the following:  Zim, Johnny Rotten, or Howl.  For the moment, he is dubbed Howl, which is short for Howlin’ Cat, Howland Owl, or Howling Pain in the… well, you know.

This is what the boy looks like now.  Howl’s eyes are just starting to change around the pupil, I’ll be curious to see what color they end up.

It looks like we’ll be taking care of him for the long haul, I never did find any trace of his mother and siblings. There is a good chance the raccoons got them.  I think he’ll turn out to be quite the fighter and hope to teach him to be a protector rather than a bully.  The fact he is crushing on my #1 cat, Snooky, is promising.

I also like the fact she doesn’t run from Howl like he has the plague, but simply slaps him silly if he gets too fresh. Right now they are sleeping about three inches apart – he’s getting good at sneaking closer to her.

Welcome to the Boonedocks, Howl.

Aerial Recon Photos from WWII

I saw this at the Telegraph and had to share, the photos are amazing.  In the US, the motto “Unarmed, Alone, and Unafraid'” was used by photoreconnaissance squadrons as they flew incredibly dangerous missions.  Usually they flew solo with no weaponry, relying on speed and surprise to stay alive.  The pictures of Operation Market Garden and the D-Day landings are particularly compelling.

The Justice Society of America Lives

 

Growing up on comic books made me a reader as a child.  One of the fictional hero groups I liked the most was the Justice Society of America or JSA, the super heroes of the 1940’s.  All Star Squadron was the title of the comic I infrequently found at grocery stores and I fondly remember the extra large special where they saved President Roosevelt from super Nazi assassins. 

From there they were brought into the modern times of the 1970’s, inhabiting a parallel universe to the one that the Justice League of America took place. Age had actually caught up to the older heroes and they were training their children and other young heroes.  This was different and appealed to my love of history.  In these comics you would see a graying Superman, Flash, Dr. Fate, and Green Lantern fighting alongside Batman & Catwoman’s daughter, the Huntress for instance.

I never thought I’d get to see a live action version of the JSA, so I’m looking forward to Smallville’s special 2 hour movie involving them.  So far we have been informed that Hawkman, Dr. Fate, and Stargirl would appear as part of the disbanded and mysteriously forgotten heroes.  The preview above reveals one more character, the Sandman, in his gas masked glory. Between the glimpse of him and Dr. Fate with the photo released of Michael Shanks in full Hawkman costume, it will be the first time comic book costumes have been translated faithfully in Smallville.

As big a surprise as seeing the Sandman was, the bigger was seeing Alan Scott’s Green Lantern ring.  I doubt we’ll see much of him with a modern Hal Jordan Green Lantern movie in production. 

The best part of this is that the writer of the two hour special is Geoff Johns, the writer who made the latest incarnation of the JSA into a top selling comic book.  He knows and treats the characters reverently so old fans such as me probably won’t be disappointed.  The trade reprints of JSA are highly recommended as examples of comic books done well.

It will be a long wait until February 5th for this, but in the meantime I can continue to geek out over how well Dr. Fate’s costume translated into reality. That golden helm is just as intimidating as it was on the four color pages I read as a child.

Supercollider Blues Over?

The Large Hadron Collider suffered a magnet meltdown after its first run last year, shutting down operations until this past week. I’m happy to see the first test went well Friday and hope to see it get to smashing atoms soon.  In a small (microscopic) way, I’ve been involved through crunching research numbers for it on my computer.

While it is doubtful what the PC did was actually used, it felt good to contribute to something that will further research into physics.  I still remember the keen disappointment I felt when the much larger supercollider project in the US was cancelled back in the 1990’s. Now if we could get those idiots who believe that the LHC will create a black hole the special care they need…

Media Hack Picks on Teenage Girl

I’m late to the party on this one, but it allowed me to read what happened from the view of the teenager Norah O’Donnell decided she could trap in an interview.  The young woman dared to be in line for a Sarah Palin book signing while wearing an anti-bailout shirt. This provided a “gotcha moment” for O’Donnell to attack Palin for backing McCain in supporting the initial bailout and embarrass the obviously unprepared teen.  Terrific moment of showing what fools these Palin backers are, right?

Not exactly.  Turns out O’Donnell used a Blackberry to get info in order to set up the question while the teen acquitted herself well given the ambush style of the question. O’Donnell compounded things by lying on Twitter about the girl having voted last year. Read the girl’s blog Red, White & Conservative for a full account of what happened.

Be nice if MSNBC went to as much effort to find out where all the stimulus money actually ended up.

And people wonder why the media is viewed as biased?

Shocking Unemployment Map

Watch this animated map of unemployment shown county by county for the entire US and weep.  It starts out before the recession officially began and slowly becomes a tidal wave of purple and dark gray.  Locally, Houston County went from light orange to purple in two years, which is 4.0-4.9 % to 7.0-9.9 %.  Won’t be long until it is mostly dark for the country.

The Bears Are Coming Out

123 banks have failed so far this year and despite the run up in stocks things are looking worse as the effects of the stimulus end.  Check out this post at The New Editor and watch the video of Meredith Whitney talking about the stock market.  Warning:  her analysis is not a happy thing to watch and she points out that there is no reason for the stock market to be going up.

I’ve long thought the stock market was divorced from reality and is based on the emotional attitudes held by gamblers. The fact that consumer credit has contracted more than during the Great Depression is a huge warning sign that we may be in an unprecedented economic collapse.  That this is being ignored by the investors is amazing.

Over in France, the bank Société Générale is warning their clients to prepare for a possible global economic collapse in the next two years. Basically the idea is that all the problems of the banks have been transferred onto the governments making them insolvent in turn. Quote of the article:

The bank said the current crisis displays "compelling similarities" with Japan during its Lost Decade (or two), with a big difference: Japan was able to stay afloat by exporting into a robust global economy and by letting the yen fall. It is not possible for half the world to pursue this strategy at the same time.

No, it isn’t possible and a lost decade is very possible for the entire planet, if not lost decades.

In previous posts, I’ve written about gold going up and that it isn’t a good sign. Martin Hutchinson at PrudentBear.com points out that the last time gold ran up so quickly in value was before the economic woes in the early 1980’s.  Only it is a lot faster this time and Hutchinson predicts $2000 an ounce will be hit in six months time. His belief is that once gold went over $1000 the point of no return was reached and that a second recession is guaranteed.  I’d argue that we never got out of the first one, that any recovery has been an illusion generated by shuffling nonexistent money around.

Once again, I wish I had good economic news to report.  I think what we are about to face is going to make the Great Depression look good by comparison.