That's weird that you've been out of the house an entire pet-lifetime.

It is, isn't it? The oldest cat is 14 now and all the rest, including the dog, arrived after I left. I will have a complete meltdown when she goes as she was very clearly my dad's & my cat and is sort of the last of my childhood pets. End of an era and all that.

Yeah, that freaks me right out, Theo.

It's weird being old.

Kat -- Fights over precedence in dogs don't usually get to the drawing of blood level. Also, if Bear is a bitch and the other canine is a dog? That's not good -- dogs don't usually fight bitches. Although, I'm not sure what changes if both dogs have been neutered/spayed. I'd say, call the vet and possibly try to find an animal behaviorist.

I'm just glad my mom's cat is stand-offish and not affectionate (and did I mention EVIL?), and therefore I have resisted bonding with her to the degree that I did with pets earlier in life. Because the way Mom is pampering her, I expect death by gout in a few years.

Ouise, isn't most stuff closed there?

Well, I'm not totally sure. Both of my coworkers (yup, all two of them!) had work they could do at home. I'm sure that it wasn't meant in a mean way, because my boss is really nice (nicer than I am, anyway). I'm just embarrased because I probably could have gotten over to work by, oh, two-thirty or three this afternoon, depending on which buses they got back running, and I decided not to bother. I may have an over-active conscience.

My mother's cats are siblings to Dominar Ohmlet. One of them never did become especially tame, and is seen as a pale streak fleeing the house whenever we come over, and the other (Spike, and no, my mother doesn't watch Buffy) is basically a larger, more attractive (being a blue-point fluff ball instead of a grey fluff ball), calmer version of the Ohm.

I'm not close to either of them.

One of my parents' cats (the new generation, not my last childhood cat. Though I'd take her too) I'd totally kidnap. She's a terrified little thing, but I can coax her into my lap and she's just so wee and halloween-cat looking. Just one of those creatures that you want to take care of. My brother has one like that too, called Screech because she broke her voice crying for three days in the woods alone when she was barely a few weeks old. They finally found her and got her all fixed up, but she's still not sure it's over.

Timelies,

Finally got caught up in here. It's been a long Monday. Didn't help that I had trouble falling asleep last night because my vents are "woofing". (I don't know how else to describe it.) This has happened in the past and the landlord says he can't do anything about it. Something about the way the venting system was constructed when the house was built. The vents are built into the floor (I live in the basement, mind) and there's a crack somewhere in the concrete that allows water into them. Somehow a certain combination of the water level and the temperature causes them to "woof" when the furnace is running. Since this is all taking place underneath the concrete floor, there's nothing he can do. I just have to wait until the temp and/or water level changes enough to allow the air to pass freely.

Speaking of the temperature, I'm trying to work up the will to brave it and go to kickboxing tonight, since I haven't been there in months. Again.

On the pet subject, all of the family pets from when I was growing up have passed on, mostly in the last few years. The three cats my parents have now were acquired after I moved out, so I don't have any real bond to any of them, though I do enjoy their company while I'm visiting. I miss my dog the most, as of the half-dozen animals we had in the house over the years, he was the most "mine". My parents would have let me keep him if I wanted had I found a place that allowed pets.

I do know when I finally get a house I'm going to want to get a pet, though I still don't know whether it will be a cat or a dog, as I like both.

I'm just concerned about getting enough signups, because it's such a new fandom, and really, I think people don't pay 2k (flight, hotel, food, ticket, auction, fancy frocks) to fly out to meet a couple of actors and producers, they do that because they want to spend time with each other, too.

The Lost fandom may be new, Allyson, but don't you think you'll get ME fans, both because, um, Lost got so many people from ME and because of buffistas? Also, because the party is occuring when Serenity was supposed to come out, you might get people who had been planning on coming for the premiere. I'm not sure if I'll make it for the party or not, but I probably wouldn't even have thought about it if I hadn't already built up LA in April in my mind for Serenity. March and April really are just about the perfect time to leave Alaska, when winter is not quite over, but you're sick to death of it. Plus, now that I've met some buffistas in person, I would love to meet more!

Sumi,

yes. all of those things you mentioned! This was the first time blood has ever been drawn between these two (in the almost 8 years since we've had them). What I'd be interested in knowing more about is twofold: how much can be blamed on Kuma's thyroid being too high due to his meds being too high (which I would say is a lot and we're adjusting his medication this month) and how much is an issue of Kuma being a jindo, which is a primitive breed?