Some dicksmack here in town was feeding kittens to his pet alligator. He's in jail tonight on $72,000 bond after throwing the cat at animal control officers and for being a smart ass to the judge. He said he could do "anything he wanted, it's only a kitten."

He could feed it any meat to keep it alive. He's getting his kicks by watching a small cute animal suffer at the hands of his bad-ass pet. I think his intent goes a long way to determine what is "cruel" and what is "humane".

This. That's the part that bothers me. I mean, it would still be weird if he could go buy pre-dead, frozen kittens, because I think of cats as "pets" and cow as "food." But it's the idea of making the kittens suffer like that -- that's what really bothers me.

For me, I think it is (aside from the owner clearly doing this for kicks) an issue, like Cashmere said later, of the species being domesticated as pets, and treated like prey. Also, it's not like the gator happened to get a kitten that wandered into the yard. That's natural, and no different from the gator eating a steak. The man was feeding the kittens to them. I also think snake owners who buy live mice for their snakes are mean. If you think it is cool that Animal X is a predator, don't get one as a pet, and if you do, don't use a domesticated animal as prey.

Hivemind thoughts requested: how can I store my husband's bicycle safely and in a place that is better than its current location, which is leaning against the stove? We have no garage. We have front and back porches, but have a neighborhood crime problem and nothing metal to lock the bike to in either location. Our front door opens into the living room and our back door opens into the kitchen, neither of which has spare space for a bicycle. Creative ideas?

Creative ideas?

Hooks on the ceiling or wall?

Is there a wooden bannister on the back porch? Could you lock it to that? True, someone could saw through it, but the thief would have to come with the saw. Is there a basement?

Timelies all!

I am sitting here at home, waiting for the estimator from a local moving company to come and do an estimate on moving our stuff. Once that's done, we will have three estimates and can choose a mover. Whee...

By his mugshot, he looks too stupid to live.

Just the mugshot? I'd say

throwing the cat at animal control officers and for being a smart ass to the judge

is pretty good evidence.

flea, here are a few examples of different bike racks for storage.

flea, I have the same problem, so my bikes get stored in the living room right now. If I had a back porch I'd try to bolt in some sort of rack that I could lock the bike to. One way might be overhead hooks to hang the bike (I use these to hang my bikes down in the basement for the winter), and then securing the bike with a lock cable to an eyebolt secured to the wall or a post.

I have been so efficient this morning! Found my bathing suits, changed a light bulb, and made three different kinds of soap! Now I suppose I have to go to work, which is no fun at all. Ah well.

You are too industrious for so early in the morning.

I think you should go back to bed.

Meanwhile, we are a very unchatty bunch today. I expect to come in to 100s of messages and where the heck are they?

Also, I need coffee.