A friend made a fantastic suggestion last night that I'm going to use this week. I'm getting a mylar balloon with a very long string (I have tall ceilings), long enough to reach just above the floor.
I did that for a roomate's kitten. (I made the string end a few feet above the floor, so kitty had to jump for it.) She
loved
it. She used to grab the string in her teeth and walk proudly from room to room, up and down the stairs, etc, with her balloon captive trailing above her.
Sometimes she'd even hide behind a chair so she could pounce on my feet as I walked by - except her balloon (still in her teeth) bobbing above her would give her away.
That's probably why cats in the wild evolved to not carry balloons about as they stalked their prey....
A friend of mine gave me some cat toys she had sitting around the house -- her cats don't get to play because she is afraid that the dogs will eat the toys and choke on them.
I've been doling them out to the kitties little by little and left the last one out yesterday. I hadn't really paid much attention to it, but last night when I got home - I was back in the bedroom when I started to hear bizarre noises and much cat excitement coming from the front of the apartment. Fearing the worst - strange creature caught by cats that I would have to deal with - I went up front to find the cats extremely excited by a cat toy which is a fur mousie on a string that makes a sound when they squeeze it.
Lovely.
They probably stalk all the time -- and the local fauna would do just as well as their regular prey to get that instinct going.
But I'd think killing would be important too. Or perhaps I'm just projecting.
But I'd think killing would be important too.
I dunno. Extrapolating from my housecat, she gets pretty bored with her prey once it is dead. No more chasing! Unfortunately for her, you bat a live mouse around like that, it ends up dead.
At the Baltimore zoo, the keepers play fetch with the cheetahs. Otherwise, they end up fat cause they are so very lazy.
oh, very tense managers' mtg here this morning. They are all out of it now and SUPER wound up to GET STUFF DONE!!!!
meep.
Cool!
Darkness Matters writes "According to New Scientist, a theory of modified gravity, which has no need of dark matter, has just explained why the Pioneer 10 probe is 400,000 miles off its expected course as it leaves the solar system. It sounds pretty convincing, although in dispensing with dark matter, they've had to utilize the theoretical particle, called a graviton, which appears from the vacuum of space wherever stars are densely packed, making gravity stronger."
[link]
Batman eats gravitons for breakfast....
I really, really, really don't get those "name a star/buy a star" outfits. $50+ for a random coordinate yanked from a catalog, a handful of star charts and usually a random plaque or something. If it is the thought that counts, you can accomplish all of the above for much cheaper with just as much officialness (which is to say, none.)
HIVEMIND HELP
I am having to put together a set of categories for a yearbook. You know those "most likely to succeed" things. So far I have:
Funniest
Smartest
Most Athletic
Most Outgoing
Most Stylish
Most Artistic
Best Smile
Most Likely to become President
Most Likely to make it in Hollywood
Most Likely to stay in touch
Oh, and had you guys heard about Moscow's colder than normal weather?
My brother about broke me telling me about the homeless dogs in Moscow (of which there are many). He and his girlfriend have taken to carrying around sausages in their pockets whenever they go out - they brought one dog into their building overnight, but the neighbors complained, and they took him to the metro station the next morning. He's afraid to go back to that station - not sure if he's more afraid he will see the dog or he won't.
