So, ISA (incompetent student assistant) is coming in today. He continues to irritate me by calling me multiple times every morning to see if I want him to come in. What part of "if I want you to come in, I'll call you" does he not understand? Frankly, I don't have anything for him to do, because he's incompetent. I either need to give him excessively simple tasks or things that don't matter.

So, I'm having him type some forms, and make some calls. If it doesn't happen, I'm okay with it.

Growing up we had outdoor cats and almost all of them lived over ten years. Byron is Kristin's beloved cat and he goes outdoors and is 13 and in amazing health. Some cats are not interested in going out and if the new kittens had been like that they never would have gone out. However some cats, like Sweeney who I had for years, went bugshit crazy cooped up, even in a large house. He did vanish on the young side but he was so happy all of his life. If he had been indoors he might have lived longer but that would not have been a happy cat.

THOSE are ridiculous in an AWESOME way!!! Have you ever ordered from there?? Are they reliable?

A girl from L's work orders from there. She had the cute red patend leather peep toes with the buckle. She's how I found them. We were comparing shoes at Happy Hour on Friday.

unfortunately, the only ones I liked were in size 6-7. feh.

My cats stay in. Except sometimes I provide a supervised expedition to the porch area for Mishka, the only adventurous one. I've noticed that the ones adopted from The Great Outdoors never, ever want to go Out ever again. They don't do any door-running, so I guess they like the soft life here at Chez Bee.

One of my recent rescue-adoptions, Ellie the Belly, turned up pregnant on the doorstep. I hardened my heart and had her spayed anyway. Then I realized she'd been declawed. What kind of idjit would have a cat declawed, and then let her run around unspayed?

Now there's another declawed homeless female wandering the neighborhood. Conclusion: Some people suck and should not have pets.

RIP Phil Rizzuto: [link]

My mother and sister live in a town with a university. Seemingly some of the students will adopt a cat and then turn it out to fend for itself at the end of the school year. My sister adopted one "stray" that the vet thought might have been one of these - he'd been neutered, was in pretty good health (except for a broken foot, which is how she could catch him), and very friendly. He took to indoor life - and being spoiled rotten - very happily and never showed much inclination to go out.

Of our three, one was an outdoor cat when we got him, and he likes to go out if he's in the mood, but mostly he isn't. One was a shelter cat, and she never thinks of going outside after she did it once and got stuck in a drainpipe. The last was a rescue and she paces by the door all the time. We don't let any of them out. We don't have a good fence and there are a lot of dogs in the neighborhood.

RIP Phil Rizzuto

And there's the hat trick.

My cats are fully vaccinated, microchipped, and Frontlined and never, ever go out at night. They are only allowed outside while we are home and spend the majority of that time flopped on the patio chairs. Byron is, as Drew says, 13 and in amazing health. Mia is 7.

The truth is that I had intended Byron to be an indoor cat (per shelter request) when I adopted him at 10 weeks old, but I was in college, and when Byron spent a semester at my mom's rural house without me, she started letting him out. Not really anything I could do about it, although I was angry at the time. Once he'd been allowed to go outside, the cat was literally out of the bag. In the 13 years since, I've found that I can't keep him inside full-time; he gets destructive if he's not allowed to have some outdoors time. I love this cat more than I have ever loved an animal and have cherished him through my entre adult life, and I know him really well. If he weren't allowed outside, he would be miserable, and he would make me miserable too. So yes, I let him out for a few hours at a time during the day when I'm home. We live in a safe neighborhood with a big back yard, and he's happy as can be.

Mia was an indoor kitty for the first six years of her life, but I made the choice to let her out with Byron once we moved to this house. She has lost weigh and is much more confident since I started doing so.

I have no problem with people deciding it's too dangerous to let cats out, and I understand that concern completely. I've made the decisions I felt were best for my animals given our circumstances over the years, and they are happy critters.

I've noticed that the ones adopted from The Great Outdoors never, ever want to go Out ever again.

Interesting! My mom had the exact opposite experience. Two of her three cats were adopted from the outside and they love going out. Things are very good for them at Mom's house (ask ND about how pampered her cats are), but the call of the wild is strong for them, I guess.