Leo has agreed to only shred the one chair and footstool that are old and crappy anyway. He will be sad when I replace them with things he cannot scratch.

You are probably already employing this strategy, but just in case - I often recommend having several scratching posts/thingies made of different types of materials, different sizes. Sisal-wrapped ones seem to be my cats' favorite, but plain wood, burlap, and cardboard also get some use. Those cheap ones made of sisal on either cardboard or small wood planks that are made to hang off door knobs are great to have around, because you can put them anywhere. Then when a cat scratches furniture or carpet or woodwork that you want to not get utterly destroyed, you can place the scratching thingy right where the tempting item is. And once he gets used to scratching the scratching thingy, you can gradually move it to a more convenient location.

I am going to blame Buffistas for the first thought that came into mind when I saw this: you could make a home movie of this and charge for hits. Surely there is a spit-fetish clan out there somewhere.

I bet I could make a decent living off catering to such odd fetishes.

WS, we have lots of different acceptable scratchy things. They loooove cardboard. There are two cardboard boxes of books in my office, and since I never keep cardboard boxes around anymore, I'm letting Percy shred them. (The books are fine. So far.) The thing that hangs off doorknobs got completely ignored. Except for rugs Leo's mostly good about my stuff/his stuff, & Percy's learning to tell the difference between stuff that's meant for them to scratch on and stuff that feels good but isn't. Wrapping interesting things in plastic or tinfoil for a bit seems to work best. (I make it sound like my house is just destroyed, but it isn't really. There are only a couple points of contention.)

Apartment~ma, omnis!

I am sickly. The Girl has been expertly looking after me, and has now gone to my uni to collect all my books. She is star. I am watching Mighty Boosh Live. Good stuff.

The kicker is, it has a high land/lease amount.

What does that mean?

Something I've been meaning to post: Ryan's grandparents looked after him all day on Tuesday, the first time they did so since returning. It was a complete success, he apparently accepted them as his carers very happily, and gave them both kisses. We have unsubstantiated reports that he took his Grandpa by the hand and led him into his room to show off his radio/CD player. Which he then turned on so he could demonstrate some styling dance moves. Ther are further reports that his Grandpa joined in.

So the reintegration of our little family unit looks pretty successful. Ryan is a very lucky little guy. .

What does that mean?

The land is owned by one person, and the structure is owned by another. IOW, you buy the house but rent the land underneath.

We just got word that the father of one of the librarians I work for passed away yesterday. That means that *every* professional librarian I supervise here has had a parent die while I've been supervising them. Oi.

We have unsubstantiated reports that he took his Grandpa by the hand and led him into his room to show off his radio/CD player. Which he then turned on so he could demonstrate some styling dance moves. Ther are further reports that his Grandpa joined in.

I'm not sure who is more adorable here, Ryan or his Grandpa.

Wrapping interesting things in plastic or tinfoil for a bit seems to work best.

Cats are so weird. I have not been able to make that trick work. Of course, Harvey is quite capable of opening Tupperware cannisters, and he is as stubborn as all of his Siamese forebears put together so aluminum foil is hardly a challenge for him. (I've had too many plastic-eaters to use that.) And the cats I had before him were pretty easy to show where we wanted them to scratch.

The land is owned by one person, and the structure is owned by another. IOW, you buy the house but rent the land underneath.

Ah OK - called leasehold vs freehold over here. Most apartments here are sold leasehold and houses freehold. Is that not the case in the US?

We just got word that the father of one of the librarians I work for passed away yesterday.

That's very sad.

Sparky, that's got to be tough. Peace~ma for that librarian.

Cats are so weird. I have not been able to make that trick work. Of course, Harvey is quite capable of opening Tupperware cannisters, and he is as stubborn as all of his Siamese forebears put together so aluminum foil is hardly a challenge for him. (I've had too many plastic-eaters to use that.) And the cats I had before him were pretty easy to show where we wanted them to scratch.

They are! Tinfoil on the counters was totally unsuccessful as a means of keeping them off, it works better when I can wrap it around the forbidden thing so that they'd have to get their claws into it to move it. Percy eats "stiff" plastic, the kind that soda bottles come wrapped in. Just chews at it until he gets a bit to swallow. (Another reason why I stopped buying plastic bottles!) But he doesn't chew on plastic wrap. Guess it doesn't have that satisfying mouthfeel. But I do not complain, because neither of them has ever (knock wood) gone outside the box, and neither of them barfs except very infrequently and never on anything except the floor.

Ryan is a very lucky little guy.

He very much is!