Books and cats

[vilakins]

I haven't been posting much lately. I haven't even reviewed the last two Pretender eps I watched a while back, which I'll try to get round to today. I've been feeling rather blah, with nothing much interesting to say about my life. I have a few hours of underpaid work a week which is so crap and boring I don't want to talk about it, and this is very discouraging when I once thought I'd never be out of proper work with my degree and other qualifications. :-(

So I've been taking refuge in the world of books, one of the best escapes I know. I've read the first in the Gentleman Bastard series, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and thoroughly enjoyed it, though it was a little slow to start. Great characters and world building, and Lynch does seasons and months on another planet right.

I've just finished Enigma by Robert Harris, another one I really enjoyed: code breaking and skulduggery at Bletchley Park, a fascinating place I visited in 2004. azdak, Turing was only in the book briefly, at King's College with his teddy bear Porgy, then he was off in the US and only mentioned in passing; he certainly wasn't misrepresented. I can hardly remember the film, but the book is definitely worth reading for the atmosphere and conditions at Bletchley. I've decided I wouldn't have wanted to be there with the sexism that relegated brilliant women to clerks while men got to be cryptanalysts.

I've just started The Truth by Terry Pratchett as I felt like something light. After that, it's back to Robert Harris andPompeii, then his other Roman books eventually.

What else? Oh yes, Jasmin went to the eye specialist yesterday for a final check-up (which is why it rained (it always rains when I go there) and she's healed up amazingly well. She and Ashley are getting quite big,and Ashey's a year old in a couple of weeks. They're both very cute and playful and extra cuddly now the weather's getting cooler. Right now all three girls are curled up in their fleecy snugglers in the TV room, and Vic's upstairs on the spare bed. :-)

Comments

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*awww* None of my three are particularly friendly. Tara and Tommy were kittens together, but as adults they pretty much ignore each other. I suspect it works better if they're both the same sex.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Possibly! Both cubs love Claudia, who cuddles up with Jasmin and doesn't mind Ashley. Vic however just lives peacefully with them but isn't affectionate. He likes cuddles from us though; they all do.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

If I *ever* wind up without a cat and can freely choose without having one miraculously land on my doorstep, I'd try to get two young females.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It even works if they're two years apart, as and Claudia and Tessa were. My first two, Sigi and Petra (two tabbies), were like these ones though; only three months apart. :-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's easier if they're young together, though. I've had adult cats who cheerfully accepted new friends, and others who despised the newcomers forever. You can't tell ahead of time.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

You can't tell ahead of time.

Quite so! Tabitha and Rosie are from the same litter, have spent all their lives together, and clearly decided some time before they reached me that they'd had quite enough of each other! I've seen photos of them curled up together when they were young, but the best they can manage now is to sit a few feet apart and resist the temptation to swipe at each other. I'm constantly having to intervene, usually because Tabitha's attacking Rosie, but sometimes I catch Rosie getting her retaliation in first.

Whereas my previous sibling-cats, Thomas and Kitty, did curl up together, and I don't think there was any tension except when Kitty overdid her attempts to wash him.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Some cats just plain feel that ONE of me in the territory is quite enough, thank you.