Tinhuviel Artanis

Yesterday, I walked into the house after being given five pounds of potatoes by Janice, only to find my Steve lying as if he were relaxing. As is my habit, I lay down in front of him and began whispering sweet nothings in his ear. He didn't respond. I trailed a finger over his ear. Nothing. Then I ran my hand down his body. It was cold and stiff. Rigor was already beginning to set in.

In the few minutes I was gone from the house, my frail and brave feline had lain down on the floor and succumbed to the spirit of death that seems to permeate this house.

So I am now down to four animals.

Steve hit me hard, though. I tried so many things to make sure his health was at least marginal. He was born with feline herpes and was almost blinded by it. He would have outbreaks every few months that demanded antibiotics. In fact, he had just ended a regiment of the medicine only two days before. I knew he wouldn't live as long as the other cats, but to lose him this way was just very sad.

Diane let me come spend the night at her house last night. I may do the same tonight as well.

When I got home from the hospital at the end of November, I came home to a computer that could no longer connect to the Internet via wireless. No matter what I did or tried, I could not figure out what had happened or what needed to be done to rectify the problem. I kept being told I needed to turn my wireless option on but, when I tried to do it, the computer wouldn't let me. So I found myself tethered to my modem with a cable this past month.

Now, last night I was updating my iPod Froderick, but it was taking longer than expected, so I just left the notebook top up and let the electronics do their thing. They were still communing when I drifted off to sleep. Around 4 am this morning, I awoke to my computer beeping and making other computer noises. I turned on the light and there was Steve all scrunched up on the keyboard. I got him off and saw that he'd "typed" several pages in a Word document and opened quite a few windows. Deciding to sort it out when I got up later, I closed the notebook and went back to bed.

I got up later a little before 8, fed the beasties and got myself ready to go over to Kathleen's and Davis' place to feed their cats. They're out of town this week. Before I left, I decided to check email. Much to my surprise, the computer connected me to the Internet via wireless. Steve repaired my computer problem!!

I could wonder in awe as to how he could do such a brilliant thing, but he is a cat after all. They Egyptians knew who was in charge in their ancient culture. I was reminded this morning that I don't have feline pets, I am the felines' pet and the reward me when they feel it prudent.

I'm being very nice to Steve.