Carl and Eva, Guest Appearance by Beluga

Wherein Nate holds his nose and blogs about pets.

We always had cats growing up, often too many of them. Living in the country tends to produce litters. I don't remember there being as much of a moral imperative thrust upon all citizens that spaying or neutering pets was absolutely, unquestionably necessary. Besides, you often get feral cats hanging around when you're in the woods, and one thing leads to another with any mammal.

I considered getting a dog here in Chicago. But I just can't see cooping up a dog in my tiny apartment, especially when the snow kicks in. I'd love to have a dog, but I keep thinking it's best to wait until I have property, or at the very least a yard.

My last two cats, Nadia and Oin, were country cats. We got them in the hopes that they'd cure the scuttling in the walls keeping us up every night. Nadia was much more useful than Oin in this regard, unless Oin produced poison drool and/or emitted rodent-confusing waves from the power of his mind because otherwise, he was a terrible mouser. Every once in a while he'd stumble over something alive and his claws would mistakenly attach and perhaps he'd crush or suffocate the critter by tripping and bringing down his massively furry body upon them. Nadia had obviously spent some time in the wild and was a deft hunter.

But Nadia was also completely disinterested in cohabitating with Captain Poof. When I moved to Portland, she disappeared multiple times until I finally couldn't track her down. The drooler, however, was there to stay. He stuck it out for another 7 years before disappearing into the Los Angeles ether.

After traveling quite a bit this summer, I decided I could bear to be shackled down with a few kittens. I set out for the shelter, determined to track down my gray-furred soulmate. I came home with two!

After two weeks, Eva let me pet her for the first time tonight. She did hiss at me, yet stayed put, laying on my bed next to Carl for an afternoon nap. After about 10 seconds, she decided I was once again the Great Hulking Evil Thing and scurried under the bed. I have hope she'll warm up eventually.

Carl is a total charmer. He's got the odd habit of running in and chomping food every time I take a piss. He really enjoys waking me up in the middle of the night by biting my nose -- hard. He enjoys jumping in front of the computer and staring at what I'm doing for long periods about 1mm away from the screen. As soon as I can get him to type something more complex than 0000000000000000000000000000[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]] I'll have him coding for Clixel.

I never like people blathering about their pets, so let's just say this post is for my mother. But for those who know Beluga, here's a video of Aaron getting him actually damn close to saying "I Love You" (at Laura Park's pad) -- DOG GENIUS!