saturday

was quite busy (well, for us; for normal people it would have probably been a nice, leisurely day off, *snrk*). we went to the big pet store up at woodgrove mall to check out their cages, and as it happened, one brand was 50% off. we jumped on the extra-large size (suitable for your average golden retriever). also got a cardboard scratch pad and a litterbox one size smaller than the ones we already have.

then we went to home depot where we acquired wood so the paramour can build another window (having learned much from the first attempt), and a cheap carpet for the cage -- i don't think i've spent this little time at home depot in ages. :)

and last but not least, we stocked up on frozen foods at the wholesale store.

when we came home i fell into bed and commenced ye olde sleepus interruptus for the night. more interruptus than sleepus, really. started and finished suzy mckee charnas's walk to the end of the world. i can't say that it thrilled me -- it's supposed to be feminist, but it spends almost its entire time talking about the racist and misogynistic world of the men in this far-future post-apocalyptic earth. this world is small and narrow, and unrelievedly dark -- the men are fighting for their own survival trying to live off hemp and seaweed. the most interesting aspect is the mogrification of christianity into the rebellion of the son against the father and his consequent death -- this replays itself within the men's society. i expected slavery, but it's worse -- they basically treat the women like cattle, including feeding them their own dead (no word of the ghastly diseases this would probably cause, but hey). women are blamed for everything, from the nuclear and biological meltdown of the ancient civilization, to anything going wrong right then and there -- witch burning is once again popular as a punishment. i've read over the years in various places that this writer is preferable to sheri s. tepper, and i can say with some confidence "huh?" -- even at her worst, tepper is a much better writer IMO. i basically do not believe in unrelieved darkness and misery; i expect some humans will retain a sense of humour, and if nobody does, i basically don't care to read it for long. especially when there's nobody i can connect to. here there is somebody, barely, but that person is a man -- not exactly what i expected from feminist SF, *heh*.

well, this is the first in a series of four, i think, and i am hoping things will pick up, since the next one, motherlines starts with a fem (woman) from the first book escaping to the wilds, where she is picked up by a tribe of nomadic women on horses.

cat house

so we have that large dog cage for bacchus -- 42" x 28" and 32" high, and today i designed his habitat, and started building it. it'll be quite spiffy, and i hope he won't hate it too much. three levels, with plenty of space for curling up in dark corners, or sprawling on top of things to survey what can be surveyed. he's already been inside the cage, and has inaugurated the carpet by clawing it.

the litterbox is enclosed except for the front near the door, so it'll be easy to keep very clean, and it won't ooze miasma all over the cage. the food area is about as far from it as it can be while both are easily accessible, up on level 3. there is enough room between that level and the cage ceiling for him to sit on top and look around.

he can crawl underneath level 2 if he likes, and he can go from level 2 either down to ground level, or to level 3. if i feel like overdoing it, i'll hang a box from the cage ceiling above the nest area, so he can curl up in yet another place if he wants to, but first we'll see how he takes to this layout.