My sweet 17 year old sweet baby cat, Scat, passed at 11:30am.

She began to feel bad and then her breathing changed. I took her to the vet and x-rayed her chest. Her lungs looked awful. There was a fluid buildup too.

I didn't bring her back home because all I would do is cry. She hates the vet and it was getting harder for her to do anything.

I held her when she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. My two best buddies are now gone.

I am completely crushed and utterly bereft.


RIP Scat baby. Find Mousie.

From a forensic psychiatrist: How the media shouldn't cover a mass murder

<snip>
He says:
If you don't want to propagate more mass murders...

1-Don't start the story with sirens blaring.

2-Don't have photographs of the killer.

3-Don't make this 24/7 coverage.

4-Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story.

5-Not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero.

6- Do localize this story to the affected community and as boring as possible in every other market.
<snip>
More:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/07/how-media-shouldnt-cover-mass-murder

Will the media ever change?
Sigh...

Pets and owners over the years:

Why so serious?

Zoo visitors can get a massage from four giant PYTHONS

<snip>
(Short video at link)
Fearless tourists are taking up a slithering spa treatment with a difference - by receiving massages from four giant pythons.

Visitors to Cebu City Zoo in the Philippines can undergo a ’sssspa treatment’ from the deadly snakes which measure up to five metres long.

The four Burmese pythons slither across participants for up to 15 minutes - and the snakes are fed 10 chickens beforehand to curb any hunger pangs.

The terrifying treatment is free for zoo visitors, and is apparently beneficial because the snakes’ slithering is therapeutic and calming.

Zoo bosses also claim the flickering of the snakes’ tongue on skin mimics a tickling sensation.
<snip>
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/snake-massage-philippines--burmese-python-spa-treatment-at-cebu-city-zoo-135103854.html#CndW6KT

What could possibly go wrong?

Crocodile Injured by Falling Accountant

A dangerous reptile sustained injuries after being squashed by a portly circus accountant on a roadtrip in northern Russia on Tuesday.

The two-meter-long crocodile was peacefully snoozing on the floor when the tour bus hit a bump in the road, triggering an unfortunate chain of events that caused a 120-kilogram female passenger to be thrown into the crocodile and said crocodile to vomit for several hours afterward, RIA Novosti reported.

Both reportedly sustained shock and minor injuries. But the crocodile, named Fedya, apparently fared worse than the accountant. He vomited for three hours after the accidental full body slam, though a medical examination found he was clear of any internal injuries, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

Fedya had to skip a performance that had been scheduled for later in the evening, however.

The accountant, whose name was withheld, was issued a formal reprimand for neglecting to wear a seat belt.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/500515.html

That crocodile has earned its freedom!

"A Lasting Image" (a film about hope & caring after the F5 tornado in Moore, OK)

Scat's right leg and paw are suddenly all swole up.

I notice her front legs because of how she sits in her places. It had to have happened recently.
I see no open wounds or discharge. The claws are not cutting into the pad.
It doesn't hurt her and she walks fine on it.
She eats and drinks just fine.

I will be taking her to the vet Monday.
Wonder if she has gout?

Boko Haram is pushing their luck. "Chinese camp hit near Boko Haram stronghold"

A Chinese camp in northern Cameroon has been attacked by gunmen, a local governor has said, close to a border stronghold of the Nigerian armed group, Boko Haram.

The attack took place on Friday near the town of Waza, 20km from the Nigerian border and the Sambisa forest, which is close to the area where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 women and girls from a school in Chibok last month.
<snip>
More: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/05/chinese-facility-hit-near-boko-haram-base-20145178336743604.html

The Chinese don't play.
In addition, those drones and planes aren't just looking for the kidnapped girls.

Obama's strategy of letting Putin hang himself is working

Let me be the first to admit it: President Obama's strategy for handling Russia and its incursions into Ukraine had seemed to me, as it did to many others, pretty unlikely to succeed.

Obama dismissed Russia as a "regional power" acting "out of weakness," but it was the US that looked weak: it could only cobble together some targeted sanctions that, while tough, appeared to do nothing to stop Russia's meddling in eastern Ukraine. He needed Europe's support for broader economic sanctions that would actually hurt the Russian economy and he didn't get it. Obama implicitly abandoned Crimea, giving no sign that he thought that, weeks after Russia invaded and annexed the territory, it might ever be returned to Ukraine. The official US position has been to threaten broader sanctions that seem unlikely to get the European support necessary to make them hurt, while arguing that Russia's actions will be so self-defeating that the problem would just sort itself out.

THE SYSTEM WORKED: PUTIN IS BACKING DOWN ALL ON HIS OWN

It sounded silly, a shrug of a policy. And maybe it even was. But it also turns out to be working surprisingly well. Russian President Vladimir Putin has over-reached in Ukraine, creating problems for himself so bad that they may force him down as or more effectively than plausible American actions alone might have (although they helped). Putin is hanging himself by his own rope.

This has been so effective, and has apparently taken Putin by such surprise, that after weeks of looking like he could roll into eastern Ukraine unchallenged, he's backing down all on his own. Official Russian rhetoric, after weeks of not-so-subtle threats of invading eastern Ukraine, is backing down. Putin suddenly looks like he will support Ukraine's upcoming presidential election, rather than oppose it, although it will likely install a pro-European president. European and American negotiators say the tone in meetings has eased from slinging accusations to working toward a peaceful resolution.

Most of this is economic. Russia's self-imposed economic problems started pretty quickly after its annexation of Crimea in March and have kept up. Whether or not American or European governments sanction Russia's broader economy, the global investment community has a mind of its own, and they seem to have decided that Russia's behavior has made it a risky place to put money. So risky that they're pulling more money out.
<snip>
Much more:
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/16/5717674/obamas-plan-to-let-putin-hang-himself-is-working

I said use economic sanctions from the beginning.
As the article states, Russia is no longer able to isolate itself from the global economy. Earlier in their history they had much less interconnection with it.

In addition, the richest man in the Ukraine has entered the fray. He sent his workers from one of his industrial businesses to patrol an area of unrest. They calmed it down pretty quickly.