While watching Zach give the cats a good workout by means of a high-power laser pointer, a thought occurred to me:
When used in a particular way, a laser pointer is essentially a virtual tether with which one can literally slam a cat against a wall.
You can also fling a cat down the stairs or even into a hapless victim’s lap as he sits distracted by his game of Super Smash Bros. Fact is, a cat will pretty much go anywhere a glowing red dot goes. They'll even do it in teams!
Whenever all four of us have to be away from the house at the same time, we make sure all the kittehs are closed off downstairs mainly because Dioji is a moody terrier and cannot be trusted. This past Thanksgiving Day was one of those times and Zach was assigned pet segregation detail. He proceeded to do this, believe it or not, by leading them all down in one big group with his laser pointer.
I was hell of impressed.
Alright, I know the title of the post made it sound like some major scientific breakthrough had been discovered. And sure, adding “major” might be too much, but Zachary’s discovery really is quite a breakthrough!
Have you ever tried to herd cats?
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To Fabulous Co-Worker Justin, who sent me another great interwebs find. The literal version of the smash 80's hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
Anyone else remember slowdancing to this at a junior high dance in the school cafeteria?
Regardless, you might remember the whacky video that made no sense. This explains what was going on in all the scenes.
Sent in by alert cow-porter Fabulous Co-Worker Justin - a HOLY COW!
Full story here.
This is a Holstein/Jersey cross - the animal, not the marking. Like the article says, it's not unusual for a Holstein/solid color breed mix to have one solid mark on its head. Our Holstein/Brown Swiss babies usually have a white triangle/shield shaped spot on the forehead and that's the only spotty coloring they get.
Speaking of miracle bovine babies, there's a little preemie living in my parents' basement. I called home on my way to work because I heard a story on NPR. No, not the 'dairy farms are destroying the world' story, but the one about bad weather moving across Michigan.
The little gal living in the basement was born on time, according to my dad's paperwork. She's an embryo transplant baby and the first female from a batch he bought for $3,000. He wants to keep her alive "or we should have set $3,000 on fire and saved a lot of frustration." A normal calf would be 100 pounds and he estimates her at 35. I suggested that maybe she's really a Jersey (they're tiny) and he chuckled. (Yes, DadH chuckles. And I think "chuckle" is a great word.)
He said he might move her into the garage because it's starting to smell in the house after two days of being down there. He put down a tarp and a lot of straw. I told him to just clean her pen if it's supposed to get into the teens tonight. That's too cold. It's just like a cat box - if you don't want your house to smell like a cat box, clean the cat box every day.
"She takes up a bit more area than a cat box." So I think I convinced him to make an effort to clean up and keep her inside. He said the cat isn't very happy about the baby in the basement.
He went on about what the vet said, what they're doing for her and what he needs to do about registration then a long conversation about my nieces steer projects and other farmy things. It was a pretty fun call for me, actually.
In the words of my dad, "Well, it keeps life interesting."

Email post by H. Hamilton – The report from a concerned CA citizen attending the Board of Inquiry for LtCol Jeffrey Chessani.