But jumping from the floor to the arm of the sofa...not so good. She kinda scrambles up. Or tries to, I think she was better at it when she was a kitten but now she's heavier and can't really pull herself up.

Ok, I have seen Sammie climb things in a rather laborious fashion when she could easily have made the jump in a half second. But she really likes climbing. Climbing is the thing she is good at. In fact, she has the talent for climbing down trees, which not all cats master. She can jump, and will when there is no other choice. When I started reading your description, at first I thought you just had another happy climber on your hands. But you mentioning she is having trouble pulling herself up, and that makes me think she may have some muscular, skeletal or neuro issue. Because Sammie's strength increased as her weight did, and is as climb-y now as she was as a tiny little kitten.

Also her whiskers are crumpled and some are broken off. I have no idea if that's related.

Any thoughts on what could be wrong?

The whiskers are a mystery. I have known them to get wrinkled up from exposure to high heat - like a curious kitty nose investigating an unattended candle, or a hot stove when I wasn't watching. I have known my cats to chew each other's eyebrow whiskers off in the process of social grooming (the bumps of the follicles feel like external parasites and get bitten). I have known one cat, an indoor-outdoor cat, who came home one day with her whiskers all cut off. She was afraid of strangers after that, so it's easy to chalk that up to human agency. A quick Google yields the results that medical issues such as nutrition and fungal infection can cause breakages. So yeah, it is worth bringing up to the vet.

Guys?

Let's build that island already.

Signed,
Tired of Humanity

< /rant >

Aw, poor Shir.

::puts Shir in Anti-Humanity Cabana with Boyz and chocolate::

Thanks, Barb.

I'm OK; I'm just surrounded by too many clueless people. And they're sticking around, no matter how much I'm trying to make them go away. Worse than that, that approach seems to affect the people I actually want around me.

Balance is tricky. Sometimes I just wanna hit someone. Hitting someone isn't tricky, but alas, the results would probably be.

I'm watching Takin' Over The Asylum, and enjoy every second of it. And I'm trying to understand why one of my lecturers told me to read Deleuze when I told her what I really like about physics, and there's hardly any physics there, just a lot of hardcore philosophy.

I'm OK; I'm just surrounded by too many clueless people.

Urk. I know exactly what you mean. I've been feeling the same way with some of my interactions as well. I was telling Lewis the other day that I was starting to feel like Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, except instead of "I see dead people," my standard response has become "I see stupid people."

We really need that island.

except instead of "I see dead people," my standard response has become "I see stupid people."

I think I saw it on a shirt.

"I see stupid people."

"They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're stupid."

"They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're stupid."

So very true...

"They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're stupid."

And more's the pity.

waves.

Let's build that island already.

this.

and also: xkcd today

waves some more, blows kisses. goes back to reading posts from two days ago.

d- we'll see you & the new house tomorrow!