I thought cats had rules about this sort of thing.

Billie's skin has cleared a little since we moved Herman outside. But while we wait for further improvement, I decided to switch to a hypoallergenic litter. Most clumping cat litter contains bentonite, which ends up in the litter dust that gets into the air in your home whenever you scoop. It's a carcinogen, and many cats suffer respiratory allergies from it as well. If I'd realized that before, we would have switched a long time ago... but there it is.

I went with World's Best Cat Litter, which is made out of corn, is flushable, biodegradable, and dust-free. Billie seemed really excited about it when I brought home a 17 lb. bag. She went to work trying to rip the bag open while I cleaned the old stuff out of her box. I appreciated her enthusiasm. But as I found when I filled her box with the new stuff, Billie thinks that the World's Best Cat Litter is actually the World's Best Dietary Supplement. She has yet to make a deposit, but she's been snacking on it since the first pour.

So I brought Olivia in, thinking, if she poops in it, everything will be better. She also thought it was delicious, so I sent her away. Hopefully I won't find any surprises in their food dishes this evening.

A Buncha Stuff

Wow, I happened to check back on my earlier posts just now, and found that my blog is one year old today. Yee! Today I brought Billie in for a checkup with her regular doctor, who is awesome. Their clinic just moved to a brand new office and the exam rooms have little shelves staggered across the walls for the cats to jump on. Very clever. But they also have a garbage bin stored under the counter with a Billie-sized hole in the cabinet door to throw things in. While I was filling out forms I turned my head for a couple seconds, then looked up to find Billie - hind legs on a stool, half her body hanging in the hole for the garbage bin. She wasn't impressed by the thoughtfully arranged wall-perches.

I was thinking about jury duty again the other day, and remembered that a couple of the guys on the jury were avid hunters. They both occasionally wore flannel collared shirts with patterns of illustrated game on them. Like, a dark green shirt with little flying ducks, or a maroon shirt with scattered elk wandering across it. I'm not what I'd call a fashion guru or anything. Far from it, in fact. But what statement does one of these shirts make, exactly? "Yes, here are some trendy animals I like to shoot and turn into sausage". What I loved was when one of them would use the term 'harvest' when referring to shooting a creature, bleeding it, and slicing its guts out. Really now, isn't that just fooling yourself? Harvesting sounds like such a non-violent activity to me. "This brown bear frolicking across my gut may compliment the color of my eyes, but he's nothing compared to the fella I harvested last winter". There's something going on here that I just don't understand.

Here's a picture of the intersection in front of my sister's house after the nor' easter hit NY the other day.

My Experience with the Justice System

So my sitting-with-a-book jury duty quickly turned into hearing-a-murder-trial jury duty, which I found to be unpleasant, but interesting. I learned all about stuff like the physics of blood, how to interpret blood/flesh spatters, how to recognize a revolver, the difference between a semi-automatic and a fully automatic gun, and the general value of cocaine.

I found that if you stare blankly at an idle lawyer during trial, you will be rewarded with a dazzlingly charming smile. I tested it several times on all the lawyers at intervals throughout the presentation of evidence - it never failed.

I also came out with a generally favorable impression of bailiffs (sp?). Since we were there for about a week & 1/2 we decided to have a potluck luncheon to break up the restaurant food monotony. Our bailiff showed up with a homemade smoked pheasant cheese ball with a pecan crust. It was awesome and I was so impressed. On another day he just showed up with a huge fruit plate for us. It was remarkable since he tended to be gruff and grumpy, to the point where several people in the jury would laugh every time he spoke.
The deliberation part sucked. It took 17 hours and went straight through the night. I felt ill with all the coffee, soda, and chocolate I drank & ate to stay awake. We got to leave early in the morning to sleep, then had to return for more deliberation. People are damn stubborn sometimes. All in all, I hope I never get picked for a trial again... but I was really excited about going back to my regular job when it was all over.