Cats and kids

I complain about our clumsy cats on a regular basis, and with good cause. Eliza can't jump from the floor to the third stair without missing her footing and slipping. The 2 of them even managed to fling themselves (and my ivy) off the top of the tile oven (a 5-foot drop) while tussling; it was a bit like a cliff scene in an action movie. And Missy has somehow fallen off the terrace on the top floor of the house and slid down the roof *4 or 5 times.*

I mean, I know "cat" does not equal "brain surgeon," but—really. You'd think that if she could learn to run into our room when the closet door is opened, she could learn to avoid death by terrace. Actually, bad example. She gets locked in the closet on a regular basis.

Last night, though, Missy was redeemed. (Eliza, on the other hand, remains clumsy until proven otherwise.) While pulling her back inside the house through the window, I noticed that her lips looked dark. "Great," I thought. "She's probably bleeding internally." I followed her into darling daughter's (D.D.) room, where she was standing over a small brown pile. Luckily (for me, anyhow), it was a bat. Turns out Missy's the great brown hunter.

A bat flew into our house one evening when we had all the windows wide open, and Missy managed to bat it out of the air, but that didn't seem fair. I had no idea she'd fling herself off the terrace for the chance. It explains all the roof-sliding.

***

Today I had my first dose of young American people in a long time. Please. Shut. Up. Shut. Shut. Shut. Why isn't karma or whatever striking these people mute!?

I'm not usually bothered by other people talking around me while I'm trying to study, because they are speaking in Chinese or Russian, and there's nothing I can recognize in what they're saying that could interrupt me, so I can tune them out. Not so with the Americans. Here I am, trying to read about the complexities of verb phrases, and I can't get their inane blathering out of my head. Must... resist... fist... of... death.

Weather-bitching level: 0.5
I think 3 days of Golden October are all we're going to get, so today we had to be satisfied with "At least it's not raining, and the foliage is beautiful." It was warmish until after dark, so that pleased me, except for the part where I was waiting for the bus after dark in my clothes that were appropriate only before dark. At least it wasn't raining.